This is a transcript of SYS 455 – Shooting a Black and White Movie With Josh Stifter Daniel Degnan.
Welcome to Episode 455 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing Daniel Degnan and Josh Stifter, who just did a monster movie called Grey Woods Plot. It’s another great example of two guys getting out there and making things happen for themselves. Daniel and Josh wear many hats on this film. They wrote it, Josh directed it, Daniel is one of the leads, Josh also starred in it. And they made this film far from Hollywood. So, we talked about this film, how they got their start, they did a bunch of short films. We also talked about their first feature film, which was featured on the TV series – Rebel Without a Crew, so stay tuned for that interview. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving 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 455. If you want my free guide How to Sell a screenplay in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free. Just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks along with a bunch of bonus lessons. Teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. Teach you how to write a professional logline and query letter, and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material, really is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay just go to, sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. So, now let’s get into the main segment today. I’m interviewing writers Daniel Degnan. And Josh Stifter. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome Daniel and Josh to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you guys coming on the show with me today.
Josh
Yeah, thanks so much for having us.
Ashley
Thanks. So, to start out, maybe you could tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you guys grow up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business? And Josh, why don’t you go first and then Daniel, you can jump in second?
Josh
Sure, that sounds great. I started as an animator, Daniel and I have been friends since we were kids since kindergarten. We grew up in Minnesota together. And we would make movies all the time. And I got really into film. And so, I actually went to school thinking well, how can I get work after this in Minnesota and Minnesota is a really corporate town. So, I decided to get into go into animation. But I still continued as I work to make cartoons and write screenplays. And from there, we just sort of started doing our own thing. And being a Minnesota there wasn’t a lot of money coming to us. So, Daniel and I just started producing our own short films, our own animated films and stuff like that. Going to film festivals, and we got into reality series called Robert Rodriguez is Rebel Without a Crew – the series. And that was our first attempt at making a feature. So, we made a movie called The Good Exorcist. So, we sort of just kind of did our own thing and ran with it. And that’s sort of how great was plot came to be as well, as we just kind of did it ourselves and made our own movie got distribution and did all the work ourselves.
Ashley
Nice. Nice. So, I’m curious why you were working in animation, why not lean into that now, when you’re doing feature films, why not an animated feature film?
Josh
It’s just, animation is a lot of work. It’s time consuming. And it’s also you know, you’re kind of prohibited to certain rules. And that’s to say, like, I would love to do an animated feature film. In fact, I’ve done a few animated features as a director, I haven’t had, like, professionally, I haven’t done any personally features. But I’ve done a lot of shorts, but I actually animate on my own. So, you know, I have to draw every single frame versus going out in the woods and making a movie like Grey Woods Plot with your friends, I can just pick up a camera and be like, alright, Keith, talk about this, like, Let’s go for it. So, it’s just a little bit less restrictive. But we’ve put animation in both of our feature films as well, just because we thought it would be fun to you know, use what we have. So, writing scenes specifically for what we had, which is animation.
Ashley
So, Daniel, maybe you can give us kind of the equivalent. How did you get into the business and kind of get to the point where you’re at?
Daniel
Yeah, I mean, I’ve basically been following Josh, since kindergarten. You know, we’ve been working together. Yeah, since we were kids, we had a camcorder out making short films. And yeah, with just speak to Josh’s situation, we kind of fell into our first feature because of animation. So, Robert Rodriguez, he had the El Rey network, and they did a showcase so you could submit your own material and they would play it on the air. And we had a pilot for an animated film or an animated TV series. And it played on El Rey network. And that’s how Josh met Ryan Crowe, who was producing Robert’s reality series. And so, he told us, you know, if you guys have a feature script, submit it, we’d love to look at it and maybe get you on the show. And Josh was like; Okay. And we didn’t at the time. S, we got to work. And we wrote our first feature scripts together and they picked it up. So, they helped us produce that film and then we decided Grey Woods was the next project because we had been sitting on that for a while.
Ashley
So yeah, let’s dig in. It sounds like that’s a good point to dig into Grey Wood Plot. Maybe to start out, you can just give us a quick pitch or logline. What is this this film all about?
Josh
Yeah, Grey Wood Plot is about two friends who get a video their cryptozoologists or want to be cryptozoologists. And they get a videotape sent to them anonymously that has really, really bad footage of a big footage type monster. So, they decided to go into the woods and make a documentary about this creature. And then madness ensues when they venture onto Grey Woods plot of land.
Ashley
And where did this idea come from? What was sort of the genesis of this idea?
Josh
Yeah, so I wanted to make a feature that was always been like on my bucket list. So, I started thinking about what I wanted to do. And one of the projects I always wanted to work on was I was wanting to have Daniel play a mad scientist, and turn someone into a creature. I love movies, where a human becomes something, it was like reading the metamorphosis in high school, or something that got me into this idea. But I’ve always loved movies, where people like Island of Dr. Moreau type project. So, I wanted to write something like that. And so, we sort of, you know, kind of brainstorm this concept together. And I wrote, I didn’t actually write a script first. I wrote a scriptment and notecards, and I tried to go just do the notecard method. And we were going to kind of improv the sequences and see what we could do on set. And then after we filmed the first time, we realized we weren’t that great at improv. So, then I sat down and actually wrote the script, and sent it to Daniel and he rewrote it. And we kind of just brainstormed concepts for scenes together and wrote that way. But the nice thing about making like a truly independent movie is we had the advantage of sort of writing as we went and being able to change things as we go and develop the characters on the fly and figure out like, well, we’re not going to say it like this, because that doesn’t actually make sense. But the character from what we’ve learned and what we filmed, let’s change the scene, or we have a scene that we wrote, like two weeks before the movie had to go to its first film festival or be submitted to its first film festival. And we were like, this isn’t working, we need to write something that ties these characters together better. And we actually wrote I wrote the scene, I sent it to Daniel, he was like, this is good. Let’s go film it. We found a spot. We filmed it, I edited it. I did you know all the visual effects. I just cut score from different chunks of the movie and made it like fit into it. And that scene is one of people’s favorite scenes in the movie. So yeah.
Ashley
So, maybe you can talk about the writing process a little bit. How did you guys actually churn out pages? It sounds like you had this false start. You did some improv. Then you got back. Were you guys in the same rooms? And right before the interview, you mentioned that Josh, you were in Atlanta, Daniel was in you said Minneapolis or Minnesota. And so, were you separated at that point? Maybe just like physically, how did you guys actually turn this script out? Were you in the same room, using Zoom?
Josh
Yeah, I think Grey Woods Plot I sort of wrote the first draft and then sent it to Daniel and he sort of adapted it. But I think the more interesting story as far as writing goes, and I think is more apropos to us writing together is when we wrote the Good Exorcist, Daniel and I, we like Daniel and said, we were trying to go on Robert Rodriguez Rebel with the Crew, I had essentially lied and said we had a feature script. And that we would send it in in two weeks that when they asked for it, they’re like; Hey, can you send us the script? I was like, Yeah, can I have two weeks to do some rewrites? They were like, Yeah, that sounds fine. Just take two weeks and send it in. And I was like, damn, we got to write a script in two weeks. So, we got on a software called Writer’s Duet.
Ashley
We’ve had them on. Yeah, we’ve had him on the podcast. Yeah, the founder of that.
Josh
Oh nice. Yeah, we think we loved it.
Ashley
He’s a cool guy. Yeah.
Josh
So, I would write pages. And then, I’m really more like the backbone writer, and Dan is the cleanup artist. So, that’s kind of how it went right down.
Daniel
Yeah, totally. I mean, Josh definitely had the structure sort of mapped out and then I will come in and once I kind of get a vibe for the characters, I’ll start putting in dialogue or adding things. But yeah, huge proponents of Writer Duet we’ve never actually ever written together in the same room, we’ve always been. You know, we both have families. We both have kids. Life is crazy. So, it’s just always but we talk every day. You know, we’re always texting each other I think whatever. So, we’re always kicking ideas around. And when it came to get the screenplay going, yeah, Josh just started the start of the screenplay and got a few pages in. And then I’d look at it and give him some notes or ideas and keep going. And we always like to sort of surprise each other. You know, I think knowing each other for as long as we have, we know each other sensibilities and what will surprise one another. And this whole, particularly with Grey Woods, once we decided to write out a physical script and not improv, we wanted to keep it fresh and interesting by really like, surprising the other person. So, I’d go in and put another 10 pages or rework his pages and see what he thought and that would lead to other tangents. And that would get him going on the next few pages. And yeah, it’s come a long way. I mean, the movie was a very different film when it first started, but we found it definitely in the script writing process.
Ashley
How do you guys, and it sounds like you guys have been friends for so long. There’s almost a brotherly type relationship going on here. But how do you guys get past those moments where you don’t necessarily agree? Were there ever any moments where you wrote something that you thought was fantastic. And he’s like, yeah, it’s not so fantastic. How do you move past those sort of just differences of opinion that inevitably come up?
Josh
Yeah, man. I mean, it definitely is that brotherly thing where we are there, we know each other well enough. And we know how to like, play the game with each other and figure out if this is serious, if we’re just joking about something, or if this is really going to work. And we also have an understanding that like, just because I don’t get it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Like maybe it’s just reading different on the page than what is being envisioned. Or, you know, because I edit my own stuff and I directed, a lot of times, I sort of go into it with a like, well, we’ll try it, I don’t think it’s going to work. But Dan has an idea. Let’s see what he’s thinking and what I can do with it. And at the end of the day, if I have to cut it, I just cut it in the edit. I shoot something in a way where I’m like, this is what’s actually going to work and what’s going to get us from this scene to this scene if this doesn’t work, but the truth is, is like where we sort of agree to just try anything. And that has been super helpful, because I can’t tell you how many scenes I have been like, this isn’t going to work. And then I we actually start filming, and I’m like, oh my gosh, this is so much better than I thought it was going to come out. And I’m sure it’s happened with stuff that I’ve written that then Dan sees on screen. Or even in the writing, you know, there’s some times where we just talk it through, we have moments where we’re like, I don’t get this, what does this mean? Or why is this funny? And the Dan will act it out. And I’m like, oh, yeah, that is funny. Now I get it. It doesn’t read funny, but it definitely is funny, or the opposite where I read it. And I’m like, this is the funniest thing I’ve ever read. And then we try to translate it in the process. And I’m like, it doesn’t quite translate the way it reads. How do we make it translate? What was funny about it in the reading, let’s rewrite it on the fly and figure out how to make it work.
Ashley
How do you guys just go about like screenplay structure, the three-act structure? How do you go about sort of genre requirements? Were there some other movies you looked at? You know, what were those movies? And how do you do you know, put an original take on something that obviously Bigfoot and sort of this genre is well tread, how do you put that original spin on it?
Josh
Yeah, for me, it’s I’m such a proponent of the note card structure, I lay out my 40 cards, I put 10, 10, 10, 10. And I hit that act one, act two, part one, act two, part two, and act three, and I just like stick to that. And then as I’m getting that going, I’m like, okay, this act is going to be a little longer. You know, with the new screenplay I just wrote, I ended up basically just like taking the last five cards of Act Three and being like, we need this little act three before an Act Four. It’s kind of a weird structure. But you know, it’s about moving those scenes around and realizing from for me, it’s always like, why are people watching this moment? Like, what’s the negative to the positive? What’s the positive to the negative? Why are we moving? Why are we seeing this? Whether that’s, you know, just the entertainment value, or if it’s like this is saying something I need a reason for every moment in my movies. And I think it makes for some weird beats. And but we love that, that’s why. I looked at stuff like Beetlejuice that’s one of my favorite screenplays ever and I read a lot of screenplays. I mean, I have a closet, the top shelf is just filled with screenplays, I love to print them off and sit by the pool and just read them while my kids swim or whatever. And so that’s a big part of my process is seeing how scenes are structured in different movies and realizing like what really, really breaking down like, why does this scene exist in Indiana Jones And why does this scene exist and how can I use that in my own way? And then try to make it my own thing. It’s always just like, and not… like Daniel said earlier, it’s a lot of times about chopping each other. So, our scenes when we’re looking at those note cards, a lot of times, I’ll be like, I want a scene where there’s an evil teddy bear. Like in the Good Exorcist. I want an evil teddy bear scene, and Dan will be like, okay, I want the teddy bear to vomit in my face. And then I’m like, Oh, my God. Okay, so we’re doing that. And then it’s just this like, building off of each other’s excitement of what can we do with this scene, and why would the audience want to watch this.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So yeah, Daniel, let’s hear about that. What’s the deal with the vomiting Teddy Bear? Give us your take on that.
Daniel
Yeah, I mean, that I think that is the struggle with being independent filmmakers, is we, you know, there’s so much stuff out there that we just want to do something different. We want to make movies and write screenplays that are going to push the envelope as far as we can, with the limitations that we have. And so yeah, if he wants a teddy bear, and he wants it to go crazy, then I’m like, Yeah, let’s like attach a hose to the back and shoot, you know, soup in my face. Some pea soup. I’ll roll around with it. We’ll get physical with it. Like, yeah, anytime we can do something that really surprises an audience. I think that’s our biggest asset, both in the screenwriting process and onset. So, I think, you know, hopefully, people, it seems like people are responding to it well, and hopefully that continues.
Ashley
I think it’s interesting that Daniel came up with the gag of vomiting on Josh. And so, in the next gag, we see something horrific happened to Daniel.
Josh
Yeah, and there’s this, like, even the shock sometimes is as simple as Daniel writing a monologue. There is a monologue that he gives in Grey Woods Plot. And I remember reading it and being like, Man, why would you write yourself something that long? Like, that’s so hard? And but that’s, I could tell it was him being like; No, I want to try this. I want to write a monologue. And I want to try to recite it, because as an actor, you know, he was trying to challenge himself a little bit. And I think that audience responds well, to that. But I think more than the audience, we have this thing about wanting to sort of impress ourselves and impress each other. And so, writing something like that, I think being an independent filmmaking and knowing that we’re going to be delivering the lines that we’re going to be the ones on set, it helps us go, okay, what can we do to push ourselves?
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So, once you guys had a draft of the script that you liked, what were those next steps? Did you go raise some money? Did you just have some cast and crew, it’s just shoot it for whatever, basically, out of pocket type expenses?
Josh
Yeah, Grey Woods Plot, we just made it. I play the lead, Daniel played like the second or what, like one of the other leads, and then we brought on my friend, Keith. And we all just, it was a weekend warrior type project where we wrote it, and then we just, you know, when we could, when we had time, we would get together, there was days where my buddy Keith would get off of work, I’d be like; Hey, man, can you come over, and we’re going to shoot two scenes tonight. And he, you know, come over and show up. And, you know, the challenge of that is that, you know, Daniel had a shaved head in the movie. So, there was some reshoots where he grew his hair back and then have to shave his head again, and then grow his hair back and then have to shave his head again. But we really utilized to the fact that we are we’re independent with it. And you know, the budget was low. But because we were making on our own, we could spend, you know, 500 bucks here to make a dog man mask, we could spend a couple 100 bucks here to do this. And we did it on our own, we learned and we found ways to do it ourselves. And we utilized our own talents. So, I’m an editor by trade. I’m an animator, by trade, I could do all of those things, visual effects, but we specifically wrote for visual effects I knew I could do instead of coming up with some grand ideas that I’m like, I’m going to have to hire people to do this. I remember when we wrote the movie, and we had this idea for the dog monster, I went to some actual, like professional visual effects artists and ask them how much it would cost. I showed them my boards. I showed them the concept. And they were quoting me, like, man, the cheapest I can go is like eight grand, and I’m like, I’m going to spend like, two grand on this whole movie, man. Like, I don’t have eight grand for that. So, then I talked to our buddy Strauss, who’s also in the movie and was basically my assistant director on the whole project. And I was like, hey, Strauss you have any interest in getting into visual effects. And he was like, I’m on YouTube already, man. And was like two weeks later, in my kitchen, doing a full cast of my head from YouTube videos he had found and you know, my kids were running around with cell phones filming the process because I was like, man, if I’m going to suffocate and die because we screw this up. I want proof of it. I want them to be able to make the documentary about the crazy independent filmmaker that was trying to make himself into a dog man and died in his kitchen. But I’ve worked in the industry long enough that I understand the process. I understand crowdfunding, I understand the Coen brothers go to dentist that you know and beg for money method, I know all of the different methods that you can go through. And we just decided with this one, we were just going to go fully independent and film it and do everything ourselves and see what we could make.
Ashley
How did you guys avoid? And like the first question, but first thing that struck me about the film was that you guys did it in black and white. You know, your basic premise, people go into a woods after a monster to make a documentary is the same premise of Blair Witch, obviously, also filmed in black and white. So, I’m curious, how do you avoid those comparisons? Or were you trying to lean into those comparisons?
Josh
Yeah, we definitely I think we were trying to lean into it big time and lean into competing compared to like, you know, universal monster movies or movies. It’s a modern take on the B movies that like Ed Wood was doing back in the 50s. And we wanted to make sure that we were playing to our strengths and playing to what we know. But yeah, I think right now, I mean, we pretty intentionally went black and white.
Daniel
Yeah, definitely. I mean, we shot some of it in color, and it just wasn’t vibing. And Josh showed me a cut of some scenes he did in black and white. And he’s like, this kind of looks like a universal monster, like, type film. And I’m like, yeah, we should let’s, yeah, let’s explore that.
Ashley
Did you get any pushback from the distributors? I had a friend that did a film, black and white. And the distributor literally said, we need the color version, or testing drama in black and white. And the distributor is like; No, we need the color version.
Josh
Yeah. 100%.
Daniel
Which is something we did not plan for it didn’t expect. I mean, I think the irony is there’s like, been such a huge resurgence of black and white films lately. I kind of didn’t expect that. And yeah, that was our biggest note from everyone. You know, they just couldn’t sell it. And I understand that and our level, the cost just doesn’t make sense for them. So, I get it. But terror was like, understood the vision understood what we were doing, understood it was this like modern throwback, and they fully supported it. So, we knew they were like the ones to go with. But yeah, people, we got that a lot. They’re like, where’s the colored version? And we’re like, you don’t want to see that. I mean, we shot it for black and white. It looks terrible. Like it’s not going to work.
Josh
Yeah, and I think there was like, there’s moments where we, if it would have been in color, it just didn’t, the audience wouldn’t have understood it. And so, we really, I really pushed back on that. But I was a little surprised when we got that note, because the movie is so obviously sort of a throwback, and, and we so intentionally shot it in black and white. But yeah, we’ve learned since then that, and we get it how, you know, when people when modern horror audiences see black and white, they don’t necessarily want to tune in, or it’s a little bit more challenging to sell. But we’re proud of the fact that terror was got it and picked it up. And the audience has been so fantastic already, like, even from the film festivals, and everyone who’s seen it gets the black and white.
Daniel
Yeah, genre, people understand what we’re doing. And that’s the most important thing.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. You guys have mentioned this Rebel Without a Crew a couple of times. I have heard of it, but I don’t know much about it. So, there’s got to be some listeners that are sort of wondering about, maybe you can just tell us quickly, like, how does someone apply to this? And then ultimately, what do you guys get out of it sounds like you guys are very positive about and feel like it actually was a good stepping stone for your careers. So just quickly, how can people find is there a website? And then how do you apply? And then ultimately, what do you get if you’re selected?
Josh
Yeah, so they did a season of it. There was only one season so far, and I haven’t heard anything about a second season. We applied through Robert had put it out there, but I had heard in advance about it because of being on the El Rey network. And we just had to send a script and give a pitch and a bunch of other stuff. And then in the end, you basically just got a movie, like the end goal was to make a movie at your first feature film, and Robert was giving us $7,000 to make it and we went to Austin, we had an amazing experience. And we came out of it with the Good Exorcist, our first film that was recently distributed through Trauma. We got a Blu ray release through Trauma, they did a whole you know, all the behind the scenes a whole fun thing with it. But people can watch Rebel Without a Crew the series I think it’s like available on iTunes and a bunch of… Amazon. Yeah, so you can purchase it on there and watch it and it’s a really, really fun look at Indie filmmaking and the process that the insanity that goes into making a movie with very little funding.
Ashley
Yeah, that sounds like a great program. So, then did you guys shoot in Austin? And was there like support? So, you go down to Austin. Was there like just support since you’re in Austin, Robert, because obviously a big name there in Austin filmmaking community. Was there just sort of logistical support free food at restaurants, you know, easy access to good crew was there that sort of stuff? Or it was not?
Josh
It was a $7,000 movie and they were basically like, hey, here are some locations because it’s not your area and in the show you kind of see how they set us up with our cast where they we did like a big cattle call and they gave us like a half hour to pick out our entire cast and I cast the Daniel in the movie and flew him. I think our parents bought you your flight down, right clicked and I know he made it down. I don’t remember how he figured it out, made it down and he was the lead in the movie but then we just had an insane time you know, with next to no money making something that had a ton of like handcrafted monsters of evil Bible and a piano that comes to life. And it was an absolute blast. But you’ll see on the show how much fun Daniel and I had. But that was our first foray into feature filmmaking.
Ashley
Yeah. Perfect. So, I just like to wrap up these interviews by asking the guests if there’s anything they’ve seen recently that they thought was really great and maybe could recommend to a screenwriting audience. Is there anything you guys are watching that you would recommend?
Josh
I was just going to say this is so like off the I don’t know why this is the first one that popped into my head. Probably because I recently watched it. But there’s this really, really, like, beautifully terrifying and weird arthouse movie that I watched recently called Possum. It’s on Shutter right now. And it’s the kind of movie that like you’ll watch and you’ll be like, I did not like that. That was disgusting. Like and but then you’ll didn’t think about it for like hours and hours and be like, oh, I get the metaphor here. I get what this is saying. And I think it’s a really like the writing and it was really well done in that way of it’s it really left me thinking and going like how did someone come up with such a deep, meaningful piece of art?
Ashley
Is a great recommendation. I have not seen that one. So, I’ll definitely put it on my list.
Daniel
I mean, I guess for like, big films right now. Nope. I thought it was amazing. I thought the I’m excited to read the screenplay. I haven’t yet. But I thought the film was just wonderfully executed. I think Jordan Peele is phenomenal. I think Indie stuff I saw, it’s on HBO max. Now this film, we’re all going to the World’s Fair. Don’t know how they did it. It’s pretty much a mumblecore sort of scary movie that deals with like the internet generation. And I think is great. And television. I think Barry is just phenomenal. Both seasons.
Ashley
Yeah. So yeah, those are some great recommendations, and none of which none of the stuff I’ve checked out. So how can people see Grey Woods Plot? What’s the release schedule going to be like for that?
Josh
Yeah, September 16th, terror films is putting it out on all digital platforms. So, you can pick it up on Vudu, you can rent it, buy it on Vudu, Amazon, iTunes, all the normal places that you see movies, and then hopefully from there, we’ll be seeing it on streaming at some point. I would love to, you know, get more eyes on it. So hopefully it’ll be on the Tube’s or you know, something like that at some point, or we’ll see what happens. But yeah, September 16th. Check it out if you’re afraid you’re going to forget to check it out or not sure where you’re going to find it. Follow us on all the social medias. Daniel and I are both on social media on Twitter, and I’m on Twitter at Josh Stifter. Daniel is at Daniel_Degnan. Is that right? And then we’re both on Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Yeah. And that’s always my last question. So yeah, we’ll round all that stuff up for the show notes. And then people can just click over to that. So, Josh and Daniel, I really appreciate you guys coming on talking with me today. Excellent. Again, this film done, and congratulations and look forward to following your careers and talking to you next time you have a film ready.
Josh
Thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it.
Ashley
Thank you guys. We’ll talk to you later.
Josh
Talk to you later 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 sellingyourscreenplay.com/success. Also, on SYS podcast episode 222. I talked with Steve daring 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 five to 10 high quality paid leads per week. These leads run the gamut. There are 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 sellingyourscreenplayselect.com. Again, that is sellingyourscreenplayselect.com. On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing Canadian screenwriter Brandon Rhiness, who was on the podcast before in Episode 225 and episode 318. So, check those out. We talked about how he got his start in the business in Episode 225, how he broke in as a screenwriter. And next week we’re going to be talking about his new horror feature film which he wrote and also directed, called grotesque. We’re talking about how he got that film produced as well. So, keep an eye out for that episode next week. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.