When it comes to making a movie, the journey from script to screen can be a wild ride, filled with unexpected twists and turns—much like the films themselves! In the latest episode of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Jon Mancinetti, a multi-talented screenwriter, director, producer, and actor, who’s currently riding the wave of success with his new comedy feature, Real Hard. Picture the hilarity of The Naked Gun and you’ll have a sense of the fun Jon’s film brings to audiences. We dive deep into the creative process behind the project, which is set to be showcased as the closing night feature at the SYS Film Festival on October 6. From the standout performances of his cast to his strategies for crafting a script steeped in humor, Jon offers invaluable insight into the world of independent filmmaking. So, if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to bring a laugh-out-loud comedy to life, or if you’re just curious about the behind-the-scenes chaos of film production, you won’t want to miss this episode. Curious to see how it all plays out? You can LEARN MORE here.
This is a transcript of SYS 526 – No Turning Back Filmmaking in LA with Jon Mancinetti.
Welcome to episode 526, of the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger with sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I am interviewing screenwriter, director, producer, and also actor Jon Mancinetti. He’s doing the festival circuit now with his comedy feature film Real Hard, which is a wild, broad comedy in the vein of the Naked Gun films. And it’s going to be showing at this year’s SYS film festival as our closing night feature film. It’s going to screen at 5pm on Sunday October 5. I’m sorry, October 6. Sunday, October 6. You can get tickets to our website, www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com. There you can see all the films that are being screened and their showtimes, and of course, get tickets to any of those screenings. Jon’s Real Hard was filmed here in LA, so there are lots of cast and crew members that are around LA, if you’ve never been to a screening like this, there are loads of fun. In fact, I would say probably this is the most fun part of the filmmaking process. Showing a film to a very receptive audience like this, where you have cast and crew members, just friends of cast and crew. They get the jokes. They know when the jokes are. They laugh at the jokes. The energy at these types of screenings is really contagious, and it’s, as I said, for me, it’s probably the most fun part of the filmmaking process. It’s just a real celebration of the film. So again, if you’ve never been to one of these, definitely consider coming out. This will be a really fun it’s a fun movie, really funny, and as I said, a lot of the cast and crew are going to be there. So, we’re going to have a good time. If you live in Los Angeles, do come out and support any of these independent films. Obviously, real hard will be our closing night film, but we’re going to be running films all weekend, and you can find the whole schedule again on our website. Anyway, so that’s what we’re going to be doing on the interview today. A couple of housekeeping things. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or retweeting the podcast on Twitter, or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mentioned the podcast can be found on my blog in the show notes. I also publish a transcript with every episode, in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/podcasts, and then just look for episode 526.
If you want my free guide How to Sell a screenplay in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide, it’s completely free. You just put in your email address, and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks, along with a bunch of bonus lessons, I teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay. In that guide, I’ll teach you how to write a professional login and query letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material. Really, is everything you need to know to sell at your screenplay. Just go to sellingyourscreenplay.com/guide.
So, a quick few words about what I’ve been working on. Obviously, the film festival is now less than a month away, so that’s consuming a lot of my time as I ramp up all the preparations for that. Again. It’s October 4th to October 6th here in Los Angeles. Do check out the website so you can see all the films that we’re screening. Again, that’s www.sixfigurefilmfestival.com, and of course, I’m also reading a lot of scripts as we wind down our screenplay contest. We have quite a few highly rated scripts this year, in fact, looking at our first round readers, they go through all the scripts and give them grades. So, I have some real hard data on the scripts as they come through that first round and there have been a number of scripts that have gotten really high recommendations from these first-round readers. So, I’m excited to start really checking some of those scripts out and potentially get them out to producers and our industry judges and see what kind of feedback we’re going to get. But should be a fun year reading scripts and figuring out which one is going to be the winning script. So, on the producing front, I’m still pecking away on my indie rom com, and I’m still trying to get that into pre-production. Hopefully I’ll have a draft here in the next, you know, month or two and I can start in really in on pre-production. There’s a couple of big pieces on that. Obviously, I have to be happy with the script, and I’m really just kind of making this so there’s just… I’m trying not to put a lot of time pressure on me and just really make sure the script is ready to go. I definitely felt like with the Rideshare Killer, there was a variety of reasons, and in hindsight, they worked out very well. We shot right before covid, and I don’t know the film ever would have gotten made if we had not shot in that December of 2019 because if we’d have waited, you know, four months, we would have been in the thick of covid, and we didn’t have a budget to hire you covid specialist and go through all the rigmarole, so we would have pushed back. And I don’t know the film ever would have gotten made. You know, sometimes there’s just sort of a time and place where things come together, but we were a little bit rushed, and there definitely were some things on the script that maybe we could have taken a little more time on. So, that’s sort of the approach I’m taking with this one. I’m under no real time pressure to get another film done, but I would definitely like to start working on something, but I just want to really, really spend some time in the script and make it as good as I possibly can. Anyways, those are some of the things that I have been working on. Now let’s get into the main segment. Today, I am interviewing filmmaker Jon Mancinetti. Here is the interview.
Ashley
Welcome Jon to the Selling Your Screenplay Podcast. I really appreciate you coming on the show with me today.
Jon Mancinetti
Thank you, glad to be here. So, to start out, maybe
Ashley
So, to start out, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background. Where’d you grow up, and how did you get interested in the entertainment business?
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Started making movies as a little kid in my parent’s backyard with the VHS video camera, which I have tattooed on my and I as the oldest brother, I kind of instinctively took to the role of director. We made parodies of our favorite films. We made our own original films. This was something that all of our friends and family knew about. They all wanted to be a part of it, huge part of my life and my upbringing. And I think there was no doubt since the time I was a child all the way past high school, that this was what I wanted to do with my life. So ended up going to Columbus College of Art and Design and majored in fine art. So, I was able to focus on a lot of different skills with drawing, painting, sculpting and storytelling and filmmaking. And ultimately, that was what I did my senior thesis on, was I re-edited my old kids movies, which we didn’t have editing equipment back then, using a VHS. And that was a huge process for me, because I kind of it all came full circle at that point. It was like, this is what I want to do with my life. And I think everyone agreed that this was the right path for me. So, I ended up moving to LA in 2013 I’ve been here a little over 11 years now. It has truly been a dream come true. You know, I dreamed of the sunshine and the beach and the weather and everything, but also the industry and everything. And so, it’s opened up a lot of doors for me, and worked on a lot of short films over the years, which have then built up to my most recent feature, also for work, I produce and direct a lot of commercial stuff. So just really been involved my whole life in the creative process and kind of keeping that focus.
Ashley
So, let me just go back on a couple of things, dig into a couple of things that you just said, So you made the move in, you said, 2023 from Ohio out here?
Jon Mancinetti
2013, actually.
Ashley
- Okay, so over 10 years ago now, so, but I’d be curious to just get some of your thoughts. I get a ton of emails people that are living in different places in the country or even the world, and they just want some basic advice. It’s been well over 20 years since I moved out to LA so I’m not sure if my advice is any good anymore, but as someone who now is 10 years, what is some of your advice, now you’ve been living here 10 years. You made that move. Did you know anybody in LA, did you just roll into town, find an apartment. Maybe you can just talk to that a little bit. How did you make that move? Just logistically, financially, emotionally?
Jon Mancinetti
It was tough. You have to be a self-starter, a self-motivator, a grinder, an entrepreneur. You know, you wear multiple hats. Money was very important. I was actually working for the Cleveland Cavaliers before I moved here, so I had a full-time job doing video for them. I was shooting tons of events and things on weekends in Cleveland. Anytime a big DJ would come through, I would follow them around and do a cool video for a few different nightclubs. So, I was just non-stop working, and I was able to put enough money aside to finally come. It’s important to come visit first, you know, and see the area and see if you can make it work. The first time that I came, I came for a couple of weeks, and I lived on people’s couches. I took the metro, you know, I saw what it was like to live here, and I fell in love with it, and then was obsessed with getting my life and myself here. And so, I actually had some work set up with a few clients that wanted to bring me here to film a few jobs. And so that just kind of went hand in hand. They flew for me to come out first class. I packed all my three giant bags. And because when you fly first class, all your bags are free. So, when I got here, crashed on a buddy’s couch. Then I had a client put me up, worked on a few different projects, and then I had a dream project. I actually got to direct a music video for one of my all-time favorite musicians, Chino Moreno, from Deftones. He had a side project called palms, and they hired me to do their first music video. It was a dream come true. I got to meet Chino, super cool guy. He loved the music video that we ended up doing, so many things. Found a place to get me here in 2013 where it was money, work, connections, and ultimately, when I got here, you know, you can’t just show up, and then that’s that you have to, obviously find a place. And that is extremely stressful in LA, you know, trying to find a place to live. I got lucky and found an awesome apartment in Hollywood. I had work lined up, I had money saved up, brought my dog at the time out here, and I was in grind mode, so I would go out with the attitude of, like everybody that I meet is going to be a networking opportunity. And I will say, over the years, I’ve kind of lost that a little bit, because, you know, it gets old after a while you go places, you feel like everybody’s just trying to network, and nobody’s actually able to offer you anything. So that is kind of something that can be stressful about LA, and I will say, I’ve known a lot of people that have come here and left they didn’t like it, and I think you have to love it, you have to want to be here, and you have to want to put the work in, you know, it’s, of course, a place where you can live casually. I know plenty of people that you know barely work and scrape by and still enjoy LA and you can go to the beach on a Tuesday. You know, you can do so many things, but I have a very strict sort of regimen, you know, when I’m working from home, and I make sure to, you know, wake up, workout, walk the dogs, feed them, and then I work all day, put time aside to ride every night, and that is my routine. And I’ve fallen into this sort of routine that works for me, and I think that’s what’s most important about making it work in a city like this, because it ain’t cheap, and that would be my advice, is you have to want it, and you have to be ready to work hard. And I will say I worked so hard to get here. I was a little bit exhausted when I showed up and I couldn’t find an apartment. I remember I called my mom in tears, like I don’t know if this is going to work. And what I realized was it was so much work to get here, but then when you get here, it’s even more work to make it work. So just be ready if you’re trying to move to LA to know that like it’s going to take you a lot of work to get here, but then when you get here, the work is nowhere near done. If anything, it’s just begun.
Ashley
How did you get that? Just out of curiosity, how did you get that job at the Cleveland Cavaliers? It sounds like a great job for someone that’s sort of training to be a filmmaker, just out there with a camera every day shooting all of these events.
Jon Mancinetti
It was a great opportunity. I actually interviewed with a video production company in Cleveland, and I didn’t get the job because I didn’t wear a tie to my interview, apparently, which is like, what, dude, this is a creative job, I mean, but hey, it wasn’t meant to be the guy from the owner of the company really loved my work, though, and so I should say also that technically, Real Heart isn’t my first feature. I did a super low budget feature in Cleveland called Never Escape. It was like a couple $1,000 and me with a video camera. It was crazy. I had a ton of people involved in it, though, nobody got paid. I didn’t pay for almost anything but food and some, you know, equipment and stuff. But it’s like a post apocalyptic sort of film. And I learned so much from this project, you know, and that was the project where, after it was done, I was like, This is what I meant to do. And I did a huge premiere at Cedar Lee theater in Cleveland, and 300 people came, and I was in the news and the newspaper everything, and that just catapulted everything. So it put me on the map. Uh, that’s how this guy found out about me at the production company in Cleveland, and how a lot of the nightclubs and people found out about they wanted to work with me. I started doing music videos for artists that got featured in scene magazine. So, I really kind of rose the ranks. And that that is one good thing about being in a city like Cleveland, you know, a big little city, is that, you know, if you do good work, you’re going to get noticed, and so that he recommended me, the guy from the production studio to the Cavaliers, and I interviewed, and they love my work. So that’s kind of how that all worked out.
Ashley
Was that ever any cause for concern, and even now, being out in LA for 10 years, did it feel since you were, you know, a big fish in a small pond in Cleveland, had plenty of work. Does that ever entice you, maybe to go back there? Or, you know, be easier to find work, or something. Was there ever that moment as you’re trying to find work here in LA for those first couple years, things are a little rough? Was that ever a sort of a carrot that was dangled?
Jon Mancinetti
I want to instantly, just say – Absolutely not. Like, the minute that I got out of Cleveland, I was like, I’m never going back, you know. And I think there was this concern with me when I was there, because I felt like I had rose to the ranks. And then that was it like, you know. And it was like, Cool, everybody knows about you, and you’re just making nightclub videos, and you’ve got this job for and I, you know, not to knock the calves. I’m still a huge fan of the calves, even though I do root for the Clippers now as well, and sometimes LeBron for the Lakers. But it became sort of like a newscaster job, you know, and I got in trouble for not uploading commercials to their server. And I was like, dude, you hired me to write and direct, you know, commercials and content, and I actually got to make some of the open videos that they play on the Jumbotron before the players come out. That was awesome. But then the job got into full swing, and it was like, shut up and sit at the computer and upload this and do that. And I’m not a newscaster, you know what I mean? I am a storyteller. I’m a filmmaker. And I started to meet a lot of people that had been in Cleveland for years and they were bloated and depressed and just not going anywhere. And I’m like, that is not going to be me, you know. And I knew so many people from Cleveland that had gone to LA and had some success, gotten some work, gotten some jobs while working on cool projects. And I was like, I have what it takes to do this. Why am I just not doing it? And so that’s why it really was a dream come true. I mean, from, you know, watching movies, even as a kid, every movie takes place in LA, and I just always obsessed about LA. And I’m obsessed with the band, the doors and Jim Morrison and their history in LA. So, there was always this drive to be in LA for me. So, once I got here, it was like, There’s no turning back. But I will say, especially with the things that have been going on in the industry lately. I mean, Superman just filmed in Cleveland, right? And hence, it’s really hard to get, you know, work now. So there have been moments where I’m like, man, you know, but it’s never been like, I’m going to go back, like, maybe I could, like, get a job or something, and then, you know, and I have done that, I have had some clients that have kind of flown me back and forth. And to me, this is home now, you know, this is home, and I’m never going anywhere. I have a great house in the valley, and you can see my dog, Smokey’s butt and legs here. He’s happy. We’re happy. And I want to say there’s no looking back, but the main thing, honestly, is family. I mean, I miss my family a lot. I don’t get to see them as much as I hope they understand that I’m following my dreams, you know. But my youngest brother, he’s special needs, and he facetimes me multiple times a day, but, you know, it’s not the same. And they always say they want me to come visit, but it’s hard, you know, to constantly back and forth. So that would probably be the biggest thing, is just missing out on family. And my middle brother has four kids, and they’re growing up, you know, and I try to stay involved in their life, but it’s one of those sacrifices, and it’s like I believe in what I’m doing here, and, you know, I know not, hopefully, I know that it’s going to pan out for me. I know that this is going to be a worthwhile venture.
Ashley
So, you’ve done a number of shorts, and maybe you can speak to that. Just, how did those shorts prepare you for then doing a feature film, to putting together a feature film yourself?
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah, sure. So just a little bit about my past. Obviously, did a bunch of student films in college, and we started doing this character called Bryce Stevens, and he does citizens arrests. So, it was kind of like a reality show where this guy would come and arrest people for doing stupid crimes. The cops didn’t have time for such a fun project. I ended up playing the villain. My brother was his sidekick, and then my best friend was Bryce Stevens. All of the kids, everybody in school, loved Bryce Stevens. So, we ended up making a movie, sort of like while we were graduating, and then after we graduate, and it took so long to finish this project. I mean, the three of us kind of co-directed, and there was no script. It was like all improv. We would just get hey, let’s try this scene, and we would get together and we do it. And oddly enough, I mean, to this day, I still enjoy watching it. It’s freaking hilarious. And we got our friends together after we finished it, and everybody loved watching it. So, it was a worthwhile project for me. But again, it was a big learning effort. And that’s when I was like, okay, I want to just go solo. I want to direct something on my own. So I did Never Escape, which I just mentioned previously, had some success with that. And this was Bryce Stevens. Was like 2006-2007 then, but Never Escape, was like 2009-2010 had the premiere. That went great. So then, you know, a lot of people wanted to work with me in Cleveland, and I did a 32nd contest with the Plain Dealer, which is the paper in Cleveland, and we won first place with that. So that was like the film had success, did the short. So, I started doing more shorts. I did another one where it was a movie mashup, and I got Robocop and Titanic, and this is available on my YouTube. It was called robo Jack, and they actually bring Jack from Titanic back to life as the Robocop. And I made it with toys. It was ridiculous, but we won the Audience Award with that with accurate film. So those shorts kind of got me going, you know. And I will say they were extremely low budget. I mean, I think coming from a Cleveland mentality, was like, I’m going to do everything myself, you know. And I did have actors and people help me, but, but it was good and bad. I think it was good because I learned every element on a set and what to do from pre-production posts. But I think then coming to LA, what I learned is there are talented people in every role that you should be utilizing, you know. So then coming to LA, I mean, the first few years, we’re just making it work here, you know, I started actually adopting dogs and rescuing dogs. That’s been a big part of my life. And then I wanted to tell a story about it. My last dog actually kind of passed away suddenly, and it really kind of messed me up. And I wanted to tell a story about how rescuing that dog and then losing him motivated me to start fostering. So I did a film about fostering dogs. It’s called Lost and Found. And my dog, Smokey, who you see here, he actually plays the role of the first dog that I fostered in the film, which some people can’t, like, understand. They’re like, wait a minute, didn’t you keep that dog in the movie? You get him adopted. It’s like, he’s acting, dude. You know he’s an actor in the film. So, I actually play myself in the film, but I had a ton of different comedians play my friends and the other roles in the film. And I was going for like a Judd Apatow style comedy, but like with the positive message of rescuing dogs, and it took off. So, we did a premiere here in… Oh, when was this, 2017 so this was my first big film here in LA. It’s 28 minutes long. I actually did a Kickstarter campaign, raised some money to do the film. It was a little nerve wracking, because I quit my job at the time. I was working at actors for autism, teaching them how to make films, and I quit to do this project, and it came out so good. I’m still so proud of the film. It has the positive message that I wanted to deliver about rescuing dogs. But it’s done in such a fun way, you know. It’s been called kind of like pit bulls and parolees meets the hangover. And that’s exactly what I wanted. And so that film opened up so many doors for me. We did a sold-out premiere downtown, then I ended up touring, really, the whole world with this film. I got to go city to city, and I brought my dog with me. We drove all around, I would partner with a local rescue in every city we went to. We went to 50 different cities, so the ticket proceeds would go to helping the rescue. I would maybe even visit a shelter and try to help local dogs get adopted. I mean, it was like it was great, because I learned how to use my skill and my passion for cinema to put it towards something that I’m passionate about in life, you know. And I think people resonated with that. They really wanted to be a part of it. And got to go to Australia and screen the film in a couple cities, that was huge. So, when I came back from that whole project, there was no doubt that I had to do it again. And I ended up doing another film called Super Bois. Both of these films are available on YouTube and Amazon, and that film was a huge, milestone for me, because I did another Kickstarter. I actually raised 60 grand for this project, so did a Kickstarter for that, and this film is based on, I mentioned my youngest brother who has special needs, so we’re very close. We were really close growing up. And like I said, we grew up making movies together, so I wrote this kind of fictional story about this guy’s brother who has autism, who comes to visit, and they decide to make a superhero movie together, like they used to do as kids. And very heartwarming story. Again, I tried to make it very comedic, and had comedic actors involved. And it did so well. However, right as we were about to do the premiere in the tour, covid happened, so I never got to actually, I was going to try to tour with it and show it, you know, with some organizations like I did it again. But, you know, everything happens for a reason. And I think after that process, I went through the, I think, as everybody did, the wave of, like, super depressed, what am I doing? Why did I do this? Okay, wait, maybe there’s a chance. And finally, I came to the conclusion of, you know, start focusing on your storytelling. Use this time during covid, during the lockdown, to become a better writer. And so that’s what I did. And I started reading more. I started studying more writers and their process, and reading books about screenwriting, and watching every single master class I can find. I’ve watched directors’ commentaries of all my favorite movies, and taken notes and just nerded the hell out on storytelling and writing. And like I said, since then, during the pandemic, it’s become a daily practice for me. So, I do write every single day now, and I actually have seven screenplays, one of which is Real Hard the film that we are going to talk about, and it’s kind of all springboarded to this. I use my writing abilities to do three, five-minute short films as well, which are also available online. Space Dust, Life’s Work and Shamans Call, and so Space Dust is a comedy. Two stoners find a meteor and they decide to snort it and gain superpowers. Life’s Work is a sort of black and white homage to Twilight Zone. And I grew up obsessed with Twilight Zone. I always want to just make my own Twilight Zone episode. So that’s what I did with life’s work, and that was my most successful short. I think it won like over 80 awards or something crazy. And then Shamans Call, which I just I didn’t want to act anymore. I want to take a break from acting. But then I decided to play the main character in shamans call, and actually took a camera crew out to Joshua Tree. And I was kind of based on a personal experience during the pandemic. I went to Joshua Tree a few times and had some sort of like mind-bending experiences, figuring out my life. And I wrote the story about this guy who’s actually contemplating suicide by a campfire in the desert, and he sees Jim Morrison appear to him in the fire. So, all three of those films did really well in festivals, but again, it was kind of like half online half screening because of just getting out of the pandemic. So ultimately, it all led this all led to the decision of now the time has come I am going to make a feature length film.
Ashley
Perfect, and that’s a perfect segue into Real Hard. So maybe just start out, you can talk about real hard and just give us a quick pitch or logline. What is this film all about?
Jon Mancinetti
It’s a fun homage to 90s comedies. And these are the films that I grew up on and shaped me into the person that I am, the comedic person that I am and the filmmaker that I am. So it all kind of started from realizing that, number one, I knew it was going to be low budget, you know, learning the lessons that I learned from all of my shorts, I didn’t want to try to tackle something that was so grand, that was out of my reach, that when I try to do it, people were just going to watch. And be like, come on. You know what I mean? So I was like, let’s just do something fun, just straight up fun packed with jokes, non-stop humor. And kind of the realization too, was I actually watched the director’s commentary of The Mask with Jim Carrey, and at the end, the director was like, I just wanted to make a party on screen for two hours, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it. And I was like, that’s what I want to do. And so, I studied the director’s commentary of Ace Ventura Naked Gun. I went back to the classics and studied a lot of Groucho Marx, which I know influenced a lot of the Naked Gun. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen before Naked Gun. There was actually Police Squad. So, it was a TV show that had a limited sort of run, that that spawned, Naked Gun. And so I kind of what all this all began with. I always give myself sort of like writing tasks or writing prompts. And one of the writing prompts that I had, I remember I wrote on my whiteboard was I was going to write an episode of Police Squad. And so, I did. I just wrote a fun episode of police squad, but I made it my own. I kind of came up with my own characters, but it was same sort of style. Well, time passed, and I just kind of put it on the shut off and didn’t think about it. Um, so then the realization came of, I’m going to do a feature, and I want it to be fun, and I want it to be comedic. And I thought you already kind of have the framework with this short so I revisited it, it was called Nude Weapon originally. I mean, it was just so like on the nose, like a parody of Naked Gun. And I thought, let me develop this. Let me take this to the next level and put it through the whole process, and maybe I can mention that next. But what I did was I developed the hell out of the script and multiple revisions, multiple revisions, till I finally got one that I was proud of. Then at that point, I spent like a month just writing jokes, like I just wrote jokes and then try to cram them into the script. Where could this joke go? Where could that joke go? A lot of the characters have sayings. And Chuck Palahniuk, actually one of my favorite writers, he calls them choruses. So, when you’re writing, you want your characters to kind of have those things that they repeat that resonated with people like, the first rule of fight club is you don’t talk about fight club. And so came up with these choruses for all my characters. And Lucille Lincoln, who’s this southern psychopath, almost everything out of her mouth is like a funny southern saying. Kate Huntley, the cinema sleuth, he’s constantly saying, you know, Blockbuster blunders and these funny things, and so I’m so proud of the script and all the work that I put into it, and I think ultimately that’s why the film is a success now, is because I just spent endless hours making sure this script was so pristine, and went through all the you know, process to get it to that point.
Ashley
So, you mentioned Naked Gun. And as you were talking about your background. One of the things, and I think you said this before we started the actual interview, but one of the things you said was this, how much, and you just repeated how much time you put into the writing of this. One of the things that impressed me about the film, obviously, I liked the writing, but I’ve been and listened to so many scripts in writer’s groups, and they’re funny. They people laugh in the group, but then when they turn them into shorts or movies and stuff, they don’t actually translate. Maybe you can speak to that a little bit, because I think all of these years of you running around with a video camera, doing videos, doing promos, doing all that sort of stuff, it gave you a good ability to translate what’s on the page to the actual screen. And I think that’s often lost, especially with broad comedies like this. It’s not just the joke that has to be awesome. It also has to ultimately end up on the screen. Just how did you do that? How do you approach something like that, making sure that it’s as funny on the screen as is on the page?
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah. Well, thank you so much. That’s a great compliment. I’ve also, you know, read a lot of independent filmmaker scripts and been to so many festivals. And I, you know, I think one thing is when a filmmaker tries to do something that’s very dramatic or very serious or maybe even scary or whatever, and the acting sucks, it falls short. I mean, you are brought out of it right away. And so, I knew going into it that the acting was so vitally important. So honestly, almost all of the actors I brought back from previous projects, so Lance Allen plays Kate Huntley, the cinema sleuth in the film, and he actually was one of the actors in my film, Lost and Found, and we hit it off. I mean, we became friends after that project. He lives in Chicago now, and so he would sometimes come and crash at my couch and smoke blunts with me, and we would crack jokes. And I always knew I wanted to work with him again, and he just has a great personality for a project like this. And then a lot of the actors that I brought back were from short films that I did or whatever. And the goal there was like, I already knew they were good, you know. And then also, when I was writing the script, it was like, this person will be great for this, you know? And I, and there were several roles, I didn’t even make them audition. I was just like, I wrote a role for you, and I want you to do it. And they were like, Yeah, I’m down, um, and I will say credit to the actors too, because when I gave them the script, I mean, it’s loaded with dick, fart and pussy jokes, you know what I mean. So, it’s like, I’m excited that they ran. It. And they were like, no, Jon knows what he’s doing. This is going to be good. So, I will say to your point, I think the main key was bringing back actors that I’d already worked with, that I knew were going to kill it. But then at the same time, there were a number of actors that I didn’t work with. It was my first time working with them, and so I did a rigorous casting process. I think the most important was Lucille Lincoln, the southern psychopath who I mentioned, and so I found Vancy Vega. She is honestly a blessing to this project, if not one of my favorite elements of the film. She is like she’s Dolly Parton meets Dr Evil. Me a little bit of Harvey Weinstein in there. So, it was a very specific role, and we had some and I wanted to be like an older creepy lady too, because there is a part where she seduces the detective. And just to make it even funnier, like having her be an older actress, I thought would add some humor to it, you know, and there are jokes about maybe her age and her skin and whatever. So, I auditioned older actresses, and they were good and they were funny, and they had representation, and they were legit, but there was just something missing. And my buddy recommended a drag queen to me, and I looked her up and unfortunately, she wasn’t available. So, then I thought, well, let’s go down this route. Let’s start looking that up. And my assistant at the time, went on Instagram and found fancy Vega. She actually does Dolly Parton impersonations. So, when I reached out to her and I said, hey, would you be interested in this? She said, yeah. So, we got on Zoom, and I’m not kidding you, there was my character that I had written. I mean, she was in the whole makeup, a 100% Hey, Dolly, how you doing? Let’s get right into it. And I’m like, and, I mean, she we read like, one scene, and I was like, this, it’s your it’s you, you know. And I, I did take some time to think about it, but, I mean, I knew from the moment I hung up that that was her. So I really lucked out with her, and I’m so grateful that we found her as well as, you know, some of the other new actresses and actors that I brought on board, Walter, who plays the big guy in the beginning, he was just hilarious. And there were so many elements that I actually wrote into the film that once he came on set, he made it even funnier. And we were like, how like he put something that didn’t even have comedy in it, he made it funny. And so, I think I really lucked out with the acting on this, because there were tons of jokes that were obviously written for the film. But then I think all the actors just got it, and once they came on board, they knew, you know, we were having fun. And I wanted to almost bring that esthetic back that I had as a kid when I picked up the video camera and it was just nothing but laughs. And so, I think that’s one reason maybe why the film is successful.
Ashley
Well, that’s a fascinating answer, and I hope people really listen to this, because so often you do see those student projects, and when the acting is bad, it doesn’t matter how good the writing or directing or anything is. But I would push you a little bit further, because, I mean, it’s also the editing, and you keep mentioning the jokes per page, maybe you can talk about that a little bit. Did you go back and look at some? Because I always challenge people. A lot of times, when I’m talking to comedy writers, they’ll have a script that’s a comedy, and you look at it and there’s, like, you know, two maybe jokes per page. But if you go to these scripts like Naked Gun, you might find eight or 10 jokes per page, and it’s just a phenomenally high joke count. Can you speak to that a little bit? Did you go back and look at some of these Naked Gun scripts? How many jokes per page do they have? And then, how did you actually pack your script with jokes?
Jon Mancinetti
Totally, I mean, I could talk for hours about this. So, I studied just writing comedy. I very specifically. I think each script that I take on, there’s a research phase before I even kind of start. And so, you know, listening to the director’s commentary on Naked Gun, as well as Ace Ventura, I mean, really, all of Jim Carrey’s movies, and one thing I like to do, too, is I read the script while I watch the film, and so I see, oh, okay, that’s how this translated, or this didn’t work, or that might have got cut, that’s very helpful. So, for any up-and-coming screenwriters, I highly recommend that process. But one thing I recommend, or one thing that I found while studying specifically the Naked Gun films, they talked about a writer named Pat Prof. And Pat prof was the guy who wrote all these puns, and he ended up writing a lot of these parody films. The guy’s a genius, I mean, so there are rules for writing comedy, tried and true that works. And you can read books about this that are specific things that I tried to do, like the classic Texas switch, you know, I run off screen and I come back and I’m in a suit, you know, or I dive behind something, and I pop up in it, and I’m a different actor. And so, there is that in the film, there are a lot of things that I tried to do that I saw in there, but with writing the jokes, you know, you have to know when to put the punchline and then maybe even slide another joke in, oh, you know, another. Book that was really helpful for me too, was about the Simpsons. Now I’m blanking on the guy’s name again, but one of the writers for The Simpsons wrote at length about writing comedy for The Simpsons, and I took extensive notes on this, and I compared it to what I was doing. And what you can do actually, is you can take your script and you can say one, one part that I like to bring up is, so they’re in this studio, and Kate has kind of snuck in the detective, and they find him. What are you doing here? Well, I just want to ask some questions. And it begins this whole sort of pun process back and forth of him saying, uh, she goes, well, you know, my assistant was supposed to direct this film, and he’s like, You originally wanted your assistant to direct this film. She’s like, No, not my assistant, my assistant. She’s a skilled filmmaker, and she was my first choice. Oh, okay. And who was your editor? She’s like, Edward, and he’s like, who’s like, Ed inner I’ll never work with him again. So, I so that was they do that in Naked Gun and, of course, Police Squad. So that was my attempt at, kind of doing something similar. But then what I did was, so I just wrote that first off the top of my head, boom, boom, boom. Here’s the jokes I actually did find. Did some research as to the puns that I wanted to use, but then I went in and like, okay, so can I slide another joke in here? You know, can I put something else there and then? And then, you always want to kind of bookend, you know, if it’s like a series of jokes, you need to have one strong joke at the end. It’s actually called something I can’t remember now top of my head, either, but it’s important that you have that. So, if you watch a lot of the jokes in the film, if it’s a running gag, you know, then the last one is the funniest one. So, for instance, like Star Wars is kind of made fun of the new Star Wars movies is made fun of quite a lot in the film, because the producer, Lucille, it’s mentioned that she was the one that made these new Star Wars film and she was actually based off of Kathleen Kennedy. So, there’s an interview where Kathleen Kennedy is getting kind of reamed out by Mark Hamill for doing a bad job with the new Star Wars films. And that kind of started this whole thing. But that’s another conversation. So, you know, I started kind of developing all of this, and I haven’t mentioned that she was the, the person who ruined the new Star Wars movies. Okay? So then later on in the film, she goes those damn cosmic tussle films, and he’s like, they’re called Star Wars, you know. And then later in the film, she’s like, those Galaxy feud films, he’s like, they’re called Star Wars, you know. And then finally, then he’s like, they’re called Star Wars. And so then when he finally defeats the villain, right? And she’s laying there, defeated, he’s like, that was for Star Wars, and that was like the biggest running gag of the film. And I have to say, one of the major reasons why I decided to take the short and make it into a feature, because that joke was always in there. And so, what I learned was how to do running gags that aren’t just like in a scene, but then they go throughout the whole film. It’s mentioned, maybe beginning, middle, end, or numerous times. And so, I think anyone who wants to write comedy, I highly recommend. You know, I think Stephen King says, when you’re feeling uninspired, read, when you’re feeling inspired, write. And so, one thing I learned during the pandemic was reading was so vitally important to my process, even when I don’t have time to read, I’ll listen to an audiobook study story. And so that helped me tremendously with, you know, figuring out how to pace the jokes and how to put stuff here and there, and then ultimately, I edited the film as well. So, it really helped. I think it was the icing on the cake, even though it was very grueling editing the film. I’m not going to lie sitting here every day working on it. It really helped as a writer. It was the final piece of the puzzle, because it was like, Dude, this joke you wrote, it works. You know, how I’m going to make it work even better? I’m going to put a reaction shot here so that like, they say the punchline and then you show someone’s face, it makes it even funnier. So, there’s a lot of lessons you learn. And I highly recommend anyone who’s a writer, even just to try editing because it’s going to make your writing better in the long run.
Ashley
Sound Advice for sure. Let’s just talk about your writing process a little bit. Where do you typically write? When do you typically write? Do you looks like you have a home office here? Do you write your home office? Do you go to Starbucks? You need that ambient noise? Just walk us through sort of your writing process. When you’re working on a script, how does your day shape up?
Jon Mancinetti
I’ve never been one of those people that likes going public places to write, I’m very like, this is my sanctuary, and I think best when I’m with my dogs. You know, Smokey usually is just laying by my side, and that helps you hear me say his name. So, for me, that helps. Now, when I was working on this film, I actually had a few clients that I was working with on some commercial projects. So I was blessed to be able to kind of wake up, you know, work out, start my day, answer some emails, maybe do some things on the projects, and then, you know, transition and spend the next half of my day just writing. And I am one of those people who, if I can spend 6, 7, 8, hours a day writing, I’m going to make. Huge strides. I hate when I can only do an hour or two a day, but lately, with my schedule, you know, I’ve been really busy, so it is a bit of a struggle sometimes, you know, finding that time to get in there. In a perfect world, I would wake up and start writing right away. But, you know, there’s many other things that need to be done, especially since I’m also a writer, director, you know, there’s other forms, you know, elements, but I love to really zone out, Spark, some incense or something, you know, I don’t like writing in silence. I like to have maybe some, some ambience music going on, and that really helps. Or maybe, like, if I’m writing something specific, having some soundtrack music that kind of goes along with what I’m writing, that usually helps too. And like I said, I do a lot of research going into anything. This whiteboard will be filled with movie notes. So, one thing that I’m known for doing is so for instance, with this film, real hard. I took every film that was kind of an influence. So, every single Naked Gun, ace, Ventura, Liar, liar, the mask, oh, all of the Austin Powers films, and Indiana Jones was also a big influence on this film, too. So, what I do is I create kind of like a bracket system on my board, and I have, like, the questions at the top, what is it about? What’s the intention, what’s the obstacle, what did I like about it? What didn’t I like about it? How does it end? What was the budget? Who is the director? You know that? When was the release date and the rating? So, then I’ll watch these films, I’ll take extensive notes in my book, and then I’ll translate them to the board. And then when it’s all said and done, this board is filled with information, and I can just look at it and be like, Oh yeah, that’s how look at Indiana Jones ended the same way that Austin Powers to ended, or something like that, you know. And it kind of just like creates this spark of creativity for me. And, you know, ultimately, my goal wasn’t to make another Ace Ventura or another Naked Gun. I wanted to pay homage to that. And I think one thing that I’ve heard from people from screening this film already is it takes on a life of its own. You know, you can definitely see those resemblances of like, oh yeah, that kind of reminded me of Indiana Jones there this. But you know what? It becomes its own thing. And I think that’s what’s missing from Hollywood today. Is not only the kind of ballsy move to tell some jokes that are maybe, you know, people are afraid of telling now, but also, instead of everything being a dang remake. You can pay homage to films that people make while creating something new. And that’s, you know what? I think, hopefully my writing kind of culminated with this.
Ashley
Yeah. So how much time do you spend, and I guess this project was a little different the sense you wrote this short first. But how much time do you typically spend in like a notebook or doing index cards versus how much time are you actually in Final Draft, whipping out screenplay pages?
Jon Mancinetti
It depends on the project. With this one, I have to say, I worked fast because I kind of knew that I was going to be doing it right. I think with my other screenplays, like the sky was the limit, and I was kind of writing it in a way where, like, maybe I’ll try to sell the screenplay, right? So, if I’m going to try to sell it, then I can write and come up with anything I want, but then in that case, you know, multiple revisions, multiple revisions. And I actually have a script that I have been working on for a few years now. It’s called The Dream, and it’s kind of based on my years in high school in the late 90s. And it’s this, like, white boy thug, weed selling sort of super bad John Hughes type story, and that’s been something that I’ve, I don’t even know how many hours I’ve spent on that thing, screenplay. I mean, I have, it’s gone through like 12 rounds of revisions, insane. But with this, it was different, because I knew right away, like, I’m going to write this so that I could make it. And I think that’s important, like, if your goal is to just write something to try to sell it, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t limit yourself, as if there’s no budget cap, but if you’re going to be making it, you know, be realistic. And so, with that, it kind of gave me some boundaries, and I was able to bust this one out fairly quickly. So, I think, obviously, I’d written the short. Probably spent maybe 20-30 hours on the short and then put it aside. And then a few years went by, and then it was like around November of 2022, I started doing the research phase for like a month or two in in my notebook. I didn’t do cards for this one, because I kind of already had the structure and what I wanted to do, I also the first thing I did. So, I had the short and the first thing I wrote was the ending. So, when I knew that I was going to do it, I sort of wrote the final scene first, and it changed a lot. But there was always, I don’t want to spoil the film if people see it, but the way that the film ends kind of was always there. The way that the bad guy was defeated was our reason. So, I started by writing the end, then I kind of filled in the pieces. A lot of the characters were kind of different. The villain originally was going to be like, I do declare, you know, like, like, this prim and proper woman. And one thing that I do is, part of my process is I also act so and I have a cameo in this film. And, well, yeah, like I acted in my other films, like I was saying, so. So, I will finish a screenplay, even if it’s just rough, and I’ll record myself performing it, and I’ll listen to it a million times, and I get into it. I do every character’s voice, you know. And so the first time I read Real Hard, I kind of just started talking like this southern veil, like, you know, oh my and it was instead of like, I do declare, you know. And I started talking like this. And I listened to, I was like, Dude, that is so much funnier, you know. And then that prompted me to go ahead and look up 1000s of southern phrases and load her dialog with those. And then I started making up my own southern phrases, you know. And that made it funny, too. So, the process of, I think, like, it’s a little bit half and half, but once I get, sort of like balls deep into the final draft. I mean, there’s no turning back, you know, but I will sort of every day write a recap. Quentin Tarantino said that when he writes, he likes to spend the bulk of his day working on a scene, and then he’ll go and he’ll get in his pool and kind of wait around and think about what he’s going to do the next day, and that’s his homework. And I kind of have a similar thing. I have a hot tub. So, I don’t get in it every day like him. I wish I could, but I like to, sort of like work on something, maybe sit in the hot tub again. It’s kind of like my creative sanctuary. I think about what I’ve just done, being submerged in water, something like that really helps too. But, um, yeah, and then thinking about what to do the next day, and it’s kind of like a daily thing. I’m going to crank this down and, bam, bam, bam, bam. Then I get the first draft, then I analyze it. What do I like? What don’t I like? I’ll also plot that out on the whiteboard. I’m visual, so I like to see it sort of linearly too. So, I’ll write like a line and I see, okay, this is happening here, here, here. Maybe this could get cut, or that could go and then, yeah, I just did several revisions until I was confident. With it. And I will say, with this one, the one thing that was different, I was still revising it when I was sending it out to people, because we had, like, the shoot dates ready. So, I was like, okay, well, here’s pretty much the script, but like, I have a little bit of like, fine tuning to do, which is a little nerve wrecking for I don’t like that. I like to send out something that’s fully completed. But think, like I said, all the actors knew me and knew they trusted me. So, in the long run, I think it all worked out. And I think because it was a fun comedy that worked hard.
Ashley
Now in script, and sounds like it’s part of your development process, is just yourself acting it out, going through that process, but once you start sending it out, did you do a full read? Did you get feedback from these actors? Where there’s some jokes, and I’m sort of looking like, how do you navigate that process when you get some feedback that maybe you agree with it, but maybe you get some feedback you don’t agree with, and you know, you’re still in sort of an early stage. How do you deal with that kind of feedback, and especially with a comedy like you must have gotten some people saying, oh, this joke doesn’t work, but you believe that it would. How do you navigate some of that that process?
Jon Mancinetti
There was one joke in the film that I wrote. He finds a clue, and he gets up and he’s like – This is more out of place than a used condom at a children’s playground. And everyone was like, no, just no. And there’s no way that you’re putting that in the film. So, then the actor changed it to – A used condom at a family reunion. And I thought, you know, that’s a good, fine we’ll go with that, you know. And there were, I will say, there were a lot of jokes. There were some moments where I crammed it with jokes, and then in the editing process, I was like, well, I like this joke, but like, I got to speed things along, you know, because there’s also pacing to think about too. So, I do think some of the jokes, maybe they got cut, maybe they’ll make their way into another project. But with the with that process, again, like I said, I love studying writers and getting their advice and listening to interviews about how they made projects. So Chuck Palahniuk talks a lot about using people as, like, crowd testing. So, he’ll go to parties and be like, oh, I’m working on a project right now. And sort of just like, set the stage, and then just listen, see what other people say. And so, I try to do a little bit of that. Like, anyone who’s involved in my life, if you come to my house, or if I go see a Dodgers game with you or something, I’m like, oh, yeah, I’m working on this project. And, like, I’m thinking of doing this and that. And just kind of gage, what do they say? What do they think? You know, even with the title, I was bouncing around so many different titles. At one point I was going to call the film hard dick like detective. But everybody shut that down right away. I was like, did you see a billboard in Hollywood with that? So, you know, just talking to friends about it, you know, and even sometimes talking to friends, like, other jokes would come up that I hadn’t even thought about, like, there was, I remember, I was talking to my one buddy about, oh, there’s this part where, like, he has to go poop, and he, like, has diarrhea and he has an accident. And my buddy was like, oh, yeah, and then he blew his cover. And I was like, yeah, he blew his cover. And I was like, Dude, that’s going in the film. So, there were some of that, you know, I will say I’d like, I wish I could do a little more. You know, I am trying to broaden my sort of circle of creatives and friends and people that I work with on projects like this. And so that is one hope of mine, that this film can kind of open the doors to maybe meeting more producer friends. And there are more people that I could get feedback from, because I think when you are an independent filmmaker, it’s important to have as many as possible people that believe in you. So that is one thing I would like to find a little bit more of. But, yeah, just testing things out on friends, you know, my girlfriend and stuff, and seeing what they thought about it. And then we did do a table read. So, I ended up getting all the actors here a couple of weeks before we shot, and that’s when I knew I was like, everybody was cracking up, you know? And it’s like, all right, this is going to work. So, yeah.
Ashley
On a project like this, how do you approach screenplay structure? You know, you use the typical three-acts with turning points and, you know, act breaks and inciting incidents. What is sort of your approach to screenplay structure on a screenplay. And I’m curious, just in terms of, like, a broad comedy like this, how it might differ.
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah, I think that the three-act structure is important, and that that is there in this film, very prevalent, especially since I was kind of trying to keep it short, sweet and succinct, too. This wasn’t the project that I had the luxury of shooting additional scenes for or anything. It was like everything that we paid to have shot had to be vitally important to the film. So then, in that case, the writing better be very damn precise and good. But I also have other scripts that kind of have maybe 5 act structures, and obviously there’s other films out there that don’t go along with that. So, I think it’s all depends on the story. I love the book Save The Cat, and it talks about all the beats that you can follow. I actually didn’t read that book when I first came up with this script, and then when I was editing it, I read it, and I was like, wow, it hits all the beats. So then, like, it was reassurance that I at least was on the right process. One book that was vitally important to this was actually Chuck Palahniuk’s Consider this, I keep talking about him, but he’s probably one of my biggest influences. And like I said, he talks a lot about the choruses, you know, that you want to give your characters, because he writes more minimalism, you know. And this was kind of more of a minimalistic comedy. A lot of the humor was a little bit more of a dry humor at points. And so, I kind of followed a lot of his advice, even though he was maybe talking about writing prose or writing a novel, it really translated for me with telling this story. I also should say I studied a lot of detective stories because I wanted this to have that. And within the realm of detective, there’s like three distinct genres. And so, mine wasn’t so much the who done it. It was more about like following the detective on the journey. It’s pretty obvious who done it in my film, but like Indiana Jones, you just want to see what’s going to have. How is he going to get through it next? So that was really helpful, was studying detective stories to know, okay, overall, I’m writing a detective story. Then I’m going to sprinkle in the icing on top of the endless jokes, you know, but then the structure itself was pretty straightforward in terms of the three acts. And also, I think it’s really important that your opening scene, especially as an indie filmmaker, grabs people. And so the opening scene of this film, every time we screen, it is like people are rolling on the floor laughing. And I think that’s so important because, again, I’ve seen indie films where they don’t really pick up until a half hour, hour in and you’re sitting there, like, Alright, man, you know, like, what’s going on? So, I made sure to started with a bang. The whole first act is just like, bam, bam, bam non-stop, very fast paced. Um, I don’t like to waste people’s time, you know. I made sure to keep it engaging all the way through. And that is one positive comment I’ve heard from people. It’s like you never get bored, you know, watching the film. So, I think that all kind of does tie into that, that structure.
Ashley
And let’s just talk about genre requirements I mentioned, you know, a few minutes ago, just number of jokes per page, certainly a broad comedy like that needs that. But are there any other if someone’s thinking about writing a really broad comedy, almost a spoof, like a Naked Gun type movie. Are there besides, you know, 10 jokes per page, or whatever that number is, are there some other genre requirements that people should be aware of?
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah. I mean, it’s hard to dial them up, you know, just right off the top of my head. And I have notebook after notebook that I used as, like my Bible, you know, coming up with this. So definitely it’s important to do your research and read and do your notes and study what other people are doing. And one thing that Tom Shadyac said in the director’s commentary for Ace Ventura was he was known as shady heck because he’d go into the editing room and just chop scenes, cut scenes. And there are a lot of Deleted Scenes from Ace Ventura, which you can see on YouTube. But I think it worked to his advantage, because it’s like, okay, you already have such a funny movie. So, what would it hurt by just condensing it and making it even more fast paced? And that was something that I did follow as I was editing. There were a lot of times where I was like, if I was on the fence about something, it was gone, you know. So that’s super important. But yeah, there are a lot of rules, I mean with writing comedy that you can follow, but also I think rules are meant to be broken, so it just depends on what it is you’re doing, and you better know your freaking genre, and you better study any other book or film that is in the vein of what you’re trying to do, because not only will it inform you about how to. Make yours in response to that, it’ll also help you make yours as best it can be. And Chuck always says to know your archetypes, which is huge. So in every story you could, you know, if you’ve ever studied Joseph Campbell, he’s been a big influence, too, of course, on me and so many people. Star Wars is one of the biggest, you know, influences that he’s had, but he talks about the hero’s journey, you know, and how, you know, every story can be boiled down into this very simple, like, that’s a Cinderella story, right? Or, like, that story is in the Bible, you know. And so that’s something that I always do when coming up with my stories, is I boil it down to its simplest element, and then I find, like, what is this story, you know, related to that I’m trying to tell? And I found a few through coming up with that. And then you can time what worked, what didn’t like. I said, what did I like? What didn’t I like? But in terms of writing jokes, I mean, there is such a thing as having too many jokes, you know? I mean, if it’s just punch line after punch line after punch line, people get fatigued. You know, your face it’s like, I can’t and then things aren’t as funny anymore. So, you definitely have those, have those peaks and valleys. You have to know where. And I think the ACT breaks are huge. So, if you watch real hard, the ACT breaks are major. So, you when you watch the first act, when it moves into the second, there’s a strong point where it kind of slows down, the music gets a little more sentimental. He comes home. My dog does make an appearance in this film as well. He does make a cameo, and he actually helps Kate solve the crime in the end, which is one thing that, you know, they did do in Ace Ventura, which I kind of tried to tie in. He shakes, really well. I knew he had shakes. I was like, How can I tie that in? You know, instead of forcing him to do something he couldn’t do. But when he comes home and sees his dog, there’s a sentimental moment there, and it gives the audience a chance to, okay, take a breath. And then, boom, we start act two, and it’s right back into the and then with Act Three, the shits kind of hit the fan. He gets busted by his girlfriend, you know, he’s got to go follow the villain, and he gets in his car, and we have that classic driving through LA at night, Detective, you know? Moment light shining. Slow the pacing down again for a minute. Bam. We start act three again. So there are a lot of those moments where I definitely knew that, like, if it’s joke after joke after joke, sometimes you got to slow it up, you know. And that’s a formula that I think is very important for counting.
Ashley
Gotcha. Okay, so once you had a script that you were happy with, you knew you were going to produce this movie. What were those steps to actually raising the money? How did you go about funding this film and getting it into production?
Jon Mancinetti
Oh, man, that’s a sore subject right now. I’m broke as hell because of this movie, man. I mean, it was worth it. I’m so proud of this film. I had the privilege of working with some really good clients over the past few years, so I was able to save up some money. I actually also got a loan during the pandemic for my business, so I used a portion of that for this film, which was very helpful. And I did not do any fundraising for this film. And I think that’s kind of part of the reason why I’m in this little bit of struggle stage now, because I sure could use some help, you know, but here we are. It’s all said and done, so I’m just getting back to work and, you know, working at stacking my money up again. And so, I will say two things to people, maybe up and coming filmmakers, it’s a risk. Will I do it again? I’m not so sure I would want guaranteed that I would have money. You know, I was kind of working on a contract basis with a lot of these clients, so when some of the work fell through that I had lined up, it was really hard, you know, no pun intended, but it was tough because it was like, you know, I had had a plan, and the plan sort of fell through for me financially on this one, and I will say one of the biggest lessons I learned, like when we were shooting the film, I was very stressed. Every day. It’s insanely stressed out, just wearing too many hats. I needed more money and I needed more people. I knew that going into it, though, you know. So, I was kind of upset after we wrapped, because I was like, dude, all the lessons that I was supposed to already knew all this stuff, right? But what I realized now coming out on the end of it, was the real lessons that I took away was sort of the post production, the after process. You need money for post you need money for entering festivals. You need money to survive, you know. And I was paying people my own hard-earned money, which was supposed to go to paying my rent, you know, and I still owe the composer like I’m still paying people back. So, it money has been tough on this one, and I think it was because ultimately, like I said, I had success fundraising for my shorts, but I was burnt out on especially doing the last Kickstarter. I had five or six different friends logged into my Instagram, messaging people, you know, blasting out the campaign every single day for 30 days you are working nonstop emails. I was going live on my Instagram begging people to donate. By the time the 30 days is up, you’re burnt out. You don’t even want to make the movie, you know what I mean. So, I was like, by all means, I want to avoid that this time around. So, I was like, again. Can I just make the movie with, like, the money that I have saved up right now, and so I’m glad that I did it, because I was able to get it done, and I’m proud of the final project products, but I think moving forward, it’s definitely something that I would navigate a little bit differently. And like I said, I want more producers. I need more people, I think behind me. I think the one lesson too on this one was I just tackled way too much on my own, and part of it was just necessity. If I want to get it done, I had to do it like this. But now I think I’ve proven with this project like I can do it. So hopefully I can find some more people, I think next time around, to help open up those doors.
Ashley
How is it going trying to find distribution for your film. You must have had some offers. You must be navigating some of that. Have you had some good meetings with distributors? Are you looking at that?
Jon Mancinetti
Yeah, so before we even started the festival process, I linked up with a few distributors. I’ve actually already had one that kind of gave me an offer, which is great, but I want to kind of ride the wave of the festivals just to see what happens for a while. I don’t want to jump the gun too soon. You know, I’ve entered a ton of festivals. I’ve entered like 50 so far, and I’m planning on entering like another 50 more. So about 100 festivals I’ll enter. And kind of see, that’s what I’ve done with my shorts in the past, and gotten, you know, a little less than half I usually get into. So you have to it is a numbers game, you know, unfortunately, too. And I think as you go, you start to see, okay, well, this type of festival is accepting me, and this one isn’t. So you learn a little bit about you know how to navigate the festival process. So I want to see how the festival does and the festival run. I want to get the word out there. I think one reason that I’m very grateful for your festival and the others is an opportunity to screen in a theater in front of an audience is not only insanely helpful as the writer, director and editor of the film, but it helps create a buzz. It gets people excited about the film, so that when ultimately it does get distributed and go online, people are chomping at the bit to see it, you know, opposed to just putting it online now, well, I didn’t work on this for a year and a half to just throw it on YouTube. You know what? I mean? Yeah, so I definitely have a plan. I think ultimately, probably we’ll put it online to rent, first, see how that does, maybe for a little bit, and then have it online, like streaming with ads, because, like I said, I got to start making some money back. But, I mean, it’s not going to be until next year, till this happens. So that’s kind of the frustrating thing about this too, is it’s like, you finish it and you’re like, hell yeah. Now I got to wait a year or two until anything financially comes to fruition with this.
Ashley
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Just quickly, I know I’m taking up a lot of your time. This is a great interview. You’re giving us a lot of information, so I really appreciate it. So, on the festivals and we had a little conversation before we did the interview, you were talking about some of your frustrations with festivals. I wonder if you can just give us some tips if you’re on FilmFreeWay, looking at a festival that you’re potentially going to submit to, what are some things that you’ve learned are red flags? What are some things that you can tell to us that listen if you see a festival that says this or does this, that’s kind of a red flag. Just give us some tips for filmmakers that are thinking of taking their short of their feature to FilmFreeWay, and start entering these, some of these festivals.
Jon Mancinetti
Totally, I mean, this is sort of a source subject for me as of this week, because I just dealt with three scam festivals that took my money, claimed to do in person screenings, and even sent me an email saying I won an award, but not specifying what the Name of the award was. And when I said, Okay, when’s the film screening? Crickets. You know? And I contacted FilmFreeWay, I said, Look, these three festivals are scams. I want my money back, and you need to it needs to say on the festival at the top, if it is an online festival, I think that’s very important, and that’s a really quick way of knowing if you’re trying to get your film seen in theaters really quickly. I mean, a professional FilmFreeWay page will have the top online festival or they’ll specify what it is. But this has been a learning process for me. It’s taken a few years with my first big short, lost and found. I actually hired the film festival Doctor, Rebecca Louise Smith, she’s amazing, um, she goes to all these festivals. She has connections with a lot of these festivals. And what she does, she watches your film, and she gives you great feedback. Even comes up with a PDF of these are the festivals that I think your film would have a chance at. And she sits down with you and talks with you about it, um, and maybe even gives you advice for potentially editing your film down to fit into some of these festivals. So even with Lost and Found, you know, it was a 28-minute film, but I did do a shorter festival cut to try to get into festivals, and I hated it. I hated the shorter edit so much. But I mean, it got into…
Ashley
I can tell you, as someone that’s programming a festival, 30-minute shorts are really tough because it’s too long to put them ahead of a feature, and then you’re talking about maybe putting two or three of these shorts together. They may not fit tonally. So, 30-minute shorts are not great for festivals.
Jon Mancinetti
That’s what she taught me. Was like if you’re making short films, you have to realistically think this through. The festival has. Is a block. It’s an hour. Your festival’s 30 minutes. That means they can only show a couple more. And they want to show. Festivals want to show, I think, right as many shorts as you can cram into so it is important, I think, if you’re doing shorts, especially, you know, again, not to knock it. But I have sat through so many bad short films. You’re sitting there, you’re like, dude, what is going on? This could have all been cut, get to the dang point already. So it’s vitally important, I think, if you’re an up and coming filmmaker, keep your movies short. Keep them short and sweet. Even under five minutes is good. But when I mentioned doing those three short films after the pandemic, all of those were five minutes or less because I just knew I was like, this is a good target range. It’s like, even when I put it online. It’s not asking people too much to sit through it and watch it. So, I would advise that with shorts and then just my process with now, knowing these festivals with real hard I specifically only want to screen with festivals that have an in-person screen. So, if you’re an online festival, that’s great. It’s just not right for my project right now, because, like I said, I’m trying to get my name out there. I’m trying to use this film as a calling card. I’m trying to meet people. And the really, the only way you meet people is by going to these dang screenings and networking, right? Yeah, so I’m passing on all the online festivals for this one. You know, you may find it good for your film, if you’re just trying to get some recognition, if you want to go on your social media and say, hey, we got into this festival. We wanted to we won an award. Online festivals are great for that, but I hate them. I don’t like them because it’s like, are people even watching it? Did anybody even see it? Did I even get to see it? You don’t even know half the time. Yeah, I have had a few online festivals that do a good job. You know? They make it like a thing, and everybody’s going to get together at this time and watch it in the interview and stuff. So some of them can be okay, but I I’m straying away from that on this one, and so what I have to do is, when I’m on FilmFreeWay, you can read the comments at the bottom that people are sharing and the reviews. How many years has it been established? One big thing is the pictures. Look at the pictures, you know, if they have pictures of a theater or people getting together, you know, that’s good. But even, like these other three, had that, you know, and so they also can list the venue, the address, look up the venue, because I even found some that had in person screenings, and I clicked on the venue, and it’s a little box in LA like a little acting space that maybe fits 20 people, you know. So do your homework. And I again, like, this is something that I’m, I just sort of, you know, and learning still. So, as I enter the next round of festivals. I’m going to very thoroughly study these guys before I entered.
Ashley
Perfect. So just for our audience, we’re going to be screening Real Hard at the SYS Film Festival. It’s going to be October 5th or 6th. I haven’t locked down the actual date, but certainly by the time this podcast airs, you’ll be able to go to our website, sixfigureFilmfestival.com, and see the entire schedule, and you’ll know, we’ll know exactly, as I said, it’s either going to be Saturday or Sunday. Probably on Sunday, October 6. Just quickly, is there anything I’d like to wrap up these interviews? Is there anything you’ve been watching recently that you can recommend to our mostly screenwriting audience, anything on Netflix, Hulu, HBO, anything you’ve watched that you think is really good?
Jon Mancinetti
Well, not, not to change the topic too quick, but if there is a chance at a Saturday screening, I think that would be really cool, because I think we can get a lot of people to come at a Saturday would be a little bit more, maybe ideal for us. But if a Sunday, that’s okay too. But yeah, Saturday would be great. Um, but yeah. So, in terms of for me, obviously, I have a Cinemark movie pass, so I go to see movies regularly. Part of the reason that kind of spawned doing this film real hard too, because there’s a lot of commentary on the state of the industry right now, and how a lot of films are just loaded with special effects and no substance. I get sick of going to the movies and just, I love movie popcorn, so that’s one plus. But like, halfway through, I’m like, this is boring, you know? So I’m a very critical person, and I write about films. After I see them, I’ll sit down and write notes. But again, what did I like? What didn’t I like? For me, as I mentioned, I love to read a lot of books. So I love when I can read a book and then go see the film. So the latest Dune, part two, I was obsessed with. I thought it was a really good adaptation. Of course, there were a few things you know, that maybe I would have done differently, but I love sci fi, and definitely I would love to do a sci fi film in the future as well. So, Dune was one of my favorites of this year, or I wasn’t last year. And I think one of my favorites recently was Civil War by A24. I thought the script was phenomenal. Everything kind of came back around so perfectly. And I love the concept of like a war happening inside the boundaries of America, and then the end of the film, storming the White House and taking out the president like I actually saw it three times. So, I love that film, and that would be maybe one of my films that I recommend.
Ashley
Yeah, that’s a great recommendation. So just tell us quickly. How can people keep up with what you’re doing, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and if you have your own personal account, you can mention that. If you have one for the film, you can mention that. And I’ll round all this stuff up for the show notes so people can just click over to it.
Jon Mancinetti
Okay, yeah, great. My Instagram is my last name, Mancinettipics, that’s pretty much my biggest social media on there, where I post everything. I didn’t do a social media account for Real Hard because I’ve done that for films in the past, and, like, I was kind of over a lot of things on this one. So, I’m just promoting everything on my Instagram. That’s where my I have a big following. So why not just keep it there? My website is Mancinettipictures.com which does have all of my previous short films which I mentioned, and some stuff with real hard and on my Instagram, I’ve actually been posting a lot of behind-the-scenes clips of making the film, if you want to check that out. Okay, sort of my process of directing and everything. So that would be the best place to kind of stay in touch. And, you know, send me a shout out there. I love to hear from other people.
Ashley
Perfect, perfect. Well, Jon, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast and talking about your film. We’ll definitely see you in October, it’d be great to meet you and screen your film.
Jon Mancinetti
Hey, thank you, man, you’ve been a blessing. I really enjoyed chatting with you. You seem like someone who really knows their stuff, and it’s great to connect with other filmmakers who take this seriously. And I can see you’re just as passionate as I am. Your questions were great, and I cannot wait. As you can see, I have it written on my whiteboard. So, I’m really excited and looking forward to this screening, and going to hopefully get a bunch of the cast and crew coming out. So, it’s going to be a blast.
Ashley
Perfect.
A quick plug for the sys screenwriting analysis service. It’s a really economical way to get a high-quality professional evaluation on your screenplay. When you buy our three pack, you get evaluations at just $67 per script for feature films and just $55 for teleplays. All the readers have professional experience reading for studios, production companies, contests and agencies. You can read a short bio on each reader on our website, and you can pick the reader who you think is the best fit for your script. Turnaround time is usually just a few days, but rarely more than a week. The readers will evaluate your script on six key factors, Concept, Character, Structure, Marketability, Tone and Overall Craft, which includes formatting, spelling and grammar. Every script will get a grade of pass, consider or recommend, which should help you roughly understand where your script might rank if you were to submit it to a production company or agency, we can provide an analysis on features or television scripts. We also do proofreading without any analysis. We will also look at a treatment or outline and give you the same analysis on it. So, if you’re looking to vet some of your project ideas, this is a great way to do it. We will also write your login and synopsis for you, you can add this logline and synopsis writing service to an analysis, or you can simply purchase this service as a standalone product as a bonus. If your screenplay gets a recommend or a consider from one of our readers, you get to list the screenplay in the SYS select database, which is a database for producers to find screenplays and a big part of our SYS select program, producers are in the database searching for material on a daily basis, so it’s another great way to get your material in front of them. As a further bonus, if your script gets a recommend from one of our readers, your screenplay will get included in our monthly best of newsletter. Each month, we send out a newsletter that highlights the best screenplays that have come through our script analysis service. This is monthly newsletter that goes out to our list of over 400 producers who are actively looking for material. So again, this is another great way to get your material out there. So, if you want a professional evaluation of your screenplay at a very reasonable price, check out, www.sellingourscreenplay.com/consultants. Again, that’s sellingyourscreenplay.com/consultants.
So, I’ve got a few things planned for the podcast in the next month. The next scheduled episode is supposed to be, obviously, the first Monday of October, but that’s actually the week of the film festival. So, I’m going to or the week after the film festival. So, I’m going to publish this one, the last the next episode, I’m going to publish it the last Monday of September, which will be right before the film festival. So, keep an eye out for that episode. I want to just bring on another filmmaker from the festival and try and bring a little publicity to her film. So, I’m going to have on next Sherry Hamrick Gural, who just did a rom-com called Winter’s Garden. That film will be screening again at SYS Film Festival Saturday, October 5, at 1pm again. Check out all the websites for details, but we’re going to have a very nice conversation with Sherry, and just bring her on. She’s also a producer, so she’s been involved with a lot of film productions, and this is one that she produced and directed as well, so it’ll be an interesting interview and lots of great down to earth information. And of course, her film will be showing at the festival, and she will be there as well, so you can come out and potentially meet her if you’re in Los Angeles and can attend the festival. Anyways, that’s our show. Thank you for listening.
