[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: When did you start believing that your writing could actually be turned into a movie?
Bill Mikita, Screenwriter: Well, I don’t know if I’ve ever…I guess from the first time I started writing I had that belief that what I was writing could be a movie.
I think most writers carry that with them and as the force behind wanting to get this movie made is that I think my script is good enough to be a movie.
Even in my first screenplay, I believed in it enough that I almost sold it. I think that has to be part of your constitution as a writer that you believe that what you’re going to write the next three to four months and five months of your life, that you’re writing this that it’s it’s going to be worth making it as a film.
Film Courage: So here you’re writing in the basement so to speak or maybe truly and you’re working at this [law] firm most of the people there maybe at the beginning didn’t know and you’re taking meetings and it’s fascinating. Just like you said earlier I think it was the Robert McKee quote about writers seeing things in two ways?
Bill: Right.
Film Courage: What’s really happening to them and then split off how is this a part of a story.
Bill: Correct.
Film Courage: It was almost as if you were living this in some sense? That’s fascinating.
Bill: Yeah…maybe. I’ve never thought of it that way, but in a way yeah, my life was somewhat schizophrenic,
Film Courage: Right yeah but in a good way. I mean schizophrenic in a good way.
Bill: [Laughs] Yeah, don’t ask my wife. Certain days she might have wanted me committed. I don’t know how many other people have done it but I had a lot of people tell me:
You can’t…you cannot do what you think you’re doing.
You can’t…you cannot be writing.
I was too old. I was 30 already. I had people tell me I was too old, that you started too old. I had people sitting across a desk from me.
How do you address that? How do you make that better? How am I going to change that? It’s just an insult, it’s just a criticism. It’s not like saying:
You’ve got to spend more time on your main character.
I mean somebody just says:
You’re too old.
What’s that right? You get those kinds of things in life.
I got to a point, maybe because I was older and I did have limited time, but I got less patient with people. When I would talk to a producer who read my script and he gave me this answer, I would just say:
What does that mean? I don’t even know what you mean by that?
I would get confrontative. One guy said:
You can’t talk to people like that in Hollywood.
I said:
Well I am.
I also learned that a lot of producers needed me more than I needed them. I learned how to discern in a very short period of time whether the person I was sitting across the desk from could help me.
Film Courage: How so?
Bill: Just a gut feeling. What were their credits? How did they address it? What they would tell me, they would start telling me how…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
WATCH ‘CHASING 3000’
CONNECT WITH BILL MIKITA
About:
Bill Mikita was born in Steubenville, Ohio, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Brewer’s Boys, Chasing 3000 (2010) and Medal of Honor: American Heroes. He has been married to Pattie White Mikita since February 25, 1978. They have four children.
Advertisement – contains affiliate links:
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
