Remy Bazerque on his directing and writing career, culture shocks and more
I want to share the interview series I have been doing for some time. It has kept me motivated on my creative writing journey. The following interview was originally posted here. If you want to get these interviews in the future, subscribe to my newsletter.
Remy BazerqueĀ is anĀ award-winning French writer and directorĀ in film, animation and commercials.
[His] work has been screened at international festivals like Flickerfest, Raindance, and the London Film Festival. I've been supported by institutions like the BFI, Film London, and Creative England, and I've earned a Vimeo Staff Pick and a win at the Firefox Flicks competition during the 65th Cannes Film Festival.
Being in the exposure of three cultures has given him its advantages and disadvantages. We talked about how his background affects his work when it is in English, the influences that his directing work has on his novel and vice versa, and so much more.
What are you working on right now?
On the film front, I wrote a pilot for a comedy, and I am going through the kind of querying that you often see in the publishing industry. So I am applying to things, waiting for responses, etc.
I have a script for a feature film that I am working on and off, something personal. As a director, I am also attached to an animation series for adults, something similar to South Park, but it is at the pilot stage now.
As for the novel, it has been about two years since I started working on it. I wrote two full manuscripts, only to realise that I was not happy with both of them. So I started over. This will be my third time right now.
That is a lot of work! Have you ever procrastinated on a project because of hitting roadblocks, as in when you had to start over? How do you usually deal with these roadblocks?
I need to write every day, for a range of reasons. So usually when I hit a roadblock I tend to obsess over it rather than procrastinate. Although it usually doesn't wield much better results. One of the reasons I have a bunch of projects is to precisely have a means of switching to another if one gets blocked, or if one needs a pause. I have my newsletter too.
That is reasonable. I have used the same method to choose if I write my newsletter or novel. It has been quite useful for my creative process too.Ā Where can we find your work online and offline?
You can find my stuff both on my website atĀ www.remybazerque.netĀ or on myĀ Substack. I don't think the offline applies as much here because it is all film stuff essentially and there is always a trace online. When my films are screening in film festivals, you can see them there. But that is not a daily occurrence.
How has being French affects the way you write stories in English? What is the most difficult part of it all?
I think for the novel, it has been more of a psychological block.
When I write for film, I always have the actors in a way as a last proof. They often rephrase the lines anyway to an extent. So when I set myself to write a novel, I simply wasn't sure whether I could do it. In that sense, Substack has been great, it really has helped me a lot to feel more relaxed about this.
On the process itself, I write in English, but it happens here and there that I need to translate a word from French into English to get the exact meaning.
I would think it probably makes the process slower, and there is probably more to edit as well. I wouldn't say it's the most difficult part. I love English and I often think in English. It was more of a psychological wall to get through.
I see. Sometimes I would have to put in a weak verb before I can find a better one. I have a bunch of brackets with my notes in the manuscript. I am procrastinating to find the right words, to say the least. I need to flash out the full manuscript before it takes fives years to finish one.
Does having a Russian wife ever affect how you write or think about stories and directing films, as she brings her cultural influences into your relationship?
I suppose indirectly it does, since she is always one of the first people to read something from me. Subconsciously, her upbringing would bring that influence.
As for world-building, I am already sufficiently culturally confused. I don't need another culture on top of it.
Do you think that the way you direct films influences the way you write scripts and/or novels?
Most certainly, I am a visual storyteller first and foremost. I spent a large portion of my life thinking images.
When I write, I definitely need to visualise things a lot. I have to see how it plays out concretely and I am keen for this visual aspect to present on the page.
I like the idea of a mood, of a visual mood board for a book to make sure to give everything a certain palette, like when we do in film. But I find it a lot less instinctive, I am learning every day when it comes to writing prose.
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How do you usually make it easy for you to visualise things? I have written pages and pages of back story and development as I write. I have also have a little mood board for mine too. The most difficult part is figuring out the timeline and outline.
Images come naturally in my head. But for instance when I make character sheets, there is always some sort of mood board. Sometimes when I am uninspired with a description, I toy around with AI 'art' generation. I play around with images, try different references until I find something usually unexpected that gets my creative juice going.
I find outlining very hard, the feeling of having fun quickly recedes when I spend too much time on that.
Finding the balance between outlining and being spontaneous with the story has proved to be one of the hardest things. Too much time on the outline, I lose my spark. But not spending enough time outlining always lead to problems that pops up later in the manuscript.
In terms of structure, I use my own soup of structure. They are often a mix of different methods. I try not to stick to the same structure, to avoid predictability.
Which one is easier, writing your newsletter, screenplay or novel?
The newsletter. I voluntarily stay away from writing fiction on Substack. The newsletter is more like a column. It relieves the pressure to stay creative a little.
For screenplays, I have these moments of real flow where I am on a roll and I can feel it. It gets easy and smooth. Prose is still quite new to me, so it is definitely the most difficult one to work on.
Which structure do you like the most? Do you ever find yourself leaning towards using your favourite structure?
My basic knowledge in structure is what I learned in La Dramaturgie by Yves Lavandier. I quite like elements from The Seven Basic Plots, at least in the understanding of how our subconscious functions. Bestsellers like Save the Cat, I only find it useful for working on ACT II. I think it is a good one on how to approach a second act, which is quite tricky. So I pick elements from here and there. Sometimes I do something specifically against the logic of the structure to create an element of surprise.
About Save the Cat, it literally only teaches you how to write a Redemption type of storyline. Even though there are plenty of other story structures.
I think at the end of the day, some extremely well structured films/books succeed, some fail. Some completely unstructured books/films succeed. There is no recipe with structure. Sometimes it all comes together and sometimes it doesn't.
Which work of yours do you like the most, among different mediums?
That would probably be my latest short film Leave to Remain. I think the tone is very much my style and it manages to talk about quite a tricky subject (immigration) in a tongue-in-cheek tone, which is sort of the essence of what I am doing in films. I like the idea of laughing about the tricky subjects.
I can definitely see the tongue-in-cheek style in your newsletter. Very easy and fun to read!
Is there anything, culture-wise, that is shocking to you when you come across three cultures, French, English and Russian regularly?
I am always shocked at the profound difference between a Brit on weekdays and weekends. The most uptight ones turn into hurricanes on Friday and Saturday night with enough booze. And then on Monday morning, they are back to being so polite with each other. I worked in a pub for years before university, so I served a lot of alcohol and saw my fair share of binge drinking. It is quite frightening.
As for Russians, it always seem that they are yelling into each other's faces. I am always worried that my wife is arguing with her parents, but in fact they are often just talking about the weather. French is a pretty quiet language. Italians yell at each other a lot as well, actually.
As for French, I am appalled sometimes at the snootiness of my fellow Frenchmen sometimes. The most snooty people that I have ever met in film were always French. It made me slightly uncomfortable in some instances.
Can you give writers advice on writing their first movie script?
When you find something you care for deeply, something you want to talk about. Make sure to identify it, nurture it and protect it. Because if you are lucky and your script gets made, you will be inundated by a deluge of contradictory feedback, and you must have a strong anchor in you to know what you are fighting for, and what your story is about. If you can't find that strong anchor, move on to the next idea.
Interesting. I guess it can apply to novels too. Contradictory feedback would often be there when writers start querying.
Totally, or even from beta readers.
Can you give my readers a creative challenge?
Why not try and be proud for once? Stick to your guns, don't listen to everyone. Act like Dali would.
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