As we continue our serious on breakthrough screenwriters, Ned Farr sat down with Creative Screenwriting Magazine to share experiences.
A graduate of the Film School at the Purchase College – State University Of New York Purchase, Farr has been involved in film production for over 30 years, from storyboard artist to gaffer to editor to writer and director on commercials, music videos, and features. Somewhere in all that he formed a band and released three albums.
His feature film A Marine Story, about the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” law won 20 film festival awards. Farr’s previous feature film The Gymnast has won 28 awards to date including 16 for best picture.
Ned is also the Creative Director for P90X, which for a long time was the #1 fitness product in America. Aside from creating the brand identity, marketing, and music, his half-hour informercials have consistently outperformed all others in the field, earning him a Telly award in 2009, and a Moxie award in 2010.
Ned’s screenplay Coastline finished in the top ten of Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Screenwriting Contest. His teleplay Tin Kickers won the ISA Fellowship in the Spring of 2018 and has been listed as one of ISA Top 25 Writers to Watch. Ned’s latest feature-length screenplay, The Aerialist, went into production in August of 2018 and is slated for a 2019 release.
Describe your unique personal and professional background and the specific project(s) that attracted ISA interest?
I majored in film and then went on to work for many years as a gaffer and storyboard artist, usually for the same core group of director/DPs, so I’d get to draw what the director envisioned and then weeks later would go light the real thing. At the same time I had a band, so my writing was focused on crafting songs, but inevitably the songs would turn into little narratives, which would, in turn, result in a concept album of sorts. I’ve made three albums like that, with songs telling a loose narrative. It was a bit cheaper than making actual movies (and more fun).
Then I married an actress, and this set the stage for getting back into filmmaking. I’ve written and directed three feature films thus far, and have several other screenplays laying about whimpering for attention. One of them, an interesting kind of horror/disaster story called Hurricane Party, got on ISA’s radar.
Why did you decide to become a screenwriter above all other careers?
If you want to make an indie movie, you essentially have to be a writer first. That means the blank page. Becoming serious about screenwriting was not so much a choice as a necessity.
What personal qualities do successful screenwriters need to make it?
The ability to commit to a project is important. No distractions. No writing several different things at once. Focus on one thing and go make that one thing.
Also, I think one has to have the capacity to hold on to a story idea for a long time—years, if not decades. It can take that long to marinate. On the other hand, once it’s written (and been rewritten) you’ve got to let it go, and find something new. Staying committed for years and then knowing when to stop polishing is important. I’m still learning that one.
What is your winning script and why did you choose to write it?
My pilot Tin Kickers won an ISA Fellowship Award, and I wrote it originally because I had access to an airplane hangar. I thought I could shoot a short film about the National Transportation Safety Board investigating a plane crash using that location, but the story quickly expanded and became more about how we no longer trust our institutions, how facts are being labeled fake news, how conspiracies run loose on the internet, and how some people won’t accept truth, even when presented with evidence. I discovered a story about the crash of Air Force One encapsulated all those things.
What did you learn with each draft of your script?
I spent a great deal of time outlining the structure of Tin Kickers since the story has a number of flashbacks that continually bring the audience back to the time of the crash, and I was happy to discover that I didn’t need to tweak much as each draft progressed. So I learned I’m getting half-way decent at structure. On the other hand, there are a large number of characters that get introduced quickly, so trying to make them distinct on the page was the real learning curve.
What misconceptions have you discovered about establishing a screenwriting career?
That you can quit your day job.
What inspires your imagination?
Limitations! Ideas flow the fastest for me when there’s already some built-in production restriction. Also, if I get access to an interesting location, it really sets me free: stories exist in a time and place, so if you nail the place down first, discovering what happened in that place pops right out.
Do you have a preferred genre, format, theme you write in?
Drama. I like to feel the feels.
How do you train and improve your writing craft?
I shoot what I write every couple of years or so. Nothing makes me more aware of my excesses and weaknesses then seeing them displayed in the cold light of day with some warm actors.
Do you have any mentors, heroes/ heroines?
Everybody in the writers’ room of Friday Night Lights. Joss Whedon. Sorkin. Charlie Kaufman. Cohen Brothers. Paul Thomas Anderson. Goldman.
What advice do you have for screenwriters wanting to make next year’s ISA Top 25 list?
From what I gather, in order to get their attention, the more unique the concept the better.
What is something that few people know about you?
Oh, god. I’m not that mysterious. If it happened to me, it’s in a song or a screenplay at this point.
