Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 785: Unveiling the Art of Screenwriting: A Journey with Kristin Overn

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IFH 785: Unveiling the Art of Screenwriting: A Journey with Kristin Overn · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
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  Speaker 1: amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number seven eighty
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: five Cinema Should Make You Forget. You're sitting in a theater,
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  Speaker 2: Roman Polanski.
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  Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
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  Speaker 1: Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
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  Speaker 1: and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
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  Speaker 1: the film biz.
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  Speaker 3: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle podcast.
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  Speaker 2: I am your humble.
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  Speaker 3: Host Alex Ferrari.
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• 1:50
  Speaker 2: today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
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  Speaker 3: My next guest began her career as an assistant in
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  Speaker 3: script reader at Davis Entertainment and she's also a Producer's
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  Speaker 3: Guild member. She's a Director's Guild member and she's been
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  Speaker 3: writting this competition now for about fourteen years now, and
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  Speaker 3: a record high six three and sixty four scripts were
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  Speaker 3: submitted last year. This is a fun episode, especially for
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  Speaker 3: you screenwriters out there. This is purely about screenwriting with
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  Speaker 3: guests Chris and Overn.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, many moons ago.
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  Speaker 5: I was a student at Northwestern University studying theater, and
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  Speaker 5: I focused very much on directing and playwriting, and I
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  Speaker 5: loved that side of the entertainment industry. But I stayed
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  Speaker 5: in Chicago for a couple of years, but then very
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  Speaker 5: shortly discovered not only how difficult it is to make
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  Speaker 5: a living doing theater, but I was repeatedly encouraged by
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  Speaker 5: many friends of mine who had moved out to the
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  Speaker 5: West Coast to come out to Los Angeles, and one
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  Speaker 5: guy in particular was telling me that I'd make a
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  Speaker 5: great what they call a d girl back then. That
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  Speaker 5: was the early nineties, and the girl was development girl.
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  Speaker 5: A lot of women were working reading scripts, doing script
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  Speaker 5: evaluation at the time and advancing through the ranks in
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  Speaker 5: that way, and I was fascinated by that. I love
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  Speaker 5: story I love storytelling, and I love the weather out here.
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  Speaker 5: It was cold and snowy in Chicago. So I finally
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  Speaker 5: made the move, and I started out as an assistant,
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  Speaker 5: like so many people do. I worked in television on
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  Speaker 5: a show called Chicago Hope, and I also worked at
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  Speaker 5: a place called Davis Entertainment, which John Davis's company made
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  Speaker 5: some major movies and television at the time as well,
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  Speaker 5: and did development for some other companies. Slowly kind of
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  Speaker 5: worked my way up, but then took a little detour.
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  Speaker 5: I ended up being invited to co produce a feature film,
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  Speaker 5: a little independent movie, million dollar feature that a buddy
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  Speaker 5: of mine was producing and directing, and he wanted me
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  Speaker 5: to work with him. He needed somebody on his side
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  Speaker 5: who he could trust and who he felt could help
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  Speaker 5: make the movie happen. So I jumped on board, and
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  Speaker 5: suddenly I was working in production and film production, and
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  Speaker 5: it was, you know, education by trial by fire. But
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  Speaker 5: it was a great experience. And so then I started
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  Speaker 5: working more and more in production and learning more and
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  Speaker 5: more about that, and I produced theater. But film, of
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  Speaker 5: course has its own quirks and problems and issues, and
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  Speaker 5: it was it was a fabulous education. And I did
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  Speaker 5: that for several years. But all the while that I
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  Speaker 5: was working in production, doing budgets and hiring crews and
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  Speaker 5: working on these low budget features, my real passion has
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  Speaker 5: always been storytelling, developing scripts, editing, working with writers, and
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  Speaker 5: I discovered a real need because one of the things
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  Speaker 5: I learned as I was working with all these all
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  Speaker 5: these little independent movies, is that there are were, and
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  Speaker 5: still are many up and coming new producers and junior
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  Speaker 5: agents and new managers, people who are honestly looking for
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  Speaker 5: new writers, who have a hard time connecting with them
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  Speaker 5: because the new writers don't know to pitch them, they
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  Speaker 5: don't know how to get to them, because they don't
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  Speaker 5: even know in many cases that they exist. But these
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  Speaker 5: are the people who are truly open to working with
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  Speaker 5: new writers because they're all so new and they're looking
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  Speaker 5: for that fresh voice. And I conceived of the idea
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  Speaker 5: of the Page Awards a contest, using a contest as
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  Speaker 5: it means to be like a development department. When I
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  Speaker 5: was at Davis Entertainment, John had money, and they had
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  Speaker 5: a big staff, and they had a lot a lot
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  Speaker 5: of people reading scripts and evaluating them, moving them up
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  Speaker 5: the ranks to the point where they would eventually, hopefully
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  Speaker 5: finally get to his desk. So I thought we could
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  Speaker 5: use a contest the exact same way, And so that's
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  Speaker 5: when I founded the Page Awards. It was back in
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  Speaker 5: the fall of two thousand and three, and we've been
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  Speaker 5: going and have you ever since. It's been growing and building,
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  Speaker 5: and it's it's actually worked beautifully in the way I hope,
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  Speaker 5: which is that it's connected a lot of new writers
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  Speaker 5: with new up and coming managers who are looking for
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  Speaker 5: new clients and producers looking for new scripts.
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  Speaker 3: You mentioned Kristen about uh, new writers finding producers, and
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  Speaker 3: producers sometimes don't know where to look or maybe you know,
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  Speaker 3: new screenwriters don't know how to pitch them. And in
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  Speaker 3: today's you know marketplace with with where we have all
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  Speaker 3: these different you know, websites and you know not meaning
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  Speaker 3: like you know, social media and you have all these
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  Speaker 3: you know, different contests and stuff like that. Do you
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  Speaker 3: think that it's easier now or it's harder now for
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  Speaker 3: for that that connection to happen simply because you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's so many producers and there's so many writers and that,
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  Speaker 3: and producers are getting hit by so many different directions,
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  Speaker 3: you know, is it is it harder for for talent
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  Speaker 3: to sort of stand out?
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  Speaker 5: That's a really good point. In some ways, it can be.
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  Speaker 5: It may be easier for you as the writer to
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  Speaker 5: find people who are looking for new material online. However,
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  Speaker 5: as you said, they're getting a brage of material and
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  Speaker 5: it's not vetted. And the thing that a contest will do,
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  Speaker 5: for example like ours, is vet the material for the producer.
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  Speaker 5: And the reason we have a lot of these people
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  Speaker 5: reading the final round of our contest, They'll say, I
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  Speaker 5: want to read your top ten thrillers or your top
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: ten TV dramas or whatever it is. And they know
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  Speaker 5: that by the time these scripts have advanced to the
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  Speaker 5: top ten to the final round, they've been vetted by
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  Speaker 5: four or five, six, eight other people, and so they
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  Speaker 5: know that the material is really strong. So that's that's
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: the extra sauce that we add to the process at
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  Speaker 5: this point.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I always hear about, you know, all
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  Speaker 3: the different like different avenues that people could use to
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  Speaker 3: and I know I'm kind of get away from screenwriting,
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  Speaker 3: but just use as an example, you know, all of
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  Speaker 3: the different avenues that people could use to distribute their film,
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  Speaker 3: you know, going onto YouTube or vimeo, et cetera. And
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  Speaker 3: you know, as I've told to different guests on here,
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  Speaker 3: that's something that we've always come back to is is
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  Speaker 3: you know, how do you you know, get the attention
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  Speaker 3: of you know, buyers, How do you get the attention
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  Speaker 3: of certain people that you're looking for? How do you
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  Speaker 3: get the attention of your target market. And I remember
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  Speaker 3: there was an interview with Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez
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  Speaker 3: and they were kind of talking somewhat similar about that,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, Tarantino was very adamant in the fact
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  Speaker 3: that you know, the best quality material, whether it be
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  Speaker 3: a screenplay or a movie or a a piece of music,
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  Speaker 3: will always rise to the top and will sort of,
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  Speaker 3: you know, get above the noise, so to speak.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, I believe that.
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  Speaker 5: And so the more people that you have reading it
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  Speaker 5: and kind of giving it a stamp of approval, if
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  Speaker 5: you will, the more people in the industry can sort
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  Speaker 5: of trust that, Yeah, other people like this, so you know,
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  Speaker 5: I can take a look, and there is you know,
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  Speaker 5: there's a certain amount of what everyone else likes I
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  Speaker 5: should like as well.
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  Speaker 4: There's Hollywood is.
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  Speaker 5: A funny, funny place in that regard, you know, opinions.
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes people aren't always as sure of their own opinions
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  Speaker 5: as they are of other people's opinions.
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  Speaker 4: If that makes sense.
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  Speaker 5: And so that's when you hear about situations like if
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  Speaker 5: one manager wants to sign you, suddenly three others are
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: chomping at the bid as well. Because they feel like
• 9:21
  Speaker 5: they don't want to miss out on something good. It's
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  Speaker 5: competitive and it can work to your benefit. It can
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  Speaker 5: work against you sometimes, but it's just the nature of
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  Speaker 5: the beast.
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  Speaker 3: I think, yeah, very very true. And you know, I
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  Speaker 3: know we were kind of you know, as we're talking
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  Speaker 3: about distribution, I'm kind of getting ahead here, but I
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  Speaker 3: wanted to sort of ask too about about you know,
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  Speaker 3: getting started in your career. You know, because you produced
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  Speaker 3: a lot of things. You know, you've produced a lot
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: of films. You've worked as a uter production manager, and
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: you worked as a location manager, you worked as a
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  Speaker 3: line producer.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
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  Speaker 3: And I wanted to ask, has has this experience when
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  Speaker 3: you when you when you started out and as you
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: have gone through your career, how has this experience sort
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  Speaker 3: of helped you out your current position at Page. I mean,
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: have you sort of well, you know, I'm sorry I
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: should I shouldn't add to that question, Chris, then, so
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: I'll just keep it at that. You know, how did this,
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  Speaker 3: uh all this experience you know, help you with with
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  Speaker 3: Page as we as you are the executive director now, no.
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: It's a great question because it does.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, a lot of people I think sit in
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  Speaker 5: offices reading a lot of scripts, and that's great, that's
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: one thing. But when you've actually been in the trenches
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: on the set, sat there figuring out budgets, seen what
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: actually happens on the set with certain issues in the
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: script that began day one, when the script you know,
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: was presented, you learn a lot about what works and
• 10:54
  Speaker 5: what doesn't in production, and it is helpful in terms
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: of evaluating material.
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  Speaker 4: That's I will tell you.
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  Speaker 5: I mean the projects I did were all small, they
• 11:03
  Speaker 5: were low budget projects, and a lot of the scripts
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  Speaker 5: that when the contest in the action adventure category or
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: historical film are big budget movies. So in that sense,
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: you know, it's it's like, I don't know that the
• 11:15
  Speaker 5: writer should think of limitations always. I mean, you know,
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: especially if depending on the type of movie you're writing.
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  Speaker 5: You know, I don't be limited. If you have a
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  Speaker 5: vision for.
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  Speaker 4: A huge, big movie.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, if that's what it wants to be, that's
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  Speaker 5: what it wants to be. But if you are trying
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  Speaker 5: to write a film that a new producer can do
• 11:34
  Speaker 5: for a million dollars, you know there are budgetary constraints.
• 11:38
  Speaker 5: There are certain things you don't You can't usually afford
• 11:41
  Speaker 5: tons of cast of thousands, you know, huge numbers of extras.
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: CEGI is becoming more and more affordable, so that's less
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: and less of a constraint than it used to be,
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: and there are people who can do it very inexpensively.
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: But still, you know, there are a lot of things
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: you want to keep in mind if you're trying to
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: write something low budget.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think that's a good point, Kristen, and
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: I wanted to just sort of follow up that question.
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  Speaker 3: If somebody did have a script, whether it be a
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: short short screenplay or a feature length screenplay, and you
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: know they they said, you know, they wanted to make
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: it themselves. And since you have the producing experience and
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: the screenwriting experience, have you ever do you have you
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: had friends or clients or or people you just met
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: who you know, have you ever heard had anybody who's
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: had a lot of luck? I don't want to say luck,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I want to say success. That guy I was trying
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: to figure out trying to find that word. Have you
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  Speaker 3: had anyone who has had a lot of success doing
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: something like that? Because the reason I ask is is
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: that also? I've seen more and more where somebody, like
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: we were just discussing, as you know, somebody wants to
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: produce their film, somebody wants to produce their screenplay. Well, hey,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: I'm not gonna you know, I don't want anyone to
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: have to say yes or give me the green light.
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give myself the green light and go
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: out and do it. So I wanted to ask, you know, Christian,
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: have you had any you know, any people that you
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  Speaker 3: know have any success in doing this?
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, many of our winners actually have gone ahead and
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: done that. They had that in mind all along with
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: their project, and they wrote it for themselves to direct,
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: and they have in fact done so a lot of
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  Speaker 5: short films.
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  Speaker 4: Obviously.
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  Speaker 5: We've had a few people who have been maybe grad
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: students at UCLA, USC wherever, and perhaps the script they
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: sent us was their graduate thesis or just a project
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: that they wanted to produce coming out of school. And
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: they're very aware of, you know, what it's going to
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: take and how much it's going to cost. And usually
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: they're putting up the money or their families putting up
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: the money or whatever. So yeah, and they've been very
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: successful shorts. We also had a script that a couple
• 13:38
  Speaker 5: of scripts that won the contests that have been produced
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: by features by the writers themselves and directed by the
• 13:46
  Speaker 5: writers themselves, And one that I can think of right
• 13:50
  Speaker 5: now is Landed Distribution and I think will be coming
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: out on Netflix and a couple of other places. It's
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: been around the festival circuit. One of our winners, Lori Welts,
• 14:02
  Speaker 5: wrote a.
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: Script called Scout.
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: It was produced by another producer, but she directed it,
• 14:07
  Speaker 5: and that has had a really nice distribution in the festivals,
• 14:10
  Speaker 5: and it was on Netflix a few weeks ago. I
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: saw it on Netflix, and so, yeah, and that's really exciting.
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: We encourage it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 5: We were so excited by writers who are willing able
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: to do that because that's you know, that's it's such
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: a a it's it's such a huge learning process and
• 14:29
  Speaker 5: b it's you know, taking your career into your own hands.
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: And that's wonderful when you can do that.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very very true. And just to continue with that question,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: christian As, just as we talk about producing films right now,
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: I wanted to ask if we took it the opposite way,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: which is meaning that somebody did something that was they
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: aimed way too high and they end for the resources
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: that they had. And honestly, I'm guilty of that as well.
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: I've done that before where I try to make you know,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: this action shoot them up short film and it's and
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: you realize you don't have the crew for it, you
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: don't have the the CGI people for it, you don't
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: have you know, the time to set up all these
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: you know, uh you know, gunplay uh scenes and stuff
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: like that. So have you seen that to Kristen where uh,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: you know, you've had people who just you know, they
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: want they said, hey, Kristen, can you can you can
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: I show you my movie? And it's just you know,
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: you're it's just you know, you could tell they they
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: fell short.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, well, of course, you every once in
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: a while you see a short film or a project
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: that has somebody attempted to shoot and they just ran
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: out of money at some point, and you know, that's
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: always too bad when that happens. But again, it's a
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: it's a big it's a big learning experience, and uh,
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: you know, we all we all go through our learning experiences,
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: whatever they are, and hopefully come through it and continue
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: despite whatever problems you might have had with your first project.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and see that's that's what happened to me, you know,
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: just just speaking for my own personal experience, is what
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: happened was I am too high?
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: I I made a student short film and I got,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you know, very very comfortable with you know, you know
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: making you know, you know what I mean. You make
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: a student film and then suddenly you know you're like, oh, okay,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I got this. I can now I made a very
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: simple student short film. I can now make a John
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Woodsy movie. Why not?
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: So then all of a sudden, you know you're you're
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: falling short. And I think we learn a lot more
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: from our failures and our successes, because, as it's saying goes, sometimes,
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: you know, with successes, you you sometimes people get lucky.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: They they really do. As I've learned in life. Sometimes
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: you get lucky and you have the right crew in
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: front of you. Sometimes you get lucky and you find
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: the money. Sometimes you get lucky and the location pops up.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: But with failures, you realize, oh, wait a minute, this
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: isn't my time to make this film or or and
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I'll give you another example to Kristen is Uh. I
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: had a friend who was making a time travel movie
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: and she wanted to make it where you know, I
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: think it was like the eighteen hundreds, I think, or
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: the seventeen hundreds. And I was explained to her, you know,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: you're gonna have to buy all these you know, or
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: I'm sort not buy but rent all these time period clothes.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have to worry about cars and everything like that.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: You're gonna have to worry about planes. And I said,
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: you know, how are you gonna pull this off? And
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: and and she was gung hole about it. And when
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: we saw the final project, she said, oh, now I
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: see what you were talking about because and she admitted too,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: because you know, you could spend you know, a couple
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: of grand on colonial era clothes and in a flash,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: but you know what I mean, in a blink of
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: an eye, and then all of a sudden, you're like, well, okay,
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: that's just you know a handful of clothes, and you know,
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: and what else you're gonna spend the rest of You
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: don't have any money to spend the rest of to
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: buy anything else with this from the movie, So you know,
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: that's that's another learning experience. So that's just what I
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: mean by by falling short. I well, you know, it's
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: you learn a lot from your failures, and sometimes we
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: learn more from our failures than our.
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: Successes, absolutely true. God knows that's true for me. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: I have to say she had the opportunity to learn
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: from your failures, which is even better because I always
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: say I'd rather learn from someone else's failures. So I
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: listened very closely to other people, and she made the
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: mistake perhaps of not listening to you in that case,
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: But she learned the lesson anyway, and she had to
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: go through it and I'm sure she got out of
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: it despite whatever happened, you know, because that's what that's
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: what life is all about at the end of the day.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and trust me, there's one thing I know. It's
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: how to fail. So it's how to fail, how to
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: fail often. But but yeah, you know, you sort of
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: you meet at different people, you learn that almost everyone
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: has made some kind of mistake like that where they
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: try to do way too much too early as they
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: started making their films. I've learned that from just doing
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: this podcast. You know, they make a simple film to
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: begin or they maybe again maybe they got they were
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: in the right place the right time and they got
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: an amazing crew or what have you. And the second
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: film and the third film were like, wait, what happened here?
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: You take like you steps backwards.
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: So if a sophomore curse or something like that, you know,
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: I don't know, but yeah, it's it's that happens a lot.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: We had that in the.
• 19:08
  Speaker 5: Contest as well. I've seen situations where writers somewhat rare,
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: but it happens. There's because of their just basic writing talent.
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: Somehow what they piece together almost by intuition, accident, whatever
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: is just really works.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: But then they.
• 19:27
  Speaker 5: Try to write that second and third and fourth script
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: and somehow it kind of all dissipates and and you know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: you wonder, well, then they have to go back and
• 19:36
  Speaker 5: learn the lessons that they and solidify the understanding of
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: why the first script work, why the first script worked,
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: and you know how they can replicate it, although I
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: hate the word replicate, but replicate the elements of that
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: that worked, you know.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: So it's it's fascinating.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's actually really interesting.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: You know, if somebody writes, you know, a script you know,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: the first one there, let's call it the freshman the
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: freshman script, and they hit it out of the park.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: It's a home run. It's you know, everyone you know
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: loves it, that people want to read it, And and
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: the second and third script aren't there. I mean, you know,
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: is it usually because maybe they were trying a different method?
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: Is it maybe because they just try to just rush
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: things out too quickly? I mean, is that some of
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: the things that you've seen.
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: I have no you know, I honestly have to say,
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: I have no idea why it doesn't work the second
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: time or the third time. I have no idea what
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: it is that sparked first one that just somehow didn't
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: work in the second and third and fourth. It can
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: be probably any one of the things you mentioned, you know.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: But uh, but we have a situation recently. I don't
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: think the right writer would mind, because I think he's
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: talked about it himself. He won the Page Awards in
• 21:04
  Speaker 5: two thousand and seven with his very first screenplay, and
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: he's been working on it ever since, and his subsequent
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: efforts haven't quite worked as well, And he says himself,
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: he's just had to go through a huge learning kind
• 21:15
  Speaker 5: of relearning process to really understand what it is that
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: makes a screenplay work. Even though intuitively he did something
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: wonderful the first time out of the gate and now
• 21:25
  Speaker 5: this year he won another prize with us. He's kept
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: getting notes, he's kept reading, he's gone to conferences, he's
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: just really continued to work and stuck with it. And
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: at the end of the day, that's brought him back
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: to maybe where he began. But now with that basis
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: of really solid understanding of the process, the writing process,
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: is a better understanding of screenplays as a craft.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's interesting too, because you mentioned he wrote
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: his first screenplay and that's what he ended up winning
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: with in two thousand and seven. So does that happen
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: a lot in your experience?
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: No, no, it doesn't most of the time. To be honest,
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: people's first screenplays are can be kind of a train wreck.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: I mean, sometimes they just haven't bothered to really study
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: the form at all. They sometimes writers think they know
• 22:21
  Speaker 5: how to format a script better than the people who
• 22:25
  Speaker 5: do it every day, you know, or they think they
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: don't have to study know anything about structure or what
• 22:31
  Speaker 5: I don't know what it is, but they think they've
• 22:33
  Speaker 5: seen a lot.
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: I guess what it is.
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: They think they've seen a lot of bad movies, and
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: so their movie is bound to be better than all
• 22:39
  Speaker 5: these bad movies they've seen. But most of the time
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: people's first efforts are are not you know, they don't
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: reveal their full potential. It's only after Most people will
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: tell you it takes many scripts before you really achieve
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: something wonderful and special and something that's going to get
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: you signed or something that's going to get pretty us.
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: But there are.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Exceptions, like I mean, every once in a while that
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: you run across somebody who who's very first script is
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: just somehow magic.
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: I don't know what to tell you.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: There's a little mystery to the whole thing, which is
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: what makes it fun.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: It reminds me what Shane Black once said. He was
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: doing this U, this Q and a session and and
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: somebody asked him a question and he said, all the
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: time he gets, you know, a lot of he'll get
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: an email, or he'll get a note sent to him,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: sent to him via his agent from from like a
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: you know, a fan or filmmaker, what have you, And
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: it's always you know, hey, Shane, I saw this movie,
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: uh in a in a blockbuster on a Netflix or whatever,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: and I could write better than that, so I decided
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: to write. And then Shane usually goes back with, well,
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: I'm glad that you think your mediocrity is better than
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: some other mediocrety that you saw, and and he said
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: his advice is is instead of you know, using that
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: as saying, oh, I could write better than this, how
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: the hell is that a movie, He's like, you really
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: just want to do it in general, regardless of you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: if you think you could write better than some of
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: the movie that's out there.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: Exactly, it's got to be at the end of the day,
• 24:08
  Speaker 5: it's got to be a passion that you're willing to
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: stick with. And that's again why I admire this writer
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: who stuck with it all these years, even though his
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: second and third and fourth efforts were not as successful
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: as his first. I mean, his first script did not
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: end up selling, but it got a lot of good
• 24:23
  Speaker 5: attention and it's still a viable movie from my point
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: of view, So you know, but it takes that kind
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: of dedication and passion and if you've got it, you know,
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: stick with it, keep keep at it and study and
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: read and talk with other writers and be part of
• 24:38
  Speaker 5: a writer's group and don't be afraid to get notes.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: A lot of beginning writers are really afraid of getting
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: feedback on their scripts because honestly, they're afraid of what
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: the person reading their script is going to say, and
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: they don't want to hear it. You know, deep down,
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: it's like you don't want to hear that you have
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: cancer something. You know, you don't want the bad news.
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: But the truth is, that's what's going to help you
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: grow again. It's your mistakes that you know, learning from
• 25:04
  Speaker 5: your mistakes that is going to get you to the
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: next level as a screen record.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: You know that is one hundred percent true.
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: You know, I actually used to run a screen running
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: group and we would have people who would want to join,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: you know, every so often somebody would come in and
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: and say, hey, I have a friend or I have
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: somebody else who wants to join. And this one time
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: somebody came in. He was a first time screenwriter, and
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: he actually had illustrations within his screenplay. Uh, and I
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: and and I. You know something, I was a little
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: nicer about it. I was like, hey, you know, I
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: wrote a little note on there. Hey, don't put in
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: you know, illustrations of a of a design and a
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: screenplay like you know, you're not you know, you're not
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: at like a James Cameron level where he could just
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: do whatever he wants and no one's going to bat
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: an eye.
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: You know, if you're using this as a calling card
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: or what have you, it has to follow certain guidelines.
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: Other people just put on the put in the script.
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: They were like, no, an exclamation point and stuff like,
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's just it's it is
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: very hard, especially when you know, you put all this
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: effort and time to a screenplay and you get feedback,
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: and you know, people tell you, hey, you know what,
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: it's just isn't good, or somebody will say, hey, look
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: it just sucks. And I think that what happens is
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: is Chris and I think we kind of view it
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: as an extension of ourselves. So we think, hey, look
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: the screenplay sucks, therefore I suck exactly.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: You know, it's your baby, and and I know that
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: for example, the folks who read for us, the judges
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: who read for us and write notes, and we talk
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: to them about this a lot. You know, it's critical
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: that they understand that each script is a writer's baby
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: and they believe in it and love it and and
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: our job is to help them make it better and
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: advance as writers. And I think our judges really try
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: to do that. But I've also heard a lot about
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: writing groups where things can get pretty brutal. Sometimes other
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: writers can be you know, your toughest critics. You know,
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: you're I don't know, it's it can be really great
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: to be part of a writer's group.
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: I've heard some horror stories too.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: So it's all about putting together the right group of
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: people that are gonna, you know, grow together as a group.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: Yes, very very very true, and about if everybody is
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: really a part of the same goal, which is to
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: be a professional writer, a working writer. And uh, you know,
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: I was part of another group where every meeting, every month,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: we met once a month, and every month we would
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: have a whole new batch of people show up. So
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: we would have to explain like the beginning of screenwriting
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: and you know, hey, this is what formatting is. Hey,
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: go buy final draft. Hey, you know, make sure that
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: you're you're all set, you know what I mean, Like
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: it's all it's all these things. And finally we started
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: you know, me and the guy who ran it. At
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: that point in time, we said, wait a minute here.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: You know, we're kind of like spinning our wheels in
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: the mud because every meeting we're just briefing these these
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: new you know, new people, and then they leave and
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: then we're getting a whole other group and then we're
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: explaining it to them. So it's like at somebody once
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: told me that the best way to run to run
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: a writer's group is to gain entry. You have to
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: submit a screenplay, a full a feature length screenplay, and
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: every every member sort of you know, takes it and
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: gives their feedback, and then you take a vote on it.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: But that's the key is they have to have written
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: at least one screenplay.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: That's very smart. Yeah, I think that's a great idea.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: Or if it's a group of people none of whom
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: have written a screenplay, that's fine too. But then you're
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: on the same level and you're learning together, you know.
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: But the commitment is the other part. It sounds like
• 28:31
  Speaker 5: it sounds brutal to be losing people all the time
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: and bringing in new people all the time.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: That would be really hard.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know what I think it was was because
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: the reason we had that that constant flux of people
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: leaving and coming, leaving and coming was because of the
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: time did change every month. And also I think that
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: a lot of people weren't really ready for like, oh,
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: this is a real writers group, you know, because like
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: everybody like the about the three of for people who
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: are I would say, we're at this sort of like
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: I guess top of the group if you know, uh,
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: they're I mean we all I mean it was myself
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: and through the guys and we we all are doing
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: stuff now, you know, I I did in in the
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: uh in the business one way or another. But the
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: thing is, like everybody else I think was more long
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: lines up. They wanted to start like a beginner's group,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like, hey, I you know,
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: because it's kind of like, you know, if you want
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: to go play a sport or something, you know, you
• 29:26
  Speaker 3: want to start on a team with other people that
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: are you know, you're like, you know, around like your
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: your skill level. You don't want to start, and all
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: of a sudden you're you're playing with people who've been
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: who are veterans playing for years, you know what I mean.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: It's just kind of you get a little intimidated if.
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: You will, absolutely, and it needs to be mutually beneficial
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: for everybody involved, you know, So it's best if you're
• 29:43
  Speaker 5: all kind of on roughly the same level.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: I think, yeah, exactly. And I'm not saying like I'm
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: some expert either, Christen, I'm not. Oh yes, I'm just saying,
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: you know what I mean. It's just like sometimes, uh,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: you know, in this business, sometimes things can get intimidating. Period.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: You know, we be right back after a word from
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: our sponsor and now back to the show.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: You see, you see a film, uh, in a film
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: festival you're a part of, and you're like, oh, well, god,
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: damn it, that person is better than me. I have
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: now shot of winning. Uh. So you know, and it's
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: I think I think it's happened to everybody.
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: Sure, Sure, And it's understandable that people get intimidated, you know,
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: because it's hard and you know you're vulnerable because it's
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: your baby, and it's that's that's that's what makes it
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: great that you know, when when you have that kind
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: of passion for your project and you care that much,
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: it's it's both a curse and a blessing because you know,
• 30:42
  Speaker 5: it's what it's what is ultimately going to make your
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: writing special and that project special.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: It's also what's going to make.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: You vulnerable to taking notes personally or you know, driving
• 30:53
  Speaker 5: people away because you're too difficult to deal with, or
• 30:56
  Speaker 5: whatever the situation is.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: So you know, there you go. It's just part and
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: parcel of the business.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very very true. And I wanted to ask to
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: Kristin as we sort of get into this about Page
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: in general. You know, as we were talking in the
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: pre interview, there was an impetus for you to start
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Page and I wanted to ask you, what was that
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: point in time in your life where you decided to
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: actually start the competition.
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: It was a time when I was doing a lot
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: of producing. I was working as a line producer. I
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: was doing a lot of budgets for people, reading a
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: lot of scripts, and I really realized that I just
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: missed the writing aspect. Working with writers and evaluating scripts
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: and helping writers develop scripts and all of that. That
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: was more of my passion than all of the work
• 31:48
  Speaker 5: I was doing on movies to get movies made. That's
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: a grueling life, and I have friends who are great
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: at it and who love it. But you're working twenty
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: hour days for weeks at a time, and then suddenly
• 32:01
  Speaker 5: the project is over. You've got to have another gig
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: right away and move on to the next.
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: And it's a tough.
• 32:07
  Speaker 5: Life, and it wasn't the kind of creative life that
• 32:10
  Speaker 5: I wanted.
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: So I wanted to.
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: Get back into working with writers and reading scripts and
• 32:18
  Speaker 5: working with people who evaluate scripts, which is what all
• 32:21
  Speaker 5: our judges are, and also being a little bit of
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: a matchmaker. I have to tell you, I love the
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: opportunity to take our winners and introduce them to certain judges.
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: Sometimes I have a hit that a certain judge is
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: really going to love a certain script, and maybe if
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: they even read a different category, it's like, oh, yeah,
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: I know you read the comedies, but I think you're
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: really going to love this family film, and so I
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: slip it to them in the process and sometimes that
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: works out, and it's really exciting when that happens.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: So when you actually start a page, you know, what
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: was some of the responses that you know you first got,
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know again, like when you start anything
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: like we were just discussing, you know, it's very nerve wracking.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: You get very nervous, you know, because use there's always
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: that feeling you know, what if I fail? You know,
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: So what were you feeling when you know when you
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: first started a.
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: Page, Well, yeah, you're nervous that it's not going to work.
• 33:10
  Speaker 5: Of course, luckily because we did something unique with Page
• 33:15
  Speaker 5: at the time which has since become pretty common, which
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: is that we split the contest into these different genre categories.
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: Initially we had nine, now we have ten, and we
• 33:26
  Speaker 5: have the judges evaluate scripts only in the genre that
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: they're most interested in reading. Sometimes people like reading several,
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: but we focus We have them focused on one, and
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: so basically they're kind of comparing apples to apples, if
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: you will. Of course, not every drama is like every
• 33:42
  Speaker 5: other drama, but at least you're not comparing a drama
• 33:45
  Speaker 5: to a sci fi film or whatever. So you know
• 33:48
  Speaker 5: that that that has been a real help on every level,
• 33:54
  Speaker 5: both in terms of the judging process. The writers love
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: being able to submit to a certain genre knowing that
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: their script is really going to be read by people
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: who love that particular type of script, and that way
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: we could also present awards in the different categories and
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: send out promotions and so if people are looking for
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: our top ten sci fi scripts or whatever we can
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: send them. Those ended up working out really well over
• 34:22
  Speaker 5: time and sort of the when you talk about the
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: beginnings of the contest, that was one of the key
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: things that I saw working right away and I felt
• 34:30
  Speaker 5: was really important. And so that's kind of kind of
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: kept me going through the first couple of years, even though,
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: of course the first couple of years we got about
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: a thousand entries, which was pretty good, but you know,
• 34:43
  Speaker 5: it was tough to make ends meet. We were still
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: operating at a loss, but it was I could see
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: that this could really work and people were starting to
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: find projects that they liked, and that kept me going,
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: you know in the beginning, because I felt like, yeah,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: this idea is good, this idea will work. Have to
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: get the word out and it has to become better known.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: So just to go now it's like sort of flash
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: forward to today. You know, twenty seventeen, how many submissions
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: do you get a year?
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: Now we got about sixty three hundred both the past
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: couple of years, so that's we're almost peaked out. I
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: think the Nickel receives just over seven thousand lately. The
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: past couple of years. I think Austin has received something
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: like nine thousand submissions, which is massive.
• 35:31
  Speaker 4: We our judges, the way we.
• 35:34
  Speaker 5: Structure things, we would have a hard time handling too
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: much more than we get right now. So we're kind
• 35:41
  Speaker 5: of we're at a good place.
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: I feel.
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: Some people say that you have to read about one
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: hundred even two hundred scripts to find a great one. Well,
• 35:49
  Speaker 5: if we get about six thousand entries and we give
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: thirty prizes, thirty one prizes, that's about right then.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: I figure.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: When you get like, you know, six thousand, seven thousand entries,
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: you know, I could just imagine, you know that there's
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: a you know that just all these screenplays sitting in
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: a room and it's like, my god, where do you
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: even start? You know, so, you know, how is the process?
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: I've always been interested, you know, even with the Nicole
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: and the and and the the Austin Film Festival one,
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: and you know, some of these other screenplay competitions you
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: know that are getting you know, five four digit, high
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: four digits submissions. You know, how do you start to
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: sort through them as they come in?
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: Well, it's it's well systematized now. And luckily, because everything's online,
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: there's some things are doable that would not have been
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: doable ten twelve years ago. So as the scripts come in,
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: they come in in a certain category. We have certain
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: judges reading certain categories and they get assigned to them online.
• 36:49
  Speaker 5: And everyone's reading everything online now, so it makes it
• 36:52
  Speaker 5: makes it relatively easy. But we do have over ninety
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: judges over the course of the five rounds of competition,
• 36:57
  Speaker 5: so it's a lot of people going through it, but
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: it's all it's all handled through a little online system
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: that works pretty well, pretty well.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: So they just just sort of continue with that same question.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: Do you ever get like so much digital traffic then
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: and you're like any sort to sort of lose track
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: of things or you know, I mean cause again again
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: with all the submissions, I mean, I could just imagine
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: with that with again high four digit submissions, it's like,
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: how do you keep track of everything?
• 37:27
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: And I imagine so so do you have like a
• 37:31
  Speaker 3: like a whole team behind the scenes sort of like Okay,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: this is an action adventure, this is a comedy, this
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: is a horror.
• 37:36
  Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, but it's all online too. It's all recorded
• 37:40
  Speaker 5: when the script comes in, so that the scripts can
• 37:43
  Speaker 5: be automatically tracked to the right judges. And Zoe and
• 37:47
  Speaker 5: Jennifer are very hands on our team behind the scenes,
• 37:50
  Speaker 5: and Zoe handles all the submissions and she does a
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: fabulous job, and she's very much on top of it,
• 37:55
  Speaker 5: watching as things come in and making sure that they're
• 37:57
  Speaker 5: tracking to the right judges. And when writers request feedback,
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: she'll be careful to She actually assigns those individually, so
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: she makes sure that it's a script that that particular
• 38:08
  Speaker 5: judge has not read before, it's the type of script
• 38:10
  Speaker 5: that she thinks they'll like based on the log line,
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: you know, that kind of thing. So we're very hands on,
• 38:15
  Speaker 5: but by the same token, we've got it pretty well
• 38:17
  Speaker 5: systematized now so that so that things keep moving, which
• 38:21
  Speaker 5: it has to do. You know, when you as you say,
• 38:23
  Speaker 5: when you have six thousand entries, and you have basically
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: from January through October is the whole process, but the
• 38:30
  Speaker 5: vast majority of them are read by the middle of July.
• 38:33
  Speaker 5: It's a lot of scripts to read and a lot
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: of people reading.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean having to get you know, all
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: the feedback and stuff like that. You know, I've had
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: friends who even started you know, I mean their own
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: screwunning competitions on a much smaller scale obviously, and even
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: then it was like it was just like, my god,
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: what the hell have we got ourselves into.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: Well, that's very true, you know.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: I mean, I think a lot of people think, oh,
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: start a screenwriting competition, will make some money, it'll be easy.
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: We're looking for in some cases, like we're looking for
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: a script, let's start a contest, you know. But it's
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: actually if you're if you're honest about it, and if
• 39:09
  Speaker 5: you do it with integrity, it's a lot a lot
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: of work, and it takes a lot of you know,
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: kind of carrying people behind the scenes, the administrative team
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: and the judges to make it work well. Otherwise it
• 39:21
  Speaker 5: ends up being pretty much a rip off of the writers.
• 39:23
  Speaker 5: And I've seen and heard of a lot of horror
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: stories in that regard.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I mean, because I've entered screwinging competitions before,
• 39:34
  Speaker 3: and i haven't entered page yet, but I'm actually hoping
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: to get something done in time to enter. Uh but uh,
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 39:43
  Speaker 5: I hope we'll live up to your expectations. But yeah,
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: I mean, your your own experience, I'm sure it would
• 39:47
  Speaker 5: be really educational for your listeners, because you know, what's
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: the range of experience you had with contests.
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: Well, I think page already meets my expectations because like, honestly, we'll.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: Be right back after a word from our sponsor and
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: now back to the show.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: My expect because I mean, I've heard of the competition before,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: you know, as I was, you know, just just you know,
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: obviously when we're just discussing this whole conversation. You know,
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I'm familiar with Paige, you know, Austin the nicol But
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: in my experience, by the way, the ones I just
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: mentioned I've not entered before. I entered one, and I
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: got back maybe half a page or a page of
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: like of correspond you know, of like feedback, And that's
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: what I really wanted, was that feedbacks. I wanted to
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: hear where the writer was going. I mean, I'm sorry
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: the reader was going to say. And basically at the end,
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: she admitted that this screenplay wasn't for her and just
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: kind of, you know, let me down easily because she
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: she just didn't know where it fits, so to speak.
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: And I forget what language she used, but you know,
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I felt like, Okay, I don't really know if this
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: was worth the extra money to pay for for the
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: for the feedback. But what I did was, and this
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: is a part of the funny story, was I took
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: this screenplay and I knew a producer and he said, hey,
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: you know, if it's if it's a it's a horror comedy.
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: And I sent it to him and he goes, Dave,
• 41:15
  Speaker 3: this is so over the top. He goes, I don't
• 41:17
  Speaker 3: know how to even market this thing, you know, et cetera,
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: et cetera. Well, a couple months later I ended up
• 41:22
  Speaker 3: bumping into him again and he goes, you know what,
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: I should have went with you on that screenplay. He goes,
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: I don't know what the hell I was thinking about.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: He goes, I've been thinking about that opening, he goes,
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: And the and the funny parts were funny, the horror
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: parts were scary, he goes. But he goes, I just
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: don't know. And he goes, I just don't know how
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: to actually market it. And I said it would be tricky,
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: it would be very tricky, but it could be done.
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: And so I told him that the feedback I got
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: from the scream Rining competition and he said, yeah, he said,
• 41:53
  Speaker 3: you know, we talked about what competition it was, and
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: he said, yeah, they they oftentimes either don't give any
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: any feed or they just sort of give like this
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: very homogenized feedback.
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean feedback. What can I say?
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: We work really hard to give our writers great feedback.
• 42:13
  Speaker 5: That's a very important part of our mission because you know,
• 42:17
  Speaker 5: it helps writers grow and that's what our goal is.
• 42:20
  Speaker 5: We'd love to see. We love it when writers enter
• 42:23
  Speaker 5: a few years in a row and they keep doing
• 42:24
  Speaker 5: better and better and they've got more and more scripts
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: and a stronger body of material, and so that finally
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: when they do when they end up getting signed because
• 42:32
  Speaker 5: they have a body of material to show an agent
• 42:35
  Speaker 5: or manager and things are launched from there. That's actually
• 42:39
  Speaker 5: kind of an ideal scenario and we love to be
• 42:41
  Speaker 5: a part of that. We love to help writers do that,
• 42:45
  Speaker 5: and feedback is a huge part of it. I think
• 42:47
  Speaker 5: getting professional feedback is so helpful for writers when you
• 42:51
  Speaker 5: can get it from someplace that's supportive, that's going to
• 42:55
  Speaker 5: really that's where the goal is, to help you improve
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: as a writer rather than just trash. You will tell
• 43:00
  Speaker 5: you you know why the script doesn't work, so you know,
• 43:05
  Speaker 5: but there's the whole range out there. It's writers, you know.
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: I think as much as you can get. My bottom
• 43:11
  Speaker 5: line advice, would you get as much as you can
• 43:13
  Speaker 5: and take it all with a big grain.
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: Of salt, because that's really at the end of the day.
• 43:17
  Speaker 5: When you're working as a professional writer, you're getting notes
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: all the time on everything you do. Eight sets of
• 43:23
  Speaker 5: rewrites on a script by the time it gets into
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: production more. I mean, it's crazy how much. And you
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: have to be able to take all these opinions from
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: the producers initially and the financiers and then the director
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: and the actors and somehow incorporate that into your script
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: and keep the integrity of your script and keep make
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: sure it continues to work, because often the notes you
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: get aren't even if the person offers a solution, often
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: it's not the right solution, but maybe they have their
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: finger on the pulse of something that's problematic. So you
• 43:53
  Speaker 5: have to as the writer, interpret it, interpret that and
• 43:56
  Speaker 5: make the note work within your.
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: Vision of the script.
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: Complict get complicated and hard to do. So the more
• 44:02
  Speaker 5: practice you get at taking notes, even if they're bad notes,
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: and just figuring out what was this person really saying,
• 44:09
  Speaker 5: and you know, is it something I want to do,
• 44:12
  Speaker 5: is it something that I want to incorporate in the script,
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: or you know, and when you start hearing a note
• 44:16
  Speaker 5: from more than one person, really pay attention because something's
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: not working.
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I concur and uh. One of the things I
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: wanted to say too was that sometimes you know, the
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: that note could be that something's not working. And one
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: thing I've noticed too is also something could be working.
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: Because one I wrote a screenplay years ago, and I
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: remember the one positive I got out of it was
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: that everyone there was one note I always got. It
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: was like, oh, this is actually working pretty well. This
• 44:45
  Speaker 3: is a really nice way to open that this movie.
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: And only one person out of everyone I let read
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: it was said, oh no, that's too what's over dramatic.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: Don't do it that way, and everybody else disagreed, and
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: I was like, all right, I think I'm gonna go
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: with that with the uh, just gonna keep.
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: It in there.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: And that's again you make my point for me, which
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: is get as many opinions as you can, and ideally
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: professional opinions, but your friends is fine other as long
• 45:08
  Speaker 5: as they know something about reading a screenplay. If your
• 45:11
  Speaker 5: writer's group is great, but get as many opinions as
• 45:13
  Speaker 5: you can, and get as many professional opinions as you
• 45:15
  Speaker 5: can from wherever, because the more you hear, the more
• 45:20
  Speaker 5: things will start to make sense. And then that one
• 45:22
  Speaker 5: oddball opinion will stand out as like, oh no, no,
• 45:26
  Speaker 5: that was just that person who had a bad dinner
• 45:28
  Speaker 5: that night or whatever, but or just didn't understand something
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: about this, whatever the situation might be.
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: But if you just get.
• 45:34
  Speaker 5: Notes from one person and you take those as gospel,
• 45:38
  Speaker 5: you know, you could potentially be led astray.
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very true, Kristin, Very true. You know, Christian, I
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: know that the Page Screwening Awards opens this year, which
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: is December one, twenty seventeen, which is in about two
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: weeks give or take, and probably about a week from
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: when this podcast actually is going up. But I just
• 46:00
  Speaker 3: wanted to, you know, ask just well, you know why
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: I have you on here, because I've always heard this
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: about screening and competitions. I heard that the the the better,
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: the chance uh for to to sort of win or
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: or or to even just to get noticed, is to
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: get your screenplay in earlier. And the reason the reason
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: they say this is because they say you know, judges
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: and everybody has to read so many screenplays that they
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: end up, you know, pulling their favorites out first, you
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: know what I mean, Like they'll have that in their
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: meaning in their mind, you know, they have like, oh, man,
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: I remember reading this script and uh, you know, and
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: it really stood out and then versus handing it in
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: later and you know, you have less of a chance
• 46:39
  Speaker 3: to sort of stand out, you know what I mean.
• 46:41
  Speaker 3: Like we were talking about earlier on where the where
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: the top always goes to the cream always rises at
• 46:45
  Speaker 3: the top. So is there any truth to that in
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: your experience? No?
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: No, So you know that's one of the myths.
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: And you know, I do think that the judges have
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: less to read early on, and they're.
• 47:01
  Speaker 4: Pressure, if you like, in a sense.
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: Although most of these people, keep in mind, are reading
• 47:06
  Speaker 5: for their companies all the time anyway, so this is
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: just something they incorporate into their schedule over time. But
• 47:14
  Speaker 5: here's the thing. Like for us, we have five different
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: rounds of competition. So your first round judge will read
• 47:20
  Speaker 5: your script pretty much soon after it comes in, right,
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: and then we also have the second round that starts
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: right about in March. Once there's enough build up of
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: stuff moving forward from.
• 47:30
  Speaker 4: The first round.
• 47:31
  Speaker 5: So those people start reading in March and they read
• 47:34
  Speaker 5: through the middle of the summer, but once you get
• 47:37
  Speaker 5: to the third round and fourth round, they're kind of
• 47:39
  Speaker 5: reading things all at the same time and not necessarily
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: in order that it was submitted.
• 47:44
  Speaker 4: So basically what we have found it.
• 47:47
  Speaker 5: I've tracked this because people have asked this question a lot.
• 47:51
  Speaker 5: We've had scripts with over the you know, with the
• 47:54
  Speaker 5: thirty one prizes we give, usually one of them will
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: have been submitted on the very first day of the contest,
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: and one or two of them will have been submitted
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: on the last day, and they pretty much are scattered
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: all throughout. So it really that is not it saves
• 48:09
  Speaker 5: you money to enter early. We push you to end
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: early because we want to get scripts in for the
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: judges to read. We want to give them enough time
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: to read everything. We don't want everything coming in in May,
• 48:20
  Speaker 5: at which point, you know, we wouldn't be able to
• 48:22
  Speaker 5: get everything read in time to make our announcements. So
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: that's why we give you know, all kinds of incentives
• 48:27
  Speaker 5: to enter as early as possible, but it does not
• 48:30
  Speaker 5: affect your chances of winning.
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: That's another sort of false myth out there put down.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: I'm glad. I'm glad I asked that question because you know,
• 48:38
  Speaker 3: you see all these false myths online about screenwriting in general,
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: and I'm just glad that.
• 48:44
  Speaker 5: Yeah, well, I think at least in our experience, that's
• 48:47
  Speaker 5: one of them. I mean, maybe other contests. I can
• 48:49
  Speaker 5: only speak for us, but but that's that's the way
• 48:52
  Speaker 5: things run here. And I honestly have seen a lot
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: of the scripts that are submitted in the last couple
• 48:58
  Speaker 5: of rounds of competition win, as well as some that
• 49:00
  Speaker 5: are submitted early on. So it's it's pretty well spread
• 49:04
  Speaker 5: out throughout.
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: And you know, Christy, we've been talking for about, you know,
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: fifty minutes now, and I just wanted to ask, you know,
• 49:11
  Speaker 3: is there anything that we can get a chance to
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: talk about that maybe we want to discuss right now,
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: or just even anything you want to say to sort
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: of put a period the end of this whole conversation.
• 49:20
  Speaker 5: I think the only thing is, you know, people ask
• 49:22
  Speaker 5: me a lot what does it take to make a
• 49:24
  Speaker 5: winning script?
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: What is it that puts the winners over the top.
• 49:29
  Speaker 5: And it's a very very hard question to answer, and
• 49:33
  Speaker 5: I've tried to sort of distill it down over the years.
• 49:36
  Speaker 5: But I would say that for us, the scripts that
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: advance up to the semi final and final round, they're
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: all really strong. They're strong writers, they're interesting.
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: Ideas they have.
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: The scripts have a lot of strengths, but every script
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: has certain what somebody would call a weakness. You know,
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: if one judge read it, they might say, oh, I
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: love this character.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 50:07
  Speaker 5: In privative to me, you know, so everyone, I mean
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: opinions differ in that regard. But at the end of
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: the day, what I hear over and over when we're
• 50:16
  Speaker 5: down to the final final decisions is people saying this script.
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: The thing that's so special about it is this is
• 50:24
  Speaker 5: a character that I know ten actors who would love
• 50:28
  Speaker 5: to play this role. It's so compelling and so the
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: story moved me and it will move an actor. So
• 50:35
  Speaker 5: the script has a real shot of getting made, and
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: it the voice of the writer is just so clear
• 50:44
  Speaker 5: and so specific and so special that they feel like
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: they've read something that is unique and will stand out
• 50:55
  Speaker 5: from the crowd. So whatever its other flaws might potentially
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: be in terms of that they can work on in development, which,
• 51:03
  Speaker 5: as I said, it'll end up probably going through however,
• 51:06
  Speaker 5: many rewrites in the course of development and into production.
• 51:10
  Speaker 5: But that the truth thing that's there, that the core
• 51:14
  Speaker 5: of an idea that's really special, a role for an
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: actor that's really unique and compelling, and something that's really
• 51:22
  Speaker 5: going to make an actor sit up and take notice.
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: And.
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: Just something in the voice of the writing that makes
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: it stand out from the from the crowd.
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: Whatever that is.
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's very true too, because whatever gets you
• 51:39
  Speaker 3: to stand out from the crowd. And you've seen examples,
• 51:42
  Speaker 3: you know, all throughout even in the in the like
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: the nineties, for example, when Shane Black wrote, uh, lethal
• 51:47
  Speaker 3: Weapon Quentin Tarantino, you can really tell what he really
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: enjoys writing his scripts because they just sort of pot
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: their own style of popping out at you. And then
• 51:56
  Speaker 3: you know, even some of the screenplay competition, the award winners,
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: like they just released the screenplay from mud Bound, they
• 52:04
  Speaker 3: released a couple of other screenplays that you know, how
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: the you know you can you and you when you
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: read them, you can kind of see how you know
• 52:11
  Speaker 3: they did what they did with their screenplays how what
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: what causes them to be unique.
• 52:16
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, when Juno came out, that was such a special
• 52:19
  Speaker 5: script and movie because she had such a strong voice
• 52:22
  Speaker 5: on the same sort of note. But the flip side
• 52:26
  Speaker 5: of it is that please do not try to copy
• 52:30
  Speaker 5: Quentin Tarantino or David Mammott or somebody else who has
• 52:33
  Speaker 5: a really strong voice, because really, the judges roll their
• 52:36
  Speaker 5: eyes at that. Industry readers roll their eyes at that.
• 52:38
  Speaker 5: They you know, they've seen a lot of copycat scripts.
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: It's it's really about.
• 52:42
  Speaker 5: Finding your own vision, your own voice, your own approach
• 52:46
  Speaker 5: to the world and to your story that is unexpected
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: and fresh. And that's where you hear the phrase familiar
• 52:55
  Speaker 5: but fresh. You know, it's it's like an idea that
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: perhaps on the industry can understand and say, oh, yeah,
• 53:02
  Speaker 5: I know, we did we know about movie that, some
• 53:04
  Speaker 5: movie like that. But this particular script has such a
• 53:08
  Speaker 5: fresh twist on the idea, and that's the writer's voice,
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: the writer's point of view that makes it stand out.
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's a really good point, by the way,
• 53:17
  Speaker 3: Kristin about not trying to copy anybody else. I once
• 53:21
  Speaker 3: had a friend of mine who who started before me
• 53:23
  Speaker 3: in the film business, and he started before me, and
• 53:25
  Speaker 3: he ended up calling himself the next Quentin Tarantino, and
• 53:28
  Speaker 3: he kept labeling himself as that, and finally I think
• 53:31
  Speaker 3: he bumped into a manager or agent and they said,
• 53:35
  Speaker 3: why are you marketing yourself as the next Quentin Tarantino?
• 53:38
  Speaker 3: They were like, do you think Quentin Tarantino went around
• 53:40
  Speaker 3: and said he was the next whatever? Like he just
• 53:42
  Speaker 3: wanted to be Quentin Tarantino. That was it, Like you
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: should be focused on that and not trying to be
• 53:46
  Speaker 3: somebody else. And I think I'm.
• 53:49
  Speaker 5: Sorry, absolutely, I'm just agreeing Larded because it's yeah, it's
• 53:53
  Speaker 5: so important.
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: You have no idea.
• 53:55
  Speaker 5: I mean, I can't tell you how many times oh
• 53:57
  Speaker 5: that's another Guy Ricie script, you know, or something. They
• 54:00
  Speaker 5: they're just and people do it. So you have no idea.
• 54:02
  Speaker 5: How many other writers are trying to copy some of
• 54:05
  Speaker 5: these iconic writers and it just doesn't It doesn't work.
• 54:11
  Speaker 5: So find your voice, find your own voice. Oh but
• 54:14
  Speaker 5: you know, one good exercise if writers want to play
• 54:17
  Speaker 5: with it, and this is a fun thing to do,
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: is write a script in the style up just for
• 54:22
  Speaker 5: fun as you're learning, maybe a short film, even just
• 54:25
  Speaker 5: as you're learning as you're growing, just to to kind
• 54:27
  Speaker 5: of strengthen your chops, you know, write a script in
• 54:29
  Speaker 5: the style of Quan Tarantinow or Diabocodi or whoever, you know,
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: just to see how different writers might approach a different subject,
• 54:37
  Speaker 5: a different basic storyline. That's a really fun thing to do,
• 54:41
  Speaker 5: and it teaches you a lot doing something like that.
• 54:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know what you exactly what you mean and
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: I've seen but I do like the idea too, is
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: just to be unique and be yourself because you know,
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, you know, you have
• 54:55
  Speaker 3: to be yourself, right, Kristen.
• 54:57
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, you know, absolutely so. I think that's a great one,
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: a great sort of sign off.
• 55:03
  Speaker 4: It's like, be yourself.
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to ask. In closing though, is
• 55:07
  Speaker 3: where we'll find you out online.
• 55:10
  Speaker 5: Page Awards dot com is our website.
• 55:12
  Speaker 3: Kristin, I just want to say thank you so much
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: for coming on.
• 55:15
  Speaker 5: It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: Dave, Oh my pleasure. Kristen.
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Indie Film Huscle
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: dot com. Forward slash seven eighty five and if you
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com,
• 55:35
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• 55:38
  Speaker 2: really helps us out a lot, guys.
• 55:40
  Speaker 3: Thank you again so much for listening.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: Guys, as always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 55:48
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• 55:51
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