Film Courage: Logan, if someone new to screenwriting and filmmaking said to you
“How do I get my script to…and then fill in the blank of some
famous director from Ryan Coogler, Rian Johnson, Zack Snyder, etc. It could be
so many names. What would your advice be? What would you say to them?
Logan Burdick, Screenwriter: My advice would be that it's twofold.
I cannot speak for any specific individual
the sort of walls around making that happen are very, very tall and hard to climb. Again
999 times out of a thousand it's not going to go anywhere probably.
I do think that having the sort of attitude of being willing to to cold call and do outreach to
people and to take on that responsibility yourself I think is a really positive
positive character trait with the caveat of that I do think that sometimes now people
people aren't being (as I've seen a lot of examples of people not being) as
professional or responsible about that as I think that they should be.
It makes common sense if you're trying to do outreach to people to give you an opportunity,
you should probably want to do that with your best foot forward for all sorts of reasons right?
But I do think that's the sort of line to walk which is you
you have to going into any sort of situation it's probably not going to happen but you you should
also have the attitude to sort of keep trying and try to come up with the best way forward
and I don't and again and I don't mean anything crazy I just mean that
it's a positive it's a positive character trait to go I'm going to
take on the responsibility of myself of trying to make things happen for myself
because to me it's the sort of thing where it's even once you have a larger team and
more relationships and stuff it's still a lot of it still falls upon you to do the legwork right
and so you should be comfortable with that and you should be somebody and if you're not somebody who
is super comfortable with that I would figure out ways to become more comfortable with that
honestly don't harass people also oh sure sure absolutely but I'm wondering if there's
another turn and that would be what about the advice of if this is your first script
don't bother make it yourself you're not as cold as I said maybe this
you're not ready yet to reach out to the [Christopher/Jonathan] Nolans of the world
however great you think it might be kind of thing but go and have it produced yourself find someone
and if you can't try crowdfunding and and and if not try other avenues I don't want to recommend
credit cards because I don't think that's a good idea I know people do it but instead of no
Jerry Bruckheimer has to get this I have to find him to get what I'm saying and so yeah
and there's a lot of mentality out there that and especially probably people in other states
Hollywood I think once you get here you start to realize okay that's probably not a good idea but
it sounds good in theory if if only so-and-so saw this it would be a done deal yeah I think that
my sort of perspective on that would be that
to again to be to be flexible and and to be aware of what the goals are
and how you're what are you trying ultimately what are you trying to do what is the point of this
project to you right is it does it exist solely to get representation does it exist to to pitch a is
it a short exist to pitch a feature to sell that whatever those goals are and then knowing that
there's a lot of different ways to approach that sort of situation that probably takes
a lot of outside of the box thinking I would say that outside of literally
again I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings Jerry Bruckheimer doesn't want to doesn't
want to talk to you he doesn't want to talk to I mean he has his friends and his family he's busy
but but I think that to me what's important is how do you make the situation work for you how oh no
this is what I was gonna say I'm sorry I was going to say that even if that was a viable path right
that is also the path that the reason that these sort of
whoever the celebrities or whatever why they put up these walls is because they're
being inundated with people all day long right that's why they have all these defenses because
because it's a very obvious path that everybody's all trying to crowd into right and so the other
thought that I would have is what is a not obvious path why would I why would I approach something
where the odds were already so ridiculously stacked against me just because it's so crowded
why would this is actually a thing that for for la people right or I'm sure there's equivalent
in la there's a couple huge major thoroughfares right that are not the high not the freeways
it's going across town it's Beverly Blvd. and Melrose Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. right I'm
at rush hour or at any time I never go down Beverly or Melrose or Santa Monica or Third St. I
will never because I'm gonna be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic there's a zillion
it's a metropolis there's a zillion other streets that are all going the same direction and you'll
still end up where you want to go if I'm just trying to go to some place on the east side
what matters is that I get to my destination it doesn't matter how I got there and I would
I would really suggest to people to really think outside the box and be imaginative about
again what is the goal and how do I create how do I get there that's again utilizing sort
of out of the box thinking because I anything that I've accomplished had nothing to do with
name brand celebrities and again I'm not the end-all be-all most successful person of all time
but I but I wouldn't have even gone down that path anyway because I
it just feels it's not it feels there's so many alternatives that feel a lot more viable.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you tried to get your screenplay to
a well-known director, producer, etc.?