Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

Screenwriter, story analyst, and editor Ron Peters takes us inside the craft of professional screenwriting through his experiences working on projects including Defiance, The Wolf of Wall Street, Fury, and Twin Peaks. Ron breaks down how he approaches a screenplay—first experiencing it as an audience member, then analyzing structure and character—and explains why compelling characters can matter even more than perfect structure. He also explores the importance of understanding your antagonist, internal conflict, and why The Wolf of Wall Street could use Jordan Belfort's own greed and self-obsession as powerful sources of antagonism.

Ron also shares practical advice for writers trying to break into Hollywood. He discusses when screenwriting formulas can be useful, why emerging writers should build a portfolio before becoming overly experimental, how gatekeepers evaluate scripts, and why writers need to trust their own unique experiences rather than becoming dependent on consultants. Most importantly, Ron argues that professional writing requires discipline: read every day, write every day, accept bad pages, rewrite relentlessly, and approach the work with the consistency of a nine-to-five job.

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Writer, producer, and director Miranda Sajdak takes us inside the realities of building a filmmaking career from the ground up. After studying film at Columbia, Miranda worked on graduate student productions before landing PA opportunities on major movies including The Bourne Ultimatum and Cloverfield. She explains what film school actually gave her, why it isn't necessary for everyone, how networking opens doors in Hollywood, and what filmmakers can learn by moving between massive union productions and scrappy independent sets where everyone has to become more resourceful.

Miranda also shares lessons from working as a writers’ and showrunner’s assistant, including why screenwriters need to lose their ego, accept notes, and understand that rewriting is part of the job. She recounts one of her wildest producing disasters—having to locate a pregnant horse about to give birth in the middle of a New York winter—and explains why independent filmmakers often need side businesses and multiple income streams while pursuing passion projects. From screenwriting and development to crowdfunding and directing, this conversation offers a practical look at what building a sustainable filmmaking career actually requires.

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Filmmaker Jason Kartalian grew up around movie sets through his father, character actor Buck Kartalian, whose credits included Planet of the Apes, Cool Hand Luke, and The Outlaw Josey Wales. That early exposure eventually led Jason behind the camera, where he developed his own approach to writing, directing, cinematography, and independent production. In this conversation, Jason explains why the most valuable filmmaking lessons often happen outside the classroom, how directors can preserve an actor's energy by avoiding unnecessary coverage, why he likes getting an entire scene in a master before chasing additional shots, and why indie directors benefit enormously from understanding the technical jobs around them.

Jason also breaks down his screenwriting process, from outlining and character development to writing a rough first draft and rewriting with fresh eyes. He explains how Seahorses evolved through collaboration with its actors, why production design and cinematography should reinforce a movie's central theme, and how he personally financed the film as a passion project before taking it through the festival circuit. Perhaps most importantly for independent filmmakers, Jason discusses why getting a movie onto digital platforms doesn't automatically create an audience. Distribution may make your film available, but getting people to actually watch it remains the filmmaker's challenge.

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Actress, artist, and producer Jackey Neyman takes us behind the scenes of one of the strangest cult movies in filmmaking history: Manos: The Hands of Fate. Jackey was only six years old when her father joined the production and brought far more than his performance to the movie—he also provided sets, props, costumes, furniture, a car, a Doberman, and his daughter for the cast. Jackey remembers what it was actually like making the ultra-low-budget production, watching the disastrous original premiere, and seeing a movie everyone involved tried to forget suddenly find an enormous new audience decades later through Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Jackey also discusses bringing the franchise back with Manos Returns, including crowdfunding the production, assembling an experienced low-budget filmmaking team, bringing surviving members of the original production back, and working toward making the best movie possible with limited resources. She explains why they didn't want to imitate the accidental qualities that made the original Manos infamous and instead wanted to create a genuine continuation made specifically for its fans. It's a fascinating look at how an independent film can fail, disappear, become a cult phenomenon decades later, and ultimately create opportunities its original filmmakers could never have predicted.

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Entertainment writer, screenwriter, and independent filmmaker Andrew Bloomenthal joins the show to discuss what years of interviewing working screenwriters and directors taught him about storytelling, preparation, and the filmmaking business. Andrew explains how his background in financial journalism unexpectedly opened the door to entertainment writing, eventually giving him opportunities to interview filmmakers including Oliver Stone and Michael Moore and contribute to publications such as Creative Screenwriting and Script Magazine. He also shares why every assignment should be treated as a calling card, how detailed research produces better conversations with filmmakers, and why writers need to develop an economy of words regardless of what they're writing.

The conversation also gets into deadlines, developing your own screenplays, transitioning from writing to production, and Andrew's experience preparing to shoot a musical short film. He discusses casting actors, recording musical tracks before production, scouting locations, planning shots, and the excitement that comes when something that existed only on the page begins becoming a real film. For aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers, Andrew's experience reinforces a practical lesson: preparation matters, but eventually you have to move beyond thinking about making a film and actually start producing it.

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