Film Courage: How many feature scripts have you written?
Jeremy Foley, Filmmaker/Actor/Screenwriter: Oh gosh, let me think… feature scripts we
have written…one…two ( I have to count)…probably seven or eight feature scripts and then probably
oh two or three television or teleplay scripts you know shorter like pilots or you know our
podcast script or so so probably about a dozen scripts in total and then within those dozen
completed scripts you know certainly we have a you know a giant board with all of our ideas
and then we have a lot of treatments for things that we've written and we've written a lot
of you know we've written a lot of pitch decks for a lot of our projects and we've written
a lot of series bibles or series pitches for a lot of our television projects so yeah a
lot of a lot of writing a lot of writing but yeah we think I would say about a dozen probably
feature screenplays and when you first started writing these features who would you send
them to for reading you know when we first started writing features I think there was
probably probably about there was there was two major things we would do I guess I would
say or I think would recommend for people I mean certainly like your friends if if you
have friends in the industry fantastic that's great send them to those friends and even
if you don't have friends in the industry still anybody who's willing to read it I would
say send it to them because it can it can take people a while to read a screenplay and
get back to you but also I think what was really helpful for us in the early days is
you can find there's there's many of them online the you know there are screenwriting
services or screenwriting consultancy agencies and screenwriting contests things like that
but I think what was really helpful for us and we first started we would do a lot of
those because I think what's helpful is the turnaround time as I said like you can of
course and and I recommend getting the scripts to your friends and family and people like
that or people in the industry if you know it but of course it can really take people
a while to read a screenplay think about it get back to you you know we're all busy everybody's
you know doing something or doing their job or they've got their own scripts so I think
a big benefit in the early days for us of sending it to those screenwriting like coverage
places or consulting agencies was just the turnaround time you were able to get it in
you know sometimes it's it's quick sometimes it's you know 72 hours or a week or two weeks
and I think especially when you're at least for us when you're just starting out having
that instant feedback or or quick turnaround feedback was really helpful because we could
keep up the momentum of our script you know what I mean like when you're writing it like
being able to get notes quickly would help us just get back into a draft and really either
keep on shaping it or keep adjusting things that maybe didn't work so well or and maybe
if we did hear that they were working well you know we would we would leave them and
I think another benefit to sending it to those agencies you know those screenwriting competitions
or consulting consulting agencies was you know you're just doing it blind like if you
send it to your family or your friends they know you maybe perhaps they even know the
story of the screenplay and when you send it to those people it's just you know it's
anonymous so it's like I think they can give you sometimes you know brutal feedback or
honest feedback about what's really working or what's not working and they're not necessarily
as concerned about you know your feelings or or how you know the story or you know they
don't necessarily know that it was maybe something that happened to you or something from your
past or whatever it is they really just focus on that script so I would suggest that and
I think that's a really helpful thing to do and I know that helped us a lot in the beginning
do you think Hollywood's closed off I don't think Hollywood's closed off I think I think
you know again because I've been doing this for so long I think Hollywood and I've been
in the business 25 years 25 or 20 plus years you know I think it's more open now than probably
I've ever seen it before because of social media I think you know I know social media
is like a double-edged sword like you know you have outrage over game of thrones episodes
but you can also like really I've seen a lot of people like really legitimately advance
their careers as actors or screenwriters or directors whatever it is because they're they're
just releasing stuff online they're able to find an audience and then use that to kind
of you know catapult themselves into something else or to find a representation as a as a
writer or as an actor director and I think another thing actually is kind of cool about
you know Hollywood becoming more open and with social media too you know you have things
like crowdfunding that never existed before and I've you know we've crowdfunded ourselves
and it's just been like an amazing resource and we were able to do so much more for our
films because we did have we were able to generate those funds so no I don't think Hollywood
is closed off I think that this is probably the most open I've ever seen it are you okay
if the two of you never get a feature film made will you be okay with shorts and little
you know web series and things like that no no to answer your question I we are really
always striving for that feature film that is really important to us you know important
to me and important to Sara my partner you know we we love film and we love television
and we've made a lot of really wonderful short films films that we're really proud of and
we're gonna continue making them we're gonna continue writing scripts and making webisodes
and podcasts but there's one thing that we really haven't fully tackled yet and I don't
think we can really cross that off cross our list you know our bucket list so to speak
our filmmaking bucket list until we hit the future and so that's something we're still
pushing towards and I think you know we've gotten close many many times and obviously
the the pandemic that we've all just went through and that we're starting to come out
of now is sort of through everybody for a for a loop I know a lot of filmmaker friends
and actor friends and I know a lot of people's projects were sort of put on hold some people
were able to continue working but but I think yeah I think that made a lot of people lose
momentum so I think now that everything's back I think we're ready to to you know throw
our hat in the ring again and go after the feature next and are you too cautious in in
terms of you want to do it right like you know I see people do amazing crowdfunding
campaigns but then it turns out oh we didn't raise enough we've got to go back and I know
that's difficult yeah to and it happens it it happens with everything in life it's this
amount the time I couldn't I couldn't even tell you how many stories I've seen about
people making features that have taken them years literally years to make one feature
where they you know shoot something and then a year later come back and shoot something
else and these aren't documentary features where you can you know these are narrative
feature films where you're using the same actors for you know sometimes years at a time
I've heard so many stories like that and and so yeah we are a little bit cautious and the
films that Sara and I enjoy making and the things we like to do are kind of high concept
a little bit complex or a little bit complicated there's a lot of usually there's a lot of
moving parts in our short films and in in our webisodes and in things like that so we
are cautious I don't think we're ready we're I don't think we're going to jump into a feature
until we kind of feel like we have you know there's you're never going to feel completely
comfortable you're always no matter what you do I think making films you're always there
there's always a an unknown you know always always and there's always going to be a million
problems every day but yeah we are we are being a little bit cautious about exactly
how we're going to jump into a future but I i'm hoping that you know from the experiences
we've had on all of our shorts and just with all of the festivals we've been to you know
I think we can kind of see a little more of of where it could go wrong and so we're it's
it's really going to be about trying to kind of course correct ahead of time so it doesn't
go wrong while we're in the moment do you have a date a target date like
2025 the feature will be finished you know we I we don't have a target date of when we're
trying to make a feature and I feel like at least for me personally I've kind of tried
to get over that idea that I need to have it done at a certain time or I need to be
a certain age or I need to you know x, y, and z needs to fall into place before I can
go out and do it i'm trying not to let myself get distracted by that but I do want to focus
first on making it excellent and also making it realistic something that we can accomplish
and accomplish well you know set out to do and really execute it at a very high high
level but you know for whatever budget we're able to to to get or to finance it for I guess
if that makes sense like I want to make sure like we're we're being realistic and that
we're just gonna we're really going to deliver that so that's more important to to me and
to us than to put a ticking clock on it.
Question For The Viewers:
How many feature films have you written?