WADE BALLANCESearch WILDsound  11 Questions with 2010 Screenplay Finalist WADE BALLANCE 1.What is your screenplay about? A man goes on a search for his best friend. 2. Why did should people vote for your 1page script? “Lost” contains a lot of the elements of a feature packed into one page. A protagonist with a goal – to find his friend. Antagonists with the opposite goal – shopkeeper not wanting him to post flyers. Tension. Point of doom. Lots of action and no exposition. 3. How long have you been writing screenplays? 10 years. 4. What film have you seen the most in your life? Casablanca. 5. What artist in the film industry would you love to work with? Too many to name. Would love to collaborate with someone like Paul Haggis on a script. 6. How many screenplays have you written? 8 features and dozens of short films. 7. Ideally, where would you like to be in 5 years?Writing bigger budget features that are already greenlit with good talent attached. 8. Describe your process; do you have a set routine, method for writing? I usually spend a lot of time thinking about the concept before moving forward with actually writing the script. I sometimes will write the first couple of scenes or the first act to see if I’m still excited about it. Of course it helps if I know someone will actually be shooting what I’m writing. Deadlines breed a lot of creativity for me. 9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?Protecting animals and wildlife. I’m currently involved with a charity organization building the first wildlife veterinary hospital in Georgia. 10. What influenced you to enter the WILDsound Script Contest? It seemed like a well-respected event. Nice that they read your script in front of an audience and that the winner gets made. 11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers? So many writers I know are very passionate about writing short and feature films, but they don’t do enough research on what makes a script great. So many have a limited awareness of structure and formatting. There are so many resources available now, between books, seminars and the internet, it seems almost insulting to read a script that isn’t formatted correctly or doesn’t have the correct pacing. Just because you live in a house doesn’t mean you can build one. Just because you love film and love to watch movies doesn’t mean you can write a screenplay. So my advice would be to gain as much knowledge as possible before you dive in and stay in it for the long haul. It takes time to develop a skill and screenwriting is definitely a skill.
WADE BALLANCE
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CREATIVE IDEAS
