This week’s podcast is an interview with one of our newest faculty members, Erin Brown Thomas, whose indie film CHASERS (which she wrote, directed and produced) was just announced to premier at Sundance Film Festival 2025. CHASERS is an ambitious film on so many levels. Not only is it an ensemble piece, but it’s shot as a “one-er,” as one single interrupted continuous shot.
In this interview, Erin shares her experiences writing and directing CHASERS, and shares some incredible wisdom about how to write ensemble films, how to optimize your chances at top film festivals like Sundance, and much much more. Not to mention some brilliant analysis of another great ensemble film that pushed the envelope, PT Anderson’s MAGNOLIA.
Here’s an excerpt:
“…One of the core ideas of my ensemble film, Chasers, (which was just accepted to Sundance) was that ambition or dreaming makes you vulnerable.
And this is a reason that I do love ensembles, because with an ensemble, you get to have so many different wants, so many different desires, so many different points of view. It
sets up all these opportunities for characters to manipulate each other, for status
games to happen, for reversals of power.
It keeps things interesting. Once one character says something, you know the other characters would have a strong perspective on that. And so I find that ensembles are such a great way to keep a conversation going around a theme or topic, but also a great way to develop characters.
Because of course, these vulnerabilities, these perspectives, they are more interesting than the things that just happened to them…”
Check out the podcast to learn the keys to writing, directing and producing a successful ensemble film, as well as:
- Character introduction in ensemble screenplays
- Writing character wants and point of view
- Script structure for ensemble films
- Writing dialogue for multiple characters
- Film festival submission strategies
- Low budget filmmaking tips
- One-take film techniques
- Independent film production
- Character arcs in ensemble scripts
- Theme development in screenplays
- Writing authentic character voices
- Script pacing and transitions
- Festival programming insights
- And much much more!
Join Jake for free every Thursday night at Thursday Night Writes, RSVP here and check all of our classes!