WHEN CLAIRE INCE looks back on her journey, she marvels at how she started, where she is now and where she wants to go. The Bajan screenwriter might not be well known at Cannes or the Globes or Oscars, but she is steadily making a name for herself.
Let us start with the movie Bazodee, that was released in the United States on some small screens and has been having a steady showing in the cinemas in Barbados for the past month.
“The inspiration for Bazodee came from soca music and from Machel Montano’s music in particular.
“Bazodee is quite different from my other scripts because it’s a musical and because it’s such a universal romantic story. It’s quite influenced by Bollywood in that way but it’s very Caribbean too.
“Caribbean people are musical people and colourful so the idea of doing a carnival musical wasn’t too far a stretch. And I was attracted to the chance to write a female lead who was torn between duty to family and following her own heart which is a very real dilemma that a lot of women face. Luckily Machel sparked to the idea right away and used all of his influence and resources to get Bazodee made. If not, the script would just be gathering dust on a shelf.”
Yes, Claire is the pen behind Bazodee and also the producer. And did I mention she is a Bajan?
The past student of Erdiston Primary was always interested in writing. At Harrison College she entered NIFCA multiple times in literary arts and was part of a creative writing club that existed for a little while, even producing a volume of poetry called Inside Out.
Somewhere along the line the desire to write poems morphed into the desire to tell stories.
“I started writing short stories and got great encouragement from one of the English teachers at Harrison College to keep going. Around the same time, as an A-level student, I became exposed to film.”
The movie was Rue Cases Negres/Sugar Cane Alley by Euzhan Palcy who is from Martinique. Set in the Caribbean, it is a coming-of-age story about a young boy surrounded by family and community who all work in the cane fields.
“I remember thinking of film as a way to tell stories to a wide audience and being attracted to the visual nature and emotional power and immediacy of the medium. And it seemed like a slightly crazy idea but I wanted to study film.”
Her parents were very supportive of the idea and it helped that she comes from a writing family (dad, mum and brother all write).
“I’ve mostly lived in Barbados although I have been living in the US since 1994. I was actually born in Britain as my dad was in the diplomatic service but then the family moved back to Barbados. And then when I was ten my dad was posted to London again and the family went to join him there. We lived there for 18 months and it had a big influence on me. I had read all these Enid Blyton books growing up as a child so going to school in London was like seeing those scenes playing out before your eyes.”
“I wanted to be like Edwige Danticat or Jamaica Kincaid but then I found film and my ambition changed. I applied to film school at Howard University. Around that time I received a Barbados Scholarship so I went to Howard and got this very unique education at a historically black college . . . . Both Chadwick Boseman (the actor) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (the award winning political writer and memoirist) were my contemporaries within a four-year span at Howard.”
After graduating from Howard University’s film and TV programme, Claire moved to New York and applied to New York University’s screenwriting programme. She got into the master’s of fine arts programme, graduated with her degree and headed out into the film world.
So far, Claire has six scripts under her thumb: “I wish the number was bigger. It takes me a while and I am definitely a tinkerer and tweaker. I outline before I start so I can know where I’m heading. I like a scene by scene outline.”
Claire’s way of writing is a method she is sticking to. She usually needs about three or four drafts before she shows it to anyone. Once she feels like she has executed the big idea that made her write the script then the world can see it.
“But it can take me a long time to get to that point. And then, one of the things I learnt with Bazodee and being an on-set writer is that the screenplay is never really “done” because it’s really just the blueprint for the film so a lot of tweaks and revisions happen while you’re shooting. You don’t make the script to live on a shelf. You make it to live on screen, to be interpreted by actors and directors and crew, to really ‘finish’ the words on the page.”
Claire does a lot of research for her scripts.
“A lot of times my ideas come from reading news stories or sometimes they come from real life experiences that are then embellished for drama. What you’re looking for are heroes, people who overcome huge challenges, people who are larger than life who can teach us how to be the best version of ourselves. Well, that’s what I’m looking for when I think of movie ideas.
“I do quite a bit of research before I write and while I write too. It’s important to create a world that’s relatable and that feels authentic. But you don’t want to get bogged down in research to the extent that it is hampering your story.”
Bazodee was written in coffee shops in New York, where Claire now resides with her husband and kids, away from the distractions of home.
“Coffee shops can be great as just by people-watching you can get a deeper eye into character and detail.”
Speaking of character, they are extremely important to any script, says Claire.
“When you are writing you are creating character and the name is a big part of that. Names connote things, have very different sounds . . . . You can spend a lot of time thinking about a good name for your main character and your major secondary characters.
“The sex and race of characters is important as well because this shapes what the character is like and the challenges he or she may have faced. People are distinct, a product of their environment and experience.”
For Claire, she doesn’t like to pick a favourite character, but after enough prodding she admitted to Bud from Bazodee.
“Because he’s so supportive and generous and worried and nervous for his friend, all at the same time. He’s wonderfully played in the movie by Trinidadian actor Chris Smith. And then there’s a character in another screenplay set in the United States, another confidante character, and she’s also the stalwart friend but she’s very opinionated and funny and fun to write. There’s also a character in a play I’m writing who I love because he is so awkward but says the things that we don’t say in real life. That can be incredibly freeing to write too.”
Claire also carries the title of producer.
“My husband Ancil McKain and I along with Rivelino Simmons produced the Barbadian reality TV series Run’bout in 2005, and we also did a children’s TV pilot The Baobab Tree that was selected for the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival.
“And of course I’m a producer on Bazodee, so in the last ten years I’ve had a real lesson in all aspects of taking a project from beginning idea all the way through to distribution.
“I feel incredibly fortunate that Bazodee has been made and has been received the way it has been and I’m looking forward to working on more Caribbean content that’s geared for an international audience. I’m thinking about what comes next and for us (the couple runs a production company Indiepelago Films). We’re putting together another music-heavy project based in the Caribbean that Rihanna would be perfect for.”
Claire highlighted how she loved working on Bazodee, seeing it from script to screen
“Shooting in Trinidad and Tobago was amazing, one of the very best things about the production. We were on location right around carnival time so there was that authenticity and the local cast and crew worked tirelessly on some very long shoot days. We all really pulled together to shoot the film, sometimes in less than ideal circumstances. Production is a lot of pressure but immensely rewarding and you have such a bond with all the folks who are going through it with you.”
Claire watched the premiere of the film with about 1 100 people in Times Square, New York.
“We sneaked into a couple of New York movie theatres during the theatrical run and heard people talk back to the screen and laugh and dance in their seats . . . . The experience has been so gratifying. It’s hard to put into words.”
Bazodee was formerly known as Scandalous and in 2008 it won Best Screenplay at the Bahamas Film Festival’s Film Residency Programme.
“It has been a long road from then to now. Because it was such an ambitious project it took quite a while to raise the money to make the movie and we heard a lot of maybes, try us next year, I’ll get back to you. But persistence is quite a thing. Ancil, who is from Trinidad and Tobago, never gave up. I had a good friend share with me this Japanese proverb ‘Fall seven times. Stand up eight’.
“We just kept getting back up.”
