Go Into The Story Interview: Cesar Vitale

My interview with 2017 Black List screenwriter and 2017 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner.

Cesar Vitale wrote the original screenplay “The Great Nothing” which won a 2017 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting and made the 2017 Black List. Recently, I had a one-hour conversation with the Brazil-based writer about his background, his award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what being on the Black List and winning the Nicholl has meant to him.

Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview:

Part 1: “I’ve always studied screenwriting on my own as a hobby. I think I might be the only person that read Syd Field for fun, growing up. I never considered it a possible career path, though.”

Part 2: “I think half of a writer’s job is usually trying to come up with innovative ways of delivering an idea or an emotional beat. You want to avoid sentences like, “You know what I think about you?” and stuff like that, and try to get across how someone is feeling without having them state to another person how they are feeling.”

Part 3: “I imagine that, when you find out that you have a very limited window to live, you must feel a very strong sense of detachment, because you can’t play this game of pretending anymore. You can’t look away from death.”

Part 4: “We make a very serious goal to try and get death away from our eyesight whenever we can and not think about it.”

Part 5: “I love writing side characters. They’re usually the most fun for me because there’s not the pressure of the main character, so you’re freer to play around with different and interesting choices.”

Part 6: “If you don’t like reading that much, chances are you’re not going to be a very good writer. Just read as much as you can, watch as many movies as you can. Dissect the movies. Dissect the scripts and the books. What worked in that story? What didn’t? What made me happy, or sad, or cry in this story? Do that a lot, then write your own story, and then write another one. And then another.”

Cesar is repped by APA and Untitled Entertainment.

For more of my interviews with 26 Nicholl winning screenwriters, go here.

For more of my interview with 52 Black List screenwriters, go here.