Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / BONUS EPISODE: Inside the Blumhouse Filmmaking Machine with Marcus Dunstan

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BONUS EPISODE: Inside the Blumhouse Filmmaking Machine with Marcus Dunstan · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

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You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
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podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com. Welcome to the indieilm Huscle Podcast,
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Episode number five eighty six. Do you want to play a game?
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Jigsaw? Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie Film Hustle
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Podcast, where we show you how to survive and thrive as an indie filmmaker
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in the jungles of the film biz. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast. I
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am your humble host, Alex Ferrari. Now today's show is sponsored by Rise
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of the Film Entrepreneur How to turn your independent film into a profitable business.
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It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers to make money with their films
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ebook, and of course audiobook. If you want to order it,
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just head over to www dot filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot
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com. Now, guys, today on the show, we have screenwriter and
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filmmaker Marcus Dunstan and Marcus got his start in the same place I wish I
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would have had my I start back in the early two thousands Project Greenlight,
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where he worked on season three where he wrote the film Feast, and from
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there he tells us a story of how he was able to leverage that into
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getting on a writing assignment to write the next Saw film, and the way
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he went on to write multiple Saw films, how he was able to get
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his film, The Collector off the Ground, and we also talk about his
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brand new film which he shot inside the filmmaking machine that is blum House Human.
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So we're going to get into all of that. So without any further
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ado, please enjoy my conversation with Marcus Dunstan. I like to welcome the
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show Marcus Dunston. How you doing, Marcus? I am grateful. How
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are you, sir? Thank you for having me. Oh, thank you
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for coming on the show. Man. I had a friend of mine work.
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He was a visual effects artist on one of your first movies, The
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Collector, all right on, and I knew him and he told me all
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sorts of creatives like his first big VFX job. Now he's working for Marvel
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and Bond and all this stuff. But his first thing was big, big
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thing that he did was The Collector. So that's our connection, sir.
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Oh right on. Well, hey, special things. What is this person's
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name? His name is Dan Kreagan. He's been on the show a bunch
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of times as if he's one of my best friends. I owe my gratitude
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to Dan Creagan because that thank you. Thank you, Dan Scott so for
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so first question, sir, how did you get into this insanity that is
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the film industry. Well, it was an absolute Uh, it was it
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was It was a desire, a joy a, I don't know. It
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was a conversation in the dark of adolescence where I had horrible acne, I
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didn't want to go outside. It was embarrassed of how I looked and everything.
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And then I start recognizing the work of this really talented artist named Tom
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Savigni, and oh, man, he could change the way he looked,
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and I maybe I can cover up my face too, and oh he does
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special effects. Well then there's this movie, Oh, this Friday at the
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thirteenth, that's pretty cool. And it was a springboard all the way up
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until when he directed None of the Living Dead nineteen ninety and his episode of
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Tales from the Dark Side or episode I believe he did a couple and I
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just he was the reason. He was a gateway, because what I loved
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was this ability where the fake traumas of life might be able to be a
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gateway to a little bit of healing understanding. And maybe if you show the
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world everything scary through this lens that is not actually going to harm you,
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then maybe you can approach the next day of your life, not being afraid
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of anything. And if you make that audience jump, maybe they're going to
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jump closer together and we'll all face the dark as the best we can will
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become light. That is the most beautiful description of horror I've ever heard in
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my entire life. It's wonderful. Thank you, thank you. It was
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this very spiritual aspect to the horror genre. I've never heard it put so
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eloquently before. So that's awesome, Thank you, thank you very much.
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Now another connection we have, sir, is you got your start on a
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little show called Project green Light. Yes the day, Yes, well,
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sir, I was for about five or six seconds in Project green Light season
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two. Oh okay, I made it to the top twenty of season two,
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so I almost I almost made it onto the show. And I've had
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Chris Moore, and I've had Chris Moore on the show, and I first
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words out of my mouth like, dude, why didn't I get into the
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project right on? Okay, So you got your start on season three if
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I'm not mistaken with the feast, right, yes, And I was working
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at a Blockbuster home video in I sang a canyon restocking seasons one, and
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then too the screening the hey come see this movie screening passes, we were
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asked to hand them out. So they're going to do a sneak screening of
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the Battle of Shaker Heights in a in a theater out there. And then
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on the radio, Patrick Melton's wife even heard that there was going to be
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a three and they'd be widening the net into potentially, you know, something
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more genre could be uh you know uh the at the time the gross Out
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Team comedy. They could do a drama, suspense, thriller, or maybe
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a horror movie. Yeah, and and it worked out that you got it.
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It's so funny too. So I did my time in a mom and
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pop video store for five years in high school. Okay, now what did
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you and what you? You and I are a similar vintage sir. Still
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got your name tag though No, I actually was a mom and pop.
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I didn't even have name tach. I didn't know name tag. Well,
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that's not even my name. That's how this this blockbuster was struggling. So
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I was Jamie with like a velociraptor scratched through it. That's awesome, that's
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what happened to Jamie. I don't know. That is some street cred right
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there, sir. That is that's a major street cred for all the kids,
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for all the kids listening to Google what a video store was? Now,
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Now, when you work with on that show, I know you were
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on it for a little bit and you wrote the script. I help you
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write the script for Did you write it by yourself or did you write it
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with them with Patrick Melton? And it was we were adapting a draft written
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by Paul Sover. Okay, so what was your biggest lesson you learned?
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Which is essentially the first experience in the business. What was that the biggest
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lesson you learned working on that? Oh? Wait, what are you talking
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about? Feast or on Human? I'm sorry? Oh sorry, Now Feast
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was an original creation of ours Unhuman Okay, sorry, Wow, it's been
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a pressed day. I like, huh and then this is the one,
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Okay, I got it. Uh. You know, Feast was entirely a
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reaction episode where we you know, we took debate of what do you want
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to see? And I asked like, well, I keep wanting to rewatch
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Evil Dead too, and then why Well, because it had this endless uh
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fountain of creativity no matter what where the budget didn't. I didn't think of
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what the budget was. I just knew I was entertained and it just didn't
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waste a molecule without finding the most creative way to bring it. And I
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thought it had it was ferocious and its ability to protect the attention span,
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to galvanize the the eyes, the brain, and and and rope you into
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it's it's wonderful narrative. I just thought, this is great. This is
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this is all the this is all the inspiration and hope and that, you
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know, to really get us going. So then we felt like, okay,
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well we know they kind of make things in the realm of a million
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bucks. We know, uh, And we actually tried to enter it in
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Project Greenline season two against all advice, and at that point you you do
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it. There were kind of do a digital submission. Well somehow we got
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the whole submission wrong and it turned into you know, two thousand pages of
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triangles and squares or something, and who knows, uh, we it is
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the early Internet. It was the early end that wow, Frontier, we'll
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be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.
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And so then By the time this came around, we thought, I
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mean, we were certain this draft that we had worked and worked and worked
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on could be made for one dollars and the budget came back at twenty and
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we're like, oh, so then we had to do a little more work.
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So so when you were working on with on the Feast, did you
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did you? I mean, I gotta imagine it was kind of a culture
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shock for you, just to kind of like a shock to the system working
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even with the Chris Moore and you've been watching them on the on the show
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for a couple of seasons and all that kind of stuff. Yes, well
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in fact, but yet at the same time, there was a lot of
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small world stuff in that I lived in Melton, and I lived in the
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same building on Tamerand in right around Hollywood. So there's like the Scientology Celebrity
10:16
Center, Birds lapou Belle, and then there's Tameron and we lived there for
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a while, and so we had a shared computer. He had this one,
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but it would overheat because we could type faster than it could process,
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so it would overheat. You have to turn it off every twenty minutes,
10:30
and we'd run it up and down the stairs depending on who could have enough
10:33
time to write that night. And so then there's this Willy Wonka moment,
10:37
and you know, your life could change if the dais of Wes Craven and
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Chris Moore, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Nick Phillips, et cetera,
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would would dare annoint you and invite you to that side of the room.
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But the location of that conversation was like six blocks away. It was just
10:54
in a it was just in a hotel. We didn't know anybody and couldn't
10:56
get into and couldn't afford to stay there anyway. So it's kind of like,
11:00
you know, in an absurd way, it's like, so we're going
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across the street where like, really it's been here the whole time. That's
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that's that's awesome. And and then the and then like my gosh, there's
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this the attention and there's cameras and whatnot. It's it was a lot,
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and I would say, thank goodness we were We kept our Midwest in there
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like this was that wonderful area right before. The instinct would be to be
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to want more camera than and lose sight of the opportunity at hand. No,
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we were there to make a move. We were there to exist and
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help, and the fact that the cameras were there, you know, you
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learn later in life that those cameras were to keep probably a lot of the
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other people in mind that had been in that industry a while and and protect
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the innocence of it. So I I really that was an absolute It was
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a Willy Walker moment. It was a miracle and for a first time experience
11:54
to have it documented. I mean, at some point I'll go back and
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watch that show with the memories of being on the other side of that and
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that, I mean, how that's just whimsy. Man, That's great.
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Yeah, No, I mean I've gotten close. I got close too many
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times to mention on both that and like on the Lot. If you remember
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that show, absolutely remember on the Lot, Yes, I was flown up.
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I was flown up to to to meet I was like right there about
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to get in. Oh yeah. So I'm always fascinated about the whole Cup
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Project, green Light and the whole on the Lot, that whole reality stuff.
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But there was really, you know, to be honest, there wasn't
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a lot of people that came out of those shows that had to like build
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a career you're one of the few that really have you you made it out
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well, it was uh, you know, and we were very fortunate.
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I really got to think that not not only luck, but also thank being
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prepared for luck because before Feast came out, the show, when it was,
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when it was depicting us, well, that was then attractive for you
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know, agents, et cetera to want to take a meeting. And we
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had we had we had, you know, an agent's agents at this one
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of the big agencies, and they dropped us when the when the cameras were
13:07
off and we were unrepresented. It was July, before Feast had ever come
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out, before anything had happened, and Patrick and his wife were expecting his
13:18
little boy, and they as a couple agreed that if they don't figure out
13:22
a way to stay solvent in the entertainment industry, he was he would go
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to he was going to just have to change, do something, do something.
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They got you got a family now. So over the July fourth weekend
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he had this idea and he wrote the first draft of what would be the
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Neighbor. Then we have this this premiere in Vegas for a Feast, where
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now Feast is finally coming out after eighteen months of us not knowing in the
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separation of Disney and Dimension and Weinstein and whatnot, but they took us along.
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Then now the cameras are back on. Then you know, all of
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a sudden, there's attention. Then all of a sudden, like, hey,
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and this a wonderful agent by the name of David boxerbaumb and Davis.
14:03
The show's awesome, And yep, David, Cheryl, Debbie Dubal. All
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of a sudden, we've got this marvelous team that you know, elected to
14:13
roll the dice on us, knowing that wait, there's potential here. You
14:16
guys will actually work for this, like you're not just you know, needed
14:18
to be handed to you, Like, no, we'll work for it,
14:20
like let's go. And sure enough, at that premiere party, I stepped
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into the back of it to do a verbal rewrite on the ending of the
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Neighbors. So then Dimension buys it. Melton breathes a sigh of relief because
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he's now a writer supporting his family. And then there's this movie that comes
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out and within a week we set up The Midnight Man, which would then
14:43
become The Collector and whatnot, and David Cheryl and Debbie, it's like,
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thank you, thanks for thanks for catching us in free fall. We weren't
14:50
going to give up on ourselves and it was great to have then this team
14:54
to do. So that's a long witted, long winted answer, but you
14:56
know it's there. There is some human in the in the realm that can
15:03
sometimes be like our movie title human. Yeah. Absolutely. Now you also
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got a gig writing a sequel to one of the most successful horror franchises of
15:11
all time, Saw Yes. How did you? How did you get that?
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Because you were still fairly young writer at that point. Absolutely very so
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that all happened within eight weeks of the Feast premiere. Now we had a
15:26
little bit of street cred. The movie was getting, you know, favorable
15:31
reviews, word of mouth, whatnot, and we and due to the sale
15:35
of the Neighbor that takes a little time before the w GA makes it official.
15:39
So this Saw four deal. They did not want to go with a
15:43
union writers just yet. They wanted to hire three different writers with the task
15:50
of writing a script called Software and each of these writers or teams would be
15:54
given a set of rules to follow. Because Three I hadn't come out yet,
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for some reason we didn't get the thing of the rules, but it
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didn't stop us. And wouldn't you know, we end up accidentally writing something
16:07
that we got yelled at because the budget was going to be too big,
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and then it then they went with it and that was pretty cool. And
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then you know, uh, and we were able to make a deal with
16:17
them to to to keep working in that I mean, my goodness, So
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in the span of a year. It was because they would make the Saw
16:26
movies so quickly and you know, so efficiently. I mean, like,
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my gosh, we had Oh my gosh, we're gonna we just got dump
16:33
drop fire agents. This whole thing might be over. Wait are movies coming
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out? I was playing twice at midnight? Did it say? It really?
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Just grossed like five dollars? Like what is that? Wait? We
16:45
got an X rating? Oh we got to cut. Oh we did oh
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man and then oh out. And then the next year it's My Parents,
16:51
My Hit My World History Teacher is sull and Ricklemann had at a big old
16:55
premiere for a horror movie that folks have heard of, and that's it's another
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like how did we get here? It was just awesome, but you know,
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we did as we worked really hard. That's the thing that's fascinating because
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a lot of people listening and be like, oh, you know, these
17:10
guys are just lucky, they just fell into it. I'm like that so
17:11
much. No, you work hard. But the point is that you were
17:15
ready for when the opportunity presented itself. Like if you would have just been
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sitting there like, oh, I have no other script that I don't have
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the neighbor, I don't have anything else, I have ideas, You actually
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were prepared for when these opportunities present and then serendipity just happens. And after
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doing so many interviews on this show and talking to so many you know,
17:33
amazing writers and directors like yourself, I just realized that luck has such a
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big part to do with sustaining a career in this business. But every single
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one of them work hard. It's not like we're just sitting around in the
17:49
middle of Ohio somewhere and an agent knocks on your door. Hey, I
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hear you have some ideas. Can I help you? No, that's not
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the that doesn't work that way. Absolutely, uh No, you gotta it's
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nuts, like uh and and and you know, continues to this day,
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you still have to go for it. You still have to I don't this.
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This experience with Unhuman reminded me a lot of Feast in that I wanted
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to bring some of the zeal and and creativity that John Gooliger did and try
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to say, like, well, what if we were taking some of the
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expectations, tropes, stereotypes of the high school genre and flip them kind of
18:27
like John was able to do with Feast and and and what we were doing
18:30
with the creature feature and and and in doing so, can we sneak in
18:34
the theme about bullying and and and try to punch above our weight in that
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regard, like, just can we stick this landing? So this the narrative
18:45
will have competent, adrenalized, attention span friendly stimulus, but we nail that
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if we get that right amount of sugar, we can put in something of
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substance that that could really uh keep us around for a while and and bestow
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a lesson as some of their great horror movies had done to us. Yeah,
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And I think that's one of the big mistakes that screenwriters make with horror
19:07
movies is they don't put in that deeper underlining thing. We'll be right back
19:14
after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. They
19:22
just do gore or they just do the scares. But when you're able to
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interwine, intertwine or weave in these kind of deeper themes and ideas, that's
19:33
when those things become classics. And they just keep going it going and going.
19:37
Yes, I hope. So, I mean that's you know, I
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mean, it sounds like you don't have a goal to really set up we're
19:42
going to make a classic today. But occasionally if you stick to this this
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goal of I want to get this message through no matter what, can every
19:52
performance synteatic, can the production design bolster it, can the score enhance it?
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Talent? And then oh hey, if it's a lucky to earn that
20:00
Moniker? All right, we did it right now. How how did you
20:04
get The Collector off the ground, Because you know, you guys are just
20:08
at this point just writers. So you got to direct the movie and it
20:11
was a fairly decent budget, and it was you know, it was by
20:15
a studio and and so and so. How did you get that off the
20:18
ground? That required outsmarting the system once again? And in the way it
20:23
was I predirected some stuff and I came up with a marketing and so it
20:30
was back in the day. If I had a smartphone, man, that
20:33
thing would have been done on the second. But no, this is when
20:36
you needed to get cameras, favors, et cetera. And thank goodness,
20:40
it was the Googiger family. It was after Feast and Fortress, so this
20:44
would be Brett Forbes and Pat rise Ati helped provide a budget of about seven
20:48
thousand bucks to execute a scene that would show, oh, this guy can
20:56
write a few words, but hey, he's good with actors and or like,
20:59
can can accomplish the goal of the scene, and and then it becomes
21:04
a trailer. So then I wanted to get to jump scares and set up
21:07
the plot line, and then I wanted to earn a tagline at the end
21:11
and give it a whole sense of like make it feel like a growing threshold
21:15
event to lead up to someone that is introduced as a bad guy meeting a
21:19
worse guy and then bloodied in a rainstorm run out caressing a kid that's not
21:23
his own, just with only breathing as a soundtrack, you know, just
21:29
because he's like not tonight you know he's reached a point in his criminal career
21:33
where he finds something so awful he'll stop. That's that's awesome. That's a
21:37
great story because so many screenwriters want to direct and they just you know,
21:42
you have to figure out how to get noticed. And that's a great way.
21:45
You shot that little demo and they gave you, they gave you the
21:49
budget to do it. It's it's so interesting because when The Collector came out.
21:55
When the Collector came out, what year was that? That came out
21:59
in two thousand and nine, but it was also similar to Feast and that
22:02
it took a while to get out there. So I remember my buddy worked
22:04
on it. He told me, he's like, what can I use this
22:07
on my demo reel? I can't use this on my at the window.
22:11
So like it was amortized with the production of two sequels to Pulse, two
22:15
sequels to Feast, and then we were the last one. At this point,
22:18
I thought like, ah, this is awesome. I'm the last one.
22:21
You know, everything's going to be great. Well learned the hard way
22:23
that when hear the last movie in an amortized situation, that means all the
22:27
overages from those movies come out of yours. So whatever budget was supposed to
22:32
be there wasn't quite there. Whatever schedule was supposed to be, there was
22:36
kind of cutting half. And then by the end I had a lot of
22:41
middle of a movie. I had some ending, but I took every penny
22:44
I made from writing the Saw movies then and funded two weeks of shooting on
22:48
my own. And now we had at the beginning. Now we had a
22:51
middle, end, we had the end, and with that it was.
22:55
It was done. So I felt like, you know, I didn't come
22:57
out here just to do half of a first movie. I gotta, you
23:00
know, we gotta do the whole thing. And it when that was exciting,
23:04
like the whole cast and crew coming along for that meant a lot.
23:08
So then to mention, we got a call from Bob Weinstein saying, hey,
23:14
and I got my money tied up in inglorious Bastards, and uh,
23:18
you know, if you want to put the movie out yourself, I dig
23:21
it, you can. You can. Oh, I can self release this
23:25
movie. Great. That sounds like a deal, and so thank goodness,
23:27
we had to whewithal to be like, well, what would you sell it
23:30
for? If we found a buyer. Oh, let me go away.
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All of a sudden, the budget more than doubled, you know, all
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of a sudden, I couldn't get a copy of the budget that I knew
23:40
we had no no that I'm sorry, we can't give it. And thank
23:44
goodness, we had two weeks to find a buyer, and on one of
23:48
the last days of that possibility, Mickey Liddell came in, watched it,
23:52
left the the editing room, walked around the block and said, okay,
23:56
how much And and that's what led to to uh LD hiring Freestyle to release
24:03
a movie that was called The Midnight Man now is called The Collector courtesy of
24:07
Bob is now an LD movie it uh and then so then it came out
24:12
in the summer of two thousand and nine, after they, you know,
24:15
makey put in even more bucks for some more spitting polish. That was awesome.
24:18
And like the songs you hope to get, I mean, here's what
24:22
I just so loved and appreciate it is he understood that when you put in
24:29
a tempt song, you don't want to find another song managing these things to
24:33
this song, and they and even if you can't quite understand the why it
24:37
does something. They all hold hands. You can kind of tell when something's
24:41
been replaced at the last second because it's like, well it's okay, I
24:45
guess you know, it's up tempo. But you know, we we have
24:48
relationships with all forms of art in these things, and he got it and
24:52
let it be so so then we come out and fortunately he would like to
24:57
do another one and that led to then the collection and so on. So
25:02
uh yeah, it was an absolute for you know, fortuitous time. But
25:06
again it was I thinking about it now, it's insane giving. Yeah,
25:12
I you know, whatever a little nut I had was just instantly vanquished in
25:17
the hopes that's something. And then oh yeah, I you know, guess
25:19
what you get to make a movie? What do you get to make half
25:22
of it? And if you can finish it, you can release it yourself,
25:25
if you can afford it, and if you can't find someone who paid
25:26
double that and to release it on their own, and maybe you'll get a
25:30
sequel or maybe no one. I'll hear from you again, who cares?
25:32
I love you know what. So you know, I'm so glad that people
25:37
are are listening to this story because you put with your money where your mouth
25:42
is and that so many filmmakers don't do that. So many people don't take
25:45
the risk to do that. And in this scenario, if I was consulting
25:51
you back then with the mine that I have today, I would say absolutely
25:55
do this because this doesn't happen. You don't get this scenario. It was
26:00
a very furtwo it is. It's also very kind of lottery ticket scenario where
26:06
all of these things lined up so beautifully they it was it prepared for serendipity
26:15
exactly. Now, what was on that shoot? What was the You know,
26:21
as directors, we always go through like the worst. There's always a
26:22
day that we remember, if not every day, but there's always a day
26:29
that we're losing the sun, camera breaks, the actor can't come out,
26:33
the car accident happened somewhere and we lost the camera, the truck. You
26:37
know, I've seen it all. What was that day for you? And
26:41
how did you overcome it and make your day? Thank you for that question,
26:45
because I think you know, every day has its challenges, but really
26:48
it's in the survival of those challenges and the way to assess that and out
26:53
smarter. You don't have to overpower any of this stuff. But you do
26:56
have tol you do have to out smart things because ultimately an image has to
27:02
exist that conveys some information. Several ways that that can be done. You
27:07
can do the expensive way, you can do it the in many more modest
27:10
ways. So one night I'm in it, Josh Stewart is masked up.
27:15
It's going to be the stocking casing of the house. He's assessing it with
27:18
you know, Brandon Cox beautifully lighting these things, and we're getting all this
27:22
awesome imagery and then it's about, you know, we still have another little
27:26
sequence to do. And I remember one point, it's just quiet, turn
27:33
around and where is everybody? Everybody head quit because the strike had ended,
27:45
and so why stick around for the pennies of the indie budget when the commercial
27:49
jobs are now flying? Everybody out. So if the folks that stayed,
27:53
You've got Brandon Cox out, wonderful camera crew. But a most of our
28:00
crew just up and walk, could walk in the middle of the day or
28:03
walk like the next day or something no like that, And we didn't.
28:07
I just we moved some lights and shot some stuff ourselves, just to like
28:11
do something with the time. It was like, huh, so, now,
28:15
how did I overcome this? I couldn't overcome this. This was this
28:18
was a moment where Courtney Ballacker, Keith Bord, the producers came through,
28:26
and then Vince Palomino, who was our line, who's you know everybody that's
28:30
stuck around there? Essentially is you know lifelong friends. These are folks to
28:34
go to math for. And so what could have been an absolute cavity crushing
28:41
event is turned completely around with the arrival of one person who had become a
28:48
ride or die and that is b J McDonald, a a who was showed
28:53
up as a steady cam operator and his cutoff camo shorts and his converse and
28:59
his dancey wristband and is fauxhawk mohawk? What is that hawk? He's like,
29:03
I didn't worry about it, man, We're gonna get We gonna get
29:04
it. We can do it like this half time that excellent. We the
29:07
movie couldn't afford him. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
29:17
And now back to the show. He wanted to get out of town
29:22
for an adventure, and so I that's how I met he and his now
29:26
wife Adrian, who was in makeup, and all of a sudden, this
29:29
is a transformative event. And it was Bjay who talked me out of the
29:33
shakes and the shivers of like, I don't know. It's like I thought,
29:37
why did I have this whole thing storyboarded? I can't do it.
29:40
You're like, hey, He's like, hey, don't worry about Let's have
29:41
a beer and go bowling. And you know what, you don't worry about
29:45
it, and you go have a beer and you go bowling, because in
29:47
that action, the mind gets to settle and you get to realize, no,
29:49
no, no, you're still creating. Just yes, those storyboards,
29:52
whatever whatever you put in, whatever that plan is, that is on the
29:56
wayside. But that doesn't mean you still don't know what you need to exec
30:00
now in the moment, challenge yourself to find the way to do so.
30:03
And that that has been the most rewarding lesson of all is you know,
30:10
professional studio big, Yeah, you get more toys, But the lessons that
30:17
get you through even those moments were learned when you had nothing but that desire
30:22
and hope to convey a story, convey an image and get it, drag
30:26
it into that lens however possible, and you do it again and again,
30:30
so you find success, what you like, what you're comfortable with, and
30:33
hopefully people are there there with you for the ride. And it's so exciting
30:36
him because Bjay is now the director and that his last film, Studio six
30:41
sixty six, right, So how cool is that to see him you know,
30:45
from from converse to the universe. He's out there. That's amazing.
30:49
That's a great story. And you said something really interesting, and I think
30:53
something is so important for filmmakers to listen to is please let them know every
31:00
single moment of every single day as a director on set, the biggest thing
31:04
that we have to do is compromise. Because you said, I had this
31:08
long storyboard list or a shot listener and all of it's out the window just
31:15
going on days of working on it. You had the Kubrick, you had
31:19
the Kubrick shot, you had the Sam Raimi shot, you had the all
31:22
of that stuff you had gone gone. Can you tell? Can you tell?
31:26
How can you explain to people that process internally as a director, because
31:32
that's what I think, that's really what makes a great director. One of
31:34
the elements is to be able to compromise on the fly with what is given
31:38
to him or her on the day and just flow with what you have on
31:44
the day and not be so rigid that you're like, no, if I
31:47
can't get my shot, I don't want to shoot it, Well, then
31:49
you're not going to work. Well, absolutely well, this happened with this
31:55
happened with Unhuman and in the way like we had to deal with weather,
31:59
we had to do with lightning that could shut us down, and then our
32:02
entire ending had to be reconfigured because the entire ending was built around a certain
32:10
ability, like a certain location, a certain aspect of the location that was
32:16
cool to look at bench Age Gray, I'm talking about an old school,
32:21
amazing elevator. Well, of course that breaks and anything that came along with
32:30
it is instantly out the window. But thank goodness for ten years of experience
32:36
because you're like, it's not about an elevator, it's about falling distance.
32:40
If it's not about it, And then by that point, courtesy of A
32:45
Paul Uto are one of our producers on the site there who leaned in and
32:50
so like this elevator was built in the thirties, it's being repaired. You
32:54
might want to have a plan B at the ready, just case. Now
32:58
if I was a naive person that knew, no, it has to be
33:01
this. I must stand my ground. But now it's going it has to
33:05
be an elevator. There would be no ending, there would be nothing,
33:08
but instead, courtesy of Paul and also courtesy of enough experience to listen to
33:13
someone who's given you good advice, Uh, we were ready and it and
33:19
the solution wouldn't you know, Eureka, it's a heck of a lot better.
33:22
And we ended up getting more emotion, more movie more. Uh,
33:28
there there was it just it just it worked, and everybody was on the
33:35
same page because I think people get excited by talk of solutions. There's nothing
33:39
more wasteful and disparaging in that talk of just the problems, like okay,
33:45
well everything's got a problem, but what if we tried this, can we
33:49
do this? And then instantly you get everyone's back in the creative mode of
33:52
of of willing this thing into being. And that was nice that that that
33:57
allowed allowed everybody to shine. Now, is there anything you wish somebody would
34:02
have told you at the beginning of this hold journey, that little nugget of
34:07
man, this is gonna do this, this and this man, you really
34:10
should look out for this. There, they're a handful of things. Uh,
34:15
I'm going to keep the two big ones to myself. You all could
34:21
suffer no, no, no, no, no no. In that sense,
34:25
it was like, no, you know, I want I want to
34:29
find the positive, not the beware, but the positive. And that is
34:32
regard your inner voice, you know, and lee in it. When the
34:37
when the inner voice, when the little voice says something, what is holding
34:42
it back from entering volume? Is it fear that maybe the collaborator won't hear
34:49
it? Is it hesitation because you're not sure? Is it? Well,
34:52
why don't we try saying it and see what happened? And wouldn't you know?
34:58
Or if you're thinking like eh, you know, second guessing can be
35:02
okay, but why are you second guessing what doesn't feel right? Do you
35:07
feel you did not get that shot? Do you feel that the gist wasn't
35:13
quite there? And like okay, then then respect that, respect your own
35:17
I mean, no matter how overwhelmed you could elect to be, no matter
35:22
what happens, if the little voice is just saying no, no, no,
35:24
this is fight for this, no, no, for tech that and
35:29
and and just have the patience in yourself to understand why, explain why,
35:32
and you're going to find that the right team will will always understand you and
35:36
give you a shot, you know. And I thought that that was good
35:39
because the last thing you want to do is have someone in the editorial go,
35:45
well, I kind of wish we had that shot. I know,
35:47
I knew, I know. Why don't you say anything? You're right there?
35:53
I know I do that. Oh God. As an editor, I
35:57
used to do it to my directors, and then is when I work for
35:59
the editors, they do it to me. I'm like, I should have
36:01
gotten that's it would have taken me another five minutes to get that shot.
36:06
Why did I have to move on? Yeah? You know, and sometimes
36:09
when you're on set, you've got to fight, fight for the vision,
36:13
fight for those that coverage. You're like, I need the close up of
36:15
the spoon. If I don't get the close up of the spoon, I'm
36:20
not going to be able to cut away and I'm going to be stuck on
36:22
this performance. I need this cutaway and everyone on the side and on the
36:25
sets looking like you're insane. It's just a spoon shot. I'm like,
36:29
no, if they don't get the spoon shot, it's not going to work.
36:32
And that's only experience over years of being in an edit room understanding like
36:36
I need I need some safety, I need some escape patches just in case
36:40
my brilliance doesn't show up on screen. Yeah, yes, absolutely great,
36:46
Scott. I mean, you know, we and that's and that's the fun
36:51
of it too. It's really always touching that third rail, no question,
36:55
no question. Now I have to ask you, you know, when you're
36:58
on set, even beginning on The Collector, when you were first on set
37:02
or later now with your new film Unhuman, do you ever get imposture syndrome?
37:08
Do you ever get that thing that you deal with like, oh my
37:12
god, security is gonna come in at any moment and go, what are
37:14
you doing here? You don't belong here? Get out kind of vibe.
37:16
I know a lot of artists deal with that. No, No, on
37:21
this one, it was entirely someone's gonna tap you on the shoulder and say
37:24
you have COVID and then you're done. So that seems scarier than THEOS syndrome.
37:30
Yeah, because the imposter syndrome, I'd be like, I'm already confidently
37:34
trying to like do an impersonation of all the great filmmakers before, like I
37:38
am, I'll admit that I want to. I want to impersonate their success
37:44
in conveying the story. They want their ability to scare, convey, share,
37:49
you know, get get these things done. But no, I mean
37:54
on the first I would say, on the first one, I was,
37:55
I was just kind of terrified because I thought I had a really good plan
37:59
and then Plan I had to be abandoned. I didn't, and that was
38:01
a crash course and Plan B and ever since then I was, you know,
38:06
but I want to say, like I want to say when it comes
38:09
to what's a good why, like why why am I feeling? I don't
38:14
say yes? And it's probably because of the writing part. Whereas if I
38:17
was not already imagining the story, but I was putting myself onto another story,
38:23
then the footing isn't quite there, Like I don't know I'm doing and
38:30
I'm doing an impression already of what I think the writer meant. But I
38:34
know exactly what I meant when I would be writing on this, And so
38:37
then all I had to do was have a quick meeting with my own brain
38:39
to be like, all right, you know how to pull this off?
38:42
If not rewrite it and then and get it to that point, so that
38:45
that was neat the writing. The rewriting really of this, because it was
38:51
we had to rewrite from scratch allowed me to almost be off book with the
38:57
screenplay and constantly be living in it. So it wasn't I didn't feel anything
39:04
other than trying to be a bit of a tour guide or an audiobook for
39:08
anybody, just to constantly keep them informed. We'll be right back after a
39:14
word from our sponsor, and now back to the show of something that was
39:22
moving at such a clip and attempting to uh, you know, wrestle wrestle
39:28
a kind of a bigger, a bigger hitting movie over the line and a
39:30
record amount of time. Now, how did you get involved with Unhuman?
39:36
I was it was a phone call out of the blue from I think Alex
39:40
Cruner began a producer and seeing if if i'd, if i'd, you know,
39:45
be available up for coming aboard and you know is it was definitely a
39:51
you got me at Hello moment because the first time I ever felt that there
39:59
were more resource says then I could know what to do with. There was
40:02
enough time to do everything I possibly wanted and enough support to constantly, you
40:08
know, hang the sun and the moon every day was on the Blumhouse production
40:13
of Pilgrim, which if you look at the budget it was it was a
40:16
very modest budget. But simply taking the advice and having a crew with a
40:22
second, secondhand, you know, way of communicating and super passionate experienced producers,
40:30
it was an education in that Yeah, you know, if you don't
40:31
need more, you've got plenty. And in that case we did not need
40:36
any more. Then we had a great script from Noah Feinberg. We had
40:40
it just we just had everything we needed. It could actually add things along
40:43
the way and they would. Inspiration was encouraged. So then with this it
40:47
was like, wait, I get to go back and play with you guys,
40:50
and there's even there's a bigger budget, there's a little more time,
40:53
and there's gonna be some familiar faces. Yeah, I mean, let's go
40:57
simple as that simple. Now, can everybody what the movie's about? Yes,
41:01
Unhuman? The first title card says a Blumhouse after school special, and
41:07
yes, this one is gonna sledgehammer in your eyes like no other. As
41:10
the characters who probably were intending to be in the genre of the teen comedy
41:14
find themselves on a faithful field trip designed to bring them closer together and understand
41:19
each other and maybe get over the bumps and bruises of combustible adolescents. Instead
41:23
run smack dab into the rules of a horror movie that shows up in the
41:27
form of a possible zombie plague invasion with a twist. Will these this breakfast
41:31
club survive or will they be devoured by the unhuman? First time You've din
41:37
that? Right? You've never? You haven't first time? Right off?
41:42
I was off the car for the stammering. I should have been a little
41:44
more polog That is amazing. That is amazing. Now, what was it
41:50
like again working inside the Blumhouse machine? Because I've had Jason on the show
41:54
and I've talked to Jason. I don't I love Jason. Just interesting human
42:00
being on the planet. He's just so much fun to talk to. And
42:02
I'm just always fascinated with his model, his model of how he does it.
42:07
And everyone thinks he's crazy and he doesn't get the respect in town that
42:12
he deserves to be honest, because he's just pumping out stuff left and right,
42:16
and the way he does it is it's so. I asked him straight
42:22
up and like, were you afraid that once you let everybody know what you
42:24
were doing that everyone was going to copy you? He goes, yes,
42:28
but no one has like you know, the basic rules are all out there
42:30
for everybody to do, but no one does it because no one has the
42:34
balls to do like he does. So what was it like going in that
42:37
machine and working on the creative side. It was wonderful because how about this,
42:43
I would say in terms of the respect for him, Looking at the
42:49
cast that shows up, looking at the crew that's dedicated to it, there's
42:52
a lot of respect for this guy because that moniker of Blumhouse means people show
42:58
up and they know they're getting into into business with somebody who is great at
43:05
the business. And that I mean the ripple effects of that name alone.
43:10
It was just wonderful people the recognition of it and all it's man, it's
43:16
yes, there's a lot of steps up to the plate with with the company,
43:20
and that's also marvelous, Like they're the loudest voice. I watched that
43:24
series three times. I never would have guessed it was a Blumhouse joint,
43:29
but it is because I think there is always an evolution happening. There's always
43:32
a push into different spectrums. And I also love that what started it with
43:37
an even more modest kind of budget paradigm is getting bigger in certain regards.
43:43
Is it has figured out a way to work within COVID, has has grown
43:47
its blossomed and is blossomed to give opportunity as well. Uh. There there's
43:52
a lot of uh and it's resulting in Archie can't instantly put a pin in,
43:59
like no, no, no, They're gonna do something that surprises you
44:00
all the time. And how about that the black Phone is gonna come a
44:05
ring and this summer and I betually it's gonna be a wonderful new pillar in
44:09
the palace that is Blumbhouse horror. Yeah, no question, And I mean
44:14
and and a lot of people don't even know that he's been nominated three times
44:16
for an Oscar. Yeah, as a producer, you know. And it's
44:21
fascinating. He's he's such an interesting, interesting character and what he does and
44:25
I love his technique of he's like giving opportunity to directors just play, and
44:32
he really lets you play and let you go out and just have fun.
44:37
And you could see it in the films, absolutely no question. And now
44:43
that opportunity is just priceless. Now, you know, as a writer,
44:46
you've written obviously a lot of horror. I mean, this is this is
44:50
this is your your sweet spot. What, in your opinion are the key
44:53
elements in writing a good horror? Well, in this case, I mean,
45:00
my goodness it, what are what are probably the through lines that have
45:05
always been there? You know, and and you know there's some there's some
45:07
fairly obvious answers to go to, like, well, you gotta give a
45:12
care about the characters. You have to. You have to you have to
45:16
have a threat that's a legit intimidating presence of some sort. And and if
45:21
you put as much care into the scares as you do in the creation of
45:24
those characters, then maybe you've got something that will resonate and really pop.
45:29
Well, then what I do like, is this this other element that sometimes
45:34
comes and goes, and that is embracing a theme. What is the movie
45:39
actually subtly teaching? What is what is it saying? And so for us,
45:44
for example, is like, yes, we're going to take some three
45:46
familiar elements teens, woods, zombie. Okay, now, how is that
45:55
going to be any different, any you know, anything special to really earned
46:00
the attention span. Well, one, my god, when you see Brian
46:05
and you understand these characters and what they're trying to reach for and be an
46:07
identifiable reflection of the high school experience in a way that hasn't quite been depicted
46:14
before. Great. Then next, well, what can we do with the
46:19
you know, go into the woods? Well, it's not a traditional woods
46:22
in the sense that it's sort of a bridging zone between two genres, the
46:25
bubblegum team comedy getting invaded by the horror movie. And then the last thing
46:30
is what are we doing with the zombie. It's like, well, once
46:32
you see, once you see this sucker come for you, His alacrity,
46:42
his wickedness, his cunning is something else. This thing seems to be working
46:50
out some rage issues and wants this to happen with some sort of other engine,
46:55
other design in play. And this thing is smart? Why? How?
47:01
Why does it know more about us? What that that gives us,
47:06
that little hook, that little that step into into another place, which leads
47:09
to the final thing, which is what is our theme? Then? Well,
47:13
it was it was a chance to talk about bullying and and peel the
47:16
layers back, and not not just for a singular character, not just the
47:23
typical victim number one that asks for it loud, gets it nasty, and
47:30
is out of the movie by you know, the first act break. But
47:32
to go in and really find the hero, the victim, the bully throughout.
47:40
And so by keeping that conversation, maybe, you know, maybe someone
47:44
sees this and feels a little better that they can, you know, stand
47:47
up over above a bullying episode that may have happened, like I still harbor
47:52
mine. I remember they did, and I just needed to figure out how
47:57
to turn that wound into a weapon. And this, this, this opportunity
48:01
allowed me to really get it out, go back to high school, leave
48:06
some damage there, and bring some hope out. Yeah, that was the
48:09
idea. So it sounds like I mean, I always find that some of
48:15
the best horror movies and John movies in general, but the best horror movies
48:19
are when they slam together genres that generally have not been slammed together before.
48:23
So like, the first thing that comes to mind is army of dark an
48:25
army of darkness, but whole army of darkness. But I'm darkness is definitely
48:30
one of them Army of the Dead, the new one by Zack Snyder,
48:34
a heist movie with a zombie movie. You're just like, why hasn't anyone
48:37
done that before? It's fun. Hey, I really enjoyed that. But
48:42
I also I mean, what a what a gift? Uh, just that
48:45
trailer. I'll watch that trailer time the time to listen to it with its
48:50
use to the Gambler and like, this is fantastic and I really love how
48:57
you know now that I want to say that his his arrangement with Netflix has
49:00
even given him more freedom to really make the beautiful covers of Heavy Metal Magazine
49:09
come to life. You know. Yeah, we'll be right back after a
49:14
word from our sponsor, and now back to the show. Yeah, there,
49:22
he's something other about them that is that is cool. And yet you
49:27
know they they're they are only as impactful as the heart he's protecting as well,
49:31
right exactly. And I forgot which one was. It was either Don
49:35
or the Dead or Day of the Dead. But the social commentary, the
49:37
one in the mall, Yeah, that was his interpretation of Don Well,
49:42
well, Zach was and then but the original as well, but Zach's was,
49:45
Oh my god, it was amazing. Well, I I'll quote was
49:50
it Stephen King and I want to say Roger Ebert both were like, hey,
49:53
check this out. Whereas both were in a position Roder Ebert gave you
49:59
know, the origin all four stars, and it was like, this thing
50:00
is amazing. You know. Stephen came of course your friends and collaborators with
50:04
George Romiro. But the but his but Zack Schneider's reinterpretation was I thought was
50:10
so smart because it took the same situation and a location but did make a
50:17
different movie. It's and and and you could see how it paid homage here
50:21
and there with a glimpse of the chopper, the reprisal of some of the
50:24
actors from the original and in different notes. And then if if George Romeiro
50:30
was was was the commentary of consumerism, then this was more the commentary of
50:37
of of almost terrorism. At some point, something's just gonna come at you
50:40
and what what do we do? You know? And I man, and
50:44
that screenplay by James Gunn was breaking awesome. I mean, it's that was
50:50
smart. Uh that was that was it? That was just loved it.
50:53
That was a droit Now and so in the in the pathyon of zombie films
50:59
because I do. I do like a good song, and I loved many
51:02
of the seasons of Walking Dead. What do you what do you think is
51:07
in the top three of the zombie on the mount rushmore of zombie films.
51:14
Okay, well, I mean this is where I get super familiar. Like
51:19
Don of the Dead's the original is the one I keep going back to,
51:22
like it's opening twenty minutes. I love listening to it. I love the
51:28
just the sense of building, chaos and collapse. And and I also like
51:31
how, you know, typical of the Romero verse. It was bold and
51:37
it's casting and lead decisions and how I think it was ms Ross who plays
51:43
our lead, how she makes kind of an utterance or a not quite a
51:47
scream at the beginning, more of a gas but just didn't want this this
51:51
character to scream, and this character would become a pilot and this hit.
51:54
You know, there's there's just respect in there, yeah, amongst all day
52:00
and you just love it. I mean, and I man, the Dan
52:05
Kraus from Marrow Book, uh, the final one, you know, the
52:08
Living Dead is just phenomenal. It's it's man, We've been trying to get
52:14
enough people together to try to get that thing made for so long, and
52:16
it's just that would I think be the ultimate because it's his voice, it's
52:21
him, you know, going to the end. That would just be Mona
52:23
from Heaven. So come on, Netflix, I know you can do zombie
52:28
bank heist. Can you do one from the from the godfather of the whole
52:31
genre? Can you do that? That'd be great. So then that that
52:36
leaves open some other ones. And I want to be see if I can
52:38
be somewhat what is the best way to do this movies? Okay, I
52:45
mean be easy to say night and then day, I think, But okay,
52:50
night and day are pretty, and I fine, does someone count dead
52:53
Alive? Because I just loved it. It's vicious dedication to you know,
53:01
gruesome, shocking, originality and momentum. I think that was a lot of
53:06
fun. And then I would like to say, gosh, and I want
53:10
to make sure I get this one right, because this is a this is
53:13
a this is a very precious top three. And it's maybe because I recently
53:17
kind of watched it and and really appreciated what it was doing. But I
53:22
liked Warm Bodies. I thought it was such an unexpected take and and kind
53:27
of how it had something to say about romance and whatnot. So the now
53:32
the more like verbose answer is like, well, ideally, just go anything
53:37
Romo. That's that's the cream. So of that cream of the crop,
53:40
donov the des the one that still resonates with me, dead alive, for
53:44
like, hey, you don't have to be boxed into any corner just because
53:45
it says zombie. You can have a giant mom beast and chainsaw, you
53:51
know, the fights and whatnot into that regard. I'd even say, like
53:53
I think Night of the Creeps had a wonderful take on as well. Who
53:58
doesn't like thrill me? And and then warm Bodies because who then would it
54:02
would expect such an affectionate moment, you know, and something that had a
54:07
genuine gave a genuine and literal metaphorical heartbeat to the no pun intended sir.
54:15
Yeah, ta have a fun time? Now? Now, where where can
54:22
people watch? On? Human? Human? Begins on Paramount June third,
54:28
and then I think we'll be coming out swinging again in August. So we
54:31
want to scare the kids who are graduating and then scare them again when they're
54:35
going back to school. June third is when is when we come out to
54:40
roar courtesy of Parent. Thank you so much. Now, I'm going to
54:44
ask you a couple of questions. Ask all my guests, what advice would
54:46
you give a filmmaker or screenwriter trying to break into the business today? Oh
54:52
goodness, Well, okay, in terms of a practical bit of advice,
54:58
if you can answer that quite and what do I want to see? What
55:01
type of movie do I want to see? And like really be specific about
55:06
that, like I want to see you know, and then all right,
55:09
then challenge that. I mean, let's just say what I want. I'm
55:13
trying to pivot into is because the theater stratosphere and the streaming stratosphere seems to
55:20
exist, and there's like the Marvel universe where it can be two hundred million
55:23
dollars or whatnot, and then there's other tiers that are depending on their budget
55:30
or their need or if it's star driven or something all the way down to
55:36
a budget that can give a greater chance for existence because the idea, while
55:43
not expensive, is big an implication i e. Sci fi hort in some
55:49
cases groundbreaking action like the Raid, and can you come up with something that
55:54
fits in that that you haven't quite seen before that acknowledges what is kind of
55:59
popular, that that is something you really want to see, because chances are
56:01
if you write something that you really want to see with respect to kind of
56:07
a budget, that is making up a larger percentage of things that actually get
56:10
produced because it's a safeer bet and you know that the imagery in there,
56:15
if you can then watch the trailer to that in your head and say,
56:16
like, would you still see that movie? Is it about someone you know
56:20
stuck in a bland room with you know, innerpathos like no, you're not
56:23
and that's not going anywhere, right, But every movie that inspired people to
56:29
get from A to B probably came from a point of someone just saying,
56:32
I know what my resources are, and I'm still going to outcreate, out
56:37
imagine and out deliver the potential of of that. You know, evil dead
56:42
too, Like, come on, like, what do we have? We've
56:45
got a similar cast, we've got the same location, We've even got kind
56:49
of the same plot, but we got cameras and we got imagination, and
56:52
we got to gopher brocus that we're gonna do it. You know, fine,
56:57
I I there and it's firing. So gosh, I wonder if that's
57:01
meandering, if that's helpful, if that's what not? No, it is
57:05
helpful. And and and the director of the evil that you did, okay,
57:07
he's done okay for himself, all right, you know I Yeah,
57:09
the kid panned out. The kid, the kid, the kid made it.
57:12
There, the kid made it. And what is the lesson that took
57:15
you the longest to learn, whether in the film industry or in life.
57:21
Oh my goodness, Wow, what a wonderful question. Thank you. Hm.
57:30
The one I got right right away was I was on the set of
57:35
FeAs and this would be the last one of my last conversations with my grandmother,
57:40
who uh I procured my first issues of Fangoria, walked me into Journey
57:45
Comics and said, this kid reads anything from that same magazine, gifted me
57:51
body parts and put a camera in my hands. When I was a kid.
57:55
Last conversations was, Hey, they're they're making one of our movies.
57:59
You know, it's it's this monster one boy, It's it's you really love
58:02
it. It's just absolutely disgusting and offensive. She was, Oh, I'm
58:06
so tickled. So then you know this is now we're on a set and
58:10
and I went up a staircase, which the staircase didn't go anywhere as movie
58:15
set staircases kind of go. And I went around a corner and I shut
58:20
my eyes, and I thought, I'm going to take a soul photo right
58:22
now, And that means I'm going to create a time machine right here,
58:27
and I'm going to remember how it smells, how it feels, and what
58:30
I see, and I will always be able to come back to this moment
58:36
if I ever need to recalibrate my hopes, my dreams and whatnot, because
58:38
right now everything just came through. Then. How absurd is that? So
58:45
that's been helpful along the way. Well, the one that took me a
58:50
while to figure out. I mean, that's just many like hey, you
58:54
know, maybe make it makes some make a little more time to of,
59:00
you know, go on more adventures in between these things like you know,
59:04
uh, travel more. Yeah, yeah, you know. It's it's pretty
59:07
pretty ordinary. We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
59:15
now back to the show. But I gotta tell you, man, that
59:22
answer I had. I've had six seven hundred, eight hundred shows at this
59:25
point. That's one of the best answers to that question i've ever heard.
59:30
Oh thank you. It is so, it's so beautiful, the sole photo.
59:35
It is such a beautiful thing because we as filmmakers forget when we're on
59:38
set we are the luckiest people on the planet. Mm hm, that we
59:44
as directors, as filmmakers, have all these other people around us helping our
59:51
vision, our dream come true in front of our eyes. It's a very
59:54
rare place to be as an artist and as a human being. With me
1:00:00
a massive amounts of money sometime. I mean even if it's half a million
1:00:01
dollars, that's a lot of money. You know, that's a lot of
1:00:06
money for a lot of people. So to take that you have the insight
1:00:08
to go. Man, I've hit where I was going for. Let me
1:00:15
get up. I love the soul photo that you can go back now now,
1:00:19
I'm sure as you were saying it, you were back there. As
1:00:21
you were saying you smelled it. You smelled it. And I have images
1:00:24
like that in my head of like the first time I was on set,
1:00:28
the first time I got to do this, the first time I'm meeting this
1:00:30
big actor, this big situation, I'm in, this big meeting or something
1:00:34
like that that you're like, oh my god, I'm sitting here talking to
1:00:37
a legend or something along those lines. But to actually have the insight to
1:00:42
stop for a second, close your eyes and go take this, take this
1:00:45
with you, is fascinating. I think we all need to stop for a
1:00:50
sect because we're always a hunting for the the next thing. We got to
1:00:53
stop in the moment and enjoy the insanity of where you were at at that
1:00:59
moment, which was on Project green Light getting your film made on a set,
1:01:06
and you were and you were literally, you know, moving those seasons
1:01:09
on the video store self a year earlier, Like that's insane. It's yeah,
1:01:16
there's a number of stops along the way where like to hope for any
1:01:21
of this would have been an audacity on parallel. So hey, if you're
1:01:24
lucky enough for some of it to happen. Regard Marcus, it has been
1:01:30
an absolute pleasure talking to you, my friend. Thank you so much,
1:01:32
Thank you for so much for coming on the show man continued success, my
1:01:36
friend, you're you're you're a hell of a guy, and I wish you
1:01:39
nothing but the best. And by the way, everybody who's not watching this,
1:01:44
Marcus has arguably one of the coolest rooms I have ever seen in my
1:01:47
life. Has so many geek things around everything. I'm seeing the django,
1:01:53
The django is of the guys, the action figures, I see, rock
1:01:58
casting, g I, joe Ce Yoda, see Original Star Wars, some
1:02:02
et, I mean, all sorts. It's like the eighties exploded in your
1:02:07
room. Thank you for that, sir. It was a joy. Just
1:02:10
because I was talking to you, I was glancing over. I'm like,
1:02:15
is that what I think? Is that a Rocky Holy that's a Rocky action
1:02:19
figure? Yes, it is, absolutely and that one with the right here
1:02:23
this is a Place beyond the Pines action figure by Aaron Barreno brether from That's
1:02:30
amazing. That same artist made action figures of the cast of Unhuman for the
1:02:35
movie. You see, you see this is this is what it's all about,
1:02:37
sir. But I appreciate you coming on the show. Brother, Thanks
1:02:40
again, man, absolutely bless you. I have a great one. I
1:02:45
want to thank Marcus so much for coming on the show and sharing his journey
1:02:49
with the tribe today. Thank you so much, Marcus. If you want
1:02:51
to get links to anything we spoke about in this episode, including how to
1:02:53
watch Unhuman, head over to the show notes at any filmhossole dot com forward
1:03:00
slash five eight six, and if you haven't already, please head over to
1:03:04
filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe and lead a good review for the show.
1:03:07
It truly helps us out a lot. Thank you again for listening guys.
1:03:10
As always, keep that hulso going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe
1:03:15
out there, and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the
1:03:17
Indie Film Hustle podcast at indiefilm hustle dot com. That's I N D I
1:03:22
E F I L M h U S T l E dot com.