CHRIS PEARCE
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 PictureCHRIS PEARCE
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
I’m a researcher, writer and editor from Australia. Born in England, I grew up in Melbourne before moving to Phillip Island, then Townsville, then Canberra and finally Brisbane in the state of Queensland.

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 inspiration for developing the castaways story came from a book I bought many years ago on Queensland history. There was a page describing how four timber getters set off from Sydney in a 30 foot sailing boat in 1823 to collect cedar from the Illawarra, 50 miles to the south. They got blown out to sea and finally made landfall three weeks later 500 miles north, one dying on the sea voyage. They thought they were still south of Sydney and headed further north and lived with various Indigenous groups before being rescued by explorer John Oxley seven months later. This led to the founding of Brisbane, now capital of the state of Queensland. Initially, I wrote a book on one of the castaways, Through the Eyes of Thomas Pamphlett: Convict and Castaway. Later I wrote a script, The Castaways, on his time as a castaway along with the other two survivors. The book is non-fiction but I dramatised the script as there was a fair bit of information on their journey in old manuscripts in libraries and because there were a number of life and death situations that would come out better in a movie rather than a documentary.

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 took about six months to write a script and edit it several times before sending it to a few producers. Based on feedback from them and Wiki, I made a lot of changes. I started the writing process by typing FADE IN and developed a dramatised script from there, based closely on the actual castaways’ story in the non-fiction book. I got clues about the personality of each man from original manuscripts which described their journey in detail, and incorporated this into the script. Richard Parsons was bad tempered. John Finnegan, still a full convict, was a reluctant traveller. Pamphlett was the peacemaker.

What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
To have reasonable success. I have no pretensions of being a world famous writer, but I would like to get a couple of scripts made into movies or television series and go from there. I have a producer for The Castaways: leading Gold Coast (Australia) producer Phillip Avalon who has made about 40 films. But it’ll depend on finance.
My television script The Wakefields has won or done well in a number of contests. It won best TV script at the US-based Top Film Awards, the Los Angeles Movie & Music Video Awards, and the London Frames International Film Festival. It follows the Wakefield family in early industrial Manchester, UK, as the family rises from abject poverty to be quite wealthy although this results in problems for various family members. The full script is 647 pages and would cost an enormous amount to put on the screen. I might reduce it to a feature film sometime. The story is based on a novel I wrote, A Weaver’s Web, which is an ebook at Amazon, etc.

Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice?
My entry at Wiki was a full read analysis which included executive level studio notes and scores. I felt I had a reasonable draft and wanted feedback on the full script before I did further editing. I found the feedback very useful and was able to make various changes before submitting the script to more producers. I got some interest from about five producers and eventually found one who is quite keen. I signed an option agreement with him earlier this year.

What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why?
I think it would be the 1970s TV series Rich Man, Poor Man based on an Irwin Shaw novel by the same name. I also read the book, twice. I enjoyed reading and seeing all the triumphs, tragedies and double standards of postwar life. It cost $6 million to make the TV series. My own TV series is a bit longer, so allowing for inflation, it would probably cost at least $60 million in today’s money.

What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have?
Be prepared to work hard. Don’t expect miracles. Keep your writing tight. Do plenty of editing. When you finally think you have a decent draft, enter a few contests, especially those that offer feedback, such as Wiki. Take the feedback on board and make the appropriate changes to your draft. Maybe then enter a few more contests to see how it’s all going. After further editing, try a few publishers or their agents, although this is very much a longshot. You might do best with a short script to start with, and one that doesn’t have too many characters or locations, so you can keep costs down. An alternative approach might be to get into a movie company at entry level and work in various areas of film production, including writing.

What else are you working on that the world needs to know about?
I’m currently writing a book on anthropogenic climate change denial. I have a lot of material for it, such as clear evidence that it was the fossil fuel industry who invented ACC denial back in the late 1980s. My (lofty) aim is to put an end to ACC denial. It’ll be my contribution to humanity (and the environment).