BRIAN BARNES
11 Questions with BRIAN BARNES. A WILDsound WINTER 2009 One Page Screenplay Finalist 1. What is your screenplay about? An old childhood adage and an evil little boy. If you thought stepping on a crack would only break your mommy's back, you thought wrong. 2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay? I wish I could say I wrote this story to fill that deep, gaping hole in my psyche brought forth by my largely neglected childhood, however, if I did, I would be lying. As shallow as it sounds, I wrote the piece because I thought the story was funny, and the opportunity arose for such a short piece to go beyond just a written story, literally, on one piece of paper. 3. How long have you been writing screenplays? A year and a half. 4. What is you all-time favorite film? (name only one) The Graduate. 5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with? Henry Selick. 6. How many screenplays have you written? Six...ish. 7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years? If I am alive with some sort of paid job in the film industry in Los Angeles or New York City, I'll be happy. 8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing? It's different for every piece and hard to quantify. Usually I come up with an idea for a story (either alone or with a colleague) and tell it to someone, see if they respond. If it's a comedy, they better laugh. If it's sad, they better empathize. From there, I map out what's going to happen -- scene by scene, beat by beat. Then, I turn on the computer, open the file, and stare at a blank screen for about 20 minutes, writing absolutely nothing, wasting valuable and precious time. But, once that's done, I write. And then edit, and edit, and edit. I don't have a set routine to write; I primarily write whenever I want to, which, luckily for me, is quite often. 9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about? Camping, crackers & cheese, cran-grape juice, and cards. 10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest? The opportunity to see something I wrote as an animated film -- something I, unfortunately, don't have the skills or resources to do. 11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers? Don't you want to see an earth chasm gobble up a little, evil trouble-maker? Brian Barnes
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