Film Courage: Can you talk about your writing process, how you plan a screenplay,
how it evolves?
Mickey Finnegan, Writer/Director: Yes, I guess it always starts with an idea which
how we get to ideas, who really knows? It’s just kind of how inspiration strikes. For me I get
really into things like worlds. Maybe I’m really into surfing right and I want to do a surfing idea
or I get really obsessed with a thing and then maybe an idea will emerge from that or maybe I’ll
write a surfing movie or whatever the case may be. Once you have the idea and I’ve probably written
it down in a Google Doc somewhere I’ll start to just what I call word vomit, just free form write
paragraphs of what this idea could be. I try to write what effectively would be the Wikipedia
entry for the plot summary of a script. That’s what I try to aim to get. I’ll just we open up
with this and then we see Karen and she's sitting over there and she's doing an interview and then
blah blah and I’ll just stream of conscious it. Then once I kind of build that out to where I can
tell a whole story that's when i'll start to refine more of an outline and then once we
kind of get the outline going that's usually when i'll just say all right I have enough of
an outline I kind of understand where I want to go with this now I just have to start page one
and actually start typing sure and then what if we want to add what if you read through
it and you realize okay this is to vanilla we've gotta we've gotta put in some conflict
I think yeah I think Karen throws her questions down right right I feel like that's kind of the
the discovery that happens along the way I mean if you're talking about macro level your script has a
problem because it doesn't have x component I mean ideally you're you have solved for
that early on or you've figured that out in your outline process at least that's what I do for me
also too with a lot of things that I’m writing I always have references of other films that
maybe have done it well like if I'm i'm from writing a drama maybe there's other dramas that
I’m looking to for inspiration so if there's a similar thing in my script I think I try to figure
out okay well what did they do like what was their catalyst or what was their b story or how what did
they do in their second act what what am I doing in mine how does that work or how do they solve
for some kind of conflict or how do they create conflict and then so ideally it solved in the
outline process for me but then as you're writing it you just kind of let it steer where it goes you
have a little bit of that discovery process along the way have you ever written a screenplay without
an outline I actually haven't done that which is interesting I mean I think that that would
I think for some people that could work really well but I don't think for me I mean I don't
know i've never done it I i don't I don't know if that would work for me I do have a friend
who is also a writer who recently just did that for himself for the very first time where he
he's written many scripts and he always outlines in full detail and he actually did that because
he was like I just want to try it and he ended up getting through it and he was like oh yeah
it's actually it was pretty cool it was pretty it was an interesting experiment and I don't know it
was just more creative in the sense that he felt like very unchained to like some kind of structure
that he had to create for himself but with that being said he was like yeah but I probably
wouldn't do it again so yeah I don't know I don't know but for me yeah it's probably something that
I wouldn't necessarily try okay interesting so so would was this friend very regimented
did they they're they're sort of a planner yeah I think they definitely he definitely had a process
that he always did which was handwritten this and then outlined this and and doing
timelines and etc so so for him it was definitely a a break from from his typical form interesting
do you think you'll try that I mean maybe one day yeah I won't rule it out but for right now
probably not no okay too too risky yeah I mean I think that's amazing if people can just
do it without an outline but I also think that there's probably a point where you can
over outline things as well because because at a certain point it's like you just gotta go in and
and start writing and and no script that i've ever finished has been like tit for tat exactly
like the outline I mean there there's been many times that i've kind of deviated along the way
but the outline just kind of helps give me structure and rails to to go on someone left an
interesting comment on the topic of over planning and that may have been a joke but they just
put can you talk about psych evals for your your characters yeah so I mean that might be going down
too much of a rabbit hole yeah and spending too much time but I just thought it was interesting
yeah I mean everyone has their process and maybe that's helpful for certain writers to know what
the their character's fifth grade birthday was like but like for me it I i don't find that type
of outlining and and prepping necessary are you outlining the plot yourself or your character's
transformation I think I'm doing a little bit of both I guess certainly what I need to actually
start writing is for me just like the plot but while I'm working on the plot I mean I'm really
thinking about okay well what is the theme of this movie like what's the arc of these characters that
is gonna happen so that's something that if I have like a google doc that I have all my
notes in and I have the Wikipedia plot summary of the the movie that I'm writing I might have
a different page that's dedicated to just like the theme and the arc of the character and if I
don't actually end up writing it out specifically like what the character's transformation is going
to be all I will do at some point the exercise if I'm like talking to a friend i'll explain
to them what the arc of the character is just to see if I can actually explain what it is if that
makes sense because I feel like if I'm talking about a story I i should be able to explain
what this character's journey is so I should be able to verbalize it so i'll actually practice
oh yeah this character started like this and then throughout the journey they actually discover this
and and that's what it's all about and this is the theme of the film and everything so yeah I will
how do your outlines look I guess they look kind of two ways one is it just looks like
long pages of of words that are just like a blob and then there's an actual outline that I might
follow kind of like a three-act structure outline that there's there's templates like
what's the book called save the cat for instance like that structure right there where you have
like all right here's the opening image and then get to page five and here's the theme
and then page 12 is the catalyst and then page 30 is the b story and and whatever that structure is
I will do the work to kind of at least write that out just for myself to reference
and yeah those are usually like the two kind of outlines that i'll have
when do you go back in and really refine the dialogue for me I spend a lot of time
well I have a hard time moving on to the next scene if I can't at least if it's not at least
like coherent right or if the dialogue is not at least something that I somewhat enjoy like I can
definitely move on if it's if it's not perfect that's okay but I do as I'm writing spent time
trying to make the dialogue at least sound somewhat good and then later on in the in the
the rewrite when you get to like the second draft or the third draft you're constantly redoing the
dialogue then as well and then two if you ever get the chance to like have friends read it or maybe
you'll go so far as to do like a table read with friends that's another good way to do it because
you'll hear people say it out loud and you might rewrite a line then if it sounds clunky to you
do you ever when you hear it read out loud do you do you realize what i've overwritten this in real
life we would never explain it this way or yeah I think so I mean I think that there's more succinct
ways to to say things all the time and I think for especially if you're writing I don't know
a comedy or something like you always want to be very succinct with your jokes et cetera so hearing
things out loud can be a great way to figure out how to write a line better especially if it's not
you doing it because I'll spend a lot of time on my computer reading stuff out loud
but hearing a friend read it or hearing maybe an actor read it I think is is even more helpful
you talked about leaving easter eggs sometimes in your music videos yeah how do you do that in your
scripts and and why what why is one easter egg important to you rather than doing none
I think it's just it's just fun I mean I think it's just kind of whenever you're writing you're
always putting a little bit of yourself on the page in some kind of way and so with little
like easter eggs or references that you think are funny or cool or kitschy it's just a way to kind
of keep it interesting for yourself and and to infuse the script with your own sort of personal
touch I guess if you were to explain an easter egg to a new writer can you tell us like a popular
movie where there's like a very clever easter egg that's been left oh well I mean you could watch
any of the Marvel movies if you're a fan of like the Marvel superhero movies I mean those things
are riddled with easter eggs like if you're a comic book fan or you read the comic books and
these characters very well they're constantly putting in references to other storylines or
writers or artists who were the original creators of those superheroes or their referencing like
other superheroes within the universe so those movies do a great job incorporating easter eggs
and you can tell that the the filmmakers and the the creative people behind those movies
probably have a lot of fun thinking of what we can put in here that people will get excited about.
Question For The Viewers:
Do
you stick to your outline 100%?