[Watch the video interview on YouTube here]
Film Courage: Pedro, I believe you said you’re Type A when it comes to building and breaking down a story. What does this mean?
Pedro Correa, Actor/Filmmaker: Type A. I think it means obsessive and annoying, which I fully wear as a badge of honor.
I know a lot of writers who I’m friends with who are a little bit more free flowing. That’s always shocking to me because when I first learned how to write properly, when I first got Save the Cat, when I was in my late teens and started reading that.
I was like,
Oh, there’s like a method behind the madness.
I got obsessed with that.
I wanted to learn everything under the sun so that I could break it all.
I find that to be important in my process where let me turn over every single stone, use every single tool that I appreciate.
That’s helpful to me so I know where I can get away with breaking the pattern and breaking the convention.
Film Courage: So, “you can’t break the rules until you know the rules” type of thing?
Pedro: That’s how I feel. I didn’t always feel that way.
Writing My Dead Dad, my first movie, it’s definitely more of a conventional story, like that was another Pedro.
My third film and fourth film and fifth film will be all different Pedro.
But understanding how to build that kind of foundation, I’m looking at it anyway I can, kind of hit it with an axe essentially.
Film Courage: You said previously that using Final Draft was important to you.
Do you always use screenwriting software or do you sometimes just handwrite?
Pedro: I love to handwrite. It depends what stage I’m at in the process, but in ideation stage I love to handwrite and I don’t know exactly what it is.
Number one, it’s just so easy to get distracted with something that has internet on it.
First of all, that’s my own problem. But I think it goes beyond that where there’s something…(Watch the video interview on YouTube here).
BIO:
Pedro Correa most recently co-wrote (with Fabio Frey), produced and stars-in the coming-of-age drama My Dead Dad (2021) executive produced by Declan Baldwin of Big Indie Pictures (Manchester by the Sea). In-front of the camera, he has recurred on ABC’s hit sitcom The Middle (2009), and has worked with the likes of Hulu, Disney, Syfy and more. Behind the camera, Pedro served as director for celebrity short films in the digital divisions of GQ Thailand, Esquire Singapore, Marie Claire Malaysia and Flaunt Magazine. Stars he directed include; Nick Jonas, Ruby Rose, Constance Wu and many more.
My Dead Dad is a story of a young burnout who discovers his estranged father is dead, leaving him the responsibility of managing an apartment complex. With hopes of cutting ties, he’s forced to grow up, learning about the dad he never knew through the eclectic tenants.
My Dead Dad is directed by Fabio Frey, co-written by Pedro Correa and Fabio Frey. The film stars Pedro Correa, Raymond Cruz, Courtney Dietz, Simon Rex, Booboo Stewart, Chris Pontius, and Steven Bauer
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