Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 790: From Short to Feature: The Filmmaker’s Journey with Michael G. Kehoe

Transcript

IFH 790: From Short to Feature: The Filmmaker’s Journey with Michael G. Kehoe · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number seven
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  Speaker 2: to ninety Cinema should make you forget You're sitting in
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  Speaker 3: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
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  Speaker 3: I am your humble.
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  Speaker 4: Host, Alex Ferrari. Today's show is sponsored by Rise of
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  Speaker 4: the Film Entrepreneur How to turn your independent film into
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  Speaker 4: a profitable business. It's harder today than ever before for
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  Speaker 2: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: You know me and my guest. Today we go over
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: all of this stuff, whether it be networking and professionalism,
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: and we also go over my favorite topics creativity. This
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: guest is also going to be at geek Fest film
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: Fest four. It's funny because Bill Ostrov, who was on
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: the podcast only a few episodes ago, actually runs geek
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Fest film Fest four. That's very hard to say, by
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: the way I keep saying it. I keep I think
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna mess it up, but no, but all kidding aside,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: Bill actually runs that this competition and he runs the
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: film fest as well. And Bill obviously for First Glance Films.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: He was on the podcast only a few episodes ago
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: and we talked all about everything. And it's funny because
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: this guest this week actually won the First Glance Film
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Festival with his short Hush, And now he's gonna be
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: on this film panel. So when you hear this podcast,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: which is going up on February twelve, twenty seventeen, next week,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: next Saturday, he'll actually be at this panel. He'll be
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: discussing indie film financing. He'll be discussing how you have
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: to use creativity to make your film, and he is
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: just a wealth information. As you're about to hear, he
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: also was able to turn a short film, Hush, into
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: a feature length film which is going to be called
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  Speaker 3: The Hatred or Alice the Hatred as the poster says
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: right now. And he even got the producers of the
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: Halloween franchise on board with it, which is unbelievable. So
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: we're going to talk about all of his journey. We're
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: going to talk about all of these wonderful, wonderful things
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: about hustling about all these things with guests Michael G. Keow. So,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: you know, Mike, you know, you grew up, you know,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: in Ithaca, and then you you know, obviously you now
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: live in Los Angeles. So what was the journey that
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: took you from Ithaca out out to Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 5: Well, I was actually born and raised in Brooklyn, New York,
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: and my mother was a was a theater director in
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: the local theater there, and I always I watched her work,
• 3:57
  Speaker 5: and as she was, you know, involved, deeply involved in
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  Speaker 5: the theater there for the community, I went, as a
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  Speaker 5: little kid eight years old, watched her at the theater
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  Speaker 5: and directing actors and setting the plays up and the sets.
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  Speaker 5: And then when we moved up to Ithaca, I knew
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  Speaker 5: that this is what I wanted to do, so I
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  Speaker 5: started pursuing that I'd gotten. I played sports, so I
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: wasn't one of these guys that was ostracized because he
• 4:27
  Speaker 5: was either a nerd or a jock or a freak.
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  Speaker 5: I also played guitar, so I was in a band,
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: and I got in the drama program. And while I
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: was in the drama program, I knew that there was
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  Speaker 5: there was a path, some way to get into the
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  Speaker 5: film industry. I didn't know what a producer was. I
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: didn't know, you know, I only knew that I had
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: to go out and at some point go to California,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: go to Los Angeles and make movies. And what inspired,
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: what really lit the fire was I directed and played
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: McMurphy in a stage production of One Full of the
• 5:00
  Speaker 5: Cuckoo's Nest that myself and a couple of friends presented
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: to the Sports Booster Club to raise money for them.
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: And not knowing what a producer does, I built the
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: set and then I got all of the the football
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: players to play the crazies in the in the play.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: And that brought in so many people to see their sons,
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: you know, coming in this football star playing in this play.
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  Speaker 5: And it was a soul that weekend for three weekends,
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  Speaker 5: you know, the first time that's ever happened in this
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  Speaker 5: small town of Trumansburg, New York. And that lit the fire.
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  Speaker 5: And I went on to go to the American Academy
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  Speaker 5: of Dramatic Arts in New York and then came home
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  Speaker 5: and decided this was it. I had to take the
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  Speaker 5: shot and go to California.
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  Speaker 3: So, now, before you moved out to California and La specifically,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: when you before you moved out there, did you actually,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: you know, have like a place to stay and have
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: a job already lined up?
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  Speaker 5: No, I had nothing. In fact, I came out with
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  Speaker 5: three other guys from school. We had made a plan
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: to you know, to get out here, and I had
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: already been bartending, so I knew that I could probably
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: get a job once I got out here. And in
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: New York at the time, you know, you could start
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: bartying at eighteen. In California it was twenty one and
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: I had been I was twenty one at that time.
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  Speaker 5: So when I applied for a job, they said how
• 6:26
  Speaker 5: many years experience? And I told him I've been doing
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  Speaker 5: this since eighteen. They said, well that's not I said, well,
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: that's why it is in New York. So I landed
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: a job and it was at this little place in
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  Speaker 5: Studio City called Steveg's. And ironically, before I left. While
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  Speaker 5: I was there, there was a friend of mine that
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: I went to school with. His name was Jimmy Hayden,
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: and Jimmy Hayden was an actor. And I had another
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: friend named Michael Koogle and we were very good friends.
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: And I was bartending in Manhattan at a place called Aileen's.
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  Speaker 5: And one night, when we had closed up, the three
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  Speaker 5: of us made a pact and said, we're gonna, you know,
• 7:04
  Speaker 5: when one of us gets in there, we're going to
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  Speaker 5: pull the other two in. So I had, you know,
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: left closed up shop, so to speak, with my life
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: in New York, and moved to California. And then I
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: spoke to Jimmy on the phone about a year or
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: so later, and Jimmy had told me that Michael Kuckle
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: had died and it was he was depressed, and it
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: was you know, it was a long story for that.
• 7:26
  Speaker 5: And then Jimmy had said to me, listen, I'm you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: things are going well for me. I did a movie
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: with Robert de Niro called Once Upon a Time in America,
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: and I'm going to be on Broadway with Al Pacino
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: in a play called American Buffalo. And I said, I
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: got to see. He says, well, we're going to be
• 7:42
  Speaker 5: in San Francisco, so you got to come. We'll go
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: out to dinner. I said, great. Well, about two months later,
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  Speaker 5: Jimmy was dead of a heroin overdose because the Bobby
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  Speaker 5: in the play was an attic and I'm not quite
• 7:56
  Speaker 5: sure exactly how all of this said happened or how
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  Speaker 5: it went down, but Jimmy was not really a drug addict,
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: you know, and he was an incredible actor at the time.
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  Speaker 5: In fact, Mickey Rourke dedicated his performance in popa Greenwich
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  Speaker 5: Village to Jimmy Aiden. So that relationship between myself and
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  Speaker 5: those two young actors really set an idea up for
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  Speaker 5: me that I had had about, you know, creating a film.
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  Speaker 5: And I made my first short film called Second Dance,
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  Speaker 5: and it was it was basically about myself and my
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: relationship with two guys, and I was depressed when I
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: came out here, not working, not knowing what was going on,
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  Speaker 5: and I ended up writing that short film that was
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: about a guy who was at the end of his
• 8:45
  Speaker 5: rope and two of his friends come back as angels
• 8:48
  Speaker 5: to visit him, and he's about to commit suicide and
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: they convince him it's not the thing to do. Well.
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  Speaker 5: That went on to I Take Its Journey and ended
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  Speaker 5: up at Sun Dance.
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  Speaker 3: You know, that's absolutely incredible, you know, just to you know,
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  Speaker 3: take a step back for a second. You know when
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: you said you have that packed with friends, you know,
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  Speaker 3: if one person makes it, you know the other the
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  Speaker 3: other the person that makes is going to help the
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: other ones up.
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  Speaker 5: You know.
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: That's that's actually something that you know, I've heard of
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  Speaker 3: before too, where you know friends or or even if
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: they went to the same college or grew up in
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  Speaker 3: the same neighborhood, and you know, they sort of say, listen,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: if you know, one of us makes it, we're we're
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: going to do our best to help the others, whether
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: that be through contacts or introductions or you know, what
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: have you. And we're also going to tell you what
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: is actually on the front line of things. And you know,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: like I had a friend of mine who was a
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: screenwriter and he he you know, he made it, and
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: he always was telling his friends, you know, this is
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: how your script's got to look. This is what it's
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: going to be, because you gotta get one shot with this
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: uh to an introduction, and you have to make it
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: as good as possible.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, the to me, what what what has
• 9:57
  Speaker 5: to happen in your life is whatever relationships that you
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: and whatever bond you have, you know, it's very important
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: to continue that.
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: Especially if it's going to be in a certain business,
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: whether you're in whether you're in a travel business, whether
• 10:19
  Speaker 5: you're in the restaurant business or anything like that, your
• 10:22
  Speaker 5: friends can actually help you. They can actually hurt you
• 10:24
  Speaker 5: as well, depending on you know, how your friends are
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: with you and how that bond is. And I think
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: that having that support sometimes of a creative friend that's
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: along with you can elevate your career as well as
• 10:38
  Speaker 5: their own. And I truly believe that giving back, you know,
• 10:43
  Speaker 5: is also part of it. And I you know, I
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: cherished the relationship that I had as though, you know,
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: but it was short lived because it was only a
• 10:52
  Speaker 5: couple of years in New York. And then when we
• 10:55
  Speaker 5: came out, you know, I didn't get to see them,
• 10:58
  Speaker 5: and when I heard about what had happened, it was
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: it kind of it was devastating, you know, knowing that
• 11:04
  Speaker 5: we had this plan to go out and do it,
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: but you can't, you know, you can't give up, and
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: they wouldn't want you to give up. So I just,
• 11:12
  Speaker 5: you know, I continued the journey.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: So I mean, and again, you know, when you were
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: talking about how both of your friends had passed, uh,
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: you know, and and the one had died from a
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: from a heroin overdose. I mean that that is just
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: unbelievably at a left field because like you just said,
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: you know, he you know, he wasn't you know, into
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: that or never had had been a known drug addict
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: or anything like that. And you know, it's just that
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: that's you know, that's just one of those things that
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: a left field and you know remind you know, it
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: just reminds me of a few things that that have
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: happened to other guests as well, you know, where that
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: we're something you know, a friend of theirs has just missed,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: you know, just died and been clear out of the blue,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: like you see him one day and you know it's
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: almost like they're gone the next.
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, looks at the I guess, you know,
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: the seventies and eighties were really a time when people
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: were exploring and testing things out in their lives. And
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: since this character, I can't speculate. I can only you know,
• 12:10
  Speaker 5: I can only try to try to put things together
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: in a sense where possibly this happened, but I don't
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: want to, you know, say, for sure. But you know,
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: when you play a character that's a heroin addict, you know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: most actors won't do the heroin. Some people may just
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: you know, may test it out and uh and it
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: becomes their demise. And Jimmy was a great guy, you know,
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: he he was a very talented actor. And I don't
• 12:35
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't know how it went down, or
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: who he was with or the crowd. And there there's
• 12:40
  Speaker 5: there's articles about it, and people wrote things about who
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: he was with and how it was influenced. But I
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: think what you have to celebrate is their their lives
• 12:48
  Speaker 5: and and the work that they did, which was far
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: more important than that, you know, that downward spiral that
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: caused it, and Jimmy's work speaks for itself, you know,
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: it's it was a remarkable career, you know, short lived,
• 13:03
  Speaker 5: much like James Dean, you know, and in fact, in fact,
• 13:06
  Speaker 5: they compared him to James Dean during that time. So
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: you know, it's because of that relationship it inspired me
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: to do that film that really opened the door for
• 13:16
  Speaker 5: me and go and and move on. So I believe
• 13:19
  Speaker 5: that they were you know, they were a part of it.
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And you use this as an inspiration to you know,
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: to write and direct, and you're actually able to produce
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Second Dance, you know, which was a short film of yours.
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: And you know, you also got one of my favorite
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: character actors, by the way, in the film, uh Carmine
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: Felipe or flippe Ye. And Carmine was every move every
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: movie that Carmine is in, he is just you're you're
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: just drawn to him. He's like a magnet. It could
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: because his performance and every move I've ever seen of him,
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: no matter whether it's in Wayne's World or Beatle Juice,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: he's you know, or even in you know, in your
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: film Second Dance, he just always you're just drawing to
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: his performances.
• 14:03
  Speaker 5: Well, you know. The funny story about about him was
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: I was working on another movie in production and I
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: while I was on set on location, who's walking down
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: the street in Hollywood is Carmen. And I knew that
• 14:17
  Speaker 5: I wanted to have someone in this short film. Usually
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: what people try to do is they try to get
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: one name, a big name or something like that, to
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: do a cameo to do in your film. And I
• 14:26
  Speaker 5: didn't want I didn't want it to be, you know,
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: to get al Pacino, you know, in the in the
• 14:32
  Speaker 5: short film. I would have loved to have done that,
• 14:34
  Speaker 5: but I didn't see, you know, a spot for that
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: to put it in there and take your attention away.
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: So when I talked to Carmen, Carmen is completely different
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: or was you know, he passed away, but he was
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: completely different from the characters that he played on film.
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: And we had a great discussion about acting, about life
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: in Hollywood and his journey as well. And I I
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: told him the story that I just told you about,
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: the you know, the process in which Second Dance was made,
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: and he he was drawn to the story and he
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: wanted to be a part of it. In fact, after
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: he read the script, he had said to me, I
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: love it. I want to do this no matter what.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: I'll be there. Would you mind if I kind of, like,
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: you know, went off the script for a little bit,
• 15:22
  Speaker 5: And I said, look, as long as you stay on
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: the path of where we're heading to, you know, your
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: dialogue will be golden for me. Just make sure that
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: we stay within those confines of the story. And you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: when you do a short film, especially when you're shooting
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: on film, because I shot that on thirty five millimeter.
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: You don't have a lot of luxury to do multiple takes.
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: And I think we did maybe maybe two or three
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: takes at the most of him, and I let him
• 15:50
  Speaker 5: go and I just said, go go with it, and
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: you know, he lit up the screen. He looks great
• 15:57
  Speaker 5: on film. He's engaged with the characters, and he communicates
• 16:02
  Speaker 5: extremely well. And it's just he was a pleasure to work.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: With, you know, And we talk too about that, you know,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: on the podcast too. Is you know, the difference between
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: thirty five millimeters and digital, you know, because you know
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: the filmmakers who've shot on both, they've you know, that's
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: the one thing they like about digital is that they
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: can do you know, they can't afford that luxury of
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: multiple takes because obviously, you know, you know, it doesn't
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: cost anything to you know, put another file on an
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: SD card or what have you. But again, when you're
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: working for thirty five millimeter, there's there you know, every
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: take literally literally does cost.
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: You money without a doubt. In fact, you know, I
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: cuts the movie on a movieola. And you know, people
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: don't realize, you know, the filmiks of today, what even
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: what a movie ola is unless they googled it, and
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: you know, you have this tiny little screen that's like
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: a three by five screen and you put the film
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: and the sound through it, and that's what you're watching
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: to get your final product out there. And it's it's
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: a big risk, you know, it's a it's a it's
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: a it's just a chance that you're taking, you know,
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: And we didn't have We also didn't have video playback.
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: So I stood by camera and watched the performances there,
• 17:17
  Speaker 5: hoping that my my DP, my cinematographer would capture the
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: essence of what was in the script, and and he did.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: You know, we we lit it. I love films that
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: are are dark in the sense of their lighting, and
• 17:33
  Speaker 5: uh doesn't it doesn't look flat and just doesn't it
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: just exposes just enough to bring you into that world.
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: And Chris Moseley, who's my DP, we had long discussions
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: prior to that about this process and knowing that we
• 17:48
  Speaker 5: had to capture things. I didn't care. I wanted to
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: give it like a film now or look with color
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: and and go through that process. But by by doing
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: it on thirty five millimeter, I was limited to the
• 18:03
  Speaker 5: number of takes, the time and you know, poverty breeds creativity.
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: So we did what we could to get the best
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: performances on screen. And everybody from the background to you know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: the main actor, they all pulled it off. And and
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: the proof is in the pudding for the film itself.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you mentioned something too, uh that that is
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: thought provoking too, that I've mentioned other guests and we've
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: talked about, is the the relationship between the director and
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: the dp uh. You know, like today, you know, people
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: usually get monitors, you know, and they watched they can
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: see the exact framing, you know. But but it used
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: to be you had to trust your director's cinematography with
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: with everything because you you know, you didn't get it.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: You didn't see what they were actually getting if you
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: know what I mean, they were they were actually you
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: had to trust them that they were getting this correct shot,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: that everything looked good, and you and and directors would
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: stand and you know, watch the actual actual character performance,
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: the actual the actual actor performances right then and there,
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: but not auto monitor, and you know, and now nowadays,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: so that's that's what most directors do, is that they
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: have the actual monitor now to see the performances as
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: are happening.
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: Well, you're you know, you're absolutely right. And what I
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: what I try to do and what what I've done
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: on my films is communicate with my DP and allow
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: him to paint the picture. I give him a map
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: of what we want to do. I try to frame
• 19:24
  Speaker 5: certain things and he lights and takes it from there.
• 19:29
  Speaker 5: When I did Hush the short film, my DP, John Connor,
• 19:34
  Speaker 5: and I we worked for four and a half months
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: beforehand and had everything mapped out. I did the storyboards,
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: we looked at at camera angles. I had purchased something
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: on my iPhone which was called filmic Pro to take
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: video and snapshots of the set and the actors in positions,
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: so we had some sort of framing for that.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 20:09
  Speaker 5: But I did discuss with John which we were we
• 20:13
  Speaker 5: were pulling our hair out and I said, look, I
• 20:16
  Speaker 5: don't want I don't want any lights in this movie.
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: It's at night, it's in indoors, and in tearshot, I
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: said I don't want any lights at all. I just
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: want a flashlight, and John, you know, said how are
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: we going to do this? We shot with the Alexa,
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: but we came up with the plan and an idea
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: that was sparked in the preparation, and you use these
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: little tricks to create the scene and it worked perfectly.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: And if it wasn't for that prep time and the
• 20:49
  Speaker 5: discussions and the relationship between myself and the DP, I
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: don't think we would have had what we had. And
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: most filmmakers today they just want to make a movie,
• 20:57
  Speaker 5: to get out there and make a movie. But if
• 21:00
  Speaker 5: you don't have if you don't have a good DP
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: and great sound, then you're traveling down a road where
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: you're just like everybody else and you're just gonna shoot
• 21:08
  Speaker 5: on an iPhone or something and it looks flat and
• 21:11
  Speaker 5: there's no style to it. But when you create something
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: and you have a great relationship with your DP who
• 21:17
  Speaker 5: shows a style, it elevates you as a filmmaker. And
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: I think that's one of the things that's very very
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: important to a lot of filmmakers or for a lot
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: of filmmakers. And you see it in a lot of
• 21:29
  Speaker 5: the in the horror genre, where the lighting and the
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: composition is just done so well in most of those films,
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: and I think a lot of the successful filmmaker, filmmakers
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: today started out in horror.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is very true. And you know that's something
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: that I've even talked about at the beginning of the
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: podcast when I had on David Heule from a horror
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: movie school. You know, a lot of successful filmmakers actually
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: did start in horror. And you know, like like Sam
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: Raimi always is the first one that comes to mind,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: you know, because Sam Rami made Evil Dead and then
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: Evil Dead too, and then you know he years later
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: he went on to make Spider Man and you know,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: now you know, and you get those big, big blockbuster.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: Movies, right well, I mean James Cameron made Parana the Spawning. Yeah,
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: you know, there's just just I mean, you look at
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: the people who who started your career out, especially with
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: Roger Corman, and you know, it was Francis Coppola, there
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: was Martin Scorsese, and all of these great filmmakers of
• 22:34
  Speaker 5: today actually gave got their start through that, you know,
• 22:38
  Speaker 5: that path that Corman set out to create. So you know,
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: I got to give a lot of credit to filmmakers
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: and producers like Roger Corman because he opened the door
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: for people. They didn't have a lot of money to
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: make those movies, but I think that goes back to
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: saying that poverty breeds creativity. And when you're a filmmaker,
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: your creative side and your those creative juices have to flow,
• 23:03
  Speaker 5: and they have to flow with your VP as well
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: as your actors, and when it all comes together, you know,
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: this is uh, this is what filmmaking is. Yeah.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: I love that saying, by the way, poverty breeds creativity.
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: I like that, Mike. I'm gonna I'm gonna have to
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: steal that.
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: By the way, it's yours. Yeah.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: So, so after you made Second Dance, you know, you
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: made some other films obviously between Second Dance and Hush,
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: you know Hush, I want to get to but I
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: want to talk you to obviously about those films in between.
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: You know, after you film Second Dance, did you did
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: you take did you take it to any film festivals?
• 23:40
  Speaker 3: And where was that? How you know did you parlay
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: that into your next film, which was Dominion?
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: Well, what I did was I submitted the I submitted
• 23:49
  Speaker 5: Second Dance to Sun Dance, and I didn't make it
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: because it was it was too late. So I talked
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: to a friend of mine who's a producer, and he said, look,
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: let's get a screening. We'll get a screening. We'll get
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: a room over at TriStar over where Sony is now,
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: and we'll screen that. And then that, you know, you'll
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: bring some people in look at there, maybe only thirty
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: people that show up, and we'll see what weapons. So
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: I said, okay, and now you know you have a
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: thirty five millimeter can that you're walking around with. This
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: is your child. So I brought that to Sony and
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: I put word out. You know, I had been in
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: the movie business in working in production, which my brother
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: got me. I got my brother into it, and then
• 24:30
  Speaker 5: he got me in on that side. And we got
• 24:34
  Speaker 5: a ninety nine seat theater and I waited outside and
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: five hundred people showed up, including Keanu Reeves and because
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: I had worked with him on Speed, and so now
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: you know what do I do? And I had to
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: show the film five times because there's only ninety nine seats,
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: And when it was over, the projectionist came to me
• 24:54
  Speaker 5: and she said, and it was a woman. And for
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: the life of me, I can't remember what her name was.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: But I'm actually searching now to find out because we're
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: about to screen the next movie at Sony and she
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: said to me, Michael, have you submitted this to Sundance
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: And I said yeah, but it was too late. I
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: didn't make it. She said, well, why don't you leave
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: it here, you know, for this weekend, because the gentleman
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: that is a part of the shorts program, he's in
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: charge of the shorts program, he would be here and
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: I should show this to him. This deserves to be
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: in there. So I thought, oh my god, I'm leaving
• 25:30
  Speaker 5: my child here, you know, at Sony, you know, over
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: the week for the week. And I trusted her and
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: came home, you know. And about four or five days later,
• 25:41
  Speaker 5: I get a truck comes up with the can film
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: can props it off for me to sign and it's over.
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: I don't hear anything. Well, about two and a half
• 25:49
  Speaker 5: weeks later, I get a letter in the mail says
• 25:51
  Speaker 5: Sundance and I thought right away this is a rejection letter.
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: Just thanks for sending it in, but no thanks. And
• 25:57
  Speaker 5: I'm sitting on the front porch with my dog and
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: I open the letter and sure enough it says, on
• 26:02
  Speaker 5: behalf of Robert Redford and the Sundance Film Festival. You
• 26:05
  Speaker 5: have made it to the festival. So I jumped for
• 26:09
  Speaker 5: joy for that and went to UH went to the festival.
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: It was I think it was at the same time
• 26:16
  Speaker 5: that Hoop Dreams was playing at that time, and Matthew
• 26:18
  Speaker 5: Modine was in a short film and went on a
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: writer and so we were all interviewed by Entertainment tonight
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: UH for that, and I gotta I gotta approached by
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: another company. I had written an action a thriller that
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: I just wanted to sell. I didn't want to, you know,
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: I didn't want to. I didn't want to direct it.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: And they approached me and they said, you know, there'd
• 26:42
  Speaker 5: be great if you who will do this if you
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: want to direct it? And uh. The producer who helped
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: me with the short ended up producing that and we
• 26:48
  Speaker 5: went on to do that feature. UH. The funny story
• 26:52
  Speaker 5: was I had been working in production, you know, at
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: a craft service company, and I was doing a movie
• 26:58
  Speaker 5: called Airheads with Adam Sandler and you know, God Steve
• 27:07
  Speaker 5: Bussemi and Ernie Hudson was in it. And Ernie Hudson
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: would get a couple of scripts, you know, during the
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: course of the week. And what I did was I
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: took my script and I got the PA who was
• 27:18
  Speaker 5: bringing it to his trailer and I sneaked it in there,
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: and about two days later, Ernie called me to his
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: trailer and said, did you write this? I said yeah.
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: He says I want to do it, and I said,
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: oh my god, it's great. So I Prism Entertainment at
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: the time. We made a deal together. It was a
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: one point three million dollar movie and Ernie was in,
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: and we did a promo shots with Ernie's face on
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: the poster and got everything together. And then a couple
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: of months, about a month or so before shooting, Ernie
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: came to me and said, Mike, I feel bad, but
• 27:52
  Speaker 5: Kathleen Kennedy called me and I'm going to do this
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: movie called Congo. He says I won't be able to
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: do that movie, and I you know, of course I
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: was disappointed, but you never want to say screw you.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: You're supposed to do my movie. You don't survive in
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: this industry by being that way. And I was so
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: supportive of him. I said, look, go do that. You're
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: gonna you're gonna do a lot better than doing this
• 28:12
  Speaker 5: movie for this little movie for me. But we ended
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: up getting Brad Johnson and and also, uh, I don't
• 28:20
  Speaker 5: know if you if you've seen the movie Brian James
• 28:23
  Speaker 5: who was in a Blade Runner and forty eight Hours,
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: and uh a few a number of other actors and
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: you know Richard Reeley who plays a character role and that,
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: and then that went on. It was I think it
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: was on. It was on cable for a while, and
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: then I went off to do a couple of other
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: shorts that won some awards, and then I did another
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: feature called The Art of a Bullet with Leaife Garrett.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: And you know, I people were laughing at me of
• 28:52
  Speaker 5: casting Leaife Garrett in this in the lead role, but
• 28:55
  Speaker 5: I have to tell you, Laife did such an amazing
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: job in this role. It was a dark kind of
• 29:02
  Speaker 5: a film. You are, detective thriller about a home invasion,
• 29:06
  Speaker 5: and he was he was spot on. And then of
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: course after the film he got in a little bit
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: of trouble and things kind of went sour for a
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: while for him. But it really worked, you know, it
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: worked out for the film itself, and you know, we
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: got a small distribution deal overseas for that. And then
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: I went on and started writing again, and that's when
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: I came up with this idea of finally doing a
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: horror movie.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: So, and just to stop and ask a question right here,
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: don't don't you think it's important for pretty much everybody,
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: whether you're an actor or director, to be writing your
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: own scripts, just just to even whether you're going to
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: shoot yourself, or even just to hand it to somebody
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: else and maybe say, hey, would you want to make this?
• 29:56
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: You know, I think I don't think any you know,
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: it's it's a great question, because there's some incredible writers
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: out there, independent writers that haven't made it yet, and
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: they have some remarkable scripts, and they don't want to
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: be a director, they don't even want to be a producer.
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: They just want to write. And so, yes, I found
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: it that in the beginning stages of my career. When
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: I first moved out here, I bought myself a computer
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: and I, you know, not even knowing how to use it.
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: The only thing I wanted to learn was a screenwriting program.
• 30:38
  Speaker 5: And I had the first, you know, version of Final
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: Draft when it came out and started writing that because
• 30:45
  Speaker 5: a writer writes, and that's what I was trying to
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: do as well. As make my film. But I think,
• 30:52
  Speaker 5: you know, if you as a filmmaker starting out, it
• 30:55
  Speaker 5: might be it might be wise to either write something
• 31:00
  Speaker 5: if you're able to write something that is is readable
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: and enjoyable for the for the reader and the audience.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: But you may find a writer that's out there that
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: has written something that that you may not be able
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: to pull off in your own writing skills. I mean,
• 31:15
  Speaker 5: I'm reading some scripts now that I would never be
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: able to do it, and I love and I you know,
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: I'm working on trying to acquire them. But you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: it's a great question to ask. It's I just think
• 31:28
  Speaker 5: it's the individual of who wants to create something and
• 31:32
  Speaker 5: and uh and maybe sit with a writer and create
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: something or or do it yourself. Like you said, I
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: don't think there's any specific answer for.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: That, Okay, you know, and it's it's always something when
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I always ask everybody, because you know, some people are
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: always some people got very frustrated about, you know, not
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: having options. Some people want to make their own opportunities.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: There's there's always a couple of key words, just one
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: single word that ilways find on the podcast Mike. One
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: of them is creativity. Another one as opportunities, and I
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: always sort of let you know, we can draw so
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: much from them because we're all just sort of you know,
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: we're always boiling things down to to sort of that
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: that one word that we can sort of use. And uh,
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: you know again, I like what your definition of creativity?
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: You know, poverty, you know, Uh, poverty, poverty creates creativity
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: and uh and just you know stuff. That's why I
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: wanted to ask that question. But you know, so as
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: we continue on with you know, with with your whole journey,
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: you know again, you wanted to write a horror movie.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: So where does sort of the impetus of the of
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: the idea, this sort of seed idea, Where did that
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: come from? For the concept of the horror.
• 32:42
  Speaker 5: Movie, Well, early on, I was inspired by thrillers, Hitchcock,
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: things like that. I'm I'm not very much into slasher films,
• 32:57
  Speaker 5: blood and guts, torture or anything like that. And looking
• 33:00
  Speaker 5: at the horror genre, the horror genre to me is
• 33:04
  Speaker 5: like thirty one flavors. You know, you have people that
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: like vampire movies, you have people that like zombie movies,
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: you have like people like paranormal movies or slasher movies.
• 33:14
  Speaker 5: But when you make when you make a horror thriller,
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: you get the attention of all those across the board.
• 33:20
  Speaker 5: And that's what I wanted. I didn't want to make
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: a specific film for one specific audience. So I started
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: thinking about things. And I have twin boys, and when
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: they were very very young, they used to say before
• 33:35
  Speaker 5: they went to bed, they used to say, Daddy, check
• 33:37
  Speaker 5: under the bed. Daddy checked the closet, Daddy, you know.
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: And I said, there's nothing there. There's nothing there. And
• 33:43
  Speaker 5: that inspired me to create this story of Hush. And
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: so when I got into it, I wanted to. I
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: started writing the feature, which originally was called The Hatred,
• 33:55
  Speaker 5: and I took a scene out of that, which is
• 33:58
  Speaker 5: the scene you know, the Hush, which we shot. And
• 34:02
  Speaker 5: I decided that I was going to go out and
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: try to try to shoot this as a short film
• 34:07
  Speaker 5: because years ago, in the eighties and nineties, a lot
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: of the stunt men that I knew were creating sizzle
• 34:14
  Speaker 5: reels or you know, a reel that would expose it. It
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: would actually promote the film itself, so kind of like
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: a teaser. And I thought, you know, I'm going to
• 34:24
  Speaker 5: do this one scene if there's attention for this, it
• 34:27
  Speaker 5: may give me a shot at the feature. And I
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: wanted to make more of an anticipation of death rather
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: than death itself, because you know, the anticipation of death
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: is worse than death itself. And if you're watching something
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: and it's what's behind the door, it's the journey from
• 34:45
  Speaker 5: the moment you hear the sound till you get to
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: the door. That journey in between is the journey that
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: raises the hair on the back of your neck. And
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: that's what I wanted. So I have a very close
• 34:59
  Speaker 5: friend of mine that we were young. We started out
• 35:01
  Speaker 5: our careers very early. His name is Tommy Harper, or
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: is Tommy Harper, And we decided that we were going
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: to try to develop this now. Tommy Harper started out
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: as an ad and then worked his way up and producing.
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: And at the time, Tommy had said to me, you know,
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: do this, but you really need a DP that understands horror.
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: So I told him about John Connor and John Carr
• 35:25
  Speaker 5: and I had been friends for many, many years. We
• 35:28
  Speaker 5: worked on a couple of films with Tony Scott and
• 35:31
  Speaker 5: then we started talking. This is eighteen years ago. We
• 35:33
  Speaker 5: talked about making a movie together and Tommy Harper said, no, no, no,
• 35:37
  Speaker 5: you know he's he doesn't know hard you look at
• 35:40
  Speaker 5: these guys. So Tommy went off and told me that
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: he was not going to be available because he was
• 35:45
  Speaker 5: leaving town to go work, to go produce a movie.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: And that movie, that little movie was Star Wars The
• 35:51
  Speaker 5: Force Awakens in London. So I said, okay, well, I
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: don't want to stop you from working on this little movie.
• 35:57
  Speaker 5: To go work on that little movie. So Tommy went
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: off to do that, and while the cats away, the
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: Micel play and I got John Connor to shoot Hush.
• 36:07
  Speaker 5: And when in the process of writing it and doing it,
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: as I said to you before, we created this formula
• 36:17
  Speaker 5: that we wanted to make for this movie. And when
• 36:21
  Speaker 5: we finished it, I had My editor is a guy
• 36:24
  Speaker 5: named Michael Trent, who's an incredible editor. Worked with Steven
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: Spielberg for many years and we have our kids went
• 36:32
  Speaker 5: to school together, so we had a relationship there and
• 36:35
  Speaker 5: I didn't expect him to want to be a part
• 36:37
  Speaker 5: of it. He read the script and he said, I'll
• 36:38
  Speaker 5: do it. I'll do it, And it was only five minutes.
• 36:41
  Speaker 5: But the footage that I gave him, I got to
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: give him credit for the entire cut, because the only
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: thing we did was extend one little piece of the
• 36:51
  Speaker 5: section of the movie. Other than that, what you see
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: is Michael Trent's cut. And then, you know, we started
• 36:59
  Speaker 5: the journey with the short film on the festival route
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: and I spent you know, filmmakers have to understand you
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: have to spend money to make money, and you've got
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: to get it out there, and you've got to get
• 37:11
  Speaker 5: it out to the right festivals. You know, you want
• 37:13
  Speaker 5: you want to go to festivals that have screenings. You
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: want to go to festivals that are probably a few
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: years in the making, because there are you know, there
• 37:22
  Speaker 5: are some people that are sitting home that are you know,
• 37:24
  Speaker 5: typing out little certificates and emailing them to you saying
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: you won this festival when it really doesn't mean anything.
• 37:30
  Speaker 5: So you want the uh, you want the acknowledgment from
• 37:33
  Speaker 5: the audience as well as a respected film festival.
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, you know, and that's also something that I've
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: talked about too with other people in this podcast has
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: been you know, what festivals are can actually do something
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: for you as well as you do you know, you're
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: giving a submission to them, are these festivals valid you know,
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: if you because I went way back when I had
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: a script running consultant on who who actually said he
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: had a client and she and she ended up winning
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: like fifteen different screenwrinning competitions. But the downside was Mike,
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: none of them were like the big name festival competitions.
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: They were, you know, the smaller competitions. And he said, literally,
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: the only way she got more work after winning all
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: these competitions was that she had a deep network and
• 38:23
  Speaker 3: that one person got her into somewhere else to do
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: to do a writing gig. But you know, and it
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: just goes back to you know, we were talking about
• 38:31
  Speaker 3: about networking and you know, things like that, but you know,
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: just to talk about you know again with with hush,
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: you know, making sure you you know, the audience responded
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: to it as well as as the as the festival circuit.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: You know, when when will you when did you sort
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: of you know, know that you had you know, I
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: guess the term would be hit. You know, when did
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: you know that you had something here that you know,
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: you sort of got lightning in a bottle with this.
• 38:56
  Speaker 5: Well, another great question. You know, I'm extremely hard on
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: myself it's hard for me to sit in the theater
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: to watch the movie that I made, because you know,
• 39:05
  Speaker 5: I want to please the audience and I want to
• 39:07
  Speaker 5: go out and sometimes you never know, you know what's
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: going to happen and their reaction if it's positive or negative.
• 39:14
  Speaker 5: So when we finished it, I showed it to a
• 39:17
  Speaker 5: few people, and the reaction from them jumping out of
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: their seat, I knew that there was something there. I
• 39:24
  Speaker 5: didn't know if they were being honest with me. But
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: as I started testing it with people, I got the
• 39:30
  Speaker 5: same feelings. So I said, okay, you know what I'm
• 39:32
  Speaker 5: gonna I'm going to put it out into this festival.
• 39:35
  Speaker 5: And the very first festival we won eight awards and
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: I thought, okay, well maybe this is maybe this is it,
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: and we started applying. I spent a lot of money,
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: you know, putting it out to film festivals. We got
• 39:49
  Speaker 5: on film freeway, and we started hitting it.
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 40:00
  Speaker 4: Now back to the show.
• 40:03
  Speaker 5: And we couldn't get into some of the bigger festivals
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: at the time because of the timing of it. But
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: as it started going out, and like you had said,
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: which I think is so important. You have to build
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: a network, a following that you get in there. And
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: since we now have social network, you can actually go
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: out and let people know what you're doing. And in
• 40:26
  Speaker 5: doing that, people will start to gain a little interest
• 40:29
  Speaker 5: and see what you're doing. And as you're starting to
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: hit that market and festival after festival and you're announcing
• 40:36
  Speaker 5: it because you have to be your own publicist, people
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: will be interested in say, well, I want to see
• 40:41
  Speaker 5: this film now because it's one, ten, twelve, fourteen awards.
• 40:45
  Speaker 5: And not until we were selected at the Catalina Film
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: Festival and my good friend Ivana Cadaver said to me,
• 40:58
  Speaker 5: I couldn't make it to the festival, well because I
• 41:00
  Speaker 5: was actually going to be working on this other movie.
• 41:04
  Speaker 5: And I said, I'm not gonna be able to make it.
• 41:06
  Speaker 5: She said, I'll go in place. And then she called
• 41:09
  Speaker 5: me and said to me, do you know that Wes
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: Craven actually chose your film. It was before he died.
• 41:14
  Speaker 5: It was one of the films that he said, this
• 41:17
  Speaker 5: deserves to be in the festival, deserves to be a feature.
• 41:20
  Speaker 5: So I think f Gary Gray made the announcement or
• 41:22
  Speaker 5: whatever at the festival itself, and Robert England was there
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: and we won an award there, the Wes Craven Award,
• 41:30
  Speaker 5: which was you know, a great feather in my cap
• 41:33
  Speaker 5: for the movie. And as that went out and I
• 41:37
  Speaker 5: built this following on social network. It was Twitter and
• 41:41
  Speaker 5: Instagram and Facebook. You know, people started seeing what was happening.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: And I put it out and gave it to a
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: producer by the name of Malika Cott. And Malik is
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: responsible for the Halloween franchise, and you know, I was
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: I had sent it over to Blumhouse. I sent it
• 42:00
  Speaker 5: over to a couple of other places, Sony and some
• 42:03
  Speaker 5: other places that Malick called me and said, I've been
• 42:06
  Speaker 5: sent a lot of scripts. I really like this. I
• 42:08
  Speaker 5: want to sit down with you with this. And Malick's
• 42:11
  Speaker 5: kind of a hands on producer, and we sat and
• 42:14
  Speaker 5: we developed the story and continued with the events that
• 42:19
  Speaker 5: occur within the script and the characters and taking some
• 42:21
  Speaker 5: things out and putting other things in, and we got
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: financed and we were set to go into production. It
• 42:30
  Speaker 5: took a while from the time that the I think
• 42:34
  Speaker 5: the film was. The short film went out in the
• 42:37
  Speaker 5: latter part of twenty fourteen, and we shot the film
• 42:44
  Speaker 5: in two thousand it was twenty sixteen when we shot.
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: I think it was twenty sixteen. I can't even remember
• 42:52
  Speaker 5: what happened yesterday, but you know we Yeah, it was
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: a spring of twenty sixty and that is what happened there.
• 43:02
  Speaker 5: Once again, this comes into mind about poverty breeding creativity.
• 43:08
  Speaker 5: You know, we had a limited time to shoot. I
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: think we had like an eighteen or nineteen day schedule,
• 43:14
  Speaker 5: but we were just one hundred million dollars and it
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: wasn't a lot of money, you know, for what we
• 43:20
  Speaker 5: wanted to do, because we have big expectations of trying
• 43:24
  Speaker 5: to put the best up on screen, and we were
• 43:27
  Speaker 5: hit by the union, so we had to go union.
• 43:29
  Speaker 5: So we lost a number of days for that, and
• 43:31
  Speaker 5: it's a good amount of money from the budget, so
• 43:35
  Speaker 5: I didn't want, you know, losing two days is a lot.
• 43:38
  Speaker 5: And we were like we were shooting I think thirty
• 43:41
  Speaker 5: five setups a day, which is you know, remarkable for
• 43:44
  Speaker 5: a feature. And I got to give credit to my
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: crew and my cast because they were with me. And
• 43:50
  Speaker 5: I remember working with Tony Scott and Tony Scott getting
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: up there and lifting up you know, boxes and moving
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: and getting the team to move, go, go, go and
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: that's what they did, and so we went. We were
• 44:03
  Speaker 5: prepared in one seat, in one part of this house
• 44:06
  Speaker 5: we shot in and made people aware of what was
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: going on so we would be able to go from
• 44:10
  Speaker 5: there to the next spot. And Malik did a great
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: job of, you know, guiding it through and creating a
• 44:17
  Speaker 5: world for us to uh, you know, to have an opportunity.
• 44:20
  Speaker 5: We had a great line producer by the name of
• 44:22
  Speaker 5: Sean Goery and of course my my d P John Connor,
• 44:26
  Speaker 5: who is so so incredibly talented. In fact, John went
• 44:32
  Speaker 5: on to shoot Meet the Blacks and a couple of
• 44:36
  Speaker 5: other movies, Taylor Laufner movie that I can't remember the
• 44:40
  Speaker 5: name of it right now, but John got signed by
• 44:43
  Speaker 5: an agency right away after that, and uh, we you know,
• 44:47
  Speaker 5: it was a let me just say this, it was
• 44:49
  Speaker 5: a battle for me because you you have one idea
• 44:54
  Speaker 5: and one path that you think that this film is
• 44:56
  Speaker 5: going to go on, and then of course it takes
• 44:59
  Speaker 5: a different path because because of the roadblocks that you have.
• 45:02
  Speaker 5: And I look at the film now and is it
• 45:05
  Speaker 5: the movie they originally wanted to go out and make.
• 45:07
  Speaker 5: Probably not, but however, now it's it's it's a movie
• 45:12
  Speaker 5: that I'm very proud of. It's kind of a it's
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: an homage to the seventies and eighties with no blood,
• 45:18
  Speaker 5: no guts, no sex, no stupid women. And we have
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: ninety five percent female cast. So I think we we
• 45:29
  Speaker 5: I think we ended up hitting the mark on what
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: we did.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: But by the way, I wanted to mention Mike, we
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: actually have a mutual friend who actually worked on Alice
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: the Hatred and who did the makeup effects, the makeup
• 45:43
  Speaker 3: effects sculptor, and that was Hiroshi Kittigi. And Hiroshi's actually
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: been on this podcast as well.
• 45:49
  Speaker 5: Oh wow, oh yeah, well you know the world right, yeah, exactly.
• 45:55
  Speaker 5: I mean this is this is a great story as well.
• 45:59
  Speaker 5: I was working on a movie called Last Samurai. I
• 46:03
  Speaker 5: was in New Zealand, the Tom Cruise movie, and we
• 46:06
  Speaker 5: had gone to Japan and we would sick I think
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: five months into New Zealand and the transportation coordinator his
• 46:15
  Speaker 5: name is Vic Kucha, his daughter was his name. Her
• 46:18
  Speaker 5: name is Austin Kucha. I think she was like ten
• 46:20
  Speaker 5: or eleven years old at the time, and I was,
• 46:22
  Speaker 5: you know, we were prepping. So I was driving out
• 46:24
  Speaker 5: on one of those Honda you know, I don't I
• 46:28
  Speaker 5: forget what they call them. They're like a four wheel
• 46:31
  Speaker 5: go karts, so to speak, but they're motorized, you know.
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: And I'm driving her out and she's sitting with me,
• 46:37
  Speaker 5: and I just said to her, I said, what do
• 46:39
  Speaker 5: you want to do when you get older? She said,
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: I want to do special effects makeup? And I said
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: really and she said yeah. I said, well, if I
• 46:46
  Speaker 5: ever make a movie, you know I'm going to I'm
• 46:48
  Speaker 5: going to bring you on there now, never thinking anything
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: would happen. Years later, I'm doing Hush and Austin has
• 46:57
  Speaker 5: created blood rugs. I don't know if you know what
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: that is, but when you watch CSI and you see
• 47:01
  Speaker 5: an actor dead laying on the floor in a pool
• 47:03
  Speaker 5: of blood, they have this rug that they peel up
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: and they lay down so you don't ruin the floor
• 47:09
  Speaker 5: in a location. And they could put splatters on the wall,
• 47:12
  Speaker 5: which is which peels off and goes back on, so
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: you never have to worry about, you know, continuity, you know,
• 47:18
  Speaker 5: somebody stepping into it because it doesn't change. And Austin
• 47:22
  Speaker 5: did the makeup on Hush and ended up coming on
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: the feature as well. So this is another thing of
• 47:30
  Speaker 5: how small. This little world of Hollywood is, you know,
• 47:33
  Speaker 5: and it's to me, it's a great little world. And
• 47:36
  Speaker 5: you know when I hear people say, oh, that's so Hollywood,
• 47:38
  Speaker 5: that person is so in Hollywood. To me, there's there's Broadway,
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: there's off Broadway, and there's off off Broadway. In Hollywood,
• 47:44
  Speaker 5: there's Hollywood, there's off Hollywood, or Hollywood, independent Hollywood, and
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: then despert Hollywood and desperate Hollywood are those people that
• 47:53
  Speaker 5: talk about doing it, never do it, and say they
• 47:56
  Speaker 5: have money, but never, you know, never do it. And
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: I believe me, I've been dealing with that right now
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: on an independent movie and people who are saying, yeah,
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: they have money and they know somebody who knows somebody
• 48:06
  Speaker 5: who knows somebody, And to me, that's desperate. So, you know,
• 48:11
  Speaker 5: give credit to the people that are actually doing things
• 48:14
  Speaker 5: and making it happen. There's so many wonderful filmmakers out
• 48:18
  Speaker 5: here that I always try to support at festivals and
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: try to see what they're doing and always, you know,
• 48:25
  Speaker 5: have whatever advice that I could give from my journey
• 48:30
  Speaker 5: and my adventure. I always try to help others with it.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I like that term desperate Hollywood, Mike, because you know,
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: I've encountered that myself. And whenever i'm reading a you know,
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: like someone's autobiography, they've had that as well. Particularly. The
• 48:47
  Speaker 3: first person that comes to mind is Quentin Tarantino. When
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: he was trying to get money for Natural Born Killers,
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: which was actually one of his first screenplays, he actually
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: met these two bodybuilders who were trying to They said, well,
• 49:00
  Speaker 3: we have all this money and this and that, and
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: they didn't have anything. When he when he wrote Reservoir Dogs,
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: somebody else tried to he said, oh, you know, I
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: can get you the money, but you got to make
• 49:09
  Speaker 3: my girlfriend has to be mister blonde, the mister blonde character. Yes,
• 49:13
  Speaker 3: put it in, put it as a woman, and and
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: you know, you know all these people were just blowing smoke.
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: You know, they didn't really have any.
• 49:19
  Speaker 5: Money at all. Yeah, that's you know, that's what filmmakers
• 49:23
  Speaker 5: run into. There's always somebody that says, I got to
• 49:25
  Speaker 5: have my girlfriend in there and we can't tell my wife,
• 49:27
  Speaker 5: you know, or I've got to do this, and I've
• 49:30
  Speaker 5: got to do that, and you've got to do this
• 49:31
  Speaker 5: for me. But you know, I think every filmmaker needs
• 49:34
  Speaker 5: to stay on track, you know, for for what they want,
• 49:39
  Speaker 5: because ultimately it's it's their assets on the line and
• 49:42
  Speaker 5: no one else's. And if you end up when when
• 49:44
  Speaker 5: the term is selling out, it's selling out to say, well,
• 49:47
  Speaker 5: I'm going to do this just to get money. You know,
• 49:50
  Speaker 5: don't go out to make a movie just to make
• 49:51
  Speaker 5: a movie. I mean, you wouldn't go out and have
• 49:53
  Speaker 5: a child, just have a child, you know, you want
• 49:55
  Speaker 5: to make sure that you could support that child and
• 49:58
  Speaker 5: nurture it and grow just like he would with the self.
• 50:01
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 50:07
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 50:10
  Speaker 5: And so I think that that's the attitude that a
• 50:13
  Speaker 5: lot of successful filmmakers have, is to create a world
• 50:18
  Speaker 5: and try to get it not only you know, from
• 50:21
  Speaker 5: the page to the camera to the audience, and you know,
• 50:26
  Speaker 5: it's it's remarkable. Sometimes I hear these people that are
• 50:30
  Speaker 5: just going out and I see some of the films
• 50:31
  Speaker 5: that they shoot. It looks flat, the acting's not that great,
• 50:34
  Speaker 5: and where they put it, it goes nowhere. And they say, well,
• 50:38
  Speaker 5: I'm gonna have a life on YouTube. Well that's great,
• 50:40
  Speaker 5: but if you really, if you want to be a filmmaker,
• 50:43
  Speaker 5: you know, put your heart and soul into it and
• 50:45
  Speaker 5: surround yourself. To me, this is the most important thing.
• 50:48
  Speaker 5: Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, because
• 50:51
  Speaker 5: you don't. It's good to know a little bit about everything,
• 50:54
  Speaker 5: but get somebody that can actually do the job of
• 50:59
  Speaker 5: you know, your sound. For instance, Tom Curley, who won
• 51:02
  Speaker 5: the Academy Award for Whiplash, was my sound mixer on
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: the movie that we did, The Hatred, and Tom is
• 51:11
  Speaker 5: from upstate New York, so we had that in common.
• 51:13
  Speaker 5: I had worked with Jeff Wexler, whose dad is Haskell Wexler,
• 51:17
  Speaker 5: when I did a little short film that won it
• 51:20
  Speaker 5: at Comic Con years ago, and to me, you really
• 51:24
  Speaker 5: have to have great sound for a film. People will
• 51:26
  Speaker 5: say and well, you know, we'll do it in post.
• 51:28
  Speaker 5: I hate that line that we're going to fix it
• 51:30
  Speaker 5: in post. If you don't fix it on the set,
• 51:32
  Speaker 5: you're gonna have problems later on, you know. So you
• 51:36
  Speaker 5: put your heart and soul in it, and you get
• 51:38
  Speaker 5: people that are smarter than you, because that's going to
• 51:41
  Speaker 5: pave the road to success for people who dedicate their
• 51:45
  Speaker 5: heart and mind to it. Yeah.
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: I also don't like that whole attitude of you know,
• 51:50
  Speaker 3: let's just fix it and post. You know, I think
• 51:53
  Speaker 3: you know when you're almost like when if you were
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: to interview a lot of student filmmakers, I think a
• 51:59
  Speaker 3: lot of them have that attitude, and unfortunately some people don't.
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: Some people don't lose that attitude. And I've been on
• 52:05
  Speaker 3: film sets too where you know, I mean, hell, I'll
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: admit it, Mike, I've been guilty of that too, and
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: you know that was a few years ago obviously, but
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: you know when I now, you know, when I'm whenever
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: I'm you know, uh, it's been a while since I've
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: been on set. I shouldn't have mentioned that, but but
• 52:19
  Speaker 3: it's been a while, so I've been on set, uh,
• 52:21
  Speaker 3: you know, as I've run a film podcast. But uh, basically,
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: you know, I realize now you have to do it right,
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: you know, right when you're right then and there, and
• 52:30
  Speaker 3: uh you know, sometimes you need a little more time.
• 52:32
  Speaker 3: But it always sort of comes down to that production
• 52:34
  Speaker 3: management triangle.
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: You can have it good, you could have it, you
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: could have you know, there's there's the equality this speed
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: and uh the time, so uh, you know, you you
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: can have it fast and slow. It'll be good, you know,
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: all all that stuff and you got to sort of
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: all sort of manage that while you're on set.
• 52:51
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, and that's why, that's why preparing is
• 52:54
  Speaker 5: the you know, is ninety percent of the job because
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: then everything runs smoothly after that. And having that you
• 53:00
  Speaker 5: are going to you are going to come into, you know,
• 53:03
  Speaker 5: some changes. You know, filmmakers don't Some filmmakers early on
• 53:07
  Speaker 5: don't realize that. You know, when you're recording sound on set,
• 53:11
  Speaker 5: you also have to have room tone that you're going
• 53:13
  Speaker 5: to record so you can use later on in case
• 53:15
  Speaker 5: there's this, you know, there's a change in dialogue where
• 53:18
  Speaker 5: you have to shoot something later on. Getting that room
• 53:21
  Speaker 5: tone puts you back into that that that set. And
• 53:27
  Speaker 5: and if you watch a movie that has crappy sound,
• 53:30
  Speaker 5: it takes you out of it. If you watch a
• 53:32
  Speaker 5: movie that has an okay picture and great sound, you know,
• 53:35
  Speaker 5: you're you're you're still engaged, you're still involved. But sound
• 53:39
  Speaker 5: is so important and so engaging for the film that
• 53:43
  Speaker 5: most people don't they don't consider it to be that important.
• 53:47
  Speaker 5: And uh, it's something that they say they'll always fix later.
• 53:50
  Speaker 5: And I disagree with you wholeheartedly.
• 53:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, same here, same here, And Mike, and it is
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: very important something I learned from Kelly Baker. Kelly's on
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: the show as well, and he's the sound mixer for
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: Gus van ZANDT and uh yeah, he and he's always mentioned,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: you know, uh about the importance of sound and and
• 54:09
  Speaker 3: and everything. And then he really is is the person
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: that really sort of drove that home for me. And
• 54:15
  Speaker 3: you know, even when I watch movies now, I'm always watching,
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm always listening now for how the sound
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: compliments the the video part, the actual you know what
• 54:22
  Speaker 3: we what we can see.
• 54:24
  Speaker 5: Yeah, without without a doubt. I mean it's it's it's
• 54:26
  Speaker 5: almost a character in the in the film itself, you know.
• 54:30
  Speaker 5: I I wrote and Tommy Harper is responsible for making
• 54:34
  Speaker 5: this deal. I wrote a sci fi film. It's kind
• 54:38
  Speaker 5: of like in the same vein as Alien and the Thing,
• 54:42
  Speaker 5: and I wanted to set it in uh in, in Iceland,
• 54:46
  Speaker 5: on this Air Force base that my father was actually
• 54:50
  Speaker 5: stationed at in the fifties, and I, uh, you know,
• 54:55
  Speaker 5: presented it to them and they picked it up and
• 54:57
  Speaker 5: they flew me out there for fruit scouting and which
• 55:01
  Speaker 5: we're going to shoot this thing in this fall lake
• 55:04
  Speaker 5: fall in Iceland, and one of the things when I
• 55:07
  Speaker 5: went on one of the experiences that I had when
• 55:09
  Speaker 5: I was on the location, we went inside the old
• 55:12
  Speaker 5: base that's been shut down since two thousand and I
• 55:16
  Speaker 5: believe two thousand and eight. It was an American base
• 55:21
  Speaker 5: and they had you know, in Iceland, their power is
• 55:24
  Speaker 5: two twenty and ours is one ten, so there was
• 55:26
  Speaker 5: one ten, but they had pulled everything out and so
• 55:29
  Speaker 5: this particular facility had these walls that were like probably
• 55:35
  Speaker 5: a foot thick, and when I went in there, it
• 55:39
  Speaker 5: hadn't been touched since two thousand and I think eleven,
• 55:42
  Speaker 5: and there was no dust on the walls or anything.
• 55:45
  Speaker 5: But the sound in there, I started, I started smiling
• 55:50
  Speaker 5: because every little thing, if you dropped the coin, it
• 55:53
  Speaker 5: had this incredible sound because everything was completely silent because
• 55:58
  Speaker 5: of the thickness of the walls. And I just knew
• 56:01
  Speaker 5: that this was going to be something that came, you know,
• 56:04
  Speaker 5: along with the film that was going to elevate the film.
• 56:07
  Speaker 5: So having a great sound man and having a great
• 56:10
  Speaker 5: location for that sound is just equally as important, you know,
• 56:14
  Speaker 5: for the success in the film. You don't want to
• 56:16
  Speaker 5: shoot near an airport and have a you know, have
• 56:19
  Speaker 5: a dramatic scene that's an emotional scene with two people talking,
• 56:22
  Speaker 5: So you just have to you know, you have to
• 56:26
  Speaker 5: really pull it off in such a way and do
• 56:28
  Speaker 5: that research. So I look forward to, you know, to
• 56:31
  Speaker 5: creating that movie as well. It's titled Kevlovic with a
• 56:36
  Speaker 5: company called True North that is is in Iceland. Kristen
• 56:39
  Speaker 5: Thornson who's the producer for that. They actually they started
• 56:44
  Speaker 5: out as a production facility company and they they did
• 56:50
  Speaker 5: Walter Mitting, they did Star Wars, they did some of
• 56:52
  Speaker 5: the some of the Star Treks. And there's a great
• 56:56
  Speaker 5: story of how that came about with that meeting because
• 56:58
  Speaker 5: Tommy Harper introduced me to Christina at a meeting and
• 57:01
  Speaker 5: Talley had asked me if I had any you know,
• 57:04
  Speaker 5: scripts that were kind of sci fi, and I said
• 57:07
  Speaker 5: I had an idea, but I didn't have a script.
• 57:09
  Speaker 5: And when we got to the meeting, Tommy said, Mike's
• 57:11
  Speaker 5: got a great script sci fi tell him and I
• 57:14
  Speaker 5: just sat there, you know, stuttering, and then pitched the
• 57:17
  Speaker 5: story and he said, you got to give this to
• 57:19
  Speaker 5: me so I can read it on the way home.
• 57:22
  Speaker 5: And I said, well, I just have to finish the
• 57:23
  Speaker 5: last twenty five pages and then went home and wrote
• 57:27
  Speaker 5: the thing in a month and sent it out to
• 57:29
  Speaker 5: him and that's how that that whole deal started. So
• 57:33
  Speaker 5: it's been a good journey so far.
• 57:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, that's really cool, Michael. I was a
• 57:38
  Speaker 3: going to ask you, you know, I know, The Hatred
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: it has been you know, completed, it has been released yet.
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: But I was going to ask you, you know, what's
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: your what's the next project coming up? And but so
• 57:48
  Speaker 3: you read my mind on that one, Mike.
• 57:50
  Speaker 5: Well, that's that's actually not my next that's not my
• 57:53
  Speaker 5: next one. I mean I wrote, I just finished writing,
• 57:56
  Speaker 5: you know, as soon as as soon as as soon
• 57:58
  Speaker 5: as I finished The Hatred, you know, we went in
• 58:01
  Speaker 5: to post. I was, I was running out of money,
• 58:05
  Speaker 5: and I got a phone call from a good friend
• 58:07
  Speaker 5: of mine. I said, hey, I need you. I know,
• 58:09
  Speaker 5: you worked on Michigan Possible in Dubai and you oversaw
• 58:13
  Speaker 5: some things. I'd like you to come along this movie
• 58:15
  Speaker 5: and do it. And I said, I said, you know,
• 58:18
  Speaker 5: where is it? Where are you? And he said Budapest
• 58:20
  Speaker 5: And I said, yeah, I'm there. And I went out
• 58:24
  Speaker 5: there to work on this little movie called Blade Runner
• 58:28
  Speaker 5: twenty forty nine, and had a great experience there. I
• 58:31
  Speaker 5: met some incredible filmmakers from all parts of Europe and
• 58:35
  Speaker 5: Germany and Budapest, and Budapest is an incredible place to
• 58:39
  Speaker 5: shoot films and it can double for like England and
• 58:42
  Speaker 5: France and Russia and Romania all these other places. So
• 58:49
  Speaker 5: while I was there, I got inspired again for another
• 58:54
  Speaker 5: horror movie and a horror thriller, and I started writing
• 58:59
  Speaker 5: and as soon as I got back home, I got
• 59:01
  Speaker 5: into it. And on the weekends while I was working there,
• 59:04
  Speaker 5: I just kept writing and writing and writing, and so
• 59:07
  Speaker 5: I came back completed the script and I'm pushing that
• 59:12
  Speaker 5: now to be done to shoot it this summer before Kevlvic.
• 59:16
  Speaker 5: I just think that, you know, this is something that
• 59:18
  Speaker 5: I want to do and try to get out. We're
• 59:20
  Speaker 5: going to try to approach a couple of companies that
• 59:23
  Speaker 5: I built relationships with, you know, that are out there,
• 59:26
  Speaker 5: so hopefully that'll be the next thing. It's called Among
• 59:29
  Speaker 5: the Damned.
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: Then again, it's good, it's a good thing. I asked
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: that because I thought, I, uh, I go, because I
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: wanted to make sure I knew exactly what you were
• 59:39
  Speaker 3: doing next. Because again I think the story of hush
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: and the hatred is fantastic. Mike, and I think, you know,
• 59:46
  Speaker 3: if there's one thing that that people can take away,
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: you know, just from this interview, it's just that you know,
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: you've been out there hustling.
• 59:54
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 3: You know you didn't wait for an opportunity. Uh, you
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: were always out there.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 5: You know. Uh.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 3: Number one, you know, uh, knowing your craft like you
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: were saying, you know, knowing uh, you know, how to
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 3: do your job to the best of your abilities and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 3: knowing it, you know, knowing it inside and out. And
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: also always be you know, being professional. Uh like you said,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 3: you didn't say to that person, Hey, you know you're
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: supposed to do buy movie blah blah. You know, being
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: professional and and being flexible at all times, uh, you know,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: to to how things change in the movie business, because
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: they do, they do change all the time. And uh,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: you know, and obviously always making sure you have opportunities. Uh,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: you know, again just by hustling.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 5: Well, you know a lot of my friends, you know,
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 5: are pretty amazed because I never give up, you know,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 5: And that's the one thing that I and I think
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 5: there was instilled upon me from my parents. But I
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 5: got to give credit to the people like yourself because
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 5: of your support for this. And I think what's important
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: for people to follow you and do that is this
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 5: whole journey that the filmmakers let myself go on. You know,
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 5: you give this opportunity for other people to hear it
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 5: to inspire them. And it's because of people like you
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 5: who really have a force in this industry to help
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 5: people get along, because this is what lights a fire
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: and someone when they're sitting in there in their little
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 5: apartment and they're listening to this and they find out, hey,
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 5: this is something I want to do, I can relate
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 5: to that. It's not just because of the filmmakers saying that.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 5: It's that person who's putting it out there and your
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 5: love for films and your love for this industry and
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 5: what you can do to connect that and you being
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 5: a filmmaker yourself to go out there. I just think
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 5: that this is this is something that's important and also
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 5: needs to be addressed for people to follow you and
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 5: see the different layers that it takes to make a movie.
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 5: And I thank you for your job and what you
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 5: do because without no about some of us.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, and I thank you very much for
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 3: saying that, Mike. Uh, you know, the whole impetus for
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 3: me creating this was, you know, there's a couple of
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 3: reasons why. The main reason was, you know, I I,
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 3: you know, for people who listen to listen to this
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 3: podcast since episode one, uh you know, almost three years ago. Now,
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 3: I almost I started this podcast. Oh my god, it's
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: been three years. But but for people who listened to
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 3: this since since episode one, they you know, I started
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 3: this podcast for one of the number one reason was
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 3: I got passed over for a promotion that was rightfully
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 3: mine at my former day job. And two I, you know,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 3: I I've always liked the concept of podcasting, and I
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 3: always liked the idea of doing something like this, and uh,
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 3: it was just hard to get, you know, people to
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 3: get together when I used to do podcast podcast because
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 3: I did it with a group of people. But now
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 3: I just do it myself in my office and I
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 3: get to interview really cool people like yourself. Mike.
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 5: Well listen. Yeah, like I said, you give us an opportunity.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 5: I'm really excited about getting the Hatred out there because
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 5: the cast when you see the women in this cast,
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 5: you know, have done an amazing job. The acting is
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 5: spot on. I am so fortunate to have actresses that
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 5: are just so talented, and some of them you some
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 5: of them, you know, I mean, in particular Amanda Wiss
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 5: who is in a Nightmare on Elm Street and Silverado,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 5: to some of the other actresses that haven't been out
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 5: there that much, but they've they've done some incredible work.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 5: And I don't want to, you know, if I if
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 5: I mentioned and I mentioned Amanda, but if I start
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 5: mentioning one and I don't mention the others, I'll feel
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 5: kind of guilty. But when the when you go and
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 5: see this movie, just I want people to to watch
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 5: the performances of these actresses because it's it's their movie
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 5: as well, and they pull it off so well that
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 5: it makes the film. It really makes the film. And
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 5: that's that's one of the great things of having, you know,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 5: an opportunity to work with great actress and actresses. I
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 5: will say that, you know, and this is kind of
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 5: kind of you know, showing off, But David Naughton is
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 5: in our film, who played the lead in American Railroad
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 5: from London and the wonderful thing about having David and
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 5: Amanda is they only worked one day and became friends
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 5: with them, friends with Amanda prior to that. But creating
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 5: a relationship with actors and as friends and knowing that
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 5: you can put them in their movies and they can
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 5: pull it off is the same thing that Scorsese does
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 5: with During de Niro. And I'm not saying I'm not
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 5: putting myself in the same category as Scorsese by any means,
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 5: but I think that having a relationship with incredibly talented
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 5: actors is so important that you can rely on them.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 5: It's just a phone call and say I need you,
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 5: and they're going to be there to play in your sandbox. Yeah.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 3: I couldn't agree more, you know, And that is something
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 3: to you e ship with certain actresses and actors and
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 3: being able to develop you know that that's something too make.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 3: When I used to watch movies, I used to sometimes
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 3: wonder why certain directors would always work with the same
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 3: actors and the same and sometimes they have the same crew.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 3: And now I get it. I believe having you know,
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 3: made movies, made short films. You know, I get it
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 3: now because you get used to working in a certain
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 3: style and you know, if I hire the same person,
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 3: it's a certain style that fit's my style, and that's
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 3: why we work, you know. And then we are the combination,
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 3: the sort of synergy of what we do together helps
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 3: us both out.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 5: You know.
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 3: That's why you know Tim Burton always works with Johnny Depp,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 3: That's why you know, like you said, Scorsese works always
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 3: works with Robert de Niro, and you go down the list.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 3: You know, Quentin Tarantino always works with Samuel L. Jackson
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 3: and now Christolph Wals it's just they start bring out
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 3: the best in each other.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, when I did Second Dance, at the
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 5: last minute, I cast a friend of mine who's a
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 5: bartender that's a great actor. His name is Brad Wilson.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 5: And he gave such a such an incredible performance and
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 5: was so dead. He didn't have the script until that morning,
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 5: and he gave one hundred to this, to this script.
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 5: I put him in two other films after that, and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 5: you know, he's just a chameleon. He's he's a great actor.
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 5: And I think that I'm fortunate to have somebody like
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 5: that in my back pocket. Or I could pick up
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 5: the phone and call him up and say, hey, Brad,
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 5: I need you to do this. I have the same
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 5: relationship with Jack McGee. If you know Jack McGee is
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 5: Jack McGee was the father and the Fighter. He was
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 5: in a TV series called God. He was the Fire
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 5: the Fire TV series It's Gonna Kill Me that I
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 5: can't remember not rescuing me, rescue me? I think it was. Yeah.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 5: And and Jack has been a friend. He's been in
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 5: a few films of mine and I just you know,
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 5: I we're friends. I just call him up and he
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 5: always says to me, Keia, what are you doing? What's
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 5: going on on? Am I going to work with you?
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 5: And having a talented actor that likes that's like that,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 5: it supports you is worth its weight in gold. And
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 5: so I really want to express to other actors create relationships,
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 5: don't you know? It's great to know about camera. And
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 5: there was a there was a there's a great statement
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 5: that was made. I believe it was Walter Mathou and
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 5: Jack Lemon at the Academy Awards and when they were
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 5: giving an award out to directors, they said, there are
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 5: directors that know everything about the human element and nothing
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 5: about camera. There are directors that know everything about camera
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 5: and nothing about the human element, and I think that
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 5: it's important to know about both. So when you get
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 5: on on the set and you're talking to an actor,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 5: you need to speak their language in order to get
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 5: the performance that you want. When you talk to your DP,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 5: you need to speak their language to get to capture
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 5: those moments. And I'll never forget I was working with
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 5: a stunt man who is a director years go, and
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 5: there's a lot of very talented stunt directors that are
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 5: now becoming great filmmakers, but this guy in particular, I'll
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 5: never forget what he said. He says, let's hurry up
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 5: with this dialogue so we can go flip the car.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 5: And I think when you have that attitude, you miss
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 5: the essence of what filmmaking is all about and how
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 5: to bring out a great story. So create a relationship
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 5: with actors and learn their language. You know, if you
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 5: have to sit through acting classes or whatever and watch
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 5: them create, that's important.
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's when someone says something like that, you know,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: like let's race through these lines so we can flip
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 3: the car. You know, it's they don't realize that you
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 3: have to sort of earn those things. And what I
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: mean by earning the car crash or earning the you know,
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 3: the kill and a slasher movie, because you have to
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: build up these characters, so we actually care about what
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: happens to them. So if they do are in a
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 3: car accident, or do flip their car or what have you,
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 3: we as the audience are actually invested in their in
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 3: their journey. And these aren't just sort of moments that
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 3: are happening for the sake of them happening, but they're
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 3: actually happening for a reason inside the story.
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, look exactly, and story. It's all about
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 5: the story. There's some incredible stunt men and the stuntment
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 5: of today, you know that are extremely talented, are like
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 5: scientists because they measure out things. They want to make
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 5: sure it's there. And they're also great actors. I have
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 5: some some friends of mine that are great stunt men,
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 5: that are incredible actors, and they pay attention to the story.
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 5: So I think a lot of it has changed over
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 5: the years, and the business is evolving, and so we
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: learn every day. I mean I don't I don't know
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 5: it all. I'm learning every day. I learned something new
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 5: about the business. And you know how it changed from
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 5: film to digital and how all this process that you
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 5: go through in this journey teaches you something about you know,
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 5: how the process is, how the business is. But one
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 5: thing that remains the same is telling a story. And
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: that's what's most important.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 4: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: and now back to the show.
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the story is always always the most important element
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: in all this, uh, because you know, the sympatography, we
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 3: tell a story and everything. You know, Mike, you know,
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 3: we we've been talking for you know, for about an
• 1:10:18
  Speaker 3: you know, about an hour five, I guess, you know.
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 3: So just in closing, is there anything we didn't talk
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 3: about that maybe you wanted to or is there anything
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 3: or maybe something you just wanted to say to sort
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: of put period at the end this whole conversation.
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, listen, listen. I would love to to
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 5: stay in touch with you and uh and do another
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 5: one of these anytime you want. I am speaking at
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 5: the geek Fest in Long Beach on the eighteenth with
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 5: Ivanic Cadaver, Amanda Wiz and Jessica Cameron. So you know,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 5: I think I just you know, I just I want
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 5: to make sure that that filmmakers, you know, take the
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 5: right path and uh, and we can all help each other,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 5: you know, in this business. I think that's one of
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 5: the great things about how we uh you know, if
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 5: someone does a poor job, you don't want to tear
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 5: them apart and knock them down. You just want to
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 5: support them and help them get to the next the
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 5: next level. So I'm you know, I want to I
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 5: want to continue my relationship with you and get the
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 5: word out and share the things that I do with
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 5: with the audience.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 3: And I will link to uh, you know, Michael's appearance
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 3: at geek Fest. I'm going to link to the anything
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 3: in the show notes where people can check that out
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 3: because I know, like you were, we were saying, you
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: are doing a panel, uh you know with Jesse Cameron
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: and your and I want to make sure that and again,
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 3: you know, as you talked about geek Fester, we were
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 3: both friends with Bill Ostrov as well. We have a
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 3: lot of mutual friends, Mike, we have so yeah, so
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 3: and I and I want to stay in contact with
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 3: you as well. And for everyone who's interested in checking
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 3: out all of Michael's work and also checking out you
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: know him at this panel convention, I'm going to put
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 3: that in the show notes And Michael, do you have
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 3: any websites that you want to give out to anyone?
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 5: Well, you know, I mean you can follow me on Instagram,
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 5: which is m I K E h O E dot
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 5: one one and uh, I'm sorry, it's m I K
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 5: E h O E one one on Instagram and Twitter
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: is at mikey keyho. And you know, we have a
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 5: Facebook page which is called Alice the Hatred, uh, which
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 5: is slowly getting attention and people go out. You know,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 5: we've had a number of titles for that, so it's
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 5: now called The Hatred I believe, unless there's some changes. So, uh,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 5: those sites, yeah, follow me on it because I'll be
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 5: posting some information and obviously the journeys and things that
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 5: I'm doing, so hopefully I can give a boost up
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: to someone else.
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: And that is that is fantastic, Mike. And Uh, I
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 3: always like that attitude about, you know, helping each other out.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: I think that's what it's really about, uh, is helping
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 3: each other out. Too many you meet too many filmmakers
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 3: who become you know, either they're close guarded or jaded
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 3: from the from even from the on set sometimes and
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: they're just like, you know, no it's all about you know,
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: and it's just you know, they don't want to and
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 3: I've seen them burn out as well. And I could
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 3: do a whole podcast about that, you know. But it's
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: always great to make people like you Mike in this
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 3: in this industry who are very talented, but they also
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 3: are are so willing to help out others. It's just, uh,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: you know, it's just phenomenal.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 5: Well, you know what I think. I think, you know,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 5: there are great, great companies out there that are giving
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 5: filmmakers an opportunity. One that comes to mind right away
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 5: is Blumhouse, and Blumhouse has you know, a number of
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 5: divisions Blumhouse, Tilt, blum Blumhouse dot Com and the films
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 5: that they make, especially in the horror genre, they allow
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 5: their filmmakers to make their movie. And uh I am.
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 5: I am so drawn to that company that that's the
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 5: attitude that I have about wanting to help people and
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 5: wanting to go out that if you were ever, if
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 5: you're if you're a writer or you know a filmmaker
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 5: that's creating, uh, you know, something in that genre. And
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 5: my they're they're also doing they did Benji, which is
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 5: the old dog movie you know from from the eighties
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 5: and they did Whiplash and the number of films that,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 5: to me is is what it's all about. That company
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 5: really puts themselves out there to give a shot to people.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 5: So hopefully we'll all we'll all be doing that.
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Blumhouse is fantastic. You know, I'm always interested to
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 3: see what they're up to, and uh, they're just great
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 3: and I'm you know, yeah, there's not enough I could
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 3: say about them and what they're what they're up to,
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 3: and uh, you know, Mike, I want to say, you know,
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 3: thank you for coming on. Everyone. You can always find
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: me Dave Bulls dot com. Again everything Michael and I
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 3: talked about on the show. When I put in the
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 3: show notes at Dave Bulls dot com Twitter, it's at
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 3: Dave Underscore Bullis Michael, I want to say thank you
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: so much for.
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 5: Coming on, Dave, keep the dream alive.
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do my best, buddy, and I wish
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 3: you the best luck with everything. And you know what,
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 3: anytime you want to come back on, you let me
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 3: know and we'll we'll we're gonna make it work and
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna I wanna definitely want to have you back
• 1:15:04
  Speaker 3: on great my friend, take care, take care of my friend.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 3: Bye bye.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Indie film Huscle
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 2: dot com Forward slash seven ninety and if you have
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 4: Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 4: really helps us out a.
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 5: Lot, guys.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you again so much for listening to guys.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: Indie film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: E F I L M h U S T l
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: E dot com.