February 27, 2025 • 21 mins
Episode 128 - From Your Brain to the Box Office
In this episode of the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast, Jaclyn and Geoff continue their discussion with filmmaker Ricky Borba. In this second part of the interview, Ricky shares his experiences and insights on how aspiring filmmakers can bring their ideas from conception to the box office. He emphasizes the importance of having a solid script, creating an effective pitch package, understanding production, and ensuring financial viability. Ricky also discusses the valuable lessons he learned from his own filmmaking journey, the importance of collaboration, and the necessity of surrounding oneself with supportive people. Additionally, Ricky offers details about his masterclass and shares his passion for helping others achieve their filmmaking dreams guided by biblical principles.
Highlights Include:
- Welcome and Introduction
- Passion for Helping Others
- Masterclass in Filmmaking
- Challenges and Realities in Filmmaking
- Advice for Aspiring Filmmakers
- Pursuing Excellence in Filmmaking
- The Importance of Continuous Learning
- Jaclyn's Nutrition Study
- Soft Skills and Time Management
- You Can't Do it All
- The Necessity of Teamwork
- Practical Advice for Aspiring Filmmakers
- The Body of Christ and Team Dynamics
- Contact information
Ricky Borba is a film director, from the San Francisco Bay Area. He has been involved with film and television, for the last 30 years. His two theatrically released films; "My Brothers' Crossing" and "Hope for the Holidays" have won multiple Best-Picture awards at festivals across the country, as well as acting awards for the cast. "My Brother's Crossing" spent two weeks in the US Box office top ten when it debuted in 2020.
In 2023, he directed two films, Christmas at Keestone and Wedding at Keestone.
Ricky now resides in Nashville, TN with his wife, 4 daughters and son. He has a double major in Pastoral Ministries and Theology, and all of his animals are named after Star Wars characters.
Ricky’s Website: www.rickyborbafilms.com
Ricky on IMDb: imdb.me/rickyborba
Ricky on Facebook: facebook.com/borbafett
FAFF Association Meeting Schedule: https://faffassociation.com/#faff-meetings
Screenwriters Retreat - Mexico: https://www.faffassociation.com/writers-retreat
Jaclyn's Book - In the Beginning, Middle and End: A Screenwriter’s Observations of LIfe, Character, and God: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9R7XS9V
VIP Producers Mentorship Program https://www.faffassociation.com/vip-producers-mentorship
The Faith & Family Filmmakers podcast helps filmmakers who share a Christian worldview stay in touch, informed, and inspired. Releasing new episodes every week, we interview experts from varying fields of filmmaking; from screenwriters, actors, directors, and producers, to film scorers, talent agents, and distributors.
It is produced and hosted by Geoffrey Whitt and Jaclyn Whitt , and is brought to you by the
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jaclyn (00:00):
Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.
I'm Jaclyn, and today Jeff andI are speaking with Ricky Borba.
This is part two of our interview, andif you did not hear the first one, I really wanna recommend that you go back and listen to it, because he shared some incredible stories of how God moved in his life, moving him toward his film career.
(00:21):
And so now we
wanna get into learning from you.
I mean,
Ricky, it's not just that you'vebeen in the industry a long time, you also have a heart, um, like a pastor's heart and a a teacher's heart.
And so you're wanting to share someof the things that you've learned.
So what kinds of thingsare you wanting to create?
(00:42):
What kind of educationare you looking toward?
Ricky (00:44):
I'm really passionate about helping people follow their dreams and so, uh, in the film industry usually that, is the.
How it
manifests is you, you come up to melike, Hey, either this happened to me and I want to tell this story.
or you say, I have this idea.
So how do you get that fromyour brain to the box office?
How does that happen?
And so, because I've done that nowthree times, my, uh, my brother's crossing was completely written script and I didn't have to do much on that.
(01:12):
Um, but the other three films I'vedone have been from here to getting it
out.
there.
I. So how do you do that?
So, um,
I have a masterclass that I'm gonnabe teaching, but it's basically, um, you have a few elements and I'm gonna pull up my phone here.
I'm just, 'cause I, Idon't want to missay it.
I've given them really cool names.
So you have the Bulletproof script.
Uh, so you need a bulletproof script.
(01:32):
You need, you need to have a scriptthat's not just well-written, but also
evaluated and for me, theyneed to hit a certain mark.
They need to be in
the top 20%.
And then once you get that done,we go on to the pitch packet.
Um,
your pitch packet needs to have somethings and it does not need other things.
And so I, I've seen hundreds ofpitch packets that, um, you know, for people wanting to pitch projects, a lot of them have too much, a lot of them have too little, but a lot
(01:54):
of them are,
I'm
sorry, a few of them are reallywell done and so I wanna teach people how to make a pitch packet.
Um, and then what does
production look.
like chances are, ifyou have an idea, you.
don't just wanna writethat, then hand it off.
You wanna be part of the production.
So how do you hire the right people?
Who do you look for?
What kinds of things shouldyou look for in a cameraman and a crew, and all those things.
And then finally, the biggest one is, um,
(02:15):
all that's great.
All those three things are great, but
how is that
film gonna make money?
And how are you gonna get yourinvestors' money back so that we have the
distribution,
model.
So, um, I just wanna teach people awhat I've been through the, the mistakes I've made and the good decisions I made.
So that when
they have an idea, if they take
my class.
they can theoretically get their ideafrom their brain to the box office.
(02:35):
With the things that Iteach, it's still hard.
I'm
still working on my own films.
My name is not StevenSpielberg or Christopher Nolan.
I don't have a blank check.
I have to go out
and do this for myself all thetime, and you know, you don't hit a home run every time.
Um, I'm working rightnow on my biggest film.
It's a $5 million budget.
It's an idea that I got duringthe pandemic and I'm talking to a couple investors right now.
So while I'm
teaching, I'm also living
(02:56):
it.
So the goal would be for menot to have to do this anymore.
The goal would be for me to be a studioto come aside and say, Hey, we're
giving you a
five.
picture deal.
But, um,
until that point, I I
want to help
people
because if I knew what I
know now, what I,
how does that phrase go?
If I knew them, what I know now, if I knewthem, what I know now, I would've saved so much time and money and effort on getting those films to where they needed to be.
(03:18):
I could have, could have donethings a lot differently.
So I wanna help people and, uh, justhave a heart for helping people.
Jaclyn (03:24):
That's awesome.
And yeah, it is.
It's so true.
Like all of those factors need to beplaying in together and, and it's good to know even like the end from the beginning, like to understand what it is that you're getting into and what.
What the goal is and what it looks like,you know, rather than just, 'cause there's a difference between a dream and a goal, you know, and, and so it sounds like what you are doing is helping people to go from having a dream to creating that goal and that process so that they
(03:54):
can actually achieve it.
And it's no longer just an ideathat's been rolling around in their head for who knows how long.
Ricky (04:02):
Yeah.
Like you said, a dream.
A dream is different than agoal, but I always say a goal without a plan is a wish,
and so.
What are you gonna do about that goalthat you have if you don't have a plan?
And, and the Bible also says, forlack of what knowledge, my people
perish.
And so we need to, weneed to have knowledge.
So yeah, all, all of it comes, you know,and I'm not overtly, I'm not giving Bible verses during my teaching, but it is all
(04:24):
biblically based in terms of like,these are the things that God has told us would help if we do them.
And so I wanna give those to you.
Jaclyn (04:30):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And I think that, um, you know, likeone of the, the reasons why Jeff and I started, well, it was called, Family Friendly Screenwriting Academy.
before we changed the name to Faithand Family Filmmakers Association, um, but as the Screenwriting Academy, the whole thing behind it was that.
I had taken a bunch of courses, um, andI had been told to watch these movies or these TV shows in order to learn the content that the course came from and the like, most of these shows were outside of my boundaries of what I would wanna watch.
(05:04):
And I was like, I, I don't wantto be, I don't wanna be forced to learn in this environment.
Like There's gotta be a way to learnthis without having to go outside of my own personal boundaries.
And um, so that's kindof what birthed that.
And I, I think that there are a lotof people that they do want to learn how to serve God with this calling of moving into the film industry.
(05:28):
And
so it's really hard to feel likeyou're moving toward that if you are working with someone who is.
Exposing you to things thatare outside of God's will.
So I, I appreciate that you're,you're creating this environment that, uh, you know, Christians can go and learn how to do well, how to pursue excellence, how to pursue with profit in mind, because People say like, oh, it's not about the money.
(05:51):
And of course it's not a,that's not the end goal, but it needs to be one of the goals
Ricky (05:56):
it absolutely does.
Jaclyn (05:57):
make more than one, you wanna be a good steward with what you've been given.
You are accountable to your investors.
So making money does need tobe a big part of the picture.
Um, so, so, yeah.
I, I love that you are providingthis opportunity in this space of people that want to honor God with the work that they do.
Ricky (06:18):
Well, thank you
Geoff (06:20):
So let's get into some advice.
Uh, Ricky, we've got listeners here,uh, all filmmakers, aspiring filmmakers,
and, um, you've gotexperience as a director.
Uh, tell us what you would like to share.
Uh, give us some tips.
Ricky (06:35):
my first tip would be, um.
You can do it.
I mean, honestly, it's so simply stated.
It is.
The fact that you can do this,there is a path for you to get your script to completion.
Now, whether it gets made into afilm is a whole different thing, but if you've got an idea for a story, there are so many things now that you can use and they're really free tools that you can get this done.
(06:57):
Um, there are other tools thatare not free that can help you get it done faster and better.
But you can do this.
So I, I don't ever wanna be that guy
that says, eh.
I don't know.
Jaclyn, I don't knowif this is your thing.
You might just wanna stick to crocheting.
Like that's a,
Jaclyn (07:10):
Have you
Ricky (07:11):
things like that all the time.
Yeah, yeah.
People say things like that all the
time.
So I
just,
first of all, I just wannatell you that you can do this.
This is, this is achievable.
Um, and then number two,
You can break them.
But there are rules.
You have to
follow
certain rules in script writing.
You have to follow certain Rules infilmmaking, but you can break them and be
avant-garde, but youcan't rewrite the system
(07:33):
There
has to be certain things in your script.
You cannot introduce your villain on page94 of a 97 page script, things like that.
There, there are things you have todo, you know, that make it work better.
So
you, you have to,
learn those things, but you canlearn those things while you're
also taking your idea from germinationto, to putting it in a paper.
Um.
(07:54):
And then kind of go back to something Isaid in, episode one of of these talks we're having is put some people around you that have your destiny in mind.
Put some people around you thatare gonna pick you up when you're down that are gonna encourage you.
Maybe it's financially, maybe it'sjust emotionally, but you need people to say, Hey, I believe in you.
You're really giving it a go here.
I'm gonna help you outwith whatever I have you.
I have a
couch.
You need a place to sleep.
(08:14):
One night here.
I
don't know what
that looks like for you, butthere needs to be people in your
life
that are there picking youup by the bootstrap sometimes because, uh, nobody is self-made.
No one is self-made.
There are probably scoresof people in my life
that help me get here in one way oranother, including God, obviously.
So, you know, A, you can do this.
B
there are rules
that you
have to follow, and
I'm I'm a
(08:34):
Huge rule breaker,
but there's
still, you know, tenets you have to do.
And then, um, c did Igo 1, 2, 3 or a, B, c?
We'll do, I don't know which idea.
But then the third thing wouldbe, uh, put people in your life that have your destiny in mind.
Jaclyn (08:46):
No, that's great.
And I, it is true.
I tell people the samething with, screenwriting.
I'm like, it's fine to breakthe rules as long as you know
what they are, and you can'tbreak all of them at the
same time.
You know, you have to be veryintentional and selective of which rules are going to break.
'cause if you just, if you break toomany of them, then everything just feels disjointed and it feels like a mess.
(09:07):
And it doesn't, it doesn'tfeel like it was intentional.
It just feels like, oh, you don't
know what you're
doing.
Ricky (09:11):
And, and you know, not to, I, I'm gonna do it.
I'm not to drop my book again, but onpage 63 of this book that I wrote, I
have my
personal phone number and
email address.
This book is called TrustingGod, pursuing Your Dreams, and Never Giving Up On Yourself.
It's just kind of a handbook.
If you have dreams, howto maybe get them a, uh.
Achieved.
And on page 63, I
say
if you
need encouragement or help orsomething, call me, text me, email me, write me smoke signal.
(09:35):
'cause I wanna be an encouragement to you.
Um, Bob Goff, who hasmillions of followers, he's
an incredible author, incrediblespeaker, has his phone
number in his book.
I've called him twice.
He's answered on
the first ring both times.
and I
figured if me,
with my four followers.
If Bob Goff has millions that
I,
with my four
followers, I could
have my, my information in my,
(09:55):
book and I really mean it.
I've had a few people reach out viatext and say, Hey, I read your book.
I'm reading it right now.
I need encouragement.
I'll either pray for them or
whatever.
Um, and it just, I think we need people in
our lives to, to help us.
Jaclyn (10:05):
Absolutely.
That's amazing.
Um, I have a question like withyour journey, you had mentioned like one of the things that you
wanna do with
teaching
is to help people to, um.
Not make the mistakes thatyou made and then you know,
to learn from the thingsthat you did right and all
of
that.
I'm just curious about some of those
mistakes.
What are some things, or maybeit wasn't a mistake, maybe even just something that you would do differently knowing what you know now?
Ricky (10:29):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think, um, the thing that comesto mind, um, When you are making content, whether you're a writer or you're making videos or whatever,
don't
put
all of it out.
there for the world to see.
It's important for you to put it topeople that know you and love you, that can give you unbiased feedback that aren't gonna blow smoke up your butt and say, well, this is great when it's not.
(10:53):
But don't put your acting reel.
On the internet for everybodyto see when it's not good.
Because what happenedwith my first film is
I was living in Sacramento andI wanted to bring all of my filmmaking friends along with me
to make this film.
And the producer
and the
executive producer was financing,looked at their reels and stuff and
said, absolutely not.
You want me to hire this guy?
(11:13):
Look at this.
This is garbage.
And so my first thing would be,don't put everything that you make
out for the world to see.
Keep some of it here and then show yourfriends and family and close people, and then as it gets better, start putting out and not everybody's gonna like it.
I'm not saying when you do put itout there, everybody's gonna love it.
That's, you know, takeany, even Star Wars.
Not everybody loves Star Wars,but really, don't cast your pearls before swine and, don't put your swine out for the world to see.
(11:37):
And so that's, that's number one.
Number two, I think withthe advent of these devices,
these cell phones thatwe have in our pockets.
Use it, learn things.
Go on YouTube, go on a thousand otherplaces, you know Khan Academy, and
learn about what you're doing.
Take a masterclass from masterclass.com.
I think one of the thingsthat I really regret not doing was spending more time using
(12:01):
the tools at the time, youknow, 7, 8, 9 years ago to.
Be the
best version of myselffor my first film and
second film and third film.
Now, thankfully, through the grace ofGod and the gifting that he is given me and the anointing I have for that, I
was, I was okay at it, but Iprobably could have been better had I
spent some
more time studying
and learning the craft
from people that I admire and maybe even
people that I, don't know about, thatpeople are like, wow, this guy's got 37
(12:22):
million views on TikTok.
You should see what
he's doing.
Go look at that and see why thatis striking a chord with people.
At the end of the day,God's a storyteller.
He left us a book.
So what is a book?
It's a book of stories.
So God is telling stories perpetually
from the dawn of time to the end of time.
And if there's people doing.
it well Go
see why and make the
(12:43):
connect the dots that isresonating with people for this reason and that reason this.
So I would say, you know, study and, and
use the tools of the day right now
to make yourself better.
Jaclyn (12:50):
absolutely, that's a good word.
I, think that there is so much out therethat like, there's really no excuse.
Yeah, I know.
Even when I was a, a single parent,like this was maybe 15 years ago, a little bit more than that.
I, um.
I was trying to lose weight becauseI had gained a lot of weight
when I had my kids.
Um,
and so I thought,
(13:10):
well, I wanna be
healthy.
That was my goal, and so Istarted studying nutrition
and so I.
studied
nutrition like practically for ayear, and, I was implementing all the
things that
I
learned.
I never spent a cent on it though.
I went
Ricky (13:23):
Yeah.
Right.
Jaclyn (13:24):
You know, it, all of my work and
studying in nutrition was
all just effort.
Uh, you know, like whatever it cost
me to get to the library andand, pick up books and then
read it.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Ricky (13:37):
or pick a subject.
Now go on YouTube andtype in better sleep.
Thousands of videos are gonna come up
with doctors saying, here'show you get better sleep.
like you said, there's no excuse
now.
Jaclyn (13:46):
Yeah.
And you know, I think also,
uh, one thing that I've noticed latelyis that, the other thing that is really important to learn are the soft skills.
So you have your actual skill ofwhatever it is that you're pursuing, but then the question is, what kind of a person do I need to be and what kind of habits do I need to incorporate in my life in order to be successful
(14:08):
at that thing
that I wanna pursue?
And so, even just like.
Learning time
management,
like
learning a lot of these otherskills, like how to break down
your goal setting and
all of that so
that you can actually, like, youmay have a goal, but like you said, without a plan it's really
hard to actually, yeah.
It, it's really hard to
achieve it.
And so
how do you
(14:29):
actually create the plan and likeall of those skills that's what's necessary in order to become that thing
that you're pursuing to become.
And like, again, those things.
They don't take money necessarily.
I mean, sure you can pay for classes forthat and they're valuable, but a lot of
that stuff you can learn bygetting a, book at the library or watching something on YouTube,
(14:52):
like
there's so many learningopportunities out there.
and
then
it really
comes down to the discipline
and implementing it into your life.
And of course, if you
wanna be a producer or a
director or
an actor, like
all of those
things take.
Work like it is a lot of work toactually achieve those things.
Ricky (15:10):
So, right.
One of the best pieces of advice Iever got and I was 30 at the time when I got, I walked into the Dean of Students at William Jessup University.
I was a 30-year-old sophomore, 'causeI had already done enough, uh, school to be getting outta freshman year.
But I went back to get mydegree in Pastoral Ministries.
I walked into Bryce Jessup's office.
He, you know, he's
the
son of the.
Founder of William Jessup.
We
have this conversation.
(15:30):
I
told him about
my
dreams of passions.
This was an hour long conversation,and at the end of it, he said, Ricky,
the
best
advice I
can give you is this.
Two
things.
Number one, you're a high I,you're a visionary, you're a, you know, get it out there, get your
ideas out there and stuff.
Like he goes,
you need a high D. There's,
it's a disc.
You take a test, it's called the
disc test.
You get a high D. A high D
is someone who, whoserubber meets the road.
(15:51):
It's like, okay, Ricky,you want to build R
2D two.
That's great.
How
do we do that
Where do we get
the money?
Where do we get the tools?
Who, you know,
put
yourself with a high?
D 'cause you're a high?
I, you need to balance each other out.
I was like, that is brilliant,because if I'm left to
my own, I'm just gonnavision, cast and dream all
day and
nothing's ever gonna get
done.
And then number two, he's a Christian man.
He loves the Lord, he's in heaven.
He
read the Bible, you'vepreached, but he said, I have an
(16:13):
African
proverb for you.
He
said, if you wanna run fast, run byyourself and you wanna run far, run
with a
team.
And I, and I just realized in
that moment.
If I want
to get to
the finish line of whatGod's called me to do,
I'm
not gonna do
it by myself.
There's no way.
With
me alone,
I'm gonna be able to dot all the i's,cross, all the T's, come up with the budget, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(16:33):
No way.
And so I
put a good
team around me.
And
so to your point,
uh, you just have
to have these things in your life.
You
have to have
the soft skills, andyou have to, you can't
lie to
yourself, right?
I can't lie to
myself right now and say I'm the
world's foremost experton sheep sharing when
I'm not.
So you have to be honest with
yourself and say, I'm notgood at line budgeting.
I need to bring in a line budget person.
(16:53):
I'm not
good at whatever I needto bring someone in.
You cannot be great at all things.
And so, uh, You
have to put people aroundyou that can support you.
Jaclyn (17:00):
Yeah, and I don't think that, um, I think that if we feel like we have to do everything ourselves, then we are
also, Removing ourself from theopportunity for God to bless us and speak to us, because a lot of the times, uh, the way that God connects with us and speaks to us and
impacts our lives is through people.
And so when
we are surrounded withpeople, then that's when
(17:22):
we get to have some of those reallytangible moments where people, say things and you're like, you have no
idea.
I was just prayingabout that this morning.
Ricky (17:30):
exactly.
Exactly.
Geoff (17:32):
I think one of the things we've learned is that filmmaking is inherently collaborative, just 100%.
A screenwriter doesn't end up with
a
film.
Unless other people
are
involved and
every, you know, you pick any role, uh,
it
relies on a team by nature.
and
I, I think that's for
us, a big part of
(17:52):
what we do and
why we
do it in our goal ofbringing people together.
it just requires collaboration and, uh,and as an individual, you grow the fastest and become the best you can
be.
the sooner you start involvingother people in your journey.
Ricky (18:08):
Amen.
Love that Jeff.
Jaclyn (18:10):
It actually, it reminds me of the scripture that talks about the body of Christ and, that like there are different members in the body and they have different roles and different
responsibilities, butevery single one of them
is necessary and relevant tothe function and health of The
body.
That if.
If your pinky is sore,
like you're not gonnabe able to stop thinking
(18:31):
about it.
Like,
I broke my finger a coupleweeks ago and I can't
stop thinking about it because
like everything I do, I'm
like, uh, my
finger, it hurts,
Ricky (18:39):
yeah.
the, I can't tell the foot thefoot's worthless and I can't be
on a set and tell myactors, I don't need you.
Well, yeah, you kind of do.
Jaclyn (18:46):
this has been another
fantastic conversation with you and,uh, I'm actually looking forward
to getting to know
you more.
I know we've got some, some plans to talkabout maybe getting some of your education
on faf association.com, so everybody watchfor that and uh, I'll be happy to share
some announcements when you've gotsome stuff out and, yeah, Okay.
(19:06):
So how do people find
your book?
Ricky (19:08):
Uh, they can go on Amazon.
Just type my name
in, just go to Amazon, put RickyBorba and my book will come up.
Um, it's on Amazon, it's
on,
Barnes and Noble.
It's on all the major websites.
I was
blessed
to be, uh, publishedby Trilogy Publishing,
which is the TBN
Arm of
Publishing.
And so, uh, it's
everywhere.
And um, yeah, that's how they
can find it.
Jaclyn (19:26):
Perfect.
Okay.
We'll get that link and put it.
in the show
notes also.
Ricky (19:29):
Okay, great.
Geoff (19:30):
Do you have a URL regarding your, uh, training at this point or there anything
you
can share?
Ricky (19:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I have a couple websites I, theycan go to ricky borba.com, which is my name, and that's kind of
who I am and what I'm workingon and stuff like that.
But
specifically for themasterclass is the letter
a
TO, the letter z, A to.
Z film.
Jaclyn (19:48):
Okay, perfect.
Thank you so much.
Welcome to the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast.
I'm Jaclyn, and today Jeff andI are speaking with Ricky Borba.
This is part two of our interview, andif you did not hear the first one, I really wanna recommend that you go back and listen to it, because he shared some incredible stories of how God moved in his life, moving him toward his film career.
(00:21):
And so now we
wanna get into learning from you.
I mean,
Ricky, it's not just that you'vebeen in the industry a long time, you also have a heart, um, like a pastor's heart and a a teacher's heart.
And so you're wanting to share someof the things that you've learned.
So what kinds of thingsare you wanting to create?
(00:42):
What kind of educationare you looking toward?
Ricky (00:44):
I'm really passionate about helping people follow their dreams and so, uh, in the film industry usually that, is the.
How it
manifests is you, you come up to melike, Hey, either this happened to me and I want to tell this story.
or you say, I have this idea.
So how do you get that fromyour brain to the box office?
How does that happen?
And so, because I've done that nowthree times, my, uh, my brother's crossing was completely written script and I didn't have to do much on that.
(01:12):
Um, but the other three films I'vedone have been from here to getting it
out.
there.
I. So how do you do that?
So, um,
I have a masterclass that I'm gonnabe teaching, but it's basically, um, you have a few elements and I'm gonna pull up my phone here.
I'm just, 'cause I, Idon't want to missay it.
I've given them really cool names.
So you have the Bulletproof script.
Uh, so you need a bulletproof script.
(01:32):
You need, you need to have a scriptthat's not just well-written, but also
evaluated and for me, theyneed to hit a certain mark.
They need to be in
the top 20%.
And then once you get that done,we go on to the pitch packet.
Um,
your pitch packet needs to have somethings and it does not need other things.
And so I, I've seen hundreds ofpitch packets that, um, you know, for people wanting to pitch projects, a lot of them have too much, a lot of them have too little, but a lot
(01:54):
of them are,
I'm
sorry, a few of them are reallywell done and so I wanna teach people how to make a pitch packet.
Um, and then what does
production look.
like chances are, ifyou have an idea, you.
don't just wanna writethat, then hand it off.
You wanna be part of the production.
So how do you hire the right people?
Who do you look for?
What kinds of things shouldyou look for in a cameraman and a crew, and all those things.
And then finally, the biggest one is, um,
(02:15):
all that's great.
All those three things are great, but
how is that
film gonna make money?
And how are you gonna get yourinvestors' money back so that we have the
distribution,
model.
So, um, I just wanna teach people awhat I've been through the, the mistakes I've made and the good decisions I made.
So that when
they have an idea, if they take
my class.
they can theoretically get their ideafrom their brain to the box office.
(02:35):
With the things that Iteach, it's still hard.
I'm
still working on my own films.
My name is not StevenSpielberg or Christopher Nolan.
I don't have a blank check.
I have to go out
and do this for myself all thetime, and you know, you don't hit a home run every time.
Um, I'm working rightnow on my biggest film.
It's a $5 million budget.
It's an idea that I got duringthe pandemic and I'm talking to a couple investors right now.
So while I'm
teaching, I'm also living
(02:56):
it.
So the goal would be for menot to have to do this anymore.
The goal would be for me to be a studioto come aside and say, Hey, we're
giving you a
five.
picture deal.
But, um,
until that point, I I
want to help
people
because if I knew what I
know now, what I,
how does that phrase go?
If I knew them, what I know now, if I knewthem, what I know now, I would've saved so much time and money and effort on getting those films to where they needed to be.
(03:18):
I could have, could have donethings a lot differently.
So I wanna help people and, uh, justhave a heart for helping people.
Jaclyn (03:24):
That's awesome.
And yeah, it is.
It's so true.
Like all of those factors need to beplaying in together and, and it's good to know even like the end from the beginning, like to understand what it is that you're getting into and what.
What the goal is and what it looks like,you know, rather than just, 'cause there's a difference between a dream and a goal, you know, and, and so it sounds like what you are doing is helping people to go from having a dream to creating that goal and that process so that they
(03:54):
can actually achieve it.
And it's no longer just an ideathat's been rolling around in their head for who knows how long.
Ricky (04:02):
Yeah.
Like you said, a dream.
A dream is different than agoal, but I always say a goal without a plan is a wish,
and so.
What are you gonna do about that goalthat you have if you don't have a plan?
And, and the Bible also says, forlack of what knowledge, my people
perish.
And so we need to, weneed to have knowledge.
So yeah, all, all of it comes, you know,and I'm not overtly, I'm not giving Bible verses during my teaching, but it is all
(04:24):
biblically based in terms of like,these are the things that God has told us would help if we do them.
And so I wanna give those to you.
Jaclyn (04:30):
Yeah, no, I love that.
And I think that, um, you know, likeone of the, the reasons why Jeff and I started, well, it was called, Family Friendly Screenwriting Academy.
before we changed the name to Faithand Family Filmmakers Association, um, but as the Screenwriting Academy, the whole thing behind it was that.
I had taken a bunch of courses, um, andI had been told to watch these movies or these TV shows in order to learn the content that the course came from and the like, most of these shows were outside of my boundaries of what I would wanna watch.
(05:04):
And I was like, I, I don't wantto be, I don't wanna be forced to learn in this environment.
Like There's gotta be a way to learnthis without having to go outside of my own personal boundaries.
And um, so that's kindof what birthed that.
And I, I think that there are a lotof people that they do want to learn how to serve God with this calling of moving into the film industry.
(05:28):
And
so it's really hard to feel likeyou're moving toward that if you are working with someone who is.
Exposing you to things thatare outside of God's will.
So I, I appreciate that you're,you're creating this environment that, uh, you know, Christians can go and learn how to do well, how to pursue excellence, how to pursue with profit in mind, because People say like, oh, it's not about the money.
(05:51):
And of course it's not a,that's not the end goal, but it needs to be one of the goals
Ricky (05:56):
it absolutely does.
Jaclyn (05:57):
make more than one, you wanna be a good steward with what you've been given.
You are accountable to your investors.
So making money does need tobe a big part of the picture.
Um, so, so, yeah.
I, I love that you are providingthis opportunity in this space of people that want to honor God with the work that they do.
Ricky (06:18):
Well, thank you
Geoff (06:20):
So let's get into some advice.
Uh, Ricky, we've got listeners here,uh, all filmmakers, aspiring filmmakers,
and, um, you've gotexperience as a director.
Uh, tell us what you would like to share.
Uh, give us some tips.
Ricky (06:35):
my first tip would be, um.
You can do it.
I mean, honestly, it's so simply stated.
It is.
The fact that you can do this,there is a path for you to get your script to completion.
Now, whether it gets made into afilm is a whole different thing, but if you've got an idea for a story, there are so many things now that you can use and they're really free tools that you can get this done.
(06:57):
Um, there are other tools thatare not free that can help you get it done faster and better.
But you can do this.
So I, I don't ever wanna be that guy
that says, eh.
I don't know.
Jaclyn, I don't knowif this is your thing.
You might just wanna stick to crocheting.
Like that's a,
Jaclyn (07:10):
Have you
Ricky (07:11):
things like that all the time.
Yeah, yeah.
People say things like that all the
time.
So I
just,
first of all, I just wannatell you that you can do this.
This is, this is achievable.
Um, and then number two,
You can break them.
But there are rules.
You have to
follow
certain rules in script writing.
You have to follow certain Rules infilmmaking, but you can break them and be
avant-garde, but youcan't rewrite the system
(07:33):
There
has to be certain things in your script.
You cannot introduce your villain on page94 of a 97 page script, things like that.
There, there are things you have todo, you know, that make it work better.
So
you, you have to,
learn those things, but you canlearn those things while you're
also taking your idea from germinationto, to putting it in a paper.
Um.
(07:54):
And then kind of go back to something Isaid in, episode one of of these talks we're having is put some people around you that have your destiny in mind.
Put some people around you thatare gonna pick you up when you're down that are gonna encourage you.
Maybe it's financially, maybe it'sjust emotionally, but you need people to say, Hey, I believe in you.
You're really giving it a go here.
I'm gonna help you outwith whatever I have you.
I have a
couch.
You need a place to sleep.
(08:14):
One night here.
I
don't know what
that looks like for you, butthere needs to be people in your
life
that are there picking youup by the bootstrap sometimes because, uh, nobody is self-made.
No one is self-made.
There are probably scoresof people in my life
that help me get here in one way oranother, including God, obviously.
So, you know, A, you can do this.
B
there are rules
that you
have to follow, and
I'm I'm a
(08:34):
Huge rule breaker,
but there's
still, you know, tenets you have to do.
And then, um, c did Igo 1, 2, 3 or a, B, c?
We'll do, I don't know which idea.
But then the third thing wouldbe, uh, put people in your life that have your destiny in mind.
Jaclyn (08:46):
No, that's great.
And I, it is true.
I tell people the samething with, screenwriting.
I'm like, it's fine to breakthe rules as long as you know
what they are, and you can'tbreak all of them at the
same time.
You know, you have to be veryintentional and selective of which rules are going to break.
'cause if you just, if you break toomany of them, then everything just feels disjointed and it feels like a mess.
(09:07):
And it doesn't, it doesn'tfeel like it was intentional.
It just feels like, oh, you don't
know what you're
doing.
Ricky (09:11):
And, and you know, not to, I, I'm gonna do it.
I'm not to drop my book again, but onpage 63 of this book that I wrote, I
have my
personal phone number and
email address.
This book is called TrustingGod, pursuing Your Dreams, and Never Giving Up On Yourself.
It's just kind of a handbook.
If you have dreams, howto maybe get them a, uh.
Achieved.
And on page 63, I
say
if you
need encouragement or help orsomething, call me, text me, email me, write me smoke signal.
(09:35):
'cause I wanna be an encouragement to you.
Um, Bob Goff, who hasmillions of followers, he's
an incredible author, incrediblespeaker, has his phone
number in his book.
I've called him twice.
He's answered on
the first ring both times.
and I
figured if me,
with my four followers.
If Bob Goff has millions that
I,
with my four
followers, I could
have my, my information in my,
(09:55):
book and I really mean it.
I've had a few people reach out viatext and say, Hey, I read your book.
I'm reading it right now.
I need encouragement.
I'll either pray for them or
whatever.
Um, and it just, I think we need people in
our lives to, to help us.
Jaclyn (10:05):
Absolutely.
That's amazing.
Um, I have a question like withyour journey, you had mentioned like one of the things that you
wanna do with
teaching
is to help people to, um.
Not make the mistakes thatyou made and then you know,
to learn from the thingsthat you did right and all
of
that.
I'm just curious about some of those
mistakes.
What are some things, or maybeit wasn't a mistake, maybe even just something that you would do differently knowing what you know now?
Ricky (10:29):
Yeah, that's a great question.
I think, um, the thing that comesto mind, um, When you are making content, whether you're a writer or you're making videos or whatever,
don't
put
all of it out.
there for the world to see.
It's important for you to put it topeople that know you and love you, that can give you unbiased feedback that aren't gonna blow smoke up your butt and say, well, this is great when it's not.
(10:53):
But don't put your acting reel.
On the internet for everybodyto see when it's not good.
Because what happenedwith my first film is
I was living in Sacramento andI wanted to bring all of my filmmaking friends along with me
to make this film.
And the producer
and the
executive producer was financing,looked at their reels and stuff and
said, absolutely not.
You want me to hire this guy?
(11:13):
Look at this.
This is garbage.
And so my first thing would be,don't put everything that you make
out for the world to see.
Keep some of it here and then show yourfriends and family and close people, and then as it gets better, start putting out and not everybody's gonna like it.
I'm not saying when you do put itout there, everybody's gonna love it.
That's, you know, takeany, even Star Wars.
Not everybody loves Star Wars,but really, don't cast your pearls before swine and, don't put your swine out for the world to see.
(11:37):
And so that's, that's number one.
Number two, I think withthe advent of these devices,
these cell phones thatwe have in our pockets.
Use it, learn things.
Go on YouTube, go on a thousand otherplaces, you know Khan Academy, and
learn about what you're doing.
Take a masterclass from masterclass.com.
I think one of the thingsthat I really regret not doing was spending more time using
(12:01):
the tools at the time, youknow, 7, 8, 9 years ago to.
Be the
best version of myselffor my first film and
second film and third film.
Now, thankfully, through the grace ofGod and the gifting that he is given me and the anointing I have for that, I
was, I was okay at it, but Iprobably could have been better had I
spent some
more time studying
and learning the craft
from people that I admire and maybe even
people that I, don't know about, thatpeople are like, wow, this guy's got 37
(12:22):
million views on TikTok.
You should see what
he's doing.
Go look at that and see why thatis striking a chord with people.
At the end of the day,God's a storyteller.
He left us a book.
So what is a book?
It's a book of stories.
So God is telling stories perpetually
from the dawn of time to the end of time.
And if there's people doing.
it well Go
see why and make the
(12:43):
connect the dots that isresonating with people for this reason and that reason this.
So I would say, you know, study and, and
use the tools of the day right now
to make yourself better.
Jaclyn (12:50):
absolutely, that's a good word.
I, think that there is so much out therethat like, there's really no excuse.
Yeah, I know.
Even when I was a, a single parent,like this was maybe 15 years ago, a little bit more than that.
I, um.
I was trying to lose weight becauseI had gained a lot of weight
when I had my kids.
Um,
and so I thought,
(13:10):
well, I wanna be
healthy.
That was my goal, and so Istarted studying nutrition
and so I.
studied
nutrition like practically for ayear, and, I was implementing all the
things that
I
learned.
I never spent a cent on it though.
I went
Ricky (13:23):
Yeah.
Right.
Jaclyn (13:24):
You know, it, all of my work and
studying in nutrition was
all just effort.
Uh, you know, like whatever it cost
me to get to the library andand, pick up books and then
read it.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Ricky (13:37):
or pick a subject.
Now go on YouTube andtype in better sleep.
Thousands of videos are gonna come up
with doctors saying, here'show you get better sleep.
like you said, there's no excuse
now.
Jaclyn (13:46):
Yeah.
And you know, I think also,
uh, one thing that I've noticed latelyis that, the other thing that is really important to learn are the soft skills.
So you have your actual skill ofwhatever it is that you're pursuing, but then the question is, what kind of a person do I need to be and what kind of habits do I need to incorporate in my life in order to be successful
(14:08):
at that thing
that I wanna pursue?
And so, even just like.
Learning time
management,
like
learning a lot of these otherskills, like how to break down
your goal setting and
all of that so
that you can actually, like, youmay have a goal, but like you said, without a plan it's really
hard to actually, yeah.
It, it's really hard to
achieve it.
And so
how do you
(14:29):
actually create the plan and likeall of those skills that's what's necessary in order to become that thing
that you're pursuing to become.
And like, again, those things.
They don't take money necessarily.
I mean, sure you can pay for classes forthat and they're valuable, but a lot of
that stuff you can learn bygetting a, book at the library or watching something on YouTube,
(14:52):
like
there's so many learningopportunities out there.
and
then
it really
comes down to the discipline
and implementing it into your life.
And of course, if you
wanna be a producer or a
director or
an actor, like
all of those
things take.
Work like it is a lot of work toactually achieve those things.
Ricky (15:10):
So, right.
One of the best pieces of advice Iever got and I was 30 at the time when I got, I walked into the Dean of Students at William Jessup University.
I was a 30-year-old sophomore, 'causeI had already done enough, uh, school to be getting outta freshman year.
But I went back to get mydegree in Pastoral Ministries.
I walked into Bryce Jessup's office.
He, you know, he's
the
son of the.
Founder of William Jessup.
We
have this conversation.
(15:30):
I
told him about
my
dreams of passions.
This was an hour long conversation,and at the end of it, he said, Ricky,
the
best
advice I
can give you is this.
Two
things.
Number one, you're a high I,you're a visionary, you're a, you know, get it out there, get your
ideas out there and stuff.
Like he goes,
you need a high D. There's,
it's a disc.
You take a test, it's called the
disc test.
You get a high D. A high D
is someone who, whoserubber meets the road.
(15:51):
It's like, okay, Ricky,you want to build R
2D two.
That's great.
How
do we do that
Where do we get
the money?
Where do we get the tools?
Who, you know,
put
yourself with a high?
D 'cause you're a high?
I, you need to balance each other out.
I was like, that is brilliant,because if I'm left to
my own, I'm just gonnavision, cast and dream all
day and
nothing's ever gonna get
done.
And then number two, he's a Christian man.
He loves the Lord, he's in heaven.
He
read the Bible, you'vepreached, but he said, I have an
(16:13):
African
proverb for you.
He
said, if you wanna run fast, run byyourself and you wanna run far, run
with a
team.
And I, and I just realized in
that moment.
If I want
to get to
the finish line of whatGod's called me to do,
I'm
not gonna do
it by myself.
There's no way.
With
me alone,
I'm gonna be able to dot all the i's,cross, all the T's, come up with the budget, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
(16:33):
No way.
And so I
put a good
team around me.
And
so to your point,
uh, you just have
to have these things in your life.
You
have to have
the soft skills, andyou have to, you can't
lie to
yourself, right?
I can't lie to
myself right now and say I'm the
world's foremost experton sheep sharing when
I'm not.
So you have to be honest with
yourself and say, I'm notgood at line budgeting.
I need to bring in a line budget person.
(16:53):
I'm not
good at whatever I needto bring someone in.
You cannot be great at all things.
And so, uh, You
have to put people aroundyou that can support you.
Jaclyn (17:00):
Yeah, and I don't think that, um, I think that if we feel like we have to do everything ourselves, then we are
also, Removing ourself from theopportunity for God to bless us and speak to us, because a lot of the times, uh, the way that God connects with us and speaks to us and
impacts our lives is through people.
And so when
we are surrounded withpeople, then that's when
(17:22):
we get to have some of those reallytangible moments where people, say things and you're like, you have no
idea.
I was just prayingabout that this morning.
Ricky (17:30):
exactly.
Exactly.
Geoff (17:32):
I think one of the things we've learned is that filmmaking is inherently collaborative, just 100%.
A screenwriter doesn't end up with
a
film.
Unless other people
are
involved and
every, you know, you pick any role, uh,
it
relies on a team by nature.
and
I, I think that's for
us, a big part of
(17:52):
what we do and
why we
do it in our goal ofbringing people together.
it just requires collaboration and, uh,and as an individual, you grow the fastest and become the best you can
be.
the sooner you start involvingother people in your journey.
Ricky (18:08):
Amen.
Love that Jeff.
Jaclyn (18:10):
It actually, it reminds me of the scripture that talks about the body of Christ and, that like there are different members in the body and they have different roles and different
responsibilities, butevery single one of them
is necessary and relevant tothe function and health of The
body.
That if.
If your pinky is sore,
like you're not gonnabe able to stop thinking
(18:31):
about it.
Like,
I broke my finger a coupleweeks ago and I can't
stop thinking about it because
like everything I do, I'm
like, uh, my
finger, it hurts,
Ricky (18:39):
yeah.
the, I can't tell the foot thefoot's worthless and I can't be
on a set and tell myactors, I don't need you.
Well, yeah, you kind of do.
Jaclyn (18:46):
this has been another
fantastic conversation with you and,uh, I'm actually looking forward
to getting to know
you more.
I know we've got some, some plans to talkabout maybe getting some of your education
on faf association.com, so everybody watchfor that and uh, I'll be happy to share
some announcements when you've gotsome stuff out and, yeah, Okay.
(19:06):
So how do people find
your book?
Ricky (19:08):
Uh, they can go on Amazon.
Just type my name
in, just go to Amazon, put RickyBorba and my book will come up.
Um, it's on Amazon, it's
on,
Barnes and Noble.
It's on all the major websites.
I was
blessed
to be, uh, publishedby Trilogy Publishing,
which is the TBN
Arm of
Publishing.
And so, uh, it's
everywhere.
And um, yeah, that's how they
can find it.
Jaclyn (19:26):
Perfect.
Okay.
We'll get that link and put it.
in the show
notes also.
Ricky (19:29):
Okay, great.
Geoff (19:30):
Do you have a URL regarding your, uh, training at this point or there anything
you
can share?
Ricky (19:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
So I have a couple websites I, theycan go to ricky borba.com, which is my name, and that's kind of
who I am and what I'm workingon and stuff like that.
But
specifically for themasterclass is the letter
a
TO, the letter z, A to.
Z film.
Jaclyn (19:48):
Okay, perfect.
Thank you so much.
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