Your screenplay Wine Tasting - in a few words, what is it
about? It's about four men who seek to become master
sommeliers, and how sacrificing everything for this process affects their
lives. Why make wine tasting the central focus of your
movie, and is that something you have at all experiences with, personally? I
do like wine and years ago I worked wine at bars/restaurants. I also
had friends who worked in various aspects of the hospitality business. What
were your sources of inspiration when writing Wine Tasting? The
experiences of myself and my friends who worked in various aspects of the
industry. Just to get a job at a particular wine bar I had to know
what grapes were used to make what wines, what regions they were from,
among other details. But that's how the industry is. The sommeliers
have this at an extremely high level. With Wine Tasting
tackling reality TV and the wine and food industry, is there a satirical
edge to the proceedings, and your personal take on these subjects? Totally
there is satire. I do love reality TV and the wine and food
industry. Clearly they intersect, as you have celebrity chefs and
hotels, restaurants, bars, are all promoted via reality TV. You have
to be very focused to successfully pull this off. From the angle I
cover it, I make sure to show that it's not all fun and games. Another
screenplay of yours is Office Problems - what is that one about? It's
a political thriller that takes places at a pharmaceutical company that
makes abortion pills What were your inspirations for writing
Office Problems then? A situation that a friend of
mine had at his job. With Office Problems being a
thriller of the whodunnit variety - do talk about your screenplay's
approach to the genre for a bit! Basically the company is
targeted because of the controversial new contraceptives it makes.
Murders are taking place, but it's not clear if it's an outside job or an
inside job. Your movie's set in a pharmaceutical lab - any
particular reason for that? I like the setting, and also
some of the industry's products can be controversial. Vaccines for
stds, abortion pills and other contraceptives, antivirals for HIV, can all
come under political attack from some quarters. You have
placed both your scripts in prestigious film festivals - care to
elaborate? Office Problems placed as a finalist in Beverly
Hills Screenplay Contest. Wine Tasting
placed as a finalist in
Evolution, Mallorca Film Festival, Beverly Hills Film Festival, and
Sunscreen Film Festival West. So any idea when either script
might be turned into a movie yet, and how do you go about placing scripts
with producers to begin with?
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I am in talks with a producer
right now on selling Wine Tasting. As for how I placed scripts to
producers, via my publicist Josh Miller, my own personal contacts, my
alumnae networks from both undergraduate and grad school, from people I
meet at industry events including film festivals, and from using websites
like Virtual PitchFest. Any future projects you'd like to
share?
Nana is my animation script. It's a sword and
sorcery flick. Young woman has to rescue her mother and slay the
evil warlock who rules the land. Your/your screenplays'
website, Facebook, whatever else? BlackList profile:
https://blcklst.com/profile/Justin-Samuels
Twitter: @screenwriter32 Anything else you're dying to
mention and I have merely forgotten to ask? We covered
quite a bit. Thanks for the interview!
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