“You Will Get Rewritten” Travis Seppala On ‘Captive’ and ‘The Elevator Game’

Travis Seppala is a produced screenwriter whose material has been reported on a variety of other movie news and horror news websites. He’s also published a book of screenwriting tips 365: A Year of Screenwriting Tips, placed in over fifty contests, been hired to write films and TV, and is repped by Sovereign Talent Group. When not writing, Travis enjoys playing board and card games, trying new L.A. area restaurants, and spending time with his novelist wife. With two films awaiting release, Captive and The Elevator Game, Travis took some time out from his busy schedule to his discuss work with Creative Screenwriting Magazine.
 
1) How would you describe the stories you most like to write?
 
I write movie and TV scripts. For films, I write mostly horror, thriller, and sci-fi. Sometimes drama. Never comedy. For TV, I write mostly hour-long dramas with genre (horror/thriller/sci-fi) elements, although I’ve also written a couple of children’s pilots. I don’t think I gravitate toward any particular themes per se, but I love to write genre stories with realistic (and often diverse) characters who are very much out of their depths in the situations I put them in.
 
2) How did your current projects Captive and The Elevator Game Come About?
 
Captive and The Elevator Game are both my original scripts that I sold to producers who got them made after they published a script call. Interestingly enough, I wrote the first drafts of both those scripts way back in 2015! They’re both in 2023. That should give you some idea of how much work (and time) it can take to get a movie made. And I’m lucky enough to have two come out in the same year.
 
In the case of Pollen Path Entertainment (the producers of Captive), they’d previously bought and produced a short film I wrote called Bunker. I saw they were looking to make their first low-budget feature and pitched them Captive. They loved it and we got to work getting it made.
 
For Fearworks Inc. (the producers of The Elevator Game), I responded to their need for horror scripts by sending a few different pitches (at the time, the script was titled Elevator To Another World. They read a couple of scripts and were fans of my work overall, but felt this was the one they should start with (the other two scripts had a lot of special effects that would have made them too expensive).
 
3) What sort of notes were you given?
 
One must remember that in this industry the writer is going to be getting rewritten… a lot. I’ve been rewritten. I’ve been hired to rewrite other writers. It’s just the way things are. At least in the case of these two projects, I was lucky enough to have producers who trusted my instincts enough to allow me to get to do the majority of the rewriting process myself.
 
But whether you’re doing the rewriting, or someone else is rewriting you, notes come from everywhere – producers, directors, sometimes actors, investors, distributors (if they’e involved early on) and more!
 
With Captive, I had one rewrite and one polish in my contract. The producers gave me their notes and let me get to work. Once they were happy with it and found a director, he got to do his director’s polish… but then the first director dropped off the project only a couple weeks before filming and Gregg Simon was brought in to replace him.
 
Due to the “last minuteness” of the change, I agreed to some free rewriting so we could get the movie ready to film. So, I spent the two weeks before filming (and the entire first week of filming) doing rewrites with notes from the director and producers. Of course, the director (and the actors) made tweaks during filming and post-production as well.
 
The Elevator Game had a similar situation of multiple directors. As most people know from the trades, Michael Goi was originally going to direct. My first round of rewrite notes came from him. the producers and the distributor who’d already secured pre-sales in some regions of the world. But then Goi left the project. A couple of other directors came and went along the way – each with their own notes and ideas on how the story should play out. And finally, Rebekah McKendry came aboard and chose to have herself and her husband David (who is credited as “additional writing by”) do final rewrites before going into production.
 
4) What were the major story changes in each project?
 
A lot, actually. From the first (2015) drafts to the versions that finally came out for public consumption in 2023 Character names. Character ages. Dialogue. Entire plot lines. And all for different reasons… It’s easier to cast an adult than a teenager, easier to get this location than that one, budget and timing issues such as changing how many kills can or can’t happen.
 
If there’s one thing I’ve learned with these movies, it’s not to expect things to stay the same from what you originally envisioned. Because once you sell a script (and that’s the goal, right?), it’s no longer your baby – it becomes a community art project where it gets moulded to the whims of the entire team.
 
5) What were the biggest challenges during the writing process?
 
Coping and coming to terms with the fact that it’s no longer my project, but the team’s. Some changes that get made are minor… others are story changing. Some you’ll totally agree with and know in your heart make for a better movie. Others have you staring blankly and wonder, “But why?!” Thick skins are required, and a willingness to play ball for the good of the team. The goal is to get a movie made! It might be a different movie than you had in mind, but it’s just part of the game. Oh, and 2:00 am rewrites to get a scene done to be filmed at 8:00 am is pretty challenging too.
 
6) How long was the process from signing your contract to having the shooting scripts signed off on?
 
I wrote the first drafts of each script in 2015. From there, I think Captive got optioned in 2018 or 2019, filmed in 2020 (they were the first project allowed to film in New Mexico when the COVID pandemic started to clear), and now came out in 2023. The Elevator Game went out on a shopping agreement in 2018, which became an option in 2019, which then got filmed in 2022, and comes/came out in 2023.
 
7) How did you most grow as a writer after Captive and The Elevator Game?
 
I know the notes are coming now. I know how different from the original they may make things. And I’m more willing to grin, bear down, and find a way to address the notes in a way we can all be happy with. And I also know that at some point I may not get a say anymore – so I cherish the process while I’m still a part of it.
 
8) What advice can you offer writers who wonder if it’s worth it?
 
The running theme of this entire interview seems to be “YOU WILL GET REWRITTEN!” Which also happens to be one of the tips in 365: A Year of Screenwriting Tips.
 
That’s not always a bad thing! Sometimes the notes are great and improve the material! And it all works toward getting a credit, a movie on the screen, and a lovely new paycheck to feed your bank account and pay your bills! I’m officially debt-free now because of those rewrites — no more student loans, no more car payments!
 
But it’s just a fact of life you’ve got to get used to. You can’t be precious about your work. You need to keep the grumbling to a minimum and the teamwork to a maximum! And if you’re hard-set against rewriting of your work getting done… you should also start pursuing directing and producing because the only way to avoid it is to control the entire process.