How I Begin Writing A Film (Pt. 1)

This is a big topic, and hopefully an exciting one for many of you.

I'm beginning this 2 or 3 part series because I have the exciting opportunity to begin collaborating on a short film script with an incredibly talented, influential animation director (who's name I will not be sharing). This film would be made after the completion of A Home for Swallows, so it will give us both plenty of time to sit and consider the story.

Here is the first part of my process, from day 1.


DAY 1


Decide the tone. The tone of your film is (in my opinion) one of the absolute most important parts of choosing your story.

When I wrote BARKING ORDERS (my first animated film, senior thesis, the piece that helped tremendously to begin my career), I was in a very specific point in my life and wanted to tell a specific style of story. Funny, spontaneous, nonsensical.

The tone of A Home for Swallows is, again, wildly different. It is tragic, thought provoking, and symbolic.

A lot of choosing this depends on who you are when you begin the film, and the kind of story you would like to tell. I would absolutely not make a film like BARKING ORDERS now, simply because I am not the same person that I was. However that does not mean I don't still find the film funny.



A lot of the tone also comes from your environment. BARKING ORDERS was written surrounded by my good college friends, many of which who went on to be industry animators or Nickelodeon writers. It made sense that this piece was inspired by lighthearted, modern Disney animation.

A Home for Swallows was came to be after moving to Montreal, beginning to learn French, and consuming a mass of classic French media (initially just with the intention to help me learn) that lead to becoming deeply inspired.



You're probably asking, how do I come up with a tone?



The way I am deciding on tone for this piece is by creating a list of 2-4 movies, similar or dissimilar, that together describe a tone.

I'll give you an example.

7 Samurai
The Dark Crystal
Forbidden Planet

...equals

Star Wars!


Okay maybe a bad example. But that's the concept. It doesn't need to be 1:1 with each film, you can take pieces from each. The "Hero's Journey" of 7 Samurai, the creature design from The Dark Crystal, the future sci fi of Forbidden Planet.

If you're familiar with all of these films, you'll understand the essense of Star Wars from just considering all the titles together.

(Think of that scene from Ratatouille where Remy's brother eats the cheese, then the strawberry, then both together. Your film's tone is that combined sensation of multiple tastes at once.)


So the next time you want to come up with some ideas, think of the films that inspire you and what kind of overlapping themes you can link together to create a new flavor!



In the next post, I'll talk about what you can do once you have your tone set.