A Video Girl Update
How we're approaching our collaborative writing process.
Ziggy and I got the initial idea for Video Girl after making our way through Brian De Palma’s psychological thrillers. I love the campiness of all of De Palma’s films, but what I don’t love is the lazy and/or offensive twists (tl;dr “surprise! The woman was crazy all along!”). We were walking through Brooklyn, ranting about De Palma and talking about how we should make a film—just the two of us—for as little money as possible. Up until that point, my process had been less practical, more like: ignore all production realities, write the exciting idea, get stuck.
It was just a small nugget of an idea, and on top of our full-time jobs, both of us were working on different things—Ziggy on their debut novel, and me on a different psychological thriller/horror. We set it aside and forgot about it for a few months.
In December of 2022, we were applying for a film grant with a screenplay and treatment inspired by our dysfunctional families when Ziggy had an epiphany that cracked Video Girl wide open. The idea gave me genuine goosebumps. And not only that, but it also felt possible. Possible as in we could probably fund it with our savings accounts instead of hoping to meet a rich dude in a bar, or trying to compete for a grant without already having a feature under our belts.
Because our families live across the country, we spent Christmas Eve in NYC furiously shaping the story that became Video Girl. We riffed back and forth, sharing our inspiration and writing loglines and character descriptions. I’m sure there are people who will read this and think “what a pathetic way to spend a holiday,” but we had a blast, energized by carajillos and a feeling that we’d hit a creative gold mine.
Ziggy wrote the first draft as a short story because, as a literary fiction writer, it was the obvious method for building a rich world and dimensional characters. It was really cool reading the character’s interiority, getting inside their head in a way that’s never possible with a screenplay first draft.
Here’s the first paragraph of that first draft:
Shuggie gets to the open house early because she’s sick of being a late person. And a loser person. And the kind of late, loser, druggie, burnout person who can’t chase her dreams or wash her clothes or maintain a stable relationship or stare into her own eyes when she looks at photos of herself. Also, she’s really gotta quit smoking. And drinking. And eating McDonald’s for dinner and lunch and also breakfast most days. But before she goes full healthy-sober-winner person, Shuggie should enjoy this last smoke. She should stand here, outside this big brick apartment building, sharing one last Camel Crush with herself before she goes to the open house and rubs elbows with all the other dirt-broke student-loan-cadets who responded to this Craigslist invitation for a fully furnished, seven-hundred-dollar-a-month studio apartment featuring a coil-top electric stove, an extra-long twin bed, free high-speed WIFI, and a single, bar-covered window.
Halfway through the draft, Ziggy’s literary agent got back to them with notes and revisions for their novel. Revising their book was obviously more important than finishing a rough draft of a screenplay with no deadlines or expectations from anyone other than ourselves. But not wanting to waste time, Ziggy volleyed the half-finished short story and a detailed outline to me, and I adapted it into the screenplay format and wrote the last act. I finished the draft on January 20th.
Next week I’ll tell you more about our writing process and the party we went to that forever changed our perspective on our art careers. Do you have any co-writing tips? Questions about this writing process? Words of advice during the revision process? Drop them in the comments below!
A Debut Feature Recommendation
A Thousand and One written and directed A.V. Rockwell
If Teyana Taylor doesn’t win best actress awards for this role, I will be INCENSED.