He Built a Career In Film Without Connections… Here’s How! | Kinolime Podcast Ep 48

Show Notes

Meet the Guest & His Journey Who is Kole Landon-Lee? The creator of the massively popular Instagram account "Screenwriting in LA" (with over 280,000 followers) and the Head of Social for the film platform Kinolime.

Humble Beginnings: He moved from a small town in Texas to Los Angeles at age 20 with nothing but a truck. He initially lived in crowded artist housing with 11 other people and worked as a background actor.

Overcoming Burnout: After taking a kitchen job to pay the bills, Kole fell into a years-long creative dry spell and depression. Listening to Gary Vaynerchuk inspired him to reclaim his creativity by starting an Instagram page dedicated to his love of cinema.

The Rise of "Screenwriting in LA" Authenticity Wins: The account exploded in popularity because Kole didn't position himself as a "guru." Instead, he documented his own learning process and openly shared his personal struggles with the LA grind.

Curating Value: Rather than just posting basic quote graphics, Kole took the time to study hours of interviews (like those with Quentin Tarantino) to find and share the most valuable, motivational nuggets for writers.

The Signature Look: Kole is instantly recognizable to his followers thanks to his daily uniform: a plain black shirt (which evolved from a Greenwich Village-style turtleneck).

Writing Process & Joining Kinolime The Lynchian Method: Inspired by a David Lynch masterclass, Kole experimented with a new writing process for a short script. Instead of rigidly outlining plot beats, he focused purely on capturing a specific feeling—a script that ended up blindly scoring top marks from Kinolime's reading group.

Championing the Underdog: Kole was drawn to work with Kinolime because of its unique, community-driven model. He is deeply passionate about their mission to break down Hollywood's barriers and give unrepresented writers a tangible chance to get their scripts optioned and produced.

Full Transcript

[00:00]

like he's one of the biggest influencers

[00:01]

in terms of screenwriting, like that's out there.

[00:04]

It's just not another content creator.

[00:05]

Like this is someone that has that thing

[00:08]

that you want to watch and learn from.

[00:10]

[♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

[00:20]

Tom said go, I'm going and here we are

[00:23]

to the KinoLine podcast.

[00:25]

Guys, John Schram here, Danny Meredith,

[00:27]

you're right right here left.

[00:29]

Today, it's been a special day.

[00:32]

We're going to talk to Cole Lendon Lee,

[00:36]

our head of KinoLine social and just dear, dear friend

[00:41]

of mine, but Cole, so happy to have you on the show.

[00:45]

How you doing, buddy?

[00:46]

I'm glad to be here.

[00:48]

This is awesome.

[00:49]

I've been making clips from the podcast for so long.

[00:51]

We're going to do the origin story of how

[00:53]

Cole came to the KinoLine family.

[00:55]

We're going to know all about Cole, the Instagram star.

[00:57]

I mean, I heard you speaking before to somebody

[01:00]

through my office store, like he's one of the biggest

[01:02]

influencers in terms of screenwriting, like that's out there.

[01:06]

And it's the story that we always hope for, which is the guy

[01:11]

who just loved the craft and just moves to LA

[01:17]

from the middle of Texas with a dream.

[01:20]

If anyone hasn't been to Cole's Instagram page

[01:23]

or screenwriting in LA, go check it out.

[01:25]

But like go to the beginning stuff, because you're going to,

[01:27]

like how I found Cole was, I just came up with my algorithm.

[01:33]

I followed him, but I started watching his stories

[01:36]

and who this guy was.

[01:37]

Really visualize what is someone going to be thinking

[01:41]

and feeling when they're reading your script for the first time.

[01:44]

Besides giving great screenwriting advice and how passionate he was,

[01:47]

I just love how he was dropping F-bombs in his posts.

[01:50]

He just loves screenwriting so much.

[01:52]

But I think this is one of the things that makes him so fucking good.

[01:55]

It's when he's talking about the music, using secondhand music,

[01:58]

music that's already been used in other films.

[02:00]

He got very personal on some things,

[02:02]

which we're going to talk about later, but Cole,

[02:04]

take us through your love of cinema when you were a kid,

[02:08]

like grown up in Texas and like how that evolved

[02:11]

into who you are today.

[02:13]

I guess, I mean, yeah.

[02:15]

So I grew up in Texas, small town, and I'd love movies

[02:18]

since I was a kid.

[02:19]

But really, it was like in my 20s, I guess,

[02:21]

when I was like, or actually, when I was like 18, 19,

[02:25]

is when I really started getting into cinema more than just kind of casually enjoying movies.

[02:29]

And then I moved, so I moved to LA when I was 20.

[02:32]

Like Danny said, with nothing really,

[02:34]

I drove it about here in my little truck that I had.

[02:38]

And we've talked about this, John, I think,

[02:40]

when you first hit me up, but I moved out here when I was 20

[02:46]

and stayed in a house right on Hollywood Boulevard

[02:50]

that I found on Craigslist.

[02:52]

And I was living with 11 other people at the time.

[02:55]

I don't know if they do that anymore these days, but back then,

[02:58]

you could find these houses and they'd call them like artist housing

[03:02]

for like young people or college students or whatever.

[03:05]

I initially wanted to get into acting

[03:07]

and I did a lot of background work,

[03:09]

just being an extra in movies, which was actually so much fun.

[03:12]

Like I look back on that.

[03:14]

Like I would do that today if I had time

[03:16]

because it's so much fun just being on movie sets.

[03:19]

But then like after, I don't know, six months, seven months,

[03:23]

I couldn't make rent like I just realized,

[03:26]

okay, I need to get a real job.

[03:27]

And I wasn't even really in discreet writing at that time.

[03:30]

I was still just kind of consuming a lot of movies,

[03:33]

but then I had to get a real job.

[03:34]

So that's when I started working at the kitchen,

[03:36]

which we've talked about, with Margot, the family business.

[03:40]

And then I got really sucked into that for a while.

[03:44]

Like it was years that I kind of stepped away

[03:47]

from acting or anything really cinema aside

[03:49]

from watching movies and kind of went through a dark period

[03:53]

where I just got unmotivated creatively.

[03:56]

But it was Gary Vee, which I'm sure you all probably heard

[03:59]

of Gary Vaynerchuk.

[04:00]

I started listening to his content

[04:02]

to just try to get into a better place mentally.

[04:05]

And he said, you know, back then he talked a lot

[04:08]

about social media.

[04:09]

You can build a business on social.

[04:10]

You can, you know, build a community on social.

[04:14]

And he kept saying like, what is something that you love?

[04:16]

What is something you care about?

[04:17]

What is something you're passionate about?

[04:19]

And that's when it kind of clicked.

[04:20]

Okay, well, I love cinema.

[04:22]

I'm dabbling in screenwriting just as like a hobby.

[04:25]

So let me just start an Instagram page.

[04:27]

And that was like years of working at this kitchen,

[04:30]

not doing anything creative.

[04:31]

And so I did.

[04:32]

I just started screenwriting in LA.

[04:34]

I thought that was a cool name.

[04:36]

And it kind of just went from there.

[04:38]

I started posting really crappy graphics, like quote graphics.

[04:43]

And then it just kind of evolved from there.

[04:45]

And then that got me way more into screenwriting

[04:48]

doing that, learning about the craft,

[04:49]

watching a ton of interviews, finding clips,

[04:52]

finding tips and motivation and insights or whatever.

[04:55]

And then it, yeah, just grew from there, you know,

[04:57]

started at zero, hit 10,000, 15,000.

[05:00]

And then I kind of knew, okay,

[05:03]

it's not just like I love screenwriting, it's in Moe,

[05:05]

but I had a knack for I guess social media

[05:07]

in particular like building community,

[05:09]

which is at this point in my life, I've realized,

[05:12]

probably the thing that I'm the most passionate about

[05:15]

maybe more than anything is like community,

[05:17]

you know, building community.

[05:19]

But that's like, that's the short story,

[05:22]

I guess, of how it all started.

[05:23]

Gary V. Oddly, nothing to do with cinema,

[05:25]

but that was the seed that was.

[05:27]

And I love how you didn't really know screenwriting,

[05:30]

you just were passionate about it.

[05:32]

And it's like, I'm just gonna do a screenwriting in LA.

[05:35]

Like what's it like?

[05:36]

I just love that you're almost like, in a way,

[05:38]

I interpreted this as like you were just documenting

[05:40]

your journey and like helping people along the way,

[05:42]

with like what you found out.

[05:44]

Is that like how I'm actually?

[05:45]

Yeah, that's exactly how I thought about it.

[05:48]

I never even know.

[05:50]

I mean, I never say that let me teach you,

[05:53]

like what do I have to offer other than what I'm learning

[05:57]

myself?

[05:58]

So it was always about documenting.

[06:00]

And also just like I love watching interviews of people,

[06:04]

like the goats, you know, like the top,

[06:06]

the cream and the cropped people,

[06:07]

and finding those little moments that you don't really see,

[06:11]

like those little one minute, two minute, little insights,

[06:13]

I can actually do a lot for you.

[06:16]

Like it'll, it'll, it'll give you a kick in the ass.

[06:18]

And that's what I got really passionate about was,

[06:21]

I almost like, I got passionate about learning about it.

[06:24]

And it's obviously evolved into not just screenwriting now,

[06:27]

like screenwriting in LA is like a cinema page now

[06:30]

where it's not just screenwriting stuff.

[06:32]

But it was just me like documenting when I'm learning,

[06:35]

which got me into screenwriting more than I started

[06:37]

writing some scripts myself,

[06:39]

but it was always just kind of about the process

[06:41]

and trying to convey as much as I'm learning,

[06:44]

and maybe make it a little easier to learn.

[06:46]

Like if I watch a two hour long Tarantino interview,

[06:49]

let me just kind of condense all that down

[06:52]

and find like those little moments

[06:53]

where you can really take away something valuable.

[06:56]

So that's kind of what it turned into.

[06:58]

I guess what it still is now.

[06:59]

Yeah, cause it's what I love

[07:01]

and what I, what I was attracted to to your page

[07:04]

other than just like what you see in other pages

[07:07]

of info dumping.

[07:09]

It's like he's so authentic and passionate.

[07:12]

Like, and he's not saying, you know, I know,

[07:15]

or this is the right way, like I hate when experts try,

[07:17]

like, you know, so you've gotta do it this way.

[07:19]

Like, you know, he was just like, look,

[07:20]

I mean, here's some information for you all,

[07:22]

like what do you think?

[07:23]

And he's always asking, what do you think?

[07:25]

But your authenticity really like shines

[07:28]

and you're just genuinely nice.

[07:29]

And but I'll say what really struck me early on

[07:32]

is you had a post how like, you know, you were like depressed,

[07:37]

and you were in your car, I think,

[07:39]

I can't remember, so years ago, you're like, man,

[07:41]

I don't know, like I'm just depressed that I'm,

[07:43]

I'm sharing this out to y'all.

[07:44]

Like it was just really, that's like what sold it for me.

[07:47]

It was like that this is just not another content creator.

[07:50]

Like this is someone that has that thing

[07:52]

that you want to watch and learn from.

[07:55]

I mean, I've been through a lot of periods like that,

[07:58]

but I think it was like, I never, when I first started,

[08:02]

I still don't even like the influencer thing.

[08:05]

I don't know what that means,

[08:07]

but I guess technically when you're making content,

[08:09]

trying to kind of convey things that you're learning,

[08:12]

you technically aren't influencer,

[08:13]

but I never thought of myself that way.

[08:16]

And that's what I like when I watch content.

[08:19]

And in the industry, in particular Hollywood,

[08:22]

I mean, I live in LA and John, you know,

[08:24]

this town is definitely filled with a lot of materialistic people.

[08:28]

You think you have a friend,

[08:29]

but at the end of the day, they're really not your friend.

[08:32]

And so when I started putting myself on camera,

[08:35]

because when I first started,

[08:36]

I didn't even like really put myself on camera or anything.

[08:40]

But then yeah, I just thought,

[08:41]

I'm just gonna be completely real

[08:43]

about what it's like living in LA,

[08:46]

like moving here with nothing and just grinding

[08:48]

and trying to make something happen.

[08:50]

Like whatever that something is,

[08:52]

just trying to get my bills paid.

[08:54]

And so that's what I tried to convey

[08:56]

when I started making content.

[08:58]

I think that's probably the spark that made it grow

[09:00]

into more than just a little page.

[09:02]

And while it's still going, it's crazy to me.

[09:05]

I think about it, it's been,

[09:06]

like I started in like 2019, I think that page.

[09:09]

And it's still going right now.

[09:11]

It's crazy to me, but I think that's why,

[09:13]

because people want someone they can connect with.

[09:16]

Like for anyone watching,

[09:18]

I think I can probably help more with like tips on social media

[09:21]

or if you wanna build your own page or community.

[09:24]

That's what I love watching.

[09:25]

I think most people like to watch someone

[09:27]

that's being honest and like actually being authentic

[09:30]

about what they're going through,

[09:32]

like the reality of what it's like

[09:34]

when you're grinding or trying to build something.

[09:36]

So that's what I always tried to convey.

[09:38]

With like anything, any community I've built,

[09:40]

that's always been the seed, like the foundation of it.

[09:43]

Yeah, and we'll get into your Swilla community

[09:44]

and a little bit, Swilla is screenwriting in LA.

[09:47]

But when was it first post that like kind of got you off

[09:51]

and going, because like you started something,

[09:53]

get little likes here and there and followers,

[09:55]

but was there a post or a moment that like,

[09:58]

man, like I got like 5,000 followers in a weekend.

[10:01]

Or something like that.

[10:02]

So I started to catapult you a bit.

[10:04]

I can't remember one thing in particular,

[10:06]

but I think it was when I started posting clips

[10:09]

and not just graphics.

[10:11]

When I was first starting, it was just like graphics and stuff.

[10:14]

But when I started, and that's so many people did that back then,

[10:18]

it was like you could see that all over the place.

[10:20]

But when I started to like take initiative

[10:22]

to watch an interview myself, study that interview,

[10:25]

think about okay, what are the like most valuable things

[10:28]

in this interview or those really like, you know,

[10:31]

like you're talking about like we're talking about now,

[10:32]

people being passionate, like where's a moment in here?

[10:36]

I keep using Tarantino as a reference

[10:38]

and it probably was a Tarantino video that popped off.

[10:41]

I bet any amount of money it was a Tarantino.

[10:44]

It probably was.

[10:46]

And but that's when it started popping off more

[10:48]

was when I started kind of putting my own spin on it,

[10:52]

where instead of just posting like quotes,

[10:54]

I found those moments that are like motivational

[10:58]

or those moments where like something really interesting

[11:00]

is said about the craft or some behind the scene story

[11:04]

about some movie that's interesting, like how did Tarantino

[11:08]

come up with the title, Reservoir Dogs?

[11:09]

It must have been something like that

[11:11]

when I started kind of making it my own thing

[11:13]

instead of doing what everyone else was already doing.

[11:16]

But I can't remember, I have to go back and look, honestly.

[11:18]

Sure.

[11:19]

So I guess like for you specifically,

[11:21]

I'm pretty fascinated what the impetus

[11:24]

to kind of start the page in general was

[11:27]

when you had been coming out of this

[11:29]

what, five, six year dry spell of creativity,

[11:34]

was there a specific moment I need to kind of seize

[11:39]

the creative control of my life back?

[11:41]

What happened?

[11:42]

The business that I worked at was kind of a family business

[11:46]

and I started like, I started their washing dishes

[11:49]

and just like washing produce

[11:51]

and over the course of a couple of years,

[11:53]

I started, I became like the operations manager

[11:55]

of the whole facility

[11:56]

and it was a good job, I was getting paid well.

[11:58]

It was a career that I could,

[12:00]

that like would have taken me somewhere

[12:01]

if I would have stuck with it until COVID hit,

[12:04]

but that's a different story.

[12:06]

But it was at a moment where I was like,

[12:08]

okay, I'm making money, I made it in LA technically.

[12:11]

I moved out here with nothing.

[12:13]

I have my own place, I'm paying my bills,

[12:15]

I'm taking care of my family, my daughter,

[12:17]

but I am so depressed

[12:19]

because I'm not doing anything creative.

[12:21]

I'm not at all exploring what I initially even wanted

[12:24]

to come to LA for and it was that moment,

[12:28]

I can't remember a day,

[12:29]

but it was probably just feeling like,

[12:31]

it doesn't even matter that I'm making money

[12:33]

and like paying my bills,

[12:35]

I will not, I cannot live long-term like this

[12:38]

or I'm just not doing anything.

[12:40]

And of course, I wanted to write a screenplay,

[12:44]

I wanted to get into cinema,

[12:45]

but it felt impossible, completely impossible at the time.

[12:48]

I'm a nobody, I don't know anyone, I have no connections.

[12:51]

So then that's when I was like,

[12:53]

well let me do what Gary V is saying,

[12:55]

where I have passion, I feel like I'm talented,

[12:58]

so let me put myself out there

[13:01]

and kind of take action where instead of depending

[13:05]

on other people or trying to depend on

[13:07]

some lucky moment of connecting with someone,

[13:09]

I'll just build something myself.

[13:11]

And that was the initial thing was like,

[13:13]

and I had no idea where it was gonna go

[13:15]

or that it would lead to this opportunity with Kenaline

[13:17]

or every opportunity really I've gotten

[13:19]

has come from social media oddly,

[13:21]

but I started it just thinking,

[13:24]

let me explore my creativity,

[13:26]

let me motivate myself again to get back into this craft

[13:29]

because I had completely just lost any motivation

[13:32]

to do anything right or anything.

[13:34]

So let me do this to like explore my creativity,

[13:37]

make myself motivated again,

[13:39]

maybe motivate other people along the way

[13:41]

and document what I'm going through,

[13:43]

and who knows where it can lead

[13:45]

if you build a real community with real people

[13:48]

that connect with you.

[13:49]

And so that's really what pushed me to do it.

[13:52]

And it was really just being very depressed

[13:55]

and not seeing how I could live that way

[13:57]

for another six years or whatever it was.

[14:00]

And I love that you found out the remedy like creativity,

[14:03]

I think that you had that itch, you gotta scratch it,

[14:06]

and you just went in,

[14:07]

and then it's just the power of attraction,

[14:11]

you wanted a career in something in the creative field

[14:15]

and you just go out there and then slowly 10,015, 30,

[14:19]

50, 100,000 followers, I mean, 100,000 a lot of people.

[14:23]

And now you're up to 280, I mean like that's crazy.

[14:26]

You know what I mean?

[14:27]

If you think of this thing,

[14:28]

and I think that's just a test of it's like,

[14:30]

how passionate you are when it comes to stories still.

[14:33]

And like even when you talk about like we have vicious debates

[14:35]

over certain screenplays or directors

[14:38]

and you're just still on top of it,

[14:40]

you could like your kid in a candy store.

[14:42]

I mean like you love spider, you love marble,

[14:44]

you just really into it,

[14:45]

which I think that's very palpable.

[14:47]

I have to know is like when did the black shirt come into your like,

[14:52]

like a tour because like that's just staple, dude.

[14:55]

Like you got you got to always wear in the black shirt.

[14:58]

Was there a moment?

[14:59]

It started with the turtle neck.

[15:00]

Yeah, that's right, the turtle neck early on.

[15:02]

That's right, it was a turtle neck.

[15:03]

And that was like Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs.

[15:07]

Yeah, that's just that whole thing.

[15:09]

Very Greenwich Village like poet, you know, coffee shop style.

[15:14]

Love that vibe.

[15:15]

It just looks good.

[15:15]

Like I think turtle neck look good on camera,

[15:17]

but it's just easy.

[15:19]

I have a closet full.

[15:21]

I literally have like 30 of these black shirts from Target

[15:23]

where you just go to like the underwear section

[15:26]

and they're so cheap.

[15:27]

I've like so many of these.

[15:28]

So it's easy.

[15:29]

I don't have to care about laundry.

[15:31]

I don't have to like worry about anything.

[15:32]

I just grab a new shirt every morning.

[15:34]

And it's consistent.

[15:35]

And even in terms of social media and content,

[15:38]

I never thought about it this way,

[15:39]

but I think there is something about how quickly someone can recognize you

[15:44]

when they see you pop up on their feed.

[15:46]

You know, there is something about that

[15:47]

where it's almost like you have a uniform.

[15:49]

It's like a superhero uniform,

[15:50]

but obviously not a superhero,

[15:52]

but it's like a uniform.

[15:53]

And it kind of even gets you into character a little bit.

[15:56]

You know, you have like your uniform.

[15:57]

It's recognizable.

[15:59]

It's like you said, it's like your staple.

[16:00]

But I didn't think of it that way,

[16:02]

but that is what it is now.

[16:03]

Now I feel like I have to wear the turtle neck.

[16:06]

And you always point the camera, be like,

[16:08]

you know, fuck this movie.

[16:09]

You know, I just remember the passion.

[16:12]

Speaking of being recognized,

[16:13]

like as the premier screenwriting Instagram star of the world,

[16:21]

have you ever, have you ever been recognized outside,

[16:24]

like out and about, especially in L.A.

[16:26]

Has anyone come up to you and say,

[16:27]

hey, you're the screenwriting in L.A. guy?

[16:30]

Yeah, that's happened like maybe 10 times

[16:32]

in the course of like, yeah, like a few years.

[16:36]

It happened the first time it happened,

[16:38]

which was kind of weird actually.

[16:40]

It was, it was, I, where I used to live in Glendo,

[16:44]

there was a Johns market, like, you know,

[16:47]

a Johns, whatever grocery shop right across the street for me.

[16:50]

Like I go downstairs, walk across the street,

[16:52]

go up to the parking lot and it's right there.

[16:54]

And someone in the parking lot at this Johns came up to me.

[16:57]

It's like, are you the screenwriting in L.A.

[16:59]

Instagram account?

[17:00]

And it was awesome, but it was like,

[17:01]

do you live right next to me or something?

[17:03]

That was kind of weird.

[17:04]

But it's happened.

[17:05]

It happens at, it happens at like malls.

[17:07]

It happened at like the Glendo Galleria a couple of times.

[17:10]

I was like eating breakfast in the morning

[17:12]

and someone came up to my table

[17:13]

and it freaks you out for a second,

[17:15]

but I don't know, you get used to it, I guess.

[17:17]

But it hasn't happened that many times,

[17:19]

but it's bound to happen.

[17:21]

It's L.A. You know, it's, L.A. is a small,

[17:23]

it's a big town, but it's a small town,

[17:24]

especially for that type of content

[17:26]

where it's all the screenwriters and filmmakers.

[17:29]

Like they're gonna see your page

[17:31]

and eventually you're probably gonna run into someone, you know.

[17:33]

You know, being in L.A., obviously the hub of Hollywood

[17:37]

and the movie making capital of the world,

[17:40]

have you met or seen anyone that you're just like,

[17:43]

star struck, that just like blew you away, like in person?

[17:46]

I saw the guy that played Jack Bauer in 24.

[17:50]

I forget his name.

[17:51]

He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,

[17:53]

I saw him getting a haircut.

[17:54]

I saw him getting a haircut in some barbershop

[17:56]

and my brother was a big fan of 24,

[17:58]

so I sent him the picture, but it's weird.

[18:01]

I haven't, not run into anyone yet.

[18:03]

I was just, I was just, I was just,

[18:04]

maybe for outside of my, my apartment actually

[18:07]

like a month ago.

[18:08]

You know, it's, you're all department.

[18:10]

My rest in piece as a couple weeks ago,

[18:12]

cool.

[18:13]

I'm fascinated too, like, you know, we had this very funny moment.

[18:17]

A couple months ago where, you know,

[18:19]

we were running the shorts competition,

[18:21]

we received thousands of shorts

[18:23]

and there was a consensus, you know,

[18:25]

top two or three short that we all adored

[18:30]

and we'd all talked about it.

[18:32]

It's gotta be in, you know,

[18:33]

the top contender for our grant.

[18:36]

And then finally, I just looked at the name of the writer

[18:39]

because we try to avoid until we've reached a consensus.

[18:42]

Like any sort of ulterior, you know,

[18:46]

touch-sour.

[18:47]

We don't want to look at the name,

[18:48]

just to help influence the read.

[18:49]

Yeah, if you're famous, we're not going to know.

[18:51]

Just the story.

[18:52]

And then we looked at the name and it was you,

[18:56]

which was really funny.

[18:58]

I'm very fascinated to get an idea of how that short came about.

[19:03]

And also maybe how your Instagram page influences

[19:07]

your own creativity and screenwriting.

[19:09]

First off, it's so unfair that I can't qualify

[19:13]

for these competitions.

[19:14]

I wish to submit to every single one.

[19:17]

It's the same thing for the feature, right?

[19:19]

Like if I submit to the feature.

[19:21]

That's one of that.

[19:22]

That is so unfortunate perks.

[19:24]

No, but it makes perfect sense.

[19:26]

That short, which we kind of talked about before, Danny,

[19:29]

was like actually a lot of the stuff we're talking about now.

[19:34]

Even now, it was like quite a while that I hadn't been writing.

[19:38]

And I've been focusing on family,

[19:40]

paying the bills, other hobbies,

[19:43]

still screenwriting in LA.

[19:44]

Obviously, this page is a big passion of mine.

[19:46]

It's always going to be a passion in a hobby.

[19:48]

But I kind of stepped away from writing for a while.

[19:51]

And then the short competition came around.

[19:55]

And I didn't know that I couldn't submit.

[19:56]

So it kind of motivated me.

[19:58]

Like, well, maybe if I submit,

[19:59]

maybe something like who knows what can happen.

[20:02]

And it came out of, again,

[20:03]

it came out of just kind of feeling disconnected from my creativity

[20:07]

and wanting to try something completely different

[20:09]

in terms of my style of writing,

[20:12]

which was very like lynchian inspired.

[20:14]

I'm not saying it's like lynch,

[20:15]

but lynch is my favorite filmmaker.

[20:17]

Every time I watch his movies,

[20:18]

it just makes me fall back in love with the craft all over again.

[20:22]

So I wanted to try his process, not necessarily mimicking him,

[20:25]

but like, I love what he talks about

[20:27]

when it comes to the craft and his idea of,

[20:30]

it's all about the idea, go fishing for an idea,

[20:32]

live with that idea, make it real in your mind.

[20:35]

How does it feel?

[20:36]

What are the feelings behind it?

[20:37]

Not even necessarily plot or plot points or all the beats,

[20:41]

but like, what is the feeling?

[20:43]

How can you manifest that feeling

[20:45]

so that other people can feel it when you're writing,

[20:48]

when you're shooting a movie, whatever?

[20:49]

And I wanted to try that process.

[20:52]

And so that's what that script was.

[20:54]

I wrote it in like two settings, a few hours,

[20:57]

purely based on one idea,

[20:59]

and then just exploring the idea on the page in real time.

[21:03]

I did not outline.

[21:04]

I didn't write anything about characters.

[21:06]

I didn't do any of the work that you would typically do

[21:09]

when you start like outlining for something.

[21:11]

I just sat down and wrote it based on like,

[21:13]

okay, one of my feelings,

[21:14]

how can I convey this feeling immediately on the page?

[21:18]

And in my content, like screenwriting in LA

[21:20]

is constantly a circle of like,

[21:24]

it motivates me and hopefully is motivating

[21:27]

other people at the same time.

[21:28]

So when I find like an amazing linch,

[21:30]

I think it was actually the linch master class

[21:33]

that I came across and watched his whole master class.

[21:36]

And like, there were so many amazing moments from that,

[21:38]

which is what inspired me,

[21:40]

and I was posting clips of it, obviously.

[21:42]

And then that inspired me to sit down and write that short.

[21:45]

And that's honestly my favorite thing I've ever written.

[21:48]

And Y'all's good words about it,

[21:51]

though I'm not qualified to submit scripts

[21:55]

or like qualifying the competition,

[21:57]

it motivated me a lot to want to try to keep moving

[22:00]

with that script, take it to another place,

[22:02]

maybe shoot it myself, maybe turn it into a feature somehow.

[22:06]

So I'm kind of letting that simmer right now.

[22:09]

What am I gonna do next?

[22:10]

I remember when Mira and our group,

[22:11]

the reader group chat was like,

[22:13]

hey, I came across this great linchian script,

[22:15]

and then you read it and then it was like,

[22:18]

we figured out it was you, it was really a star.

[22:20]

I mean, who knows do you do?

[22:21]

Like we didn't know as you and like we gave it,

[22:23]

I don't know, I think Mira gave it a nine out of 10.

[22:25]

Yeah, which is like, you know, at best,

[22:28]

you'll have, you know, of on average,

[22:30]

what the two to three thousand scripts,

[22:31]

we got number competition, we'll have one or two of those.

[22:35]

Oh yeah, you're up there cool.

[22:36]

So we're really proud that you kept going.

[22:39]

I appreciate that.

[22:41]

But let's talk about a little bit about

[22:43]

when you first came across Keenaline

[22:45]

and sort of like what drew you into the opportunity

[22:48]

of working with us.

[22:50]

I do want to say that that, I mean,

[22:52]

you were obviously the seed because you're in a great guy

[22:57]

and I just got a DM from you.

[22:59]

And I actually, I get DMs like that a lot

[23:01]

and a lot of them are spam or just kind of,

[23:03]

it's nothing, you know, you get a lot of DMs

[23:06]

when you have an audience,

[23:07]

but yours was different and when we chatted,

[23:10]

you were exactly what we're talking about.

[23:12]

Very authentic, very honest, actually listened to me

[23:16]

and let me tell my story and that's what planted the seed

[23:21]

that, okay, this is like Keenaline, what is Keenaline?

[23:23]

Like what is this thing?

[23:25]

And then when I really started learning about it,

[23:27]

it what draws me in is like for me, it's so clear

[23:31]

that what Keenaline is doing is so different than any,

[23:34]

I mean, even outside of as a studio, as a business,

[23:39]

making films, even because I'd worked in screenwriting

[23:42]

and the screenwriting competition space before.

[23:45]

And Keenaline is doing something no other screenwriting

[23:47]

competition as far as I know has ever done

[23:50]

because it seems kind of like a crazy idea.

[23:53]

And the fact that it is truly community driven,

[23:57]

which like I've said is something that I'm very passionate about,

[24:01]

that's what really drew me in is that you are really creating

[24:05]

this opportunity that can give someone who is a nobody,

[24:10]

has no connections, doesn't live in LA,

[24:13]

doesn't matter where they live, you're opening up this opportunity

[24:17]

that can give someone like that a true opportunity,

[24:20]

not just to win a laurel, not just to get a cash prize,

[24:23]

but to actually option a screenplay and get a film made

[24:27]

from their script purely based on their talent,

[24:29]

their ability to tell stories, and then other people

[24:33]

enjoying that story within the community.

[24:35]

And to me, that's like such an amazing thing.

[24:38]

And that's really obviously what drew me in,

[24:40]

how can you not want to be a part of something that's doing that?

[24:44]

Because it's more than just like a studio

[24:46]

that's going to make awesome films.

[24:47]

It's, I've always been someone who's passionate about,

[24:50]

like how can you create more opportunities for people

[24:53]

who are out here that don't know anyone, you know,

[24:56]

like how can you actually create opportunities

[24:58]

because it seems impossible to break in when you're out here,

[25:03]

especially when you come out here from somewhere else.

[25:05]

It's like it just feels impossible.

[25:07]

And after a couple of years, it's like,

[25:09]

it's so easy to give up on it,

[25:11]

but Kenalai is doing something so different

[25:14]

that's actually creating opportunities.

[25:15]

So I mean, that's what it's all about for me.

[25:18]

And you are a huge part of that call

[25:19]

without your passion and what you put in day and day out

[25:23]

on your Instagram and all our social media outlets.

[25:25]

Like it truly is like our success is like

[25:28]

because you're a part of that.

[25:29]

So, you know, everybody here, like obviously we love you.

[25:32]

Thank you so much for all the hard work.

[25:34]

And for anyone watching or listening

[25:37]

that hasn't gone to his screenwriting page,

[25:39]

please go to Screenwriting in LA.

[25:42]

On Instagram, we're gonna put all the links in below.

[25:44]

Ron, thank you.

[25:46]

And, you know, please go check out his content.

[25:49]

It's, I hate you to hate you to use the word content,

[25:50]

but it's just so educational.

[25:51]

Like I love every morning when I like go

[25:54]

to your screenwriting in LA.

[25:55]

But you do great work, Paul.

[25:56]

You're an amazing human being.

[25:58]

You're a great father, a great friend,

[25:59]

dear friend. Thank you.

[26:01]

And thanks, man.

[26:02]

Thanks for being a part of the Kenalai team.

[26:03]

I love you all.

[26:04]

All right. Thank you.

[26:05]

Screenwriting in LA, check it out.

[26:08]

You just call you the best, bro.

[26:10]

It's everyone.

[26:10]

Thank you.

He Built a Career In Film Without Connections… Here’s How! | Kinolime Podcast Ep 48

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