Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 302: Writing the INSANE World of Machette with Alvaro Rodriguez

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BPS 302: Writing the INSANE World of Machette with Alvaro Rodriguez · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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  You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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  podcasts, just go to IFAH podcast network dot com. Welcome to the Bulletproof
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  Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number three. Huoh two do or do not? There
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  is no try Yoda broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood when we
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  really should be working on that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast,
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  showing you the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your
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  screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to
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  another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.
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  Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage. Now, unlike
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  other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses on the kind of project
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  you are in the goals of the project you are, so we actually break
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  it down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market, and studio
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  film. There's no reason to get coverage from a reader that used to reading
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  temp bowl movies when your movie is going to be done for one hundred thousand
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  more. So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers,
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  head on over to cover my screenplay dot com. Enjoy today's episode with
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  guest host Dave Bullis joining me tonight is Albro Rodriguez. Alvreau was a screenwriter
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  who is currently working on season two of From Dusk Till Dawn, the series.
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  His career in film actually began when he began rifting on a Spanish guitar
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  for the hero's musical theme and his cousin Robert Driguez's debut film, Rameliacci,
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  which began a collaboration that has lasted over two decades. Alroll, how are
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  you, sir? I'm doing great? How are you pretty good? It's
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  the weather MPa has gotten a lot better over the past few days. That's
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  good. Same here in Austin. Oh nice. Um, you know,
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  I actually want to talk to you about Austin before I get to that.
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  Um, so, could you give us a little more detail about your background?
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  You know? And how you know every you got started in the film
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  business. Sure, well, you know, I grew up with a love
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  for movies, and I grew up with a love for reading and writing and
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  always wanted to be a novelist. And would you know say, well,
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  I know it's a hard road to try to do, and uh, you
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  know, I'll probably end up being a teacher, which I was for a
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  time, but I want to keep writing. But I had this cousin,
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  Robert, who you know, when I first remember spending any time with him,
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  we were kids at my grandmother's house and in South Texas, sitting in
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  the back of the truck, and he was talking about this new movie that
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  had just came out, which she hadn't seen yet. Seemed to know everything
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  about how the director had done this shot and how this was done and all
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  this stuff. And my jaw was just on the floor of that at the
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  truck because I realized I finally found someone who loved movies baby more in my
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  day. And that movie was called The Ska from New York, John Carpenter's
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  movie the early eighties, and and it was just like, you know,
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  I lighted off on my head. I was probably in the fifth grade or
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  so, and I started to write my first little scripts. Had written a
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  parody of the TV show Dallas and and just thought, you know, this
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  is great. I'm going to write the scripts for Robert will direct them,
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  and his sister Angela or his older sister, and my older cousin she starred
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  them. She wanted to be an actress, and it actually did happen.
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  I mean she she became an actress. She was in several movies and including
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  the movie that I wrote without called Shorts. So you know, it was
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  amazing. It was amazing to see that all finally kind of come come true.
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  But and then you know, later on I did music for his first
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  show and Mary actual like you mentioned, And right after that we started collaborating
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  on a script together which never got made, called to Death to His Part,
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  which we wrote for an actress that Robert had met and thought it was
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  going to be the next big thing and she was on the high. Um
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  and uh and ever since then, I just you know, was writing on
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  different projects with him, um, you know, contrebating scenes or dialogue or
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  ideas, doing movies like four Rooms and road Racers and later plants hear her
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  and then the rough shorts and Machetti together, so you know, and then
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  you know where did you know? And actually you know, I'll get to
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  that later from gust hol Dawn. Um, I don't want to get you
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  know, two far ahead, but I mean that's actually amazing, you know.
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  Um No, you know that, you know, you're able to collaborate
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  with a family member and it was so amazing He's able to open all these
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  doors for you and you know that. I mean, you know, and
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  that's you know, a couple of things I want to touch on. Um,
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  So really quickly, are you at the Southwest Southwest Festival right now?
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  I am? Indeed, Yeah, we're shooting. We're shooting my episode Destill
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  done, second season, second episode right now and this happens to coincide with
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  Wet Festival. So been able to go and uh, you know, do
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  some screenings and and uh, you know, the networking and stuff like that.
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  It's been fantastic. So are you filming this series in Austin In?
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  Yeah, the entire show shoots in and around Austin. So lob Wood has
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  his own studio, travel making studios where he shot many of the films,
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  and here in Austin, which is right next to Austin studios where we're also
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  have sets and we're shooting in and around town different locations. Machete was shot
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  entirely here in Austin's too, on those sets and on those stages and in
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  and around town. So it's it's amazing. It's amazing to be able to
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  have that kind of those kind of facilities and just a great crew. Uh,
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  great people that that uh you know, Robert uses uh began again on
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  all these different projects. So make sure you know, a little TV show
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  looks like a like a you know, big feature project. I mean,
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  yeah, I mean that's amazing be able to work with the same crew and
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  everything over and over. Um, you know that that is a great benefit.
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  And also it's great that you know, he has his own studio right
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  there in Austin. Um. You know the reason I asked where your student
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  it was because you know, with all these film tax credits and that there's
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  a you know, the debate about you know, do they work do they
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  not work? You know, I know, sometimes you get thrown through a
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  loop, you know. You know, Um, like season one of Banshee
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  was filmed in South or North Carolina, and season two was actually filming here
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  in Pennsylvania. Yeah, well, I mean Austin is Austin has really become
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  over the last couple of decades, you know, quite a film intelligion production
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  hub. You know, this new series on ABC, American Crime takes place
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  in the best of telephone if it was shot entirely in Austin. Hopefully they'll
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  be back for season two. Uh and uh, you know it's it's it's
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  really amazing. There's that uh good Austin. You know, it just has
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  developed a really strong reputation for a film and television. A lot of people
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  want to be here. Um. You know, we had guys in honor
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  uh in our cast that I've you know, bought places here and you know,
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  our and I've heard the same stories from other other crew members on other
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  projects that they worked on and from other people that you know, awesome is
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  a place where you know, actors want to come and they want to work
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  here and because they have such a good time in the city, and the
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  city is very open too to all those kinds of things. So it's a
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  great creative, creative mixus here in Austin. Yeah. I've always heard that
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  and I've always heard that slogan keep Austin weird. Yeah, so yeah,
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  we're doing that part. We're doing that probably to keep it weird. Uh.
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  You know. So you know, what's one of the coolest things that
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  you have seen thus far at the south By Southwest Festival. Well, last
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  I went to a screening that was touted as the thirty I think the thirtieth
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  first anniversary screening of The Road Warrior. Was George Miller, director in attendance,
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  and we got to see kind of a sneak after the film of the
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  new um Fury Road the name Max Film H. We got to see about
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  seven or eight minutes of that and then a special trailer that was just cut
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  for stut By Southwes and Warner Brothers. H had struck a brand new print
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  of the Zone. So it just it was absolutely amazing. And course,
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  Road Warriors such a huge influence on both Robert and myself and H. Robert
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  actually got to uh to do an episode of his series and already called the
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  Director's Chair, so he, you know, interviews different directors. He just
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  aired the latest one a week or so ago with Francis wort Coppola that he
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  got to film an episode with George Miller and uh, you know, it's
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  just it's just amazing to see to see something like that in thirty five millimeter.
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  I think they said it is the only film itself by Southwest that was
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  screening a thirty five millimeter on the big screen in uh, in a beautiful
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  theater downtown, Awesome, the Paramount. It's just celebrating its under anniversary this
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  year. So it's just like, you know, that's that's a really amazing
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  and account of priceless experience. Uh, to see something like that, Yeah,
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  I mean, I know you can't go into detail, but you know,
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  um, you know, what did you think of a couple of minutes
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  of the new of the New Man match? Allowed to say, Yeah,
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  it was amazing, It was really amazing. I mean, it was such
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  a it was it was such a teenage it was. It was it was
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  like, please give us more, Please give us more. We'll be right
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  back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show,
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  you know, because it just it looks beautiful and and I'm Hardy, Tom
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  Hardy who plays Man Max the Fantastic Show, at least the wrong the entire
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  cast it just has uh, it looks like a Road Warrior, you know,
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  turn it up to eleven and you know, Thunderdome everything, and plus
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  it's just it's I can't wait to see if some things makes this thing.
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  And it just looks absolutely amazing for you know, fans of that that kind
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  of film. I can't imagine that anybody's really going to be disappointed. Uh,
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  it just looks, it looks stellar. I couldn't wait to see it
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  after that taste of it last night. And that's good to hear coming from
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  an actual fan of the original as well. Um, you know, because
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  you know with the you know, the the sort of the the trends you
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  see now in film is you know, there's a lot of remakes. There's
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  a lot of you know old you know properties, established properties that are getting
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  you know made updated like uh, you know a minute, we're even TV
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  shows. But you know it's good that there are you know, um personally
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  like um, twenty one Jump Street. I thought that was absolute hilarious,
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  Like you know what I mean, I went in there with there was no
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  expectations that I came out and I said, Wow, that was actually pretty
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  damn good. Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think that's the thing,
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  you know, the remakes and reboots and reimagining. You often get you know,
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  short rifts, and people say, you know, there's no more reason
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  like, well, you know, um, just because the Coin Brothers made
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  True Grit doesn't erase the first film, you know, doesn't erase the original.
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  And a lot of things, you know, writing and entertainments and stories
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  are it's such a it's already inherently a system of rescifling, you know,
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  that this system of taking something old and getting it a new spin in some
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  way. And obviously you can fall on there as a touch, but I
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  think when you have talent, uh and uh, and this will to sort
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  of like make something better or or make something with your own touch. And
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  you have someone like George Miller who you know at the helm of of of
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  taking Mad Max and doing the remagining or reboot or whatever you want to call
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  it, um that you know you're in the hands of a master. And
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  uh. And there are so many you know, it's a whole new generation
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  who weren't able to experience the root Larder the first time it came out in
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  the context in which it came out, you know, in the context in
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  which it came out, it was like this, uh, you know,
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  the supposed apocalyptic feature that we seem to be so close to now. And
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  that's one of the things that that makes I think the movie resident and uh
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  doing the original again and and giving giving a new ideas for for what this
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  reboot is going to be. You know. Uh, so I you know,
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  I don't and have the same sort of negative outlook on those kinds of
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  things. I guess. You know, some some people call things from cliche,
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  and I say, now, it's kind of cliche, it's the universal
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  truth. Just go with that, yeah, you know, and I agree
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  with you, albro. You know, sometimes what I seem to see from
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  even my friends is there's two kinds of attitudes they have. Either they go
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  like, uh, they either say like, we see something like, you
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  know, like a big budget blockbuster, whether you're it's a superhero movie or
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  you know, Transformers, what have you. They'll say like, you know,
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  if they didn't like it, they'll say, oh, well, you
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  know, what, what did you expect? They know, bla blah blah
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  blah, you know, or the other one is it's overrated or you know
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  it's this or that. I mean, it just seems to be like if
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  they like when someone does try something new, they're sort of like, you
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  know, you do see something new. It's almost like there's a trend you
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  know in movie reviewers of like, oh my god, why were they doing
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  this? And then you know that's where Specus can say like, hey,
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  we try to do something now when nobody wants to go see it. Yeah,
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  that's true. And there's this thing, you know, and dessel Gone
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  is a reimagining as a television series, to reimagining of the movie and taking
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  that world further. You know, so in so many ways, you know,
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  we're joking of it too, but we're trying to do something else with
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  it, you know, we're trying to take it further and uh and you
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  know, develop characters, bringing new characters that just utilize that world and and
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  we have to you have. The other thing to remember is exactly what you
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  said. This is a This is in so many ways of business. And
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  sometimes it's easier, it's a different it's an easier spell to sell someone something
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  that they think they already know. Um, and but it's just but now
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  it's it's it's the same, but it's different, and it's it's that kind
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  of ability to take take something that that people already are familiar with and give
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  it back to them in a new way. And I think that when when
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  you do that well, people respond to it well. And that was one
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  of the great things about working on the show is that, you know,
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  it was very it was a parent very early on that everybody involved in the
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  cast and the writers and the directors that were brought on board direct episode,
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  they were all coming to this as a as as a bit of a passion
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  project. Nobody was really there, in my opinion, just kind of picking
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  up the check and you know, walking away from it. Everybody was really
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  invested in in in the project. I think you just you get it.
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  You get a sense of that when you watch the stuff, and uh so,
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  you know, I think that's that's the best you can to help for
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  m's can ask for. Oh yeah, absolutely. And you know, I've
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  watched the whole the whole first season, and you know, I can definitely
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  tell you know, you have both of the me of the Gecko brothers.
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  They both you know, one looks like Clooney, one looks like Tarantino.
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  Um. I thought, I mean that was excellent casting, by the way.
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  I was like, well, I mean I could you know, the
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  the you know, find someone looks like Tarantino. He has a unique look.
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  So I was like, man, that what it must have been either
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  the easiest casting session ever or the hardest casting session effort, because you know,
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  I mean either you have to look through a ton of headshots or like,
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  you know, only two got you know, two even closely resemble.
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  Uh, you know actors who were submitted, and you know, and when
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  I watched this and when I watched it, you know, especially the first
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  couple episodes, it takes place, you know, in that same little convenience
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  store with the sheriff, and and you know, and um, you know,
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  it was you know, very well done. And and then there's also
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  um, you know, you know, for those who haven't seen it,
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  there's also a whole layer that you've added to the TV show as well.
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  Yeah. Absolutely, I mean in that opening, in that opening episode,
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  which is very based on the first five or ten minutes of the film.
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  You know, in the film of character for the Texas Ranger Ol McGaw it's
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  played by Michael Parks, and he gets killed off in that first ten minutes
• 16:47
  of the film, and we had you know, Don Johnson finding the character
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  on our show. You know, he's a tremendous actor in a the beginning
• 16:56
  there, but we were going to extend his role so that even though his
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  character died in the first episode, he was in flashbacks for the next few
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  episodes and uh, so you've got to see more of that character. Uh.
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  And that's a lot of the fun of the project, like this too,
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  is that it exists in this special you know, uh world called the
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  Tarantino Universe, you know, the Tarantino Verse. You know, Earl McGraw
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  shows up in Planet Terror, Earl McGraw shows up in uh in other other
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  Tarantino things. So you've got this kind of continuity of story and and things
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  like to have these characters that kind of show up in these different Tarantino kind
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  of related things. And so it's it's amazing to you know, to have
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  a small part in that in that world. Yeah, and I think you've
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  done a phenomenal job, you know. I you know, I when I
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  first heard about you know, the dustledone series, you know, I was
• 17:53
  like, you know, it was just going to be a continuation, you
• 17:56
  know, it's just gonna be a prequel. And then I watched I was
• 17:59
  like, oh, well, it's really interesting what they've done here. And
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  you know, I was just gonna say back in the day, you know,
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  back in the late nineties, I actually had Robert was out in Japan
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  promoting a film he did, called the Faculty, and we were messaging each
• 18:15
  other online, and he said, you know, Dimension and their Max were
• 18:18
  interested in doing a couple of sequels dust Holdon probably would be straight to video
• 18:23
  and shot back to back, and asked me if I had any ideas,
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  And so I pitched an idea for basically a sort of spaghetti western prequel to
• 18:32
  dust hold On, which we ended up making as Dustldon three, The Hangman's
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  Daughter, with Michael Parks playing a real real life character named Ambrose Beers who
• 18:41
  disappeared in Mexico around the time of the Mexican Revolution, And so it was
• 18:48
  great to have already kind of had the background of doing research the story also
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  sort of the genesis of Stony Santanico Pandemonium Jerk had played by Salahiak and the
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  original film and kind of came up with this different backstory for her and researching
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  all the sort of meso American mythologies of aspec and minding things and our own
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  special ideas about what these these creatures were that that inhabit this uh, this
• 19:17
  Bordellos south of the Border, and so coming to the show again it was
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  like thinking some of some of those same ideas a bit, but going so
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  much further with them and and creating you know, more of back story and
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  more more sort of lines of of a story and plot and character arts and
• 19:36
  all of that kind of stuff. That really was fun to work with and
• 19:41
  coming up with ideas for for uh for the season, especially since you know,
• 19:45
  after the first season the movie is over. We kind of took that
• 19:49
  movie and turned it into tenets of the television, obviously with a lot of
• 19:52
  new material, a lot of new characters added. The character that will more
• 19:56
  of all the arom the place will be right back after a word from our
• 20:00
  sponsor, and now back to the show. It's one of three characters that
• 20:10
  Cheech Marine plays in the film, Carlos, and then the movies movie there's
• 20:15
  not that much of a character, and then our show, Carlos has become
• 20:17
  a main you know, a huge part of the show, a big anchor
• 20:22
  for the show. And now season two, like you know, the world
• 20:26
  is open again. And so being able to create the season arc that you
• 20:33
  know that takes us completely out of the movie now, but following these characters
• 20:38
  and allowing the stories and storylines and arcs to grow from characters instead of,
• 20:44
  you know, just following what we had already seen. You know. It
• 20:48
  was a great challenge and also just a great opportunity to try to do something
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  interesting in New So so Olvera. When you when you're you know, working
• 20:56
  together, imagine, you know, before each season, you know, you
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  and all the other writers are in the room together, you know, how
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  much how much outlined do you do before you actually all get started writing your
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  own episodes. But it was it was a really kind of an amazing process
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  we had. They had kind of an eight week stretch last summer to to
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  just talk out where we were going. And one of the one of the
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  think really invaluable things that we did was we brought in each of the main
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  characters, each of the main actors, you know, one at a time,
• 21:26
  to come into the room and talk about their character. You know,
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  tell you know, tell me what you thought about season one. How do
• 21:32
  you feel your character, you know, feels at the end of season one,
• 21:36
  How does your character feel about other characters and on the show. But
• 21:38
  what did you like about season one? What did you not like about season
• 21:41
  one? What would what would you differently? What kinds of things you know,
• 21:45
  would you like to see your character doing, and stuff like that,
• 21:48
  And that really kind of gave us a lot of ideas. And we started
• 21:52
  out with with with some ideas about where we thought we would go in the
• 21:55
  season. But you know, it was a it was a really evolutionary process
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  and a really collaborative process. I think that was that was amazing and uh.
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  And then as far as outlining, now there's there's so much of of
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  you know, like they say, so much of writing is rewriting so much
• 22:12
  you're writing. It's also a prewriting process before the scripts of of you know,
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  writing outlines, having them you know, brought to the table, having
• 22:19
  them torn apart and rebuilt. Um, you know, ideas that that you
• 22:25
  know we had for you know, a big finale that that might get just
• 22:30
  push you know further uh or closer to you know, before the end of
• 22:36
  the season, so we can even go further from the big idea that we
• 22:38
  had and all those types of things. You know, it's it's a it
• 22:42
  really is sort of a you know, and nothing is written in stone sort
• 22:48
  of things as we're in that process and things are very fluid and flexible with
• 22:52
  the with the idea of being open to open to trying to collaboratively, uh
• 23:00
  and individually, you know, bring bring your a game and keep constantly trying
• 23:04
  to challenge ourselves to make things better. When one of the things our showrunner
• 23:08
  has kind of instilled in all of us, there's this idea of you know,
• 23:12
  our show runners, a guy named Carlos Potosk on Salo Shows and you
• 23:18
  know, a great record and intellivision, and one of the things you know,
• 23:22
  he would say is if someone brought an idea that everybody thought, Hey,
• 23:25
  that's a really good that's a really good idea of characters, you know,
• 23:27
  we do that, Let's see we can earn it. You know,
• 23:30
  let's just not try to put a pin over here and say, by this
• 23:33
  time this has to happen. So let's really see we can get our characters
• 23:37
  to that point organically and through the characters themselves getting to that to that good
• 23:42
  idea. You know. Um, so it's a it's a it's a it's
• 23:48
  a real challenge and uh, but you know it's gos like you know,
• 23:52
  we're all working together to do to try to do that. And you know,
• 23:57
  it's really great to have a showrunner, you know, with a lot
• 24:00
  of experience, you know, to actually sort of guide it along. I
• 24:03
  mean, uh, you know, I've actually tooked other writers or other shows
• 24:07
  and they've mentioned how important that person can be because you know, like you
• 24:11
  just said, you know, people have to earn it and you can't sort
• 24:15
  of force it just because hey it's a cool idea, right yeah, no,
• 24:19
  absolutely, and that and that's I think that spirit really continues on even
• 24:23
  as we're shooting an episode, you know, to come up with an idea,
• 24:26
  even as we're shooting and say, you know, maybe this needs to
• 24:30
  happen. Well it's you know, let's let's not try to force it.
• 24:33
  Let's let's really try to find a way to make it, to make it
• 24:36
  seem like a natural, organic part of the story. Um. And so
• 24:41
  you know there's uh uh and we're just really really uh fortunate and uh you
• 24:48
  know to created these constellations of great great crew, great actors, um,
• 24:53
  you know, great director's photography and great directors on our episodes to really kind
• 24:59
  of try to you know, to do the best that we can with with
• 25:03
  with ideas and with the scripts and uh and you know, try to put
• 25:07
  out something that people will will be intrigued by and want to keep watching it.
• 25:14
  So you know, uh, Albroad, now that you have you know,
• 25:15
  you you have you know, uh, the episode and everything from the
• 25:19
  writer's meeting. You know, how do you personally sit down to write?
• 25:25
  I mean do you so? I mean, I know you probably have a
• 25:27
  couple of points and a couple of things that you have to incorporate in the
• 25:30
  episode. But do you sort of do you sort of break it out into
• 25:33
  the eight parts, like you know, the eighth structure theory or do you
• 25:37
  know, do you just do the traditional free act or do you not do
• 25:40
  any of that and just go go full forward in Oh? You know,
• 25:44
  we we definitely stick to a structure, you know, on our show week
• 25:47
  we kind of go with what we you know, present as a five act
• 25:49
  structure, you know. Um and and the outlining you know will reflect the
• 25:56
  act breaks and you know, so I say, sometimes there's a fluid and
• 26:00
  those change. We'll always try to have a really good, strong, you
• 26:03
  know, act out and then a strong act in um, you know,
• 26:07
  in between the breaks and stuff like that. UM. So you know,
• 26:10
  the outline process is fairly rigorous and and uh and it's really as detail as
• 26:15
  we can possibly make it. And then other things there's left us, you
• 26:18
  know, with our arm and called in a writer's opportunity to you know kind
• 26:22
  of you know, when you're writing the script, actually find something that you
• 26:26
  know will will not have maybe not have been in the outline or not.
• 26:32
  It's clear in the outline that's suddenly in the writing of the of the script
• 26:34
  itself. You know, methods, um. But as far as the writing
• 26:40
  process, you know, it's it's a lot of crying, a lot of
• 26:44
  pro fascination, a lot of you know, um plicidal thoughts, and then
• 26:48
  somehow putting together something that that you know it's going to be um challenged again,
• 26:55
  you know. And I think that's that in a lot of ways,
• 26:56
  that's a that's a liberating part of the thing to you know, realizing that,
• 27:02
  uh that you know, it's it's our duty to try to give the
• 27:07
  best that we can, but realize that you know, it's always going to
• 27:11
  be improved upon. If we're always going to it's still a malleable thing in
• 27:17
  a moment that you shooting, because there are things that happen, our new
• 27:22
  ideas that come in. Um. One of the one of the great things
• 27:26
  about this particular season is that we were able to have, you know,
• 27:30
  all of our scripts written before we actually started shooting, and so that allowed,
• 27:36
  um, you know, for a certain amount of uh um, you
• 27:41
  know, being able to go over the entirety of the of the season,
• 27:45
  of the scripts and really try to you know, make sure all the setups
• 27:49
  were set up and all the payoffs were paid off, you know, and
• 27:52
  and everything got hit. So I mean it uh uh you it sets the
• 28:00
  ball pretty high, so hopefully we can we can we can make that jump.
• 28:07
  So, you know, has your writing style sort of changed over the
• 28:11
  years, you know from you know, um obviously I was looking at your
• 28:12
  IMDb and you know, your first actual UM writing credit is you know,
• 28:18
  from Gustown three, Hangman's Daughter. So when you prote that to you where
• 28:22
  you are now, has your writing sort of a process changed a lot?
• 28:27
  I think the process has probably changed a bit, um, and I think
• 28:30
  that the style has probably changed a bit. I mean, I remember back
• 28:34
  at that time, you know, one of the executives who was at the
• 28:37
  mansion at the time said, you know, your script is great. It
• 28:40
  reads almost like a novel. And I realized that I was you know,
• 28:44
  I really wasn't training as a screenwriter. A lot of this was, you
• 28:47
  know, kind of learning by doing. I didn't. I never had taken
• 28:51
  any kind of screenwriting classes or anything like that, and didn't go to school
• 28:53
  screen writing. Probably an English major, but I had a lot of background
• 28:57
  in both. I had three semesters of creative writing as an undergraduate in poetry,
• 29:03
  of all things, and then I was also an entertainment journalist for the
• 29:06
  student newspaper. I was just an entertainment editor, and you know, and
• 29:11
  I had done some news stuff too. I was working in a newspaper when
• 29:15
  I was writing Dusseldon three, and it felt like, you know, those
• 29:18
  things which I sort of discounted, uh, were actually strong primers for screenwriting,
• 29:26
  because in screenwriting it's so much about the essence of things and such a
• 29:30
  skeletal structure that the poetry led itself to that because in poetry, so many
• 29:36
  times you're trying to create, you know, sensations and images and emotions.
• 29:40
  In a reader in the sea, words as possible creating these images in sea
• 29:45
  words as possible. And in journalism, you know, it's kind of this
• 29:48
  this just the fact man kind of reporting, you know, which also lends
• 29:52
  itself to screenwriting. So those were those were those were actually powerful, you
• 29:56
  know, sort of set up tools for me. We'll be right back after
• 30:00
  a word from our sponsor and now back to the show. But you know,
• 30:10
  even then, I feel like, uh, like I learned to kind
• 30:14
  of, um find my voice. I think my voice was there in that
• 30:18
  in the first script, uh, in Paying the Star. It wasn't the
• 30:22
  first script that lived in the first script that you know got made. And
• 30:26
  then um to uh to kind of hone that down and keep trying to um,
• 30:32
  you know, to to convey as much information as possible and it must
• 30:37
  becomicly possible. Um and and try to really find the power of the language
• 30:45
  in order to you know, to convey in the reader's minds who you know
• 30:48
  that might be a reader is picking up the script and is the one who's
• 30:52
  going to pass it on to the next guy or not or to you know,
• 30:56
  actually have a shooting script and have you know, um do if you
• 31:00
  read this and say, you know, this is how we're going to do
• 31:02
  this, or the director photography read this and things, how that's going to
• 31:04
  be shot without using you know, without telling them exactly what they're going to
• 31:10
  do, but just to be able to sort of fuss that out for themselves
• 31:14
  in the script that you've written. So yeah, I think it's definitely evolved.
• 31:18
  I use that word again, um as part of the process. And
• 31:22
  you know, I hope that I can keep you know, keep evolving and
• 31:26
  keep getting better at what I'm doing. And you know, um, I
• 31:30
  mean it's it's you know, it's amazing that you know, you always you
• 31:33
  know, finding new ways to improve. Um. You know, I've noticed
• 31:37
  that too. You know, you touched on something about you know, you
• 31:38
  said the script read like a novel. Um. You know, as I
• 31:41
  as I do more screen running as well, uh and even read scripts,
• 31:45
  I've realized I've finally realized now that actually reading screenplays that have either been produced
• 31:49
  or not produced, but have been like either either bought or optioned, really
• 31:55
  gives you a give gives you a view, uh into that world that you
• 32:00
  know, any screenwriting guru or whatever can't give you, if you know what
• 32:05
  I mean. Absolutely, I mean I think that's the thing too. I
• 32:07
  mean I spent I spent a long time once I started really writing, and
• 32:13
  you know, hanging as daughter and after that of imagining a library of of
• 32:17
  of anything I thought was useful. But among those, you know, practically
• 32:22
  every book on screenwriting ever written. And I was always trying to find you
• 32:28
  know, I was always trying to find shortcuts. Maybe is not the right
• 32:31
  would but but sort of techniques or ideas of things that could help me,
• 32:35
  you know, in the process. And the problem with that sometimes, and
• 32:39
  it was for me, was that, you know, it could become a
• 32:43
  crutch because if you can actually become kind of a stifling had a stifling effect.
• 32:47
  And when I was writing and I would be like, you know,
• 32:51
  I don't know what I'm going to do next, but I know the answer
• 32:53
  is probably on this shelf over here somewhere, or these shelves or this whole
• 32:57
  you know, this room of books and um. And I think that the
• 33:01
  more that the more the more that you actually did the process, the more
• 33:05
  that you're actually involved in the writing process, the less that you feel like
• 33:08
  you need those kinds of things because you've already sort of um, you've you've
• 33:14
  made them a part of yourself. They're inherent in your own sensibility because you
• 33:17
  know, you've been a reader your whole life. You've read, you've read
• 33:21
  scripts, so you've read novels, you've seen movies. You understand the language
• 33:24
  of film, you understand the language of screenwriting, and and I think,
• 33:29
  if you know, sort of getting to that point where, um, you
• 33:32
  know. I always kind of used the example of when I was an undergraduate.
• 33:37
  When I first got to the University of Texas, I tested out of
• 33:40
  sixteen hours of Spanish, you know, and I never had to take my
• 33:45
  I never had to take Spanish at the college level, and I felt like
• 33:49
  I never really got as intensive training in Spanish as I could have. And
• 33:53
  it wasn't until years and years later I was finally like reading books in Spanish
• 33:58
  and realizing I wasn't translate and the English in my head I was reading,
• 34:00
  I was just understanding it. And I think it's the same thing with with
• 34:06
  the writing. It's like I had I already had the language of screenwriting and
• 34:09
  the language of cinnama in my brain, and I just needed to kind of
• 34:13
  tap into it and realize that all of these things are many of them we're
• 34:16
  already inherently a part of my h my own sensibilities. Yeah, yeah,
• 34:23
  And you know, I've realized it too. Is that when you you know,
• 34:29
  sort of and when you start doing it, and you know, doing
• 34:30
  it is the most important part. When you start getting in there and actually
• 34:34
  writing and you know, being resistance and and and you know, you start
• 34:37
  to realize you don't need those signposts as much, you know what I mean.
• 34:40
  So you know, I mean you I'm sure you've heard of like you
• 34:43
  know, there's certain rules like oh, by page seventeen, this has to
• 34:46
  happen, and you know, and you realize that, you know, those
• 34:50
  guide posts aren't like definitive rules, they're just you know, either I guess
• 34:55
  you could say principles or you know, someone was just like, hey,
• 35:00
  hey, look I noticed that on pay seventeen of these scripts this happened.
• 35:01
  So therefore here's a rule, right, Well, I mean that's the thing
• 35:05
  I mean I did. I did take workshops later on, especially like I
• 35:08
  didn't save the cat workshop here in Austin with Blake Snyder when he was when
• 35:12
  he was still alive, and and it was it was it was the first
• 35:15
  screenwriting workshop I've ever done, and it was so amazing to me because what
• 35:19
  Blakes had done in his Broken and the Workshop was to take you know,
• 35:22
  the sort of the sort of fifteen beats and how to show you how,
• 35:27
  you know, if you could look at Jaws and you could look at you
• 35:30
  know, a comedy, and you could look at a horror film, you
• 35:32
  could look at it whatever gal or was, you would always sort of find
• 35:36
  these sort of fifteen things in it. And the way that he described them
• 35:38
  this is you know, it's like the casual Friday's version of the you know
• 35:42
  story or Blue Hunter or whatever that that it was. It was so accessible,
• 35:50
  you know. And but I think you thinking about those things to too,
• 35:53
  is that you really kind of have to take them as um as a
• 35:57
  descriptive and not not prescriptive. You know, it's describing a thing that already
• 36:01
  exists. And when you you know, you can you can definitely apply them
• 36:06
  and they will help you and structure. But but don't be so confined to
• 36:09
  to a page number or anything like that. Just like just know that that
• 36:14
  that that this is sort of for the way stories has been told throughout time.
• 36:17
  And that's why I feel like so much of it is inherent it's not
• 36:21
  telling you stuff that you already know, that putting it in the language that
• 36:22
  makes it sort of accessible and easy to understand, you know. So I
• 36:27
  think I think all those things are valuable. I don't discount them in any
• 36:30
  way, shape or form. But I think that you realize that you know
• 36:35
  that that uh, it's kind of telling you things that you sort of already
• 36:39
  intrinsically know, uh and maybe have just not thought of in those terms before
• 36:45
  gives you, gives you a terminology, gives you a way to name the
• 36:47
  parts you know of the body of your story and uh and realize, hey,
• 36:53
  you know the knee bones connected to the shin bone, and that that's
• 36:58
  that's that's the way that the body works, that's the way story word.
• 37:00
  Um. And if you you know, if you put these pieces together and
• 37:06
  realize that that there's a framework, then you can kind of you know,
• 37:09
  mess around with that and push things around and and surprise yourself even uh,
• 37:15
  with hopes that that's going to surprise the reader, and that's going to surprise
• 37:17
  your audience. And I think the other thing is this is to not discount
• 37:22
  at all the value of actually working with actors and actually being involved in the
• 37:29
  process so that you know, only for me, I was always kind of
• 37:32
  described myself as a guy chained to the laptop in the dungeon and that these
• 37:37
  are all just the voices in my head I was writing out. And when
• 37:39
  you actually, you know, on set where actors like Don Johnson or Robert
• 37:45
  de Niro in the shedding, you know, is you know, doing a
• 37:50
  lines you wrote and bringing his own sensibilities to them and stuff like that,
• 37:52
  It's like it opens up. You know, It's like if we were on
• 37:58
  a chakra level. It's just why you know, your mind explodes if you
• 38:00
  reach the crown and you reach Nirvano and you know someone like Robert de Niro
• 38:06
  is doing your dialogue and bringing this whole other sensibility to it, but you
• 38:09
  didn't see even as you were writing it. Um, that that can influence
• 38:14
  the way that you approach writing h approach writing dialog, or approach writing scene
• 38:19
  or whatever it happens to be. You know what I mean. Oh yeah,
• 38:22
  that's a very good point. Um. You know, sometimes I'll sit
• 38:27
  in with script readings, so you know, I I actually, um,
• 38:30
  I co found that a writer's group two years ago and we still meet.
• 38:32
  You know, we meet twice a month, and you know, when everyone's
• 38:36
  done, we actually stage readings, We actually get actors and have I just
• 38:39
  have a you know reading in a conference from altogether and um, you know,
• 38:45
  and it's you know, the writers who actually who wrote that particular script.
• 38:49
  You know, they're always fransically taking notes because you're actually hearing now you
• 38:52
  know, different voice added to that. You know, because again, like
• 38:54
  you said, they come to you know, putting their inflection on the character
• 39:00
  right, absolutely, absolutely, and just you know, even things that you
• 39:04
  thought work on the page that don't work you know, in the reality and
• 39:07
  situation or or And that's it's another thing too. It's like just an example
• 39:14
  of last season of uh uh Sporting in an episode that I'd written with Robert
• 39:19
  Patrick, and we were rehearsing the scene sitting around the table with Robert Patrick
• 39:22
  and Madison Davenport Brandon sou who would play Kate and Scott Fuller, his children
• 39:29
  on show, and there in a moment, I was just kind of kind
• 39:32
  of glanced over at Robert and he just had this look on his face and
• 39:37
  I just told him, I said, you know, I can't even look
• 39:39
  at you because you're so you're so intense right now. I mean, you
• 39:44
  can do more with one look that than than if I gave you a page
• 39:46
  of dialogue and realized that the physicality or the actor is something that never could
• 39:52
  sort of under underestimate in the in the writing process. Well be right back
• 40:00
  after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show, and realized
• 40:08
  that you have to you have to leave something for the actor, be something
• 40:13
  for the actor to do. Recently in Los Angeles, I went to some
• 40:15
  screenings of films that John Boorman made staring Lee Marvin in a particularly Point Blank
• 40:22
  in a movie called Tell Him the Pacific, and joyne Epstein I think his
• 40:27
  name has had written a biography of Lee Marvin. You know, told a
• 40:30
  story about a scene in Point Blank in which Marvin's character sees comes back to
• 40:36
  see his wife who basically set him up or watched it as he was allegedly
• 40:42
  killed and left for dead, and he comes back just to see her and
• 40:45
  realizing or thinking that he's going to kill the guy who tried to kill him
• 40:51
  if he's been now checked up to his wife and had this scene where Lee
• 40:54
  had all this dialogue. Lee Marvin had all this dialogue with his wife,
• 40:58
  and he just asked if he could not saying any of it and just have
• 41:01
  the conversation to beyond from the life side and you and so assists his wife
• 41:07
  kind of out talking to him as if they're having a conversation, but it's
• 41:10
  only her lines, and he's just giving her look. He's a he'sus looking,
• 41:15
  and he's just he's just acting without dialogue. And you see how much
• 41:20
  how smart that is, first of all, and how brave it is for
• 41:22
  an acting to say, I can do this without words. You know,
• 41:25
  I can do this with my own physicality, with my own presence, without
• 41:30
  you know, without having to just say everything that I feel I can show
• 41:34
  you that. And to think about that as a writer is you know,
• 41:37
  it's you know, it's it's it's an amazing sort of lesson in realizing that
• 41:44
  that this this really is a skeleton, and it's the actors and it's the
• 41:47
  directors and photography and directors and the lighting turns everybody else that puts the plush
• 41:52
  on those bones, and and you know, that's it's something I think about,
• 42:00
  you know, in the process of writing and trying to uh kind of
• 42:04
  lead that leave that space. You know, That's what the white space is.
• 42:07
  I think, you know, on the page, the white space is
• 42:10
  a place where the actor shines. The white space is where it's not you
• 42:15
  know, sort of snapping it to the dialogue or how well you wrote those
• 42:17
  action lines. It's it's the actress themselves, the characters that are that are
• 42:22
  breathing between those in between those months um and uh. You know. I
• 42:30
  I talked about Jonathan Richmond song about Developed Underground. He had the line and
• 42:37
  where he says they played less notes and less more space, And that's sort
• 42:40
  of thing I tried to do in the screenwriting, kind of play less notes
• 42:44
  and leave more space, leave that space there for for the actors to inhabit.
• 42:49
  And I think when you really have a strong scene, like the scene
• 42:52
  I think is my favorite scene in that episode where these these characters are sitting
• 42:59
  together realizing that they're they're kind of stuck in this place and and stef Gecko
• 43:04
  is kind of fortunately to confront their own um demons in the number one when
• 43:08
  we've seen that. But the ballot is good. That it's it's it's it's
• 43:15
  really what the actors bring to it. It's really so much of what they're
• 43:17
  what they're showcasing their own panels and their own capabilities. Um that that you
• 43:24
  know, it provides a lesson to me as a writer. Yeah, it's
• 43:30
  sort of you know, uh, adding that layer of subtext, you know,
• 43:34
  and it's sort of yeah, you know, finding a way to actually
• 43:36
  say things that actually coming out and saying them and all the things below the
• 43:38
  surface. And you know, um, I've never actually seen that movie,
• 43:43
  but I will make sure to actually check that out because that would that you
• 43:45
  know, that's a no'm in a way to you know, to tell a
• 43:47
  story. Yeah, play let me and uh I think he also gave another
• 43:52
  example another movie that Lee Marmon did with director Richard Brooks called The Professionals,
• 43:57
  which the Western it's also you know, I'm sure it's biggest tons on Platin,
• 44:00
  Tarantino and things like that too. Um, but point blank and The
• 44:05
  Professionals and telling the specific which is basically in a lot of ways, a
• 44:08
  silent film to Lushlee Marvin and to share Mafoon and the Japanese actor are stranded
• 44:14
  on an island in World War two and you know, one of those speaking
• 44:19
  with one of those speaks Japanese who was remade in a way as Energy Mind.
• 44:22
  In the eighties, Bible from Peterson with Dennis played in New Aspen as
• 44:27
  a sci fi movie where you know, a human and an alien or crash
• 44:31
  landed on this planet, and uh, you know, you just they're just
• 44:37
  such strong legends for writers. I think to look at structure, to look
• 44:43
  at how stories told, and to look at the you know, to be
• 44:47
  reminded of how much can be done with silence, or how much can be
• 44:52
  done with with look with with with the telling the story Robert told told the
• 44:59
  story. I'm not s sure it's actually in the directive care or not,
• 45:01
  but something in the Francis Stoboy had told him when he was hearing the interview
• 45:05
  about you know, something that you like to do with the actors as shooting
• 45:07
  an entire scene without dialogue, just as a just as a rehearsal, as
• 45:12
  a practice. Yeah, and lobatiy, youve never he'd never actually done that
• 45:15
  before, but he was really intrigued to try it, you know. Um,
• 45:19
  and and I think that those you know, there's something, there's something
• 45:23
  that can be gained by that. Um, there's there's definitely a lesson to
• 45:28
  be learned from the lighting standpoint and from the director standpoint too, you know,
• 45:34
  because you're not dependent on what's what's coming out of the actors now as
• 45:37
  much as you are, um, you know, remembering that this is cinema,
• 45:42
  you know, this is a visual meeting. People remember shots, people
• 45:46
  remember quotes from movies all the time. But you know, when you have
• 45:50
  a scene and you left the actors and have sort of really inhabit bad then
• 45:53
  and you don't not in a hurry y'all gout, uh, you know,
• 45:58
  you can find some from the impressive moments and hopefully you know, remember them
• 46:05
  in a way that that will illuminate your own writing, at least I do.
• 46:10
  And yet that is a very interesting technique as well. You know what
• 46:13
  I uh, in one of these you know film books I have, Um,
• 46:16
  I know you can't see it right now, there's a whole shelf of
• 46:19
  screaming books behind me, of films and everything else. One sechure have one.
• 46:22
  Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure we probably have them with the entire
• 46:25
  same library. Yeah, but but you know, there was a technique where
• 46:30
  the guy actually says, uh, wat's your favorite film without sound? And
• 46:35
  you know, and he is. Just see how every scene plays out.
• 46:38
  Absolutely absolutely. You know, one piece of advice that I've often given people
• 46:44
  who you know, either in a workshop that I taught or or lad or
• 46:47
  you know, people asked me about, um, you know, writing something,
• 46:52
  and I said, well, you know, like you're seeing about the
• 46:54
  movies, So what's your you know, thinking of a movie that that has
• 46:58
  a great scene in it that you really love them and then try to find
• 47:00
  the screenplay for that movie and read the scene. Read read what does that
• 47:05
  look like on paper? You know, if you have this favorite scene from
• 47:08
  you know, I don't know the Exercist or to Live and Die in La
• 47:12
  or I'm really freaking examples, but you know what does that look like on
• 47:16
  paper? Well, it was as an action scene, what do the action
• 47:21
  lines read like? You know, how does what does that look like?
• 47:23
  Um? And just to see the thing that you've always seen completely visual visually
• 47:29
  and what does that look like when it's words on paper? You know,
• 47:31
  and uh and you know, to see how that was translated to become the
• 47:37
  scene that you loved in the movie. Um. I think that's a that's
• 47:39
  a really strong lesson. Um Uh to kind of just just to just to
• 47:45
  experience that in a different way and match them up. Yeah, and I
• 47:52
  agree. That's something I've done too, is actually go out and find the
• 47:54
  screenplays of things. Um like I speaking of which you know, uh,
• 47:59
  you know the Oscars weren't you know, too long ago. Um. As
• 48:01
  soon as I watched Birdman and the ram Budapest Hotel, I was like,
• 48:05
  I gotta see these screenplays, right. I think those two and Whiplash are
• 48:09
  definitely the best written movies. Um in the Oscar Race, um, and
• 48:15
  those are three screenplays. I was like, I just want to see how
• 48:17
  they did this. Uh, and you know it's phenomenal. Actually, I
• 48:21
  had one of the writers of Birdman, alex Dan Hilaris on here, uh
• 48:24
  you know, about fifteen episodes ago, and he was, you know,
• 48:28
  us as awesome to be able to pick his brain, but um as it
• 48:31
  is yours because you know you're the guy who actually wrote you know, uh,
• 48:35
  you know you know these films that you know we're talking about, so
• 48:37
  you can actually tell us, no, this is what I did, you
• 48:38
  know. And you know, speaking of which you know, uh, I
• 48:42
  want to ask you, you know about Michette and you know, I wanted
• 48:45
  to ask you you know, did you come up with this, you know,
• 48:49
  the inception of this idea or was it or was it Robert or was
• 48:52
  you know, was it your brainstorming? It was always Robert. It was
• 48:55
  always Robert and Danny. I mean, I think, um, you know,
• 49:00
  when Robert first met Danny Ferrehoe when he came into audition for Desperado,
• 49:04
  and you know the story Colles with Robert took one look at Danny's if you're
• 49:07
  the guy, Robert, Danny was auditioning for a character called Navajas, which
• 49:10
  means knives and he's a nice shower in Desperado and then Tingman Derris it's a
• 49:15
  hyen. And you know, Danny had been asking for many years already,
• 49:21
  usually playing you know, Doug number three or you know, the bad guy
• 49:24
  it's fall apart. And you know, Robert, just like he said,
• 49:29
  became fast friends with Danny and said, you know, it would be great
• 49:31
  to make a movie in which you're the you're the hero, you know,
• 49:35
  you're the guy. And I think that was sort of the inception of Machete.
• 49:37
  And Robert had written kind of a long treatment scriptment kind of thing for
• 49:43
  for a Machete character and then when it came time to make Grindhouse, you
• 49:50
  know which Robert made Planet Terror, Quon Tarantino made Death Proofs and his released
• 49:53
  a double feature. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 50:01
  and now back to the show. It came up with this idea of really
• 50:07
  kind of going with the whole double feature drive in concept and doing stake trailer
• 50:10
  from movies that didn't exist, and so Machete became one of those things,
• 50:15
  and it was like, well, great, we can just make the take
• 50:17
  trailer. We never have to make the movie. But then, you know,
• 50:21
  even though Brian House, uh, you know, sort of underperformed at
• 50:24
  the box office, the trailer for Machety sort of took on a life of
• 50:30
  its own on YouTube and things like that, and people really responded to him.
• 50:35
  So it became a thing where, you know, that row we're actually
• 50:38
  going to do and uh and I, you know, I started writing around
• 50:44
  the time of Grian House. I was there and wrote a little bit of
• 50:46
  dialogue that's actually even the trailer with Cheech as the priest. And then you
• 50:52
  know, later on just started you know, working from the trailer basically and
• 50:55
  creating a new story, you know, a solar story out of it and
• 51:00
  having uh uh you know, creating more characters. Uh, just all the
• 51:05
  character though you know, the short Us character event, Don Johnson character,
• 51:09
  all those kinds of things. Um that just it just really evolved over over
• 51:15
  time until you know, we actually made the film and uh and you see,
• 51:20
  you know, you see how how it turned out. Yeah, and
• 51:24
  I thought it was phenomenal. And you know, I mean, you know,
• 51:28
  you know, it was that grindhouse theme. You have to cuts of
• 51:30
  scratches and you know, and you know, uh and it's just you know,
• 51:35
  and Danny is the perfect guy to play a guy. I mean,
• 51:37
  he looks like a guy named Machete. Yeah. Oh absolutely. I just
• 51:40
  did a panel with him a comic con and uh Fort Lauderdale few weeks ago.
• 51:45
  You know, someone from the audience ask, you know, what was
• 51:47
  your favorite character, and he said, you know, Machette and much of
• 51:52
  Brady. Yeah, I'm asking how that happened and he said, yeah.
• 52:00
  You know, my my manager said, you know, I think we got
• 52:01
  a Super Bowl commercial. And he was like, you're kidding, you know,
• 52:06
  or what do I have to do? Well, you have to be
• 52:09
  Marsha Brady, you know. I gotta do it. So that was that
• 52:15
  was that you know, even that it's just like, uh so amazing,
• 52:21
  it was so amazing, say it's just it's it's it's just like I'm I'm
• 52:25
  I'm glad to should be a small part of uh of you know, uh
• 52:32
  the sort of uh for Shona. Danny has you know, has been able
• 52:37
  to inhabit as that character. So when you know, when they were filling
• 52:43
  with chet day, we were you on set every day? Or were you
• 52:45
  not? Or do you just a few days or yeah, I was on
• 52:49
  a few days, I was on off and on. Um it was you
• 52:51
  know, it was amazing, It was amazing. I got to you know,
• 52:53
  um beancet when Robert de Niro was there and you have to talk to
• 52:58
  him a bit, and you know, he was so he was so generous
• 53:00
  and so so kind and and I think the thing about you know, the
• 53:06
  thing about him too was that you know, he was he had he had
• 53:13
  expressed interest in becoming involved in the project early on to play to play this
• 53:19
  senator. And in the original draft of the script, the senator was just
• 53:22
  the guy that gets shot. He was not really a character in the script.
• 53:27
  So it really started having to try to build a character out of this
• 53:29
  guy. And so you know, but the thing that you know, we
• 53:34
  understood from from Robert de Niro was that he wasn't interested in, you know,
• 53:38
  doing it unless there was really something there to do, and um it
• 53:44
  didn't want people to feel he was just you know, picking up a check.
• 53:47
  And so, uh, you know, started coming up with ideas and
• 53:51
  starting in dialogue and concepts and stuff like that, and would get responses like
• 53:57
  that, it's good, that's good, keep coming, keep coming, and
• 54:00
  and uh, you know, finally hit on sort of the finale of his
• 54:02
  character, and you know, these speeches that I'd written for his character,
• 54:07
  you know, when he's signed on. And one of the funny things is
• 54:13
  in in the finality of the film, after he's been shot and he's dying
• 54:16
  on the floor, on the ground, you know, with Lindsay Lohan dressed
• 54:21
  as a non hovering over him with a gun. He's sort of kind of
• 54:25
  blanking out. He starts in my script, at least one draft of it,
• 54:30
  he starts reciting the Act of Contrition and the Catholic Act of Contrition,
• 54:34
  uh in Latin, like he's reverting back to his actual you know, he's
• 54:38
  not really a Texan and all this stuff. And Robert read that thing and
• 54:43
  he's like, well, what the hell is this? And he was like,
• 54:45
  you know, he's not really a texting. He's reverting back to this
• 54:47
  you know, New York childhood or whatever. And he's an altar boy.
• 54:50
  He's resigning the active contrition good forgiveness before he dies. And he's like that,
• 54:55
  you know, he's never going to do that. And then they were
• 54:59
  on that one day and I got a call from Elisabeth Amigan, those producer
• 55:02
  on the film. It's just like, oh, we need to we need
• 55:05
  the Latin. It's like, what are you talking about? It's like the
• 55:07
  Latin thing. But Denios is he's working with a priest. He wants to
• 55:09
  get it right. Oh joh. But that was the same man he was,
• 55:15
  so he became just that completely prepared. He knew every line of dialogue
• 55:22
  and he did. You know, he was never a thing where you know,
• 55:25
  I don't on my line or whatever like that. Please you know,
• 55:30
  he was. She was totally into it, and I think he had a
• 55:32
  really good time doing it and certainly had a you know, it was definitely
• 55:37
  a highlight of my professional career as a writer to say, well, you
• 55:43
  know, I didn't movie with Robert the Neerland and Lohan and then he Traho
• 55:49
  and everybody else, but you know, you know, he was definitely an
• 55:52
  actor who I'd grown up, you know, just loving every drone that he
• 55:57
  had done. And it was so pressed with him and his presence. I
• 56:02
  had spent stories mycast for a lot of the actors they've never worked. They've
• 56:07
  just been really fortunate for him, people that just always seem to bring their
• 56:12
  a game, you know, and a little a little movies and asked me
• 56:16
  such a high as a writer of two to say, you know, uh
• 56:19
  hey, Alvrod, who's you know, you know a movie. Oh we
• 56:21
  had you know, Robert de Niro and uh so, no, absolutely,
• 56:27
  and you know you also you know you touched on your your Lindsay lohand and
• 56:30
  also at Steven Seagal in the movie as well. Steven Seagal. It was
• 56:34
  great. We had you know, Don Johnson, you know, um written
• 56:38
  some things. You know, Robert has spent a lot of time with Don
• 56:42
  Johnson's before and uh and so you know we used something like the little phrase
• 56:45
  and said Don Johnson said in the script and I was sitting with him one
• 56:50
  day on set and he was like, oh, I love this is great.
• 56:52
  You know. It's like I say stuff like this, like how does
• 56:54
  that blow you stirred up? And I said, I know, it's well,
• 56:57
  we put it into strip. We wanted to be very natural for you.
• 57:01
  Um it was. It was, you know, just amazing, really
• 57:07
  amazing. Even during the editing process, I was sitting with which my cousin
• 57:10
  Rebecca and who Robert you your sister who had done I was working on the
• 57:15
  film as well. We were watching the Gnio scene to night that can just
• 57:19
  stop it for a minute, So, well, what's the matter. I
• 57:21
  just need to anute you know, that's Robert DeNiro. Are you saying lines
• 57:25
  I wrote, you know, in my room? And now it's just you
• 57:30
  know, it's just like I just made a minute. Uh. But you
• 57:34
  know it's great. And whenever stuff like that happened, it's just like it's
• 57:38
  it's important to just say thank you. It would be amazed by it all,
• 57:43
  and you know, and that is that is actually amazing and um and
• 57:47
  you know, like you said, it's also as I've been finding it too
• 57:51
  to have gratitude as well and always based and live in the moment and not
• 57:53
  you know just sort of when you saw see Robert de Niro and just want
• 57:57
  to stop it there that that that's you know, that's amazing alva. Uh.
• 58:01
  I was just yeah, I still get getting goostons right now just thinking
• 58:06
  about it, you know. Uh. And it was, it was,
• 58:08
  you know, it's a great experiencing. You know, the movie did well.
• 58:12
  Um and uh, you know I was just really proud of you know,
• 58:16
  the way it turned out and realized that you know, the flash draft
• 58:20
  is the final edit of the movie. You know, Um, there's so
• 58:22
  much of that movie that that that so so many ways that movie was improved
• 58:27
  by idea edit and really making me some together. Um and uh, you
• 58:32
  know it's far from a perfect movie, but definitely something I'm I'm proud of.
• 58:38
  And uh and you know, it was it was a great experience to
• 58:43
  camel And you know, I particularly like the final battle between Seagal and Treho
• 58:50
  because if you asked me, you know, in a million years, I
• 58:52
  never would have guessed that, you know, those two ever would have crossed
• 58:55
  paths and you know in any movie because they sort of do different movies,
• 58:59
  you know. Um, And but they were able to come together for for
• 59:01
  Machete Machett Day, and it's just you know, I mean, I thought
• 59:06
  it was very well done too. In Segal is still doing his akido and
• 59:08
  you know tree Hoo still swinging the machine and machette days. He's so kind
• 59:13
  of street ballsty I thought it was very well choreographed as well. I thought
• 59:15
  it was phenomenal. Yeah, well thanks, I mean, you know that's
• 59:20
  again, it's it's just like, you know, part of that part of
• 59:23
  the whole process of Machete Too is realizing fairly early on that this is going
• 59:28
  to be in so many ways to kind of kitchen scene three writing. It's
• 59:31
  like nothing is off bar, nothing is you know, out of bounds,
• 59:35
  everything is, everything is possible. You know, you could have a scene
• 59:37
  where a guy would call down and building with you know, someone's in testing
• 59:43
  or you know, Michelle, U stab us those cops, you know,
• 59:45
  or the fake cop through through the back of his of the seed and it's
• 59:50
  from the back seat of the car and then steers the car by turning his
• 59:52
  machete through the guy you know, had stuff like that, and it's and
• 59:55
  uh, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back
• 1:00:05
  to the show, you know. So it was it was it was pretty
• 1:00:10
  liberating. And in that way too, I'm realizing that you're going to have
• 1:00:14
  this this crazy final showdown where will you know, Uh, there was anything
• 1:00:21
  was possible and you could have you know, a sword fight with machete and
• 1:00:24
  you know, and and Segal and his sort just you know, it's it
• 1:00:30
  was just turning everything up to a lot of my hope. So you know,
• 1:00:34
  uh, when when you were actually writing it, did you actually know
• 1:00:37
  Seagal was in the cast in that part or did you actually you know sort
• 1:00:39
  of you know, evolved that part later on when Skal was cast. A
• 1:00:44
  little bit of both, a little bit of both. I mean the character
• 1:00:46
  was starting to be there before it was Sigal, and then knowing it was
• 1:00:50
  Segal, things were you know, were enhanced and attitude. It was.
• 1:00:53
  It was really that was part of the process with with the movie itself.
• 1:00:59
  I mean even from Lindsay Lohan's character too. I mean Robert you know told
• 1:01:04
  me, if I you can get Lindsay lohand to play the part, so
• 1:01:06
  it's not even a part, you know, we've gotta we gotta try to
• 1:01:09
  you know, give her some stuff and and just sort of you know,
• 1:01:13
  hit all these different little ideas that this kind of you know, gave her,
• 1:01:16
  gave her her own heart and uh and uh and and told a little
• 1:01:21
  story. You know. Um, So it was great. It was,
• 1:01:24
  it was it was. It was so much fun to be a part of
• 1:01:28
  that. That's that's part. And you know that's great that everything was able
• 1:01:34
  to come together. Um, you know, very very you know, and
• 1:01:37
  something I mean, you know, you've been involved in movie making for you
• 1:01:38
  know, uh doing with two decades now, and you know, you know,
• 1:01:42
  whatever can go wrong, we'll go wrong in a film set. And
• 1:01:45
  you know, or even even beyond that, you know, even when things
• 1:01:47
  are in development and so good, you've were you know, able to put
• 1:01:50
  it together. But I mean again, if you have any listener out there
• 1:01:52
  has not seen a CHET day, I urge you to go out there and
• 1:01:54
  check it out. Um, it's phenomenal. I'll brow we've been talking for
• 1:02:00
  about an hour now, Um, would you mind just taking a few quick
• 1:02:02
  questions I've got sent in? Sure? Okay, I'm sorry that was an
• 1:02:09
  hour flew by. Yeah, it always seems to work out that way.
• 1:02:13
  Um, Which which I don't know if I just asked the right question or
• 1:02:16
  you know, I just sort of I don't know, so um, but
• 1:02:20
  you know, I'm glad it flew by, um because I mean, yeah,
• 1:02:23
  because I mean it's a conversation. Yeah, it's a conversation. You
• 1:02:27
  know, when when you're talking, you're you're having your conversation. You're not
• 1:02:30
  looking at your watch. So that's the way. It's good. So our
• 1:02:36
  first question is, Alvrow, would you ever consider directing your own film?
• 1:02:40
  Absolutely? Absolutely, I definitely am interested in doing that. Um. Years
• 1:02:46
  and years and years ago, Uh, I had written, uh it was
• 1:02:51
  actually my first screenplay, and um, I was you know, uh,
• 1:02:55
  hoping to directly. It was going to be very low budget, very independ
• 1:03:00
  in New Texas space project. It never really got off the ground, but
• 1:03:02
  sort of as a as a training for that, I went and made a
• 1:03:07
  short film on video and that you know, no one has ever seen,
• 1:03:12
  no one will ever see, but you know, and it happened so quickly.
• 1:03:16
  It was not much of a lesson to me, except to realize that
• 1:03:21
  I needed a lot more experience. It's good, um, you know,
• 1:03:25
  and then for a long time, I just you know, whenever I would
• 1:03:28
  ask that question, I would say, you know, you know, I
• 1:03:30
  just right now, I'm just really trying to focus on being a better writer.
• 1:03:32
  That's still my answer. I'm still trying to focus on being a better
• 1:03:36
  writer, but I'm definitely interested in doing that. That the role behind the
• 1:03:42
  camera, and uh, you know, I think that's part of the to
• 1:03:45
  be part of the great opportunity of working on Dustel Dawn is that it's as
• 1:03:51
  a writer of the episode, you sort of writer producer. You're there,
• 1:03:54
  upset, You're you're working with the actors as much as you want to be.
• 1:03:59
  And so I've had you know, pretty hands on experience in terms of,
• 1:04:03
  you know, working with the actors, rehearsing with the actors, you
• 1:04:06
  know, even helping block scenes, um and things like that. That uh,
• 1:04:13
  you know that to me, it's like again sort of more fuel for
• 1:04:15
  the fire really wanting to take the opportunity to try to to you know,
• 1:04:21
  to direct as well. I mean, I guess it's it's the thing too
• 1:04:26
  of that lesson. Uh. And I feel like I've I've learned or I
• 1:04:29
  am learning about, you know, these sort of these sort of things that
• 1:04:31
  are sort of that I have the language or cinema in some way already in
• 1:04:39
  my brain and that I can you know, I can approach these things,
• 1:04:43
  uh in that way. Uh, you know, we're still with a with
• 1:04:47
  a very open, very open heart and minded thing. You know, I'm
• 1:04:51
  always going to try to be learning. I'm I'm the director and training or
• 1:04:57
  writer in training or whatever, you know, but you know, learning by
• 1:05:01
  doing and trying to be as involved in the process as possible. I mean,
• 1:05:06
  and that's also you're gonna actually you're actually gonna you know, writing or
• 1:05:11
  directing your own film. Um so yeah, because honestly, because then you
• 1:05:15
  could you know, be like you know, your your cousin or Tarantino was,
• 1:05:17
  you know, right and direct and you know, really put your stamp
• 1:05:20
  on the film kind of like you know, your tour theory of filmmaking.
• 1:05:24
  But this time, you know, you know you can say that because you
• 1:05:27
  know you have you're the writer director, you know, and you you know
• 1:05:30
  tell you yeah, well, you know, I think the theory is a
• 1:05:33
  wonderful is a wonderful concept, and I certain really think that it holds true.
• 1:05:38
  You know in a lot of ways. Directors, especially other directors,
• 1:05:41
  you know, they definitely have the stamp. But I think there's the thing
• 1:05:45
  that maybe I realized coming from the from the perspective of the writer and just
• 1:05:50
  sort of being why I'm a wall sometimes in in in onset or whatever in
• 1:05:57
  any kind of environment when you see the process that you know, it's so
• 1:06:01
  filmmaking and television is the most collaborative creative form there is. In my mind,
• 1:06:08
  it is it is completely a collaboration. Uh, nothing is possible without
• 1:06:14
  you know, everybody's input and everybody's efforts to make this thing happen. You
• 1:06:18
  know that if you really want to be enought for, you know, write
• 1:06:21
  poetry, there's no one that's ever going to say, you know, I'd
• 1:06:25
  really love to write a poem with you, you know. Uh. And
• 1:06:31
  and I think that's I mean to me that that's uh, that's that's I
• 1:06:35
  think that's in a lot of ways why you know, Robert has has really
• 1:06:41
  dependent on and and creative relationships with people with whom you can work again and
• 1:06:45
  again, actors and and people behind camera. Because there's a there's a sort
• 1:06:50
  of shorthand uh language that it becomes developed, you know, and there's uh,
• 1:06:56
  there's uh sort of unwritten expectations of let people are bringing to the table.
• 1:07:01
  And and it doesn't mean that he doesn't direct, the obviously does,
• 1:07:05
  but he's able to um to to get what he wants by by virtue of
• 1:07:14
  having a really strong task improof and uh and and I think he would be
• 1:07:19
  the first person to acknowledge that, um. You know, it may not
• 1:07:24
  have been that way in the early days because he was so he was so
• 1:07:28
  hands on. He was so you know with El Mariachi and the short films
• 1:07:31
  that he made before them. Um, you know, it was always a
• 1:07:34
  thing of he was really trying to become a master of all trades, not
• 1:07:39
  just a jack of all trades, but a master of all of them,
• 1:07:42
  because he never knew what was going to be the thing that was going to
• 1:07:45
  get him a job. You know, maybe people will hate my movie,
• 1:07:49
  but they'll love the way he was shot, and I'll get a job as
• 1:07:53
  a pp And maybe they'll hate you know, they'll hate the the way it
• 1:07:58
  looks, but they loved this, they love the dialogue, and I'll get
• 1:08:00
  hired as a writer. And so he was always, you know, really
• 1:08:03
  trying to find the best uh in himself to fill all those roles, to
• 1:08:08
  see which one you know is going to be the one thing that people respond
• 1:08:12
  with them and they have to respond to all of it, you know in
• 1:08:14
  so many ways. Um and uh uh but you know now in the you
• 1:08:19
  know, on the big scale, it's really impossible to do that so much
• 1:08:24
  anymore. Um. And you know, and I think that you know,
• 1:08:28
  whenever you see these speeches, uh, you people accept awards and they you
• 1:08:31
  know, they thank you know, the writers, so they thank the producers
• 1:08:36
  and they you know, they thank the people who put this in again and
• 1:08:40
  it's it's there's so much a community experience, you know. I think working
• 1:08:45
  wealth at every movie in the miracle and the miracle is that you could get
• 1:08:48
  all these different people who may have all kinds of different opinions to work together
• 1:08:53
  quote the common part. And that's really I think, what what what a
• 1:08:56
  song do? Act? You dog and sort of united? You know,
• 1:08:59
  I've seen and and get everybody you know working for the good of the of
• 1:09:04
  the project and doing their best. Yeah. And uh, you're just to
• 1:09:08
  add on, you know, you said, you know the director is a
• 1:09:11
  guy that sort of leads a team and builds a team. That's so true.
• 1:09:13
  And uh, you know, uh, one thing that you know I've
• 1:09:16
  always heard is the idea of genius around which means you know, always hire
• 1:09:23
  people that are smarter than you are. Yeah, and you know that and
• 1:09:26
  that way, you know, uh, you know, and they said,
• 1:09:29
  you know, we're part of the director. Director's job. It can be
• 1:09:32
  you know, taken care of just by hiring a good you know, having
• 1:09:35
  a great script, having a great cinematographer, and then having great actors and
• 1:09:39
  then you know, you pretty much you know, it's only yours to mess
• 1:09:43
  up from there, right right. I mean, if I were to go
• 1:09:46
  direct the song right now, I would have no idea, you know,
• 1:09:48
  well, what kind of lightning am I going to use? Or what's the
• 1:09:51
  right terminology for this piece of lighting of that piece of lighting or this this
• 1:09:57
  lens of that lens. I would have no idea at all. We'll be
• 1:10:00
  right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.
• 1:10:10
  You know, I might have, you know, a very very very basic
• 1:10:14
  idea, but I mean again that's the thing I um uh, you know,
• 1:10:19
  it would be a matter of really kind of surrounding yourself with people who
• 1:10:23
  know what the what their tasks are, that's they know their strengths. So
• 1:10:28
  you're you're trying to put together a team. Well, not everybody has the
• 1:10:30
  same strengths. But because you put together a team, now you're you're a
• 1:10:34
  pretty bast team. And uh, and it's just your your job to make
• 1:10:39
  sure that that it all kids comes together in the way that you want it.
• 1:10:43
  And you keep pushing into you know, you get you get what you
• 1:10:45
  want. Yeah, we're very well said. And and our next question is,
• 1:10:55
  uh, Albrow, what advice could you give for someone trying to break
• 1:10:59
  into Hollywood? Uh. You know, I always feel guilty about that question
• 1:11:03
  because you know I didn't. Um. You know, in a lot of
• 1:11:06
  ways, I am working into Hollywood. UM. And what I had done
• 1:11:11
  is you know, being able to do UM to work with with Robert,
• 1:11:15
  I'm many many projects come out. I'm working with other with other people on
• 1:11:18
  their projects, and I'm getting other things off the ground, features and stuff
• 1:11:24
  like that. But you know, obviously, if I feel like I had
• 1:11:29
  a you know, a huge door opened up for me that I scrambled to
• 1:11:33
  it to see the possible. Um. But I at the same time,
• 1:11:40
  Uh, you know you mentioned that, you know, twenty years of filmmaking
• 1:11:44
  experience, but a lot of those years I wasn't making talk. A lot
• 1:11:46
  of those years are I was not I was not as involved as I as
• 1:11:49
  I could have been. I never really kind of took the bull by the
• 1:11:54
  horns and said, you know, I'm going to go to LA and I'm
• 1:11:56
  going to try to you know, uh to work my way into the system
• 1:12:00
  and uh, you know, everything as high in place. But I would
• 1:12:03
  say that, you know, uh, to kind of follow up with continuous
• 1:12:09
  rounds like this is to try, you know, is there's so much in
• 1:12:12
  this in my experience at least, I don't know if I can speak to
• 1:12:15
  the business, but I was definitely saying my experience, but you cannot undervalue
• 1:12:20
  the power of relationships. Um and every every time that that I have have
• 1:12:31
  had any kind of of success, any kind of forward movement, it's always
• 1:12:35
  been build upon the relationship and meeting looking yourself in this space where you can
• 1:12:42
  meet people and and and and find common interests and things that you can do.
• 1:12:47
  I mean, one of the huge things for me was when Machete came
• 1:12:50
  out in twenty and ten, I was invited to be a panelist at the
• 1:12:56
  Austin Trump Festival, and I really literally was that guy changed to a laptop
• 1:13:00
  in the basement for such a long time, even though I've already done just
• 1:13:03
  for around three and a years earlier. Um, I was suddenly, you
• 1:13:06
  know, up on stage, you know, doing panels with real working,
• 1:13:12
  professional screenwriters that I had somehow primed into thinking I was one of them.
• 1:13:15
  And uh, you know, it really opened a lot of door for me
• 1:13:19
  because I became instant friends with a lot of people I'm still of friends with
• 1:13:24
  today that have helped me in so many ways. Um. In the times
• 1:13:28
  you know that I would go to California and you know and try to set
• 1:13:31
  up you know, meetings, you know, from the point of plane landed
• 1:13:35
  and I have coffee with one guy that so you need to go talk to
• 1:13:38
  this guy, so you should meet this person and then coffee and breakfast and
• 1:13:42
  lunch and drinks and dinners and you know, after things and just like really
• 1:13:45
  networking, putting your best foot forward, you know, and being a being
• 1:13:50
  a bridge builder and and trying to you know, to find those things,
• 1:13:58
  you know, find the ways that that that that will help you get where
• 1:14:02
  you want to be, you know. And I found that, you know,
• 1:14:04
  having goods on brand in California and Los Angeles especially there's always has been
• 1:14:10
  over the last couple of years, but actually just being a huge, huge
• 1:14:13
  from it. It's almost like uncanny just to sort of change change the things
• 1:14:17
  that you know, someone I didn't know, you know, last week two
• 1:14:23
  weeks later was saying, you know, um, I would like to you
• 1:14:28
  know, work on a project this year, or would you like to be
• 1:14:30
  involved in this or would you know what would you get some ideas about this?
• 1:14:34
  And then something happened. You know, Um, It's just it's pretty
• 1:14:40
  amazing. But I think that's the thing is you've got to put yourself in
• 1:14:43
  the position to create that kind of environment, you know. So you know
• 1:14:47
  it means starting starting small and your means starting in a local writers gip and
• 1:14:51
  do that and find the find the people in the writers grup that you really
• 1:14:56
  um compliment um with it being that and I but you know that that that
• 1:15:01
  are you know that brings something to the table you don't maybe you can work
• 1:15:04
  with them or maybe they're going to work with you. Um and uh,
• 1:15:10
  and just start, you know, really start building building your relationships as you're
• 1:15:14
  building your own talent and building your own skills. Um. And then you
• 1:15:19
  know, it's just push and that's I think that's the thing that's pushed as
• 1:15:24
  much as you as much as you can. UM. I don't know,
• 1:15:29
  I don't know what I have to say about it. Um. And they're
• 1:15:30
  just sure, you know, I wish everybody good, lucked up and you
• 1:15:33
  know, we're we're living in an age right now where the demand for content.
• 1:15:38
  I don't think there's ever been as high as it's. The opportunities have
• 1:15:42
  never been as plent before as they are right I mean in in a lot
• 1:15:46
  of ways. And I think that that just sort of the willingness to to
• 1:15:53
  say I'm ready, I'm ready for work, I'm ready for for you know,
• 1:15:58
  I'm ready to take this to the next step. UM. And and
• 1:16:01
  joining yourself in the next is good advices as I think I can care.
• 1:16:10
  And you know, again, you know, just on networking meetings and you
• 1:16:14
  know, just finding out what you can do for people and being a bridge
• 1:16:15
  builder. And you know, again, I think that's key, UM,
• 1:16:19
  not sort of so much asking why people can do for you what you can
• 1:16:23
  do for other people, uh, because you know people don't want to,
• 1:16:26
  you know, be sold too constantly. It's like, you know, like
• 1:16:29
  when I talk to peop about social media, to albrez Um, they I
• 1:16:33
  always tell people, do you know, don't constantly promote yourself, you know,
• 1:16:36
  don't constantly talk about this, you know. Um, but because that's
• 1:16:40
  just a turn off. No one's gonna follow you just to hear all about
• 1:16:42
  you constantly, right right, that's true. I mean I think that's the
• 1:16:46
  thing that you know, social media is still in its infancy in a lot
• 1:16:50
  of way. And uh, and that's that is a lesson that people will
• 1:16:54
  put through learning. I'm learning it through. Uh. You know. I
• 1:17:00
  think that there's this the thing about social media, it's a really kind of
• 1:17:04
  I think you can try to use it in you know, you in your
• 1:17:09
  best interests. It's not always just to be self promoted, but to be
• 1:17:12
  sharing, you know, to share other people's processors, you know, um,
• 1:17:16
  and and promoting other people's other people's projects and stuff like that. So
• 1:17:21
  when someone you know, a friend of mine post, you know, my
• 1:17:25
  friends are trying, you know, I have a Kickstarter. You're really trying
• 1:17:27
  to get this project up the ground. You know, if I have twenty
• 1:17:29
  bucks, I'll throote into the ill. I've never met these other guys or
• 1:17:32
  their friends or my friends. You know, I'll throwing the money and I'll
• 1:17:35
  putmother on my Facebook page or whatever if I you know, if if I
• 1:17:40
  can do that. Um, you know, I just you know, you
• 1:17:45
  I want to share, you know, whenever I do social media stuff,
• 1:17:47
  whether it's like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or whatever. You know, um
• 1:17:51
  there, you know, you could be a naval dazer and you can just
• 1:17:55
  be all about me and you me And I definitely do some of that and
• 1:17:58
  say, oh look, you know here I am writing room and I'm you
• 1:18:00
  know, some semi exotic location and you know, angelists or whatever, um
• 1:18:06
  and or or I'm saying, you know, you need to be watching this
• 1:18:13
  show American Crime. It's the greatest show on television right now. And people
• 1:18:15
  are really going to dig it because I have friends that are active on the
• 1:18:19
  show. Purchase guys made show, and it's just like, you know,
• 1:18:24
  that's the kind of thing that I'd like to do and just try to,
• 1:18:29
  you know, try to you know, they're they're kind of spread the good
• 1:18:33
  role. Yeah, um and and uh and you know, you just like
• 1:18:38
  there's so many people that in so many connections that you can make. I
• 1:18:41
  mean, I've never made you in person. I only know you from from
• 1:18:45
  Twitter and things like that, and you I wouldn't be doing this podcast if
• 1:18:47
  you you know otherwise you know. Um, so I'm and and and uh,
• 1:18:55
  you know, it's it's an amazing tool and you can if you,
• 1:18:59
  if you build relationship, connect people together in ways if they you know,
• 1:19:03
  would have would have been impossible ten years ago. So I think it's great.
• 1:19:10
  Yeah, and I find a lot of guests through Twitter too, because
• 1:19:13
  that's how I think we initially met. And then um, and then now
• 1:19:16
  yeah, you're right, it's you know, and using Twitter as a networking
• 1:19:19
  tool has been awesome for me. Um, just meeting people and just seeing
• 1:19:24
  what they're working on and stuff like that. Um. I've actually tinkeered around
• 1:19:28
  about actually writing a book about how how I use Twitter as a networking tool.
• 1:19:31
  Um, great idea. Oh, thank definitely true about it. Well,
• 1:19:38
  thank you. Uh it's it's it's all my pile alv row of like
• 1:19:41
  you know, the eight million pigs, don't I want to write It's like,
• 1:19:44
  Okay, that's a good idea. Maybe I should do that. Um,
• 1:19:46
  you know, it's it's one of those things you know, I'm might
• 1:19:50
  get around to someday right now, you know, I'm just focusing on some
• 1:19:53
  other actual writing things. Um. But um, you know we've been talking
• 1:19:58
  for about you know, an hour and eighteen minutes or so. We'll be
• 1:20:02
  right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.
• 1:20:11
  So you know, you know, and I know you know you're busy,
• 1:20:14
  and you you know, I don't want to keep you too much longer.
• 1:20:15
  So you know, in closing, is there anything that we didn't discuss that
• 1:20:19
  you know you wanted to mention or talk about? Uh, I think we
• 1:20:24
  covered it. I just you know, I would just say that, uh,
• 1:20:27
  you know, it's it's uh, like I said, I'm I feel
• 1:20:30
  like I'm uh I'm not maybe not I'm the last person to give advice,
• 1:20:38
  but uh but you know, because I still feel like i'm I mean,
• 1:20:43
  I'm trying to be learning every day. I'm trying to keep that that perspective
• 1:20:46
  on everything. But I know that there's things that I picked up that if
• 1:20:50
  I can impart to someone else, uh and they can get something out of
• 1:20:54
  it, you know, I think that's great. I mean it's like,
• 1:20:57
  uh, um, you know, use what you can he has in you
• 1:21:00
  know, which can't use to throw it away, you know. Um.
• 1:21:03
  And I think that's the same thing that so many of the so many of
• 1:21:06
  the things that are out there for a fire and writers or you know,
• 1:21:11
  writers that are trying to break into the business. Um, you know.
• 1:21:15
  Uh, but you know, just because you know you've read it in the
• 1:21:18
  book or it's you know, you've got to make the experience valuable to yourself.
• 1:21:25
  You know. I did teach for a short while. I taught a
• 1:21:28
  clurse Texas a and all in Dallaston, a study skills course of all things.
• 1:21:33
  And I had the students who read this and this from a Herman Melville
• 1:21:36
  novel that nobody reads anymore, Paul Redburn, about a boy's first journey to
• 1:21:41
  see and he's taking he's going to Liverpool, and he's taking his father's guidebook
• 1:21:46
  to Liverpool. And when he gets to the city and he opens up the
• 1:21:49
  guidebook to realize that the city has changed, and you know, his father's
• 1:21:54
  guidebook really wasn't much helpful to him anymore, and he had to sort of
• 1:21:57
  find his own way in the city. There were some things that were saying
• 1:22:00
  there's some sort of landlord, but the city had changed and I think that,
• 1:22:04
  you know, the lesson I was trying to impart that time. It's
• 1:22:09
  like, you know, I'm giving you a lot of ideas about how to
• 1:22:12
  kind of manage your time, how to study, how to how to working
• 1:22:15
  groups, how to do all these things. You know, you might find
• 1:22:16
  it some of the most of it is useful to you. You've got to
• 1:22:19
  find what works and not be afraid of trying new things, and uh of
• 1:22:25
  of being open to experiences and really trying to build on, uh, build
• 1:22:30
  on on your base and and never sit back on and say, you know,
• 1:22:34
  I'm know it all and our friends and um and people would just have
• 1:22:40
  to work at my genius. You know. Uh, it's a it's a
• 1:22:44
  constant it's a constant learning process, and I'm still doing it. So I
• 1:22:50
  wish everybody listening and trying to do those things the best of the best of
• 1:22:56
  luck in doing them. Yeah. Very cool. And you know, that's
• 1:23:00
  a very very awesome positive message outbro. Um. Thanks very small about the
• 1:23:04
  positive. That's that's good. It's good be about the positive, um,
• 1:23:09
  because you know, there's farts mainly negative people in this world. UM,
• 1:23:12
  so you know, you know, you know, I want to say thank
• 1:23:15
  you, Thank you very much again for coming on. Thank you. I
• 1:23:18
  really appreciate it. Oh, you know pushes all mine. Uh so you
• 1:23:23
  know, where can people find you out online? I'm on Twitter a lot
• 1:23:28
  o d Z, I'm on Facebook. I think of the same thing at
• 1:23:32
  our loads. Um uh oh, we'll find me around. I don't have
• 1:23:39
  a sight or anything like that. Uh, but uh, you know,
• 1:23:43
  I'm uh often doing you know, different events. I'm not really doing anything
• 1:23:48
  in south By, but every year on um pretty active with the awesome Phone
• 1:23:53
  Festival doing panels and round tables and and you know every October. You can
• 1:23:58
  definitely find me around there. Um, but you know, um, you
• 1:24:02
  know, look look me up and pep and eye on LA Network for Dustil
• 1:24:08
  Dawn seasons two later this year hopefully. Uh we've got to get stuff in
• 1:24:13
  store for fans of the show. And uh, you know, the original
• 1:24:16
  the first season is he's already on Netflix in its entirety or if you're like,
• 1:24:21
  you know, really into it, you can you can get the Blue
• 1:24:25
  Way or DVD set with all the extras and commentaries and fun stuff like that,
• 1:24:32
  and you know, and also I'll make sure to link to everything and
• 1:24:35
  the show notes as well, So uh, you know everyone, if you
• 1:24:38
  you know, if you don't everyone in the l Ray network or you've never
• 1:24:43
  actually you have seen a uh alvarads Twitter, just look click on the show
• 1:24:46
  just click on the links in the show notes and you'll be taken right there.
• 1:24:49
  And also I'm also a link to Dustled on season one, so okay,
• 1:24:54
  if you haven't checked that out yet, uh, please do because it's
• 1:24:57
  very cool, especially if you have enjoyed the movie it's based off of and
• 1:25:01
  again, like you know, Alvar and I've said, it's just expands upon
• 1:25:04
  that. So uh, you know. In closing, everyone, thanks you
• 1:25:09
  for listening. You can find me at Dave Bullis dot com and Twitter.
• 1:25:12
  It's at Dave Bullish, should be at Dave Underscore Bulls and you know,
• 1:25:16
  um there's you know, tons of the show note links that if you want
• 1:25:19
  to you know, Stockman any other social media sites, they're there as well,
• 1:25:24
  and uh so cool, Albroad Thanks again, buddy, and you know,
• 1:25:29
  I wish you the best of luck with you know, season two of
• 1:25:30
  dust hold On, and you know, if you ever want to come back,
• 1:25:33
  man, please let me know. The draw is always wide open.
• 1:25:36
  Thanks. I really appreciate it. You're talking to you. No good talking
• 1:25:40
  you too, Bun. All right, thank sure, have a good night,
• 1:25:43
  buddy. Thank you, go back. I want to thank Dave so
• 1:25:45
  much for doing such a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 1:25:48
  get links to anything we spoke about in this episode, head over to the
• 1:25:50
  show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv. Forward slash three, Quoa two.
• 1:25:56
  Thank you so much for listening to guys as always, keep on writing no
• 1:25:59
  matter what. I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof
• 1:26:02
  Screenwriting podcasts at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot tv.