What current TV show should get more recognition?
Ha! You mean besides Happy? Good question, because I feel like we just hear about the same ones over and over again. I loved Handmaid’s Tale, particularly the first season, more than anyone. I loved that show so much. Kari Skogland did a lot of the directing, and she did such a good job.
I just watched the first episode of Atlanta, and I think that that gets a lot of recognition in smaller circles. People in New York or L.A. watch Barry, or Atlanta, then they get nominated for all these Emmys for writing, which is great. But they don’t get the wider attention they deserve. Those shows are just so incredibly well-written and constructed.
What’s the most cliched premise in indie movies?
Oh, God … the meet-cute. People meeting accidentally in a park, or a coffee shop, or anything related to walking dogs. Leashes get tangled, and somebody bumps into somebody else, and somebody’s very frustrated.
I used to screen movies for the Tribeca Film Festival, so I watched a thousand … I’m not exaggerating … a thousand movies over the course of two or three years. I can’t tell you how many times I saw people spilling coffee on each other.
In a coffee shop, or a restaurant, they bump into each other. Or the waitress spills something, and a shirt gets ruined. Oh, I can’t stand it.
I mean, I get it, it’s hard to find original ways to have people meet. If you’re writing a romantic comedy indie film, meet-cutes become tough to avoid. What do people do? We basically work, get coffee, and go out with our friends, so you have to have action in there somehow. Rom-coms can’t all start with pleasant conversations at parties where everybody’s in the kitchen.
What’s an obscure area of knowledge that fascinates you?
Theology. It’s not that obscure, but it’s obscure in my world. Theology and ancient mythology are super-interesting to me.
The stories that we tell have been around forever, and they all seem to stem from these ancient mythologies, and I find it so fascinating. One summer I’m going to take off, get away from work, and dive head-first into classes about ancient mythology and ancient theology.
When you’re filming on location, what’s a handy piece of gear you always have on you?
Okay, full disclosure: it’s a fanny pack, and it’s awesome. I mean, fanny packs are kind of coming back now. They sell them at Urban Outfitters, so that’s got to be a good sign, right?
I always have some kind of fanny pack on me with gum, hand sanitizer, tons of pens, highlighter, usually my phone, headphone, charger. It starts to get a little bulky after a while, but if I can’t carry a larger bag around, then all the things that I really need go in the pack.
What’s been your biggest learning curve as a professional writer?
The pace of TV writing is so different. As a TV writer, versus a narrative or novel writer, you have to be so much more concise with your scenes.
Our show is so fast, almost like an action movie. You can’t afford to overwrite, you have to get all that emotion out super-fast, along with all the information and exposition.
If you had to have your ashes spread somewhere, where would it be?
Ooh. Okay, it would be Lake Erie, right outside of the lighthouse on Avon Lake, Ohio, where I grew up.
There’s a tall lighthouse on the lake, and I would have it be there. And weirdly enough, there’s actually a cemetery right next to the lighthouse. It’s a little scary, but that would be the place.
What book should aspiring filmmakers read?
Someone gave me a copy of The Art of War when I was in grad school. I was reading through it, and I immediately thought it related to life on a set.
This sounds weird, but if you think of “enemies” as the unknown things that can happen during a film shoot, it helps you prepare yourself in valuable ways.
All the things you normally didn’t think could go wrong will invariably go wrong. Scheduling, weather, gear … you name it. Taking the time to really prepare for all the variables means you can treat those problems, when they happen, as opportunities to make something creative.
When you need inspiration, what do you do?
I take the train and I drink wine.
At the same time?
Sometimes, yes! I’ll take the train out by myself, go to a place that I haven’t seen before, and just explore. That’s why I think I’ve always been drawn to New York, because there’s just so much to do.
I like to be in nature, so I’ll take a train to a park or someplace similar. Then I’ll sit down, have a glass of wine, and just sit with my thoughts.
The Ohio in me enjoys big, open spaces where you don’t have to be around anybody, but then you can drive 10 minutes and be downtown. That’s the great weirdness of Cleveland: being surrounded by corn fields one minute, then suburbs and city the next.
One of my favorite outdoor spaces is Cuyahoga County Metropark in Cleveland. When I was growing up, we would go run there. A bridge, highway, running trail, and cliff face all converge in one place where we’d hang out. Part of it reminds me of an overpass in Central Park right next to the carousel. I’m always drawn to those intersections of nature and the city.
