Writing Memoir From A Life In Film With Gretchen McGowan

What’s the difference between telling a story on screen and on the page? How does indie film production overlap with indie publishing—and what can writers learn from the world of filmmaking? Why might a producer choose creative freedom over big studio deals, and what does that mean when it comes to book marketing? Gretchen McGowan talks about her memoir Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking, navigating the independent film world, and finding her voice as an author. In the intro, NaNoWriMo shutting down [The Verge]; Amazon introduces AI-generated Recaps; Thoughts on the creative cycle; How to Write a Novel audiobook on YouTube; Mapwalker fantasy novels on YouTube. Plus, Death Valley, A Thriller Kickstarter and thriller writing class; J.F. Penn on The Adventure Story Podcast; Death Valley expert Steve Hall on the Books and Travel Podcast; My photos from Death Valley. Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with writing software, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 15% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Gretchen McGowan is an award-winning independent film producer, filmmaking lecturer, and the author of Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes What does an indie film producer actually do?The isolation of writing a book vs. making a filmThe fear of underserving your audienceTools for writing the “truth” in memoirSeeing a new place for the first time through the eyes of a filmmakerThe parallels of self-publishing and the indie film worldUtilizing your network to help market your bookAI tools being used in this democratization of film You can find Gretchen at GretchenMcGowan.com and GoldcrestFilms.com. Transcript of Interview with Gretchen McGowan Joanna: Gretchen McGowan is an award-winning independent film producer, filmmaking lecturer, and the author of Flying In: My Adventures in Filmmaking. So welcome to the show, Gretchen. Gretchen: Thank you so much, Joanna. It's a dream to be here. Joanna: Well, it's going to be so fun talking to you today. First up— Tell us a bit more about you and what you actually do in the indie filmmaking industry, and what even is that? Gretchen: Yes, well, I'm an independent producer. I come from a freelancing background in the independent film world. We make largely films that are kind of under $15 million, although that fluctuates all the way down to the really almost no budget kind of film. When you're a producer on those kinds of films, you wear many, many hats, because your footprint is small, your crew is smaller. So you have to be good at many things, or at least pretend to be. A lot of that is trial and error. So that's been largely my background. I'm now at a company called Goldcrest Films. They're based in London, but we have a branch here in New York, and there I oversee film. So I'm a little less hands on at this point with each film. We also do documentaries, and on those, I'm very, very hands on. Joanna: You said that you wear many hats, so just be a bit more specific. What are the actual things that a producer does? Gretchen: Sure. So in the early stages, you're, of course, approving scripts, making script changes with writers. You are casting with the casting director and the director of the film. Then you're location scouting at distant locations, even nearby locations. You are involved in really every decision that is made, and you're trying to help tell a story with your director. The director really is king in this case, or queen, and you're there to facilitate that. To make sure that their vision of this script is seen on screen by you. Joanna: Do you manage the budget, or is that somebody else? Gretchen: You do. That's one of the less glamorous things, but I still enjoy it because every aspect of that film is reflected in that budget. You have to make sure going into it, it's a little bit idealistic what your budget might be at that point, but it's based upon experience. So it's not a fantasy of what that budget will be. You'll look at similar budgets where you ultimately landed to create that budget, and to know what it takes to get the film actually to market. Joanna: Then once the film is made, are you involved in the editing at all? The actual sort of what happens after the filming? Gretchen: Definitely. To me, the editorial process is the final chance to write the script again. I come from editing, actually. I started out kind of through the back door, in the finishing process in editorial. So it's close to my ...