This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode – 540 From Shorts to Features with Filmmaker Miguel Duran .
Welcome to episode 540 of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger over at sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing writer, director Miguel Duran. Miguel has done a number of films, both shorts and features, and is on today to talk about his latest feature film, Adventure Tom, which is an indie road drama. We’ll talk about his script, how he got it produced, as well as some of his early projects. So, stay tuned for that interview.
If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving me 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 540. If you want my free guide, How to Sell a Screenplay in Five Weeks, you can pick that up by going to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free. You just put in an 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 is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.
So, now a quick few words about what I’m working on as we come to the end of the year and begin 2026. So, while my rom-com that we shot in November is being edited, I’ve got as the producer, I’ve got a lot of other things that I’m going to be working on. Mainly we’re gearing up for the Kickstarter. We’re going to try and raise some money for post-production and marketing. But first we need some things before we can do the Kickstarter. For instance, the website, which is taking some time as we need to create some artwork and pull stills from the footage. I need to make at least sort of a version of a poster. I’m hoping we can put together at least like a little teaser trailer for the film before the Kickstarter. But just, you know, I need to fill the website out with artwork, behind the scenes pictures. We have a lot of behind the scenes stuff. A lot of other people, crew members, actors, everybody took pictures. So we have tons of behind the scenes footage. I got to go through that. And then as I said, I got to go through the actual footage, start to pull out some cool stills of the film. And then hopefully we’ll put together some sort of a teaser trailer. But there’s just a lot of work in doing all that. So, I’m hoping to have the website launched here in the next week or two. And then hopefully we’ll have the Kickstarter launched by the end of January, early February. So anyways, that’s the plan for right now for the film. In terms of SYS, I’m going to try and do the same thing we did with SYS as I did last year. We’re going to run the contest and continue doing script analysis at a great price, I might add. We’re going to launch the contest in February. I will send out an email announcement. So make sure you’re on our email list. We always give out early bird discounts. So as soon as we announce the contest, you will save money if you enter in those first couple of weeks.
I have no plans to do the festival again. I’ve got just so many things going on right now. Maybe I will do it next year. It’s one of those things I really did enjoy doing it. But it just, there’s not really any money to be made. So, it’s not like I can justify it in terms of like making money. It was fun. I met some cool people obviously interacting with the film community, but it’s just a lot of work. And as I said, just to do something with not any real payout at the end of the day, I kind of only have time to do one project like that per year is sort of my attitude. And this year, as I said, it’s going to be Linda Flynn, my rom-com, and see getting that polished up, you getting it ready for distribution, promoting it, marketing it, all of those steps. And that’s just going to take a lot of time. And frankly, it may take more than one year. By the time we get the thing edited, distributed into film festivals, done with film festivals, you know, and then actually get it distributed and start marketing it, that could be over a year. But I want to really have time to focus on that and give it a good effort and just see if I can make the film go as far as possible. So it just takes time, lots and lots of time and effort, you know, to finish a film and market a film. So that’s where I’m going to be spending a lot of my time this year. Anyway, those are some of the things I’ve been working on. Now let’s get into the main segment. Today I am interviewing writer, director Miguel Duran. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome Miguel to the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Miguel Duran
Well, thank you so much for having me happy to be here.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background, where’d you grow up and how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Miguel Duran
Sure, absolutely. So, I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. I moved out to I left to California for college. I went to a small liberal arts school, Claremont McKenna College, with no intention of doing anything entertainment related. I went as an econ major. But you know, when I was a kid, I love doing creative stuff. I loved writing. And I quickly found that I wasn’t comfortable in kind of the more secure path that I had chosen. And I took a screenwriting, a screenwriting course, I think my sophomore junior year, and I realized this is this is what I want to do. And so I shifted gears into that creative role. Started as a writer. And as a writer, I found that I got impatient waiting for my projects to happen. There were so many early in my career, cases where a script would be optioned. And then, you know, there’s a lot of hurry up and wait, where, you know, it looks like it’s going to happen. And then I’ll fall apart. It looks like it’s going to happen and I’ll fall apart. And so I started working as a director myself. So, I started PA on sets to learn the production and work my way up to production coordinator, production manager on some smaller projects and then started directing my own shorts that I had also written.
Ashley
So, on some of those first, maybe we can just back up a little bit and just tell our audience that some of those first films that you’re working on as a PA, moving your way up to coordinator and all of that. Um, how did you get some of those early jobs? Like just getting your foot in the door is sometimes difficult. And I know there’s a lot of screenwriters that have taken that path of sort of PA getting to learn the business. I think it’s a great path, but maybe you can give us some tips. How do you, if you’re just some dude in Arizona or some small town, that’s not LA, how do you find production work? How do you get involved in productions?
Miguel Duran
Yeah, so it was definitely it was definitely about being out here in LA. So, because I came to school out here, I knew I was going to stay out here. And that’s where, you know, I just told people I wanted to get a get experience on set. And I put out feelers, I met a couple people. And then, you know, fortunately, that that call came and you know, it led to other work. It’s one of those things where good work usually produces other good work. Because once you start, you know, once you start getting to know other crew members, they’re likely to recommend you for other things you recommend to other people for things. So it was it’s all about network. I would say that was the most important thing.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So, if you’re a PA on a set, how do you respectfully and appropriately approach people and let them know that you’re, by the way, you’re also a screenwriter and director, even though you’re PAing on this project? Was it just a long slow you get to know these people? Maybe you can give us some tips on that front.
Miguel Duran
Sure, absolutely. When I was on set, my goal was to show that I was eager to do my job well and to learn. So, I was always taking on more than I wanted. That’s why in my first project, I ended up as part of the PA, and I became the production coordinator by the end. I was just doing as much as I could to leave a good impression and not even necessarily bringing up what I did until it’s in between projects, or it’s in downtime, or it’s at the wrap party, where everyone’s kind of relaxing and talking about what they’re doing next or what their “True passions” are, because there are so many people on set who are also working their way up. And you might have a camera op who wants a DP, and that’s exactly what happened. So, my first short, it was the camera operator of the project, and we wanted to do something together. I know a couple of the actors ended up doing something together. So, it usually happens, but it’s in that downtime, after, do the good work first, and then when there’s time outside of the work, we’ll talk later, and it usually leads to collaboration opportunities.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. That’s sound advice. So just tell us quickly, how did you put some of these shorts together? Did you sell financing them? Did you do a Kickstarter? Just how did you get these shorts going? And ultimately, how did you get them produced? And then what did you do to market them? And how did they help you?
Miguel Duran
Sure. So, they were all self-financed. And, and so I always, it was a good lesson in producing, in being able to do a lot with a little. So, it was one developing relationships with crew that I knew if there was something that they would be passionate about where we could work together, we could do it at a lower rate, or in some cases for our favor. And there were cases where I had a friend AD for me, and I did production sound on his project. So, you know, we would just, we would roll swap in order to help each other out. And, you know, a lot of these projects that I would also start with, like, what do I know? What location do I have where I can write something? Because I’m the writer, I can control that, and I can say, I know I have this location, this location, and this location, you know, what kind of story can I tell in those locations? So, my first couple of shorts definitely were built that way.
Ashley
And then what did you do to promote them? Did you go to the festival route? Did you put them on YouTube? What is the promotion of shorts look like for you?
Miguel Duran
So with the shorts, it was back when Facebook pages when I was doing my shorts still had a reach had an organic reach they don’t anymore. So I know it’s more challenging in that case, but it has shifted, you know, you can still get organic reach and some of the other social media platforms, but I would primarily use Facebook page and then do the festival circuit because the festival circuit again, it was the goal with the short with the showcase the work and the festival was the opportunity to meet people while showcasing the work.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. And do you think these shorts did ultimately help you advance your career? It looks like Monsoon was your first feature film. So maybe you can sort of run us through that. You’re doing a bunch of shorts and then finally you do Monsoon. How did you get monsoon? And was it those shorts that were able to get you there?
Miguel Duran
Oh, yeah, it absolutely was. One, they gave me the confidence to know that I could direct a feature film myself. I always felt confident about the writing because I started as a writer. And I would just call myself a writer who directs. So doing the doing the actual directing of those shorts helped a lot. And along the way, I met people that ended up working on my feature film and, you know, continue to work with me. So it’s also about building a relationship because, again, it goes back to when you’re trying to be budget conscious, if you’re in a new filmmaker, if you’re trying to go out and do it on your own. So not only it helps to have those existing relationships because it also saved time. So, the cinematographer that I had on Monsoon had also shot, I think it was two or three of the shorts that I had done. And so by that, by the time we got to Monsoon, we had a short we had a shorthand. We knew exactly what we were doing together. We knew how to prep together. We knew how to communicate on set together so we could move quickly, which is so important when you don’t have a lot of money to effectively move quickly. But that relationship helped. There was an actress that I worked with on one of my shorts that ended up starting to book bigger roles, Yvette Monreal, and having her attached as we started to go out to others give us legitimacy to get a casting director, to get other talent. If it was just me having no other feature under my belt, certainly wouldn’t have been able to do. So, working with people that are also gaining experience while you are else, because it’s, I forget the phrase, but we all kind of uplift each other at the same time. So, cruise side, cast side, having those people that I had previously worked with helped a lot. It led to, through the shorts, led to an introduction of my feature by a friend who connected with me with a producer of my first film. And then that also, so he knew I hadn’t done a first feature. So, what we did is we put together a proof of concept of that feature. So, we went out and shot a proof of concept. He was sold on doing it, and that certainly helps you. And that’s what led to all those elements coming together, the casting director, the larger cast that we could have gotten, all the other people coming on board. But yeah, from those shorts was my cinematographer, my gaffer, actress all had worked together previously, and that helped a lot.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So, let’s dig into your latest feature film, Adventure Tom. Maybe to start out, you can give us a quick picture logline. What is this new film all about?
Miguel Duran
Sure. Adventure Tom, it’s about two people, unlikely different people who meet and end up driving across the country back to Phoenix together. They’re both stranded in Minneapolis and end up driving back to Phoenix, Arizona, together across the country, drive through landmarks, discuss love, discuss life and kind of get to know each other on the road.
Ashley
And so where did this idea come from? What is sort of the genesis of this?
Miguel Duran
So, this kind of, it originally came to life. So I did, right after college, I did a road trip with a couple of friends. We didn’t have a lot of money. So we were like, let’s go see nature. Let’s go see places that are cheap. So we ended up driving from LA. We went up to, up through Wyoming. We went to Yellowstone. We went through Montana. Went through Wyoming. We saw, we saw a little big horn. We saw Devil’s Tower. We saw Mount Rushmore. And it was beautiful up there. And I always knew that I wanted to do a road trip and really showcase some of the beauty that’s in this country that’s not normally seen on film. Some just amazing places that you don’t see very often. That’s kind of where the plot idea came from. The actual relationship idea kind of evolved over time. So, I had a version of this that I had kind of finished and then just kind of sat on the shelf just because it’s hard to, it’s hard to find financing realistically. It’s hard to find financing for an indie drama. So, you know, I had …
Ashley
And I just, as the, as a producer myself, you pitch it as a road trip movie, you know, a, a, you know, indie film. That’s not typically what you see as an indie film going across the country. It’s more one or two, maybe three locations and that sort of stuff. So, you’re really cutting against grain here.
Miguel Duran
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, I didn’t have any bites, I put it on the shelf, I was pitching a sci fi genre movie, I was starting to write a thriller movie. And then, you know, someone showed interest in and it kind of took off from there. And so, I rewrote it. So, I finished it, maybe I finished a version, maybe 2018. And then I came back to it from a post pandemic point of view. So, you know, people being hooked on their devices, you know, it’s already bad before, but you post pandemic, how much our devices shape the person, the person we present ourselves to be online and how that impacts our relationship. So that became a big part of the storyline afterwards when I rewrote it.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So, let’s talk about the actual writing process of this. I just like to get a sense of sort of what your writing process is. So I’m just going to throw out some questions here. Where do you typically write? You have a home office. You go to Starbucks. When do you typically write? Are you morning person, late night person? Maybe you can just sort of describe what your writing process looks like.
Miguel Duran
Yeah, absolutely. So, I had at the time I was writing this, um, I had a home office. Um, I now have a second child. So, she has taken my home off my, my home office room. But that’s okay. I do have an office, uh, that I have now. And so I primarily, I write there or I still have a desk at home because I’m definitely a night person. I am definitely more productive at night. I try to be professional about it in the sense that even if I know it’s not clicking, I’ll try to do some type of work in the morning to, to get things done. But I know that when I’m turning out pages, it’s usually going to be at night, and so that’s what I do this, um, this particular project, one really helpful thing that I did with the original version is I workshopped it. So, I had some friends, we had a writers group back then. And so, every time I finished a couple pages, we were meeting each week and I was just bringing pages into this and, and workshopping it. And I think it made a big difference in people seeing those pages early on and being able to kind of edit and revise those as I was, as I was finishing the script.
Ashley
Gotcha. And how much time do you spend outlining index cards? And then how much time do you spend in Final Draft actually cranking out script pages?
Miguel Duran
I prefer to be in final job so I don’t spend a lot of time I think I usually what I usually do is is get a rough I get a rough outline so I’ll do I’ll do kind of and a lot of times I’ll start it on paper so I’ll start it on paper I’ll just like I’ll turn on I’ll turn a piece of paper long ways I’ll just do like normal I’ll do a line and do a three act structure with midpoint and then mid-mid or early-mid, late-mid and then I’ll write what I want kind of want these to be and then I’ll take that piece the thing that I wrote on like by hand and then write just I’ll use word and I’ll create a kind of rough outline that’s maybe at most two pages and then I usually start writing the script from that so I don’t spend a lot of time I don’t do a lot of in-depth outline I prefer to just kind of get into the pages and see where it takes me knowing to have this loose outline
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. And then what is your revising and your rewriting process looks like? Do you have some trusted writer friends, agent, manager? When you have a draft that you’re ready with, what do you do with it to get notes on it?
Miguel Duran
Oh, definitely I have some trusted friends and family that I send it to as soon as I have one ready. I’ll tell them it’s ready. Send it over for notes. I’m really fortunate in that my wife is honestly been the best reader for me. So, she is a high school English teacher. She’s also very creative. She gives great notes. Sometimes I don’t want to hear and what’s nice is she’s a person who will absolutely tell me the notes that I don’t want to hear but need to hear. And it’s very helpful. You need you need trusted people like that. You need people who know story well enough to be able to tell you things that you might not want to hear that will make your story better. That’s very important.
Ashley
Yeah, for sure. So, how do you approach screen play structure? You’re getting into it a little bit with your three at your beginning middle and outline and that sort of stuff but how do you approach screenplay structure? Do you originally try and have those act breaks at the right page number, when you go back and reprise are you thinking about that but just in general how do you approach screenplay structure.
Miguel Duran
So. I definitely keep it loose. So, since the, you know, I approach it from a three act structure, but beyond that, I’m not rigid with it. And the reason for that is because I’ve found, you know, we all know how movies supposed to feel as we go through the story. And so it kind of naturally comes out that way usually. And that doesn’t mean that it naturally sticks to these rigid points, but these rigid points, you know, we talk about these certain points where things happen because that’s just how we’re used to stories happening. And so, you know, if something’s not clicking, it’s usually because there’s something that needs to be there, either like, you know, like something’s missing from around where something should happen. We’re out, we’re around, you know, we’re around the 30-page mark. Why hasn’t anything happened yet? We’re at the midpoint. Why hasn’t there been a turn? And so I’m definitely not thinking about that when I’m writing, but when I’m rewriting, usually is when there’s probably a structural issue. That’s a reason for something not clicking. That’s usually how I view it.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, let’s talk about genre requirements and then we’ll get into sort of the financing and how this was produced. You mentioned it’s an indie drama, taking that out there. Obviously there’s a limited market of people that want to get involved with an indie drama for a lot of very good reasons, frankly. Um, so maybe you can speak to that a little bit. How did you get out there? You had this draft. Sounds like you said it was sitting on your shelf for a while. But ultimately, how did you get it out there and find producers that did want to help you raise money and bring this to the screen?
Miguel Duran
So, it’s just, again, it’s just about network. It’s, you know, I happened to hear someone within my network was looking to do something that fit more of a drama or dramedy rather than a genre. He’s a fan of indie films. And I just thought, you know what? This is going to be perfect for him. So let me actually pitch him directly. But it’s really about having a network that has people that you can go to. I think it’s harder. It’s harder to specifically say, I’m going to find that person that’s going to make that. But if you’ve built up relationships over time, then, you know, you might come across something that might fit for someone that, you know, you talked to a couple of years ago and that you can connect with now. So again, it goes back to what I talked about at the beginning with the, you know, work experience. It’s all about building relationships and continuing and keeping in touch with those relationships again. And honestly, I have it, this is me in hindsight. I definitely certainly didn’t do that early on, but I’ve learned that that is probably the most important thing to do.
Ashley
So, this guy that you pitched, you said you said it would be perfect till he was a fan of Indies. The drama would be fit. But what is a guy like that looking to get out of them, out of something like this? And what is your pitch to him? Is it a ROI type of a pitch? You have a business plan and this is how we’re going to make our money back. Is it a pitch of passion? You know, you want to be involved in this creative thing. Where does your pitch come from? What is sort of the meat of your pitch with something like this?
Miguel Duran
So, in that particular case, it was a passion pitch. It was, you know, we both love movies. This is a movie that I know would resonate with you. You know, with your help, we can make this possible. You can be involved in the process and it’ll be a lot of fun. But I think that’s also the important thing is knowing that it’s not the same pitch for everyone. So, we had other people come on board and it was very much an ROI pitch. It was like, yes, this is a high risk, but we put all these elements in place to ensure that it is successful in spite of that risk. So obviously there are sprinkles of everything in every pitch you do, but how you pitch it is going to depend on what that specific investor is looking for. So, we certainly had investors that were more concerned with like business wise, they’re like, tell me how this is going to work. Why does this make sense? What do I get out of it? And others, it’s like, this sounds so cool to be a part of something special in making something happen.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, let’s talk about your casting. You had an excellent cast for this film. How did you get like Graham Martin, Andrea Lando, your leads? How did you get those people involved in this film?
Miguel Duran
We were so lucky to have Graham and Andrea because they were amazing, they’re amazing people to work with it If you’re going to be stuck on the road for you know hours on end every day for it for a long time. They were great people to have. So, we had an amazing casting director Lewis who helped us get them. Andrea Was actually one of the first people that I was looking at it was one of those Wishlist things I had seen her in Narcos and she had a great presence. I had seen she had done some other Indie films that were really good where she was playing a larger role and I’m like and she would be perfect for this and we Reach out and she was interested and We had a boom. We actually had these doom while I was on the road doing the scouting so my Synchronographer Alex and I did the road trip ourselves in advance to kind of map it out. And while we were on the road, but at the same time we were putting the offers out to put the cast together so zoomed from the road to meet with her, had a great connection and she would signed on and Graham actually auditioned for the role and it was one of those cases where I just hadn’t seen anyone, where it was clicking yet. And then as soon as I saw his like I just I texted everyone. I was like, that’s it. We found we found Tom. It’s perfect like couldn’t be a better fit.
Ashley
Perfect, perfect. So, what’s next for you? What are you working on now?
Miguel Duran
So now I’m going back to the sci-fi that I had been working on with it. This kind of picked up legs out of nowhere and just took off, which fortunately happens sometimes. But I do have, it’s a lo-fi sci-fi concept, kind of a single location sci-fi concept that I’m working on getting on next.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. And so, I’d just like to end the interviews by asking the guest, is there anything you’ve been watching recently that you could recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience? HBO, Netflix, Hulu, anything you’ve seen recently that you thought was really good?
Miguel Duran
I mean, I love everything that I’ve been watching on Apple TV lately. So, I just I’m a little behind. I don’t always keep up exactly. But I just saw the first episode of Pluribus and was pretty blown away. So, I love that.
Ashley
I have not seen that. Yeah, that’s a great recommendation. I’ll have to put that on my list.
Miguel Duran
Definitely check it out, yeah.
Ashley
Perfect, perfect. So how can people see Adventure Tom? What is the release schedule going to be like with that?
Miguel Duran
Adventure Tom comes out Tuesday, December 2nd. It’ll be available on, for sure, I know in this first little window, it’ll be available on Apple, the Apple Store, and on Amazon, for sure. So, it’ll be available at those two locations renting by starting Tuesday, December 2nd.
Ashley
Perfect, perfect. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? You know, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, anything you’re comfortable sharing, I will link over in the show notes.
Miguel Duran
Yeah, absolutely, I’m on Instagram, MIGG7, super easy Instagram to remember, our movies on Instagram, Adventure Tom movie, 2M’s for the movie itself, so you can follow it there.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Perfect. Yeah, as I said, I’ll get those and put those in the show notes. Miguel, I really appreciate you coming on the show and chatting with me. Good luck with this film and all your future films as well.
Miguel Duran
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. A lot of fun.
Ashley
Thank you. We’ll talk to you later.
Miguel Duran
Yep. Okay.
Ashley
A quick plug for the SYS Screenwriting Analysis Service. It’s a really economical way to get a high-quality professional evaluation on your screenplay. When you buy our three-pack, you get evaluations at just $67 per script for feature films and just $55 for teleplays. All the readers have professional experience reading for studios, production companies, contests, and agencies. You can read a short bio on each reader on our website and you can pick the reader who you think is the best fit for your script. Turnaround time is usually just a few days but rarely more than a week. The readers will evaluate your script on six key factors, concept, character, structure, marketability, tone, and overall craft which includes formatting, spelling, and grammar. Every script will get a grade of pass, consider, or recommend which should help you roughly understand where your script might rank if you were to submit it to a production company or agency.
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So, I’m recording this episode right before the New Year’s. I do not have a guest lined up for next month so I’m not sure who I will be interviewing in the February edition of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast but hopefully I’ll find someone cool and interesting who can shed some light on their career in the entertainment industry. But anyways, Happy New Year to everybody. As I said, we’ll be launching the contest pretty soon. So, if you have a low budget screenplay, definitely consider entering the contest. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.