Interview with Screenwriter Andrew Fisk (GEEKS: A LOVE STORY)

Matthew Toffolo: What is your screenplay about?

Andrew Fisk: This is a David versus Goliath story of five laid off tech workers who start their own company out of economic necessity. Akoro Computer, the mega-corporation that laid them off, sees them as a possible threat. Akoro uses any means, both legal and illegal, to destroy them. An Akoro employee joins the rebellion when she sees the dirty tactics used by her company. The rebels fight back using ingenuity and courage and defeat the mega-corporation.

2. What genres does your screenplay fall under?

It is certainly a comedy. It could even be classified as a romantic comedy. The six members of the startup all find romance from their experience of banding together and fighting the corporate war. Remember, it is titled “Geeks: A Love Story” for a good reason.

3. Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?

This is an unusual story because it is written by someone who has actually spent years working in Silicon Valley and knows it from the inside out. Geeks focuses on the personalities of the people who work there, rather than trying to impress audiences with the wealth of the players and technology jargon.

It shows what happens to people when they come into work in the morning, find out they no longer have jobs and have to be out of the building by noon. This has happened to me and many other people.

The rebels (as I call them) have created a new virtual reality chamber that could be the best in the world. It is not something you wear on your head like a football helmet. It is something you walk into and become part of it. Its applications are unlimited. Akoro is about to release their new virtual reality product but they realize theirs is inferior. Hence the back-stabbing hostility.

The finale of the movie is a depiction of corporate warfare fought in cyberspace between Akoro and the rebels that will remind audiences of The Matrix.

4. How would you describe this script in two words?

Techno-fantasy.

5. What movie have you seen the most times in your life?

Probably Blade Runner, followed by Forrest Gump, Doctor Strangelove and To Live and Die in LA. Is there a pattern here?

6. How long have you been working on this screenplay?

I completed the first version in several months but keep coming back to it to make revisions.

7. How many stories have you written?

I have written seven feature length screenplays, a dozen short films and two television series.

8. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones. Which is odd because I am not really a rock-and-roller. Close competitors are Tuesdays Gone with the Wind by Lynard Skynard, More than This by Roxy Music and Rainy Night in Georgia by Brooke Benton. One more…Fast Car by Tracy Chapman.

9. What obstacles did you face to finish this screenplay?

Leonardo da Vinci supposedly said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” I know the feeling. I kept coming back to this screenplay again and again when I thought it was finished in order to make it better. As in saleable

10. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

College football, the outdoors, ocean kayaking. I have been on several weeklong kayaking/camping trips in the Canadian Pacific and it is the best vacation imaginable.

11. You entered your screenplay via FilmFreeway. What has been your experiences working with the submission platform site?

I don’t think I used Film Freeway for this screenplay. I most likely entered it from the WILDsound website.

12. What influenced you to enter the festival? What were your feelings on the initial feedback you received?

Feedback from WILDsound has always been helpful, on this and all other screenplays I have entered with WILDsound. If you are a writer today, you must have an Internet presence to let the world know what you are doing and the various festivals help to provide it.

Watch the Screenplay Reading:

CAST LIST:

Clark – David Jackson
Katie – Tracy Rowland
NARRATION – Neil Bennett
Todd – Marcus Bernacci
Shannon – Rebecca MacDonald
India (f) – Krista Barzso