This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode 164: Writer/Director/Producer/Comedian/Actor Joey Medina Talks About His First Feature Film And His New TV Pilot.
Ashley: Welcome to episode #164 of the “Selling Your Screenplay Podcast.” I’m Ashley Scott Meyers Screenwriter and blogger over at – www.sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today, I’m interviewing, comedian, actor, producer, writer and director, Joey Medina. Joey has produced several feature films, and recently shot a pilot episode of his new TV series. Which he is pitching to various networks. We talk about his feature films. And we talk about his recent TV pilots. So, stay tuned for that.
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And 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 each episode. In case you would rather read the show or look up something else up later-on. You can find all the Podcast show notes, just go to – www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast, and just look for episode #164.
I just want to mention a free webinar that I’m doing, this
Wednesday morning – March 1st 2017 at 10:00a.m. pst. It’s called,
“How to Effectively Market Your Screenplay and Sell It?”
I’m going to go through all the various online channels that are available to screenwriters.
And give you my unfiltered opinion of them. I get questions all the time, about, “The Blacklist” about “Ink-Tip” various contests. So, in this free webinar, I’m going to talk about my experiences with these various services. Again, this webinar is completely free. Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the live event. I will be recording this event. So, if you sign-up. You’ll get a link to the recorded event after it happens. To sign-up, just go to – www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/freewebinar, again that’s – www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/freewebinar. The words “Free webinar” and all lowercase and all one word. I will of course link to it in the show notes. If you already get my Emails, my weekly Emails you do not need to register for this webinar. I will be sending everybody who is on my Email list. I will be sending them all the details. So, they can attend as well.
So, once again, the main thing I’m working on is, post-production of my crime, action, thriller, feature film, “The Pinch.” I’ve worked with the editor last week. Getting my final set of notes in place. He’s going to do a final polish. And then after, I’ll put this final polish version of the film. Hopefully in the next couple of days. And then we should be to “Locked Picture.”
This week, and next week, I’m going to be going through resumes and start to hire all the various technical folks that I need to finish the film up. A composer to score the film. A dialog editor to clean-up the dialog. A sound designer to do all the sound effects. A colorist to color and color correction. So, a whole bunch of technical fields that I need to bring people on. So, if you know anyone who does any of these things? Please do contact me, ASAP! Again, in the next week or two, I’m going to be finding people. And settling on who I’m going to be working with. These various technical positions are not things that I know anything about? So, it’s going to be a few months from kind of what I talked to some of the people. It seems like there is going to be a few months of just, you know, continued post-production. Figuring out these technical thing. It’ll be a lot of work. But, probably not all work, but a lot of work for me. Since I really don’t know how to do a lot of this work. Which is will be the people I am hiring. I know last week I said, I would at “Locked Picture” so hopefully by next week I will officially be at “Locked Picture.” These things always do take a little longer than expected. But, I do think based on particularly there, and based on good progress. So, hopefully we are on the final stretch of the film.
So, now let’s get into the main segment. Today I’m interviewing comedian, actor, director, producer, writer, Joey Medina. Here is the interview.
Ashley: Welcome Joey to, the “Selling Your Screenplay Podcast”, I’m appreciate you coming on the show and talking with me today.
Joey: A, good being here. You know all film makers need to, you know, kind of do this. Listen to each other, learn from each other. Because film school is way too expensive.
Ashley: There ya go. So, maybe to start out you can kinda give us some background. Kind of how did you get started? Even take us back before that, where did you grow-up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment industry? And just bring us up sort of those early days of your career?
Joey: Okay. I grew-up in the Bronx of New York. I’m a Porte Rican kid from the Bronx. The way I got interested in film, believe it or not, was my 5th grade teacher. His name was
Mr. Morris Charnile. So, I remember him. And he brought in, in 5th grade, he brought in a
Super-8mm film project, that he had shot with the class before. It was 3 minutes and 10 seconds long. It was a Batman sketch kinda thing, with no sound. Because back then didn’t, that film didn’t have sound. And I remember watching that, mesmerized, my jaw dropped. Not wanting to be in the film, wanting to make one like that. So, in 7th grade, again, in The Bronx. My homeroom teachers sold me a stolen Super-8 film projector, a screen, and a camera from the Board of Education spent it on the side. And that’s how I started my little film career.
Ashley: Okay. Perfect, perfect. And then what were some of those first steps to actually turn it into an actual career?
Joey: Well, a and you know, this is more about writing and actually I went to creative writing class when I was in 3rd grade. So, I could kind of see it, really starting to put it together. The, it became more of a career probably, I would have to say, when I moved to Los Angeles.
Because, I’ll give you, to make it real quick, in-between then and now. I’ve been a professional boxer, I’ve been a police officer, I’ve had many, many careers. And which take a lot of your time, and a lot of your energy. But, I’ve always been a creative film maker on the side. I’ve done a little things. I never thought, eh, I really didn’t do enough to do something great or anything. And then, when I moved to Los Angeles. And to help my comedy career, I decided to write a script. To put myself into starring. Which was called, “El Matador.” And as I’m writing the script, I realize, I’m not this character, I can’t play this character, It’s not me. And my brain started going back, thinking like a director/film maker. And I said, “Okay” I’m excited, I’m going to direct. I don’t know exactly how I’m going to direct, but I’m going to direct. And I’ll get someone else to play this part. And that’s kind of what and how it started. I landed my first official project.
Ashley: Okay. And even take us back a little bit. I’d be curious to hear about. And I think it’s important for people to understand that, you had a pretty-successful career as a comedian. And did you, do, did you come out to L.A. like were you already doing stand-up before you moved to L.A.? And then you said, you know, I’m going to take it to the next level. And that’s why you moved to L.A.? Or did you come out here and then you started your stand-up career right here in L.A.?
Joey: Well, I started in Arizona, believe it or not, in Tucson Arizona. That’s where I started my professional boxing career. And then after all that, and my law enforcement career, I moved and got to comedy. And when I decided to get serious about comedy, I moved to L.A.
Ashley: Okay.
Joey: Yeah so. The comedy brought me to Los Angeles.
Ashley: Okay, perfect. So, let’s dig into “El Matador” first, for a minute. Maybe to just start out. You can give us a quick pitch or log-line for that film?
Joey: A, you know what? It’s about a young boy, who’s trying to get the family jewels back because this is literally a pair of bronzed bull balls, back you know, it’s an heirloom that went to his family. You know, I look at the film now, and I went, “oh my God, it’s so much better now. I can’t believe I made that one. But, I also look at it and I’m going it’s like my little retarded kid like you keep in the attic when people come over. You know, I’m kind of proud of it, but not proud of him. And it was like, it was actually my film school, which I love. It’s you know, the people that are in it now, like Gabriel Iglesias, Fluffy, he’s in that film. Emilio Rivera, who plays Alverez, in Sons of Anarchy, and now they’re going to do a spin-off of that. He’s the leader of that, he’s in the film. Felipe Esparza, who won “The Last Man Standing” Rodriguez is in the film. So, many people that are doing so much better now are in this film. And it was fun. I made the film with $15,000.00, a lot of credit cards. It was on film. And I really learned film making on it. But we, it still has legs and it good and it’s fun writing it was probably one of the most fun parts of it, the show.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. And so, how did you, your writing comedy help you writing a feature film script. Did you see some parallels? Are there some things that maybe you took from writing comedy into feature film writing? Maybe differences, similarities?
Joey: Yeah. It’s all about timing, comedy is all about timing, whether it’s on paper, whether it’s verbal, or on a screen, with you know, images. It’s all about timing. There’s these principles of timing, that work. And then, once you write it, and then you shoot it. Now you have to edit it and make it work the same ways. So, in film making, it’s very difficult to get, not difficult, you need to tell it. Get what’s funny on the paper, and make it funny on the screen. It just doesn’t automatically translate that way.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. I’m curious. I would say for a $15,000.00 feature film. This has about the best cast I’ve ever heard of. And I would be curious to get some of your insight into how you got that cast. I get a lot of people Emailing me, how can I get this actor attached? How can I get that actor attached? Maybe you can talk us through the process a little bit? Of how you got some of these great talents into your film? I was very lucky, they were friends, you know, knowing your talent helps because then they do it as a friend. No one got paid on my film, as a matter of fact, Paul Rodriguez, who was in the movie, at the time. Paul Rodriguez that was the highlight of his career. He was, right now, George Lopez, and Gabriel are out there. But at that time, I shot that film. Paul Rodriguez was the biggest Latin Comedian in the world. I told him, listen, I’m going to shoot your scene in a garage, I hope you don’t mind? He’s like, no, no, you need a studio. I can’t afford a studio. So, he gave me $2000.00 grand, here rent the studio and the lights and do it the right way! I’m like, okay. I wish I had him in every scene, so that was like. Really even $50,000.00 would be better. You know, the cast. I think it’s, it helps a writer when you write a script, writing for a character you already think or act or imagine. Because then you can write in that voice. One of the bad things about script writing. Is that they cover people’s scripts a lot. What helps people with their scripts is that. You can read a script and you can’t even tell if they are male or Female, the character is male or female, they are very bland. They don’t have any personality. In real life, if you take 5 people in a room. And you start, and you listen, you listen to them talk. They all have different personalities. And that’s what characters need to have on paper. They need to have their own personality. If you got that quirky character, that can say anything and does crazy things. Those lines, those thoughts, those ideas you give them to that character. You don’t give them to another character. It’s going to break, it’s not going to feel right. So, as far as the writers that are out there. How are you going to get this actor, are you going to get this? Get the people, who you think you can get. Write for the people, even if they don’t exist. I’m sorry, even if they are not famous. If it’s you mom, your cousin, if it’s somebody you write that. And then when you start casting. You cast someone like that. But, it’s very important to write for a character the right way. Not, don’t write a bland character. If the character is too bland? It’s not a good character.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, how, there’s going to be a re-release of this film. Maybe you could talk about that for just a minute. On how people can find that and potentially watch it?
Joey: Yeah. NetFlix originally was picked up by a couple of distributors called,
“Maverick Entertainment” from Florida. It was on NetFlix, sold at Walmart, and all stores in and it did pretty well. And now that I have the rights back.
I’m re-releasing it with “Screening Mail.com” Which is kinda like a, it’s kinda like a NetFlix for independent film makers. So, if there is someone out there who has a film or project that really can’t get any distribution, because it’s a little too independent. Screenmail.com is perfect place for, a perfect home for a project like that.
Ashley: Okay, perfect, perfect. And I will put that link in the show notes so people can click over to it. I want to take just a minute. And talk about your short film, a movie called, “Missing.” Maybe you can talk about that for just a little bit. What was the goal with it? And you know, what was the story about? And what was your goal with making a film like that?
Joey: Yeah. “Missing” I’m pretty-proud of. “Missing” I had it, I had an app. on my IPhone. Where it isolated a color. And everything else was black and white. And this would isolate colors. And so, I’m driving around and I’m a passenger in a car. I had that app. on, and watching traffic go by. You know, black and white traffic go by. Don’t even had color on it. It was red that was isolated. And I see a red car go by, and it looks so interesting. Kind of like in Shindler’s List where the little girl in the red coat. And I remember going, wow, that’s pretty interesting. I say to myself, imagine a horror movie where the only color you see was red for blood. Now that would be interesting. But, I didn’t know how to make one? I didn’t want to make one. I didn’t think I could do horror. I was like oh, you have to be really, you have to have a kind of mentalitly to do it, a horror film. So, then one day I learned, how to do that. How to do that isolated colored editing. And I’m going to try and make this film. I’m gonna make this film, “Missing” as just a training project. So, I can direct, shoot, edit, color, I’m going to do everything. I want to do DP, I want to do everything on this, write it, everything. So, I wrote this project. I got some friends together, shot it in two days, and it was really good. I’m like whoa, I guess I’m going to start submitting this?! And I won “Best Screenplay” I won “Best Director in Horror.” At the
“Horror Realm Film Festival.” I won some other awards at some other festivals. And I was just very proud of it. It just turned out pretty good. And it’s pretty-dark, it’s out there. I mean, this budget was probably less than $2000.00 to shoot that whole thing.
Ashley: Okay, perfect. Is it online for people to see now? It’s actually, you can, that and it’s free, it’s on YouTube.
Joey: If you go to YouTube and print, “Missing” and Joey Medina. You’ll get “Missing” by Joey Medina, and you’ll see it.
Ashley: Okay.
Joey: It’s pretty interesting.
Ashley: Yeah, I’ll get that and put that in the show notes as well. So, let’s talk about a TV pilot, that you’ve recently written. Maybe you could kind of tell us what that’s about?
Joey: Well, a as a comedian I’m a big fan of other comedians. Especially other comedians, that are, that do the things I do. Like for instance, Louie C.K, Louie C.K, that not only is one of the biggest comedians in the world. Right now, he’s actually an amazing film maker. He writes produces, directs, he edits, he does.
He already, he’s a you know, the “Robert Rodriguez” of comedians. So, you remember watching the show, thinking, You know I wish I can, I wish I had a show like this. I remember thinking to myself, wait a minute, wait a second, I can do it. I can write, I can produce, I have my own production company. I have all my equipment. I have camera, sound, lights. To hell with it, I’m going to do it. So, I sat down and I thought, okay, what kind of script am I going to write? So, I decided to take a, take kind of like a snapshot of my life at the moment. And exaggerate it, and work on that. Use real life stories. And real situations to build this, the story. And then I came up with it, a concept. I called it, I called the pilot,
“Funny H” will be the name of the series. So, basically, it’s about a middle-aged comedian, who is struggling with being middle aged. And then struggling with a career. That is not the same way it used to be. But yet, you still have to keep the appearances at, and everything is still great. Because when people recognize you. People think you’re a celebrity. At one point, you always think you’re a celebrity. And they don’t understand that things, they don’t always work out in show business, you know what I mean? You can sell a script as a writer, you can sell a script for a million dollars. But unless you sell a lot of scripts that million dollars is going to get smaller, and smaller, and smaller. And it’s the same thing for comedian, or anyone in the entertainment especially, a musician, or anything like that. So it’s, that’s basically what you know, the story is about. I wrote it, in probably 2 weeks. And then as any writer should do. You know, you get other writers. You get other people to write it. And you know, you get more ideas from them. And you get hopefully some constructive criticism. And start building and fixing.
Ashley: Okay. And so, is it your plan now is, to shoot this yourself? You’ll raise the money, you’ll shoot it yourself? Are you taking it now to production companies?
Joey: I’ve shot it, edit, it’s wrapped! And “it’s in the can.” So, a now, and this was just recently. So, now, take it to some companies out there, hopefully, NetFlix, Amazon, Hulu, somewhere were it can hopefully find a home.
Ashley: Okay, perfect, perfect. And you did everything? You shot it yourself and edit and everything yourself. Okay.
Joey: Directed, shot, produce, edit, I did some Kraft Services, I did everything.
Ashley: Perfect, maybe we can go through your writing process just a little bit? And we can use this pilot kind of as a specific example. But, how much time do you spend preparing to write? In other words, outlining phase, versus in the actual script phase. Where you’ll open up
“Final Draft” and actually start writing the pages. What are sort of the percentage, and how much time do you spend in each one of those?
Joey: What helps me prepare is, I try to have mentally a beginning, a middle, and an end. A rough, beginning, middle, and end. Once I have that, I write down the synapsis, or treatment. Kind of a one page, two pages as far as it would goes. I would even try and put some dialog in there, some jokes, or whatever dialog is, and then sometimes, as you are writing. You’ll be, oh yeah, it goes here, I can see it going there. And you hash out a little more. And once that treatment is done. Then I start writing the script from that. Everyone has their own style of writing. I, normally when I’m writing it, a script.
Whether it’s a feature or for television. I have to go in order. I can’t, I’m really, if I have an idea for the end scene. I’ll just keep, I don’t have to write the end scene. I want to, the end scene may change depending on what I write in-between. And I really do, sometimes I don’t know what’s happening next until I’m ready. Because I really put myself in that character, whoever the character I’m writing for at the time. And I’m like, Oh, yeah, I can see it going here. Because, it’s more natural, if Bob says, this. I’m not going to automatically know that John is going to reply this way. But, if Bob says this, a certain way. I’m like, oh, you know what? John is going to reply this way. And it’s kind of, that’s the way I go. And I look at it, I go back a lot. I go back and I read and I start taking things out, and others starts going back in. I try to get my first draft done as close as possible when I write the words, you know, “The End.” Because I want that to be really tight. So, I do a lot of re-writing, as a writer. I’ll go back up and I’ll start writing again.
Ashley: I see, I think you said, you wrote this pilot in 2 weeks. Okay so, was that two weeks all while you were in “Final Draft.” So, you already had it in an outline going into that two week phase. Or, the outlining stage was included in that two week phase.
Joey: A, yeah, it was included.
Ashley: Okay, okay. From pretty much start to finish you had to pump out a. Okay good. So, Maybe you can just take us through your process of once you’ve got this draft done. How do you know when it’s time to start to show others? And maybe take us through that process of getting feedback, who do you show what to? And how do you take feedback from different people?
Ashley: Well, on this project, every project is different? It depends on what kind of project your submitting. If you’re theme is horror and you writing something that’s. As for writing, you want it, to give it to people who know the industry a little more. Who know about writing, who know about, you know first act, second act, third act, they know a little bit of something. They don’t have to agree with you. Now, if they are way off, that some crazy kooky friend, who’s a film maker. But, who’s horrible and sucks, don’t bother, don’t bother, that’s going to be a waste of time. You know, you want people who are kind of okay. And logically they are not crazy. They are more normal. So, what I do is? I say, “Hey man, I’ve got this script.” I hate reading scripts. So, please do me a favor agree to read, and let me know what you think? And then they hit you back and you know, they give you, hopefully they give you some really good feedback. And sometimes it’s feedback you don’t like. Sometimes it’s feedback you do like. And I also let them, listen when you have somebody who you think would read this and give me some critique, you know, let me know? Don’t give it to somebody hopefully. When, what I do with writing is, if I get a note, and if it’s, the note. If I hear the same note, or I read the same note from more than one person, I really pay attention to this. Okay, I have two people with the same thing. To see is a little slow. Let me read and let me, or sometimes people just give you straight up way better idea. Hey, instead of your mom doing this? Why doesn’t you mom do this?! I’m like, wow, great! Yeah, why didn’t I think of that, it’s perfect. Then other times I don’t agree at all. I’m like, let me think, let me take that critique and let me put it in the back burner for a minute. And let me keep it there. Alright, because, I’m not sure? And then, maybe a week later. Somebody else hits me up, and says, hey bla, bla, bla, bla. And they have the same critique that this guy did. And I’m like, okay. Now it makes even more sense to me than it did before. So, what I do? I take it all the information I get. And I put it all in my head. And I try to spit out a better script.
Ashley: And how many people read, you say like, again, using this pilot as an example. How many people did you send it out to get feedback? Are we talking 2 people, 3 people, 10 people.
Joey: This one, I would say about 4-5 people, no more.
Ashley: And then, maybe just give us a little hint at what their background is? Are these, are they comedians, are these people that have written for TV, are they people that have written feature films, are they people not even writers at all?
Joey: The first person was a comedian, who’s also a writer. He gets paid to write, he’s written on shows, he been here and there. The other person was a guy named Dusty Garza who, is now the consulting producer on the Garza project. He has access to people who are professional writers. And what he did was, to do him a favor. They read the script and they got back to me on the script. Now, it’s probably about, it was one guy. And then that one guy also got two other guys to read it, two others, two writers that he knew. So, it worked that way. Then, I think one other person read it. And another friend of mine who was a comic. And then I would just take all these information and just, you know take all this information, I went down and I tried to make the script tighter and tighter.
Ashley: Okay.
Joey: Because it’s alright if no one reads your script, it’s just a blue print. It’s just, you can’t build a house without a blue print. And sometimes things change as your building, and that’s okay. And that’s the process of film making all the way from writing to editing. But, you want to be as solid and as sure as you can before you start doing it, with anything.
Ashley: Yeah, and so how did you approach like, the script, and screenplay structure of something like this? You mentioned like, Amazon, Hulu, and NetFlix. I think they are a lot more forgiving on sort of the structure. To whereas network TV, you got to have your TV advertisement breaks, and teaser and cold opening and these types of things. How did you approach those?
Joey: Well, I think I, I told myself, it’s either going to be, the project’s going to be between
25-30 minutes, 22 for more traditional networks like, NBC, ABC, CBS, and 30 minutes for something like, you know, Amazon, Hulu, to NetFlix. And because I’m also an editor. So, I know where I can put my breaks at, and it’s middle transitions it doesn’t matter. So, that was going to be easy, so I don’t worry about that. But, personally, I don’t necessarily want it to go to, my first choice isn’t a regular network; NBC, ABC, CBS, that’s not my first choice. Because then I’m going to have less control. It’s not, I think NetFlix to me has more, NetFlix and Hulu, and Amazon. And Screennowplease.com, and places like that. Anyone in the world can watch now. And that’s, I’d rather have a bigger audience. And I’d rather have the freedom to shoot something the way I want to shoot it as a film maker, not getting notes about this, no notes about that, just about this, and you know, basically you know, destroying your image. And changing your image to something else.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. Now, what else did you write? So, you wrote this pilot episode did you write some subsequent episodes as well? Did you write a show bible? I’ve gotten a lot of people coming through my site. And you know, I have a script analysis service. You know, they’re submitting episodes, two and three of. And I’m always like, you know, you want to make episode 1, as good as you can. And you probably want to show bible. But I’m not sure at this point there’s a lot of purpose in episodes 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. But, maybe you could talk about what exactly you’ve written for this show, in addition to the pilot episode.
Joey: On this show right now, that’s all I’ve done because I’ve. Since I’m basically the
one-man-band on the show. I was doing a lot of the editing, I started doing all of that. Today is the day I actually start working on my bible.
Ashley: Okay.
Joey: I have written notes, I have probably about 20 different episode ideas. That I’m going to start working on the bible with, from these ideas. To me, the bible is very easy, it’s very easy. I did a few years ago, I wrote a script and a bible, and I did everything for it. A sit-com called, “L.A. Limo.” And Madonna’s company, “Maverick” at the time picked it up. Then after that, Penny Marshal’s company picked it up, but it never went anywhere. So, I did a lot of work for no reason. So, I’m like, oh, I’m going to do the work when I need to do the work. But, every network is different when it comes to. Well, like, NetFlix, it is, when you come to them with an idea? They want to see a few scripts, they want to see a few episodes. They want to know that you can deliver more than just one. The way I see it is this? The reason why some people ask me, why did you make this entire pilot? Why didn’t you just make a sizzle-reel? Well, simple because when I’m shooting, I’m shooting. Why shoot half way when I could shoot all the way. And my thought is this, everyone in Los Angeles, has an idea. Half those people, have a script. Half those people have a sizzle-reel. Not many people will have an entire pilot. And not just a pilot that looks like a sizzle-reel. A pilot that looks like it can air, and that was very important to me. This, my pilot, if you look at it, it looks like a television show. It looks like it should be somewhere? Not that, you know, I have film maker friends, or other comedian friends who have done sizzles. Or they’ve done a pilot this, or pilot that. If you look at it, it looks like a webisode. It looks like a low-budget. The quality isn’t there, it looks, the shots from there are weird. They’re just, they don’t look right. And first of all, god bless em’ for doing that, they did something? But me, as an executive, would look at that and go, I wouldn’t put this on the air. It doesn’t look professional enough. My, this pilot looks very professional, and that was my goal when I shot it, and my goal to shoot anything really, is to make it look real. Make it look bigger than what it really is.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. And so, you think that gives you a leg up and most cases the people pitching to you who are with NetFlix and Amazon. All they have is a script, maybe a show bible. Maybe a couple of episodes. But people are not taking completed episodes to those types of services?
Joey: It’s very difficult, it’s very expensive, I’m lucky enough to have my own production company. I have you know, all my lights, all my sound, I’ve got cameras, I’ve got crew. I’ve got you know, grip stuff. I’ve got anything you need to make a film, I own it.
You know, maybe not the best, maybe not the most. But I own enough, you know, I shot an entire pilot without renting one piece of equipment. And so, it was, it was important for me to do. And since you could do it. Do it, it’s difficult, yeah, it’s hard. You know, and it was hard to do it. Because you happen to have. I made a $2000.00 looking episode for $4000.00. And that’s very hard to do. But, it takes a lot of planning, but it can be done.
Ashley: Yeah, yeah. So, well fantastic maybe just to wrap things up. You can give us your Twitter handle, Facebook, just anything for people to follow along and kind of keep up with what you’re doing?
Joey: My website is – www.joeymedina.com it’s j-o-e-y—m-e-d-i-n-a dot com. My Twitter is – #JoeyMedinaComic, my InstaGram is – JoeyMedinaComic. And my
Facebook is – Joey Medina Comic that one gets full so I have a joint Joey Medina fan page on Facebook as well.
Ashley: Okay, perfect. I’ll round all that stuff up and I’ll put it in the show notes. And a link to it. Joey very good. And I will put the screen now as well if anybody wants to check out
“El Matador” They can go to the screen now. I’ll put that link in the show notes as well. What’s that?
Joey: It’s a little trailer, did the trailer first, on the screen now.
Ashley: Perfect, yeah. at the trailer as well. Joey I really appreciate it and coming on and talking with me, and keep me in the loop and if and when you get the pilot set-up, and that goes into production. You can come back on and talk about that process. I think people will be fascinated about it?
Joey: Thank you so much man, I appreciate it, that’s awesome.
Ashley: Thanks Joey, we’ll talk to ya later.
Ashley: I just want to mention two things I am doing at “Selling Your Screenplay” to help screenwriters find producers who are looking for new material.
First I’ve created a monthly newsletter that will be sent directly to producers. Every member of SYS Select can submit one log-line per newsletter, per month. I went and Emailed my large database of Industry contacts and asked them if they would like to receive this newsletter of monthly pitches. So far I have well over 350 producers who have signed-up to receive it. These producers are hungry for new material and are happy to read scripts from new writers.
So, if you would like to participate in this pitch newsletter and get your script into the hands of lots of producers. Sign-up at – www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com, that’s – www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.
And secondly I’ve contacted one of the premier paid screenwriting leads sites. So I can syndicate their leads onto SYS Select members. There are lots of great paid leads coming in each week from our partner. Recently I’ve been getting about ten to twelve high quality paid screenwriting leads per week. These are producers and production companies who are actively looking to buy material. Or are looking to hire a screenwriter for a specific project. If you
sign-up for SYS Select you’ll get these leads Emailed to you directly several times per week. These leads run the gambit from production companies looking for a specific type of spec. script. To producers looking to hire a screenwriter to write up one of their ideas. Producers are looking for shorts, features, TV and web series pilots, it’s a huge aray of different types of projects that these producers are looking for. And these leads are exclusive to our partner and
SYS Select members. To sign-up again, go to – www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com, again that’s – www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.
On the next episode of the Podcast, I’m going to be interviewing writer and director
Chris Von Hoffman. Chris recently wrote and directed a feature film called, “Drifter.” We talk about the early part of his career, and a bunch of shorts. And now he’s graduated into
feature films. So, we go through that whole evolution. And then we dig in specifically to how he got this feature film produced. So, keep an eye out for that episode next week.
To wrap things up, I just want to touch on a few things from today’s interview with
Joey Medina. I really encourage you to look Joey up on IMDb. You can get a real sense of his career. I really like Joey’s hustle, even after many years of having a successful career in the business. He’s still out there, you know, trying to things done, trying to create new stuff, and just hustling. I think there is a perception of new writers. That they just need to get that one big break. And then everything will open up. And it will be sort of a downhill. It’ll all be down hill from there. But, I think what you will find via you will get that big break is, that like Joey. You need to be hustling and doing stuff. And getting your own stuff out there, and not waiting around for someone to come in and basically give you permission to make a movie. When I tell people I’m on this Podcast week, telling people go out and make stuff, make short films. Go out and make your own feature film. Take your script and enter contests. Take your scripts and submit it to “Ink-Tip” submit it to “Black List” use my own Email and Fax Blast Service. I’m not just telling people to do this stuff. To help them get that again. Proverbial big break. I’m telling people to do that so they can train themselves to work hard and make their own breaks. So, that once you do break in. You will be able to sustain a long career. The people in this business who succeed, are the ones who are willing to work super hard and go out there and make stuff happen for themselves. Again, just start listening to a lot of these Podcasts. Even the super successful people I’ve had on this Podcast. They are always constantly out there creating new stuff, pushing new stuff out there. And I just simply think that is key part of the formula to being successful in this business. It really is the key thing to being successful and just about any business, but especially this one. You’ve got to just keep working hard and keep pushing stuff out there. And this sort of idea that get this proverbial big break and then I’ll all everything is just going to open up for you. And things will be easy. I just don’t know that is really a reality of for anything but the very, very, luckiest people.
Anyway, that’s the show, thank you for listening.