This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode 208: Producer Kaily Smith Westbrook Talks About Her New Film, People You May Know.
Ashley: Welcome to Episode #206 of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger of the www.sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing Kaily Smith Westbrook, an actress and producer who recently did a film called People You May Know, which is a comedy drama about a young man who uses social media to raise his social status. So stay tuned for that interview. If you find this episodes viable, 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 it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread a word about the podcast so they’re very much appreciated.
Over on iTunes, I wanna thank a user who goes by the name of Lost It All, who left me a very nice review over at iTunes. Thank you for that. It’s very much appreciated. If you do have a minute, please do go to iTunes and leave some feedback. If there’s a comment you wanna make to me that you don’t want to be public that’s perfectly fine. You can always email me at info@sellingyourscreenplay.com. I really have no way of knowing what aspects of the podcast people like and what aspects they don’t like, so any and all feedback is very much appreciated. These iTunes reviews really are helpful as well. It helps get the podcast listed in more places in iTunes so it reaches a broader audience. Also if you subscribe to the podcast in iTunes, it’s a nice convenient way to get those episodes downloaded to your phone each week. You could try that. All you got to do is hit the subscribe button.
Any websites or links that I mention in the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode incase 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 #208. 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 log line and creative letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for a material. Really it’s everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.
So a quick few words about what I’m working on. As mentioned last week, I’m done with The Pinch and I’m now working on the sales and marketing of it. I got a couple more festival rejections, so I think I’m up to about five rejections and no acceptances so far. Again, there’s about 30 contests that I submitted to, so it’s not an auspicious start for my festival run, but hopefully I will get into at least a few festivals when it’s all done. On the writing front I’m still working on episodes for the kids TV show that I’ve been working on for the last couple of months. The producers cut a sizzle reel so if you have any interest in checking that out, I will link to it in the show notes. It basically showcases the comedy from the star of these kids show who is a Vegas performer named Gregory Popovich. No relation to the MBA coach.
He runs a show in Vegas called Popovich’s Comedy Path Theater. His show is basically him doing physical comedy and then his pets performing all sorts of crazy tricks. So Popovich and myself cooked up a story idea for the TV show that could really showcase his physical comedy and his ability to get his pets to do these incredible tricks. So the sizzle reel will hopefully give people a taste of that comedy and sort of give people an idea of what the show will all be about. The producers are trying to get the business and financial stuff in order while I go off and write the first season. We’re hoping we can shoot six episodes for the first season and then if that works out obviously we’ll hope to shoot more down the road.
I’ve already written two episodes so far so I’ve got to write this third episode here in the next few weeks and then hopefully I’ll have the six episodes done I would say probably February, March…something like that. I think the producers wanna shoot in May or June. You know, things always seem to take longer than expected, so I’d say we’d be lucky if we shoot the thing even over the summer, maybe into the fall. Whatever the case may be I got to get these episodes written and be ready to go with that. So once again, check out the show notes if you have any interest in watching the sizzle reel. I’ll link to it in the show notes.
The other big thing I’m working on is the SYS Select Screenplay data base. I mentioned that last week. This is gonna be one of the big things that I work on this year. Obviously it’s not exactly screen writing related but it is screenplay related or Selling Your Screenplay related. In any event though, I will continue…this will continue to take up a lot of my time, so I thought it was worth mentioning in this section. I will talk about it more. I’ll kind of give the full pitch later after the interview if you’re wondering what it is I’m talking about. So, somewhat related to this project is another project that I just completed over the last couple of weeks. A couple of weeks ago I emailed all of the readers who read for the SYS Screenplay Analysis Service and I asked them if there’re were any scripts that came through over the last year or so that they thought were really great. Of course there were quite a few.
I decided to put my own list of unproduced screenplays from 2017 together and I decided to give my list a particular angle, specifically low budget screenplays. This is the first annual, it’s called the budget list. It’s now available. I will link to it in the show notes. You can actually get the PDF and have a look at it. There’s seven screenplays that made the list this first year and they could all be produced on budgets of well less than one million dollars. This isn’t just some shameless plug for my new list. There was quite a few interesting things that I noticed when I was putting this list together and I thought I would share those with you today. Most importantly, as my readers sent in their suggestions I started to look at the screenplays and the writers who wrote those screenplays. Just going through my list of the completed analyses at the SYS Script Analysis Service, I just started to look at what these writers had written, what the other people had, what the other readers had given these same scripts if they had submitted the same scripts to different readers and what other scripts that they had received.
In many cases these screenplays had received considers and recommends from other readers and I thought that was interesting. I mean, most of the scripts that got recommended, I think there was one script that only was submitted once and it got a consider or recommend. So the reader recommended it. It wasn’t a lot to go on but I think the other scripts, at least five out of the seven, those writers had submitted multiple scripts to the script analysis service. Many of those scripts had received considers and recommends. In a few cases too, and this was really surprising but really hammered the point home. I had readers suggesting different screenplays from the same writers. It started to really get me seeing that there was sort of a handful of writer that were floating to the top. They were submitting many many scripts that were getting a lot of god grades from the analysis service. I’ve said this before on the podcast. The people who have had the most success with my email Facts Plus Service are the people who have at least a little bit of experience in this business.
Just writing scripts, getting feedback on your scripts, that part of the experience that I’m talking about. So many people when I get these emails, sort of cynical emails all the time, people feel like breaking into screenwriting is sort of a catch 22. They can’t get a producer or an agent to read their stuff until they’ve actually done something, but of course they can’t do something until they get a producer or agent to read their stuff and they’re sort of complaining about the catch 22 nature of the business. These writers are showing us how it’s done. You have to do a ton of hard work for years and then eventually if you’re talented, persistent and probably a little lucky too, you might make it. So many people want a magic bullet, something easy that they can learn that will elevate their scripts to the next level. I understand that. I’d love to find a few magic bullets myself, but unfortunately it’s not that easy. It’s not that easy but at the same time it’s not that complicated.
These writers are giving us the answers. Do the work. The writers on this list are doing the hard, unsexy work of getting more skilled at their craft. They’re writing new scripts, they’re submitting scripts, they’re getting notes on scripts. I mean, that’s really what it’s all about. Again, this isn’t a shameless plug of the SYS Screenwriting Analysis Service. There’s many many similar services out there, you could try some of those, get feedback from different people. You can try friends. You don’t even necessarily need a paid script analysis service. If you live in LA you probably know other writers. Maybe you can trade scripts with them. There are services like www.stage32.com. You can go on there, you can join the screenwriting section of Stage32, you can meet other writers, you can potentially trade scripts with some of the writers you meet there. So it’s not just about paying someone to give you notes, but it is about this attitude and just work ethic that is writing lots of new scripts, getting feedback, trying to improve those scripts and just getting stuff out there.
The second thing that stood out to me, and it’s somewhat related to the first, is that I had two writers who never got back to me. So let me just take a step back and describe the process of choosing a screenplay a little bit so this has a little more context. To start, I did exactly what I mentioned about. I simply asked the readers who read scripts for me what screenplays they thought stood out over the last year or so. This is the first annual list, so we did include some scripts that came to us before 2017. But in any event, once these recommendations started to come in, then I started to go through the scripts, look at the writers, look at what else they had done, look at the names that were floating to the top and start to just figure out if the scripts that were recommended were a good fit for this list because this list again had that extra criteria of needed to be produced on a relatively low budget. In this case I said less than one million dollars is basically a low budget film.
Once I had gone through all of these material and figured out what scripts were a good fit for it, I emailed all of the writers and asked if they’d like to be included. Obviously there’s no downside to being listed on a list like this. It’s just free publicity for you as a writer and for your script. I’m gonna market this piece heavily to producers so it can really only help the writer. In fact this whole idea came from producers asking me really this specific question, “Do you have any low budget scripts? Are there any low budget scripts coming through the SYS Script Analysis Service that you could recommend? I’d like to take a look.” This whole screenplay database project sort of evolved from that, and then putting this list together is sort of a component of that. Again, I think it’s something producers will like and it will be helpful to the writers to get their names and their scripts on the radar of the producers who check out this list.
So again, back to the writers who didn’t respond. Maybe they didn’t understand my email. It was a pretty straight forward email or maybe their email got caught in the spam filter. We just don’t know what happened, why these two writers didn’t respond. But whatever the case, I hope that they’re not ignoring emails from the producers who might be interested in their screenplays. I mean, there’s an old Woody Allen quote that goes something like “80 percent of life is showing up” and I feel like these two writers didn’t show up. You’ve got to keep a valid, active email working all the time if you’re gonna be a professional screenwriter you’re gonna get people emailing you. I’ve submitted scripts with my email in Facts Plus Service. I’ve submitted scripts that way and not heard back for years. I think there have been producers that got to me after over a year. So you have to keep the same…after you get an email address, then you have to keep it active valid. You have to check it once every week or so and just make sure that your churning that pot and keeping things going because emails might arrive in your inbox.
Again, going back to the 80 percent about life is just showing up, I feel like going back to my first point. The seven writers who are on this list, they showed up big time. They’re writing a lot of scripts, they’re doing all the things that you need to do to be successful. Hopefully that’s a lesson that we can all take from this list. The third thing I wanted to mention is pretty minor, and is certainly not statistically significant, but nevertheless I thought it was interesting. One of the whole points to this and hopefully this isn’t a surprise, is to promote the new SYS Screenplay Database to producers. Again I know producers are looking for lists like this. I know producers are looking for low budget scripts. I get these kinds of questions all the time. I think this list will have value to producers because this is something that producers are asking about. Each of the seven writers…again, I figured out which scripts were gonna be applicable to this list. I emailed those writers and then I said, “Hey, could you upload your script into the new SYS Screenplay Database,” and then they went ahead and did that.
These are all screenwriters uploading their own information. It’s not me necessarily interpreting it or anything like that. The writers had access to the interphase. They did meet all the determinations on their own. Maybe it’s not 100 percent as clean as I did look at it and I did offer some suggestions to these writers, but in general, six out of the seven writers, they chose the under one million in terms of budget range. I thought this was really interesting. The budget range is inside the interphase. The budget ranges are less than $100,000. $100,000 to $250,000, less than one million, some to five million, five to ten million and then over ten million. Those are the different choices that a writer could choose. And again, six out of seven cases, the writers chose under one million. I thought this was significant because everyone is always talking about one location features and there’re some good examples of those films out there. Buried by Chris Sparling is one shiny example. I actually had him on the podcast a few years ago and we talked specifically about that film. Episode number #24 if you wanna check that out.
Overall, the readers didn’t respond well to any the super-low budget single location scripts. I know I’m a big proponent of writing low budget scripts, but do keep this in mind. In some cases you might be going too low budget and the story is actually being sacrificed a little bit. Again, you just have to take a step back and understand what I’m getting at here. I’m a big proponent of low budget scripts, but again the story has to be good and the story has to work. Maybe that means a little more than $100,000. Maybe that means $500,000 or $800,000. Again, going back to my original point, you do need some experience to understand budget and that’s gonna just come by doing it. You’re gonna have to get out there, produce some shots or at least work with a producer, work with a director on producing shots and understand what costs money and how the budgets are laid out. But I thought this was interesting that the scripts that floated to the top at least this year, they weren’t the one location micro budget scripts.
They were sort of that one million dollar and less range, which is a decent amount of money to produce a film in this day and age. You’re gonna have some name talent in a movie that’s a million dollars. You’re gonna get some name talent. We’re not talking Tom Cruise here but you’re gonna get some guys…good actors that you’ve heard have been in some stuff, decent production value. A lot of the films, I would say the vast majority of the films that I am talking with the filmmakers here on the SYS podcast have been done for less than one million. That’s kind of why I chose that as the range for this list. Anyway, a couple of things to just keep in mind as you progress. Now let’s get into the main segment. Today I’m interviewing actress and producer Kaily Smith Westbrook. Here is the interview.
Ashley: Welcome Kaily to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Kaily: Thank you for having me.
Ashley: To start out, maybe you can just give us a quick overview of your background. Where did you grow up and how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Kaily: Yeah, I grew up in Denver, Colorado and back to my earliest memories I always just wanted to be an actress and loved performing. I grew up going to [Inaudible 00:16:15] which is a performing art training program in FCE. I then auditioned a lot in high school [Inaudible 00:16:24] New York into auditions from Broadway Musicals [Inaudible 00:16:27] and I went to UFC for [Inaudible 00:16:27]. Slowly when I started getting out into the real world after graduating college I just started realizing that some of the storytelling and just acting and the writer [Inaudible 00:16:43] of 2007 happened and [Inaudible 00:16:46] and so I wrote, created, acted and produced MERRIme.com and really since then I’ve been through it all and launched my production company.
Ashley: Okay, perfect. Let’s dig into People You May Know. Maybe to start out you can give us a quick pitch or log line. What is this film all about?
Kaily: Yeah, it’s about an introvert who has never been on social media, who gets convinced that he’ll never meet [Inaudible 00:17:21] if he doesn’t go online and he joins Facebook and in the process of being on social media he feels inadequate based on the pictures he [Inaudible 00:17:33] and he [Inaudible 00:17:37] photo shopping himself into some of picture of fun and it somewhat takes off and creates a life of its own and it’s really just about social media and how it impacts our lives and our relationships.
Ashley: How did you get involved with this project?
Kaily: I worked with a director and my producing partner Sherwin Shilati and Shelley back in the web series I mentioned MERRIme.com. I hired them both for MERRIme and we just loved working together. And so in 2014 we sat around the kitchen table and we said, “Let’s do it again,” and see what it will look like and we decided it feature. We spent a good four to three reading a bunch of scripts and reaching out to people asking them for ideas and Sherwin’s friend Michael Mohan had this three paged treatment for People You May Know and we ended up optioning it and I worked Michael and Sherwin and Shelley did develop the story and then [Inaudible 00:18:43] writing it. That’s how we got here.
Ashley: Okay, and so let’s dig into that a little bit because I know screenwriters. They’re always trying to find how are producers finding material. In this case it sounds like you found a treatment. Maybe you can talk specifically, like you said, you reached out to people. What exactly did that look like? Is it reach out to just people you’ve worked with over the years in the business, did you put a notice on Craigslist, did you go to InkTip where there’re some services you used? Maybe you can talk just specifically about what that looked like finding this three paged treatment.
Kaily: Yeah, it was a lot of work. We reached out to a bunch of representatives that we knew, agents and managers [Inaudible 00:19:23] we got a bunch of scripts from Blacklist from the three years prior that had never been produced and made and were just sitting there. We read through those and then typically we just started talking to every person we knew. I would say we wanna make a movie [Inaudible 00:19:49]. This is the criteria of what we’re looking for and that would lead to another person which would lead to another person which would be, “Oh my, he’s a screenwriter!” and I’d sit down and I have coffee with them and I read their material and I had a lot of interesting meetings in that time actually because I even reached out to people on Facebook that I hadn’t connected with in five, six years that I knew were writers but I [Inaudible 00:20:10] some of them were writers who had plays that had never been adapted into screenplays and we talked about that process and maybe during that. There was never actually a decision that Sherwin was gonna be writing it and so we were in the process of developing it. We were really looking for something for him direct [Inaudible 00:20:32] to produce.
Ashley: Okay, you just mentioned that you were asking people under a certain criteria. What were some of the criteria that you were looking for?
Kaily: [Inaudible 00:20:46] no major [Inaudible 00:20:47] because I don’t like that. Something that there would be a role for me because it was really for me and Sherwin to also worked together in the director/actor dynamic and role. And then it really had to be something that spoke to all of us, which it was hard because we’d find some scripts or some ideas that Sherwin would be passionate about or Sherwin would like immediately and I just don’t wanna spend the next like three years of my life telling that story or working on that. It really needed to have…it’s really different when it’s one person who’s going out and saying, “I wanna go make a film and this is the story and you grab a [Inaudible 00:21:26] then you bring people together. We had three people who wanted to work together and had to find something that we all felt passionate about.
Ashley: And so then, what was it about this particular piece that you guys all were passionate about?
Kaily: You know for me before I got it I was laying in bed and I was online on Facebook and I looked over at my husband in bed and he was reading the news. Then I just thought to myself like, “We’re lying in bed next to each other and we’re not even talking or looking at each other, staring at our phones.” Maybe if we had had a [Inaudible 00:22:03] but I just started having this moment and the thought of social media and the way we use our phones now actually disconnecting us from the people that we love and the people that we’re actually in a room with. The next day I woke up and I had this email from Sherwin that said, “Hey, a friend sent me this treatment, let me know what you think.” I read the first three lines, had goose bumps and [Inaudible 00:22:30] “This is it.” Because then…they have a daughter and their daughter at the time I think she had just turned one and Sherwin talk about lot but he felt what….I don’t want to put words in his mouth but he talked about what he wants to leave for his daughter and what he would want her to take out from social media and not pretty much [Inaudible 00:22:59] social media. This for him it was somewhat like a letter to his daughter.
Ashley: As you were going through this process it sounds like you were reading a lot of scripts. Are there any tips that you can give to writers as a producer and then maybe the followed question to that is are there any tips you can give to writers as an actor?
Kaily: Yes. I feel the…sorry I have to think through this. As a producer my tips for writers would be to just know what their story is and not try and adjust it fit into [Inaudible 00:23:51] producer. I think that there’s definitely a collaboration that happens. Different people are going to respond to your material and if it’s the right producer they’re gonna be aligned and they’re gonna want to collaborate with you. When it’s someone who comes in and he wants to change everything even though you may really wanna work with that producer, it may just not be the best fit. I know for me as a producer when I’m reading stuff, I have to use my gut because I will read something that is wonderful but I don’t have that exact reaction to wanting to do. It sometimes is so easy to be like, “Yeah well, we’ll just change x, y and z, this would be something I would wanna work on but maybe that’s not the best thing for the story and of course the writer and the producer.
Ashley: I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s funny you said that because from the writer-perspective that’s refreshing to hear because generally as a writer I’m dealing with producers that are doing exactly what you’re saying is, “I kind of like it but we just need to completely rewrite it. And I always wonder, I’m always like, maybe it will just be better to look for another script. Anyways, I apologize for interrupting but that’s interesting to hear because that’s probably a good thing for producers.
Kaily: No, I sit on the other side of it too as a writer and I was working on a project that I was actually developing with two other writers. I was again producing [Inaudible 00:25:24] with them and we needed another producer, a bigger company to come on that we wanted to sell it to. We had a like a huge company that was interested and we went through so many scripts for an entire year and changed the script so much for the company. Then after we got to a place where we felt they liked it that person left the company and there was a new producer and then they read it and then it fell apart and it almost felt like if we had just stuck with our instinct of what this [Inaudible 00:25:53] was admitted maybe we would have found the right producer [Inaudible 00:26:00].
Ashley: Yeah, for sure. Let’s go back to that original question though Maybe just a couple of tips for writers. As an actor, maybe there’re some pet peeves that you have, you see writers doing things over and over again and then the flip side is maybe there’re some that things you see writers doing that are really excellent, you wish more writers would do more of.
Kaily: Yeah, I think that for me an actor pet peeves are when you’re dictating someone’s emotional state like, “This time they cry, she wipes the tear.” I think that can actually cause lots of blocks within an activity because they feel they have to meet an emotional cue instead of maybe actually when they have the experience, they’re gonna laugh versus cry and that’s more powerful in the moment. I understand as a writer that sometimes you either lead people with tone. I wish that we write a script where every single line was, “He sighed,”… it was over and over again directing the actor and really the script is a blue print that the actors and directors use to tell the story. I feel like if you start controlling it too much from the beginning you’re [Inaudible 00:27:26] other people scripts at the end of that correction process.
Ashley: Yeah, that’s a great tip. Let’s talk about cast a little bit. Did you do a lot of the casting before you would raise money or did you raise money and then get the casting? I’m just always curious because it’s always sort of the chicken and the egg. Like sometimes cast can help you raise money but sometimes you have to raise some money and then get the cast. You had a ton of great actors in this piece so I really commend you for doing a great job with that. Maybe you can talk about that process, how you got everything cast.
Kaily: We actually first got the money because we felt I was like a first time feature film producer and a first time director. We didn’t wanna [Inaudible 00:28:12] the cast and say, “Oh, yeah, we’re still looking for the money. I felt like people weren’t gonna take us seriously, so we went and raised the money first, hired a casting director and that way, through the casting directors started putting out offers. That’s how we went about it.
Ashley: Perfect. Let’s talk about that process of raising money. Maybe you can just again quickly just give us the long and short of how you went about doing it and any tips, some thoughts after you’ve gone through the process, maybe some things you would do differently now that you’ve been through it.
Kaily: I think it was pretty standard in the sense that we created a business that [Inaudible 00:28:51] that looked really nice and professional. We even hired someone to do it so it didn’t look like completely independent film. We met people [Inaudible 00:29:00] the film that that was going to represent the film that was gonna be made. I think it’s really important that when you’re making a [Inaudible 00:29:08] and trying to the raise money that is not something like you’re trying to do in Photoshop by yourself. It’s the same thing like with the series [Inaudible 00:29:15] when you’re pitching anything creatively I think it needs to look really sleek. Sherwin, Shelly and I all went out to people that we knew and of course when you speak to someone they say, “This isn’t right for me, but this person…” you know, doors just open. We actually raised all the money we got through equity.
Ashley: Okay. Maybe you can talk about a little bit, what was your pitch to them as you’re going out to your network of people? Are you pitching it as potentially a good return on investment? Are you pitching as, “Hey, this is a cool thing we’re doing?” Maybe just give us a little insight into what your pitch looked like.
Kaily: I wish we say [Inaudible 00:30:03] film was a good investment [Inaudible 00:30:09] We definitely don’t use that. I don’t think that anyone would ever [Inaudible 00:30:08] again. We said, “Look, clearly, we’re first time filmmakers, we have successful sets of series that we did. There are successes individually as producers and directors. There are successes that we’ve had together when working together. Here’s a path we want. Here’s the creative team we’ve put together. And we also did I feel like in the realist budget for this type of movie. We definitely could have doubled the budget and we did it in 18 days. Originally it was only 17 and we added a day. We were very smart with how we spent money and we were just very honest in how we went out about it.
Ashley: How can people see People You May Know? Do you know what the release schedule is gonna be like?
Kaily: Yes, we’re releasing November 28th. [Inaudible 00:31:17] on iTunes, or on [Inaudible 00:31:19] on Demand and you can rent it, buy it, watch it over and over again.
Ashley: What’s the best way for people to keep up with what you’re doing, just some of your future projects, twitter, Facebook or blog. Anything you’re comfortable sharing and I will round it up and put it in the show notes. But if you are in any of those platforms you can just mention those accounts.
Kaily: Yeah, mostly on Instagram and Facebook Kaily Smith Westbrook are my handle. I sometimes show up on twitter. I’m not as active on twitter but mostly I would say Instagram is where I post everything I’m doing.
Ashley: Perfect. Well, Kaily, I really appreciate your coming on and talking with me. I wish you the best of luck with this film.
Kaily: Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.
Ashley: Thank you, talk to you later.
I just wanna mention a brand new service that I recently launched. I have built the SYS Select Screenplay data base. Screenwriters upload their screenplays along with a log line, synopsis and other pertinent information like budget and genre and then producers search for and hopefully find screenplays that they wanna produce. I’m adding features to this service nearly every day, so ultimately it will be the main hub for all of the SYS Select services. If you’re a member of SYS Select already you should have already received your log in information. If you haven’t please let me know. I’ll happily email that to you. Again, I’ve already started to invite in producers to use the service so there’re already producers in the system searching for screenplays.
I’m gonna keep the current price in place for the next month or so as I try to ramp the service up. If you sign up now you’ll get grandfathered in on the current pricing. When I do the price increase, the price increase won’t affect you. I’m not gonna increase the price for any current subscriptions, any current members, so whatever price you signed up for, that would be grandfathered in perpetuity assuming you keep your subscription active. To learn more about this go to www.selingyourscreenplayselect.com and you can learn about all of these services including this new one. When you join SYS Select you get access to this brand new screenplay database service along with all the other services we’re providing to SYS Select members, and those services include a monthly newsletter that goes out to our 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 sites out there 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 I’ve been receiving about five to ten high quality paid leads per week. These are producers and production companies who are actively looking to buy material or who are looking to hire a screenwriter for a specific project. If you sign up for SYS Select you’ll get these leads emailed directly to you several times per week. These leads run the game from production companies looking for a specific type of specs script, to producers looking to hire a screen writer to write up one of their ideas or properties. Producers are looking for shots, features, TV and web series pilots. It’s a huge array of different types of projects that these producers are looking for and these leads are exclusive to our partner and SYS Select members.
Also you get access to the SYS Select forum where we will help you with your log line and creative letter and answer any screenwriting related questions that you might have. Also in the SYS Select forum is all the recorded screenwriting classes that I’ve done over the years, so you’ll have access to all of those as well. To learn more about the classes that I have done just go to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/online-classes. Again, I will link to this in the show notes just so you can check out all the classes. If any of this sounds like something you would like to learn more about, again, go to www.sellingyourscreenplayselect.com.
On the next episode of the podcast I’m gonna be interviewing producer Bob Focus. He just did a film called Crazy Famous. He’s got a great story about how he got his first feature film off the ground. He doesn’t live in Hollywood and he has had a whole other career in a whole other field. I think there’s probably a lot of listeners who would be able to relate to his story so keep an eye out for that episode next week. Anyway, that’s the show, thank you for listening.