Parker (Shea Whigham) is a down-on-his-luck social worker who doesn’t seem to love what he does, but rather loves what he tries to do for others. And while he can’t seem to catch a break, he refuses to give up on those he tries to help. Therefore when one of his clients' husbands is released from prison, he must try to save her from an impending violent life of crime.
The Gateway didn’t start out that way, though.
When producer Andrew Levitas first got a hold of the script, he felt there was a solid foundation for the film, but it was in need of some work, so he passed it to writer-director Michele Civetta. Civetta soon found himself gutting the original script and developing a page one rewrite.
“The original script Alex Felix Bendaña wrote had the great foundation of a genre piece,” Civetta says. He took that foundation and created new characters and scenes, expanding the script while getting it closer to production. Civetta didn’t go it alone, though. He collaborated with Levitas along the way, receiving input, some of which included adding a major plot twist.
Civetta continued rewriting the script during casting, even doing minor rewrites through shooting when a pivotal scene's location required a few additions to the script.
Working with budget and time constraints
Writers must be collaborative when it comes to film and adaptable to meet the needs of the budget and locations. For someone like Civetta with a commercial background who cut his teeth on nearly 40 commercials and videos, he had to adapt to the needs of an independent film with a lower budget. But his experience also gives him a realistic view of the industry.
For a low-budget film, a heist scene that takes place in a furniture store and involves three days of shooting becomes part of the give-and-take of filmmaking.
“We shot the heist over three days because I thought it was an important set piece, but that’s three days that could be divvied up with more changes,” Civetta explains. That heist scene was a major set piece that Civetta wanted to focus on, but that meant facing the reality of limited days of shooting for other scenes. Knowing he was also going to direct The Gateway meant Civetta also know what he could get away with during the writing process.
“There are scenes we shot in 25 minutes with no time to rehearse. You have to be careful about how you organize. Each moment you take on one scene can take away from time spent on another. There is a fine line between art and commerce. They combat each other, but they need to get along. With film, you have to ask what you are trying to achieve creatively and how much is in the resources?”
Learning about time demands and budgets is a major factor writers must consider. It’s one thing to write a spec script and another to work on a project with a producer. Writers on assignment should be aware of budgets and time constraints so they can write the screenplay accordingly.
A part of the process that Civetta finds especially fascinating is the final "rewrite" step of filmmaking: Editing. Writing something that appears on page twenty, for example, but it doesn’t work when editing. Yet, you can take that scene, bump it two scenes later, and it’s perfect.
“Writing is a process of discovery and revision, and editing is the ultimate point of rewriting,” says Civetta.
Creating characters
“Any character has to speak a certain truth,” says Civetta. He finds inspiration for his characters from a variety of sources, whether it’s a compartmentalized version of his own experience or from literature.
Civetta states, “The best gets achieved when you find the point of relation; something from the heart.” You only have a two-hour snapshot into the lives of these characters to see who they are, but the rest of their lives are off-screen that need to somehow infuse their actions and choices.
Creating the lead character, Parker, involved finding what his central core conflict was. It had a lot to do with his traumatic childhood, which included abandonment from his father, Marcus (Bruce Dern). Parker is a throwback to the 1970’s anti-hero and morally ambiguous characters who can’t seem to take care of themselves but must take care of others.
Another character, Duke (Frank Grillo), was more didactic. “There were things [we wanted him] to say that were a little off-color, that’s complicated to chew on,” says Civetta. “Certain characters serve different purposes.”
Genre conventions
With a genre film, it’s important to know the history of that genre as in-depth as possible. Wanting to create a film noir-type story, Civetta took inspiration from authors like Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) and Phillip K. Dick ("Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", the source material for Blade Runner).
“Know the examples and jump forward,” Civetta suggests. His advice for those writing in genre: “I’m influenced by New America '70s films and I like to keep that stuff in the pantheon of killer achievements — that’s where I want to aim and channel it, but you also have to forget it all. Be aware of the conventions.”
For The Gateway, Civetta has ultimately set out to create a fun and complicated film about humanity and redemption. It’s a way to see the root of core culture in our community while speaking a little bit of truth.
The Gateway is in theatres and streaming on demand and digital September 3, 2021, and on DVD and Blu-ray September 7, 2021.