The Writers Guild of America is my go-to source for all things professional screenwriting. That's where all the major players shell out advice that helps newbies do things better.
That doesn't just go for writing, but also research. You know, the thing you do to make your work feel authentic.
Recently, screenwriters Andrew Lanham (Just Mercy, The Kid) and Kevin Willmott (Da 5 Bloods, BlacKkKlansman) dropped past the WGA YouTube channel to give some advice. They shared how they gather information, how their research informs their screenplays, and how they approach writing stories about real people and events.
The whole session was moderated by WGF librarian Lauren O’Connor.
Check out this video from the WGA and let's talk after the jump.
What are the Best Research Methods for Writers?
One of the best ways to procrastinate writing is to research. There's always a little more detail that can be added to the story, a little more authenticity. So what are some of the best ways to begin your researching process?
1. Google
You know how to do this. It's the first step many people take when trying to research a generalized topic. So if you wanted to write a TV show about being in a newsroom, the first thing you'd do is Google the topic of "newsrooms behind the scenes" to see how they work.
You'll find videos and articles that detail life behind the cameras. Then it's time to look into articles and read as much as is available to you.
Longform is the secret website of Hollywood. It's a catalog of articles where you can type in a phrase or keyword and it assembles lots of articles about a certain topic. There may not be many about your idea, but after a general Google, I head to Longform.
3. The Library
Do you have a library card? It's the most useful tool for any screenwriter. It's not just about scouring books on the subject you want, which was easily the best way to gather info before the new millennia, but it's also about talking to a librarian. They might have tips and ideas and leads on a wide range of different topics—like, a list of fiction about a certain subject, which you can use to see how someone else tackled the story.
4. The Experts
If you're working to research a particular field, you want to talk to someone who is in that field. But how can you gain access? The first tip I have is to reach out to HR. Send a general email and tell them what you're trying to do. Ask for a shortlist of people you can speak with, and guarantee you only want 20 minutes of their time.
Here's an item I often screw up, try to speak to a diverse list! There are people of every gender, race, and sexual orientation in most jobs. The experience and stories from them will be different and informative. Speaking to a wide array will give you the best kinds of characters.
5. Know when to write
You're only looking for what you want to use and stuff that applies. So, I would suggest writing as much as you can and using research to fill in the blanks and add to the polish. As I joked about at the start, research is a great way not to write. At the end of the day, you can't sell the best research, only the best film or TV script.
So get back to writing and then research on your off-hours.
So much of what we're talking about on No Film School when it comes to screenwriting is summarized in our new eBook. It also helps guide you through a 10-week writing plan that will get your script actually finished.
Sometimes, when you have a clear and distinct vision for something, you're driven to see the whole thing through on every level. In filmmaking, that can mean taking on various roles, from writing, directing, or even starring. But for Vivian Kerr, it meant all of the above.
Vivian Kerr is the writer/director and star of the independent feature Scrap, which follows single mom Beth as she moves into her car and struggles to hide her homelessness from her estranged brother Ben.
The film has screened at several independent film festivals across the country, including the Coronado Island Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Narrative Feature.
It was a blast to sit down with Vivian Kerr and hear about how she handles every facet of production.
Let's dive into the interview.
Vivian Kerr Interview
Editor's note: the following interview is edited for length and clarity.
No Film School: Hi, Vivian. Your independent feature Scrap arrives on VOD on Friday December 13th. What would you like readers to know about the film and your work as an actress-writer-director on the project?
Vivian Kerr: It’s been such a long journey to bring Scrap to this point. I first got the idea in late 2016, so it’s essentially been 8 years since I wrote the very first scene, and it took even longer for me to believe in myself as a director. I started as an actor, then began writing for myself and my actor friends, and we would shoot these low-budget shorts for no money in my Koreatown apartment in my 20s that I would act in. I started to write and produce in between TV jobs, and after awhile, of that indie filmmaking experience I felt so strongly that I wanted to level up and make a feature, but I had no idea how to make it happen.
By the time I had the feature script for Scrap polished in 2019, I was meeting with various directors, but every time I would have coffee with yet another director, they would show up with a pile of notes about what I needed to change about the script, why it needed to be grittier, or the humor needed to be toned down. In hindsight, I’m glad that I never found the perfect director, because it got to a point where I was disagreeing with everyone and I thought, wait, I know exactly how this film should look and feel and sound…why am I not directing it myself?
I also really have to thank my friend, producer Sapna Gandhi. She was the one who told me I could and should direct it. The day I decided I was “all-in” on directing the feature was the day that things started to happen. And then by the time I shot Scrap in 2021, I was completely obsessed with directing. I just completely fell in love with it. I felt like I was finally doing something that utilized all my skill sets, and I knew I wanted to make a second feature as quickly as possible.
NFS: The film experienced a great deal of success on the festival circuit, winning awards at such notable festivals as the SoHo International Film Festival and the Coronado Island Film Festival. What was it like to share Scrap with so many different audiences nationwide?
Kerr: I had no idea when Scrap premiered in Deauville in 2022 that we’d go on to do another 42 festivals! It quickly began to pick up momentum. I spent 18 months crisscrossing the US. I think I visited 17 different states. I’d never been to North Dakota, Arkansas, Iowa, Connecticut, or Michigan before, so it was fascinating that no matter where I took the film that audiences had very similar reactions.
A lot of people connected to Beth’s struggle to keep up appearances despite her dire financial situation. I heard so many stories from audience members who said they had slept in their car and showered at their gym, just like Beth. And a lot of people also connected to the fractured sibling relationship between Anthony Rapp and myself.
My background is in theatre and I always loved the great American playwrights — Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Thornton Wilder — there's something about going to all these places and seeing how people related to the intimacy of the family drama that reminded me why those plays are successful. Scrap is really about how these characters strive for their version of the American dream, and how that impacts their relationships and sense of self-worth. That feels universal.
Vivian Kerr Dana Patrick
NFS: Scrap follows your character Beth, a single mother who struggles to hide her homelessness from her estranged brother Ben. What drew you to this subject matter?
Kerr: I’ve lived in LA for almost twenty years, and there were suddenly a lot more people outside of my apartment building sleeping in their cars, so the idea of writing something about that was lurking in my brain, and then I had always loved sibling dramas such as You Can Count on Me and The Savages. Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman had a big impact on me as a young performer, and I wanted to write something tender and funny about dysfunctional siblings, so it was marrying those two ideas. It became a real-life family affair as my sister Marion Kerr ended up helping to produce Scrap and cameos in the film as our characters’ mother in the flashback scenes!
NFS: You followed up the heartfelt drama of Scrap with Séance, a gothic horror film set in 1892 California. Are there any films or pieces of literature that inspired you to make a film like Séance?
Kerr: Of course, I was inspired by traditional Gothic novels — Wuthering Heights and The Turn of the Screw — but more so by the early 1960s films The Innocents and Robert Wise’s The Haunting. The sequence with Deborah Kerr in the white nightgown with the candelabra in The Innocents was something I thought a lot about. Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman was another one. I love how these films use lighting, deep focus, and slow dolly movements to build the atmosphere, but you never see any actual “ghosts.”
They’re intensely psychological and are essentially dramas exploring the breakdown of relationships. This genre felt like the chance to explore profound themes such as love, grief, and regret while also challenging myself as a director in my visual storytelling. I think sometimes filmmakers worry about veering into melodrama, but I always loved it when more recent films such as The Others, Firelight, or Dead Again would just embrace the heightened emotion of these genre pieces, so that inspired my writing, too.
Once I started working with our incredible cinematographer Johanna Coelho, she talked about Portrait of a Lady on Fire and bringing a softness to the period visuals, which I loved, and we actually shot it 1.85 ratio as well, which was perfect for our more narrow Victorian interiors.
'Seance'Rue Dangeau
NFS: What was the most difficult part of the creative process on Séance?
Kerr: Unfortunately, my original DP for Séance quit two weeks before our original start date to shoot a sketch comedy series, so the hardest part was honestly recovering from that. It wasn’t an option in my mind to plug in a new DP last minute, so I was suddenly looking at a six to eight week push and I had no idea if we could even retain our locations.
But it turned out to be a huge blessing because I was lucky to find Johanna Coelho and in re-prepping the film from scratch with her, it completely changed me as a director. I became so much more specific and hands-on with the cinematography decisions, my confidence with the technical side grew, and the film became much more visually developed.
Originally Séance wasn’t going to shoot on vintage lenses, but JoJo suggested Super Baltars and we went down to Keslow and did tests with our candles and gas lamps, playing around with different filters and seeing how far we could push the low-light levels and what we could achieve in-camera. From that point on, the film opened up for me creatively in a brand new way.
And I truly have to thank Johanna for her patience and generosity, because not a lot of cinematographers would want to explain technical elements of the Sony Venice to their director, but she is so collaborative. She helped me step up my game, and I’m excited to keep challenging myself and to work with cinematographers who want to push things like that. I never thought I’d be the kind of person watching lens tests on Vimeo for fun, but here we are!
NFS: What did you learn about yourself and your work as a multi-hyphenate across your first two feature films?
Kerr: So much! Scrap and Séance were the first two features I produced with my production company Rue Dangeau, so I got to learn everything. It was a crash course. I’ve been with both films since before day one, and I’m self-distributing Scrap with Rue Dangeau, so I learned a huge amount about film sales and distribution in addition to physical production and festival strategy. But if I had to boil it down, I learned how resilient and resourceful I am.
When you step into the role of a feature director it’s a huge responsibility, and the best but also the toughest thing about it is that it will show you exactly what you’re made of. Especially on an indie, you’ll have to be relentless to get the film done with the right level of quality control. And you have to be flexible and be able to pivot when things outside of your control threaten to derail the film. I wasn’t sure I could walk that tightrope but it was so empowering to find out that not only can I walk it, but also I’m good at it. I remember joking with a friend that after Séance I felt ready to work for Marvel.
I also learned that as a multi-hyphenate, I need to ask for help. Especially if you are the lead producer and the director, it’s a massive amount of work. So I have to thank some of the people who really helped me — producers Marion Kerr, Suresh Cedrick Pereira, Makenna Tuttle, Savannah Lindblad, my editor Toby Yates, and our DI team at LightIron. If not for them, neither Scrap nor Séance would have made it across the finish line.
I’ve always admired multi-hyphenates such as John Cassavetes, Orson Welles, and Kenneth Branagh, but I’ve had to remind myself sometimes, “Okay, Vivian, you know Orson Welles did not make The Magnificent Ambersons all by himself.” I’ve learned the importance of seeking out experienced collaborators so I can loosen the reins a bit more.
'Seance'Rue Dangeau
NFS: How does your approach to directing a scene change when you are also performing in it?
Kerr: I was very fortunate to work with editor Toby Yates on both films. He, unfortunately, passed away last year, but even from our earliest conversations during pre-production on Scrap, I knew that he and I were on the same page in terms of acting taste, so I had faith on set that if I could generate enough raw material, he and I would put something cohesive together in the edit.
I’ve worked mostly in television and independent film as an actor, and you’re lucky to get a third take in those mediums, so I’ve developed a way of prepping with my acting coach Saxon Trainor so I can be very self-sufficient. I don’t watch playback and I try not to be too precious about my own performance. I also worked on both films with a terrific script supervisor, Carissa McQueen, and she is a godsend in reminding me to match my energy or emotion for continuity.
When I’m directing a scene I’m in, I focus on the other actors. I know I’m incredibly advantaged because I have so much more knowledge of the coverage and what we’ll be using from each set-up than the other actors do, so I try to make them relaxed and comfortable. But also, when you have these incredible actors such as Anthony Rapp and Lana Parrilla, it’s not like they need “notes” from me. They know exactly what they’re doing. So I’m just there to make sure everything is tonally cohesive and we get what is needed for the edit while allowing them the freedom to explore as artists, feel safe to try something risky or be open to something unexpected.
NFS: With Scrap and Séance each occupying a different genre of storytelling, do you have a long-term vision for the kinds of films you would like to make?
Kerr: I really see myself as a journeyman director. I’ve always admired directors such as Ron Howard who really center the story, rather than impose a specific visual language on all of their work. I enjoy directing for the same reason I love acting and writing—I want to explore worlds and characters that are different from my own life.
To be able to take risks and go from Ocean’s Eleven to The Knick like Soderbergh can is the goal. I’d like to make a big-budget studio movie someday and then also get to continue my weird period pieces, and then run off and make something more indie, raw, and intimate like Andrea Arnold’s films. If I could look back on my work in forty years and all my films felt like individual, fully realized pieces, I’d be so thrilled.
The goal for me is longevity and getting to create a meaningful body of dramatic work with talented people I can learn from and grow with over my career. I saw an interview with Sean Baker recently and he called this kind of filmmaking “stories for adults,” and that’s exactly right. It’s the story and the script for me, first and foremost.
Vivian Kerr Dana Patrick
'Seance'Rue Dangeau
'Seance'Rue Dangeau
