By Kavishna Wijesinge
Reputed director, producer, screenwriter and showrunner, Simon Barry sat down for a chat with Junkyard Theory a few weeks ago. With over a decade of experience in the field, he is responsible for creating the award-winning Netflix series Bad Blood (2017), he also directed and wrote multiple episodes of Continuum (2012), the sci-fi series Van Helsing (2016) and most recently the new Netflix original series Warrior Nun (2020) which is currently in-production on its second season.
Origin
Simon divulged that he has always been interested in film production as he was into movies from a young age. He began making films with his friends for entertainment and it eventually resulted in him enrolling at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver for film studies. Joining the Vancouver film industry and gradually gaining opportunities to work with top studios like Warner Brothers, as well as connecting with talented producers, directors, and actors paved the way for his role today.
Writing for television vs. writing for films
When questioned about the differences in writing for TV vs. film, Simon revealed that the two are very similar as they are made up of scene structures and hugely dependent on the characters. When writing a film, you have to be very efficient with setting up the story and its characters. A skill that Simon mastered while writing for movies was building fast and efficient introductions, which in turn helped him write pilots for TV shows.
“In television, the writer gets to build a group of relations and character dynamics which are designed to take a journey. The discipline was to find ideas that would sustain and create characters that the audience would love.”
Making of ‘Continuum’ (2014)
Simon began talking about this series by placing great emphasis on working with the right people, particularly for a time-travel story like Continuum. “It was quite a challenge to keep the time travel rules and mythology without getting out of control.” He mentioned that their team openly criticised each other to ensure the story did not go off the rails.
During the last season the writing team’s main goal was to focus on the conclusion of the characters. They wanted to give the audience a satisfying yet a thought-provoking end and he reiterated that writers need to take the audience on a surprising journey.
Effect of online streaming
In traditional TV streaming, Simon says the audience could be asked to explore the story in terms of chapters and mini stories. The writers have time to reset the expectations of the audience. However, the audience that uses online platforms such as Netflix tend to watch episodes continuously, and it’s important that the writers create good mechanisms to keep them hooked.
Creating episodes
Simon explained how writers draw a map of the season based on the characters’ journeys and how they created the character of “Ava” from Warrior Nun (2020) with an emotional storyline.
Writers then create a map on a wall for the given number of hours, and they combine the character’s journey with the main storyline. They form natural shapes, because even though it is a single continuous story, there are mini chapters within and those stories can have beginnings, middles, and conclusions within the hour.
Showrunner rationale
The story and characters contribute a lot to a production and therefore, Simon tries to keep the character consistency at its level best. For him, running a show is like being the conductor of an orchestra – as they work like a symphony – guiding each and every one with their specific job and ensuring everyone is focused in the right direction.
He carefully selects his team, with the majority of them being people he has previously worked with or who have been recommended by them. For example, the writers for Warrior Nun were recruited through a discovery process that included recommendations from Simon’s social acquaintance, Amy Berg as well as Netflix recommendations. They teamed up with Fresco, a Spanish company that served as Game of Thrones’ service company, to hire amazing creative talents for the project since they were shooting in Spain.
Pitching to Netflix
Netflix, according to Simon, is one of the best companies that reach out to new talent. They provide pitching chances, informative conversations with executives, and many other benefits through an established framework. Speaking of the possibility of a Netflix series happening in Sri Lanka, Simon said that in every country where Netflix operates, they go through this process to find exceptional personnel to connect with the local community of filmmakers.
Advice to young filmmakers
Simon encouraged young writers to write more, since it helps them gain opportunities and increase their odds of success as writers. “If you consider writing to be a form of gambling, each script doubles your odds, and the odds continue to rise drastically over time. Every script you write, every project you make, every short film you make is a new lottery ticket and the nicest thing is that each time you do it the odds get better!”
Junkyard Theory is Sri Lanka’s first and only film education platform that brings on veteran filmmakers from Hollywood as guest speakers. Their webinars, hosted by Akash Sunethkumara, have been recognised on industry sites such as ‘No Film School’, and the team now runs film courses for upcoming filmmakers in the country. The full interview with Simon is available on the Junkyard Theory YouTube channel.
