This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode: 312 Writer/Producer Kristin Alexandre on Altar Rock.


Ashley: Welcome to Episode #312 of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger over at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing Kristen Alexandre who is a real go getter and talks about her film Altar Rock and how she put it all together. She is another inspirational writer who just went out and made things happen for herself. She put the project together without having an agent or a manager, without living in Los Angeles and without knowing a ton of people in the business. She just networked smartly, used what opportunities she got to her full advantage. So stay tuned for that interview. She’s very transparent and really talks about her project and how she put it all together. So stay tuned for that interview.

If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review on iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mention in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast  and then just look for Episode Number #312. If you want my free guide-How To Sell a Screenplay in Five Weeks, you can pick that up by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.

It’s completely free, you just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks along with a bunch of bonus lessons. I teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. I’ll teach you how to write a professional logline and query letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material. Really, it’s everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.

So a quick few words about what I am working on. I’m still running around finishing up the shoot for The Rideshare Killer. Last Saturday I returned all the camera equipment. We had a few things that got broken so we have to deal with those and get those things fixed. That’s definitely an issue when you rent stuff, and stuff does get worn or broken, you have to deal with all of that. We did have insurance on the shoot, so it’s not a huge deal and it doesn’t sound like the broken stuff is gonna be more than a few hundred dollars. So I think we actually did pretty well on that. Obviously this is all very high end camera equipment, so renting it, there is a potential if anything breaks, it’s generally speaking very expensive cause as I said, it’s very high end experience.

But again, the guy that rented us the equipment, he’s been very nice and super honest and transparent about everything. So again, overall very good experience. I definitely would recommend him specifically, but even ShareGrid in particular. I mentioned that last week on the podcast that we found this camera through a service called ShareGrid. It’s literally www.sharegrid.com. It’s where people just list their camera equipment and then you can find what you need and rent it. So that hopefully is basically all taken care of. We have our wrap party on Saturday, so that should be fun to see everyone. While I’m not super stressed out working. While I’m on set, I’m just dealing with so many things.

I never really got a chance to kind of sit down and talk to some of these… talk to some of the actors and get to know them a little bit other than just sort of the working. So it’ll be nice to have just kind of a more casual time with these people. And it’s part of the wrap party too. You go through, you know, for 17 days, it’s like it’s this really massive effort from everybody. So when you’re done, there’s kind of some really sad feelings, you’ve just spent so much time with these people for the last three weeks. So it’s a nice way to kind of wind that all down and kind of just see everybody and kind of get back to our normal lives. And of course there is some organizational stuff that I have to do. I have to buy snacks and drinks and all that stuff.

Again, that’s one of the downsides to being one of the producers on the project because I kind of have to take care of a lot of those sort of logistical things. So, but once I get to the party, it’ll be all just winding down and relaxing. I found someone here locally to create the low res proxy files. He seems real good, so I’ll probably have him do what’s called an assembly cut. Basically, he’ll sync all the sound and lay in all the pieces of the film, but it will be like 25 hours as it will literally be all the footage of every decent take, just stacked into a timeline in Adobe Premiere. And then just as the director I can sit there and go through everything, see all the pieces, see all the footage and start to sort of see what I think is the best takes.

I may then take a stab at a rough cut and then bring on an editor after that to really polish things up. I’m not… again, that’s a bit down the road, so I haven’t really decided on that. I’m not what I would consider an editor. I know how to use Adobe Premiere, but I’m not really like a hot shot editor, so I definitely need to bring someone on that’s more of sort of a hot shot editor that can really hone this thing and make it look professional. But at least for that first rough cut, I may be able to go in and just sort of pick the takes I want and kind of get something loosely in place. But again, that’s down the road so we’ll just have to see. First, as mentioned, he needs to create the low res proxy file so it doesn’t just completely slow down my machine as I work with the media.

My computer just is not set up to handle these large 4k raw files. These are just humongous high resolution video files that the camera is taking and that’s what you want. You want high… you wanna start with a really high res file, but then my computer, it just, it’s not set up. It’s not an editing computer, so it just doesn’t have the bandwidth to process these things. So when you dump them into Adobe Premiere, it just lags and it just barely even runs. In fact, on my system like if I put in three, just three takes, and there’s hundreds, we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of takes here for the film. But if I just drop in three takes or something, my system just can barely even do anything. So again, these files are just way too big for my system, which is why I need these proxy files.

And then once I have the proxy files, I can just cut a teaser trailer, I can start to cut some of the pieces together. And this is all in an effort to get the Kickstarter campaign going. Right now what I’m planning is a two week Kickstarter campaign. The reason I’m thinking about only doing it for two weeks as opposed to like 28 days or 30 days, which is more common, is that on the last one I found that virtually no one contributed during those middle two weeks, so I’m figuring why bother even run it for that long. I’m just gonna have a first week and hopefully people will contribute and then I’m gonna have a last week, “Hey, this is your last week to contribute.” So hopefully people will be generous and will be willing to contribute during one of those two weeks.

But as again, I just didn’t find there was a lot of value in running it those middle two weeks. Not a lot of people contributed and it’s a lot of effort to keep this thing going. So I’m thinking try and do a really good job for the two weeks. I’m gonna coordinate with all the actors too to highlight an actor each day. That’s kinda my plan for the campaign, is basically if I do it for two weeks and maybe it will be 15 days, so I have like an extra Monday on the end of it. So maybe it’ll be 15 or 16 days, but roughly two weeks. And what I’m gonna do sort of to try and just promote the Kickstarter campaign is basically try and create like a little promo for each one of the actors. We had a lot of great cast in this project and those casts also have fans of their own too.

So hopefully if we highlight each one of these actors, hopefully that can kind of fold in their fans as well and bring them to the Kickstarter campaign. That’s sort of the idea. Again, two weeks, highlight an actor every day and then we’ll do some other stuff, some little specials and promos and that sort of stuff. But that’ll sort of be the gist of it. I’m hoping to get this all together here in the next couple of weeks. So, hopefully by the end of January we’ll have the thing launched and then by the middle of February we’d be done and then we’d be off to the races hiring all the post production people that that we need to finish the film. Anyway, so that’s the main thing I’m working on this weekend and for the foreseeable future. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today I’m interviewing writer, producer Kristin Alexandre. Here is the interview.

Ashley: Welcome Kristen to the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.

Kristin: Thank you, Ashley. Thank you.

Ashley: To start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up and how did you get interested in the entertainment business?

Kristin: So I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and I’ve always been a writer. I had a column when I was 15 in the newspaper and then later on I became a journalist and newscaster in New York City. From there I worked for most of the magazines, The Women’s Magazine, Town and Country. Harper’s Bazaar, and I also worked freelance for The Christian Science Monitor. I covered everything from beauty articles to prison stories and then eventually I worked for two governors of Puerto Rico in New York. But I was always a writer. I was writing speeches for the governors and then later on in my life I started writing books and ended up writing a novel, which is how I got into film.

Ashley: I see. Okay. So then just taking a step back quick, I noticed on IMDb you have a good number of credits as an associate producer and executive producer. I’m curious how did you get involved in those projects and then ultimately, how did they help prepare you for your feature film?

Kristin: Well, once I decided that I wanted to be in film and take my writing skills… I wanted to join the Screenwriter’s Guild, which I’m now a member of. So I decided to get involved with other people’s films, and because I’m a part time resident in Nantucket, the Island, I went to work on a film, there called Grey Lady, and I joined up with that team and that team eventually I hired to be my team to produce the film that I authored called Altar Rock.

Ashley: I see. Okay. So let’s dig in. Let’s go ahead and dig into Altar Rock. Take us way back. Was this a book that you originally wrote and then converted it into a screenplay?

Kristin: It started out as a book and then I quickly realized I wanted to enter a contest at the American Film Market where you pitch your product. I decided to throw it into a script and run out to Hollywood and pitch Altar Rock at this pitch contest. At the pitch contest, after the pitch contest, I had quite a little bit of interest in purchasing the script and I thought, well, they’re just gonna throw it away, so I think I’ll produce it myself.

Ashley: Now. What do you mean? Why did you think they would just throw it away?

Kristin: Well, because everyone told me in all the meetings that I had out there that probably, it probably would never end up on the big screen. And I was very ambitious and I didn’t like the idea of doing things the slow way because I was already fairly advanced in years [laughs] and I just thought, well, I’m just going to produce this thing myself. And of course I had no idea what I was getting into.

Ashley: Yeah. So let’s start along that journey. You’ve got the book written, you’ve pitched it, you’ve got at least a little bit of interest so you feel like there is some interest in this as an idea. Then did you go and then write the screenplay at that point,

Kristin: Yeah, I’d already written the screenplay. And so I actually walked into the office of Ramo Law and I said, “You know, I’m an author, can you help me find someone who will help me produce and raise money for this film?” And they thought I was pretty funny, but they did help me. They were amazing. They were incredibly helpful.

Ashley: Who were these people? You said their name. Who were these people?

Kristin: Ramo Law, which is a fairly established group out in LA. It’s R-A-M-O. Ramo. And so this woman, Tiffany began to help me and she sent me names of producers and I just had a lot of nerve and I just started calling them up saying, “I’ve got this great script and I’m gonna send it to you and it’s gonna be a romantic thriller and can you help me raise money and I’m gonna make it for a million five. So that’s how it all started. I just started calling on people.

Ashley: How did this law firm get on your radar? Was that somebody you met at AFM? How did you even know to even go in and start talking to them?

Kristin: Well, every contact that I had in my life, I started pulling in. And I had just… I’d heard somehow that… Oh, I had a friend from the East Coast who knew somebody at Ramo and just said, “You should just go in there and talk to them because your script is kind of good, you should pitch them the story idea.” So they started to help me and that’s how it all started really.

Ashley: I see. What kind of reception were you getting when you started just cold calling these producers?

Kristin: Well, what I said to everyone is that I’d raised half a million dollars already, and of course my idea was that I would raise that on my own and then I put the rest of it out there to raise from producers. And so when I told people that I’d already raised a little bit of money, they had an interest, I got quite a bit of interest actually in the screenplay.

Ashley: Yeah. So did you actually have the $500,000 raised or you were just kind of, you know, fake it till you make it?

Kristin: I was fake it till you make it [laughs].

Ashley: I got you [laughs].

Kristin: Definitely fake it till you make it.

Ashley: Okay. So we’re going along this journey and then what kind of reception are you getting from these producers? Are some of them coming on board, are you optioning this script? What kind of deal are you cutting with them?

Kristin: I found that the producers, of course, don’t forget, this was just three years ago. I found out that the producers were incredibly eager to come on board and I got a little nervous. So I found myself actually turning down producers and I thought, “I better go out, I better work on a film myself to find out what’s going on behind the scenes.” That’s when I went to work for Eric Dane’s, the movie Grey Lady. Then when I worked on that film, I decided to hire that entire… the director and the producers to produce my film.

Ashley: I see. Then at this point, had you raised some money?

Kristin: Yeah. By that time I’d already raised $1 million and just through friends and family.

Ashley: Walk us through that. Okay. Through friends and family. I see.

Kristin: Yeah, friends and family. Actually, I have a couple of people that were not close friends, but they just thought they’d take a gamble. They wanted to be in a low budget… involved in a low budget project like this.

Ashley: Take us through that pitch. Take us through that pitch a little bit. These friends and family. What does your pitch to them look like? Did you do a kind of a proper slideshow presentation where you’re talking about ROI? What is the pitch to them to bring these people on board?

Kristin: Well, I said I’ve hired this famous director, Andrzej Bartkowiak who’s done big hundred million dollar films like Romeo Must Die, and I’ve hired his two producers from Boston, and if you wanna be involved in a movie, this is gonna be fun, I’ll put your daughter in it, she can be a PA. We’re gonna really have fun, just give me $30,000 and I’ll get you involved. That’s how it started. And it worked pretty well.

Ashley: How many people are you pitching to actually get this? I mean, at $30,000 to get to $1 million, that’s quite a few people.

Kristin: Well, I had some… well, also don’t forget I had the Massachusetts tax credit and then I had… my producer had somebody who was willing to lend us some money. So it didn’t take me too long to get up to the million, but then after that it got a little bit tougher. I ended up… money wasn’t, as it always is, money is the biggest hurdle of all. It was really tough. It got tough.

Ashley: Yeah. Okay. So at what point did you run into KJ Apa and how did you bring him into the project?

Kristin: So Andrzej Bartkowiak had a lot of connections in the film world obviously. And he… Nancy Nayor, who’s a casting agent, he went out to her and she started interviewing young men. And actually KJ was fairly, had not even appeared in Riverdale yet. He was just a young actor from New Zealand who had never been in a film. And so I hired him. It was his first film. India Eisley who’s Olivia Hussey’s daughter, she was fairly new too. And then we hired people through Boston Casting cause we were gonna… we shot the movie in Duxbury and we faked that for Nantucket. The story is centered in Nantucket, Massachusetts, but Duxbury is a good option. So we went to Boston Casting and they found us James Remar who is in Dexter, he plays Dexter’s dad and he’s in a lot of films.

Then I got some Nantucket actors like John Shea, who’s famous in Nantucket to kind of fill in. But KJ was a big find. He was not famous at all. It’s turned out that that’s gonna be the key element to selling the film.

Ashley: Yeah, for sure. So maybe just to take a step back, you can give us a quick pitch or a log line. What is Altar Rock about? What is the logline for it?

Kristin: Altar Rock is a romantic thriller about a young girl Tillie, from New Jersey whose parents have died in a tragic airplane crash on the Island. She’s distraught obviously because she’s an only child. She’s gone to live in Nantucket with her aunt and she falls in love with a young taxi driver who is living in Nantucket played by K J, and his older brother is a terrorist and Nantucket does have a lot of Eastern European immigrants there who it’s controversial there, but they’re usually hardworking young men. And anyway, in the show is very accepted into Nantucket into American ways, but the older brother who comes to Nantucket to break up the relationship is really a terrorist. He’s an upholder so that he will never be accepted here. And I based that relationship on what I knew about the Boston Bombers.

So the Boston bombers intrigued me because my daughter knew people who knew the younger Boston Bomber, who knew him at [inaudible 00:19:44]. She told me that he was very well accepted and liked, he had a popular girlfriend and that the odd thing, the sad thing was his older brothers sucked him into this horrible act of vengeance and really cruel things happened as you know, during that event. And so I was intrigued by the idea of what if the younger brother had fallen in love with an American girl. What would he really, what would he do? Would he have gone through with it?

Ashley: Yeah. So let’s talk about the writing process a little bit. On IMDb, you have a shared writing credit with Wayne Carter. Maybe you can talk about that relationship. It sounds like you wrote the first draft of the script, and then at what point did this other writer come in and how did that relationship, how was the collaboration? How did that actually work?

Kristin: Well, actually I met Wayne at the AFM and I knew that since I’d never written a screenplay and I didn’t wanna fool around too long, I really wanted to jump on this. So I said to Wayne, “You know, I’m really a novelist and just a regular old feature writer. Could you take a look at what I’ve got here and we’ll work together because I’m gonna do this one way or the other.” He was experienced and he said yes, and we’ve been working together ever since. We are pitching a series right now. We work very well together and he’s just terrific. I think in some cases it might not work so well, but for the two of us we collaborate really well.

Ashley: I see. What does the collaboration actually look like? So you had a first draft and then he, did he go through it and take his pass, did he give you notes on it and then you guys would work together in the same room doing the edits?

Kristin: Well, since he’s in… we’re in different places, we would work sometimes on Skype and then sometimes on FaceTime. We just would work away at the actual plot, how to make it more dramatic, how to make it more romantic. And we just would talk for say two hours, two or three times a week, and then he flew to Nantucket actually. In the final edit, we actually worked with the director every day for two weeks to make changes to the final draft.

Ashley: I see. Okay. Let’s talk about just writing that first draft. What did that actually look like? Where do you typically write and when do you typically write? Are you a morning person, a night person? And then do you have a home office, do you write at Starbucks? What does that look like?

Kristin: I usually write right in my kitchen. I start at around 11.00 and I just sit right in the chair. I don’t work at a desk, even though I have one. I just sit in a chair and just start typing away. And then I like to get together with Wayne in the afternoons and he takes… we kind of work it out together. We’ve done quite a few… we have a couple of scripts up on the blacklist right now. We took my novel and turned that that into a screenplay. Unfortunately I’m told that it’s a $20 million project [laughs]. So that’s gonna be tough to sell.

Ashley: Sure. How much time do you spend, and we can use Altar Rock as an example. How much time do you spend preparing like an outlining and then versus how much time do you spend actually in final draft writing, dialogue and action?

Kristin: I would say timewise we probably jumped right in. We don’t even do outlines. We actually do sentence composition together as we go page by page. There’s not much outlining. We kind of… when we speak, we speak the characters roles together. Does that make any sense?

Ashley: Yeah, but I mean you must’ve had some idea like what the ending of this movie was gonna be before you started. There must’ve been something, I mean, you didn’t just open a blank page and say, “Okay, let’s start writing a script.” There must’ve been some preparation. Even if that’s just thinking about what the story is all about.

Kristin: Yeah, I knew we wanted to open up the film with the plane crash. Tillie’s parents die in a plane crash at the opening. Actually the opening is a little bit different than that, although the plane crash is post on it. Then I knew… actually principle was three years ago, so this has taken a long time and I knew by the end six months ago I knew that I really wanted a happy ending. I feel like there’s… I don’t really enjoy films that don’t have some kind of hopeful ending. So I knew that we wanted the two characters to end on a happy note and a hopeful note. So we do have that ending. And we struggled a lot with the ending with the director and with the producers too. We all sat in a room.

Ashley: I see. How did you go into this… actually taking a step back, how does that differ than writing novels? When you write a novel, do you not spend a lot of time outlining you just open and start writing? How does it compare to writing a script versus writing a novel in terms of that preparation?

Kristin: I think a novel is harder and I won’t deny it and I do do a lot of outlining when I write a novel, because a novel is… because now they’re all written to be read out loud. But I think writing dialogue is much more fun than writing a novel. I much prefer screen writing to being a novelist. A novel has to have a… it’s like building a house. Of course making a movie is like building a house too, but I think writing a screenplay is more fun cause there’s so much dialogue, which is what, I love that part. So I like to just put the words out there and then you kind of squeeze it into a shape. But yeah, I always know the story from the beginning to end in my mind.

Ashley: How do you approach screenplay structure? There’s this sort of very template, you know, the Blake Snyder, the Syd Fields. And then I’ve talked to a number of screenwriters on this podcast that are much more sort of free forming. How did you go into screenplay structure? Were you very aware of that three act structure, the beginning, middle, and end, the turning points and that sort of stuff?

Kristin: Well, Wayne kind of taught me that part, that you have to have the arc and the… you have to have the structure and I’m more free form than that. So he always takes the story that I have in my mind and he puts it into the… he jams it into the structure of the screenplay format. I’m less aware of that than he is. He’s been working on hundreds of screenplays through his entire career.

Ashley: Yeah. Okay. So maybe just more of a general question. What advice do you have for writers who are thinking about taking this on? They’ve got a script that they’re passionate about and they’re thinking, “I wanna go and I wanna produce my own film?” Maybe just give us some sort of some macro lessons that you learned going through this process.

Kristin: Yeah. I think it is hard not living in Los Angeles, but it is possible, especially working around centers where there are film people around like joining some of these film groups like… well, there’s Stage 32, there’s different groups you can… But I think the most important thing really is finding a producer to work with and then finding a group of people to be with and to work with because it’s really a group sport. I didn’t appreciate that bit in the beginning. And then going to things like Reading the Trades, going to things like the AFM and just going out there and just being in the group and finding out what’s going… some of the lectures, finding out what’s going on is a big, big plus, because it’s really about who you attach yourself to. Eventually it’s about what actress or actor you attach to your product because that’s gonna draw in the producer and then you’re gonna enhance the finances to support the project. Right?

Ashley: Yeah. What was your pitch to this director? You’re working on this film that he’s doing and then you approach him and say, “Hey, I’m a writer and I’m trying to be a producer.” What did that look like? Did you tell him… at that point had you already raised some money so you could actually pay him a little bit of money to bring him on as the director? What did that, ‘cause it seems to me that was sort of the first sort of name person you had involved with this.

Kristin: You’re exactly right. I said, “Andre, I’ve got this script which has attracted a lot of interest and it’s based from the Boston bomber. It’s a take-off of the Boston bomber relationship between the two boys.” And I said, “And I’ve got almost a million dollars raised. What would you… would you be interested in it? If so, what would it take financially to get you interested? And could you work with the same team that worked on Grey Lady?” And he said yes. That’s how it all started.

Ashley: I see. So when you were raising the million dollars though, you didn’t have his name attached or any name talent or anything. It was just you pitching to these people.

Kristin: No. Exactly. That’s exactly right. Which was… now looking back, I can’t believe I was able to raise anything ‘cause I didn’t really have anything to show.

Ashley: Yeah, for sure. So I just like to end the interviews just by asking the guests what they’ve seen recently. Is there any TV, movies, anything, Netflix, Hulu, whatever that you’ve seen recently that maybe is a little under the radar that you felt was really good?

Kristin: I’m watching Goliath right now, which I think is a series. I’m watching a lot of series and I’ve yet to see [inaudible 00:30:29] in Lemonade. I’d like to see that. I think it’s very hard right now. The independent film business is really tough because so many of the streaming services are Netflix, Amazon, they all have production companies. So I really think pitching production companies within the streaming services, if you have a script that you think is really good, I think that’s a good idea. And you just get on IMDb and get the guts up to call them up, call them cold and you just don’t know.

Ashley: Yeah, for sure. How can people see Altar Rock? Do you know what the release schedule is gonna be like?

Kristin: Well, I know we’re taking it to the AFM, which is the first week of November and my sales agent’s taking it there and hopeful to sell it there. If not there, it’s gonna be sold within the next few months. KJ has a film coming out called, I Still Believe, which is a Christian film about a singer whose wife dies and it’s a very powerful big time movie. So I would love for Altar Rock to come out after that big movie.

Ashley: Sure. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, a blog, anything you’re comfortable sharing. I will round up for the show notes.

Kristin: Well, Instagram. My name Kristin Alexandre on Instagram and Altar Rock does have a [inaudible 00:31:57] Twitter. It’s one word. That’s the best way really.

Ashley: Okay, perfect. I’ll round that stuff up for the show notes and put those in. Kristin, I really appreciate you coming on the show and talking to me. This is a very inspiring story. I wish you a lot of luck with this film and of course your series and all your other projects as well. I look forward to hearing about those.

Kristin: Thank you very much. Nice talking to you. I’m sorry about the video.

Ashley: Hey, no problem at all. Thank you. Will talk to you later. Bye.

Kristin: Buh- bye.

 

Ashley: I just wanna talk quickly about SYS Select. It’s a service for screenwriters to help them sell their screenplays and get writing assignments. The first part of the service is the SYS Select screenplay database. Screenwriters upload their screenplays along with a logline, synopsis and other pertinent information like budget and genre, and then producers search for and hopefully find screenplays they wanna produce. Dozens of producers are in the system looking for screenplays right now. There have been a number of success stories come out of this service, you can find out about all the SYS Select successes by going to  www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/success. Also on SYS podcast Episode #222, I talk with Steve Deering who was the first official success story to come out of the SYS Select database.

When you join SYS Select you get access to the screenplay database along with all the other services that we’re providing to SYS Select members. These services include the newsletter, the monthly newsletter goes out to a list of over 400 producers who are actively seeking writers and screenplays. Each SYS Select member can pitch one screenplay in this monthly newsletter. We also provide screenwriting leads, we have partnered with one of the premiere paid screenwriting leads services, so I can syndicate their leads to SYS Select members. There are lots of great paid leads coming in each week from our partner, recently we’ve been getting five to 10 high quality paid leads per week. These leads run the gamut.

There’s producers looking for a specific type of spec script to producers looking to hire a screenwriter to write up one of their ideas or properties. They are looking for shorts, features, TV and web series, pilots all types of projects. If you sign up for SYS Select, you’ll get these leads emailed directly to you several times per week. Also, you get access to the SYS Select forum where we will help you with your logline and query letter and answer any screenwriting related questions that you might have. We also have a number of screenwriting classes that are recorded and available in the SYS Select forum. These are all the classes that I’ve done over the years, so you’ll have access to those whenever you want once you join.

The classes cover every part of writing your screenplay from concept to outlining, to the first act, second act, third act as well as other topics like writing short films and pitching your projects in person. Once again, if this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, please go to www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.

On the next episode of the podcast, I’m gonna be interviewing York Alec Shackleton, who was on the SYS podcast a while back, #Episode Number 236. I will link to that in the show notes. Check it out if you haven’t already. In that episode, we kind of go into his origin story. He’s one of these guys that just started doing documentaries, started doing skateboarding videos, and eventually was able to segue that into feature film. So again, really nice guy, super transparent about his struggles and how he’s gotten his films made. So he’s back next week with another film called Disturbing The Peace starring Guy Pearce. We’ll be talking about that film and how that all came together for him. So keep an eye out for that episode next week.

That’s the show, thank you for listening.