November 20, 2022 • 51 mins
On today’s episode of Creative Space, we have the pleasure of speaking with screenwriter Brian Clark. He has quite the inspiring creative journey so far, getting his start as a publicist in New York City for films like Rachel Getting Married, Coco Before Chanel, and the Runaways. He then moved to Paris where he worked as a film correspondent for websites like Movieline. Today he resides in LA where he co-founded the film series Projections and is busy as a screenwriter. His latest film, Vesper, which he co-wrote with Bruno Samper and Kristina Buozyte, was just released on September 30 through IFC films.
We talk about his career beginnings and the importance of building healthy collaborative relationships, as well as debunk a myth or two about what it really takes to get a script made.
For more on Vesper, visit: vespermovie.com.
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SHOW NOTES:
00:00—Introduction
01:44—What drew Brian to screenwriting
03:26—The allure of movies he wasn’t allowed to see
04:28—Play is the best case scenario of what creativity can be
05:06—Why horror films inspired him in his early days
08:30—Working as a film publicist in NYC
11:08—Why writing movie reviews was second nature
13:26—Following his future wife to Paris
15:45—How life in Paris shaped his perspective
17:30—Learning contentment
18:30—Brian’s definition of creativity
20:30—Why it’s now in the “bin of meaningless words”
22:42—The discipline of creativity
23:00—What is it actually like being a screenwriter?
25:10—The myth of spec scripts
26:00—Tips for getting a movie made now
27:20—Choosing which idea to pursue
30:20—Why ideas are overrated
31:40—Working with his collaborators on Vesper
35:14—How he met Bruno and Kristina
36:46—What inspired Vesper
42:00—Writing the script for Vesper
43:30—Collaboration without ego
45:00—Dialogue tips
46:00—Knowing what will work on screen
46:44—What Brian wishes he knew 10 years ago
48:15—What’s next
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer Logue (00:11):
Hello and welcome to creative space, a
Podcast where we explore, learnand grow in creativity. I'm your
host Jennifer Logue. And ontoday's episode, we have the
pleasure of speaking withscreenwriter Brian Clark. He has
quite the inspiring, creativejourney so far, getting his
start as a publicist in New YorkCity for films like Rachel
(00:31):
Getting Married Coco beforeChanel and the runaways He then
moved to Paris, where he workedas a film correspondent for
websites like movie line. Today,he resides in LA, where he co
founded the film seriesprojections and is busy as a
screenwriter, his latest filmVesper, which he co wrote with
(00:52):
Bruno Sampar, and Christinabougie. Tay was just released on
September 30 through IFC Films.
Brian, welcome to creativespace.
Brian Clark (01:02):
Thank you for having me. Hello.
Jennifer Logue (01:05):
Oh, my gosh, it's a pleasure. So I've got to
ask, you're in LA now you'vebeen all over the world. Where
are you from? Originally?
Brian Clark (01:12):
I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, actually. And
I lived there for 12 or 13 yearsand moved to Houston. Really?
The suburbs of Houston. And mostformative years, were there and
then I, yes. And then Austin toNew York, to Paris to Los
(01:39):
Angeles, where I am now.
Jennifer Logue (01:41):
Globetrotter, for sure. Did you always want to
be a screenwriter?
Brian Clark (01:48):
I always wanted to do something with movies. since
I can remember. I think I endedup gravitating towards
screenwriting, because it wassomething that I could practice
for free without help fromanybody has to I mean, directing
(02:13):
and a lot of other mean,cinematography. You need lots of
equipment and favors from peopleand money. And, and I don't
know, I guess at some point, itwas easier to just say, well, I
can work X job during the dayand then just go home and like,
(02:36):
right and and so yeah, I kind ofI don't think I really like
started gravitating towards likeI'm just going to raise
screenplays until probably my20s but I went to film school
and like, yeah, I made movieswith friends and stuff in high
school and yeah, ever even whenI was a kid, I would like have
(03:00):
Godzilla action figures smashingmicromachines that I would film
and like, make a movie out ofthat. So yeah, I always wanted
to do something with movies, butscreenwriting came. I don't
know. Seen necessity. That's notquite accurate. But But yeah,
ease. Ease of Access. Let's putit that way.
Jennifer Logue (03:21):
When did you first fall in love with movies?
Brian Clark (03:24):
I would say that it was the sort of overwhelming
advertising for movies that Iwasn't allowed to see that made
me kind of put them when I waswhen I was quite young. And
yeah, I don't know me. I mean,my parents were not like
extremely protectiveconservative people, but but I
(03:49):
would say that like wheneverybody else was seeing, like,
the dark Tim Burton Batmanmovie, even though they were
like eight years old, like Iwasn't allowed to see that. And
I would say that there was somesort of like, being denied this
thing that made me think from anearly age. Well, fine, I'm gonna
(04:09):
make a living making theseagain. Yeah, I guess that's
that's kind of there wasn't likea cinema experience where I was
like, Oh my gosh, like, I'mgonna do this. I think I always
liked playing games and I mean,play basically which is, which
(04:30):
is in the best case scenario,like what creativity can be. And
so I mean, I think at the sametime, the idea of being being
able to be paid to make upstories and tell them appealed
to me because all I was doingwhen I like played with friends
(04:50):
and stuff was making up stories.
So So yeah, I think the thosetwo kind of things together,
were what made me interested inworking and cinema.
Jennifer Logue (05:01):
Life is short, so we got to do it we love.
Yeah, yeah. Who inspired yougrowing up from an art
perspective from a movieperspective?
Brian Clark (05:10):
Good question. It was like definitely younger and
living in Baton Rouge. I wasjust like, watching action
movies on TV. And I liked thosea lot. And I like for probably
until the age of 14, the movietremors was just my favorite
(05:32):
movie and I would just watchtremors over again. I don't have
I feel like a lot of people youtalk to have some kind of, not
you. But like, general you havesome sort of formative moment
like I do remember crying at ET.
But all it made me think was Iwish he would stay not like oh
(05:53):
my god, I want to make movies. Iheard say when I got into high
school, I got really I mean, Ithink like a lot of specially
boys my age, like I got reallyinto horror movies and like
eighth and ninth grade andhorror movies. I don't know if
I've always kind of representedlike what I don't know, in some
(06:17):
sense, they feel accessible,like something you could see
yourself making because theydon't have big stars. And they
they're just like, the best onesare really like friends on
weekends with like, a bunch ofred corn syrup and like, and
like cool ideas. And I thinkthose are the first time that
(06:39):
like filmmaking seemedaccessible to me, because when I
would watch him move, when Iwould watch a movie with like
big stars, or lots of specialeffects and stuff is like wow,
like, Wouldn't it be cool to getsome way to give me millions of
dollars to do that. But actuallywatching stuff, like Evil Dead
in Texas Chainsaw Massacre andthese movies that were still
(07:01):
around 40 years later, but thatwere like made by Yeah, nerd
friends. And I mean, a kind ofgoes both ways on whether this
was a positive influence oneverybody. But yeah, for me like
that, that sort of made me awareof like cinematic style, and
(07:21):
sort of like the people behindthe movies like I definitely, by
10th grade that evil that toowas like more interesting than
Citizen Kane. And then I thinklater in high school I started
to get into Yeah, I started toget into like art films and
stuff. I remember. The firsttime I saw Polanski's repulsion,
(07:42):
it kind of blew my mind. Like, Ididn't know that movies could be
made that way. So I don't know.
But it was always genre. It wasalways genre movies that were
inspiring to me, because, again,they felt a little bit more they
felt like they were for theyfelt like they had a very
distinct point of view, the goodones, but they were also like
(08:04):
accessible to everybody, likesome are garbage. But some genre
movies are able to put a lot ofinteresting and subversive stuff
into that. And so the idea oflike being able to connect to
people, but still sort of have avoice was interesting to me. I
felt like I rambled there. But
Jennifer Logue (08:23):
no, it's interesting to me. So flash
forward to your time in NewYork, working on the PR side of
film, but what is the mostimportant lesson you learned? As
a publicist? Doing films,
Brian Clark (08:36):
I learned a lot about the business of releasing
films and sort of what happensto them after they're done. And
it was more like a I got someoverall perspective on how
everything actually worked.
Which, which was good in termsof like, you know, honing what
my creative goals were, you alsokind of see, like, how much I
(08:58):
mean, in New York at that time,with VOD, everything's changed.
But at that time, there wasn'tlike streaming services yet. It
was right before they werecoming in. And so there would
still be like, in New York,anywhere between 15 and 25
movies coming up each week, thatwe're never going to get outside
(09:21):
New York. And some of them itwas because they're like, too
good, like some, you know, like,saving Ling movie that that's
only going to that thedistributors decided is only
going to have an audience in NewYork, but then sometimes it was
just because it was kind of abad movie or not interesting
(09:41):
movie, like a movie that therewas no way whatever, like cut
through the noise. And so Iguess it was kind of interesting
to see how many movies reallygot made and how few of them
were able to like because Imean, part of it was like trying
to be a publisher. Historymovies that people didn't always
necessarily want to see, andoften for good reason. And so I
(10:05):
guess it was interesting to see.
Yeah, to get more perspective onthat. But I would say it was
better just sort of being in NewYork and having a job that
brought me close to people whoalso worked in film. And yeah,
and also, like I said, 25 moviesopen every week. And so it's
like, easily the best paid placein the United States for seeing
(10:28):
movies. And so both new and old.
And so sort of my film educationexpanded a lot by just being in
New York. Creatively, I didn'tlearn that much by being a
publicist. Business. Yeah, Ilearned things about the
business, and the business isimportant to know. But, but I'm
not sure it's, I don't know, Iwould say that sometimes, it's
(10:53):
almost better not to know ifit's sometimes easier to
convince yourself to like, tosort of just go in not knowing
what you're getting into and notknowing what you're up against.
So I had written before I becamea publicist, I wrote briefly for
The Austin Chronicle, when I gotout of University of Texas, I
wrote movie reviews for them,which, like, you know, wasn't
(11:16):
some kind of full time job tojust like, relax with, but at
the same time, like, probably,like, have more credibility than
any publication that I'vewritten for since then. And I
grew up, I mean, I think Ialluded to the fact that my
(11:36):
parents tried to keep me fromseeing a lot of the movies that
I wanted to see. And so another,another way around, that was I
would get, like, the giant booksfull of movie reviews, and just
read everything I could aboutthe movie that like, I couldn't
go to the theater to see. And soan A and so writing reviews of
(11:57):
movies came pretty easily. Tome. It's it just never seemed
like a viable career path.
Because, I mean, it's what like,I couldn't be exaggerating, but
like, I guess that there's 10film critics who make a living
(12:20):
full time, like who make adecent living full time, like
writing or views for films like,and it was, it was on its way
out then. And I feel like it'sgone that way even further. So
but being a publicist,definitely, like, I had to read
every review that was written, Ihad to go through every every,
(12:42):
you know, that I had, like, youknow, 15 film websites to go
through every morning. And soagain, I was very like, on top
of what was happening in thefilm world, and also what was
happening. Sort of what kind oftrends were going on and film
criticism, which, in hindsight,or really like not to its
(13:03):
betterment, but it probably itprobably. Yeah, it probably made
me more comfortable saying, oh,yeah, I can be like, I can like
write for the style of, youknow, blogs and stuff. Here from
Paris.
Jennifer Logue (13:21):
So what drew you to Paris? You said it was out of
necessity? Oh, I'm
Brian Clark (13:25):
not. I followed a girl who, who I'm now married to
so really well. Yeah. Well,yeah. I mean, the other thing
about publicity was, again, Iworked with really good people,
I did learn a lot of stuff. Iwasn't really that good at it.
So yeah, I met a girl who we hitit off very quickly. And then
(13:46):
very quickly after that, she gota job teaching in Paris, and
basically invited me to comealong. And I kind of realized
that I was sort of flounderingin New York at the time, I was
doing like, well enough at mypublicity job, that it was not
something that was going to be acareer. And I think that like my
bosses and I both knew that.
And, and but I didn't want toquit because I didn't know what
(14:10):
other job to get. And, and I waswriting. I was I was writing
screenplays at night but like, Iwasn't that close to anything
there. I think I was stillwriting screenplays with a
little bit of naivety aboutlike, how easy or hard it was to
like, sell a screenplay. Soanyway, so then I was just like,
(14:32):
well, let's try this. And if itdoesn't work, then then I'll
figure that out. But But I thinkI was feeling very, I've been
feeling very stuck for about ayear. And I think I was
frustrated with myself for notbeing able to make decisions to
get me unstuck and then so whenoffered with somebody who
actually wanted me to come withthem to Paris, and was willing
(14:54):
to roll with the fact that Ididn't have a plan I wisely took
that opportunity. And then yeah,and then kind of in serendipity
Movie Line, which was still awebsite at the time, everything
I've written for him folds arefolded into something else. But
they were looking for anovernight editor who was
(15:15):
overseas who could write newsarticles like and features,
basically when everyone else wassleeping because it'd be in a
different timezone. And a newSUV enters cell from publicity
stuff. And so I tried out forthat job and got it. So yeah,
that worked well for like, ninemonths or something in Paris,
(15:38):
and then I had to find otherstuff to do. But
Jennifer Logue (15:42):
cool. How has Paris informed your filmmaking
and your screenwriting? I would
Brian Clark (15:47):
say, I like Paris a lot. I lived there for three
years, and the quality of lifewas very good. And and I had
zero culture shock. I don't knowyou could argue about New York
and Paris at the time, I wouldsay Paris was a better place to
(16:08):
see movies than New York, NewYork's upped its game some but
in terms of especially likerepertory film and stuff. And
so, yeah, I mean, like, I sawmore movies there, like, per
week than I've ever done. I haveat any other point in my life,
but I would say, I would say themain thing that Paris did
besides like, I mean, besideslike, you know, you travel you
(16:34):
get more perspective, you findout more things about the world,
you meet different, all thosecliches are true. But I would
say that what Paris actually didwas sort of taught me how to be
happy in life withoutnecessarily like, being quote
unquote, successful. And so bythe time I moved to LA, the the
(16:54):
the sort of desperation that Ithink a lot of people have when
they're trying to, like, getinto the film industry, or any
creative type of industry was,was gone, at least for a while,
and it creeps back in. But yeah,I would say the biggest thing
was, was I felt sort of justlike, checked out of all of the
(17:17):
competition and stuff in theUnited States. And, and very
just kind of independently freeto like, experiment and like,
see where things went? Yeah, Iwould say that's still probably
the biggest impact that it hadon me, it was like, I sort of
just was quite content there,like more so than any other time
(17:39):
in my life and just sort of knowthat that was possible without a
ton of money or like a good job.
Quotes. Was was liberating.
Jennifer Logue (17:51):
That's huge, though, to be content they are
able to present in your art.
Yeah, and what you're creatingand give it your all like in
that regard. Uh huh.
Brian Clark (17:59):
Yeah. Yeah. And not to worry so much about whether
anybody likes it or what theythink of you for it. That's also
I mean, during that census,where I met Bruno, and
Christina, which we'll get to,which is how Vesper came about
to so that was 10 years ago, Imet them actually. So yeah, so
(18:21):
relationships from there havebeen impactful on my life.
Jennifer Logue (18:26):
Incredible. So now we're gonna get into the
part of the podcast where wetalk about creativity. In
general, what is your definitionof creativity?
Brian Clark (18:36):
I feel like, I mean, I feel like if I really
like dig deep in and what andlike, because it's honestly
something I don't think aboutvery often at all, and I think
it's, I think it's kind of oneof those words, there's a lot of
words now that really havealmost become like cliches, like
(18:57):
they don't have mean people saythem so much that they don't
really have any meaning. And Ithink that I've kind of
accepted, accepted it as ameaningless word when I when I
go like day to day. I mean, Ithink I said earlier that it's
about play. But I mean, I thinkthat like yeah, when you're when
(19:17):
you're, I mean, when you'retrying to be creative, and like
the good sense of the word. Imean, I think you're kind of
searching for this feeling wherethey were, where you're, where
you're doing something andyou're excited about what you're
doing, and it feels like maybeyou're the first person doing
it, there's nothing else. Idon't know how to say this
(19:38):
without using the word doingagain. But there's nothing else
that you'd rather be doing rightthen and I mean, it's a fleeting
feeling like you get it for acouple hours at a time. Like, if
you're lucky, like while you'retrying to like create something.
But I mean, I feel like I feellike the reason that people do
keep kind of going with art andcreation is sort of chasing that
(19:59):
or not people but I is kind ofchasing that feeling where you
were you really everything kindof clicks. And, and again, I
talked about how you know,movies came from a sense of just
like, well, I like playing andthat seems like what
storytelling is. And so when youcan actually feel like you're
(20:19):
just playing and actually havingfun. I think that that's, I
think that that's like the goodkind of creativity. But yeah, it
sort of became a buzzword usedto, like, make money. Yeah, I
mean, like everybody, like, youknow, like, Silicon Valley is
(20:40):
hiring janitors to think outsidethe box or whatever. On the job
application. And, and, I mean,maybe, maybe that's important,
but like, Yeah, I mean, it's aword that's just been hijacked.
And so like, hijacked by like,every sort of like, like, blood
sucking industry to mean, like,find a way to, to, to be more
(21:05):
efficient and make more money.
And, and that's what it meanssometimes to in our world,
unfortunately. But, but yeah, soSo I mean,
Jennifer Logue (21:18):
for you, it sounds like at its very core, at
its best it is there's a purityto creativity, and it's a flow
state. It's play alignment.
Brian Clark (21:30):
Yes, yes. I've heard until this first date on
podcasts that I listened to.
Yes. Yeah, I mean, like I said,it's just, it's, it's played
some when when you getcompletely consumed, and and
you're kind of joyful andexcited about something that
you're making, then, then I feellike that's kind of the best,
(21:53):
the best version of it. Andthen, you know, but like I said,
it's, it's a funny word,because, yeah, I mean, in my day
to day life, I had kind ofrelegated it into the bin of, of
meaningless words, which mightmean that or might mean like,
somebody found a way to, like,do the same amount of work with
(22:14):
half the workforce, because theywere thinking outside the box.
Jennifer Logue (22:22):
Definitely not on board with that definition.
Brian Clark (22:28):
It's such a ubiquitous word. So so yeah. But
I would say that generally. It'sfunny that I say play because
generally I think about it, it'swork is because because, be it
because of maturity or thedemands of the world. I mean,
you you you don't get into thatstate of mind often. And a lot
(22:52):
of times you're kind of justdoing the work. You're kind of
chasing that or I am
Jennifer Logue (22:57):
there's a lot of discipline involved with being a
screenwriter, what is somethingthat the average person who
romanticize the idea of being ascreenwriter, you know, what is
it actually like,
Brian Clark (23:09):
oh, okay, I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon,
here. Um, I feel like if youread like interviews of
screenwriters, and screenwritingbooks, except for like some of
the most successful ones likethe top 1%, who are just like,
doing awesome, they'll have alot of really bitter things to
(23:30):
say about being a screenwriterand then the but then at the
end, they'll kind of caveatlike, but it's really so awesome
because I'm making up storiesand blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, and I wouldn't trade itfor anything. Um, in terms of
what people people whoromanticize screenwriting, what
they don't know. The experiencevaries like very, very greatly
(23:53):
with Vesper, it was a pleasurebecause because I was close
friends with the directors andbecause it felt it felt very
collaborative and they were likeeven sending me cuts and I don't
know we like we all and we alltrusted each other and it really
(24:13):
you know, at times like you Youfinish it and you read it and
you're like wow, I created thislike this is this is kind of
amazing and in its own way likeI don't feel like I've seen
anything like this before and soand so all of that is can be can
be quite good if you if you findif you find good partners to
(24:37):
work with I guess I would saymaybe that like it's not it
seems like it should be solitarybut like if you do it solitary
the process can be quite nice.
But the business side of it canreally is probably the opposite
of everything the you if youromanticize it at all. I would
say that the business Is is, isgoing to be a letdown. And I
(25:02):
guess the other sort ofmisconception maybe this isn't
still a misconception, but Ithink it is. I feel like a lot
of people have this sort ofmisconception that like, I
certainly did. And I wascertainly told this and I think
a lot of screenwriting books andclasses and seminars are kind of
premised on this idea wherelike, Oh, if you just write an
(25:23):
original script that everybodyloves, like your goal, like
actors, and it's really, I mean,your chances are better I think
at winning the lottery, likejust like coming, bustin out of
nowhere with like, the scriptsthat everybody likes. The market
for spec scripts spec scriptsare scripts that you like, wrote
(25:47):
on your own, and then like, taketo an agent or whatever, and the
agent takes them out. In the90s, I think it was like pretty
big people were like, gettingthe like, you'd be like, oh, so
and so from Wisconsin just got amillion dollar deal. And like,
Shane Black and Joe Astor house,they're getting this and this,
and it's not really like thatanymore, because it's so driven
(26:09):
by IP, by like, you know,adaptations or it's going to be
like, independent. And so whatI've found, the hard way is it's
it's better to sort of likechoose collaborators in advance
and instead of like creatingyour own perfect screenplay,
(26:31):
which you can, but like, itwon't turn out that way, as a
movie. It's, it's actually alittle bit more practical to
find directors who may be areaccessible who haven't made like
bajillion dollar movies yet, whoneeds screenwriters and like,
find people that you're on thesame page with and, and
(26:52):
collaborate some like if adirector has an idea for a
script, but they're too busydoing other stuff? Like, that
can be something that reallyworks nicely and can get your
vision there without, withoutgoing through the rigmarole of
like having a billion peoplegive you notes that are often
(27:13):
stupid, and then the screenplaysstill not selling?
Jennifer Logue (27:19):
So with just ideas for screenplays in
general, how do you know? I'msure you get ideas all the time?
How do you know? Okay, we haveto do scripts on this, like we
have to film about this? Yeah,gosh,
Brian Clark (27:36):
that's a question that I still don't fully know,
the answer to my kind of stockresponse for a long time was
just like, if, I mean, becauseyou get kind of ideas all the
time, like everybody gets ideasall the time. And, and so I
would say forget 90% of theideas that I have, like, I guess
(27:58):
some people like carry onnotebooks and write everything
down. I carry on notebooks, Iwrite some stuff down when it's
like convenient. But generally,it would be the ideas that kind
of like keep coming back. And,and that you keep kind of
building on in your mind. Andthat some at some point, you
(28:20):
could be like, you know, walkingand just getting more and more
excited. And then like a weeklater, the same thing happens.
Yeah, I would say it's mostlythe ideas that won't leave you
alone. And then also theconverse side of that converse,
inverse, I'm not even sureinverse, probably. opposite of
(28:42):
that. I mean, I've heard likethat, you'd be just as you'd be,
you do just as well. Takingmaybe like, I don't know, giving
yourself like a setting acharacter and an object that you
have no personal attachment toand telling yourself you need to
write a blank genre script outof this. Sometimes by writing
(29:05):
about something that you thinkyou're detached from, you can
actually go deeper become morepersonal. And yeah, I've done
I've done like I said, aftersort of the first thing that I
did, that was just like mehaving fun in France and writing
a script, like got bought andmade and the you know, it's
(29:26):
fine. The director and I weren'ton the same wavelength from
square one. And I don't want tomake it like too dramatic. But I
mean, in terms of like, itwasn't anything like the script
that I wrote. And it wasn't likethe the final movie wasn't like,
the thing. Like it didn't reallymake much sense. Which is like,
fine, it happens. I try not tobe precious. But then after that
(29:46):
was when I decided, Oh, I'mgoing to try to work with
directors who I already know.
And sometimes, like, a directorwill be like, I have this idea
that I want to make for a movie.
And it'll I'll be able toactually go little bit deeper
like working with their idea andcould because no matter what,
like no matter what story you'retelling, you're going to be
(30:08):
putting your own, like,personality and style and voice.
And so, so yeah, I would almostsay that ideas are maybe a
little bit overrated. In everycreative field, maybe at least
in at least in sort ofscreenwriting. It's, it's a lot
(30:32):
more about the execution and
Jennifer Logue (30:36):
each of the word right on my mouth, yeah, it's,
it's really execution, it'severything, you can have a
really cool idea. But if you'renot able to pull it off, in the
way that it is communicated, andif it doesn't manifest out of
your head, totally, the way itcould, it's just gonna fall
flat, right.
Brian Clark (30:53):
And if you're not willing to do the work, like I
am, lots of friends who I wouldsay are more. And if you define
creative, which I think day today actually define creative as
like having great ideas thatnobody else has thought of
before, like is the simpleversion. I have lots of friends
who are more creative than me,the but but they don't, you
know, they just like, bring outtheir ideas and joke and move on
(31:16):
with their lives. And that'sfine. Like, that's what they
want to do. But, but I mean, youalso have to sort of sit down
and do the work and like, chiselaway at the idea to really make
it into anything.
Jennifer Logue (31:30):
Sacrificing that there's time, you know, like,
people don't see all the hardhours you put in, like the
sacrifices you make
Brian Clark (31:38):
totally, until they try it.
Jennifer Logue (31:43):
Back on the subject of Vesper, you
collaborate with Bruno andChristina on the script. Yep.
And you're working on moreprojects with them currently.
And what do you love about thisparticular team you're part of.
Brian Clark (31:56):
So before Vesper, we had written, we actually had
written another script from sortof conception to completion.
Which Which option but didn'tend up getting made. And, you
know, collaboration can be canbe difficult and can be touching
(32:17):
go like, even with like yourclosest friends, like I know,
people who have gone to likecouples counseling counseling
for like, for just like, theircollaboration, their artistic
collaborations with people. And,and so I think at this point,
there's sort of mutual trust.
And, I mean, we started offobviously, because we liked each
(32:40):
other, I saw their first or nottheir first film, but their
previous film vanishing waves inParis at a film festival, and I
was really struck by it, and gotto know them because of that.
And, and we also had kind of asimilar like, passion for
cinema. And we, we liked andwe're also annoyed by the same
(33:01):
things. And so you kind of comein with that, like, okay, where
people like we like each other.
But once you get into thecollaboration, I mean, there's,
there's a certain there's acertain like trust and mutual
respect, that probably has to beearned, some people are better
(33:24):
at maintaining it. And somepeople, it takes a little while.
And I think at this point withVesper, we finally have that
now, which is nice, because wehave like a sort of, we have a
shared vocabulary of movies, butwe also we also kind of know
(33:44):
how, how we work with eachother. And like, what each
other's strengths are and so onand so forth. So yeah, I don't
know, I guess it's it's reallyabout surviving, like the rocky
parts and the uncertainty andcoming out stronger. You start
(34:05):
working together for one reason,and then that reasons still
there. But then over time, asort of trust and respect comm.
I like working with them,because they generally know what
they want. Unlike a lot ofpeople that I've taken notes
from on scripts that like Iwrote, their notes, we're always
(34:29):
about, like, there's very fewtimes where they have a note
where I think you're just makingthe script worse, or you're just
some people like to just changethings so that they feel like
they did something like an egotype thing, and that's like
never, and so like, it seemslike it streamlines that whole
part of the process. Where Iknow that like any sort of extra
(34:53):
work that I'm doing is to makethe thing better, and I never I
never feel like I'm just beingI'm just kind I've like running
around the block so thatsomebody felt like they did
something. And yeah,
Jennifer Logue (35:06):
no, no. How did you meet? You said you met them
in Paris?
Brian Clark (35:12):
Yeah. I met them because I was living in Paris.
This is when I was covering filmfestivals, a lot of genre film
festivals for a site that at thetime was called Twitch film. And
now it's called Screen anarchy.
And so I had seen vanishingwaves at a festival in Paris,
but I didn't meet either ofthem. And then I met Bruno at a
festival in Spain, where it wasshowing and we really liked
(35:36):
talking to each other and stayedin touch. And then I met
Christina, because they werekind of like a splitting up Film
Festival duties on the movie.
And I met Christina andBrussels. And yeah, we just kept
in touch. And then they came toLA for meetings several years
after I'd moved here. And we'relike, well, let's try writing a
(35:58):
script. And then again, it kindof went from there. I don't I
mean, I don't know if they Isure didn't think it would
actually go this long. It wasmore like, like, I think we were
having drinks and they werelike, Yeah, we should try to
raise spirits. We've got thesetwo ideas. What about this one?
And I'm like, Yeah, that's notwe can make that a script. And,
(36:20):
and so I met them that I metthem because I was I was a fan
of their movie and, and it was avery, kind of creative and
striking movie. But outsideenough of the mainstream or
like, they weren't, you know,they didn't have Hollywood like
knocking at their door oranything. And so um, yeah, we
(36:41):
became friends that way. Andwe're friends first, and yeah.
Jennifer Logue (36:46):
And it just happened organically. The best
thing is do Yeah, yeah. Whatinspired Vesper? Like was there
a seed of an idea,
Brian Clark (36:54):
seed, how to get the best for. So the Vesper my
job. And I guess you're askingabout romantic ideas about
screenwriters. My job wasdifferent on Vesper than it was
on the previous scripts that wewrote, because after that one, I
(37:15):
think we both kind of likeneeded a break after the
previous script. And theystarted, I took a different job
and started developing thisother project, and they sort of
started writing the story thatwould become Vesper. There, we
(37:35):
tried to make a script thatwould get done in like America,
with the one we wrote previousto Vesper and didn't quite pan
out. And so they're like, Okay,we'll make another movie in
Lithuania, where we can, no, wecan at least get some funding.
The idea for them I thinkstarted by saying, Okay, we're
gonna make a movie and Lithuaniaand the forests and Lithuania
(37:57):
have this very, like fairy tale,brother like, like brothers grim
look. And so they're like, Okay,we want to do kind of a fairy
tale movie and Lithuania. Andthen Bruno especially reads like
a lot of he seems to read like alot of articles about like, new
(38:17):
science and stuff. And so theTerminator seeds, the I don't
know, if the seeds that theseeds invest for Vespers, in a
world where sort of the richpeople sell seeds that are coded
to only produce one harvestthose exists already, like
they've already figured out howto make those. And yeah, really
(38:40):
cool. And so yeah, I think theystarted building the world that
way. And a, they have beeninterested in the idea of
biotechnology as opposed to sortof the cyber internet like
dystopia that everybody else isgoing towards the idea that
like, actually, like genemodification could like overtake
(39:04):
overtake the sort of mechanicalelectronic technology that we
have now to where all of ourtechnology would be essentially
organic or organic seeming butlike engineered by humans, so
yeah, they put that all togetherand and basically came to me
(39:24):
with the story and the worldlike honestly, the world of the
movie pretty fully formed likewe worked challenge with so then
when it got to me, sorry, sothen the challenge with it once
it got to me is you can create awhole world again and you've got
ideas, but it's like how do youmake sure that the audience is
(39:46):
immersed in this world withoutlike, explaining too much or not
explaining enough? I mean, youdon't really you know, if you
have like a new sci fi futurethat people have never seen
before and then somebody's like,I remember when they first
started engineering, the seedsonly produce one harvest and
then these crazy plant likenobody put it takes people out
(40:08):
of the movie. And, and so a lotof we had a lot of conversations
about how much information togive the audience and what we
could show visually. And yeah,sort of, I mean, beyond like the
characters and story which wegot to like how to really like
hone the world building, like interms of the narrative. And so
(40:31):
yeah, that's a long answer tothat question. But
Jennifer Logue (40:34):
I was blown away by it. Like the story, the
acting, the cinematography. AndI'm really excited to see where
it goes for you all. Like itjust got released official
right? September 30. Yeah, it
Brian Clark (40:46):
came out September 30. I think it's probably out of
theaters by now. But it's, it'sdoing pretty well on VOD. And,
yeah, I think it'll be I'm, I'mno, I'm very pleased with it.
Which is, you know, not?
Sometimes you write a script,and you're pleased with it, and
then you see the movie? No, no,I'm very pleased with how it
(41:11):
came out. And I think that,actually, it was more important
for me than then even right nowis I think it will be
remembered. And I think it willactually, I don't know, I think
with some hindsight, I thinkit'll be potentially perceived
better, because people can kindof take when movies come out,
like there's a whole set ofexpectations that people have.
(41:34):
And, like, I don't know, whenBladerunner came out, everybody
hated it. I guess it had thatstupid narration. So maybe, I
don't know. But in any case, Ifeel like sometimes movies once
people sort of like once thepeople who like it, sort of
like, you know, spread the word,and people watch it sort of on
the movies on terms instead oftheir expectations. I think it
(41:55):
will be remembered well. And Isay that objectively, I could I
could be wrong, but
Jennifer Logue (42:04):
how long did it take you to write the script?
For Vesper?
Brian Clark (42:07):
Um,
Jennifer Logue (42:09):
you had the story
Brian Clark (42:10):
had the story, but there were changes to the story.
Again, a lot of Yeah, and evenlike long sort of scene
sequences, actually, the entireclimax was changed to, um, it's
one of those things where, like,I'd say that the first draft I
did was six weeks of veryintensive work like day, and
(42:32):
then I and then, probably aseven hour meeting with Bruno
and Christina and a, and then Igetting more intensive as it
went along, because I had adeadline. But, so so so that was
about six weeks of reallyintensive work, and then off of
that, they were able to, Ithink, raise enough money to
where it was pretty certain itwas gonna go into production.
(42:55):
And so then you're rewriting itmore for like, there's always a
couple of things that you wishwere better or that you know,
like, we're gonna have to figuresomething out for this, but you
just like don't have the time orenergy to. And so we reworked
some of that. And then it was alot of like, probably another
two or three months of tweaking.
Usually, when I'm writingscreenplays, I'm juggling other
(43:17):
stuff. So it's hard to, it's notlike I went to the Warner
Brothers lot each day and workedfor eight hours on the script,
and then, you know, hit mydeadline or something.
Jennifer Logue (43:31):
What are the three biggest lessons you
learned from making Vesper?
Brian Clark (43:35):
It's a great question. They're pretty
technical, to be honest. Oh,well, no, not at all. Okay, I'll
start with the non technicalone. Again, the importance of,
of, of collaboration andcollaboration without ego was a
huge one. Because this was thiswas one that I worked on, were
(43:56):
really from like, I don't know,maybe people who are more inside
could tell you differently, butlike, really, for me, from the
producers, to the directors toeverybody on set, like everybody
was really just committed tomaking the best movie possible.
And nobody was really like in itto like to like stroke their own
ego. And it was just like, areally nice experience. From an
(44:20):
end even like, yeah, even theconcept art was like extremely
crucial in writing this, thisscript and like, yeah, the
concept artists was amazing.
Like, everybody just like puttheir all into it. And so I
would say that like, again, thekind of like, myth of like, the
great, arrogant, confidentartists with ego. I mean, it's
(44:40):
important to know what you want,which they do, but like nobody
was in it for anything exceptfor the what was going on
screen. From a screenwritingpoint of view I learned, I mean,
these are almost related. One Imean as little dialogue as
possible, unless you're likeTarantino or something, or
(45:04):
unless it's like really likepurposeful, but in general,
like, even once I got on set andsort of saw the performances and
how the actors like inhabitedthe characters, I think I sent
them a draft with like, a bunchmore dialogue cuts. Because when
you're writing, I don't know,sometimes you need it to
(45:26):
convince people to fund themovie, but before production,
like cut half of the dialogue,because a lot of what you write
on the page, like the actorswill very much embody it, like
you won't have to say it, andthen it makes the scenes drag.
The other interesting thing wasjust how, I don't know if they
finished learning. But just whatworks on the page versus what
(45:51):
doesn't work on screen isinteresting. And I don't know, I
guess this is a, this is aquestion of, if you can get
better, I think you can, I thinkI feel better at like gauging
what will work on screen andwhat won't, but this is one
where like, you know, therewould be a scene where we all
agree, like, this is why it'shere that like, this is why this
style, like everything works.
(46:15):
And then you just watch it inthe movie. And it's really
boring. And so it gets cut. And,and again, that's not like
that's, that's part of theprocess. But it would be cool to
be a little bit more efficientand be able to like, self edit
earlier on. At least from ascreenwriting point of view.
Jennifer Logue (46:41):
For any aspiring screenwriters out there, what do
you know, now that you wish youknew, like 10 years ago?
Brian Clark (46:49):
Sure. Um, I think I already basically said it, it's
it's that the, the sort of mythof the like, honing your scripts
that would have been perfect forSchwarzenegger 15 years ago, or
whatever, I mean, the idea thatlike, you can just burst out of
the gate with an amazing like,giant spec script. So is, is
(47:10):
more a myth than ever. And, andthis doesn't apply to TV, which
is a whole world I don'tunderstand and seems actually
more writer friendly. But forscreenwriting, you're going to
need to find a more creativepath and, and that's why I do
recommend, even if, like, get asgood as you can at screenwriting
(47:31):
on your own, but also like finddirectors and producers, who you
like and trust and might want tocollaborate with and who like
your work. Because, and I mean,like at a, you know, almost at
your level or at a lower at anaccessible level. Because that's
really, to me the the mostdirect way into into
(47:55):
screenwriting as a profession.
Because I think that there'sstill this myth so that like, go
to enough seminars, and so on,have enough like 15 minute pitch
meetings or whatever that like,you'll just get through the
gate. And it's kind ofstaggering how untrue that is.
Jennifer Logue (48:17):
Well, thank you for sharing that. It's gonna be
valuable to someone out therewho aspires to this path.
Brian Clark (48:23):
Yeah, totally. Or they can. Yeah.
Jennifer Logue (48:25):
And what's next for you?
Brian Clark (48:27):
I'm working on I'm working on a new thing with
Brenna and Christina that Ican't really say too much about
except the X excited about it,I'm very excited to be working
with them again. Otherwise, I, Ihave other things in
(48:47):
development, which I'm probablytechnically allowed to talk
about, but it's just not evenworth. It's not worth it until
like, something kind of like,gets, like put in stone. So I've
kind of got the habit of not.
And then if if, if I get ontolike we're Bruna, and Christina
(49:09):
and I are still kind of likefeeling our way through with the
process of this new one's goingto be but once that's more of a
regular thing. I'd very much asmuch as I said, don't write a
spec script, bla bla bla, I'dlike to sort of for pleasure, go
back to my roots and just writea horror movie. It's spooky
season right now.
Jennifer Logue (49:31):
Oh, yeah. We do that. I feel like I need to
watch much of hard movies now.
And look at them from adifferent lens.
Brian Clark (49:39):
I mean, there's still like, I mean, it's still
is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,but but I think that there's
there's art to a lot of them andand yeah, like I said it was the
only thing where filmmakingseemed accessible to me when I
was when I was young.
Jennifer Logue (50:00):
And thank you so much for taking the time to
interview with us on creditspace. This is so fun. I'm so
glad it worked out totally. Formore information on Vesper, be
sure to visit Vesper movie.com,where you'll find where it's
screening next, and where youcan watch it online. And thank
you so much for tuning in andgrowing in creativity with us.
(50:21):
I'd love to know what youthought of today's episode. What
you found most interesting whatyou found most helpful. You can
reach out to me on social mediaat Jennifer Logue or leave a
review for creative space onApple podcasts so more people
can discover it. I appreciateyou so much for being here in
the beginning stages of this. Myname is Jennifer Logue and
(50:41):
thanks for listening to thisepisode of creative space. Until
next time,
Hello and welcome to creative space, a
Podcast where we explore, learnand grow in creativity. I'm your
host Jennifer Logue. And ontoday's episode, we have the
pleasure of speaking withscreenwriter Brian Clark. He has
quite the inspiring, creativejourney so far, getting his
start as a publicist in New YorkCity for films like Rachel
(00:31):
Getting Married Coco beforeChanel and the runaways He then
moved to Paris, where he workedas a film correspondent for
websites like movie line. Today,he resides in LA, where he co
founded the film seriesprojections and is busy as a
screenwriter, his latest filmVesper, which he co wrote with
(00:52):
Bruno Sampar, and Christinabougie. Tay was just released on
September 30 through IFC Films.
Brian, welcome to creativespace.
Brian Clark (01:02):
Thank you for having me. Hello.
Jennifer Logue (01:05):
Oh, my gosh, it's a pleasure. So I've got to
ask, you're in LA now you'vebeen all over the world. Where
are you from? Originally?
Brian Clark (01:12):
I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, actually. And
I lived there for 12 or 13 yearsand moved to Houston. Really?
The suburbs of Houston. And mostformative years, were there and
then I, yes. And then Austin toNew York, to Paris to Los
(01:39):
Angeles, where I am now.
Jennifer Logue (01:41):
Globetrotter, for sure. Did you always want to
be a screenwriter?
Brian Clark (01:48):
I always wanted to do something with movies. since
I can remember. I think I endedup gravitating towards
screenwriting, because it wassomething that I could practice
for free without help fromanybody has to I mean, directing
(02:13):
and a lot of other mean,cinematography. You need lots of
equipment and favors from peopleand money. And, and I don't
know, I guess at some point, itwas easier to just say, well, I
can work X job during the dayand then just go home and like,
(02:36):
right and and so yeah, I kind ofI don't think I really like
started gravitating towards likeI'm just going to raise
screenplays until probably my20s but I went to film school
and like, yeah, I made movieswith friends and stuff in high
school and yeah, ever even whenI was a kid, I would like have
(03:00):
Godzilla action figures smashingmicromachines that I would film
and like, make a movie out ofthat. So yeah, I always wanted
to do something with movies, butscreenwriting came. I don't
know. Seen necessity. That's notquite accurate. But But yeah,
ease. Ease of Access. Let's putit that way.
Jennifer Logue (03:21):
When did you first fall in love with movies?
Brian Clark (03:24):
I would say that it was the sort of overwhelming
advertising for movies that Iwasn't allowed to see that made
me kind of put them when I waswhen I was quite young. And
yeah, I don't know me. I mean,my parents were not like
extremely protectiveconservative people, but but I
(03:49):
would say that like wheneverybody else was seeing, like,
the dark Tim Burton Batmanmovie, even though they were
like eight years old, like Iwasn't allowed to see that. And
I would say that there was somesort of like, being denied this
thing that made me think from anearly age. Well, fine, I'm gonna
(04:09):
make a living making theseagain. Yeah, I guess that's
that's kind of there wasn't likea cinema experience where I was
like, Oh my gosh, like, I'mgonna do this. I think I always
liked playing games and I mean,play basically which is, which
(04:30):
is in the best case scenario,like what creativity can be. And
so I mean, I think at the sametime, the idea of being being
able to be paid to make upstories and tell them appealed
to me because all I was doingwhen I like played with friends
(04:50):
and stuff was making up stories.
So So yeah, I think the thosetwo kind of things together,
were what made me interested inworking and cinema.
Jennifer Logue (05:01):
Life is short, so we got to do it we love.
Yeah, yeah. Who inspired yougrowing up from an art
perspective from a movieperspective?
Brian Clark (05:10):
Good question. It was like definitely younger and
living in Baton Rouge. I wasjust like, watching action
movies on TV. And I liked thosea lot. And I like for probably
until the age of 14, the movietremors was just my favorite
(05:32):
movie and I would just watchtremors over again. I don't have
I feel like a lot of people youtalk to have some kind of, not
you. But like, general you havesome sort of formative moment
like I do remember crying at ET.
But all it made me think was Iwish he would stay not like oh
(05:53):
my god, I want to make movies. Iheard say when I got into high
school, I got really I mean, Ithink like a lot of specially
boys my age, like I got reallyinto horror movies and like
eighth and ninth grade andhorror movies. I don't know if
I've always kind of representedlike what I don't know, in some
(06:17):
sense, they feel accessible,like something you could see
yourself making because theydon't have big stars. And they
they're just like, the best onesare really like friends on
weekends with like, a bunch ofred corn syrup and like, and
like cool ideas. And I thinkthose are the first time that
(06:39):
like filmmaking seemedaccessible to me, because when I
would watch him move, when Iwould watch a movie with like
big stars, or lots of specialeffects and stuff is like wow,
like, Wouldn't it be cool to getsome way to give me millions of
dollars to do that. But actuallywatching stuff, like Evil Dead
in Texas Chainsaw Massacre andthese movies that were still
(07:01):
around 40 years later, but thatwere like made by Yeah, nerd
friends. And I mean, a kind ofgoes both ways on whether this
was a positive influence oneverybody. But yeah, for me like
that, that sort of made me awareof like cinematic style, and
(07:21):
sort of like the people behindthe movies like I definitely, by
10th grade that evil that toowas like more interesting than
Citizen Kane. And then I thinklater in high school I started
to get into Yeah, I started toget into like art films and
stuff. I remember. The firsttime I saw Polanski's repulsion,
(07:42):
it kind of blew my mind. Like, Ididn't know that movies could be
made that way. So I don't know.
But it was always genre. It wasalways genre movies that were
inspiring to me, because, again,they felt a little bit more they
felt like they were for theyfelt like they had a very
distinct point of view, the goodones, but they were also like
(08:04):
accessible to everybody, likesome are garbage. But some genre
movies are able to put a lot ofinteresting and subversive stuff
into that. And so the idea oflike being able to connect to
people, but still sort of have avoice was interesting to me. I
felt like I rambled there. But
Jennifer Logue (08:23):
no, it's interesting to me. So flash
forward to your time in NewYork, working on the PR side of
film, but what is the mostimportant lesson you learned? As
a publicist? Doing films,
Brian Clark (08:36):
I learned a lot about the business of releasing
films and sort of what happensto them after they're done. And
it was more like a I got someoverall perspective on how
everything actually worked.
Which, which was good in termsof like, you know, honing what
my creative goals were, you alsokind of see, like, how much I
(08:58):
mean, in New York at that time,with VOD, everything's changed.
But at that time, there wasn'tlike streaming services yet. It
was right before they werecoming in. And so there would
still be like, in New York,anywhere between 15 and 25
movies coming up each week, thatwe're never going to get outside
(09:21):
New York. And some of them itwas because they're like, too
good, like some, you know, like,saving Ling movie that that's
only going to that thedistributors decided is only
going to have an audience in NewYork, but then sometimes it was
just because it was kind of abad movie or not interesting
(09:41):
movie, like a movie that therewas no way whatever, like cut
through the noise. And so Iguess it was kind of interesting
to see how many movies reallygot made and how few of them
were able to like because Imean, part of it was like trying
to be a publisher. Historymovies that people didn't always
necessarily want to see, andoften for good reason. And so I
(10:05):
guess it was interesting to see.
Yeah, to get more perspective onthat. But I would say it was
better just sort of being in NewYork and having a job that
brought me close to people whoalso worked in film. And yeah,
and also, like I said, 25 moviesopen every week. And so it's
like, easily the best paid placein the United States for seeing
(10:28):
movies. And so both new and old.
And so sort of my film educationexpanded a lot by just being in
New York. Creatively, I didn'tlearn that much by being a
publicist. Business. Yeah, Ilearned things about the
business, and the business isimportant to know. But, but I'm
not sure it's, I don't know, Iwould say that sometimes, it's
(10:53):
almost better not to know ifit's sometimes easier to
convince yourself to like, tosort of just go in not knowing
what you're getting into and notknowing what you're up against.
So I had written before I becamea publicist, I wrote briefly for
The Austin Chronicle, when I gotout of University of Texas, I
wrote movie reviews for them,which, like, you know, wasn't
(11:16):
some kind of full time job tojust like, relax with, but at
the same time, like, probably,like, have more credibility than
any publication that I'vewritten for since then. And I
grew up, I mean, I think Ialluded to the fact that my
(11:36):
parents tried to keep me fromseeing a lot of the movies that
I wanted to see. And so another,another way around, that was I
would get, like, the giant booksfull of movie reviews, and just
read everything I could aboutthe movie that like, I couldn't
go to the theater to see. And soan A and so writing reviews of
(11:57):
movies came pretty easily. Tome. It's it just never seemed
like a viable career path.
Because, I mean, it's what like,I couldn't be exaggerating, but
like, I guess that there's 10film critics who make a living
(12:20):
full time, like who make adecent living full time, like
writing or views for films like,and it was, it was on its way
out then. And I feel like it'sgone that way even further. So
but being a publicist,definitely, like, I had to read
every review that was written, Ihad to go through every every,
(12:42):
you know, that I had, like, youknow, 15 film websites to go
through every morning. And soagain, I was very like, on top
of what was happening in thefilm world, and also what was
happening. Sort of what kind oftrends were going on and film
criticism, which, in hindsight,or really like not to its
(13:03):
betterment, but it probably itprobably. Yeah, it probably made
me more comfortable saying, oh,yeah, I can be like, I can like
write for the style of, youknow, blogs and stuff. Here from
Paris.
Jennifer Logue (13:21):
So what drew you to Paris? You said it was out of
necessity? Oh, I'm
Brian Clark (13:25):
not. I followed a girl who, who I'm now married to
so really well. Yeah. Well,yeah. I mean, the other thing
about publicity was, again, Iworked with really good people,
I did learn a lot of stuff. Iwasn't really that good at it.
So yeah, I met a girl who we hitit off very quickly. And then
(13:46):
very quickly after that, she gota job teaching in Paris, and
basically invited me to comealong. And I kind of realized
that I was sort of flounderingin New York at the time, I was
doing like, well enough at mypublicity job, that it was not
something that was going to be acareer. And I think that like my
bosses and I both knew that.
And, and but I didn't want toquit because I didn't know what
(14:10):
other job to get. And, and I waswriting. I was I was writing
screenplays at night but like, Iwasn't that close to anything
there. I think I was stillwriting screenplays with a
little bit of naivety aboutlike, how easy or hard it was to
like, sell a screenplay. Soanyway, so then I was just like,
(14:32):
well, let's try this. And if itdoesn't work, then then I'll
figure that out. But But I thinkI was feeling very, I've been
feeling very stuck for about ayear. And I think I was
frustrated with myself for notbeing able to make decisions to
get me unstuck and then so whenoffered with somebody who
actually wanted me to come withthem to Paris, and was willing
(14:54):
to roll with the fact that Ididn't have a plan I wisely took
that opportunity. And then yeah,and then kind of in serendipity
Movie Line, which was still awebsite at the time, everything
I've written for him folds arefolded into something else. But
they were looking for anovernight editor who was
(15:15):
overseas who could write newsarticles like and features,
basically when everyone else wassleeping because it'd be in a
different timezone. And a newSUV enters cell from publicity
stuff. And so I tried out forthat job and got it. So yeah,
that worked well for like, ninemonths or something in Paris,
(15:38):
and then I had to find otherstuff to do. But
Jennifer Logue (15:42):
cool. How has Paris informed your filmmaking
and your screenwriting? I would
Brian Clark (15:47):
say, I like Paris a lot. I lived there for three
years, and the quality of lifewas very good. And and I had
zero culture shock. I don't knowyou could argue about New York
and Paris at the time, I wouldsay Paris was a better place to
(16:08):
see movies than New York, NewYork's upped its game some but
in terms of especially likerepertory film and stuff. And
so, yeah, I mean, like, I sawmore movies there, like, per
week than I've ever done. I haveat any other point in my life,
but I would say, I would say themain thing that Paris did
besides like, I mean, besideslike, you know, you travel you
(16:34):
get more perspective, you findout more things about the world,
you meet different, all thosecliches are true. But I would
say that what Paris actually didwas sort of taught me how to be
happy in life withoutnecessarily like, being quote
unquote, successful. And so bythe time I moved to LA, the the
(16:54):
the sort of desperation that Ithink a lot of people have when
they're trying to, like, getinto the film industry, or any
creative type of industry was,was gone, at least for a while,
and it creeps back in. But yeah,I would say the biggest thing
was, was I felt sort of justlike, checked out of all of the
(17:17):
competition and stuff in theUnited States. And, and very
just kind of independently freeto like, experiment and like,
see where things went? Yeah, Iwould say that's still probably
the biggest impact that it hadon me, it was like, I sort of
just was quite content there,like more so than any other time
(17:39):
in my life and just sort of knowthat that was possible without a
ton of money or like a good job.
Quotes. Was was liberating.
Jennifer Logue (17:51):
That's huge, though, to be content they are
able to present in your art.
Yeah, and what you're creatingand give it your all like in
that regard. Uh huh.
Brian Clark (17:59):
Yeah. Yeah. And not to worry so much about whether
anybody likes it or what theythink of you for it. That's also
I mean, during that census,where I met Bruno, and
Christina, which we'll get to,which is how Vesper came about
to so that was 10 years ago, Imet them actually. So yeah, so
(18:21):
relationships from there havebeen impactful on my life.
Jennifer Logue (18:26):
Incredible. So now we're gonna get into the
part of the podcast where wetalk about creativity. In
general, what is your definitionof creativity?
Brian Clark (18:36):
I feel like, I mean, I feel like if I really
like dig deep in and what andlike, because it's honestly
something I don't think aboutvery often at all, and I think
it's, I think it's kind of oneof those words, there's a lot of
words now that really havealmost become like cliches, like
(18:57):
they don't have mean people saythem so much that they don't
really have any meaning. And Ithink that I've kind of
accepted, accepted it as ameaningless word when I when I
go like day to day. I mean, Ithink I said earlier that it's
about play. But I mean, I thinkthat like yeah, when you're when
(19:17):
you're, I mean, when you'retrying to be creative, and like
the good sense of the word. Imean, I think you're kind of
searching for this feeling wherethey were, where you're, where
you're doing something andyou're excited about what you're
doing, and it feels like maybeyou're the first person doing
it, there's nothing else. Idon't know how to say this
(19:38):
without using the word doingagain. But there's nothing else
that you'd rather be doing rightthen and I mean, it's a fleeting
feeling like you get it for acouple hours at a time. Like, if
you're lucky, like while you'retrying to like create something.
But I mean, I feel like I feellike the reason that people do
keep kind of going with art andcreation is sort of chasing that
(19:59):
or not people but I is kind ofchasing that feeling where you
were you really everything kindof clicks. And, and again, I
talked about how you know,movies came from a sense of just
like, well, I like playing andthat seems like what
storytelling is. And so when youcan actually feel like you're
(20:19):
just playing and actually havingfun. I think that that's, I
think that that's like the goodkind of creativity. But yeah, it
sort of became a buzzword usedto, like, make money. Yeah, I
mean, like everybody, like, youknow, like, Silicon Valley is
(20:40):
hiring janitors to think outsidethe box or whatever. On the job
application. And, and, I mean,maybe, maybe that's important,
but like, Yeah, I mean, it's aword that's just been hijacked.
And so like, hijacked by like,every sort of like, like, blood
sucking industry to mean, like,find a way to, to, to be more
(21:05):
efficient and make more money.
And, and that's what it meanssometimes to in our world,
unfortunately. But, but yeah, soSo I mean,
Jennifer Logue (21:18):
for you, it sounds like at its very core, at
its best it is there's a purityto creativity, and it's a flow
state. It's play alignment.
Brian Clark (21:30):
Yes, yes. I've heard until this first date on
podcasts that I listened to.
Yes. Yeah, I mean, like I said,it's just, it's, it's played
some when when you getcompletely consumed, and and
you're kind of joyful andexcited about something that
you're making, then, then I feellike that's kind of the best,
(21:53):
the best version of it. Andthen, you know, but like I said,
it's, it's a funny word,because, yeah, I mean, in my day
to day life, I had kind ofrelegated it into the bin of, of
meaningless words, which mightmean that or might mean like,
somebody found a way to, like,do the same amount of work with
(22:14):
half the workforce, because theywere thinking outside the box.
Jennifer Logue (22:22):
Definitely not on board with that definition.
Brian Clark (22:28):
It's such a ubiquitous word. So so yeah. But
I would say that generally. It'sfunny that I say play because
generally I think about it, it'swork is because because, be it
because of maturity or thedemands of the world. I mean,
you you you don't get into thatstate of mind often. And a lot
(22:52):
of times you're kind of justdoing the work. You're kind of
chasing that or I am
Jennifer Logue (22:57):
there's a lot of discipline involved with being a
screenwriter, what is somethingthat the average person who
romanticize the idea of being ascreenwriter, you know, what is
it actually like,
Brian Clark (23:09):
oh, okay, I don't want to sound like a curmudgeon,
here. Um, I feel like if youread like interviews of
screenwriters, and screenwritingbooks, except for like some of
the most successful ones likethe top 1%, who are just like,
doing awesome, they'll have alot of really bitter things to
(23:30):
say about being a screenwriterand then the but then at the
end, they'll kind of caveatlike, but it's really so awesome
because I'm making up storiesand blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, and I wouldn't trade itfor anything. Um, in terms of
what people people whoromanticize screenwriting, what
they don't know. The experiencevaries like very, very greatly
(23:53):
with Vesper, it was a pleasurebecause because I was close
friends with the directors andbecause it felt it felt very
collaborative and they were likeeven sending me cuts and I don't
know we like we all and we alltrusted each other and it really
(24:13):
you know, at times like you Youfinish it and you read it and
you're like wow, I created thislike this is this is kind of
amazing and in its own way likeI don't feel like I've seen
anything like this before and soand so all of that is can be can
be quite good if you if you findif you find good partners to
(24:37):
work with I guess I would saymaybe that like it's not it
seems like it should be solitarybut like if you do it solitary
the process can be quite nice.
But the business side of it canreally is probably the opposite
of everything the you if youromanticize it at all. I would
say that the business Is is, isgoing to be a letdown. And I
(25:02):
guess the other sort ofmisconception maybe this isn't
still a misconception, but Ithink it is. I feel like a lot
of people have this sort ofmisconception that like, I
certainly did. And I wascertainly told this and I think
a lot of screenwriting books andclasses and seminars are kind of
premised on this idea wherelike, Oh, if you just write an
(25:23):
original script that everybodyloves, like your goal, like
actors, and it's really, I mean,your chances are better I think
at winning the lottery, likejust like coming, bustin out of
nowhere with like, the scriptsthat everybody likes. The market
for spec scripts spec scriptsare scripts that you like, wrote
(25:47):
on your own, and then like, taketo an agent or whatever, and the
agent takes them out. In the90s, I think it was like pretty
big people were like, gettingthe like, you'd be like, oh, so
and so from Wisconsin just got amillion dollar deal. And like,
Shane Black and Joe Astor house,they're getting this and this,
and it's not really like thatanymore, because it's so driven
(26:09):
by IP, by like, you know,adaptations or it's going to be
like, independent. And so whatI've found, the hard way is it's
it's better to sort of likechoose collaborators in advance
and instead of like creatingyour own perfect screenplay,
(26:31):
which you can, but like, itwon't turn out that way, as a
movie. It's, it's actually alittle bit more practical to
find directors who may be areaccessible who haven't made like
bajillion dollar movies yet, whoneeds screenwriters and like,
find people that you're on thesame page with and, and
(26:52):
collaborate some like if adirector has an idea for a
script, but they're too busydoing other stuff? Like, that
can be something that reallyworks nicely and can get your
vision there without, withoutgoing through the rigmarole of
like having a billion peoplegive you notes that are often
(27:13):
stupid, and then the screenplaysstill not selling?
Jennifer Logue (27:19):
So with just ideas for screenplays in
general, how do you know? I'msure you get ideas all the time?
How do you know? Okay, we haveto do scripts on this, like we
have to film about this? Yeah,gosh,
Brian Clark (27:36):
that's a question that I still don't fully know,
the answer to my kind of stockresponse for a long time was
just like, if, I mean, becauseyou get kind of ideas all the
time, like everybody gets ideasall the time. And, and so I
would say forget 90% of theideas that I have, like, I guess
(27:58):
some people like carry onnotebooks and write everything
down. I carry on notebooks, Iwrite some stuff down when it's
like convenient. But generally,it would be the ideas that kind
of like keep coming back. And,and that you keep kind of
building on in your mind. Andthat some at some point, you
(28:20):
could be like, you know, walkingand just getting more and more
excited. And then like a weeklater, the same thing happens.
Yeah, I would say it's mostlythe ideas that won't leave you
alone. And then also theconverse side of that converse,
inverse, I'm not even sureinverse, probably. opposite of
(28:42):
that. I mean, I've heard likethat, you'd be just as you'd be,
you do just as well. Takingmaybe like, I don't know, giving
yourself like a setting acharacter and an object that you
have no personal attachment toand telling yourself you need to
write a blank genre script outof this. Sometimes by writing
(29:05):
about something that you thinkyou're detached from, you can
actually go deeper become morepersonal. And yeah, I've done
I've done like I said, aftersort of the first thing that I
did, that was just like mehaving fun in France and writing
a script, like got bought andmade and the you know, it's
(29:26):
fine. The director and I weren'ton the same wavelength from
square one. And I don't want tomake it like too dramatic. But I
mean, in terms of like, itwasn't anything like the script
that I wrote. And it wasn't likethe the final movie wasn't like,
the thing. Like it didn't reallymake much sense. Which is like,
fine, it happens. I try not tobe precious. But then after that
(29:46):
was when I decided, Oh, I'mgoing to try to work with
directors who I already know.
And sometimes, like, a directorwill be like, I have this idea
that I want to make for a movie.
And it'll I'll be able toactually go little bit deeper
like working with their idea andcould because no matter what,
like no matter what story you'retelling, you're going to be
(30:08):
putting your own, like,personality and style and voice.
And so, so yeah, I would almostsay that ideas are maybe a
little bit overrated. In everycreative field, maybe at least
in at least in sort ofscreenwriting. It's, it's a lot
(30:32):
more about the execution and
Jennifer Logue (30:36):
each of the word right on my mouth, yeah, it's,
it's really execution, it'severything, you can have a
really cool idea. But if you'renot able to pull it off, in the
way that it is communicated, andif it doesn't manifest out of
your head, totally, the way itcould, it's just gonna fall
flat, right.
Brian Clark (30:53):
And if you're not willing to do the work, like I
am, lots of friends who I wouldsay are more. And if you define
creative, which I think day today actually define creative as
like having great ideas thatnobody else has thought of
before, like is the simpleversion. I have lots of friends
who are more creative than me,the but but they don't, you
know, they just like, bring outtheir ideas and joke and move on
(31:16):
with their lives. And that'sfine. Like, that's what they
want to do. But, but I mean, youalso have to sort of sit down
and do the work and like, chiselaway at the idea to really make
it into anything.
Jennifer Logue (31:30):
Sacrificing that there's time, you know, like,
people don't see all the hardhours you put in, like the
sacrifices you make
Brian Clark (31:38):
totally, until they try it.
Jennifer Logue (31:43):
Back on the subject of Vesper, you
collaborate with Bruno andChristina on the script. Yep.
And you're working on moreprojects with them currently.
And what do you love about thisparticular team you're part of.
Brian Clark (31:56):
So before Vesper, we had written, we actually had
written another script from sortof conception to completion.
Which Which option but didn'tend up getting made. And, you
know, collaboration can be canbe difficult and can be touching
(32:17):
go like, even with like yourclosest friends, like I know,
people who have gone to likecouples counseling counseling
for like, for just like, theircollaboration, their artistic
collaborations with people. And,and so I think at this point,
there's sort of mutual trust.
And, I mean, we started offobviously, because we liked each
(32:40):
other, I saw their first or nottheir first film, but their
previous film vanishing waves inParis at a film festival, and I
was really struck by it, and gotto know them because of that.
And, and we also had kind of asimilar like, passion for
cinema. And we, we liked andwe're also annoyed by the same
(33:01):
things. And so you kind of comein with that, like, okay, where
people like we like each other.
But once you get into thecollaboration, I mean, there's,
there's a certain there's acertain like trust and mutual
respect, that probably has to beearned, some people are better
(33:24):
at maintaining it. And somepeople, it takes a little while.
And I think at this point withVesper, we finally have that
now, which is nice, because wehave like a sort of, we have a
shared vocabulary of movies, butwe also we also kind of know
(33:44):
how, how we work with eachother. And like, what each
other's strengths are and so onand so forth. So yeah, I don't
know, I guess it's it's reallyabout surviving, like the rocky
parts and the uncertainty andcoming out stronger. You start
(34:05):
working together for one reason,and then that reasons still
there. But then over time, asort of trust and respect comm.
I like working with them,because they generally know what
they want. Unlike a lot ofpeople that I've taken notes
from on scripts that like Iwrote, their notes, we're always
(34:29):
about, like, there's very fewtimes where they have a note
where I think you're just makingthe script worse, or you're just
some people like to just changethings so that they feel like
they did something like an egotype thing, and that's like
never, and so like, it seemslike it streamlines that whole
part of the process. Where Iknow that like any sort of extra
(34:53):
work that I'm doing is to makethe thing better, and I never I
never feel like I'm just beingI'm just kind I've like running
around the block so thatsomebody felt like they did
something. And yeah,
Jennifer Logue (35:06):
no, no. How did you meet? You said you met them
in Paris?
Brian Clark (35:12):
Yeah. I met them because I was living in Paris.
This is when I was covering filmfestivals, a lot of genre film
festivals for a site that at thetime was called Twitch film. And
now it's called Screen anarchy.
And so I had seen vanishingwaves at a festival in Paris,
but I didn't meet either ofthem. And then I met Bruno at a
festival in Spain, where it wasshowing and we really liked
(35:36):
talking to each other and stayedin touch. And then I met
Christina, because they werekind of like a splitting up Film
Festival duties on the movie.
And I met Christina andBrussels. And yeah, we just kept
in touch. And then they came toLA for meetings several years
after I'd moved here. And we'relike, well, let's try writing a
(35:58):
script. And then again, it kindof went from there. I don't I
mean, I don't know if they Isure didn't think it would
actually go this long. It wasmore like, like, I think we were
having drinks and they werelike, Yeah, we should try to
raise spirits. We've got thesetwo ideas. What about this one?
And I'm like, Yeah, that's notwe can make that a script. And,
(36:20):
and so I met them that I metthem because I was I was a fan
of their movie and, and it was avery, kind of creative and
striking movie. But outsideenough of the mainstream or
like, they weren't, you know,they didn't have Hollywood like
knocking at their door oranything. And so um, yeah, we
(36:41):
became friends that way. Andwe're friends first, and yeah.
Jennifer Logue (36:46):
And it just happened organically. The best
thing is do Yeah, yeah. Whatinspired Vesper? Like was there
a seed of an idea,
Brian Clark (36:54):
seed, how to get the best for. So the Vesper my
job. And I guess you're askingabout romantic ideas about
screenwriters. My job wasdifferent on Vesper than it was
on the previous scripts that wewrote, because after that one, I
(37:15):
think we both kind of likeneeded a break after the
previous script. And theystarted, I took a different job
and started developing thisother project, and they sort of
started writing the story thatwould become Vesper. There, we
(37:35):
tried to make a script thatwould get done in like America,
with the one we wrote previousto Vesper and didn't quite pan
out. And so they're like, Okay,we'll make another movie in
Lithuania, where we can, no, wecan at least get some funding.
The idea for them I thinkstarted by saying, Okay, we're
gonna make a movie and Lithuaniaand the forests and Lithuania
(37:57):
have this very, like fairy tale,brother like, like brothers grim
look. And so they're like, Okay,we want to do kind of a fairy
tale movie and Lithuania. Andthen Bruno especially reads like
a lot of he seems to read like alot of articles about like, new
(38:17):
science and stuff. And so theTerminator seeds, the I don't
know, if the seeds that theseeds invest for Vespers, in a
world where sort of the richpeople sell seeds that are coded
to only produce one harvestthose exists already, like
they've already figured out howto make those. And yeah, really
(38:40):
cool. And so yeah, I think theystarted building the world that
way. And a, they have beeninterested in the idea of
biotechnology as opposed to sortof the cyber internet like
dystopia that everybody else isgoing towards the idea that
like, actually, like genemodification could like overtake
(39:04):
overtake the sort of mechanicalelectronic technology that we
have now to where all of ourtechnology would be essentially
organic or organic seeming butlike engineered by humans, so
yeah, they put that all togetherand and basically came to me
(39:24):
with the story and the worldlike honestly, the world of the
movie pretty fully formed likewe worked challenge with so then
when it got to me, sorry, sothen the challenge with it once
it got to me is you can create awhole world again and you've got
ideas, but it's like how do youmake sure that the audience is
(39:46):
immersed in this world withoutlike, explaining too much or not
explaining enough? I mean, youdon't really you know, if you
have like a new sci fi futurethat people have never seen
before and then somebody's like,I remember when they first
started engineering, the seedsonly produce one harvest and
then these crazy plant likenobody put it takes people out
(40:08):
of the movie. And, and so a lotof we had a lot of conversations
about how much information togive the audience and what we
could show visually. And yeah,sort of, I mean, beyond like the
characters and story which wegot to like how to really like
hone the world building, like interms of the narrative. And so
(40:31):
yeah, that's a long answer tothat question. But
Jennifer Logue (40:34):
I was blown away by it. Like the story, the
acting, the cinematography. AndI'm really excited to see where
it goes for you all. Like itjust got released official
right? September 30. Yeah, it
Brian Clark (40:46):
came out September 30. I think it's probably out of
theaters by now. But it's, it'sdoing pretty well on VOD. And,
yeah, I think it'll be I'm, I'mno, I'm very pleased with it.
Which is, you know, not?
Sometimes you write a script,and you're pleased with it, and
then you see the movie? No, no,I'm very pleased with how it
(41:11):
came out. And I think that,actually, it was more important
for me than then even right nowis I think it will be
remembered. And I think it willactually, I don't know, I think
with some hindsight, I thinkit'll be potentially perceived
better, because people can kindof take when movies come out,
like there's a whole set ofexpectations that people have.
(41:34):
And, like, I don't know, whenBladerunner came out, everybody
hated it. I guess it had thatstupid narration. So maybe, I
don't know. But in any case, Ifeel like sometimes movies once
people sort of like once thepeople who like it, sort of
like, you know, spread the word,and people watch it sort of on
the movies on terms instead oftheir expectations. I think it
(41:55):
will be remembered well. And Isay that objectively, I could I
could be wrong, but
Jennifer Logue (42:04):
how long did it take you to write the script?
For Vesper?
Brian Clark (42:07):
Um,
Jennifer Logue (42:09):
you had the story
Brian Clark (42:10):
had the story, but there were changes to the story.
Again, a lot of Yeah, and evenlike long sort of scene
sequences, actually, the entireclimax was changed to, um, it's
one of those things where, like,I'd say that the first draft I
did was six weeks of veryintensive work like day, and
(42:32):
then I and then, probably aseven hour meeting with Bruno
and Christina and a, and then Igetting more intensive as it
went along, because I had adeadline. But, so so so that was
about six weeks of reallyintensive work, and then off of
that, they were able to, Ithink, raise enough money to
where it was pretty certain itwas gonna go into production.
(42:55):
And so then you're rewriting itmore for like, there's always a
couple of things that you wishwere better or that you know,
like, we're gonna have to figuresomething out for this, but you
just like don't have the time orenergy to. And so we reworked
some of that. And then it was alot of like, probably another
two or three months of tweaking.
Usually, when I'm writingscreenplays, I'm juggling other
(43:17):
stuff. So it's hard to, it's notlike I went to the Warner
Brothers lot each day and workedfor eight hours on the script,
and then, you know, hit mydeadline or something.
Jennifer Logue (43:31):
What are the three biggest lessons you
learned from making Vesper?
Brian Clark (43:35):
It's a great question. They're pretty
technical, to be honest. Oh,well, no, not at all. Okay, I'll
start with the non technicalone. Again, the importance of,
of, of collaboration andcollaboration without ego was a
huge one. Because this was thiswas one that I worked on, were
(43:56):
really from like, I don't know,maybe people who are more inside
could tell you differently, butlike, really, for me, from the
producers, to the directors toeverybody on set, like everybody
was really just committed tomaking the best movie possible.
And nobody was really like in itto like to like stroke their own
ego. And it was just like, areally nice experience. From an
(44:20):
end even like, yeah, even theconcept art was like extremely
crucial in writing this, thisscript and like, yeah, the
concept artists was amazing.
Like, everybody just like puttheir all into it. And so I
would say that like, again, thekind of like, myth of like, the
great, arrogant, confidentartists with ego. I mean, it's
(44:40):
important to know what you want,which they do, but like nobody
was in it for anything exceptfor the what was going on
screen. From a screenwritingpoint of view I learned, I mean,
these are almost related. One Imean as little dialogue as
possible, unless you're likeTarantino or something, or
(45:04):
unless it's like really likepurposeful, but in general,
like, even once I got on set andsort of saw the performances and
how the actors like inhabitedthe characters, I think I sent
them a draft with like, a bunchmore dialogue cuts. Because when
you're writing, I don't know,sometimes you need it to
(45:26):
convince people to fund themovie, but before production,
like cut half of the dialogue,because a lot of what you write
on the page, like the actorswill very much embody it, like
you won't have to say it, andthen it makes the scenes drag.
The other interesting thing wasjust how, I don't know if they
finished learning. But just whatworks on the page versus what
(45:51):
doesn't work on screen isinteresting. And I don't know, I
guess this is a, this is aquestion of, if you can get
better, I think you can, I thinkI feel better at like gauging
what will work on screen andwhat won't, but this is one
where like, you know, therewould be a scene where we all
agree, like, this is why it'shere that like, this is why this
style, like everything works.
(46:15):
And then you just watch it inthe movie. And it's really
boring. And so it gets cut. And,and again, that's not like
that's, that's part of theprocess. But it would be cool to
be a little bit more efficientand be able to like, self edit
earlier on. At least from ascreenwriting point of view.
Jennifer Logue (46:41):
For any aspiring screenwriters out there, what do
you know, now that you wish youknew, like 10 years ago?
Brian Clark (46:49):
Sure. Um, I think I already basically said it, it's
it's that the, the sort of mythof the like, honing your scripts
that would have been perfect forSchwarzenegger 15 years ago, or
whatever, I mean, the idea thatlike, you can just burst out of
the gate with an amazing like,giant spec script. So is, is
(47:10):
more a myth than ever. And, andthis doesn't apply to TV, which
is a whole world I don'tunderstand and seems actually
more writer friendly. But forscreenwriting, you're going to
need to find a more creativepath and, and that's why I do
recommend, even if, like, get asgood as you can at screenwriting
(47:31):
on your own, but also like finddirectors and producers, who you
like and trust and might want tocollaborate with and who like
your work. Because, and I mean,like at a, you know, almost at
your level or at a lower at anaccessible level. Because that's
really, to me the the mostdirect way into into
(47:55):
screenwriting as a profession.
Because I think that there'sstill this myth so that like, go
to enough seminars, and so on,have enough like 15 minute pitch
meetings or whatever that like,you'll just get through the
gate. And it's kind ofstaggering how untrue that is.
Jennifer Logue (48:17):
Well, thank you for sharing that. It's gonna be
valuable to someone out therewho aspires to this path.
Brian Clark (48:23):
Yeah, totally. Or they can. Yeah.
Jennifer Logue (48:25):
And what's next for you?
Brian Clark (48:27):
I'm working on I'm working on a new thing with
Brenna and Christina that Ican't really say too much about
except the X excited about it,I'm very excited to be working
with them again. Otherwise, I, Ihave other things in
(48:47):
development, which I'm probablytechnically allowed to talk
about, but it's just not evenworth. It's not worth it until
like, something kind of like,gets, like put in stone. So I've
kind of got the habit of not.
And then if if, if I get ontolike we're Bruna, and Christina
(49:09):
and I are still kind of likefeeling our way through with the
process of this new one's goingto be but once that's more of a
regular thing. I'd very much asmuch as I said, don't write a
spec script, bla bla bla, I'dlike to sort of for pleasure, go
back to my roots and just writea horror movie. It's spooky
season right now.
Jennifer Logue (49:31):
Oh, yeah. We do that. I feel like I need to
watch much of hard movies now.
And look at them from adifferent lens.
Brian Clark (49:39):
I mean, there's still like, I mean, it's still
is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,but but I think that there's
there's art to a lot of them andand yeah, like I said it was the
only thing where filmmakingseemed accessible to me when I
was when I was young.
Jennifer Logue (50:00):
And thank you so much for taking the time to
interview with us on creditspace. This is so fun. I'm so
glad it worked out totally. Formore information on Vesper, be
sure to visit Vesper movie.com,where you'll find where it's
screening next, and where youcan watch it online. And thank
you so much for tuning in andgrowing in creativity with us.
(50:21):
I'd love to know what youthought of today's episode. What
you found most interesting whatyou found most helpful. You can
reach out to me on social mediaat Jennifer Logue or leave a
review for creative space onApple podcasts so more people
can discover it. I appreciateyou so much for being here in
the beginning stages of this. Myname is Jennifer Logue and
(50:41):
thanks for listening to thisepisode of creative space. Until
next time,
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