Bulletproof Screenplay Podcast: Screenwriting | Screenwriters | Screenplay | Writers | Screenwriting Contests | Movie Script

What if the greatest stories of our lives are the ones we never meant to write? On today’s episode, we welcome Steven Bernstein, a man whose journey through the world of cinema has been anything but predictable. A writer at heart, a cinematographer by accident, and a director by destiny, his career is a living testament to the art of surrendering to the unknown. From his early days at the BBC to the sets of Hollywood blockbusters, his story unfolds like an unplanned masterpiece—one that ultimately brought him full circle, back to the thing he always loved: writing.In this profound conversation, Steven Bernstein recounts his journey from philosophy student to award-winning cinematographer, where his love of storytelling found an unexpected home behind the lens. He speaks of the curious ways life moves us, sometimes against our best-laid plans. “You tend to go with those things that are providing you income,” he muses, reflecting on how a passion for writing gave way to cinematography, leading him to films like

The mind is a curious trickster, delighting in dreams where logic pirouettes in absurdity. In today's extraordinary episode, we welcome Andrew Shaffer, a humorist and New York Times bestselling author whose wit slices through the storms of reality with a twinkle in his eye and a chainsaw in hand. From the earliest pages of his life, Andrew Shaffer was destined to dance with the ridiculous and sublime. As a child, he devoured horror and science fiction with a ravenous appetite, only to find himself drawn back to these imaginative playgrounds after a detour through the hallowed halls of literary fiction. His journey led him, almost inevitably, to the playful chaos of "How to Survive a Sharknado," a manual for the absurd that demands both laughter and preparation.In the dance of ideas, Andrew revealed how the birth of the Sharknado survival guide was as spontaneous as a tornado filled with teeth. Inspired by the original cult film, he offered his humorous talents when Random House and SyFy decided to create a co

Today on the show we have documentary filmmaker Steve Concotelli, the director of OUTATIME: Saving the DeLorean Time Machine. Out of Time is the documentary about the restoration of the screen used Back to the Future DeLorean Time Machine.We discuss how the film came to be, his Kickstarter campaign, getting the rights from Universal, working with Back to the Future co-creator, producer and overall Godfather Bob Gale and how he distributed his little indie doc.Here’s some more info on Steve. Steve has been a creative force in the entertainment industry for over 10 years.  He began his career as an Editor on G4’s “Attack of the Show”.  Since then, Steve has worked nearly every job in production including Writer, Producer, Videographer, and ultimately, Executive Producer.  His clients span the creative landscape and include Disney, Crackle, Paramount, Science Channel, Discovery, TruTV, Spike and more.In 2015, Steve partnered with Universal Pictures to create OUTATIME: Saving the Back to the Future DeLorean Time

Today’s guest is writer/director Natalia Leite. This director is one of the bravest filmmakers I’ve ever met. Her work on the VICE documentary ‘Life as a Truck-Stop Stripper was breathtaking. Not only did she direct the piece but one of the subjects in the film as well. Take a look below at her amazing work.Everyone knows what charming places strip clubs can be, but perhaps there is no club so charming as one in Moriarty, New Mexico—a truck stop with taxidermy and the bras of former employees on the walls, a few poles, a shitload of black light, and plenty of titties. Never mind that The Ultimate Strip Club List website describes it as the place “where strippers go to die.” Natalia Leite and Alexandra Roxo go Gonzo as they pose as strippers and experience something that can be best described as a Marina Abramovic performance crossed with a bizarro episode of Wife Swap directed by David Lynch’s daughters, set in the type of place where a one-eyed guy who shot himself in the head dispenses meditation advice to

Today on the show we have Slamdance Grand Jury winning filmmaker Hasan Oswald. Hasan's story is pretty inspiring. He did exactly what I preach all the time, he picked up a camera and began to tell his story. He made his first short film that was later tweeted by Stephen Fry, and the National Geographic came calling to work on their film Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS. He has since covered the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, drug trafficking, and homelessness in Philadelphia. He quickly established a unique ability to capture the human experience through "cinema verité."  His unfettered access to and intimacy with his characters creates a seamless veneer between the filmmaker and subject.After getting much need experience in the field he decided it was time to tell larger stories. His first outing as a feature film director, Higher Love, won him the top award at the Slamdance Film Festival. To finance his film he pulled a page out of Robert Rodriguez's playbook and sold his blood plasma

Sean Mullin is an award-winning filmmaker.  His critically-acclaimed feature film debut as a writer/director — Amira & Sam — won the top prize at numerous festivals and was distributed theatrically by Drafthouse Films. He’s the co-writer/co-producer of the film, Semper Fi – alongside Oscar-nominated director Henry-Alex Rubin (Murderball) and Oscar-nominated producer David Lancaster (Whiplash).  Lionsgate released the film theatrically in 2019. He’s the writer/director of a feature-length documentary – Kings of Beer – about the world’s most intense brewmaster competition, which was released theatrically in 2019.  He’s the writer/director of It Ain’t Over - a feature-length documentary about baseball legend, Yogi Berra – which will be released in 2022.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

Today on the show we have 18 time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeff MacIntyre. Jeff is the director of the new film The Great Cookie Comeback. Famous Wally Amos introduced us to his famous cookie in 1975. It was love at first bite!

Our guest today, RJ Cutler opened up 2021 with his raw, emotional, and remarkable new documentary Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry. He’s a phenomenal documentary and TV director and producer with nearly thirty years of experience in the business.The $2 million dollars documentary film which was directed, written, and produced by Cutler centered around singer-songwriter teen sensation and Grammy Award artist, Billie Eilish --- Revealing the creation process of Eilish's debut studio album ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’The very intimate telling of Eillish’s solid support system and family, navigating the ropes of the music fame as a young artist depicted unconventionally and astoundingly.From college, Cutler started off as a theater director in New York for nine years until he transitioned to filmmaking in 1993 with his debut film, The War Room. The film follows James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, at first during the New Hampshire primary, and then mostly in Little Rock, Arkansas, at

Let me introduce to you all, filmmaker and award-winning film-preneur, Greg Hemmings – Chief storyteller and CEO of Hemmings House Pictures limited. I wanted to address the serious problem of verbal abuse interns and other crew persons face on film sets from directors, producers, or others in charge.Why would I invite a CEO to discuss this topic?Well, Gerg’s company, Hemmings House Pictures creates content that inspires positive action. Their essence is to spread kindness and positivity within the work environment and through the content they produce.One example is the heartfelt music film When You Are Wild: A Day in the Life of J. Willis Pratt, which shows the power of friendship and how a community rallied together to help one of their own.The moral model of Hemmings House Pictures is one that many in the industry can learn from.Hemmings has produced and directed countless documentaries, branded content, and commercials, featuring some of the most inspiring stories. One of which is his 2021 documentary, Sis

Today on the show we have Oscar® nominated documentarians Betsy West & Julie Cohen.Betsy West (Director/Producer) is an Academy Award®-nominated Emmy winning director/producer of RBG (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films, 2018), along with Julie Cohen. Most recently, she and Cohen directed My Name is Pauli Murray (Participant/Amazon Studios), which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021.Betsy was executive producer of the MAKERS PBS/AOL documentary and digital series about the modern women’s movement, and the feature documentary The Lavender Scare (PBS, 2019). As an ABC News producer and executive producer of the documentary series Turning Point, she won 21 Emmy awards. Betsy is the Fred W. Friendly Professor Emerita at Columbia Journalism School.Julie Cohen (Director/Producer) is the Academy Award® nominated, Emmy winning director and producer of RBG (Magnolia, Participant, CNN Films, 2018) along with Betsy West.Her film My Name is Pauli Murray, also directed with West, premiered at the 2021 Sundanc

Life, they say, is a story we tell ourselves—a script of experience, moments, and emotions woven into a narrative only we can claim as our own. On today’s episode, we welcome Gordy Hoffman, a screenwriter, director, and the mind behind the BlueCat Screenwriting Competition. His journey through the labyrinth of storytelling has been marked by profound lessons in creativity, resilience, and the delicate art of telling tales that move the human heart.As he shares his insights, one thing becomes evident: the best stories are not formulas but living, breathing entities. Too often, writers are shackled by the idea that a script must be a well-oiled machine of plot points and three-act structures.But according to Gordy Hoffman, true storytelling is about emotional investment. “The only rule of storytelling is getting an audience to care,” he explains. Without that, no amount of structure or technique can save a lifeless script. Whether it’s an Oscar-winning screenplay or a child recounting their day at school, the h

I've been thinking about doing this podcast for a long time. In the tradition of Why Filmmakers are Always So Damn Broke & What They Can Do to Change It this episode is going to be a cold bucket of water over your head if you are not ready for it. In the insane world, we are all living in today, filmmakers need to break out of the mindset that we are living in the golden age of indie cinema.The rules have changed dramatically since the 90s and even more so in the last 8 months of the COVID pandemic. The rules aren't the only thing that has changed but the game has as well. The film distribution infrastructure is broken and has been broken for many decades. It is not set up to help filmmakers make money. It is purely designed to put more money into the pockets of film distributors.I have written extensively about this in my book Rise of the Filmtrepreneur: How to Turn Your Indie Film into a Moneymaking Business. I want to put together one of my hard truths episodes to help filmmakers better understand the

Today on the show we have filmmaker and Filmtrepreneur J. Horton. Jason has been in the film industry for as long as I have and has been making movies ever since. What sets him apart from other filmmakers is that he actually makes a living making his films.Jason figured out the formula that would allow him to make a living doing what he loves to do. He produces low-budget feature films and uploads them to Amazon Prime.He collects TVOD and SVOD revenue. His key is volume. This year alone he produced 14 feature films.We discuss how he chooses his niche audience, how he shifted from only narrative films to directing niche-focused documentaries, and how he's able to produce so much content.Enjoy my conversation with J. Horton.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

Our guests today are filmmakers and developers, Zach Lona and Anthony Gibson. Zach is the founder of Chicago-based film production company, Eleusinian Productions studio that invented the Patronized Self-Distribution (PSD) model. The Patronized self-distribution (PSD) uses NFTs essentially as an alternative film distribution model from traditional Hollywood distribution. It hoists and redefines the status of independent films to that of fine art while targeting the film’s specific audience (art collectors/patrons). After finishing up his feature mockumentary film directorial debut, He Who Lives In Hidden Lakes, at the end of 2020, and being reluctant to go the normal film distribution route, Zach sought an alternative and along with his team, invented the PSD model earlier this year. The fanatic beliefs of an internet mystic, a cult leader, and a rookie cop who went rogue are tested on the hunt for the "Hidden Man" -- an elusive forest-dwelling cryptid that terrorizes their idyllic suburb.He Who Lives In Hidd

On today's episode, we dive into the fascinating world of creativity, resilience, and the art of storytelling with Phillip Andrew, a multi-talented producer, motivational speaker, and DJ from Los Angeles. From his humble beginnings in Michigan to his relentless pursuit of opportunities in Hollywood, Phillip's journey is a testament to the power of determination, adaptability, and the enduring impact of great stories.Phillip reminisced about his early days navigating the entertainment industry, sharing candid insights about how unconventional networking—like a chance encounter on a basketball court—landed him his first job in production. Reflecting on this pivotal moment, he said, "You don't always know which door will open, but that's why you keep knocking on as many as possible." This philosophy underscores the importance of persistence, even when the odds seem insurmountable.In the heart of Hollywood, Phillip discovered the transformative power of storytelling. He spoke passionately about the evolution of s

There’s a certain magic in the way creativity stirs the soul, and on today’s episode, we welcome Kristin Overn, a seasoned producer and the visionary behind the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards. With a career steeped in the art of storytelling, Kristin has spent years cultivating opportunities for writers to transform their ideas into scripts that resonate across the industry.Kristin’s journey began in the theater world, studying playwriting and directing at Northwestern University. Her love for stories soon led her westward, to the bustling hive of Hollywood. "I’ve always been fascinated by story," she reflects. "It’s the common thread that connects us all." In Los Angeles, she worked tirelessly—starting as an assistant and script reader, gradually earning her stripes in film production.But her heart’s true calling emerged as she realized a profound gap in the industry: connecting new writers with emerging producers.This insight birthed the PAGE Awards, a screenwriting competition designed not just to

Today, we welcome Josh Gibson, a pioneer in the realm of 360-degree video and the founder of 360 Video Academy. With a deep understanding of immersive storytelling, he guides us through the labyrinth of this ever-evolving technology, revealing its profound potential beyond mere entertainment.At first, 360 video may seem like an extension of traditional filmmaking, but as Josh Gibson explains, it is not just about capturing an image—it is about placing the viewer inside a world. Unlike conventional storytelling, where a director dictates the frame, 360 video invites audiences to choose their own focus, to explore, to be participants rather than mere observers. “It’s not just about framing a shot,” he says. “It’s about framing an experience.”The evolution of this technology has been astonishing. What started as a jumble of GoPro cameras rigged together has now led to compact spherical cameras, capable of seamlessly stitching together breathtaking landscapes and bustling cityscapes. As Josh points out, it is no

In today’s episode, I wanted to give you a sneak peek of one of the best selling filmmaking courses on Udemy right now, Hollywood Film & Television Directing Masterclass with former guest and master film instructor Gil Bettman. On the show, you’ll hear a lesson on how you can AMP UP your static shots by choosing the right lenses.Enjoy!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.

Today on the show we have a legend in the filmmaking blogosphere, award-winning cinematographer Philip Bloom. Philip is a world-renowned filmmaker who, for the past 10 years of his 27-year career has specialized in creating incredible cinematic images no matter what the camera. He started blogging back in the early 2000s before anyone was really doing it. I personally have been following him for years.Philip even got an opportunity to shoot for the Jedi Master himself George Lucas.Enjoy my conversation with Philip Bloom.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.