Writing Screenplays to Locations:

What is the point of either a delightful or miserable existence without throwing a few challenges into the mix, right?

If you’re a writer, challenge yourself at least once by writing to a location. That’s what Edward King III: Edward King III - IMDb —and I did with The 8th Year. I find it ironic that we spent that time writing and planning an entire story inside an abandoned insane asylum where countless people had died.

We walked those corridors of decay, thinking about the lives that began and ended there, while envisioning a film that didn’t yet exist. What did The 8th Year end up being about? I’m glad you didn’t ask:

On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Francesca Giordano awakens from a drug-induced state to find herself alone in the dark, lying on what feels like a gurney. She calls out for help. No answer. She steps off the gurney and searches blindly for a door. Then she hears the crackle of a walkie-talkie, followed by a voice asking, ‘Are you scared?’

She demands, ‘Who is this?’

Jay Griffin takes his time to answer as three men stand beside him. After what feels like an eternity, he finally hisses, ‘We’re going to break you.’

Francesca realizes she is in a fight for her life.

What her captors don’t know is that she recognizes them—and she has her own plan for their eighth-year anniversary. She does not intend to be their eighth victim.

Francesca is a fighter, with skills sharpened by military service and martial arts training. They think they’re hunting her. They’re wrong. She’s hunting them.

What Sorrow and his crew never understood is that actions have consequences. Victims have friends and families. Some forgive. Others don’t.

Francesca was both.”**

What are the downfalls of writing to location? Simple. Like many things in life, it’s easy to screw up if you can’t actually film there.

But if you do get the chance, the rewards are enormous. Writing to a location lets you craft something detailed, believable, and visually precise. It keeps production practical and authentic. With The 8th Year, we’re staying true to the asylum where it was conceived—unless someone walks through the door with a rifle and ends the story mid-sentence.

If you ever get the opportunity to write to a location before filming, do it. It doesn’t happen often in a screenwriter’s life, but when it does, it benefits everyone on both sides of the camera.

If you’d like to check out The 8th Year movie, here’s the link. Just don’t expect a fairy tale: Home – The 8th Year

At the end of the day, the point it to push yourself. Every time you decide to write something, anything, you should do it in a way that challenges your current skillset. That's the only way to improve yourself.

Check it out.

—Cheyenne Buchanan