Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast Podcast Por Bulletproof Screenwriting arte de portada

Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

De: Bulletproof Screenwriting
Escúchala gratis

Acerca de esta escucha

 The Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast shows you how to make your screenplays bulletproof. Weekly interviews with Oscar® and Emmy® award winning screenwriters, story specialists, best-selling authors, Hollywood agents and managers, and industry insiders. We cover every aspect of the screenwriting process. This is the screenwriting podcast for the rest of us. No fluff. No BS. Just straight talk that will help you on your screenwriting journey.

Some of the past guests include 3X Oscar® Winning Writer/Director Oliver Stone, Eric Roth (Dune, Forest Gump), Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead), Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Slacker) James V. Hart (Dracula, Hook), John August (Big Fish, Aladdin), Jim Uhls ( Fight Club), Peter Rader (Waterworld), Diane Drake (What Women Want), Daniel Knauf (Carnival, Blacklist), Derek Kolstad (John Wick) and Pen Densham (Robin Hood, Backdraft) to name a few.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.© IFH Industries, Inc. Arte Ciencias Sociales
Episodios
  • BPS 427: From Pills to Pictures: Cynthia Hill’s Unlikely Path to Documentary Filmmaking

    BPS 427: From Pills to Pictures: Cynthia Hill’s Unlikely Path to Documentary Filmmaking
    Jul 10 2025
    Cynthia Hill, a filmmaker from North Carolina, discussed her journey from pharmacy school to filmmaking, highlighting her documentaries "Tobacco Money," "Private Violence," and the upcoming eight-part series "Road to Race Day" on NASCAR. She emphasized the importance of storytelling and character development, sharing her experiences with funding through foundations and the challenges of balancing art and business. Cynthia's work often bridges gaps between different communities, such as her documentaries on tobacco farming and farm workers. She also discussed the unique access she had to NASCAR teams, particularly Hendrick Motorsports, and the impact of her films on audience understanding.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.
    Más Menos
    56 m
  • BPS 426: Breaking the Rules: Crafting Powerful Films Without Hollywood Money with Shawn Whitney

    BPS 426: Breaking the Rules: Crafting Powerful Films Without Hollywood Money with Shawn Whitney
    Jul 3 2025
    Sometimes, the fire of creativity is struck not by lightning but by the slow, smoldering ache of dissatisfaction. And in today's soul-stirring conversation, we welcome Shawn Whitney, a filmmaker who found cinema not in the corridors of academia, but in the quiet rebellion of self-taught screenwriting and micro-budget filmmaking. Shawn Whitney is a screenwriter, director, and founder of Micro Budget Film Lab who empowers indie creators to tell powerful stories on shoestring budgets.

    Our journey with Shawn begins not in childhood fantasies of movie stardom, but in the dense woods of Brechtian theater and the quiet study of old black-and-white films. His path wandered, as many worthwhile ones do, through rejection, basement solitude, and heartbreak—until something within him demanded not just expression but transmutation. Shawn didn’t study film in college. Instead, he emerged from the theater world and fell into filmmaking after a failed workshop production left him broke and dispirited. Yet that fall became his rise. As he said, “I just started writing screenplays and learning the craft in the quiet shadows.”There’s something beautiful in learning the art of story not from glamorous sets or high-priced workshops but from the bones of failed experiments and the echoes of dialogue bouncing around your own mind.

    Shawn described his education not with fanfare but humility—referencing Sid Field, Blake Snyder, and the ever-controversial Save the Cat—tools that became his spiritual guides, not rigid masters. And with every script, he refined a method. Not the method, mind you. A method. “You just need a method. You can’t just be anarchy,” he mused.But perhaps what struck me most was Shawn’s philosophy that screenwriting is not just structure—it’s an argument about what makes life meaningful. Films, he insists, must be animated not by market trends, but by inner turmoil, by the strange flickering passions of the human heart. “It can’t just be about chopping up zombies. Your characters must go through an inner transformation.” That idea—that a film is a living question—sets Shawn apart in a world often obsessed with following the formula instead of feeling the pulse.Shawn’s micro-budget films—“A Brand New You” and “F*cking My Way Back Home”—aren’t just titles that stick. They are rebellious acts of filmmaking born from limited means and limitless creativity.

    His stories unfold not in sprawling CGI landscapes, but in human longing, funny sadness, and philosophical absurdity. One film follows a man trying to clone his dead wife in the living room. Another explores redemption from the passenger seat of a towed Cutlass Supreme. With a budget of $7,000 and a borrowed tow truck, Shawn pulled off scenes that feel bigger than most tentpole blockbusters.But filmmaking, for Shawn, isn’t just about his own expression. Through Micro Budget Film Lab, he’s become a teacher, a mentor, and a kind of mad scientist in the alchemical lab of storytelling. His passion is not merely to direct, but to help others break free from the gatekeeping systems that keep fresh stories from being told. “We need a micro budget movement,” he declared, envisioning a cinematic rebellion where filmmakers use what they have to tell stories no one else dares to.


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.
    Más Menos
    52 m
  • BPS 425: The Power of the Cut: Storytelling Secrets from Michael Trent

    BPS 425: The Power of the Cut: Storytelling Secrets from Michael Trent
    Jun 26 2025
    A film editor’s job is much like the work of a sculptor. You take a massive block of material—raw footage—and with a series of delicate, precise cuts, you shape it into something cohesive, something meaningful. In today’s episode, we welcome Michael Trent, a master of cinematic storytelling who has spent his career assembling some of Hollywood’s most unforgettable films. From the war-torn beaches of Saving Private Ryan to the eerie corridors of The Hatred, his work is the unseen hand that guides an audience’s emotions, turning chaos into art.For Michael Trent, the journey into the editing room began long before he ever set foot in Hollywood. His father, a sound editor in England, introduced him to the craft at an early age. “I was using a Moviola by the time I was ten,” he recalls, describing the tactile magic of celluloid film. But talent alone wasn’t enough to break into the industry—his leap from England to Hollywood in 1994 was an act of faith, a cold call to the right person at the right time, proving that the universe often conspires in favor of those who dare.

    Editing is not merely about cutting and pasting scenes together. It is about rhythm, about knowing when to hold a shot and when to move on. It is the balance between subtlety and impact, between quiet tension and explosive release. “I think a lot of editors cut too much,” Michael Trent shares. “You have to feel the emotion of a scene and let it breathe.” His work on The Hatred is a testament to this philosophy, particularly in its ability to sustain suspense, making audiences feel the presence of something sinister lurking just beyond the frame.One of the most fascinating aspects of his career was working alongside Steven Spielberg. Editing Saving Private Ryan meant moving between locations, from an Irish field to an aerospace museum in England, adapting to whatever environment was necessary. But beyond the logistics, Spielberg’s ability to visualize an edit in his head was what amazed Michael Trent the most. “He called in from Japan with an edit suggestion, and when we made the change, it worked perfectly. It was as if he had a video camera inside his mind.”Horror editing, in particular, demands a unique approach. Timing becomes everything—not just in the obvious jump scares, but in the slow-building unease that keeps an audience gripping their seats.

    A shadow lingering a second too long, a door creaking open just slightly out of sync—these are the choices that make a horror film work. “There’s a scene in The Hatred where Alice walks toward the cellar,” Michael Trent explains. “We held the shot longer than usual, just to build that sense of dread.”To be an editor is to be both an artist and a storyteller, sculpting not with clay or paint, but with time itself. The true test of an editor’s skill lies not in what they add, but in what they take away. Sometimes, entire scenes—ones that took days to shoot—must be discarded for the sake of pacing and narrative flow. “You have to be ruthless,” Michael Trent says. “If it doesn’t serve the story, it has to go.”


    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/bulletproof-screenwriting-podcast--2881148/support.
    Más Menos
    43 m
Todas las estrellas
Más relevante  
David is an inspiration to all new filmmakers who dream of make it in the business.

Fantastic! Inspirational!

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.
I started listening to this podcast to learn as much as I could about the screenwriting process and information about the "industry", as one of many sources during my journey. This podcast certainly has that and more. Guests are a wide range of writers and filmmakers from blockbuster to indie films.

I will say there is a lot of information that seems to be geared toward the indie filmmaker, which seems to be a different world than the commercial industry. At least that's the way I've come to understand it through this podcast. However, through those indie film stories told, I've learned I am certainly not an indie filmmaker or screenwriter. This podcast has helped me understand that I am definitely more of a commercial writer, and that's a good thing in helping me find my voice.

Additionally, the podcast topics are focused on feature film versus television, although there have been a couple of guests - more specifically Pamela Douglas - who have shared their experiences and wisdom about writing for television. Even though I am more interested in TV writing, the podcast as a whole has been very educational.

I started from the first episodes and have been listening my way through the entire library. I will say that the host was a little frustrating to hear toward the beginning, because he would dominate the conversation and constantly share his experiences as a filmmaker instead of letting his guests share their experiences. However, I'm glad to see that Mr. Ferrari has tempered those tendencies as the show has progressed. What he shares is now more of a balance and a dialogue with his guests and the information gleaned is priceless.

I would recommend this podcast for anyone who is looking to find their voice, learn about the movie industry and get on the right path toward a career in either indie filmmaking or screenwriting. Break a leg!

Great Resource for Learning About the Business

Se ha producido un error. Vuelve a intentarlo dentro de unos minutos.