Drunk as a skunk off of one glass of wine (lame I know but) what better way to relay a happening when you’re inherited?
Today we had a Q & A with Barrie Keeffe. I know I keep saying this is the last day of the term, no this is, well this was. I wasn’t mandatory just something special for the first and seconds years to come together and pick a working writers brain.
This particular writer wrote the screenplay to “The Long Good Friday” a cult hit in Britain (so I am told). What was interesting was right off the bat he said he thought himself a playwright, but having written one successful film people identify him as a screenwriter.
He began his career as a novelist and an actor but after being told by some one really famous (at the time) that he was basically no good, he moved on. As a writer he found writing dialogue in novels suited him more so he moved to playwriting and eventually television, radio and film.
What interested me the most was his career spanned so many different mediums; director, actor writer (which is all the type of work I do.) So that in it self was inspiring. He also described the way he works. He has an L shaped desk and keeps other projects he is working on to his side, so that way, when he losses interests in his current project and gets excited about an old one he just goes too it and continues writing more and so on. (Which is how I tend to work.)
Someone in the Q and A said they couldn’t start a script until they have it all mapped out. To me that seems so foreign, it’s all about the journey you have with each script that makes it fun, for me. It would seem by listening to Mr. Keefe he seems to be the same way.
‘Kind of luck sometimes” he said when referring to how he was able to write “Long Good Friday’ in 3 days and get the right funding after a screening in Edinburgh festival and the right actor who came to the audition to keep a friend company and hearing the right bit of dialogue in a pub or a sign on the van leading to the ‘hotdog line’ in the last scene.
From there he segwayed into advice for the beginning screenwriter.
“It’s a collaboration so don’t write it like a novel. What it should do is give the smell of it.” He said with also noting we (the students) should get the script to our favorite film, read it bit by bit and watch the film as we go to see how much description is actually used.
“I’m an ease dropper. I sit at the pub with the Evening Standard but I’m really listening.” - BF
His passion for theater and the actor’s journey really came through when he spoke in our hour and a half session. He writes characters as parts he, as an actor, would want to play. (Hoping to be a young British James Dean back in his time) he was disappointed with the options for actors and began to really make sure that even if he wrote a small part it would be exciting and interesting, a real full person. He mixes in with people he has meet in real life or heard about to help round the characters out.
“I’m not afraid to be a voyeur and leech” BF
His antidotes of teasing reporters/critics and real people to tell a story or to get one were very amusing. When he first sat down I thought goodness that man looks tired. As we began he became alive, blunt, and funny with his stories in screen trade and theater.
“It’s a lonely job.” - BF
Along with witty antidotes about the business he also told us more then once how his passion for writing broke up his first marriage because he wouldn’t take a holiday, he would write from Friday to Sunday, selfishly he said. He repeated his mantra of ‘it’s a lonely job’ over and over. His drive for succeeding as a working writer was evident in his stories of his youth. He made mention of if you are a writer how everyone says they have an idea for you, or if you get something produced they say they could have done better then that, with the all talk and little action notion.
Summing up his advice for the night he let us in on a little secrete when working with actors, “Steer actors in the right direction so when they get it they will think it was their idea.” He told us not to treat actors like puppets. As he is a man who has had his hand in every part of the pot his advice spanned the many mediums he worked in and they were all insightful, unapologetic and actually very helpful.
“I like to be judged on the work over my life time.” When asked about being a beginning writer he made it known that your first script won’t sell and that you will get many rejections. That it is a progression. When you finish one script start another so when you get those rejections it’s okay because you have another project you are excited about. “You have to be cocky.” He told us more then once with his… ‘It a lonely job.” But then with that came… “ Do you know the best two words in the English language are?” ‘The end.’
(I have to say we all went to the pub after and when introduced to him he asked)
BK: What part of America are you from?
Me: Well born and raised in South FL, went to school in Chicago,
then moved to LA, then NYC.
BK: Wow I’m surprised you remained sane after all that.
Me: Who says I did? It’s always the crazy ones that seem the most
sane.
I continued to hold my deadpan expression. Once again I made another memorable and idiotic first impression. He smiled politely, fiddled with some clothe on his jacket and hightailed it to several other students on the opposite end of the pub. I guess he doesn’t need any character research on crazy American’s.
