Where do you live (City, State, or Country)? I live in Los Angeles CA, but I am from Denver Colorado.
Your script or media entry stood out among hundreds of others. What was the inspiration for your project ? The Picture of Dorian Gray was the first book in school that I actually read ahead of the assignment expectation. (Might have been the only book I finished front to back in high school). The sensual, dark and twisted iconography has been seared into my subconscious since I was seventeen years old, so this project was building for a while, even before I started writing scripts. In fact, this is the first script I have ever endeavored to finish front to back. I also am a huge fan of Luca Guadagnino’s work, as most aspiring artists are, and I first got the idea when I watched Suspiria about a year ago. A year later, I was so inspired by Challengers, I came home the same night I watched the film in theatres and started putting pen to paper.
How long did it take you to write your script or produce your pitch deck/sizzle reel/trailer...and what was your development process? It took me a total of three months to write the script and create the pitch deck. I imagine I could have gotten it done in about six weeks if I didn’t have a day job, so I spent my mornings, evenings and my weekends on final draft. I am glad to say that writing this script helped create a process and craft for me, but when I started, I had no idea formulaically how to build a script. But that is the beauty of the artistic intuition, if you follow it, it will lead you somewhere. What kept me grounded is the source material. If at any point I got a little lost, I just went back and reread any portion of the novel and immediately the imagination pins started firing.
What is your ultimate ambition as a writer or filmmaker? I guess it sounds corny, but I want to be an original voice in Hollywood, writing, directing and acting. I guess that is all you can ask for and really at the end of the day all you can give. Your deeply personal lens into the diaspora of life is what people want to see and feel, that is why we go to the movies. Someone asked me this years ago when I moved to Hollywood and I will tell you what I told them; I want to stir the hearts of people.
Which film directors or screenwriters inspire you? Why? I can’t say it enough that Luca Guadagnino is the reason I wrote this script. His films feel like a pastoral painting in movement and have a way of affecting you long after you leave the theatre. One of my favorite directors growing up though is Michael Mann. When I was in middle school, I rented Public Enemies from a local Redbox at a 711 and must have watched it ten times in one week. He has a way of making characters in spectacular situations feel so relatable and grounded. For his most recent release of Ferrari, I had many moments in the theatre I forgot I was watching a movie.
What’s your all-time favorite movie or television show? My favorite TV show is easily The Sopranos. I watched the whole show from front to back with my mom during the first COVID lockdown. Maybe not the usual show you would watch with your mom, but she is from New Jersey so we just had a ball watching the show. Hard to narrow down my favorite movie, but one my mom showed me growing up is HUD (1963) starring Paul Newman and Patricia Neal. The whole movie takes place on a ranch, no spectacle or anything, but one of the most emotional movies I have ever seen. That film is somewhat reminiscent of Taylor Sheridan’s world about the death of morals in the west and the conflict between progress and tradition.
What advice do you have for others hoping to win a contest or place as a finalist as you have? I’d say don’t be afraid to just go for it. I had never written a script before and now a whole new world opened up to me and I am so very thankful and the wiser for it. I would make sure to get professional feedback from the blacklist or the literally hundreds of other sites you can get feedback. I redrafted my script about four times before submitting and it so don’t get ahead of yourself when you type your last page. Take a breather, take a break, send it off to feedback and then get back into it. It’s amazing what a few days will give you taking a step back from your first draft. You will come back with fresh eyes to sharpen every detail of your story.
What else are you working on that the world needs to know about? I am currently writing The Last Northern White Rhino. It is a war movie about the illegal poaching trade in South Africa. The logline goes like this: When a corrupt cop’s smuggling operation goes south, he escapes to a Rhino Sanctuary only to become the caretaker of the last northern white rhino, but his past will bring the almost extinct species to the precipice of annihilation.
After that, I plan to write a smaller scale movie that could be made for a small budget called Letters about a nomad that writes letters for people who can’t write their own. Then I need to write a pilot, I have an idea to mash the world of Yellowstone with the tonality of The White Lotus in a series called Fire Mountain Lodge, which would take place in my hometown state of Colorado.