[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]
Film Courage: What was your writing process on your first screenplay?
Steven Shea, Filmmaker: I took a writing course in college at Valencia College (after I had left UCF) and during the course of the class you had to write a script. I wrote the script which ended up being my first screenplay there. I was really influenced by a humanities class that I had taken there that was basically like a Biblical history lesson. I grew up going to a Christian School from kindergarten through 11th grade, so I’d read the Bible back and forth, I was definitely one of those smart kids that was like Wait a minute, the Old Testament says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the New Testament says turn to the other cheek? Which one does God want me to do? And he’d be like [imitates teacher dismay] but I was very inspired by the actual historical references.
I wrote a screenplay based on the Book of Lilith which is a deleted book in the Bible about the true Genesis before. I wrote that script while in screenwriting class and I realized very quickly okay to make a movie you’ve got to utilize what you have, so I’m like we have a house by a lake, we have actors, we have this stuff all. I’m going to write a movie about a house by a lake with the things we have access to that won’t cost us anything. I wrote this script during that class and I’m sure it had certain structures that you had to follow for your grades and everything but that’s how I did that first script. I was actually kind of sad about that, a couple years later I made the movie and then the movie came out and I ran into…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BIO:
International Award-Winning, STEVEN SHEA has been working in the entertainment industry since he was 16 years old. Starting out in the local television market in the Florida Keys where he grew up, he eventually made his way to Orlando where he founded Abyssmal Entertainment in 2002. His first feature film he wrote and directed, “The Night Owl”, was distributed globally in the Summer of 2005. In 2008, “Hoodoo For Voodoo”, Steven’s 2nd feature he wrote and directed was released on DVD. Steven garnered some awards on the international festival circuit with the horrific short film “2:22” in 2009, which has been distributed through Hulu & FearNet. “Doomsday County” is a horror anthology film that he co-directed and produced that was released worldwide through Troma Inc in 2013. The comedy web series “The Interrogationists” was released in the summer of 2014 through Funny Or Die. His latest feature is the Documentary “Surviving Supercon” that was completed in 2019. Steven had directed over 25 music videos, for such artists as Kitty In A Casket, The Hellfreaks, The Dollyrots, The Attack, The Bloody Jug Band, WhiteQube and The Crazy Carls. As an award winning photographer, Steven has directed and shot such talent as Harrison Ford, Louise Fletcher, Roger Corman, Deepak Chopra, Lin Shaye, Mark McGrath, Denise Richards, Vivica A. Fox, Rick Fox, Juliana Harkavy and many more. He was a Producer on the feature films Last Shift, Rockabilly Zombie Weekend, The Unbroken, Deadly Weekend, Two Days, and Andre the Butcher. As well as Producer for the Disney Channel series Game On!
Steven’s latest film is SURVIVING SUPERCON, a zany behind the scenes look at how a rag-tag Mom & Pop organization pulls off one the biggest pop culture conventions in the United States.
CONNECT WITH STEVEN SHEA
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