Booked Out

Cheddar!

Not really. I can remember enjoying writing in my English class when I was about eleven. We had a teacher who always got us to write about what we had done at the weekend and I always enjoyed this.

I think what i did do as a child was daydream quite a lot and indulge my mind in little stories without actually writing them down.

I do listen to music when writing. I think its rhythm helps me get going or helps me get in a particular zone when I need to sit there and write. I also listen to a lot of music to inspire me but I will cover that in another question!

I listen to lots of people when writing so can't really pinpoint anyone in particular but for Booked Out I was mostly listening to Belle and Sebastian, Friendly Fires, the Clash and loads of other bands at the same time.

A bit of both. I generally like to get the structure right on paper and may write small pieces of dialogue on paper but once I have an idea of what I want to write I generally go straight for the laptop. Once written though I have to print it out and review it on paper. I have never been able to really read something on a screen and fully indulge myself in it.

I think I set out on purpose to make them a bit edgy. In other scripts that I have written I think the characters merged into each other a lot more so I wanted to make them individuals this time. Also I love the characters in Haruki Murakami books, especially the girls. I always fall in love with his characters and I tried to think about why I love them and then try and use that essence when developing my own characters.

The initial step is different each time. There are ideas that just pop in your head and won't go away until I write them down. There are other times when I sit down and try and come up with ideas for films and a mixture of the two.

Once I have a basic idea I like to do a step outline or list of steps of the main action that happens in the film. I am not to fussed at this stage so just write bullet points rather than going into detail.

With all of the steps written I normally move on to trying to write a treatment for the script. This is more to flesh things out a bit more in my head and the story can change quite dramatically at this stage. Other times I feel that I have enough from the steps to launch directly into the script but I feel that my best work has come from writing a treatment.

When I finally get to writing the script I try to push my way through the first draft without looking back or being too concerned that everything is perfect. If I did this then I am not sure I would actually finish anything. Once the draft is out I do re-writes till I am blue in the face to try and get everything as close to my original aim as possible.

At this point I would send it out to friends to read and receive feedback that usually kick-starts another round of re-writes until I finally settle on something that I am happy with.

I do like to eat when writing and it probably changes over time so for writing Booked Out I think I was eating mostly cheesecakes and brownies while drinking Coke and Irn Bru. The constant is Irn Bru... the rest changes. I went through a pro-longed Milky Bar period as well... yum!

I originally had the idea about five years ago and at that time I wrote the first twenty or so pages of the film. So I had set the characters up and had some ideas of where it might go but it got put on the pile of other unfinished ideas. Late last year I read the script and everything came flooding back and I ended up finishing the first draft within two weeks. Since then there has been minor revisions but from first conception to where it is now there hasn't been much writing time even though it has taken five years to come about.

I don't know really. I think I knew that I wanted to have weird quirky characters but didn't have anyone fully formed in my mind. Then I think I had a few ideas that I liked and I tried to mash them together. Those ideas were:

• An old woman who pretends her husband is still alive.
• Someone trapped in a bath that can't get out.
• Someone who is spying on people.

So I think these formulated into the basic concept of everyone in the flat and what type of people would be living there then the characters were further defined after that.

I went to Norway a few years ago and stayed in a log cabin in amongst the fjords and on a couple of nights it rained and you could hear the rain coming down on the wood of the cabin while I was nice and cosy inside with a fire burning. I think if I could choose anywhere to write then that would be it.

Other than that it would have to be either in my room at home with my favourite music playing or a cafe that lets you sit there all day with other writers being creative in the background.

I have dug out a document I wrote when I starting to write the film as it was my aims for the film. Although this is aims I think it also covers my inspirations quite well so I have decided to paste it here in it's original form as the answer to this question.

Aims

• Characters must be unique and have a weird personality/take on life.
• The film is a journey that has to have a downbeat/obscure ending.
• Each character must be on a specific journey in the film.
• The comedy must be black at all times!
• The film must feel like a nostalgic dream.

References/Inspiration

Film

• Chungking express: The feel of the second part of the film. The weird characters. The relationship between the characters.
• L’Homme du Train: The relationship between the characters... the jokes were cheesy but came across differently by the characters actions.
• Talk to her: The weirdness of the situation and the character was tempered by the feel of the film. Rewatch for further information!
• The book group: The weird characters and their actions.
• Amelie: Not a direct reference to the style or the sugar sweetness of the characters but the feeling that you get when watching it.
• Garden State: The feel of the film, not so much the story or the Zach Spraff character.

Books

• Haruki Murakami: The feeling of the stories; how they make you feel nostalgic about your own experiences. You feel that you are in the world that they are in. Interesting characters! Chance meetings.
• Graphic novels: Maybe use this as an animation that covers the dreams and thoughts of the characters. Combine this with the colours of the belle and Sebastian album covers so instead of being black and white... the white is substituted for green, red!
• The girl from Persepolis and her character.

Music

• Belle & Sebastian: Again I think the nostalgic thing again which is important in creating the world that the characters live in. The emotions in the music and the melody that could underpin the film.
• The feel of a vinyl record.
• Mull Historical Society: The freedom in the characters.
• The girl from the Delgados amazing voice!

Situations

• Zac’s Halloween party... Lots of people in a room that don’t know each other. The dimly lit atmosphere. The bathroom with only a single candle burning.
• Having two or more different faces for all the different groups in your life.

I started writing films about seven years ago after having a dream that I thought would make a really good film and felt compelled to write it as a film script. After that I have attended a few screenwriting courses and have been writing in my spare time ever since.

I feel that they all have parts of me in them really. It's like a certain characteristic or feeling that I have but then I twist it or push it a lot further than I really would. Over time I have thought that they all are the one most like me but that probably depends on what mood I am in at the time.

A lot of things inspire my writing. I think the biggest would be my own personal experiences that I have had in my life. Not that I reuse the situations directly but more the feelings that you have during those moments of your life. The other thing is people that you have known or still know. Again I don't feel that I directly use them but they must influence my subconciously. Another thing is people you meet randomly or people you buy things from in a shop or you see on a train. In someways they are more interesting as you can take that five second meeting and enhance it with your own ideas of who they are.

Apart from personal experiences I do love to read a lot and in particular I am a big fan of Haruki Murakami. He is probably the only author that I keep track of in terms of when his books are coming out. I also love graphic novels and in particular those of Jeffrey Brown. I think that the characters in their books always interest me and when I am writing I always think about making sure that my characters are interesting and slightly different from the norm.