This is a transcript of SYS 500 – Making The Movie PLEA With Brian McQuery.
Welcome to Episode 500 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger over at sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing writer-director Brian McQuery. He just did a feature film called Plea. It’s a crime thriller. And it’s also the opening night feature film at this year’s SYS six-figure Film Festival and screenplay contest. That screening will kick off the festival October 6th at 6pm. Check out our website for details www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com, and today we’re going to learn about the film and how he wrote it and ultimately got it produced. So, stay tuned for that. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mentioned in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast and then just look for episode number 500. So, now let’s get into the main segment. Today I am interviewing writer-director Brian McQuery. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome, Brian to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Brian McQuery
I appreciate you having me and the chance to talk about my career and Plea.
Ashley
Perfect. So, to start out, maybe we can do just that. Let’s talk about your background a little bit. Where did you grow up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Brian McQuery
I grew up in Chicago, and a proud son of a Chicago police officer. So, I lived there 21 years and then moved up to the suburbs. And I was really interested in the independent film scene in the early 90s when things like Al Mariachi and Reservoir Dogs and Clerks and Brothers McMullen and laws of gravity and all those movies were breaking. And because I lived in the Chicago area, I had access to those films. You know, they have a great arthouse network in Chicago, where you could see everything. And I did, I went and saw everything. And I got so inspired by that. And then I had the chance to work to go to San Diego Comic Con for the very first time in 1995. They used to have a trade show. And I was asked to work the trade show with the vice president of our company. And as a bonus, they said; well, we’ll pay for you to stay one extra day to go to the actual comic con part of it. And I went and I got free tickets to see a preview screening of Mall Rats. And I went to see that. And after the movie, Kevin Smith was hanging out in the back of the theater, and he was by himself. And I walked past him up to the lobby and I built my nerve up to go talk to him. And I walked back in and talk to him. And we just chatted for 5-10 minutes. And he was very inspiring. And he was very down to earth. And it wasn’t Hollywood, and he wasn’t condescending, and I told him I wanted to be a filmmaker. And he said; Well, don’t be a filmmaker. He said if me and my friends can do it, anyone can do it. But you have to be a filmmaker, stop talking about it. Be a filmmaker. So, in Chicago, there is a film scene and I started dabbling in the independent film scene and tried to get something going. I mean, I did some rehearsals, I cast stuff and did some rehearsals and did all this preliminary work, but I just really couldn’t get it together. And then I got hired as a director of telemarketing or I got hired in telemarketing became director of telemarketing, even though I want to direct motion pictures. Got caught up in that for a while. And I’ll end that chapter there.
Ashley
Okay. And so yeah, so then the next chapter is moving back into film. And so let’s talk about that transition. Because I know there’s people out there listening to this podcast, now. They’re working a job like managing telemarketers and they’re sitting there thinking, I want to be a filmmaker. What does that transition looked like? What did it look like for you? How much money did you save? What did you tell people? How did you prepare for it? Maybe you can just walk through that, if someone is in that same position you were years ago, what do they need to know? What do they need to do to make that transition?
Brian McQuery
Well, I was making a little bit of money, then, you know, I was advancing at this company. And it wasn’t anything I wanted to do. But I just had great opportunities. And at that job, it’s not filmmaking, but for the first time I was interviewing people, you know, prospective hires, I was hiring people, I was firing people, I was supervising people, I was managing people, I was training, I developed all these skill sets that I never had before, I was in my early 20s. And all of those applied to filmmaking, even though they’re not creative, you still have to know how to lead people. You have to know how to manage people, you have to know how to work with different personalities, all those things, and I got all those skills. And then around to the early 2000s there was a networking event in Chicago every month and I started going to that for film, and I met some other filmmakers and saw films and then I wanted to make this short film that had no dialogue. And this producer there said, I want to produce it. And I didn’t really take him seriously. But he called me the next day, and said, excuse me, and said, I want to produce it. And he did. And because I had a little bit of money, I spent a little bit of money and made my first professional short film Debt. And that really taught me what it was like to be on set, what it was like to work with, even though it was a small crew. And I made that film, and it was a 10-minute short that I’m still very proud of.
Ashley
So then talk about that a little bit. How did you get the nerve to go do that? This is not something you had done before. How did you have that competency, just show up on that set the first day and start directing people when you have no experience doing that?
Brian McQuery
I think because the telemarketing job, I started and I was hired for a client services position. And they trained me to be a telemarketer, and they had a crap training system. And I told the VP that this is terrible. And within two weeks, I developed and was training people at this company, because I felt like it was already bad. I can’t do any worse. And I’ll probably do better. So, I think I just had that confidence from building all those skills in a “real job or day job.” And you know, I just had the confidence to have a film set.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So, then you’re going through this, you made this short, you did a couple other shorts, I assume? At what point did you say; okay, I’m leaving the telemarketing job. And I’m going to jump in feet first, and make that transition to LA? Talk about that a little bit. At what point did you do that?
Brian McQuery
I left the one job in summer 2000. And that’s when I really dived into the Chicago Film Scene. I made my first short in 2002. By then I had another telemarketing job that lasted till 2003. And then I started thinking about pursuing film full time, I started getting film work in Chicago as an assistant director, I PA (ed) on stuff. And then I finally decided in 2005, it was time to sell my condo move to LA and take a shot, I had other friends by them that were making the move, some before me, some did it with me. And in 2006, I made the move to LA moved in with a couple of friends, you know, we rented a house. And we just started throwing ourselves out there into LA and I just got jobs as an assistant director, usually first assistant director, sometimes second assistant director. By that point, I had made, I think nine films in Chicago, nine short films. And so, I had a lot of set experience, I had at a few films in Chicago. And it just started building a network of crew and cast. I mean, the goal was to make a feature eventually, but also along the way, learn who is good to work with, who is not good to work with, even with famous actors, you know, there are some famous actors that are not that great to work with. So, you kind of get a sense of that. And you start building a Rolodex of people that you can call when you do have opportunities.
Ashley
So, I want to touch on something that you mentioned, because I get a lot of people emailing me about this transition from some other place in the country or world to Los Angeles, one of the key components that sounds like here was that because you had done so much networking in Chicago, in the film business, you had sort of a network of people here in LA. Now maybe these weren’t highly successful run in the studios type people, but they were people working in the industry, you had a place to kind of go live, probably crash on the couch, how much do you think that did help you? And would have you been able to make that move just on your own? If you’re in a small town where you hadn’t been able to meet some of these other filmmakers and just had to do it yourself? Maybe we can talk about that a little bit. If someone doesn’t have all these networks of people, they haven’t necessarily built them up. What do you say to those folks? How much was it a help to you?
Brian McQuery
It would be terrifying to have moved to Los Angeles and not know anyone and not have any contacts. And all I can say is I admire anyone that’s brave enough to do that, I was lucky that I knew some actors have moved ahead of me that I’d worked with a bunch of people and I moved with a few guys. And so, I had that network so we could help each other get jobs. If one person got a job on in the day. You know, as a gaffer, they would refer me as a first AD and I’d get an interview and vice versa. Or, you know, I had friends who were DPS and grip electric and different things like that. So, having that small network, it gave you a little bit of safety. It didn’t guarantee any jobs, it was still a hustle, they get every single job, but you at least have some people to lean on and you’re not alone. So, it is very hard to make the transition I’m sure when you are alone and you’re just going to pick up and move to an alien place. And don’t even know where you’d start at that point. You know, I mean, it would just go on Craigslist and whatever was, I forget what some of the websites were at the time to film jobs. But when someone got a toehold then it was, you know, building out that network for all of us.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So maybe you could just give us again, just quickly, what are some tips for someone that’s moving to LA just in terms of locations in Los Angeles? I know when I moved here in the mid-90s, me and my buddy, we ended up in North Hollywood, which I always thought was actually a good location. It’s pretty centrally located. And the rent prices are typically a little cheaper than some of the swanky areas of LA. But what’s your recommendation for people they’re planning on moving to LA? Where would you recommend that they actually try and look for an apartment? What part of LA?
Brian McQuery
I agree I ended up in North Hollywood, my first place, and then move to valley village, which is…
Ashley
Actually, Valley village is where my first one was here, right on Laurel Canyon. That’s actually funny. It had just been changed. They had just changed the name, Valley village was a new thing. So, I would tell people is Valley village no one had ever heard of it. They just created Valley village out of North Hollywood. So yeah, we’re probably living in the same neighborhood for a while there.
Brian McQuery
Yeah. When I moved into Valley village, and we asked what city is this? They said, Oh, North Hollywood Valley village. And we’re like, Well, which one? And it was just like a shrug.
Ashley
Like, yeah, that’s when we got too. Yeah, that was a little later. But yeah, it’s the same thing. So well, let’s dig into your latest film, feature film. It’s called Plea. And it’s going to be the opening night film at this year’s SYS’s film festival. So, we’re going to screen it October 6th, the Friday night at the look dine in cinema. So, if you live in LA, just definitely check out our website, consider coming to this. You can check out our website, www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com. But just to start out, maybe you can give us a quick pitch or logline, what is Plea all about?
Brian McQuery
We have to do with the rape and murder of a woman. And the trauma that her husband goes through as a result in his best friend getting convicted, wrongfully of the crime, through circumstantial evidence, and the husband, believing that law enforcement got the right guy got his best friend, and that he did it. And then years later, through a documentary, the husband finds out his friend didn’t do it, and his friend gets released. And now it opens everything back up again for him. And no one’s looking for the real killer, because law enforcement still believes the guy did it, even though he’s able to convince the courts to let him free. And then the prosecutor was kidnapped in a desperate attempt to find the real killer.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, where did this idea come from? What was sort of the genesis of this story?
Brian McQuery
Well, it was a number of different things that sort of all merged together in 2016. I was the victim of a violent crime in Los Angeles. I almost didn’t make it. I spent a week in a coma and on ECMO and on a ventilator. And they basically told my mother, they’ve never seen anyone recover from this, so they tried to prepare her that I would not survive. And I did, obviously I’m here. But beyond that, it was the advocacy we had to do with law enforcement with the DA’s office, because the person that did it was charged with a misdemeanor, and they weren’t going to arrest him. And they said, well, if he’s pulled over in traffic, they’ll run a warrant, and then they’ll arrest. And that wasn’t good enough for us, because of his actions almost died. And so, we advocated with the DA’s office at first to get felony charges. Then they made felony charges, issued an arrest warrant, LMPD was too busy to look for him. So, we had an advocate there. And then finally, when we got them to look, they got him in custody the same day. And ultimately, he took a plea deal and is a convicted felon. So, I feel good about that, because he had to answer for what he did to me. Turns out he had done something prior. And I hope to all of the results of this means you never hurts anyone else again. So, there was that. As I mentioned, I’m the proud son of Chicago police officer. So, I did have law enforcement family background. I also transcribed interviews as my day job, mostly of true crime shows some crime, my brain is constantly filled with different details and true crime shows. And during the pandemic, I watched the movie Lock against even nights film starring Tom Hardy, which is Tom Hardy in a car for 90 minutes or whatever the running time is talking to people on the phone, which doesn’t sound exciting or cinematic, but it’s just absolutely engaging. And I’d seen it theatrically but I watched it again and then I thought okay, personally, I’m in a car that’s relatively inexpensive to do. And that started my brain thinking and then I remembered the Paradise Lost documentaries by Joe Berliner and Bruce Sonofsky about the West Memphis Three. If you’re familiar with that case, where three teenage boys were convicted of murdering three little boys, and they were wrongfully convicted and ultimately freed on an Alford plea, and I actually saw Ah, Damien Echols live at LACMA, when a documentary called west of Memphis premiered, and he was there and it was just really very moving to see him free. And after all these years, and so that case and that idea of someone wrongfully convicted and idea of an Alford plea and all those things kind of gelled, and I started thinking of this story, which is not directly related to my story, or the West Memphis Three, but there’s just lots of little elements that I formed into it, you know, a fictitional story.
Ashley
Well, one of the things I mean, you have a very intricate plot. So obviously, that’s interesting. But one of the things that I thought was really interesting about this was, especially when I read that your dad was in law enforcement, I’m curious, how you sort of play with, you know, how documentaries can ultimately impact actual crime investigations, and like you mentioned, the West Memphis Three, I’m pretty sure the police in West Memphis were not all that enthusiastic about the documentary, they still think he’s guilty. So, they think this documentary, you know, was subverting justice, not helping to achieve justice. So again, your father, being in law enforcement, you certainly have, you know, a depth maybe a different perspective than, say the layperson. But maybe you can speak to that a little bit. How did you approach that? And just play with that a little bit? How do you see these documentaries, and I mean, now, it’s not just documentaries, it’s just TikTok videos, and everything else just can really impact the old the ubiquitous video can really impact a lot of these crimes some time for the better, and that’s great, but also sometimes potentially not for the better.
Brian McQuery
Yeah, well, I feel like most of law enforcement are good people. And they’re trying to make a difference. And they’re trying to make a living thing that I’ve learned, the system is so overwhelmed that as much as they care or want to care, they just the practical limitations of time and the caseload and all that that’s what I learned, in my case, you have to make them care, you have to advocate and make them feel a human being has been traumatized, and they need to do something about it. I think there are some people that maybe are dug in when they have a suspect, or when they think they’ve solved a crime, and they don’t want to hear different and they fear that if you pull that thread, and something different comes out, that turns out to be true, that may be up ends their whole world or previous cases. And I think that’s a worry. And I think that’s just something that they’re going to have to deal with. Because there are people that are wrongfully convicted. We see it all the time. And documentaries like Paradise Lost, and West of Memphis and others, there was a series called Wrong man that Phil Berliner did. And there have been some great results out of that where they’ve, they’ve uncovered that these people are wrongfully convicted. And I think that’s a powerful tool. And it’s unfortunate that it’s necessary. But there’s only so many resources we give to law enforcement and to the judicial system. It’s not unlimited, and it’s never going to be unlimited. You know, so mistakes are going to be made. And we have to realize it’s a flawed system. It might be, the people call it the best system in the world. Maybe it is, but it’s still flawed. It’s not perfect.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So, let’s dig into your writing process. And we can speak specifically to Plea. But I just like to get a sense of the writers process a little bit. Where do you typically write? Do you have a home office? Do you like to go to Starbucks with the ambient noise? When do you typically write Do you write first thing in the morning? Are you someone more that’s burning the midnight oil? What is your writing schedule look like?
Brian McQuery
Well, that’s one thing. I guess I didn’t mention in my history. I started writing after high school, I got the Syd field book and started writing screenplays. And I’ve just always written screenplays. And one reason I just kept writing is because I saw so many filmmakers make their big debut. And they worked for years, you know, whether it was El Mariachi or clerks or any of those seminal films, and some of them then didn’t have a follow up screenplay ready. And then it was like, developing for years, but their next film would be and they lost the momentum of people wanting to finance that next film and get it going. And I thought; well, I want to have a library of screenplays available. I never want to have that problem of I don’t have material and I don’t have anything. So, I have that. So, by the time I got to play many, many screenplays, and I’d written a number of screenplays, in the same vein as Plea while I was writing with an indie budget in mind with limited resources in mind, trying to tell the most compelling story I could, knowing that I wouldn’t have all the time or shooting days in the world. So, with Plea, I very much kept that what I had access to and what I could, because I’ve been an assistant director for so many years, I have that side of my brain that’s always tempering things and I could write a draft and then I could look at it and go, okay, this is too many shooting days or this is too much this or, and then my creative brain would solve that problem. So, with Plea, this will probably sound very strange. I wrote two thirds of it on the Notes app on my phone. I’ve written the last few things, starting on the Notes app on my phone, because I can literally write anywhere. So, if I’ve been on my exercise bike, and I’m sitting there and I’m typing dialogue, or I’m out somewhere and all of a sudden, something hits me and I can just type it right into the notes. And then I’ll just email it to myself, paste it into final draft and format it and kind of polish along the way while I’m formatting it, and final draft. So, with Plea, I wrote each documentary interview as its own piece, kind of like a monologue. And then I wrote the scenes with Tom, home by himself. And then once I had all of that, I put all that in final draft. And then I wrote the kidnapping plot, basically, in final draft on my computer, from start to finish, and then I had to, essentially, it’s a nonlinear script. So, I had to essentially break everything up. And, you know, find a structure.
Ashley
As you’re starting to type the actual screenplay out onto your phone. Had you done some preliminary work? I mean, typically, it’s like index cards, or outlining or something like that? Or did you just, you thought about it for a week or two, and then you just go in and start actually writing out scenes?
Brian McQuery
I thought about it for months. And I think if I wrote anything down, like in a notebook, it was very, very minor. I just thought about it for a few months, and I pitched it to a friend and she thought it was compelling. And then I just started, okay, who’s in the documentary, okay, the investigator is going to be interviewed. And I don’t remember which one I started with. But I wrote his whole documentary interview. And I kind of structured it later, I had some ideas of how I wanted to start and how I wanted to break it up. But I kind of structured it along the way. And it’s not the ideal way to work. And I tried to normally outline things and at least have an outline with all the major scenes. But this was very unconventional, because it had a documentary component. And it had different storyline threads. So, I kind of wrote each of those separately, and then woven together in the screenplay.
Ashley
And how do you approach to the development process? Especially something like this where you’ve written it to produce? Do you have some actor friends? Do you have some other writer friends? But how do you just go about the development process? Once you have a draft that you feel pretty competent? Who do you send it to? How do you get notes? And then how do you sort of interpret those notes?
Brian McQuery
Well, in this case, I had worked with Dean Cameron before on a short film, and I worked on a short film that he made. And I thought of him for this film. And so, once I had a draft that I felt was presentable, I sent it to him. And he read it. And he liked two thirds of it a lot. And he was trying to be nice in his approach of his critique. And initially, in the documentary, the main character, Tom and his sister were interviewed. And Dean felt more like a confessional or them talking to a shrink than talking to documentary filmmakers. And he just felt it wasn’t up to the quality of the rest of the script. And I didn’t want to hear any of that I wanted to hear; This is amazing. Let’s go make it. And so, I had to digest that and think about it. And I realized he was right. And I took those two characters out of the documentary portion entirely. And I took the information I wanted to convey and dramatized it. So, there’s more scenes between them now, and improve the screenplay dramatically. And as I got closer to into pre-production, Heather Langenkamp is in the film. And I sent it to her, hoping she would want to do it. And she loved the kidnapping storyline. And she said more of that. So, I did write two additional scenes in the kidnapping storyline. As a result of that once I was just thinking, where else could I go with it? And I found some things to do there. And then my friend Joe Madri is an author. And I sent it to him, because he writes a lot of true crime shows and things like that. And so, he had a lot of feedback. That was a lot of more subtle things, not major things, but looking at this characters dialogue and just looking at different things. So that was kind of the last major polish I did that I had a suitable screenplay.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay, so once you had this shootable screenplay, what was the next step? How did you actually put financing together for this film?
Brian McQuery
In this case, I took all the money I had.
Ashley
Always advisable, highly advised.
Brian McQuery
And then I convinced my mom who was not a wealthy person to take a risk and back this and put up most of the money, because of COVID. And those costs was starting to get more than we could afford. And it was kind of on the precipice of can we do this or not do this. And I talked to an old friend of mine back in Chicago, and his company 401k films came in with the final chunk of financing from John Brosnan. And we realized we could do this, you know, because the COVID protocols are very necessary. I don’t know where they stand right now, obviously, there’s a strike going on, but I don’t know where they are. But they were very specific, and testing and masks and all that kind of stuff. And that does cost money. I wasn’t anticipating how much it was going to cost until we started getting her numbers in. But because John came in, we had enough money to shoot the film and do post on the film.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, great. That’s a fantastic story to finish that up. I always like to end the interviews. If there’s anything you’ve seen recently that you think would be great for our mostly screenwriting audience, HBO, Hulu, Netflix, what have you been watching that you think is really great and should be checked out?
Brian McQuery
I am a huge Taylor Sheridan fan. I will watch anything Taylor Sheridan does. And he has a new show Special Ops lioness that I think that’s about the sixth episode just came out five or six with Zoe Saldana. And Nicole Kidman. It’s fantastic. I mean, his recent previous shows like Tulsa King Mayer Kingstown. I’m huge fans of those, everyone knows Yellowstone. But he’s got like a whole universe of shows on Paramount plus, and to me, every one of them is a jam. And last night, I just saw Ahsoka, the premiere on Disney plus the new Star Wars series. And I really enjoyed the kickoff of that and previously really enjoyed and or everyone knows Mandalorian. Again, which I enjoy, too. It’s been more series that movies have not been… I see him about a movie a week in theaters. And there’s been very few that have really stood out to me this year. Guy Ritchie, the covenant, which I would imagine will be on streaming soon, if it’s not already was terrific. It’s a true-life story about a soldier that his life is saved by an interpreter over in Afghanistan, and then the interpreters life is put at risk. And he has to go back and save that man who saved his life.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. So yeah, no, those are all great recommendations. So yeah, thank you for those. So, in addition to the screening of Plea that we’re going to do at the film festival, October 6th, and again, anybody who’s in the LA area, please do check that out www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com. How else can people see Plea? What is the release schedule going to be like and where’s it going to be available?
Well, it’s going to be playing at first glance, Philadelphia Film Festival, the same weekend as your festival. So, it’ll be on the east coast there in Philadelphia, and then in November, it’s going to play in Lake County, Illinois, the Lake County Film Festival. I lived there for about eight years. So that’s my old stomping grounds. And we’re out to some other festivals. So right now, we’re still in the midst of our festival run. And, you know, the next step is to pursue distribution.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. And you’ll be at the festival here in Los Angeles, correct?
Brian McQuery
Yes.
Ashley
Okay. Perfect. Yeah. So people can come out and meet you. I look forward to meeting you as well. And what’s the best way for people to just keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, anything you’re comfortable sharing, I will round up and put in the show notes.
Brian McQuery
Yeah, on Facebook, there’s a plea movie page, where we update everything with plea and I also have a page films of Brian McQuery where people can find someone that other short films. My website is Brianmcquery.com. It has my short films. It hasn’t updated to Plea. But my last two short films, one was about addiction and codependency with some of the same cast members of Plea, and one was about bullying. And that one, I’m very proud of Jackson white, who’s on a Hulu show…. what’s it called? … I can’t think of the name of it right now. But Jackson White is in it. And Cindy Pickett and Irving wells, and that’s something that I would love for people to check out to online.
Ashley
Perfect. Yeah, we’ll put that in the show notes. In addition, you’ve done a film series through the new Beverly cinema that I found on YouTube. Maybe you can just speak to that how can people find that, you interviewed some cast I guess in crew from system iconic film So maybe you can just speak to that a little bit and tell people how they can potentially find those. I thought those were fascinating.
Brian McQuery
Yeah, on my YouTube channel, I posted most of the Q and A’s I did, I became friends with the owner of the new Beverly at the time, and from 2009 to 2014. I was able to bring in dozens and dozens of guests. Sometimes, I was able to program films. I did a Q&A for Goodfellas, with Nick Pileggi, and a late great Paul Sorvino. I did one with aliens with five of the cast members, karate kid with the late John Appleton and with William Zabka. I interviewed Caleb Deschanel for the natural. Just there’s a bunch that are just terrific. The one with Peter Hyams, for running scared is just a great one for filmmakers, because he just talked so much about the filmmaking process. And it’s entertaining, but you’ll also just learn a lot.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Perfect. Yeah, we’ll get those in the show notes as well. Well, Brian, I look forward to meet you at the festival. Thank you for coming on and talking about your film. Good luck with this film, and good luck on your future films as well.
Brian McQuery
Thank you very much. And I think a couple of the cast members of Plea will be there, it’ll be exciting.
Ashley
Perfect. That will be great with these, these sorts of casting crew screenings at festivals. If you’ve never been to a festival, they’re always lots of fun. There’s great energy in the room. And you know, people are there to have a good time. So, it’s always an enjoyable experience. So, I do look forward to screening your film there. And again, thank you for coming on and talking about it as well.
Brian McQuery
I appreciate it. I’m so glad that Plea gets showcased in Los Angeles again.
Ashley
Perfect. Perfect. Thank you. We’ll talk to you later.
Brian McQuery
All right, thanks. Bye.
I just want to talk quickly about SYS select. It’s a service for screenwriters to help them sell their screenplays and get writing assignments. The first part of the service is the SYS select screenplay database. Screenwriters upload their screenplays, along with a logline, synopsis and other pertinent information like budget and genre, and then producers search for and hopefully find screenplays they want to produce. Dozens of producers are in the system looking for screenplays right now. There have been a number of success stories come out of the service. You can find out about all the SYS select successes by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/success, also on SYS podcast episode 222, I talked with Steve Dearing, who was the first official success story to come out of the SYS select database. When you join SYS select you get access to the screenplay database along with all the other services that we’re providing to SYS select members. These services include the newsletter, this monthly newsletter goes out to a list of over 400 producers who are actively seeking writers and screenplays. Each SYS select member can pitch one screenplay in this monthly newsletter. We also provide screenwriting leads, we have partnered with one of the premier paid screenwriting leads services so I can syndicate their leads to SYS select members, there are lots of great paid leads coming in each week from our partner. Recently, we’ve been getting 5 to 10 high quality paid leads per week. These leads run the gamut. There’s producers looking for a specific type of spec script to producers looking to hire a screenwriter to write up one of their ideas or properties. They’re looking for shorts, features, TV, and web series pilots all types of projects. If you sign up for SYS select, you’ll get these leads emailed directly to you several times per week. Also, you get access to the SYS select forum, where we will help you with your logline and query letter and answer any screenwriting related questions that you might have. We also have a number of screenwriting classes that are recorded and available in the SYS select forum. These are all the classes that I’ve done over the years, so you’ll have access to those whenever you want once you join, the classes cover every part of writing your screenplay, from concept to outlining to the first act, second act, third act as well as other topics like writing short films, and pitching your projects in person. Once again, if this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, please go to www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com. Again, that is sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.
As mentioned, Brian’s film Plea will be our opening night feature film October 6th at 6pm. In Glendale at the Look dine-in cinema, it’s a great cinema, lots of lounges, great seating, food service to your seat. If you live in the Los Angeles area, please do consider coming out. Obviously, Brian will be there, obviously I will be there. So it’s fun to meet some of the folks who listen to the podcast. So, if you do come out, please do say hello to both of us. That’s really what these events are all about seeing other people’s work, meeting the people who did the work and just having a great time celebrating these truly independent films with the filmmaker. So do check out the website if you think you might be able to attend again that’s www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com. So, on the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing German writer director Maximilian Errol Wien. He is on the on the podcast next week to talk about his new feature film called The Dive. It’s an underwater thriller where two sisters go scuba diving, and one gets stuck at the bottom of the sea with limited oxygen. We talked through his career a little bit. He started his career in Germany has worked his way up from there. This is a project that he directed and wrote, but it started with a screenplay that had been produced in another language. So, he adapted this into an English language version of the film. So, we talked through that process as well. That was an interesting process. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen something quite like that on the podcast, so an interesting talk with Maximilian next week, so keep an eye out for that episode. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.