Film Courage: How many screenplays have you written?
Byron Q., Writer/Director: Probably around 17 or 18.
Film Courage: These are feature length?
Byron: It’s a mix. Pilots as well as features, actually mostly features, maybe five pilots.
Film Courage: Is your process always the same?
Byron: No, my process changes with every script. Although recently I’ve found my process that really works. In the beginning I was trying different processes to see what works best for me. I’ve done the note cards, I’ve done where I just start with a blank page and just start writing a script. Now what works for me is I’ll start with a treatment and then from that I’ll go to a script (a first draft) and then from there I’ll go back to the treatment. A lot of times I’m going to a script just to explore because a lot of times the ideas come to me as I’m writing an actual scene and I’ll start figuring out things after I’ve done a vomit draft. Then I’ll start seeing okay these are the characters and this is what I’m really trying to do but then I kind of throw that away. In order to throw that away I have to go back to an actual blank page and I’ll start with the treatment again because a lot of times things might change around structurally.
Film Courage: For some of the screenplays that you’ve written which take place in more of an underworld or have a criminal element, did you ever immerse yourself in a bar in a bad part of town to soak up the feeling?
Byron: When I was making a Las Vegas story…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
Byron Q is a Chinese American writer/director originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. His first film Bang Bang won the Best 1st feature jury award at the 2011 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. The film went on to gain a cult following within the Asian American street culture. His last feature, Las Vegas Story, starred Eric Roberts, is distributed by Indie Rights. He is repped by Housefire Management. Byron recently completed a successful $25,000 Kickstarter campaign for a short sci-fi film entitled Killing of a Machine which plans on using Virtual Production workflows and Unreal Engine.
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