Lights, Camera, Persevere: Indie Filmmaker Meg Halski on the Frontlines of Storytelling #118

Season 1 Finale! 

In this week's episode of The Screen Lawyer Podcast, host Pete Salsich is joined by Meg Halski, a multifaceted creative force encompassing roles as a filmmaker, writer, director, showrunner, and world-builder at Halski Studio in St. Louis. 

Meg unfolds her compelling journey in the world of commercial production, recounting experiences that have spanned the globe and detailing her evolution from a narrative filmmaker to pitching multiple projects in the bustling heart of Hollywood.

Original Theme Song composed by Brent Johnson of Coolfire Studios.
Podcast sponsored by Capes Sokol.

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Transcript

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On this week's episode of the Screen Lawyer Podcast. I'm really excited to be on set on location, and that's going to be a theme today with my guest, Meg Halski of Halski Studios. Filmmaker, storyteller, creator and client and friend. Welcome, Meg. Thank you for having me. This is going to be a blast. Ready? I'm ready. All right. Stick around. Hey, there. Welcome to the Screen Lawyer podcast. I'm Pete Salsich, The Screen Lawyer. And today, you may recognize or notice that our sets a little bit different because instead of our normal Screen Lawyer studio, we are on location here with Meg Halski, our guest. And I'm so excited. Meg, thank you for joining us. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Yeah, this is going to be awesome. So who's Meg Halski? Well, I'm a writer director, living in the Midwest and trying to make it in Hollywood. That's. Well, all right. There's a lot there, right? So let's unpack a little bit that stuff. So and we've known each other for a little while, so we're kind of teasing this out. But one of the things that I think is really fun to do on this podcast with my guests is to learn how things make it to a screen or why maybe even the better question. Why do you want to make stuff for a screen? What's what's the why behind you? Tell me a little bit about that and then we'll walk back and get some history. Yeah. So I want to tell stories about underrepresented characters in the Midwest. I feel like the Midwest gets a bad rap. It's underrated and undervalued, and there's a lot of heart here. There's a lot of culture. There's a lot going on. It's not a cow town. Saint Louis is a special place, is rich with history and architecture and beautiful places and real authentic, hardworking people. And I happen to be one of those. And so, you know, a few years ago, I kind of put my flag in the sand and said, darn it, I'm going to figure out how to level up my career and go after what I want to do, which is to be a showrunner to create television and films in L.A.. Awesome. Yeah. So that's what that's the path that I'm on right now and I'm deep into the path. Where did you get started? How did you how did you get into this world? So I went to film school at Webster. It was wonderful experience. I loved my teachers. I loved my fellow students. And, you know, they really fostered a love of storytelling for me. Right. Kathy Corly was one of my advisors, and she really was a champion for local filmmaking and still is today. And so my senior project, I came to her and she's like, What are you going to do? You're going to film a scene. And I said, Nope, I'm going to film a feature. And she's like, A feature. You're not doing a feature you can't get a featured done. And luckily, my friend Bradley Bowers on Thanksgiving night came to my door when I was living in South Tower, drove east and said, Hey, I wrote something. You want to make something together? And I said, Actually, I need a senior project. I told my advisor I was doing a feature. So we we worked together on very guerilla style. Back then it was like 2003. He was able to cull together some money to buy the first Panasonic mini DV, and we shot all over town. We shot at Joanie’s Pizza and on the North Riverfront. And probably without location agreements. No, we didn't do any of that as a student. But Webster was awesome because they insured our project. They gave us the tools. Bad Dog, even back then, allowed us to use some equipment. Henry Adler, who's an excellent DP in town, signed on to be our DP. And boy, he was so patient with me. You know, I had never really directed anything and he was incredible to work with. Then we made a feature and it was it was my love letter to St Louis back then, and it's been fun. Fast forward to 20 years, I create my love letter to Saint Louis again in 2023. You're still writing love letters to Saint Louis, right? But you come from a different there's more maybe to the story then, because you've spent in those 20 intervening 20 years, you've done a lot of other stuff in the production world, right? You took that and I started at the bottom. I was a PA for the Discovery Health Channel. I held a boom over an open womb and thought to myself, I'm never having kids. You know, flash forward - I have 6 kids. But, you know, I, I think every role that I've played on a set has prepared me for today. Right? So I started as a P.A. I also was a shooter at one point, a B-camera operator. I had produced majority of my work has been producing. Mm hmm. So taking a creative idea all the way to fruition. And that's where my multi-tasking mother of six skill set comes into play. I'm organized in a little bit of a taskmaster, so I can see kind of the end result. Easily back planning is sort of my thing. I could visualize you're the, you know, anybody that's a parent of more than one kid has had some version of that color coded calendar, but I can picture yours looks a lot like a production schedule, right? If somebody knows that world, you get everybody down to a couple of minutes. The day is all right. We got to go. They don't love it, But that's I mean, my comfort zone. Yeah. And so, you know, over the last few years, I've sort of decided it's time to get serious about my dream. I went to school at Webster in 2003. It's 20 years later. I've had wonderful experiences in advertising, directing, producing commercials for passion brands. I just came off of 18 months working with an incredible agency in Portland North and their client Hydro Flask. Right. And that gig really forced me to level up my skill set in many areas, you know, being able to fly into a city and hire crew and execute the vision on time, on budget, on brand. And so for me, coming off of that really intense experience of getting on 36 flights in a year and meeting new people, understanding how other markets are handling production and the changes in how people approach production even down to the what gear, what is the gear that's being used and what is the story and how is it being told for brands? Right. And so I have I really enjoyed it. I loved it so much also being on the road, I got really inspired to create my own work. Yeah. So having time in airports, having time at night after production to really think about characters, think about places, and think about the stories of underrepresented people that I want to tell. Especially newer filmmakers or, you know, production people, the concept of, you know, on time, on budget and on brand, those are three important things. And each is different. And in my experience, you know, I've had the opportunity to work on some independent features and the ones that were successful. And the most part, the the team had cut their teeth for a long time in the commercial production world, right? Where you've got you've got real money. I mean, it's a serious budget, but you've got to know where you're going to be, what day, who's there. You know, you don't have a lot of room to play with and you got to deliver it fairly quickly and it's got to be excellent, right. And you are dealing with different crew in different cities in those things. I think it's a it's a it's a really cool way to get into the world that you're in right now. Yeah. And I think, you know, the thing about commercial production is that you need to be decisive and you need to be easy to work with because everybody has a role on sets and everybody want to wants to flex in their flow states. You know, they want to shine. Yeah. You have to allow a crew and a collaboration and an energy exchange to happen on a set. And so I really want to take that into my personal work. And the great news is, you know, I can do that here in Saint Louis. I have long term crew relationships. Who? These are my friends. These are people that I go have a beer with. That's invaluable. About a year ago, I decided, well, the decision making happens in L.A., I probably need to be in L.A., Right. I didn't know how I was going to do it. You know, like I have to feed eight people in our house. So you know, my partner and I, Mark Halski, sat down and we're kind of like, okay, is it worth being out there? And the answer was just, yes, we have to go after this dream. And so I have a little bungalow in West Hollywood that I share with two other women in the industry who live elsewhere. My roommates live in New York and Minneapolis. So you have a crash pad? We do. We have a little calendar, a little Google calendar that we sign up for time there. One is a writer, a television writer, and one owns an improv company in New York. Wow. And so they're also wonderful mentors for me as well. They think it's awesome that I'm going out there and chasing a dream and it's been a great way to begin the process of learning how to be a showrunner. Right. And so for me, I am a world builder. I write and I direct. And so the last few years have been about what does that mean to be a showrunner? How do you get in the room with the buyer's buyers, meaning Hulu, Netflix, HBO? You know, the type of programing is that I want to create is not necessarily network stuff. You know, I aspire to be more of like A24 type of thing, and so does everybody. Sure. Well, that's legit, right? That and that helps. That helps to define. I don't define is probably the wrong word, but to help shape a little bit. You know, you've got you've got we all have a finite amount of time and a finite amount of energy to focus on the things that you really do. And you've you've done we've talked about this, and I want to get into this a little bit, your transition, if you will. Yeah. From, you know, the sort of documentary docu series, commercial production where, you know, for lack of a better way to say it, you're a storyteller, but you're really telling somebody else's story. Right. Right. You're either following the subject of the documentary or the docu series or you're you're telling a story of a brand, that sort of thing. And you're shifting. And shifting is wrong because I know you've been doing this creating all along, but now your effort is to say, okay, this is where I'm I want to be the world builder. Right. I love the way you describe that term. I mean, tell me a little bit more about that. Who are some of your influences? Oh, man. David Lynch, for sure. I love Adam McKay pretty much anything he does. Matt Wiener Right. You know, like and in that sense, they're literally you when you watch their program and you live inside of the world they creat, right? It's aspirational. It's character driven. I think for me, I've had stories living in my head for decades, and it's once I started to write, it's almost like I couldn't stop. Yeah. So I have a family drama TV series that takes place in Ireland, and that is it's called Conor Pass. And it's a story that I started writing 15 years ago. We we were in Dingle, Ireland for a family trip, and being there was so inspiring. I created this story that's based on a character I developed for Michael Fassbender. I went through the Sundance TV Writers program. It was incredible to actually take those characters that have been living full arcs in my head for 15 years and put them on the paper. And I will say, like, it was such a beautiful process and it meant so much to me that since then I haven't been able to stop writing. Interesting, well, two things you said I think are interesting there when you said a character you wrote for Michael Fassbender. Now does Michael Fassbender know that you wrote this character? He will. He will. That's right. That's important. But but it's more like your inspiration, right? Oh, yeah. You when you and you one of my favorite actors. So he inspires a lot of my work, his dark side and the fact that he is European. That's very enticing to me. He's just a hell of an actor. But I try to build characters that are super layered and usually in identity crisis. So a lot of my work deals with identity, underrepresented characters dealing with repression, identity and obstacle because I know a lot about that. Well? So, you know, there's a saying that somebody said to me many years ago, you know, sometimes you are who you are, either because of or in spite of, and it's probably usually a mix of both. Right. There's always a little internal internal struggle, especially as a creative or an artist or a sensitive person like me. I try to work for my intuition and put myself in uncomfortable situations, including LA. Right. And be disciplined about my work. So part of my work and part of my process is getting out of my comfort zone and being in places that make me uncomfortable meeting new people. I just went through a Groundlings workshop, you know, with the Groundlings. Yeah, it's an improv. And I swear it was it was so good for me because I kind of went in and I was like, Oh, I'll learn some skills about improv and like, take it back to my directing. And it like, flattened me. Like I walked out and I felt like the biggest piece of ever. And it was so good for me, though, because that set me on a journey to start to really dive into the acting process and to really be a director for actors. My background was in documentaries, so I didn't get to be with actors as much as I wanted to be, except for in film school. And then a little bit after. Yeah, And on my passion projects like my music videos and short films and stuff. So for me, I wanted to kind of back up and learn about the whole acting process. So I went through Stella Adler. I went to Lee Strasberg, which is Method Acting and Groundlings, and then UCSB, the Upright Citizens Brigade. And I really dove into the acting process to really understand what is the method, what is the method of an actor, what is the modality? And then that way, when I am in a room with actors, I can meet them where they are and I can respect and honor their process. And they each have a different process, right? I mean, you know, somebody needs business. Somebody else needs to process. Somebody needs to know the why, somebody doesn't care about the why. Right. Sure. And it's it's fun. There's actually a great actor here in town, Scott Michael Dunn, who all of us who are in town who have made anything indie he has graciously given his time to. And he's an excellent method actor. Yeah. And so also, it was fun to go back and learn about his process and then come back to him. You know, several projects in and be like, okay, I get you, man. I understand you now. Used to drive me crazy, but now I live with this. Crazy for. Yeah. So that's been fun. And then also just keeping up on new techniques, lighting the industry, you know, reading deadline, meeting with agents, meeting with development execs. It was great that Groundlings workshop there was like, you know, five Lionsgate Development execs in my workshop with me. Wow. So in you just never know is that that's the beauty of being in L.A. is that you don't know where you're going to bump into, you know, the next contact or the next, you know, friend, because it's a lonely place. So meeting friends in the industry and everybody's in the industry there. So it's you know, I talk about my big dream, my big Hollywood dream, and they're like “Yeah, get in line!”, you know, But. Right. But I would that's the point. I mean, everybody else has the same dream, and all it matters is your dream. Well, and I learned really quick, too, that you can't just go out there with like one body, one piece of work. Right. You can't go out there with, like, one show idea. You have to have a catalog of work and lots of experience and understand your own point of view. And so doing the work and building my own self respect is like like Joan Didion says you build your self respect and that frees you from the expectations of others and gives you back to yourself. Yeah. Wow. And so that's what's really like been my fuel throughout this process is just doing the work every day, writing every day, working the pitch deck every day. What's the new conference I need to be at? Who do I need to talk to? And being driven and disciplined about the path. And I've seen that like we were trying to schedule some things with you. Like, No, I'm, I'm writing on that morning. That's my morning to write or this or that. And, and I and I've always found it kind of interesting with different creative people. And one of the reasons that I do what I do and get to do it with with my partners and colleagues is because we love the creative process. You know, And I you know, I spend time as a cartoonist. I spend time still play in a, you know, lousy dead cover rock band. Right. But those were never going to pay my bills. But as a lawyer, getting to work my way to a point where in an entertainment practice, we can be valuable people on the team for people like yourselves, that excites me every single day. But creative people are all different, right? By us, by you know, people are different. That's not, you know, brilliance, but with creative people. I think so many different people have different type of process. I know some people that literally, you know, something will pop in their head and they just have to stop everything else. And it might be days before they come back to realize they didn't put pants on. Right. And then others, you know, you talked about the word discipline. And I think that's a pretty powerful term. Describe what you mean by that discipline. How does that work in your creative process? For me, seeds are planted at night and for me, I have to be out in the world. I'm not a homebody at all. In fact, it's a problem. I like to be out. And that doesn't mean that I like to go out and drink and be at bars and I need to be out in the world. Sure. Connecting with people. That's how I get my energy and my ideas. And so a lot of my process has to do with being out either at night or in a new neighborhood, walking the streets, interacting with culture, seeing beautiful architecture, listening to great live music. It all fuels the machine, right? And so then if it's fully fueled, just like an engine, then I can be more disciplined. So the discipline starts with the inspiration. And the inspiration has to be fueled. And that takes effort. You can't I can't sit in an office at my computer, however pretty my office spaces, and get inspired. You know, I have to be out in the world interacting and exchanging energy with people and places. And so, you know, L.A. is part of that. New York is part of that. And Chicago, Paris, Milan, all the pretty places for sure. And and and observing, observing X, Y, Z, generations. I'm really interested in, you know, identity right now. I'm really interested in how the world is changing and changing us and how we interact with each other. And it's been really cool to fuel that fire inside me to create and so the discipline is, you know, multilayered. But it starts with having some fun. Yeah. And I love that that in your city. Yeah. So and that's I want to talk about the city, too, because one of the things that I think is interesting is your and really, I think these things go together, right? Because I know you've got a body of, you know, maybe close to a half dozen projects that are really pretty well formed right at this stage from even a full pilot shot on one and then pitch decks and whole character arcs, treatments, I mean, really, scripts, right? You've got because I've seen it. All right. You have a serious body of work, which is I want to spend a little time on some of those things, but a lot of those have something about Saint Louis in them. Right. And there's a reason that you're here, but not just here, right? This is home. But you are working in L.A., you are in New York, you are in Portland, you are wherever you need to be. So it's not as if this is the only place to work or that you can work. But why stay home, if you will? What what is it about Saint Louis that inspires you? Well, when I was ten, I lived in Blue Springs, Missouri, and my grandparents lived here. And we would come and see them all the time. And on my 10th birthday, I wished that I would move to Saint Louis and my dad, or how many ten year olds are out there wishing that right now? I was I was I kid you not. My dad was climbing the corporate ladder at the phone company and he had just so happened that Ma Bell like heeded my call. And so we ended up moving to Saint Louis and I was really excited about it. And I've always been really interested in the neighborhoods of Saint Louis, the identity of Saint Louis. I got really involved in Metropolis Saint Louis right in my twenties, and I call that my college because I had a zigzaggy, you know, college experience. I went as an adult. And Metropolis, really, it really was the instigator of my passion for Saint Louis. Yeah. And that was a really cool organization at that time, right? I mean, yeah, young people deciding, we like our city, let's explore it. Let's let's try new things. And so that is going to carry into my work. I mean, I think Saint Louis is its own thing. You know, I showed Sylvie who my latest pilot, TV pilot project to an HBO development exec, and when she was finished watching it, she was like, I thought you shot this in New Orleans. Oh, wow. You know, I was like, No, that is Saint Louis. It's not New Orleans. And so we talked about the architecture and the richness of the streets and the people that you see and the, you know, the sense of culture and place is strong. We have a strong, strong brand and we need more people telling a good story about Saint Louis and about Missouri in general. I mean, we've got Kansas City is a wonderful place to create. It's got a thriving creative industry. It does. And, you know, Saint Louis is not a cow town. It's not a flyover city. It has its own thing going. And I'm on a mission to and speak the truth about Saint Louis and L.A. and wherever this crazy dream of mine takes me. Right. So we were talking about working in Saint Louis and wanting to, you know, show Saint Louis to the world a little bit. Right. And as Saint Louis and sometimes we have that sense of, you know, I don't know, we you know, people don't like us or whatever. Right. And I think that's kind of silly. But you're an example of somebody who is creating here. But tell us what what is it like to do that here? Right. I mean, yes, you can be passionate about the architecture. You can be passionate about the people and the reality of it. Yeah. But you still need people, right, to make things. What is the production community? What is the creative community like here for someone like you? I mean, it's a very loving, supportive place. You know, I'm friends with all my competitors. We have beers together, we have fun. We use the same crew. We know who's good in, you know, like we love to cultivate a strong, you know, community. But there is but there is a crew. I mean, that's a real it's not like there's six people in town. If you don't get the six, you got to wait, right? Oh, no. There. I mean, I think also having Webster here, that film school churns out great talent. It's easy to create here. It's it's a community that fosters collaboration. I can't say enough about how much I love it here to create. Yeah, there's no obstacles. You know, There's great crew ready to work hungry, you know? Yeah. And I've been a lot of places, especially over the last few years. I've been all over the world and shot with crews all over the world. And I'd, you know, put our crew up against any crew in the world, including L.A., including New York and it's because we've had to hustle and work a little harder, you know, like we have very talented, professional crew here. And in all regards PA’s all the way up. Right. And, you know, it's hard to take your pick. Yeah. No, that's and I I'm glad you it because that's been my experience too right. Even as a as someone who's in the industry in a different way, knowing how many people are involved and still discovering new studios and new people on an almost daily basis. Let's get in a little bit to one of your one of your current projects, your pilot for Sylvie Who? Right. So let's set the stage a little bit here. I got to watch this pilot and I want you to tell us how I'm not going to give you spoilers. No, I won't. But so I want to hear kind of about the process because this came together kind of in a in a wild way. You talked about something that you spent 13 years creating and then now something that is very different. But I got to watch this with my partner Gary. We were came over to your studio at home and watched the pilot last week, and you had told me a little bit about it, Right. But I really kind of went in not knowing. Right. Which to me is the most fun way to watch something. It’s risky because what if it sucks? And I had to say, Oh no, it's pretty good Meg really. No, but so the experience was really fun to watch and some part of it is like, Oh, I recognize that place. I recognize that place. And some of it was filmed like, right where we're sitting, like right downstairs, right, right. The alley. Yeah. So that's really cool, right? And some party watching. But the last scene happens. I'm not going to say no spoilers, but when the last scene, I'm like, well, what's where's the next episode? Right? And it was really, really cool. I mean, I'm glad you were really, really good. But tell so tell us a little bit about Sylvie Who? but how it kind of came together. Sure. Well, a Sylvie Who? started with one scene that takes place in a diner, and it was an actual thing that happened in my life. It's loosely based on my 21st birthday. Okay. At least the pilot, it's a jumping off point. Right? And so Mark and I had been talking for years that we got to shoot that scene. We got to shoot that scene. And I'll be honest, I didn't have any work in July. And so just July of this year, yeah, there were no jobs in July for for me. And so I said, well, I got to stay busy again. I want to keep going and create things always right. And so I said, I want to write a script for Sylvie Who? And so I ended up sitting down and I wrote the scene. But then it was like I think I’m going to write a TV series on that. And so Willa Stein wasn't going back to college until August. She's the actress local Willa Stein is Yeah, she's a Clayton High grad and soon to be star. And you better get on that. She's very good. She's going to be a big star and I've sort of been following her. I'm friends with her parents and she is outstanding and she's gotten to where there was no way I wasn't going to try to work with her. And so I knew when I started writing that Willa was going to be Sylvie. And so I wrote this script and approached Willa. And of course, she was like, Of course, of course, I would love to do this. And so within three weeks we were shooting. And you know, the great part, again, going back to it's easy to create in Saint Louis, especially since it's my hometown and I have lots of friends here. But every single person I called to ask if they would, it was all volunteer. No one got paid right, including locations. So like calling up my friend Jason Johnson, who has a gorgeous home and saying, Can we shoot there? And he's a he didn't even cause Duane Reade, who I didn't even know, called him up. Of course. Of course, everybody was so welcoming and such a cheerleader like you wouldn't get that in L.A. I'm not going to get that anywhere else in Chicago or New York or anywhere. I mean, people have to hustle so hard and have three jobs in L.A. they're not going to help you with your thing. And so I just have a tremendous circle of people in my life here who I'm always going to be loyal to and who support me in a way that I couldn't get anywhere else. And so Sylvie Who? was absolutely a love letter to Saint Louis, everybody involved gave of their time, gave of their energies, and we created something so beautiful that I'm so excited about. It really is. I mean, I'm when when you told me how quickly it came together, how quickly it was written, how quickly it was shot, produced, edited, color correction, sound. I mean, I watched it and I'm like, I, it does not look like something that was one. It doesn't look like something thrown together. And I know creative things can happen quickly. So that's not a complete outlier, but it's so well done. It holds together. I mean, I literally want to see what's next. Well, that's also because of two other people in this room right now. I mean, Mark Halski is an incredible shooter. Incredible, incredible editor, very meticulous when it comes to his crafting. Right. You know, it shows, you know, and and Tim Gebauer, he's a big part of my creative process. He's my buddy who will go out with me late at night and get into trouble. Sylvie Who? would not have happened without the two of them, I can't tell you. And this goes back to our relationship, Pete, you know, having people in my corner to support me and believe in what I'm doing. You know, it's a lonely world out there in L.A., trying to be a filmmaker, trying to break through Hulu and Netflix and HBO and, you know, meeting with development execs and putting these projects together and learning the industry and understanding that there are 100,000 paths in. Right. And I've got to throw out the lines wherever they'll go. Right. And so having people that I can come home to that support me and believe in me is invaluable and really is is fuel. It's a great story because that is your story, right? It's not it's not a made up story. That's the reality story that you have. And it it's it's I agree with you. I mean, I think, you know, as we're you know, when we're here in the Midwest, when we do what we do, we deal with artists, you know, Gary's music practice, artists all over the world and film productions all over country, and even within an international flavor and learning to kind of be here, but be there is, you know, it's a leap, right? But then you realize, wait a second, we're professionals. We know this stuff. Yeah, it's it's very cool. But you do need a team for sure. You're absolutely right. It's it's an issue and you need a catalog of work. And so, you know, you and I are pitching four different series right now. Let's talk about those. So we talked about Sylvie Who? What's the logline? Right. That what's that this means that for the for some of your projects start with who so Sylvie who tells the story of a 21 year old divorcee who has to come back to her hometown of Saint Louis, and with the help of her new boss, reassess life, identity and direction. And he actually is an addict who is also on his path of figuring out who he is and what he wants in life. So it's sort of like I say, it's a queer Midwest girls like HBO Girl, right? Meets Hacks. Oh, great show. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. All right. Yeah. So a dark comedy, but set in here in Saint Louis. Yeah. And that's a big part of the show. Yeah. Is Saint Louis, midwest. There's a line. There's a line from the character Hannah at the very end of the episode, which resonated with me. And. And I think I can say this without spoiling anything, right? And And she says to Sylvie, you know, something to the effect of Saint Louis, your home, hometown, it will love you when no one else does, Right? It's real. I thought that was really cool. Oh, I'm so glad you like that. Yeah. Yeah, that was my little nudge. And actually, to tell you the truth, that was supposed to be the last line of the pilot. Ah, So we wrote the ending as we were shooting. Nice. So. But that's the fun part about being the world builder. You can make those choices. Exactly right. And based on what's happening with the actors and I love that part of the process, being open and flexible and saying, Hmm, I wonder what will happen and then answering it in a totally different way. And to the point you made earlier about the discipline and also the inspiration. If you have the inspiration and you are disciplined, then you can depart from where you were and follow it with confidence. Yeah, you can make choices and feel a confidence in those choices. Yeah, I mean, sometimes the the very best thing about having a plan is that you have something to depart from. Oh, sure, Yeah, for sure. And when you know the, the landscape as well as I do. Right. Saint Louis is my home. I know these streets. I walk the streets, I take the trash out in that alley. So which is a cool scene. Yeah. So. Okay, that's Sylvie Who? So Conor Pass, which I set in Dingle Ireland. It is sort of a flashback kind of family drama that takes place in the nineties. European soccer culture to present day Dingle Ireland. And it's basically a man grappling with the crimes of his past. He and his brother have had to come to terms with something that they witnessed and how it has affected their hometown and their community and their generations of family members. So it's kind of a Yellowstone meets Mayor of Easttown meets Big Little Lies. Wow, I always love beautiful places and interesting characters. Obviously everybody does, but I like kind of those off the beaten path, places that people don't think of first, right? And Dingle Ireland is near and dear to my heart. I love it. Love it. All right. Now, I've spent a lot of time there over a summer with my family and am I wrote it during a period where my relationship with my ex was sort of coming to an end. And so I had big identity things happening in my life. And so that project really is kind of like my opus. Yeah, it really means a lot to me. So where, where? What is that? Have you filmed anything? Is that a script? Where is that? I know I wrote the first season and the pilot is finished and Mark and I are working on pitch decks and that kind of thing. That's one that I really want to spend time crafting the pitch because I, you know, all of my work, it's strange. I get these lists of mandates and I'm like, Yep, yep, that checks off. That checks out. So Conor Pass is one that I really want to go the distance and I want to direct that one. Okay. A lot of my projects, I, I'm open to whatever happens to them. Great. But that's one that I will want to be involved in. The production. Yeah. And then we have Enjoyable Listens. This is one. So this one every guy, every dude loves. Well, I think it's so I don't want to I'm not as a you tell us so Enjoyable Listens is a project that I have been working on with my best friend in Chicago, Doug Bobenhouse. He used to be in Sunset and he's an expat Saint Louis who's in Chicago, and he and his buddy Kyle were at South by Southwest and they came up with this funny idea and came to me with it and said, Hey, what if this is our idea? What do you do? So it's a musical spy series comedy series, and we wrote it for Michael Shannon. And so it's kind of Scooby Doo meets Get Smart meets I say Killing Eve, but it's not dark, it's happy, it's funny. And it's it follows maybe a little Flight of the Conchords or whatever. Yeah. Flight of the Conchords all the way. All right. So it follows a quirky little band, A UK, Oxford Band, who has spy secrets on their backing vocals and and. But they don't know that, right? I mean, yeah. And so Michael Shannon's character is a spy and he decides he's going to be their manager so that he can protect the secrets and through the course of that, has an identity crisis and decide where he really wants to maybe make a go of the music industry with this little quirky band. So they travel throughout Europe and, you know, the normal 007 spy type fodder ensues. Oh, I just I mean, and I've seen that deck and there's a real band that's part of the right I mean, for sure. Yeah it's that's one that's I think is fantastic. Yeah. It's super excited to see that one. Like you said I'm this is the dude in me I would absolutely 100% watch that one. Yeah so and it's been fun to Doug and I used to write songs together and it's been fun to sort of rekindle our sort of writing partnership. And he's my best friend. He was, he was my best man in the, in our wedding. And yeah, so it's been great. And then I wrote a drag Queen musical called Superstar. And you have a Carpenters shirt on representing the YouTube crowd. Yeah, Yeah. So for me, that's about also about identity. It centers around a group of drag queens and an eating disorder support group. And so the music becomes the music of the Carpenters and Karen Carpenter, I feel female empowerment and feminine power and you know, the music of the Carpenters is all about love and loving yourself. And I just think it's like a really cool project. And I just have a deep, deep love and respect for the art of drag. And so I've always wanted to create and watch the title of that one Superstar Superstar Course. Anyway, that's a dream of mine to get that one made. And so right now, though, I'm an award awardee of the Stowe Story Lab. And so tell me a little bit about that, how you got that and what does that mean? Because I know that you're doing that, but I got the writing bug. Okay. After we produced Tenuto, which is a little short film that won a bunch of awards at film festivals and and Mark and I similar to Sylvie, we just were like, It's August, let's do a project. And I reached out because I'm obsessed with Andrea Jarrett who's the Saint Louis Symphony violinist. She's amazing. And just like we're so lucky to have her in Saint Louis. And I reached out to her to see if we could collaborate on something. And she said, Sure, absolutely. I'm learning this new crazy song. Why don't you listen to it? Because that's what I want to perform. And I was like, Sure. So I listened to it all weekend long. I must listen to it like 70 times and a little ghost story started percolating in my head. And so in true Saint Louis fashion, I looked for locations and Boon Monument Village was like, Absolutely, come shoot it here. And so over a weekend, really over like 36 hours, her husband, my son, and then Anne Freivogel, Mark Halski and Rob Rosenwinkel went out to this Marthasville, Missouri retreat Center and created a spooky little ghost story that won a bunch of crazy awards that set me on the path to Sundance TV Writers program. And then from there, I had the Conor Pass script, which I sent to Stowe to apply for their very awesome program. And so I'm I'm learning under David Pope, who's this amazing screenwriter, he works with amazing people, and I'm writing a psychological feature length film right now called Novena. And it happens in a monastery with supermodels. I mean, I don't know why that makes me laugh, I guess because it's not normally what I think about monasteries and supermodels. But that's the point, right? I mean, you're building a world, too, for that as well. For sure. For sure. That's so cool. So and I know this is not everything that you have, but these are all well developed active projects that you're currently working to get out into the world, right? Yes. So I'm just knocking on doors and meeting with as many people. I don't say no to anything. Right? I go to every workshop I can go to every meet up in L.A. every night. And then I also I regularly take acting classes. It's mostly so that I can meet actors and really I'm building my future team. I'm trying to create community, Sure. And where I can. The more time you spend with actors, the more time you study acting, the better you'll be able to direct and write for actors 100%. And honestly, they're all characters, so they also fuel the work. Sure, they're part of that inspiration and they like that. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, this has been so cool. And thank you for spending this time the Screen Lawyer audience is going to love this and I want to. So there's a frame that I've always wanted to do on these podcast interviews. And part of that is because when we describe the work that we do, you know, many years ago I had a client and they they did a lot of different things. Coolfire Studios is the name of a company, and they would say, you know what? What do you do? Well, we things for screens, right? And that was sort of this I don't it wasn't a throwaway line, but it was a way to think broadly. Right. And so after a while I was a well, I did all those contracts. I know how those businesses run. I'm a Screen Lawyer, Right. And my friend Jim Hacking helped me with the name and we did all that stuff. And it's made me realize that while I love being in the in the entertainment world, there are so many different screens that we all have. Right. And we we do everything on screens now. And so I like to ask people and I'm going to ask you now what's on your screen, and that might be the screen in your pocket. It might be the screen in your head, it might be the screen on your wall. But what's on your screen, Meg? Final draft is on my screen. That's my writing app that I use every day. And my pitch decks are on the screen for sure, trying to make sure they're, you know, where they need to be and as good as they can be or tweaking things. IMDB pro, constantly stalking, trying to figure out who I'm going to be reaching out to next Deadline Hollywood. Hollywood Reporter Like industry stuff. Yeah. Is there something that's that's captured you right now? For me, it's A24. I like anything that A24 is putting out. I'm really interested in knowing about it. I look at the stuff I watch TV wise, Beef, Succession. I like world building. So obviously like Game of Thrones and Lost, that kind of stuff. But you know, and then old episodes of Sex and the City, you know, being in New York City and living vicariously, that show meant a lot to me back in my twenties. You really, you know, sort of a screen omnivore, right, that there's no you know, not only this, not only that, both creatively and what you consume, Right, Isn't it? I mean, sometimes just to sit back and let somebody else's creativity wash over you, totally inspiration can come from anywhere. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's really cool. Well, Meg, thank you. I mean, this has been what a treat to hang out here. Beautiful setting. Thank you. Hear your story? There's so much there, folks, if you have enjoyed this conversation, first, find and follow Meg Halski because she's going places and we're going to go with her, but definitely check her out. And if you like this podcast, check out the Screen Lawyer Podcast. You can find follow us anywhere you get your audio podcasts. And if you're watching on our YouTube channel, thank you. Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button down below and click on that video that's popping up next and get more Screen Lawyer content. We're always producing new episodes. You can check us out at TheScreenLawyer.com and you may learn some more things about Meg Halski by going there. Meg, thanks again. This is a big thank you. Pete You're very welcome. All right, see you soon, folks.