May 11, 2021
Feral State is the story of a misfit gang of
runaways and orphans who are taken in by a dark and charismatic
father figure and together wreak havoc throughout swamps and
trailer parks in central Florida. Writer-Director Jon Carlo talks
to Write On about how the film came about: “Location was the
starting point for everything. This movie came about in such an
untraditional kind of way where the money was there first before
there even was a script, and part of the stipulations was to shoot
in a specific area in Florida, so I went down to meet the producers
and kind of scope out the scene, and the story kind of grew
organically out of what I was seeing in the community.”
Jon talks about his background as an actor, applying to the
Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and how hard work is the key to a
successful career. “I think the one thing that I’ve learned that I
think is the most important lesson is you have to do the work.
There is no easy way around: you can’t just scribble something down
and hope that it’s good. You have to write and rewrite religiously
until it’s there.”
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