737 - Studio-Adjacent

About this episode

John and Phil Hay discuss the process of getting a movie made with independent financing and answer listener questions.

John welcomes back Phil Hay (Destroyer, The Invitation) to ask, how do you get a movie made with independent financing? They look at how indie movies get made, where you get the money, deciding when to go indie, and whether streamers complicate the picture. We also follow up on testing movies with focus groups and answer listener questions on how to navigate the editing room, daily routines, and what to do when your story has too many themes. In our bonus segment for premium members, we look back on what Phil learned about D&D from his documentary The Dungeon Masters. Links: Phil Hay Scriptnotes Episode 244 , Episode 377 , and Episode 505 The Dungeon Masters The Answering Machine Meltdown from Swingers John's daily to-do template Pamela Ribon's One Act documentary Petey USA's The Yips KOXY College Radio Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book! Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt! Check out the Inneresting Newsletter Become a Scriptnotes Premium member , or gift a subscription Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube Follow Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok John August on Bluesky and Instagram Outro by Craig Good ( send us yours! ) Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by…

People in this episode

Hosts: John August, Craig Mazin

Guest: Phil Hay

Topics covered

• independent financing
• indie movies
• focus groups
• editing room
• daily routines
• story themes

Keywords

• independent financing
• indie movies
• focus groups
• editing
• story themes
• D&D
• Scriptnotes

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: KOXY College Radio, Scriptnotes

Books & works: Destroyer, The Invitation, The Dungeon Masters, The Answering Machine, Meltdown from Swingers, Pamela Ribon's One Act, Petey USA's The Yips

More episodes of Scriptnotes Podcast

• 739 - The One with David E. Kelley · June 9, 2026 · 57 min
• 738 - Building Your Audience with Courtney Kemp · June 2, 2026 · 58 min
• 736 - The Devil You Know · May 19, 2026 · 1h 19m
• 735 - The Flashforward Fallback · May 12, 2026 · 1h 3m
• 734 - A Box Full of Teeth · May 5, 2026 · 1h 2m
• 733 - Learning Comedy · April 28, 2026 · 1h 1m