Breaking In, Part 1: Getting Started
With the Oscars on the horizon, Derek and Nicholas open up on how to started your own project. Learn how to succeed up front with per-production advice in this part 1!
Transcript
This is Film Center, your number one show for real entertainment industry news.
Speaker:No fluff, all facts.
Speaker:Here are your anchors, Derrick Johnson II and Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:Hello, welcome to Film Center.
Speaker:I'm Derrick Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And what are we talking about today, Nicholas?
Speaker:Today, we're doing something different today.
Speaker:Yes, doing a little different.
Speaker:We do not have an interviewee today.
Speaker:We're not interviewing anybody.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:DJ had this really great idea.
Speaker:Actually, you know what, since it was your idea, why don't
Speaker:you go ahead and flesh it out?
Speaker:Okay, so here's the thing.
Speaker:This is still Film Center News and their Oscars are coming up.
Speaker:The Oscars are gonna be there's a lot of really great Oscar
Speaker:nominated films this year.
Speaker:There are some that I like more than others and I feel I feel like Nicholas
Speaker:probably feels the same way I mean everybody knows that there's oscar
Speaker:films like there's oscar bait films Yeah, oscar bait films like it's not
Speaker:necessarily it's like art films, right?
Speaker:So to make sure there is still some news in here just so you
Speaker:know as of the 27th february the 2024 oscar, nominees are here.
Speaker:Oppenheimer has 13.
Speaker:Oppenheimer.
Speaker:Oppenheimer.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:Has 13.
Speaker:The guy who made sure that we, tons of people were murdered.
Speaker:It's unfortunate It's not a joke, I just, it's, whatever.
Speaker:Moving on.
Speaker:They have 13 Poor Things with 11, Flower, Killers of the Flower Moon
Speaker:with 10, and then Barbie with 8.
Speaker:I'ma be for real with you what do they call it, Barber, Barbenheimer?
Speaker:I feel like that really helped push them to get their numbers up.
Speaker:And just in case you're wondering where you can see it you can
Speaker:stream it on Fubu, F U B O, which I don't know if I'm pronouncing
Speaker:that right, FUBU or FUBU, whatever.
Speaker:FUBU, that, that's the clothing brand.
Speaker:That's the clothing brand, you're right.
Speaker:So I think it's pronounced FUBU, F U B O.
Speaker:You can also stream it on Hulu, Sling, and DirecTV Stream.
Speaker:And then you can also watch it by logging on to ABC.
Speaker:com, slash backslash, watch live.
Speaker:So that's where you can check out the Oscars.
Speaker:They'll be playing in the Dolby Theater, too.
Speaker:They'll be in the Dolby Theater.
Speaker:March 10th starting at 4 p.
Speaker:m.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Weren't people upset about the Barbie movie because the only
Speaker:person that was nominated from that movie was Ryan Gosling?
Speaker:That's not what we're talking about today.
Speaker:Because the Oscars are coming up and as everyone knows, me and Nicholas
Speaker:are in the industry, we this, we get.
Speaker:Our paychecks from as ever big as big or small as they might be right.
Speaker:They are from Eric David.
Speaker:So What the Oscars coming up and things like that and especially with IMAX having?
Speaker:Low records nowadays, which is crazy because when I was a kid IMAX was
Speaker:like the thing like you had IMAX is going to go the way of the 3d.
Speaker:So Remember, everybody thought 3D was it.
Speaker:It was the next big thing.
Speaker:I remember they even had them in science museums.
Speaker:Doing 3D stuff.
Speaker:They were like this is the next generation of movies.
Speaker:And then, it wasn't.
Speaker:The only movie I remember being 3D was Spy Kids.
Speaker:Spy Kids.
Speaker:Spy Kids 3D.
Speaker:Avatar was also 3D.
Speaker:Oh, yeah what was that one movie that had the wolf boy in it, but
Speaker:he was a shark boy and lava girl.
Speaker:Yeah, also made by Spy Kids people, right?
Speaker:It's Taylor Lautner before he was You know the wolf boy, or whatever.
Speaker:Yeah, and Jacob.
Speaker:Jacob in Twilight.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He was over there singing, Dream dream.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:I'm not really sure who wrote that script.
Speaker:But, all I know is that you have a special place in my heart.
Speaker:Because only a true, psychotic meth head could have written that movie.
Speaker:If you want and then it's who's the villain?
Speaker:He's staying up all late all night thinking about okay, who could be a
Speaker:really great villain for this and then you know late night Nickelodeon dun.
Speaker:Oh, yeah, George Lopez to Be the villain what?
Speaker:So So, we talked about that, a little bit of news, that's the
Speaker:way you get your news filled.
Speaker:Today, we're going to be talking a little bit about, about really
Speaker:getting started in the industry.
Speaker:A lot of people listen to us, yeah, you're in the industry, and but that
Speaker:doesn't necessarily mean you know exactly where you're going with certain things.
Speaker:Me and Nicholas we are currently working on a television show of our
Speaker:own And we're developing producing and currently in production of a tv show.
Speaker:Yeah, so we're currently in our own production for a tv show We can't say
Speaker:for which Company it's for however Nicholas, what would you say is the
Speaker:biggest thing that people run into making a television show getting started?
Speaker:Yes, getting start getting started.
Speaker:So just recently Me and DJ read DJ probably reads.
Speaker:I don't read I listen to the books cuz I have ADHD I do yeah, but We DJ is an
Speaker:avid reader and which is, for those of you who don't know I, like I said, my
Speaker:name is Derek Johnson, but I go by DJ.
Speaker:DJ is, I've read a lot of books in the past year because DJ's Oh, read this book.
Speaker:Oh, read it.
Speaker:And I was like, okay, cool.
Speaker:I come into Nicholas's office probably four or five times a day.
Speaker:Hey man, have you read this book?
Speaker:And Nick is no.
Speaker:No, man.
Speaker:Because you just told me about this new one like literally 30 minutes ago.
Speaker:But anyway everybody knows.
Speaker:Getting started.
Speaker:You just gotta get started.
Speaker:For example, I just read 50 Cent's new book.
Speaker:Or listened to it.
Speaker:It's not really his new book, but yeah, 50 Cent's book.
Speaker:But his Hustle Smarter, Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter.
Speaker:Whatever.
Speaker:Hustle.
Speaker:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:And the chapter is named, just do stuff just do stuff, get started.
Speaker:In whatever it is, the crazy part is, not only are we a production
Speaker:company, Soy Sauce Productions we produce TV radio, podcasts.
Speaker:We also consult with other people on audio books.
Speaker:We do press for that.
Speaker:We do a lot Yeah, we also we have people that come to us and want to help them
Speaker:get started on What they want to do and started as podcasts and started as in
Speaker:the entertainment industry in general, by the way This is a good time that I
Speaker:should shout this out some people are apparently we got it's odd because they
Speaker:contacted us and we're like we're not sure how to contact you and i'm just like
Speaker:then how did you so we're on instagram and film center news and then also you
Speaker:can send us a dm and then also you can email us at info at film center news dot
Speaker:com that's info at film center news dot com just in case you guys want to stay
Speaker:in better contact with us but go ahead nicholas what you Talk about or just
Speaker:criticized how bad of a job we're doing.
Speaker:Would you want to just send us a message saying some hate mail?
Speaker:It's all good.
Speaker:You guys are terrible.
Speaker:I bet you are just as ugly as you sound, but yeah.
Speaker:So getting started is often the biggest problem for a lot of people.
Speaker:And so we're going to, starting to do a movie and starting to do a TV show.
Speaker:There's two completely two different routes here Not completely but
Speaker:starting off they're a little they have similarities each medium is a
Speaker:different road that you take right?
Speaker:But we're gonna talk a little bit about starring television because
Speaker:streaming is really big and movies are not as profitable as they used to be.
Speaker:That's why everyone watches television.
Speaker:Until it inevitably flip flops again and then once again, movies are king.
Speaker:But, it'll go back and forth.
Speaker:One of the biggest things, and I know this feels duh, but you'd be surprised.
Speaker:If it was an organization You would be Guys, you would be so surprised.
Speaker:About the things that you should you're gonna say is duh,
Speaker:but then people don't have.
Speaker:But the crazy part is It's me and DJ through all the countless meetings and
Speaker:consultations that we've been through and some of them being Useless and taking
Speaker:up a lot of our time of our day, right?
Speaker:It's always the people that have no idea what they're doing with all the money.
Speaker:Yeah It's usually people who have no idea what they're doing.
Speaker:Like literally, no idea what they're doing.
Speaker:We went to a consultation about some people who wanted to start a podcast, and
Speaker:they didn't even know what a podcast was.
Speaker:And it was weird because they brought in an audio engineer.
Speaker:Hold on.
Speaker:Before we get on that tangent, let's start with the first section,
Speaker:which I'm going to call writing.
Speaker:For some reason, A lot of people don't have a script.
Speaker:It's very They have a vision.
Speaker:They have a vision.
Speaker:And, I'm just telling you, as someone who's a professional,
Speaker:I'm a professional writer.
Speaker:Professional screenwriter.
Speaker:That's how I pay my bills.
Speaker:By writing.
Speaker:Let me tell you guys something.
Speaker:If you have an idea or a vision and it's not written down, you
Speaker:don't have an idea or a vision.
Speaker:Ideas are not copyrightable.
Speaker:I hate to break it to you, but and not only that, there's even those cases in
Speaker:where and this has happened to me, where, I'm on a water bottle tour, which those
Speaker:of you who don't know what that is, it means, they call it a water bottle tour
Speaker:because you're going around to different studios and different production companies
Speaker:and you're pitching them your idea.
Speaker:Your your IP rather, which is IP stands for intellectual property, right?
Speaker:And instead of taking your IP.
Speaker:I'm not going to reference these studios specifically, but basically they'll hear
Speaker:your pitch say no, we're not interested.
Speaker:And then the moment you leave, they will start developing that
Speaker:your exact pitch to other people.
Speaker:But the reason why they can do that is because IPs are not ideas
Speaker:are not copyrightable, right?
Speaker:A lot of people are take their idea as if that's what's useful.
Speaker:Your ideas are basically not useful at all there.
Speaker:There's like nothing like no one cares about them And I hate that a lot of people
Speaker:like oh But especially because you will talk to some people or as things are based
Speaker:off their real life and they'll be very defensive to say Oh this is my story.
Speaker:This is my story I hate to break it to you a lot of people have might have similar
Speaker:stories no matter how crazy it is Like you know some people they talk about
Speaker:being in war some people talk about being abused and it's like unfortunately a lot
Speaker:of people have those stories that they want to tell so What makes you special is
Speaker:your execution of that story, of the idea.
Speaker:You have the idea of super fast cars, right?
Speaker:And some people, but the idea of, oh, someone who's a really great driver,
Speaker:who's a really great race car driver.
Speaker:It could be Ford versus Ferrari, or it could be Speed Racer.
Speaker:But both the ideas are about a really great race car driver, right?
Speaker:It's just in the execution.
Speaker:And so is Fast and the Furious.
Speaker:Even though he's a street racer, right?
Speaker:And then eventually went to a completely different direction Yeah, I don't know
Speaker:how they went in the direction they went in but The crazy makes money.
Speaker:So the craziest part that I think before I got into the industry was The
Speaker:problem is finishing the product, right?
Speaker:So you have these directors that you'll say I don't know why Warner Brothers
Speaker:keeps hiring this director The movies are not good or the writers are not good But
Speaker:what you guys don't see is the amount of projects that don't get finished Yeah, so
Speaker:they don't be like one product a product for every one project that's finished.
Speaker:There's about I want to see at least 1, 500 ones that are not finished.
Speaker:So the reason they keep hiring that director, or that team, or
Speaker:that group of people, is because they are finishing the product.
Speaker:They are getting it done, and, like I said, your ideas, they're
Speaker:great, but I don't know who you are, who you're listening to.
Speaker:So there could be grades that could not be, I don't know, but could be,
Speaker:but everyone, I truly believe this.
Speaker:Everyone has really great ideas.
Speaker:Everyone inside of them has really great ideas and actually super
Speaker:creative, regardless of their ability to there, what's really difficult is
Speaker:your ability to express it, to execute.
Speaker:So if you don't have a written script, you might as well not even be telling people
Speaker:about your TV show or your movie, because.
Speaker:That's the first thing they're gonna ask.
Speaker:Anyone who you seriously talk to, or who seriously has money, and
Speaker:they seriously put things behind it.
Speaker:They're gonna say, cool, send me the script.
Speaker:And you're gonna say one thing that I would suggest if you're going to learn
Speaker:how to write you don't even have to be, this is the crazy part, you don't
Speaker:even have to be a really good writer.
Speaker:All you gotta do is just have a finished script.
Speaker:If your script needs work, guess what?
Speaker:People are way more willing to give you notes and help you improve a script than
Speaker:how you actually write one for you, right?
Speaker:Even if you pay someone to write one for you, I guarantee you it's not going
Speaker:to be exactly what you wanted it to be because that person is not you, right?
Speaker:Some really great screenwriting books I don't want to say some things that
Speaker:are, everyone knows like Story by Robert McKee, everyone knows there's another
Speaker:one Save the Cat, I am not a fan of Save the Cat as a screenwriting book.
Speaker:But I think that I've you've saved the cat like McDonald's if you want
Speaker:food Yeah, this is food Like if you want a screenwriting book on how to
Speaker:write screenplays like that is one of them But in the beginning of the
Speaker:book if anyone's actually read it He tells you hey, this will not teach
Speaker:you how to write all types of scripts.
Speaker:It only teaches you how to write scripts in which follows
Speaker:a standard Hollywood model.
Speaker:If you want to write, if you want to be an actual writer and know
Speaker:how to write yourself and not have to just follow that formula,
Speaker:then that is not the book for you.
Speaker:And he's very honest about it up front.
Speaker:I'm not just saying that, oh, I don't like that book.
Speaker:I'm not just going to say I'm defended a little bit.
Speaker:My favorite screenwriting book is definitely going to have to be
Speaker:How to Make a Good Script Great.
Speaker:It's really awesome.
Speaker:So the second thing that we often run into, another big thing,
Speaker:is hiring the right crew and finding the right locations.
Speaker:Yes, hiring the crew and finding the locations, because one of the, one of the
Speaker:things that me and DJ have come to know.
Speaker:Hold, so to get started, have a, have your script written.
Speaker:I'm not even going to talk about the ideas part, just, let's
Speaker:just have a written script.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:And then you're going to go into hiring people who can, or working
Speaker:with people who can get it made, aka, you can either start networking.
Speaker:There's a lot of places online, like Creative Society and like just a lot of
Speaker:forums and things like that of people who, like we live in Los Angeles.
Speaker:You throw a rock and someone works in entertainment around here.
Speaker:And you might need to do that.
Speaker:You might need to move somewhere where there are more entertainment,
Speaker:not only Los Angeles, places like New York, places like Atlanta, places like
Speaker:New Orleans, places like Nashville.
Speaker:Anywhere there's a hub.
Speaker:A good hub of people.
Speaker:But it's, one of the things that I've come to know, it's really crazy, is a lot of
Speaker:people just don't have the work ethic.
Speaker:To do whatever it is.
Speaker:They're trying to do because there's a lot of people on social media That will
Speaker:sit there and tell you I can give you step by step play of what you should do
Speaker:and give you it all for free But it's not gonna matter because 99 percent of you are
Speaker:not even going to execute on What it is.
Speaker:I'm telling you to do right and one of the things that people For some
Speaker:reason do not execute on the most.
Speaker:I have people who will write scripts to their hands fall off There are
Speaker:some people who are like that.
Speaker:I am not one of them.
Speaker:I like my hands, but One thing that people do not do is when it comes to
Speaker:finding that network for some reason people are like if you had to Hit up
Speaker:your friends for lunch You probably wouldn't have a problem doing that.
Speaker:But then when it comes to networking people, networking with people,
Speaker:they're usually very, like you said, I can tell you how to find all these
Speaker:really great networking places, but you're likely not gonna do it, no.
Speaker:The easiest thing I would say to someone who's shy, or maybe they don't have a
Speaker:large network as to really find somewhere guaranteed, there is some local places
Speaker:in which people can, is which you can learn some filmmaking from is I want
Speaker:to give a big shout out to writing pad.
Speaker:There's a company called writing pad.
Speaker:And when I was learning how to write, I met some of my great writing friends
Speaker:through some of their programs.
Speaker:But one thing about writers that often are doing other things,
Speaker:like I'm a writer director, right?
Speaker:I met a friend of mine who does writing and producing through them
Speaker:and they're working on our show.
Speaker:And then I also met another person who's a writer, a cinematographer, and me
Speaker:and him have made some movies before.
Speaker:So I know that was just two specific examples from writing pad, right?
Speaker:But I also know people from film school and stuff like that now if you don't
Speaker:have to go to film school I personally did that's a different story just
Speaker:because I felt like I needed a certain level of education I know how I am.
Speaker:There's also connections that come from it as well, right?
Speaker:And this is the this is where the who you know comes into play I'll
Speaker:let people say who you know when it comes to only the money look
Speaker:There is a, I will say it like this.
Speaker:Getting the money is very hard to do.
Speaker:You can do crowdfunding, you can look for investors.
Speaker:If I was going to give Advice on money sections, particularly, we might have
Speaker:to get to that in possibly like a followup episode to this one, because
Speaker:that's a whole thing unto itself.
Speaker:One of the things that I would say was most surprising getting into the
Speaker:entertainment industry and, starting to make a living from the entertainment
Speaker:industry, you have experienced this.
Speaker:I've experienced this and then we've both together experienced this is The
Speaker:amount of people that want to be in the entertainment industry and are
Speaker:in the entertainment industry but don't want to work towards a product
Speaker:within the entertainment industry.
Speaker:Do you get what I'm saying by that?
Speaker:Yeah, there's a lot of people who like, they like the glitz and glamour of, they
Speaker:love going to red carpets, they love going to the parties, but that's about the
Speaker:extent of which they actually want to be involved in the entertainment industry.
Speaker:They like saying oh, I'm a producer.
Speaker:They don't make anything.
Speaker:They don't want to get involved.
Speaker:And I don't write anything.
Speaker:They don't want to get bogged down by logistics.
Speaker:They don't want to get bogged down by specifics and details.
Speaker:They don't want to learn how to do a skill.
Speaker:They don't, it's it's very confusing.
Speaker:And that's why I said again, I said previously on the show like if you become
Speaker:a grip and you learn how to become a grip that is the number one way to me
Speaker:personally to get into the industry.
Speaker:I got my first studio job being a grip.
Speaker:I got my second, third, fourth, fifth studio job being a grip and I'm a writer
Speaker:and director, but I know how to grip.
Speaker:I met most of my relationships with a lot of studios began that way.
Speaker:Now they know who I am.
Speaker:But again, this is something where you're not going to be on a red carpet, right?
Speaker:You're not going to have those egotistical flashy stuff, right?
Speaker:But part of the reason this ties into how he started is okay, cool.
Speaker:These are people that you want to really look for.
Speaker:A lot of people don't think oh, everyone knows that you need a director and like
Speaker:a producer and like a writer, right?
Speaker:And you need actors that okay, but you're going to need a key grip.
Speaker:You're also going to need a gaffer, a cinematographer, a DP, you're also going
Speaker:to need someone to do crafty, you're going to need some PAs, regardless
Speaker:of whether you actually want them or not, you're going to need some PAs.
Speaker:You're also going to need someone to do D.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:T.
Speaker:You're going to need some, and those of you who don't know who D.
Speaker:I.
Speaker:T.
Speaker:is, he's the guy who takes your digital who takes all your shots
Speaker:in Categorizes them for you.
Speaker:They used to be called loaders when we did film.
Speaker:Cause they would load up the film, right?
Speaker:And if you are using film, that's what you're going to need a loader, which I
Speaker:will say loaders are more expensive now.
Speaker:And everyone's okay I'll also need a really expensive camera.
Speaker:I hate to break it to you, but the camera is one of the least important things.
Speaker:Period.
Speaker:I remember when I did, when I drove for Uber, way back in the
Speaker:day, back in like 2014, right?
Speaker:And I met some very important people, like I met the editor in chief of Rolling
Speaker:Stone magazine got in my car the head of Warner Brothers was, the president
Speaker:of Warner Brothers got in my car.
Speaker:2014, Uber was hot, everyone was using Uber.
Speaker:And this is Uber X.
Speaker:This is the basic tier.
Speaker:Both of them got in the car Not at the same time.
Speaker:No, it was two different rides But I literally was like if you're really
Speaker:that guy Why are you in an uber x and he was like you think I got here by just
Speaker:blowing all my money But it's true The head of warner brothers the president
Speaker:of warner brothers Was funny because He got in the car with his friend who
Speaker:was a lawyer, and when he found out I was an actor at the time, he was
Speaker:like, Oh, you don't want to talk to me.
Speaker:This is, you obviously want to talk to this guy.
Speaker:Oh, also, little side note.
Speaker:Get a good lawyer.
Speaker:Here's the thing.
Speaker:Get a great lawyer.
Speaker:Even if, look, let me tell you, especially when this comes down to
Speaker:those contracts, because let whatever project you're working on become
Speaker:successful, it's going to come down to what's happening in the contracts.
Speaker:We've had Some issues ourself with some people saying that, Oh, okay you're
Speaker:supposed to pay me a certain way.
Speaker:And we're like we are going to give you all that money,
Speaker:but it's put due on this date.
Speaker:You need to complete your end of the bargain.
Speaker:There are a lot of people who will try to swindle you and only give
Speaker:you half of the product and then expect full payment for some reason.
Speaker:So that's where the contracts come into play.
Speaker:If you don't have an agent or a manager.
Speaker:At least find someone that's a good lawyer or do or you know If you don't
Speaker:have the money to pay for a really big lawyer do something like legal shield
Speaker:Shout out to legal shield for 25 a month You have access to lawyers and they
Speaker:can look over those contracts for you They can't write them up for you, but
Speaker:it's really easy to go and somewhere to get a basic template Right and this
Speaker:is also where that network comes from Even something as simple as maybe a
Speaker:Reddit group or something like that.
Speaker:I personally don't know.
Speaker:Reddit group, discord, anything like that, but also then get that
Speaker:free template, draft it, how you think it should be drafted for that
Speaker:person or position, whether they're a grip, key grip, anything like that.
Speaker:And look and find out what above the line means and look at all those positions.
Speaker:We don't have enough time to go into everything, but and then send it to that
Speaker:person a legal shield for 24 for them to review it to say if it's good or not.
Speaker:Also get in your head the understanding that you are going to have to go
Speaker:after these people for your money.
Speaker:It happens on every single project.
Speaker:That's why we're telling you to get a good lawyer because these people.
Speaker:are going to try and screw you over because they can.
Speaker:That's literally just the reason why it's because they can.
Speaker:They will try and skimp on the payment, or they'll try and give you a quarter of
Speaker:the payment, and then try and not pay you.
Speaker:You will have to go after them legally to get all of your money.
Speaker:So I don't call it, so we don't call anyone personally.
Speaker:We've had this issue with every studio we've worked with in every project.
Speaker:We've worked on.
Speaker:Yeah, it's not even oh only specifically one or two studios It's like a lot of
Speaker:them and the way a lot of these studios then only have their funds to be Like they
Speaker:don't want to pay you But the way they look over the funds is very mismanaged.
Speaker:There was a famous story about a guy who got I think it was like Two
Speaker:million out of Fox, just because he was sending them bills, like fake electric
Speaker:bills, just to their local production.
Speaker:It's not a secret, the address of these places, right?
Speaker:Just here in Burbank, he was just sending them a fake electric bill,
Speaker:and they were just sending him money.
Speaker:Even though they were already paying an electric bill.
Speaker:They're very finicky when it comes to paying with you, which is why
Speaker:the lawyer is really important.
Speaker:So this, you have your lawyer, you have your contracts, maybe you have a
Speaker:key grip, you have your team, right?
Speaker:You have a great written script.
Speaker:And so if you're doing television, something else that you're going to
Speaker:need is not just the really great pilot.
Speaker:So you have two issues.
Speaker:You have two ways to go.
Speaker:You have one.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm going to shoot a pilot.
Speaker:All right with my team and also when it comes down to the funds I will because we
Speaker:don't have enough time for this I'll just say that either they need to come from
Speaker:investors meaning that you need to have a Memorandum set up so the way, they can
Speaker:have shares in the tv show or in the movie You could find investors that way or you
Speaker:could do crowdfunding It all depends on how much you need if you are looking for
Speaker:just you want to just go the The credit card route, I would say set up an LLC,
Speaker:plan at six to nine months ahead of time.
Speaker:So that way your LLC can build up credit and then build up a credit history.
Speaker:Good credit history and then you can easily file for at least like 60K.
Speaker:It's way more than that.
Speaker:Some people are getting like half a mil.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Which is through really good business credit.
Speaker:But anyway.
Speaker:But if you have all of that, next you're gonna have to look
Speaker:at being a showrunner and being a writer is two different things.
Speaker:Movies have writers and directors.
Speaker:TV shows really are under the showrunner and producer side, right?
Speaker:Either you have one, a pathway in which you shoot a pilot.
Speaker:And then you shop around that pilot to get people interested.
Speaker:Quite with It's Always Sunny.
Speaker:I would look at, how Always Sunny came up.
Speaker:Or, you can go in a different direction.
Speaker:To where, you are trying to get all the scripts written first.
Speaker:And then have someone pay for the entirety of the project.
Speaker:And a lot of times for most people, it's like a, it's like a toss up.
Speaker:Because on one side, yeah, I can shoot the pilot.
Speaker:So I have something to show, which can give them confidence that you'll do it.
Speaker:Or there's another side to it to where like you shoot the
Speaker:pilot and it's not executed.
Speaker:Once again, it's all about the execution.
Speaker:It's not about the idea.
Speaker:It's not executed execution, right?
Speaker:It's executed in a way in which the studio doesn't like it.
Speaker:So then they'll say, no, we don't want the idea in its entirety.
Speaker:So you have to make.
Speaker:It depends on the opportunity that is presented to you.
Speaker:Because there are multiple ways in which people can present you with opportunities.
Speaker:And if you're so lucky to get those opportunities, then
Speaker:that's the way you go about it.
Speaker:A really great way to make your project look great and not look
Speaker:like it's done by amateurs comes down to really only a few things.
Speaker:And the camera's not one of them.
Speaker:I'm not saying that you should shoot things on an iPhone, but as
Speaker:long as it's 4K, You're good to go.
Speaker:You don't need a red dragon.
Speaker:You don't need all these super complicated things.
Speaker:I have made films off of some really basic cameras and won a lot of awards.
Speaker:So I personally would just focus on, and again, the camera isn't what allows
Speaker:people to see something amateur or not.
Speaker:It separates the professionals.
Speaker:It's the idea.
Speaker:It's the execution.
Speaker:The execution of the idea.
Speaker:But visually, because a lot of people worry about visuals, it
Speaker:comes down to the lighting, which is something a lot of people don't
Speaker:really care about for some reason.
Speaker:I don't know why.
Speaker:The lighting is one of them.
Speaker:The color grading is another one.
Speaker:And coming down to the the production design.
Speaker:These three things, and what's in front of the camera.
Speaker:Don't spend a whole bunch of money on the camera, spend a whole bunch of
Speaker:money on what's in front of the camera.
Speaker:The production design, the lighting, and the color grading.
Speaker:And it'll look pretty good.
Speaker:One of those things that you're really going to need with PD is locations.
Speaker:Nick, you want to talk a little bit about locations?
Speaker:Yes Locations is a How do you scout for locations?
Speaker:The way that you scout for locations is you first of all
Speaker:How do you scout for locations?
Speaker:How do I scout for locations?
Speaker:The way that I scout for locations is I read the script, right?
Speaker:I sit there and say, Okay Where could this be?
Speaker:What do I picture it as?
Speaker:And I talk with the creatives to see what they picture.
Speaker:I talk with since DJ was the writer, talk with DJ as the writer
Speaker:saying, this is the idea that I have, this is what I'm thinking.
Speaker:And have a discussion and a conversation about that.
Speaker:And then it's basically going out to you can go to Craigslist, you
Speaker:can go to I think they have space.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Is it Giggster?
Speaker:No, it's yeah, it's Giggster, yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, it's Giggster.
Speaker:I did a lot of mine on Giggster.
Speaker:And, with Giggster, you have to, it's a lot of Traveling so it's
Speaker:a lot of it's a lot of thing.
Speaker:Make sure you have a car that can do that, right?
Speaker:You have a it's a lot of driving.
Speaker:It's a lot of Hunting down.
Speaker:It's a lot of talking to people because on Gigster.
Speaker:It's just regular people, right?
Speaker:and so finding look and be an understanding that you're not gonna
Speaker:get the perfect location every time right and it's also Not everybody
Speaker:is going to give you their location.
Speaker:We went to one location where it wasn't even, it was like down the street.
Speaker:And, some people don't want to give their phone number so they just want to talk
Speaker:to you on Giggster, or they just want to talk to you on the platform, or, it's
Speaker:a lot of It's a lot of people managing, it's a lot of, and then you sit there
Speaker:and you have a a scout listing location checklist take somebody with you, since
Speaker:I was a producer, I had another producer come with me you take pictures, you take
Speaker:video you sit there and talk to them afterwards and tell them, thank you, And
Speaker:then after you have the list of locations, then you go back to creatives like,
Speaker:Hey, here's a couple options we have.
Speaker:And then someone like me, who's show running really the showrunner or the
Speaker:director of some movie, but for TV shows, the showrunner would come in and be like,
Speaker:okay, I do or do not like this place.
Speaker:It's a lot easier to look at the.
Speaker:Videos and pictures and make a decision that way and really window it down
Speaker:to Oh, I want to, this is the one or two place I do want to go and check
Speaker:out those places in person because the last thing you want to do is
Speaker:just go behind them and then look at.
Speaker:Every single location they looked at you might as well just gone with them, right?
Speaker:And then you would do you know, then you would do the tech scouting which
Speaker:is whenever the the entire team Comes out and checks out the location.
Speaker:You've decided that this is the location, right?
Speaker:This is after you've decided Okay, this is these two locations are what i'd really
Speaker:whittle it down to and say this is what I This is what I would want to see and
Speaker:wow, time is really flying by right now.
Speaker:The last thing I want to talk about is scheduling.
Speaker:Cause this is all pre production stuff.
Speaker:We'll call this the pre production episode, the pre produ One thing I
Speaker:One thing I would say to finish up talking about cameras is The story
Speaker:that I was talking about the president being in the car, is he was telling
Speaker:me, himself, he was like Yes, you don't want it to look like crap.
Speaker:Yes, you don't want it to sound like crap.
Speaker:Yes, you want it to light well.
Speaker:But, what a lot of people don't understand is we can throw money at anything.
Speaker:We can make it look fantastic.
Speaker:But if you put sprinkles on dog crap, it's still dog crap.
Speaker:What we're looking for is the execution Of your idea.
Speaker:How well have you executed it on your own?
Speaker:And then, once they see that you have that kind of talent,
Speaker:then they'll put more into it.
Speaker:Once they see you can actually finish it.
Speaker:The finishing part is like you'd be surprised.
Speaker:Then on top of that, you also have things like scheduling.
Speaker:So when you're doing scheduling, especially for a TV show, unlike a movie,
Speaker:where it's like, Oh, okay we're going to You know, you do this kind of in movies
Speaker:too, where you basically show locations.
Speaker:Some TV shows, they try to go, some TV shows, depending on what the show
Speaker:is, like if it's a reality show, it might be episode by episode.
Speaker:But a lot of times you go shoot at a little locations, per location.
Speaker:Wow, but hey guys, this is the end of the this is the end of the pre
Speaker:I would say pre production episode.
Speaker:You're usually going to get some advice because the Oscars are
Speaker:coming up and a lot of people still want to break into the industry.
Speaker:And also, realize that as long as you have something executed,
Speaker:sometimes people write books first.
Speaker:Game of Thrones was a book first, you know what I'm saying?
Speaker:There's a lot of things that were books first and then eventually
Speaker:got transferred into television.
Speaker:As long as you get it finished and executed, that's really the big takeaway.
Speaker:Get something finished and executed.
Speaker:It's a really big takeaway.
Speaker:Not the ideas, the execution.
Speaker:Start So hey guys I'm Derek Johnson II.
Speaker:I'm Nicholas Killian.
Speaker:And we'll talk to you next time.
Speaker:See ya.
Speaker:This has been Film Center on Comic Con Radio.
Speaker:Check out our previous episodes at FilmCenterNews.
Speaker:com Sign up for our newsletter and get the Hollywood trade straight to you.
Speaker:You can follow the show at Film Center News on all major platforms.
Speaker:Tune in next week for a fresh update.
Speaker:Until next time, this has been Film Center.
