As you may know Light Films are currently in pre-production for their next short movie ‘Shelf Stackers’. My name is Tommy Draper; I’m the writer of the screenplay and this is my blog trying to explain how Shelf Stackers has gone from a blank piece of paper to the movie screen.
Toward the end of 2010, just after the filming of Coming Home finished, I met with Tom Wadlow to chat about working together on a new project. We had never met until then but I had been in contact with Light Films through Twitter and Facebook. During our first meeting we discussed movies we liked, movies we had made and the sorts of movies we wanted to make. We had several ideas flying around. One of the ideas that I had mentioned was about a group of people working the nightshift in a 24-hour Super Market; the title was Shelf Stackers. The idea was just that, an idea. No plot, just the thought that it would make a decent indie movie.
Cut to several months later and me and Tom are having regular meetings and working on several screenplays. Tom mentions that he’s had an idea for the plot of Shelf Stackers; a simple story of a young man working his last shift who falls for the young woman replacing him. We both liked the idea so I set about writing a screenplay draft.
The very first thing when creating a screenplay is to decide on the genre. For Shelf Stackers it was always going to be a comedy, which is both a first for Light Films and for me too.
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Actor Jordan Hollis who is in the running for "Mike" one of the characters in the film |
The next stage is to create the characters. I always start with the 3 main characters; the ‘hero’, the ‘villain’ and the ‘love interest’. I then think about the secondary characters. In the case of Shelf Stackers I knew I needed a Boss to manage the store, I needed to have customers. All of these characters are lifeless and, like all good creations, need to be brought to life. Each character is given a name and a short biography. Everything written about them will help create a more rounded character, making them seem as real as possible. |
Now that the characters have names, histories and personalities they need a world to live in, that world are the scenes which tell the story. This is normally when a writer will put together a treatment, something to be used as a story guide. With Shelf Stackers, as I tend to do with a short films, I usually just write the first draft from the character notes and any ideas that are residing in my head. The first draft came together pretty quickly but it wasn’t exceptional.
Just before Christmas I had another meeting with Tom where we discussed the first draft and how it should be changed. Tom had the excellent idea of telling the story from the point of view of the 5 ‘Shelf Stackers’. This would give each character their own story, so we would see the same incidents but from different perspectives to give different outcomes and play with viewers perceptions. This is a story telling method I’ve always wanted to try but never felt I had the story to justify it but for Shelf Stackers I thought it would work.
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Tom Wadlow, Director, with Tom Murton, actor, during a recent improvisation/script read-through session |
One snowy day (one of the many snowy days) in December I started again on the screenplay. Normally with a new draft you can take what you’ve already got and adjust it. But since I was totally changing the structure of the story I had to almost start all over again. The screenplay was one of the more difficult pleasures I’ve ever worked on. After a couple of days of copying the old scenes, writing new scenes, adjusting scenes, checking for consistency it was finally ready. The second draft was 50 pages long, making it a 50 minute movie which for a short film is a long time. |
Cut to early 2011 and another script meeting, both me and Tom agree that the script is way too long. The only way to fix it is to take out two of the character’s stories; this should cut about 20 pages/minutes from the script. But then there is the issue of which stories do you leave out? We know we need to keep the romance element of Fish (hero) and Katy (love interest) so their stories become the first and last; the bookends for the screenplay. As for the ‘middle’ story we decided on a very different point of view, the one of Gloria, the Boss of the store and the most unique and touching story (in my opinion) of the screenplay.
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Jordan Hollis and Tom Murton, local actors who helped bring the script alive at the improv session. |
The character stories decided another draft was quickly written and the casting call is sent out by Light Films and it gets a good response. The screenplay is now ready; the stories are in place, the structure works. All that is left is to work on better dialogue, making it more ‘real’. To help do this my last meeting at Light Films involved an improvisation session (courtesy of Jordan and Tom – a different Tom, not the director one) which has given rise to many new lines, some of which I have used in the fourth draft of the screenplay which was completed a few nights ago. |
So from here on in the screenplay (give or take an adjustment or two) for Shelf Stackers is complete. The pages that were once empty are now full of characters and life. The task now is to take those pages into the real world and create a short but entertaining movie.
I’m sure there will be more on the movie’s development soon.... watch this space!
This blog was written by our ScriptWriter, Tommy Draper. To start a conversation with Tommy, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
To read more about our upcoming film collaboration with Tommy, including a full list of cast and crew requirements, click here.
