Gordy Hoffman Interview. Part one.

I recently had the pleasure to interview Gordy Hoffman, writer of Love Liza, which starred Kathy Bates and Gordy's little brother Philip Seymour Hoffman. Gordy won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance for the screenplay, and his last movie A Coat of Snow, which he both wrote and directed, garnered him the 2006 Domani Vision Award at VisionFest.

Gordy Hoffman is also the founder of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, which is dedicated to discovering new, talented screenwriters. During the first half of my interview I asked him questions about BlueCat and how it distinguishes itself from other large cash prize screenplay contests.

For those of us who don't know, tell us a little about the BlueCat Screenplay Competition.

Gordy Hoffman: Grand prize for our screenplay competition is $10,000 and we have four finalists that each receive $1,500. One of the finalists is the recipient of Screenplay Live, which is a live staged reading of their script at the High Falls Film Festival. So we've got some pretty large cash prizes, but everyone who enters receives written analysis, which really sets us apart from everyone else. There really isn't anyone else who has this size of a prize and gives written analysis like that to everybody. Some competitions will give you one sentence of feedback, but we actually write out a mini-coverage. It's approximately 750 words of written analysis and everybody gets that. We've been around eight years now, this is our ninth, and we've got a very good track record. Our winner from 2005 just wrapped shooting the movie he wrote, our 2006 winner is negotiating when he's going to direct his film and it looks like it will go into production later this year. Our 2004 winner just won Austin with the same screenplay he won our contest with, and our 2003 winner was in the top ten of Nicholl's, and our 2002 winner went on to win Nicholl's with a different script.

We pick good writers, so if you are a good writer and you've written a great screenplay, if you submit it to us, we will find it. Everyone who wins BlueCat has never won a contest before. We don't accept anyone who has won a competition before; we want to bring in new talent.

Yes, I understand that the emphasis of BlueCat is in discovering new talent. Are previous finalists encouraged to continue resubmitting?

We get a lot of finalists resubmiting, but we've never had a finalist one year resubmit and win the next year. But yeah, they come back. I think that's the power of the process, people want to continue being a part of it.

How do you select the readers?

We hire them in Los Angeles and outside of Los Angeles. They are always experienced readers; I handpick all of them. They submit samples of their analysis which I personally look over, and I go from there. If I feel what they are saying is a legitimate, intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate opinion, then that's all it is. It's not like there's somebody out there who knows exactly what's right and wrong. You need to find someone out there who has an idea about what they feel, and is capable of expressing themselves about it. I look for people intimately familiar with the process of writing and getting analysis and feedback. I get a lot of people submitting and I'm very careful about it. My direct hiring and management of the readers allows me to exert control over when the screenplays come in and when they're read. Considering the success of our past winners who go on to win awards or get signed, I think something's definitely working.

Are there any perceptible trends in terms of style or technique that past winners and finalists seem to be distinguishing themselves with?

It's always been if there's been an authentic personal voice behind the story; that usually seems to be what drives it. The last two winners, their stories have been completely different, but they are both rooted in the personal experiences of the writers. Our 2005 winner Gary the Tennis Coach is a comedy about a janitor who takes over the high school tennis team. The two guys who wrote it played tennis in Nebraska and were able to infuse an authentic voice in it. It's not necessarily writing about what you know, but writing about what you know about yourself intimately--writing from a vulnerable, truthful place. Every year I think there's been that kind of touch to our winners. I really think with each year there's better writing going on.

Would you encourage undiscovered writers who are early in their process of submission to be very experimental in the construction of their scripts then, or would you direct them to stick with a more personal, traditional voice?

I would tell any new writer to write whatever they want to write. I would also say that anytime they hear a voice telling them "oh, that's too weird," they should ignore it. You should write whatever you want to write. The turning points in cinema history have been when someone broke free from what they were supposed to be doing and wrote what they felt they needed to write at that moment. Don't write outside yourself, that's not how that works.

Your past films, Love Liza and A Coat of Snow, are pretty darkly themed, and I know your next project is going to be as well. However, I know your personal taste in movies isn't in keeping with this trend in your writing at all. Have you been wanting to write something lighter?

Yeah, I actually have written some comedies and I have developed some lighter stuff and more romantic stuff. I'd like to direct something like that, but my next project isn't going to be like that.

Would you encourage writers to experiment in different tones? Should new writers not limit themselves to one genre that they may feel comfortable in and be more adventurous--should they discover things about themselves through that process, or is that authentic voice you talk about emergent regardless?

I've really caused a lot of confusion for myself trying to second guess and triple guess exactly what my next move would be, and it gets a little crazy. At this point keep it simple. If you feel compelled and inspired by some idea that you come upon, I think you should support that. Try and follow that. Get about the business of writing it. That's it.

The deadline for submissions to the BlueCat Screenplay Competition is March 1st. If you've got a screenplay lying around, I'd get some postage and submit. Entry fee is 45 dollars, and again you are guaranteed a page of feedback analysis. Samples of analysis and other information are available on their website.

In Part Two of the interview I ask Gordy about what it was that inspired him to write the script for Love Liza, and his last film A Coat of Snow. I ask him about the difference in experience between giving a screenplay over to another director, and directing your own material. Gordy also tells me what his favorite films of 2006 were.