I wrote a short play in 2016 called\n\u201cThe Red Planet\u201d \u2013 it was a comedy about a group of astronauts traveling to\nMars to colonise it, only to discover it is already inhabited by Martians that\nhave somehow evaded detection all this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What I\u2019m currently working on is a very\nrough adaptation of that play. A team of astronauts are going to explore a\ndistant planet when they slip through an anomaly in space. Crash-landing on an\nalien planet, their pilot missing, they are viewed as refugees and criminals.\nThey are imprisoned, only to discover they are no longer in the same part of\nspace or time and humans are all but extinct. What follows is a journey to\nsurvive and understand new planets and people and evade the sinister forces\nthat don\u2019t want humans to ever return. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I spent my Christmas break plotting\nthe first season, and I\u2019ll be scripting it shortly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
NY\nGlam: What makes a film great for you? Are there certain\nqualities that make a film better for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I think\nit comes down to two things \u2013 story and character. Whilst they\u2019re equally\nimportant, if your characters aren\u2019t interesting, your story won\u2019t shine. You\ncan have the most impressive story in the world but if your audience doesn\u2019t\nconnect with the characters, most people will ultimately switch off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s\neasier the other way around \u2013 characters that are fun to watch will surpass\nstory issues, but you can\u2019t just have a strong character with witty one-liners\nand ignore the fact that you\u2019ve got a terrible story. You need that balance of\na great story that uses your characters as much as is needed for that story,\nwhich in turn allows the characters to grow. The relationship between good story\nand character should be symbiotic \u2013 if you\u2019ve got one without the other, you\u2019ve\ngot a big problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Personally, I love dialogue. Sharp, clever dialogue is my favourite thing to watch \u2013 but difficult to do well without making a scene just talking heads or filled with exposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: <\/strong>As a\nscreenwriter, what is the most important aspect of building a character? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Figuring\nout the voice of a character is probably the most important part of building a\ncharacter \u2013 but that\u2019s surface level. To find the voice, you need to know who\nthey are at their core, what their drive is, who they are. There\u2019s no\ninstruction manual to this, but the thing is more doesn\u2019t hurt! <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can\nspend a long time figuring out a fatal flaw, giving them a starting point so\nthey have room to grow (essential), family, friends, a tragic backstory \u2013 the\nmore you know about your character, the easier it will be to get into their\nhead and start writing for them. I usually try things out in my head to see if they\nmake sense. If it works, great! If not, I try again. I\u2019ve gotten out of a\nnumber of jams by twisting character aspects until something clicks. \u201cWould\nthat character work better as a woman?\u201d \u201cWhere have they been for the past 5\nyears?\u201d \u201cHow\u2019d they get that hook for a hand and how would that make them act\ndifferently?\u201d \u2013 everything is important and the more you know, the better your\nwriting will be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s hard\nto tell when you\u2019re ready to start writing a character. I try to write a scene\nin their voice and if I like that scene, I\u2019ll continue. If not, I\u2019ll try the\nscene again or another scene until I\u2019ve cracked it and go from there. Finding\nthe right voice for a character is difficult, but essential. <\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: Top 3 favorite projects that you have been involved in?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 \u2013 The Red\nPlanet \u2013 this was the first time I saw something I wrote be performed. I was\nlucky enough to write and direct my own play, and whilst it was a short, silly\nproduction, it has absolutely been one of the highlights of my career.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 2 \u2013 In 2017 I\nwas cast in a production of Journey\u2019s End <\/em>by RC Sherriff, where I played\nSecond Lieutenant Hibbert, a scared soldier that is faking an injury in the\nhope of being sent home from the war. It was an amazing production, and gave me\nthe opportunity to occupy the mind of someone terrified beyond belief in\nextraordinary circumstances. It was a great joy to be a part of, and was an\nexperience that was invaluable for my creative process.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 3 \u2013 Now You\nSee Me \u2013 in university we were tasked with making a short film in a week. My\nrole was as the cinematographer, but with such a condensed production period\neveryone was involved with figuring out the story, and in particular crafting\nan intriguing ending before and DURING filming \u2013 difficult, but a lot of fun.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NY Glam: Do you express yourself creatively in any other ways?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Absolutely!\nI\u2019m a theatre kid and I love acting. Last year I was in a Sherlock Holmes short\nplay as a villain called Nathaniel Longstreet, and in March this year I\u2019ll be\nin an amateur production of \u201cThe Puffs\u201d (a parody of a certain young boy\nwizard)! Rehearsals are well underway and have been a lot of fun. It\u2019s looking\nto be an amazing show. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I also play D\n& D (Dungeons and Dragons) to satisfy that medieval fighter inside \u2013 cos\npart of me just wants to be a dull half-orc with a donkey called Bubbles.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: What advice would you give to someone who wants to\nhave a career in filmmaking?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever discipline you\u2019re interested in \u2013 find a way to do\nit. You will learn more from doing than from hoping and dreaming. It took me\nuntil 2017 to realise that if I wanted to be a screenwriter, I should be\nwriting. Since then I\u2019ve pushed myself and over the past two years I\u2019ve written\nmore than I could\u2019ve ever dreamed of. I\u2019ve written five pilots, a film and two\nfull tv series and I\u2019m not slowing down. I\u2019ve learned so much, even if I\u2019m\nstill waiting for my big break. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The more you do, the more you\u2019ll make mistakes, the more\nyou\u2019ll overcome those mistakes, the more you\u2019ll learn. You can\u2019t fix something\nif you don\u2019t have anything to fix. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The only way you can improve is to do.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: What can we\nexpect from you in 2020?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Right now I\u2019ve been working on\nscene breakdowns for the first 8-episode season of a high-concept sci-fi series\nI\u2019ve been working on called Newheart.<\/em> The scene breakdowns are almost\nfinished and I\u2019m so excited to jump in and start scripting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m also hoping to find the time to\nkeep writing a family drama series called The Ups and Downs<\/em> that is\nloosely based on my family \u2013 I wrote the pilot script late last year and I\u2019m\ninterested in seeing where that goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I\u2019m always reworking, editing\nand doing rewrites of my previous work. In particular, my film script Everyday\nSuperhero<\/em> (a comedy about a psychology student that convinces a vigilante\nsuperhero that she\u2019s a reporter so she can use him as the subject for her\nthesis) has been sent to a couple of competitions (cross my fingers) and I aim\nto send to a few more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I also have a pilot script, The\nBig Top<\/em> (a comedy-drama series about a ram-shackle circus filled with\nquirky characters on the edge of failure that has to be brought back to\npopularity) which is close to being ready for circulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s going to be a big year, I\u2019m\nexcited for where it takes me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NY\nGlam: Where can\neveryone keep up with you to learn more? \u2026social media\u2026website<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Instagram: aemmerson1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twitter: @RealAEmmerson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Australian screenwriter Andrew Emmerson is at the beginning of his career, which starts and ends with writing like crazy. Growing up in the bush he moved to Sydney for school, and after graduating from university with an Arts degree in Media he threw himself into work, interning for Nickelodeon and The Media Tribe in Australia, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8283,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","category-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19312,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8282\/revisions\/19312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Andrew-Interview-4-678x1024.jpg\")