This is a transcript of SYS 494 – Independent Filmmaker Deborah Twiss On Her New Film Sapiosexual.
Welcome to Episode 494 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing writer, director and actor Deborah Twiss, she just did an indie-thriller called Sapiosexual. We talked through that film as well as some of her early projects and how she’s been able to get these films produced. So, stay tuned for that interview. SYS’s six-figure screenplay contest is open for submissions just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. Our final deadline is July 31st. 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 and cash and prizes. We have a short film script category 30 pages or less. If you have a low budget short script, by all means, consider submitting that as well. I do have a number of industry judge producers who are looking specifically to read short scripts. If you want to learn more about the contest or enter, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest. Also, again this year we’re running an in-person Film Festival in tandem with the screenplay contest, it is for low budget films produced for less than 1 million US dollars. We have a feature and shorts category in the film festival. The festival is going to take place here in Los Angeles, California from October 6th to the 8th. If you produced a short film or know someone who has, by all means, please do submit it. shorts are easy to program, I can run two or three or more of them in a block or I can run one with a feature film. So, it’s really easy to program shorts. And this is something really to remember if you’re a writer, writing a short it’s just easy to get some exposure, you’re not necessarily going to make money from it. But you will get some exposure, going to film festivals entering film festivals just gets you out there and gets you networking so hopefully I can create that environment for filmmakers as well. If you have a finished film and would like to submit to the festival, you can go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/festival, you will also see our FilmFreeWay link on that page which will take you to the submission page. On the festival we’re only taking submissions through FilmFreeWay. For the contest, we take them on FilmFreeWay, but we also do take them directly through our site. So, if you’d like to enter the contest, it’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/contest, and you’d like to if you’d like to enter the festival, it’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/festival. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leave me 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 look for episode number 494. If you want my free guide – How to Sell a screenplay in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free. You 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 just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today, I’m interviewing writer, director and also actor Deborah Twiss. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome Deborah to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on my show today.
Deborah Twiss
Thanks for having me.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you grow up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Deborah Twiss
I actually got interested in the entertainment business when I was three years old, I was standing in front of the TV, and I saw how much fun everybody was having inside the TV. And I turned to my parents. And I said when I grow up, I’m going to be in there with them. And my parents both laughed, and I said no, you can’t do that unless you’re an actor. And I was like, well, then I’m going to be an actor. And the first time I wrote anything, was in first grade. It was a puppet show. And I didn’t like the script that the teacher had given me. So, I asked my parents to help me rewrite it. Because I didn’t write words. So well just Yeah. And then the next thing I did was actually in third grade. I mean, this is crazy. We were given this assignment by the art teacher that if anybody wanted to write a short little skit or something like that, for the spring Ensemble Performance we were welcome to. And I had this great idea about a play about time travel. So, I asked my dad to teach me how to use the electric typewriter. And I wrote an hour-long play about time travel, and they liked it so much. They asked if they would be allowed to produce it for the centerpiece of the Ensemble Performance. And I said well, yeah, as long as I can star on it. So, that’s how I began my journey.
Ashley
Perfect. Perfect. So yeah, and I think that’s fascinating. And interestingly, I bring on you a lot of people like yourself onto the podcast. And I’d say it’s a kind of an even mix people like you and I sort of put myself more in your camp were really early I was into films and movies and kind of trying to make stuff. But a lot of people are on the opposite end of the spectrum where they didn’t get into it till college, or even in some cases after that. So let’s take the next step. So, you’re very interested in the creative arts acting writing. As you’re going through, I assume you’re getting in local productions, you’re doing school plays, that sort of stuff. So, then what’s your sort of first foray into trying to turn this into a profession? Did you go to film school? Did you were you a theater major? What were those first steps to becoming a professional actor, writer, director, producer?
Deborah Twiss
I moved around a lot when I was growing up, we lived in like a lot of different places, my dad is a computer software developer, so every place that we would live, I would get involved with the local, like the school’s theater, or drama or whatever. But one of the things that I did, just to make it interesting for myself, because I love moving, I love adventure, I love changing. So, I would try a different course, part of my personality and every place that we live. So, one place, I’d be the studious nerd. And other place, I’d be like, you know, the slutty girl, you know, all these different things. And I realized, like, you know, they were all aspects of me. But I was just highlighting one, I was like, you know, this is so fascinating. And also, I was able to start really noticing the archetypes that were in each school, there was like, the really popular cheerleader who was obviously sexually molested, there was like the gorgeous, geeky girl with the glasses, who was utterly stunning. And you knew she was going to end up being a top fashion model later, you know, these, like, all kinds of really fascinating things. So, I started putting all this stuff together. And when I was in Pittsburgh, in drama class, I found out about this thing called the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts. And so, they have like, 1000s of people audition for this thing. And they only take 30. And you can choose a trap like dance, theater, writing, whatever. So, I tried out for two different parts, the writing and the acting, and I got into both, because I was good at both. And so, I had to choose, I took the acting route. And yeah, it was like there were only 30 of us. We spent the summer just studying at Bucknell. And I’m doing all this great stuff. And then my parents wanted me and I wanted, I told them to become a plastic surgeon specifically for burn victims. My grandfather was a plastic surgeon. And I was totally, I’m still fascinated by medicine. But I knew that I was more kind of passionate about the arts than about medicine. Like I didn’t make me excited to think about spending all my life in a hospital, I liked the idea of connecting with people and creating different stories and looking at different parts of humanity that could be expressed through movies or plays, so that it could actually help people in that respect. So, I auditioned for NYU, got in as an actor, and I went there for two years. And then I left because they’re one of the rules that they have at NYU is that you’re not allowed to act while you’re going to school there. I was able to last the stupidest thing in the world. I’m here in the middle of New York City, with like, all this amazing stuff going on, and I’m not going to be allowed to act?
Ashley
Was there any logic to it? What was their reasoning?
Deborah Twiss
Oh, that we’re not ready. Whatever, to me like you can only be ready by getting ready, like you just do like, the more you do, the more you become more ready for the next level. So, I just said sign Ara, I ended up going and studying privately at Stella Adler and the acting studio in these other places. And I took a job with a commercial production studio so that I could learn about the behind the scenes of filmmaking. Because one of the things that happened when I got my acceptance to NYU, my dad was really concerned. And he said, you know, not many people make it as an actor, so what are you going to do? He’s like, I don’t want you like waitressing or driving cab and I was like; oh, Dad, if it doesn’t work immediately as an actress, I’m going to also be a filmmaker, because that’s what I know how to do. And not that I knew how to be a filmmaker, but I knew how to like weasel my way into getting things made as per my third-grade experience. So, that’s what I started doing. I started helping get plays produced. And I left that commercial production studio, I took a job as a waitress. And I had customers that really loved me, and I would talk to them about the play I was working on and everything else. And this one woman said; well, I would like to invest 10,000 in the play, and I was like, oh, that’d be great. And it helped save the play and made it keep going. So, I had this like, passion born in me that like okay, so wait a second, if I can use just like the kind of relationships that I naturally get with people to get them to want to be part of this creative journey I’m on, which would then help a lot of other artists. And $10,000 was so easy to raise, why not go for raising maybe 100,000 and shoot a low budget film. You know, this was the 90s now. So, you know, it’s like around the time of sex lies and videotape and Sundance being born and all this other stuff. So, it just seemed like the logical progression. And then I ended up losing my job at the restaurant because I got cast in another play. And anybody that works in the restaurant industry knows that many of the managers and owners are filled actors. And so, if a employee gets a job as an actor, they’re not very fond of that, and they just can’t deal. So, it was middle of summer. And I was like; what am I going to do, and there’s this place called Billy’s topless, it was just a cool little old fashioned type of strip club. And I went in with the guy who was dating at the time, I was like, I think I might do this, I think I might do this just for like a year just to get by, you know, to get some like stuff going with acting better, buy some better headshots, take some better classes. And I sat and I watched and like the girls were just half an hour on half an hour off some normal table dances are anything skeevy and I was like, I could probably do that. I mean, how hard it can be. So anyway, I went, that’s a whole other story. I actually made a series that’s coming out this summer about that. It’s called Crazy Town, I’ve seven episodes, 30 minutes each, it’s coming out in July, through breaking glass as well. But it’s really funny. And so, I ended up using that whole thing to really launch my indie film world. And I found that it was possible through dancing to have much more flexibility because I could take off for three weeks and go to a film festival, I could take off a month and make a movie or be on, you know, somebody’s other project or show or whatever. So, I only wanted to continue for a short time, but because of the situation I was in, the guy that I was with, needed me to support him while he edited our movie. And he was writing, so I begrudgingly agreed to it until finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I left him. I left dancing. And that’s when my real career as everything else really began I married a guy who was really supportive, always told me I believe in you, anything you can do I know you can achieve it. And you know, he’s like you’ve got the ability, you’ve got the talent, we’re prior relationship did not encourage me to do much of anything except to be the slug that wouldn’t go and make the cash to support somebody else’s dream.
Ashley
So, when did you transition? On your first IMDb credit as a producer as a Gun for Jennifer, you also starred in that and co-wrote it, is that the movie you’re talking about that you were dancing while he was editing it?
Deborah Twiss
Yes.
Ashley
Okay, perfect. Okay, so take us through that transition there. So, you had been acting you would obviously been writing, what was that? Were you the one that went out and raised the money? Did you guys raise $100,000, how did that all kind of go about?
Deborah Twiss
Actually, I mean, there’s actually we just finished making the documentary for a Gun for Jennifer because the Blu-ray is coming out in the vinegar syndrome in July. And it was a pretty crazy situation. Because, you know, a lot of the girls that were at Billy’s Topless were really smart. I mean, there were people there, Kimber Fowler, you know, the voluptuous Hauer of Karen Black. She’s one of the dancers from there. And like really cool women like there was this one girl, Annabelle, who was going to NYU film school, and she would take the money and like, make really great little eight-millimeter movies and stuff. There were photographers, painters, sculptressess, I mean, it was just like, this insane cross section of artists. And we would have all these chats in the dressing room and like guys would come in some, most of them were pretty nice and cool and chill. But there’d be those few that would come through that were just complete like morons and just so degrading and just say horrible things. And it was awful. And so, it was one night I was dancing on stage and this guy was saying he was actually a soap opera star and all the girls knew him. And he would come in and you know, say things and flirt with everybody and then just like get these really like nasty little digs in. And I had this fantasy. I was like, wow, wouldn’t be just so amazing. If like a bunch of us, like invited him to stay after we’d beat the shit out of them. And so, I had this this dream of like having this like vigilante crew of girls that worked out of the strip club, this is our front. And that was how Gun for Jennifer was born. And I wrote that script and then the guy that I was with, he took it, he added this whole cop element which was cool, and then we have the script ready. And it was like okay, so I guess we got to raise the money. So, I then transitioned to, Billy’s was starting to make less and less money because these table down places had opened up and flashed dancers was one of them, went to work at slash dancers, total nightmare. The guy as I found out, had before opening up that strip club on Broadway had run brothels. So, he saw all women as just like hookers, and it was crazy. I mean, it was so bad. But the cool thing was I met several people there, like my whole thing was like, you know, I could see how long I can stay without actually dancing for somebody or, you know, pulling my dress down to dancer them by just talking about movies. And like that my customer and my clientele was all like people that just wanted to hang out and talk about movies and my dreams. And I had two different guys that were interested in financing a Gun for Jennifer and I realized, like, we were supposed to start shooting within two months. So, I told each of them that the other was about to give me a deposit the following week, which wasn’t true. And so, then the one guy was like; no, no, I’m in, I’m in, I’ll bring you 10 grand next week. You know, what days are you working? And I was like, okay, cool. Let’s see. So, the following week, he came in, and he had this paper bag. And he’s like, here, this is for you, go put it in your locker. You know, don’t tell anyone I gave it to you. And I was like, okay, and I went to open, he’s like, no, no, no, don’t just open it, like, you know, in the bathroom or something. So, I went into the dressing room, I went to a stall, I opened the bag, and there’s 10,000 cash in this pack. So that night, I went home, and I saw the guy was with him. He was like, okay, this seems bad. This is like drug mining or something. I’m just like, I don’t know, the guy’s like for real. And he said that he works for this Japanese corporation. And they’re interested in getting involved in film. And then the following week, like we had contracts drawn, we went to a really nice restaurant, do all this work with, putting together all the legal. And we started getting checks, and it was like 68,300, 27,800, like, and with like pennies too. It was very strange numbers. And it got up to about 350 – 400,000, ultimately, which was good. But at the end of principal photography. The guy shows up at our apartment, and he’s totally like sweaty, he’s a wreck. He’s like, clearly been doing coke. And he’s pacing around the apartment. He’s like, look, look, I lied. I’m not an accountant for the job. And I’m not a loan officer for the Japanese corporation. I’m an accountant. And I’ve been like embezzling like these bits of money off the top. And it’s all been found out and there’s going to be a private investigator coming to your home tomorrow. And look, I’m really sorry, but I’m out. And yeah, and then we had to go and testify at the New York City District Attorney’s Office and all this crazy shit for six months, held us up. And then finally, we came to an agreement with the Japanese corporation because, you know, they wanted us to both go to jail. They were going to take our film and burn the negative. I mean, they were so pissed off, which is logical. But luckily, we were able to chill them out, get them off the ledge. And then it was like; okay, well, somebody has to edit this film. And we don’t have any real money for that. So, someone has to work and someone has to edit. And it was like, okay, well, it was said that since I was the one who brought in bad money, it would be my penance to go and dance should make the money back. So, I crawled back to The Club. And I was like; hey, so I need to work to support this thing. And I did. And it was awful. It was so much worse going back to that than anything. I mean, it was like being kicked in the gut.
Ashley
Yeah. Wow. That’s a whole screenplay in and of itself. I see what you’re making a documentary about it. Yeah, you’ve got a lot of material there. So, let’s dig into your latest film – Sapiosexual. So maybe on that one, you can just give us a premise or a logline. What is this film all about?
Deborah Twiss
It’s actually about a weekend celebration that this aging narcissist puts together so that he can have this uncoupling events kind of along the Gwyneth Paltrow saying that she did uncoupling.
Ashley
Explain that to me, because I sold it in the description, but I’m actually not up on that. What does that mean? Uncoupling?
Deborah Twiss
It’s like a breakup, but it’s supposed to be an amicable split, where everybody just smiles and goes their separate ways. And, you know, there’s even things there was this crazy thing that was on Facebook a few years ago, where people were having these unmarrying ceremonies. So, they would bring like a bunch of people that had been to their wedding to this event where they would make vows that they are separating. And they would walk separate directions. And it was crazy. And I thought that’s such an interesting thing. So, in the film, it’s about this guy who’s a narcissist. And he has two people that he was sexually involved with, when they were much younger. The woman he ended up getting involved with her again. And so, it’s a massive event where he’s saying goodbye to both of them and going to be cutting ties. But little does he know that it’s actually being turned on to him.
Ashley
And what is Sapiosexual? It’s a term that I’ve sort of you hear out there, but what does that actually mean? What does it mean to you? And what does it actually mean?
Deborah Twiss
It’s about when people are actually attracted to each other based on intellectual stimulation.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. And how does that play into this film? What is that, is that a sort of the theme of it?
Deborah Twiss
Yeah, because everyone in this has like a lot of deep thinking and a deep planning and plotting that I mean, they’re all con artists of a sort. And it’s like the con that has brought them all together.
Ashley
So, you went to one of these uncoupling weddings are on wedding ceremonies. It sounds like that was part of the idea. But where did this idea come from? Was there some sort of a genesis, some sort of a seed, in addition to what you just described with that?
Deborah Twiss
My best friend from college a few years ago, wanted to start writing short stories, like short erotica. And she had this really cool little, like, five-page thing that she wrote about these three people that get together for a weekend at the beach. And it’s like a woman, a younger guy, and an older man. And she said, you know, if you ever want to turn this into, like a short, you know, you’re more than welcome to and I thought; oh, this can be such a, like, beautiful short, like, done really well with black and white. And then I started to look more at it was like, wait a second, though. Like, I’d want to know why these people are there, and where they came from, and all this other stuff. So, I just started to build a three-act structure around it. And, and give reasons to like, who was what people were doing, why they were doing it, and then add the little twist. One of my favorite screenwriting books ever of all time is Syd field. Like, I love his basic structure, it’s so genius, it’s so perfect. And you can take virtually any really well-done film or story, and just hang it on there and like, see the points, it’s crazy. So, you know, I always use that structure as my basis. So, you know, I’ll lay out a giant timeline with you know, 8×11 sheets of paper, like I love doing something first by hand with pens. And I lay it all out with the timeline, with the places where things happen. And then you know, then like different structures underneath about what this character is going through what that character is going through and how they interweave with each other. And that’s basically how this all came to be.
Ashley
And what does that, so talk about that process, that’s before you actually open final draft and start cranking out script pages. You’re doing these index cards, you’re doing this sort of outlining, how long do you spend on that? And then once you’re ready to start writing, how long do you spend on the actual writing?
Deborah Twiss
It’s crazy. I mean, I always say this too, I’m like; I don’t write, the story writes through me. Like to me, I literally feel like a portal opens in the top of my head, and like the ideas come through. And then so the actual process of putting down the bones, the structure with my paper and my pens, that usually only takes about a day. And then I’ll go in the next day, you know, after I believe in meditation and metaphysics and the quantum field and all this stuff. So, like, I’ll wait until I get like very direct downloads about what happens or different ideas. You know, I have a bunch of dogs, I have 11 little chihuahua mixes that are all rescues. So, when I go walk dogs, I’ll do this breathing exercise and wait for messages that wait for ideas, wait for different inspirations to come and then I go home and I jot it all down. And then when I’m actually down to writing, generally, it takes about a week for me to do a 90-page script.
Ashley
And what is your development process look like? So, once you crank out that first draft, that 90-page draft, what do you do with it next? You sit there and rewrite it yourself for a while. Do you have some trusted actors, directors, producers that you send it to get notes? What is your development process?
Deborah Twiss
I go through about two or three processes, like going through it, making notes, seeing like what’s working, what’s not. You know, a lot of times, I throw everything at the wall. I throw everything into a scene like all the dialogue, and then it’s like, okay, well it’s ‘show not tell’, so let’s see where we can get rid of some of these lines and have it more about like the camera movement or an extra beat on somebody’s face, or just watching the way somebody walks across the room, that kind of thing. Like writing that stuff. So, that’s the process like a get the first one is just like kind of vomit it all out, and then start to refine and then refine, again, refine, again, refine again, and it’s usually by about like the fourth revision, and each of the steps I go through very quickly. Because I feel like if I linger too long, I lose the train of thought of the film. So, you know what I mean? So, it’s like, you know, I like to read through it as if I’m watching the movie. Because I feel that’s the thing that helps me. And I just jot things down as I’m going through as if I’m watching a film that has mistakes in it. And so, probably by about the fourth or fifth draft, that’s when I send it to, you know, lately, I’ve been working with breaking glass a lot. So, I send it to them, they do coverage, and then we go from there.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. So, let’s talk about that. So, you it sounds like you had a relationship with breaking us before this film. So, what does that look like, did you produce the script? Did you produce an outline, get some feedback? Did they fund it? Do they give you a letter of intent? Or some sort of minimum guarantee? How does that go about? Just take that take us basically from script to screen now?
Deborah Twiss
Well, first of all, I had a movie that they acquired back in 2013, A Cry from Within which I then recut into a Director’s Cut called Sebastian, that’s out on Tubi. And that’s a script that I wrote about a haunting that we experienced at a brownstone that we lived out in Brooklyn. And it’s done very, very well for breaking glass. So, you know, and over the years, especially during the pandemic, I spent a lot of time talking to Rich Wolf, we would talk about like movies and what’s going on and like the changing landscape of you know, VOD, and Avon and all this other stuff. And, you know, he would talk to me about the kinds of scripts that I want to write and the different things and he’d say, well, you know, this is the kind of thing that we could do this with, and this is the kind of thing that we could do that with. And so then, yeah, in 2021, I had a very bad experience with a film that failed miserably that was supposed to be shot in New Mexico. And one of the reasons that it failed was because we were actually supposed to film at the very chapel that Alec Baldwin killed the DPN, five days after he did it. And like, investors pulled out, crew turned against us. There were all these lawsuits. It was crazy. I was like, just this horrific because I was a producer as well as a screenwriter as one of the actors. And it felt like the whole world was crumbling around me. And Rich knew what I was going through. And he came to me and he was like; Deb, I think we need to make a movie. And I was like; really? Somebody would trust me right now? And he was like; yeah, I think that would be good for both of us. And I was like; okay, what? And he’s like; well, tell me what you got. And so, I told him about Sapiosexual, and he loved it. And he was like, let’s do it. Let’s get going. Let’s do this. And, boy, what happened then? I mean, it was such a flurry, because we ended up at the end of that January, then…
Ashley
When you pitch this to him, you already had a full script, though?
Deborah Twiss
I had 60 pages like I had abandoned it before I had gone to New Mexico for that disaster. So, after he said, well, let’s do it. Then I finished the other 30 pages and got everything all ready to go. And then…
Ashley
I read in your director statement, maybe you can speak to this a little bit. I read your director statement. You mentioned dogma 95, the film movement from the 90s, maybe number one, you can just sort of describe what that is or what it was and then talk about how that played into your film. What was sort of the reasoning for trying to use this aesthetic?
Deborah Twiss
Well, okay, so the movie that failed in New Mexico, the original budget was 8 million, then it went down to 3 million and it was going to be 800,000. And it was of course going to be shot on digital, like the Alexis or something like that. And I thought to myself, God, it’s so ridiculous like the whole reason, well, digital was even born was because it was so expensive to shoot film, but with the Alexis and the Reds and everything else like you ended up, you have to have like basically the same kind of lighting package as if you were shooting 35. So, really, all that you’re saving as a producer is on development costs, you know, developing the actual negative and that kind of thing. So, it was like, wait a second. Why was digital born? Digital was born because of dogma, dogma 95. It was supposed to be this movement that we put the ability for indie filmmakers, you know, to get back into our hands the power to actually get a movie made without having to go out and raise hundreds of 1000s or millions of dollars. And, you know, I just thought to myself, at this point, I’m ready to just go back to one, go back to square one, like, who am I, I’m an indie filmmaker, I write stories that are not going to be like Disney favorites or anything like that. I want to do things that are about like, you know, the dark inside soul of humanity. And you know, that might not necessarily be something somebody wants to put up a million dollars for, because it’s a risk. So, you know, I thought; okay, well, why don’t we do this? Why don’t we start making a bunch of films that honor the original intention of digital filmmaking, which was dogma 95, you film and film and film, you have two, three cameras going at the same time, you do something that has their couple roles, like you’ve done a great script, you have to have amazing actors. Everybody has to get along really well. You have a very tiny crew, and you use as much available light as possible. Like we did a ton of stuff with candles, they’re not real candles, they’re the kind luckily now, what exists that didn’t in the 90s, as far as I know, are these candles that look just like candles, but you just like flip a switch on the bottom, they’re battery powered, and they’ll go forever, and there’s no continuity issue because they don’t melt. And you know, I was like, okay, well, we’re going to do … we’re going to do, this is the thing with the script too, I wrote it for dogma 95, so it could be filmed during a blackout where it’s all by candlelight, Celebration, which was done all by candlelight. And the great thing is, you know, digital now, even just the most basic digital is so much better than it was back in the 90s. I mean, I did a film on the Sony VX 1000. And it’s like, what’s that’s like, you know, the shittiest iPhone available or other smartphone shoots way better than that. It’s crazy, you know? So, yeah, I was really excited to do this and just dive in full force and get a movie made. The great thing is we shot it in five days. And because we were shooting with two and three cameras, and you know, everything is scripted, but then I encouraged everyone to also improvise, because I wanted the actors to really kind of feel that creative bliss that comes from connecting, and then going beyond like really stepping into the character fully so that you could enjoy it and savor it and feel like you left everything on the floor.
Ashley
What does it actually look? What does a low budget crew with three cameras look like? Do you actually need like you have one cinematographer? And then three ACs running the cameras? Do you have three cinematographers? You know, how does it work? How many people do you actually need to run three cameras?
Deborah Twiss
Three cameras with three people in the cameras. And you know, I basically work with one of my main guys to like, have him tell them what to do. There is no Acs, there was like a girl that would you know, boom and do the slate. I think we were only about a four-or-five-person crew.
Ashley
Okay, okay. Yeah, that is amazing. So yeah, so I I’ve always been fascinated with the dogma 95. And it seems to have just sort of disappeared. But I totally agree with your premise that there’s still a lot that could be gleaned from it. But I don’t know, maybe some of that’s moved on to like TikTok and YouTube where those people are shooting with natural light. It’s a lot of handheld. So, maybe that’s where some of that aesthetic has gone.
Deborah Twiss
Maybe but I think also, like, one of the problems that happened in the 90s is that like the, the idea of an indie film director as a movie star, because like, that’s like; oh, I’m going to become a director and get famous. That’s what started to happen to a lot of people. So, a lot of these people come along, and they’re like, okay, I’m going to make my indie film, and I need a million dollars, because I’m who I am. It’s like, well, did you ever make anything before? Like, well, no, but you know, I know, it can’t be made for less than a million. It’s like, really? Well, how many budgets have you actually made? How do you even know how to run a set? And I think that’s one of one of the problems that has occurred where people are looking at, at making films is more about a way of getting famous, then about actually creating an art a piece of art, a work of art that says something that, you know, people should for, to me, when people come in, and they watch something that I’ve created, I want them to go through some sort of process where at the end, they they’ve got other thoughts in their head, and they’re examining, and they’re going back over this thing, and they’re like; ‘well, wait a second. But if this means that, what does that mean and how does that apply to my life? And oh, my Gosh, do I know somebody like that?’ Like all these things like, you know, I want to create things that make people think, I really do.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, Deborah, this has been a great interview, lots of great information. I really appreciate your transparency on all of this stuff. I just like to wrap up the interview by asking the guests, if there’s anything they’ve seen recently that they can recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience, anything you’ve been watching that you think is pretty good HBO, Hulu, Netflix?
Deborah Twiss
Succession. I just got chills. I love it so much. It is just brilliant. I mean, because in high school, I studied so much on my own. Instead of going in the lunch room, I would sit and I would read the works of Shakespeare, and all of the Tennessee Williams plays and Succession is so Shakespearean. And the structure, the way the characters are meaningless. It’s like the absolute perfect translation of the Shakespearean concept to film beautiful, absolutely brilliant.
Ashley
Perfect. Yeah, I haven’t checked that out. But that’s a good recommendation. How can people see Sapiosexual? Do you know what the release schedule is going to be like for your film?
Deborah Twiss
Yes, on the 16th, it releases on Amazon, iTunes, a bunch of other places. I think it should be on the breaking glass website. But also, I can send that to if you want to put it in into the description box below.
Ashley
Okay, yeah. Perfect. And then my final question is precisely that. What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing? Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, a blog, anything you’re comfortable sharing, I will get those and put those in the show notes as well.
Deborah Twiss
Deborah Twiss on Facebook. Also, Luc Star Productions, that’s a whole other story. And I’m on Instagram, Deborah Twiss. There’s a ton of pictures of my little rescue animals, but it’s also film related.
Ashley
Perfect. Well, again, Deborah, I really appreciate you coming on and talking with me. Thanks for taking time out of your day. Good luck with this film and good luck with your future films as well.
Deborah Twiss
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Ashley
Thank you. We’ll talk to you later.
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 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 www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com. Again, that is sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.
On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing Cal Barnes who was on the podcast in episode number 290. So, check out that episode if you haven’t already. In that episode, he talked about his background and making the move from Los Angeles from Portland and getting his first feature film off the ground. Next week he returns to give us an update, his feature film, The Astrid Experience is now finished. And he has a lot of insight into making a low budget film. He shot the film on an iPhone. I find this fascinating. It’s actually something I’m considering for my next feature film as well. Something that we do dig into, along with all the ways he just was able to put this film together. Really just a guy again, just out there making things happen for himself. So, lots of insight from Cal next week. Keep an eye out for this episode. That’s the show. Thank you for listening.