In an interview we asked Derrick, Jonathan, and Brent about their journey, as
Screenwriters. Their script, The Crow Prophecy, was nominated as Best Script
for FanFilm Awards 2016.
In your years as
screenwriter(s), how has the journey been? What helped you reach this level of
craft?
I would describe
our journey as difficult and obstacle-ridden. While we’ve improved in our
writing (when we first started, our writing itself was criticized, but now that
we are making finalist in and winning several major film festivals, that
has stopped; however, now we are criticized for our team’s name, our website,
etc.), we still have not been able to acquire quality representation. Our
reps have constantly and repeatedly let us down. At the same time, we’ve
valued and taken in everything that our critics have had to say, and we’ve just
kept working and improving, and at least in the festivals, it has paid off in a
big way.
Your version of The
Crow is different. Originally as a modern fantasy, The Crow Prophecy is particularly
Medieval. Why did you write it in this fashion?
This was a combination of several things we wanted to do.
Rather than try to write a remake or even a pure sequel to the original Crow,
we decided to do a prequel, and more of a subtle than obvious one at
that. Also, writing something that took place in Medieval time kind of
took us out of our comfort zone, as usually we write in the present day.
Finally, the characters and the time period drew accurate parallels to
Derrick’s story concept.
How was the
character development process? Any challenges?
For the
relationships between the King and the Sheriff and that of the gypsy mother and
daughter, who are assumed to be the modern-day Crow’s female ancestors, there
had to be a back story for both relationships. Derrick created the one
between the mother and daughter, whereas Jonathan developed a back story about
the King and Sheriff, who are brothers. The challenge was having those
two back stories come together and make sense as to what is happening during
the present time in the script.
Who wrote what in
this script collaboration? How did you refine the final draft, sharing creative
liberties?
Derrick created the
story, characters, primary scenes and much of the dialogue. Jonathan
fleshed out the remainder of the dialogue, assembled the scenes and developed a
couple of scenes, back story lines, etc., to pull everything together.
Brent came in at the end, proofread the initial draft and suggested a couple of
changes and suggestions, which Derrick and Jonathan used for the final
draft.
Also, much thanks
for letting us showcase our work in a big way. The cold reading was
excellent, and everyone did a great job. And the q & a session, the
meet and greet and the festival overall was an experience we’ll never
forget. We had a great time and were very happy and grateful to have that
experience. Thanks much to Eugene and everyone at the 2016 FanFilm Awards
in Los Angeles, CA.
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