Here is Part 3 of a 3-part Q&A with screenwriter-director Emily Hagins. Emily has written and directed two full-length feature films: Pathogen (2006) and The Retelling (2009). Emily is currently 17 years-old.

For your second full-length feature film, you wrote and directed The Retelling. How old were you when you wrote and directed that? What is the genesis of that story?

I wrote The Retelling when I was 14-years-old during the summer before I went into 8th grade. I filmed it during the summer between 9th and 10th grade when I was 15-years-old, and finished it last summer when I was 16.

The idea was loosely based on an old Japanese folk tale called “Hoichi the Earless”, where a blind monk is lead to a graveyard by ghosts. Since he is blind, he doesn’t know they are ghosts. The Retelling has a similar predicament, but the main character is his grandson as he tries to figure out who the ghosts are and why they want his grandfather.

Without giving everything away, what is the basic plot of The Retelling?

Also from IMDb: 11-year-old Charlie Mason and his family take a summer trip to take care of his ailing and blind grandfather. Soon after their arrival, Charlie and his older sister Margaret begin to sense an unsettling presence around his grandfather’s house. Even more mystifying to the children is that their grandfather takes routine walks to an abandoned part of town. He claims to meet friends there to play music. Feeling these things are somehow connected, Charlie and his new friend Anne commit themselves to finding the link. The outcome is more than they expected, for a murder from the past has finally found its connection to the present.

Both Pathogen and The Retelling are what could be typified as ‘dark’ movies (i.e., horror, drama as compared to comedy). What is it about dark stories that appeals you?

The moral conflict is usually pretty interesting, but I was also watching a lot of horror movies at the times when I wrote both scripts. I try to write what I know, and at the time I was gravitating toward these darker stories.

What are some of the key lessons you learned between filming Pathogen and The Retelling, and how did you apply those lessons to writing and directing The Retelling?

-Sound is very important, but successful if you don’t notice it. Bad sound is often distracting, and will pull the audience out of the story. It was important to me to find somebody to focus on sound for The Retelling. The sound guy, Leo Schuester, read sound books and learned the process before filming. He was 15-years-old at the time, and he really did a great job.

-Directing-wise with The Retelling, I was able to focus more on creative choices as opposed to Pathogen when I was trying to do most of the jobs myself. Even though the crew was small, it was great to have people focused on sound, lighting, and camera work (all of these jobs were done by people under 18-years-old too).

How long did it take you to write the screenplay for The Retelling and how long is that shooting script?

It took about a year to write, and the shooting script was 90 pages.

What’s the status of The Retelling?

It’s finished, and now I’m just sending it to film festivals.

Is it true your next feature-length feature film project is a comedy? Where are you in the process of making that movie (i.e., script, pre-production)? How different did you find writing a comedy compared to writing the screenplays for Pathogen and The Retelling?

Yes! I’m pretty excited to do a comedy. I’ve finished writing a horror/comedy script, but I’m also working with some friends on another comedy script. I’m not sure which one I’ll make next, but I’m excited for both.

Comedy writing is tough, and I think I’ve found out that my jokes are better when I don’t think too hard about them beforehand. It’s a difficult balance to plan out the story structure, but not think to hard about most of the dialog or jokes.

In the documentary, your father says one worry he has is that starting out so young, you may burn out on making movies. Do you think there’s a chance of that or do you think you’ll be making movies for a long time?

I’m planning to make movies for a long time, I love it. It doesn’t feel like work to me, even though there are difficulties and challenges with every project. I can’t imagine my life without making and watching as many movies as I can.

Finally, what advice do you have for aspiring screenwriters, directors, and filmmakers?

Never give up, and do what it takes to persevere through the problems. No project will turn out exactly how you plan, so take the happy accidents and learn from everything. It’s so rewarding to end up with a project that other people can enjoy too.

Please jump to comments to thank Emily and wish her the best in her career as a fillmmaker.