You've finished a draft or two, maybe three, or even a dozen drafts of your screenplay. Now what?
The problem writers and filmmakers face upon finishing the often enormous task of writing their best screenplays is finding pathways to bring those scripts to the screen. In Leaning Into Genius, I teach you about the many pathways that lie before you and how to package your project for each.
Agents, managers, and most "how to break in" resources will tell you what to do — submit to competitions, apply to labs, and find financing. What they rarely tell you is how to do these things —
How to craft a logline that earns a read.
How to write application materials that compete against thousands of others.
How to package a project so a producer or financier takes you seriously.
Competition and lab programs require a specific kind of writing — not screenwriting, but writing about your screenwriting. A logline that’s industry standard. A short and long synopsis that does justice to a 110-page script. Application questions designed to filter out writers who haven't done the work. The skills that make a great screenplay don't automatically translate. They're different muscles.
Financing — whether private equity, studio, or hybrid — requires a packaged project. A film deck. A budget. A clear visual language. A producing team, or at least the foundations of one. Attachments, comp titles —
The work of building this package is what separates writers who keep waiting for someone to discover them from writers whose projects move.
Whereas most development help, teaching, or coaching tells you to do these things, Leaning Into Geniusintuitively does these things with you, giving method to the madness of film development hell.
Filmmakers Taylor Hinds and Savannah Sivert went from finished draft to collaboration with producers in four months. Filmmaker Jess Berry used the process to gain acceptance into the Proof Film Festival Development Lab. Filmmaker and writing coach Izzy Stevens went from a finished horror script to collaborating with a producing partner and becoming a Finalist in the Stowe Story Labs NYX Horror Collective Fellowship —
And, as a filmmaker, I used Leaning Into Genius to process and package my own project for the Film Independent Producers Lab 2025.
Over four months, we build the full package for your project: logline, synopses, pitch deck, lookbook, target lists for competitions and labs, query letters for producers and managers, and a strategic roadmap matched to your specific project's strengths. We work on the materials. We work on how to use them. By the end, you have what you need to move — and you've practiced the actual conversations.
You can sit on a great script for eternity. Take action instead with Leaning Into Genius -
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to discuss the full Leaning Into Genius coaching engagement.