In each episode, the C.E.O. of WILDsound, Matthew Toffolo, chats about all things storytelling and film. Conversations with talented individual from all around the world.
Watch Poetry Movie HANDS FREE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dtiTChQVVI
Poem by Rhonda Yates
Voice Over by Val Cole
Visual Design & Editor by Kaitlin Manalili
Produced by Matthew Toffolo
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch Today’s Reading: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/esquisse-of-affliction
DANNY, a 23-year-old college graduate, returns to his childhood home in Monterey, California, following the sudden passing of his Mother, LORRAINE. After the funeral, Danny, his sister KATY, returned from LA, and their Dad, WAYNE talk about their plans for the immediate future. They run into GAIL, Lorraine’s former colleague, who has found Lorraine’s body at home. She tells Danny and Katy that Lorraine has some stuff left in her office, advising them to pick it up sometime.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
THE SINGULARITY PROTOCOL, 40min., USA
Directed by Craig McCourry
Hong Kong, 1941. Trapped in a bombed-out underground bunker, two soldiers, William Kwok and Charles Evans await death. But their final hour takes a chilling turn when a voice from the future breaks through: Cosmos, an AI Singularity from 2046, reaches back through time to fulfill an enigmatic protocol. As Cosmos shares unsettling truths about history, love, and humanity’s place in the universe, William and Charles confront mortality, destiny, and leave behind a stark warning for the future.
https://www.instagram.com/banyantreemovies
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnpDiGCQBd4
Get to know the writer:
What is your screenplay about?
A professionally trained chef stuck in a dead-end diner job gets a shot at culinary stardom when he’s chosen as a wildcard contestant in a prestigious fine dining competition. As he rises through the ranks, he must confront his self-doubt and the truth he’s been hiding about where he comes from.
What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Drama, with elements of comedy and ensemble-driven storytelling.
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
It fits in a space that is currently underserved. Character-driven, mid-budget stories with a clear hook.
The culinary competition world provides a built-in engine and audience familiarity, while the execution focuses on grounded, performance-driven storytelling. It is contained enough to be produced efficiently, while still offering scale through the competition setting.
It also offers strong ensemble roles, which creates multiple opportunities from a casting standpoint. From a business perspective, it is the kind of film that can travel well across festivals, streaming platforms, and word-of-mouth audiences who connect with character-first storytelling.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
WISHFEATHER, 3min., Australia
Directed by Ying Lei Zhang
A dancer wishes to soar beyond her eternal cage. But the key can only be found from deep within herself.
https://www.instagram.com/kila_ima/
https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/audience-feedback-wishfeather
STORIES FROM THE STREET, 30min., Canada
Directed by Andrea Ramolo
Filmed over the duration of a year, this documentary gives voice to a handful of currently or previously homeless Torontonians surviving the harsh realities of unaffordable housing. Within a tapestry of shared stories and experiences, the film also closely follows Brent, an older gentleman who is granted transitional shelter in a Tiny Tiny Home and eventually his very own apartment after living on the streets on and off his entire life.
https://instagram.com/byheartproductions
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch best scene reading: https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/crime-mystery-festival-best-scene-flight-17-by-richard-geiwitz-interview
After surviving what seems to be a terrorist attack on an airplane, a woman must go under the radar as she stumbles on something much larger.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod
https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod
Cheap$kate, 6min., USA
Directed by Calvin Catania
While a crafty detective teaches you his unique style of catching criminals, another criminal is on the run and heading down a dark alley he shouldn't be going down. In the end, someone has to pay for their crimes
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
A DANCE AWAY, 14min., USA
Directed by Maxwell Gilbert
A Dance Away tells the story of Ava, a college dancer who breaks her ankle during a performance a few months prior. Still traumatized and scared to go back on stage, her best friend, Riley, gives her a strange necklace, which mysteriously transports her into a realm. From there, she meets three dancers who give her a dance away.
https://www.instagram.com/adanceawayshortfilm/
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch best scene reading: https://youtu.be/IhdiRMQznCY
Get to know the writer:
What is your screenplay about?
When Lizzie Franks, a gorgeous African-American paraplegic, is fired from her job at a company she helped start and her fiance dumps her, she joins The Iron Maiden, a women-only gym to find a reason to go on. But Brandon Wickie, the brilliant, ultra-wealthy owner of the gym kidnaps her. He uses a unique nannite technology he’s invented to assemble his ideal mate from the body parts of women bodybuilders he kidnaps from his gym and he attaches Lizzie’s head to his creation. Meanwhile, Mathew Tran, a Chicago detective, is hot on Brandon’s trail as he tries to discover who has been kidnapping women bodybuilders and who killed George Johnson, the husband of one of the women and also a Chicago Detective. The movie culminates in a fight to the death between Lizzie and Brandon, both of whom have super-human strength and healing powers due to the nannites in their veins. Lizzie, in her unfamiliar body, must find a new inner strength and push herself beyond her limits to save herself and Detective Tran.
What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Horror/thriller
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
The simplest answer is because it will be a money-maker if it’s done right. It can be made as a low-budget horror film, which are extremely popular worldwide. It can also be produced as a high budget superhero origin story with A-list actors such as Zandaya as Lizzy Franks and Michael Cera as Brandon Wickie. It could also be the first in a series of movies following Lizzie’s adventures, it could be turned into one or a series of graphic novels, and it would make a great animated film or series.
In addition, it has a multi-racial cast of quirky characters, its heroine is uniquely different from any other superhero or female movie lead, the world of female bodybuilding is an unusual environment, and it combines humor with mystery, intense action and a bit of grisly horror, so it will keep an audience emotionally engaged and guessing about what comes next.
Finally, it explores important topics such as the danger of tech-bros with too much money (looking at you, Bezos and Musk), the dangers and benefits of AI-based technology, and female empowerment, so it’s more engaging than if it were just a whiz-bang popcorn movie.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
I WISH I WAS A DOG, 12min., Canada
Directed by Katherine Costal
When a young woman's desire to become a true member of her favourite art club turns her into a dog, she finds the newfound relationship between her and the members poses a different kind of challenge.
https://www.instagram.com/kat_costal/
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Final Transmission, 10min., UK
Directed by Sean Coleman
Alone aboard a crippled transport drifting through deep space, Commander Elias Walker records what will become humanity’s final message. Earth is gone, and the ship, once a vessel of hope, now carries only failure and silence. As oxygen fades, Elias begins a calm mission log, clinging to duty and procedure. But as systems die around him, the truth surfaces. He isn’t just facing his own death, he’s witnessing the extinction of mankind.
https://www.instagram.com/sean_coleman7/
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
CROWDED RIVER, 9min., Australia
Directed by Andrew M Sully
When Jane, a mid-career novelist racing a looming deadline, accepts a last-minute dog-sitting stay in a secluded riverside home — the perfect hideout to finish her book, or so she thinks — ordinary moments begin to feel charged with unease. The quiet quickly curdles. A stranger arrives, claiming to be ‘maintenance.’ No phone signal. A river sealed in ice. Footprints in the snow. What starts as a working retreat becomes a tightening psychological trap.
https://www.instagram.com/crowdedriver
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch the Best Scene of THE MEMORY TAX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDLcReloL8k
A 14-year-old girl with an experimental neural implant can access the entirety of human knowledge with her mind, but every ‘download’ costs her a piece of her past. While hiding in plain sight from the shadowy corporation that created her, she must decide how much of herself she is willing to forget to save the people she loves.
Why should this screenplay be made into a movie?
I would clarify that The Memory Tax is actually written as a one-hour television pilot, although I believe the concept is cinematic enough to work in a visual medium.
It should be produced because it has a strong, immediately understandable science-fiction hook with deep emotional consequences. The central idea involves a teenage girl who can access unlimited knowledge but loses her memories every time she does is both high-concept and character-driven.
The story also speaks to modern anxieties about technology, identity, artificial intelligence, medical ethics, corporate ownership, and the cost of constant access to information. But instead of telling that story through machines or institutions alone, it filters everything through a vulnerable teenage girl who simply wants to live a normal life.
That gives the project both genre appeal and emotional accessibility.
How would you describe this script in two words?
Costly knowledge.
What movie have you seen the most times in your life?
E.T. is one of the films I’ve returned to the most. I’ve always admired how it takes a science-fiction premise and grounds it in childhood, loneliness, friendship, and family. That is something I tried to bring into The Memory Tax. The genre concept matters, but the emotional experience of the child at the center matters even more.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
REDLINING, 18min., USA
Directed by Jason Stuart
REDLINING is about a black & white family who live on the same property during the 1970s in the Georgia REDLINING era. The film explores the themes of generational wealth, prejudice, homosexuality, women’s rights and the legacy of discrimination in the American South. Who gets to live where? What happens when the parents pass? Who gets the house? And why?
https://www.instagram.com/thejasonstuart/
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Watch the best scene reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3d7ULGYSPk
What is your screenplay about?
In 1947 a 19-year-old female genius is rejected for every job she applies to.
She gets recruited into a covert military program working alongside peaceful alien refugees.
When a test flight goes wrong, she’s the only one who can save the two men, including the one who spent months harassing her.
She learns the hard way that in order to get respect, she first has to give it.
What genres does your screenplay fall under?
Soft Sci-Fi and Drama.
The alien and technology are just the hooks.
It’s really about the characters.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
AN AFTERNOON IN KNIFE SELLING WITH PSYCHO SAMMY, 10min., Canada
Directed by George Yonemon
18-year-old Jesse shadows a professional at his new kitchen knife-selling summer job.
https://www.instagram.com/ge_orangeyonemori/
https://www.georgeyonemori.com/writing
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
JC Bratton's Dollhouse, 19min., USA
Directed by Ken Zheng, Livi Zheng
In the wake of a mysterious family death, a couple’s night of mourning is interrupted by a strange delivery containing an antique dollhouse and a terrifying tale about its lone occupant.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
The Offering, 3min., Canada
Directed by Banpreet singh
https://www.instagram.com/banpreet_gill
Setting: Canadian streets at night.
The Protagonist: a man living on the razor's edge of poverty, working gruelling hours for wages that barely cover his rent in an increasingly expensive urban landscape.
The Conflict: After a particularly lean month, protagonist finally treats himself to a modest meal from a local grocery store—a rare moment of indulgence intended to quiet the persistent ache in his stomach. As he starts to eat food outside the store, he notices a figure sitting nearby road.
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
Learning to Cuss, 4min., USA
Directed by Corey Foxx
Two young boys decide it is time to learn the ways of speaking like an adult.
https://instagram.com/austinfoxx11/
——
Subscribe to the podcast:
https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod
