MICHAEL MOORE
 MICHAEL MOORE
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Nashville, Tennessee 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 idea for Final Draft came after I started writing last year, researching what I might expect from festival submissions. I kept seeing people suggest writing certain types of screenplays for success. And then the biggest surprise was when I learned how rare it was for a spec script with no existing IP to gain industry traction. That seems to be common knowledge, but I didn’t have any background in film. So, this piece started out as a light critique on that idea — what might happen when a writer is pressured so deeply into creating something to satisfy someone else’s demands. I wanted to explore the true cost of making creativity transactional. This script is part of an anthology of shorts that examine human connection and the cost of progress through different lenses, so my vision is to bring them all to life on the screen. Each script layers visual motifs, phrases, and other elements that will add to the larger world. 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? As with my other shorts, I finished it in a week or two once I started writing. When it comes to my process, I don’t outline in the traditional sense, but I spend time thinking about the tone, theme, and what I want the audience to feel. From there, I try to capture that essence in a very cinematic opening image. After establishing this starting point, I see the film — each scene, turning point, character beat — as though I’m watching the movie unfold and transcribing what I see. Whether it be academics or my legal career as a corporate finance attorney, I’ve always been able to hold conceptual and structural ideas visually in my head. As I experience things in life (emotional reactions from people, legal concepts, films), I’m creating a sort of pattern library in my mind. Then, when I encounter or analyze something new, it feels like I’m pulling from a particular visual construct that applies to that interaction. That’s why outlining on paper feels like I’m writing down what’s already in my head. With Final Draft, I started seeing the film unfold once I imagined a desperate writer sitting in a dark room, trapped by his own anxiety. I put myself inside the intersection of reality and technology/AI, thinking about films like The Matrix and Her. Long-winded answer, but it helps me articulate where I believe my speed and inclination for film structure comes from. But even then, I’m continually refining and polishing as I get feedback from competitions and coverage services, which I believe is crucial for crafting a story that will resonate with high-level readers and audiences. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? I only started writing in May 2025, so I have a lot to learn and experience, but my desire is to leave a creative mark that meaningfully contributes to the art form and makes people question complex human issues. I write to explore the systems dictating our lives — whether shaped by nature or humanity. If a work leaves you unsettled or questioning what it means to be human, it's doing its job. From a craft perspective, this might sound crazy, but I want to write an Emmy and Oscar- nominated screenplay. I don’t at all discount the work and good fortune that would be required, but it’s an aspirational target. And it’s not about the money or fame, as I have an established legal career that I love, but my screenwriting goal will push me to create stories that operate at the highest level in craft, while maintaining emotional and intellectual weight. Was your entry at The Wiki Screenplay Contest a full script or “the first ten pages”? Why did you make that choice? I submitted the full script. Like many of my stories, Final Draft builds its tension and emotional complexity as the narrative unfolds. There are small reveals and motifs that gradually lead to larger truths in the final act. You can appreciate the opening, but the ending connects everything together emotionally and thematically. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? A close call between Inception and Interstellar, but I’ll say Inception. A perfect marriage of structural ambition and emotional truth. Christopher Nolan builds a narrative within a narrative, but at the core, it’s about something very human. A man reeling from the grief and guilt of losing his wife. The sci-fi complexity serves the emotion without overwhelming it. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? I’d say write what you want to see. Contests see hundreds, thousands of scripts. I only had to attend a couple of festivals to find out there are books and videos widely known as foundational screenwriting guides; but I hadn’t read them. If I had, would I have tried to write a reverse chronological story with an opening image entirely reframed by an ending twist of possession? Probably not. My very first script, Moonshot, is an irreverent story about an alternate history of the moon landing with Neil as a maverick, gum-chewing thrill seeker; with a midpoint tonal shift into cosmic dread, recursion, and government paranoia. A wild story, but it’s my story. It’s won a couple festivals, placed as a finalist in many more, and was a huge step in establishing my voice. If you’re passionate about your story, it’s going to bleed onto the page. And people will know it’s real, not just craft and 3-act structure. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? I’ll try to be succinct because I have a few projects in development. Final Draft is one short in my anthology series Affect Protocol. The first season begins with five festival-proven shorts exploring systemic control, memory, and weaponization of feeling in near- future societies — in the vein of Black Mirror, but with a more emotional, character-driven core. It will span multiple seasons, using festivals and contests as a barometer for which themes are resonating the most with audiences. I have a second limited series in process titled Collective Unknown, which kicks off with Moonshot (mentioned above) and follows different versions of similar characters across recursive timelines. I’ve completed the first season of three episodes, which interrogates buried memory and hidden artifacts that echo across time, in a world where our search for purpose may outlive our existence. Then I have a sci-fi epic series set in a post-automation future, exploring class-reversal, identity, and knowledge that can’t be downloaded. I’m finishing the pilot now, but ten pages of an early draft has also placed with Wiki. And finally, I’ve just completed my debut feature screenplay, Shadows, a psychological sci-fi thriller that placed with Wiki as well. It follows a neuroscientist that awakens trapped in fractured realities — the aftermath of repeated attempts to erase the manipulation that killed her husband. As fragments of truth surface across shifting timelines, she discovers her desperation to escape a dying body orphaned the daughter waiting for a mother she barely knew. To wake from her coma and reclaim Maya, Lira must face the choice that ripped her family apart — or remain trapped forever in the denial that shattered her mind. Since I’m not a year into the craft, I’m still focused on writing, but I absolutely plan to get these stories produced soon. Below is my Instagram Handle and a link to my IMDB, if anyone would like to follow my work or discuss/request samples of any scripts or other documentation. Instagram: moore_stories_10 Michael H. Moore - IMDb |
