Screenwriter Spotlight: Winner (Kevyn Bashore)


Name: Kevyn Bashore

Born: Hershey, Pennsylvania

Current Residence: Fayetteville/Trilith Village, Georgia

Hobby: Running on mountains. At least that was my leisure time activity prior to moving from L.A. to Fayetteville in December 2021. My current hobby is searching for mountains to run on.


Where did you come up with the concept that just won the screenplay contest?

How long did it take you to develop it into the screenplay it is now? I came up with the concept for my short screenplay THE CLEANSING while I was in a weekly studio meeting with actors, writers, and directors in L.A.. We would workshop scenes, dissect them, then discuss and rework them. During this time I chose two actors who I respected to write a scene specifically for them, to challenge and utilize their strengths.

At the time, I was inspired by current events to choose the theme for the script: what is the definition of life and who has the right to determine it? I decided to project that question several years into our near future to see where we could land as a culture within a few short steps. I workshopped the script with the actors and we were able to see what worked and what didn’t work.

My goal was to write a short, lean script with few words and layered with powerful images.


From concept to finished draft, can you take us through your screenwriting process?

Expanding on what I wrote in my prior answer:

For this particular script I chose two actors to write for.

I then picked a dramatic theme and subject to write for the script.

As I wrote drafts, I eventually workshopped the script with the two actors in front of

several actors, writers, and directors.

I also submitted this script for critiques and feedback.

I continued to refine the script as I witnessed first-hand what effect it has on the readers and viewers of the live-acted scenes, both with professionals and non- professionals alike.


When did you realize that you wanted to become a screenwriter?

I’ve been writing since I was teenager, but the first time I realized filmmaking was my gifting and life-long pursuit was when I was 22 years old.


Who are your biggest filmmaking/screenwriting influences? What about their style do you like or borrow?

I am drawn to movies that are layered with compelling action and symbols, which work best in movies, as opposed to in novels or plays. I gravitate to lean stories driven by strong moments of character actions that reveal subtext, pithy dialogue, and potent cinematic images that bypass the mind to strike the heart.

Here’s my long list of favourite screenwriters (in no particular order):

Collin Welland: CHARIOTS OF FIRE

Menno Meyjes: THE COLOR PURPLE

David Franzoni: AMISTAD

Robert Bolt: THE MISSION

William Nicholson: THE SHADOWLANDS

Robert Rodat: SAVING PRIVATE RYAN

Peter Jackson: THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRLOGY and THE HOBBIT

John Logan: GLADIATOR

Billy Wilder: SUNSET BOULEVARD

Ingmar Goldman: FANNY AND ALEXANDER

Herman J. Mankiewicz: THE WIZARD OF OZ, CITIZEN KANE

Alvin Sargent: ORDINARY PEOPLE

William Goldman: THE PRINCESS BRIDE, MISERY, BUTHC CASSIDY AND THE

SUNDANCE KID, ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN

Aaron Sorkin: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

James Cameron: ALIENS, TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY, TITANIC, AVATAR

Christopher Nolan: THE DARK KNIGHT, INCEPTION

Barry Levinson: AVALON

Nora Ephron: WHEN HARRY MET SALLY

Adam Mckay: DON’T LOOK UP

Cameron Crowe: JERRY MAQUIRE

Alfonso Cuaron: GRAVITY, ROMA

Robert Towne: CHINATOWN

Paul Schrader: RAGING BULL

Francis Ford Coppola: THE GODFATHER, THE GODFATHER II

Ernest Lehman: THE SOUND OF MUSIC, NORTH BY NORTHWEST

Lawrence Kasdan: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, original STAR WARS: V AND VI

Joseph L. Mankiewicz: ALL ABOUT EVE

Akira Kurosawa: RASHOMON, SEVEN SAMURAI, RAN

David Mamet: THE UNTOUCHABLES

Eric Roth: FORREST GUMP

John Hughes: HOME ALONE

Steven Zaillian: SCHINDLER’S LIST

Oliver Stone: JFK, NIXON, BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

Callie Khouri: THELMA & LOUISE

Orson Welles: CITIZEN KANE

Robert Benton: PLACES IN THE HEART

Cesare Zavattini: BICYCLE THIEVES

Melissa Mathison: E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL

Jane Campion: THE PIANO

Horton Foote: A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

Gary Ross: SEABISCUIT

Leigh Brackett: STAR WARS: EPISODE V — THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Lana and Lilly Wachowski: THE MATRIX

Frank Darabont: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE GREEN MILE

David Webb Peoples: BLADE RUNNER, UNFORGIVEN

M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: THE SIXTH SENSE

John Carpenter: THE THING

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen: FARGO, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

Jordan Peele: GET OUT

Quentin Tarantino: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

Paul Thomas Anderson: MAGNOLIA

Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won: PARASITE

Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra: IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Damien Chazelle: WHIPLASH

Bob Peterson, Pete Doctor: UP

Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon: WALL-E

Guillermo del Toro: PAN’S LABYRINTH

Brad Bird: THE INCREDIBLES

David Seidler: THE KING’S SPEECH


Andres Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds: FINDING NEMO

Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole: BLACK PANTHER

Simon Beaufoy: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE


Have you ever been obsessed with a movie or TV show? If so, which one? Why?

Throughout the past decade there are six TV series that come to mind that have arrested my attention for various reasons:

DOWNTON ABBEY

HOUSE OF CARDS

GAME OF THRONES

THE PHARMACIST

DOPESICK

THE CHOSEN


What’s your favorite moment in cinema history? Why?

I’ll share a few, because I never have just one favourite cinematic moment. There’s a surreal moment in Steven Spielberg’s EMPIRE OF THE SUN when a person dies and we think their ascending soul lights up the sky, but the reality is something deeper, less personal and much more universal, rooted in the best and worst of humanity at war across the earth. I’m intrigued and inspired by such crafted scenes that speak with various depths into the human heart, leaving us speechless and unnerved.

Another striking moment is revealed in CHINATOWN during Jack Nicholson’s “my sister, my daughter” slap with Faye Dunaway. The audience is confused, angered, horrified and left gobsmacked by the end of this scene.


Lastly, I’m amazed by the gentle imagery of heaven on earth economically infused into the movie THE SHADOWLANDS. By the final frame, we are left breathless with witnessing the shadowlands of earth: pain and suffering leading to joy, dramatized and layered deep by the accompanying narration.


Who’s your favorite character in cinema history? Why?

George Bailey in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: he sacrifices his career for others and when he’s at his lowest point — all is redeemed. Forrest Gump in FORREST GUMP: he’s a sort of Christ figure, allowing us a means to see the world from a more pure and non-jaded viewpoint. Celie in THE COLOR PURPLE: she braves her way through a harsh life and lands in the end with redemption all around her. Sir William Wallace from BRAVEHEART: he loses everything, then sacrifices everything courageously to fight for freedom and liberty for his people unto death.


If you could talk to anyone from any era, who would it be and what would you ask them?

There’s a story from long ago about two weary travellers who were walking along a road between two Middle-Eastern cities. They came upon a mysterious man who joined them and asked why they were sad. They explained that they were mourning the death of their friend who had recently been executed by government officials and political/religious enemies. The man walked with them for quite a distance, telling them deep secrets about Himself and of the universe. They were breathless and invited him into their home for dinner. In the middle of their meal — He vanished before their eyes.

That’s the person I would like to talk to. Because He knows all things.

Those from the Judea-Christian belief hold firm that the mysterious man who disappeared was the Jewish Messiah, Jesus.

I can’t think of anyone more interesting than Him to sit with over a glass of wine or cider by an open fire, just listening and asking Him anything and everything imaginable.