the first time I saw a television show.
Everyone in the room stopped talking and stared at that black and
white image. I saw the power and attention the visualized word had on
them.
I know I've succeeded.......
when the audience laughs at the right
places.
My inspiration to write
A LETTER FROM AVRAM.......
came as I sat in a synagogue, watching a Sabbath service. The congregation
sang a song about physical and emotional healing and the story was there.
*****************************************************************
FilmMakers Magazine:
What inspired you to write?
Tom Rossi: Actually, it was the lack of inspiration that led me
to write. I grew up in a family that had died from a poverty of
spirit. There was food on the table, but nothing that fed my life. It
was an isolating, bleak scenario, bereft of joy. In short, a perfect
environment for a writer. Luckily, the nuns at St. Mary's School
taught me to read and I discovered life outside the empty shell of my
family. I read everything I could find; cereal boxes to encyclopedias.
Sitting in the public library, I flew to Mars; I journeyed to the
center of the earth and 20,000 leagues under the sea. I learned
theology, geology, Renaissance art and the art of war. It was a
fantastic journey through someone else's imagination. And then it
occurred to me that I could travel my own journey and pilot my own
flight. All it took was putting the words on paper.
FilmMakers Magazine: How did you prepare yourself to
write your first script?
Tom Rossi:
As I recall, I walked to school, made out with Lavonne Kennedy at her
locker, got a detention for it and wrote my first screenplay while
sitting it out in Study Hall. I was fifteen. The screenplay was awful.
FilmMakers Magazine:
This is not my first script (see the answer above.) It took about a
month to write.
Tom Rossi:
Usually, I take all twenty-six letters of the alphabet and spread them
out on my desk and then I rearrange them into groups I call words.
Sometimes, that takes forever! Just kidding. No, I write when I can.
FilmMakers Magazine: Do you have a set routine, place and time management for writing?
Tom Rossi:
Usually, I take all twenty-six letters of the alphabet and spread them
out on my desk and then I rearrange them into groups I call words.
Sometimes, that takes forever! Just kidding. No, I write when I can.
FilmMakers Magazine: Do you believe screenplay contests
are important for aspiring screenwriters and why?
Tom Rossi:
Writing is, of course, a lonely activity. The only thing that keeps us
tapping away at the keys is our dream, our vision and our
self-confidence that our work just may be a real work of art. Often,
that isn't enough. We need the validation a contest can provide just
to keep going.
FilmMakers Magazine: What
influenced you to enter the
American Gem Short Script Competition?
Tom Rossi:
I needed the exposure to people who might actually want to make this
film a reality.
FilmMakers Magazine: What script would you urge aspiring writers to read and why?
Tom Rossi:
"Blood Simple" by Joel & Ethan Coen because it is a masterpiece of
plot twist, "The Victors" by Alexander Baron and Carl Foreman because
it has magnificent juxtapositions and points of view on a single
subject, and "What's Up Tiger Lily?" by Woody Allen et al, because it
must have been a real challenge to write to a film that was already
completed.
FilmMakers Magazine:
Beside screenwriting what are you
passionate about and why?
Tom Rossi:
Mountain climbing. The
need to separate oneself from humanity drives you up to the summit.
The love of humanity sends you back down. On a mountain summit you
realize that silence is the music of awareness. In that silence; in
that unique awareness, you understand God just a little bit more
clearly.
FilmMakers Magazine: Who is your favorite Screenwriter
and Why?
Tom Rossi:
Joel & Ethan Coen have been consistently impressive in their control
of each scene in every movie they have written..
FilmMakers Magazine: Name
the director you would love to work with and why?
Tom Rossi:
Joel Coen. He has a brilliant touch. Unlike the usual ham-fisted
effects-heavy garbage that seems to garner the wows of pubescent gum-chompers,
Coen's work garners something much more..respect.
FilmMakers Magazine:
Name the actor you would love to work with and why?
Tom Rossi: Danny Glover. This may be a strange pick but I think
he is a truly under-rated actor and I believe he has a range that
surpasses the roles he has been in so far. Besides, my next screenplay
has a starring role that could be an Oscar-winner for him.
FilmMakers Magazine:
Any tips and things learned along
the way to pass on to others?
