Hey writers! I had a great time interviewing James Sullivan! He's a nice and professional writer with a lot of screenwriting tips and advice!
How did you get started in the industry?
I interned for a small independent production company back in 2008 just around the time of the Great Recession, where I started out transcribing production featurettes. I had known for awhile that I wanted a career in film and was drawn to the writing aspect - so while juggling a screenwriting film class just before graduating, I was also working as a screenplay reader or story analyst - taking some scripts that were rather mediocre and hastily written - but having to digest them as part of the gig. No matter how terrible it was, I had to keep at them and write notes on how to improve each project. Being a small indie producer, my boss said he had to “invent” good scripts from the submissions he was given - taking promising concepts and making them into workable scripts that could be filmed.
What types of genres do you enjoy reading/writing?
I tend to gravitate towards horror and fantasy when it comes to reading novels, although this can sometimes have a bit of an adverse effect when it comes to reading scripts and makes me a bit of a harder critic with reading them. On the other hand, the horror film market can sometimes feel a bit oversaturated, as many writers and producers are well-aware that such a market exists and there will always be a sizable demand for content - even if it’s not particularly good. I feel that the best ones emphasize psychological horror, and I’m glad that this is finally getting its due in the genre overall - with movies like IT FOLLOWS or Robert Eggers’ THE WITCH getting recognition - particularly after we came out of a period of heavy gore and splatter films that felt derivative of each other. I greatly enjoy period pieces as well - particularly when the writer has clearly done a great deal of research into the material and the time period in which they set their work that captures the essence of that era. Eggers did this very well when he recreated pre-revolutionary Germany in NOSFERATU.
What's the hardest thing about screenwriting?
The hardest thing is regularly having to realize that nothing is permanent. That makes the outlining and etching out your premise the most frustrating part - and you end up with a lot of doubts even as you do your research. I think the best way to do it is to decide who your main character is and why they’re the best equipped to tell the story. Who has the most to gain or lose? It’s not always as easy to flesh out as it sounds, so whenever you take on your script, just write with the feeling that anything can be altered at any time, and see where your scenes take you.
What do you look specifically for in a script?
I’d say the first ten page rule is very much alive and well. I don’t necessarily feel obligated to know who the main character is on the first page, but the story should feel like it’s doing something and I’m not being bogged down with descriptions. Is there a hook? Can I keep reading continuously through those ten pages and want to keep going? I think everything else as far as genre is concerned doesn’t matter if I can look at the pages and see a situation where I’m not able to predict what’s happening before it does. There may be parts where the script gets bogged down in speech, but if I can continue and still follow the story without necessarily clinging to anything in their continuous pages of dialogue, chances are I’m reading a pretty good script.
What makes a movie great?
The best movies are when you can watch and feel as though you aren’t watching a movie - where the suspension of disbelief is complete. There’s something that comes off the screen as you watch - if the director has an ability to put you in the mindset of your character and you no longer feel safe. There’s seeing a horror film and feeling uncomfortable because of the inane dialogue, a character doing something cartoonish or a lot of digital blood splattering everywhere - but seeing one where you’re uncomfortable because of what’s familiar on the screen is a whole other experience. The attic scene and the MRI scenes in THE EXORCIST I always felt were a lot creepier fifty years later than seeing the demon itself, since both of those are more recognizable, and have real fears behind them.
Do you prefer television or movies? Why?
While TV has told a lot of great stories over the years - shows like BREAKING BAD and THE SOPRANOS, that dig deep into character and keep viewers coming back for season after season, I suppose I would have to say that I prefer movies as they tend to stay longer in the minds of moviegoers - and getting a premiere or screening guarantees that you’ll grab a considerable viewing even if it’s only one screening. Nowadays, with all of the streaming platforms on the market that carry shows - both old and new, it’s nearly impossible for a lot of us to stay on the same page as each other and know what shows we watch or like. It’s a very different world than even ten years ago, when people waited for a show to air on FX or NBC on a particular night and talk about it the next day.
If there was one thing you could change about the industry, what would it be?
I wish the industry would have a little bit more taste for variety. There’s a tendency for movies to be overwhelmed with superhero movies - even if I usually end up watching most of them anyway. This is largely the fault of investors wanting to play things safer, as I feel a larger number of genres released every summer would generally be a bit more profitable for everyone in the long run.
What was the best script you've read?
“The North” - a TV pilot by Kevin Keenan set in the 1980s in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles.” I wrote coverage for it back in 2020 and it was a finalist in the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards for Best Pilot for their summer contest. Very cinematic - with a subtle blend of innocence and the human determination to keep living life as it is amidst a turbulent time in history. That’s usually the kind of material that would make for a film, but TV is an interesting medium to explore it with, with the unsettling feeling that conflicts as long and complex as war are never quite finished. I really would like to see his vision realized one day with a series or limited series!
Are you currently working on any projects?
I’ve got quite a few in various stages of drafting. I’m working on a feature horror script that’s a survivalist take on the monster movie genre, as I wanted to make the story a bit more believable by telling it from the perspective of campers trying to survive before they’re forced to overcome a strange being they encounter in the woods. I have a TV pilot that I'm also working into a comic book series paying tribute to 1930s horror movies and the mythos of HP Lovecraft, and another comic book concept that started as a YA novel, reworking several of the Grimm fairy tales as reimagined by a young writer.
Has there ever been a time you've felt challenged in the writing process and if so, how did you overcome it?
It happens more often than not! I think “talking to yourself” can get you through a fair amount of it. As I do my notes, I’ll usually underline and ask questions throughout the process. I’ll even do this as I write the first and second drafts, since it leaves open new possibilities for where the characters can go. Usually, the questions take the form of gossip - what one character thinks about another - but then I’ll also wonder if what one character says could be expressed by someone else, if it needs to be there at all. When I wrote SON OF ZAL, I questioned whether or not the prince who’s the focal character of the book, and a reckless character who sees himself as forced to live in his brother’s shadow, would arrange his own kidnapping to provoke an interplanetary incident just to get his own freedom. The answer was probably - and my idea grew from there.
What do you enjoy most about screenwriting/script reading?
It sounds cliche to say that a character surprises you when they do something at a given moment, but if you write long enough, you’ll find your story suddenly taking an unexpected turn where the scene quickly comes together as you type. It’s moments like these that make it all seem worth it: The elements are all on the page and they just seem to organically fall into place. You may also find yourself starting to think like a character at any given moment, and the idea that you’re able to just fall into the head of someone you’ve just created is incredibly exhilarating.
Do you have any long term goals?
I would like to produce my own film eventually - to have a successful enough foray into the horror genre that one day I could be approached by someone like JJ Abrams and be asked to film whatever I like, with final say over what makes it to the big screen, with investors trusting my vision that far. I’ve recently gotten into writing for comic books and I’m marketing several different concepts to make into intellectual properties as well, so there’s always the daunting but also thrilling challenge of being able to tell a story as a series and keep it going for at least 18-20 issues.
Which film or filmmaker inspired you?
There’s too many of those to list. I love to see myself in the Criterion Collection media closet and getting to grab a bunch of titles off the shelves while talking about each one for a minute or so - but, if I were pressed to pick one, I would probably have to go with Robert Altman, who I’ve admired since the days I decided film was for me. Not all of his films have been masterpieces or particularly great, but he was always willing to take risks by doing experiments with his movies: Letting things happen naturally as the actors worked to find their character, overlapping dialogue between characters which gives his movies a feeling of authenticity, and never feeling compelled to throw on a happy ending that makes it all make sense. NASHVILLE is probably my favorite of his - where he follows several characters over the course of a weekend concert, and the ending with a failed assassination attempt is equal parts beautiful and unsettling - where the very talented starlet with not much to her name is finally recognized but it’s doubtful anyone will remember her the next day - much less a year from now.
What's one piece of advice writers need to hear right now?
It’s all an endurance contest. Be prepared for that. It’s not just persistence - though that is a big part. It’s also about learning new things - about yourself but also about how the market works and changes and you should be willing to act accordingly when you try to sell your work - be it a novel or script. Nothing is going to come right away as far as fame or even that first acceptance letter - so those doubts you’re feeling are okay - it’s good to have them and regularly be considering if you’re really doing the right thing by pursuing writing. The doubts are proof that you’re seeing yourself as a writer and need the story to come out - rather than just trying to slap something on paper hoping to be the next big thing.
What's the hardest genre for you to write about? What makes it challenging?
Comedy is probably the hardest - and yet I regularly gravitate towards it. MOTH-MAN, a parody superhero series, has been a project of mine for a long time - and will likely soon appear in podcast form. While it might be easy to tell jokes - timing just from a single joke can be difficult to pull off effectively - so setting up an entire series in such a way that all the jokes land - that you can build them up and not just throw one in here and there because you feel obligated to make the audience laugh. Comedic situations need to build off of each other and gradually escalate like everything else. I generally think they work the best when they come naturally from your character, and to do that, you need to know your characters very well.