737 - Studio-Adjacent

John welcomes back Phil Hay (Destroyer, The Invitation) to ask, how do you get a movie made with independent financing? They look at how indie movies get made, where you get the money, deciding when to go indie, and whether streamers complicate the picture.

We also follow up on testing movies with focus groups and answer listener questions on how to navigate the editing room, daily routines, and what to do when your story has too many themes.

In our bonus segment for premium members, we look back on what Phil learned about D&D from his documentary The Dungeon Masters.

Links:

• Phil Hay
• Scriptnotes Episode 244, Episode 377, and Episode 505
• The Dungeon Masters
• The Answering Machine Meltdown from Swingers
• John's daily to-do template
• Pamela Ribon's One Act documentary
• Petey USA's The Yips
• KOXY College Radio
• Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
• Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
• Follow Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
• John August on Bluesky and Instagram
• Outro by Craig Good (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.