Authors

Why I Hate Loglines And Everything I’ve Learned About Screenwriting – Jay Fingers [FULL INTERVIEW]

Filmcourage

Published

July 17, 2024

[Watch the video interview on Youtube here]

Film Courage: Is Jay Fingers your real name?

Jay Fingers, Screenwriter/Author/Youtuber: It is not it.

Film Courage: Is not. Okay. That is your stage name?

Jay: It is. It’s my nom de plume or whatever. I’m really impressed that you asked that because most people don’t. Most people just don’t. I did have someone say that she knew a person with the last name Finger and so just assume that yeah this is this is your real name. But it’s not, it’s a college nickname.

It was actually given to me by, I’m not going to call them bullies, but it’s a crew of upperclassmen. When I was a freshman, a crew of upperclassmen that I wanted to hang around and be seen with, they let me kind of hang around but they also made fun of me. Fingers was the nickname that they came up with. It’s actually from a movie they were watching. Marked for Death I believe it was a Steven Seagal film. There’s a character named Fingers and he goes crazy in one scene. I happen to walk into the room when that scene was going on and they’re just like Ah, your Fingers! Your Fingers! and it stuck.

Rather than be embarrassed by it, I embraced it. It just got to the point where everyone started calling me Fingers, even professors and everything like that.

I’ve been Jay Fingers for many, many years now, and as I say, I’ve embraced it. It really speaks to who I am, my true personality I think.

Film Courage: I thought it was for tapping the keys of the keyboard? Okay so there’s another story to it. Do you still keep in contact with those upperclassmen?

Jay: Some of them some of them but eventually I just met up with another group of like-minded people and we became a really strong crew, essentially a family and those people I’m very much in daily contact with with those guys. I left the upperclassmen alone and stuck with the community that embraced me for who I was.

Film Courage: How is your name a blessing and a curse?

Jay: It’s a blessing because it’s…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).

BIO:

Jay Fingers is a novelist, journalist, editor, and emerging screenwriter. He grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, before attending film school at the University of Miami. After college and working in Miami Beach’s nightlife scene for several years, Jay moved to New York City — Brooklyn, specifically — where he wrote four books: Guestlist, Kisses for Tati, Orange Mound and Manhattan Sweetheart. Deciding to fully pursue his lifelong screenwriting ambitions, Jay relocated to Los Angeles, where he currently lives and has been tirelessly working on spec scripts.

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