MovieBytes Interview:
Screenwriter Eddie Yaroch

An interview with screenwriter Eddie Yaroch regarding the WriteMovies Writing Competition.

Eddie Yaroch

A: "A Ghost Story Of Christmas"

I took "A Christmas Carol," modernized it with married professional ghost hunters and equipment, ala "The Conjuring," and added goblins from Dickens' "Pickwick Papers."

The twist is that Scrooge's former fiancee, Belle, is one of the ghost hunters. She and her husband run a carnival that is about to be taken away from them unless they and their spirit-seeing dog, Casper, help Scrooge with his ghost problems.

A: Write Movies Contest (WMC) has an excellent report card on your site. Plus, there were two categories: Monthly and WMC36. Ironically, I entered the Monthly contest by mistake and that's where I won Third Place!

I've entered over 15 other contests, including WMC36, and am awaiting the results.

A: WMC was having all kinds of website issues while I was trying to enter. It took a week of efforts to finally get entered. That cost me missing the early deadline so my fee increased, but, like I said, the glitches may have led me to inadvertently enter the Monthly contest and end up placing Third. No complaints!

A: After writing an outline, it took about a month of evenings and weekends to write in longhand. There's only one draft, but that longhand version has scribbles, crossouts, arrows, footnotes and sweat stains galore. I don't tend to spit it all out and fix later. Crazy as it sounds, I fix as I go. Then it's tweaking and spellcheck and rephrasing.

A: Movie Magic software. It does the trick and not that expensive.

A: No no no. I am actually a San Diego actor who writes occasionally when the muse strikes, which so far has been seven times for feature screenplays and a one-act play. Right now, the muse is telling me to adapt "A Ghost Story Of Christmas" into a madcap play with a handful of brilliant comic actors.

A: When I get stuck, I go for a long walk. Ideas seem to loosen themselves up and bubble to the surface. Hot showers are good, too. The water bill goes up when I'm writing, which is not good in southern CA.

A: I have a BFA in Theatre from the University of MN-Duluth. The first thing I wrote (after my one-act about domestic violence) was a spec pilot script called "Up Down Under." It was at the height of "Crocodile Dundee" mania and my pilot was about an Australian foreign exchange student living with an American family like the Cosbys.

I then wrote a spec "Tales From The Crypt" that dealt with superstitions and a cursed town under the spell of a black cat.

Then it was six full-length screenplays over the years. One of them, "Class President," I produced and directed on 35MM in a small town in South Dakota for $137,000 (loans, maxed credit cards and investors).

A: Not if I can avoid it. San Diego is a nice distance and I can visit LA, if needed.

A: The play version of AGSOC, just in time for Christmas!

Posted Tuesday, July 15, 2014