BPS 060: How to Write Your Screenplay in 2020 – Happy New Year!

Alex Ferrari 0:00
Now guys, I do this episode every year, I think it's a good episode to do as far as just hyping you up for the new year and we are walking into a new decade, it's going to be 2020. And I've been doing this will be the fifth this will be the fifth episode that do New Year's because I've been I've been doing the podcast number four and a half years. And it is a is an interesting I was going back and listening to some of the older ones that I did around this time of year. And they're interesting, they're interesting to see where I've been and what ideas I had and dreams and aspirations I had during those times a few years ago and and where we are today. And this episode, I'm going to do a little bit of a little bit of tough love. As you know, you guys are a fan of my tough love episodes where I kind of, you know, just kind of give you a little bit of inspiration, while you know give you a kick in the butt that you need. I think we definitely need it for 2020. But I'm also going to do a year in review about what we've been able to do here at indie film, hustle. And what we're going to be doing in 2020, as well. So first in the year review, I'm going to talk a little bit about the distributor debacle and all that craziness that took up almost four or five months of my life and still going on. And I'm so glad that I was able to break that story about the travesty of what go digital distributor did to 1000s of filmmakers, and continues to do to filmmakers, as that process of bankruptcy and winding down is being done over there. And we do have some plans in the new year to do it to bring a little bit more light back to what they're doing and how they're doing it because I've become a watchdog of this side of the business now because I I feel truly 100% I truly feel that the abuse that the distribution side of the film industry specifically at the indie film level, it is so abusive, it is so out of control is so systemic in the system of abuse of filmmakers of financial raping of the filmmakers and distributor was just a tip of the iceberg. And I am going to be bringing more and more light to that as as the year goes on. And I have a few surprises as well in that arena. But I wanted to bring that out. So that was a very big part of the year. I released two books, shooting for the mob and rise of the film intrapreneur and I first of all, I can't believe I wrote two books literally wrote one book later on wrote two and the the response to both books have been amazing specifically to rise the film intrapreneur the sales, you know the downloads that have been seeing on the books, it's just humbling, and the quotes and reviews have been very humbling as well. So I am so glad that that that book is starting to change the conversation and hopefully sparks that revolution. And a little surprise for you guys that the audio book version of shooting for the mob will be released within the next week or two depending on how fast audible approves everything. So that is coming for you as well, after so many people have been telling me, why don't you have a job and I finally just sat down bit the bullet and went through it. And it was very emotional to go through that entire story again, but I did it. And I hope you enjoy my performance because I actually play Jimmy in there as well. So my, my voice was talk

like this, or something similar to that, when, when Jimmy speaks in the book, and it's really, it's good, I hope you guys like it, I hope you guys like it. So that's gonna be coming on. And if you want access to that you can go to shooting for the mob comm to check that out. We also launched a brand new website this year, the film entrepreneur website for entrepreneur.com. And we also launched the film to printer, podcast, YouTube channel, and of course, the book. And the reason I again, open that that whole website, the whole brand and company was because I felt that that is the future of filmmaking, independent filmmaking, I feel becoming that entrepreneurial filmmaker becoming that film intrapreneur will be where everybody needs to be, if they want to make a living, you want to be a hobby filmmaker, that's one thing hobbyist that's fine, no problem. But if you actually want to make a living, doing films, and creating content like this, I think the film to printer method is the only way that we're going to be able to survive as a community. So that's why I took so much effort to launch that new company. And there's been a lot of other stuff that I've been able to do with indie film hustle this year. But I don't want to sit here for another hour talking about all the things that we've done. But those are the big highlights. And it's been an insane, insane year, it's been an insane year of growth, for indie film, hustle and ifH industries in general, for all the companies that I I run and all the impact that we've been able to do to the community and helping filmmakers and screenwriters, and content creators through all the content that we provide through our platforms. And I'm so humbled and excited to continue to do that for the community. And I hope whatever I do on a daily basis, helps you on your path. Now, we have reached the tough love portion of our podcast. So I need you to prepare yourselves. Now I want to ask you the question, Why haven't you taken the steps needed to make your dream come true? What's stopping you? What's stopping you from making whatever you want to happen for you happen? Do you don't have money? Is that the problem? If you don't have money to make your movie, then make a smaller project. Partner with somebody do something else put the larger idea that the Opus that you have put it in that drawer man, you know, and keep working on multiple projects, you can't just work on just one. But you've got to take the steps and it could be baby steps doesn't have to be big steps. It can be baby steps. Why haven't you written that screenplay? that you've been thinking about forever? Why are you procrastinating? What is it that you haven't written that screenplay, you know, or haven't created a haven't created a system or schedule to write a page a day, or two pages a day, no matter how good or bad they are. Just write and write and write. You know I have now over 400 500 episodes of all my podcasts that I've done. If you go back and listen to the very first podcast, they're horrible, I think they're horrible. There's good content in and all of them. But they're not that great. I you know, I'm still trying to figure myself out trying to figure this show out. But now after doing it so long, I feel very comfortable doing this. I took a lot of trial and error, it took a lot of just grinding it out. And that's what you have to do. You got to grind it out. If you want to be a writer, right? If you want to be a director direct. If you want to create content, create content, and it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't you know, you have to get away from this perfection because there is no perfection. Don't let that stop you. That's just an excuse. Because you know why? Because you're afraid. Because you're afraid of whatever of success of failing of, of what people will think of you of what people think of your art, whatever. But at the end of the day, those excuses are all based around fear. And if you're afraid of failing, good, fail, I want you all to fail. And I want you all to fail often. Because that's how you learn. You learn nothing from successes, nothing. You learn a lot more from failures than you do from successes and I speak from personal personal experience on that I've learned so much from my failures. And don't think that indie film hustle has been a smooth ride for the last four and a half years that I've been doing this, it hasn't. I failed on multiple occasions on many different things that I've tried, and it didn't work. And I just keep going. You know, and I fail sometimes publicly. You know, so I think Just keep going. Don't let that stop me, you can't stop yourself from following your dream, your passion, your goals, because you're afraid. Because you don't want to wake up December 31 2020 and say dammit, I just lost another year of wasting time of doing other things of procrastinating. What I really want to do, if you're not happy with where you are in life, you have to make the choice to change. You have to take control of your life. You can't blame other people for it. You can't blame the world for it, whatever your circumstances are. And I was, I mean, look, I was a day or two away from being homeless. If you read my book shooting from a mob, you'll understand, you know, I was I was gonna go bankrupt, I was gonna lose my house, I was gonna lose a bunch of stuff.

And I just kept going, you can't blame anybody else. For whatever failures you think you are having, or that you are having. You need to man up or girl up and take responsibility for where you are in life.

Okay, it is nobody else's fault. Sure things happen to us. Sometimes they're self inflicted, sometimes life just hits us with things. And believe me, I've been hit with multiple uppercuts in my life, multiple from many different directions. So I understand. You can't control what happens to you. All you can control is how you deal with it. How you perceive it, whatever your situation is, it is, for better or for worse. how you deal with that. How you deal with what life gives you is in your control. You are here on this planet, to follow your dreams. To follow that thing, that burning fire inside of you. That is why you're here. There's that thing that doesn't let you sleep that virus I talk so much about that filmmaking virus, that that film industry virus, that screenwriting virus, whatever that creative thing that you got bitten by years ago, that won't let you sleep at night, that will always continue to bother you for the rest of your days. Because you're not doing it. That thing, that's why we're here. That is why you are here is to make that thing happen for you, whatever that might be. You have to be smart about it and take chances. But make sure you take those chances. Be smart about it. Don't mortgage your house, don't take unnecessary risks. But you have to move. And it could be baby steps, but you have to go, you've got to be smart on how you do it. The state of the industry has changed so dramatically. In just these last five years, from the moment that I launched this podcast and launched indie film hustle to today, the industry has taken gigantic leaps. And it's shifted multiple times. You know, when I was when I launched this podcast, DVDs, were still kind of a thing. You know, that was five years, almost five years ago. You know, there's all these things that ways to making money and things like that with your films, there were other options. There were other opportunities, those are all gone, the business has changed. You have to understand that that old system, the Hollywood system, the film distribution system, the old ways of doing things, is broken. And that old system never was built to benefit you, the filmmaker, or you the creative. It just wasn't. filmmakers need to take control, to take the power of their own art form back into their own hands. We have the technology we have the opportunity. We have the direct access to customers, to audiences to be able to do that that wasn't available five or 10 years ago, in the way it is today. With the tools we have today. You have to take advantage of it. You need to be in control of your own destiny. No longer should you give the power of your film to a third party in hopes that they will one day pay you in hopes that they one day will make your dreams come true. That is just a recipe for pain and trust it from a guy who wasted 20 years of his career, chasing that exact dream and the moment I took The power back into my own hands with my own art, and built my own world, built my own business around my art form, and around being of service to others, my entire life changed. I want that for you. I want that for you. distributors and distribution companies are one revenue stream for your film, only one. And it shouldn't be the only one that doesn't make business sense. You can partner with a distributor if you want. And there are some good ones out there. Like I've said many times, but they're unicorns, the majority of them are predatory, the majority of the business is predatory. So you need to be careful. And the only way that you can kind of up opt out of that system is to change the rules to play by your own rules, to chain into play by the film intrapreneurial rules and control your own revenue streams and control your own destiny 2020 will be the year of the film intrapreneur you're going to hear me say that a bunch 2020 will be the year of the film entrepreneur. This is when the revolution begins in 2020. This is when filmmakers take back their power, take back control of their films, have their scripts of their stories of their content, and start learning how to make a living with it by using the entrepreneurial method. This is the year of the film entrepreneur. And you need to take control back. And you need to take the steps every single day to make your dreams come true. Because I promise you something, nobody else is going to care about your dream more than you will. Because you know what everyone's got their own dreams. So you've got to be the caretaker of your own dreams. Now I hope that lit a fire in your in your butt this year to get that thing going to get that script written to get that movie made to take that course to learn that thing to make that short film, whatever it is, I hope this little talk this last episode gets you riled up. And if you need to listen to it again, throughout the year, listen to it again. I have a whole ton of motivational videos on my YouTube channel that will help you get you know you want to get hyped up you listen to those are two three minutes apiece. And that there are indie film hustle.com forward slash YouTube and takes you right there. And I also want to go over what you can expect in 2020 from indie film hustle from bulletproof screenwriting and from from entrepreneur. So from indie film, hustle, you will continue to get a ton of new guests on the podcast, I'm going to be creating new content as always, there might be an update to the website, I'm still figuring out when I can do that. So a little bit of an update. You can see you guys if you guys go to the website, you can start seeing a little bit of shifting in how things are being presented and things like that. So I'm going to try to hone down a little bit on indie film hustle.com. Now as far as indie film hustle TV is concerned, I am going to be putting a lot of effort and energy into indie film hustle TV, we will be adding a ton of original courses and content, new films with special editions education, and adding new workshops and seminars. Like I said, I'm putting a lot of energy and resources into indie film hustle TV to make it the one stop shop for Real World Film education streaming around the world. The latest updates on distribution on cinematography on screenwriting, everything, I'm going to be putting it into indie film hustle TV. So if you haven't checked that out, please go to ifH TV comm check it out, and we will be adding amazing amounts of stuff there over the course of 2020. Now for bulletproof screenwriting, I'm going to be launching a standalone bulletproof screenwriting website dedicated to screenwriters, breaking down the art and the business of storytelling. And I'm going to be focusing a lot about the business as well as just how to write stories. I'm going to be teaching you how to apply the film entrepreneurial method in screenwriting, how you guys can create side hustles how you can start generating revenue with your skills, your writing skills, how you can start making money with your writing, in addition to selling your own projects, possibly creating your own projects, partnering with others. People are going to be creating a bunch of new content for bulletproof screenwriting on its new website, which will be bulletproof screenwriting.tv. And of course, we will be adding exclusive bulletproof screenwriting courses on ifH. TV as well. And now for film entrepreneur, we will be adding exclusive film propranolol training on ifH TV, doing a deep dive and exploring different avenues and aspects of the film shoprunner method and breaking down the concepts from Rise of the film entrepreneur as well. And of course, I'll be continually adding great guests to the podcast and adding more resources and education to help you on your film entrepreneurial journey. And I will be launching my first ever live workshop, which is the make your movie boot camp like two day event that will be held in late March. And in about a week or so week or two, I'm going to be putting out new ads and new website where you can sign up for it. And it's going to be a two day event. It's going to be still held here in Burbank. Last year, I did launch it. But I got so caught up with the whole distributor thing that all my energies went to that and I had to cancel it had to return money and you know and made sure everybody got their money back. But we will be doing it in the new year. And it's going to be a little different than what I originally hadn't planned because things have changed. So I'm always changing, always adjusting my method and adjusting what the information I'm trying to provide you guys with. So one day of the boot of the making movie boot camp will be focused on micro budget filmmaking, and how I was able to shoot this is Meg and on the corner of ego and desire my tips and techniques on how I was able to do all of that on such low budgets. And on the second day, we will be going over an introduction to the film entrepreneurial method and breaking down the basic concepts of the film intrapreneurial method. And of course, we will be adding possible couple of surprise guests as well. A couple other things we will be working on in 2020, I will be working on a new book, I have an idea for the book I have I have five books actually. But I'm going to be working on one of them's at least one this year. So keep an eye keep an eye out for that. Like I said before the audio version of shooting for the mob will be available. We'll be releasing my film finally on the corner of ego and desire on indie film hustle TV on January 21 2020. With an amazing amount of special edition content, breakdowns, interviews, audio commentary, I really wanted to go all out for on the corner of Elan desire and ifH. tv. And it will be available just to watch the movie on Amazon and on Apple TV as well. And I have a bunch of other secret projects that I'm working on at ifH industries this year, coming this coming year. And there's a lot of little things I have going on. You know me guys, I always have something going on. I'm always trying to create new experiences for you new content, new value for the tribe. And I just want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart to all of you, for all the love and support you have provided me over the last four and a half years that I've been doing this for you and for the tribe. And it's very humbling, it really, really is humbling.

The the well wishes, the reviews, the comments, the messages I get on a daily basis from you, I'm I'm so humbled to be of service to you and help you on your filmmaking journey or entrepreneurial journey or your screenwriting journey. This business is brutal as you are very well aware. And I hope that the work that I do helps you a little bit maybe saves you a little time, maybe save you a little bit of money, saves you a lot of pain and heartache. And I hope that this podcast and I hope everything I do through all my companies at ifH industries helps you on your path I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I do not take this very lightly. You've been you've given me the opportunity to do this for you. And I am forever grateful. So I will continue to hustle. I will continue to grind every single day to help you guys on your journey. I want to leave you with this guys. Don't let anything stop you from making your dream come true. Don't let people around you tell you that you can't do it. People told me when I said I wanted to be a filmmaker or a director. And I wanted to jump into this business. I was crazy. Friends of mine from high school said what are you going to do? That's insane. It was so beyond anybody's idea that that could be even a possibility that they were trying to they start trying to stop me Family members tried to stop me, they would tell me that I'll never make it. You'll never make anything of yourself, you know, all all the things of all the things. And you know what? I proved them wrong 25 years in, and I'm still here, still hustling. And I love what I do. And I'm so blessed that I'm able to do it. And I want you guys to have that same experience, not the exact same, I don't want you to go make a $20 million movie for a mobster and get your life threatened on a daily basis. I don't want that for you. But I want you to be able to make a living, doing what you love to do. And that's why I'm here. To help you do that. You need to be smart. You need to educate yourself as much as humanly possible about this entire process, not just a sexy parts, not just the lenses and the cameras and the cool stuff. All parts of this process, you need to educate yourself as much as possible. Read as many books as you can get an audible account and listen to books everywhere you go, while you're in line at the supermarket while you're driving to your commute, whatever it is, educate yourself as much as humanly possible. And the last part of that, that equation, she got to go for it. You got to get up off your ass. And just do it, just go for it. And if you fail, it's okay. You fail, you move on again. I've said it many times before, but Robert Rodriguez made 2025 short films. And I'm sure a lot of them were not that great. Before he made out of mariachi. He practiced and practiced and practiced. And he failed and learned and moved on, failed and learned and move on. That's how you make it. That's how you get to where you want to be in life. You just have to keep going. Like the incomparable Rocky Balboa said. It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward. It's not gonna be an easy ride guys that I can promise you. It's not gonna be what they what the Hollywood sells you, which is that lottery ticket, that someone's gonna come down from on Hollywood, and give you a shot. And all your dreams are gonna come true. It's not gonna be that guys, I can promise you that. The only thing I can promise you is that as you continue to learn, you grow and you better yourself. And you might not get to your dream exactly the way you wanted it. Or you might get it exactly where you wanted it. Or something even better comes along like it did for me.

Alex Ferrari 27:48
And my journey is far from over. I got a lot of walking left. And you guys will be there with me as I take you through my journey in this business and hopefully help you along yours. Want to wish you guys happy new year. And amazing 2020 we are getting into the 20s. Guys, we are in the 20s now, so it's going to be the roaring 20s get ready for an exciting year. I don't know what what we have in store for us. I truly don't. But make your dreams come true this year, guys. I really want that for each and every one of you listening to my voice. And now since this is the first ever crossover triple crossover event between all three of my podcasts. I'm going to do a sign off for each one in this one podcast. So for the bulletproof screenwriting tribe, keep on writing, no matter what. For the film shoprunner podcast. The power is in your hands. Be a film entrepreneur, and for the indie film hustle tribe. As always, keep that hustle going. Keep that dream alive. Happy New Year. I'll talk to you soon.