Matt Wohl Writer and Director discusses his film Scooter

Matt Wohl is an award-winning screenwriter and director who’s worked on a variety of projects. He’s been hired by production companies and independent producers to write, or rewrite, feature scripts and television pilots. His spec scripts have been optioned by multiple production companies, and most recently, his script SCOOTER was was produced and has distribution (late summer 2019). In addition to writing SCOOTER, he also directed the film.

In 2018, Matt Wohl won the Miami Media Film Market’s Pitch Across the Pond competition. Part of the award was a trip to London where he was a guest of Film London and attended Content London to pitch his television series to established industry professionals.

Also an educator, Matt Wohl has his MFA in Screenwriting and has taught at Burlington College, Miami Dade College, and Broward College.

Watch the trailer for Scooter (2019) written and directed by Matt Wohl

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Scooter Logline: Three YouTubers set out on an 866 mile adventure on scooters. However, they find out that it’s not the destination that will kill you, it’s the journey.

indieactivity: Where did the idea for the film come from?
Matt Wohl (MW): I was trying to think of how to do a found footage film that I actually liked. I gave up, then one morning at 3am, while lying in bed I thought, “crap, I know how I’d do it.” The key was finding a way for the film to say something. I was thinking about connections and how I believe it’s important for characters to connect to each other. I also wanted to say something about violence and race. Then the story started to take shape.

What about the script? How did it change, if it all, in the time between that initial draft and the shoot?
Matt Wohl (MW): I’d been floating the idea around in my head for a while. I’d pitched the concept many times, and discussed it with friends. That served as a form of workshop to make the idea stronger. So, when I wrote it, the story was pretty well formed. There weren’t major changes from the first draft to the shooting draft. There were a few flow issues that needed to be resolved, and a few settings were changed. The story stayed fairly intact.

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Did you have your actors onboard first or did financing fall into place first? I guess it’s a bit of a chicken or the egg scenario, that one?
Matt Wohl (MW): We had financing, then we did casting. I worked with Besh Marshall Casting and they were great. They got us most of the talent. We did discuss going after a few known actors. If we went that route, we would have locked them in to secure more funds.

Who of the cast do you think are closest to their characters? 
Matt Wohl (MW): It’s interesting. All three of the main guys really became their characters. It took about a day of shooting. By day two… they all were the roles. It was great.

Is there a particular moment in the film you really, really enjoyed shooting?
Matt Wohl (MW): We rented out a county park for the night so we could shoot there for two days. That was fun. It was like summer camp. It was hot, it was intense because we didn’t have a ton of time, but that’s when I felt like we had a movie.

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George Lucas was likely offered science-fiction movie after science-fiction movie after the first Star Wars, have you been approached to direct similar projects to yours since? Ha. Actually, I have. A producer approached me and he said, I like what you did. Let’s do it again. So…. now we’re figuring out the next one.

Any injuries on those scooters?
Matt Wohl (MW): Somehow, we managed to not have any major accidents, which is amazing! One of our leads had never been on a Scooter. He was a mess at first. I was pretty sure I’d end up with a dead actor and smashed up a Chinese scooter. It never happened, which is great.

And I guess we’d be remiss to ask, are you on YouTube?
MW: Ha! Yeah, I’m on YouTube. I do so little with it. So, I absorb more than I create. I have a few little things. Nothing interesting. I think the most viewed thing I have on there is a camera test that a whopping 1000 people watched… over 5 years. Of course I’m there watching all kinds of crazy crap.

It’s great. In my mind, I’d love this to become a series. Show insane “episodes” of different youtubers. Are you listening, YouTube? Let’s do it. I promise more than 1000 people will watch… in five years.

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