Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 825: The Untold Stories of Women in Action Cinema with Melanie Wise

Transcript

IFH 825: The Untold Stories of Women in Action Cinema with Melanie Wise · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight ten
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• 1:50
  Speaker 2: today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: Hi, Melie, thanks off for coming on the show.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: Thanks so much for having me. It is a pleasure.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Oh it's great having you want Melanie, And I just
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: wanted to ask and question I ask everybody, and that is,
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: you know, how did you start in the film industry?
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: Oh? God, you know it's uh, I'm six feet tall
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: and you know, so you know, I started out modeling,
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: I moved to acting and I do think that my
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: height was absolutely a detriment, so you know, basically yeah
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: that yeah, you know, I think I knew when I
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: was ADYBD that I wanted to you know, the arts
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: horror where uh what what blew my skirt up? You know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: but it just it took me a while to get
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: around to it. I think I started modeling, I think
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: when I was like twenty, which is actually kind of
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: old in model terms, you know, finally turned my attention
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: to acting. And you know, it was like I'd come
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: in to read for producers you know, quite a lot,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: and they've never hired me. And I think a lot
• 3:02
  Speaker 4: of it had to do with being taller than the
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: leading men. So so that's when I, you know, I
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: started producing uh my own content, and you know, and
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: and that even is a struggle, there is, I do
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: think there is this. It's I think it's tougher for
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: taller women. And I'm the other tall women that I've
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: spoken to that are in the industry, I it has
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: been a common theme that they struggle as well. You know.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: And then and then add to that that you know,
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: I don't well, actually, let me be really bald about it.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: I completely suck at selling the victim, which is usually
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: the roles that are available to women. So and you know,
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: it was one of those where you know, for a
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: long time, uh, our our interest, you know that the
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: me and my teammates, we just we like strong female
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: leads and we like women in action. And after running
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: into so many obstacles with it, we were like, screw it,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: Let's start a festival. And you know, you can say,
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: if we want to see more of this stuff in
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: the world, then we'll create a place for it to play.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: And that brings us all the way to the festival.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: And I didn't mean to like jump that far ahead.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: No, no, it's no problem. Yeah, but you know, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: but you know you were talking about, you know, auditioning,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and you know I did read your bio and you
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: were a former basketball standout, correct, Yeah, I.
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: Used to play that. Well, I I grew up playing
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: sports and you know I still play sports. So but yeah, no,
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  Speaker 4: I I don't. I guess you could say I have
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: a lot of Mars energy.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: I think that's the best way, you know, and that
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: that that warlike nature. Yeah, that's me.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: So when you were modeling any answered the age round twenty,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: you know what were some of the experiences there, and
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: was it anything similar to when you started doing acting.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: Did you find any parallels between the two.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Actually, it was just stellar irony because I started modeling
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: here in California, and at the time, the majority of
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: the industry here was this one suit industry because everyone goes, oh, well,
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: models need to be tall, well for the swim suit industry,
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: they hire these itty bitty chicks, and I didn't fit
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: that either. So I think my timing has just been
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: kind of sucky, you know. And then I went to
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Europe and I did okay there. I wound up coming
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: home and I hung up my modeling issues for reasons
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: I don't even think I remember clearly, and I think
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: it was about three years later that I started banging
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: on the door, you know, in terms of acting.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: So when you went to your first audition, you know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: what were some of your memories in there? Actually, I
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: mean you were just saying, you know, you were since
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: you're six foot tall, you're taller taller than than some
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: of the leading men. So when when you were going
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: with some of these auditions or maybe some of these
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: casting calls, you know, you know, what were some of
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: your experiences there did you did you know they did
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: anyone say anything about your height or or did you
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: know it wasn't the experience there. That's what I trying
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: to say.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I know, well they can't say anything about
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: your height.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: No, I don't. I was just wondering if I maybe
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: said like, oh wow, Melanie, you know you're tall or
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: anything like that.
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: No. No, well it's you know, typically on your resume,
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: your your height is there. So I mean, if they
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: were surprised when I showed up, that was for their
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: lack of reading because it was right out in front.
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: But you know, I would get a lot of calls
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: for the dumb ass fleet or you know, I actually
• 7:01
  Speaker 4: got cast in a sun Kiss commercial because I was
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: big enough to tackle a guy. You know, stuff like that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: You know, so it while you know, I don't consider
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: height a specialty, I think the film industry might.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: You know that that's just like you know.
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: Anyway, Yeah, no, I got odd stuff and you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: and I didn't get the auditions for Victims and such,
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: and you know, honestly, I suck at it. I can
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: I can try. I can spend you know, weeks in preparation.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: I don't think I will ever sell the victim.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Well, well, I want to. I wanted to, you know,
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: as we talk about you know, auditions and stuff, and
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: I wanted to ask about Hannah's Gift. And you know,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: you know, you were the lead actress in the horror
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: action film Hannahs Gifts, and you also won Best Actress
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: at the indie Fest Film festival. So you know when
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: you all now when you auditioned for that, you know,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: was was there? You know, I'm gonna tell you, I don't.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I haven't seen the film obviously, but it were you know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: were you taller than leading man? Was there?
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: You know?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: I want to I actually want to hear about about
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: that film.
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  Speaker 4: Uh well I didn't have to audition for that because
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I produced it. So yeah, no, that's but was I Yes,
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  Speaker 4: I was taller than the than the than the men
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: that were cast in it, but that's usually you know,
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I wasn't. It wasn't like they were a dybd in,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: which does happen in a lot of cases. But you know,
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  Speaker 4: I was probably an inch taller than the guy that
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: was in it. You know, it doesn't show, but I
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: knew that, and and honestly I wouldn't care, you know,
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: I I am. I I love coming across people that
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: don't care because the bottom line of it is as
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: just as there are tall men out there, there are
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: short men. They are tall women, there's short women. You know,
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: it's like we're going to be all over the place.
• 9:07
  Speaker 4: And then this idea that the leading man is always
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: supposed to be taller than the female is confusing to
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: me because the only thing that I think that it
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: offends is the male ego.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I can you know, I understand perfectly what
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: you mean. And you know, I want to talk more,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: you know, about Hatta's gift, and you mentioned you were
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a producer on the film, and now now I'm interested
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: in hearing you know, about the whole producing aspect of this, uh,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: you know, because I always like to hear about actors
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: who get into you know, screenwriting and producing, because what
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: you're doing is you're making your own opportunities, which I
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: think is absolutely golden. I think that is so imperative,
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: you know that, you know not you know, everybody should
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: be out there, you know, trying to make their own opportunities,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: you know, and at the same time looking at the projects.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: So that way you always have you know, almost like
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a fallback plan or having you know, multiple irons in
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: the fire or so to speak.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: And now back to the show.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: So when you're producing you know, Hanna's gift, where did
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: you step you know, step in as as the producer did.
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: Did you meet with the director and the writer and
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: and and sort of you know, say hey, I I
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: could actually help produce this.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: No, actually, well yes, and no. The writer director is
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: we've been producing content together for a long time and
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: he has he wrote strong female leads, you know, long
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: before it was popular. And you know, so I met
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: him and the reason why we got on so well
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: is because we had a similar taste. But I mean
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: he writes absolutely beautiful female characters. And so now when
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: we went forward to produce, I didn't step in an offer.
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: You know, it was something that he and I actually
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: steadfastly planned out, you know, of the the for the
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: resources that we had and the projects that we had,
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: it was the best one to produce because you know,
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: when you get into low budget production, you know, you
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: can't do an epic fantasy on a micro budget. That's
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: just the simple truth of it. So you have to
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: choose the project that you can pull off the best
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: with the resources that you have. And you know, in
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: terms of actual production, I mean I did everything from
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: you know, planning all of it to carrying the trash
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: out on set. You know, it's one of those where
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: if you are going to produce your own content, unless
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: you're showing up to the table with a decent budget,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: you are you're gonna bust your ass.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's true. It's extremely on you as as a
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: producer when you're producing stuff you know, independent film, uh
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: and stuff you know with with you know, small locations
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: of smaller crew. You know, everyone does have to play
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: multiple roles, you know, wear multiple hats. And that's not
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: something I you know, I've been as I've been doing it.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: You know, things that I learned up along the way
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: is that you know, hey, you know, even if you're
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: a producer, you got to you know, figure out, you know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: how how to get from point A to point B.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: And mean what I mean by that is, you know, hey,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: you gotta someone's got to go out there and wave
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: the pizza guy down. Someone's got to go out there
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: and make sure these guys are you know, coming on
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: to set at the right time. Uh and and but
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: you're also got to do something else at the same time.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: So it's it's like juggling constantly to make sure that
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: that engine, so to speak of the film is constantly moving.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Yes, now it's for me, it's like I don't do
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: Some people are are very comfortable sitting and and I'm
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: probably the most a type personality I've ever met. It's like,
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: you know, I do better when I'm actually in motion.
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: So for me acting and producing, I don't think is
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: wearing too many hats on set. It's a little bit differicult,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: but you know, you know your pre production. There are
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: a few things that I can do on set and
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: then impost. That's post is where probably the bulk of
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: my experience actually lends the most to any anything, because
• 13:29
  Speaker 4: it's like I can. I have a lot of post
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: production skills. You know, I edit, I do sound effects.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: You know. You know, I'm pretty much a one stop
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: post house. So yeah, I mean I can. There's a
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: lot that I can do with footage.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: So did you do any of the post product work
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: for Hand's Gifts?
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: I did, I did, I didn't do. I didn't do,
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: I didn't edit it. No, we had. We had several editors,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: and we actually went through a mountain of editors for
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: the film because it was told from the The conceit
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: of the film is that it's in real time and
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: it's told from the point of view of one of
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: the characters, which is actually really difficult to pull off
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: in terms of a production. But the second thing is
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: is that when we started, you know, interviewing editors, you
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: know that we would explain ad nauseum, you know, how
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: we wanted the film to be edited. And I'm not joking.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: I think five different editors tried to cut it as
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: a standard film and you know, it was just one
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: of those where it wasn't landing. So we went through
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: a lot of editors. Ultimately, our masters got destroyed, so
• 14:55
  Speaker 4: we wound up shooting the film a second time and
• 14:58
  Speaker 4: that's when I was able to bring the appropriate crew
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: to the table and I'll not finish it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: So what so, Melanie, that that's that's really interesting and
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: heartbreaking to hear. So how did your masters get destroyed?
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: Like my guess is, see, it was interesting. Everybody nobody
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: wanted to start with in the ingested footage. Everybody wanted
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: to start from scratch. You know, I'll get the I'll
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: add you know, I'll inguest the footage, and literally the
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: teaps just suffered. I I I'll bet money somebody had
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: a deck that was out of calibration and it stretched
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: the tape.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: So when when you learned that that you had to
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: reshoot the movie again, what was the first thing that
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: came through your mind?
• 15:52
  Speaker 4: You know, it's funny, Uh, you know, I sweat the
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: small stuff in life. That one I didn't. I wasn't
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: like up in arms over it, but you know, pretty
• 16:02
  Speaker 4: much it was. I think it was like a month
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: after we uh learned that the masters had been destroyed,
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: we were actually producing the film for a second time.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Because the stuff just wasn't fixable. We would have had,
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: you know, all kinds of artifacts.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: In the.
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: In the footage. Yeah, it was just easier to reshoot it.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: You know that. That's something similar, somewhat similar to what
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: happened to me. I had a editor who I gave
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: we had meant, we shot on actual SD cards, and
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: we gave him all the footage. And that was my
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: first mistake. I should have I should have kept a
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: copy for myself. And what happened was he took the footage,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: he started to edit it, and then basically he had
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: a bunch of problems with his with his business partners
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: and basically stopped working on everything. Well, his laptop started
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: to go all wonky and he was asking people for
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: money need to fix it. And I said to him, well,
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: you know if you still have the footage, and he
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: said yes, and I said, well, I need to get
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: that back, so I'll chip in some money. Well, he
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: comes back to me finally about a couple weeks later,
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: and he says, well, I couldn't raise any money all
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: I had, you know, and this laptop is just about
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: to die, and this, that and the other thing. So
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: I kept hounding on him to get me back this footage,
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: and he never responded to calls. And then one day
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: he just deleted me off Facebook. And I actually sent
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: an email and I said, you know, I said, you're
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: you're lucky that I don't hold you accountable for that
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: lost footage. And he didn't respond back to that. And
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: about a month or so after that, some people also
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: said that he had gotten them into trouble because he
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: had taken on like wedding videos and he hadn't edited
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: any of it. He just sat on the footage and
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: people were like, you know, different brides were asking him, Hey,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: where's my footage at? And he just let it all sit.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: And I don't think that guy works in the film
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: industry anymore.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: And yeah, no, with it with a reputation like that,
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: you're not going to go yeah, I see, Yeah, No,
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: It's well, you know, it's funny because I tend to
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: be a little bit more old school about editing. It's like,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: I don't do anything on the laptop. I'm you know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: strictly desktop based and uh. And one of the reasons
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: why is is just more stable.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: So so let me ask you this, Melanie. When you
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: re shot it and you did you use it? I mean,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: like you said, you don't you you sweat the small
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: stuff and and that you you were you took a
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: lot better? Uh did did you look at it as
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: a sort of like a way to say, Okay, now
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: I can sort of change any any problems I had before,
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: or maybe I could fix any issues that arise before.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: Fuck yeah, any any anything you shoot, you are going
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: to have an extraordinary learning curve. And you know, you know,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: and you get to cringe through post you know, beating
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: yourself over the head with how come I didn't think
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: of this at that time? And so you know, by
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: by shooting the film a second time, yes, we absolutely
• 19:06
  Speaker 4: came up with a better finished product. There were I mean,
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: it was you know, I have to say, if you
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: don't learn, you know, if you have the opportunity to
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: learn from your mistakes and you don't well out anyway. No,
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: but we we learned a lot at shooting it the
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: first time. So when we shot it the second time,
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: it was literally the same story, but we did it
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: a little differently. And you know, we've but but it
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: took a long time. It was like I said, you know,
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: it's one of those where you know, I can look
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: at something and if somebody explains it to me, you know,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: it's like I try to ask enough questions to really
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: get a firm grip of what they are looking as
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: for as their end product. And you know, having gone
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: through I think we wound up going through a total
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: of seven at a on that project.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: And it was just mind numbing to me, where you
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: know you just see them, yes, yes, yes, you when
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: you explained it, but then when you started getting your
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: first cuts back, you're like, wow, you didn't you know
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: or it was. And it's one of those where I
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: have a hard time believing it was so far, you know,
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: out of the ordinary, that someone just couldn't digest it,
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: you know, but that's literally what happened to sell.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's you know. I've experienced that too, where some
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: some editors, and particularly when I was talking about was
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: saying things like, oh, yeah, I understand exactly what you mean,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: and then you get it back and you say, wait
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: a minute, that's that's nothing what I wanted. This is
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: completely wrong. And I usually find that that's why that
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: is one regard where I think emails like every anytime
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I would, I would talk to him, whether it be
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: in person, because we actually had him in person to
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: come down, and we were talking to him about edits right,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: and we're we're we had a big whiteboard in front
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: of us, and we're marking it up and we're saying, okay,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: let's do this and this and this, and we marked
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: it all down, and then I sent him an email
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: of everything we talked about. And then when we saw
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: the edit about a week or two later, it was
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: completely wrong. And I'm sitting there going, was I not clear?
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: And I look back at the email and I'm sitting
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: and I say to myself, well, no, I can see
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: that I was. I told him this. It's just, you know,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: either they didn't understand, or they didn't read it, or
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: they you know, or we're just trying to basically reinvent
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: the wheel.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Well yeah, and I have you know, I have come
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: across editors who think they know better. And it doesn't
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: matter if you know better than the person that is
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: standing there. If if someone is paying you to edit something,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: give them what they're asking for, you know, And because
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I've seen plenty of people who would like to kind
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: of you know, direct from the editing or which you
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: can do. And you know, but it's also one of
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: those where I I also take, uh, you know, what's
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: clear to me? If I was communicating to myself and
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: I consider something clear, it doesn't necessarily mean it's clear
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: to anyone else but me. So even if as I
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: express it, you know, I could be saying, well, the
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: sky is blue, and they can be hearing that the
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: sky is green, and you know, those kinds of communication
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: breakdowns occur all the time, especially when you are trying
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: to breathe a life into something that's not average or typical.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's very true. And you know that. That's
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: why there's an old saying Melanie by sun Sooth, the
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: the guy who with the art of war. It's basically,
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: you know, if the communication breaks down, it's the fault
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: of the commander to the generals and he's and basically
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: if if that, if he checks that out, but the
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: instructions have been clear, then it must be the general's fault.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: It's something along the lines. I always butchered saying here
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: by the way on this podcast, but it was something.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: It was something like that, And basically, you know, he
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: was telling the story that you know, communication is always
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: the first person, who who's who used the communication, who
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: is communication is from. They should always assume that this
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: is not clear to anybody but me, or this is
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: maybe not clear to everybody else. So maybe so if
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: there's ever a miscommunication, I should go back to myself first.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: But if I do, but if it is clear, then
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: it is the fault of that person. And you know,
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: obviously in warfare, you know that's he was talking about
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: you know, making sure that troop movements were well okay, uh,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: you know, in our in our world, the filmmaking, we
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: have to make sure. You know, communication is key because
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: it's moving crews around, it's moving actors around, it's and
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: also it's instructions on editing a final piece.
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's it's a tough job. Producing is not
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: simple at all. And you know, unless like you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 4: until you make it into you know, the area of
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: the industry where you know you've got a decent budget,
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: you're going to be understaffed. And you know that means,
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: you know, it's like the thing that you give up
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: without money, you're going to spend time mhm. And but no,
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: I mean it's a fun ride. It's an absolutely fun run.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: So when you finally got the the second you finally
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: shot the movie for a second time and you know
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: you got the funnel edit down the way you wanted to.
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: So did did did you go about submitting to to
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: certain festivals or did you have certain festivals targeted for
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: the film?
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, no, no. Sometimes you know what, this sounds
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: like a harsh judgment of myself, but it really isn't.
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: It's it's more of a humorous one. It's like sometimes
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: I feel like I have idiots sam time my form
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: because the thing that you've got to realize with anything
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: that is not a dramaedy, excuse me, a drama comedy
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: or a documentary, most film festivals are not geared to
• 25:13
  Speaker 4: ingest that content unless it's a specialty festival, and so
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: people make things that are a little unusual or a
• 25:22
  Speaker 4: little off the beaten track, and it's it is more
• 25:24
  Speaker 4: difficult to get those types of films placed in any festival.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, as you know, there's more submissions that various festivals.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: I know, it is you know, the marketplace gets a
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: little more crowded and it's a little you know, harder
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: to stand out, so to speak. But but but you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: you actually won for Best Actress at the indie Fest
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: film festival. So were you in attendance to collect that award?
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: No, actually I wasn't. We Actually with that we got
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: we won Audience Choice at Chakerfest. I think we collected
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: a total of I think four or five awards for
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: that film. And it was it was funny because you know,
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: it was kind of alert. I'm not answering your question,
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: and I don't mean to not answer it, but I
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: was going to distract with something else. So I get,
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: you know, when I submitted us to Chakra Fest, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: then I get the rejection notice, and like a week later,
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: they're saying, hey, you've been you know, or you've been
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: selected to screen at this and I write them this
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: kind of sniffy email back saying, you know, hey, you
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: just told me I didn't get in, So what's the
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: real story here? So I think what happened was is
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: they had something that they picked had fallen out, and
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: so they were taking an alternate And it was one
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: of those where I don't think the people who ran
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: the festival were particularly fond of the film, but they
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: were absolutely shocked when we won audience Choice, So that
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: was kind of funny. Yeah, yeah, it's it's one of
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: those where even if it's one of the reasons that
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: we started the festival, it's like because a lot of
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: the content that we play is not going to show
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: at a lot of other festivals because those festivals, if
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: you just look at the whole festival world and and
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: what gets played, our films are not what they play.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: So you know, as as we were going to talk
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: about now about the Autmish Film Festival. You know what
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: was sort of the empathus to start that? Was it,
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: you know, just to show those films, like you just said,
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: just to show films that wouldn't get shown anywhere else.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: Or so I shouldn't say I should certain gives a
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: were getting shown at certain festivals. I should say.
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: Actually, more to the point is that I have had
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: a long standing belief that women in action is a
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: very lucrative thing, you know, and every few years or
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: so you'll see, you know, should come out from the
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: studios where they say that women in action as box
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: office poison. And I don't remember if you do, you
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: remember that film aon Flux that starred Charlie's their own well,
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: that did not do very well. And I remember at
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: the time, at that time, I was, you know, very
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: much into studying box office revenues and what stuff was earning.
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: And hands down, for many years, action is the best
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: selling genre of films above ever anything. And you know,
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: and it's one of those where we have probably almost
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: five decades where we have a smattering of films that
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: feature women in action, and there's always some excuse not
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: to make more and when A on Flux. The last
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: time I saw it in the trades, you know, where
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: they're saying, oh, women in action as Box Office Poison
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: was right around A on Flux, and you know, it
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: was like, you know, a few years prior to that,
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: you know, you'd see comments here and there. But now
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: we're seeing, you know, especially in the last like three
• 29:15
  Speaker 4: or four years, we're seeing and we're seeing a tide change.
• 29:19
  Speaker 4: And if you look on TV, you've got an extraordinary
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: number of shows that feature you know, pretty empowered women
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: and female characters, a lot of women in action, and
• 29:31
  Speaker 4: so that market is there. But if you look at
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: it's one of those where I think the biggest impetus.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: There was two impetuses for the festival. One was to
• 29:48
  Speaker 4: create a space for the content to play, and two
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: is to prove that there's an extraordinary audience for it.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Because you know, it's like we get films from twenty
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: five countries around the globe on most every year.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 30:13
  Speaker 4: We have a worldwide audience, you know, our our our
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: our our social media fans are all over the world,
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: you know, so it's like, this isn't something that is
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: just interesting to a certain group of the population on
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: a certain in a certain area of the world. It's
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: all over. I mean our first year we had we
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: actually had a it was an animated film. It was
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: you know, claymation from Iran, and you know, so of
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: all places in the world where we're literally taking in
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: content from Iran where they are celebrating the strength of
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: the female of the species, which is really kind of ironic.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: And you know, it's like because of the festival, we
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: get extraordinary pieces of history for you know, women that
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: a lot of people don't know about. That's really cool too.
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: I mean, like, you know, odd fact, did you know
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: that the winningest basketball team in all of written history
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: is a women's basketball team out of Texas. I think
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: they were called the Flying Queens, and I think they
• 31:25
  Speaker 4: played from like like nineteen it was like the mid
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: fifties through like I can't remember the years stretch it is,
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: but it started in like nineteen fifty six I think,
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: and they have the literally the winningest basketball record in
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: all of history. Nobody knows about this, you know, go ahead.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: No, I was just say, yeah, I didn't. I didn't
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: know that.
• 31:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well when we showed it at the festival, nobody
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: knew it. It was It was interesting. Last year we
• 31:59
  Speaker 4: had a couple of articles written by peoples. They were
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: published during the festival, but they were published by people
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: who were actually showed up to a few of the
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: screenings and events that we had, and you know, it
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: was really awesome to see them. Right, Wow, I had
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: no idea, you know, but this is I mean, these
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: are things that should be widely available then they're not,
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: and and and it should be widely available, not just
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: because we're sitting here going, oh, it's time to pay
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: attention to women, but because they're part of our history
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: and they're out there and nobody knows about it. So
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: it it's like when you talk about women in action,
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: you're going to be talking about you know, women in sports, military,
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: you know, narrative obviously of any genre, but it's like
• 32:55
  Speaker 4: you're in the you know, in the military stories we get,
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: you know, they're jaw dropping because you don't realize how
• 33:02
  Speaker 4: much women have actually contributed to you know, military efforts
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: all the way back to World War Two. You know,
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: we've showed films about you know, the first ladies that
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: actually ever flew aircraft for the military, and they would
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: even test the ship for the guys to fly, and
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: you know, and so they had these you know, amazing
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: few years of flying airplanes and having this incredibly adventuresome life.
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: And then when the men came back to war, they
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: were you know, told to go back home and cook
• 33:35
  Speaker 4: for their kids.
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's also a history of War two. There's the
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: history of you know, of female fighters. And you know,
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: when the when the Nazis invaded in nineteen forty one,
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: there was you know, like women were fighting alongside the
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: battlefield and they actually, you know, were pilots. I think
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: they are called the There was actually a pilot group
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: called the uh I think the Witches or something or
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: something like that. It was they were basically, you know,
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: flying these old fashioned planes. But they was just but
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: you know, because they were taking on the invading Nazi force.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, onreen't they the Witches out of Russia?
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I think there was a name. I think
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: it was something Witches. I can't remember, but I'll look
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: that in the show notes. Everybody.
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I'm pretty I'm pretty sure you are correct.
• 34:18
  Speaker 4: And then for the US you had the Wasps, and
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: they were the women Air Force Service pilots, I believe. Yeah,
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: we actually were lucky enough to have a ninety three
• 34:30
  Speaker 4: year old WASP at the festival for one of our
• 34:33
  Speaker 4: Warrior Women panels last year.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, ye, no, go ahead, I was gonna say,
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: did a lot of people you know ask her about
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: the war?
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: Oh? Hell yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And it was literally,
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: I think it was late last year they actually finally
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: started getting death benefits for these ladies that died in service.
• 34:54
  Speaker 4: You know, because during that period of time when these
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: women were flying, because they were they were flying back
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: and forth, or some of them were stationed in Europe,
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: but they basically just did a lot of supply flying
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: and other types of flying for the US. And you know,
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: if one of their if one of the lady pilots
• 35:19
  Speaker 4: died in service, the ladies literally collected money between themselves
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: to actually bring their bodies back because because because the
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: US government wouldn't pay for it, and they literally just
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: I think it was late last year where they they
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: actually got that. I think they got the law to
• 35:41
  Speaker 4: change so that their death benefits were covered. I mean
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: some of the stuff, I mean, you know, some of
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: this stuff is mind thembing and people need to know
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: about it.
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, it's very fascinating and you know that. And again
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: I'm looking at you know, some of the people that
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: that you've had at the festival, some of the honorees.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: You've had Zoe Bell, You've had Yancy Butler, and you've
• 36:07
  Speaker 3: even had Paul fag On some of es. Yes, yeah,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: and it's absolutely amazing.
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, And this year, and there's more, there's more
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: to announce. But this year we have Tom Cruise Michelle Nichols,
• 36:22
  Speaker 4: who was Lieutenant Ahura in The First Star Trek. So
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: I mean and this, I mean this lady literally broke
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: so many barriers by playing that role. It's you know,
• 36:33
  Speaker 4: I mean to recount that would take a moment, so
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: I won't bore you at the gory details. And then
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: we have some absolutely fantastic stunt ladies and one stunt guy,
• 36:45
  Speaker 4: Andy Armstrong, who is Andy Armstrong is probably one of
• 36:49
  Speaker 4: the top second unit action directors for you know, big
• 36:53
  Speaker 4: budget blockbuster films, and he happens to be an extraordinary
• 36:58
  Speaker 4: supporter of female stunt and he actually uh hires a
• 37:02
  Speaker 4: lot of them, which is really cool. Jennifer Capudo who's
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: been a stunt woman for more than two decades and
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: she does all kinds of wacky shit. And then Tammy Beard,
• 37:13
  Speaker 4: who's ah, she does an amazing body of stunt work
• 37:18
  Speaker 4: as well, but she does the best car hits you
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: can imagine. So I mean she literally, you know, steps
• 37:23
  Speaker 4: out in front of a car in high heels and
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: adoily for address and and lets the car hit her.
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: And then there's, uh, gosh, there's one more person, and
• 37:34
  Speaker 4: I'm totally spacing enough. I feel like an idiot.
• 37:38
  Speaker 3: But don't feel Ben. Don't feel Ben Melanie. Every time
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: I do this podcast, my brain stops working, I swear
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: to God.
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah. But now, I mean, we have this year, we'll
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: have some amazing Honore's and we have we actually have
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: a couple of other announcements coming down the pipeline that
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: are going to be pretty juicy too.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: That's fantastic. I mean, I and you know, you have
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: some great media partners. You have Film Inquiry, you have
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: Ink Tip, and you have Action Movie Freak. You know,
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: and you know that that's actually a question I wanted
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: to ask, is are you at a position now where
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: where like different partners pitch you. You know, you know
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: what I mean to sore are they finding you out
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: and saying, hey, you know, Melanie's got you know, the
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: Artamis Film Festival. You know we should we should you know,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: talk about you know, sponsoring something here.
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, okay, just so you know, so our first
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: two years of putting the festival on, we were we crowdfunded,
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: and so I mean, so we are a fan backed festival,
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: you know, and our media partners to date are you know,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: basically it's you know, we basically do cross promotions because
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: we benefit each other and and it's it's you know,
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: it's it's great to find and people that you are
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: proud to promote for the stuff that they do. But yeah,
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: I think we are. We are on sponsorship, you know,
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: the actual dollar kind, which you know, so we are
• 39:06
  Speaker 4: working on that. But we will be you know, we
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: will be crowdfunding again, probably starting right at the beginning
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: of February.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: So are you going to be crowdfunding through Indiegogo or Kickstarter?
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: We'll probably run on indiego go, which is where we've
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: been the last two years. Although I am considering I
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: am considering another crowdfunding platform for a few a few
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: different reasons. But but yeah, the last two years we've
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: run on indiegog and you know, we we we generally
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: call it the women Kick Ass Project because that's our hashtag,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: and uh, you know, but we you know, it's it's
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: kind of cool to be able to say, hey, we
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: have a completely fan backed festival, which is what we have.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is amazing you have a fan back festival.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: It really, it really truly is because that way, you know,
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: you know exactly, you know where it's you know where
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: the bread is buttered, so to speak, you know exactly
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: what you know, you know, you know what I mean, Like,
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: there's no somebody pull the strings behind the scenes, so
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: to speak. Do you know what I mean?
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: No, that, well, there's that. But also to me, the
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: fact that it's fan based. We have we have a
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: base of fans that are willing to literally financially get
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: behind the production of the festival. It should speak loudly
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: to the fact that people like women in Action, damn
• 40:42
  Speaker 4: it period. So you know, and and we get we
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: get backers all from all over the place too. So
• 40:54
  Speaker 4: it's it's that that part is you know, corporate sponsorship
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: will make would make our life a lot easier. But
• 41:04
  Speaker 4: I don't I I can't really express a my gratitude
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: but also the for lack of better words, pride that
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: our fans like us so much that they contribute to
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: the production of the film festival. I mean, you know,
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: I plaster their names all over our website and I
• 41:25
  Speaker 4: put them in our festival program because I want everyone
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: to know.
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: And when you know it is twenty seventeen, when is
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: the festival for twenty seventeen? You have a set date
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: right now?
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I know we're going to be Our opening night
• 41:40
  Speaker 4: is going to occur at the Area in Los Angeles.
• 41:43
  Speaker 4: It's a theater that's right near Wilshow in Los Angeles,
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: Los Angele and Beverly Hills. That'll be April twentieth, and
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: then the last three days of the festival, the twenty
• 41:54
  Speaker 4: first through the twenty third, will occur in Santa Monica
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: at Lenley's on Second in Arizona.
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: And can people just go to do artistfolfestshole dot com
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: buy tickets?
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: They can, They're not They're not available for sale. What
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: what will happen is when we open up our crowdfunding.
• 42:11
  Speaker 4: That's the first place screening passes will go up for sale.
• 42:15
  Speaker 4: After that, obviously, you know they'll be available through Lemley
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: as well as our website. And you know, we have
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: an extraordinary year coming. We've got some we have really
• 42:27
  Speaker 4: astounding content to share, and you know, we'll have an
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: extraordinary array of panels. You know, we'll have our stunt
• 42:37
  Speaker 4: Woman panel, We'll probably have a Warrior Women panel. We
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: are also gonna put together probably a VR panel, because
• 42:47
  Speaker 4: virtual reality is an extraordinary burgeoning field that is wide
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: open if women want to jump in.
• 42:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I've seen more filmmakers starting to, you know, sort
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: of dabble in VR, sort of putting their foot in
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: the water, so to speak, you know, testing the waters out,
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: just to see, you know, see you know what it's
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: all about. And I'm I'm actually interested, to be honest
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: with you, Melanie, about which way it's gonna go. I
• 43:13
  Speaker 3: have a few I could see. On one hand, VR
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: going the way of something like three D, where you
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: know it was it works well in some areas, but
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: most people sort of you know, go back to, you know,
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: the way we do things, you know, normally, or if
• 43:27
  Speaker 3: it's going to be like sort of like the future
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: where you just put on the VR headset and you
• 43:32
  Speaker 3: can pretty much, you know, you can do you know,
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: go play video games. Then you switch it. Now you're
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: watching a movie and it's all that you know, that
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: VR immersive experience.
• 43:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah. One of the things that I get that is
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: very interesting to me is is as it comes to narrative,
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: it will be very curious to me to see how
• 43:50
  Speaker 4: that plays out, because we generally don't stand, you know,
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: and you know VR. If you're doing immersive VR, you've
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: got a headset on and you know, whichever direction you turn,
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: you have some view available to you, right, which requires
• 44:08
  Speaker 4: the ability to stand. I wonder if people will literally stand.
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: Let's say, if it was a narrative film you're looking at,
• 44:17
  Speaker 4: you know, somewhere between ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes.
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: I'm having a hard time seeing people stand to watch
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: a movie like that. Yeah, you know, so I do
• 44:29
  Speaker 4: think I am one hundred percent certain we're VR is
• 44:34
  Speaker 4: going to blow a lot of shit open. You know,
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: it's it's going to be you know, we're always I mean,
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: come on, look, you know, every every few years we're
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: updating our technology, and so it's it's part of life.
• 44:45
  Speaker 4: And that's just the way it goes. Is things are
• 44:48
  Speaker 4: going to change. People are going to be looking for
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: the next best new you know, bigger, better, faster, more
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: kind of a thing. And you know, and and you know,
• 44:58
  Speaker 4: I do think that you know, people will still continue
• 45:01
  Speaker 4: to watch flatties, you know, so I don't think. I
• 45:06
  Speaker 4: just think it's going to be in another area of
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: you know, the filmed moving image. And but the other
• 45:16
  Speaker 4: the other cool part about VR is some of the
• 45:18
  Speaker 4: stuff that they're doing, uh to actually make a difference,
• 45:22
  Speaker 4: you know, in terms of learning. And there are people
• 45:25
  Speaker 4: that I know that are developing programs for you know, empathy,
• 45:30
  Speaker 4: They're doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, VR is
• 45:33
  Speaker 4: a vast, vast world, and I think that you know,
• 45:36
  Speaker 4: it's how it's getting used hasn't even been tapped. There's
• 45:42
  Speaker 4: and and there's it's it's just it's a brand new,
• 45:45
  Speaker 4: wide open field.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah. And you know, again, I am very interested to see,
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: you know, which way it actually goes. And I wonder too,
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: if you know, that will be just the new norm.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: I also wonder if that would be like the new
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: way to go to work, will literally just be like
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: you know, hey, I'm gonna put on my VR headset
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: and work remotely because we can have conferences remotely and
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: you know, I can throw my headset or maybe I
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: can even work through like almost like actually in the
• 46:13
  Speaker 3: VR world and using holograms and moving holograms around or
• 46:17
  Speaker 3: what have you were actually coming out you know, you
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: know what I mean, because again, you know, now everything
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: is so accelerated with tech. You know, every like you said,
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: every few years or something new coming down the pike
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: that sort of disrupts what was just disrupted.
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah. One one of the things that I always
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: look at with our technology is, you know, the more
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: we immerse ourselves into technology, the less we are can be,
• 46:42
  Speaker 4: not always, but the less we are available to you know,
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: just basic human interaction. And so I mean there is
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: it's a blessing curse kind of a thing, you know,
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: because the more disconnected we become from actual real life.
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: You know, that cast some some pretty big problems. You know.
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: But you know, tech is it's an amazing tool, and
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: you know, I think that we need we we really
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: need to use it wisely. You know. Just it's no
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: different than the messages that we create with our with
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: our flat moving images. You know, I think content creators
• 47:23
  Speaker 4: have a responsibility and I think they really need to
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: take an extraordinary consideration of the messages that they're putting
• 47:33
  Speaker 4: out into the world.
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, very true, Very true, Melanie. So you know, Melanie,
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: you know, we've been talking for about forty five minutes now,
• 47:43
  Speaker 3: and I want to ask you, you know, in closing,
• 47:45
  Speaker 3: is there anything that we weren't able to discuss that
• 47:47
  Speaker 3: you maybe wanted to talk about or do you have
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: any sort of closing thoughts for this whole conversation.
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's a tough question, now, it is.
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: It's a very open ended question. I usually ask that
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: on purpose, just to because it can be anything.
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: Really Yeah, now, honestly, uh wow, we I mean we
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: we've we've talked about so much, you know, but no.
• 48:08
  Speaker 5: I obviously, you know, for for people who who like
• 48:12
  Speaker 5: seeing empowered images on screen, or or or just I
• 48:16
  Speaker 5: mean literally badass women in action.
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: You know, hey, check us out. It's Artemisfilmfestival dot com.
• 48:22
  Speaker 4: And you know, we love hearing from you people.
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: And I will link to that in the show notes. Everybody.
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: Dave Bulls dot com. We you can also follow me
• 48:33
  Speaker 3: everywhere among all the social media channels, just like Melanie is.
• 48:36
  Speaker 3: And uh, you know, I I'm getting really big into
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: YouTube now, Melanie. I've realized, yeah, that that's where I've
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: I've should have been. Uh well, I don't want to.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: I don't want to bore you with with my.
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: Whole if you don't mind telling me, I want to
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: hear this.
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: Okay. So about a few years ago, I had two
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: opportunities to do to do web series for on YouTube.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: Both both were comedies, both were like you know, one
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: was like half hour, another one was like ten minutes.
• 49:03
  Speaker 3: I passed on both of them, and for a number
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: of reasons. Well you know, now I kind of look
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: back and I go, you know, it just makes sense
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: for me being in the film industry. Meaning on this podcast,
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: I upload the podcast to YouTube as well. And what
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to say out of all this is I
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: should have been in YouTube first, beyond Twitter, beyond Facebook,
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: beyond Instagram, because it just it's more, it's more correlates
• 49:30
  Speaker 3: more to what we do. And that's why I'm now
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: I'm getting back into doing you know, the YouTube stuff.
• 49:35
  Speaker 3: And I and I actually switched channels about two years ago.
• 49:39
  Speaker 3: I had one before where I would just but it
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: was like it wasn't really filmmaking stuff. It was like
• 49:42
  Speaker 3: random stuff I was throwing up there for different stuff.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: I was doing a lot of freelance videography work. Just
• 49:48
  Speaker 3: there's a whole bunch of other stuff. So finally closed
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: down that channel, got this new channel. I upload pretty
• 49:53
  Speaker 3: much every podcast episode on there, and slowly just trying
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: to grow more of an audience on YouTube.
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: Wow, yeah, no YouTube. YouTube is the number two search
• 50:14
  Speaker 4: engine behind Google. Yeah, And you know, it's like I've
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: known for a long time that YouTube is a very,
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: very very powerful platform. But it's also one of those
• 50:24
  Speaker 4: where I I have also been delinquent on YouTube.
• 50:30
  Speaker 3: See we can both. We can both now, you know, uh,
• 50:33
  Speaker 3: not be sort of linquid anymore. We could both finally
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: get up on YouTube and start you know, putting off
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: our stuff on there, because honestly, I've had a lot
• 50:40
  Speaker 3: of people find the podcast through YouTube. I've had people
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: find some of my short films. I basically try to
• 50:45
  Speaker 3: throw everything I could up there that I want people
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: to see, because you know, I've made a few few
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: student short films that I didn't really weren't really that
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: good at the end of the day, so I was like,
• 50:55
  Speaker 3: I won't show this to anybody else.
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, you gotta do it, you gotta do them.
• 51:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. And I just basically use them as a
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: learning experience and then basically was like, I'll never talk
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: about this ever again. I hear you, well we have.
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: I will. Uh. I will make sure to check out
• 51:17
  Speaker 4: your your your YouTube page. What is what's the name
• 51:20
  Speaker 4: of it?
• 51:21
  Speaker 3: Real iron fist films.
• 51:23
  Speaker 4: I would not have found that. It's been a pleasure.
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: Oh no, my pleasure is all mine, you know. I
• 51:28
  Speaker 3: want to say thank you for coming on Melanie. Oh yeah, no,
• 51:31
  Speaker 3: it's fun.
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: It is a blast.
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: Melanie. I want to wish you the best of luck
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: with the Artomist Film Festival and and everything you do.
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: Well, thank you and and and did.
• 51:40
  Speaker 3: Oh oh, thank you very much.
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I'll be on your YouTube page.
• 51:44
  Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna look for you there, all right, cool,
• 51:49
  Speaker 3: all right, take care of Melanie. Ever a great day YouTube,
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: bye bye bye.
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 51:57
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: dot com.
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: Forward slash eight.
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: Ten twenty five and if you have it already, please
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: head over to filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe and leave
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: a good review for the show. It really helps us
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: out a lot, guys.
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you again so much for listening to guys.
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 52:22
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: indiefilm hustle dot com. That's I N D I E
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: F I L M h U S T l E
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: dot com.