
Writer/Director Giordano Traces Screenwriting Success to TSA
By G. Robert Frazier
Dec 8 2018

Tennessee Screenwriting Association members are fortunate to be able to draw upon the vast knowledge and experience of Bob Giordano when it comes to learning about the ins and outs of the craft of screenwriting. An instructor at Watkins College of Art, Bob is a TSA past president and current board member. He is fresh off his directorial debut for his thriller movie, “The Odds,” which capped a successful festival run over the summer as the closing film at the Raindance Film Festival in London. We recently talked with Bob about the movie as well as the TSA.
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Who is Bob Giordano and how did you get interested in screenwriting?
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BOB GIORDANO: Like most filmmakers, I have always been a fan of movies. But earlier in my life, my creativity was expressed through the visual arts…drawing, painting, and the like. However, a couple of years after I moved to Nashville, I was invited by a friend to attend the TSA. I quickly felt an affinity for the screenwriting process, and I’ve been immersed in it ever since. I’ve attended seminars, conferences, and classes. I’ve read dozens of books about screenwriting and hundreds of screenplays. And I’ve analyzed a multitude of pitches, synopses, and script pages through attending the TSA.
About 10 years after I’d gotten involved in screenwriting, I’d won and placed in several prestigious competitions and had begun working with Hollywood producers and professional writers, bolstering my credibility. I have a friend who was teaching a screenwriting class at Watkins, but something came up and he had to drop out. He asked if I would be willing to take over — I said I would, the director of the program at Watkins approved it, and I’ve been teaching there ever since.
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After several years of teaching about screenwriting and writing scripts, what prompted you to helm your own movie?
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The film’s challenges were about what you’d expect: how do you make it interesting to watch a film that takes place mostly in one room with two main characters doing a lot of talking? When I began to approach the film directorially, I began to think about the story much more visually than I had as a writer. I read a lot of books that analyzed different directors’ styles, and I watched a lot of YouTube videos about directing, prompting me to create a list of techniques that I could utilize in my film.
Storyboarding was an immense help, as it forced me to really look at how each scene would appear on screen. As a result of that process, I altered some of the elements of certain scenes so that they would be more dramatic on screen. I also made a conscious effort to change the blocking of the characters in ways that would accentuate the emotional tone of each scene. One of the most common mistakes I think beginning directors make is that they have their actors go through a scene, and the director shoots it as though it were a play. I made sure that we shot every scene from all reasonable angles so that the audience would feel like they’re in a 3-dimensional space. Also, we shot a ton of coverage; I had a rule in the edit room that we would never use the exact same shot more than two times in a row, and we mostly followed that.
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Filmmaking is about collaboration. Who were your collaborators that helped make “The Odds” possible?
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And when it comes down to it, screenwriting is about communicating ideas in the form of a story. The best writers have a group of trusted readers that will help ensure that their ideas are being communicated in the way they intended. The TSA is great at holding up the mirror to your script and reflecting what is working and what can be improved. Their feedback is honest, polite, and objective, but is never insulting or demeaning. Each member wants each writer to succeed.
I have brought (and continue to bring) my concepts and scripts into the meetings for feedback. We had a member about a year ago who I didn’t really get along with, personally. But he gave me feedback on a project that was absolutely valid, and that helped me make changes to improve my project. Good advice can come from anyone, and I am open to it, despite the messenger.
One last thing — listening to other people’s ideas and stories and analyzing them is a great way to bolster the objectivity you need to effectively write your own script. Any time I notice a problem in someone’s story, the first question I ask myself is: “Uh-oh… did I do that in MY script?”
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Read more about “The Odds” in this Raindance interview with Bob Giordano.
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Bob Giordano is a principal of Uproar Pictures, based in Nashville, TN. He is the 2017 Grand Prize Winner of “The Poe Contest” for his script, “The Odds”, and the Director of “The Odds” feature, now in post-production. He has been a quarter-finalist, a semi-finalist, a finalist, and/or won several of Hollywood’s (more)
-Bob Giordano Writer/Director