This is a transcript of SYS 480 – How To Produce Your Own Script With Michael Escalante.
Welcome to Episode 480 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing filmmaker Michael Escalante who just did a cool low budget horror film called The Burial. It’s a contained cabin in the woods horror film. We talk through this film, how he wrote it, how he got it produced. And we talked a little bit about his career and how he got to the point where he is now writing and directing feature films, so stay tuned for that interview. SYS’s six-figure screenplay contest is open for submissions, just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. Our regular deadline is May 31st. If your script is ready, definitely submit now to save money. We’re looking for low budget shorts and features. I’m defining low budgets as less than six figures. In other words, less than 1 million US dollars. Got lots of industry judges reading the scripts in the later rounds, giving away 1000s in cash and prizes. We have a short film script category as well 30 pages or less, if you have a low budget short script by all means submit that. I’ve got a good number of industry judge producers who are actively looking for short scripts to produce. If you want to submit to the contest or learn more about it, just go to 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. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcast. And then just look for episode number 400. 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. I teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. I’ll 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. And again, just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide, you can pick it up for free right now.
A quick few words about what I am working on. So, we’re in the second stage of the screenplay contest and Film Festival. We just had our Early Bird deadline a couple of weeks ago. So that’s definitely taken up some time as I’m just managing all these entries, getting into the readers getting them reviewed, getting all of them judges, some good ones are definitely starting to get identified by our early round reader. So, I’m going to start pushing those out to the industry judges over the next few weeks. The festival is also getting a few more entries than last year, last year was our first in person event. And we really did not get a ton of submissions. But this year, things seem to be picking up nicely. We’re offering something that I think is totally unique to filmmakers. If the filmmaker does not get accepted into our festival, we’re going to give them a 100% refund of their entry fee. As a filmmaker, it was always frustrating submitting too many festivals, losing the entry fee, getting rejected or even if we weren’t rejected getting accepted to a festival, and then not actually getting a screening. So that’s sort of the promise I’m making to the filmmakers is if you don’t get accepted the festival, we’re not going to take your money. And if you do get accepted to the festival, we are going to screen your film, it’s not we’re not going to just accept films and then not screen them. I just don’t understand what value those film festivals think they’re giving to the filmmakers. So, as I said, we’re really trying to do something a little bit different. I’m hoping this is a nice pivot from the normal film festivals and offers filmmakers frankly more value. I am still out promoting The Rideshare Killer and doing interviews on some crypto podcast. I’ve been doing that over the last couple of weeks. If you Google Blockchain Recorded Podcast, that’s the name of the podcast Blockchain Recorded and if you just Google that literally Blockchain Recorded Podcast, you’ll find the most recent interview I did, which I did just last week. It’s now public. And so if you want to hear me talk more on this topic of NFTs and the film industry and where I think crypto is going to intersect with the film industry. Definitely check out that podcast. I will also link to it in the show notes as well. But if you’re just out and about and can’t get to the link, you can just go and just Google Blockchain Recorded Podcast and you’ll see me I think my episode is like episode 32 or something like that, but you’ll be able to find me once you find their website. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today I am interviewing filmmaker Michael Escalante. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome Michael to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Michael Escalante
Hello, good morning, and thanks for having me.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background, where do you grew up and how to get interested in the entertainment business?
Michael Escalante
So, I grew up in Norwalk, California, which is like a suburb on the outskirts of Los Angeles County. And growing up my family was always really big into like going to the movies, especially my mom who would take me like after school on Friday afternoons a lot as a little surprise. So, I always say go in the movies like with very positive memories. But it wasn’t until like high school where I started taking it more serious like seeing it as like an art form. And as a potential career path. And it was in high school, I started writing feature length screenplays, just for fun and just to see if I can do it. And if I liked it, looking back at them now they’re really bad. But I completed them which was cool at the time. But and also my family also really was always like into storytelling. Like my dad was a high school English teacher. And my mom at the same time as me also got into writing screenplays. So, we would kind of help each other read each other’s stuff. Enter the same competitions and see made it…
Ashley
Is she’s still writing?
Michael Escalante
Yeah, yeah, she’s really good. And so I went to college, I went to UCLA as an English major. And I was a little intimidated to go into the film program because I slight interest and like journalism, and other fields, teaching was also an option. I took film classes there, I made some short films in like student festivals there, got screen had some success, in that sense. But those shorts were like more like skits that I was making with like my friends from high school. So there really wasn’t a script. There was like an idea and then we will just kind of like improv it. But my last year at UCLA, I interned at Roger Corman’s Movie Studio, New Horizons pictures. And that’s when I really started seeing it as like, this is a job I can get potentially, in the movie business. And I was just interested in being part of anything. You know, like when I was doing internship there, I was like, getting script coverage, doing social media stuff, but I was just happy to be around business at all. I got to meet Roger Corman, which I thought was pretty inspirational. And I was there for about six months, and then I graduated college, and then I was kind of in that state of like, okay, what do I do now? You know, and I spent some time helping other people’s features and shorts, like independent features and stuff like that. My brother, who was the cinematographer on the burial, would also make features that I would act in and help behind the camera. So, I got like, an idea of what’s possible to do on a real like, in the DIY level of production, you know, what, what can you expect to achieve? And there came a point where I had some meetings with producers that seem interested in development projects are things can fall through, and I got to a point where I’m like, if I really want something in my made, I can’t have to make it myself. And that’s kind of how the burial came about.
Ashley
Okay. So, let’s dig in. Yeah, yeah. Let’s that’s a great summation of everything. Let’s dig into The Burial. Maybe to start out you can just give us a quick pitch or logline. What is this film all about?
Michael Escalante
Yeah, so the movie is about two brothers, Brian and Keith. Brian has his life together. Whereas Keith is sort of the black sheep of the family. He lives in a cabin in the woods by himself, because the family is kind of like ostracize. And they’re like, it’s easier if you just separate, you know, if you don’t really interact with them, because you can’t, it’s a sketchy past. And then one day, Brian gets a phone call from Keith saying, hey, you need to come down, something happened, I need your help. And I can’t say it over the phone. And so, Brian decides to go even though they’re estranged. But he brings his girlfriend Molly along because she wants to meet her boyfriend’s brother that she’s never met or doesn’t know much about. And of course, like when they get there, Keith wants Brian’s help covering up a crime. They’re trying to keep Molly in the dark and the entire time that this is going on, and eventually, they’re, you know, misdeeds come back to haunt them and dragging in Moly, who had nothing to do with it. So, it’s like a brotherly tale mixed in with this third character who had nothing to do with it and is trying to navigate both sides essentially, to like, survive the night.
Ashley
And so where did this idea come from? What was sort of the genesis for this?
Michael Escalante
You know, at the time, I was like, really into like classic morality, horror stories, like creep show Tales from the Crypt Twilight Zone. And when I was coming up with an idea, I kind of look to those for inspiration. I Know What You Did Last Summer, you know, very simple, kind of like black and white moral scenarios where it seems like the easy should be easy to choose what to do. But in this case, when family gets involved, romance gets involved, those choices become a lot more difficult.
Ashley
Did you know as you’re writing this was part of the conceit it’s a cabin in the woods. Did you know you had this location? Did you know like, were there some sort of production elements that you were thinking that I can shoot this on sort of a low budget?
Michael Escalante
Yeah, so I kind of did in many ways like reverse engineer the script. Like I kind of knew okay, I have a cabin I have access to because like one of my friends uncle’s has it and they don’t use it very often. So, I didn’t know that, like I knew cabin in the woods and that fit pretty well, like it’s a pretty standard setting for a horror movie, but also had the actors in mind, you know, the actors or people that I knew or my brother knew through stage and theater work, it’s a lot of theater actors in there. And so, I did kind of reverse engineer I was like, I probably have three or four people I can work with, I have one location set. And then that’s when I started writing the scripts using these pieces to put together a movie. And it was kind of scary to do that, because I wasn’t sure if like, this is the right way to go about it. But for the first time, I was writing a script, I’m like, I’m making this, you know, this isn’t just a spec script that I can do whatever I want, like, I have to have, like a producer’s mindset a little bit here. But I kind of like working within those parameters. You know, some people will think like, they might be restrictive. But it was kind of fun. And I learned that from interning at Roger Corman, because he was very much like, we have access to a construction site in Mexico for two months, can you come up with an idea that takes place on an abandoned construction site, you know, so that DNA was kind of like, embedded with me and within me at that time. So that’s kind of how the burial script level started to come together.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So, let’s talk about your writing process. I just like to kind of hear just a basic sort of overview. Where do you typically write Do you have a home office? Do you go to Starbucks? The ambient noise? And when do you write to you, early bird you write late into the night? What is your writing schedule look like?
Michael Escalante
It’s mostly at night for me. I’ve tried to get better about doing it during the day. But it I don’t know why I don’t get as much done, I still can get some stuff done. I used to be like a Starbucks person that would go to a cafe, and they needed that. But over time, I found like, it’s much easier to just do it at home. You know, I do have a home office. But a lot of time I’m just in the kitchen, because like, my apartment is kind of like, not that big.
Ashley
And how much time do you spend outlining doing index cards, that sort of stuff? Versus how much time do you spend actually in Final Draft cranking out script pages?
Michael Escalante
I definitely spend more time in final draft. I used to do index cards. That’s what we were kind of taught. And there was actually a high school screenwriting class that lasted one year. And we did index cards there. But I found myself like, I always want to change stuff, I tinker a lot along the way. So, I end up doing those index cards. I’m like, I have 40 here, that don’t make sense anymore. So, I got a little frustrated with that. So nowadays, I kind of do like a Word document, I type out three to four pages of like, what happens in it. And I just kind of use those as goalposts. But I do spend most of my time in like in final draft or fade in, I kind of go back and forth sometimes.
Ashley
Gotcha. Now it sounds like you have family members that are also screenwriters, and in the business and stuff. So, what is your development process look like? Do you get notes from your mom and your brother? Do you have other people that are sort of in your trusted circle actors and whatnot? But what is your development process look like? And how do you receive those notes and take those notes and implement them?
Michael Escalante
I would say my mom is the person who I get notes from the most. Yeah, and like, we all are interested in the movie business, but none of us are like really in it at all, you know, like my brother is in school for it now, actually. So, he kind of like started off indie just doing on his own. And now he’s kind of going back to like trying to get in through a more traditional means. And my mom and I were in the same exact boat, we were just writing scripts and sending it to agents or managers, reps, competitions. So, it’s really like self-produced, you know, like, there wasn’t really a production company involved with this. It was just us. You know, this is a real like DIY. Let’s call in some favors. Let’s get some friends to help us out to make this movie because the budget was like $5,000. It wasn’t a very micro budget.
Ashley
Yeah. And how do you approach screenplay structure? You know, there’s the Blake Snyder Syd Field where you have these very delineated act breaks and midpoints and stuff. There’s a more intuitive process, a lot of the writers that come on seem to have a more intuitive process, but where do you land on that just screenplay structure, how do you approach it?
Michael Escalante
I definitely start with like the, like the classic Syd Field, save the cat stuff. I do think that stuff’s really helpful, you know, at least getting the structure down and things do sort of shift. And I realized, like, when, even when you’re making the movie and editing it, the, you know, page 60 of the script ended up being the midpoint of the movie, which would have been like page 14, you know, things shifted a lot. Not just on the script page, but in the post in the editing phase. So, I definitely use like your classic like inciting incident, you know, you should have your first act done around this certain page. I definitely start there. But things do kind of shift around a little bit. Either in the writing phase, or definitely in like the post production phase.
Ashley
How do you approach genre requirements? With a low budget films you hear sort of conventional wisdom is an action film needs an action you’ve seen every 10 pages a horror film needs Just, you know, a scare every 10 pages, how do you approach the sort of genre requirements? And obviously a cabin in the woods sort of set up as a familiar setting for a horror movie. So again, how do you sort of approach these John requirements and other films that have come before it?
Michael Escalante
Yeah, you know, like, a big inspiration for this one particular was from a director named Larry Fessenden, who this movie called Wendigo. And what appealed to me so much about his work is that his first acts are usually like, very, like, it’s a family drama, you know, like, it’s not really quite dipping its toes into the genre yet. So, I don’t necessarily think so much like, you have to have a scare every like four or five pages, or something like that. I think in terms of like set pieces, I think in terms of like, each actor has to have at least one or two big scary scenes in it, more so than like, hitting up like a predetermined point where you should jolt your audience and remind them that the movies on which can be risky, but I do think it’s more effective when like, I like when movies can shift genres. You know, I like the idea of someone watching the first 20 minutes. And then by the end of the movie, you’re like, how do we get here? You know, I enjoy that gradual shift. So, I do kind of play within genres. That way, we’re like first actor, like kind of starting a little bit more-low key more family drama. And then by page three, you should know, oh, this is turning into a horror movie. And then by the end, I want you to think, how is this not a horror movie from the start? Because things have gotten so off the rails that I can’t believe it started off as low key as it did.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So okay, and I really appreciate to your being so open about the budget. Just talk about that a little bit. Number one, I’d like to just hear how did you have the competence? Obviously, you’ve been writing scripts for a while, but how did you just have the confidence to say, okay, I’m going to take this $5,000. And I’m going to go make a feature film, I guess you’ve done some student films, maybe that helped a little bit, but just talk about that process, because I often feel like people. And in fact, I just had a podcast interview literally just minutes ago, from a very experienced producer. And his biggest piece of advice was; just go make a $2,000 feature film, get out there and just do something just so you have something complete and move your career, just move that ball down a little closer to the goalposts, but just how did you have the competence to go do it the wherewithal and just get over those sort of, you know, the things that pushed us back sort of internally.
Michael Escalante
You know, it was nerve racking, like, I can’t lie, like, the day before the first shooting day, I was like, what am I doing? Like, this was the first time I was directing actors that weren’t like my friends from high school, like I knew them. But I had never really worked with them at this level. It was scary, you know, but what you said is like, you kind of just do it at some point. You know, like, there was a, there was a big fear factor to it. But I also thought about, like, the first time I wrote a script in high school, it’s like, I don’t know what I’m doing. But you got to do it at some point, or else you’re never going to, you know, so it was scary. But it was like it was I was working with people I was comfortable with, we were all in the same boat. We filmed pretty fast. So, I’m like, you know, give me a week and weekend. And we can get a movie on, you know, let me handle the posts, you know, but you give me the footage, and I’ll get something, I’ll get something done. So, I mean, I hate to say it, but it was kind of a thing where I just like, you just have to do it, you know. And if it helps people, theory that I was terrified on the first day, I’m fully willing to admit that, you know, I didn’t even really know how to say like, sound speed action, like I did that in the wrong order on the first shot. And they kind of looked at me I’m like, like, yeah, I’ve never done it like this before, like I was raised with my friends.
Ashley
And I’m right there with you. And I’ve talked about this on my own on the podcast about my own films. When I went out to do The Pinch, it was very similar as when my first micro budget film, and exactly were saying, I’m just hoping people showed up, you know, you’re not really paying people you get the first day and set you’re just hoping somebody shows up with a camera so you can start shooting, but it’s exactly what you said. There’s a lot of sleepless nights. And I think just pushing forward. I think you’re exactly right. Okay, so you had this $5,000, maybe you can just give us quickly if someone has $5,000 to make a feature film, where do you spend the $5,000? Like where does that go? Where can you kind of cut corners, you got you know, actors are working for free crews working for free getting locations for free. But where does that $5,000 actually gets spent?
Michael Escalante
Oh, man, you know, it sounds fine. But food. You know, I thought if these people are coming to do this really cheap, I got to feed on and take care of them because we all lived in the cabinet. We didn’t like commute back and forth. We just stayed at the cabin for like a week and filmed like 70% of the movie. I think the main thing is like look at getting a location for free is big, you know, because that’s where a lot of the money would go. It went to props and went the costumes because there is a lot of blood involved. I mean, this might be sort of horses specific but make sure you have copies of clothes. So, if you’re doing wardrobe make sure you have to so like money went to props, costumes and food. Like the bare essentials you need mindset to actually film a movie, you know, and I’m not counting the camera in the budget because I just don’t the camera which was a Sony A7S2 which is not like a huge canon I remember like, it was good for this because it shot really well in low light. So, I guess like know your equipment, know what you actually need on set. And try not to bring an overspend on stuff that you may or may not even use, it’s better to have like doubles of costumes that you know are going to be used instead of like some elaborate gag that you’re hoping you’ll have time to do. Because you’re likely not going to have time to do it. There was a few we’re planning on building and it’s like, we don’t even have time to build it, let alone shoot it. So, it’s got to be really practical and know like, what is attainable in your schedule.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah. So sound advice. So, I always like to wrap up these interviews just by asking the guests if there’s anything they’ve seen recently, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, is there anything out that you think our screenwriting audience is, maybe a little under the radar could really appreciate?
Michael Escalante
Man, you know, like, right now I’m watching Poker Face, which is on Peacock, which I know like, not a lot of people have, but like, it’s worth it for that show. It’s like Rian Johnson’s New Colombo riff, okay, so it’s like, so precisely written. It’s insane. Like, there’s very little setup and payoff is there. It’s really impressed with the watch. It’s not hard, but there’s murders in it. So, it’s still kind of appeals to me. Definitely. Really, really good.
Ashley
Yeah, I’ll have to check it out. Perfect, perfect. How can people see The Burial? Do you know what the release schedule is going to be like for that?
Michael Escalante
Yeah, so March 3, it will be on digital platforms right now. I know for faculty on Vudu, but I know that there’s going to be and stuff like that. But I know for a fact Vudu March 3, it will be available for rental and I think with like an ad based, free viewing as well.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. And what’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, anything you’re comfortable sharing? I’ll put in the show notes.
Michael Escalante
Oh, yeah, I have a Twitter account. The @ is a little embarrassing now. Because it’s magic_mike777 which is where I came up with before the movie.
Ashley
Yeah, so well. Perfect. Mike, I really appreciate you coming on and talking with me. Good luck with this film and good luck with all your feature films as well.
Michael Escalante
I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Ashley
Thank you. We’ll talk to you later. Bye.
A quick plug for the SYS screenwriting analysis service, it’s really economical way to get a high-quality professional evaluation on your screenplay. When you buy our three pack, you get evaluations at just $67 per script for feature films, and just $55 for teleplays. All the readers have professional experience reading for studios, production companies, contests and agencies. You can read a short bio on each reader on our website, and you can pick the reader who you think is the best fit for your script. Turnaround time is usually just a few days, but rarely more than a week. The readers will evaluate your script on six key factors concept, character, structure, marketability, tone, and overall craft which includes formatting spelling and grammar. Every script will get a greater pass, consider or recommend, which should help you roughly understand where your script might rank if you were to submit it to a production company or agency. We can provide an analysis on features or television scripts. We also do proof-reading without any analysis. We will also look at a treatment or outline and give you the same analysis on it. So, if you’re looking to vet some of your project ideas, this is a great way to do it. We will also write your logline and synopsis for you. You can add this logline and synopsis writing service to an analysis or you can simply purchase this service as a standalone product. As a bonus, if your screenplay gets a recommend or a consider from one of our readers, you get to list the screenplay in the SYS select database, which is a database for producers to find screenplays, and a big part of our SYS select program. Producers are in the database searching for material on a daily basis, so it’s another great way to get your material in front of them. As a further bonus, if your script gets a recommend from one of our readers, your screenplay will get included in our monthly best of newsletter. Each month we send out a newsletter that highlights the best screenplays that have come through our script analysis service. This is a monthly newsletter that goes out to our list of over 400 producers who are actively looking for material. So again, this is another great way to get your material out there. So, if you want a professional evaluation of your screenplay at a very reasonable price, check out www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants. Again, that’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants. On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing filmmaker Welby Ings who just did a LGBTQ boxing drama. He comes on next week to talk about his journey working in the business moving up to the point where he’s now writing and directing feature films. Real artists really nice, really transparent really gives a lot of great insight into his journey. So, keep an eye out for that episode next week. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.