"I'm Making My Script Frenzy Script!" A Q&A with Stephen Norrington

As Script Frenzy grows, more and more established filmmakers are getting in on the fun. Writer/director Stephen Norrington, best known for directing Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen , began shooting his Script Frenzy screenplay in Los Angeles this year. We checked in with Stephen via the interwebs to see how the project was going.

Your current film project has its origins in Script Frenzy. What's the story there? In 2008 I was developing Clash of the Titans but it wasn't going well. Warner Brothers were lukewarm on my "vision" and I wanted to rewrite their expensive script. In the six months or so it took them to fire me, I cast around for something else I could do to stay productive. Script Frenzy 2008 was happening at that time so I leapt in, blazing with all the art power that Warner Brothers had squelched. The result was "Untitled Norrington Genre Project #1", a car chase action fest that turned out great, best script I've written in years.

The life-changing thing about the experience was the absolute exhilaration that came from writing whatever came to mind, no need to ask permission from the suits. After Script Frenzy finished I was still on fire so I wrote two more scripts and embarked on two more writer-director development deals. The scripts turned out great but the deals evaporated. In late 2010, I took stock and realized that a) HD camera technology had finally become truly affordable and b) I had the scripts, the know-how, some cash and the time to attempt to make my own movies in-house, no studio required. So here we are.

You've directed films like Blade and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with huge teams. You're taking a very DIY approach for this film, serving as writer, director, cameraman, editor, props manager, and special effects team. Do you miss working with other human beings?

I miss the socializing aspect of a collaborative project but I don't miss the compromise and endless chat that teamwork seems to require. It's a temperament thing. In the past whenever I finished a "real" movie I moaned to anyone who would listen that making it was "the worst experience of my life." Now I realize I was suffering like a square peg hammered mercilessly into a round hole. I've got a good eye and technical chops but that's not enough. One has to play well with others—and that ain't me. So I work alone and get my social time eating nachos at my local bar.

What are the biggest challenges of making a film mostly on your own?

Time, definitely, because everything has to happen in sequence. I have to research the car design before I can design the car so I can make the miniature so I can shoot the greenscreen elements. And don't forget the little sculpture of the guy driving the car. What's he wearing? Hmm. I guess I ought to design that too. Everything is intertwined and one pair of hands can only go step-by-step. That makes staying motivated hard at times, working for weeks while the Great Progress Bar in the Sky barely creeps at all. But the good news is that the typical development-to-release period of an average studio movie is about five years. Until I hit that mark I'm ahead of the game.

How many hours a day do you work on it?

About 11, seven days a week but I don't pressure myself to achieve. That's the raison d'etre of this whole mad endeavor: no buffoonish corporate schedules to wring the joy out of the work. Why be my own studio executive when I can work on my project as much or as little as I like? Whenever I get sick of drilling holes or painting greenscreen I head out and indulge in those aforementioned nachos.

For the gear nerds out there, what equipment are you using to make this movie?

For shooting, Panasonic Lumix GH2 cameras, very affordable and lightweight with exceptional HD video and interchangeable lenses. For editing, post-production and visual effects, Adobe After Effects CS5, an amazing piece of software that can do practically anything with pixels. It has terrific sound editing capabilities too. I also depend on Photoshop CS5 for my stills work and elements preparation and I custom-built some camera rigs for driving and miniature shots (those years of machine shop really paid off).

When the film is finished, can we get Script Frenzy in the title? ("Script Frenzy Presents a Majestic New Work By Stephen Norrington…")

Yes, of course, except it'll appear in the end credits and read "Written as part of Script Frenzy 2008." Other than that it'll be just like you said.

Is there anywhere folks can go to see some of your work in progress?

Not at this time. My visual ideas and story elements are the project's commercial value so, for licensing purposes, I need to keep my powder dry. But I'm keeping a detailed record of my progress. When the flick's finished there'll be a wealth of behind-the-scenes material to excite anyone who cares.

Photo of Stephen's homemade camera rig courtesy of the filmmaker.