GABRIEL CARNICK
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How did you discover The Palm Springs International Screenplay Awards and how did you decide to enter this contest among all the others?
I heard about this festival through Film Freeway, I make complex festival run promotional strategies and loved Palm Springs, its judges, and its previous winners.

Where do you live (City, State, or Country)?
Columbus, Ohio, USA. I lived for 10 years in Los Angeles, California, but left during the strike.

Your script stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your story and why did you write a script instead of a short story or a novel? What inspires your overall journey into screenwriting?
The story is inspired by a real trailer that my brother brought me to when I was a kid. I wanted to write a self-contained script that we could make for under $2m, and this location has always been in the back of my mind. I am also a big fan of healing childhood trauma wounds with powerful children, and decided to make this piece in dedication to my brother, and also as an exercise in limitation. 90% of the script is 3 actors, one location, with a final secondary location at the end of the film. I love going deep, not wide, and haunting woodsy thriller, with an undertone of mythology is very much my vibe. The story is heavily visual. I am a poet and writer as well, but my main focus is working as a director and screenwriter, and I wanted something very attainable and personal for my feature film debut.

If you have produced a Pitch Deck, Sizzle Reel, or Trailer, what was that process like for you? Did you have professional help or has it been a DIY task? How long did it take to produce?
The pitch deck was made by me and assisted by one of my Producers, Laura Garcia, who has been an absolute godsend. She has spent countless hours working on budgets and helping me look at development far more realistically, while also working as a professor Director and Producer herself. She is the main reason the pitch deck has come together so well. We went through several drafts and it took a few months to produce.

How do you decide which stories to tell, and what draws you to these particular themes?
I try to tell stories of every genre that have some sort of social justice or traumatic healing approach. As someone with childhood trauma, I know that the stories of powerful children heal wounded adults. I wrote this for myself, and for everyone else who needs help with their healing.

What is your typical writing routine? How do you structure your workday to stay productive?
I try to write or work on Raise Hell an hour a day. We are currently shopping the script around (we have a quarter of the budget raised and are looking to raise the rest of it before next summer). I do have other writing ventures, but getting backing for the feature is my number one focus at the moment. We want to film in Ohio, as I have many students (I am a professor at OSU) who I would like to bring on to shadow and help welcome in this new wave of Ohio Filmmakers. I think, as a person with ADHD, years ago I learned the hard way about burn out and losing executive function. I try to work most days an hour on Raise Hell, and then on Fridays I focus on Raise Hell and my other projects (music videos, commercials, scripts) while allowing myself the freedom to drop days when my body needs rest. Filmmaking is such a hustle, and I didn’t learn until I burned out the first time how much more efficient and healthy we are when we allow ourselves to rest and breathe.

How long did it take you to write your script...and what is your writing process? Do you outline...use index cards...white board...or just start with FADE IN?
It took me 2 years to write Raise Hell. I had it in planning stages for 6 months and then began doing the exercises in How to Write a Feature in 28 Days while flushing out the rest of the story. I have had to do a lot of long tests in doctors offices and while lying on the table for 50 minutes I will start the movie in my head, from fade in, and see where I can put the pieces. I outlined, used index cards and put it together in pieces. My last feature script, Safe Harbor, I wrote from Fade In, and I found that style of writing is too loose for me. I let myself wander too much. Beat sheets and index cards that are focused on limitation and story really work much better for me. And I can get more layers into stories and keep the thesis of the film clear in my mind.

How do you handle writer's block or moments of doubt (we all have them) during your creative process?
I breathe and let go. Write some poetry. Try to write a short film for fund. Maybe read a book. You can’t force it, especially if you are neurodivergent. If you can’t write that day, then cold call producers, hit up everyone you know, spread the word, spread your story, make a festival plan... writing scripts and getting films made is not exclusively just in the writing. If your mind needs a different outlet that day, let it. You are an artist. Follow your soul.
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What tools or software do you find essential to your workflow as a screenwriter?
I honestly use Highland 2. I used to use Celtx. I’ve used Final Draft in the past but it got too expensive for me.

How do you approach competition entries, and what have you learned from participating in these contests? Which contests have you entered...and how has your work been received overall? Have those contests been helpful to you in your writing?
I make an extremely detailed 2 year festival plan with a focus on my financial risk vs. reward. I have to be conservative with my spending at this point after the strike knocked me down so hard financially (as it did for many of us) and a solid festival plan is the only way to make that work realistically. Raise Hell was also a selection of the Rhode Island International Film Festival (Flickers RHIFF) And a Semi-Finalist at the Screamfest Horror Screenplay Competition. I mostly do contests to get leads on producers and funding.

Can you share a specific challenge you've faced in your screenwriting and how you overcame it?
The specific challenge is time and money. If I could work all day every day on getting Raise Hell produced and into the festival run as a full indie film, that’s all I would do. Then I would start writing the next one. But filmmaking is a very classist industry, and a big barrier to entry is monetary. I have to work two jobs and still hustle every day to try and keep the writing going and get this movie made. There are no real days off. If you are balancing your “writing time” with a “day job”...how are you managing that?
Caffeine and Tenacity. The hustle is hard.

Where do you see yourself in five years as a screenwriter?
In 5 years I want Raise Hell to have been completed and done a year long festival run (it is designed to be an indie darling). Then I want to have the next feature written and in development. I am also a cinematographer, I have 4 features I am currently signed on to film and I can’t wait to film those and find more. I love being on set. I love making art. The strike hit a lot of us in the wallet very hard and those of us that had to move out of LA are still finding our ways out in the world, and I hope with my entire soul that I’m back making art non-stop sooner rather than later.

What is your ultimate ambition as a writer?
Write, Director, Publish Books of Poetry, DOP a couple features, rinse and repeat.

The film and television industry is constantly evolving. How do you see the role of screenwriters changing, especially with the rise of streaming platforms and emerging technologies like artificial intelligence? Have you used A.I. in your writing; if so, how have you used it?
I think A.I. will crash out. I hope sooner rather than later. It is terrible for the environment and makes an already devastatingly difficult industry to enter that much harder. AI will never have soul, it will never have passion, it will never have trauma, it can never give healing or change lives or change worlds. You can’t google what happened to you the first time you fell in love. You can’t chatgpt the worst day of your life. Sadly studios and tech companies think this is a tool that can replace humans, but all automation is flawed, and automation cosplaying as artist is doomed to failure. I’m more annoyed about it than anything. I would never use AI in my writing. I think tools like that should be used specifically for tasks humans do not want to do. We have children back in mines in the U.S. Design a drone with AI for that. My film utilizes violent sexual photos in some of the production design, my team and I are discussing possibly using AI for that so we don’t have to put our team through additional trauma of having to either source that material or create it. It has uses, but few and far between. Use automation to keep kids in schools, to help disabled parents, to make America a fully literate country, to streamline health insurance and solve major budgetary problems so everyone in this country can go to a doctor and sleep inside and eat at least once a day.... Stop trying to take what few beautiful and financially sustainable things we have cultivated from us.

Which film or television writers inspire you? Why?
Reed Morano is one of the greatest directors and cinematographers in the world. I am in constant awe of her. When I saw Short Term 12 by Destin Daniel Cretton it changed my life. Truly. My thesis film would not have existed without it. I saw that and was like... oh people want to know about these stories. I know tons of these stories. I think Celine Song’s Past Lives was a masterclass in a first time film director’s work. Her sense of storytelling and her self-control is legendary and I was shell shocked by it. Prey, the prequel to Predator is actually a huge inspiration to me. I teach that to my students as a way of utilizing a tight budget and visual storytelling to tell a story not about Predator and Prey, but about colonization under the mask of a monster movie. That is how monster movies and horror movies should be. Tell me something real, and heavy.

What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show?
I jump back and forth. I love Logan, Prey, Scream 1 and 4, Handmaid’s Tale (the show). My favorite show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

What advice do you have for aspiring screenwriters or filmmakers?
Your first thousand pages are always going to be crap, so if you keep waiting till your ready or till it’s perfect you are never gonna get through that first slog. Write. Mornings are better than evenings for most. Get a muffin, play some music, and write. And when you can’t write, read.
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What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? (links to your projects?)
Well first and foremost we are getting the funding for Raise Hell. My IMDB is here but this would be my feature debut as Director. We have a quarter of the budget raised, the script is doing well at festivals, I have two incredible producers attached (Laura Garcia and Michael Carnick) and an absolutely phenomenal cinematographer on deck (Katie Eleneke). If you know a company funding indie thrillers, our budget is $2m, we have some raised, and we know it will do amazing on the festival run and likely with international distribution. www.imdb.com/name/nm5557642/?ref_=fn_t_1 
I have worked for a long time as a writer/director/cinematographer combo, so I’m really thrilled to have Katie Eleneke on with me for Raise Hell. I love cinematography, but to be able to release that and focus on writing and directing is such a privilege.
My short film Belly Belly did incredibly well at a ton of festivals, including more than 10 Academy Award Qualifying festivals, and the Producer, Writer (Loren Hayes) and I (I was the director and cinematographer) are discussing a feature film with a different but similarly themed story. Loren is a phenomenal actor, and them alongside Katie Lynn Stoddard absolutely rock that film.
My short film SIMP (writer, director, cinematographer), did really well at festival, I can send links to that and Belly Belly if you would like. Shoot me a DM. Always love making queer little films. Katie Lynn Stoddard is in both these films, an incredible actor, can make chemistry with a rock and always takes my writing to the next level. They play opposite Mallory Corinne in Simp  and the two of them are so much fun together.
I am on deck to work as the cinematographer on multiple upcoming features, including Adverse Effects, with director Michael Carnick, I am also a co-producer of that. That is a thriller about ableism. Michael and I also did The Forbidden Wish, several short films, we are doing a documentary in Japan together in a few months, and he is one of the producers on Raise Hell.
Michael is my cousin and one of my best friends in the whole world. It is wild having someone you didn’t grow up around be so in sync with you as an adult. He is an incredibly talented artist and I am so privileged to be able to know and work with him. Oh, Sugar, the directorial feature debut of the excellent Gabe Dunn, a t-4-t romantic comedy. We filmed one of the scenes already and are on the back burner while he raises the rest of the funds. On the side I am open for hire on any narrative films, documentaries or commercials as a director or cinematographer. I love travel work, I am shooting a documentary later this year in Japan, and I have worked all over the US and in Ireland and Ghana. I am a pretty ride or die try to see the world and make art kind of lady. I am a queer women and love female centric stories, whether queer or not, as long as they are powerful. My calling card is the utilization of the female gaze in it’s many forms, if you read Raise Hell, or watch Belly Belly, or Simp, or even my reel, that is pretty obvious. And yeah, my whole life is just getting this movie funded so we can jump into pre-production.
My previous feature films including The Forbidden Wish (Cinematographer), and Before We Begin (Cinematographer) are available on streaming. My other two features, Cafe Americano, and The Bank Yank will hopefully be available soon, if you have the chance to watch Cafe Americano, it was written and directed by Alex Scheinman and he is both an incredible director and a fantastic human. Definitely try to track that one down. It’s tons of fun.

Where can the world find you online? (Social media links, etc.)
IG: @gabrieldirectorcinematographer
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://filmmakergabriel.wixsite.com/gabrielcarnick
IMDB:  https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5557642/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Gram:  https://www.instagram.com/gabrielcarnick/?hl=en