BPS 450: From Video Games to the Big Screen: The Filmmaking Journey of Nicole Jones-Dion

Alex Ferrari 0:00
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Dave Bullis 0:31
On this week's episode of the podcast, my guest is a screenwriter, producer and director. She co wrote Tekken two she successfully crowdfunded her film debris, and now she's working on a ton of other stuff, which we're gonna get into on the show with Nicole Jones Dion, Hey, Nicole, thanks a lot for coming on the show.

Nicole Jones Dion 0:31
Oh, thanks for having me.

Dave Bullis 0:31
You know it's my pleasure, Nicole, because you, I think you're the first person who have had on who is also a member of the screenwriting you alumni series. I'm pretty sure you were the first person. Oh, cool, yeah. It's, yeah. I don't know why I haven't had anybody else on there yet, on here, yet. Excuse me. Because you know, it's that group is always doing great things. And one of the reasons I wanted to have you on here is because every time I turn around, you're always up to something new. You're You're always creating some great content. So that's why I wanted to have you on I think everyone could learn a lot from you. So just to get started, you know, just learning more about Nicole Jones, Dion, I wanted to ask, you know, Nicole, what made you get started in screenwriting and the film industry in general?

Nicole Jones Dion 0:31
You know, it's funny, because when I moved to LA, oh, God, a long, long time ago, I don't want to say exactly how long. I'll give away my age, but when I moved out here, I My intention was never to get into films or screenwriting. It was to get into the video game industry. So I started out working in video games, and then I kind of segued into comics, and then the stories I was coming up with, people were like, oh, doesn't make great movies. And I was like, Oh, that's such a cliche. I don't want to be that cliche Hollywood screenwriter. And, you know, flash forward, and here I am. So I think because I started out working in that comic book and video game space, a lot of my my screenplays and the genres that I'm naturally drawn to are these, like, you know, fun, sci fi action, or, you know, horror, you know, just, just these really fun fanboy type projects and and you can see that in the films that I've done, you know, if you look at, you know, like Dracula The Dark Prince, which we did, Jon Voight, that's a very, even though it's a Dracula film, it's more of a fantasy epic, you know, Sword and Sorcery type take on the Dracula mythos. And then Tekken two, which is based on the video game series, you know, I kind of got that gig, you know, directly through Dracula. And then also because I had that tie with the video game industry and, you know, and then writing for the Sci Fi Channel, which I did last October, I did an original film for them, which aired as part of their 30 Days of Halloween series that was called they found hell. And and now I'm transitioning into directing. And I just directed my first feature, which is called stasis, which is another sci fi kind of action film. So it's, it's funny, a lot of people think of me primarily as a horror writer, but my, the genesis of my career, and the start of it is really more in that sci fi video game type space.

Dave Bullis 0:31
So, so did you find that, you know, the video game industry, you know, I actually made a project for the video game industry, kind of, sort of, and what I found is, when I reached out to them, a lot of them were kind of leery, always about going and making things, you know, about, you know. Know, you know different projects because of, you know, X, Y and Z. So I wanted to ask you, Nicole, did you find it it's harder or easier? And I know this is that's a very broad stroke. Did you want it's harder or easier in the video game industry to get your foot in the door than it is the film and TV industry?

Nicole Jones Dion 0:00
I think, I mean, it's changed. The video game industry changed a lot since I worked in it. I mean, just to kind of put it in perspective, when I was doing it, that was during that weird time when they were doing live action video games. So it was almost like a choose your adventure movie that was kind of friends. Now I'm dating myself, people who know that era and at the time, and that ended up being a failed experiment, because you ended up with all ended up with all the cost and expense of making a movie, plus all the cost and expense of making a video game. And so they got away from that really fast, and now with, you know, the way that the computer graphics have advanced, it's like you're getting, like, these amazing photo realistic results without having to do like a live action shoot. But I would say, because of the cost involved in video games, it's definitely easier to do films, because you can go out and shoot a little movie on your iPhone. Now, whereas with video games, you know, you've got programming and and the solid modeling and the video, you know, all the TV that's intrinsic is part of that process, I think it is a harder nut to crack, especially now, you know, you know,

Dave Bullis 0:04
I remember all of those live action video games too. I think there was one called Fox hunt. And I remember, you know, trying renting those games. I'm thinking to myself, this can't be the future, can it? And I remember that era where everyone was doing, at least everyone had one. There was a one called psychic detective. I remember that one meander was kind of the big one with Mark Hamill. That was, yeah, I remember that one too.

Nicole Jones Dion 0:04
Yeah, yeah, weird. It was a weird time. I think people kind of try to forget that, that that era even existed.

Speaker 1 0:04
Yeah, I remember that so well be so, you know, you went to the video game industry and, you know, you tried your hand at that. And I agree with you completely. The video game industry has changed immensely, because I have friends who work in the video game industry. And, you know, even when I was pitching some of my projects, things have changed, even five from five years ago now, you know, I mean, and now look at us now, Nicole, Pokemon, Pokemon Go, is the new, you know, the new craze, and they're making a mobile NES system for 60 bucks. And, you know, I'm sure that's going to be a number one bestseller as well. So it's like the retro now is, you know, making, making a whole everything sick holes. I'm trying to say,

Nicole Jones Dion 7:30
Yeah, no, it's amazing. It's amazing. I mean, an augmented reality is such a fascinating thing. I I'm trying to avoid the Pokemon Go phenomena, just because I have this addictive personality, and I know once I get sucked in that did, I'm done. There goes my productivity for the rest of my life. But I did play Ingress, which is a platform that it was based on, and, and I think augmented reality is it's just, it's fascinating. The gameplay experience is really, really interesting. And, yeah, I think there's, it could be the wave of the future, at least wave of the future for right now. It's a fun little trend. I'm definitely keeping an eye on it. I mean, Nintendo's market value went up like $7 billion over the weekend just based off this one game alone. So, yeah, it's, it's an exciting time. It's exciting time for it to be in video games, film, TV, anything, because it's just the wild west right now. You know, with with all the new cable outlets and Netflix and Hulu and everybody doing all this original content. It's, it's, it's interesting, because the rules are all changing, and they're changing daily. And like trying to keep, you know, you don't, you can't even Chase trends anymore, because the trends are changing. So it's like trying to figure out, you know, to have to get one step ahead of that curve and and stay ahead of the rest of the flock, you know, it's a fun time.

Dave Bullis 8:44
Yeah, and even with crowdfunding, you know, I noticed all the video games now, or we're just being crowdfunded because they were, you know, basically the company would say, hey, we can't take a chance on these video games. So that, you know, the developers, you know, would go out and they would go make, you know, raise funds on Kickstarter. And I was shocked at seeing some of the prices, you know, some of the amounts that they were, amounts that they were raising, because I was thinking to myself, wow, you know, these, you know, I'm granting the, these are the head developers, you know, and they're coming out and saying, you know, this is us doing this. But, but still, you know, I was a little shocked that they were getting the the amount that they were,

Nicole Jones Dion 9:12
Yeah, well, because a lot of these, the video game companies, a lot of the board game companies, too, are using crowdfunding almost as a way of doing pre sales for the product. It's also as a way to test Thanks. Could you know, I do a lot of work now with Sean Cunningham, is the creator Friday the 13th, and they just did a big crowdfunding campaign for the Friday the 13th video game, which they just previewed at e3 a couple weeks ago. And the gameplay looks amazing. So if you're a fan of I'm gonna go do a little pitch here, but if you're a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise. This looks really cool,

Dave Bullis 9:44
Well, and I'm a huge fan of it, so I can't, I can't wait for the video game, by the way. But anyways, we know, you know, as we train, we follow your career. I know, you know, you obviously transfer, you know, translated out of, out of video games. And he started doing, doing more feature films. So how did you get, you know, attached to writing, you know, Dracula, the Dark Prince.

Nicole Jones Dion 10:14
That one. It was such a long story, but I had met where to begin. So I had written an adaptation of an image graphic novel called the Scribbler, which I'd done for Kickstarter entertainment. They went on to do a wanted with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. And so at the time, they were going around shopping my script, approaching different directors, and one of the directors that they had introduced me to as a possibility was this gentleman by the name of Perry tail. And then the writers strike happened, and that project ended up never going anywhere. But Perry and I stayed in touch over the years, and we collaborated on a bunch of projects and, and he had been approached with, you know, the possibility of writing and directing this, this Dracula film, and, and he's like, I need help with the script. Do you want to come on board? And I was like, Absolutely, dude, you're my guy, you know. And so we, we worked on Dracula together, then we worked on Tekken together, and then he just produced my first feature film. So it's one of these ongoing, you know, long term relationship. That's one of the things with this industry. It's all about building relationships, finding champions who are willing to go out there and and, you know, put their their necks out for you and making that really good first impression, and then that'll it'll just carry you can build a critter out of that, or at least get your foot in the door.

Dave Bullis 11:29
So when you got your foot in the door, were you mainly doing like script adaptations, or did you come in with already having some of your own original material already written?

Nicole Jones Dion 11:38
Oh gosh, I had probably, at the time I did Dracula, I probably had at least 15 specs already on the shelf that had won various contests and had been optioned nothing that had actually gone into production at that point. So with Dracula and Tekken and those types of things, those were all writing assignments that I was brought on to either fix and fisting scripts or develop ideas from scratch with the producers. Yeah, but I would say that stasis, which is the script, the feature that I just wrote and directed, is the first time I actually pitched an idea. I was hired to write my original idea. Everything prior to that had been somebody else had an idea or had an existing script that needed work, which is what 90% of the industry is, is developing other people's stuff.

Dave Bullis 12:21
So before you know, you wrote drag, before you came on a project of Dracula, you had written 15 spec scripts. So my question then is, Nicole, how did you find the time to write 15 spec scripts?

Nicole Jones Dion 12:32
Oh, you just do it. You just I have no life. And I think I mentioned I have an addictive personality. Instead of once, I actually had to give up video games. I had to give him up cold turkey, which is really hard and and, but one of the things I used to fill the void then is I just, I just write. I write constantly. I write every day, all the time. I have no life. I have no real family out here in LA. I mean, I have my husband, but all my family's back East. So it's I don't have a lot of the normal day to day distractions that other people have, and I can just immerse myself completely in my work, which is fine, because I love it.

Dave Bullis 13:06
So, you know, just speaking about your work, you know, could you deal us just a glimpse and, you know, into your process, you know, is there a certain time of day you write? Is there anything, any sort of special rituals you go through just to get, sort of put yourself in that, in that writing mindset,

Nicole Jones Dion 13:20
I tend to because I'm kind of a night owl, and I guess because I tend to write things that are darker anyway, I work better at night, which kind of sucks if you're working vampire hours. It's hard to associate with the real world. But yeah, and as far as rituals, I don't really have any rituals. I do have a treadmill desk that I use, just because sitting is is not good for you all day. I like working on that. And, yeah, I just do it at night. It's like something about when the sun goes down, that's when my creativity is at its its peak.

Dave Bullis 13:56
So do you subscribe to any method like the USC sequencing method, you know, like, you know, the 3x structure, say, the cat. Do you do you subscribe to any of these? Of these methods?

Nicole Jones Dion 14:06
I do, kind of a blend. I do save the cat with, you know, what Chris was called, The mini movie method, which is essentially the UPC sequencing method. Kind of do an overlay of the two in advance. A lot of these structuring tools, they're all very similar. There's a lot of overlap, anyway. And if you just look for the things that they have in common, I would say those are the things to focus on. You know, it's like they all have turning points and act breaks and inciting incidents. And there's, there's some subtle differences, but I found that by using faith the cat with the mini movie method, that seems to cover most of the bases.

Dave Bullis 14:41
Yeah, I've noticed there is a lot of overlap too, especially with the USC sequencing method and Chris so many movie method, you know? But I think Chris so to me, I really do like that mini movie method. And I find that that, you know, breaking into eight sequences really does help me sort of plan out the movie, if you know what I mean,

Nicole Jones Dion 14:58
Right! And it breaks. Down into these smaller, bite sized chunks. So it's not so daunting. So when you're first starting out, you're not looking at a blank page and thinking, oh my god, I have to write 90 or 120 pages. Now it's like, Oh no, I just have to get to the next 15 pages and and that's a lot more manageable. I can do, you know, 15 pages in a day or two, and then she's like, okay, then we go on to the next day.

Dave Bullis 15:19
So when, when you're sitting down to write, you know, you sort of what do you sort of need before you write? Meaning, do you need to sort of outline this heavily or write even a treatment, or do you just sort of get a starting point and just sort of go map from there?

Nicole Jones Dion 15:34
I'm a huge fan of outlining in advance, and I think this is a really good skill set, especially if you want to be a working writer in Hollywood, because a lot of these producers are not just going to hire you to write the script. They're going to need to see outlines. They're going to need to see treatments in advance. It's a skill you're going to have to learn. So you may as well practice those muscles while you you're working on your own specs. For me, I'm so I do have this one thing where it's like, I can't write a script until I know what it's called. And it's this weird hang up I have so I have to start with a title, and it's so dumb, and the title will change, but I have to have at least a title, and then, and then solid, solid log line. I always refer back to my log line, so I'll first things. First, I write the title, I write the log line, and then I start breaking out the bare bones of it, you know, doing like the breaking it up into the four acts, one act, the first half of the second act, second act, second half of the second act, and then the third act, at least having like a sentence for each knowing what that backbone is for the story. And then I'll start getting deeper into the Save the cat or the mini movie breakdown. But yeah, I have to have at least, at least a three or four page outline flash treatment before I'm comfortable starting actually writing the script.

Dave Bullis 16:44
You know, something I found out recently is something where I basically I can't write unless I can build the movie and then break it down again. You I mean, like it's sort of building and rebuilding, building and rebuilding. And, you know, because I don't know why, but I'm terrible with titles anymore. Like, titles to me, You know what I mean? Like, I just, if I don't know the title, what I do is I just sort of go past because I'll end up obsessing over the title, and I'll be like, you know, I can't figure out what to do.

Nicole Jones Dion 17:13
Spend a day looking at titles. Also, another thing I get hung up on this is just my weird little brain. I have to know what my character's names are, and names are, and names have to have significance to the story somehow, which you know, this is, I can't call them John and Jane. It's like they have to have meaningful name. I don't know. It's just my own little quirk, I guess. But yeah, for me, it's like going back to that log line, even like, if I if I start to write, and it's not feeling like it's something's not working out, go back to that log line that always becomes my sanity check. It's like, Is this because you want to make sure it's high concept and marketable, and you can sell it and people get it and just as few words as possible. And if I start to stray from that log line, I go back, readjust course, and then dive back in.

Dave Bullis 17:58
Yeah, you know, I oftentimes do too, where I just put in, like, you know, like, you know, guard a, guard B, you know, I'm just trying to fly through it, but I think you know, your method has a lot of validity to it, because characters suggest plot. And you know, if you have a character and just what sort of map that character out, and everything you know he or she would dictate, you know what they do. You know what I mean. Because, for instance, you know, a upbeat, you know, we know, you know, law abiding citizen is going to handle problems differently than you know. Maybe somebody you know, you know, born and they, you know, they, they've decided to take a criminal life, if you know what I mean, and they both had to, like, you know, get something from somebody that each have incredibly different methods, but how to get that thing from that person?

Nicole Jones Dion 18:38
Yeah. And one of the things I'll do to I'm sorry I can't remember which book I got this from, but when you're when I'm looking at the outline for the story, is like you break it down by plot, and then I'll go through and I'll and I'll split it out and say, Okay, what are my three major characters doing in each of these sequences? And you always, you have your protagonist, your antagonist, and then whoever the emotional character is, sometimes just a love interest or a best friend or a mentor, but make sure that each of them is doing something in every scene. And the other thing to keep in mind is, if you want to have a compelling story, the antagonist is the hero of his own story, so they need to be doing something in opposition to the protagonist every time. And so that's all. I'll break it down, and I'll say, I'll have the plot, and then, like a one sentence description about what each my protagonist, my antagonist and my emotional character are doing in that scene as well. And that helps. And you can start seeing character arcs and theme. You know, having a theme is also very important, and that's a kind of a controversial topic, because I know some people have different definitions about what theme is, but, you know, it's just some sort of statement about the universal human condition. You know, working that, and that's where that emotional character usually comes in, helping resonate, you know, to become a change agent, to bring your protagonist from wherever they are at the beginning of the film through their character arc to the end, to that changed person at the end. And you can figure all that out in the outline. It's so much easier to do it in the outline stays and write your whole script and then realize, Oh, nothing changed or it doesn't have the heart that it needs. I'd much rather do all that work up front, in the outline stage, when it's easier to fix and see and see those problems.

Dave Bullis 20:30
Yeah, and you're right too, because, you know, as I've found, you know, and reading other scripts, and even in my own scripts, the antagonist is sort of the person leading the film, because they're the sort of the ones you know in a superhero movie, that's a super the superhero you know, meet the antagonist when the antagonist launches their plan. You know what I mean, like, and you see that in the Avengers movies. So the antagonist, and even in horror movies like, you know, Friday 13th, Jason's the one sort of, you know, going through the film, and he's taken out these teenagers one by one, up until one of them finds, you know, oh my gosh, where's my friend that they go look for, they find a dead body, then Jason springs and attacks again. Yourself like that. You find the antagonist really is sort of the engine of the whole story,

Nicole Jones Dion 21:08
Yeah, and that's why you have to spend much time developing your antagonist as as you do your protagonist and, you know, and make them real, flesh them out. Don't, don't come up with the two dimensional, you know, mustache twirling villain. It's like, give them a goal and a motivation and a reason for doing what they're doing, and just, you know, be evil for the sake of being evil. Okay, sometimes you can get away with that, but I think sympathetic villains, or at least empathetic villains, are always much more powerful and much more effective.

Dave Bullis 21:38
Yeah, very true. And you touched on theme. I, you know, I was talking to another writer about this, about whether the theme should be one word. I've also heard the theme should always be a question, you know, you know, what would you do to achieve your goal? You know, big question mark at the end there, you know, because I've seen, you know, like you were saying, you know, it's always a statement about the the human condition. And some people have said, well, it should be a question that the movie answers. If you know what I mean,

Nicole Jones Dion 22:01
Yeah. I mean, I don't. I don't have, like, absolute, you know, when it comes theme, it's like, yeah. Sometimes it takes the form of a question, sometimes it's a statement. It just has to be something universal and that everyone can relate to. And I would also caution against, you know, writing from a soapbox, you know, where you're you have an agenda that you're trying to preach down onto people, I think that usually falls flat in the in the telling. It's, I think it's much better to take something like a universal theme and then explore it from different angles and maybe leave the ending ambiguous. Like, what is, you know, like, raise this big question, but then maybe there are several answers. And this is just one of many, you know, and the attack, and I think in the best stories, the antagonist and the protagonist are both trying to achieve the same theme, I guess, or approach that same theme, but from different directions. And you know, maybe you agree with them, maybe you don't, but at least now, it opens a thought provoking conversation about who we are as humans, and that sort of thing, I don't know, kind of cool.

Dave Bullis 23:03
Yeah, I think that is an actual way to put it. And, you know, because, you know, I think when we, when, when we, when we get better. I think, you know, as I realized too, about when we get better at certain things, like, you know, for instance, you were talking about writing the treatment in the outline, there's a skills you need to have. And that's also something that I've realized, too, is that, you know, as we the more, the more of what we do, the better we get at it. You know what I mean? That's usually a rule, you know, a rule of thumb, so to speak. And so when we, when we're writing a theme or treatment, or even we're writing, you know, the script itself, we're always trying to get better at doing those fine details, and that's a trick of screenwriting? No, because we're always trying to put all these different skills together. You know what I mean? Building a World, building a character, writing compelling action lines, writing compelling stories, you know it's, it's and themes and all that stuff. That's why screenwriting, I think, is so challenging at the end of the day.

Nicole Jones Dion 23:55
Yeah, and there's always room to grow. There's always room to new to learn new things and try new skills. I'm always trying to get better. I'm never you know. I've had four films made and a fifth one that's in post production right now, and I'm not an expert. I don't claim to know it all. There's always things out there to learn from other people, read scripts, from professional writers who are better than you, and push yourself to get to that next level, because there's always room to grow Absolutely.

Dave Bullis 24:22
And speaking of some of those movies, you know, you had Tekken two, because you use revenge. You know that that movie came out in 2014 so, you know, you know, how did you get, you know, how would you get aboard that project?

Nicole Jones Dion 24:35
Well, it was the same people who had done Dracula. So Dracula was, like, a, like, a proving ground, and then they're like, oh, we'd like to bring you. We'd like to we'd like to invite you back for Tekken. And Tekken had its own unique challenges, because originally, our vision with that one was we wanted to do something that was very, very true to the video game and very true to the fans, because the director, who was attached at the time was, like, a huge tech fan, very passionate about it, and we pitched them this all. Awesome, awesome thing, and that's not what they wanted to do. They wanted to do something different. And so there's been some a little bit of pushback from the the Tekken community, because they're like, this isn't really a second movie. And I'm like, Dude, I wish you could have seen the original treatment, because that was, it was awesome. And you know, maybe someday that movie will get made. It's just, in this case, the producers wanted to do something a little different. So we, at the end of the day, I'm just a hired gun, you know, you give them what you You're there to make the producer happy and give them what they want.

Dave Bullis 25:28
So, yeah, yeah, you know, I agree with that completely. You know, that's why, you know, I have had friends in simple situations, and, you know, at that point, yeah, you, you know, like you just said, you realize you're the Hired Gun, you know, the producer, it's whatever you know, since they hired you, you're, you know, you have to deliver what they're looking for, you know. And I have friends who are who've had similar situations where they were trying to always force the issue, and, you know, things didn't go well. Let's just say that.

Nicole Jones Dion 25:53
Nicole, yeah, it's like, you know, you have to remember, if you're writing a spec, that's yours. You can do whatever you want, but if you're writing for someone else, and your job then, is to take their vision and make the best possible version of that vision. You know, even if you don't necessarily agree with the vision, that's not what you're there for. I mean, you can raise objections or whatever, try to but at the end of the day, you work for them, it's their idea. Give them the best possible version of their idea that you can

Dave Bullis 26:21
Yes, yeah, I concur. And, you know, speaking of your projects, we actually moved and talked to about debris, which is, you know, your short horror film, you know, you actually raised just about $20,000 on Indiegogo. You raised 330% over your goal. So I have to, you know, ask us, you know, I have to ask, you know, can you just give us a little bit, you know, about what debris is about, and I want to ask you too, about, you know, your crowdfunding campaign.

Nicole Jones Dion 26:48
Yeah, you know, debris was really funny because it was the first time I tried to do crowdfunding. And I was like, Oh, I don't know what I'm doing. We're gonna this. This is gonna be a mess. So I only originally asked for 5000 which wasn't gonna be nearly enough to get the film made. But I'm like, I don't, you know, I don't you know, I don't know if I'll be lucky if I get that. And then the fact that we were able to raise, you know, almost 20 was mind blowing. I mean, it got to the point where I'm like, Who are you people, and why are you giving me money? I don't understand. And I wish I could, I wish magic formula wise, so I could, like, replicate it at will. And I've done another crowdfunding campaign since then for another short film called death date, which is also successful, but not the same runaway train that debris was. And I think the difference is debris just had this really cool concept, like a really high concept, that people resonated with. And so the concept behind debris is, in the aftermath of the Fukushima tsunami, you have the curse down on his luck. Traitor Hunter is out with a metal detector on a California beach and finds a cursed samurai sword that's washed up on the beach from the Fukushima tsunami wreckage and and then he brings it home, and bad things happen. But I think by having this, you know, there's people love samurais. There's a huge like, cult following, I guess, just around Sam rise, and the fact that the story itself was based on an actual Japanese legend, and there's been a variety of films made in Japan about this particular store and the bad things that happened to the people who own it. But I thought this was kind of an interesting approach, because now it's like East meets West. You have this very ignorant American finds a sword, doesn't realize it's dangerous, and then what you know as his life slowly unravels. So yeah, we made the short film, and it, I think it's been in probably, oh God over. It's been in over a dozen festivals, like genre festivals. It's been nominated for a bunch of awards. It won a couple of awards. And so with that one, now I've I'm trying to turn it into a feature, if possible. So I've written a feature version of the script going out to different producers, see if I can find someone who'd be interested in tackling the subjects on a broader, you know, on a bigger scale, because there's interest, I think it's, I think it's a project that people like and would be like to see more of, you know, more of the story, more of the sword and just make it bigger. Do more.

Dave Bullis 29:03
Is that online anywhere for I want to check out?

Nicole Jones Dion 29:06
The trailers available online, because it's still technically in the festival circuit. I can't release the film itself. We'll probably, we'll see where things are at by the end of the year, but I think we'll probably finish our festival run by the end of the year, and then maybe we'll, we'll either release it or we're also looking into getting distribution deals internationally. So it might be available on, I don't know, video on demand, or something TV, whatever markets are available out there.

Dave Bullis 29:31
Cool, you know, yeah, I definitely think there's a market for something like that. And you know, when I saw, you know, how much, by the end I saw, how much this is, how much this is raising, which I think I donated $5 to this, our camera. Oh, my pleasure. Cuz, I, you know, I checked on, I checked it, checked on it a couple, you know, a couple weeks later, and I saw, well, you know, this is almost ending. And I was like, wow. Nicole is killing it. I was like, well, here, if 330% past our goal, I mean. And I thought, you know. Either somebody has a huge contact list, or somebody, well, I said, you know, somebody did something, right? You know, somewhere, you know, either you have a massive contact list, you you know, you have a rich, very rich relative donate, you know, money into it.

Nicole Jones Dion 30:23
I have no rich relatives. I wish. No, this was definitely like the Bernie Sanders of the crowdfunding campaign. It was a lot of small donations, you know, and they just added up over time. And, no, it was really phenomenal just to watch the response to this idea and this little film. It was really gratifying, and it gave us a lot of confidence that we were making a story that people wanted, you know, the people wanted to see, and that resonated with people and, you know, and that, at the end of the day, that's really what it's about, you know, telling stories that people want to hear and maybe make them think a little bit along the way.

Dave Bullis 30:56
Yeah, I concur. And, you know, obviously, you know, the concept was popular as well as you were saying. And you know, there's always a crowd for an audience for horror of any kind. You know what? I mean, there's always gonna be an audience for horror.

Nicole Jones Dion 31:11
Yeah, well, and it's funny, because, you know, the when I was doing all the research for debris, and then the feature length script for debris, I stumbled on this other samurai story. And so I'm like, Okay, I have to write this one. It's true story set in fuel Japan, and that was a script that ended up winning the grand prize at the Palm street film writing competition. So it's like, I wouldn't do my little samurai phase, I guess. And it's great. I love it. I love action films. I love martial arts films and and so it's like, I also, I always cost and writers about, you know, pigeonholing, because Hollywood will pigeonhole you. And I'm like, You know what? If this is a hole I got stuck in, it's one I wouldn't mind living in, because I just love that space so much.

Dave Bullis 31:55
Yeah, and you actually, by the way, congratulations, because you just did, you just did win the palm palm, palm street competition. What was that? Was it on Monday, I believe, or Tuesday?

Nicole Jones Dion 32:06
They just announced the winners, like, Monday or Tuesday this week? Yeah. So that's that's very new, and, you know? And that was kind of interesting, because I don't normally enter contest, because I'm a genre writer generally, and those unless it's a genre specific competition that don't do well, and these broad mainstream contests. But in this case, because it was, it was actually an action drama, you know, set in feudal Japan with Samurais and binges, and it's just like going in all kinds of blood in action. Hey, you know, this one might actually stand a chance and, and then it ended up winning the grand prize. So that was really gratifying.

Dave Bullis 32:38
So, you know, I know you can't talk too much about it. But so I wanted to ask, obviously, is, you know what upcoming projects that you what upcoming projects are you working on that you can actually talk about, if any, if any you can talk about.

Nicole Jones Dion 32:50
I mean, well, see. So there's my, my feature film that I directed, stasis, which is currently in post. We already have distribution lined up for that, which is really exciting too. So that film supposed to be ready for ASM, which is in November, and that's kind of at the YA sci fi film. It's been called Terminator for teens. So if you like time travel, a terminator type things, you know, check it out when it comes out. I think that'll be really cool. What else I'm working right now? I'm trying to raise money for my next feature, which is a horror script that's based loosely on actual events. So I don't want to give too much away about that, but that one, in fact, seems like a phone with you. I have a call with the producer for that. So that'd be, that'd be nice to get that started production before the end of the year. And, yeah, what else I'm just, you know, I always got things going on. We're still in post production on death date, which is the other short film that I did after debris. It's a meeting with my editor next week. We're gonna try to lock picture on that soon. And I don't know, I mean, you just gotta multiple irons in the fire, you know, waiting for something to hit. Just keep on chugging.

Dave Bullis 34:00
Yeah. Yeah. And then is that is excellent advice, Nicole, before we go, I have one Twitter question. Come in, okay? And that was Nicole, what do you look for when you're deciding to be involved with a particular project?

Nicole Jones Dion 34:15
That is always the million dollar question, right? It's like, it has to, it has to appeal to me at some level. I don't know. It's hard to say I'm because I have this genre background I love what I guess if it were literature, it'd be called speculative fiction, basically Twilight Zone type stuff. Things that appeal to me personally are things that and really cool twists at the end, or are just thought provoking in some way. I love, like, old sci fi from like, the 70s and 80s, when there was, like, some sort of, like social message, but it was buried within the context of the film. You know what I mean, like with story link green and Planet of the Apes and Logan's Run those types of films I really like, from a sci fi perspective, on the horror side. Yeah, I I'm drawn more towards what I call hidden realities. So less flashers, more paranormal, more occult, more supernatural type stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I just have to something that's cool, like, if it could be made into a video game or a comic book camp is our I'd like it because that's where I That's my world. That's where I come from.

Dave Bullis 35:27
Nicole, very cool. You know, it's been a pleasure having you on and before I go, I just want to ask Nicole, where can people find you out online?

Nicole Jones Dion 35:34
Oh, I'm on Facebook. You'll find me on Facebook if you like weird news, then totally follow me on Twitter. I'm at novari, N, O, V, A, R, I, S, I post all kinds of wacky, weird news stories, conspiracy theories, and every now and then, I'll toss in a screenwriting tip, just you know, for good measure. Yeah, but that's and I'm on LinkedIn too, but mostly I like, I live on Facebook and Twitter, so that's a good place to look for me.

Dave Bullis 36:00
Yeah, yeah. I saw the tweet you just put out on NASA predicts the end of Western civilization,

Nicole Jones Dion 36:04
Yeah, stuff like that, post punk window stuff into the world, stuff conspiracy theories. Killer virus is gonna wipe out humanity. If you like that stuff. Follow me on Twitter. It's full of it.

Dave Bullis 36:17
Nicole, I want to say thank you so much for coming on, and I wish you the best of luck with everything, and I will see you in the screenwriting you Facebook group. And we'll, you know, we'll, we'll be chatting screenwriting there more. And you know, if you ever need anything, please let me know.

Nicole Jones Dion 36:33
Awesome. Thanks so much, Dave. This is great.