Interview (Part 5): Allison and Nicolas Buckmelter

My interview with the 2018 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winners.

Allison and Nicholas Buckmelter wrote the original screenplay “American Refugee” which won a 2018 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with the married couple about their backgrounds, their award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl has meant to them.

Today in Part 5, Allison and Nicholas talk about the Nicholl experience and share some screenwriting craft tips.

Scott: What about the Nicholl experience? Could you talk a bit about that?

Nicolas: It’s amazing.

Allison: Yeah, it’s a whirlwind. You get a whole week in L.A.

Scott: Were you staying in Ventura or did you just spend the week in L.A.?

Nicolas: We spent the week in L.A. It was logistically challenging with two children. We had, thankfully, my parents and Allison’s parents who came down from Portland to help out with the children, which was great.

The Nicholl experience is wonderful. First of all, it’s called the Academy Nicholl Fellowship, and it really is a fellowship in that the people who won it before you are there for you when you win. During the week, some of them come and give seminars. They attend lunches, an alumni dinner. You get to listen to their perspectives and their advice.

You get to ask them all kinds of practical questions, general questions. You get to know this group of people. It’s like graduating from a school where everybody’s a writer, everybody has the same interest as you, and they’re all looking out for you.

And like school, there are reunions and people staying in touch. It’s wonderful, in that sense, the fellowship and the mentorship. You also get a close-up view of the work the Academy is quietly doing on behalf of motion pictures, from their film preservation archive to their script library, and you come away with great respect for the organization.

We’re thrilled to be part of this tradition now and part of a long line of writers who have gone before and done well in that competition.

Scott: Did you have representation? You’re at Paradigm and Gotham Group now. Did you have representation before you won the Nicholl, or no?

Allison: No. As soon as the finalists are announced, you get all kinds of emails. It’s so fun because, before, you’re emailing people and not hearing back. Now suddenly you’re getting emails from people without being asked.

We signed with them before the Nicholl week, a few weeks after the finalists were announced.

Scott: So, Mike Rich was right. You break into the business by winning the Nicholl.

[laughter]

Nicolas: All you need to do is just win the Nicholl.

Scott: Simple.

Nicolas: Simple.

Scott: Congratulations on that and your script. I’d like to ask if you’ve got time for a few craft questions here. Being parents of a two‑ and six‑year‑old, that must be challenging. How do you find time, structure your lives so that you have time to write?

Allison: Before we had kids, we’d want these perfect chunks of time set aside for writing. We’d want to have all the items checked off our to-do list and the house perfectly cleaned before sitting down at the computer. Now, I find myself writing in total chaos on a notebook while the kids are watching a show or playing and there are toys everywhere.

Nicolas: Or writing in the car as it’s parked in the driveway with the kids asleep in the back seat.

Allison: Right. The first draft of American Refugee, we wrote most of it because our son, at the time, wanted me to be in his room while he fell asleep at night. It would take a couple hours. I would just use my iPhone as a flashlight, sit in the rocking chair in his room with a notebook, handwriting the pages.

I began to think, “Hey, there is time in my day if I just take out the time I’m surfing Facebook or something and actually just try writing instead.” Page by page, you can get stuff done.

Nicolas: Nowadays, one of us will watch the kids while the other writes. Then the next day, we’ll just switch roles and go about it that way.

Allison: Yeah. Having a partner, obviously that makes it much easier.

Scott: How do you come up with story ideas? Is it something you’re conscious about? You’re like, “OK, I’m going to come up with ideas,” or do they just hit you, do you look for news articles or what? What are the sources of your ideas?

Nicolas: All of the above.

Allison: Yeah.

Nicolas: A lot of times, something will strike one of us. I’ll shout it over the shower curtain, “Hey, what do you think?” [laughs]

Allison: In the end, it always starts with a character.

Nicolas: Definitely starts with a character. It’s like, “It would be interesting to write about this type of person.” Also, as we were saying before, something that is relevant in the zeitgeist that’s in the conversations people close to us are having, trying to connect with the things people are talking about or that matter to us, whether it’s a news event or a national trend or something else.

Just trying to get our finger on the pulse, and if there’s a character who’s compelling and who can be the way into a story like that, we’ll talk about it and maybe start sketching it out.

Scott: That’s interesting you say that. I’m featuring on my blog…By the way, are you familiar with my blog, “Go Into The Story,” at all or no?

Allison: Yeah, we’ve taken a look at it. It’s great.

Nicolas: Yeah. We love the interviews you’ve done with all the Nicholl fellows…They’re great.

Scott: And now you’re going to be on the archives. In fact, I’m currently reprising a series I did in 2012 on a book that was co‑written in 1920 by Anita Loos who was one of the most famous screenwriters of her era, she and her husband John Emerson.

Today’s article was talking about story concepts, and a quote from the book: “Find your story on an original truth of universal interest.” It sounds like that’s what you’re saying, find something people can be interested in, the zeitgeist, that conversation. Does that seem accurate?

Allison: Yeah.

Nicolas: Exactly. Yeah, that’s really nailing it. Then find a compelling character who lives in that world or who can really experience that world or speak to that world.

Here is a video featuring the 2018 Nicholl winning writers receiving word of their awards including Allison and Nicholas:

Tomorrow in Part 6, Allison and Nicholas share advice for aspiring screenwriters.

For Part 1 of the interview, go here.

Part 2, here.

Part 3, here.

Part 4, here.

For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here.

For my interviews with 53 Black List writers, go here.