Meet T.c. De Witt

Today we’re excited to be connecting with T.c. De Witt again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

T.c., always such a pleasure connecting with you and thank you for sharing your stories, insights and inspiring messages with our community. We’re looking forward to getting the download and what you have been up to since our last interview, but first can you briefly introduce yourself to folks who might have missed the prior conversation.
My name is T.C. De Witt, and I am a writer & director. Professionally, I have written, ghostwritten, and punched-up over 700 screenplays and novels, which sounds like an exaggeration but is not. I’ve worked very hard to make a life in writing, and I’ve been very lucky to succeed in so many ways.

I started as a playwright in my home State of Wisconsin, and moved to LA with a love of film deep in my soul. I came here with enough money to survive a few months (if I didn’t get any work), and through the bold tactic of “saying YES to literally anything thrown my way”, I was able to start working on sets and collaborating with other indie filmmakers and dreamers. Whether it was being an extra, holding a boom pole, or letting my car be a prop while I hung out at crafty eating granola bars, I took every opportunity I could. This created a growing network, and soon, I was writing for friends, who recommended me to directors, who recommended me to producers, and the web grew.

Collaborating on so many things allowed me to freedom to produce my own projects, and as of last year, I’ve seen 14 feature films I’ve written on produced and released. Among those features, I’ve written and directed two (“The Princess Knight” and “A Christmas Sunset”), which are both available on Amazon Prime Streaming.

Great, so let’s jump into an update on what you have been up to since we last spoke. What can you share with us?
Through the past few years, this city and industry has been knocked around quite a bit. But filmmakers are a tenacious and determined lot of storytellers, and like dinosaurs in a park built on hubris, we find a way. I was so lucky to have a team of hungry and driven collaborators in this time. Through sheer force of will and imagination, we were able to produce a feature I wrote and directed called “The Demon Detective”.

LOGLINE: *Miles Mako is a professional exorcist who takes on a new client after she encounters a demonic presence who may have links to the detective’s dark past.*

Our film stars Dustyn Gulledge, Eugene Young, Dani Scott, and Matt Rasku, with legends Doug Jones, Vivica A. Fox, and Adrienne Barbeau. It’s truthfully the coolest thing I’ve been proud to say has my name on it. Writing a movie like this, seeing it produced by an extraordinary team, and getting to direct absolute icons was a dream of dreams! The team is excited by the response we received with our screenings, and we’re very much looking forward to our paranormal adventure releasing this year to streaming.

Additionally, my screenwriting series “The Studio Demands It!”, which I do with fellow writer/director James Burzelic, has just started its sixth season. 2024 saw our 100th episode, and our finale feature production of “Blade – Heart of Darkness” has been met with fantastic reviews and over 50K listens in the first two weeks of release.

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: Back to the Future

Favorite Book: “Timeline” by Michael Crichton

Favorite TV Show: Currently: “Andor”

Favorite Band or Artist: The Foo Fighters

Sweet or Savory: Sweet

Mountains or Beach: Mountains

Favorite Sport (to play): I’m a runner, so… Cross Country

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): I played baseball for many years, but track and cross country were my sports. I come from a running family. My dad is an Olympic long distance coach, and everyone in my family is connected to the world of long distance running.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: I wanted to be an inventor of fantastical, science-fiction devices

French Fries or Onion Rings: French Fries

Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: From Billions? This is the weirdest question. Paul Giamatti, all day.

Favorite Cartoon growing up: Animaniacs

Favorite Childhood movie: Star Wars A New Hope

Favorite Breakfast Food: Golden Grahams

Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
Life really is a combination of our decisions — right or wrong, go to bad, informed or ignorant — every moment is a fork in the road that splits off into 1 million possibilities. We are faced with choices every single moment, tough or otherwise. How we choose to face the challenges in front of us is ultimately up to her own selves, but it really just comes down to following your heart. Malcolm Gladwell says our instincts are so sharp that in a blink of an eye when faced with a choice we already know the decision we’re gonna make that is best for us. We can ruminate and take all the time we want, but our instincts, the things that are the very core of us, more often than now, are the one thing we can trust to guide us. We are the sum of our parts, and those parts include all the experiences we’ve had. And are having. The world never stops. Life keeps coming at us. My favorite people are the ones who allow themselves to grow and evolve and become more than they were.

It’s so important that we learn who we are every day, and there’s nothing more important than being curious and wanting to know more – more about ourselves, more about the world, and also importantly more about the people all around us. All we can do is our best. No one can be perfect, so we have to strive to be the best possible version of ourselves.

As indie filmmakers, we don’t have unlimited budgets. Sometimes, we’re working with the only pennies we have. We strive for perfection, but often times, we have to work within our limitations. Those limitations need to be embraced. It’s not giving up or compromising the project by changing what you originally intended, because something isn’t working out. That’s how a broken shark gave us Jaws. It’s how Deadpool finally finished coloring and leaped off a bridge. It’s how nuking a fridge to travel through time being pretty much impossible and gave us the Delorean.

Tough calls have to be made in order to bring movies to life. And honestly, when you look at what it takes to get a movie finished and in front of people, it’s a goddamn miracle anything ever gets completed. But hey, overcoming those struggles prove who has it in them to do this insane work. I love movies so much more than any trouble that must be overcome to make them. And maybe that’s the crazy required to do this.

Website: https://www.studiodemandsit.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tcsbighead

Twitter: Twitter shouldn’t be used anymore.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/redactedmedia

Image Credits
Production stills from “The Demon Detective”: Cinematographer Matt Rasku
Profile picture courtesy of Ren Michele Aranda
“Blade – Heart of Darkness” poster designed by T.C. De Witt