The Life of a Filmmaker and Mentor - with Alexandra Boylan

Jaclyn: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:02

My name is Jaclyn, and I know you probably haven't heard my voice in quite a while.

Jaclyn: 00:00:06

Um, Geoff and Matt have been the ones hosting a lot of the podcasts recently, but I'm excited to be back and to share the mic today with Alexandra Boylan.

Jaclyn: 00:00:17

She was our very first guest and you guys, I'm serious.

Jaclyn: 00:00:21

When you can find people that see your vision and jump in and support you to make it happen, it is such a blessing.

Jaclyn: 00:00:28

And so I'm so excited to have Alexandra back where we can catch up with what's been going on since then and, and we'll just see where else it goes.

Jaclyn: 00:00:36

So if you do not know Alexandra Boylan, I encourage you to go back and listen to her journey in episode one of the Faith and Family Filmmakers.

Jaclyn: 00:00:44

Podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:00:46

Um, but just a brief little sum up.

Jaclyn: 00:00:49

She has produced, written, and produced eight feature films that have gone on to almost all of them have made their money back and then some, and, uh, so.

Jaclyn: 00:01:01

I mean, we actually have been doing a lot of things helping people to, to do the same kind of thing, which we'll get into at some point.

Jaclyn: 00:01:07

But welcome Alexandra to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.

Alexandra: 00:01:13

Thank you for having me back, Jaclyn.

Jaclyn: 00:01:16

You know, it's, it's interesting when, uh, when we invited you to come on the podcast, I think you had already done one workshop with us and we were just so impressed.

Jaclyn: 00:01:25

It was just an obvious no-brainer to have you on the podcast.

Jaclyn: 00:01:29

That was.

Jaclyn: 00:01:29

So excited when you said yes.

Jaclyn: 00:01:31

Um, and then like, seriously, you guys, I was just so in awe of what Alexandra was able to do and accomplish, and just the ability that she has to say, well, this isn't working.

Jaclyn: 00:01:44

I'm going over here where I can make this work instead.

Jaclyn: 00:01:47

And so I reached out to her and I asked if she would be willing and if she would have time to put together a mentorship program for FAFF Association.

Jaclyn: 00:01:58

And she said, yes, you guys.

Jaclyn: 00:02:01

So, so we actually put this together and um, and it is just.

Jaclyn: 00:02:07

A lot of me asking questions, picking her brain and figuring out like, you know, H how do we do this?

Jaclyn: 00:02:13

So Alexandra, I want to ask you, since this last podcast that you were on, which was literally two years ago, that was amazing.

Jaclyn: 00:02:22

What has been going on for you since then?

Alexandra: 00:02:25

Wow, that's going back in the memory bank.

Alexandra: 00:02:28

I can't believe it's been two years, and I think I know I did it, I think in my backyard, in my Sherman Oaks, California house.

Alexandra: 00:02:36

And so since then we have actually gotten rid of that home and been traveling a lot and live in Montana.

Alexandra: 00:02:42

A lot of the time.

Alexandra: 00:02:43

I go back and forth between LA and Montana and everywhere else.

Alexandra: 00:02:46

So that is a huge change.

Alexandra: 00:02:48

'cause I lived in Los Angeles for 26 years and now I have a cabin in Montana.

Alexandra: 00:02:54

Um, but yeah, I was, you know, I wanna say too, you know, I wanted to do a class, so I just wanna say how God's timing is amazing because I get so many people asking to pick my brain.

Alexandra: 00:03:06

I, I wrote the book, create Your Own Career in Hollywood to help other filmmakers.

Alexandra: 00:03:12

And then I was really wanting to do a class, but I didn't have all the skillsets or the website and all the things you need, and I felt intimidated and overwhelmed of how to start it.

Alexandra: 00:03:21

So when you called me, I was like, do you want to do this?

Alexandra: 00:03:25

I was like, no way, girl.

Alexandra: 00:03:26

I've already been wanting to do this.

Alexandra: 00:03:29

So for me it was like a blessing.

Alexandra: 00:03:32

So, um, when you called me Jaclyn, it was actually a god thing.

Alexandra: 00:03:35

As I was researching this and praying for this opportunity.

Alexandra: 00:03:40

So you guys like that wasn't like, I feel like I was blessed by you, Jaclyn, to be able to join forces with you and create something that in my heart I had wanted to do for a long time.

Alexandra: 00:03:50

And I do both.

Alexandra: 00:03:51

Jaclyn and I love to inspire people.

Alexandra: 00:03:54

And I feel like in our industry there is so much like your success is my failure.

Alexandra: 00:03:58

I'm not gonna share with you how I succeeded.

Alexandra: 00:04:01

And both of us have a heart that that is not abundance rises in groups.

Alexandra: 00:04:05

Exactly.

Alexandra: 00:04:05

And we, we want to help each other succeed.

Alexandra: 00:04:08

And um, so I just wanna start with there and then, yeah.

Alexandra: 00:04:12

Look at what God did with our relationship.

Alexandra: 00:04:14

I reached out to, I think I reached out to Geoff on LinkedIn when I saw what you guys were doing.

Alexandra: 00:04:18

And I think I asked, could I be a speaker?

Alexandra: 00:04:21

Could I participate?

Alexandra: 00:04:22

And then you guys had me do that.

Alexandra: 00:04:24

And now look at.

Alexandra: 00:04:25

The amazingness that God has used us in so many lives.

Alexandra: 00:04:28

So, um, but for the past two years, you know, I've just like everyone else, I am struggling to get another movie made and I, I have been like, I've made eight features and every time you start, it's like starting from scratch again.

Alexandra: 00:04:41

It is so hard to raise private investment.

Alexandra: 00:04:43

It is so hard to get a deal.

Alexandra: 00:04:45

As the industry has shifted, distributions changed.

Alexandra: 00:04:49

Um, everything has changed.

Alexandra: 00:04:50

So the past couple of years I've been focused on, we've been writing novels and books and trying to stay productive and stay creative.

Alexandra: 00:05:00

In the time when you don't have a movie going or you're in all these meetings, people love to have meetings.

Alexandra: 00:05:06

By the way, I have meetings all day long.

Alexandra: 00:05:08

Don't I know

Jaclyn: 00:05:08

it, I know my whole week is full of meetings and then I'm like, I, I feel like I got nothing done, but I was busy the whole time.

Alexandra: 00:05:17

Exactly.

Alexandra: 00:05:18

I'm so busy taking meetings, talking about making movies.

Alexandra: 00:05:21

I'm like, I don't need to talk about making movies anymore.

Alexandra: 00:05:23

I want to make a movie.

Alexandra: 00:05:24

I, and people love to have meetings about how do you make a movie, but then it doesn't go anywhere Uhhuh.

Alexandra: 00:05:30

So that I agree.

Alexandra: 00:05:31

Like sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my time because the meetings go nowhere and then I wasn't product.

Alexandra: 00:05:36

To doing something else.

Alexandra: 00:05:37

So it is a fine line of how many meetings you take a day.

Alexandra: 00:05:41

Um, 'cause you do, you have to have meetings.

Alexandra: 00:05:43

It's all about who you know, and it's how you know them.

Alexandra: 00:05:45

And you never know which meeting is gonna lead to the green light, to the yes.

Alexandra: 00:05:49

For the project.

Alexandra: 00:05:50

Mm-hmm.

Alexandra: 00:05:50

So,

Alexandra: 00:05:51

but I, I did a lot of work for hire in the past couple of years.

Alexandra: 00:05:54

I wrote a biblical drama for somebody.

Alexandra: 00:05:56

I helped produce that for them.

Alexandra: 00:05:59

I, I wrote, um, we, we published the Switched novel that goes along with our movie Switched.

Alexandra: 00:06:04

Uh, we wrote a three part.

Alexandra: 00:06:05

Fairytale series that we have published and we're about to publish the technology tripping novel.

Alexandra: 00:06:11

So I've been writing and, and, and continuing to be creative and wanting to supply materials to my audience while I'm still trying to raise the private investment to make another movie.

Jaclyn: 00:06:24

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:06:24

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:06:25

And when you say we, you're referring to your sister, correct.

Jaclyn: 00:06:27

Sister?

Jaclyn: 00:06:28

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:06:28

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:06:28

My sister and

Alexandra: 00:06:28

I, and, um, and I've written with some other people.

Alexandra: 00:06:31

I just wrote a romcom with Kelsey Cook.

Alexandra: 00:06:34

That was really fun.

Alexandra: 00:06:35

Kelsey Cook is, uh, Kathleen Cook's daughter who runs Influence Women.

Alexandra: 00:06:39

And, um, her and I had a lot of fun writing a romcom.

Alexandra: 00:06:42

And so, you know, I have been trying to spread out my tentacles of working with different people, having different, um, you know, you have to have lots of partners in this business.

Alexandra: 00:06:51

No person is an island, so I wanna, mm-hmm.

Alexandra: 00:06:54

Especially, I'm always looking at who is like us, Jaclyn hustlers who work hard.

Alexandra: 00:06:59

I wanna be surrounded by those people.

Alexandra: 00:07:01

So I'm always reaching out, like, how can I work with you?

Alexandra: 00:07:03

How can we together pool our resources to do something successful?

Jaclyn: 00:07:08

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:07:09

And you know, one of the things that we also have in common is joy in the process, in the work.

Jaclyn: 00:07:15

You know, it's not just like, I wanna make a movie 'cause I wanna make money.

Jaclyn: 00:07:18

I mean anybody who's in it for the money.

Jaclyn: 00:07:20

Sorry guys,

Alexandra: 00:07:22

get out!

Alexandra: 00:07:23

Run.

Jaclyn: 00:07:23

then you better get into distribution or something.

Jaclyn: 00:07:25

I don't know.

Jaclyn: 00:07:26

But like for producers, um, you know, it's, you have to love what you do.

Jaclyn: 00:07:31

You say this all the time and it's true.

Jaclyn: 00:07:33

And I've noticed like that, that is part of the personality.

Jaclyn: 00:07:36

You have to love the process.

Jaclyn: 00:07:38

You have to love the work.

Jaclyn: 00:07:40

Um, because.

Jaclyn: 00:07:42

That's moment by moment.

Jaclyn: 00:07:45

If you are not getting something out of it, um, then you could easily grow weary.

Jaclyn: 00:07:50

And I think that there is a lot of weariness.

Jaclyn: 00:07:52

And that's not to, let me just clarify.

Jaclyn: 00:07:54

That's not to say that the people who have grown weary, um, didn't find joy in the process.

Jaclyn: 00:08:00

I do think that.

Jaclyn: 00:08:01

There are times where because the money's not there and because we're not seeing a return on what we've done, it can get very discouraging.

Jaclyn: 00:08:09

And, you know, just to have a bit of real talk here, like I do talk with a lot of people in the industry, especially a lot of people in the indie industry, the faith based filmmaking industry, and there are people that.

Jaclyn: 00:08:21

They're growing weary from the process 'cause they're out there working their butt off, wanting to praise the Lord and making beautiful content.

Jaclyn: 00:08:29

But if that content is not making a return for their investors or for themselves, like they're just pouring their heart and time and lives out for.

Jaclyn: 00:08:40

Nothing, which makes you kind of feel like, well, what's the point?

Jaclyn: 00:08:45

And so there's gotta be a bit of a balance.

Jaclyn: 00:08:47

But I wanna ask you, especially since like you've gone through a period of time where you're working hard to try to get something off the ground and it's not moving, what do you do?

Jaclyn: 00:08:57

How do you manage with that?

Jaclyn: 00:08:59

Well, I. I feel like it is very hard, you guys.

Jaclyn: 00:09:03

I mean, I struggle with that too, weariness and like, why am I, is this not what God wants?

Jaclyn: 00:09:08

'cause if God wants it, it nothing can stop it.

Jaclyn: 00:09:11

If God doesn't want it, then nothing can make it happen.

Jaclyn: 00:09:14

So I am always checking in with God, being like, do you want me to pivot God?

Jaclyn: 00:09:18

Do you want me to change?

Jaclyn: 00:09:19

What am I doing wrong?

Jaclyn: 00:09:20

Are you just.

Jaclyn: 00:09:21

Gonna show me in a couple years exactly why I was held.

Jaclyn: 00:09:24

And I do think that happens.

Jaclyn: 00:09:26

Like I've been able to see a project that was held for three years and then revealed why that project sat for three years.

Jaclyn: 00:09:32

There was a God reason.

Jaclyn: 00:09:34

So I do always pray to say, okay, God, I know your timing is perfect and what?

Jaclyn: 00:09:40

And then I'm always like, what can I do right now that have no gatekeepers publishing books?

Jaclyn: 00:09:46

There's no gatekeepers.

Jaclyn: 00:09:48

I can write a book, I can put it on Amazon.

Jaclyn: 00:09:51

I can put out a new product to my audience.

Jaclyn: 00:09:53

So I think that that's another thing is always looking at how.

Jaclyn: 00:09:57

Okay.

Jaclyn: 00:09:57

I don't need a million dollars to write a book or I don't need, or to write resource materials or, you know what I mean?

Jaclyn: 00:10:02

So I think that's something I always am.

Jaclyn: 00:10:05

How can I be creative?

Jaclyn: 00:10:06

And I love screenwriting, so you can always be writing a script whenever you want to be, and then adding that into your portfolio for when you have a meeting because you'll als often have a meeting.

Jaclyn: 00:10:17

I'll have like.

Jaclyn: 00:10:17

Four projects and they're like, I don't want any of those.

Jaclyn: 00:10:20

Do you have another one?

Jaclyn: 00:10:21

And I'm like, okay.

Jaclyn: 00:10:23

So I'm like, fine, I'll just keep writing other projects so that I have every wheelhouse that they might be looking for.

Jaclyn: 00:10:30

But I think it's hard.

Jaclyn: 00:10:31

I think you just really need to, um, have strong friends in your life, a strong community, and you need to.

Jaclyn: 00:10:39

Be always look at how you can pivot and also use that time to learn what's going on in the industry.

Jaclyn: 00:10:45

What is the industry looking for, and how can I participate in it, even if it doesn't look exactly how I thought it was gonna look.

Jaclyn: 00:10:52

Right.

Jaclyn: 00:10:53

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:10:53

And then I'm going to tread tenderly on this next question.

Jaclyn: 00:10:57

Um, so for people that have produced, let's say it's beautiful work

Alexandra: 00:11:03

Hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:11:03

And it's.

Jaclyn: 00:11:05

They're having trouble either getting it out to people or making money off of it.

Jaclyn: 00:11:09

What could you suggest that they do in order to process that?

Jaclyn: 00:11:15

Like, I mean, on the one hand you have to process emotionally, but then from a business perspective, how do you process that?

Alexandra: 00:11:23

That it's either not getting distributed or it's not being seen by the audience after it's being distributed.

Alexandra: 00:11:29

How do you process that?

Alexandra: 00:11:31

From a business standpoint?

Alexandra: 00:11:32

Mm-hmm.

Alexandra: 00:11:33

I think.

Alexandra: 00:11:34

I've said this a lot.

Alexandra: 00:11:35

No one's gonna market as much as you are for your movie.

Alexandra: 00:11:39

You cannot rely on a distribution company or even a marketing company to spread the word like you will.

Alexandra: 00:11:45

So your job is to be marketing your projects as much best you can, even if it's in the echo chamber of Instagram and TikTok.

Alexandra: 00:11:53

Or you need to reach out to outlets and ask if you can get interviewed.

Alexandra: 00:11:56

Find ways to promote your product, um, or your project, whether it's a movie, a book, a podcast, whatever.

Alexandra: 00:12:03

You have to be out there hustling.

Alexandra: 00:12:06

I do a lot of my own marketing and I do a lot of my own reaching out to platforms.

Alexandra: 00:12:11

The other thing is, back in the day, a lot of independent filmmakers would just give their movie off to a major distribution company and be like, great, I hope you got this.

Alexandra: 00:12:19

They don't have this.

Alexandra: 00:12:19

They need you.

Alexandra: 00:12:20

I am building relationships with up faith in family with Wonder Project with.

Alexandra: 00:12:26

Angel Studios with, um, Tubi every platform.

Alexandra: 00:12:30

And then as, as you have content, you can get meetings with those people and then you are building your own.

Alexandra: 00:12:38

Um, I, I'm pretty much helping my distribution company do their job by getting them meetings, getting my movies in front of the streamers.

Alexandra: 00:12:46

'cause sometimes the streamers don't know your movie exists.

Alexandra: 00:12:49

Because what if you're a distribution company?

Alexandra: 00:12:51

I just met with a really big faith-based network that does streaming, and they said, oh, we got the list of movies from your distribution company, but none of your films were on it.

Alexandra: 00:13:05

Like, so when I know, so I was like, hold the phone.

Alexandra: 00:13:10

Yeah, exactly.

Alexandra: 00:13:11

So guess what I went and did?

Alexandra: 00:13:13

I went back to my distribution company, redid the connection, and now my movies are on that platform.

Alexandra: 00:13:19

So I didn't, I didn't know that.

Alexandra: 00:13:21

I usually like your, your, your distribution company might have a catalog of movies and say you are in the faith space.

Alexandra: 00:13:27

I just assumed all our movies were gonna go to everywhere.

Alexandra: 00:13:30

But because I built a relationship with that, um, platform.

Alexandra: 00:13:34

They were able to tell me your movies weren't in the catalog.

Alexandra: 00:13:37

I don't know why, but guess what?

Alexandra: 00:13:39

I made sure that my movies were considered and now my movies are on that platform.

Alexandra: 00:13:44

So I think that's their thing.

Alexandra: 00:13:46

You, it's really about hard work and diligence and not relying on anybody else to do the hard work.

Alexandra: 00:13:51

And it's a lot of work, you guys.

Alexandra: 00:13:52

It's why Jaclyn, I always say you have to love what you do.

Alexandra: 00:13:55

It can't be about the money.

Alexandra: 00:13:57

Funneling money into my distribution company's pocket.

Alexandra: 00:14:00

Not my own, but it's my movie and I care about the people who are gonna see it.

Alexandra: 00:14:04

I care about my audience, and I care that I know that what I make is important for the world.

Alexandra: 00:14:09

So that has to be your driving force, that you're out there finding out that you weren't in the catalog that went to the.

Alexandra: 00:14:15

A platform that your movies should have been in.

Alexandra: 00:14:18

And who knows, maybe it was a mistake on the distribution side and they were like, oh, we, whoops, we're so sorry our, your films weren't in there.

Alexandra: 00:14:25

They have a lot of movies.

Alexandra: 00:14:26

So that's the thing.

Alexandra: 00:14:27

You cannot rely on anybody else to do the work for you marketing distribution platforms.

Alexandra: 00:14:32

You should be out there making relationships.

Jaclyn: 00:14:35

One more hat to wear, right?

Alexandra: 00:14:37

Just another hat.

Alexandra: 00:14:40

It's, but you know that hat will pay off because every time you make a movie, you've got the relationships and you don't have to rely on anybody else.

Alexandra: 00:14:48

I have a spreadsheet of everyone who's ever interviewed me since catching faith.

Alexandra: 00:14:54

14 years ago, and every time I have a movie that comes out, I don't rely on my marketing or my distributor, I write directly to them and say, I have a new movie.

Alexandra: 00:15:02

Do you wanna interview me?

Alexandra: 00:15:03

And they're always like, yes, we do.

Alexandra: 00:15:05

So it's a lot of work.

Alexandra: 00:15:07

But you already spent a lot of work on making the movie, so don't you wanna do a lot of work on everyone getting to see your movie?

Jaclyn: 00:15:12

Yes, exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:15:14

And you know what I find so incredible too, is that your.

Jaclyn: 00:15:19

Your movies have a reputation for being amazing sellers.

Jaclyn: 00:15:23

Like they are in like very popular parts of the, you know, the streaming platform and like for, uh, at your own risk.

Jaclyn: 00:15:32

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:15:32

That's on the most popular list on Tuby.

Jaclyn: 00:15:34

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:15:34

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:15:35

And, and your other films have done really well, so it amazes me that you still have to go and work so hard to get them onto the streaming platforms and to.

Jaclyn: 00:15:44

Get people to know about them.

Jaclyn: 00:15:46

Um, so like, this is what I'm saying, like I understand that from, I think a lot of the time we have this kind of compartmentalization, like for me as a screenwriter along, for a long time I was thinking, I just wanna write and then I'll sell it and I'll move on.

Jaclyn: 00:16:02

But that's not what's been happening.

Jaclyn: 00:16:04

It's like, no, I write it and then I have to go and pitch it, and then I have to go even though like I have, um.

Jaclyn: 00:16:11

Other like producers on, on the project.

Jaclyn: 00:16:13

Sometimes I'm still the one that's helping to make connections with the actors.

Jaclyn: 00:16:17

'cause they're like, oh, I wanna attach this actor.

Jaclyn: 00:16:18

And I'm like.

Jaclyn: 00:16:19

Do you know their agent or do you know that actor?

Jaclyn: 00:16:23

Like, and, and this just happened recently where, um, you know, the producers had reached out to a specific actor months ago, and then they let me know, I'm still waiting to hear back from that actor.

Jaclyn: 00:16:34

I have a friendship with that actor.

Jaclyn: 00:16:36

I messaged him, I'm like, Hey, by the way, did you check this out?

Jaclyn: 00:16:39

Did you see this email?

Jaclyn: 00:16:40

Did you read this script?

Jaclyn: 00:16:42

And, uh, he's like, oh no, I didn't realize it was there.

Jaclyn: 00:16:45

So like, you have to.

Jaclyn: 00:16:48

You had to follow up, like you've said this multiple times, like no one is gonna love your movie as much as you do, and so you really do have to treat it like a baby, like it's your child and you get out there and you find those opportunities for it and you help it to move forward and you help it to succeed.

Jaclyn: 00:17:03

Um, and and that does sound like a lot of work.

Jaclyn: 00:17:08

It is.

Jaclyn: 00:17:08

But that's what it takes.

Jaclyn: 00:17:09

Yes, it is a lot of work.

Alexandra: 00:17:11

Yes it is.

Alexandra: 00:17:13

Yeah.

Alexandra: 00:17:13

you know, I think people think, you know, when I first started making movies, I learned right away that there's all these stories in Hollywood Reporter or all these things that sound like an overnight success.

Alexandra: 00:17:24

No one has an overnight success.

Alexandra: 00:17:26

Mm-hmm.

Alexandra: 00:17:27

And very rarely do people knock on other people's doors.

Alexandra: 00:17:30

You, as a filmmaker, have to knock on the doors.

Alexandra: 00:17:32

I have been waiting now 26 years for someone to knock on my door and say, I'm gonna give you the deal of a lifetime.

Alexandra: 00:17:39

It's just, and I had a dear friend, Evan Goddell, who made a movie called Ble Bellflower.

Alexandra: 00:17:44

He had been in LA working on independent shorts, making his own movies for like 15 years.

Alexandra: 00:17:50

And he got into Sundance and all the trades said he was an overnight success, and he laughed so much.

Alexandra: 00:17:56

He was like, I'm an overnight success.

Alexandra: 00:17:57

15 years later, I've been living in my car.

Alexandra: 00:18:00

I've done all the.

Alexandra: 00:18:01

Typical filmmaker thing to get my movies made.

Alexandra: 00:18:04

When he got to Sundance, they called him an Overnight Success.

Alexandra: 00:18:07

So, because that's a great story, but you guys, there really is no, no such thing and there really is no such thing that a movie just takes off without a ton of marketing, a ton of people behind it, working very hard.

Alexandra: 00:18:21

I, you know, I love.

Alexandra: 00:18:22

One of the brothers, I can't remember which one, when he says the Calvary is never coming.

Alexandra: 00:18:27

Like people think the Cavalry coming.

Alexandra: 00:18:29

Even when you make a movie that goes to Sundance and you get an agent and they're like, oh, we're gonna get you 50 meetings this year.

Alexandra: 00:18:34

And then he said, I had 50 meetings and never made a movie because a cavalry is not coming.

Alexandra: 00:18:39

You are the cavalry and you have to go bake another movie, and you have to be the one who's creating your own projects.

Alexandra: 00:18:46

'cause.

Alexandra: 00:18:47

So I just think all that myth makes it seem like, oh, you just make a movie, or, I've had a ton of successful movies and I don't have a three picture deal with a studio.

Alexandra: 00:18:57

So I think that, you know, it's just realistic that that probably doesn't happen very often,

Jaclyn: 00:19:02

if ever.

Jaclyn: 00:19:03

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:19:04

Exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:19:05

Exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:19:05

And you know, this is actually like one of the reasons why I asked you to do the the mentorship program with me is because you bring such reality to the conversation.

Jaclyn: 00:19:17

You know, where you're not gonna tell someone that, oh, it's easy, you just do this.

Jaclyn: 00:19:22

And you also regularly say, there is no golden road.

Jaclyn: 00:19:25

If there was one we'd, I'll be on it.

Jaclyn: 00:19:28

And it's true.

Jaclyn: 00:19:29

So I love that.

Jaclyn: 00:19:31

Like you are, you are also, you're teaching people like, yes, okay, this, these are the things that you need to do.

Jaclyn: 00:19:36

But at the same time, it's like there really are no rules and no, your job is to figure out how to make it work each step of the way.

Alexandra: 00:19:44

I just said that this morning in the FAFF Association networking event that I was, uh, happy to be with, it was so awesome.

Alexandra: 00:19:52

And we went out into breakout rooms and a girl was telling me all the things she told me, people told her she couldn't do, and I sat there and I was like, I don't believe in rules.

Alexandra: 00:20:00

Don't listen to naysayers.

Alexandra: 00:20:02

It's in my book, a whole chapter on do not listen to naysayers.

Alexandra: 00:20:06

For those who say it cannot be done, do not interrupt the one who is out there doing it.

Alexandra: 00:20:10

I love that quote and I'm like, excuse me.

Alexandra: 00:20:14

There is no rules.

Alexandra: 00:20:16

Um, and I do think creating good content will always stand you out among the crowd of making you wanna make.

Alexandra: 00:20:23

Great content first and foremost, and try to always be a level of excellence so that you will continue to stand out.

Alexandra: 00:20:31

And I do.

Alexandra: 00:20:32

And I put, we put a lot of our heart, blood, sweat, and tears into making our movies as beautiful as we possibly can so that we are competing in the market.

Alexandra: 00:20:41

And that's what I encourage, even faith-based filmmakers to at least, you know, get the best people you can on your set.

Alexandra: 00:20:48

And get the best clothes and the best production design and blow it out of the water so that you can compete because it is very competitive out there.

Alexandra: 00:20:56

You can't just throw something together and think, oh, that's just gonna go out and do great.

Alexandra: 00:21:01

No, you got to be excellent at what you do.

Jaclyn: 00:21:05

Sorry, I don't know.

Jaclyn: 00:21:06

It was a tangent.

Alexandra: 00:21:07

But there are no rules.

Jaclyn: 00:21:08

No Golden road.

Jaclyn: 00:21:10

Exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:21:10

Exactly.

Jaclyn: 00:21:11

And I love, like a lot of our job is being problem solvers.

Jaclyn: 00:21:16

Like we have to figure out, okay, so what's working?

Jaclyn: 00:21:18

What's not working?

Jaclyn: 00:21:19

How do, how do we fix what's not working?

Jaclyn: 00:21:21

Can it be fixed or is it something that we need to adjust?

Jaclyn: 00:21:24

Which will take me actually to, um.

Jaclyn: 00:21:26

We're gonna go into a little bit deeper on this later about the need for flexibility in the next episode.

Jaclyn: 00:21:31

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:21:31

We'll jump into that.

Jaclyn: 00:21:33

But I will say that on Bible College, which is a, a series that I'm working on, I'm one of the, um, creators on it and one of the screenwriters.

Jaclyn: 00:21:42

And we had written the script, which we were very happy for.

Jaclyn: 00:21:46

Um, but there was one scene that we couldn't, we couldn't produce it, we couldn't film it on the day that we were in production for everything else.

Jaclyn: 00:21:54

So we filmed everything but this one scene because we needed more people for that scene.

Jaclyn: 00:21:59

We needed to have a band on the stage.

Jaclyn: 00:22:01

We like it was a big, big scene.

Jaclyn: 00:22:04

So we were like, okay, we'll do it as a pickup.

Jaclyn: 00:22:06

And um, and so the producer Jason was, you know, trying to work out with the location of when we could do this and when we'd have access to the band and all of these things.

Jaclyn: 00:22:16

And like there were just a lot of moving parts to make this scene happen.

Jaclyn: 00:22:19

And like two months later, we still had not gotten an opportunity and there was no opportunity inside.

Jaclyn: 00:22:26

It just seemed like there was just friction.

Jaclyn: 00:22:28

That's it.

Jaclyn: 00:22:28

And so I was like, Jason, do you think maybe.

Jaclyn: 00:22:32

Maybe we could rewrite it in a, a setting that we do have access to something that we would actually be able to, to just get in right away and make it happen.

Jaclyn: 00:22:41

Um, and he's like, okay, let me think on that.

Jaclyn: 00:22:44

And this is what is so great about working with people that are problem solvers and are professionals, and they're also her doners because he was also feeling the pressure he wanted to get this done.

Jaclyn: 00:22:56

So he, he thought about it and he is like, I got it.

Jaclyn: 00:23:00

How about instead of having it in the, uh, church sanctuary with all of this stuff happening, the purpose of that scene.

Jaclyn: 00:23:09

The actual reason the scene was there was for this one particular character to make an announcement, a very important announcement, but it was literally just to make the announcement.

Jaclyn: 00:23:21

And so he's like, let's have that character.

Jaclyn: 00:23:25

On the beach making the announcement, uh, because we, the end of the, the end of the episode, we're actually on the beach.

Jaclyn: 00:23:31

And so he, he said that, I was like, this is perfect.

Jaclyn: 00:23:35

You start in your ending and you end on the beach.

Jaclyn: 00:23:37

Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:23:38

So the other writer and I, we got together, we rewrote the scene, um, and he went and shot it like two days later.

Jaclyn: 00:23:45

And I think it looks better than it would have if it had been on like the stage in the church like this.

Jaclyn: 00:23:53

It's just, it's a completely different feel and I think it sets a different tone.

Jaclyn: 00:23:57

And if we did not have that flexibility, if we only had that one vision that we were like, this is it.

Jaclyn: 00:24:02

It has to be this, we'd probably still be waiting.

Jaclyn: 00:24:05

Yep.

Alexandra: 00:24:07

And I love the beach.

Alexandra: 00:24:08

I got to get a sneak peek and I think it adds more production value.

Alexandra: 00:24:12

And I think so a lot of people feel very close to God in nature.

Alexandra: 00:24:16

So actually for me as an audience member, I was more connected to that scene because they were on the beach than if they were just in a church sanctuary.

Alexandra: 00:24:24

I feel like it's more actually how a lot of people really can understand the love of God is being in nature.

Alexandra: 00:24:30

So I love it.

Jaclyn: 00:24:31

Yeah, absolutely.

Jaclyn: 00:24:33

Thank you.

Jaclyn: 00:24:33

And you know, um, you've been an amazing asset actually along the way as well that we've been able to meet with you.

Jaclyn: 00:24:40

And just so you guys know, listeners, um, if you need to meet with Alexandra and ask her questions and get some, you know, mentorship, she actually is available to book mentorship with.

Jaclyn: 00:24:50

You can go to faf association.com and under, uh, professional services, I think is what the tab says.

Jaclyn: 00:24:58

Um.

Jaclyn: 00:24:58

There's mentorship there, and Alexandra is one of our mentors.

Jaclyn: 00:25:02

Uh, so go ahead and, and book a time with her and you can ask her all these questions.

Jaclyn: 00:25:07

Whatever you're struggling with, she can help you brainstorm and figure some stuff out.

Jaclyn: 00:25:11

Yeah, I would love to.

Jaclyn: 00:25:12

And of course, uh, if you would like to join our mentorship program Yes.

Jaclyn: 00:25:17

Then you are absolutely welcome.

Jaclyn: 00:25:18

Uh, it comes with hours of content, like if you, okay, this was.

Jaclyn: 00:25:23

One kind of taste of being able to hear some of the wisdom of Alexandra.

Jaclyn: 00:25:28

But if you have been to any of her workshops at the festivals, you know that even if they give her two hours for a workshop, which they usually don't, there's no way she can fit everything that she's learned into two hours.

Jaclyn: 00:25:40

And so, yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:25:41

The way that we've done this mentorship is we've actually broken it down where it's like, okay, so here's this piece.

Jaclyn: 00:25:47

Let's talk about this till you've said everything you needed to say about it, and then we move on to the next piece.

Jaclyn: 00:25:52

And so it's ended up being like hours of content, um, so that people can actually go and hear the details of how to, uh.

Jaclyn: 00:26:00

Like the, the things you need to know.

Jaclyn: 00:26:02

So whether it's about writing a story from the perspective of knowing this is gonna work for distribution, or if it's like, how do you go into production in the most cost effective way?

Jaclyn: 00:26:13

Or even, you know, now that your movie is done, how do you get it out there?

Jaclyn: 00:26:17

How do, how do you market it?

Jaclyn: 00:26:18

Like we go through the whole thing.

Jaclyn: 00:26:20

And then also she's now doing this.

Jaclyn: 00:26:22

Series where she is talking about each of her movies individually, how she made them for the budget that she made them for, which you guys, they're all micro budgets.

Jaclyn: 00:26:31

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:26:31

So like this is the only way to actually make money back on movie.

Jaclyn: 00:26:35

Right now they're

Alexandra: 00:26:35

doable budgets.

Alexandra: 00:26:37

I am not up in the $6 million budget range.

Alexandra: 00:26:40

They're very doable.

Alexandra: 00:26:41

Yeah, I and you guys like the mentorship class is so amazing.

Alexandra: 00:26:45

It is everything I wish I had when I made my first feature film, and so I do encourage you to take it because I had to learn along the way and I couldn't find anything that gave this much information on how to succeed as an independent filmmaker.

Alexandra: 00:27:01

So I do encourage you guys to take the class because trust me, as somebody who started out with.

Alexandra: 00:27:07

I don't know anything and I gotta figure it out.

Alexandra: 00:27:09

I would've loved to have had this and in fact, Helena Santos, who joined the at your own risk, who was my producing partner on at your own risk, joined our workshop for at your own risk and heard about the class and was like, called me afterwards and she was like, Alexandra, this is everything we needed in our twenties in la Then no one provided, this is brilliant.

Alexandra: 00:27:27

So it's even vetted through some other Hollywood veterans who've been out there a long time working in the industry, being like.

Alexandra: 00:27:34

Wow.

Alexandra: 00:27:34

I didn't have this when I started out, so I really, it's a great resource.

Alexandra: 00:27:38

Take advantage of it.

Jaclyn: 00:27:40

Yeah.

Jaclyn: 00:27:41

And the mentorship side of it is that it does come with six hours of mentorship, three hours with me, three hours with Alexandra.

Jaclyn: 00:27:48

So as you're going through, uh, all of the, the video modules and stuff like that, you can be working on your own project and then when you need to actually talk to someone, you have access to that.

Jaclyn: 00:27:59

Um, and.

Jaclyn: 00:28:00

For anybody that's thinking, oh, it's expensive.

Jaclyn: 00:28:03

You know what else is expensive mistakes.

Jaclyn: 00:28:05

Yep.

Jaclyn: 00:28:06

Learning the hard way, that is also expensive.

Jaclyn: 00:28:08

Hard way.

Alexandra: 00:28:09

Yep.

Alexandra: 00:28:10

Yep.

Alexandra: 00:28:10

It's, no, it's very affordable for what you're gonna get out of it.

Alexandra: 00:28:14

Um, and I, like I've said, I've spent 26 years learning all of that so that I could give it to you guys for a much cheaper price than 26 years of hard work and trying to figure it out.

Jaclyn: 00:28:24

Amen.

Jaclyn: 00:28:26

All right, so we're going to actually, we're gonna end this here, and in the next episode, I really wanna dive into some of the things that we have noticed as we're mentoring people, that these are the holdups.

Jaclyn: 00:28:38

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:28:38

This is what is keeping them from being able to move forward.

Jaclyn: 00:28:42

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn: 00:28:42

Um, and so we're gonna dive into that in the next episode, so we'll see you guys there.

Jaclyn: 00:28:46

Thank you, Alexandra.

Jaclyn: 00:28:47

Thank you, Jaclyn.