Film Courage: What do you think are your strengths and what do you think you could work more on
in terms of filmmaking or storytelling? Adam Davis, Writer/Director: Sure I think my strengths are in
thinking in visual terms definitely being able to put together a
series of images and do something that's cohesive and effecting. I think is one of
my strongest suits. Working with actors I've definitely been getting better at
it's something that I wanted to work on you know just in general how to speak to
actors how to talk to them how to give them what they need having the
confidence you know to work with that in terms of writing I I think my character
work is really solid and my dialogue I think is very good as well it's story
structure that is probably something that I'm a little weaker at because in
terms of like that classics or Aristotle or Plato sense I could I could stand to
you know do a little bit more figuring out about like you know what makes this
structure work because classic structure you know works for a reason and you know
I guess Shakespeare sort of shows it's the basis of you know all good
storytelling so sort of you know going away from the the young man conventions
of like breaking conventions without really understanding the conventions so
that's something that I've definitely been working on and as you know
something that I could you know I'm a bit weekend well why do you think so
does someone told you that or you just look at your work and you feel that way
I think honestly some of the reviews of broken ceiling sort of brought that to
light where they're like hey you know like directing is great the acting is
great like the dialogue but some of the story points were fumbled to the film's
detriment that is a quote from I don't know if the cholera reporter won but
it's like okay yeah like story points like figuring out
how to keep something propulsive and dramatic you know like how do you really
do that well and I think that's something that like if a writer can do
that then they are golden and they'll get a ton of work but yeah it's
something that I've had to realize like okay like I'm focusing too much on like
you know the characters and and the dialogue and how do I get a really good
sort of story structure in there few read books on story structure are you
into reading books on stories yeah yeah yeah I have a few of them that are on my
list I am currently reading the art of
dramatic writing which Ron Howard recommends has something that he goes
back to i got a subscription to master class oh great which I highly recommend
I've learned a ton from Scorsese and Howard and yeah there's a lot of stuff
there which is pretty great and it's it's just the thing that I found is that
I don't want to get comfortable with my knowledge because I don't know
everything and I need to keep it learning so reading books that I haven't
read and doing these master class courses like keep learning is something
that I really need to do because I only want to get better you know and I know
that I'm not comfortable going like okay this is what I do and this is that
because that would make me stagnant and I can't can't live with that well what
an interesting today I like that most people wouldn't have two things I find
very interesting that you're you're grateful however painful it was to get a
bad with you and you thank the person for that mhm and then not wanting to get
stuck in your knowledge yeah that's really interesting I don't know if a lot
of people think like that well they should I mean it's something that I knew
I've is you know like I'm almost 35 and I could sit back and go well I made a
feature and I made a bunch of shorts and like I know what I'm doing I'm good but
it's like you know what like get people to
to read your stuff and watch your stuff and give you real constructive feedback
you know like the worst is when when people are just like oh yeah that was
great it's like thank you for that that feels good but tell me what tell me what
I did wrong what didn't work for you what could have been better because I
need to know that in order to get better because I want to make films at the
highest level and unless I am learning and consistently trying to improve
myself I'm not gonna be able to do that so there is no resting on on my laurels
like I will read anything and everything like right now even though I'm not in
production on anything it's still the same thing and I've been doing this for
10 plus years where I will come home and you know I will write something or I
will read something or I will write and read something like I did last night
you know I cranked out a couple of chapters of that did you know one of the
lessons on masterclass and did a revision to the new short that I'm doing
you know and that's all at night and I'm lucky that I have the time that I can do
that you know now so I take I try to take full advantage of that so you read
a little bit from the art of dramatic writing yep you watched one part of the
masterclass then then you worked on a short screenplay yep Wow
it's pretty disciplined I mean I have to be if I want to get the most work out
that I possibly can like I have to keep doing that you know and of course like I
you know I'm not working all the time like you need breaks you know you need
to watch movies you need to go out experience the world you know you can't
just be doing that because then you're not getting the fuel from the world that
can help you you know write and direct and think of new stories like that's
super important like right now I'm not currently in the you know trying to look
for stories mode right now I'm in trying to figure out okay like what's truthful
about you know the world of independent wrestling right like that's where I'm in
so I'm in full-on sort of research and writing mode and going to shows and
with wrestlers and trying to figure that out you know so that this the short film
can really you know be something sort of special and like right now like it's
it's tough because I wrote the first draft and I got a bunch of people
excited about it and that's super exciting because you know they're
willing to sort of move heaven and earth and accommodate me and they want to see
this made and I wrote it and you know I sent it over to will and he's like I
have I have a lot of thoughts you know and he's a very good harsh critic and
he's very honest you know and it's totally what I need you know it's what I
thrive on and I know he thrives on it too
but if it's sort of like right now I'm like okay like how do I make this work
does it work and that's the scariest part like I have a draft of something I
have people excited about it but is it actually going to work did I did I make
this premise and there's a core tenant of it that's broken that I didn't
realize until now that it's in front of me you know and if it is broken how do I
fix that how do I make it something that works or is it completely broken and I
shouldn't do it at all and I can't do it at all I hope that that's not the case I
don't think it will be it's just how do I get more creative how do I figure out
and target what the issues are and figure out how do I make that
dramatically satisfying while sticking to the message the reason why I'm making
that and that's the biggest point is is you have to know why you're making it
and you have to stick to that you know I was thinking of some other ideas about
like okay I could take it this way I can go that way
but I found that they were changing the tone and it wasn't exactly what I loved
about it and it didn't stick to the central reason why I'm so excited to
tell this story so you got to find out like we're in the realm of other
possibilities can you make this thing better while retaining
the reason why in the passion why you're making it did you wrestle in high school
I did yeah yeah okay I wrestled in middle school in high school I was super
small I was the smallest guy on the team I got my butt kicked a lot I was pinned
a lot I lost a lot my only one two matches in my entire time but I think
doing that really sort of set me up for this job in this career because there's
so many losses that you have to figure out how to take a loss and how to learn
from it and I you know connecting those two things about like losing and
wrestling and trying to figure out how to get better and getting a bad review
and a film and going okay well how do I get better the next time like those are
all connected you know so it very early on I think that's where I got this sense
of like tell me you know what's wrong let me fail I'm okay with failing I'm
okay with rejection you know it hurts but it doesn't break me and it doesn't
stop me you know it only makes me want to get better and do better and those
are public failures too so you're comparing the two wrestling in and
filmmaking yeah and learning how you got to get back up and I don't know if you
shake hands or whatever but then it sounds like that's what you've already
put into practice yeah it definitely is so you've decided you want to tell this
wrestling story and it's a short film absolutely yeah yeah something that I
think could be turned into a feature at some point but like a short is
definitely right for this idea right now and it's set in the in the world of
independent wrestling which is something that I love I love wrestling I love WWE
love independent wrestling so you know being able to meet the wrestlers and see
what they go through on an independent level the grinder that they have to do
you know the fact that they have to spend 20 minutes breaking their body
entertaining fans and then they're done and right after they go out to the lobby
of the VFW or the small hall that the wrestling that and have to sell merch
you know they're dripping sweat there injured their aching and they have to
you know put on a happy face and like you know sell some t-shirts and glossies
and like take pictures and it's just it's amazing because like the passion
that they have for that I totally identify with and I attribute it to the
passion that I have for filmmaking did you see the documentary for um the
story that prompted fighting with my family college I did not see the
documentary I still need to I saw fighting with my family is cool it is
really great Stephen Merchant did that's such such a good job with that
he's the screenwriter yes screenwriter and actor and director and he's an actor
I think he yes hilarious is one of the dads I think yeah and I actually have
nothing not that I'm in fighting with my family however when they shoot the very
end you know the sort of like wrestling match between Paige and AJ Lee they shot
it after an episode of Monday Night Raw which I was at Oh so I was able to go
and like see them actually shoot you know this scene between them and how
they only had an hour and how they had to you know get the crowd going cuz the
live crowd was there and how they had to shoot specific things and how quickly
they were who's fascinating yeah I think it's on YouTube
the documentary yes it's really fast
you