COASTE | ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
ankle. “So the acting was pretty much done at that point, I couldn’t run anymore, and I had a lot of time to write.”
some.” But his confidence was rewarded, as his first feature filmwon at six film festivals across the country (including a number of “bests”) and was released in 15 states without any studio backing. The experience would change his life. “As I was flying all over the country, I noticed that most of these films weren’t being produced in Hollywood. About that time, we’d had our second child and I looked around and asked myself: do I really want to raise my kids in L.A.?” The answer was no. So with the support of his spouse Madeline — “who was producing music videos at the time and making good money” — John Scoular and family finally arrived in Southwest Florida.
He also had time to contemplate his next move and, still passionate about the entertainment
industry, he took jobs on short films and gained “invaluable experience” working for a number of big name directors, one of them named Francis Lawrence of the “Hunger Games” fame. When he observed
“We’d had our second child and I looked around and asked myself: do I really want to raise my kids in L.A.?”
Lawrence picked up a camera during a Pink music video shoot to get the “right shot,” Scoular got his next bug — and his next stop was the Los Angeles Film School to hone his crafts in cinematography, screenwriting and directing. As Scoular gained experience in Hollywood on the other side of the camera, he also gained confidence in his writing skills, dusted off an old play and birthed a film: “Lunatics, Lovers and Poets.” As he states matter-of-factly, “we shot on film, I called in a lot of favors, we spent all our money and then
And here’s where his story really begins.
Quickly learning that the business of filmmaking in Southwest Florida isn’t quite as robust as
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