Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 868: How The Asylum Makes Movies That Actually Make Money with David M. Latt

Transcript

IFH 868: How The Asylum Makes Movies That Actually Make Money with David M. Latt · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: sixty eight.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Do you try to do it and you do it? Honestly?
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: You can't control people's responses. Really. Edgar Wright.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the Back Alley and Hollywood. It's the Indie
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the film biz.
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: I am your humble.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is sponsored by Rise of
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: the Film Entrepreneur. How to turn your independent film into
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: a profitable business. It's harder today than ever before for
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: independent filmmakers to make money with their films from predatory
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: film distributors ripping them off to huckster film aggregators who
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: prey upon them. The odds are stacked against the indie
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: film maker. The old distribution model of making money with
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: your film is broken, and there needs to be a
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: change the future of independent filmmaking is the entrepreneurial filmmaker
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: or the film entrepreneur. In Rise of the Film Entrepreneur,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I break down how to actually make money with your
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: film projects and show you how to turn your indie
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: film into a profitable business. With case studies examining successes
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: and failures. This book shows you the step by step
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: method to turn your passion into a profitable career. If
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: you're making a feature film, series, or any other kind
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: of video content, the Film Entrepreneur method will set you
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: up for success. The book is available in paperback, ebook,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and of course audiobook. If you want to order it,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: just head over to www dot filmbiz book dot com.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: host Dave Bullis.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: On this week's show, I Have David m Let. David
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: is the co founder of the Asylum, one of the
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: most prolific independent film studios around. They have won dozens
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: of awards and created such movies as Sharknado, Shirkado two,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Shirknado three, and the upcoming Sharknado four. The Fourth Awakens.
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: We're gonna talk all about how the Asylum comes up
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: with their ideas and how they market it and how
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: they make money. So here we go with David m less.
• 2:23
  Speaker 5: Hey, David, thank you very much for joining us today.
• 2:25
  Speaker 6: Oh sure, hey, thanks for having me.
• 2:27
  Speaker 7: My pleasure, my friend. You know, you know so David,
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: you know, as you know, the co founder of the Asylum.
• 2:32
  Speaker 7: You you've produced all these films. You know, you have
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: such a you know, a really really long IMDb. As
• 2:37
  Speaker 7: I was looking at, I didn't even know you produced
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: that many movies, So, you know, I wanted to ask,
• 2:41
  Speaker 7: you know, David, you know, how did you get started
• 2:44
  Speaker 7: in the film industry?
• 2:46
  Speaker 6: Oh goodness, I lost the bat Well. I am a
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: very very very boring story about that, which is that
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: I just always made movie. You know, I'm the the
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: nerdy kid that back in the seventies gets a met
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: old that had a supert camera and made a lot
• 3:06
  Speaker 6: of short films and as my wife likes to point out,
• 3:09
  Speaker 6: the Goldbergs, the TV series is my family life, That's
• 3:12
  Speaker 6: exactly it. And just always had a passion for directing, producing,
• 3:19
  Speaker 6: you know, telling stories in this medium. And when I
• 3:24
  Speaker 6: was twelve, I saw Star Wars and that kind of
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: changed my life, going wow, you could actually make money
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: in this business and you know, tell stories in a
• 3:33
  Speaker 6: mass level, and and that kind of just really focused
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: me very cutely to to make movies, which for some
• 3:41
  Speaker 6: strange reason in this life, I won the lottery and
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: I'm allowed to do the things that I love to do,
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: which which I know is very rare and trying to
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: take the advantage of it, but I kind of do.
• 3:53
  Speaker 6: But that's it. I mean, I'm not trying to I'm
• 3:57
  Speaker 6: not caring cancer and doing important things and just making
• 4:00
  Speaker 6: movie being very self indulging.
• 4:04
  Speaker 5: So did you go to film school?
• 4:06
  Speaker 6: I did? I have a degree so I'm allowed to
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: make movies. I went to Loyola Murraymount University and graduated
• 4:19
  Speaker 6: there with some kind of degree. I can't remember what
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: it was, and I think it was film production something.
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: And here I am today.
• 4:26
  Speaker 7: You mentioned permission to make movies, because you know Lloyd Coffin,
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: when I bought his filmmaking DVD set and actually came
• 4:32
  Speaker 7: with a degree from Trouma University, He's just like, just
• 4:36
  Speaker 7: write your name in there. He's like, just write it
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: in with penn and hanging up on your wall, and
• 4:40
  Speaker 7: you can make movies too.
• 4:41
  Speaker 6: I think Boyd is probably the greatest human being in
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: the world. So yeah, that's awesome thought.
• 4:46
  Speaker 5: You know, I actually had him on the podcast.
• 4:49
  Speaker 6: I don't doubt it. Actually had him for dinner a
• 4:52
  Speaker 6: couple of weeks ago. So it's one of those where
• 4:56
  Speaker 6: things like, hey, do you hang out together with filmmakers
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: and and you look back and here, yeah, kind of do,
• 5:00
  Speaker 6: which is it's really a neat, you know, experience to
• 5:02
  Speaker 6: be able to share those moments with people that you
• 5:06
  Speaker 6: put on a pedestala admire for so long and and
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: you look at go wow, they're friends, and Lloyd is
• 5:11
  Speaker 6: his friend and his wife and it's you know, he's
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: he's the real deal. He's a tour and adependent filmmaker,
• 5:19
  Speaker 6: grilla filmmaker, really enthusiastic as you know, and and you know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: genuinely just a sweet, sweet man that really loves what
• 5:29
  Speaker 6: he does, which is invigorating. It was, you know, gives
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: me kind of this renewed energy. And I think he's
• 5:35
  Speaker 6: like one hundred and three years old, so you know,
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: it's like to do that at his age crazy, it's crazy.
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: And now you have another story for when when you
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: see him the next time, you could say, hey, remember
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: that shitty podcast we were both on.
• 5:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and I'll say like CNN, and I'll go no, no,
• 5:50
  Speaker 6: it wasn't CNN. It was another one.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: So the other podcast you are, yeah, yeah.
• 5:56
  Speaker 6: That one, that one, well.
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it, Ludi. He was absolutely
• 6:00
  Speaker 5: great guy.
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: But Dan, you know, just to go back to, you know,
• 6:02
  Speaker 7: to your career, I wanted to ask, you know, when
• 6:05
  Speaker 7: did you decide that you wanted to start the asylum?
• 6:08
  Speaker 6: It was that easy. When I got fired from my
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: day job. So my partner and I, David Ormoy and
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: I both worked at different uh businesses. He worked at
• 6:21
  Speaker 6: a company called Village road Show and I worked at
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: a company called Humor Multimedia. And I always had a
• 6:26
  Speaker 6: production for that company. And I was there for a
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: couple of years and I got fired and I don't
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: know why. If I was sober, I would have known why,
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: but I wasn't. And so to the say, I still
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: don't know why. But but and David got fired Sue
• 6:44
  Speaker 6: at the same time, except his fire firing was much
• 6:46
  Speaker 6: more legitimate. Warner Brothers bought out the company and then
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: went on to produce the Matrix with the Village road Show.
• 6:52
  Speaker 6: And you know, they've done everything, but Uh, so we
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: kind of were let go at the same time. And
• 6:59
  Speaker 6: so we had previously made a couple of films, like
• 7:02
  Speaker 6: a film every year and a half, and said, you
• 7:04
  Speaker 6: know what, let's let's do this legitimately, let's get into
• 7:07
  Speaker 6: the and and start a company together we could actually
• 7:12
  Speaker 6: start making movies. So we did that with another partner,
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: Sherry Strain, who also worked a village road show. So
• 7:19
  Speaker 6: it so the three of us and we worked out
• 7:21
  Speaker 6: of david department for the first I don't know, four years,
• 7:25
  Speaker 6: just doing whatever we could. You know, we were young,
• 7:27
  Speaker 6: we needed the money and started, you know, actually releasing
• 7:31
  Speaker 6: art house movies. It was our first kind of foray
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: into the into the business side of business. But that
• 7:38
  Speaker 6: was nineteen years ago. That put things in perspective.
• 7:42
  Speaker 7: So when when you first lost your job, and you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 7: I'm sure you know you and your partners were sort
• 7:47
  Speaker 7: of sitting around the table, so, you know, discussing what
• 7:50
  Speaker 7: to do. Did you just decide, you know, did you
• 7:52
  Speaker 7: make a list like, hey, this is the resources I
• 7:54
  Speaker 7: have available, now, this is how much money I have,
• 7:57
  Speaker 7: and just try to go from there.
• 7:59
  Speaker 6: No, we are not that smart, you know, we we
• 8:03
  Speaker 6: just we had we all three of us had a
• 8:05
  Speaker 6: passion to making movies and we knew that's we wanted
• 8:08
  Speaker 6: to do. And I think had we put together a
• 8:10
  Speaker 6: real plan, it would have been would be a lot
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: more successful now because I think we kind of started
• 8:14
  Speaker 6: around the same time Line Skate did that they had
• 8:16
  Speaker 6: a plan, So if you want to put thing good perspective,
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: that where things helping could have been. But uh, you know,
• 8:26
  Speaker 6: I think Netflix started around the same time too. Uh.
• 8:30
  Speaker 6: It's one of those things of you know, we just
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: wanted to not be homeless, so we just you know,
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: I I immersed myself and I'm a workaholic, so I
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: do and and I love making movies so on on
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: a set, I've done everything and continue to do everything
• 8:46
  Speaker 6: in a lot of ways and and enjoy every aspect
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: of it. And uh, you know, from catering to boom off,
• 8:54
  Speaker 6: you know, camera on, whatever it is, I've touched it
• 8:57
  Speaker 6: in some particular way. So you know, it didn't matter
• 8:59
  Speaker 6: what we were doing as long as we're making movies.
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: And initially it was I was I was an editor,
• 9:06
  Speaker 6: so I was cutting trailers and promo things for clients
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: that Romaley was bringing in. David Romaloy in more of
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: the business side of things, and I'm more of the
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: creative part set of things, because I always like to
• 9:18
  Speaker 6: say he finds the money, I spend the money, and
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: we both enjoy what we do. So he would find
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: work and I would do the work, and you know,
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: and that's kind of the way it went. He found
• 9:34
  Speaker 6: he kind of got this great opportunity where his old
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: boss of the road show started a thing called First Rights,
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: which was being set up in the native country in Australia,
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: first time filmmakers with an exclusive output every month to
• 9:49
  Speaker 6: a one of the largest video distributors.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 10:00
  Speaker 6: Now back to the show in Australia. They were looking,
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: they were looking for an American partner. So David O'Malley
• 10:07
  Speaker 6: part what became that bridge between Australia and America, and
• 10:12
  Speaker 6: we created an output deal with Hollywood Video, which was
• 10:16
  Speaker 6: one of the second arch chain in America at the time,
• 10:19
  Speaker 6: and every month we would release art house movies from
• 10:22
  Speaker 6: first time filmmakers to the tune of about six to
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: ten every single month, and that increased to fifteen to twenty.
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: At a certain point. We had hundreds of titles It
• 10:31
  Speaker 6: was a very successful program for about three or four years,
• 10:34
  Speaker 6: and that was what our life was and what got
• 10:37
  Speaker 6: us back into film production is that when we saw
• 10:39
  Speaker 6: the writing on the wall that was kind of waning,
• 10:41
  Speaker 6: we needed to kind of diversify. We went to Blockbuster
• 10:44
  Speaker 6: and started releasedhip with Blockbuster, not with First Flight. They said, look,
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: if you can come up with a film a month,
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: you know, for us to distribute on the horror side
• 10:53
  Speaker 6: of things, the genre, not the art house will take them.
• 10:56
  Speaker 6: And so we started finding movies. But the problem was
• 10:59
  Speaker 6: we were competing in Flying Skate and other big companies
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: that were offering minimum guarantees to filmmakers that we couldn't do.
• 11:06
  Speaker 6: So we couldn't come up with the product. And at
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: a certain point went, well, you know, we're filmmakers. Let's
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: try and find an angel investor to bankroll specific movies
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: for Blockbuster, these cheap horror films. And we did. We
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: found someone to give us I think a half million
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: dollars and that bank rolled the first like ten movies.
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: And by that time, because we're releasing film every single month,
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: it you know, caught up to you know, after about
• 11:34
  Speaker 6: five or six months, it caught up to the investor
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: and to us, we were cash flowing our film. So
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: for the first ten years of our of our business life,
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: we were a cash flow company primarily where money coming
• 11:45
  Speaker 6: in would go to fund the next project going out.
• 11:48
  Speaker 6: And we're still to that degree, somewhat to that degreell
• 11:52
  Speaker 6: though we're a little more financially sophisticated to this point
• 11:55
  Speaker 6: with all the employees that we have in the product
• 11:57
  Speaker 6: that'll be bake and everything else, but only the same
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: kind of business. But yeah, we What I think kept
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: us alive and the doors open is that we were
• 12:08
  Speaker 6: very nimble and very flexible to opportunity that came our way.
• 12:12
  Speaker 6: And it was rare that we said no to an opportunity.
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: It's you know, you just never know where those are
• 12:19
  Speaker 6: going to take you. So, you know, our goal as
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: a good druggie was to always be taking drugs in
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: the sense in the drug being filmed and you know,
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: just always keep that process going. And and that led
• 12:32
  Speaker 6: us into the business that we're in now. And it's
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: not for everybody. Sherry ultimately left the company because she
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: actually wanted to make I guess quality films and saw
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: ourself more you know, in the art house world or bigger,
• 12:47
  Speaker 6: bigger shows, which is fantastic, and she left and about
• 12:50
  Speaker 6: twelve years ago, and then we brought in a guy
• 12:54
  Speaker 6: named Paul Bayle. We still don't know what he does,
• 12:56
  Speaker 6: but he does. Oh and you look to me right now.
• 13:01
  Speaker 6: So Paul Bale's used to work over SAG for ten
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: years over there and came into the Asylum and became
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: a partner of the Asylum simply because he just slept
• 13:13
  Speaker 6: with the right people. Because Paul and Romaley with friends
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: in Michigan, up Michigan. Also with the same background of
• 13:20
  Speaker 6: making movies when they were young and super eight cameras
• 13:23
  Speaker 6: and all that stuff. You know, we all share that
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: kind of thing initial passion. And Paul's been very imp
• 13:29
  Speaker 6: to be uh valuable to the company. He's the guy
• 13:32
  Speaker 6: who says no, he acts as kind of our THEFO
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: to everything and uh, you know, really regulate how things
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: are done. So you know, that kind of control has
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: really you know, aggressively run the company in very wonderful
• 13:49
  Speaker 6: ways because we're not just out you know, partying and
• 13:53
  Speaker 6: being crazy and wild. We're we're actually being responsible human
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: beings that have a payroll at insurance and and uh,
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: you know, he made it legit, which is kind of cool.
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: Just answer really long question no, yes, no, I'm sorry,
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: yes and no. That's it now on.
• 14:13
  Speaker 7: It's a funny side note. Was in Yes and No,
• 14:15
  Speaker 7: I had a friend of mine he interviewed remember Bis Marquis.
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: Well, of course he was in Shark Nado two.
• 14:21
  Speaker 5: It's right, he was.
• 14:22
  Speaker 7: Uh, he actually interviewed him for his podcast and uh
• 14:26
  Speaker 7: and uh he said. Biz literally answered everything with yes
• 14:30
  Speaker 7: or no because my friend shot himself on the floor
• 14:33
  Speaker 7: right of the gate. He first thing he says is, hey,
• 14:35
  Speaker 7: remember you say she's just a friend, and Biz goes yes,
• 14:39
  Speaker 7: because but I've done other things because she's just a friend.
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: And through the rest of the podcast he's just answered
• 14:44
  Speaker 7: yes or no. And my friend was like, can you elaborate,
• 14:46
  Speaker 7: and Big was and beat and Bis was.
• 14:48
  Speaker 8: Like, well, no, yes or no, and I'm sure I'm
• 14:52
  Speaker 8: sure it was more like yeah, yeah.
• 15:00
  Speaker 6: Oh man, So you don't have a your job.
• 15:05
  Speaker 7: On your IMDb I know you mentioned that, you know
• 15:08
  Speaker 7: the Asylum. No movie has ever lost money from the Asylum.
• 15:12
  Speaker 7: I mean, you know, I wanted to ask you so
• 15:15
  Speaker 7: using that that that structure of you know, never losing money,
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: you know, do you write the script with a producer's hat,
• 15:22
  Speaker 7: mainly so that what you know, like, Okay, look, I
• 15:24
  Speaker 7: don't I'm not going to include things that are just
• 15:26
  Speaker 7: way too outlandish and I can't. I can't actually do
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: we we can't actually do or is it or do
• 15:31
  Speaker 7: you sort of do that at the later point, Well,
• 15:33
  Speaker 7: so you're sort of always making sure that they don't
• 15:36
  Speaker 7: sort of get you know what I mean, like out
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: of control.
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: Okay, so there's a couple things going on there. So
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: it's all another long answer, So just be prepared and
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: go to the bathroom. I'll just keep talking, which is
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: if you've ever seen one of our films, we do
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: not limit ourselves with, oh, this has to be four
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: actors in a room talking about you know, the monster
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: outside in the hallway that will never happen. And when
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: people you know, try and flat the script or pitch it,
• 16:07
  Speaker 6: it's like, oh, it's a perfect asylum movie. If four
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: guys in a room talking about a monster and you
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: know that's the closet, it's like that. It's obviously you've
• 16:17
  Speaker 6: never seen an asylum film because we never go there.
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: I mean we you know, I don't think we've ever
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: had the discussion of we can't do it, which you know,
• 16:27
  Speaker 6: it's part of the charm of the Asylum films that
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: you watch because they really go pretty far, you know,
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: with everything, concept, execution, story wide, and you know, it's
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: you can't really contain it, you don't. We're not making
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: a low budget film. We're just making a big budget
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: film on a budget, so you know, and we'll figure
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: out a way to do it. We have, you know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: at this point in our careers, we have everything's in house.
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: We have a whole room full of visual things started,
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: and we have a whole room of sound designers. We
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: have a whole room of editors. They have a whole
• 17:03
  Speaker 6: room of everything. So you know, there's nothing that we
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: really can't do. We just run out of time sometimes,
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: so you know, may a little bit cheaper, We may
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: be cutting corners here. There are tricks we do to
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: make it look bigger when it's really not bigger, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 6: so we can't afford it. So we never story wise
• 17:23
  Speaker 6: limit ourselves to anything, and in our in our the
• 17:27
  Speaker 6: only time we ever really felt nervous was doing Titanic
• 17:29
  Speaker 6: two because we knew doing these big ocean sets and
• 17:36
  Speaker 6: doing water were very difficult for us. We hadn't done
• 17:39
  Speaker 6: them in the past, and I just was looking at
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: that where it was really Titanic too. We you know,
• 17:44
  Speaker 6: my partners had free sold it, and uh, that was
• 17:46
  Speaker 6: film we were making, and I was really nervous about,
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: you know, doing it. But I'm like, no, we're gonna
• 17:50
  Speaker 6: still We're gonna still jump into We're still gonna try.
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: And I think Titanic two is a success story, certainly
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: just the way it's sold and all that up, but
• 18:00
  Speaker 6: just story wide, the fun story, and it's a big
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: story and it looks great. I'm very proud of the film,
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: and you know, it's because we didn't limit ourselves and
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: we made it all work. We had tanks, we're drowning people.
• 18:14
  Speaker 6: We shot at the Queen Mary, which is out here
• 18:16
  Speaker 6: in Los Angeles, to have that look we've shot in
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: the submarine we shot. You know, it's like again, we
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: still didn't spend any more money than we had, and
• 18:24
  Speaker 6: that kind of leads into why we haven't lost the money.
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: You know, the asylum is very rare in the business.
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: Usually it's your distributor, your sales agents, or your a
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: production company, and that they don't miss We're all those things.
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: Forget the sale dation. But we're for distributor and producer,
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: which make the a studio. I mean, we're the only
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: history in US, and like the majors is, we don't
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: have a road for a mascot. We don't have an
• 18:50
  Speaker 6: amusic park, I mean, which is really where you make
• 18:51
  Speaker 6: the money. But it's we We uh uh do everything
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: they do, which means that we pre sell things, you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 6: to our to what we make. And so if we
• 19:05
  Speaker 6: know that a film is going to make a million
• 19:08
  Speaker 6: dollars because we've pre sold it, it's my task at
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: the producer not to make it any more than that
• 19:16
  Speaker 6: million dollars or less, because we have whatever our overhead is.
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: So if our overhead is another one hundred thousand, so off,
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: I don't make it. If by making for more than
• 19:22
  Speaker 6: nine hundred thousand dollars, we're screwed. We've lost money and
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: or whatever. The budget is a half million, quarter million,
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: two million, five millions, But I have my constraint. Those
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: constraints are limiting, but they're also really exciting too, because
• 19:37
  Speaker 6: it makes you have to really think how to produce
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: a show for no money. And when I say no money,
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: you're like, can pick it out. Well, you just said
• 19:44
  Speaker 6: a million dollars. Well, we've shot films for fifteen thousand,
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: We've shot films for one hundred thousand, you know, half
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: a million. I mean, we've gone all over the place
• 19:51
  Speaker 6: up to you know, a few million dollars with the
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: Sharknado series.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: And then certainly our TV series ain't cheap. It's cheap
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: in the television standard of things, but not cheap pretty
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: very that's endeavor. So we haven't lost money because I
• 20:21
  Speaker 6: won't spend more than we have. It's a really odd concept.
• 20:25
  Speaker 6: It's not the way the film business works. Then we
• 20:27
  Speaker 6: get into big arguments with other people about it, and
• 20:30
  Speaker 6: you know, in the studios and whatnot. But it's or
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: other producers that want to produce at a bigger level.
• 20:37
  Speaker 6: But it's just us. I mean, at the end of
• 20:39
  Speaker 6: the day, we're still working out of you know, mentally,
• 20:42
  Speaker 6: we're still working out of an apartment and trying to
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: live paycheck to paycheck. It's just now we have a
• 20:50
  Speaker 6: staff of forty two that have insurance and pension and
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: health and payroll, and you know, two big studios, dounced
• 21:00
  Speaker 6: ages and equipment and all that stuff, and you know,
• 21:02
  Speaker 6: it's a little bit bigger, but it's still the same
• 21:05
  Speaker 6: feeling of we have to make X amount of money
• 21:08
  Speaker 6: in order to keep the doors open with them. Lucky,
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: we've had some great break great opportunities over the last
• 21:14
  Speaker 6: you know, number of years, and so we've been able
• 21:17
  Speaker 6: to keep people employed. And then we produced two films
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: a month, including and then on top of that TV series,
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: so you know, that's another fifty to one hundred people
• 21:27
  Speaker 6: every month. It's great. It's great to surround yourself with
• 21:31
  Speaker 6: people that are very passionate about me and uh and
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: love the business and want to proceed. Are you back
• 21:39
  Speaker 6: in the bathroom yet? Should I wait?
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: Yeah? I actually I just got back.
• 21:42
  Speaker 6: Actually, okay, okay, it's near the plot.
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's actually it's down the hallway. So I got it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 6: I was going to put it on it. I get it,
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: and I appreciate it. Yeah.
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: So, you know, Dad, I wanted to ask, you know,
• 21:54
  Speaker 7: when when you know you're making films. You know, obviously
• 21:57
  Speaker 7: you know you were talking about your criteria and everything
• 21:59
  Speaker 7: like that, but I mean, do you have a lot
• 22:02
  Speaker 7: of brainstorming sessions where you kind of just want to
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: come up with, you know, maybe something like you know
• 22:06
  Speaker 7: someone's ever seen before, or do you know, do you
• 22:08
  Speaker 7: sort of have like a people meaning like people in
• 22:10
  Speaker 7: a room just sort of throwing out different ideas and
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: when finally something finally, you know, hits, you know, you
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: sort of start developing that idea.
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: No, we're very boring. I mean, let's let's be very
• 22:19
  Speaker 6: clear work. I mean we we are because you know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: the networks, our partners, our buyers tell us what to make.
• 22:27
  Speaker 6: We don't. That's why we don't take pitches. And that's
• 22:29
  Speaker 6: the one thing that's like, you know, in Twitter, and
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: I've started getting much more active on my Twitter page.
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: You know, I'll get at least ten to twenty felicitations
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: a day going hey, I wrote a script or I
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: have a novel, or I have an idea, and I
• 22:43
  Speaker 6: have to say, look, we don't do that. We don't
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: take We'll probably we always do now. We don't take pitches,
• 22:47
  Speaker 6: we don't take submissions, we don't read novels. We don't
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: care because when sci Fi tells us to go put
• 22:53
  Speaker 6: a make a film about a shark in the storm.
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: We're not going to have that script in the ready.
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: We have to go manufacture that script, turn around to
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: our writers, our development team, and we produced that. We
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: find it, we we we make it. So it's very
• 23:08
  Speaker 6: very rare that someone comes to us with a project.
• 23:13
  Speaker 6: The only time I can think that it really happens
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: and happens exceptfully would be Nick Carter with Dead seven,
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: where he, you know, came to us and but you know,
• 23:20
  Speaker 6: freaking Nick Carter. You know, it's it's hard to say no.
• 23:24
  Speaker 6: Plus he bought us lunch, you know, yes, anyway, but
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: he said, look, I'm a huge fan of the asylum.
• 23:31
  Speaker 6: I'm a huge fan of the genre, the zombie genre,
• 23:36
  Speaker 6: and I'm going to come to the table with some money.
• 23:38
  Speaker 6: I'm gonna come to the table with all my battreet
• 23:41
  Speaker 6: boy band members and I'll get some in synct guys,
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: you know, and I'm going to give you a genre
• 23:46
  Speaker 6: that you could sell, which is zombie. Now, we wouldn't
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: have gone forward if if we didn't turn around at
• 23:52
  Speaker 6: that point to Sci Fi and said, hey, look we
• 23:54
  Speaker 6: have this particular project. We don't necessarily do this, but
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: this case, you know, kind of came to us. Are
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: you interested, and they said yeah, if they said if
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: they said no, that we wouldn't have done it because
• 24:03
  Speaker 6: we're just not in that business to take scripts and
• 24:06
  Speaker 6: with the patients and submission. But we found a partner
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: that was willing to kind of say, yes, we will
• 24:11
  Speaker 6: give this film a home at the end of the
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: day and and promoted and do what we're going to do.
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: So that's when we were able to work with Nick
• 24:19
  Speaker 6: and to make it happen. And you know, I'm really
• 24:22
  Speaker 6: happy that we did. I'm very proud of that film too.
• 24:24
  Speaker 6: I think it came out really nice. Now when you say,
• 24:27
  Speaker 6: you know where the where's the creative elements come into
• 24:30
  Speaker 6: this thing, and you know the fun and the rolling
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: up the sleeve that happened after the script is written,
• 24:36
  Speaker 6: when you know you you've given the studio or your
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: partner what they want on this page, which is great,
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: and then you get to talk to the film making
• 24:47
  Speaker 6: about what the style is going to be and how
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: we're going to approach this and what we're going to
• 24:50
  Speaker 6: do and what's unique about the show that we're going
• 24:53
  Speaker 6: to do. I mean, I the one thing that that
• 24:55
  Speaker 6: I think you can't look at the Asylum movies that
• 24:58
  Speaker 6: are all cookie cutter in the same films, because uh,
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: we hire tours and we hire really you know, people
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: with strong visions and people that really wanted to create
• 25:07
  Speaker 6: something that unique and fun and interesting and not just
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: cookie cutter and you know master shop close and close enough.
• 25:14
  Speaker 6: I mean they they're really trying to make something special.
• 25:17
  Speaker 6: And so that's when you really get into it and go,
• 25:20
  Speaker 6: how do we make this special and unique and fun
• 25:23
  Speaker 6: for the audience and uh and and enjoyable while maintaining
• 25:27
  Speaker 6: what the story lines would be for our buyer and
• 25:31
  Speaker 6: uh and make that happen. I'm you know, I'm a
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: firm believer that you know, yeah, you have a thriller
• 25:35
  Speaker 6: and you know the you know, heroin and the villain whatnot.
• 25:39
  Speaker 6: But you know, you have those structural things, but you
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: can really do crazy stuff, you know, go go go
• 25:46
  Speaker 6: nuts and go crazy. I mean there's no reason not to.
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: The audience wants to see if they want to be engaged,
• 25:51
  Speaker 6: and the filmmaker wants to do it. They want to
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: be engaged. And you have to kind of know your
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: audience too. I mean, we're gonna we're gonna go nothing
• 25:59
  Speaker 6: crazy on you know, if Lifetime wants. We do a
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: lot of stuff for Lifetime, but you know, we have
• 26:03
  Speaker 6: to keep it in the in the in the realm
• 26:05
  Speaker 6: of lifetime. You know, we can't shoot it black and
• 26:08
  Speaker 6: white and uh you know, close up of a vase
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: and go that's your thriller. You know, you have to
• 26:15
  Speaker 6: you know, know the audience a little bit. But otherwise,
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: you know, these guys all want to have, you know,
• 26:21
  Speaker 6: make a really engaging movie, and that's where we have
• 26:23
  Speaker 6: fun with the toys and get to create a part
• 26:26
  Speaker 6: of it.
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: So I have to ask, David, what did Nick Carter
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: buy you for lunch?
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: Pizza? He actually came in and and got everyone from
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: the office pizza, came in with uh cater and it
• 26:38
  Speaker 6: was he wined and dined everybody. So we couldn't say no,
• 26:41
  Speaker 6: you know, it was it was a very unique approach
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: to it, to to getting our attention. But and he,
• 26:47
  Speaker 6: in truth pot didn't have to do anything. You know,
• 26:50
  Speaker 6: we're all old enough for bas Street boys in that
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: group was a big deal and and still is. And
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: he's just a super nice guy. So you know it's
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: hard to say no to me.
• 27:03
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I was gonna say, I'll make sure to edit
• 27:05
  Speaker 5: that out because Casey wants to buy you pizza again.
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: You know, I should probably nothing have to you.
• 27:13
  Speaker 7: Briefly mentioned Shark Nato and you know when when you know,
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: when that movie came out, when Sci Fi Channel came
• 27:19
  Speaker 7: to you about, you know, putting Sharks in a Storm,
• 27:21
  Speaker 7: did you ever imagine that it was going to sort
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: of hit as well as it did.
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah, we're fricking geniuses. We we know everything, and it's
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: really weird. We just we were one hundred percent on everything.
• 27:35
  Speaker 6: You know. No by that Bye by Coming made Shark Nato.
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: I think we made one hundred and fifty movies, and uh,
• 27:42
  Speaker 6: Shark Nado was just one of them. And it was stupid,
• 27:46
  Speaker 6: and I, you know, the first mine that I did
• 27:49
  Speaker 6: not understand the script, and but sci Fi love the
• 27:54
  Speaker 6: script when it was written, and they were just like
• 27:57
  Speaker 6: they couldn't get enough of the script. And and so
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: my role as a producer is not to get in
• 28:04
  Speaker 6: the way, you know, of what the buyers, and so
• 28:09
  Speaker 6: sometimes I push back, but I was so lost with it.
• 28:11
  Speaker 6: I'm like, how does this work? And it goes into
• 28:13
  Speaker 6: the shark and the chainsaw because we don't make comedy
• 28:18
  Speaker 6: as much as you might want to think that we
• 28:21
  Speaker 6: make comedy that we do on the Sexy comedy, but
• 28:22
  Speaker 6: we really, you know, lean heavily in the sexy, not
• 28:25
  Speaker 6: the comedy. But on all these monster shows and creature shows,
• 28:29
  Speaker 6: everyone takes very seriously. There's no one's waking to the crowd,
• 28:32
  Speaker 6: to the audience. And you have shark Nato, which is
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: a huge wink and it could be played that way certainly,
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: and on the script reads comedy, and I'm like this,
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: we got it. I was also I had agent of
• 28:45
  Speaker 6: notes to get back there and really kind of get
• 28:47
  Speaker 6: more serious and more grounded and more believable and authentic
• 28:51
  Speaker 6: and everything else. But because sci.
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: Fi love the script so much, I completely backed off
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: and said, all right, well, this is our buyer and
• 29:02
  Speaker 9: they want this and they love it, so let's I'm
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: not going to push the issue.
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: And I really didn't think much of anything. And we
• 29:10
  Speaker 6: had a bit of a time casting it because no
• 29:13
  Speaker 6: one wanted to be in a film called Sharknado. Tara
• 29:17
  Speaker 6: Reid signed up first, but I don't even know if
• 29:19
  Speaker 6: she even knew that she was a film called Sharknado.
• 29:22
  Speaker 6: And that's not to say that she you know, I know,
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: we're joked her with that, but she's a busy person
• 29:25
  Speaker 6: and I think met her people just kind of said, look,
• 29:28
  Speaker 6: you're doing this film. They're gonna pay you X amount
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: of money. You know, you're in it for a week.
• 29:31
  Speaker 6: Just go and shoot this thing. It's good, you know,
• 29:33
  Speaker 6: money than when you go to Barbados, you could, you know,
• 29:36
  Speaker 6: spend on bikinis and my tie. And so I'm sure
• 29:40
  Speaker 6: for hers that was just a quick, easy pay thing.
• 29:42
  Speaker 6: But we couldn't find the lead, and we went through
• 29:46
  Speaker 6: in the history of of the Asylum from then in
• 29:49
  Speaker 6: that from beginning until even now, we've never had to
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: push a title, you know, push because of cat we'll be.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Right back after a word from our sponsor and now
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: back to the show.
• 30:04
  Speaker 6: And we had to do that for Sharknado. We could
• 30:06
  Speaker 6: not find the lead for Sharknado because no one wanted
• 30:10
  Speaker 6: to be in the film called Sharknado. So ultimately we
• 30:14
  Speaker 6: retitled it Dark to a film called Dark Skies, and
• 30:17
  Speaker 6: we packaged it. We had previously even gone to ironsduring
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: but he turned us down. But we called the Dark
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: Skies and we got highd theuring we paid him a
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: lot more money than you know, at first on the
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: first offer, and halfway through it the show they heard
• 30:40
  Speaker 6: rumors that it was actually called Sharknado, and I n
• 30:44
  Speaker 6: stayed in this trailer and called his agents that I
• 30:47
  Speaker 6: want off the show, and they all the capits said
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: we're not going to be And I got calls from
• 30:54
  Speaker 6: the agents and lawyers managed going, you cannot call this
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: film Sharknado. We will not allow you to. If you
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: want these actors to be in this film, we paste
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: the artwort was, all right, then we'll recap, we'll read
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: you the whole thing. But you know, we're you know, bagally.
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: Actually our stand was we don't know what it's going
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: to be called, which is true because sci fi could
• 31:15
  Speaker 6: have changed into anything that's not to us to sci fi.
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: If they want to call it. You know, this is
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: the craftiest film in the world. They can call it that.
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: You know, that's up to them, and we're not gonna,
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: you know, you know, pigeonhole them into what the title
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: is going to be. So you know, there's a chance
• 31:32
  Speaker 6: to call it dark guys are the chancer gonnall it Sharnado.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: There's a chancer can call it shark in the storm?
• 31:36
  Speaker 6: Who knows what they're gonna call it, but let's go
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: back to work. So it took a few hours, but
• 31:41
  Speaker 6: everyone went back to work, but they were really pipped
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: off it was called. I think the only one that
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: wasn't upset with John Hurd. I think, you know, he
• 31:52
  Speaker 6: got it from the get go. He was excited that
• 31:54
  Speaker 6: it was called Sharknado. He thought that this was going
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: to be a big hit. You know, you talk to him,
• 31:58
  Speaker 6: and he knew it all, which is which is great.
• 32:00
  Speaker 6: He probably does, or did at the time, because the
• 32:03
  Speaker 6: man's insanely smart, and you know, he's been in the
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: business forever, so he probably knew that we had lightning
• 32:08
  Speaker 6: in the bottle. But he might have been the only one.
• 32:10
  Speaker 6: I don't think anyone else did. I think everyone just
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: looked at it as a either a forgettable movie that
• 32:15
  Speaker 6: no one's gonna, you know, give a rap act about,
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: or you know, it's going to destroy their career. I mean,
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: those are the only two choices. Not a film called Sharknado.
• 32:26
  Speaker 7: It's like Snakes on a Plane when they were going
• 32:28
  Speaker 7: to change the name to like, you know, the terror
• 32:31
  Speaker 7: on flight whatever, right, and then it became back to
• 32:33
  Speaker 7: stakes on a Plane.
• 32:34
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and I mean, I know that happened with a
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: film we've been called Mega Shark Versus gryn Octoput. Debbie
• 32:40
  Speaker 6: Gipton had never really done a film before, and her
• 32:44
  Speaker 6: manager basically said, look, just do this film. No one
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: will care. It'll be a forgettable movie. You know, at
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: least then you'll have something on your resume and you'll
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: move on. And for us of the time, Mega Shark
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: Versus Gynoctualist was a big film we'd ever done. It
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: became a huge culte. Not like Sharknado. Nothing was like Sharknado,
• 33:01
  Speaker 6: but but big enough. We're like, oh my god, this
• 33:05
  Speaker 6: is phenomenal. You look it up for a Jeopardy question,
• 33:08
  Speaker 6: the crossword puzzled the New York Times, and this is
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: bizarre and fun. And not knowing that Sharknado was right
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: around the corner, we thought that that would be on
• 33:17
  Speaker 6: the in the obituary the producer of Mega Sharks ring
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: with Guy Today. Definitely, but yeah, but now it'll definitely
• 33:28
  Speaker 6: be Sharknado. Maybe the Nations. I don't know now.
• 33:33
  Speaker 7: Now Sharknado four is due well, I believe in June
• 33:37
  Speaker 7: correct July thirty first, July thirty first, So is there
• 33:42
  Speaker 7: anything I know you can't go into specific details, but
• 33:45
  Speaker 7: is there is there any even little tidbit that you
• 33:47
  Speaker 7: you know, you can sort of mention the show right now?
• 33:50
  Speaker 6: Yeah, there will be Shark, there will be Tornado, there
• 33:54
  Speaker 6: will be I and zering probably all the spoilers I
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: could get of you. You know, it's I do it title.
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: By the way, it's a challenge because you know, thunder
• 34:09
  Speaker 6: of the writers at the bar so high, with all
• 34:11
  Speaker 6: the fun gags and the fun things and that tweetable
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: moment and whatnot. So you know, you never want to
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: go into these projects. I'm trying to do less than
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: what the last film was, so you know, I hope
• 34:26
  Speaker 6: that we got there. I think that we did. I
• 34:27
  Speaker 6: think there's some really fun, like holy crap moments in
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: the in the film. We're done shooting, we're just editing now,
• 34:37
  Speaker 6: and it's I think it's coming together really quite fun.
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: I mean it's it's you know, but how do your
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: top sharks in the space? I think we have an
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: answer to that, so hopefully the audience will agree.
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: And I do like the title the Fourth Awakens.
• 34:54
  Speaker 6: Yes that that was courtesy of sci Fi.
• 35:00
  Speaker 7: I may make sure to link to that in the
• 35:02
  Speaker 7: show notes as well that the premiere of Sharknado four
• 35:06
  Speaker 7: and now will be on sci Fi correct.
• 35:09
  Speaker 6: Right, sci Fi. It's a Sunday Night this year, which
• 35:12
  Speaker 6: is I think really exciting. I think they're leaning into
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: the family time. I think they, you know, after doing
• 35:17
  Speaker 6: a lot of kind of who watched the show, they
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: understand that it's really a wide range. It's not their
• 35:22
  Speaker 6: typical CIPI audience, you know, like fifty year old men
• 35:26
  Speaker 6: that are longing for Stargate. I mean it, it really
• 35:30
  Speaker 6: hits a big swath of demographics from I mean, we
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: have so many kids that are Sharknado fants. So many kids.
• 35:37
  Speaker 6: Oh my god, my kids haven't even watched it. I
• 35:39
  Speaker 6: mean they haven't and they're like twenty five years old.
• 35:43
  Speaker 9: No, but.
• 35:47
  Speaker 6: It really ranges on the age thing. So I think
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: Sunday night's a perfect night for it. Very excited. I think,
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: you know, they're going to pull the stops out. They're
• 35:55
  Speaker 6: gonna do a lot of fun stuff. It's great that
• 35:58
  Speaker 6: that they're still supporting the show after four years. It's
• 36:02
  Speaker 6: bizarre in fact, you know how much support they're putting
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: into it. But we're very grateful and they're amazing partners.
• 36:10
  Speaker 5: And just like your Twitter Twitter bio, you mentioned your
• 36:13
  Speaker 5: kid in your Twitter buyo you have. Of course, my
• 36:15
  Speaker 5: kids tell their friends I work at Walmart, right.
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: I think they would like that better because they would
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: get the swag, you know, the the jamas and the
• 36:23
  Speaker 6: shirt stuff. They like wearing that stuff. Like I said,
• 36:26
  Speaker 6: they haven't seen my movies, but they do, like, you know,
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: wearing Shark Nado shirts, that's for sure.
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: Yeah. I saw the Shark Nado pop vinyls and I
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: was like wow. I was like, this movie has really arrived.
• 36:38
  Speaker 7: And I even had a Schaeffer on on the podcast,
• 36:41
  Speaker 7: and he wrote the book How to Survivor Shark Nado, right.
• 36:44
  Speaker 6: And that was a New York Times bestseller. For god,
• 36:46
  Speaker 6: it was crazy crazy. Yeah, you know, it's it's it's
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: it's you know, it's my partner. Paul always says, like,
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: prior to Shark Nado, you told people what you do,
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: and you tell me you like, oh great, what films
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: do you produce? And they look you like, you know,
• 37:03
  Speaker 6: you talking in the foreign language. But at least you
• 37:07
  Speaker 6: say Sharknado and everyone kind of goes.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Oh okay.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I haven't seen it, but I heard about it,
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: which is great. You know, how many filmmakers get that opportunity,
• 37:17
  Speaker 6: you know, we've made a lot of movies and and
• 37:22
  Speaker 6: just it's fun to play in that space and whatnot.
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: But even even Thunder kind of shakes me in the
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: nuts with it and said, well, look, you get you
• 37:30
  Speaker 6: go to the you go about one hundred and fifty
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: times your bounty hit a home run. Okay, thanks.
• 37:36
  Speaker 7: We mentioned this briefly about one of your other projects
• 37:39
  Speaker 7: was which was Which is z Nation? And you know,
• 37:42
  Speaker 7: I've actually had doctor Merch on the podcast Lisa Kunado,
• 37:46
  Speaker 7: and you know, I did, you know, think that was
• 37:49
  Speaker 7: very interesting that you know, you know, The Asylum did
• 37:51
  Speaker 7: make a TV show because, like you said, it is
• 37:54
  Speaker 7: expensive because you know, instead of just being you know,
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: one product like a Sharknado, it's you know, it's episodic.
• 37:59
  Speaker 7: You know, there's you know, there's so many episodes per season.
• 38:02
  Speaker 7: So what I wanted to ask, you know is, you know,
• 38:05
  Speaker 7: you know, what was the impetus to start a TV
• 38:07
  Speaker 7: show by The Asylum.
• 38:08
  Speaker 6: Well, we've always been we've been recently circling in that
• 38:12
  Speaker 6: space because that's where the world's going I mean, what
• 38:17
  Speaker 6: three years ago, you had two hundred TV theories that
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: were available. Now there's over five hundred. I mean, the
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: the there's a lot of content out there, and everyone's
• 38:26
  Speaker 6: turned to TV because there's no DVD market, there's no
• 38:29
  Speaker 6: Blu ray market, there's no vod market. The one up
• 38:32
  Speaker 6: that we do no one wants in the sense that
• 38:35
  Speaker 6: they wanted it, you know, few years ago. So you know,
• 38:37
  Speaker 6: if we want to survive, we have to figure out
• 38:40
  Speaker 6: what is making money and series or you know, we
• 38:43
  Speaker 6: think of making money. We haven't seen that yet, but
• 38:46
  Speaker 6: we've been told that you can make money in TV
• 38:49
  Speaker 6: theories and so you know, we've been circling that wagon
• 38:53
  Speaker 6: for a very long time and nothing really stuck. But
• 38:58
  Speaker 6: we we pretty much ar convinced that the the thank
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: you from Sci Fi for producing Sharknado and doing the
• 39:06
  Speaker 6: writings that it did, because it broke records on their
• 39:09
  Speaker 6: network and it became a big success for them. You
• 39:14
  Speaker 6: know at that station, the thank you was here to
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: do the series. We you know, they even though we've
• 39:20
  Speaker 6: been pitching for a while, they kind of called up
• 39:23
  Speaker 6: and said, hey, okay, take us pitch to the side.
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: But you know, you did this movie for us number
• 39:28
  Speaker 6: of years ago called Zombie posulyps Well, it was our
• 39:30
  Speaker 6: number it was our third highest rated show, and and
• 39:34
  Speaker 6: we're in the market to do another zombie, to do
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: a zombie series, and we think that could translace well
• 39:42
  Speaker 6: into a TV series. And you know, for what we
• 39:45
  Speaker 6: hear now, you know on the back end of it
• 39:48
  Speaker 6: is that, you know, we got really lucky because.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: That will be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: And now back to the show.
• 40:04
  Speaker 6: They ordered thirteen episodes off the bat. They didn't do
• 40:07
  Speaker 6: a pilot like a normal network would do, so they
• 40:13
  Speaker 6: really were very happy about Sharknado, I guess ultimately, and
• 40:19
  Speaker 6: so we were able to out the bat get a
• 40:21
  Speaker 6: certain episode commitment, which was really helpful for us, and
• 40:27
  Speaker 6: the show found its voice very early on. The creator
• 40:31
  Speaker 6: of Zombie Apocalypse also, you know, co created z Nation.
• 40:36
  Speaker 6: We also brought in Carl Shaper, who's a veteran in
• 40:39
  Speaker 6: this business, has been doing him for decade and was
• 40:43
  Speaker 6: Sci Fi's top choice to be our quote unquote showrunner.
• 40:46
  Speaker 6: I say that in quotes because it's not a legitimate
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: title anywhere, but the showrunner is like the main producer,
• 40:53
  Speaker 6: guru person that kind of drives the show. And Carl
• 40:57
  Speaker 6: is just I don't even understand him. I thought I
• 41:00
  Speaker 6: was a workaholic, but he makes me like lazy, like
• 41:04
  Speaker 6: my kids. I mean, you know, just sleeping all the time.
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: His work ethic is bizarre to me, where he's just
• 41:11
  Speaker 6: twenty four to seven, you know, working on Unseen Nation,
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: but he really created the voice and the look in
• 41:17
  Speaker 6: the style with his team and both him and Craig Angler,
• 41:22
  Speaker 6: who was the other co creator. And it's Hey, I've
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: always said that if I wasn't producing the show, I'd
• 41:30
  Speaker 6: be a fan of the show because it's just it's
• 41:32
  Speaker 6: so fun. The cats is so great, the scripture phenomenal,
• 41:35
  Speaker 6: the production is amazing. I mean there's just it hits
• 41:38
  Speaker 6: in all cylinders. So grateful for that show. And it
• 41:42
  Speaker 6: happens to be Sci Fi's number one scripted series, so
• 41:46
  Speaker 6: it's working on that level too, which is great.
• 41:49
  Speaker 7: And like you just said, David, you know there's so
• 41:51
  Speaker 7: much content out there now, you know, that's sort of
• 41:53
  Speaker 7: what everyone's been sort of sort of gunning for. Now
• 41:56
  Speaker 7: is a TV show. You know, you see, like you know,
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: top Actors and TV show is now, and now you
• 42:01
  Speaker 7: know everyone's creating their own original content, and most of
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: the time it's you know, a TV show.
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it's because that's where the interest is
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: that people newing habit have changed. They're now the binge watching,
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: which is a thing I mean and I know your
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: eyes like of course the only way you know, you know,
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: everyone that younger than I am, which is a lot
• 42:22
  Speaker 6: of people here in this office don't even own a
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: television set. They have a computer and they binge watch.
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: They wait until it's on Netflix and they watch thirteen
• 42:29
  Speaker 6: epithodes or something. So it's a it's a tough, strange,
• 42:35
  Speaker 6: bizarre world that no one has an answer to and
• 42:38
  Speaker 6: how to navigate. And we're just kind of all, like
• 42:42
  Speaker 6: you know, zombies, slowly walking towards you know, a goal.
• 42:45
  Speaker 6: We just don't know what that goal is at the moment.
• 42:48
  Speaker 6: It'll it'll clear up in a few years, but for now,
• 42:50
  Speaker 6: it's like, Okay, everyone's thinking, this is what we need
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: to do, which is great television content thirteen plus episode
• 42:58
  Speaker 6: and so we're doing it and we'll see if if
• 43:00
  Speaker 6: if it's truthful or if we close our door. We're
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: going to go think for him. But those are all
• 43:06
  Speaker 6: real possibilities. I mean, you were were playing at a
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: higher level now, and it's tough.
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: It's really tough, very true, very true.
• 43:15
  Speaker 7: You know, David, I know we're starting to run out
• 43:17
  Speaker 7: of time now, and I know you have to run.
• 43:19
  Speaker 7: So I wanted to, you know, just ask one final
• 43:21
  Speaker 7: question in closing. Oh by the way, there before I
• 43:24
  Speaker 7: forget the number one question that came in, you've already answered,
• 43:28
  Speaker 7: and that was how do I pitch a movie to
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: a sylum?
• 43:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah? And I get that a lot, and I feel
• 43:33
  Speaker 6: I feel so bad, but it's like, but you know,
• 43:36
  Speaker 6: we just we just were not in that business. And
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: I know I was struggling out there, and I know
• 43:40
  Speaker 6: they want a teeth of something, a extat of something,
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: and I'm just not in a position unless you're part
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: of a boy band. I guess though that's the like
• 43:48
  Speaker 6: the one abswerts to it, you're part of a boy band,
• 43:50
  Speaker 6: probably I'll be something that.
• 43:53
  Speaker 7: When Nicholas did tweet me, so I guess he'll be
• 43:57
  Speaker 7: in touch, so, you know, including So in closing, Dave,
• 44:03
  Speaker 7: you know, if I could just you know, one final question,
• 44:05
  Speaker 7: and that would be, you know, is there any sort
• 44:07
  Speaker 7: of piece of advice or anything that we didn't cover
• 44:09
  Speaker 7: that you wanted to just sort of mention that we
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: didn't get a chance to to sort of put a
• 44:14
  Speaker 7: period at the end of this whole conversation.
• 44:16
  Speaker 6: Well, you know, I will say that I'm grateful for
• 44:22
  Speaker 6: the fan base out there. We seem to be hitting
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: some kind of cord and it's really neat and and
• 44:29
  Speaker 6: jumping into the Twitter space. It's amazing, you know, because
• 44:33
  Speaker 6: I've been so insulated and so you know, to see
• 44:36
  Speaker 6: if there's people that a think interested in what we do,
• 44:38
  Speaker 6: it's bizarre. So thank you to everyone that you know
• 44:42
  Speaker 6: has feels that way, and and and screw you for
• 44:45
  Speaker 6: those that don't feel that way, but you know, for
• 44:50
  Speaker 6: those that really want to kind of get into the
• 44:52
  Speaker 6: business and to follow the passions of very hard, uh
• 44:56
  Speaker 6: you know, path to take. But it's fun. The biggest
• 44:58
  Speaker 6: advice I can give what I try and give when
• 45:01
  Speaker 6: people ask me the question of how do you do X,
• 45:02
  Speaker 6: Y and B Meet a lot of people. Just meet
• 45:06
  Speaker 6: a lot of people, go to parties, go to seminars,
• 45:08
  Speaker 6: go to festival. This business is all about relationships. It's
• 45:14
  Speaker 6: rarely by sending a resume to anyone, so you have to,
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: you know, just keep putting yourself out there and and
• 45:22
  Speaker 6: shaking hands and being a politician and and uh, you know,
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: just getting yourself out there. That's that's like the biggest thing.
• 45:29
  Speaker 6: So and then the last thing is it's just on
• 45:32
  Speaker 6: a personal level, you know, for those that want to
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: engage in the conversation about file and stuff and what's
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: going on here, you know, please follow me on Twitter.
• 45:40
  Speaker 6: I'm at David m Latt and I pretty much talk
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: to everybody on there because I have no life. I'm
• 45:47
  Speaker 6: not producing a film. I'm usually on Twitter, you know,
• 45:51
  Speaker 6: answering questions from talking to everybody and fun. I enjoy it.
• 45:54
  Speaker 7: I noticed you're very active on Twitter, David, and you
• 45:57
  Speaker 7: know that that's I'm very active on Twitter as well,
• 45:59
  Speaker 7: but you're even more active than I am.
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: And that's how we actually met again on Twitter.
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: And you know, you made that mistake of saying sure,
• 46:05
  Speaker 7: I'll come on your podcast, and now you're here, you're
• 46:07
  Speaker 7: gonna regret that.
• 46:08
  Speaker 6: No, not at all. I enjoy it unless this is
• 46:10
  Speaker 6: all about me, and and I forgot, you know, and
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: to look through the research, you know, it's like, hey, no.
• 46:17
  Speaker 5: Exactly right, exactly do the research, like, who is this?
• 46:21
  Speaker 6: How do you feel that aid off? Isn't it? You know?
• 46:25
  Speaker 6: It's not good? God?
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: How did I get on here again?
• 46:31
  Speaker 9: Yeah?
• 46:31
  Speaker 6: The problem of being my own public you know.
• 46:36
  Speaker 5: David.
• 46:36
  Speaker 7: I want to say thank you very much and everyone listening,
• 46:38
  Speaker 7: We're gonna I'm gonna put all of the show notes
• 46:41
  Speaker 7: so I'm gonna link to David's Twitter as well, David Michaelatt.
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: I want to say thank you very much for coming on, sir.
• 46:46
  Speaker 6: Well, thank you, thanks for having me appreciate.
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: Oh my pleasure. I want to wish you the bessel
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: up to all the future projects of Asylum.
• 46:52
  Speaker 6: Thank you calling me time.
• 46:56
  Speaker 5: Take care of David all right, you too?
• 46:58
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 47:05
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at.
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: Indie film Muscle dot com Forward slash.
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: Eight sixty eight, and if you have it already, please
• 47:11
  Speaker 2: head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: really helps us out a lot.
• 47:19
  Speaker 6: Guys.
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you again so much for listening to guys. As always,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: keep that hustle going keep that dream alive. Stay safe
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Indie Film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: E F I L M h U S T l
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: E dot com.