Wayne Franklin will be with us at the Southern Christian Writers Conference to present workshops on screenplays and screenwriting. A documentary filmmaker, Franklin hails from Birmingham and is an original founder of that city’s Sidewalk Film Festival. His most recent documentary, "Revival: The Sam Bush Story," is currently available on Amazon Prime. He’s passionate about telling stories through the lens of God’s story.
I had the chance to talk with Wayne about his life, his work, his love of all things “Star Wars” and much more.
Question:
How did you become interested in writing, and then in screenwriting and filmmaking?
Answer:
I always tell people my filmmaking journey began when I was seven years old and I first saw the words, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...." flash across a movie screen. From that first viewing of Star Wars in 1977, I became obsessed with understanding how they had made me believe that world could be real. I knew I wanted to affect people the same way. As early as seven or eight, I began to tell anyone who would listen that I would make films someday. I studied film at the Capstone at a time when there wasn't much of a film program to speak of, and I've plied my skills since then in Birmingham primarily in commercial work, carving out time to pursue my own film projects whenever possible.
As for the writing aspect of filmmaking, most of my writing happens in the edit suite, as tends to happen in documentary work. While I have written a number of screenplays, some produced, none have risen to the level of greatness. My skills with narrative structure, character development, and the like have been honed largely in post-production. Documentary writing and editing go hand-in-hand and are comparable to carving a sculpture. You begin with this massive, unshaped block, and you have to carve away everything that doesn't look like the story you need to tell.
Q: What are you working on now? (or what have you finished recently?)
A: My frequent documentary collaborators, Kris Wheeler and Patrick Sheehan, and I are now in post-production on an on-demand series exploring the world of extreme endurance bike-packing events. Rather than just showcasing a lot of cool footage of people on mountain bikes, we're delving into the psyches of the riders. What makes a seemingly sane person train for 6 months to ride a bike across the entire state of Georgia, with 55,000 feet of grueling mountain climbs, in the heat of August?
I'm also in development on a limited documentary series that will do a deep dive into the murky waters of Mobile, Alabama corruption, drawing in elements of political intrigue, murder for hire, and organized crime – all with a Southern Gothic flair. I'm really excited to see where that project goes as we move toward production.
Q: How do you see faith work in your filmmaking and writing?
A: I've never been a big fan of the "Christian" label on creative works. Genesis is clear that we all, Christian or not, are made in the image of God. What is that image? Well, what are the first words in the Bible? "In the beginning, God created." The very first thing we learn about God is His creative nature.
As His image bearers, we have that same urge to create; some of us are simply compelled to do it more than others. As a believer, I feel it is not only my privilege, but my responsibility to create works of great beauty and truth and to do it as to the Lord.
While I do not create overtly "Christian" works, the Gospel informs everything I do. I search for those Gospel moments in a story: moments of truth, sacrifice, and redemption. I believe all good stories contain them, because all good stories reflect the Great Story. Our souls are hardwired to react to any story that reflects the narrative we see in God's Word.
Q: What advice would you give to a writer who would like to do screenplays or scripts or anything in that type of writing area?
A: Watch movies. Study movies. Think about the elements of filmed stories that evoke an emotional or intellectual reaction in you. Then figure out why. Read books about screenwriting, especially about narrative structure. The biggest breakthrough in my storytelling came when I had an epiphany about structure and timing in film. We, as audience members, expect certain story beats to fall at certain points in a story. There's a musicality to narrative structure that should only be broken once you really understand how doing so will affect your audience.
Q: What do you hope to impart to attendees of the SCWC?
A: If nothing else, I hope we can have a great conversation about the power of film as a storytelling medium and its place in creating the modern myths we all love.
(Learn more about Wayne and the other speakers at the SCWC on the home page of this website. If you have questions about the workshop, email us at scwritersconference@gmail.com. We hope to see you in Tuscaloosa on June 7-8, 2019.)
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