Photo courtesy of C1ssou/Cyril Caton (flickr) CC 2.0

David Weiss remembers chasing the fog. Although it was an illusive chase, Weiss made more than one attempt. The lesson learned would eventually lead him to co-writing the script for one of the most anticipated 3D films in years, The Smurfs.

As a boy, from his home in Ventura, California, he would watch the fog roll in from the Pacific Ocean and cover his
neighborhood.

“The fog was always thicker across the street,” says Weiss with humor in his voice. “The closer I walked toward the fog, the more it seemed to move away. It always appeared to move and become bigger in the distance.”

Weiss, a member of the Compass Advisory Board, was using the analogy to describe how new filmmakers sometimes chase an illusion when, in fact, the creative environment is inside them. They simply have to learn how to tap it.

“The chase gives them the motivation to head in the right direction. The key is not to become disenchanted, but have
faith and stick with it.”

Sticking with it is something he’s learned, and it’s a destination he follows to get inside himself to write some of today’s most commercially successful screenplays. His latest script will bring Belgium’s charming little blue people to the big screen next summer when The Smurfs makes its nationwide premiere.

Weiss says, “A lot of people are telling me they’re really excited to see the movie because they grew up watching the Smurfs.” Weiss, along with his writing partner, J. David Stem, earned the job as screenwriters for The Smurfs by delivering the most compelling treatment. But it didn’t come easy. Nothing worthwhile in Hollywood does. When Sony Pictures called them in for initial meetings, the writing duo were in competition with other heavyweight script writers for the coveted job. “We had to come up with a story-line that would appeal to what they call the four quadrants: male and female 25 and younger, and male and female 25 and older.”

Weiss and Stem watched a lot of Smurf DVDs to get a better feel for their subject matter. “I sort of missed the Smurfs in my cartoon-watching days,” Weiss said. “So I did research. But at some point you have to sit down and do it, to write it,” he adds.

Before the writing began, Weiss had to find a sense of story. One of his methods is to drive the back roads, sometimes with his family in the car listening to movie soundtracks.

“We drove to my parent’s home in Ventura, listening to music and talking. It was fun.” From the creative road trip, Weiss begins a real journey of the imagination. He and Stem begin to figure out where the story takes place and how to structure it. “Does the story happen today or back in time?” Weiss asks. “If it’s back in time, how do the Smurfs get there? We ask a lot of questions and then let the possible answers percolate through the process.”

“Screenwriting or good storytelling, includes having talent, faith and discipline,” Weiss says. “The discipline to sit down and write the script is the most difficult of the three.” He adds that the art of story boils down to giving an audience compelling reasons to watch. “After the percolation process,” he adds, “can come the story. But the basic story structure remains the same. Screenwriters have to ask themselves this: Whose story is it? What does the protagonist want or need? What’s at stake if he or she doesn’t get it? And why will we care?”

Weiss finds the story, and then he finds the discipline to get it written. The success has given the writing duo credits that, in addition to The Smurfs, include: Daddy Day Camp, Are We There Yet, Shrek 2, Clockstoppers, Jimmy Neutron – Boy Genius, and Rugrats in Paris. Through it all, Weiss says he’s taken direction from a higher power. “God’s hand is definitely in all of it,” he said. “The entertainment business is like farming. It’s a gamble. You, like a farmer, are subject to the changes in the immediate world around you. You can’t count on anything going the way you planned. But we need to remember that it’s all a gift—just to walk the planet is such a great gift.”

One of the perks of the job came when his two children landed bit parts in The Smurfs. The production crew filmed in the massive toy store, FAO Schwarz, in New York City. David says, “They closed the entire place for the day we were shooting. My kids got the run of the store with the Smurfs.” David smiles and adds, “You know, sometimes you get to catch the fog for a moment.”