Back when people went to bars, I first "met" David Wappel on Twitter. Then he and his co-partner-in-crime, Sam Thompson, hosted a writer's gathering at a bar in North Hollywood and I thought, get your butt off that couch, put that script away, and go meet these people you've only seen on Twitter. And luckily, I listened to myself. I finally met Sam and David, in person! After following David's career and his tweets since, you can tell he's a nice guy with a lot of talent. So recently, I finally got the chance to zoom with him and see what makes David tick and hear more about his writing career. Before we did, I was sure to watch his movie Long Gone By on HBO Max. Something you should do too. It's a gorgeous movie with such airy storytelling and while powerful at the same time, I know David has a long career ahead of him.
How he got into screenwriting
David went to film school at the University of Carolina in Wilmington, where he studied film and philosophy. There was a big film industry in Carolina at the time, because in the 90's Screen Gems studios were built up, plus Dawson Creek and One Tree Hill filmed there. At first thinking he wanted to be in production, his plans were to be a cinematographer. He moved to Atlanta after he graduated to get into production, commercials, music videos, short films, etc. While working in commercials, he kept getting more assignments in development with their clients, where he was getting asked to write more things, along with helping to conceptualize music videos. He continued to get more and more narrative and emotional-driven assignments. That's when he realized he was feeling most fulfilled with writing projects.
He was always driven to authorship
In college, as a senior film major, he had to do his senior thesis and had to write something he could direct. He co-wrote it with someone else, but even once it was done, he continued to rewrite it on his own. That's when he realized he was always gravitating towards authorship. He just didn't realize writing would be where he would have the most ability to do that. Once he realized he was most fulfilled as a writer, that's when it clicked that was the path for him. So, in 2015 he started writing screenplays and two years later he moved to Los Angeles to pursue writing.
His writing career journey
After college, in 2013, was when the writing really started. But it wasn't until a year later, in 2014, when he got Final Draft and started writing the way he thought true screenwriters wrote. It wasn't for five more years, when he got his first writing assignment, through connections he had met in production in Atlanta. This is why it's important to realize, networking is so important. Because you never know when those connections will turn into paid assignments. What happened for David, was he had given his Atlanta production friends notes on a doc they were working on, and they were really impressed with how he knew story. So they asked for feedback on another project. When he moved to LA a couple years later, they told him to meet up with their friend in LA, just to chat. Little did David know, this would turn into something more special.
His first big break
David met their friend, director and writer, Andrew Morgan, for coffee. They hit it off right away, chatting about movies. Andrew was telling him about his movie in pre-production. But he was having issues with the opening. David gave him his ideas on what Andrew was talking about, not thinking anything about it more than just two film guys chatting. A couple days later, Andrew called him and said, "I really liked what you were thinking about for my movie, would you be interested in rewriting it?" Which David said, yes, of course. David ended up rewriting the screenplay, which was Long Gone By, currently playing on HBO Max. He wrote it in the late spring of 2018, at a point he felt nothing was happening with his writing, well before he realized it would go onto being on HBO.
Don't give up hope
Just remember that things can look like nothing is happening. Even if you aren't seeing things work out for you writing-wise, just know you may be planting seeds that may sprout when you least expect it. That's what happened to David. He wrote the script for Andrew in late spring of 2018, but nothing happened for him writing-wise that year and even into 2019. So he felt like nothing was happening for him and he was getting down about his writing.
When things happened
In 2019, Long Gone By did well in the Latino Film Festival in New York. Then he found out it got featured in HBO's festival. On top of that, a spec he wrote advanced in Austin and he won a partial scholarship in Stowe Story labs. Talk about success! The year or two before, it seemed like nothing was happening for him. It just took time. All that work was done in 2018, but didn't hit till late in 2019.
Have your successes resulted in other successes?
Doors that he was knocking on before seem to be opening up easier now. But he can't trace a domino effect just yet. He thinks it will pay off eventually though, but similarly to the way, past production friends helped pay off successes later. And it has opened up other introductions. Being able to say, "Watch my movie on HBO Max" is surely an impressive thing to say.
Script services
David isn't just a writer, he also has script services to help writers tell the story they are trying to tell. He obsesses over critical thinking, and the way stories are constructed, so when it comes to stories it's very helpful. It's a lens through which he sees the world. The more he writes, the more he's about to deconstruct why something isn't working on the page. And that's what he brings to the writers that he works with. When he reads something he can analyze why he's not feeling a certain way, or why he isn't feeling the way the writer wants him to feel.
What his services are like
His sessions are video calls so he can work with the writer in real-time, and that way he can ask, what do you want at this moment? This way they can address it together. It's less prescriptive and he can get in and under and all through the story. Then he becomes a resource to go in whatever direction they want, helping the writer tell the story that's their vision. Being a writer affords him the benefit of the dead-ends he's familiar with and actively encountering himself every day. Maybe some services come from the development standpoint or reader standpoint, which are valuable, but what he brings uniquely is you get him as a reader and a writer.
What mistake do you see new writers do often?
The biggest thing he thinks writers don't do enough of is self-reflection on why they're writing what they're writing. As a writer, he thinks they need to know, what are they interested in exploring? What do they want to say about this character? What is their artistic intention? Once they have self-reflection, they can leverage the tools and crafts to realize what they're actually trying to say in the piece they're writing. If they're not clear about that artistic intent, they can feel rudderless. Writers need to know what story they are really trying to write.
What's your advice to writers who have written one and only one screenplay?
Immediately move onto another. A writer gets perspective by moving onto another script. They may see a problem in a first script that doesn't come up in the second script at all. Now they have two scripts to judge as a writer and not just one. You don't see yourself as an artist yet with one script, because you'll see what world you're interested in, what you're good at, what you're bad at, what problems you had in the first script, then maybe in your next script. Sometimes if you keep rewriting the same script, maybe it's not connecting with the people who are reading it yet. Or artistically it's not resonating. Maybe the script doesn't need rewrites. Some people keep rewriting a script to find a home, but sometimes rewriting won't solve that. Think of how many movies if they didn't find the right home, rewriting wasn't going to fix that, it just had to find the right home.
Writers without a rep
David is without a rep at the moment but has friends that open doors for him. So for those who don't have reps and are looking, he'd suggest for writers to look to connect with other people that you artistically and professionally gel with. Even if their taste is different than yours if you like their attitude, their work ethic, people you want to be friends with, and people you want to hang out with, look for those people. Not to pursue people or avenues you're not genuinely thinking about. Continue to pursue the things you want to pursue and connect with the people you like. Long Gone By came from people he enjoyed working with and they got him in touch with people they enjoyed working with. That movie came about and it was the least calculated thing he's done in his life.
If you'd like to find out more about David's writing or his writing services, here's his website https://www.davidwappel.com/ and you can find him on Twitter at @davidwappel
