This is a transcript of SYS 510 – 15 Cameras, Making A Unique Sequel With Danny Madden.
Welcome to Episode 510 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing Danny Madden who just directed a horror film called 15 Cameras, which is the third installment of this series. The first one was 13 cameras and 14 cameras. And this is the final film 15 cameras to complete the trilogy. We talked through this project the screenplay, how he came on board to direct this third installment in the series, 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 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 510. 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 www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today, I’m interviewing Director – Danny Madden, here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome, Danny to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. Really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Danny Madden
All right, yeah, I appreciate you having me. Thank you.
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe can tell us a little bit about your background. Where do you grow up? And how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Danny Madden
Mostly Georgia, is where I grew up. That’s where my folks still are. I grew up with two brothers. And we’re in a movie centric house. We were always like, going to see double features on rainy days and stuff like that. So, we started making them ourselves. So, went to film school in Boston at a school called Emerson. And then yeah, kept it going from there.
Ashley
So, let’s take that. So, you get done with a film degree, were you at this point thinking I’m going to be a director, I’m going to be a writer, I’m going to be a producer. What was that film degree specifically in?
Danny Madden
The degree was in vague kind of like film studies, but I always knew it was directing for me. Which then, to me under the umbrella of directing is, you know, you’re writing, you’re editing, you know, for me, it means like sound design as well. A lot of the things that kind of fall under that bracket.
Ashley
So, you’re in Boston, you get this degree, what are your next steps to actually start to turn this into a career? Did you move to New York? Did you move to LA? Did you find production work in Boston, maybe take us through those early days?
Danny Madden
Well, I immediately wanted to not be thinking exclusively about film. So, I moved to a small town in Colorado, and I worked at a restaurant. And then I taught snowboarding for a season and reconnected with what I love about cinema. You know, it was a process of sort of digesting the four years of film school, and figuring out what I actually had to say and what excites me about it. And then from there, I kind of started animating, because I had some ideas that were a little bit outside of what you can actually film. And so that kind of started the sort of like, parallel like animation career that I’ve had.
Ashley
Okay. Did you always have a knack for drawing like, was that always something you were into?
Danny Madden
I was always like the doodling kid. But I wasn’t great at it. So, I would say, when I started I was a better animator than illustrator. I could make things move, but they didn’t look incredible. They were still, you know.
Ashley
So, you directed a good number of shorts before starting to do features. Maybe you can talk about that. Just briefly, how did all these shorts prepare you for doing features, just how were those some of those first steps?
Danny Madden
Yeah, I mean, you got to start, you got to learn how this whole thing works. You know, I mean, I mean, for me, it’s, I’ve never been dogmatic about a single like genre or style of filmmaking. So, I think for me, it’s a playground, and you can kind of try all these different things, whatever you’re into whatever you’re kind of been influenced by in those in that season, you know, and for me, I’ve always respected artists who don’t only have that singular style, who can really kind of adapt their storytelling abilities to this specific story or this specific subject, you know, and that’s across the board. That’s if you’re a photographer or a painter or a filmmaker.
Ashley
Gotcha. How did you put these short films together, I’m just in terms of financing and finding crew and stuff. It sounds like at least some of them, maybe you did in Boston as a student, some of them you probably did start to do in Colorado, but maybe talk through that a little bit. How do you raise money for them? How do you put them together? How do you get cast and crew that are interested in willing to work on a low budget short?
Danny Madden
Yeah, almost all of them were completely void of what we would call a budget. You know, it’s like, hey, whose camera can I borrow? What friends can I get together for a weekend et cetera. And then I was just, you know, I would be working freelance or something, and I would save up a few 100 bucks to buy pizzas and make it happen, you know, and a hard drive to back-up the footage, you know, and that’s basically how I operate it for many years. And then there were a couple instances where, like, maybe I applied for a grant and got $1,500. And then I was like – Cool, I can make five minutes short for $1,500. And things like that, you know, and so you have to just piece it together and kind of work. For me, it was always, like, what do I have? It’s a little bit of a scarcity mentality of what’s right in front of me, how can I tell a story with that?
Ashley
Just quickly, as a little caveat here, can you give us some tips on number one, finding grants that potentially filmmakers could use like this, finding them and then just some tips on actually filling out those applications for them?
Danny Madden
Yeah, I mean, it’s probably the same with any kind of application or apply for like, how do you stand out, and I applied to a short film, screenwriting competition, and but I’d written a 10-page script, but I also done some concept art for it, and some storyboards and some references. So, I just tacked that on to the PDF. So, the first whatever, five or six pages, where these images where it’s like, this is what the movie is going to look like, and feel like. And then it went into the document, then went into the screenplay. I don’t know if that’s a good advice to give to people. But in this case, I didn’t know the rules. And I submitted that. And I’m not sure if that helped, but I ended up winning that grant.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So how did you promote these shorts? Once you started to get some of these shorts done, did you go the festival route? Did you send them to agents and managers? What was sort of your marketing approach with these films?
Danny Madden
Yeah, I mean, I think I really benefited from coming up in a time when there was like, just a really strong that kind of Vimeo staff pick community. And then also, South by Southwest, was a really kind of early champion of the work that I was doing right out of film school. So, I felt really lucky to have those kind of curatorial powerhouses, I’m looking out for the work that I did. And then there was short of the week, you know, they’ve been very supportive of the things I’ve done. And, you know, and once you make one or two things that these entities appreciate and lock on to, they’re looking out for your future work as well. So, yeah, I mean, and they see me as I’m someone who tries really hard every time. So, you know, I think that’s the main thing is like really just kind of pushing yourself and pushing what you’re doing. And then, hopefully these entities will pick up on it.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, let’s talk just briefly about Beast-Beast. Was that your first feature?
Danny Madden
Yes.
Ashley
Okay, so just talk about that briefly. How did you go from shorts to feature? And it looks like it went to Sundance, you had Alec Baldwin. So, maybe just how did you make that leap from doing these low budget shorts to doing a feature with Alec Baldwin to get into Sundance?
Danny Madden
I mean, but that’s exactly, it was straight from a low budget short, we did a short film called Krista. Krista with a K. We kick started that for $2,000. My brother had just moved to Los Angeles and I said let’s make something together. So, we wrote this screenplay kind of this like this like celebration of like a theater and performance and how the storytelling you can process catharsis or like you can use it as catharsis to process kind of trauma in your life. And we found this actress Shirley Chen, who just was incredible in that we made the short that we felt really great about it, played South by Southwest, it got a couple prizes there. And then premiered on Vimeo as a staff pick premiere. And all the while, while we were finishing that movie, and waiting for the premiere in March, I thought, you know, it’s time to like, step up into the feature space. So, I just chipped away every morning for a few months, I would just wake up a couple hours early, and type away and say, you know, I’m getting through these two or three scenes today, no matter what, I’m just going to put something down. So, by the time the festival came around, I had a first draft a pretty rough draft of what Beast-Beast would become. And so, part of it was – Hey, this won these awards. We’re going to put it online the next day. And let’s have a Kickstarter going for pre-production funds, just to basically just to announce that there will be a feature of this movie. I will say, I think a little point on this is a lot of the team of Beast-Beast is the same team that made Thunder Road. You know, producers, Ben Weisner and Matt Miller and Jim Cummings is an executive on this. And so, they had kind of a model to go from short to feature of like, this is how we can do it, this how we can make a feature for cheap with a crew of 15 people.
Ashley
And then how did you get hooked up with those folks?
Danny Madden
I’ve been working with those guys for a long time with Jim and Ben, we they had been producing some of the animated shorts that I had done over the years. They’re just old, old friends. And we kind of all were making things and helping each other out as we went. So having your kind of pocket of friends is very helpful.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. So, let’s dig into your latest film, the feature film 15 Camera is. Maybe to start out, you can just give us a quick pitch or logline. What is this new film all about?
Danny Madden
15 Cameras is about a couple that moves into a house. They got it for cheap. Turns out, the previous owner was this kind of murder, a guy who is believed to be dead now who had hidden cameras all over his properties. So, they’re watching a true crime series about this guy in a house that he used to own. It’s kind of a fun scenario.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, that is kind of high concept. So how did you get involved in this project? It looks like there was a 13 Cameras and a 14 Cameras. So, this is like the third film in this trilogy. And it didn’t look to me like you were involved in the previous two films, correct? Maybe bring us up to speed. How did you then get involved with this third film?
Danny Madden
Well, there were some friends who had made the first one kind of like – hey, let’s experiment with this genre, let’s see if we can make a fun cheap thing and see if it takes off. And it did. And so, they wrote a second one. And so these are just, you know, friends, and in the circle out here, and it was kind of a joke, like – hey, maybe Danny will do the third one, you know. So, when it finally came time to like, ‘Hey, there’s a little bit of budget, because we kind of have an idea forming. Would you actually seriously consider this?’ And I said, I said – Yeah, it’s it. There’s a couple of things, you know, I mean, it shouldn’t be a standalone film, I’m not really interested in making something that it’s prerequisite to have watched two other movies to watch this one. So, I said, I’ll make it as a standalone and it can live in like, in the universe of the previous two. And, and I said, it’d be great if my brother could play the lead, because I love working with him. He’s an amazing actor. And I said, if we can cast will and there then then I’m game, you know? So, then we started working the screenwriters named PJ McCabe. And it’s cool. He was actually the lead actor in the first film, in 13 Cameras, a friend in that same group. And then he got more and more into writing over the last few years, over the last five, six years, and working with Jim Cummings, they co-wrote and co-directed and co-starred in the movie, The Beta Test, which came out a couple years ago. So yeah, so he had been kind of going from just being an actor to being an actor-writer. So, we were talking through this with PJ and with Kevin and Matt McManus, who were the other executives and kind of creators have, you know, kind of been overseeing this whole series. So, the four of us kind of like, we’re pinging ideas off each other and eventually landed on like, kind of the shape of what 15 Cameras is going to be.
Ashley
So, then PJ then went and wrote the draft. So, when you came on board, though, there wasn’t like a full draft yet?
Danny Madden
No, we were still bouncing ideas around. And, you know, there was sort of like a multiple choice. They were like, four different ways the story could go, we kind of selected one. And then we just, you know, we had a few calls, where was the four of us just kind of throwing ideas, and – oh, how about this sequence? What if we did that? And then we compiled all of this into like just a sloppy Google Drive document, and just handed that to poor PJ and he ran off for three or four weeks, and turned out a draft of the screenplay, which was kind of incredible. This was August of 22. And we knew that we were going to be shooting in November of 22. And so, he just went and locked himself in his room, and wrote all through August. So that early September, we had a first draft for a movie that we were starting to shoot in two months. So, it’s kind of crazy.
Ashley
Yeah. So then talk about that development process. Once he had the draft, now you’re on as the director, he’s the writer. Did you have some suggestions and just maybe talk about that process of developing the project for those that month or two before production?
Danny Madden
Yeah, definitely. I mean, it’s fun. I’ve known PJ a long time too, so it was fun to kind of like, always, for me, it’s always like in the room, like the energy is so different, even different from like a Zoom call where we’re catching up, maybe we both have the screenplay up or go through just to be in the room, we’re kind of walking around and you get up off the couch and you kind of start to act out this thing. And then he’s like, yeah, and then he kind of like shouts something, and then he’s writing things down. And we’re both typing stuff. And so, for me that kind of in the room energy is really important. And then there’s moments with those exciting moments, those breakthroughs, then you’re also kind of just like sitting there with like, you’re kind of like, head in your hands, just silent for four minutes, 10 minutes. And they’re like – Oh, what about this? You know, so, it to me, it’s important to share a space like that. Maybe I’m just like, hopelessly extroverted. But that’s a helpful part of the process. For me. There was a lot of just back and forth, hey, what about this, how about this, this line? Maybe is too telling, this one is not telling enough. It there were a couple of moments where it’s like we have 94-page script. And I’m like, look, we have 13 shooting days. And I’m starting to do the schedule math where I’m like, we got to trim this down. So, we’re trimming it down. This is probably late September, we’re kind of like, okay, let’s lose this. And maybe this character can get flushed out here. In PJs like, okay, cool. Give me a few days, I’ll implement all these notes. He goes off, I’m starting to storyboard the movie, we’re getting prepped, you know, some of the crew members are kind of signing on. And then PJ comes back, and the script is 20 pages longer. And I was like, what?… He sends us like 114-page, and I was like… What the hell is this? What are we doing? And he’s like, you know, I get a little long winded once the dialogue. He’s really loves writing dialogue. And I was like… Okay, this is crazy. And so, it was it was sort of like, alright, it reached a point, like in October, the filming is imminent, we’re weeks away. And I was like…Cool. I think it’s time for me to just kind of grab the ball and run with it. So, he just sent me like the final draft document. And I just took it from there. And I was like, we got to just be trimming down. But also, I knew that I was editing the movie with my friend Pete. And we kind of sat down with it. And we tried to like, you know, we call it pre editing, we’re like, let’s pre edit this movie. Like, what are the things that when we’re sitting together, we’re like – ah, we don’t really need this line. Or maybe this scene can go like, can we take what’s vital in that scene and turn that into two lines in the scene that follows. So, it just became the sort of like, the filmmaking needed to start, we were weeks away from production. And so, it was just kind of like, I needed to just kind of take it and filter it all kind of through my brain at that point.
Ashley
So, what did you guys have in place? It sounds like you had these two prequels to this, you’re starting to kick around some ideas. But what else was in place? Like, did you know the house that you were going to shoot at? It sounds like you wanted your brother as the lead, did you have some of the other actors in mind? I’m just sort of curious what was sort of in place as this thing is ramping up as you’re sort of going into pre-production?
Danny Madden
Yeah, that’s a great question. Because originally, we had joked about doing an origin story of the slumlord character who was like the main villain of the first two movies. We talked about doing an origin story, but when it’s like, you got 100 grand and make a movie, you’re not doing a period piece, you know, so it’s not like we’re doing a 1970s version of this. So, we thought, what about like a spiritual origin story? Like, what could take a seemingly normal guy, and kind of have him descend into this sort of like creep zone, this sort of like slumlord territory. And so that was something that I was interested in. So, he said, okay, cool. Let’s like see that, like how someone turns into a bad guy, you know, and then there’s also just ideas of voyeurism that I wanted to kind of play with in sort of a cheeky way, you know, in a sense, we live in this world of sort of, like perpetual voyeurism. You know, if you know right now, people are listening to a podcast, they’re just listening to like, it’s like you’re in a room with two people having a conversation or we’re on Instagram, Facebook or Tik Tok. All these things are like, little glimpses into people’s lives. And then there’s the next level, which is like, you’re obsessed with True Crime documentaries, you are reliving these victims lives and their circumstances and trying to imagine that, and then there’s the people who are actually like, watching hidden cameras, and creeping on folks in their homes. And so we wanted to kind of show these tears of voyeurism. And that seemed fun, and it seemed like theoretically worth kind of making a movie about.
Ashley
So, how much did the previous films influence you the 13 Cameras and the 14 Cameras? I mean, stylistically as a director, just how much did you pay attention to those and how much is the sort of part of this greater canon of films?
Danny Madden
You know, we really weren’t beholden to anything stylistically, or even get like content wise are totally you know, I think the first two films are a little more serious than this one. You know, I thought if we’re going to make this little movie and I want to embellish certain things in the performances and in the light and how we’re writing it and how we’re showing it, there’s something a little bit more like playful about this that I wanted to do, like that needed to be there in order for me to want to direct this. So, in that sense, it is a doesn’t exactly fit with the tone of the first two. You know, we play it a little bit more cheekily. But yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think there’s anything really in the cinematography or anything that we felt like we needed to do.
Ashley
Gotcha, gotcha. So, what’s next for you? What are you working on next?
Danny Madden
There is a novel adaptation that I’ve been kicking around for a while, which was an amazing opportunity to take a book. I can’t say the name of it yet, but it is to take a book that I really loved, and really love and turn it into a film, hopefully, you know, but it just all that kind of planning stage is for that and getting that in shape as a screenplay.
Ashley
Gotcha. Gotcha. And I just like to end the interviews by asking the guests, is there anything you’ve been watching recently that you can recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience, anything on Netflix, HBO, Hulu, anything out there that you really digging right now?
Danny Madden
Yeah, there’s a movie that came out an indie film called The Starling Girl. And it was written and directed by Laurel Parmet. It’s her first feature. And I saw it initially at South by Southwest this year. And then it came out it did a theatrical run a few months ago or so. But I saw it a couple times. It’s really beautiful film like just great kind of new voice. And just the story goes places that like a really wild and unique and it kind of takes place in this like, kind of fundamental like Christian fundamentalist community. It’s about a girl kind of like coming out of that and finding through kind of like questionable means, kind of like basically finding a way out, you know.
Ashley
And what was the title again?
Danny Madden
The Starling Girl
Ashley
Starling Girl. So that’s a great recommendation. I have not heard of that, to have to check out for that. So how can people see 15 Cameras? What’s the release schedule going to be like for it?
Danny Madden
It’s out already. It came out a few days ago. It is. It’s wherever you buy and rent movies, it is available on all those platforms. And then also, I think they’re going to be releasing Blu-rays and DVDs in major stores.
Ashley
Yep, perfect, perfect. And what’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing and just follow along with your career? Twitter, Facebook, a blog, Instagram, anything you’re comfortable sharing I will round up for the show notes.
Danny Madden
Yeah, totally. There’s an Instagram thing that I post stuff on. It’s called StuffbyDanny. And then there’s also 15 Cameras movie on Instagram. So, check that out. Yeah, that’s a good place to keep up.
Ashley
Perfect. Danny, well, congratulations, getting this film done. Good luck with all your future projects as well.
Danny Madden
Right. Thanks, Ashley.
Ashley
SYS from concept to completion, screenwriting course is now available, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/screenwritingcourse, it will take you through every part of writing a screenplay, coming up with a concept outlining, writing the opening pages, the first act, second act, third act and then rewriting and then there’s even a module at the end on marketing your screenplay, once it’s polished and ready to be sent out. We’re offering this course in two different versions, the first version, you get the course, plus, you get three analyses from an SYS reader, you’ll get one analysis on your outline, and then you’ll get two analyses on your first draft of your screenplay. This is just our introductory price, you’re getting three full analyses, which is actually the same price as our three-pack analysis bundle. So, you’re essentially getting the course for free when you buy the three analyses that come with it. And to be clear, you’re getting our full analysis with this package. The other version doesn’t have the analysis, so you’ll have to find some friends or colleagues who will do the feedback portion of the course with you. I’m letting SYS select members do this version of the course for free. So, if you’re a member of SY select you already have access to it. You also might consider that as an option if you join us why so that you will get the course as part of that membership too. A big piece of this course is accountability. Once you start the course, you’ll get an email every Sunday with that week’s assignment. And if you don’t complete it, we’ll follow up with another reminder the next week. It’s easy to pause the course if you need to take some time off, but as long as you’re enrolled, you’ll continue to get reminders for each section until it’s completed. The objective of the course is to get you through it in six months so that you have a completed power screenplay ready to be sent out. So, if you have an idea for a screenplay and you’re having a hard time getting it done, this course might be exactly what you need. If this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/screenwritingcourse. It’s all one word all lowercase. I will of course, a link to the course in the show notes. And I will put a link to the course on the homepage up in the right-hand sidebar.
On the next episode of the podcast, I’m going to be interviewing writer, director, Julio Soto Gurpide, he just directed a big animated feature film called Inspector Sun. So, we dig into that film and how all that came about for him. I have a number of very specific questions next week about animation, the animation writing, and just how these films are put together from sort of a writing perspective, this isn’t something I’ve ever been involved in. I’ve never worked on an animated project. So, I really don’t have a lot of experience with it. So, a lot of questions I just go at it just really trying to understand the process a little bit better. So, if you’re interested in learning more about writing for animation, definitely check out this episode next week. That’s our show. Thank you for listening.