Film Courage: What writing advice has helped you the most?
Jeremy Foley, Filmmaker/Actor/Screenwriter: That's a good question. The writing advice
that's helped me the most is actually very simple. It came from a friend of mine who's himself a
fantastic writer/director who's written and directed films that we've seen films
on Netflix. I mean big, big movies and the writing advice was only Keep Writing.
That was it and this was coming from a friend who just was trying to impart on me that the way that
he broke in or the way that he was able to really elevate his career was when he wrote a script that
everybody wanted and he was able to attach himself as a director so the advice was very simple just
Keep Writing. It's something I think about often and it's something I think about to this day and I
feel like that goes a little bit to what I was saying earlier about perseverance. It really
goes I think it speaks to that a little bit because it is that attitude I think
that's I've seen be successful for so many people I’ve seen this work where it's just you really
always have to keep doing it and I think it could apply to most things in the entertainment industry
not just writing I mean acting or directing I think really whatever you want to do and it's
it's the simplest thing in the world but it's just something worth remembering. I think
keep writing, keep acting, keep directing, keep pushing forward or if you want to be whatever it
is you want to do if you want to do costume design or production design if if those are really what
you're interested in cinematography keep doing it I think and I think the more you do it the better
you'll get and I think the results will just sort of start to speak for themselves you know
and it also goes I think it speaks a little bit to what I was saying earlier about you know making
shorts with friends or making web series of it if you keep doing it and you do it enough you sort
of start to see I mean you you definitely start to see your work improve but I think you sort of
start to to to see that you can kind of push it a little bit further or you can
go a little bit further next time so yeah that was just a very simple piece of writing
advice and it's something I always remember and it's something I always say to myself
just keep writing so if you were going to take that advice and say turn it into a script
and say you and a bunch of writers are hunting through the forest and there's this cave and the
secret of life is in this this one cave and and you go to this box and there it is just just keep
writing keep reading would you be disappointed it' so easy or it's actually not that easy maybe
It's like a Goonies adventure yeah and then you find out here it is trying to put myself in that
place wait a minute guys we found it yeah maybe if the journey was difficult and we had to do
like the goonies and there was booby traps and stuff sure yeah I might be a little disappointed
but but I mean luckily I didn't have to do all of that I think we just went out to lunch but
but that was it you know keep keep doing it keep writing screenplays keep teaching yourself
how to write screenplays and you know write the next one and write the next one and just
you will improve I promise and maybe the positive is if we if we want to put a positive spin is that
it's not it's not rocket science but it's it's hard to show up for the process I think so I
really do I i think I think you know all of this stuff or anything that I've done in my career
acting filmmaking producing writing no I agree it's it's not rocket science it's it really is you
know it's hard work it's a lot of it's a lot of you know it is a lot of you know trial and error
and it's a lot of just stick to it and it's a lot of being able to kind of pivot I think also
is something that is really I think important for people to be able to you know if something's
not going the way you want or if if you you know if it's not going according to plan exactly being
able to kind of like switch gears and maybe attack it from a different angle but I get the
sense you're very flexible that you kind of like if the current's going one way and you see the
current is taking you that way you go okay i'll swim that way absolutely yeah I i think I am very
flexible and I think I do sort of go with the flow a little bit and it's really interesting because
you know as I've said over my career over so many years I mean I've been involved with many projects
and even now to this day I'm producing multiple things and and they are all kind of different and
I'm just sort of learning to go with it and you sort of learn something new on everyone which is
you know it's all a learning experience like you know podcasting I'm learning about that now and
I'm learning about docuseries and I'm learning about you know narrative television episodic
television so yeah I think you do I think it's really excellent to be able to go with
the flow and I think it's really interesting too because I think now we're seeing you know
more than ever maybe more than I've ever witnessed as we're seeing a lot of walls kind of breaking
down you know we're seeing you know it used to be like there was film and there was television
and you could do one or you could do the other and now it's like you know you see actors from
films doing television and vice versa television doing film and people are doing podcasts now
there's a there's a big push in the the podcasting space there's the web there's you know web series
digital series there's streaming so I feel like especially now and we've talked about this earlier
but I do consider myself kind of you know the lifer filmmaker like I'm always just involved in
many different things I think now more than ever just the walls are breaking down and it's it's
you know you don't have to pick what you're gonna do you can do it all but I just think the only
you know the the only rule now I would say is just make it excellent that's it what
would you say are your writing weaknesses if I was this guru up in the mountains the same
you know hunt for the for the answers and and then the magical sort of guru lives in this one
castle and he's going to help you and you present to him sure this is my writing weakness yeah I
you know sure please please take it away from me for sure please help me sure so I've got a
good one for that okay so I would say if I had to say something was my writing weakness I would say
my writing weakness is probably the big sort of the big picture the big story structure
I find that I'm best at or what I think I'm best at or where I excel and what I really like is
sort of like the dialogue and I like sort of character you know of closer character work
like character detail dialogue stuff like that which is kind of interesting because it speaks to
how I work with my writing partner and wife Sara [Sara O’Reilly] that she is sort of good at the
structure big picture you know beginning end sort of overarching theme and story and things
like that and then I sort of think that sort of my strong note to our team is sort of the
really detailed character stuff and the dialogue stuff so it's interesting because that's how we
kind of work together is that Sara sort of will plot everything out and sort of looks
at everything from from the sort of like bird's eye view and then when it's time to really get
in there and work on the the crafting of the specific nuances of a scene or the dialogue
that's sort of where I excel and that's you know that's it's been a great partnership and that's
it's interesting because that's sort of you know Sara and I were producing partners we you know
we own our production company together and that's kind of how we work on everything you know she's
sort of the the big picture person and I sort of do more of the like detailed sort of like
specific stuff so if you were going to this this this guru and he says okay you have five minutes
or whatever and please help me become better at the overall theme or or and what if you said
don't worry about it find someone that's your equal opposite equal or I mean is that something
that you're happy that you're good with the little nuance and the and the dialogue and little
idiosyncrasies maybe of characters that make them fun yes I mean it's interesting like I don't
you know because I do work with my wife and because we are writing partners and
and and producing partners I you know I'm very comfortable sticking to I i really do like to
work on the dialogue I think that's very fun for me and in sort of characters going back
and forth and how people talk to each other so I don't feel like it’s like a something that that I
think I consider too much of a weakness in myself because I have that other person however I could
see for somebody you know for for somebody who's writing on their own where yeah they might want to
you know if they feel very strongly about one thing sure they might want to get you know better
at something else but I think I'm really fortunate that you know we can come at it from both both
sides but but I think that also speaks to just you know I like to work with a writing partner
for me you know even before I was writing with Sara I would always write with one of my friends
it was never really just me I think i'd maybe written one screenplay
years ago by myself and I didn't really like it you know because writing is a very solitary thing
you know you're really by yourself for a long time and so it's very nice for me to have a partner
just you know now it's it's my wife but even before that was a close friend always.
I would say for people who are thinking about maybe getting a writing partner
I would say look for a writing partner that does have those strengths that maybe you don't have
you know if you're really great at the story the big picture and you're not so great at dialogue
if you if you're looking for a writing partner look for someone who is great at dialogue or
vice versa if you're great at the dialogue look for somebody who's great at the you know the big
structural things that that maybe you're lacking on I think that's I think that's great advice
is your antenna always up since you are great at dialogue and maybe observation
or nuance or whatever is your when you're I know right now where you've been
home for a year and a half but when you do go to let's say a brand name coffee shop we don't
have to say the exact name but when you're in line or whatever are you are your ears up are
you you know because you can hear some fascinating conversations in l.a to answer your question am I
always listening yes I am I'm going to go home and write about this no I'm kidding okay
no to be serious yes anywhere we go I'm always listening and for me it's it's interesting because
I feel like whenever we do write and whenever I am writing the dialogue or character detail
or anything like that I really do always try to personalize it and think about people that
I've heard or people that I've met or people that I've interacted with or maybe a story from my past
but it really always helps me to to yeah to to to personalize it because then I think it it feels
authentic or it feels real for me and I think that comes out in the dialogue so yeah I'm always
listening, always paying attention to people and it's also interesting because it's like a
sort of a a thing if you like to do that I like to just meet people random people I like to talk to
you know if somebody wants to if a stranger on the street starts talking to me I will talk to them or
whoever it is you know I'm very friendly I guess you could say because I do I like to just
take in everything because I know at some point i'll be able to use it.
Question for the viewers:
What writing advice do
you think of most often?