Marc Scott Zicree, Screenwriter/Author: How committed am I to what I say I want
and because at the end of the day the if you don't believe it no one else will
Film Courage: What's your writing process?
Marc: I work five days a week minimally sometimes six sometimes seven but I prefer not to
I'm always thinking about a story or there's always something going on here in my head I
don't have regular writing hours at various times I have but now because I'm writing and producing
and directing and doing books as well my day is split up into smaller chunks and I'm often doing
many different tasks in a given day because I have full-time editor full-time you know line producer
VFX team all of that so when I sit down to write I try to write for several hours minimally
I but I but it's like you know I but I can also write on the fly if I need to I can write almost
anywhere I can write in a moving car I've written in jeeps traveling through the jungle in Thailand
when I did a pilot for NBC that was shot there I mean it's like I'm often working on several
scripts simultaneously I'm always reading several books at the same time and then I'll come up with
ideas and I'll jot them down I'll save those and sometimes I'll write them or I won't I mean one of
the ideas I came up with recently that I liked was well two two I came up with that I liked one was
I heard about the slave revolt in haiti where they actually succeeded you know in freeing themselves
and I thought what would have happened if before the civil war that it happened in america that had
spread to america and then now it's the modern day and there's a separate country of free of
of the descendants of freed black slaves so the south it's like it's not the confederacy one that
won the civil war and we've got two americas it's that there's a black nation where those
slaves freed themselves and what would that look like and what would our country look like
and that was an interesting idea and another idea I came up with which was rather amusing
was just a short story where someone would have the chance to go back in time one time
and there's an artist who never got his due was never recognized for his talent
and died without knowing that anyone would would you know cared about his art
he'd been rejected a lot during his lifetime so he goes back and convinces the official art
authorities to like take him in and accept him and do shows of his paintings and so forth and
the way it would be structure is we would believe throughout the story that it's vincent van gogh
but in the end it's adolf hitler because if hitler had succeeded as an artist right he never would
have gone into politics he wouldn't have there'd be no nazi party none of that and so it just it
just struck me as a funny story that that hitler had he just been appreciated for his artwork
it would have really changed that century so it was just but again so I come up with many many
ideas like for instance when I mentioned sitting down to come up with 200 ideas there's actually
up to 300 now ideas for movies or tv shows where I just jot them down and and and sometimes I'll
i'll I'll pursue them it varies there are certain ideas that I definitely will write like with space
command I knew I was going to do that and I knew that I would write the entire season which which
I have and then we'd shoot it so but I'm always working on something I'm never lying fallow and
some scripts it's like like over the next few months we'll be rewriting this the final six
hours of season one of space command but meantime I plan to write you know I mean we're also gonna
write and shoot all all the other five pilots of the show runners network you know and so that's so
we've written sweethaven now and again it's always just who are the characters what is the idea
how does this move how does this grow what is it saying you know but it's always through characters
I mean it's you know with with sweetheaven part of the genesis that was my friend michael harney
he's in project blue book he's in orange is the new black he's in for all mankind and yet he never
gets these wonderful lead roles that he should and so I said well how would you like to play a cop
and be the lead in sweethaven where all the people under 60 die and but I also created
his brother who will also be playing who went the exact opposite path and is very
s dangerous and I thought that would be fun too because I have my physical trainer who
I've been with for 30 years elaine and I both he had an identical twin brother who
was very very different from him and so that became of interest to me so it isn't just
using a cliche from soap operas you know of the twins the good twin and the bad twin it's
just the interesting thing of someone who goes very different from someone who looks like him
you know it's just fun and and then you know so it's but but any given week I'm writing
I'm you know working in my producer capacity so I'll be meeting with my vfx team and reviewing
vfx shots I'll be marketing I'll be doing the mr sci-fi stuff I'll be building my audience
it's all part of the job you know it's all you know I am you know in directing I mean today we
were just you know getting the sets ready to get them get them up and running you know so
it's exciting it's fun when you were writing in the jeep through the jungles of oh you were typing
yeah I can type in a moving vehicle and so this wasn't on like a legal pad you were actually okay
yeah yeah I can write it on on a legal pad but but it's easier to type in a moving vehicle because
when you're jostled and you're trying to write it you kind of you know do that but but I'm very
fortunate I think it's because when I was a kid I read books my mom would have me in the back seat
and I would read voraciously and I think the fact that I did that all you know kind of
meant that I'm not I don't get carsick and so so yeah and and often I've had to write
under deadline in those kind of circumstances I can write with music playing I mean I can be in
like a busy coffee shop or something and I'm not distracted so you know I just go into that world
you know and you know so it's very fun how did you figure out your writing process
well in television you have deadlines and so you just have to get very you write very fast
you'll have maybe a week or two to write an entire script the hardest I have I ever had the hardest
experience was I had to write two hour scripts in one week for two different series there was
one period of three months where I was writing I think nine scripts for six different shows
and and I could juggle between outlining i'd be outlining one while writing the script for another
but there were two shows they would not budge on the deadline and so the way I did that was
I would write 10 pages of one in the morning have lunch to clear my head then write 10 pages of the
other one in the afternoon and I did that for six days straight so at the end of six days I had two
60 page scripts and one was forever night and the other was space precinct and they both got
shot they both got made and and then another time I wrote 55 pages in one day which was for
I think an animated show called black star and elaine was a faster typist that was back when we
were on typewriters and so I was writing the pages freehand and handing them to a lane she was typing
and at the end of the day I had the entire script written so and that got made too of course and so
there there's something there's a very different energy where you know that everything you write
will get made it's it's then it becomes very pragmatic it's not like you you know you don't
you don't wait for inspiration you put in the work you just you know it's like if I have to write an
entire script over a weekend I can I will I prefer not to you know but but I find that qualitatively
there are scripts that I've written in a week that were every bit as good as scripts that took
me a year and you know so I'm you know it's I have faith in my abilities after all this time I know
what I can do though you have to know the story you're telling because you can't afford to get
lost in your script it can't go south you have to know that's why outlining particularly in
tv is so important because you have to know what what the structure is what how
it tracks that doesn't mean you can't depart from that if you know you're going somewhere
better but you just can't there's not a lot of room for that wild experimentation you know so
but but but usually I find that I'm clearest in terms of my writing in the afternoons
so I'll usually write in the afternoons but I can write any time that I need to write you know if
I'm under the gun and I remember one time when we were shooting the first hour of Space Command
Bob Picardo mentioned that i'd referenced the wizard of oz in an early scene that he had with
Doug Jones but I didn't pay it off and so we were going to be shooting that like a few days later
and I woke up in the morning with the entire scene in my head that paid off the wizard was and so
while so I said to Elaine you drive and so while we were driving to the studio I typed the scene
and then when we got to the studio I went to the office and said print this out then I gave it to
doug and to bob and that that day we shot it so but that was because bob was right he had a great
note and but it was just like but that's how sometimes the process is like that other times
you know it's other times you'll have to go through draft after draft after draft and
and hopefully find find your way you know but but tv has a much shorter you know runway so you
better be able to take flight when you run out of you know the the landing strip you know it's you
you better be able to hit the air and I but that's why but I love the speed of television and I love
the fact that most the what what you write gets made you know it's I never could have had a
happy life as a screenwriter I don't think that would have been for me at all well that was my
next question is what would your advice be to someone who doesn't have the advantage of a
deadline they are their own deadline yes and and they are their own audience for a while work with
a timer that's what I do we all have timers in our in our phones so say okay I'm going to write
you have to write on a regular basis you have to have a discipline and it's not so if you say
my writing hours are going to be from 9 a.m to 12 you know noon and and you find a space where
you're not going to get distracted you find a writing space it could be at a starbucks it
could be a corner of your home it doesn't matter where it is but that's your writing place and
people know it's your writing place and they know that your time that's your writing time and it's
sacrosanct you don't do other stuff in that in those hours and you set your alarm for three hours
or two hours or one hour whatever it is and you sit there and even if nothing comes you sit there
you do the work and and you treat it just like a job just like if you were working at a shoe store
you know you're working for yourself but you cannot just watch tv you cannot go you know
you know talk with your pals no you're a writer and but also setting a deadline for when a draft
will be done is very important so you just say okay three weeks from now I'm going to
have a draft written it doesn't have to be good it just has to be this beginning middle and end
and then you can go back and revise but just you just you go you know and if and but
professional writers need to treat it like a job the best schedule of anyone I ever knew was
ray bradbury he would write five days a week he would get up in the morning right until lunchtime
then he would have lunch then he would take a nap and in the afternoon he would attend to business
and then evenings and weekends were for the family and he did that for over 70 years so
pretty phenomenal well these wonderful things that we have in our pockets to shoot film
also are a distraction and now we can check news and now everything that we're interested in is now
going to be reflected back over and over again and you have to be careful I mean again you can
lose yourself in all of these pursuits but ultimately at the end of the day it's
like how committed I am to say how committed am I to what I say I want
and because at the end of the day the if you don't believe it no one else will
and the only way they can believe it is if you get things finished if you get things out there if you
I you know I mean nobody ever says I want to be a brain surgeon but I want it to be really easy
you know if they know that you you've put in work you know it's like and but but people
think that writing's going to be easy it's not some days it's easy some days it's hard but
fortunately if you're doing it right the audience can't tell what was hard and what
was easy which is fun which is really fun when it's easy when it's good and and it comes easily
it is good you know I'm not deluding myself when it's hard though
I can struggle and struggle and if I nail it ultimately the audience has no idea that
was difficult it flows you know so that's a relief so but you know it's but you know it's
the script is just the blueprint the script is just the arrow pointing the way you know I don't
I mean for instance I have to decide like today we were having an actress try on one of the costumes
to see if it worked we were deciding if she would be on a bed in this hospital room or if she would
be in like this this you know cylinder thing that would be like with tubes plugged in and things and
computer panels and stuff and so it's like that's part of the writing process too
determining what the lighting is going to be is it going to be subdued is it going to be bright
what color is it going to be what lens are we going to be using these are all creative decisions
you know I've been acquiring like I own I think 14 or 15 spacesuits now you know so I acquire
them from different productions or my mom got me one when I was a kid and and then you redress them
I get sets from the best place to get sets from is big budget science fiction movies that tanked
because no one saw them and the production design is great and then you you redress them so they're
yours but it gives you this level of just artistry and and detail and they because they put so much
money into it so you so that's and that's a trick I learned from rod sterling because when he shot
twilight zone at mgm he used every prop and costume and set that they had you know and
when I was a producer at sliders on sliders at universal I said can I use everything from every
universal production ever made and they said huh no one's ever asked that let me find out and they
came back and they said with a very few exceptions yes and we were using stuff from jurassic park
and time cop and 12 monkeys and on and on it was fabulous the best little whorehouse in texas we
shot one of our episodes in that house so but you know it's I'm in the business of being ingenious
and so the more I come up the more I pull a rabbit from a hat the more that I come up
with a clever idea the more I say okay this is this is the way to get where we're going
it's a series of problems that need to be solved but it's a joyous process and
I mean to take something that's just in your head and put out in the world so everyone can see it
it's just it's just there's no there's nothing like it it's wonderful when it comes together
it's great you know I love that process and I feel part of a tradition I feel in a way
that rod sterling and harlan nelson and all these wonderful people who
inspired and and guided me I'm part of that tradition the reason I like to mentor people
is because I feel that I can then pass on what I've learned from from these amazing people and
it doesn't end with me I'm just part of the part of the process part of the flow have you ever
mentored someone or met someone that you could just tell they weren't going to be teachable
yes I have and and the lovely thing is I don't ever assume that I have to succeed with anybody
like one of the rules of my round table when I started was there's no any everyone is welcome
if they come with a good heart there's no decision as to who's deserving notice no decision as to who
has talent or who's going to make it or not if someone comes with a good heart writers
producers actors directors editors composers anybody they're welcome because we're creating
a community a supportive community when I mentor people if they're just not going to get it I just
stop talking because it's sort of like you know this when they'll say well this is what I'm going
to do and I'll say well that's probably not going to work you know I don't and I'm not usually not
that blunt but I'll say well you know here's a few other ideas that would I think be easier to make
happen and if they just are resistant to that they say okay well go with god and also if they come
back and say I did that and it worked I'll say great you know because again I don't need to have
there's no there's no one way to do it there's a lot of ways to fail of course you know giving
up is a really bad idea because when you give up it guarantees that nothing's going to happen
but if but you can't just keep failing and failing and failing you figure out what's going wrong some
people can't write and if you can't write but you want to make film or make tv then they'll
affiliate with someone who's got the talents you don't have and do what you can do do what you're
good at some people for instance guillermo del toro told me he's not great with dialogue so
he you know he's good with plot good with imagery my god but so he affiliates with people who write
dialogue well you know you find the person like when I mentioned earlier that I direct with elaine
could I learn the skills that elaine has to work with direct with actors yes I could I could learn
those skills and I'm not terrible I mean I can I can work with actors I do know what the what
the through line emotionally is and so forth but but elaine having been an actor and gone to drama
school and directed off broadway she has a depth of she has a bag of tricks that I don't have but
but because I'm collaborating with her I don't have to learn that stuff because she has it so I
can say well how do we get this how do we get this effect how do we get this actor to do this thing
and she'll then talk to them and it's like wow great you know so and sometimes it's miraculous
to me like it's like how did you do that so good you know and so that's that's really fun but on
the other hand I had to teach her to like not think of it like directing a play it's like look
at the monitor see there that angle is not a good angle so like turn them this way you know and now
now she's much more savvy to camera angles and all that kind of stuff so we we learn from each other.
Does having a deadline help you write?