Marc Scott Zicree, Screenwriter/Author: If you take responsibility and if you take power and if you decide that the one person who will be responsible for your success is you, then you can’t be stopped. There’s no way to stop you, you’re on your path.
Film Courage: How does a screenwriter know that what they’ve written is good?
Marc: Writers are often misled in their own opinions of their work. They think the script is great when it’s really not. You need response from others and you need to really listen and not defend your work. When you work in a mass medium and you hear back from your fans or the show is a success then you know. Also, as you get more and more polished in your craft, you often know. You know when something is at least competent, you know what will work. But the funny thing is I often write scripts and Elaine [Zicree] is the person I get notes from and she often says This needs to be better, this needs to go deeper. It’s like Okay…and that’s good because if something doesn’t have the depth or the emotional line I need to know that and frankly I wrote one of this two-hour script of Space Command and we could absolutely shoot that draft, we absolutely could. It would more or less work but it’s not good enough so we’re going to scrap that entire draft and start over again. I’ve actually already done that and there’s characters we won’t see that they’re in there and those characters work but the story as a whole isn’t as good as we can make it. So we’re going to go back to the drawing board and that’s fine. It’s harder work but eventually I may publish the lost worlds of Space Command and include that script so people can see where it started because it’s an entertaining read but I need people in my life who tell me if something’s working or not. At some point you draw the line and you say Okay we’re rocking and rolling, we’re not going to because you can endlessly rewrite and there’s a point where that’s again where television is good if they’re shooting on Monday, you have got to…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
CHECK OUT THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMMENTARIES:
Marc also recorded the commentaries of 54 Twilight Zone episodes on a BluRay set. Now, he’s completing the commentaries of all the remaining episodes – 156 episodes in total – and YOU can be a part of it.
Visit Twilightzonecommentaries.com.
BIO:
Marc Scott Zicree is the author of THE TWILIGHT ZONE COMPANION and has written for shows such as STAR TREK – THE NEXT GENERATION, SLIDERS, DEEP SPACE NINE, BABYLON 5, SMURFS, HE-MAN, REAL GHOSTBUSTERS and many more. Marc and his wife Elaine Zicree have worked for virtually all the major studios and networks. In addition to writing, directing and producing great projects for film, TV and books (including the forthcoming GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S CABINET OF CURIOSITIES), Marc and Elaine mentor thousands of others toward successful careers in the Industry via The Table industry roundtable meetings.
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