Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 450: From Video Games to the Big Screen: The Filmmaking Journey of Nicole Jones-Dion
Transcript
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- 0:12Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four fifty.
- 0:16Speaker 2: Your dream doesn't have an expiration date, Take a deep
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- 0:28Speaker 1: It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and
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- 0:35Speaker 1: screenplay bulletproof.
- 0:36Speaker 3: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
- 0:41Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
- 0:44Speaker 3: I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.
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- 1:34Speaker 3: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis. My guest
- 1:39Speaker 3: is a screenwriter, producer, and director. She co wrote Tech
- 1:43Speaker 3: and two. She successfully crowdfunded her film Debris, and now
- 1:48Speaker 3: she's working on a ton of other stuff which we're
- 1:50Speaker 3: going to get into on the show with Nicole Jones Dion. Hey, Nicole,
- 1:55Speaker 3: thanks all for coming on the show.
- 1:56Speaker 4: Oh thanks for having me.
- 1:58Speaker 3: You know, it's my pleasure to cole Is. I think
- 2:01Speaker 3: you're the first person who have had on who is
- 2:03Speaker 3: also a member of the Screenwriting You Alumni series. I'm
- 2:08Speaker 3: pretty sure you are the first person. Oh cool, Yeah,
- 2:11Speaker 3: it's uh yeah, I don't know why I haven't had
- 2:13Speaker 3: anybody else on there yet on here yet, excuse me,
- 2:16Speaker 3: because you know it's that that group is always doing
- 2:18Speaker 3: great things. And one of the reasons I wanted to
- 2:21Speaker 3: have you on here is because every time I turn around,
- 2:24Speaker 3: you're always up to something new. You're you're always creating
- 2:27Speaker 3: some great content. So that's why I wanted to have
- 2:30Speaker 3: you on. I think everyone could learn a lot from you.
- 2:33Speaker 3: So just to get started, you know, just learning more
- 2:36Speaker 3: about Nicole Jones Dion, I wanted to ask, you know, Nicole,
- 2:39Speaker 3: what made you get started in screenwriting and the film
- 2:42Speaker 3: industry in general.
- 2:43Speaker 4: You know, it's funny because when I moved to La
- 2:45Speaker 4: oh God, a long long time ago.
- 2:47Speaker 5: I don't want to say exactly how long go give
- 2:48Speaker 5: away my age, But when I moved out here, my
- 2:51Speaker 5: intention was never to get into films or screenwriting.
- 2:53Speaker 4: It was to get into the video game industry.
- 2:56Speaker 5: So I started out working in video games and then
- 2:58Speaker 5: I kind of segued into comics. And then the stories
- 3:00Speaker 5: I was coming up with, people were like, oh, put
- 3:02Speaker 5: the make great movies. And I was like, oh, that's
- 3:04Speaker 5: such a crochet. I don't want to be that cche
- 3:06Speaker 5: Hollywood treen writer and you know, flash forward and here
- 3:09Speaker 5: I am. So I think because I started out working
- 3:14Speaker 5: in that comic book and video game space, a lot
- 3:16Speaker 5: of my my cream plays and the genres that I'm
- 3:18Speaker 5: naturally drawn to are are these like you know.
- 3:21Speaker 4: Fun sci fi action.
- 3:23Speaker 5: Or you know, horror, you know, just just these really
- 3:26Speaker 5: fun fanboy type projects. And and you can see that
- 3:29Speaker 5: in the films that I've done, you know, if you
- 3:30Speaker 5: look at you know, like Dracula The Dark Prints, which
- 3:33Speaker 5: we did John Voight, that's a very even though it's
- 3:35Speaker 5: a Dracula film, it's more of a fantasy epic, you know,
- 3:38Speaker 5: sword and sorcery type take on the Dracula mythos.
- 3:42Speaker 4: And then kak In Too, which is based on the
- 3:44Speaker 4: video game series.
- 3:45Speaker 5: You know, I kind of got that gig, you know,
- 3:47Speaker 5: directly through also of Dracula, and then also because I
- 3:49Speaker 5: had that tie with the video game industry and.
- 3:53Speaker 4: You know, and then writing for the Sci Fi Channel,
- 3:55Speaker 4: which I did last October.
- 3:58Speaker 5: I did an original film for them which aired as
- 4:00Speaker 5: part of their Thirty Days of Halloween heories that was
- 4:03Speaker 5: called They Found Hell Uh. And And now I'm I'm
- 4:06Speaker 5: transitioning into directing, and I just directed my first feature,
- 4:09Speaker 5: which is called Stasis, which is another sci fi kind
- 4:12Speaker 5: of action films. But it's funny, a lot of people
- 4:15Speaker 5: think of me primarily as a horror writer. But my
- 4:19Speaker 5: the genesis of my career in the start of it
- 4:21Speaker 5: is really more in that sci fi video game type space.
- 4:25Speaker 3: So did you find that, you know, the video game industry?
- 4:29Speaker 3: You know, I actually uh made a project for the
- 4:34Speaker 3: video game industry kind of sort of, And what I
- 4:36Speaker 3: found is when I reached out to them, a lot
- 4:38Speaker 3: of them were kind of leary, always about going and
- 4:41Speaker 3: making things you know about you know, uh, you know,
- 4:44Speaker 3: different projects because of you know, X, Y and Z.
- 4:47Speaker 3: So I want to ask, you know, Nicole, did you
- 4:49Speaker 3: find it it's harder or easier? And I know this
- 4:52Speaker 3: is that that's a very run stroke. Did you want
- 4:55Speaker 3: it's harder or easier in the video game industry to
- 4:58Speaker 3: get your foot in the door than it is the
- 5:00Speaker 3: film and TV industry?
- 5:02Speaker 5: I think, I mean it the video gaming hastry changed
- 5:04Speaker 5: a lot since I worked in it.
- 5:06Speaker 4: I mean, just to kind of put it in perspective.
- 5:08Speaker 5: When I was doing it, it was during that weird
- 5:11Speaker 5: time when they were doing live action video games, so
- 5:13Speaker 5: it was almost like a choo short adventure movie that
- 5:16Speaker 5: was kind.
- 5:16Speaker 4: Of a friend.
- 5:17Speaker 6: So now I'm dating my belt, people will know that
- 5:20Speaker 6: era and at the time and that ended up being
- 5:24Speaker 6: a failed experiment because you ended up with all the
- 5:26Speaker 6: costs and expense of making a movie plus all the cost.
- 5:28Speaker 5: Expense of making a video game. And so they got
- 5:31Speaker 5: away from that really fast. And now was you know,
- 5:33Speaker 5: the way that the computer graphics have advanced, It's like
- 5:36Speaker 5: you're getting like these amazing photo realistic results without having
- 5:39Speaker 5: to do like a live action shoot.
- 5:42Speaker 4: But I would say because.
- 5:43Speaker 5: Of the costs involved in video games, it's definitely easier
- 5:46Speaker 5: to do films because you can go out and shoot
- 5:48Speaker 5: a little movie on your iPhone. Now, whereas with video games,
- 5:52Speaker 5: you know, you've got programming and and and the solid
- 5:55Speaker 5: modeling and the video you know, all the TEP that's
- 5:58Speaker 5: intrinsic as part of that process.
- 5:59Speaker 4: I think, I think it is the harder not to crack.
- 6:03Speaker 3: Actually, now, you know, you know, I remember all of
- 6:06Speaker 3: those live action video games too. I think there was
- 6:08Speaker 3: one called fox Hunt. And I remember, you know, trying
- 6:12Speaker 3: renting those games. I'm thinking to myself, this can't be
- 6:14Speaker 3: the future ken it And uh yeah, I remember that
- 6:17Speaker 3: era where everyone was doing at least everyone had one.
- 6:20Speaker 3: It was someone called Psychic Detective. I remember that one.
- 6:22Speaker 4: Let me begin, there was kind of the big one
- 6:24Speaker 4: with Mark Cambell was.
- 6:25Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember that one too.
- 6:26Speaker 5: Yeah, weird, it was a weird time.
- 6:30Speaker 4: I think people kind of trying to forget that era
- 6:33Speaker 4: I even existed.
- 6:35Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember that so well. Uh so, you know,
- 6:39Speaker 3: you went to the video game industry and you know
- 6:41Speaker 3: you you tried your hand at that, and I agree
- 6:44Speaker 3: with you completely. The video game industry has changed immensely
- 6:47Speaker 3: because I have friends who work in the video game industry,
- 6:49Speaker 3: and you know, even when I was pitching some of
- 6:51Speaker 3: my projects, things have changed even five from five years ago, now,
- 6:55Speaker 3: you know, I mean, and now look at us now,
- 6:57Speaker 3: Nicole Pokemon Pokemon Go was the new you know, the
- 7:00Speaker 3: new craze, and they're they're they're making a mobile nes
- 7:03Speaker 3: system for sixty bucks, and you know, I'm sure that's
- 7:06Speaker 3: going to be a number one best seller as well.
- 7:08Speaker 3: So it's like the retro now is making a whole
- 7:12Speaker 3: everything stickleholes. I'm trying to say, yeah, no, it's amazing.
- 7:14Speaker 4: It's amazing. I mean, an augmented reality. It's such a
- 7:16Speaker 4: fascinating thing.
- 7:17Speaker 5: I'm trying to avoided the Pokemon Go phenomena just because
- 7:21Speaker 5: I have this addictive personality, and I know, once I
- 7:22Speaker 5: get sucked in that did it, I'm done. There goes
- 7:24Speaker 5: my productivity for the rest of my life. But I
- 7:26Speaker 5: did play Ingress, which is a platform that it was
- 7:28Speaker 5: based on, and I think augmented reality is just fascinating.
- 7:35Speaker 5: The gameplay experience is really really interesting, and yeah, I
- 7:40Speaker 5: think there's it could be the way of the future,
- 7:42Speaker 5: at least way of the future for right now. It's
- 7:44Speaker 5: a fun little trend. I'm definitely keeping an eye on it.
- 7:47Speaker 5: I mean, Nintendo's market value went up like seven billion
- 7:49Speaker 5: dollars with a weekend just based off this one game alone.
- 7:53Speaker 4: So yeah, it's an exigning time.
- 7:56Speaker 5: It's deciding time to be in video games, film, TV, anything,
- 7:59Speaker 5: because is it just the wild West right now, you know,
- 8:01Speaker 5: with all the new cable outlets and Netflix and Hulu
- 8:04Speaker 5: and everybody doing all this original content. It's interesting because
- 8:09Speaker 5: the rules are all changing and they're changing daily and
- 8:12Speaker 5: like trying to keep you know, you can't even chase
- 8:15Speaker 5: trends anymore because the trends are changing, so it's like
- 8:18Speaker 5: trying to figure out, you know, to have to get
- 8:19Speaker 5: one step ahead of that curve and and stay ahead
- 8:22Speaker 5: of the rest of.
- 8:23Speaker 4: The flock, you know, it's fun time.
- 8:27Speaker 3: Yeah, and even with crowdfunding, you know, I noticed all
- 8:30Speaker 3: the video games now or we're just being crowdfunded because
- 8:33Speaker 3: they were you know, basically they company would say, hey,
- 8:35Speaker 3: we can't take a chance on these video games so
- 8:38Speaker 3: that you know, the developers you know, would go out
- 8:40Speaker 3: and they would go make, you know, raise funds on Kickstarter.
- 8:43Speaker 3: And I was shocked at seeing some of the prices,
- 8:44Speaker 3: you know, some of the amounts that they were raising,
- 8:46Speaker 3: because I was thinking of myself, Wow, you know these
- 8:49Speaker 3: you know, I'm granting you know, these are the head developers,
- 8:51Speaker 3: you know, and they're coming out and saying, you know,
- 8:52Speaker 3: this is us doing this. But but still, you know,
- 8:54Speaker 3: I was a little shocked that they were getting the
- 8:55Speaker 3: private the amount that they were Yeah.
- 8:58Speaker 5: Well because a lot of these the video game got
- 8:59Speaker 5: based on the board game companies too are using crab
- 9:01Speaker 5: funding almost as a way of doing pre.
- 9:03Speaker 4: Sales for the product. It's also as a way to test.
- 9:05Speaker 4: Thanks could you.
- 9:06Speaker 5: I do a lot of work now with Sean Cunningham.
- 9:08Speaker 5: This is the creator Friday at thirteenth and they just
- 9:10Speaker 5: did a big crowdfunding campaign for the Friday. The thirteenth
- 9:14Speaker 5: video game, which they just previewed at E three a
- 9:17Speaker 5: couple of weeks ago, and the gameplay looks amazing. So
- 9:20Speaker 5: if you're a fan of I'm gonna go do a
- 9:21Speaker 5: little pitch here. But if you're a fan of A
- 9:23Speaker 5: Friday the Thirteenth franchise, this looks really cool.
- 9:27Speaker 3: Well, and I'm a huge brand of it, so I
- 9:28Speaker 3: can't I can't wait for the video game, by the way.
- 9:31Speaker 3: But anyways, we know, you know, as we we follow
- 9:34Speaker 3: your career, I know, you know, you obviously transuh you know,
- 9:37Speaker 3: translated out of out of video games, and he started
- 9:40Speaker 3: doing doing more feature films. So how did you get,
- 9:42Speaker 3: you know, attached to writing you know, Dracula the Dark
- 9:46Speaker 3: Prints that one.
- 9:47Speaker 5: It was such a long story, but I had met,
- 9:51Speaker 5: uh where to begin.
- 9:53Speaker 4: So I had written an adaptation of an image graphic
- 9:57Speaker 4: novel called The Scribbler.
- 9:59Speaker 2: Well be right back after a word from our sponsor,
- 10:05Speaker 2: and now back to the show, which I'd.
- 10:10Speaker 5: Done for Kicktart Entertainment. They went on to do a
- 10:12Speaker 5: Wanted with Angelina Julie and Davis mcilvoy And so at
- 10:16Speaker 5: the time that we're going around shopping my script, approaching
- 10:18Speaker 5: different directors, and one of the directors that they had
- 10:21Speaker 5: introduced me to as a possibility was this gentleman by
- 10:23Speaker 5: the name of Perry Tail. And then the writer's strike
- 10:26Speaker 5: happened and that project ended up never going anywhere.
- 10:28Speaker 4: But Perry and I stayed in touch over the ears
- 10:30Speaker 4: and we collaborated on a bunch of projects.
- 10:32Speaker 5: And he had been approached with, you know, the possibility
- 10:36Speaker 5: of writing and directing this Dracula film, and he's like,
- 10:40Speaker 5: I need help with the script.
- 10:41Speaker 4: Do you want to come on board? And I was like, absolutely, dude,
- 10:43Speaker 4: you're my guy, you know. And so we we worked.
- 10:47Speaker 5: On Dracula together, that we worked on Tech and together,
- 10:49Speaker 5: and then he just produced my first feature film. So
- 10:52Speaker 5: it's one of these ongoing, you know, long term relationship show.
- 10:55Speaker 5: It's one of the things with this industry. It's all
- 10:57Speaker 5: about building relationships, finding champions, whore willing to go out
- 11:00Speaker 5: there and you know, put their necks out for you,
- 11:04Speaker 5: and making that really good first impression and then that'll
- 11:08Speaker 5: it'll just carry. You can build a creator out of that,
- 11:10Speaker 5: or at least get your foot in the door.
- 11:12Speaker 3: So when you let your foot in the door, were
- 11:14Speaker 3: you mainly doing, like script out of patients, or did
- 11:17Speaker 3: you come in with already having some of your own
- 11:19Speaker 3: original material already written?
- 11:21Speaker 4: Oh gosh, I had probably at the time I did Dracula, I.
- 11:24Speaker 5: Probably had at least fifteen specs already on the shelf
- 11:28Speaker 5: that had won various contests and had been optioned. Nothing
- 11:31Speaker 5: that had actually gone into production at that point. So
- 11:34Speaker 5: with Dracula and Tech and those types of things, those
- 11:37Speaker 5: were all writing assignments that I was brought on to
- 11:40Speaker 5: either fixing fisting scripts or develop ideas from scratch with
- 11:43Speaker 5: the producers. Yeah, but I would say that Stasis, which
- 11:48Speaker 5: is the script the Future that I just wrote and directed,
- 11:50Speaker 5: is the first time I actually pitched an idea. I
- 11:52Speaker 5: was hired to write my original idea. Everything prior to
- 11:55Speaker 5: that had been somebody else had an idea or had
- 11:58Speaker 5: an existing script that needed work, which is what percent
- 12:00Speaker 5: of the industry is is developing other people's stuff.
- 12:04Speaker 3: So before you know, you wrote Drag, before you came
- 12:07Speaker 3: on the project of Dracula, you had written fifteen spec scripts.
- 12:10Speaker 3: So my question then is, Nicole, how did you find
- 12:12Speaker 3: the time to write fifteen specs scripts?
- 12:14Speaker 6: Oh?
- 12:15Speaker 5: You just do it.
- 12:16Speaker 4: You just I have no life, and I think. I
- 12:18Speaker 4: mentioned I have an addicted person at healthy so instead.
- 12:21Speaker 5: Of once I actually had to give up video games,
- 12:24Speaker 5: I had to give them up cul Turkey, which is
- 12:26Speaker 5: really hard. And but one of the things I used
- 12:29Speaker 5: to fill the void then is I just write. I
- 12:31Speaker 5: write constantly. I write every day all the time. I
- 12:34Speaker 5: have no lis. I have no real family out here
- 12:37Speaker 5: in la I mean, I have my husband, but all
- 12:39Speaker 5: my family's back East, So it's I don't have a
- 12:41Speaker 5: lot of the normal day to day distractions that other
- 12:43Speaker 5: people have, and I can just immerse myself completely in
- 12:46Speaker 5: my work, which is.
- 12:47Speaker 4: Fine because I love it.
- 12:49Speaker 3: So, you know, just speaking about your work, you know,
- 12:52Speaker 3: could you deal with just a glimpse in, you know,
- 12:54Speaker 3: into your process. You know, is there a certain time
- 12:56Speaker 3: of day you write? Is there anything any siller, special
- 12:59Speaker 3: rituals you go through just to get sort of put
- 13:01Speaker 3: yourself in that in that writing mindset.
- 13:03Speaker 5: I tend to because I'm kind of a night out
- 13:06Speaker 5: and I get because I tend to.
- 13:07Speaker 4: Write things that are darker.
- 13:08Speaker 5: Anyway, I work better at night, which kind of sucked
- 13:13Speaker 5: to with you're working vampire hours.
- 13:14Speaker 4: It's hard to associate with the real world. But yeah,
- 13:19Speaker 4: and as far.
- 13:19Speaker 3: As rituals, I don't really have any rituals.
- 13:21Speaker 4: I do have a.
- 13:22Speaker 5: Treadmill desk that I use just because sitting is is
- 13:28Speaker 5: not good for you all day, but I like working
- 13:31Speaker 5: on that, and yeah, I just do it at night.
- 13:33Speaker 4: It's like something about when the sun goes down, that's
- 13:35Speaker 4: when my creativity is at it. It's peak.
- 13:39Speaker 3: So do you do you subscribe to any method like
- 13:41Speaker 3: the USC sequencing method, you know, like you know the
- 13:45Speaker 3: three X structures say the cat? Do you do you
- 13:47Speaker 3: subscribe to any of these of these methods?
- 13:49Speaker 4: I do kind of a blend. I do Save the
- 13:52Speaker 4: Cat with you know.
- 13:53Speaker 5: What Cryspto called the many movie method, which is essentially
- 13:56Speaker 5: the sequencing method. I kind of do an overlay of
- 13:58Speaker 5: the two event a lot of the structuring tools, they're
- 14:03Speaker 5: all very similar. There's a lot of overlap anyway, and
- 14:06Speaker 5: if you just look at the things that they have
- 14:07Speaker 5: in common, I would say those are the things to
- 14:10Speaker 5: focus on.
- 14:11Speaker 4: You know.
- 14:11Speaker 5: It's like they all have turning points and act breaks
- 14:14Speaker 5: and inciting incidents, and.
- 14:17Speaker 4: There's there's some subtle differences.
- 14:18Speaker 5: But I found that by using Fath the cat with
- 14:20Speaker 5: the mini movie method that seems to cover most of
- 14:22Speaker 5: the bases.
- 14:24Speaker 3: Yeah, I've noticed there is a lot of overlap too,
- 14:28Speaker 3: especially with the USC sequencing method and Chriss Maini movie method.
- 14:32Speaker 3: You know, but I think Chris so to me, I
- 14:34Speaker 3: really do like that Mani movie method. And I find
- 14:36Speaker 3: that that, you know, breaking in eight sequences really does
- 14:38Speaker 3: help me sort of plan out the movie, if you
- 14:41Speaker 3: know what I mean, right, and it.
- 14:42Speaker 5: Breaks it down into these smaller, bite sized chunks, who's
- 14:45Speaker 5: not so daunting. So when you're first starting out, you're
- 14:47Speaker 5: not looking at a blank page. You're thinking, oh my god,
- 14:49Speaker 5: I have to write ninety or one hundred and twenty pages.
- 14:51Speaker 4: Now.
- 14:51Speaker 5: I was like, oh no, I just have to get
- 14:52Speaker 5: to the next sixteen pages. And that's a lot more manageable.
- 14:56Speaker 5: I can do, you know, fishing pages in a day
- 14:58Speaker 5: or two and then you're like, okay, onto the next day.
- 15:02Speaker 3: So when when you're sitting down to write, you know,
- 15:04Speaker 3: you sort of what what do you sort of need
- 15:07Speaker 3: before you write? Meaning do you need to sort of
- 15:10Speaker 3: outline this heavily or write even a treatment, or do
- 15:13Speaker 3: you just sort of get a starting point and just
- 15:16Speaker 3: sort of a map from there.
- 15:18Speaker 4: I'm a huge fan of outlining in advance.
- 15:20Speaker 5: And I think this is a really good skill set,
- 15:21Speaker 5: especially if you want to be a working writer in Hollywood,
- 15:24Speaker 5: because a lot of these producers, and I'm just going
- 15:27Speaker 5: to hire you to write the script, they're gonna need
- 15:28Speaker 5: to see outlines, They're gonna need to see treatments in advance.
- 15:30Speaker 4: And it's just it's a skill you're going to have
- 15:32Speaker 4: to learn. So you may as well practice those muffles
- 15:34Speaker 4: while you, you know, you're working on your own specs.
- 15:37Speaker 5: For me, I'm so, I do have this one thing
- 15:39Speaker 5: where it's like I can't write a script until I
- 15:41Speaker 5: don't know what it's called.
- 15:42Speaker 7: And it's this weird hamp I have. So I have
- 15:44Speaker 7: to start with the title, and it's so dumb, and
- 15:47Speaker 7: the title will change, but I have to have to
- 15:48Speaker 7: leave the title and then and then on a solid
- 15:51Speaker 7: log line. I always refer back to my log line,
- 15:53Speaker 7: So I'll first things first, I write the title, I
- 15:55Speaker 7: write the log line, and then I start breaking out
- 15:57Speaker 7: the bare bones of it, you know, doing like the
- 16:00Speaker 7: breaking it up into the four acts, one act, the
- 16:03Speaker 7: first half of the second act, second half of the
- 16:04Speaker 7: second act, and then the third act. At least having
- 16:06Speaker 7: like a sentence for each knowing what that backbone is
- 16:10Speaker 7: for the story, and then I'll start getting deeper into
- 16:14Speaker 7: that they have the cat or the many movie breakdown.
- 16:16Speaker 5: But yeah, I have to have it leaf at least
- 16:20Speaker 5: the three or four page outline flash treatment before I'm comfortable.
- 16:24Speaker 4: Starting actually writing the script.
- 16:27Speaker 3: You know, something I've I found out recently is something
- 16:31Speaker 3: where I basically I can't write unless I can build
- 16:36Speaker 3: the movie and then break it down again, you know
- 16:37Speaker 3: what I mean. Like it's sort of building and rebuilding,
- 16:39Speaker 3: building and rebuilding, and because I don't know why, but
- 16:43Speaker 3: I'm terrible with titles anymore, Like titles to me, you
- 16:45Speaker 3: know what I mean, Like I just if I don't
- 16:47Speaker 3: know the title, what I do is I just sort
- 16:49Speaker 3: of go past because I'll end up obsessing over the
- 16:53Speaker 3: title and I'll, like, you know, I can't figure.
- 16:55Speaker 4: Out what it is.
- 16:56Speaker 5: Spend to day looking up titles. Also another thing I
- 17:00Speaker 5: get hung up on it. This is just my weird
- 17:01Speaker 5: little brain. I have to know what my characters' names are,
- 17:04Speaker 5: and names have to ask significance to the story somehow,
- 17:07Speaker 5: which you know this is.
- 17:08Speaker 4: I can't just call them John and Jane. It's like
- 17:10Speaker 4: they have to have a meaningful name. I don't know,
- 17:14Speaker 4: it's just my own little quirk, I guess.
- 17:17Speaker 5: But yeah, and for me, if I going back to
- 17:19Speaker 5: that log line, even like if I start to write
- 17:21Speaker 5: and it's not feeling like it's something's not working out,
- 17:24Speaker 5: go back to that log line.
- 17:25Speaker 4: Not always because my sanity check.
- 17:27Speaker 5: It's like, is this because you want to make sure
- 17:28Speaker 5: it's high concept and marketable and you can sell it
- 17:30Speaker 5: and people get it and just as few words as possible.
- 17:33Speaker 5: And if I start to stray from that log line,
- 17:36Speaker 5: I go back readjust course and then dive back in.
- 17:41Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I oftentimes too where I just put
- 17:44Speaker 3: in like you know, like you know, guard A guard B.
- 17:46Speaker 3: You know, I'm just trying to fly through it. But
- 17:48Speaker 3: I think you know, your method has a lot of
- 17:51Speaker 3: validity to it because character suggests plot. And you know,
- 17:54Speaker 3: if you have a character and just sort of map
- 17:56Speaker 3: that character out and everything, you know, he or she
- 18:00Speaker 3: would dictate you know what they do. You know what
- 18:01Speaker 3: I mean, because for instance, you know, a a upbeat
- 18:05Speaker 3: you know, you know, uh, you know, law abiding citizen
- 18:08Speaker 3: is going to handle problems differently than you know, maybe
- 18:10Speaker 3: somebody you know, you know born and they you know,
- 18:13Speaker 3: they they've decided to take a criminal life, if you
- 18:15Speaker 3: know what I mean. And they both had to, like,
- 18:16Speaker 3: you know, get something from somebody. They each have incredibly
- 18:19Speaker 3: different methods of how to how to get that thing
- 18:20Speaker 3: from that person.
- 18:21Speaker 4: Yeah, and one of the things I'll do too. And
- 18:24Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I can't remember which.
- 18:27Speaker 5: Book I got this from, but when you're when I'm
- 18:29Speaker 5: looking at the outline for the story, it's like you
- 18:31Speaker 5: break it down.
- 18:32Speaker 4: By plot, and then I'll go through and I'll and.
- 18:34Speaker 5: I'll split it out and say, Okay, what are my
- 18:36Speaker 5: three major characters doing in each of these sequences? And
- 18:39Speaker 5: you always you have your protagonist, your antagonist, and whoever
- 18:43Speaker 5: the emotional character is, sometimes just a love interest or
- 18:46Speaker 5: a best friend or a mentor. But make sure that
- 18:48Speaker 5: each of them is doing something in every scene. And
- 18:50Speaker 5: the other thing to keep in mind is if you
- 18:52Speaker 5: want to have a compelling story, the antagonist is the
- 18:56Speaker 5: hero of his own story. So they need to be
- 18:59Speaker 5: doing something in our position to the protagonist every time.
- 19:02Speaker 5: And so that's I'll break it down and I'll say,
- 19:04Speaker 5: I'll have the plot and then like a one, then
- 19:06Speaker 5: it's description about what each my my protagonists, my antagonists
- 19:10Speaker 5: and my emotional character are doing in that scene as well,
- 19:14Speaker 5: and that helps them.
- 19:15Speaker 4: You can see in.
- 19:16Speaker 5: Character arcs and theme, you know, having a theme is
- 19:19Speaker 5: also very important. And that's a kind of a controversial
- 19:22Speaker 5: topic because I know some people have different definitions about
- 19:25Speaker 5: what seam is, but you know, it's just some sort
- 19:27Speaker 5: of statement about the universal human condition, you know, working
- 19:30Speaker 5: that and that's where that emotional character usually comes in,
- 19:33Speaker 5: helping resonate, you know, to become a change agent, to
- 19:35Speaker 5: bring your protagonet from wherever they are at the beginning
- 19:38Speaker 5: of the film through their character arc to the end
- 19:41Speaker 5: to that changed person at the end. And you can
- 19:44Speaker 5: figure all that out in the outline. It's so much
- 19:45Speaker 5: easier to do it in the outline stays and write
- 19:47Speaker 5: your whole script and then realize how nothing changed or
- 19:52Speaker 5: it doesn't have the heart that it needs. I'd much
- 19:54Speaker 5: rather do all that work up front in the outline stage.
- 19:59Speaker 2: We'll be right ba after a word from our sponsor,
- 20:05Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
- 20:08Speaker 4: When it's easier to fix and and see those problems.
- 20:13Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're you're you're ready to because you know,
- 20:16Speaker 3: as I've found, you know, and reading other scripts and
- 20:18Speaker 3: you run my own scripts. The antagonist is sort of
- 20:20Speaker 3: the person leading the film because they're the sort of
- 20:22Speaker 3: the ones you know, in a superhero movie, that's the
- 20:25Speaker 3: super the superhero you know, uh, meets the antagonist when
- 20:28Speaker 3: the antagonist launches their plan, you know what I mean.
- 20:30Speaker 3: Like and you see that in the Avengers movies. So
- 20:32Speaker 3: the antagonist and even in horror movies like you know,
- 20:34Speaker 3: Fire the Thirteenth, Jason's the one sort of you know,
- 20:37Speaker 3: going through the film, and he's taken out these teenagers
- 20:39Speaker 3: one by one up until one of them finds, you know,
- 20:42Speaker 3: oh my gosh, where's my friend that they go look
- 20:44Speaker 3: for they find our dead body. Then Jason springs and
- 20:46Speaker 3: attacks again here stuff like that. You find the antagonist
- 20:48Speaker 3: really is sort of the engine of the whole story.
- 20:51Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's why you have to spend much time
- 20:53Speaker 5: developing your antagonists as you do your protagonist, and you know,
- 20:56Speaker 5: and and make them real, flesh them out, don't don't
- 20:59Speaker 5: come up with the two dimensional you know, mustache twirling villain.
- 21:02Speaker 5: And it's like, give them a goal and a motivation
- 21:05Speaker 5: and a reason for doing what they're doing, and just
- 21:07Speaker 5: you know, be evil for the sake of being evil. Okay,
- 21:11Speaker 5: sometimes you can get away with that, but I think
- 21:14Speaker 5: sympathetic villain dirt least empathetic villains are are always much more.
- 21:18Speaker 4: Powerful and much more effective.
- 21:21Speaker 3: Yeah, very true. And you know you touched on theme.
- 21:24Speaker 3: You know, I was talking to another write about this
- 21:26Speaker 3: about whether the theme should be one word. I've also
- 21:29Speaker 3: heard theme should always be a question. You know, you know,
- 21:31Speaker 3: what would you do to achieve your goal? You know,
- 21:34Speaker 3: big question mark at the end there, you know, because
- 21:36Speaker 3: I've seen you know, like you were saying, you know,
- 21:38Speaker 3: it's always a statement about the the human condition. And
- 21:41Speaker 3: somebody will have said, well, it should be a question
- 21:42Speaker 3: that the movie answers, if you know what I mean.
- 21:44Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I don't.
- 21:47Speaker 5: I don't have like absolute you know, when it comes theme,
- 21:50Speaker 5: it's like, yeah, sometimes it takes a form of a question.
- 21:52Speaker 5: Sometimes it's a statement. It just has to be something
- 21:55Speaker 5: universal and that everyone can relate to. And I would
- 22:00Speaker 5: also caution against, you know, writing from a soap box.
- 22:04Speaker 5: You know where you're you're you have an agenda that
- 22:06Speaker 5: you're trying to preach down onto people. I think that
- 22:09Speaker 5: usually falls flat in the in the telling. It's I
- 22:12Speaker 5: think it's much better to take something like a universal
- 22:14Speaker 5: theme and then explore from different angles and maybe leave
- 22:17Speaker 5: the ending ambiguous. It's like what is you know, like
- 22:20Speaker 5: raise this big question, but then maybe there are several
- 22:22Speaker 5: answers and this is just one of many, you know,
- 22:25Speaker 5: And and the attack and I think in the in
- 22:26Speaker 5: the best stories, the antags and the protagonists are both
- 22:30Speaker 5: trying to achieve the same theme.
- 22:32Speaker 4: I guess, or approach that same theme, but from different directions.
- 22:35Speaker 5: And you know, maybe you agree with it, maybe you don't,
- 22:38Speaker 5: but at least now it opens a.
- 22:40Speaker 4: Thought provoking conversation about who we are as humans and
- 22:45Speaker 4: that sort of thing. I don't know, kind of cool.
- 22:48Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that is an actual way to put it.
- 22:51Speaker 3: And you know, because you know, I think when we
- 22:54Speaker 3: when when we when we get better? I think, you know,
- 22:56Speaker 3: as I've realized too about when we get better at
- 22:58Speaker 3: certain things, like you know, for instance, you were to
- 23:00Speaker 3: talking about writing the treatment in the outline, there's a
- 23:01Speaker 3: skooes you need to have. And that's also something that
- 23:04Speaker 3: I've realized too, is that you know, as we the
- 23:08Speaker 3: more the more of what we do, the better we
- 23:10Speaker 3: get at it. You know what I mean that's usually
- 23:12Speaker 3: a rule, you know, a rule film, so to speak.
- 23:14Speaker 3: And so when we when we're writing a theme or treatment,
- 23:18Speaker 3: or even when we're writing you know, the script itself,
- 23:20Speaker 3: We're we're always trying to get better at doing those
- 23:22Speaker 3: fine details. And that's that's a trick of screenwriting though,
- 23:25Speaker 3: because we're always trying to put all these different skills together,
- 23:28Speaker 3: you know what I mean, building a world, building a character,
- 23:30Speaker 3: writing compelling action lines, writing compelling stories. You know, it's
- 23:33Speaker 3: it's and themes and all that stuff. That's why screenwriting,
- 23:36Speaker 3: I think is so challenging at the end of the day.
- 23:38Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's always room to grow. There's always room
- 23:40Speaker 4: to learn new things and try new skills. I'm always
- 23:44Speaker 4: trying to get better.
- 23:45Speaker 5: I'm never you know, I've had four films made and
- 23:49Speaker 5: a fifth one that's in post production right now. And
- 23:51Speaker 5: I'm not an expert. I don't claim to know at all.
- 23:54Speaker 5: There's always things out there to learn from other people,
- 23:57Speaker 5: read scripts from from professional writers who are better than you,
- 24:00Speaker 5: and push yourself.
- 24:01Speaker 4: To get to that next level because there's always room
- 24:03Speaker 4: to grow.
- 24:04Speaker 3: Absolutely, And speaking of some of those movies, you know
- 24:07Speaker 3: you had tech and two because you use Revenge. You
- 24:10Speaker 3: know that that movie came out in twenty fourteen, so
- 24:13Speaker 3: you know, you know, how did you get you know,
- 24:16Speaker 3: how would you get aboard that project?
- 24:18Speaker 5: Well, it was the same people who had done Dracula,
- 24:20Speaker 5: so it really like Dracula was like approving ground and
- 24:23Speaker 5: then they're like, oh, well, we'd like to bring you,
- 24:25Speaker 5: we'd like to invite you back for Tecan. And Tecan
- 24:28Speaker 5: had its own unique challenges because originally our vision with
- 24:31Speaker 5: that one was we wanted to do something that was
- 24:34Speaker 5: very very true to the video game and very true
- 24:36Speaker 5: to the fan, because the director who was attached at
- 24:38Speaker 5: the time was like a huge tech fan, very passionate
- 24:40Speaker 5: about it, and we pitched them this awesome, awesome thing,
- 24:44Speaker 5: and that's not what they wanted to do. They wanted
- 24:46Speaker 5: to do something different, and so there's been some a
- 24:48Speaker 5: little bit of pushback from the tech and community because
- 24:51Speaker 5: they're like, this isn't really a second movie, and I'm like, dude,
- 24:53Speaker 5: I wish you could have seen the original treatment because
- 24:55Speaker 5: that was it was awesome, and you know, maybe some
- 24:58Speaker 5: day that movie will get made. It's just in this case,
- 25:01Speaker 5: the producers wanted to do something a little different, so
- 25:03Speaker 5: we at the end of the day, I'm just a
- 25:05Speaker 5: hired gun. You know, you'd give them what you You're
- 25:08Speaker 5: there to make the producer.
- 25:08Speaker 4: Happy and give them what they want.
- 25:10Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, you know I agree with that completely.
- 25:14Speaker 3: You know, that's why you know, I have had friends
- 25:17Speaker 3: in simple situations and you know, at that point, yeah,
- 25:20Speaker 3: you you know, like you just said, you realize you're
- 25:22Speaker 3: the hired gun. You know, the producer, it's whatever. You know,
- 25:25Speaker 3: since they hired you, you're you know, you have to
- 25:26Speaker 3: deliver what they're looking for, you know. And I have
- 25:28Speaker 3: friends who are who've had similar situations. When who are
- 25:30Speaker 3: try and always force the issue and you know, things
- 25:34Speaker 3: didn't go well. Let's just say that, Nicole.
- 25:36Speaker 4: Yeah, Like you know, you have to remember if you're
- 25:39Speaker 4: writing U spec that's yours. You can do whatever you want.
- 25:41Speaker 5: But if you're writing for someone else and you and
- 25:44Speaker 5: your job then is to take their vision and make
- 25:46Speaker 5: the best possible version of that vision. You know, even
- 25:51Speaker 5: if you don't necessarily agree with the vision, that that's
- 25:54Speaker 5: not what you're there for. I mean, you can raise
- 25:55Speaker 5: objections or whatever, try to, but at the end of
- 25:57Speaker 5: the day, you work for them. It's their idea, give
- 26:00Speaker 5: them the best possible version of their idea that you can.
- 26:04Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I concur and you know, speaking of your projects,
- 26:07Speaker 3: we actually she moved and talked to you about Debris,
- 26:11Speaker 3: which is, you know, your short horror film. You know,
- 26:13Speaker 3: you actually raised just about twenty thousand dollars on Indiegogo.
- 26:17Speaker 3: You raised three hundred and thirty percent over your goal.
- 26:21Speaker 3: So I have to, you know, ask us, you know,
- 26:23Speaker 3: I have to ask, you know, can you just give
- 26:24Speaker 3: us a little bit about what Debris about? And I
- 26:27Speaker 3: want to ask you too about you know, your crowdfunding campaign.
- 26:30Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, Debris was really funny because it was
- 26:32Speaker 5: the first time I tried to do crowdfunding and I
- 26:34Speaker 5: was like, oh, I don't know what I'm doing.
- 26:36Speaker 4: We're gonna do this, this is going to be a mess.
- 26:38Speaker 4: So I only originally asked for.
- 26:40Speaker 5: Five thousand, which wasn't going to be nearly enough to
- 26:42Speaker 5: get the film made. But I'm like, I don't, you know,
- 26:44Speaker 5: I don't know if I'll be lucky if I get that.
- 26:46Speaker 5: And then the fact that we were able to raise
- 26:48Speaker 5: you know, almost twenty was mind blowing.
- 26:50Speaker 4: I mean I got to the point where I'm like, well,
- 26:52Speaker 4: who are you people? And why are you giving me money?
- 26:54Speaker 4: I don't understand, and I wish I could.
- 26:57Speaker 5: I wish it for me a little nia so I
- 27:00Speaker 5: could like replicate it at will. And I've done another
- 27:04Speaker 5: craft finding campaign since then for another short film called
- 27:06Speaker 5: Death Date, which is also successful, but not the same
- 27:08Speaker 5: runaway train that Debris was. And I think the difference.
- 27:12Speaker 5: Debrie just had this really cool concept, like a really
- 27:15Speaker 5: high concept that people resonated with.
- 27:16Speaker 4: Into the concept behind Debris is in the aftermath of
- 27:21Speaker 4: the Fukushima tsunami, you had the curse down on his luck.
- 27:24Speaker 5: Pretor Hunter is out with a metal detector on a
- 27:27Speaker 5: California beach and finds a curse Samurai sword that's washed
- 27:30Speaker 5: up on the beach from the Fukushima tsunami wreckage, and
- 27:36Speaker 5: then he brings it home and the bad things happened.
- 27:38Speaker 5: But I think by having this, you know, people love Damuriz.
- 27:43Speaker 4: There's a huge like cult following.
- 27:46Speaker 5: I guess this's around Samurais and the fact that the
- 27:48Speaker 5: story itself was based on an actual Japanese legend, and
- 27:50Speaker 5: there's been a variety of films made in Japan about
- 27:53Speaker 5: this particular store and the bad things that happened to
- 27:56Speaker 5: the people who own it. But I thought this was
- 27:58Speaker 5: kind of an interesting put counting out Eastmes actually have
- 28:00Speaker 5: this very ignorant American finds the sword, doesn't realize.
- 28:03Speaker 4: It's dangerous, and then what Yeah, as his life slowly unravels.
- 28:07Speaker 4: So yeah, we made the short.
- 28:09Speaker 5: Film and it I think it's been in probably all
- 28:13Speaker 5: god over, It's been in over a dozen festivals, like
- 28:15Speaker 5: genre festivals, been nominated for a bunch of awards, won
- 28:19Speaker 5: a couple of awards, and so with that one, now
- 28:22Speaker 5: I'm trying to turn it into a feature if possible.
- 28:26Speaker 5: So I've written a future version of the script, going
- 28:28Speaker 5: out to different producers to if I can find someone
- 28:30Speaker 5: who'd be interested in tackling the subjects on a broader
- 28:33Speaker 5: on a bigger scale, because there's interest. I think it's
- 28:37Speaker 5: I think it's a project that people like and would
- 28:39Speaker 5: be like to see more.
- 28:41Speaker 4: Of, you know, more of this story, more of the sword,
- 28:43Speaker 4: and make it bigger. More.
- 28:46Speaker 3: Is that online anywhere?
- 28:47Speaker 4: For I want to check out the trailer.
- 28:49Speaker 5: Of the field online, because it's still technically in the
- 28:51Speaker 5: festival circuit, I can't release the film itself.
- 28:54Speaker 4: Well, probably we'll see where things are at by the end.
- 28:57Speaker 5: Of the year, but I think we'll probably finish our
- 28:58Speaker 5: festival run by the end of the year and then
- 28:59Speaker 5: maybe well, either release. We're also looking into getting distribution
- 29:03Speaker 5: deals internationally, so it might be available on I don't know,
- 29:08Speaker 5: video on demand or something TD, whatever markets are available
- 29:12Speaker 5: out there.
- 29:13Speaker 3: Cool, you know, yeah, I definitely think there was a
- 29:15Speaker 3: market for something like that. And you know, when I saw,
- 29:19Speaker 3: you know, how how much by the end, I saw
- 29:20Speaker 3: how much this is? How much this is raising? Which
- 29:23Speaker 3: I think I donated five dollars to this or can't
- 29:26Speaker 3: oh fail under my pleasure because I you know, I
- 29:29Speaker 3: checked on I checked it. I checked on it a
- 29:32Speaker 3: couple you know, a couple of weeks later, and I saw, well,
- 29:34Speaker 3: you know, this is almost ending, and I was like, wow,
- 29:36Speaker 3: Nicole is killing it. I was like, well, here three
- 29:40Speaker 3: past their goal. I mean, and I thought, you know,
- 29:42Speaker 3: either somebody a huge contact list or somebody, well, I said,
- 29:45Speaker 3: you know, somebody did something right, you know somewhere. You know,
- 29:48Speaker 3: either you have a massive contact list. You you know,
- 29:50Speaker 3: you have a rich, very rich relative donate you know
- 29:53Speaker 3: money into it.
- 29:54Speaker 4: Wait, don't I have no rich relatives?
- 29:56Speaker 2: I went, We'll be right back after a word from
- 29:59Speaker 2: our sponsor. And now back to the show.
- 30:07Speaker 5: No, this was evidently like the Bernie Sanders of the
- 30:09Speaker 5: crowd money campaign, with a lot of small donations, you know,
- 30:12Speaker 5: and they did to add it up over time.
- 30:15Speaker 4: And No, it was really.
- 30:18Speaker 5: Phenomenal just to watch the response to this idea and
- 30:20Speaker 5: this little film. It was really gratifying, and it gave
- 30:22Speaker 5: us a lot of confidence that we were making a
- 30:24Speaker 5: story that people wanted, the people wanted to see, and
- 30:28Speaker 5: that resonated with people, and you know, and that at
- 30:31Speaker 5: the end of the day, that's really what it's about,
- 30:33Speaker 5: you know, telling stories that people want to hear and.
- 30:36Speaker 4: Maybe make them think a little bit along the way.
- 30:38Speaker 3: Yeah, I concur and you know, obviously, you know, the
- 30:41Speaker 3: the concept was popular as well as you were saying that,
- 30:44Speaker 3: and you know, there's always a crowd for an audience
- 30:49Speaker 3: for horror of any kind, you know what I mean.
- 30:51Speaker 3: There's always gonna be an audience for horror.
- 30:53Speaker 5: Yeah. Well, and it's funny because you know, the when
- 30:57Speaker 5: I was doing all the research for Debris and then
- 30:59Speaker 5: the feature your link script for Debris, I stumbled on
- 31:01Speaker 5: this other Samurai story and so I'm like, okay, I
- 31:05Speaker 5: have to write this one. It's true story set in fuel, Japan,
- 31:08Speaker 5: And and that was a script that ended up winning
- 31:10Speaker 5: the grand prize at the Palm Street.
- 31:12Speaker 4: Film Okay, you're writing competition. So it's like I went
- 31:16Speaker 4: to my little samurai pace, I guess, and it's it's great.
- 31:21Speaker 4: I love it.
- 31:21Speaker 5: I love action films, I love martial arts films, and
- 31:24Speaker 5: and so it's like I also I always caught some writers.
- 31:27Speaker 4: About, you know, pigeonholing, because Hollywood will pigeonhole you. And
- 31:30Speaker 4: I'm like, you know what, this is a hole I
- 31:32Speaker 4: got stuck in.
- 31:33Speaker 5: It's one I wouldn't mind living in because I just
- 31:34Speaker 5: love that space so much.
- 31:37Speaker 3: Yeah, and you actually, by the way, congratulations because you
- 31:39Speaker 3: just did. You just did win the Palm uh Palm
- 31:43Speaker 3: Palm Street competition. I always have U was it on Monday,
- 31:46Speaker 3: I believe or today.
- 31:48Speaker 4: They just announced the winners, like Monday your truth day
- 31:50Speaker 4: of this week. Yeah, so that that's that's very new.
- 31:52Speaker 5: And you know, and that was kind of interesting because
- 31:55Speaker 5: I don't normally enter contact because I'm a genre writer generally,
- 31:58Speaker 5: and and those unless it's a genre of competition, don't
- 32:01Speaker 5: do well in these broad mainstream contests.
- 32:04Speaker 4: But in this case because it was it was.
- 32:06Speaker 5: Actually an action drama, you know, set in feudal to
- 32:08Speaker 5: pant with Samurais.
- 32:09Speaker 4: And Fingi's and it's just like going you know, all
- 32:11Speaker 4: kinds of blood in action.
- 32:13Speaker 5: Hey, you know, this one might actually the standard chance
- 32:15Speaker 5: and then it ends up winning to a Grand Prize.
- 32:17Speaker 4: So that was really gratifying.
- 32:20Speaker 3: So, you know, I know you can't talk too much
- 32:22Speaker 3: about it, but so I wanted to ask obviously, is
- 32:25Speaker 3: you know what upcoming projects that you what upcoming projects
- 32:29Speaker 3: you're working on that you can actually talk about, if
- 32:30Speaker 3: any even you need to talk about.
- 32:32Speaker 4: I mean, well, let's see.
- 32:33Speaker 5: So there's my my feature film that I directed, Stasis,
- 32:37Speaker 5: which is currently ampost We already have distribution lined up
- 32:40Speaker 5: for that, which is really exciting too. So that film
- 32:42Speaker 5: is supposed to be ready for Asam which is in November,
- 32:45Speaker 5: and that's kind of the ya sci fi film. It's
- 32:48Speaker 5: been called Terminator for teens, so if you like time
- 32:51Speaker 5: traveling terminator type things, you know, check it out when
- 32:54Speaker 5: it comes out. I think that'd be really cool. What
- 32:57Speaker 5: else I'm working I'm right now I'm trying to raise
- 33:00Speaker 5: money for my next feature, which is a horror script
- 33:04Speaker 5: that based loosely on actual events, so I don't want
- 33:08Speaker 5: to get too much away about that, but that one,
- 33:09Speaker 5: in fact, seems like a phone with you. I have
- 33:12Speaker 5: a call with the producer for that, so that that'd
- 33:15Speaker 5: be nice to get that started production before the end
- 33:18Speaker 5: of the year. And yeah, not Aten' just you know,
- 33:22Speaker 5: I always got things going on. We're still in post
- 33:25Speaker 5: production on Death Day, which is the other short film
- 33:28Speaker 5: that I did after Debris.
- 33:29Speaker 4: It's a meeting with my editor next week. We're gonna
- 33:31Speaker 4: try to lock picture on that soon. And I don't know.
- 33:34Speaker 4: I mean, he's got multiple irons in the fire, you know,
- 33:38Speaker 4: waiting for something to hit. Just keep on chugging.
- 33:42Speaker 3: Yeah, and then that has excellent advice to the cole
- 33:46Speaker 3: Before we go, I have one Twitter question come in,
- 33:50Speaker 3: and that was Nicole, what do you look for when
- 33:54Speaker 3: you're deciding to be involved with a particular project?
- 33:58Speaker 4: That is always a million.
- 33:59Speaker 5: Dollar question, right, It's like it has to it has
- 34:01Speaker 5: to appeal to.
- 34:03Speaker 4: Me at some level.
- 34:04Speaker 3: I don't know.
- 34:05Speaker 4: It's hard to say. I'm because I have this genre background.
- 34:09Speaker 5: I love what I guess if it were literature, if
- 34:12Speaker 5: it called speculative fiction, basically Twilight zone type stuff.
- 34:15Speaker 4: Things that appeal.
- 34:17Speaker 5: To me personally are things that am really cool twists
- 34:20Speaker 5: at the end, or are just thought provoking in some way.
- 34:24Speaker 5: I love like old sci fi from like the seventies
- 34:28Speaker 5: and eighties, when it was like some sort of like
- 34:29Speaker 5: social message, but it was buried within the context of
- 34:32Speaker 5: the film, you know what I mean, Like with Soylent
- 34:33Speaker 5: Green and Planet of the Apes and logans around those
- 34:37Speaker 5: types of films I really like from a sci fi perspective.
- 34:40Speaker 5: On the horror side, I'm drawing more towards what I
- 34:46Speaker 5: call hidden realities, so less flashers, more paranormal, more occult, more.
- 34:54Speaker 4: Supernatural type stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I did have
- 34:59Speaker 4: to some cool like if it could be made into
- 35:01Speaker 4: a video game or comic bookcase is are, I'd like
- 35:03Speaker 4: it because that's where's my world, that where I come from.
- 35:09Speaker 3: Uncle. Very cool. You know, it's been a pleasure having
- 35:11Speaker 3: you on And before I go, I just want to
- 35:13Speaker 3: ask Nicole, where can people find you out online?
- 35:16Speaker 5: Oh?
- 35:17Speaker 4: I'm on Facebook. You find me on Facebook. If you
- 35:19Speaker 4: like weird news, then totally follow me on Twitter. I'm
- 35:22Speaker 4: at Navarus and O V A R I S.
- 35:25Speaker 5: I post all kinds of wacky, weird news stories, conspiracy theories,
- 35:30Speaker 5: and every now and then I'll toss on a screenwriting kip,
- 35:32Speaker 5: just you know, for good measure. Yeah, but that's and
- 35:37Speaker 5: I'm on LinkedIn to you, but mostly I like, I
- 35:38Speaker 5: live on Facebook and Twitter, so that's a good place.
- 35:40Speaker 4: To look for me. Yeah.
- 35:42Speaker 3: I saw the tweet you just put it out on
- 35:44Speaker 3: National predicts the end of Western civilization.
- 35:46Speaker 4: Yeah, you all love yeah, stuff like that.
- 35:48Speaker 5: Let's talk with the stuff after the world stuff, conspiracy theories,
- 35:51Speaker 5: killer virus is gonna wipe that humanity.
- 35:54Speaker 4: If you like that stuff, follow me on Twitter. It's
- 35:56Speaker 4: full of it.
- 35:59Speaker 3: Nicole. I want to say thank you so much for
- 36:01Speaker 3: coming on and I wish you the best of luck
- 36:03Speaker 3: with everything. And I will see you in the screenwriting
- 36:06Speaker 3: you Facebook group and well you know, we'll be chat
- 36:10Speaker 3: in screenwriting there more. And you know, if you ever
- 36:12Speaker 3: need anything, please let me know.
- 36:14Speaker 4: Awesome, thanks so much, Davis a great I want.
- 36:17Speaker 3: To thank Dave so much for doing such a great
- 36:19Speaker 3: job on this episode.
- 36:19Speaker 2: If you want to get links to anything we spoke
- 36:21Speaker 2: about in this episode, head over to the show notes
- 36:23Speaker 2: at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward slash four fifty. Thank
- 36:27Speaker 2: you so much for listening. Guys, as always, keep on writing.
- 36:30Speaker 5: No matter what.
- 36:31Speaker 2: I'll talk to you soon.
- 36:33Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
- 36:37Speaker 1: Screenwriting dot tv.