We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Macee Binns a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Macee, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
The path to self-discovery is a wild journey to say the least. The word “purpose” is literally defined as the reason for which something exists. Therefore, the pursuit of one’s purpose is an enormous task that the majority of us struggle to discover. The most valuable lesson that I have learned in regards to this topic is that your perceived purpose is allowed to evolve, shift and change over time. Former aspirations that you had, when you were young, often fall by the wayside or evolve into something new as you mature and that’s perfectly alright!
At a very early age, I believed that my purpose was to become an actress. So I focused all my attention and education on that goal and put an immense amount of pressure on myself to be successful in this chosen career path, whether I was finding joy in it or not. I started acting as a teenager in local plays in my hometown, then decided to study film and theater in undergrad at the University of Central Arkansas, before eventually moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the industry. What I didn’t know at the time was that my heavy-handed pursuit of acting would lead me down a completely different path and evolve into my current career as a writer.
My shift from acting to screenwriting and filmmaking actually happened when I was in graduate school working on my MFA in acting for film. I fell into it by chance when our class had to write and produce our own short films, as part of our final thesis project. I found screenwriting to be tedious at first, but a few of my teachers were impressed with my work, so they encouraged me to submit my scripts to film festivals and my thesis, Row 28, actually won several awards for Best Short Film Script. As a result, I started spending more and more time writing and immersing myself in new aspects of the industry and media that I previously had no interest in.
As I dove deeper into screenwriting, I was forced to learn about production, which led to me working as a Casting Director for numerous film, television and commercial projects. Once I began to broaden my horizons into different areas of the entertainment industry, so many unexpected opportunities started to present themselves. As a result, I’ve now had three different plays published and I was asked to contribute several monologues to the Smith & Kraus annual anthology book series, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues, which is sold in bookstores worldwide. I was given the chance to write countless articles for various newspapers and magazines, including a passion piece for TheRichest.com that exposed the mistreatment of numerous animals at SeaWorld and received over 3 million views online. I also had the privilege of working at Dancing Iguana Productions writing content and producing segments for the Left Unsupervised Podcast on iTunes, Google Play and Spotify. My most recent screenplay and passion project, Hand Twins, has won 15 awards for Best Feature Screenplay at different film festivals this year.
This journey has made me realize that you are allowed to have many different dreams and career paths throughout your lifetime. If you had told me in my early 20’s that I would be able to write a feature film, let alone an award-winning feature film, I would have thought I was being punked! Letting go of old plans that no longer serve you often makes way for new goals, desires and achievements to present themselves and shouldn’t we all strive to be ever growing and changing?
As I begin to focus on my next writing project and work towards getting Hand Twins optioned and into production, I am so grateful to the wonderful educators who first recognized my potential and encouraged me to pursue writing in a serious way. It’s funny how life takes you to unexpected places, but I’m a firm believer that with enough dedication and exploration, everyone can find a purpose that makes them happy in life.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
In my writing career, I am passionate about giving a voice to women by creating realistic, character-driven screenplays that feature female protagonists who find themselves in unusual circumstances as they struggle to overcome many of the issues that women unjustly face in society. My greatest hope is that through my unique voice, I can help give underrepresented demographics more of a presence in this male-dominated industry and pave the way for future female writers to come.
During the pandemic, I was inspired to write my most recent feature film script, Hand Twins, because I was still grieving the loss of several close family members and was longing for the nostalgia and familiarity of my adolescence. After talking with some of my friends who have also experienced great loss in their lives, I started thinking about all of the comically strange circumstances that you find yourself in after experiencing the death of a loved one. I kept thinking, “Why doesn’t anyone write a script that accurately encompasses the absurdity of these traumatic situations?” Thus, my screenplay Hand Twins was born.
In short, the film is about a celebrity gossip writer who returns to her suffocatingly small hometown in Arkansas to hunt for her late father’s missing ashes; during her search, she crosses paths with her damaged ex-boyfriend and is forced to face the complicated past that she fought so hard to escape.
I am passionate about seeing this project come to life because so often romantic dramedies revolve around a man coming to terms with the fact that a particular woman is the right person for him. Since women are still underrepresented in the industry, I wanted to flip the script and create a film where the female protagonist’s ultimate happiness and life decisions are a byproduct of her own choices and not dependent upon circumstance or based on the decisions and/or happiness of a male counterpart. I feel like the themes within my script resonate with a wide variety of audiences, and in particular with women who are struggling to find their place in this crazy world that we live in.
Fortunately, Hand Twins has been well received on the festival circuit and has won 15 awards at numerous film festivals to date. That being said, getting the script optioned and produced is a challenge that I am presently still facing. But I believe that with time and continued recognition at festivals, all of the puzzle pieces will eventually fall into place. Granted, this is no easy task, especially when it comes to low-budget indie film production. Therefore, my current focus for the upcoming year is to move Hand Twins into the development phase so that one day, in the hopefully not too distant future, we can see this fresh new take on the typical coming of age drama play out on the big screen.
I am also presently working on writing a new feature film with my friend and creative partner, Fernanda Chaves. It is an all-female ensemble revenge flick that we feel has great box office appeal. We are currently busy pouring our blood, sweat and tears into this special script that is designed to give power back to women in a shocking, unexpected way. We are looking to have the screenplay completed and move into development by the fall of 2023. Fingers crossed!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Film is undoubtedly one of the most difficult industries in the world to break into and you often hear that success in this field is mostly dependent on who you know. Well I’ll tell ya, I didn’t know anyone and I had absolutely zero connections, when I moved to L.A. a decade ago, and it was a struggle to say the least! Even though I am always aspiring to take my career to the next level, I do believe that I have made a name for myself in this extremely competitive industry, despite starting from ground zero. So the advice that I would give to newcomers who are just starting out in the world of film is that it really is possible to make it in this industry; you just have to be persistent, be prepared and be willing to take daily risks.
During one of the last conversations that I had with my father before he passed away, I told him that I felt stuck in my career and that all of my efforts seemed to be going nowhere. I remember him saying, “You just have to keep chipping away at the problem one little brick at a time and eventually something will shake out.” Over the years, I’ve always kept that in mind and I’ve got to admit it wasn’t bad advice. Even when you feel lost in this industry, you still have to wake up everyday and ask, “What is one small thing that I can do to advance my career today?” Then you have to be bold and take those daily risks to accomplish your goals and eventually, over time you will see the payoff.
My mom is an amazing entrepreneur and growing up I watched her put herself out there every day and make remarkable strides in her business despite all of the odds. I watched her fail, then start from scratch and pick herself back up again. Her success and relentless determination inspired me to be a risk taker in my own career and it taught me to never give up, even when the challenge ahead seems impossible. I hope that someday I can be the same badass role model to others that my mother was to me, and I can encourage others to keep chipping away at finding their place in this crazy industry, until eventually they’re on the right path.
Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am currently looking to partner with production companies and/or literary agents who might be interested in helping to develop my romantic dramedy screenplay, Hand Twins.
I will also be looking for agents and production companies that specialize in representing horror/thriller scripts, once my female ensemble revenge flick is completed in the next couple of months.
If you feel like you might be interested in collaborating, you can request to read Hand Twins through InkTip, FilmFreeway or on Coverfly. Also feel free to email me at [email protected]
Contact Info:
- Website: www.maceebinns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maceebinns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/macee.binns?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: Writing Portfolio | https://maceebinns.journoportfolio.com/ IMDB Profile | https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4574585/ Amazon Authors Page | amazon.com/author/maceebinns
Image Credits:
David Muller
