Jesse Harris, Filmmaker: Every single character has to have something really
compelling that they're fighting for or want they can't just be.
Film Courage: Who taught you how to write a screenplay?
Jesse: Let's see I mean I don't think any one person to me had every screenplay
I definitely have read lots of the screenwriting books and things that
you would be told to read like save the cat or all the other ones and I think those things are
super helpful because knowing that structure is really important the podcast like script notes
think anything like that like I think it's just as much of that information you could take in is
is super important but I think at the end of the day you just have to start writing and then you
have to kind of figure it out and I think at least for me because again that's how I really shine and
learn is is just by doing it and so I had been writing stories ever since I was a little kid
I mean I made my first movie when I was eight years old and so I had always been kind of writing
and telling stories and so I think it is something I've been kind of working on my whole life
and even when I wasn't making a film I was maybe doing something else whether it's a commercial or
this film festival I ran I was still in some way kind of telling a story to an audience or or kind
of creating some sort of experience right and so I think it's it's writing is one of those things
you're probably like filmmaking is some element that's just born in you right that has that in you
and then it just takes a lot of time of just doing it and getting practice doing it
I mean I think the books and other resources can give you a lot of inspiration and also
really good at letting you then pick apart your stuff and figure out what's not working in it
but in the end of the day I think you just have to kind of do it and kind of
almost make yourself good by just by doing it enough how do you start writing a screenplay
like I mean me personally I start with the I guess the big picture concept what is this about from
there I would talk about I would think about who are the characters what's going to be compelling
and what are the stakes here and then I think from there kind of trying to figure out the structure
I mean obviously there's lots of structure to a feature script not that it necessarily has to have
that but that's kind of how you usually write it is kind of figuring out these acts and different
points of the story right and I think that was helpful for me with this feature just because
Borrego is in a sense a kind of action movie it is that kind of more of a commercial feel
even though it it has a lot more to it than that but it was still helpful to kind of have
those kind of maybe beats and things along the way to kind of work towards and I think
that is super helpful to kind of know okay I have this much for that and that much for that
not to be stuck into that but it was helpful to kind of give me something to work towards
but I don't know I'm not an expert I don't think there's one perfect way of writing a script but
I think really it is important to have what is that really compelling idea and what is what
is the really interesting things about each of these characters that make you want to watch them
and create a story and drama from because if you don't have that I think you're really going
to struggle when you get to actually physically writing the words of every scene and so I think
now more than ever when I write something it's kind of really doing as much diving into it before
I even start writing to kind of make sure I have that there would you see an Ellie or a Guillermo
and kind of study them a real life and just you come from afar and just envision
yeah that that and then try to incorporate some of that into the script yeah I mean I'm definitely
someone wherever I go I'm always watching people and I definitely think I take a lot from from
real life I mean I think that's one of the best things about traveling too is wherever you are
especially if it's somewhere out of your comfort zone just seeing some little moment or something
can give you so much inspiration I mean I'm always writing down ideas and and little things I saw are
people I talked to or a conversation I heard I think that's definitely a great way to I think
that's probably partly why you become a better writer usually as you get older too is that
you just have more life experience you've we've witnessed more characters you've had more stories
and I think that's something where as you're a younger filmmaker you probably have to really pull
more from yourself or from your family or things like that and find those connections because
obviously there's just so many rich characters out there in the real world that you can definitely
pull from for sure yeah what about the dialogue for these characters did you
did it take time to refine it because I mean they have a very interesting relationship I'm
sure more in the midpoint or for sure yeah I mean dialogue is definitely something that's that's
always really hard with with a script right is to make that sound really authentic and real and
for me when I write I really kind of perform the scripts
like I'm really not an actor but I need to speak out loud when I write the script and so
I'm really almost like acting out the movie as I write it and so I think I actually do a lot of it
before I even write it down I'll kind of be saying it over and over again so I do spend a lot of time
with the dialogue to kind of try to make sure it sounds realistic and of course your first draft
is probably never going to be great but as you go on that's really what changes probably more
than anything is the dialogue I think the actual structure of the film is really similar to what it
was in the first draft but what's different is other than some character probably development
expanding is a lot of the dialogue and just continually working that to make that sound real
and then that really also continues when you go to make the movie I mean obviously some
directors and writers are very strict about their scripts but I was never like that where
if the actor has another idea for a way to say this that's great and especially in my case the
film has several scenes in Spanish which I'm not fluent in Spanish at all and so in those scenes
especially it was very important for those actors to kind of take ownership of that and be able to
say this in a way that was casual or slang or however they would say that but even in the
english scenes like I mean I try to have each of the actors be able to take something from their
own life and bring it to that character and so we did a lot of adjusting even before we shot the
film of like what is this not something you would do or how could we make this more relatable to
you and hear some words we could change here and there and you're even doing that on the fly while
making the movie like doing a take and that didn't sound right like what else could we try and so I
think to get really believable strong dialogue it's just always about experimenting and and
kind of tinkering with it I guess that's that's really at least how I approach it
what makes your writing process different from everyone else I mean I can't speak for too many
other people because I don't know that many other people's writing processes but I mean mine has
been evolving I guess I mean I haven't written that many things right and so it's it's kind
of constantly learning I guess what works I think the thing I just recently have been
writing is this limited series that I've been developing and I think for me it was
it was trying to take as much lessons as I learned from the first the last script which is just that
the characters really have to have every single character has to have something really compelling
that they're fighting for or want they can't just be existing they really even if we don't know in
the story hear every detail of it I have to kind of know that exists and have it in my head so
I most recently kind of wrote a whole page or two on every character and what was their backstory
and what was their life like and all these things that are maybe they won't even make it into the
script but I think I'm just doing as much kind of pre-thinking and planning as I can now where I'll
just be kind of meditating on it for a long time and I'll get an idea and I'll take a voice note or
something and I'll record that and i'd spend a lot of time thinking about it before I even started
writing it and at least for me that's I think what turned into a really one is it was a lot easier to
actually write it when I did write it and then two I think it's the strongest writing I've ever
had and so I think the more time you can kind of just let it all sink in I think does allow it to
kind of marinate and kind of be even stronger in the script for Borrego that's like a three-year
marination I well for Borrego I think it was it was slightly different I probably more in
that sense diving quicker with the first draft and then spent a lot more time adjusting and changing
and refining whereas the thing I've more even more recently written that hasn't been made yet
I probably spent more time marinating but then less time actually writing to get something
really strong so I don't know if there's one perfect way or anything but at least for me I
think that's what I found to make something really compelling is if I spend a little bit more time
just kind of letting it all sink in before diving in to write it what was it about Borrego that just
you couldn't stop writing I think there was just this personal connection for me with the film both
with this this idea that started with my dad based on kind of him as this amateur botanist
but then two just the desert itself was a character of this movie really was like the
fifth or sixth character of the movie was this landscape and was this desert and I think just
having grown up I spent so much of my childhood camping and going on these desert adventures with
my parents that was just where they went we didn't go to like really Disneyland or other places we
did once but mostly we went to the desert and I wandered around the desert and thought of ideas
and was just in that kind of world and so I think I just knew this was such a compelling setting and
so few things had kind of been set specifically in this desert almost nothing had been shot there
and I just loved that kind of movie this is almost like a neo-western of sorts it doesn't it doesn't
really feel so much like a western but it kind of has a lot of that vibes and I do like that kind of
film and so I just knew this was gonna be a good film I knew it was really important to make a film
that I wanted to make a film that people wanted to see I didn't want to just make a film that was
too intimate and it would never get seen I wanted to kind of make this blending of worlds where
it had this kind of commercial appeal with some action and excitement and thrills but
also wasn't just that fluff either it had dynamic characters that were interesting and authentic and
was something that kind of this blending of films that maybe doesn't exist as much
and I just knew that if I could pull that off I could make something really really interesting
that people would want to see do you believe that there are writing dead ends or that a writer can
always find a creative solution out of sort of a what seems like they can't go any further
I think definitely you could you could reach a dead end if you didn't probably do enough
thinking ahead of time and and kind of figuring out if this idea was going to work perhaps
I've never not finished a screenplay or something but I know a lot of people do struggle with that
where they get to a point they can't keep writing but I think that's probably just because you you
probably started writing too soon before you really figured out what is this character's
I don't say motivation but kind of all those kind of typical things like what
those are real like what what what is it this movie's really about and what is it this person's
fighting for whatever kind of genre the film is of course you can reach those kind of temporary
dead ends probably all the time struggling with writer's block and all that kind of stuff
but I think in terms of ones that you can't get out of it's probably started because
there's something missing in your kind of development of the overall concept
did you have any troubles with Borrego let's say the second act or the ending anything where
it was just a little bit more time spent on it yeah for sure I mean I think the second act is
always the hardest just because the first act is just setting up you're kind of even if you
don't have the idea figured out you can kind of set that story up and get it going right and
the ending you hopefully know the ending or where it's going and the stuff in the middle is usually
what's the hardest because it's longer usually and it's what has to kind of keep the momentum going
and so I think that's probably where I had the most challenge of kind of figuring that out and
I think also the some challenges I had is as I got into trying to actually finance this film
I did have to start cutting back certain things in order to make the budget work so I had to start
cutting some scenes and trimming some areas and so then it kind of came more like a bit of a puzzle
of like okay what could I take away that won't hurt the film but it will make us a cheaper film
to be able to make and so I think it's always this kind of constant kind of journey with the script
especially if you're making the script to direct it never is this perfect linear process I think
what makes us care about the characters in Borrego so I think in Borrego
we care about the characters because they all have something that they're
they're kind of fighting for or dreaming towards so even the we'll say bad guys in the Borrego
they're not really evil people they they've gotten into a situation that
they they they didn't necessarily want to be in but it's where they are so in one case they
needed to support their family and so they took a job doing something they knew that was wrong
or illegal but it was their only choice or someone is running away from something in their their past
and they're trying to put it behind them but they know it's going to catch up with them but they're
just ignoring that and I think there's something that we can all relate to in all these characters
most of us aren't drug dealers and crossing the border and all that
but you can still find the humanity in these characters and and that was something that was
super important to me because I really wanted to be super sensitive to making a film about
these kind of people and and this border story because I'm not from that world I don't live that
I have lots of friends who have family members who are from that and could talk to them about that
but I really wanted to try to tell this in as I guess gentle and authentic as a way possible where
it wasn't really about that the film sets that up and that's what sets up the story
but ultimately it's about just these individual people and what their choices are and what their
beliefs are and what they're fighting for in their own life and that's really what the
film is about so I think that's what makes it unique and and compelling for people to watch.