Latest / UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell / UnchainedTV: Vegan Zombie Movie Director/Star Reveals All!

Transcript

UnchainedTV: Vegan Zombie Movie Director/Star Reveals All! · UNCHAINEDTV'S Truth Files with Jane Velez-Mitchell

• 0:00
  Wow, have we got a show for you.
• 0:05
  You're going to meet Chris Cooney.
• 0:06
  He has spent the last eight years of
• 0:08
  his life making 844, the vegan zombie movie.
• 0:13
  He's the writer.
• 0:13
  He's the director.
• 0:14
  He's the star of this extraordinary film.
• 0:17
  It sends your head spinning with, oh my
• 0:19
  God, so many wild twists and turns.
• 0:22
  Prepare to scream.
• 0:24
  Cooney plays a student trying to figure out
• 0:26
  why the people around him are turning into
• 0:28
  zombies.
• 0:29
  Could it have anything to do with all
• 0:31
  the cheeseburgers and milkshakes they're consuming?
• 0:33
  You're going to have to watch to find
• 0:35
  out.
• 0:36
  Cooney funded this venture, a feature film, through
• 0:40
  a Kickstarter, and he made the entire film
• 0:42
  production entirely vegan.
• 0:44
  No animal products served or used.
• 0:48
  Along with Cooney, the cast includes famed Dr.
• 0:50
  Michael Greger in a mesmerising cameo, along with,
• 0:55
  well, me, playing, of course, a reporter.
• 0:57
  So make sure to stay tuned for the
• 1:00
  premiere date of this one-of-a-kind
• 1:02
  film that will have you squirming in your
• 1:06
  seat.
• 1:06
  We have eyes on the ground at Amherst
• 1:10
  General reporting live.
• 1:12
  Let's see what's unfolding.
• 1:13
  Pat, what can you tell us?
• 1:16
  Hey, how do you think they actually get
• 1:18
  the milk out of a milk?
• 1:19
  Maybe we can get together sometime and cook
• 1:21
  up some vegan cheeseburger or something.
• 1:23
  Yo, bro, I left my wallet in your
• 1:25
  truck.
• 1:28
  What the...
• 1:30
  Hey, we need backup!
• 1:36
  People are complaining of dizziness and stomach pain.
• 1:39
  People are, oh my God, what are you
• 1:40
  doing?
• 1:45
  Get down!
• 1:48
  Well, help him!
• 1:51
  Run!
• 1:55
  Wait, wait, wait, that's gotta be it, right?
• 2:01
  Okay, wait, what do you mean?
• 2:17
  So, don't eat animals, fools.
• 2:26
  Hopefully those things don't want to eat us,
• 2:29
  too.
• 2:33
  And we are so honoured to have Chris
• 2:36
  Cooney, the writer, the director, the star of
• 2:41
  this incredible film.
• 2:43
  Oh my gosh, it is just a five
• 2:49
  -star thriller.
• 2:51
  And I want to say, Chris, congratulations.
• 2:54
  I know you spent, what, eight years working
• 2:57
  on this?
• 2:57
  What does it feel like to have it
• 2:59
  done?
• 2:59
  Thank you so much.
• 3:01
  Yeah, I mean, we did the Kickstarter six
• 3:02
  and a half years ago, but I originally
• 3:04
  wrote this in 2009, so 16 years it's
• 3:07
  been, you know, in the works.
• 3:10
  It feels incredible to finally have the movie
• 3:14
  done and looking at what's next.
• 3:18
  Well, how did you do this?
• 3:20
  Because looking at this, and of course, like
• 3:22
  everybody else in LA, I have that screenplay
• 3:26
  that I pull out when the police pull
• 3:27
  me over.
• 3:29
  They say, in Hollywood, you've got to show
• 3:32
  a screenplay to the police when they pull
• 3:34
  you over.
• 3:34
  It's kind of a joke.
• 3:35
  Everybody's got a screenplay.
• 3:37
  But the truth is, this is a good
• 3:40
  screenplay.
• 3:41
  I watched this because, well, I've been involved
• 3:44
  since you first did the Kickstarter, and that
• 3:47
  was something like eight years ago, and I
• 3:50
  honestly had no expectations.
• 3:52
  Then when I saw the finished product, I
• 3:54
  was like, oh my God, this is brilliant.
• 3:57
  How did you put it together?
• 3:59
  How did you write it, then star in
• 4:02
  it, and then direct it?
• 4:04
  Break it down for us.
• 4:05
  Well, you know, I originally, okay, so it's
• 4:08
  kind of a long story, but I'll try
• 4:10
  to summarise it a little bit.
• 4:12
  Back in 2009, I had a full-time
• 4:15
  job that I just didn't like, and I
• 4:17
  remember driving the back roads of upstate New
• 4:20
  York, where I'm from, and I started saying,
• 4:23
  I can't do this the rest of my
• 4:25
  life.
• 4:25
  I don't want to retire at 65 and
• 4:28
  say this is all I did.
• 4:29
  I want to be passionate about something.
• 4:32
  So I started brainstorming things that I really
• 4:36
  loved.
• 4:36
  What do I really love?
• 4:37
  I've always loved filmmaking.
• 4:39
  I've been around film since, you know, my
• 4:40
  dad had super eight millimetre cameras since before
• 4:44
  I was born.
• 4:45
  So I grew up with him taking little
• 4:47
  home movies, and I was pretty intrigued by
• 4:49
  that.
• 4:51
  And, you know, so I love that, but
• 4:54
  I especially love the horror genre.
• 4:56
  So like, you know, monsters, scary things.
• 4:59
  I've always been intrigued by that.
• 5:02
  And it was a no-brainer because I,
• 5:04
  at that point, I had already been vegan
• 5:06
  for the majority of my life at that
• 5:08
  point.
• 5:09
  So I'm like, well, how can I take
• 5:10
  those three elements and kind of like combine
• 5:13
  them into something that I could get up
• 5:15
  every day and be passionate about something?
• 5:17
  And I started brainstorming like vegan vampires, you
• 5:21
  know, vampires are my favourite.
• 5:22
  So like, ah, no, I don't know.
• 5:24
  Vegan werewolves, yeah, that might be too.
• 5:27
  And then I had an idea, the vegan
• 5:28
  zombie, where I had a whole idea for
• 5:31
  a zombie apocalypse that was brought on by
• 5:34
  the meat and dairy that people were consuming.
• 5:36
  So I went home and I grabbed a
• 5:38
  pencil and a notepad and I began writing
• 5:41
  out a script.
• 5:43
  And I wanted to make this movie.
• 5:44
  And at that point, like, I wasn't like
• 5:46
  a professional moviemaker.
• 5:47
  I just would put two VCRs together.
• 5:50
  And I remember one of the first videos
• 5:54
  that I ever put together was a skateboarding
• 5:56
  video in the 90s.
• 5:59
  And I put a song to it that
• 6:01
  I really liked at the time, not even
• 6:03
  knowing that this musician would align with me
• 6:06
  later down the road as a fellow vegan,
• 6:09
  which I would later on meet.
• 6:11
  And that was the song Go by Moby,
• 6:15
  who is a vegan advocate.
• 6:17
  And I later got to tell him that
• 6:19
  when I met him.
• 6:20
  But so I decided at the time there
• 6:23
  was nothing like it on YouTube.
• 6:25
  There was no vegan YouTube shows or anything
• 6:28
  like that.
• 6:28
  I just wanted to start making videos so
• 6:31
  I could get better at editing with like
• 6:33
  a home suite.
• 6:33
  I use the Adobe Creative Cloud and I
• 6:36
  wanted to start making little zombie skits.
• 6:39
  But, you know, I didn't even know if
• 6:41
  anybody would even watch us.
• 6:43
  So I figured, why don't I also share
• 6:46
  some of my vegan recipes?
• 6:47
  Because up until that point, my friends and
• 6:50
  I would get together like every Thanksgiving or
• 6:52
  Christmas, New Year's, and we would bring all
• 6:55
  of our vegan, you know, we would make
• 6:56
  a vegan potluck and bring something there.
• 6:59
  So I decided, why don't, you know, John's
• 7:01
  got some great vegan stuffed shells.
• 7:02
  And I make like a crescent roll, broccoli
• 7:05
  cheddar roll vegan.
• 7:06
  So why don't we just start sharing some
• 7:09
  of these recipes while we do like zombie
• 7:11
  stuff?
• 7:11
  So I get better at making, you know,
• 7:13
  editing and doing special effects and stuff like
• 7:15
  that.
• 7:16
  Well, to our surprise, it started getting a
• 7:19
  lot of views and we got a lot
• 7:21
  of subscribers.
• 7:22
  And before we knew it, we had thousands
• 7:24
  and thousands of subscribers.
• 7:26
  And then they were asking us to do
• 7:27
  a cookbook.
• 7:28
  And we're like, we don't we don't we've
• 7:30
  never made a cookbook.
• 7:31
  So we're like, all right, we'll do a
• 7:32
  Kickstarter.
• 7:33
  And if we can get this, we can
• 7:35
  raise this much money.
• 7:37
  We'll do we'll do a cookbook.
• 7:39
  And I did not think for a second
• 7:42
  that we would raise this much money because
• 7:44
  it was kind of a lot of money.
• 7:45
  How much did you raise?
• 7:47
  Well, we we got a hold of another
• 7:50
  cook, a vegan cookbook author from Germany.
• 7:52
  His name is Justin Moore.
• 7:54
  And he does the whole series called The
• 7:57
  Lotus and the Artichoke.
• 7:58
  And they're really good books.
• 7:59
  He travels the world, finds different recipes, and
• 8:02
  then he veganizes everything.
• 8:04
  All right.
• 8:04
  I have to jump in because I want
• 8:07
  to get back to the movie, which is
• 8:09
  what everybody's talking about.
• 8:11
  Right, right.
• 8:11
  Well, this does tie in.
• 8:13
  This is about to tie in.
• 8:14
  Yeah.
• 8:16
  Go for it.
• 8:17
  OK, so anyway, so we ended up doing
• 8:20
  this Kickstarter.
• 8:21
  We ended up raising three times what we
• 8:23
  were looking for.
• 8:24
  I think we ended up with like a
• 8:26
  little over forty three thousand dollars.
• 8:27
  We made a better cookbook than we were
• 8:29
  going to do.
• 8:30
  We toured Germany.
• 8:31
  We got the 2014 cookbook of the year
• 8:35
  and we had a successful Kickstarter.
• 8:37
  So with that success and the channel growing
• 8:41
  a few years later, I said, OK, now
• 8:43
  it's time to do a Kickstarter for the
• 8:45
  actual movie.
• 8:46
  And let's make a real movie.
• 8:48
  So we put up a Kickstarter.
• 8:49
  We were looking for we were looking for
• 8:51
  more money than eighty five thousand.
• 8:53
  But I didn't think we would get eighty
• 8:54
  five thousand more than that.
• 8:56
  So we had to put like an achievable
• 8:58
  goal.
• 8:59
  So eighty five thousand for the movie.
• 9:01
  By the end of it, we made it
• 9:03
  by the skin of our teeth.
• 9:05
  And we were now on on on set
• 9:08
  to make this movie happen.
• 9:12
  And then a few things fell through year
• 9:15
  after year went and then the whole pandemic
• 9:17
  happened.
• 9:18
  But then in twenty twenty two, I met
• 9:20
  with a team local.
• 9:21
  We weren't sure if we were going to
• 9:22
  film it in L.A. or here in
• 9:24
  the Syracuse area, which was really what I
• 9:26
  wanted to do, because I got a lot
• 9:28
  of inspiration for writing this on real events
• 9:31
  that happened when I grew up here in
• 9:32
  upstate New York.
• 9:33
  So we ended up filming it here and
• 9:36
  production began in August.
• 9:39
  Actually, Dr. Gregor was on the second day
• 9:41
  of shooting.
• 9:41
  That was August 28th.
• 9:43
  And we shot at the actual high school
• 9:46
  that I graduated from many years ago.
• 9:48
  So August of what year?
• 9:52
  Twenty twenty two.
• 9:53
  OK, so.
• 9:56
  Wow.
• 9:57
  So eight years ago, approximately, you started this
• 10:00
  Kickstarter.
• 10:01
  You get the money.
• 10:03
  Twenty twenty two.
• 10:04
  You shoot the film.
• 10:06
  And now are you editing it as well?
• 10:10
  You're the star.
• 10:11
  You're the director.
• 10:13
  You're probably the producer.
• 10:16
  Did you did you edit this, too?
• 10:19
  I took on like so many roles for
• 10:21
  this project.
• 10:22
  I did.
• 10:22
  I did all the pre-production, the casting.
• 10:24
  Like I was like overworked, like like crazy.
• 10:28
  And when it came down to it, after
• 10:30
  we were done with production, our budget was
• 10:32
  so low at that point that I couldn't
• 10:36
  really afford to, you know, look out for,
• 10:39
  you know, hiring anybody else to do the
• 10:42
  post-production.
• 10:43
  I did hire an amazing guy named Rob
• 10:45
  Agocella who did all of the sound design.
• 10:48
  Amazing, by the way.
• 10:50
  I did, in fact, do all of the
• 10:51
  editing myself.
• 10:53
  I did the special effect, the visual effects,
• 10:55
  the colour grading and where it is now.
• 10:58
  So the post-production was done by by
• 11:01
  myself and Rob.
• 11:04
  I want to just hats off, like unbelievable,
• 11:07
  because I did not have expectations when I
• 11:11
  looked at this.
• 11:12
  I thought, well, let's see.
• 11:14
  And it's so good.
• 11:16
  And I'm not just saying that to blow
• 11:18
  smoke.
• 11:19
  I had so much fun watching this movie.
• 11:22
  I completely forgot that I was watching it
• 11:25
  for a purpose like, oh, I've got to
• 11:27
  sort of review this film to.
• 11:31
  Because it's a vegan event in the vegan
• 11:34
  community and we cover that here at Unchained
• 11:36
  TV.
• 11:36
  I totally forgot all that.
• 11:37
  I was just watching this squirming because what
• 11:42
  I love about it is how you build
• 11:44
  up slowly.
• 11:46
  Like, how did you learn that?
• 11:49
  And I'll play a clip from the first
• 11:51
  part of your trailer to give you a
• 11:55
  sense for those watching of how.
• 11:57
  Well, yeah, it doesn't just start with like
• 12:00
  the zombie apocalypse.
• 12:01
  There is a buildup, which I think makes
• 12:04
  it more more exciting.
• 12:06
  So let's play that first part.
• 12:09
  Sure.
• 12:17
  Good morning.
• 12:18
  It's a beautiful day here in Amherst.
• 12:21
  We do have some breaking news to report.
• 12:24
  There are several reports of what appears to
• 12:26
  be a stomach bug going around.
• 12:29
  Now, experts are not quite sure of the
• 12:31
  cause, but an investigation is underway.
• 12:34
  You are being advised to use discretion and
• 12:38
  stay home if you aren't feeling well.
• 12:42
  I'll be back.
• 12:44
  Cell mutations.
• 12:45
  If we consider a virus to be similar
• 12:47
  to a eukaryotic cell, where would the actual
• 12:50
  mutation originate?
• 12:53
  Is there something important outside, Harley?
• 12:57
  Never mind.
• 12:58
  I guess it's nothing.
• 13:01
  Like a ghost town in there.
• 13:02
  Everyone's going home sick or something.
• 13:05
  Now, you're looking outside while Dr. Greger's talking
• 13:09
  and there's a zombie walking down and you're
• 13:13
  kind of obviously distracted by that.
• 13:16
  He says, is there a reason why you're
• 13:18
  looking out the window and you say nothing?
• 13:20
  I mean, this was really, really well written.
• 13:25
  How did you figure all that out?
• 13:28
  I mean, I wrote it and rewrote it
• 13:30
  over the last 16 years.
• 13:31
  No joke, probably about 50 different times.
• 13:36
  I love movies and my inspiration...
• 13:41
  I wanted to make a zombie apocalypse movie
• 13:43
  that was as plausible in reality as I
• 13:47
  could make it.
• 13:48
  And I couldn't think of anything more real
• 13:50
  than...
• 13:51
  I don't want to give too much away,
• 13:52
  but by the meat and the dairy that
• 13:56
  the people were eating.
• 13:58
  And yeah, some of my favourite movies...
• 14:03
  This isn't your normal horror movie.
• 14:04
  It is a horror movie by every means,
• 14:06
  but some of the movies that gave me
• 14:09
  inspiration were movies that somewhere in the movie,
• 14:13
  usually at the end, there's this emotional tug
• 14:16
  at your heart.
• 14:18
  And movies like that, for me, I wanted
• 14:20
  to make a movie that I would like.
• 14:21
  And I just figured if I liked it,
• 14:23
  maybe other people would like it too.
• 14:25
  So if there's a movie that I would
• 14:28
  watch and it did that to me...
• 14:30
  If there was a movie that just was
• 14:31
  happy and cool and funny, I'd be like,
• 14:33
  yeah, that was a good movie, and then
• 14:34
  I'd forget about it.
• 14:35
  But if there was a movie that really
• 14:37
  pulled at my emotions at the end, I
• 14:39
  will think about it the next morning, the
• 14:40
  next week.
• 14:41
  And I will...
• 14:42
  Basically, what I'm trying to say is my
• 14:44
  favourite movie of all time I saw in
• 14:45
  the movie theatres when I was six years
• 14:47
  old, and that was E.T. And that
• 14:49
  did that to me at the end of
• 14:50
  the movie.
• 14:50
  And I wanted to take the elements of
• 14:52
  that and combine it into this movie right
• 14:55
  here, along with some horror.
• 14:57
  So I wanted the right character arcs, the
• 15:00
  right...
• 15:00
  Everything had to be perfect.
• 15:02
  And I made so many mistakes.
• 15:04
  If you read the first script, it had
• 15:08
  all the elements there, but it wasn't what
• 15:10
  it is now.
• 15:11
  And over the next how many years, rewriting
• 15:14
  it...
• 15:14
  I was rewriting it all the way until
• 15:16
  we were actually on set.
• 15:18
  Like, oh, maybe we need to do this.
• 15:21
  So yeah, it was just a lot of
• 15:23
  rewriting and getting my producers to go over
• 15:25
  it with me and taking every little scene
• 15:27
  like a fine-tooth comb.
• 15:29
  And that went all the way into post
• 15:31
  -production.
• 15:31
  When I edited the scenes, I'd be like,
• 15:33
  how does this look?
• 15:34
  We would look at it.
• 15:34
  I'm like, hmm.
• 15:35
  And that's why it looks as good as
• 15:37
  I think it does.
• 15:38
  And to go to your point when you
• 15:40
  said you didn't really have expectations for it,
• 15:43
  I see a lot of the comments and
• 15:45
  a lot of other people are the same
• 15:46
  way.
• 15:47
  And what I would say about that is
• 15:48
  I agree.
• 15:50
  I feel like it's the movie that nobody's
• 15:52
  looking for.
• 15:53
  But once they see it, it's like the
• 15:55
  diamond in the rough.
• 15:55
  It's like, you gotta see it.
• 15:57
  I've been trying as hard as I can
• 15:58
  to promote this.
• 15:59
  And I just feel like it's like falling
• 16:01
  on deaf ears.
• 16:02
  There's a certain amount of people that do
• 16:03
  want to watch it, but other people are
• 16:05
  just like, what is this?
• 16:07
  And until you actually watch it, you don't
• 16:11
  really know.
• 16:12
  All right.
• 16:12
  I'd like to say that I was one
• 16:14
  of the small backers of it because I
• 16:16
  interviewed you.
• 16:18
  And then there was a way where if
• 16:20
  you gave a certain amount, you could be
• 16:21
  in the film.
• 16:22
  So I am in the film as a
• 16:24
  reporter and I'm delighted to be in it.
• 16:26
  Now, Mary Zaint, I hope I'm pronouncing your
• 16:30
  name right, says she's happy to have been
• 16:32
  one of the kickstart backers for this back
• 16:34
  in 2018 and really look forward to seeing
• 16:37
  it.
• 16:38
  Lindsay Baker says, can't wait for the premiere
• 16:41
  of this one.
• 16:42
  And Tom Vincel says, please bring this to
• 16:47
  Chicago, which brings me to the next point.
• 16:51
  We would love to help you arrange a
• 16:53
  screening here in Los Angeles.
• 16:55
  And I think that would be a lot
• 16:57
  of fun.
• 16:57
  We could do it under the Unchained TV
• 16:59
  umbrella and have you speak and get a
• 17:02
  nice crowd together.
• 17:04
  But what about that touring?
• 17:06
  What are your plans?
• 17:08
  Obviously, you know, everybody wants to have their
• 17:10
  film on Netflix, but not always does that
• 17:15
  happen, to put it mildly.
• 17:16
  So what are your plans for this film
• 17:18
  in terms of physical tours and distribution?
• 17:23
  Well, we're obviously trying to get distribution right
• 17:26
  now.
• 17:26
  We've looked at a couple like horror distribution
• 17:29
  platforms, streaming services, but we're also submitted to
• 17:35
  several film festivals that we're still waiting on
• 17:39
  to see how that pans out through 2025.
• 17:43
  I've been saying this.
• 17:46
  I've done everything with the moviemaking business all
• 17:49
  the way up until where I am right
• 17:50
  now.
• 17:50
  I've never done this before, so I don't
• 17:52
  really know the process here.
• 17:54
  But what I would like to be able
• 17:55
  to do, as I was talking to you
• 17:57
  off camera, is I would like to be
• 17:59
  able to go to some local movie theatres.
• 18:03
  I'd like to have the right to be
• 18:04
  able to, just me, go to a local
• 18:06
  movie theatre and do a premier, a fundraiser
• 18:10
  for different animal sanctuaries and split some of
• 18:16
  those proceeds from an event like that with
• 18:20
  different animal sanctuaries.
• 18:22
  I actually had somebody reach out to me
• 18:23
  from one last month, so that sounds like
• 18:27
  a great idea.
• 18:28
  That way, we're helping the animals indirectly through
• 18:33
  the movie, the message of the movie, and
• 18:35
  directly through fundraising for these different sanctuaries.
• 18:40
  I know originally when I said I was
• 18:43
  doing this, that a certain amount of the
• 18:45
  points, if it were to make a lot
• 18:47
  of money, would go to a few different
• 18:48
  sanctuaries as well.
• 18:50
  That's still in the plan, but I don't
• 18:53
  know if the movie will make any money
• 18:55
  at all, so I'm still new to this.
• 18:57
  I would like it to get some distribution
• 18:59
  like that.
• 19:00
  I know it's on your platform right now
• 19:02
  as far as the trailer goes.
• 19:03
  We were talking about that, but that's what
• 19:05
  our goals are right now is ultimately to
• 19:08
  get some kind of distribution but also retain
• 19:10
  the right to be able to travel to
• 19:12
  different local movie theatres to potentially do some
• 19:16
  fundraising that way.
• 19:18
  Sure, and I point out not all distribution
• 19:21
  is created equally because sometimes where they distribute
• 19:24
  to is like Timbuktu.
• 19:27
  You've never heard of it.
• 19:28
  Nobody's ever going to see it, so just
• 19:30
  getting distribution is not necessarily the ultimate goal.
• 19:33
  It's what kind of distribution.
• 19:35
  Just word to the wise.
• 19:36
  So I have to say people are super
• 19:39
  excited about the idea of screenings in person.
• 19:43
  So we have somebody, Tiffany, a premiere in
• 19:46
  LA.
• 19:48
  Karen.
• 19:49
  Oh, Karen LaCava.
• 19:51
  Okay, and here's the ultimate compliment.
• 19:53
  Chris, I do a biannual vegan horror event
• 19:56
  in LA.
• 19:57
  Would be happy to help promote the film
• 19:58
  in some way.
• 19:59
  So definitely check that out.
• 20:03
  We've got, everybody is very, very positive about
• 20:06
  Yeah, Mary, that would be awesome.
• 20:08
  Yeah, using your film to help animals and
• 20:10
  sanctuaries.
• 20:11
  What I would say is whatever city or
• 20:14
  town you're going to help the sanctuaries in
• 20:17
  that area because people have a connection to
• 20:20
  their local sanctuaries.
• 20:22
  They don't necessarily have the same connection to
• 20:26
  sanctuaries that are across the country.
• 20:28
  I've experienced that firsthand because that's the idea.
• 20:31
  Yeah, that's the idea.
• 20:32
  Go to where they are.
• 20:34
  Do like a local screening and then split
• 20:38
  up proceeds for that specific.
• 20:40
  So the event would be like a pre
• 20:42
  -sale for whatever sanctuary.
• 20:45
  Like the guy that reached out to me
• 20:46
  is in Virginia.
• 20:47
  I would go down there.
• 20:48
  We would do an event.
• 20:50
  It could be like a two o'clock
• 20:54
  and a six o'clock and proceeds would
• 20:57
  be split between the sanctuary and me and
• 21:00
  the producers.
• 21:01
  And we're getting come to Dallas, Texas, please.
• 21:04
  And Karen LaCava is saying she can help.
• 21:07
  She's a very well-known vegan caterer.
• 21:09
  She could do the catering, I'm sure.
• 21:12
  You have some great events.
• 21:14
  But yeah, I think there's a lot of
• 21:15
  excitement about going to different places around the
• 21:18
  country.
• 21:19
  And now I want to get back to
• 21:21
  the filmmaking process because I can't imagine how
• 21:25
  hard it must be.
• 21:27
  Forget you wrote it and you edited it
• 21:30
  and you star in it.
• 21:31
  But directing while you star.
• 21:35
  That is something that has always perplexed me.
• 21:39
  How are you essentially behind the camera or
• 21:43
  directing the cinematographer while you're in front of
• 21:46
  the camera?
• 21:47
  How did you pull that off?
• 21:49
  Well, you know, directing the scenes having it
• 21:51
  done the way I wanted to.
• 21:53
  The director of photography was doing some he
• 21:56
  was watching what was going on so he
• 21:58
  was directing some of the different scenes of
• 22:01
  where people should be what should be going
• 22:03
  on how everything looked when I wasn't able
• 22:05
  to do that.
• 22:06
  We didn't have an external monitor for me
• 22:08
  to check everything.
• 22:10
  And because of limited time and funds we
• 22:13
  couldn't rewind and watch every little scene.
• 22:16
  So I had to basically put a lot
• 22:18
  of trust in the cinematographer that he got
• 22:20
  the right shots.
• 22:21
  Stuff like that.
• 22:22
  But yeah, at all times I knew what
• 22:26
  was going on.
• 22:27
  I knew how I wanted things done.
• 22:29
  If we didn't get something shot a certain
• 22:32
  way I would like we need to do
• 22:33
  this a couple more times.
• 22:35
  Because we didn't really have a budget to
• 22:37
  go back and do reshoots like other movies
• 22:41
  do.
• 22:42
  Well, it's very professionally shot.
• 22:44
  The zooms, the drone shots.
• 22:48
  And we have to talk about Dr. Michael
• 22:50
  Greger.
• 22:50
  I'm a huge fan.
• 22:52
  He's a very serious guy.
• 22:53
  He's written many, many New York Times bestsellers.
• 22:56
  How did you get him involved?
• 22:59
  I reached out and I talked to his
• 23:02
  secretary and they didn't even really ask.
• 23:05
  They were just like, yeah, we'll be up
• 23:06
  there and we'll do it.
• 23:08
  You know?
• 23:08
  Because they said yes way back when when
• 23:11
  we were going to shoot it when we
• 23:13
  first did the Kickstarter.
• 23:14
  And then plans changed.
• 23:16
  So like years later I'm like, are you
• 23:18
  still interested?
• 23:19
  And sure enough he came up for the
• 23:21
  day and he was great.
• 23:24
  Yeah, we had a good time.
• 23:25
  He's a trip.
• 23:27
  I love him.
• 23:28
  And I will say that he's the most
• 23:30
  generous person on ShaneTV has asked him for
• 23:33
  many, many videos which he supplied without even
• 23:36
  a blink.
• 23:37
  And I love that spirit because we're all
• 23:41
  in it for the same reasons.
• 23:42
  To save animals and the planet.
• 23:44
  Now, this was an entirely vegan production.
• 23:48
  So at the very beginning we see people
• 23:50
  eating hamburgers.
• 23:51
  Were those vegan hamburgers?
• 23:53
  In other words, they were supposed to be
• 23:55
  meat hamburgers in the script.
• 23:57
  But tell us about that.
• 23:59
  Yeah, we wanted to make everything.
• 24:01
  We wanted everything to look as authentic as
• 24:03
  possible.
• 24:04
  But in reality, everything was vegan.
• 24:07
  So those were either impossible or beyond burgers
• 24:11
  that we got.
• 24:12
  And like literally everything down.
• 24:14
  So there's a scene where there's a little
• 24:16
  kid with a baseball and I went to
• 24:18
  several different stores so I could find a
• 24:21
  synthetic baseball not a leather one.
• 24:26
  Everything was as vegan as we could get.
• 24:28
  All the catering, all the in-movie food
• 24:32
  and the actual catering were all vegan.
• 24:34
  When I hired everybody, I mean this is
• 24:36
  kind of like not been done before.
• 24:39
  It's not really a normal thing.
• 24:41
  So every actor or crew member I said,
• 24:43
  look, just so you know before I hire
• 24:45
  you like I can't tell you what to
• 24:48
  eat or what not to eat but this
• 24:49
  is a vegan production so as long as
• 24:51
  you're cool with this being entirely vegan if
• 24:53
  you don't want to eat our food that
• 24:56
  you're more than welcome to go off set
• 24:58
  in your car go off somewhere else to
• 25:00
  eat.
• 25:01
  Everybody was more than happy to do that.
• 25:03
  We catered everything vegan.
• 25:05
  We always had snacks on set that were
• 25:08
  vegan and yeah, it was fun.
• 25:10
  And we did have a few people that
• 25:13
  were actually fellow vegans themselves but not everybody
• 25:18
  in the film were vegan so hopefully it
• 25:20
  changed other people's perspective that weren't vegan making
• 25:24
  a, you know what I think would be
• 25:26
  the first non-documentary feature horror movie so
• 25:31
  yeah.
• 25:32
  Wow.
• 25:33
  Now, so not all the actors were vegan.
• 25:40
  Interesting.
• 25:41
  Did some of them change?
• 25:42
  In other words, there's a lot of horror
• 25:44
  here.
• 25:45
  There's a lot of gore.
• 25:46
  Did it get through to these people who
• 25:49
  were immersed in the script?
• 25:52
  Unfortunately, no, I don't think so.
• 25:54
  It became a process just to make this
• 25:55
  movie and they just did it really not
• 26:02
  thinking anything of the vegan message and you
• 26:05
  know, things got kind of, you know, tough
• 26:07
  and I had to just, you know, shoot
• 26:09
  the days that I had to shoot and
• 26:11
  just get the job done.
• 26:13
  So originally, I had big aspirations like I
• 26:16
  wanted this to be like I wanted all
• 26:19
  the vegans to come together but then when
• 26:21
  I started putting out the casting call and
• 26:23
  all that I was surprised but like I
• 26:27
  wasn't nobody was responding.
• 26:30
  I mean, this was worldwide like obviously they'd
• 26:33
  have to get to Syracuse area but there
• 26:35
  was really no vegans that were applying for
• 26:37
  any of this so when it got down
• 26:40
  to the, you know, the last days and
• 26:41
  stuff I basically had to hire whoever I
• 26:45
  could that could do the parts.
• 26:47
  Some of them were hired the day of
• 26:50
  certain small scenes but yeah, some, there is,
• 26:56
  well, there's a character named Drew you've already
• 27:00
  seen the movie in real life he is
• 27:02
  a vegan and then there's a girl in
• 27:05
  the movie her name is Paige in the
• 27:08
  movie she's also a vegan and it was
• 27:10
  funny because when she when she answered the
• 27:13
  casting call she, she said I just want
• 27:18
  to know if there's going to be anything
• 27:19
  on set I can eat because I am
• 27:21
  a vegan and I was like oh wow
• 27:23
  like everything is going to be vegan and
• 27:25
  everything you can eat and she was like
• 27:27
  oh wow and I'm like so I got
• 27:29
  to meet a fellow vegan just coincidentally like
• 27:32
  that.
• 27:33
  Now this may seem obvious first of all
• 27:35
  everybody wants to know what is A44 mean?
• 27:39
  I have a feeling you don't want to
• 27:40
  give that away I can't give that away
• 27:42
  you gotta watch the movie yeah exactly you've
• 27:44
  gotta watch the movie but in terms of
• 27:47
  the message you know I really admire what
• 27:50
  you're doing because I look at hundreds and
• 27:54
  hundreds of videos our streaming network is right
• 27:57
  behind me we have 2,000 videos and
• 28:00
  that's all I do every day is look
• 28:02
  at videos about animal rights and veganism and
• 28:05
  so you know there's many powerful films but
• 28:08
  a lot of them are luxury you know
• 28:11
  don't do this don't eat meat one of
• 28:15
  the things that I was talking with the
• 28:17
  head of Veganuary the US head of Veganuary
• 28:19
  is why they called it Try Vegan and
• 28:23
  that that psychologically takes the pressure off people
• 28:27
  and they don't feel ordered they feel invited
• 28:30
  so messaging is so crucial how we approach
• 28:35
  telling people hey you should try this other
• 28:38
  way of life for your own health for
• 28:40
  the planet for the animals for a gazillion
• 28:43
  reasons if you want to end world hunger
• 28:45
  if you want to end water pollution ocean
• 28:47
  desertification we could go on but the point
• 28:50
  is that the medium is the message as
• 28:54
  Marshall McLuhan said what I love about your
• 28:57
  film is that you're being entertained so you
• 29:00
  don't even realise you're getting a message but
• 29:03
  what is the message well as you know
• 29:07
  like I wanted the message to I wanted
• 29:09
  this to be a standalone um horror movie
• 29:13
  and I would just expect that since it
• 29:15
  is a vegan a pro vegan message movie
• 29:18
  that most vegans would support that you know
• 29:21
  even people that just don't like horror movies
• 29:23
  maybe they're like well I'll support the movie
• 29:25
  whatever um I wanted to make this for
• 29:27
  like the horror fans that aren't vegan because
• 29:30
  as you already know you already saw the
• 29:32
  movie but I wanted the message to be
• 29:34
  there where you don't really hear the message
• 29:37
  until you're already like connected you know to
• 29:40
  certain characters where it's like in order to
• 29:43
  like say no to this you're kind of
• 29:44
  like at that point you're kind of lying
• 29:46
  to yourself if you say no at that
• 29:48
  point and then the message comes in and
• 29:50
  you're like oh man I didn't really think
• 29:52
  of it like that or so yeah there's
• 29:56
  a character in this movie which I don't
• 29:58
  like I don't want to give away that
• 30:00
  um hopefully most people fall in love with
• 30:03
  right away and at that point you're basically
• 30:08
  being hypocritical not to you know connect the
• 30:12
  dots at that point but I did want
• 30:14
  to do this like as an entertainment movie
• 30:17
  I'm not expecting everybody to go vegan after
• 30:20
  seeing this movie and really all my you
• 30:23
  know I just want people to watch the
• 30:25
  movie and enjoy the movie um I do
• 30:27
  think that some people will have different choices
• 30:32
  they'll make different choices after watching and yeah
• 30:34
  maybe some people will go vegan after watching
• 30:37
  this movie but um it's just my way
• 30:40
  of doing something differently um rather than telling
• 30:45
  or or something somebody to do something basically
• 30:48
  showing something that's fun and entertaining and then
• 30:53
  the message just comes in there and hopefully
• 30:56
  I did a good enough a job with
• 30:59
  you know what I was explaining earlier the
• 31:01
  emotion uh tugging at your heart you know
• 31:04
  by by the time the movie wraps up
• 31:07
  that you know it's kind of hard to
• 31:09
  just like say okay let's go out for
• 31:11
  burgers at that point um we have eyes
• 31:14
  on the ground at Amherst General reporting live
• 31:17
  let's see what's unfolding Pat what can you
• 31:21
  tell us hey how do you think they
• 31:23
  actually get the milk out of a note
• 31:25
  maybe we can get together sometime and cook
• 31:27
  up some vegan cheeseburger or something yo bro
• 31:30
  I left my wallet in your truck hey
• 31:37
  we need backup people are complaining of dizziness
• 31:44
  and stomach pain people are freaking oh my
• 31:46
  god what are you doing no no get
• 31:51
  down what the hell oh oh oh wait
• 32:01
  wait that's that's that's gonna be it right
• 32:07
  okay wait what do you mean So,
• 32:23
  don't eat animals, fools.
• 32:32
  Hopefully those things don't want to eat us
• 32:34
  too.
• 32:39
  It's so good.
• 32:41
  People are saying, I'm dying to see this.
• 32:44
  I like that, Scarlett.
• 32:46
  This looks good.
• 32:47
  It is good.
• 32:48
  I have to say, I watched it and
• 32:53
  I had no expectations and it blew me
• 32:55
  away.
• 32:56
  It's fun.
• 32:58
  I'm not somebody who wants to see sadistic
• 33:01
  violence, people being tortured.
• 33:02
  So it doesn't go into that realm.
• 33:05
  It's not gross in that sense, but it
• 33:07
  is keeping you on the edge of your
• 33:09
  seat.
• 33:10
  You're like, no, I can't describe it.
• 33:15
  You caught it.
• 33:16
  Whatever that it is that makes people squirm
• 33:20
  and makes a horror movie good, you caught
• 33:24
  it.
• 33:24
  And what would you say that it is?
• 33:27
  What is that thing?
• 33:30
  I mean, so many people love horror, not
• 33:32
  everybody, but there's a lot of people that
• 33:34
  love horror and just something, I just wanted,
• 33:37
  like you said, the story just progresses from
• 33:39
  the beginning and I wanted it to slowly
• 33:42
  progress to a point where some movies they
• 33:45
  get to the middle and it kind of
• 33:46
  dies down.
• 33:47
  I wanted this movie just to keep going
• 33:49
  to the climax of the movie and then
• 33:51
  boom, it's like, wow.
• 33:54
  And I feel like, I mean, I've seen
• 33:56
  it a million times because I know I've
• 33:58
  edited it so many times, but I feel
• 33:59
  like by the time you get to the
• 34:01
  end, you don't even realise how long it
• 34:02
  actually was.
• 34:03
  But what is it?
• 34:05
  I don't know, it's just something from my
• 34:08
  childhood that I've always wanted to do.
• 34:09
  I put everything into this.
• 34:11
  I showed this to some movie making consultants
• 34:15
  of mine that I've met over the years
• 34:17
  that live in the United Kingdom and they're
• 34:20
  not vegan and they didn't even really know
• 34:22
  what this movie was gonna be about.
• 34:24
  They were helping me with technical difficulties.
• 34:27
  And when I finally showed it to them,
• 34:28
  they were like blown away.
• 34:30
  They said, Chris, what you have here is
• 34:32
  something very special and you can tell that
• 34:36
  it's from the heart.
• 34:37
  And to me, that means everything because I
• 34:40
  put everything into this movie.
• 34:42
  So you can tell that this is from
• 34:44
  the heart.
• 34:45
  It really is.
• 34:47
  Okay, I wanna ask about mistakes, blunders, things
• 34:52
  that you can teach us to avoid.
• 34:55
  Like I said, I too have written a
• 34:58
  script with two colleagues.
• 35:00
  I can just tell you Jamie Logan, the
• 35:02
  actress activist and Justina Adorno, who is a
• 35:05
  well-known actress who has appeared in Grand
• 35:08
  Hotel and other major films.
• 35:10
  And so I'm sure we have some rewrites
• 35:12
  ahead of us, but first of all, you
• 35:15
  made an independent film for what?
• 35:17
  Under $100,000, that's extraordinary.
• 35:20
  You look at the budgets of some of
• 35:21
  these films, it's crazy, hundreds of millions of
• 35:24
  dollars.
• 35:26
  This was money well spent.
• 35:27
  What would your advice be to people like
• 35:30
  myself, Jamie and Justina about pitfalls to avoid?
• 35:37
  Some of the worst mistakes were in the
• 35:42
  contracts.
• 35:44
  So make sure your contracts are ironclad.
• 35:48
  Most of the budget will probably go towards
• 35:51
  actual cast and crew.
• 35:55
  There were some continuity errors, so we did
• 35:59
  our best for that.
• 36:01
  And I think I did, you can still
• 36:02
  find some, but I'm okay with it.
• 36:04
  I feel like we'll have fun finding some
• 36:07
  continuity errors.
• 36:08
  But for the most part, I was able
• 36:10
  to fix most of them.
• 36:12
  Make sure the cameras, like if I can
• 36:15
  go back, like there's some things that is
• 36:18
  out of my control, like with the camera
• 36:20
  that was used, hot pixels, dead pixels, that's
• 36:25
  gonna be extremely difficult to fix.
• 36:29
  Just make sure you're communicating very well with
• 36:31
  the rest of your team.
• 36:33
  And scheduling is extremely difficult with that many
• 36:36
  people, especially when you're doing an independent thing
• 36:39
  and it's not their full-time job, trying
• 36:41
  to get everybody together on a certain day
• 36:43
  and then hope it doesn't rain.
• 36:45
  So yeah, have a team.
• 36:48
  Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of
• 36:49
  this stuff myself or with my producer who
• 36:53
  happens to live in the UK.
• 36:55
  So she wasn't able to be here to
• 36:57
  help in person.
• 36:58
  So we had to like communicate that way.
• 37:00
  So there's a lot of things that, I
• 37:03
  will tell you that all the difficulties I
• 37:06
  went through, it feels so much better now
• 37:10
  than knowing that I'd done and I got
• 37:11
  through it.
• 37:12
  And I think I've learned so much more
• 37:15
  because of these difficulties that I just would
• 37:17
  not allow to happen in my second film.
• 37:21
  So let's talk about second film.
• 37:25
  You brought it up.
• 37:26
  Where do you go from here?
• 37:29
  Are you going to do a sequel or
• 37:32
  is it gonna be something entirely different?
• 37:34
  Well, I mean, I definitely wanna do something.
• 37:38
  I want the doors to open up and
• 37:39
  be able to do another film.
• 37:42
  But I would definitely want a proper budget
• 37:45
  for that one because I did not pay
• 37:50
  myself at all for this.
• 37:51
  So all these years I've been working full
• 37:54
  -time hours, I've not taken any money.
• 37:57
  So I've pretty much driven myself into extreme
• 38:03
  poverty right now.
• 38:04
  So I'm hoping I have another chance with
• 38:06
  another movie with a real budget.
• 38:07
  They say that if you prove successful on
• 38:11
  a first movie, then you could possibly get
• 38:13
  funding, proper funding to make a second movie.
• 38:17
  I would hope that that would be the
• 38:19
  case.
• 38:21
  You've seen the movie, so you know that
• 38:23
  people are probably gonna want a sequel to
• 38:27
  this movie.
• 38:28
  And we had to go out to make
• 38:30
  this movie the timeframe that it is, but
• 38:33
  there's more in my head that I've already
• 38:35
  written out all those years ago.
• 38:38
  I know what happens next, so I need
• 38:41
  to put that on paper so people can
• 38:44
  see a sequel to this movie, yes.
• 38:47
  So over the years, since you sat in
• 38:51
  this very spot with me when we announced
• 38:54
  the start of the Kickstarter, I got updates
• 38:58
  from you.
• 38:59
  And I'll be honest, at one point, maybe
• 39:02
  five years in, I was like, what's going
• 39:04
  on?
• 39:04
  Is this ever really gonna get made?
• 39:07
  And you would send updates saying, don't worry,
• 39:10
  it will get made.
• 39:12
  But over the course of what, seven, eight
• 39:15
  years, what were your low points?
• 39:18
  What were the moments where you wondered to
• 39:20
  yourself, is this gonna get made?
• 39:23
  Because every biography I have read of people
• 39:26
  who achieve extraordinary things, there's always this moment
• 39:30
  where it seems like it's all falling apart.
• 39:33
  And the people who power through are the
• 39:36
  ones who are the change makers.
• 39:39
  Yeah, it wasn't easy making this movie.
• 39:42
  And there's a lot that I haven't made
• 39:45
  public, but when it was done, I was
• 39:48
  like, what just happened?
• 39:53
  But I don't wanna get into all the
• 39:54
  negatives about that.
• 39:55
  I didn't touch it for a little while
• 39:57
  because I literally couldn't.
• 39:59
  I couldn't even look at it.
• 40:01
  That's how bad things were.
• 40:03
  And then I told myself, I need to
• 40:06
  do this no matter what.
• 40:07
  And I just started working on it every
• 40:09
  single day until it was done, and I
• 40:11
  did.
• 40:11
  I worked on it for like a little
• 40:14
  over a year straight, almost every single day,
• 40:17
  eight to 14 hours.
• 40:19
  And I did all that myself until it
• 40:22
  was done.
• 40:23
  And yeah, there was- What do you
• 40:25
  do when you're not making films?
• 40:28
  What is your day job?
• 40:29
  Well, YouTube, I've been doing YouTube for 16
• 40:33
  years.
• 40:33
  I'm one of the oldest running vegan YouTube
• 40:36
  channels in existence.
• 40:38
  So that's your full-time job?
• 40:40
  Well, that's what it...
• 40:42
  I did have a full-time job that
• 40:44
  I quit and I became a full-time
• 40:46
  YouTuber.
• 40:47
  Since then, things have changed a little bit.
• 40:50
  So it's not as lucrative anymore.
• 40:52
  And I totally neglected it because I was
• 40:55
  working on the movie.
• 40:56
  So there was a long time where I
• 40:58
  wasn't posting any YouTube videos.
• 40:59
  But yeah, I know what you mean.
• 41:01
  Like people were asking me like, you scammed
• 41:05
  us, like where's our money?
• 41:06
  Where's the movie?
• 41:07
  And I get where they're coming from, but
• 41:09
  the person that I've always been since I
• 41:11
  was a little kid, I've always been the
• 41:14
  person that if I say something, no matter
• 41:17
  what, I'm gonna do it.
• 41:18
  And I did that.
• 41:19
  I would never let anyone down.
• 41:22
  I make sure that I fulfil all debts.
• 41:24
  And that's what I had to do here.
• 41:26
  I knew that I need to get this
• 41:28
  movie done because there was, to me, there
• 41:30
  was no alternative.
• 41:31
  If I didn't do it, I would be
• 41:34
  wasting a huge opportunity to fill one of
• 41:36
  the biggest dreams I've ever had, which was
• 41:38
  to make a feature movie.
• 41:40
  And I wasn't gonna let that happen.
• 41:42
  So I just did what I had to
• 41:44
  do.
• 41:44
  And I rose above all the challenges that
• 41:49
  were there.
• 41:49
  And there was times that I was like,
• 41:51
  I don't know how I'm gonna make a
• 41:52
  movie out of this.
• 41:53
  And I can say now that I'm very
• 41:56
  happy with the way it came out.
• 41:59
  Hey, we've got Jenny Desmond watching from Liberia,
• 42:03
  another one of my heroes.
• 42:05
  And she says, great work.
• 42:08
  And talk about perseverance and sanctuaries.
• 42:12
  What they've done with Liberian chimp rescue is
• 42:15
  extraordinary.
• 42:16
  They're taking care of more than a hundred
• 42:18
  chimpanzees who are abandoned on their own.
• 42:22
  And so there's so many people doing such
• 42:26
  incredible work in this movement.
• 42:29
  And I love the fact that everybody is
• 42:31
  sticking together on this one.
• 42:34
  Like sometimes we have a guest on and
• 42:37
  people are like, why do you have to
• 42:38
  do it that way?
• 42:39
  Why do you?
• 42:40
  And I always say, then you go do
• 42:42
  your own thing.
• 42:43
  Don't criticise them.
• 42:44
  Let, do it your way.
• 42:46
  It's so important that we gather together in
• 42:49
  the vegan movement.
• 42:50
  I always say, anytime we're fighting, the other
• 42:52
  side's applauding, because that's what they want.
• 42:55
  Maybe we can all come together around a
• 42:57
  film like this because it's fun.
• 43:00
  And the fact is, and I'll say this,
• 43:03
  I've learned it myself.
• 43:05
  We need to have more entertaining content in
• 43:08
  this movement.
• 43:10
  People need to laugh and laughter is one
• 43:15
  way that the resistance is dropped.
• 43:18
  When people are laughing, their resistance to an
• 43:21
  idea drops and they become open-minded.
• 43:24
  What would you like to say about that,
• 43:26
  Chris?
• 43:27
  Well, we do have elements of comedy in
• 43:29
  this.
• 43:29
  Like we don't take everything so seriously that
• 43:32
  it's, oh, it's just so serious, but there
• 43:34
  are elements of comedy in this movie and
• 43:37
  we wanted to just entertain.
• 43:40
  There is definitely a message there.
• 43:43
  And like I said, some people might change
• 43:47
  their choices and some people won't.
• 43:50
  And I wanted to put something out there.
• 43:51
  I love a lot of these vegan documentaries.
• 43:54
  Some of them, I really love them, but
• 43:56
  I feel like, at least for me, I
• 43:58
  watch them once and that's great.
• 44:01
  But I feel like a movie, like an
• 44:03
  entertaining movie like this, it's something that somebody
• 44:05
  can go back and watch maybe every few
• 44:07
  years around Halloween or something like that.
• 44:10
  I watch the same Christmas movies every year
• 44:12
  and the same horror movies around Halloween time
• 44:15
  every year or every other year.
• 44:16
  I'm hoping that this can be something like
• 44:18
  that where somebody is like, A44 is my
• 44:21
  go-to fall movie or Halloween movie.
• 44:25
  And they can always go back to it
• 44:27
  and reshare it because once it's out there,
• 44:30
  it's the world's movie and it does have
• 44:34
  an entertaining yet vegan message there.
• 44:38
  So- Yeah, let me ask you a
• 44:40
  question.
• 44:40
  Okay, so I was one of those people
• 44:42
  who donated a little bit in the initial
• 44:44
  Kickstarter when you were sitting right next to
• 44:46
  me in this room and we talked about
• 44:48
  it back in, I believe, 2018.
• 44:52
  And there were many, many other people.
• 44:54
  How many people total and how much did
• 44:57
  you raise in your Kickstarter?
• 45:00
  We raised a little under 85,000.
• 45:04
  It was more like 80 after they took
• 45:05
  out their fees and the taxes and stuff.
• 45:09
  And there's a little under 1,100 people
• 45:13
  came together for that.
• 45:14
  So that's a lot of people that already,
• 45:16
  right off the bat, want to see this
• 45:18
  movie.
• 45:20
  And you don't have to pay them back.
• 45:22
  They didn't donate.
• 45:23
  I certainly didn't donate thinking I was gonna
• 45:24
  get anything back.
• 45:25
  I donated just to support the project.
• 45:28
  So that's good.
• 45:28
  You don't have to pay those people back.
• 45:30
  Right, the way I see it is like,
• 45:35
  you're not giving the money to me per
• 45:37
  se.
• 45:37
  You're giving it to a campaign, a project
• 45:40
  that I'm going to oversee and create.
• 45:43
  So yeah, they were all involved in making
• 45:46
  this movie.
• 45:48
  Some of them were, you are one of
• 45:50
  them, and there's a few other people that
• 45:52
  are actually in the movie.
• 45:55
  So you can see them throughout the movie.
• 45:59
  And then everybody else, they get perks and
• 46:02
  stuff.
• 46:02
  So there's different, some people get the script
• 46:05
  and some people come to get to see
• 46:07
  the premiere.
• 46:08
  And some of those rewards still have to
• 46:12
  be given, but they have to wait until
• 46:13
  the movie comes out.
• 46:14
  And the other thing is, is I'm currently,
• 46:17
  I just actually watched this on the big
• 46:19
  screen here in Syracuse, New York.
• 46:20
  My friend runs one of the movie theatres
• 46:22
  there, and we're just looking at it to
• 46:24
  see if everything's right.
• 46:25
  And then we're gonna probably do a premiere
• 46:28
  here in Syracuse somewhere around the end of
• 46:31
  March.
• 46:33
  But yeah, I want there to be a
• 46:34
  premiere here because this is my hometown, but
• 46:36
  also out with you in LA.
• 46:38
  And I also remember before this was completely
• 46:42
  done, you were reading the script and you
• 46:45
  were like, oh no, I don't like how
• 46:47
  this is.
• 46:47
  And I'm like, oh no, she doesn't like
• 46:48
  it.
• 46:49
  So when I actually gave you the movie,
• 46:50
  I was like, oh my God, I really,
• 46:52
  I really hope she likes this.
• 46:53
  I was super nervous and you were just
• 46:55
  like, I'm like, oh, she probably doesn't like
• 46:57
  it.
• 46:57
  And then you text me like two minutes
• 46:59
  after I thought that, and you're like, oh
• 47:01
  my God, it's so good, I love it.
• 47:03
  And I'm like, oh no, I was so
• 47:04
  relieved.
• 47:05
  Oh, well that means a lot to me.
• 47:07
  And I just wanna say you did make
• 47:09
  some revisions.
• 47:11
  I did.
• 47:11
  Because I'll say I'm squeamish and you had
• 47:14
  a few people throwing up in the beginning
• 47:16
  of the movie and I was like, cut
• 47:18
  that out.
• 47:20
  Because it'll turn off a section of the
• 47:22
  population that doesn't like to see that.
• 47:24
  And I'm a member of that sector of
• 47:26
  the population.
• 47:27
  So I'm glad that that- Nobody wanted
• 47:29
  to do that with me, but the good
• 47:31
  thing was, it was my movie, I was
• 47:33
  the director.
• 47:34
  So I had the ultimate say, but they
• 47:36
  didn't agree with me on that.
• 47:38
  But I think it worked out.
• 47:39
  I think it worked out.
• 47:41
  So, especially because you have people eating food
• 47:44
  in the movie, it really worked out.
• 47:47
  Whatever you did, you worked your magic.
• 47:49
  It's a great movie.
• 47:51
  You know, when there's a movie that's disjointed
• 47:53
  and just doesn't work, you kind of feel
• 47:55
  it.
• 47:55
  We have that feeling back in the old
• 47:57
  days, leaving a movie theatre saying, why the
• 47:59
  hell did I waste two hours and 20
• 48:00
  bucks on this?
• 48:02
  This doesn't leave that.
• 48:03
  This is, it takes, it takes.
• 48:06
  It's like, it has that beginning, middle and
• 48:09
  end, the arcs.
• 48:11
  And that's one of the things that I
• 48:12
  do wanna ask you is, you said you
• 48:15
  watched a lot of movies, but I've actually
• 48:17
  taken a screenwriting course where they talk about,
• 48:19
  you know, the arcs, and there's gotta be
• 48:21
  act one, has to have something happen at
• 48:23
  the end that triggers act two and the
• 48:25
  arc of act two and then the arc
• 48:27
  of act three.
• 48:28
  It's even called a formula.
• 48:29
  But you intrinsically just incorporated all that without
• 48:33
  really studying that craft?
• 48:37
  Well, okay, so I originally, the original story
• 48:42
  that I wrote was there as a skeleton,
• 48:46
  but it wasn't ready to be seen.
• 48:48
  And like I said, we would rewrite it
• 48:50
  every time.
• 48:51
  We would go over it and I would
• 48:52
  go over it with my producers and we'd
• 48:54
  be like, okay.
• 48:55
  And between the three of us, we really
• 48:57
  knew, we really knew movies.
• 49:00
  I had other people working with me earlier
• 49:03
  on in the Kickstarter that kind of fell
• 49:05
  off.
• 49:06
  And then we just kept rewriting until everything
• 49:09
  was basically perfect.
• 49:11
  So we couldn't figure anything else that could
• 49:14
  be better for that scene.
• 49:16
  And that's the way we did it.
• 49:18
  And yeah, I basically wrote this if I
• 49:23
  was writing a movie based on everything that
• 49:24
  I've ever seen that I liked.
• 49:26
  Some of my other inspiration were like Goonies
• 49:28
  and Stand By Me.
• 49:30
  Not necessarily horror movies, but movies that I
• 49:34
  really loved.
• 49:35
  I just wanted to get that goosebump factor.
• 49:38
  I wanted people to get goosebumps at certain
• 49:40
  parts.
• 49:40
  And I've already had like feedback where people
• 49:43
  did say that.
• 49:44
  People have said they had goosebumps.
• 49:45
  People have said like, wow, that was really
• 49:47
  good.
• 49:47
  Some people have said they cried.
• 49:49
  Like to me, that's like, if a movie
• 49:52
  can do that, then to me, that's a
• 49:54
  success.
• 49:56
  So what are your tips on casting?
• 49:59
  Because you had a really good cast and
• 50:01
  you said it was hard to cast up
• 50:03
  in Syracuse, New York.
• 50:04
  But I think casting is one of the
• 50:07
  most important aspects of filmmaking.
• 50:09
  The thing is, it's a collaborative process and
• 50:11
  it's like a three-dimensional chess game.
• 50:13
  There's so many things that you have to
• 50:15
  get right.
• 50:16
  How did you nail the casting?
• 50:19
  I just set out for casting and people
• 50:21
  sent me their auditions and some of them
• 50:26
  were like, amazing, I gotta take this person.
• 50:29
  Other people were like, I definitely might want
• 50:34
  this person, but I gotta look at what
• 50:35
  else I have.
• 50:36
  And then when it came down to it,
• 50:38
  like, yeah, some people I had to just
• 50:41
  get on the fly.
• 50:43
  And then my character that I played, I
• 50:45
  was looking for somebody all the way until
• 50:48
  the day of the shooting.
• 50:48
  And I was like, if I can't find
• 50:50
  somebody, nobody really applied to that part.
• 50:53
  And I really looked for, like I sent,
• 50:56
  I specifically sent emails to people to play
• 50:59
  that part and nobody did.
• 51:01
  So I was like- Like your mom.
• 51:03
  That was your mom just there.
• 51:04
  How did you find her?
• 51:06
  Well, my real mom is in this movie
• 51:08
  too, but then my actor mom.
• 51:11
  So she's a local actor here in Syracuse
• 51:14
  and she applied for the part and she
• 51:16
  reminded, like I had in mind like a
• 51:19
  Dee Wallace kind of character and I told
• 51:21
  her and I think she played it perfectly.
• 51:24
  She's good.
• 51:25
  And I also like your sort of love
• 51:27
  interest, the girl who's got a crush on
• 51:30
  you and keeps wanting to go and have
• 51:32
  vegan cheeseburgers with you cause you're pretty much
• 51:36
  the only vegan in the cast, in the
• 51:38
  script.
• 51:40
  Right, she is also a local actor.
• 51:43
  There she is, right there.
• 51:44
  There she is.
• 51:44
  And she does a lot of things with
• 51:46
  American High, which is a local Syracuse base.
• 51:50
  They did a lot of movies.
• 51:52
  Well, they've done stuff with Pete Davidson and
• 51:54
  some other things.
• 51:55
  So she works with them and I see
• 51:58
  a lot of reels that she does lately.
• 52:00
  So yeah, that's cool that we have her.
• 52:02
  And Nick, the guy that plays Nick, he
• 52:05
  released his own movie, a horror movie just
• 52:08
  this past September and it did really well
• 52:11
  over on ScreenBox.
• 52:12
  It actually moved into first place above Terrifier
• 52:15
  2 for a week or two.
• 52:18
  So he's actually in the movie.
• 52:19
  He did the same thing.
• 52:21
  He directed, acted and wrote his movie and
• 52:24
  that's called Creeping Death.
• 52:26
  So yeah.
• 52:28
  You know, I think as you, this is
• 52:30
  just my idea of what do I know
• 52:32
  cause we are almost out of time, but
• 52:33
  before I forget, what about if you start
• 52:38
  raising money for your next film while you're
• 52:40
  doing the premieres around the country?
• 52:43
  Because people will be inspired.
• 52:46
  Certainly you wanna give a percentage to charity,
• 52:50
  but it could be a good way to
• 52:52
  start your fundraising for the next film because
• 52:55
  I can't wait to see a sequel.
• 52:58
  So I know that you're saying that cause
• 53:00
  you watched it, but I feel like I'm
• 53:03
  not gonna be able to raise what I
• 53:04
  could raise without people seeing the movie yet.
• 53:07
  Like I said, I feel like it's the
• 53:09
  movie nobody's looking for until they watch it.
• 53:12
  So once people see it, I feel like
• 53:14
  we have a way better chance of being
• 53:16
  able to raise money for a second one
• 53:18
  than if I did it right now.
• 53:20
  People might be like, well, I don't really
• 53:22
  even know what this one looks like.
• 53:23
  So I don't know.
• 53:24
  I'll hold off, you know.
• 53:25
  Is there a website where people can go
• 53:27
  to learn more about the premieres?
• 53:31
  The premieres.
• 53:32
  Well, they can follow me over on A44movie.
• 53:34
  We have a website which is pretty much
• 53:36
  like 95% done.
• 53:38
  It's called A44movie.com.
• 53:41
  There you go.
• 53:42
  It shows everybody on there.
• 53:44
  It shows social media, all that stuff.
• 53:47
  A44movie.com, easy to remember because that is
• 53:50
  the name of the film.
• 53:52
  Chris, I just wanna say I am super
• 53:54
  impressed.
• 53:55
  I think you're absolutely amazing.
• 53:57
  We're just about out of time, but I
• 54:00
  love your perseverance.
• 54:02
  I love your attitude.
• 54:04
  I love the finished product.
• 54:07
  And I'm really humbled and grateful to be
• 54:10
  a little part of this venture, a very
• 54:12
  small part, but I'm excited.
• 54:15
  I'm glad you are.
• 54:16
  You played a great part.
• 54:18
  And I think, you know, I have it
• 54:21
  looking even better than when you saw it
• 54:23
  because I fixed a couple of things.
• 54:25
  So it looks really good.
• 54:27
  We at Unchained TV wanna help you with
• 54:29
  your premiere in LA.
• 54:31
  Let's plan it maybe for April.
• 54:33
  Sounds like a plan.
• 54:35
  And everybody go to A44movie.com and get
• 54:39
  involved.
• 54:40
  And of course, we always tell everybody, please,
• 54:44
  please download Unchained TV.
• 54:46
  We are the world's only vegan streaming television
• 54:50
  network, vegan animal rights streaming TV network.
• 54:54
  So it's a vegan Netflix.
• 54:56
  Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
• 54:57
  I love Unchained TV.
• 54:59
  Unchained, Unchained TV.
• 55:01
  Your life will change.
• 55:02
  It's just that easy.
• 55:03
  Unchained TV has all sorts of content for
• 55:06
  everybody.
• 55:07
  Unchained TV changed my life.
• 55:09
  Unchained TV is crushing it.
• 55:12
  I love Unchained TV.
• 55:14
  Unchained TV is my go-to.
• 55:16
  Unchained TV.
• 55:17
  Who knew?
• 55:18
  Unchained, baby, yes.