DAVID SETTER

ALSO ON SITE

1. What is your screenplay about?

Life on the tiny island of Upshot, BC is changed forever when members of the local garden club join in the historic 1993 battle to save the Clayoquot Sound rainforest.

2. Why did you decide to write this screenplay?

My mum had just died in Sechelt, a little town on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. The Garden Club and The Kumquat Campaign was sitting on a bookshelf in the B&B in which we were staying while we were up for the funeral. Perhaps it was reading the story in an environment so similar to that in which the story takes place. Perhaps it was reading about love, life and death while those feelings were so close to the surface. Whatever the reason, I fell in love with the quirky characters; Their fight for the trees showing us we must all live life to the fullest while we can. It prompted me to research those historic protests. I was inspired by the courage and bravery of the thousands of people who went to battle to make the planet a better place. I decided I had no excuse but to do the same. I optioned the story and wrote it, hoping to make some kind of a difference in the world myself.

3. How long have you been writing screenplays?

I wrote my first screenplay, Third Strike, about one man's struggle for justice from within the prison industrial complex, ten years ago. I only got serious about writing full-time two years ago, when I quit my corporate day job and wrote my second feature, Out On The Ice, a rom com about a couple of gay hockey players. If A Tree Falls was number three.

4. What is you all-time favorite film? (name only one)

Man, I hate this question. The answer is probably whichever one I saw last. Not that I'm fickle, it's just that I learn so much from watching films, both good and bad. I find it hard to say "this is THE one". I guess if I had to choose, I'd say Blood Simple. The naive joy of filmmaking is so apparent. The Cohen brothers' deft ability to squeeze every last drop of drama out of each frame of celuloid -- all on a shoestring budget -- proves that storytelling is more than just great dialogue and does not have to come with a huge price tag.

5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with?

Again, only one? I guess David Mamet, if I could be sure some of his storytelling skills would rub off on me.

6. How many screenplays have you written?

I've written two shorts which I also co-produced and which won in festival. If A Tree Falls is the third feature I've completed. (two more are on the way)

7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years?

Living in Vancouver, getting paid for writing smart funny features. (with a good agent earning their 15%)

8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing?

Initially I find a subject that compels me (usually something highly political). I research the subject and try to hone a story out of it. (I have to make sure "research" isn't in fact procrastination). I find my characters and then work out my story beats within a three act structure by writing a synopsis. Only after the synopsis is complete do I begin writing the script. I've been trying to pay close attention to Blake Snyder and never stray from my original logline.

I sit down to write every day after I've dropped my kids off at school. I write until I have to go pick them up. I do my research at night after I've gotten them to bed.

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Hmmm, politics and my family. (kids take a lot of work)

10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest?

Rejection.

I know everyone wants to move to LA and write screenplays, but despite being here sixteen years, I've not figured out how to make myself tell big "Hollywood" stories. A studio was looking for a character driven script "just like Little Miss Sunshine". I submitted one of mine but got back the note that it was "too character-driven". *sigh* Americans just don't get my stories. I was raised on W.O Mitchell, Steven Leacock, Margaret Laurence and Margret Attwood. Atom Egoyan and Sarah Polley are my heroes. I needed to find a good Canadian contest where the readers might "get" where I'm coming from.

p.s. I really want to hear my script read in front of a live audience!

11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

Gee, I don't think I'm in any position yet to have anyone else learn from my mad skillz.

I suppose 1) discipline and 2) choose a story for which you hold a lot of passion (enough to hold your interest when your discipline is inevitably flagging).

David Setter, David Setter, David Setter