BENNETT KIRSCHNER
​

BENNETT KIRSCHNER

Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
New Orleans, LA, USA

Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel?
My screenplay is inspired by real-life events – in 2020, I appeared on a Reality TV show, and I
have always known that the experience would eventually give way to a creative work. I am a
playwright and theatre director by trade, but I chose film as the central medium because the story focuses so much on the ways that our projected, two-dimensional personas (online and otherwise) inform our deepest, most intimate selves. The screen is a vital part of this narrative, and telling it through the medium of film adds dimensionality and immediacy to that dramatic question.

How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN?
It has taken me three years. I wrote an exhaustive, 12,000-word “synopsis” that is longer than the script itself, putting it through several drafts, before finally writing the first draft of the screenplay. Since then, I’ve put the screenplay through several revisions, thanks in large part to the feedback of mentors and peers.

What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
To continue making original, experimental work – primarily plays – and producing it in intimate, communitarian settings.

Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice?
Full script – because it’s ready and worth sharing.

What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why?
Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley – it’s funny, and offers profound anti-capitalist social commentary.

---