Mark Schwahn | Screenwriter

Mark Schwahn is an American screenwriter as well as a director and producer. He has co-written 'Coach Carter' 'The Perfect Score' 'Whatever It Takes' and '35 Miles from Normal'. He is best known as the creator, head writer and executive producer of the WB/CW drama series 'One Tree Hill'.

What is 'One Tree Hill'?

'One Tree Hill' is an American TV drama series with 9 seasons. It first started in 2003 and ended in 2012.
The main storyline of the show is two half-brothers start off as enemies but as the show progresses they become good friends and have a good sibling relationship. The show deals with real relatable problems such as teenage pregnancies, kidnapping, depression, death, school life, work life, and relationships.
Seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4 focus on the teenagers life at school starting at junior year to senior year. Seasons 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 focus on the teenagers adult life's after jumping four years into the future in Season 5. In these seasons we see old characters leave and new characters joining the others while new stories are created and new problems are solved.
The original 6 main characters are called Lucas Scott, Nathan Scott, Peyton Sawyer, Haley James (Scott) and Brooke Davis. Other main characters include Lucas' mum, Karen, Lucas' and Nathan's dad, Dan, his brother Keith, and the basketball coach, Whitey Durham.

Schwahn had originally planned to make 'One Tree Hill' into a feature length film called 'Ravens' which is the name of the school's basketball team which is seen throughout all 9 seasons. However, he decided it would be more interesting as a television series.
The idea came from his own personal experiences as he went to a school in a small town and played on a basketball team. The title of the show and the town where the series is set are developed from the song 'One Tree Hill' which is named after the landmark in New Zealand. The majority of the episode titles are titles of songs, bands or albums. Fans used to ask Schwahn why the show was named 'One Tree Hill' when the town that they live is just called Tree Hill. But the question is answered by Karen to Lucas in series 1, episode 22, "There is only one Tree Hill...and it's your home." The same sentence is then said by Haley to her son Jamie in series 9, episode 13, which has made this quote very sentimental and meaningful in the 'One Tree Hill' fandom.

This TV drama series written by Schwahn interested me because the basic storyline of the two half-brothers having a rivalry was something I had never heard before. Throughout each season, the storylines and the written plots are all quite relatable to both teenagers and adults, and I felt I could relate to some of the minor storylines. Like a regular series, each episode was written to create multiple different problems that need to be solved throughout each season. Some of my favourite writing in the TV drama series was all of the season finales as they are always really emotionally and tense and most of the time it's left on a cliff-hanger which makes me want to watch the next season when it comes out.

This will help influence my project as I want to write about something fairly relatable as well as writing something interesting and attention grabbing. My short film is going to be a drama, so I will be using some of the same writing techniques as Schwahn has used in 'One Tree Hill' like the characters actions and the amusing but natural dialogue. I will also make sure there is a problem that needs to be solved and make sure it's clear through the characters actions.