CHRISTOPHER JARVIS
 CHRISTOPHER JARVIS
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Virginia 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? The prompt for the series came out of a conversation with one of my brothers about setting a western in the future. I had to think about that for a while, and the prompt just lived on in my subconscious. The script for Inhuman really began some time later, as an image. I saw a cowboy walking through the snow at night. I saw a farmhouse in the far distance behind him. A couple of sodium vapor lamps dotting the space in between. I could hear him breathing. And I knew he was tired. I could feel the tired. And I saw him approach a broken transformer of some kind, but it didn’t look like a utility of our day, it looked almost like a utility from Star Wars—futuristic, but worn and beaten and barely working. There was a style and aesthetic to the image that I could feel too. Something I hadn’t seen before. A cold, rugged, industrial future. A place I wanted to stay in and explore. That was my first encounter with The Caretaker. And everything that became Inhuman came from there. Inhuman was always a script for me, probably because it began as an image that conveyed a powerful impression. And I’ve always wanted to write films and TV shows that connect with audiences on that level. 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? The pilot for Inhuman took several years to work into its final form. I had images, I had characters, and I had impressions that I could feel in my soul but couldn’t quite capture on the page. I set the script aside for about six months, and then my daughter was born, and everything changed for me in so many profound ways. My emotions began to guide my creative energies in ways I hadn’t felt before–my writing felt pure for the first time in many years. I was thinking less but feeling more. I picked up Inhuman a few months later and finished it in about a month. One of the key insights I had was that I had been trying to stuff too much into the pilot. I needed to start slower. Introduce a few key elements at a time and let the series build with each episode. I realized that that’s how my favorite epic stories usually begin – they start small, and then they open the world up as the story unfolds. As far as process, I have found that a simple outline works best for me, a scene-by-scene breakdown that captures exactly what we’ll see, exactly what we’ll hear, exactly how we’ll feel each moment. I try not to write more than one or two scenes per day in an outline, because you can get ahead of yourself and lose important elements in the process. After I finish the outline, I take a few weeks off before moving on to the script. That way, writing the script flows much easier, because I’ve already seen it, and worked out many of the kinks, in outline for What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? To write great films and TV shows that inspire, thrill, and connect with people from around the world. Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice? A first ten pages entry. I chose that because liked the idea of getting a different perspective on the project. Inhuman was named a quarterfinalist in last year’s Slamdance Screenplay Competition, so the idea of submitting just ten pages and getting a different kind of feedback was very appealing. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? I have a very hard time limiting this to one, for film and for television. If pressed, I would say that True Detective Season 1 is, to me, one of the greatest and most powerful works of TV ever made. I find it profound and truthful and deeply moving, even more so over time. For film, I would probably have to say The Thin Red Line, because it is so beautiful, and it speaks to the soul so deeply. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? It’s hard for me to say, because I am not very seasoned in contests yet, but the process that has worked for me was to set aside the idea of marketing and selling scripts for a few years to just focus all your creative energy on writing great scripts—hopefully several great scripts. Marketing and selling are a full-time job, and I think it’s hard to focus on creative quality in writing if you are spending half your time trying to market yourself. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? A corporate thriller and war series about a defense contractor. I found a character who I love, and who I know audiences will love—a deeply flawed hero who you can’t help rooting for, even when he’s at his most self-destructive. A global espionage/heist thriller that deals with CIA and Russian spy operations. A short film about an Air Force pilot trying to connect with his young daughter before he embarks on a fateful mission. |
