— There is a new generation of screenwriters who have found, on social networks, a space to present their work. What advice would you give to those who want to write?
— My first piece of advice is very simple: a writer must be a voracious reader. He must be above average. But an audiovisual writer must not only be a voracious reader, he must also be a great consumer of audiovisual material. He must be up to date with the series, movies and television shows that are being made. He must always be up-to-date and must be able to see audiovisual products with the eyes of a writer and not with the eyes of a simple spectator. Internet is a great tool to get online scripts and thus be able to read them. A great exercise is to print the script of the pilot of a series and then see that pilot already made, with the script in hand, and see how what is being seen on the screen is written. It is a great exercise that helps a lot to understand what are the dimensions of writing a text that will not be read, but seen.
— What qualities should a screenwriter have?
— For me, there are certain qualities that are immutable, especially when it comes to selecting a screenwriter to work with him or her. First, a rigor that is proof of everything. A scriptwriter, if he has a deadline to meet, must work despite himself, even if he doesn’t feel like it, even if it’s his birthday, even if he has some social activity. That is to say, a screenwriter must present a vocation without cracks. And another very important aspect is that he must assume from very early on that this is a team effort, and that the script is the first link in a long chain. There is no room for ego in the life of a screenwriter.
— Is the ending the hardest part of writing a story? Because?
— In my own experience, the most difficult thing to write in a story is the second act, that is, the core part. In general, when you write the beginning, the end is almost automatically armed. There is a kind of equivalence, a mirror, a game of opposites, between the beginning and the end of a story. But the center of the story, the heart of historyIt is, in my opinion, the most complicated. That is where one must excite, or scare, or intrigue. That is where the story is really told and, therefore, it is where we have the greatest chance of being wrong or spoiling the project, and, therefore, in the writing stage where we must be most concentrated.
The series was always designed for three seasons, since even before I started writing it. Photo: diffusion
— The public is still speculating with a fourth season of ‘Who killed Sara?’, will it be possible?
— I’m sorry to break illusions and hopes, but the third season of ‘Who killed Sara?’ It was the last. The series was always designed for three seasons, since even before I started writing it. From the first moment, when I invented the story, I knew that I would need 3 seasons to be able to tell the story the way I wanted to tell it; so there will be no more adventures for those characters.
— What will the master class that will be taught in Peru (this Saturday 27 at the UPC in Monterrico) include?
— I will try to give, in the space of time that I have, a look (as complete as possible) of the writing process of an audiovisual script. That includes the work of establishing the central idea, the development of a synopsis and treatment, the creation of characters, the basic structure of a season, the creation of a plot bible, among other fundamental topics.
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