This is a transcript of SYS 477 – Writing A Movie From A Stage Play With James Cullen Bressack .
Welcome to Episode 477 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing writer-director James Colin Bressack, who has been on the podcast before in episode number 446. So, check the app, check out that episode if you haven’t already. This week, he comes on the show to talk about his latest feature film it film called Murder Anyone, which is based on a play written by his father. It’s a very touching story from James he explains this journey taking this really as a passion project, something his father wrote. And eventually he his father, unfortunately passed away. And then James was just passionate to get this movie produced as sort of an homage to his father. So, he talks about this, how he got this film produced. Typically, James does a lot of these sort of low budget genre films. This is very much a step away from that. So, we talked about that a little bit as well. So, stay tuned for that interview.
SYS’s six-figure screenplay contest is open for submissions, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. Our early bird deadline is March 31st. So, if your script is ready, definitely submit now to save money. We’re looking for low budget shorts and features. I’m defining low budget as less than six figures. In other words, less than 1 million US dollars. We’ve got lots of industry judges reading scripts in the later rounds, we’re giving away 1000s in cash and prizes. We’ve had a number of options and sales from the contest, and this is only our fourth year. So, we’re getting a nice bit of traction with the scripts. There’s always a lot of producers looking for high quality, low budget scripts, both features and shorts. If you want to submit to the contest or learn more about it, we have all of our industry judges listed there we have all the deadlines listed on this page. And of course, there is a link for submission. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. 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 can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast and then just look for episode 477.
So now just a couple of quick words about what I have been working on, I’m still getting some PR on Rideshare Killer and the NFT project that we did along with it. So, I’m still definitely spending some time there and pushing that forward. I’ve got the Film Festival and the contest coming up. So, I’m doing some marketing on that, especially the festival, I want to really kind of ramp up my efforts there. And that will kind of be my focus probably the next couple of weeks, just trying to ramp up my marketing efforts and start to get all that worked out. But the main screenwriting thing I’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks is doing a rewrite on my low budget indie rom com. I’m going to just rewrite it now. And then I’m going to push it into pre-production and start really trying hard to get it made. I have a couple ideas I want to pursue just to see if I can raise a little financing. But if that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably just do it like I did The Pinch, which is to say mostly self-financed with one or two other producers, the rewrite is going pretty well. I’m trying to weave in a whole little subplot where the protagonist is working on his Tic Tok channel. And I’m going to try and incorporate a lot of the Tik Tok aesthetic into the screenplay and then ultimately the film. If you watch Tik Tok, as I watched quite a bit of it, there’s definitely sort of a very specific aesthetic, obviously, it’s on your phone. So, it has that phone aspect ratio, but there’s sort of a Tik Tok aesthetic for the closed captions, for some reasons become very popular to have all these sort of very, you know, bright and closed captions, whereas the person is talking, there’s sort of these Tik Tok videos where there’s an image back, it’s sort of almost like a green screen effect, where you see sort of like a talking head, and there’s an image back. It’s just all of these sorts of things that we see sort of in the modern world with all of these video apps, I’m going to just try and as I said, sort of baked some of that into this script to kind of give it a nice, fresh feel. It’s about young people, you know, it’s a young person’s romantic comedy. So, I think making it as timely as possible, is probably a smart move. So anyways, that’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks is trying to integrate all of that into the script. As I said, it’s going pretty well and I’m going to get another round of notes on it. So, it might take me you know, another couple of weeks to get this rewrite done, and then another, you know, few weeks to do the next set of rewrites on whatever notes I get. But with The Rideshare Killer, there was a couple of reasons why we really had to get into production quickly. And in hindsight, I think we were very fortunate. It was really just kind of luck that we got were able to shoot before COVID Because it was just a few months after everything got shut down. And The Rideshare Killer was so low budget We would have had a lot of issues, if we had tried to push it back and then gotten shut down with COVID, I think it might have actually killed the project, I’m not sure we would have ever gotten it done. Or if we did get it done, we probably would be getting it done about now. So, with this one, I really want to just take my time, we really were under the gun, we had to move very quickly. With this one, I’m going to spend some time really making sure that the script is as good as I think it can be. And then just slowly putting the pieces together of production. So, I can just make it as I said, I’m just not going to be a lot of money, it’s going to be a low budget no matter what happens. So, taking my time and making sure that I at least make the best decisions that I can make in every instance, hopefully will add up to a halfway decent movie. Anyways, those are the things I’ve been working on. Now let’s get into the main segment. today. I’m interviewing writer director James Colin Bressack. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome back, James to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast, I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
James Bressack
Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to chat with you today.
Ashley
So, you’re on about six months ago, where we talked briefly about the start of your career. And your recent film back then was a film called Hot Seat. So, I’m going to tell, if people have not already listened to that, definitely go check that episode out. It’s number 446. And today, we’re just going to dig right into your latest feature film, a film called Murder Anyone maybe to start out, you can give us a quick pitch or logline, what is this new film all about?
James Bressack
So, it’s about two writers that are writing a neo-noir avant-garde thriller, or maybe it’s a play, they can’t really decide and basically what they write starts coming to life in front of our eyes. So, it’s very much about the writers process and about, you know, the decision between whether or not you know, you want to do something for art or for commerce, and where that middle ground is.
Ashley
So, let’s talk about the origins of this script. It was written by Gordon Bressack, your father, who is now deceased, maybe you can kind of take us through the journey of this, what was the kernel of idea for him? And how did you ultimately get involved with this project?
James Bressack
You know, my dad and I, many times before he passed away, he was he was always writing plays. And I was like, Dad, why are you wasting your time writing plays, you should be writing movies, like, you know, movie to get sold. And then so he wrote a play about how I was always nagging him to write movies. And it was very much about the writer’s process. And you know, the idea of, you know, do we listen to our heart and go with the art of it? Or do we listen to like, our need for money and go with what’s more commercial, he ended up putting on the play, it was just one of like, the last creative endeavors he did. And so, when he passed away, I thought, a fitting tribute was to take this and turn it into a movie. And so that’s kind of what I did. And that’s kind of where this all came from. And I did this to, like, honor him. And I think, you know, it has a lot of him inside of it, which I very much cherish.
Ashley
Yeah. And so, I’m curious, because those are all things that, you know, as artists ourselves that we deal with, and certainly your own career, you’ve done a lot of sort of very focused genre films, action and stuff hard. These are things that in this, this would sort of go out of that. So, where do you land on that? This doesn’t seem like your most commercial project. But obviously, it’s sort of a passion project. But maybe you can talk to that a little bit.
James Bressack
Yeah. I mean, I made this movie for an audience of one who will never see it. You know, I made this movie, you know, to honor my father in the way that I thought he would have liked it. And so, you know, it was a passion project. And really, he was the only person that I was trying to impress, so I did it to honor his words and as well, like his comedic sensibilities. So, I never made this movie for anybody else. Really, the watcher, you know, we’ve been very fortunate that, like, you know, I think we have like right now 90% On Rotten Tomatoes, and we’ve gotten, you know, some great reviews and done really well on the festival circuit, getting awards and stuff, and I’m excited for people to see it, but I was very much content with the idea that, you know, nobody else but him had to like it. And that was very freeing, because I was able to try weird things. And my dad was weird guy, you know, he did cartoons and stuff. So, I was able to do stuff that you know, were not was not commercial and you know, one thing I very much love about this movie is my dad always told me that until I was 30 years old, every single movie I did would be like, you know, known as my early work. And so, to just like, exercise my ability as a filmmaker and as a writer to do as much as I possibly could. And then, once I got older, you know, that’s when I started would start honing stuff. And this was the last movie I made before I turned 30, I like literally a week after we wrapped filming, I turned 30. So it was, I think…
Ashley
It’s early work, the late early.
James Bressack
Yeah, I mean, it was a special experience to do that. And you know, it’s hard as a filmmaker, because you want to be able to stay true to your voice, but you also want to be able to make things that are commercial. Because, you know, that’s what gets released and gets financed. And so, you know, finding that balance is hard. And you know, I’ve definitely done like, you know, the straight down the middle action movies, I’ve done the horror, that that is commercial, you know, the ghost house type stuff, and you know, I find the fun inside of those cookie cutter models. But I’ve definitely enjoyed doing Murder Anyone. And on that I’ve been expanding outside of the norm, which I find, you know, more invigorating as a filmmaker, like murder anyone was my first step of just kind of just doing whatever I wanted. back to when I first started the first, you know, two or three movies I made, there were no rules, I just did whatever I wanted, one of them got banned in the UK permanently. And because I just went there, I just did whatever. And then I got, you know, pushed into and luckily started getting hired to do films. And so I started to work inside of those models and learn the system. And now I feel like, I’m starting to break out of that system again, and kind of, you know, rediscover my voice as a filmmaker,
Ashley
I wonder if we can talk just sort of, in a general sense about the writing of this, and converting a play to a screenplay, maybe you can talk about some of the changes you had to make, and just some of the obstacles that you ran into?
James Bressack
Yeah, I mean, you know, that’s kind of a tough part of it, you know, because everything is pretty much just one scene, when it’s a play, you know, it’s like, lights go down over here that like these people walk out, and lights go down over there. And so, it was finding, like, you know, really like the formatting and where the actual brakes were inside the story, in order to like section it off into scenes. And that was definitely process as well, because I did not want to do anything that would harm what my dad had there. So, I didn’t remove any dialogue or change any action, I just kind of enhanced what was there in order to streamline it towards the screen?
Ashley
And I wonder if that’s, do you think that was good that it was your father’s and you were so you know, this is a man that you love deeply, do you think that that potentially could prevent you from making good decision, not necessarily good decisions, but decisions that maybe make it a little more commercial? Do you think there’s something there? I mean, what do you have to honor your data? I mean, how much do you have to push in that direction?
James Bressack
I mean, you know, that’s a tough question. Because I can’t speculate on what possibly could have been an indifferent scenario. I just know, my main goal was to honor his words exactly as they were. And so that’s exactly what I did.
Ashley
What are your thoughts on just, I mean, this is a you know, since Shakespeare’s time the play within a play, the movie within a movie, just as a device. Do you have any recommendations for screeners now that you’ve dealt with this as a director, are there some things you can kind of comment on with that?
James Bressack
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a fun device that exists, you know, I mean, you know, they say that there’s never really been any new stories, since Shakespeare, everything is kind of, you know, like, some type of derivative of a Shakespeare play and I can see that, but I think, you know, just developing stuff so that there is a full rounded existence inside of what you’re doing is, I think, the most important and then everything from there, if people could connect to your story and characters, nothing else matters, really. I mean, you know, I could have the best lighting in the world, I could have the best sound in the world. But if I have boring characters and a boring story, nobody will want to watch so I think the most important thing is having characters you can connect to.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, once you had this script, you converted the play into a screenplay. What were your next steps to actually getting this produced? And I’m curious you You’re such a candid person. You’re telling us you made this for one person, and one person only it wasn’t meant to be commercial. I’m guessing that’s not all that enticing to investors, people that are going to put their money into something like this. So, what is what was your angle to go out and raise money for this and actually get this into production.
James Bressack
I didn’t raise money I financed it myself. I pay for it myself.,
Ashley
Okay, well there you go. Okay, good, good. Yeah, so true passion project.
James Bressack
Yes, I paid for it myself. So, I wasn’t going to try to get somebody else’s money when I knew that I was trying to make this just completely to honor you know, just my father and his legacy. So, you know, I financed it myself.
Ashley
Yeah, fair enough. So, take us through the film festival circuit a little bit. What festivals did you apply to? And how would those helped you?
James Bressack
I applied to all of them. And we didn’t get into a lot of them. But the ones we did get into it, you know, we got a good reception out. We did like film quest, and we did you know, a bunch of like the genre fests and some of the others, I’d have to look but I think we won like something like 34 awards or something on this across the fest circuit. And we did about, I want to say like 20 festivals.
Ashley
And do you have some tips for people that are applying to these festivals? Was it just you applied to a ton of them and ultimately got accepted? Some were there some personal connections? Did you have a producer, that sort of stuff?
James Bressack
No, I did it all myself through Filmfreeway. And what I did was I just wrote a letter explaining, you know, why I made this movie. And, you know, when sent that out, with a submission, and hopes that it would resonate with people, and then I just cast as big of a net as possible. That’s kind of just I feel like the way you got to do stuff in this business, you know, you got to come with your passion and your story and why you did something, because people connect to that sort of thing. And beyond that, you just, ultimately go; Hey, let me just cast the biggest net possible because not everybody will connect with the reasons or the material or whatever. But, you know, the wider the net, the more chance you have of catching the fish.
Ashley
So just a little clarity on what you just said about this letter through Filmfreeway. When I’ve submitted on Filmfreeway, there’s like a text box, and you can pull like a personalized note. Does that what you were using? Or did you then go and email the festival after you made this submission?
James Bressack
There’s a little button where you can attach a cover letter. And so, I actually typed up a cover letter and then attached it, that attachment with the submission.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, do you think the festival this festival run helped you with distribution ultimately? Or did you use your contacts?
James Bressack
The distribution is a contact that I’ve done many movies with. And he understood why I was making the movie and, you know, and it’s been a great partner, Keith Leopard … Tim and I have done many, many projects together. And so it was just natural to do that together.
Ashley
Gotcha. So, what’s next for you? What are you working on? What are we going to see from you in the future?
James Bressack
I can’t tell if you can tell because my sound tired. But literally two days ago, I just wrapped my new movie. We’ve been shooting for about two months. It’s called Darkness of Man. And it’s a noir story about an alcoholic who is protecting this kid from the mob. And it’s, it’s a lot of fun. It’s really dark. There’s unbelievably violent, and it’s really great. And, you know, there’s a wonderful performance by our lead John Claude Van Damme. And I’m really excited for people to see it. It’s a really dark, gritty movie.
Ashley
Yeah, sounds fascinating. How can people see Murder Anyone? Do you know what the release schedule is going to be like for that?
James Bressack
February 7, and I believe anywhere you watch your VOD stuff, or you rent the movie, you’re going to be able to see this movie.
Ashley
Perfect, perfect. And I’d like to just wrap up the interviews by asking the guests is there anything you’ve seen recently that you can recommend to our screenwriting audience; HBO, Netflix, anything that’s out there that screenwriters should really take notice of?
James Bressack
I’ve been really getting into the TV show, The Last of Us and you know, I played the video game. And it’s very interesting to see how much of the TV show follows the video game and how they change certain things as well. And I’ve kind of enjoyed seeing that because it kind of is faithful but yet makes it different. There’s different stuff as well. So, it’s really well made and I’m excited about it.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard good things about it. That’s a great recommendation. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, anything you’re comfortable sharing our roundup in the show notes?
James Bressack
Instagram. I’m at JamesCullenB and Twitter I’m at JamesCullenB but over the past like about a year I pretty much only use the Instagram. I mean, the Twitter exists, but I haven’t really been using it much anymore.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. Well, James, I really appreciate you coming on taking some time to talk with me again. Good luck with this film and good luck with all your feature films as well.
James Bressack
All right, thank you so much.
Ashley
Thank you. We’ll talk to you later. Take care.
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