In the Telling

Screenwriting for a Global Audience

February 11, 2020 Liz Christensen / Brittany Wiscombe Season 2 Episode 23
In the Telling
Screenwriting for a Global Audience
Show Notes Transcript

Guest Brittany Wiscombe of Candlelight Media Group talks about screenwriting for a global market as a full-time career in independent filmmaking. Brittany’s filmography has 19 producer credits and 23 writer credits and is ever increasing. She understands what it takes to make screenwriting a profession.

You can find out more about “In the Telling” at lizzylizzyliz.com

Theme music by Gordon Vetas

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Brittany Wiscombe:   0:01
So you have to think, though, no matter what for that global audience,

Liz Christensen:   0:04
the voice you just heard belongs to Britney Wiscombe of Candlelight Media Group.

Brittany Wiscombe:   0:07
Hi, I'm Britney Wiscombe. I am a writer and producer for Candlelight Media Group. And I've been doing this for a while.

Liz Christensen:   0:18
Not even Sure,

Brittany Wiscombe:   0:19
uh, you know the writing part? Probably a good 15 years at least, Um, and the filmmaking part, Oh, for about 20 now.

Liz Christensen:   0:28
who joined me for the second episode of Season two to talk about filmmaking for a global market as a full time screenwriter, I'm your host, Liz Christiansen. And it's all in the telling. Welcome to Episode 23 with my guest, Britney Wiscombe, screenwriter and producer. How did you get started in right? You know, I actually have always loved writing creatively. So even as a kid like

Brittany Wiscombe:   0:58
in grade school, I would write little short Story's fictional stories, but I didn't really think of it as seriously as a career. Um, I went to Brigham Young University and got a degree in print journalism, as if somehow that was a good way to use writing, but I never liked the field itself. for me. So then when I got to filmmaking just like a natural fit because here I can do creative stories and make him into films. So that's kind of how it progressed.

Liz Christensen:   1:28
Did you just fall into filmmaking? How did that happen? I actually

Brittany Wiscombe:   1:31
got hired as a P A. So I did that for a little bit and then worked freelance as a P A to some production, coordinating some office work, different different areas like that on. And then we started making our own films

Liz Christensen:   1:44
like, Was it scary and intimidating? Because you seem like you came to film as an adult.

Brittany Wiscombe:   1:48
My first script that I wrote was Beauty and the Beast, a latter day tale, and I have come a long way since then. I'd like to think like anything when you do it the first time. There's things you love about it, and they're things that, especially later on, you realise, Oh, I could have done that so much better, but you don't know until you try it out, gain experience, make mistakes, learn from the stakes and so forth.

Liz Christensen:   2:10
What are some other things that have definitely changed for you? Writing wise? Yeah, I think

Brittany Wiscombe:   2:15
I look at writing a script differently. I look at it with the audience in mind a lot more, which I think is very essential. To continue to write. You have to be thinking about who's actually gonna read the script, and then how is it going to be on the screen and who's actually gonna watch it. So I think I always have that in my mind, which is a good thing and also could be limiting sometimes, too, if you get too stuck into what his audience wants or whatever you have to, there's a balance there. But I think that's where I've grown a lot.

Liz Christensen:   2:47
When you first that audience, I assumed like the people watching at the very end. But then he said, those that are gonna read it. So who are all the audiences? Your screenplay,

Brittany Wiscombe:   2:55
any screenwriter? I think there's different stages of people reviewing your work. There's obviously a script stage, and that is going to be something that you have to think about. Okay, is someone else reading this, gonna understand what I mean? And there are times when I'll have someone read something and they're like, I didn't get this and I make note of it because obviously have to fix that and make sure that I clear that up. But then when you make the film, you have a whole bunch of other people trying to interpret your work. And then also when people watch the movie at the end. So all through the stages, I think it has to be understandable, un relatable. So there's there are different audiences, but the most important, I think, is at the end. Who's gonna watch the movie?

Liz Christensen:   3:36
Who is that audience for you?

Brittany Wiscombe:   3:37
Ah, lot with what I write, which tends to be a lot in the romance genre. I would say women, a lot of women, but, um, worldwide I mean, it's not really ah, small niche or anything. It's it's It could be quite broad.

Liz Christensen:   3:52
That sounds like there's a lot of room for error with the A group that big. Yeah, and

Brittany Wiscombe:   3:57
I think there's so many audiences out there. But the way that people watch movies now, if someone doesn't like something, they'll change it. You know those will switch to something else, so it's forgiving in that regard. But, yeah, there's there's always room for improvement as we trying to make films for the people of the world. I don't know. I mean especially there's so many different cultures. Now you see so much with streaming give a lot of different filmmakers and niches in their own geographic regions. So it is kind of probably more of a challenge now to reach beyond just what people been used to and reach those people who are of different cultures.

Liz Christensen:   4:32
So when you're writing a screenplay, are you thinking like this is not going to make sense in an eastern culture? How do I make it accessible? You

Brittany Wiscombe:   4:40
know, one thing I purposely tried to do is avoid things that have to be translated too much like, you know, it's okay here and there a sea of something pop up on a cell phone and you want the audience to read it on the screen. You do that too much, and you have to think about okay, somebody overseas has to translate that. If you make a joke, is it gonna be relatable to somebody else? You know, especially if it's, ah, language based joke, you know, or something. That's a phrase. Well, that phrase may not make sense in another language, and the humor is lost. So you do have to kind of think about those type of things, and that does have an effect on you know where you might take a script. But overall, you know I'm more the romance around or not the comedy genre, so I don't run into that too often

Liz Christensen:   5:21
the make thing that makes me think of us like character voices. You probably have to stay away from idioms and cloak legalisms and things like that.

Brittany Wiscombe:   5:29
I probably should Maur. It's easy to fall into those, and as

Liz Christensen:   5:33
long as it could

Brittany Wiscombe:   5:33
be translated and is relatable, I think it's okay. Language is a beautiful thing, and idioms are just a tribute to language, and every culture has their own idioms. I know there's always a balance. It's not like you can't use them at all on. A lot of cultures have their own version of that type of medium, or they might just translate it. This is what it actually means, and it may not have the artfulness, so to speak that an idiom has, but you can get the message across.

Liz Christensen:   6:00
I want to take you back to when you said that people can just switch right away if they don't like what they're listening to. And you said that was very forgiving, which is positive. And I expected when you started that sentence you would have negative feelings about their ability to do that. So we explain that somewhere for me

Brittany Wiscombe:   6:17
we have so much for streaming and even still on on traditional television where you can pick what you want to watch. I think people's attention spans are so much shorter, too. So it's a challenge where you have to think about how do I get people's attention? So they give my my story, my film a chance. It's very difficult in that regard, but at the same time, I don't feel bad of Hey, somebody stumble across my movie and they're watching it. It is not their cup of tea. That's okay, because we're all different role of different tastes. So if it didn't work for them, that's fine. They probably weren't my audience, but that's okay. Or maybe somebody does stumble across something in it, connects with them and then that's great. That's also where streaming nowadays were so heavily were streaming is such a popular way to watch movies now. It is a good way to discover new things, too.

Liz Christensen:   7:08
That's true. I guess that makes it sound less scary. Yeah, like less of a risk. Investment for me is an audience person, like I can just turn it off. So why not watch it for a couple minutes?

Brittany Wiscombe:   7:19
Exactly. Exactly. And that's I mean, I look at my own viewing habits and I'm very much like I don't care. I can. I can give it a shot. But if it doesn't connect with me, I don't have to commit to it forever. You know, I can turn it off and go to something else, or maybe pick up a book and read for

Liz Christensen:   7:32
once. I don't do that back in the conversation about how you don't want to keep your audience so much in mind that it's problematic for you. Yeah, you know, it could be kind of

Brittany Wiscombe:   7:44
ah, creativity, Stifler, if you get too locked into, I got to do it this way or two locked into a formula. And don't get me wrong there. That's important to still think about. But sometimes, like I encountered this recently, where I was like, I cannot get this script done. It was like every idea felt old or already done or I just didn't like it. So sometimes it's nice toe, shake it up and break free and say, Okay, I'm just gonna do this instead, let's go this direction. Sometimes I think you have to throw out the the formula, where the rules and just try something, something else. And some people, I think some writers, they will sit and they'll have their writing exercises. And I think that's a great thing to do. I don't do it often enough, but it's a good way to get the brain going and kind of refresh your creativity. And hopefully that helps you in your writing.

Liz Christensen:   8:33
What are some of the rules or the formulas that you start with, Even if you're gonna abandon them like my rules

Brittany Wiscombe:   8:41
are, you gotta like your main characters. Even if their flaw do, you have to like him, so that's always important. If you don't like him, your audience isn't gonna like him, and they're gonna change to something else. My rules are we saying for writing or for like the story in general,

Liz Christensen:   8:53
let's start with the story. Okay, let's go into writing that they have.

Brittany Wiscombe:   8:56
They are different. Yeah, eso. Another rule for the story is having be satisfying by the end. Not that it has to have a happy ending, although obviously in the romance genre it tends to have that happy ending. Because that's what the audience wants and I don't play them. That's what I want to when I'm invested 90 minutes watching something, but having some sort of satisfying ending, having that growth of the character or or something that's happened that you can feel happy for for the characters. Does that make sense?

Liz Christensen:   9:24
Yeah, something achieved, if not the relationship itself. Yes, especially with

Brittany Wiscombe:   9:29
romance movies. It is all about the relationship. But you also have toe again like that character and want to go on that journey with, um, that I could be difficult to do sometimes with any story.

Liz Christensen:   9:39
So tell me about, like the writing rules where the formulas you're using their I don't

Brittany Wiscombe:   9:43
use a three act structure. It's just how I'm used to writing.

Liz Christensen:   9:47
If somebody is listening to this as a fine artist and they don't know what that is, give me a quick rundown.

Brittany Wiscombe:   9:52
You know, I'm sure some people have their own different definitions. So this is according to me. So just it's gonna throw that out there. You've got your first act, which is about, you know, 20 pages in or kind of your set up to get the ball rolling. You've got your second act, which is where the most of the meat of the story happens. The development, the complications, everything. And then that third act tends to be the last 20 pages as well. That's so give or take, where you have kind of that resolution. Or how are they gonna overcome whatever conflict that happened at the end of the second act and and have a happy ending? Okay, so I tend to write kind with that in mind just cause that's what I'm used to. But there's so many other structures, and I don't really know that any of them is right or wrong or whatever. I think, you know, just go with what works for you. Some rules from running for when I'm writing is I always gotta have ah outline. It just helps. It's like, you know, a road map. If you don't have your roadmap, then you may not get where you thought you got, so and it'll change. As I am writing the script itself, the outline might morph into something different, but that's okay. At least I have a plan. You know, we talked about having likeable characters, and that's something that all I will try toe pay close attention to as I'm writing, just making sure that the characters are still likeable, the ones that are supposed to be likable are still likeable.

Liz Christensen:   11:09
Have you ever written characters? And they got away from you in their likability and you just had to abandon them because you couldn't bring them back So likable. Not that I've

Brittany Wiscombe:   11:20
completely abandoned just because if it's important enough character, I've got to figure out a way to fix it, right? So But I haven't had time, so I'm like, Okay, totally need a toned down this person or rewrite them or do something to make them were more likable or make bring them back to being relatable at least So I have had those times when it's like, Oh, this isn't working or somebody will read it and be like, um, I don't really like this person. And I'm like, Well, what don't you like? Can I take my notes? Okay. How can I fix this? What are the moments? We can still have them unlikable because maybe that's a growth moment. But overall, still likeable

Liz Christensen:   11:55
balance. Because it can't be. These perfect people are. We probably won't like them either.

Brittany Wiscombe:   11:59
Absolutely. Yeah, that's definitely balance.

Liz Christensen:   12:02
How do you outline? Is it do you have, like, a conspiracy theory board where you just put everything up on the wall? Do you keep it in your computer? What's your thing?

Brittany Wiscombe:   12:10
You know, I just type it up. Yeah. Boring. Yep. That's what I do. I just type it up in a word document and have it there. And at some point, you have to print it out and kind of rethink it. And there's something about paper and pen that still works really well. So I'm kind of ah, mixture of those, but really, it's just type it up and I have it there. And then I can pull from it. I can copy a paste it into my scripts, just as kind of a guy. It's okay. This is the section I'm working on next. I've tried other things like post it notes. And that's, you know, if you lose opposed to know what was on that post it note, you know, that s O That doesn't work for me. But it works for some people. I also have a whiteboard in my, um, in my room, and I just will go through that, too. If I'm stuck on a certain portion of the script or even as I'm outlining, I might throw my notes up there just cause again. There's something visual about it, but no fluttering papers or anything that get away from me. And then I can just be thinking and kind of visualize Where's the story going? I can erase whatever it isn't working. So it's kind of a combination between the White board and my computer is just say, That's how I outline

Liz Christensen:   13:14
is your outline like a narrative summary or you're going back to that technique from junior high where it's like Roman numeral.

Brittany Wiscombe:   13:22
You know, I have had some growth in that. I used to think that I had to be the Roman numeral thing and I would do that and then you'd have bullet points that have this giant paragraph underneath it, and I'm like, Okay, I'm just throwing this out the window. So it's more just narrative. It's more just a document you could read, and that's helpful to when other people are reading it that they can. Because before I start writing, I'll have other people weigh in on the outline. How does this work? Because I'm gonna waste my time writing something that's not gonna work or go down that path. That's like, Oh, we really don't like this. That's important in the outline phase for me that other people can read it and understand what I'm thinking. It has to be kind of that narrative three toe, eight page summary or something, depending on how detailed I went.

Liz Christensen:   14:01
Okay, when you write from your outline, do you start at the beginning and go straight through to the end? Or you like I'm feeling end of Act two today?

Brittany Wiscombe:   14:10
So yeah, all right, that line start to finish, and then I will skip certain portions of if I'm gonna getting stuck like I don't know what happens here, but I'll just put like something happens here. That's interesting. But when they move on if I have to, but I try to go start to finish just because that's how my brain works. But there is definitely a value of going out of order. Sometimes if you're stuck, especially with a deadline or something on the horizon of Oh, I gotta get this done soon. Don't waste your time. Move on to something else that you can write and then you know you'll have to edit it to kind of fit it in what you get there. But that's fine. You know. It's so much easier to edit than it is just too right. I think I don't know. It's less stressful to go back and edit versus trying to create

Liz Christensen:   14:48
It makes sense because you right it seems to me correct me if I'm wrong because you write for a company specifically, are you pitching ideas and then writing an outline? Are you writing an outline in the pitching? An idea? Are you writing a whole seeing and then being like I've got this great thing? This is awesome. We should do this. Mostly

Brittany Wiscombe:   15:08
I am pitching ideas or will brainstorm together and come up with different ideas, and then it's, you know kind of like a log line. We're talking two or three sentences to maybe one paragraph and then we'll take that on def. It's something they're like, Oh yeah, let's we like this one. Let's go with that one. Then I'll take that and then I'll do the outline.

Liz Christensen:   15:27
Tell me it's more battle. Ogling a long line

Brittany Wiscombe:   15:29
is really important for what I do anyway of trying to find what is the correct story to tell because, you know, there's a 1,000,000 ideas. Everybody has an idea. I mean, everybody comes up to filmmakers and said, Hey, I've got this great idea for a movie. Yes, we all have ideas. But then how? Which one are you gonna pick? And so we kind of way in and kind of think, Okay, what's gonna work for? People are gonna watch our movies, and that's really important to don't just pick all this would be a great movie for the Oscars. Well, that's great, but let's live in reality a little bit where that's kind of a far off place. What's gonna work for your business plan? That's something else. I'm sure we might want to talk about Who are you writing for What's the end in mind? But so the logline. I think it's really important just to pick out which idea you want to pursue, and then you can go from there and spend some serious time on it.

Liz Christensen:   16:18
The rules of the logline of the definition of the logline like, How long is it? Is it exactly what I end up seeing on Prime is the summary later, like

Brittany Wiscombe:   16:27
it could have different purposes, marketing purposes, to put on prime like, he said, where it's just a short little blurb for people to get a sense of. If they want to hit play or not, it could be something. When you're pitching to another person or to another company. For me, it's more of okay. What is the logline that we can pitch to people who might want to license or buyer movies engage their interest on that's a process will go through to is just Hey, here's our Here's what we're planning on doing. Any concerns. It's just a little snippet of Maybe I always see about 2 to 4 sentences is kind of what it is, what I put it at, but I'm not afraid to go into five sentences if I need it. Just something short that someone else can read. Get a sense of what the movie is about and be able to judge from that. It's important because somebody might look at that and say, Yes, I want or no, I don't. But if they are interested, they're gonna ask for something more. Okay, you're give me. Give me a two or three paragraphs about it, okay? Or give me a five page outline on it. Okay, There you go. So you've got a lot of leeway with the logline. Still, because, you know, in those 2 to 4 sentences, you can still change the direction. Which is why people asked for more information after that. Which is why the outline is important and to really get a sense of okay, I like the idea. But what's it really gonna be like?

Liz Christensen:   17:42
This may be kind of a chicken, a question, but do you do the outline and then come up with a love line after? Are you starting with the love line and then doing an outline? Generally, I'm

Brittany Wiscombe:   17:53
starting with the logline and Donald to the outline again for just the efficiency of What are we gonna produce next? What? I'm gonna write Thio be produced next. And with that efficiency in mind, I want to start with the logline and then spend time cause the logline doesn't take near the amount of time that the outline does. The outline doesn't take near the amount of time that the script does, you know? So it's kind of work from what's the easiest to do. First gauge the interest and then build it from there as it as the idea, um, has more merit.

Liz Christensen:   18:24
That sounds very efficient. Let's software to use I use

Brittany Wiscombe:   18:27
movie magic. Screenwriter. Okay, I know a lot of people use final draft of the things I just don't also what I use works really well into the scheduling program that we use. Actually make the movies plan it out. And, you know,

Liz Christensen:   18:41
is there anything else that movie Magic screenwriter does like within its own, that as a screenwriter, you're like, I really love that feature that tool.

Brittany Wiscombe:   18:47
You know, again, I haven't worked much with the other program so I could be missing out, but everything that it does work for me. I love the notes feature. You know which I'm sure final draft has a swell but or whatever other programs that are out there.

Liz Christensen:   18:59
There are a

Brittany Wiscombe:   19:00
few out there, and I can't remember what the the third most common one is that we keep hearing about that. Anyway, those air. I'm sure they'll have similar features, but this is what I've been writing with fur. Well, forever. So this is what I just stick with

Liz Christensen:   19:14
beyond the outline being printed out. Do you ever go back to like, a hard copy in your hand for your editing?

Brittany Wiscombe:   19:19
Oh, yeah, yeah. So every script I will come through this process of I'll be writing writing and then I'll get stuck. And it's like, uh and then I have to go back and I just feel like, Oh, I need to go through and just make sure that this is making sense. But sometimes just on the screen it doesn't come across as well, Like I can't focus on it, and it's totally just me. But for me, it helps to just print it out at some point or a couple different points. So when I'm when I'm going through and reviewing things, I almost feel like I need a paper copy in my hand and I need a pen and I say to mark up things. Then maybe it's easier because you can flip back and forth more easily versus crawling up and down and trying to figure out where was that again? A page has its own kind of image to it. Yeah, whereas when you're just looking at the screen, it's just words. And it's so easy just to not focus for me. I'm sure some people have similar problems or have other solutions, because writing, I think is very much everybody has their own method. But that's works for me. So I do go back to the pen and paper sometimes.

Liz Christensen:   20:18
How long does it take you? Do you think from logline? There's interest. This is what I wanna work on. Two completed script

Brittany Wiscombe:   20:26
from being really efficient. Um, a month.

Liz Christensen:   20:30
That sounds really fast. Are you like eight hours a day writing?

Brittany Wiscombe:   20:34
I am. Whatever I confided in writing, I you know, I have a family and I have kind of my own schedule set up so I can be there for them. When, when I need to. When they're out of school, so a lot of times I'm writing, you know, during work hours, but there's other things going on, too. So I can't just sit there and right all the time. And then when I get really against the clock, I'm I'm writing at night at home, too, until two or three in the morning, and that's always a fun process. But that tends to be towards the very end, the two or three in the morning to be towards the very end of the script when it's just like I've got to get this done.

Liz Christensen:   21:06
What are some of your favorite details like Are you somebody who just loves to pick out names? I

Brittany Wiscombe:   21:11
don't know that I have favorite details like that. Like for names? Honestly, it's a chore. There's different taps out there that have that are like named ice, so to speak. So I use that sometimes I'll go through that and try to find okay, give me a first and last name combination that are like so, but to me, it's just it's just tedious. Sometimes I'm just like, Oh, I gotta come up with a name that I like enough. I guess I'm, I'm so into the producer side of it as well that for me I'll write something about what they're wearing or if it's important to the story. Otherwise, I don't put it in because I don't want to lock in everybody to that. If it's written in the script, who whichever department head is over that whether it's a proper with their wearing or the location, they're gonna look for that specifically and sometimes it just doesn't matter. So when it matters, all right it in. But if it doesn't matter, I might just say, OK, we're at this location, but I'm not gonna take the time to describe it unless it is warranted for the tone of where we're at or if it really has a bearing on the story on the move that needs to be said. If it's like, OK, it's a warehouse and has all these broken windows Well, yeah, you might want those type of details, but if it's just a building and you know they're having a meeting, does it really matter? You know, you always wanted some details, but not so many that you're like, Oh, good luck finding this. So there's a balance.

Liz Christensen:   22:26
How many pages is your script running at?

Brittany Wiscombe:   22:29
My scripts are around 100 pages in length. What, true to

Liz Christensen:   22:33
the one minute per page kind idea? No mine run

Brittany Wiscombe:   22:37
fast eso 100 page script normally gets us about 85 minutes.

Liz Christensen:   22:40
Okay, is that maybe because some of those details are not there? No, No, because that the 100 paid I don't know,

Brittany Wiscombe:   22:46
because the more dialogue you have, I think that's what actually lengthened. Said that and whatever action that is going on, if you have too many details, I think you're gonna the longer script and a shorter time. But I don't think I have a lot of details. So I don't want to think that my scripts air like he says this. She says this and there's no description.

Liz Christensen:   23:03
It's just essential description as opposed to you.

Brittany Wiscombe:   23:05
Yeah, OK, here's where I'm guilty of. Probably Jim. Details is I will right direction in terms of what I think, how they're gonna perform it

Liz Christensen:   23:13
like Riley's air

Brittany Wiscombe:   23:15
More like, you know, here's Oh, there's a beat or she pauses or, you know, those type of things are not that she's thinking this, but I'll try to set the tone so that the actor and also the director can kind of get a sense of what I'm thinking. It would play out, as in terms of the tone and the pacing.

Liz Christensen:   23:33
Yeah, I was thinking rhythm pacing, or like, you're building in silence as well as dialogue. Yeah, yeah, because, you

Brittany Wiscombe:   23:38
know, as the lines are delivered, you can totally change it with that pacing, especially where with romances, you need those moments, toe let the feeling build and whatnot. And so I think I put those things in there. Yeah, maybe that's where it gets its length. But I tried to take him out, too. If it gets too much like l rry through and like, it's just gonna annoy people, you know? Well, you know, So I'm gonna make it the right the right thing. We're I'm giving the guidance of this is what it should be like, but not limiting people where they feel like, Oh, I have to breathe at this point. No, this is just my interpretation of it. Then it might come across differently on set

Liz Christensen:   24:13
in a romance. There's always the scene where they either get together or they don't right at the end. Do they have to say I love you? Do they have to kiss?

Brittany Wiscombe:   24:22
I think they do have to kiss unless the story is set up in such a way where that feels weird, but generally they have to kiss. I think there's different ways to say I love you. So those specific three words not always but the same feeling I think this is it has to come across.

Liz Christensen:   24:40
Okay, what are some of the obvious things in a script that you're looking at? If it's not written by you? Or maybe if you go back to that first beauty and the beast of latter day tell that you wrote where you're like that makes it clear that this was my first. My first go or somebody else is saying, Read this here like this is a dead giveaway that you have more work to do

Brittany Wiscombe:   25:00
for me. When I'm reading somebody else's script, the first thing that always steps stands out is grammar on typos. So are they using it correctly? I can't tell you how many times people just throw in apostrophes like they're confetti, and I'm like, No, there's a right way and a wrong way to use apostrophe. So for me and again with my background, a little bit of print journalism, and I read a lot as a kid, I mean, I knew and understood the right way and a wrong way to write in terms of the technical of grammar and things like that. So that just sticks out to me as I haven't given this enough polish, you know, like a resume when somebody's reading your script. That's your resume, really, because they're considering whether or not they want to use your script. So think of it as a job interview. And if you have a type of me, if you have a typo on page one, you haven't done enough work. And to me, it says you haven't polished your script. I might overlook it. But if it continues pervasively, especially in the 1st 10 pages, I'm done. I'm not. I'm not gonna keep going. You obviously didn't care about it, so why should I? Unless there's something just truly amazing in those 1st 10 pages, But it's it's

Liz Christensen:   26:01
that's kind of rare. Yeah, yeah, when it's rare

Brittany Wiscombe:   26:03
to to have a beat, that many problems But there is definitely the in between, you know? I mean, there's always always typos. Somebody sent me the script the other day and they're like, Oh, yeah, somebody has, You know, this has really been under consideration by these other people, and I don't know if that was like, a way to say, Oh, there's competition for the script But I'm like you got a typo on page one And then halfway through the script, you change the name of your character. But you didn't change it completely. Like, you know, they did a fine in her place and it's in it. Take through. The whole thing didn't improve and they didn't catch, you know, so things like that I'm like, you've gotta you've gotta find those things. So that and then dialogue to does the dialogue feel relatable to somebody actually say, This could be kind of an obvious tell. And it spent on the characters, of course, to bust like if I can't relate to, especially in a romantic movie, I mean, that's that's pretty relatable to everybody. If I can't relate to that person and how they're talking, then I don't know how it's gonna get better as I read scripts, logic problems are kind of a giveaway.

Liz Christensen:   26:59
Give me some examples of those I kind of like not having

Brittany Wiscombe:   27:02
when you when you have a moment descriptive. Here's this problem, and it's not realistic because that's not how the world works. You know, like you'll have the, uh, the Save the farm type of problems that happens sometimes, or somebody's gonna lose your business or whatever. But you can tell the writer has no idea how that actually works, you know, and not that you have to get into the technical details, but you do have to understand it enough to write it convincingly. Or like if you're writing a thriller or something, you know something with a little bit more death in the plot right where you have to really think about the puzzles, puzzle pieces and how they fit together. If you don't think about that, there's gonna be huge holes, and I've I've seen that before, too, and it's hard to write. Trust me like I've done some of those and they're kind of frustrating because it's like, Oh, this doesn't work logically, she would have done this. You have to figure out the logic problems and actually fix him. And sometimes I think it's really easy to say. Oh, well, I saw this one movie, and they had a logic problem, too, but they just didn't address it. That's not permission for you to do the same. If you can make if he can solve the problem, do it. You're only gonna stand to make your script stronger.

Liz Christensen:   28:06
Does candlelight media take submissions? Or is this like some people are just directly contacting you and saying, Hey, read this for me here. Generally, people kind of

Brittany Wiscombe:   28:14
reach out. Hey, I've got this. Are you interested? And people sign a release form, we will. We will consider it, but we don't accepting unsolicited.

Liz Christensen:   28:24
Okay? Like actively seeking him.

Brittany Wiscombe:   28:26
Uh, not from Yeah. I mean, if somebody just sent us an email. Hey, here's my script. That's great. We're not gonna You know, we need your But we need more than that for a permission. Just cause there are writers out there who think Oh, this person stole my idea like, No, you'd be surprised how often people come up with the same ideas and is one those things that when I started out writing that was super protective of my ideas of my scripts. And now I'm like, unless it's the exact script. No, you're fine because people have so many different ideas and they're gonna overlap. That will be a dead giveaway to of how protective somebody is of like, Oh, this is my script, my baby. And I'm like, Okay, you've gotta loosen up a little bit because that's that's just screams that you've never done this before. Certainly protect your work. But don't think that everybody's out to steal your work, especially established companies.

Liz Christensen:   29:12
How does your producer hat and you're being attached to a company other than deadline? Because I think we kind of talked about that, like, really inform your process and your products. I think if every

Brittany Wiscombe:   29:23
writer could be on set or work as crew in a few to her positions, they would understand how to make their scripts so much better. The producer hat really influences me because sometimes for worse, I'll admit I'll get back to that. But the producer hat influences me because I'm always thinking of how am I actually gonna make this so I don't want to put in something that some location that I know we can't get, especially on whatever budget that we might have for this for a particular project. You know, I don't want to write in that. We have to be at this Grand mansion for the whole movie, and then we're gonna have an explosion in it, too, and, you know, you know, there's certain limitations you have to factor in or certain realities. I think maybe a better way to put it there. Certain realities that you have to have. You know, when you write a lot of script days in your story and script A is okay, here's scenes. 135 All happened on the same day, so to speak. Now that you're gonna film it all the same day, just more of it happened on the same day the story progresses, and here's another day from morning tonight or whatever that we're going to see. So when you have a lot of script days, that's a lot of wardrobe. And those are things that I have to think about, too. I mean, that's me. That's not a huge deal as much. It's doable. The costume designer may not appreciate it Those are things that are doable. But I keep that in mind. Do we need that? So, locations, especially what type of action is going on? You write something with, they're singing. Well, guess what? You have to clear any music that they're singing and you have to get permissions and, you know, whatever. So that becomes a big deal. And I've done that before for singing with angels. It worked out, but it was a lot of work to get everything cleared. That's just something to consider. It's, you know, you think of a movie like Pitch Perfect, and I just think about the licensing alone and then all the royalties that you'd have to pay because people were singing, you know? I mean, there's just a lot of a lot of extra work, so that's something you're not gonna learn unless you've done it before or produced it. Or at least I know enough of the process to understand that. You know, if you write a movie on a submarine, great. Are you gonna get submarine set? You're gonna contact, you know, the navy and convince them, you know? You know, I'm saying, and it's possible everything possible but one's gonna be more expensive. And if you don't need that submarine in your movie than take the submarine now and obviously that's gonna depend on the genre and that's an extreme example. But it tells you mean just let you know if I'm gonna actually make this where I draw the line of or better put, how can I get more creative to accomplish the same thing without having to go to that extreme place that I think that's what the producing side does is it makes me think of how do I do this differently without sacrificing what I want to show and what I want to tell?

Liz Christensen:   32:03
Oh, I really like that. That was well stated. No glitzy musicals on the submarine that take place over the course of three months.

Brittany Wiscombe:   32:09
Oh, yeah, that sounds like a headache. Just

Liz Christensen:   32:11
a together less stayed consistent for you over the course of your writing career.

Brittany Wiscombe:   32:18
I think I've been really fortunate because of the structure that I have around me that I have. The majority of what I've written has been produced, which is a great blessing and also very much, um, something that helps me growing and expand my horizons and experience, you know, like with producing side every time I learned of what's gonna be good and what's gonna be bad in terms of making the movie or, you know, any extra things that that effect each other from script, screen and those those type of scenarios. So I think that because so many of my scripts have been produced, I've gained more experience as I write each one, both from a creative standpoint and then how to make it still use movie magic. Screenwriter.

Liz Christensen:   33:05
Do you have a speaking of like, weird little things? I don't know if we work, but my brain was. Do you have, like, I only work with purple pens? Or I have to eat recess peanut butter cups when I'm editing or, like, do you have any weird little fun things like that?

Brittany Wiscombe:   33:19
I do have favorite pens that I use those little gel pens. The They're nothing special, but but they're gel pens, the roller ball, whatever. So I don't have to worry about the Inca not moving anyway. I have to have that. I do like having a red pen when I edit. I don't know if it's the editor side of me or whatever, but that helps when I'm really in the zone, as I'd like to call it. I like listening to music, and ideally, I'll have my headphones on just so I can really tune people out and whatever else is going on, I'll tend to have a playlist that kind of develops for a movie, depending on the feel of it is, and not that it would really fit the movie. But just sometimes it'll just help trigger.

Liz Christensen:   33:57
Do you have your playlist? Like if I said Okay, what's prescription for Love's playlist? You could pull that up on Spotify and be like I was listening to this when I wrote that. No, I tend to save it. I tend to listen

Brittany Wiscombe:   34:07
to a lot of music on YouTube, but I don't know why there's better ways to do it, especially with a little annoying ads that pop up. Um, I don't know why I don't just go to Pandora or something, but I like there's certain songs that I like or have, like over the years, and we're talking like the last 56 years they're in my writing folder, so to speak. more my writing playlist, but then it'll change to, like sometimes if it's a romantic movie. I'm sorry I can't go for the epic scores that I'm listening to or something like that, or soundtracks. I can't go that way or to go. Something that kind of brings that a little more, I guess, hope less dramatic. I think it's just various, but I know I don't save it as when I was writing this movie, I had this playlist, You know, I don't edges evolves, and I'll take things off that start to annoy me because I've heard it too much.

Liz Christensen:   34:48
Eyes it, uh, is it all lyric free? It's a it's a mix. Something's have

Brittany Wiscombe:   34:54
lyrics. Some things don't. It's really just more about the vibe of the song.

Liz Christensen:   34:58
So you're able to like If you're hearing lyrics and you're in the zone, it doesn't matter. That's not distracting you.

Brittany Wiscombe:   35:03
No, sometimes it might be, and if so, then it gets bumped off the list. I think it depends on the song. If there's something distracting about it then and I realize it, then I'll have to be like, Okay, this has gotta go because this is just distracting me. I'll sometimes listen to, like, shows or movies on in the background, too. But if it's too interesting, I can't do it, because then I get sucked into watching it. And I'm like, I'm still on the same page and it's been an hour. So I've fallen into that trap every script that I do and sometimes it's just I need a break, but I feel like I still need to be working. So I put something on in the background and then get sucked into that and then But I still feel like I'm working, so it's really just a way to deceive myself.

Liz Christensen:   35:42
Do you feel drawn thio that genre when you're writing or you like No, I gotta watch something that's totally the opposite.

Brittany Wiscombe:   35:49
I really probably just think about what's gonna kind of entertain me but not distract me. So it could be anything like I My favorite Jonah probably is like action movies, but the problem with those is you wanna watch him right? Hey, cool stunts, you know, but yeah, so just depends. Sometimes I'll put on documentaries because you could just listen. You don't have to actually watch everything to get something out of it, but it's too interesting. The documentary. Then it's like I can't remember what I was writing for this person to say on this scene here because I'm sucked into and I watch a lot of air disasters. My son loves it. So,

Liz Christensen:   36:24
uh, how many things are in your pipeline? It at any given time? Do you take something from the beginning, all the way through to the end before you start something else? It depends. Ideally,

Brittany Wiscombe:   36:33
I'd love to say, Here's my script that I'm working on and this is my goal to finish it by this day and then I considered aside and move onto the next one. But the reality is, when I finish the script, it's gonna go to production. I get pulled back into it where there might be changes that are needed. So sometimes there are two scripts going on at once, where it's like, OK, I'm in the middle of this other one, but we just green lit this one to actually go into production, and we need to just some things because of location or whatever, or this doesn't work anymore. Story wise, you know, it gets it goes through, have another editing or revision process. Okay, I kind of hate it because it distracts from the other. But it's just a necessary thing, like you want it to be as good as it can be. So sometimes you could pull back to that other project. And sometimes I've had scripts that, like I have a few that are half done, kind of on the back burner there on the back burner because we don't really have immediate plans for it. So I'd rather spend my time on something that we're planning to produce. Like this year. We're looking at a pretty busy schedule. I've got a lot of writing to do. So I'm really hoping that I can stay on task and be like, Okay, even if I have to go back and do revisions on one for that's gonna go into production that I can at least keep two going at once. Once a script is quote unquote done, at least it's done. Revisions to me are a lot easier unless it's like a major thing, in which case it would be great greenlit anyway.

Liz Christensen:   37:52
Britney's filmography has 19 producer credits and 23 Ryder credits and is ever increasing. She understands what it takes to make screenwriting a profession.

Brittany Wiscombe:   38:03
One of the most important things is there's writing for fun, and then there's writing for a profession. And so anybody who's writing needs to figure out where they fall in on. And if you're truly writing as profession, you have to realize that it is a business. Some, some people get too attached to their script or to the story and what they wanted to be this way, and they just don't want to listen about the marketability of it or who's gonna watch your film. It doesn't really cost any capital or money investment for you to write something. Not that it's not worth something. But it's not like, you know, making the movie itself, where you have to hire people. You have to put a lot of money into it to bring the movie to life, and that is a big commitment that it should be regarded as sacred. But you know, you should honor that. You should be doing all you can to say I want this money to be returned to whoever put up the money to make the movie right you want them to get their money back again. With the script in mind, you have to be thinking about it from a business mindset of how I want this to be made and to recoup its money so that I didn't just make this film that no one saw. All right, write the story for a movie that no one saw, but that I did something and then I could do it again and again because I think you want to write more and more and it's not gonna happen. If you were not considering, where is my movie gonna go? Where is the worst, this script going to go? Who's going to see it? So kind of the end in mind, I think, is a is a critical perspective, and I really wish that I saw that and more writers, and I'm sure there are out there. There's so many writers out there. That's the great thing is that new talent is always coming up or you're discovering town that's been there all along. You didn't you know it's person or whatever. With that in mind, you wanna have the Polish Polish, your writing on polish The story so that you get rid of like those logic problems we talked about. Make things likable, make it marketable, make it as good as it can be, because that's just you're proving yourself as a professional writer. I still don't know that I think of myself as a professional writer, but those things to me make the difference between somebody who's a hobby versus there for real about it.

Liz Christensen:   40:09
Thank you to my guest, Britney Whisk. Um, thank you so much for letting me interview today.

Brittany Wiscombe:   40:14
Thank you for asking and for this was a good experience. So it's good to talk about.

Liz Christensen:   40:18
You can find out more about in the telling at Lizzie. Lizzie Liz dot com Theme music by Gordon Venus in The Telling is hosted and produced by me, Liz Christiansen. Thanks for listening, Going