'Short Term 12' Director Destin Cretton Speaks About Art Of Screenwriting

This is KPBS midday edition. I Maureen Cavanaugh. Since we live in Southern California we all probably know somebody who is writing a screenplay. Maybe you are writing one yourself. It seems almost logical that since we have spent so much time watching movies that we should be able to create them. Unfortunately that is usually not the case. Screenwriter and director Dustin Cretton is not get his inspiration from watching movies. It is real life and real people who spark an interest. After graduating from San Diego State film school Cretton has gone to write and direct to feature-length films including critically acclaimed short term 12. Is considered a filmmaker on his way up. He will be speaking tonight at the Point Loma Nazarene's Writer's Symposium by the sea. Dustin Cretton welcome to the show. Thank you great to be here. Before you went to film school you went to school at point the moment Nasrin. I did. I did two years of community college on Maui and then I transferred in. I was at Point Loma three years I graduated in 2001. We thinking about writing movies back then? It was always something I was interested in. I was always making stupid home videos with like five siblings going up. But it honestly wasn't something I felt was in the realm of possibility and tell very slowly after making a handful of short films after graduating from college it became something that I just fell in love with. Did you think you would be able to make a living at it? I still don't think that. I feel very lucky that I am right now, but it all just seems like something that can be taken away at any moment. It also sounds like something you would keep doing whether or not this was your primary source of income. I think maybe just a way to stay sane through all of the ups and downs of it. I've always looked at it as something that was my hobby and I feel extremely lucky to be paid for my hobby right now. It is also something I would happily lose money at just because it is a really fulfilling process for me. What do you love about the process of writing and making movies? For me it is all about whatever story I'm choosing to invest myself in. I try to choose stories that are relevant to my life at that point, whether it is the characters dealing with questions or struggles, I'm currently going through at that time, I try to pick projects that help me process through things. You use it as a form of personal therapy? Sure. In some ways when I watch films that I have done or projects I have worked on, it is like flipping through a photo album and a portion of my life. I can see the questions that I was dealing with and I can kind of see if I have gone very far from that point or not. It is sort of how I do it. Tell us about the evolution of short term 12 from short film to feature. The short film was my thesis project when I was in grad school here at San Diego State University. I started writing that short, the inspiration came from flipping through my journals that I had written during the time that I worked at a residential facility for at risk teenagers. Those journal entries and some stories I had written down somewhat became transcribed into the sort -- short film. Like any project I do, I don't expect anything to come of it, but the short film happen to go to Sundance and when the jury prize. It was a very long process going from the short to the future, something I could talk about for hours probably because there were a lot of rejections before the success comes. Eventually I was able to turn that short into a feature and lucky enough to make it. From what you have been saying, you sort of plum your own life and your experiences and that is what you find gratifying about making screenplays and movies. It sounds like that old adage write what you know it sounds like you hold fast to that idea. So many films now are about fantasy and about comic books and things like that. Does that real-life approach seem to some people what you are dealing with is old-fashioned? I don't think that idea does not apply to comment movies. My favorite comic book movies are the ones where the superheroes still seem very human. And the emotions that they go through our very relatable. I think some of the projects that I work on a very much not my life, but the emotions that the characters are going through our things that they think about or their fears and worries of being successful or their fears of failure, all of those things are things that I can very much relate to as I am writing this. I think it applies to whatever genre you are working in. How long does the writing process take you? I don't know. Sometimes it takes a really long, sometimes it is not very long. It is depending on how I'm feeling at the time. Right now it feels like it takes forever. Do go back and sometimes rewrite? Yes I always do. It is something that I am always trying to figure out. But it is always changing because my brain is always changing. Was I think I figure out what my process is it doesn't work the next time around. I think pretty consistently my first ideas are not very good even though at the time it seems like they are really good, rewriting is a huge part of the process. Being able to get through that first draft and then take a few steps back and analyze it. On speaking with Dustin Cretton he will be speaking at the Point Loma Nazarene's Writer's Symposium by the sea this evening. He is of course writer and director of the movie short term 12. As I say you are sort of an elite group of filmmakers who write and direct their movies. Does doing both seem like a natural progression to you? It is for me, at least so far it is somewhat necessary progression. I think the writing process allows me to think about it as a director as I'm writing it allows me to work through problems before I even start preproduction. By the time I am shooting the movie it is something that I don't have to memorize the script I know it because I have been working on it for so long. I have not separated is to get, I'm sure I will at some point. Which do you think you would enjoy doing more than the other? Neither. I don't know. I don't know. I love both and I hate both. There are points -- I don't know. Will have to wait and see. I know you have been involved in creating a screenplay of Jeannette walls the selling memoir the glass Castle. What has that been like adapting another persons work? That is a great example of something -- it is a story of someone else's life, it is not something I am writing for my own experience. When I read this book it was something that felt so close to me emotionally and the characters what they were dealing with an experiencing was something I related to at the very gut level. I never laughed so much and cried so much when I was reading something. From that perspective it is actually something that feels very personal somehow even though it is not my story. I just love Jeannette. I fell in love with her when I read her book. When I got to speak with her I just really adore her as a person. It has been a big privilege to work on that. You will be speaking at the Rogers symposium by the scene at her alma mater Point Loma Nazareen. Did you attend one of these as a student? I did . In that sense it seems almost ridiculous that I will be sitting on the stage. I was in the audience when Ray Bradbury goes up on stage and George Clinton it was like, listening to these guys talk about whatever the process when they wake up, when they sit down to write, how difficult it is. Going to those talks has been something that has inspired me and taught me a lot. Are you basing your talk tonight when you get up and how you write? I am basically memorizing everything that those guy said I will just repeat it. Honestly, what do you wish someone had told you when you were a student at PLN, what do you think that you have discovered that young writers need to know? I suppose it is something that you constantly have to remind myself of every morning. It is very strange to be in the creative field that is also work. When money becomes a part of it, it is like those two things, you really have to train your brain to not fall into thinking of this as a job, and the pressures of a job and the pressures of making something great, or the pressure of making it in the business. All of those things are completely counterintuitive to creating something authentic and honest. Every morning I have to try to remind myself why I do this. I do it because I love the process. It has nothing to do with what the outcome is going to be, if it goes to the Sundance and when the festival or if I get paid, I have to remind myself I do it because I love the process of doing it. I loved playing with Plato, when I was eight I love playing with Plato not because I was going to win an award for it. I try to remind myself of that. It sounds like the business side of the industry is something you're trying to navigate. I think I will be trying to navigate that the rest of my life. When it comes to young writers. And if somebody says I want to write my own movies and direct them. It seems like the most probably levelheaded professor would say do you know how hard that is to do? Did you get any of that? Sure. Yes. I had professors who were extremely expiring to me and encouraging. There were also ones who felt the duty to tell me how difficult it is and how my natural personality is not really wired to survive in Hollywood. You hear the way I talk I am a fairly relaxed chilled person who is not really going to work a room and network like a pro. It took me a long time to get over that fear and get over the idea that I have to be something that I'm not. Once I kind of did that I think I started creating things that were a bit more may be honest or relatable. Do you watch the Academy Awards and say someday? I watch the Academy Awards and say don't think about that. Dustin Cretton will be speaking tonight at the Point Loma Nazarene's Writer's Symposium By the Sea , that is at seven. Dustin thank you so much. Thank you for having me.