"Every Hollywood movie you see, they thought the script was perfect, and so many still suck. You need to take the time to get it just right," Reyna said. "I think people are pushing too fast to get their films made. People need to pay attention to getting the script perfect."

It's precisely this sort of attention to detail that has garnered critical praise and honors in two recent major film festivals for Legwork, Reyna's tale of corruption and manipulation in the world of bill collecting. The 36-minute short received an honorable mention at the Newport Beach Film Festival in a field of 170 films, and a Platinum Award - second only to Best in Show - in Best Dramatic Short at the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, which is one of the oldest film festivals in the country and received 4,700 total submissions this year.

Reyna and producer Steve Marra, of Saga Studios, spent a whirlwind few days in April picking up the awards and sipping wine on a yacht. "It was one of the best weekends in a long time."

But after this brief dalliance with the film rock star lifestyle, it was back to the slush pile and the search for a script for Reyna's first feature-length film, which by now is narrowed down to a few hopefuls. He hopes to work again with Marra, Saga Studios and executive producers Tom Barker, Paula Terry and Mac McWhirter. "Of all the ones I've been approaching, they're the ones who are putting their money where their mouth is," Reyna said.

"Realistically speaking, it's probably going to be a low-budget thing, but for this town it's going to be a step up to be shooting feature films locally."

Reyna scoured several parts of the country for Legwork, recruiting Boston playwright Dean O'Donnell to adapt his one-act play for the screen, and casting in both Indianapolis and Chicago.

It's all part of his approach to film that focuses on raising the bar for working in a professional manner, as close to the Hollywood template as possible. "At the end of the day you're making a movie, and you have to work on the quality to make sure what's up on the screen looks cinematic," Reyna said.