Interview (Part 6): Elad Ziv

My interview with 2022 Black List writer for his script Court 17.

Elad Ziv wrote the screenplay Court 17 which landed on the 2022 Black List. I had the opportunity to chat with Elad about his creative background, writing a Black List script, and the craft of screenwriting.

Today in Part 6 of a 6-part series to run each day through Sunday, Elad gives some advice for aspiring screenwriters.

Scott: How do you break story, your story prep process?

Elad: I’ve got to tell you, it’s different for everything. It’s really different for everything. I used to just jump right in. That was more, not because what I wanted to do was best for the story, but because I was impatient. I wanted to get to the writing, and I wanted to finish a script every three months.

Now, I really, really like to focus on character first, and get my characters down. Once I have the characters down…Well, first, you have to come up with the concept or the setting. That sometimes comes with doing a lot of research, reading a lot of newspaper articles, listening to a lot of different podcasts, scouring social media. Sometimes there’s interesting stories on there.

Once you have your concept, then I go into the characters and I find out who is the most interesting person that this story can happen to.

Then once you get the characters down, then you can start going into story threads and different plots that are happening throughout your script, then I would go into the outlining. Then finally after the outlining, you take care of the first act, you make sure that’s good, then you move onto the…maybe in quarters. If you do the first act, first half of the second act, on and on and on.

Scott: I know Bellevue’s got that thing where sometimes they have other writers they read material. Have you had that experience?

Elad: Are you talking about the Circle of Trust?

Scott: I don’t know what they call it, but…

Elad: Is it when other writers read your script, and they get you notes on?

Scott: Yeah.

Elad: Yeah, I have. We did that with COURT 17, which was really, really helpful, which was again, one of the…I would look up…