Interview With Izzy Davis, Screenwriter

The Rolling Tape spoke with Izzy Davis, a screenwriter currently working in LA, and a graduate of Clemson University and Loyola Marymount University. Joined by Danny Jarabek and Sara Ciplickas, the conversation breaks down what inspires Izzy as a writer and the types of films and directors that influence her work. Izzy also sheds light on her path toward becoming a screenwriter and offers advice to people entering the field.

As a writer, you tend to shelf a lot of things when you’re halfway through it or have gotten through the outline process. And so, you always want to finish those of course, but then it’s like, what new idea can I come up with instead of finishing those? But yeah, I do think that a finished script is the best currency you can have. So as much as we love going off on a new idea, I would tell everybody to at least finish one script…but I think it all starts with an idea that you’re passionate about. And, and I think that’s what’s most important, you feel like you need to get something on the page that hasn’t been said before.

Izzy Davis

Danny Jarabek: Hello, this is Danny with the Rolling Tape podcast and today we are hosting another interview and we are here Delighted to be talking with screenwriter Izzy Davis. Izzy welcome to the Rolling Tape show

Izzy Davis: Hey, thanks guys for having me.

DJ: I’m also here with Sara Ciplickas.

Sara Ciplickas: Hey y’all.

DJ: Izzy, yeah, so just to get the conversation started, of course you are a writer and we are here to sort of pull back the curtain for our listeners on hopefully a little bit of the screenwriting process and what you’re involved with, but just to kick it off, love to hear about your interest with film, sort of your story and just how you got to be involved with film today.

ID: Yeah, so I, like many of you, went to Clemson and found my way into the English major, took a few film classes just because I liked movies. They were elective, so I was like, these are going to be the fun courses that I don’t have to do homework for. But then I actually enjoyed them to a point where I was like, oh, is there a way to do this after college? the only one that was offered at the time. And then I retook it and, you know, talked to my professor and I was like, is there any way to continue doing this? And he said, there’s grad school. And that’s what I did. I went to film school at Loyola Marymount and they have a writing program specifically for feature film and that’s what I did.

DJ: Awesome.

SC: Are you working on feature films now or do you do a little bit of television right? Or back and forth?

ID:  Yeah, so the first thing we did so at Clemson you wrote a pilot and then you rewrote the pilot And so I had never written a feature until I went to grad school and when I wrote that first feature it was like I told my mom I was like I finished it and I don’t know what to do with it I just like when I look at it. She’s like it’s like you had your first baby and I was like, yeah alright but I do get back into TV sometimes. For me, it’s just, there is just something about like a full finished project in a feature, you know, you’re like done with it, you can rewrite it all that, but a pilot, you’re constantly thinking about, okay, what’s the next episode? How do I flesh out the series? All that. But I will say, like, I’ve had to turn a few of my features into pilots already. And the same goes vice versa. It’s like, how can I restructure this into a movie or into a short that we can make a proof of concept so that maybe people will look at it if it’s something visual instead of reading 60 pages.

DJ: So just to shed a little bit of light to our listeners on, you know, the writing maybe differences between writing a feature or writing a TV pilot. What does that entail as far as the process, as far as what the final outcome looks like and how that eventually can get turned into something that is produced?

ID: Yeah, so I guess for me, feature is easier. It’s not for everybody. So, I’ll start there. And, you know, you flesh it out. There’s many different ways. No matter what professor I had, it was always a similar way to go about structure, but there is always a different way of thinking about it. I mean, I just have pages and pages of different ways to structure things. And some hit better for other classmates than it did for me, there’s the postcard method where you lay out each scene in postcards and then there’s like 19 sequences or whatever. I love that and it’s just knowing like you know not every scene but every other scene pretty much and just kind of getting the feel for the structure and knowing that you have the plot points and then I also am a dialogue person so it helps me if I go ahead and write like a page or two and then jump into it. I mean sometimes I don’t know what’s going to happen in the second act or what’s going to happen at the end, but if I start writing the beginning then I’m like oh this character as I know her now would do this you know. So yeah for me I’m a character person and with pilots and with TV that’s I think that’s why I prefer feature is that pilot and a series structure it just so heavily relies on knowing the structure and knowing you know what’s the endpoint of the first episode and then how are you going to draw out that entire concept for eight episode mini-series or 22 episode like huge episodic piece you know and then and then you have to think of more seasons and it’s like okay but I don’t really care what this character does after college I just want her to go through sophomore year and get to senior year, you know.

SC: Have you had a chance to like restructure with a team of writers? Because I would imagine working on TV series, it turns into a lot of different people writing for one particular goal. Does that get hard? I don’t know if you’ve done it, or do you prefer to work alone? Like how does that feel?

ID: So, I have actually a current project, it’s an old feature that I wrote and it’s currently being reworked into like a limited series is what I’m trying to do with the director. And so, it’s my first time really writing with somebody. We have this great group of people that all graduated film school together and we call ourselves like the Script House and once a week we all meet up and we’ll edit each other’s stuff. We have a Google Drive, we drop it in there. We’ll have read it and given notes all that and so and we really like bounce ideas off each other and I’ll some of my dialogue may be something they said, but it’s different than you know actually writing sitting down and writing with somebody. So, you know, you’re not always going to agree with that, especially when it’s taking an idea that you originally had. And then, I mean, that is what happens a lot in TV is that, or really feature or TV, but especially in TV, you know, it could change episode to episode, the entire concept could change. But I personally like, you know, rethinking it as an idea that, I mean, digging deeper into elements that one I didn’t gig into and 2 didn’t really have the chance to and now that I do, it’s kind of exciting to look at it in a different way. But yeah, definitely finding a writing partner or somebody that at least understands and respects your vision, even if they don’t see everything the way that you do exactly. Because then at least it’s easier to talk it out, you know, and come to a middle ground of sorts.

DJ: Something I’m curious about, maybe this is different between TV and feature too is when you start a project your commission for a script or however it works, do you know when you’re starting the director? Are you working in collaboration with other people who are going to be involved in that production? Or is it you’re developing the script and then that’s going to go to directors that you don’t know yet in the future?

ID: Yeah, so I personally first of all, I have I’m still working my way in this game. So, who knows but there is like a lot of different ways that things can happen and that’s what I’ve learned I mean over I gosh I’m going on two years graduated from LMU and I’ve just seen friends like everybody goes about things differently, but also, you know, there are ways that we haven’t even been approached with opportunities. But I would say so far, I write the script I want to write and then I give it to my manager, I shoot the idea off my manager, and I’ve only had my manager for less than a year. So, before that I was really just writing what I wanted to write and that’s that when I finish it, submit it to competitions and all that. But yeah, so I haven’t really had to write for somebody. Recently, there’s been production companies that they’ve read something and they’re like, hey, if you have something like that, or if you have something in this area, we’d love to read it. And so, you know, sometimes my mind does kind of feel like it not has to force an idea, but it’s like, okay, well, what can I come up with that has to do with this concept or this type of character? Because I then know that this company would take that. idea when you’re so used to just like, oh, this would be a cute idea. Let me write it out. Um, but, but I mean, that’s fun too. You know, thinking about things that people would be interested in and also merging it with ideas that maybe you can rethink an idea that you had, you know, back in college or a few weeks ago, it’s like, maybe this could be about, you know, a 75-year-old man instead of a college girl.

DJ: You mentioned earlier that you are sort of character driven in your approach. I’m curious, you know, what is sort of your entry point as a writer that sort of like breaks when you’re looking at the blank page, the empty canvas, what is the process for you that, you know, I’m sure it’s different for everyone too, every writer probably goes about this in different ways, Like, do you sort of try to tell and write the story chronologically? Do you start with maybe a treatment where you’re piecing together from beginning to end? Or are there like, sometimes I’ve heard that writers will, you know, they’ll know a couple key scenes and then they’ll work their way around that. I’m curious to hear a little bit of like maybe your process or like other processes that you’ve heard.

ID: Yeah, so I being a character person kind of like I was saying earlier. It’s you know, you get to certain points in an outline of sorts which I’m not a big outliner. Well, I used to be an outliner and then I got to the point where I was like, huh I don’t know what’s going to happen in this part, but I know it’s going to happen at the end, so let me just write it anyway. And then in the outline it just has a big empty chunk, and I was like alright I should have thought that one through. But I am a scene person because you know I’m, the characters to me, like if I know how they’re going to speak and if I know how they’re going to react to each other or what they would do in a situation and it really helps me get those first scenes and get the concept of the entire story better than it would for me to be like, okay, well, Becky goes to the mall here and then she goes there. Like, I just don’t really care where a setting is. I am definitely more of who’s going to interact with who and then what’s that going to make them do next. So, yeah, but I mean, I do have friends that, you know, well, one, I’m more of a comedy and coming of age writer, so I guess that also has to deal with the fact that I’m more of a character driven person. But we have friends that write horror. I have friends that write like mythical things and sci-fi and hard dramas. And they definitely all go about it differently. You know, my friend that one of them that writes horror, he has like a dream book of sorts. will like see characters that he knows like will be in his sci-fi thing and he’ll draw them and it’s like things I’ve never seen in my life. But when he writes about them, I’m then like wow that is actually what you’re describing. So it’s just kind of cool that people have different ways that one that their concepts come to them and then two that work for them to make a story get from beginning to end. I mean I again like I was I wasn’t I didn’t hate the idea of the note cards, but it did get old having to bring around like 40 to 50 note cards all the time. But I love that, you know, on a single note card you can write out a scene and then you can move them around and place it to where it would better fit rather than just writing in a linear timeline and feeling like you have to stick to it.

SC: You’ve like mentioned your friends quite a bit and I know it’s cool that you have this like writer’s guild that you meet with once a week. I know you’re new to the game, but does it seem very competitive in the screenwriting world or I mean it sounds like you guys kind of take care of each other. Like are you getting good vibes from the industry? That’s really what I’m asking. Like are there good people out there?

ID: Terrible, we hate each other. So all of these imaginary friends, no, we do love each other. Although I will say, no, not like although. We do love each other, period. Now I’m starting a new thought. So, in school, it was funny actually, because we just kind of thought it was normal for everybody to like each other and to genuinely want each other’s scripts to do well. It’s like, hey, I don’t write horror, but there’s this horror competition that you should submit to and people would like side-eye us sometimes like you know your cohort is kind of weird how supportive it is like aren’t you worried about them doing better than you and it wasn’t you know for us it was just like knowing, well one we liked each other as people and two like it just seemed that you know you want them to do well so then maybe they could get you a position someday. I mean you’re not going in it for that but it’s like how else are you going to rise if you don’t really rise together? You can’t just, I mean to me yeah taking ego out of it is definitely the first thing you have to do because there’s no way that you can make it without one true friendships but also I mean your connections in the industry are going to be the people that you like and not just random people that you’re feeling like you have to suck up to. But yeah, even I mean, I would say living in Los Angeles, most everybody you meet wants to be something or is something or has been something for a long time in the industry. And I mean, sure, there’s people here and there that it’s like, okay, I’m going to roll my eyes, but the majority of people I meet like are so nice and will give you their card and say, hey, call me whatever. And you know, it’s not about like, what can I do for you? What can you do for me? It genuinely is like, if you have an interest in what they’re doing or what they had to say or similar interest at all, then I mean, it’s just, it’s kind of like making friendships as corny as it sounds, but it is, we all want our co-workers to be our friends? So that’s kind of how I feel like you have to go about it. And I mean, hopefully that’s how most people see it. But I do understand that there’s some people that are, you know, you can kind of get full of yourself, I’m sure, when you get to a certain status. But for the most part, I do think that everybody’s been super helpful. And especially like everybody that graduated with us. And even like people that we’ve met, there are writers’ meetups everywhere in LA. And if I remember something that somebody said or people have reached out to me like, hey, I met you this one time at Austin Film Festival, but I remember you’re the sports girl, like there’s this sports thing, have you heard about that? And so, I just think it’s super cool. And if something doesn’t quite fit what you’re doing, it’s nice to be able to shoot that out to other people. And also, hopefully the same happens to you. But so far that’s how I’ve seen things go. So, I’m hoping it stays that way.

SC: That’s good. LA is intimidating, so it’s nice that you seem to be doing okay.

ID: Yeah, you know, it’s fun. It is like I mean, I would say the hardest part is that it’s you have to have patience like it’s not something that you know, I mean we also all have our misery sessions, but we all sit there together and can commiserate together. You know, like we it’s not it’s not like it’s not like we’re all of going to the Oscars on Sunday or anything. But we have seen each other get better and get managers and get staffed and get, you know, it’s just like you see progress happening within the group and people within our group giving other people jobs and all this and it’s like, oh, we’re, you know, like slowly building, but also like things are happening. And I think those little wins like really keep you going. Patience is truly key. I think I’m definitely a more patient person than I was two years ago. You know, you graduate and you’re like, okay, now that I’m done, like Hollywood, what do I do next? And it’s like, oh, I work a normal job and I continue writing and I write with my friends, and I have so many steps, but it’s, I mean, the process is kind of fun, honestly. I mean, yeah, it’s not, sometimes you have moments where like, uh, like, why can’t I just like sell this thing and be done and make a ton of money and go to the Oscars and all this. But like, it really is just fun not knowing sometimes.

DJ: Yeah that’s super cool to hear too. You talked about your interest in coming of age and in character driven films. Is there any sort of inspiration or storytelling approaches that you really like to have opportunities to write about whether that’s like some themes some that you appreciate exploring or genres or just anything that you in particular like to write?

ID: Yeah, so I am an old lady at heart and so I will never forget when my comedy pilot professor asked everybody what show they would want to be staffed on at the moment and you know, it was kind of to test if we know like who we are as writers and what we relate to? And I was like Grace and Frankie and she was like you’re 20 years old I was like, no, but I’m really not like I relate to them so much.

DJ: Weirdly enough when you said I’m an old lady at heart, I was like, is she going to say Grace and Frankie?

ID: Yes, I am. But I also, like my inspiration mostly does come from my grandmother. Like I, she’s the first one to read anything I write and that it’s been that way since Clemson. She lives like on Lake Hartwell and so I would just walk over to her house and she would have it printed and like ready to give it back to me. And I still have all those copies. I’ll email her, you know, if I haven’t given her pages every few weeks, and she’s like, have you been working? Like, what’s up? What have you got? And I’m like, Okay, I will write calm down. Um, but yeah, and she’s also like where I get my sense of humor and stuff too. So, I mean, she sometimes, like it seems like she’s younger than me in my mind. Because I’m like, wow, you have a huge like blast of energy that I do not always have. But yeah, and so my inspiration is mostly from my grandmother. I am also the oldest of seven siblings, so lots of characters running around all the time. Huge family. So yeah, I mean, I’ve just always been drawn to things about just, you know, one, like the differences and like all these people, even though they live under the same house. I think that applies to a lot of things, just, you know, people are coming of age at every age I found. You know, like my grandma seems younger than me sometimes. And sometimes you look at your parents and you’re like, wow, I’m going to be that age one day. Like, I still don’t know what I’m doing at 30. Like, can I come of age at 30? You know, so, and so I think that those are the themes that I’m typically drawn to and the types of characters. Also just rewatching the same movies that I love and feeling like, you know, trying not to rip them off, but also trying to rip them off. Like, Legally Blonde and The Devil Wears Prada.

DJ: Well, we have to ask what the films are then and if there’s any films in particular that you really enjoy as maybe a role model type of script that you appreciate.

ID: Yeah, I would say oh, I also I love a Christmas scene like if I can find any way to put Christmas into any of my scripts I’m there. But The Family Stone is like one of my favorite family movies. Not family as in feel good necessarily, but I also love a movie that makes me cry even though I’m a comedy person and The Devil Wears Prada, Legally Blonde, 27 Dresses, Wedding Crashers, I mean really, it’s just all comedy gold.

DJ: One question I feel like I would love to ask a screenwriter is if there was one script you could write with your dream director, who would be someone you would love to write a script for?

ID: Ooh. That’s tough, I think. Aline Brosh McKenna is like truly, I mean 27 dresses, We Bought a Zoo, The Devil Wears Prada. I don’t know why I said We Bought a Zoo before The Devil Wears Prada, but those are her credits and I love them all. She recently did a new movie that was not my favorite, but you know, as long as she’s making movies, I’m happy. And you know, the same goes for any Nancy Meyers film. She’s getting back in the game.

DJ: Did you hear that she’s returning to direct $130 million romcom for Netflix?

ID: Oh yes, oh yes. See, that is what I wish I could come on here and say, that’s my movie.

DJ: Well, I mean, maybe if it was, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell us.

ID: Yeah, true. Yeah, I’ll keep you posted guys. It might be, it might be. Just kidding. But I would do the sequel to whatever it is, for sure.

DJ: Oh, of course, of course. Yeah, just a final couple of questions to wrap up. Is there anything that you’re working on now or anything in the future that you can talk about that you’re interested in telling our listeners?

ID: Um, I’m actually, I, actually like right before I got on here, funny enough, I went back to my first ever feature script that I had written. Because I had to, like, it was last night, I don’t know what I was doing, but it just like a random scene from that script popped into my head and like a way that I could do it better. And it is kind of fun to revisit characters and to you know, even though I’ve you there are some scripts, and I do believe this as a writer that you should know when to stop editing I mean if somebody’s going to give you money and somebody is going to say that they’re going to help make it then yeah make whatever edits they want you to make but at some point as a writer you need to know like when it’s the idea that you wanted to produce and I had gotten that script to kind of where I wanted it to be so it’s kind of fun a few years later to be like oh maybe I could mess around with it more. But yeah, and then just a you know a couple of things I think one of them is just trying to come up with an idea for a production company that they were like oh, we like this idea, but can you think of something else? So I’m trying to think of something else instead of, you know, there’s as a writer, you tend to shelf a lot of things when you’re halfway through it or you know, have gotten through the outline process. And so, you always want to finish those of course, but, but then it’s like, what new idea can I come up with instead of finishing those? But yeah, I do think that a finished script is the best currency you can have. So as much as we love going off on a new idea, I would tell everybody to at least finish one script.

DJ: I’m sure also, I mean, this probably goes for all creators. I’m in architecture, so I feel this all the time with my projects. But it’s like any, you never want to stop. You feel like you can always keep going and keep pushing something. But eventually, you probably have to say, that’s enough for that one. I have to move on to the next.

ID: Yeah, and I think it’s so much easier to see, like, when it’s somebody else, for instance, you know, like, and or again, I’m going to talk about my little writer’s group again, but you know, when you see your friends go back and edit and you’re like, no, like, we told you you should have submitted that, you know, just go ahead and submit it to the competition already, like it’s fine. And they’re like, no, it just needs a few more edits. I hate to say that something is good enough, but it is just so worth putting out there an idea and I’ll even put out ideas or not just ideas but finished scripts that I know need work, but it’s like okay well, what does stick and what doesn’t and I think it’s worth submitting and I would tell everybody to make a Coverfly account if you have scripts that are finished and use that to submit to contests, but also they have script services that give feedback, like We Screenplay and everything. And, you know, it’s a good way to find out whether what works and what doesn’t is just to, especially if you don’t have a writer’s group, you know, like here’s somebody else’s opinion that doesn’t know you and you’re writing. And, and it’s not always going to be the right person to read it, but, you know, submitting to those feedback places, I think it’s worth it.

DJ: Yeah, I think that goes into one question that we always try to wrap up on whoever we’re talking to and that’s, you know, in your territory of screenwriting, what is something you would say to someone who is thinking about becoming a screenwriter and just, you know, someone out there listening thinking I can’t do it, LA is too much and screenwriting is too competitive, what would you what would you say to someone out there that was maybe going through that and wanting to had the passion for it but didn’t know where to start?

ID: I would say do it anyway. The good thing about screenwriting is you can be doing literally anything and still write, you know, from wherever you are and whatever you’re doing. You can always sit down and write. And I think that, you know, if you’re not really surrounded by like-minded people that write, there’s online forums, there’s submitting to different contests and whatnot. And I don’t know, I think that also there are some services to learn about writing and there are books and all this wonderful, you know, pieces of knowledge out there to learn more if you feel like you’re not the best at it. But I think it all starts with an idea that you’re passionate about. And, and I think that’s what’s most important, you feel like you need to get something on the page that hasn’t been said before. I think it was, I actually, I don’t know who to quote, but somebody said that you should write the movie that you haven’t seen before and that you’ve always wanted to see. And they said it much more eloquently than that. But I do believe that like, I love writing rom-coms, but also like, I’m not rewriting the rom-coms that I’ve seen. There’s plenty of brilliant writers out there that are much better than I am, but they still don’t have the same ideas that I have. And so, I think that I think that there’s a balance of like, and I think that’s you know, goes back to not being competitive. Nobody has the same experiences that you have that you can bring to your writing, so you have to trust that. And you know, they might be able to say something more eloquently than you or they might be a better dialogue writer, but all of that doesn’t matter and can be rewritten when somebody buys into your idea because you were so passionate about it and your idea is just that unique and just that you and I think that is corny. Wow that sounded very corny but it’s just true.

DJ: Sarah, did you have anything else that you wanted to talk about? Welcome back, by the way.

SC: Yeah, sorry, I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden everyone disappeared. That was… I don’t know whose fault that was. Um…I don’t know if this has been asked already, you know, because I took a hiatus, but do you have specific writers, directors, anybody working today or who has worked in the past sometimes find yourself trying to write like them.

ID: Yeah, I was asked who I would want to write for, but I mean, I think that the same kind of applies that, it’d still be like Aline Brosh McKenna, Nancy Meyers, you know, just all the little rom-com writers and directors. I don’t know, I just, yeah, I think that the romcom genre tends to get, I don’t know, can we cuss on this thing?

SC: You can.

DJ: Yes. We’ve done plenty.

ID: Okay, tends to get shit on a lot, and I, but I just think that there’s something for making somebody feel good, and Nancy Myers does that so perfectly in each of her movies, and so I don’t really understand. I wonder what she would have to say about that. Those are, I mean I respect so many, so many writers and directors, but those two are definitely the ones that I would say make things that I want to make.

DJ: That’s awesome. Yeah, I love that. I wish one of our team members, and Sara can vouch for this. I wish Bryan was here because that man just loves Nancy Meyers like nobody I’ve ever seen before.

ID: Listen, you set them up in an email with me.

DJ: The two of you could go on for hours, I’m sure. Um, but yeah, thank you so much Izzy. One final question that we always wrap up on is if you could recommend anyone to join the podcast that you would love to hear have this discussion with us as well and have the opportunity for us to get their insights, who would be someone that you would love to recommend?

ID: I actually like sitting here, I thought through a few people that I know that are in different places doing different little things, going about the industry, you know, some on the same level as me, but going about it differently. So, I mean, yeah, any of my people in my writers group, I think would love to speak with you guys. And then I have actually met another Clemson alum out here who recently, I think he recently moved here, I’m not sure, but he’s more on the production side and he’s actually funding a short Dolan, I forget his last name, but he, yeah, I would love to recommend this to anybody because yeah, the more wealth of knowledge, the better.

SC: Perfect.

DJ: Absolutely.

SC: Dolan, if you’re listening, we will find you.

ID: Holder, that’s his last name, I think.

SC: Okay, perfect.

DJ: We’ll go door to door. Are you Dolan from LA?

ID: “Did you go to Clemson?”

DJ: Well, Izzy, thank you so much for your time. This was a lot of fun, really enjoyed hearing a little bit behind the scenes of the writing process for you and just what it means to be a writer a little bit in LA right now. And so, we really appreciate your time and thank you so much for speaking with us today.

ID: Yeah, thank you guys. This was fun.

SC: Thank you. Good luck with everything.