Latest / Indie Film Podcast / ‘Become a Better Filmmaker’ Is a Terrible Goal (And What to Do Instead)

Transcript

‘Become a Better Filmmaker’ Is a Terrible Goal (And What to Do Instead) · Indie Film Podcast

• 0:00
  My #1 running goal has been become a better filmmaker.
• 0:03
  Yeah. Which is a terrible goal.
• 0:06
  It's not measurable. It has no specific timeline
• 0:09
  whatsoever on it. The only deadline for becoming a
• 0:12
  better filmmaker is literally my deathbed.
• 0:15
  Welcome to indie film podcast. I'm Vic.
• 0:18
  And I am Chuck for our New Year's Day episode.
• 0:20
  Obviously, we're going to be talking about resolutions.
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  Yeah. So this year I resolve.
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  I resolve not to interrupt people as much starting tomorrow
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  because today doesn't count. Obviously not.
• 0:30
  It's a holiday still. It's still a holiday, you can't
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  commit to a resolution. OK, fine.
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  Then starting tomorrow, I resolved to not lean into fad
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  trends so much. Like, you know, posting
• 0:39
  resolutions on New Year's Day. Oh yes, social media, that does
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  make me feel even more self-conscious about that before
• 0:45
  Speedo picture that I took today.
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  Oh well, I mean you need to hang on to that.
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  For your only fans though, we we need some income.
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  By the way, thanks for the marketing on that.
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  I appreciate it greatly. Of course.
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  So we should actually talk about resolutions.
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  As film makers, we want to talk today about resolutions that we
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  have for 2026. And we also want to talk about
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  the resolutions that failed miserably in our own previous
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  histories, usually because of one, it was completely
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  unattainable, or two, it was something that was outside of
• 1:17
  our control. Which just doesn't feel fair.
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  No. Do you want to start Vic?
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  Yeah, 'cause I am spectacular at setting, you know, individual
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  goals for for individual films. But as far as overall goals for
• 1:31
  the year, I'm actually really terrible at that.
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  I think generally speaking, and become a better filmmaker, which
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  is a terrible goal. It's not measurable.
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  It has no specific timeline whatsoever on it.
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  The only deadline for becoming a better filmmaker is literally my
• 1:47
  deathbed. So there's just.
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  Yeah, the measurability is one life unit.
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  Exactly. And I feel like so many people
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  have that goal of become a better filmmaker.
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  And I wish that they would sit down and really piece apart what
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  that means, whether it's completing the films or
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  improving different skill sets or learning how to market or
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  getting better distribution deals or not dropping your
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  camera or whatever. You know, it can be specific to
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  you, but there is a movie actually that you introduced me
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  to. Oh yes, American movie.
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  Yes. And it's a documentary and it
• 2:21
  feels like a mockumentary almost because it it seems so
• 2:26
  unrealistic. But it just follows a couple of
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  guys, one specific writer, director in Wisconsin that can't
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  get his short film across the finish line.
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  And the name of the short film is not Coven.
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  It's Coven. Yes, they're also in what,
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  Minnesota, Wisconsin. Wisconsin.
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  Wisconsin. OK.
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  So the I, I watched that movie when it came out early 2000s and
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  the, the terror of not getting a project done has been a
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  motivating factor for me as a creator that came out.
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  I, I think it was like when I was in high school or college.
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  So I feel you there on the project and, and a lot of times
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  you can make do with what you have to get a project across the
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  finish line. But personally, I've had issues
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  with trying to get too many things going all at once,
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  committing to them and then getting them all done kind of,
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  but then ending up having to fail on certain things that are
• 3:25
  my own. So for example, and I'm, I'm
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  going to talk about this a little bit more on the next week
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  podcast because we're going to be talking about burnout.
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  And in 2021 through 2023, I definitely burn myself out
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  trying to make a short film every month, music video every
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  single month, and a podcast. I had an ongoing weekly podcast
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  that was prior to this one. This is a new for you.
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  No, no. So it was like the podcast was
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  trying, I was trying to make that come out every single week.
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  Live music video, short film and then moving into production of a
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  feature film, going on and shooting that.
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  And then prior to the weekly, the weekly series, I was
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  releasing music on Spotify. So it was a lot of things.
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  And then what happened is as I bit off more stuff like I
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  didn't, the podcast took a dive. I wasn't able to get that done
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  every single week. Then the live music videos
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  started to to fizzle out because there just wasn't enough time in
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  the day to do that. And then it stresses you out if
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  you set these goals that are unrealistic.
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  Yeah, I think and individually they aren't unrealistic goals,
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  true, But to all the happening at the same time was maybe a
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  little unrealistic. Absolutely.
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  Which, you know, it's, it kind of compounds.
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  We all have things that we like to do and things that, you know,
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  we just want to continue doing. Yeah.
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  And so it was like, oh, I'm doing this one thing.
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  Well, I also want to do this other thing, but I don't want to
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  give this thing up. Yeah.
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  So it's tricky to balance all of that stuff, you know?
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  And one thing I've learned to do is just like if I'm going to
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  take something else on, I got to let something go.
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  And it's it's not easy. No, that hurts.
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  I don't like that. Yeah.
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  That that is definitely another goal that I fail at miserably,
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  though. I I think it's every single time
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  that I tell myself I have time to take on another project.
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  I'm always wrong. I never do.
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  Yeah, but I say yes, 'cause I'm excited and I wanna do it and it
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  sounds fun. Yeah.
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  Especially at the beginning of a project when you're first
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  getting that pitch from somebody.
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  Mm Hmm. And they're passionate and you
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  can just feel it, Remini. Like just emanating off of them.
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  There we go. Not remanating.
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  They aren't ruminating about it. They're emanating excitement.
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  And then you ruminate. And then you ruminate later as.
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  You're trying to get all that project done in post.
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  Exactly. When you volunteered and ended
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  up being a lot more work than you expected.
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  Yes, time blindness is very real.
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  I have not yet mastered a way to set a goal to fix that other
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  than trying to actually just block off sections of my
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  calendar for the little things in life like sleep.
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  Oh, sleep. I'm not kidding.
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  I for this coming year, that is one of my goals is to block off.
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  I'm sleeping at least six hours a night.
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  I'm just going to do it. Oh yeah, that is mandatory.
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  Still, you're supposed to get more than that.
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  I don't need this kind of negativity check.
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  I need support for my goals. I need you to feel the
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  excitement animate. Ruminating out of you.
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  You want to. You'll have plenty of time to do
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  that with that extra 2 hours that you aren't sleeping.
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  Yeah, this word is never going to happen for me today.
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  I'm going to stop trying. That's all good.
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  OK, What about other failed goals for?
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  You well, I kind of want to talk about we work on projects,
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  right? And we've worked together on
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  projects. I've done a ton of projects with
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  my brother and sister-in-law and those aren't necessarily planned
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  learning opportunities. And I have this, this one goal
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  all the time that keeps escaping me and that's after Effects or
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  learning visual effects. And I don't know how many times
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  I've sat down at the computer and opened up the the training
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  program that I want to do. And it starts with, of course,
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  After effects, most people use it for just motion graphics type
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  thing. And I'm bored to death and it's
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  not exciting and I don't really care because obviously if you're
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  in the visual effects realm, you want to make something that's
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  gnarly explosions, you know, you.
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  Want to do the fun stuff? Yeah, it makes things weird.
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  Yeah, not just, you know, have the text come in in an
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  interesting way while a talking head is, you know, saying
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  whatever they're supposed to be saying that we're supposed to
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  pay attention to. But at the same time, you need
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  to have interesting graphics to keep the audience engaged.
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  Right, that's what PowerPoints for.
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  Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's, that's one of
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  those things that I, I know I need to do better on as far as
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  learning specific skills. Because when we get on set, we
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  do learn a lot of lessons. But sometimes it's easy to just
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  kind of get into your comfort zone with whatever role you're
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  used to and not extend beyond that.
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  And sometimes like it'd be good to break the time off every
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  single week or at least every single month to learn some new
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  skill sets that are outside of my comfort zone but still safe,
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  rather than committing to a large project that has a bunch
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  of visual effects and being forced to learn it that way,
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  which becomes stressful. Then it's not as fun anymore.
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  I will say that is 1 little. I don't know if it's like a
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  dopamine hack or I don't know what the Internet's calling
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  right now, but whatever it is for learning after effects,
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  Yeah, just do the tutorial you want to do.
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  Don't start in a specific training program.
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  YouTube is filled with thousands.
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  Video Copilot is my personal favorite.
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  I adore those people. But hop on there, go through the
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  tutorials. All the project files are there.
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  Just hop into something that is fun and you will learn the
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  program. Yeah, it may take a little bit
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  longer. It may not be like the most, you
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  know, this is how you learn basic arithmetic before you move
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  to algebra kind of learning path.
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  Yeah, but it's, I mean, if it's the one that you do, isn't that
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  the better path? That's actually a good point.
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  Maybe I need to. Maybe I need to do it that way.
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  When I used to give guitar lessons, I'd start the kids off
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  with a song they want to learn versus teach them all the notes.
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  Exactly. Nobody wants notes.
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  Everybody wants a song. Well, shall we start a new
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  segment that we have? Planned.
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  Let's talk about some cheap filmmaking tricks.
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  OK, well, this cheap trick is brought to us by actually
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  somebody who's been a guest on the podcast before, which feels
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  a little bit like cheating, but is an amazing hack.
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  And for people like me who struggle with certain aspects of
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  filmmaking, it's perfect. So Chuck, where do pool noodles
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  fit on a film set? Pool noodles fit on a film set
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  over the top of your light wands for diffusion.
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  What? Yeah, that was.
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  A little too over the top. Yeah.
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  So I didn't, I didn't realize that that was a good solution
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  for inexpensive diffusion on your light ones.
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  But Cody made a comment and it was actually on our last episode
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  from last November. Yeah, it was the equipment
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  episode. He had a bunch of inexpensive
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  trick, so if you go back to that episode and check it out.
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  Don't watch the episode, just read the comments.
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  Just read the comments. Cody Newton has some fantastic
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  insights on. It, it's, it was, it was a great
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  list of, of ideas of ways to save money or do things
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  inexpensively. But you know, obviously
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  diffusion, it's it's usually not super expensive, but light ones
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  can be tricky. And so to have the the clear or
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  the white pool noodle, throw that on there.
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  And you can usually find those year round at the dollar store
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  and you just take an exacto knife or whatever those knives
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  are. I don't know, switch not a
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  switchblade. It's not a man.
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  I should not be allowed near weapons for sure.
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  But just cut down one side of the pool noodle.
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  And then that way no matter you know, if you've got a a
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  different shaped or maybe you have an off brand light wand
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  that's a little bit wonky on the shape or whatever, you can kind
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  of just wedge it in there and boom, instant diffusion.
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  I think that's brilliant. And I am not good at gaffing, so
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  I'm very excited to get to test that, not that I own a light one
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  to test that, which might also indicate I'm not great at
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  gaffing. Right on.
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  Well, you just start lacking the pool noodles.
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  That's. What I'm lacking, it's not the
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  lights. I'm lacking pool noodles.
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  Yeah, you got to make sure you get the right, the right
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  temperature of white on there too.
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  But thanks so much, Cody for leaving those comments.
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  So let's let's talk about our goals that we have for this
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  year. Yeah.
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  Do you want to start out on that one?
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  I do because I think this is 1 where I tried to really tackle
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  the what I have control over versus what I don't, OK?
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  Kind of situation, right on. So my goal is technically
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  entirely out of my control. My goal is to speak with three
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  different distribution platforms or hubs or channels or companies
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  or whatever, right on and learn that process better.
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  OK, I do not have control over whether or not they will
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  actually talk to me. I don't get to control that.
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  So it's not a great goal in the sense that it's outside of my
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  hands. But I do have control over how
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  many emails I send every single day, how many people I try to
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  reach out to on social media, how many recommendations of what
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  platforms worked for people and what they actually liked, and
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  trying to get an in through other film makers that I know.
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  Those are the things that I can exhaust to try to contact all
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  these companies because I'm definitely going to have to talk
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  to more than three to get 3 to talk to me.
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  Yes, yes, that's, that's a good way to break it down.
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  But then you can feel satisfied if you do have three sit down
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  meetings exactly with these distributors.
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  That's that's nice. Yeah, I want to learn more.
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  I want to know. I also have three, a goal that's
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  out of my control that includes the number three.
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  Love it and I've been thinking about it since this past summer.
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  The the the goal is that I would like to do audio, location and
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  post for three narrative films that are paid.
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  Oh nice. So getting paid to do the
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  creative work that I enjoy. And the reason that that might
• 13:00
  come to fruition is that my brother Elliott and
• 13:03
  sister-in-law Zoey are working on a script right now, and
• 13:07
  they're hoping to get funds raised to be able to shoot that
• 13:09
  in April. Shameless plug to learn more at
• 13:13
  loweredgentrystudios.com. Yes, yes, because you can see
• 13:15
  the trailer that we worked on. Delightful horror films.
• 13:18
  So if you're a horror film fan, which I know that some of our
• 13:21
  audience members are, check out Lower Gentry studios.com.
• 13:24
  Yes, thank you so much. And the other one is our friend
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  Jack is working on a script as well.
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  Yes, and he's scheduling or he's hoping to have funds raised and
• 13:35
  start shooting after Labor Day, so September.
• 13:38
  Oh no, we will have fundraised. You're working on the.
• 13:41
  Funding. I am a producer.
• 13:42
  We will have funds raised, we will have done the fundraising
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  and it it will be there. Yeah, so 2 gigs.
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  Potentially down. And then you're working on a
• 13:51
  script as well. I am working on a script as
• 13:53
  well. I have no idea when.
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  Again, time blindness is great, so I don't know where that one's
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  at, per SE. Between the other two.
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  But between the. Other just get it, just get it
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  all done. But it'd be great if you rose
• 14:04
  you were able to raise funds for years and then that would be 3
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  paid gigs that are narrative features rather than just the
• 14:11
  normal commercial stuff that I do.
• 14:13
  Or just post audio dialogue cleanup because people have bad
• 14:16
  location sound and fixing that in post.
• 14:18
  It does happen, which if you'd like to hire Chuck, head down to
• 14:22
  indiefilmpodcast.com and contact us there because you can hire
• 14:25
  Chuck. You can always hire me.
• 14:27
  I'm willing to do some some work if if you have a film you're
• 14:29
  trying to get across the finish line and I can try to make it
• 14:32
  sound better. It's still a depend.
• 14:33
  You can only fix audio so much, but there's only so much you.
• 14:38
  Do but sometimes the right ear working on it can make a big
• 14:44
  difference so hopefully. Hopefully, but anyway, we don't
• 14:49
  need to worry about talking about me higher getting jobs on
• 14:52
  this. Do you have a realistic and
• 14:53
  tangible. I do have a realistic tangible
• 14:57
  that is as far as our social media platforms are concerned.
• 15:02
  I would like to expand a lot of the content that is there
• 15:05
  because right now it is a lot of talking head stuff and then of
• 15:08
  course, some fun BTS footage when we were at film festivals
• 15:11
  and things. But I would like to do more with
• 15:14
  that and expand on it more and have more filmmaking tips and
• 15:17
  have our social media channels also be their own resource for
• 15:22
  film makers as opposed to just the podcast.
• 15:24
  So obligatory ask of anybody watching right now, if you don't
• 15:28
  follow us on any social media platforms, we're on all of them.
• 15:31
  Kind of most of them, yeah. So, yeah, make sure if you're
• 15:34
  listening to this on Spotify or Apple or YouTube, please like
• 15:39
  and subscribe. We're saying that more often
• 15:41
  this. Year.
• 15:42
  Oh yeah, we're supposed to. We know in the final episode
• 15:44
  last year. Oh, we did.
• 15:45
  We got one in. We got one.
• 15:47
  Please subscribe to this podcast.
• 15:48
  And OK, so that's what I would like to do, is I would like to
• 15:51
  make sure that we expand the type of content that is
• 15:54
  available on our social media channels because I want those to
• 15:56
  be useful resources, not just talking head recaps.
• 15:59
  Yeah, no offense to talking head recaps.
• 16:01
  And obviously we're on a podcast right now, so I'm going to step
• 16:04
  carefully around some of these words.
• 16:05
  Yeah, but. Maybe I'll cut it into a
• 16:07
  vertical video later about how talking head vertical videos are
• 16:10
  so awful. I deserve that and then I have
• 16:14
  to do all the marketing for it. That's great.
• 16:18
  Beautiful. OK, What's a realistic and
• 16:20
  tangible goal for you? I think that, well, we we've
• 16:25
  talked about different content on the social media platforms
• 16:29
  and vertical videos are not my favorite thing to do.
• 16:33
  I love recording this podcast and then I going back through
• 16:37
  and trying to find highlights to turn into vertical reels is not
• 16:40
  my favorite. You know, it has its benefits
• 16:42
  and whatever, but Long story short, I'm going to get to the
• 16:47
  point that you asked me to answer the question that you
• 16:49
  asked me. So I want to shoot a vertical
• 16:52
  series and we both want to shoot a vertical series.
• 16:55
  We do. And hopefully that'll be coming
• 16:57
  here in sometime soon from when you listen to this.
• 17:01
  But we already have. We already have the script and
• 17:04
  the beats outlined. You know, this is, we're not
• 17:06
  going to give you an exact date, but.
• 17:08
  Yeah, we're shooting for like 6090 seconds an episode.
• 17:11
  We have 8 episodes blocked out that we could shoot over three
• 17:14
  days I believe is what we ended up with.
• 17:17
  I think it's seven. Oh yeah, 7 episodes. 7 episodes
• 17:20
  over three days yeah. And so we can they they kind of
• 17:24
  continue off one another. And it'll be interesting because
• 17:27
  we talk so much about the vertical video realm and how it
• 17:32
  looks so strange. And so the challenge is going to
• 17:35
  be to try to shoot it in an interesting way, yes, where it's
• 17:38
  not just the person in the frame.
• 17:41
  No, yes, hopefully, theoretically.
• 17:44
  So stay tuned for that fun ride because it should be very
• 17:47
  exciting, but we'll also be exploring some of the challenges
• 17:50
  that people have reached out about that they struggle with on
• 17:53
  different sets. Yes, absolutely.
• 17:55
  Starting with low to no gear, Yeah and filming on a cell phone
• 17:59
  and. Yeah, we kind of, yeah, we're
• 18:01
  going to do no sound on that one we talked about.
• 18:03
  It there's technically no dialogue in it, so so.
• 18:07
  We're contemplating literally just shooting it on an iPhone.
• 18:10
  Phone and maybe having a bounce, yeah, maybe no other lights,
• 18:13
  just natural light and a bounce and see what we can.
• 18:17
  And do a silent film and do all the audio and post rather than
• 18:20
  location sound. So we'll see.
• 18:22
  We'll keep you posted and. If you have challenges that you
• 18:25
  run into that you'd like us to try to overcome on a set through
• 18:28
  this vertical series, comment and.
• 18:32
  Leave us a comment or subscribe to the newsletter.
• 18:34
  We'll be sending out polls there as well.
• 18:35
  Oh yeah, the polls, yeah. So do you have specific goal,
• 18:39
  Victoria? What's your specific goal that
• 18:41
  is, that is attainable that you can actually measure?
• 18:45
  My specific attainable goal is that I'm setting aside two
• 18:51
  nights every month for me to write.
• 18:56
  Oh cool. It is just to write.
• 18:59
  I like that. Yeah, and it can be anything.
• 19:02
  I'm allowed to write whatever I want.
• 19:03
  Ideally it would be, you know, like a script, OK.
• 19:05
  It's not allowed to be anything that I want.
• 19:07
  It's not allowed to be like e-mail replies to people.
• 19:10
  OK, good point. Yeah, because that's different
• 19:12
  work. I can write anything creatively
• 19:14
  that I want. If I feel like working on like a
• 19:15
  book or a short story or something, that's fine, but
• 19:18
  hopefully a lot of that time will be spent writing said
• 19:22
  script nice and make myself just finish.
• 19:24
  And and put together ideas too, so that you have, you have you
• 19:28
  add to your. What would you call that?
• 19:30
  Just your backlog of ideas that you can pull from.
• 19:32
  Yeah, right now it just exists as a Google Keep note.
• 19:35
  Nice. So just pull that, organize it.
• 19:38
  I like that. That's a good one.
• 19:39
  That's a good one because you need to have ideas all the time.
• 19:41
  And if you don't set aside time to brainstorm, then when it does
• 19:46
  come time where you have the the availability to shoot something,
• 19:49
  it's like you don't want to just be pulling a script out of your
• 19:52
  butt. No, I mean, some ideas just come
• 19:57
  to you that way. What was it?
• 19:58
  The Cabin in the Woods was technically written in three
• 20:01
  days or. Whatever.
• 20:02
  Oh, yeah, Yeah, we talked about that, Yeah.
• 20:03
  Which is great and good for them.
• 20:05
  And getting that first draft on paper is the most important part
• 20:08
  because you can workshop it as you go.
• 20:09
  But they got that first draft done in three days and finished
• 20:14
  it. Good for them, but I'm sure it
• 20:17
  was very drastically different from what they ended up filming.
• 20:19
  I would imagine so. But either way, they set a goal.
• 20:23
  It was it was a smart goal, right?
• 20:25
  The has to be measurable and. Specific.
• 20:30
  Measurable. Attainable.
• 20:32
  Attainable. Timely.
• 20:34
  And then R, whatever that stands for realistic.
• 20:38
  I think is no. I don't know, let's.
• 20:41
  Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely.
• 20:44
  Ohh, you wrote it. Down I did write.
• 20:46
  It I thought we were just riffing on the podcast again,
• 20:48
  just talking just. Making stuff?
• 20:50
  No cider? No.
• 20:51
  Last season I got yelled at way too much by strangers on the
• 20:55
  Internet for making things up. This year we're doing some
• 20:59
  research. Happy 2026.
• 21:01
  All right, well, at least one of us is going to stick to the
• 21:03
  research thing or try to add that.
• 21:06
  Is that your specific foot attainable goal?
• 21:08
  No, no, I just want to, I just want to take my camera out once
• 21:11
  a week. That isn't that isn't related to
• 21:14
  the podcast or something that I'm doing like a commercial gag.
• 21:18
  Yeah, so a lot of times if I'm not shooting something, my
• 21:23
  camera just sits on a shelf. And I love taking pictures.
• 21:28
  I take stock videos as well. And to build up that profile and
• 21:32
  get like an an extra couple bucks a month for content that I
• 21:36
  upload, I just want to be on top of that.
• 21:38
  And it helps you learn your camera in different situations
• 21:43
  where it's lower pressure rather than rather than being on set
• 21:47
  and having to figure something out in the moment.
• 21:49
  Oh. Definitely.
• 21:49
  And it gives you so many more different creative ideas and
• 21:52
  thoughts for what you like for framing, what you don't like for
• 21:55
  framing. What sort of like shock
• 21:56
  compositions actually intrigue and incite you the most?
• 21:59
  Where is your eye drawn in this particular moment?
• 22:01
  What really makes this stand out?
• 22:03
  Yeah, I support that completely. That's awesome.
• 22:05
  That's a great goal. Well, thank you.
• 22:07
  Yeah, I thought yours was great too, but you said it first now
• 22:10
  and so I'm feeling guilty for not pointing it out.
• 22:12
  Yeah, that was just careless of you.
• 22:14
  Oh. At least, at least I made-up for
• 22:16
  it. You.
• 22:17
  Did I'm calling it out specific? Those are our goals.
• 22:19
  We did. We did kind of like do a little
• 22:21
  bit of looking into some some famous films goals.
• 22:27
  Oh yeah, and I skipped over that part.
• 22:29
  Completely but Blair Witch Project.
• 22:33
  A Blair Witch Project was beautiful, and I know we've
• 22:37
  talked about it on the podcast already, but Blair Witch
• 22:40
  Project, I mean, they set out to make a ridiculously, almost
• 22:44
  insultingly low budget film and have people genuinely believe
• 22:49
  maybe this was real, maybe people died in the woods that
• 22:52
  day. Yeah, I remember that was an
• 22:54
  argument that people were having all the time was like, is this
• 22:57
  scripted or is this an actual event that happened?
• 23:00
  Which is beautiful. There was so much.
• 23:02
  And that controversy is definitely what helped it do so
• 23:05
  well, right? If it weren't for people arguing
• 23:08
  about it in the hallways at work or at school, wherever you were
• 23:11
  at the particular time of this movie being released.
• 23:14
  But Oh no, it was brilliant. And yes, their marketing budget
• 23:17
  was what, like 3 times? I just said I was going to
• 23:19
  research more and here I don't have this number, but their
• 23:22
  marketing budget was substantially larger than their
• 23:24
  actual production. Oh.
• 23:26
  For sure. Yeah, they marketed.
• 23:28
  The hell out of. That and they did it so well.
• 23:29
  They did a good job with it. So that was that's good example.
• 23:33
  It was a good example film that met their goals.
• 23:35
  They did. They absolutely achieved their
• 23:37
  goals because man, if you Google famous films that did not meet
• 23:41
  their goals, that's a depressing Google search because there are
• 23:46
  a lot of people who've thrown a lot of money at some films.
• 23:51
  Yes. That now we're sad they exist.
• 23:54
  Yep, Yep. That's OK.
• 23:56
  Yes, but that's part of the that's part of the game.
• 23:58
  It is, but this is it's. A numbers game now?
• 24:01
  Yes, ever since Blair Witch. Blair Witch turned filmmaking
• 24:04
  into a numbers. Game they did.
• 24:05
  Paranormal Activity came in close.
• 24:07
  They're like, we're gonna, we're gonna do it too.
• 24:10
  They probably filmed all 12 paranormal activities in one
• 24:13
  session. Nice.
• 24:16
  I don't know how long it took him to film that, but literally
• 24:18
  it's security cameras, so it's pretty rough.
• 24:22
  Should we should we talk about our filmmaker of a week,
• 24:25
  Filmmaker of a week? Should we talk about our
• 24:28
  filmmaker of the week, which is a new segment that we have that
• 24:31
  we're going to be doing every single week.
• 24:33
  So we are taking submissions online and that is on our
• 24:39
  website, indiefilmpodcast.com. This is taking a long time for
• 24:42
  that, that projector to unwind. Yeah.
• 24:44
  That was a long sound. Don't worry.
• 24:45
  If you have critiques on the sound effects we're using, you
• 24:48
  can post those in the comments for us.
• 24:50
  Yeah, so, and we may or may not ever change them, but you can
• 24:53
  let us know how you feel about them.
• 24:54
  Yeah. Please do.
• 24:55
  Yes, if you would like to be the Featured Filmmaker of the Week
• 24:58
  and go to indiefilmpodcast.com/submit.
• 25:00
  There you will be able to see all about becoming a featured
• 25:03
  filmmaker and just send us your story because we'd love to hear
• 25:06
  from you. And you can send us an audio
• 25:07
  clip too, if you'd rather have your voice.
• 25:09
  Yeah. Do you want to talk about Bryson
• 25:11
  Mckelly? I would love to talk about
• 25:13
  Bryson Mckelly because this I actually think is a really
• 25:17
  interesting story. He's a formerly incarcerated
• 25:20
  filmmaker, so he kind of turned to film as, as in his words, a
• 25:24
  way to reauthor his own story And quote, storytelling didn't
• 25:28
  just become my craft, it became my way back into society.
• 25:32
  I like that. I really love that.
• 25:34
  OK, so Bryson is the writer, director, producer, editor, and
• 25:38
  actor behind Battle for Pedigree.
• 25:40
  All the hats. All the so true indie filmmaker
• 25:44
  here. It's a concept film trailer made
• 25:46
  with limited resources, shifting crews, lost location and the
• 25:50
  long production pauses, but did get finished mainly through
• 25:54
  persistence. Yes, that's the important thing.
• 25:56
  Yes. Hopefully your story is a story
• 25:58
  about you finishing your production.
• 26:00
  I have a quote here from Bryson and he says at one point during
• 26:05
  production, my my ego took a hit before the camera ever rolled.
• 26:09
  The budget I'd carefully plan to pay my crew had to be repurposed
• 26:12
  so that I could fix my car and physically make it to the
• 26:15
  locations. Suddenly, producer turned into
• 26:18
  survivor. I reached out to film students
• 26:21
  who are hungry to learn, covered their gas, fed them well and
• 26:25
  kept moving forward. That's a good trick is if people
• 26:28
  want to learn how to be on a set and you're willing to feed them
• 26:31
  and they have the time, yeah, Then bring them on.
• 26:34
  And cover their gas. So I mean, at least they're, I
• 26:36
  mean, that's better than some sets I've been on.
• 26:39
  Yeah, being honest. Got a good experience on set for
• 26:42
  sure. Yeah, smart shift to go to film
• 26:44
  students because our problems are the worst and I absolutely
• 26:48
  hate it A. List of other things that went
• 26:49
  wrong as well. So after that the chaos didn't
• 26:51
  stop. A rented boat for a key scene
• 26:53
  was suddenly unavailable. The cinematographer left for
• 26:56
  paid work halfway through the shoot, so he put the Co editor
• 27:00
  and the DP chair. 2 lead actors couldn't make it to set.
• 27:03
  Lack of budget led to a six month hiatus.
• 27:06
  And finally an outdoor green screenshot had to be scrapped
• 27:10
  when the grass was the same color as the green screen.
• 27:15
  So Needless to say, this project had plenty of delays, missteps,
• 27:18
  roll swaps, creative editing, and on the fly rewrites.
• 27:21
  I love that that got missed. I'm really sorry, Bryson, that
• 27:25
  that happened to. You.
• 27:26
  But it's such a good story, yeah.
• 27:28
  You got green grass and the green screen.
• 27:30
  And it worked with cutting the scene, so that's the most
• 27:32
  important part too, for sure. So despite all of this,
• 27:35
  obviously Bryson did finish the film and is continuing to make
• 27:39
  more. He's also the founder of Last of
• 27:41
  a Dying Seed, which is apparently a multimedia platform
• 27:44
  pairing cinematics team cinematics scenes with real life
• 27:47
  stories. And it is there mainly to
• 27:50
  challenge stereotypes and restore humanity to people who
• 27:53
  are often unseen, which personally I think feels
• 27:57
  especially impactful and empowering coming from a
• 28:00
  formerly incarcerated person. I just think that's that's
• 28:03
  really cool to make sure, yeah. Is that storytelling at its
• 28:06
  finest? I agree completely and thanks so
• 28:09
  much, Bryson, for sending us your story.
• 28:11
  Like we said, you can send us a story.
• 28:13
  We'd love to hear a recorded audio clip that you can attach
• 28:16
  to the Google form. Yes, and.
• 28:19
  There's one last quote from Bryson that I'm gonna force.
• 28:21
  And here, because I love this quote, say it.
• 28:24
  It's the nicest thing anybody's ever said about indie films.
• 28:27
  So I'm still creating because I believe indie film is one of the
• 28:30
  last places where truth can exist without permission, and I
• 28:34
  want to be a part of keeping that spirit alive.
• 28:36
  And I really like that. That was a powerful message.
• 28:40
  Thanks, Bryson. Yeah, that's a really cool.
• 28:42
  So I think on that note, we should probably just succinctly
• 28:45
  say farewell. I think so.
• 28:46
  It's a very inspiring note. Excellent.
• 28:48
  Bye