OZZIE LOGOZZO
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada. 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 story stems from a hodgepodge of traits of characters I experienced over the years. Some of the occurrences came to me through strange dreams. I should stop dining late at night in European style. It’s unavoidable but personal events, some true but mostly imagined, have a way of infiltrating the dialogue. I chose the script format after having self-published three books. I find the screenplay much tougher to write given its condensed nature. However, it’s completion and subsequent feedback from professional such as Wiki is swift and gratifying. 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? I’ve averaged about two months to craft a screenplay. I devise a linear self-contained story driven by a character with a specific goal in mind. Once outlined, I concoct another story of a different character parading forward in a separate sphere. The screenplay becomes a reality through the intersection of these two worlds. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? Writing is a de-stressor. I enjoy it the way I enjoy going to the gym. Both enterprises, I hope, off-set the on-set of any dementia or just plain laziness. It would be wonderful if one of my screenplays made it to the small (or dare I say, large) screen. 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. Although I see value in testing a ten-pager for some scripts, I don’t think it’s valuable for me. I like to create an image or disturbance from the get-go that usually doesn’t make sense until well into the story. Indeed, parts of the beginning don’t acquire clarity until the very end. “The first ten pages” script submission might work for some genres, no doubt. It may not suffice for a ‘thriller’. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? I don’t have one. There are too many excellent stories floating around. “Die Hard”, “Liar, Liar”, “Good Will Hunting”—I could go on and on and on. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? I do recommend Wiki. The immediacy and quality of feedback has helped me greatly. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? I have two key scripts on the corkboard. One is a thriller involving “an errant child” returning as an adult to his Italian homeland and discovering that he is the son to the leader of a secret society that controls the Vatican. He soon becomes embroiled in intrigues that force him to act against his ‘family’ and face the challenge of the Mafia who is hell bent on acquiring control of the Papacy and the Vatican Bank. The other script, a newbie for me, involves the crafting of a non-violent, yet extremely conflict-tale of an abandoned woman who struggles through the challenges of daily life in her hope to one day become a teacher. She leaves home at an early age. She marries a man who ultimately abandons her. She suffers the death of her only child. She experiences poverty. She …. (I’m still working on making her life more miserable). This script is a personal challenge. It forces me to craft ‘tension’ without the hook of using violence. Once complete, it will be “Wiki-zed” for feedback. |
