Film Courage: …So then if you get the okay on the outline, what is day one of pages like?
Mark Sanderson, screenwriter/author: Day one of pages is (and I’ll just give you an example
because last Monday I turned in a new assignment).
So Day 1 of pages is like starting a new job except it’s at my office.
It’s the same familiar surroundings but it’s starting a new job and luckily there
wasn’t a great amount of time between me finishing the treatment and the company saying
“Go!”
Because I like it when it’s fresh still, that I can jump right on rather this, there’s
a momentum that’s really important about things like that.
And so I sit down and today is my first day of writing and I look at my calendar and I
know that I have thirty days and so I do the math and I divide up the days and say okay
and I leave myself about 3 or 4 days at the end of you know I’m not just going to Fade
Out and the end and turn in the script.
I want to look it over, I want to fix things, I want to polish it but I don’t want to
be doing it as I’m writing it because I can’t do that.
I have to push forward.
That’s why a lot of times like the one I just turned in and I reread it from start
to finish and I was like “Oh?”
But I didn’t revisit it for almost a month ago right because I started to have a feel
that I didn’t quite remember of this was good or bad and there are some days when I
think this is good writing and there’s other days when I think this is not good.
But I always have my back up guide is my treatment that I’ve worked on there so I’m not just
left hanging in the wind.
But I did get to a point and it took a few days that I had about 5 or 6 page gap in the
story where I was going to come up short and I have a mandate about how many pages the
script has to be and I was like how did I come up short and I find this too sometimes
when I consult on people’s treatments I say “You don’t have enough story to facilitate
100 pages here.
You think you do, but you know they put in half a page description and I can break that
down and say in an actual page of script, that’s going to be about a half of a page.
You know that’s not, this needs to be four or five pages of a sequence (you know what
I mean), so they come up short many times.
So I worked though that but like I said I had my treatment to fall back on and they
knew these characters so if I just let these characters run they’re going to follow them,
they’re not going to follow me.
I think when you know your characters you follow them and let them run off and say wait
and say I got it and so that was the first day and so I was up about three pages a day
which is a luxury but I’ve also worked on scripts where I had to do eight to ten pages
a day and I mean if you miss a day and you can’t miss a day.
Because there are things in life that happen and a lot of stuff goes on but it’s a day
job.
I mean it’s a day or night job and I’m lucky that I can push my schedule where my
day can start at 3:00 p.m. and go ’til late.
I can shift it which is good.
A few years ago I was working on an assignment and that really messed me up because I was
worried more about how I was starting my day so late and I said why don’t you just relax
and accept the fact that your day starts at 2:00 p.m.
And I did and you know what?
It was great once I let go of that I was productive for the next eight hours.
So shifting the time, that helps.
But again I have (I don’t say the luxury) but that is my job to do that, to work all
day on the script and so I better be doing that.
Film Courage: I’m sure you trust yourself more now maybe?
Because in the beginning maybe it’s too scary?
Mark Sanderson: Because you don’t know.
Without the experience of writing multiple screenplays and being muddied and in the trenches
and failing, you don’t know your abilities.
And so I’m not overly-confident, but I know what I can do, so I say okay and then I met
the deadline for this last job and I had three or four days left over, so that was a luxury
to be just “Ahhhh” and it felt great the night before it was due I turned in (I emailed)
the script and so that morning the producer would get up and sure enough “Here it is,”
just like I said you always have to be building your integrity constantly.
They don’t want to have to worry about you.
The one that’s shooting now (a film that I have shooting in Los Angeles), the producer
is doing other movies at the same time and he didn’t want to have to worry about me.
You know, check up all if I’m doing the job and that’s a good place to be because
you don’t have to worry about me.
So you only do that by your experiences.
When you turn in one job and work with somebody they go “Okay?”
You turn into another…now that’s just the norm your integrity in built there which
is also for any screenwriting career if your professionalism and your integrity.
Film Courage: So in the beginning when you would start a new script once you received
the outline, would you do like 8:00 a.m. and the coffee’s there and you’re “Okay,
this is it, the clock’s ticking.”
Or…
Mark Sanderson: Aaahh…
Film Courage: How are you able to say “You know what, I think I’m better at 2:00 p.m.
I know myself.
I know how I need to have lunch first, I need to do all of these different things, and clear
my mind.”
Mark Sanderson: There are breaks but also the day gets away and that’s not good either.
So I don’t have to…8:00 a.m.
(Binngg!)
“Okay, I’ve got to go.”
But I ease into the morning and then start work and…I mean three pages a day is a luxury
but eight or ten?
Those are rough days.
And some days you’re not as productive and you don’t meet that deadline.
But other days you explode into 12 pages.
How did that happen?
So it kind of evens out but if you’re doing fewer pages a day you only have so much time.
That’s what I say when writers are doing their specs set your own self-imposed deadline.
Don’t let it be open-ended where “Oh, yeah.
I was working on this last year and Christmas came.”
Because you’re going to need that training even while you’re working in it with experience,
it’s still difficult (you’ve got to stand).
Because you are your own boss, no one is calling me saying “Are you working today?”
And the day goes on and then…
You’ve got to really stay on it and realize that there is a lot of self-work.
I mean it’s like you are your own boss.
And it’s good in one way people say “I would love to do that!”
But with that comes a lot of responsibility in keeping to that point.
Film Courage: And with that are you ever saying to yourself “Okay, now it’s time to turn
off.”
Because there is a fear that runs in with being your own boss where “What if I don’t…”
Are there different points where you say “I need to stop now.”
Mark Sanderson: Yes, usually when I feel that it’s been a good day of writing, there will
be a point (I forgot which writer said this, a famous writer) “Leave something more tomorrow
to come back to.”
And I always look at my characters like they’re waiting going “Okay, you just had us at
the end of the cliff.
What are we….aaarghh…we have to wait until tomorrow.”
Don’t have them jump the cliff and then go to bed.
So when I would finish a day’s work, it would feel good to clock out (so to speak)
at 6:00 p.m. where I go “I’m done!”
But I also knew that if I was behind and in trouble, I have the rest of the night (whatever
needs to be done).
But I would prefer not to do that.
And also weekends, too.
A lot of people, screenwriters don’t always get weekends off and so my friends who have
day jobs I go “You work Monday through Friday.”
I work…sometimes my weekends are Monday and Tuesday.
Saturday I have to hit the bricks and do the work and that’s okay.
But they are like it’s just what happens, it’s fine.
But the ability to shift the schedule is one of the things that I enjoy and also the ability
to write anywhere in the world.
Last year I was in Italy for 6 weeks and I wrote a job that I got in Los Angeles, so
the producer didn’t care where I was.
We communicated but that was part of the initial attraction of being of being a writer was
that you didn’t need a big crew and you didn’t need all these spend two years on
a project that could be in a cafe somewhere in an Italian island writing a movie.
Film Courage: Nice.
Mark Sanderson: But bottom line is you have to write and stick to a schedule, I mean that’s
just vital.
Film Courage: That would be very distracting.
Mark Sanderson: It is.
I thought it would be…I’m inside and I’m like “Oh, but there is all this stuff outside
that I should do.”
Film Courage: I want to see The Vatican.
Mark Sanderson: Yeah, but you get over that when you’re like “Okay, I have to work.”
That helped me to go there so.
I mean it’s true for six weeks so who am I to complain?