FC Screenwriting apprentice Suzanne Nichols
At RRFC, we find that many students enroll in one of our apprenticeship programs to pursue a singular dream, to get their lives and careers started. For screenwriting apprentice
Suzanne Nichols, however, her apprenticeship simply added a new facet to an already extraordinary life. A graduate of the prestigious Brown University, by the time she decided to enroll in the program, Suzanne had already authored two books, dabbled in learning computer animation, and was living “off the grid” on her nearly self-sufficient homestead.
“My electricity source is solar, singularly. I’m not connected to the grid in any fashion. I’m actually on 90 acres of pretty much wilderness, and I’ve cleared about a three-acre area where my homestead sits.”
It was actually her homesteading lifestyle that in a roundabout way prompted Suzanne to pursue an education in film. As she began working on a new book about her life on the homestead and the lessons she’s learned there, she came to a realization.
“I went down to the barn one day,” she says,
“and just had this thought: ‘It’s time to do the film. This is a film, this is a film.’”
It was clear to Suzanne that she needed to make a change from a verbal approach to a more visual one in order to write for film.
“The desire to render a story visually has been with me for a long time,” says Suzanne.
“I was very well academically trained and have always naturally been a writer since childhood. So writing has always been kind of my first choice when it would come to expressing ideas…[but] film is such a powerful medium to affect, whether it’s some emotional response you’re looking for in your audience, or social change, or whatever. It is powerful because it bypasses in a lot of ways a more analytical part of our brain and goes right to that instant visual reaction. So I went from loving words and using words (hopefully to good effect) to wanting to be more direct in my use of imagery.”
Suzanne found the
Film Connection through an Internet search. She ultimately enrolled and was paired as an apprentice to noted screenwriter
Ron Osborn (
Meet Joe Black), who coached her through the process of writing her screenplay
Double Edged Sword. Even for the most experienced screenplay writer, Suzanne’s story would not be an easy one to put forth. A character-driven psychological drama dealing with the mind—with subject matter of a personal and autobiographical nature—translating from words on the page into images on the screen would be no small feat. Suzanne admits the transition was not an easy one for her to make.
“‘You can’t get preachy’ is what Ron would say to me… When I started out, I was still using the words as a crutch. I hadn’t really made the leap into using words to create images on the paper that can then be translated back into images…I mean, it is such a different medium. It is a very different way of writing….In terms of developing characters and developing plot lines and story points that move the story forward and get certain ideas across without becoming, as [Ron] would put it, preachy or hitting people over the head with an idea, that was very challenging for me…Thankfully he knew always when I wasn’t getting it and would point it out to me, and then I would just work and work and work and re-work and re-work, and then I’d start to get close, and he’d be like, ‘Yeah, you’re getting closer.’ And then I’d nail it…I never gave up, and I’m grateful for that…I couldn’t have done it without Ron. I know I couldn’t have,” she says.
In the process of working on the screenplay with her mentor, Suzanne learned to string the story and subject matter together with action that is subtle and provocative throughout. And, she’s even found her own voice within the medium.
“It’s one thing to resist structure. It’s another thing to master it and then make other choices,” she says.
“Not to say that I have mastered it, but I certainly understand it better, the three act structure per se. But I also found, and I was very grateful, that as I began to master the craft of the writing of the screenplay and began to understand the structure better, I was more able to free myself from it a bit.”
The struggle and hard work paid off! Once Suzanne had completed the script, it was time to make her pitch in L.A. The Film Connection arranged for her to meet in person with film producer
Aimee Schoof. Suzanne recalls feeling an “instant connection” with Aimee, to whom she’d sent the synopsis beforehand.
“I was prepared to do the pitch,” says Suzanne,
“but initially she said, ‘Let’s just talk, I want you to relax.’ And so she asked me some questions about the process and about me and about the screenplay. Then she said, ‘All right. You need to do this for practice, so let’s do the pitch.’ So I collected myself and I delivered the pitch and, I did well.”
But that’s not all: at the end of the conversation, the producer walked away with Suzanne’s script in hand.
“She had some excellent feedback for me [on my pitch],” says Suzanne,
“which I will implement should I have to pitch it again. Which maybe I won’t: she said they may be interested…She likes the story very much. I think I can safely say that.”
So, thanks to her Film Connection apprenticeship with
Ron Osborn, established author and homesteader Suzanne Nichols now has a completed script in the hands of an L.A. producer, and is poised to see her life possibly take a whole new turn of direction. As someone who had already experienced a lot of life before enrolling in the program, Suzanne shares how she was able to advocate for herself and her story while still receiving important instruction from film pros like Ron and Aimee:
“I think it’s a balance,” she says.
“It’s a balance of having the confidence and awareness of oneself and what one truly wants to accomplish and being willing to take risks based on that, balanced with a healthy respect for the people who are masters of their craft—who, as a student, I needed.”
