PEOPLE: Louis Calvente – Screenwriting and the Film Industry

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 Friday, June 5, 2020 - 09:45
PEOPLE: Louis Calvente – Screenwriting and the Film Industry

by KEVAN KENNEDY

Louis Calvente is a local Gibraltarian, “born and bred”. His decision to pursue scriptwriting was “fated in some way”, he thought. “I guess I was drawn to film since I was a child. I remember my parents telling me stories of how I would hiss at Kaa, the snake in the movie Jungle Book or how I'd run and hide when Ursula from The Little Mermaid would appear.

I showed promise in my writing capabilities, and when the time came to decide my desired profession for the rest of my life, all I could think of was Accounting or Law.”

Yet, the desire (or “bright idea”) to go through with Film Production was a sudden one, the ironic twist in life bringing this to fruition being his rejection from all other Universities except for Worcester. It harboured “the only Film Production course I'd applied to that offered joint honours in screenwriting. I ended up Majoring in Screenwriting, and in retrospect, I wouldn't change a thing”.

Louis’ experiences with the industry did not end in academia. “I worked on a cross border project where Andalucian and Gibraltarian talent teamed up to make a short film up the rock. The movie was a small project, a 'Goonies'esque, monster mystery based in the rock tunnels. It was a perfect taster for the film industry, with my tasks ranging from script re-writing and script editing, to script language translation and runner work on set. The deadlines were tight and it all happened fast in under a week, it really gave that real sense of the hustle and bustle of the film industry”. The challenges that come with screenwriting appear to be plenty, not including the exhaustive creative processes that simply go into writing itself: “it's arduous, long and 'character building', but ultimately worthwhile”.

The process, Louis informed us, differs largely from writer to writer, “even from one writer's script to their next. Its typically oriented around a Four Act Structure, with each segment containing specific story events or 'beats' that will push a narrative forward in the most effective manner”. He found that ‘exploration’ served him best when beginning to find his voice, and advises anyone to not be afraid writing “what you think you can’t”. Louis often ponders on ideas for months before the skeleton of his script is even produced, the story then being a “frenzy of scribbled notes” before all the details are done and “the story crafting begins”.

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05-06-2020 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR