STEVEN HART
Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Glasgow, Scotland. 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? I love crime and thriller stories. I have no idea why I have had such an obsession with it since childhood, but it is the genre that most inspires me. So I wrote a vigilante movie with a completely different take on the usual formulaic story beats we’ve seen so many times before. I saw the whole story in a very cinematic way. I could see the opening scenes, and the ending of my story unfolding clearly, almost as visual bookends. I knew it had to be a film. 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 wrote the first draft of the script a few years ago, starting with FADE IN, then put it aside and got on with my life as a portrait artist and college lecturer. I revisited it a couple of years later and worked on it with a writer friend when I was living in Toronto. I wrote a new outline for the script, and used index cards to flesh out every scene and how these would all work together to drive the story forward. Again, I put it aside, only to take it out this year for a complete rewrite to get it to the stage it’s at now. It is a total labor of love for me. What is your ultimate ambition as a writer? To see my film made and up on the cinema screen. I’ve been working on a novella of it and would love to see it as a graphic novel as well. 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 first ten pages first to get constructive feedback, then sent in my full script. I am really glad I made that choice, as the feedback helped me get my script to punch just that bit harder. What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show...and why? This is an almost impossible question to answer! I love ‘A History of Violence’, ‘You Were Never Really Here’, ‘Seven’ and ‘8MM’. These brilliant films really influenced me when I was writing my script. The first season of ‘True Detective’ is a work of TV genius, and is burned in my memory as one of the best TV shows of all time. What advice do you have for writers hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? Keep writing, reading award winning scripts, watching great, groundbreaking films and TV shows, and keep honing your craft. I’m a great believer in lifelong learning. We can learn new and positive things to enhance our lives every single day. What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? Obviously the novella and graphic novel versions of ‘Overwhelming Darkness’. And I’m also in the planning stages of creating a series of portraits of well known people who have struggled with ALS/MND, to bring more awareness and understanding of this extremely challenging condition. |
