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IFH 774: Breaking Barriers in Filmmaking: The Resilient Journey of Sean Buckley · 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 1: amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, Episode number seven
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: seventy four. Start writing no matter what. The water does
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  Speaker 2: not flow until the faucet is turned on. Louis Lemore.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the film biz. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is
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  Speaker 2: sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur. How to turn
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  Speaker 2: your independent film into a profitable business. It's harder today
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  Speaker 2: than ever before for independent filmmakers to make money with
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  Speaker 2: their films from predatory film distributors ripping them off to
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  Speaker 2: episode with guest host Dave bullis.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: A little bit like moving through a quicksand I mean,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: technology has taken us to a point where you can
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: get into the game of content creation, Like immediately, my
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: eleven year old daughter can grab her phone and cut
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  Speaker 3: something and it's fantastic, probably better than some of the
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: stuff I was doing back in the day. But back
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: then when you're trying to start something, yeah, it's just
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  Speaker 3: a little bit more clunky, and you're you're slower, and
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: there was more heavy lifting to create content if you will,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: back in nineteen ninety.
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  Speaker 4: Four, you know, and you mentioned about content creation because
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: like back then, you had to if you wanted to
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  Speaker 4: show somebody something, yeah, you had you had to actually
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  Speaker 4: put it on a VHS tape, mail it, or you
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  Speaker 4: had to actually print out a whole kit. So you know,
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  Speaker 4: I mean that's a challenge of itself because because you know,
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: all that costs money.
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  Speaker 3: It does in time, right, so you're you're not in
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  Speaker 3: a situation where you can be working on, you know,
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  Speaker 3: multiple projects at any given moment, because this just to
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  Speaker 3: lose just a bit more laboring to get products done.
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  Speaker 3: And as you say, just the physical delivery of it,
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  Speaker 3: you're absolutely right. I mean, the editing of it was
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  Speaker 3: you know, it wasn't linear or sorry, it was linear.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't digital. So you're not you know, you're making
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  Speaker 3: big linear analog shifts and changes, but you're just again
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  Speaker 3: a little more time consuming.
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  Speaker 4: So you know, what was the impetus to start your
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  Speaker 4: own production company in ninety four?
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  Speaker 3: I I just always loved the concept of storytelling and
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  Speaker 3: I love creating, So for me, it was a bit
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  Speaker 3: of a leap of faith. I left a job and
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: publishing and advertising. I was a little older to the game.
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  Speaker 3: So imagine a twenty six year old being a PA
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  Speaker 3: on set sweeping studios, dragon cables. That was That was
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  Speaker 3: me starting literally starting in the business. But it was,
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  Speaker 3: as I say, kind of fueled by blind optimism and fear.
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  Speaker 3: I wanted to build a business of my own. I've
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  Speaker 3: always had an entrepreneurial spirit and I wanted, quite frankly,
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  Speaker 3: to be doing what I was very, very passionate about.
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  Speaker 3: So it was in the world of storytelling.
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  Speaker 4: So when when you finally did actually, you know, start
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  Speaker 4: your own production company and everything. You know, how how
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  Speaker 4: did you go about making your first project? Because I
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  Speaker 4: imagine you know, like you could just you know, alluded
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  Speaker 4: to Sean, you probably got you know, when you're when
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  Speaker 4: you're first starting out, I mean, at least in my
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  Speaker 4: experience as well, when you're first starting out, you kind
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  Speaker 4: of get a lot of eyebrows because like, you know,
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  Speaker 4: can you you know, can you do this? You know,
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  Speaker 4: can you finance this? Do you know how to do
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  Speaker 4: a budget? All that good stuff. So when you first
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  Speaker 4: started out, you know, your first project you know what
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  Speaker 4: were some of the challenges with that.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, literally you know, going through the school
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  Speaker 3: of hard knocks, right like understanding it, learning it, and
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: quite frankly failing and using kind of failure if you will,
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  Speaker 3: is fuel to motivate you, to teach you to you know,
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  Speaker 3: make sure that you're continually moving towards you know, understanding
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  Speaker 3: the landscape better, understanding execution better, understanding your craft better.
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  Speaker 3: And yeah, first projects were the result of cold calls.
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  Speaker 3: You know, hey, do you want to do a corporate video? Click?
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  Speaker 3: Hey do you want to do a corporate video? Click?
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  Speaker 3: You know, rinse and repeat, and then moving into things
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  Speaker 3: like music videos and stuff where artists were clinging to
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  Speaker 3: you as quite frankly, as kind of much as you
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  Speaker 3: are clinging to the artists in this leap of faith.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, not big budgets and stretching, you know,
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  Speaker 3: stretching the investment or whatever investment you could get, be
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  Speaker 3: it your own personal one that you were you know,
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  Speaker 3: you'd salvage together to put something on a real to
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  Speaker 3: somebody taking a chance on you, and then you just
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  Speaker 3: putting it on the screen and organically building your work,
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  Speaker 3: your portfolio because at the end of the day that
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  Speaker 3: that reduces the eyebrow game. It's like, so, what is
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  Speaker 3: it that you do? Well, this is what we do.
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  Speaker 3: And when they see your work and you kind of
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  Speaker 3: get to that stage, you start to see just some
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  Speaker 3: more success in getting more and more projects.
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  Speaker 4: So so, Sean, you touched on cold calling. That's something
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  Speaker 4: I've had to do as well, not only just for
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  Speaker 4: this but like, you know, just for you know, getting
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: talking to investors, what have you. But also, you know,
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  Speaker 4: I had an internship in college where they made me
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  Speaker 4: just do cold calling all day, so, you know, and
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  Speaker 4: here's a funny part, Sean. The list that they had
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  Speaker 4: was a bunch of like former clients. It was like
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  Speaker 4: an amalgamation list, right. It was like former clients, current clients,
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  Speaker 4: all this stuff. Right, So they were like, why don't
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  Speaker 4: you just sit in this room and call these people
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  Speaker 4: all day? So I would sit there, Sean, for like
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  Speaker 4: two hours every day after college, calling these people, and
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  Speaker 4: more than half were like wait wait. They were like
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  Speaker 4: who are you? And I said, oh, you know, I'm Dave,
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  Speaker 4: you know, calling from you know, I won't say the company,
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  Speaker 4: but then I'm calling from this. They were like, why
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: are you calling me. I'm like, well, you know, they're
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  Speaker 4: running this deal whatever, And most of the time they
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  Speaker 4: would just hang up on me. One person freaked out.
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  Speaker 4: It was a woman who was no longer a client,
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  Speaker 4: and I mean like, this woman was like freaking out
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  Speaker 4: that I even called her. She was like, why would
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  Speaker 4: I do business with this company? Again? What the hell
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  Speaker 4: is wrong with this?
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  Speaker 3: What the hell's wrong with you?
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  Speaker 4: And I go, I'm just some college intern. I'm sorry.
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  Speaker 4: So when you were cold calling, did you have a
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  Speaker 4: list of contacts that you already knew what would maybe
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  Speaker 4: be interested.
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  Speaker 3: Ah, you know what it's for starters is I love
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  Speaker 3: the concept of you know, a path, a path, a
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  Speaker 3: pathway into what it is that you want to achieve
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  Speaker 3: or accomplish, is riddled with resistance. And so if you
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  Speaker 3: were to just take the word cold calling, I mean
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  Speaker 3: you obviously immediately like you went, oh my god, because
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  Speaker 3: it took you back to a place which was really,
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  Speaker 3: really hard to do. And that's interestingly enough in concept
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  Speaker 3: to look at now is in the landscape of content,
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  Speaker 3: because there was numerous paths too, or barriers to entry,
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  Speaker 3: if you will. So it was a cold calling reaching
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  Speaker 3: out trying to get people to give you a shot. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you know you're picking up the phone high you own
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  Speaker 3: whatever a flea market? Do you want a really cheap commercial? No,
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  Speaker 3: don't ever call me again? Click next call. Well, you
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  Speaker 3: know all the way through to working as a PA
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  Speaker 3: and you know, dragging gear and passing coffees, but even
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  Speaker 3: there you're cold calling. It is a different cold calling.
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  Speaker 3: It's an organic cold calling. It's a networking thing where
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: you're like, hey, you you're an assistant cameraman, can you
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  Speaker 3: borrow a camera on the weekend and maybe all produce
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: a director thing and you can be the DP. And
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  Speaker 3: so you're and let's do this and then we both
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  Speaker 3: walk away with something for our reals. So you're just
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  Speaker 3: constantly moving through the barriers to entry into what it
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  Speaker 3: is that you want to do now in content. Now,
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  Speaker 3: what I actually love is the barriers of entry have
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  Speaker 3: been reduced. So that is and I'm not talking so
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  Speaker 3: much to cold calling. I mean, probably most of your
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: audience would't even know what that concept is, but it's
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  Speaker 3: it's striving to be given an opportunity, getting the opportunity
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  Speaker 3: anyway that you possibly can. But once given that opportunity,
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  Speaker 3: technology has reduced those barriers to entries so that you
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: can deliver on set opportunity. You can get access to gear,
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  Speaker 3: you can shoot digital, you can get a camera next
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: to not and you can frame it up, you can
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  Speaker 3: cut it, you can add music, you can you know,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: you don't need to drag around a big machine like
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: shooting on film editing uh, you know, cutting on an
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  Speaker 3: Avid or some of those massive editing suites which were
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: you know, the only way to kind of get in
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  Speaker 3: the editing game back in the day film processing. The
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: cost of film like, you're not dragging around these big,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: chunky bohemoths to get to get the project done that
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  Speaker 3: you have been given the opportunity to do.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
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  Speaker 3: And So what that does, and and I love it,
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  Speaker 3: is it levels the playing field a little bit so
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  Speaker 3: that you know what you know, you want to go
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: and shoot the small you contect. You can get access
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: to the gear, it's affordable, you can execute it. But
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: what it doesn't reduce and the one commonality is your
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: your ability to or your want or your desire or
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: your resilience to press through to get that opportunity to
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: deliver a piece of work for the client to deliver
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: the you know, the project that you have been given
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to execute.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's uh, you know I like the the the
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: idea too, the what you have to you know, kind
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: of resistance, the barriers to entry until you can get
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: they get to do what you want to do. You know,
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  Speaker 4: that's what a lot of then. That's why I'm kind
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: of asking a lot about you know, the early start
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: here is because a lot of this is is you know,
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: people tend to whether they went to film school or
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: they didn't go to film school, like myself. You know,
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  Speaker 4: you kind of want to go out there and you've
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: realized that barrier's entry now are a little bit lower.
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: So where you don't have the lug around a bunch
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: of stuff, you can make a movie.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 4: Hell, we had Sean Baker on on here who made
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: a movie with his iPhone that was Tangerine and that.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: And Ya Tangerine. It was fantastic. Like again, and nobody
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: in that audience set there and said, I'm not enjoying
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: this film because he shot on his iPhone the exact opposite.
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: You know, So I that's exactly what I'm talking about
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: I think that's fantastic, yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: It and that that's just kind of like you know
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: that that's why I think, you know, with content creation
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: the way it is now and something and I'm kind
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: of jumping ahead, but I figured I to ask this
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: question now, is you know, Sean, do you feel that
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: the market is kind of oversaturated right now because they
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: have YouTube, you have Hulu, you have Vimeo, you have Netflix,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: all these other things. Or do you think that the
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: market is it doesn't really matter because the quality is
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: always going to be there.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: Meaning now, okay, go ahead.
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I was gonna say because I know sometimes you could
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: hear you know, people will lament and say like, oh,
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: my project would have been this, but it got buried
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: by ten other things that was released the very second
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: I released it, you know what I mean?
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, I don't listen, there's a lot of content
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: out there, but for the you know, we've gone through
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: a content revolution, and primarily in the way that we've
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: shifted from the audience having content pushed at them. You
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: will watch this show, and you will watch it at
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: eight o'clock and it will be Thursday night. So go
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: destination viewing, sit on the couch, turn your TV on
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: and watch your show versus content now and the audience
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: pulling content to them. So what that's created is a
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: ferocious appetite for content. So is there more? Absolutely? But
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: is there more of an appetite for content? And the
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: answer to that question is absolutely now and the ability
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: to digest content. So rather than watching that show once
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: a week and stretching it out and then the content
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: machines in a sense, okay, well we don't have to
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: deliver season two until this time. It's like, well, how
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: about this. How about we spend seven months and we create, execute, deliver,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: and distribute to Netflix or one of the other OTTs
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: an entire series, like I mean like ten one hour
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: episodes and that's consumed in a forty eight hour window,
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: and it's like, we want more. So it's like, wow, okay, guys,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: we don't remember that seven Remember that more three to
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: four month window that we all thought we had, Well
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: that's been reduced to forty eight hours. Go here comes
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: season number two. Like now, so this there is and
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: I think that there will be a there'll be there'll
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: be a settling, like you know, some of the OTTs
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: will you know, grow some of the OTTs will disappear.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Some of the OTTs like Disney Plus will come into
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: the marketplace like a King Kong and you know, instead
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: of it, you know, them kind of hitting a billion
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: dollars worth of subs in the course of a year,
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: they'll do it in one ten hour window. Uh So.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: But then there's also be like you know, distribution channels
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: that just kind of start to disappear, and the content
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: and the opportunity to drop content on those other channels
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: that are innocence disappearing. That will reduce the content that's
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: out there, some of it. But when we are we
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: are in a world now where again there is just
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: because of the control is now with the audience as
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: into how, where, what, when they want to watch, how
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: quickly they want to watch and consume the content, because
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: that's in control by the audience. Now, it's it's completely
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: slipped the paradigm of you know, creating content for an audience.
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: So so, Sean, do you ever, like you know, watch
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: YouTube or any of those other you know, uh, you
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: know content you know outlets that you have access to,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: you know, we all have access to And do you ever,
• 15:23
  Speaker 4: like you know, watch something on there and think, you know, oh, hey,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: this person you know you watch YouTube short for instance,
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: and you say to yourself, wow, this person should you
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: know with the right you know, a team behind him,
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: him or her, you know, they could, they should be
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: making feature like films. I mean, do you ever do
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: you ever find like, you know, people to work with
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: that way?
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Absolutely? In fact, one of the reasons why I love
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: the way that Buck Productions has grown over the years
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: is it's grown with a very diversified portfolio. And if
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: you look at our portfolio, you'll see a company that's
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: not just oh we do this and oh yeah, yeah
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: we can do that said no, no, no, we have you know,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: we've made over twenty five feature films, and we have
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: created and made over fifty unscripted shows, and we've done
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: twelve documentaries and scripted series. And you know what, we've
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: been pioneering branded content for close to a decade. And
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: then over here we'll bang out a whole ton of
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: awesome commercials or smaller digital series for consumption on YouTube
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: and you know, other outlets. But in it what the
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: true value of this diversityfied portfolio is it's a talent beacon.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Just as you mentioned you know, I'm always looking for
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: talent always because those voices, that talent is now because
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: of these reduced barriers to entry, they can be seen there.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: You know, there was a time where you just you
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: couldn't get your work through the machine, and now you can,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: and that is that's a fantastic byproduct of access to
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: technology that can allow you to do what it is
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: that you want to do, show the world your voice.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: So back to the Buck model. I've got these divisions
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: and I'm constantly mining, you know, amazing directors or storytellers
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: that might be over here working on a cool digital
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: series for a feature film, or I might be over
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: here and saying, wow, this documentary team that I just
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: worked with is like, so cinematics such a gorgeously sincere
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: way of storytelling that I want them over here on
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: an unscripted shoe doing show, doing all the recreates. And
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: now you're seeing voices migrating from different silos of media,
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: and that's where you're starting to see things that are
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: really fresh. And that's what I really love doing. So
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: past what we're doing in our own diversified portfolio, Yes,
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: I'm constantly looking the landscape of creators and it could
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: be something as simple as whatever, not a tick to,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: but something in YouTube that is just you know, because
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: you know it's great about it. And this is what
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: I love is. I could go out to a garage
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: sale tomorrow and I can buy a guitar for twenty
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: bucks and the guitar's fine, and I will come home
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: and I will play it and people will want to,
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: you know, take the guitar and smash it over a
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: counter because it's so horrible. So there I am. I've
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: accessed the concept of being a guitar player, but I
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: can't do it, and I am really really bad. People
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: are accessing the ability to create content and execute content,
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: but that doesn't necessarily mean they're talented. Where you're finding
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: people's voices pierced through the white noise that is out
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: there is because they are talented and you're watching something
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: that just moves you, and you're not in a situation
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: where you have to say, well, how much did that call?
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: How much did it take you to make? Where did
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: you like? You can ask all those questions, but it's
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: really at the end of the day, regardless, you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: is it one hundred and twenty million dollars superhero movie
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: that moved you or is it a small cinematic short
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: film on YouTube that you know moved you and the
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: audience is now more than ever in kind of control
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: of that.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: You know, you mentioned the diverse portfolio. I did notice that,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: by the way, Sean, because I, you know, I recognized
• 19:25
  Speaker 4: wolf Cop. I saw that and I was like, oh,
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: wolf Cop, I go, you know, and it just I
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: started looking at everything else that you have done, and
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: that kind of jumped out because not only you know,
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: have I seen that a few times, but also it
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: just it seems so different from everything else, if you
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: know what I mean.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Dirty Harry, only Harrier had to make that movie,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: had to make it, and you know the team that
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: I made it, which was incredible. But interestingly enough, is
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: the wolf Cop was the product of something else that
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: we've built.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Uh. And I built this with partners, and that company
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: is called the Coup Company, and I don't I I've
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: been building it with j Jolly and Brian Weed and
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: my two partners and some other partners. And it's just
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: it isn't It isn't a separate thing than buck. Buck
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: is an owner in it. But what I saw in
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: the Coup Company was yet again pressing the perimeters of innovation.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: And the Coup Company is a disruptive model that we
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: basically said, hey out there, we want to we want
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: to make an independent film. We want to open up
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: a coup and the coups called Sineku. We have a
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: million dollars in financing and we have a atal coast
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: to coast distribution with our partners here in Canada, Coled Cinepipes,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: and we now opened Sinecu and we want you to
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: come forward, director, producer and digital social media head. We
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: want you to come forward with your film. So what
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: we did is a very disruptive incubator that lived online
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: and we we were out there hunting for exactly what
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: we found Wolfcop. Now ninety films came in and they said, well,
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: where do we send the script? We don't want the script,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: we want your trailer. So all of a sudden, you know,
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: great now again no barriers to entry. Guys are out
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: there making trailers like literally hobbling together a team getting
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: the technology, shooting their trailer. And what if you some
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: more veteran filmmakers would call and say, well, you want
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: a trailer, I need ten or fifteen thousand dollars. It's like, well,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: then you know, Sydneku is not for you. This is
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: a very innovative distribution disruptive model. Well, team like teams
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: like Lowell Dean who started out of the gate with
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: Wolf Cop. You know, they got it and they put
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: together a trailer that blew our mind. And over sixteen
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: week period we created we started with ninety and then
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: moved to you know, twenty five, and then down to
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: ten and then the top five films over a sixteen
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: week mission based model which was going to show us
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: the poster what's your marketing plan? We developed, fully developed
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: numerous properties, and then flew the top five teams to
• 22:31
  Speaker 3: the Whistler Film Festival, which is a whole bunch of
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: fun if you ever get a chance to check it out,
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: and through our judging panel and through the fans support,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: like again the cuscus about you know, fans making movies
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: for fans Like it's they're the ones that are telling
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: us we want more, we want Wolf Coop, Like they're
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: the ones who were making the movie four and so
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: it's like, hey, rather than sit in a room and
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: say I think they really want to romain a comedy.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: It's like, no, let's build them all the us what
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: they want. And of the top five teams, it was
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: loud and clear people wanted us to make Wolf Cop.
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: So that's what we did. And Louel Dean and his
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: team came from a small town a Saskatchewan, which you know,
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: to this day, I don't think without something like a
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: sinekup or the coup model, we're or we're finding that talent,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: the amazing talent and the idea which was Wolf Cop.
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: So it's funny you touched on that particular film because
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: that's exactly how we got the opportunity to make it well.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: And you know, I wanted to ask too, you know,
• 23:37
  Speaker 4: when you make something like Wolf Cop, you know, do
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: you do you feel that you know, and as we
• 23:40
  Speaker 4: talked about content creation and everything and standing out, do
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: you feel that you almost have to make something like
• 23:46
  Speaker 4: that in the marketplace right now? Where just you know,
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: not only does the name sell it to you because
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: it's it's exactly what you think it is, it's it's
• 23:53
  Speaker 4: a wolf cop, but where wolf that's a cop? But
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: do you think that also just helps to stand out.
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: I mean if when the marketplace, whether it be on
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: Netflix or et cetera, just gets too crowded, and then
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: you can just say, here's something completely different. It's not
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: a big budget, you know, a superhero movie, and it's
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: you know, it's something that you could put on and
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: it's exactly what it says it is, and you know
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: what I mean. So it stands out on its own
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: just by the sheer premise of it. It's almost like
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: the premise is a character of itself.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you have to get through you have
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: to get through a sniff test really quickly in the
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: current landscape of content, like you you know, you know,
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: and I like to call it a a With some tests,
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: it's like immediately when they see it, it's like, well,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: what's in it for me? Literally, And you have a
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: very short window of time nowadays because the choices of
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: what it is that they want to do forget content.
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: I'm going to go right back and play Fortnite, or
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that,
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: or I'm going to listen to an awesome you know,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: pod cast like yours, or I'm going to do you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: there are so many things drawing at people time, uh,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: and content consumption choices, so you're with them. Test what's
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: in it for me is like hyper narrow, So you've
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: got to come into that world with something that does
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: exactly that. Wolf Cop. Oh my goodness, this film looks hilarious.
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: I'm in But also it's not always necessarily loud or
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: or like wolf Cop is a is a big idea.
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: We love it because it's an ip. It's an intellectual property.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: Now in the world of wolf you know, wear wolf Cops.
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: That is our ip, like like a teenage ninja Turtles,
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: and you know, we're doing some really exciting stuff like that.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: Well we made the sequel, another Wolf Cop, and we're
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: doing other things. But as you move back to that question,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: you know there's still other audiences that they're with them
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: test what's in it for me is not I want
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: loud crazy? You know. Funny, I understand that what's the
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: concept of the film is right out of the gate
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: by the title, it's something like Astronaut, which is a
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: film we just finished, which is you know, with Richard
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: Dreyfus and Graham Green and Calm Fure and we it's
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: a film about an elderly gentleman who's still got a dream,
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: and the messaging in the film is, you know, dreams
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: don't have expiry dates, so there is an audience for that,
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: and there with them is wow. I actually want to
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: kind of see. There's not a lot of films that
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: are made for an older audience and I want to
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: go to the theater and watch some dude in the cape.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: It's just not my thing, but I do want to
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: see a story that's grounded in some really great messaging,
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: incredible performances by great actors, and just at the core
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: of a really good story.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: So being that you know, you kind of have, you know,
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: the the movies that fans want to see, does that
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: help you? You know, Sean, when you know I'm guessing,
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: I want to say about investors. You know, when you're
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: pitching to investors, did did you ever? Is it easier
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: or is it harder because you're you're a diverse film company,
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: Because you know, some film companies say, hey, look we
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: only do horror. Someone will say we only do drama.
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: So does it kind of like hurt you or does
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: it help you? Being so diverse.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: It helps us and it helps us in the structuring
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: out of a business model. I've always been fascinated with
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: the concept of if you look at a spectrum and
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: on one side of the spectrum is creativity and on
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: the other side of the spectrum is business vacuumen or
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: business knowledge. And it's weird, but you know, so much
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: of the world feels that you're either operating in this
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: column called it left brain, right brain, but you're operating.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Is this creative or you're operating is this kind of
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: you know, nuts and bols accounting business guy. But my world,
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: the world that I've always lived in, is one that
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: I think is it's going to become more and more relevant.
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: And that is right in the middle. That's where you
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: understand business. I mean, like Buck Productions is a business.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: Our product is content. That's what we make. But you know,
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: our product to make it revolve, you know, needs a
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: tremendous amount of creativity and you know, and that's the
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: gift of you know, that's that's our focus on storytelling.
• 28:26
  Speaker 3: And it's just films and that's that's TV shows, this
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: digital series and that's standing on a set doing a commercial. Right,
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: it's I mean our widget if you will I'm not
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: trying to downplay what is it we do, but our
• 28:36
  Speaker 3: business widget is we you know, we make content. So
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: by building a company that is diversified, what that allowed
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: me to do is a still focus on what is
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: that I want to do because storytelling for me, doesn't
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: stop at thirty second commercial and it doesn't have to
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: be in a ninety minute feature. It can be in
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: an eight part, six minute each web series about young
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: entrepreneurs that we did for Infinity and you know the
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: storytelling there. I don't want to spend any more time
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: than six minutes with this awesome entrepreneur. But now all
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: of a sudden you start looking at the business model
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: that is Buck And as you know in the marketplace
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: now is what it's done is it's given us, I say,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: as our team, the opportunity to be selective in a sense,
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: so as investors come to us, or opportunities come to us,
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: or scenarios are presented. Is because we're moving through the
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: ebbs and flows of production, like, oh, we're going to
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: take a little you know, it's going to take us
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: a while to put together that film. But while we're
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: doing that, we're going to make two unscripted shows. It's
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: a branded content and a scripted series. We're moving through
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: other production. That's the business component of it and giving
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: us the opportunity to be a little bit more selective
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: in what projects we choose, to focus on what projects
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: we want to get behind, rather than we have to
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: do that project.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: We got to You know, all we do is horror movies.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: That's it. That's all we make. So every horror movie
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: that comes at us, we got to do that. That's
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: actually been a very very uh it's given you us
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: a position of not a position of strength, to play
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: a little bit from We can get to play from
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: the balls of our feet and be wise about a
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: the company, strategic partners, investors, and or content that we
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: want to work on.
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and that makes total sense. You know. It's just
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: like I've seen, you know a lot of the companies that
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: have come at like you know, they've only do certain
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: certain movies or certain genres I should say, And then
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: you kind of get that we've just alluded to where it's
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: like you can almost have to do everything that's thrown
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: at you because you kind of you know what I mean,
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: you're kind of down a street, I guess, and you
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: want to be very good at that one wheelhouse. But
• 31:07
  Speaker 4: at the same time, it kind of, you know, you're
• 31:11
  Speaker 4: kind of at the at the mercy, so to speak,
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: of whatever the market is for that genre at the time.
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: But granted, I mean, there's always a genre for horror though.
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: There's always I mean, there's always a market for horror though.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: We just finished a movie called Making Monsters, which is
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: exactly that. I'm very proud of it. And it's a
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: it's a you know, funny is it's two directors that
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: had worked with me on one of our unscripted series,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: but their work on the recreated recreate stuff was exceptional
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: and I just like them and they're fantastic. And they'd
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: done three short films and had received some tremendous accolades
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: from the short film festivals, and they approached me to
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: say that, can you know, Sean, would you help us
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: make this other short? And I said, you know what, guys,
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: you graduated, you don't need to make another short. You've
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: done that openness concept up to a feature and let's
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: go there. And that's exactly what we did. You know,
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: we we put together a script and they did and
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: wrote a fantastic story and we made a movie called
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Making Monsters and in it, yeah, I'm looking at the
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: landscape of horror and it's horror and we've been out
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: to all the film festivals that it's done very very well.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: But yeah, no, that's that's that's that's it's a space
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: that we do play in for sure. And you're right
• 32:20
  Speaker 3: there as you say that the world has been well again,
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: right back to this ferocious appetite, right it has a
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: ferocious appetite for horror.
• 32:31
  Speaker 4: So you know, show them just to you know, kind
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: of as we kind of go along here with with
• 32:35
  Speaker 4: your whole career and how to and how you you
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: kind of built up your your own studio, you know,
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: what advice would you give somebody who was just starting,
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: you know, right now, who wanted to do something similar
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: to what you've done.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: Work ethic? You know, It's like I didn't go to uh,
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: I didn't go to film school. And and I'm not
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that film school is not a great idea.
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: I just wasn't. It wasn't an opportunity that I had
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: before me. But I think at the end of the
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: day is you know, you have to there's two things.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: You have to be prepared in this particular business to
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: to really really work hard, and you know, and you
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: got to love it because anything, you know, because you've
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: got to go all in and in building your own business,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: you know, that's that's you have to be smart about
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: it and you have to kind of build it out.
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: As I'd mentioned, that is a hybrid. It's a business.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: It's treated as a business. You know, you take the
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: word show out of show business and uh and and
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: again just work, work really, really hard and then if
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: that scares you. The other thing I would add to
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: that comment is the concept of the minimum minimization of regrets.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: So I'm you know, here's twenty five years later and
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Buck Productions has been an incredible adventure and I've kind
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: of got to do exactly what I love to do,
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: and I've worked with some incredible teams of people. And
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: when I look at our what our legacy is, if
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: you will, as a company, the fact that I'm meeting
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: you for the first time and you're talking about one
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: of our films and you've watched it, you loved it.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: It's like that's our legacy. We've you know, we've created
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: a portfolio of work that has touched people and what
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: But the minimization of regret has always been something that
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: I think people should really tuck in there and their
• 34:34
  Speaker 3: decision to do it like a soldier on because when
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: you're looking backack, you know, at your life and you
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: know you're you're saying wow, I just always think about
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: minimalization of regret, Like I don't want to look back
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: at my life and say, wow, I was afraid to
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: work too hard to try to build that company from nothing,
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: and now I'm a great life and I've done this
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: and I've worked tier and this was my gig and
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: it was awesome. But at the end of the day,
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: is I kind of regret that decision? Well, if you're
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: operating under the concept of minimalization of regret, then you
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: know what, you're going to throw yourself into that situation,
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: that scenario. You're going to throw yourself into that opportunity
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: and work really really hard to see it through.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: So you know, and also we touched upon it before
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: we started this.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 35:26
  Speaker 4: Now with with there no barriers to entry like this
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: podcast for instance, you know, there's no podcast headquarters, for instance.
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: It's just that, you know what I mean, It's just
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: the digital recording that is put up onto a podbean,
• 35:37
  Speaker 4: and it's and you know, there is no real barrier
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: to entry to this, which I talk of all the time,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: especially in podcasting, Sean. Podcasting, the barrier to entry is
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: so low that it's almost like I'm shocked when somebody
• 35:48
  Speaker 4: doesn't have a podcast.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah no, but I keep I got to tell you,
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: I keep picturing you sitting in a two thousand square
• 35:54
  Speaker 3: foots state of the art studios just so you know, David.
• 35:59
  Speaker 4: You know it's funny show. I started this podcast in
• 36:02
  Speaker 4: a like two hundred two fifty thousand dollars studio. I
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: actually had a friend who actually at the studio was like, hey,
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: you want to use it? And I said sure, And
• 36:12
  Speaker 4: I started all of this in there. And now I'm
• 36:14
  Speaker 4: sitting here in my little office doing this. So I've
• 36:18
  Speaker 4: kind of gone I've gone the reverse method, Sean. I
• 36:20
  Speaker 4: started out in a really nice studio and now now
• 36:23
  Speaker 4: I'm in a thing in my house. But it's actually
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: easier in my house though I don't have to go anywhere.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: You know what. Listen, it's like it's odd, but you know,
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: look at the cultural shift in exactly that you know
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: that access. It's like, okay, well guess what you know
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: you talked about how did you Well, I started up
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: a company and then you know the people that you know,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: individuals and clients need to come to a bricks and
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: mortar kind of a place because you know what, now,
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: all of a sudden, you were real, you were a
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: real company, right versus we work. Look at the companies, concepts, ideas,
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: strategies that are getting burnt from places like we work,
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: where you know there is no big bricks and mortar play.
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: How about this, how about the idea your podcast or
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: you know, how about JK. Rowling writing Harry Potter in
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: a coffee shop? You know, there's no bricks and mortar there.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: It's you know, it's and that's that I think gives again,
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: you know again, levels of playing field, but gives creators
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: wings in a sense, you know, they're not labored down
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: with well I got to have this to be real
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: or be it's like, hey, you don't you need less,
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: You need less and you can create more nowadays, which
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: I love.
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's definitely true. I think it's just something
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: I've been experimenting with too. It's just you know, when
• 37:46
  Speaker 4: you approach different people, don't approach different companies or even
• 37:49
  Speaker 4: you know, trying to go to YouTube. You know, I
• 37:54
  Speaker 4: know some companies do want to see a trailer, kind
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: of like you're alluding to with Wolf comp. Other companies,
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: you know, they do want to see you know, maybe
• 38:00
  Speaker 4: they do want to read the script first.
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean, they do. Listen, Well, the
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: sinecup model, the coup model is something very different. We worked,
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: We've done numerous coups. Now, we've done a coup for
• 38:12
  Speaker 3: a sitcom that that's a that's an awesome model all
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: you know, tech base that we're I just as a
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: serial entrepreneur, I saw the model. I wanted to invest
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: in it and build it with the team that was
• 38:27
  Speaker 3: working on it. But listen, there's a very there is
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: another model you know that. You know, Milton's Secret Film
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: we just did a couple of years ago that started
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: in a very traditional model. I'd read Eckartole. I love
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: the power of now, I love the concept of being present.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: I wanted his work to be on the big screen.
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: So we you know, we worked, you know, work got
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: the script. We worked the script. We worked with Eckartole
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: and we took his book Milton's Secret, which is, you know,
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: conceptually the power of now and being present and anti bullying.
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: And you know, we're making a movie with Donald Sutherlan
• 39:01
  Speaker 3: and Michelle Rodriguez and and very and again very proud
• 39:06
  Speaker 3: of that work, you know, very proud of the message
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: that it is. I mean, it's extending a powerful message
• 39:12
  Speaker 3: into the big screen and into the content consumption landscape
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: of a film. So people are getting that message. They're
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: not having to read the Power Now or Milton Secret
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: and accurate messages out there. So but that's a very
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: un you know, that's an undisruptive. That's a very traditional.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Start with the script or the script, get the script right,
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: build a machine, bring in the financing, make the movie.
• 39:37
  Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, it is. And I think too, like you
• 39:42
  Speaker 4: know again, as different the different avenues are kind of
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: I want to say, fleshed out. If different avenues are
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: kind of fleshed out, I think you are going to
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: see you know, more of different different ways that people
• 39:56
  Speaker 4: can now. Actually, you know, maybe they don't have to
• 39:59
  Speaker 4: make if they have the you already have a script,
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: or if they have an idea they don't necessarily have.
• 40:02
  Speaker 4: They don't have to go that model, you know what
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 40:14
  Speaker 4: Like if they don't have to, they don't have to
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: go to a studio, they could do they could do
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: something like with a YouTube channel. I see a lot
• 40:22
  Speaker 4: of you know, I see a lot of stuff with
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: like YouTube now, especially with I forget the guy's name.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: I just mentioned him the other day, but anyways, he
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: did lights Out, David sein Steinfeld, I forget, but he
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: did lights Out like he did a bunch of trailers
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: on YouTube and then he got pulled. He he uh,
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: you know, made a future film out of it. So
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: it's kind of it's kind of what we were talking
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: about before, where you kind of have a proof concept
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: or a trailer and then you can actually flush out
• 40:49
  Speaker 4: into a whole movie if you If he.
• 40:50
  Speaker 3: Can go that route, absolutely absolutely, and uh you know,
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: and and it's funny, but what you think about it
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: is you look at you know, here's Martin Scorsese. You know,
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: you look at now get on a totally different scale,
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: Martin Scorsese can't get the Irishman made. No studios touching it, nobody,
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: nobody wants to spend the money. Nobody wants you know,
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: nobody's going to back that thing. It's de Niro, it's
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: Joe Pesci, It's Scorsese, arguably one of the greatest filmmakers
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: of all time. It's it's it's Wheelhouse, it's you know,
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: it's Casino, it's Good Fellas. It's based on an unbelievable book.
• 41:28
  Speaker 3: And it takes the ott It takes Netflix right, it
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: takes the disruptive model of you know what that is
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: to come in and say, hey, here's a here's a
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: here's a filmmaker and a team of actors that are
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: you know, about as if you were to say, for
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: a certain audience, about as bankable as you can bank.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: And the studios aren't touching it. Yet Netflix does, and
• 41:52
  Speaker 3: in that model they make The Irishman, which you know,
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: does a small theatrical run and is now boom out on.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: So it takes some It takes a disruptive model. It
• 42:02
  Speaker 3: takes a new new concept for a for a more
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: established team of filmmakers. So there's the young that are
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: finding themselves on YouTube but breaking in here's an established
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: filmmaker and established actors, and I mean it's about established
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: as one can't be having to go through Netflix to
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: get the movie that they really want to make out there.
• 42:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I actually I just saw that too on I
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: I have Netflix. Have you seen The Irishman yet?
• 42:29
  Speaker 3: I have? And you know, it's long and it's but
• 42:32
  Speaker 3: it's listen, it's it's a it's I thought it was fantastic.
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: It's beautiful. It's like it's it's some of the it's
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: some of the best individuals, uh, you know in the
• 42:44
  Speaker 3: world of filmmaking, you know, sharing their craft with you.
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: I thought it was fantastic.
• 42:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's well, you know, whenever the the de
• 42:52
  Speaker 4: Niro and it's Scorsese and and Pesh you get together,
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: the movie becomes like three hours. You know, it's kind
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: of a rule. I don't know, I don't know if.
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: You Yeah, it's love.
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's Guys, Casino and Goodfellas and now and now
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: The Irishman. But yeah, yeah, you know, you know, just
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: just hear about the whole story about that coming out,
• 43:12
  Speaker 4: you know. Now, Netflix is a you know, it's a
• 43:15
  Speaker 4: whole model now for for you know, filmmakers to go
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: to because I remember when Netflix first started. True story Sewan.
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: I remember when Netflix Netflix first started. I had a
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: couple of friends who actually got movies picked up by them.
• 43:29
  Speaker 4: And the reason they had got picked up was because
• 43:31
  Speaker 4: I don't know if you remember this or not, but
• 43:33
  Speaker 4: Netflix used to let you submit movies to them. They
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: weren't and it wasn't hidden either, Like there was a
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: button on the website that said submit your movie here,
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: and that's how a couple of my friends got submitted
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: or sorry, got distribution by Netflix in the early days.
• 43:48
  Speaker 4: And they still use that to their credits. So like whenever,
• 43:52
  Speaker 4: you know, ten fifteen years now, they used that to
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: get their foot in the door. They're like, oh, by
• 43:57
  Speaker 4: the way, you know, I've had a movie on Netflix,
• 43:59
  Speaker 4: and you know, the people are like, holy shit, really,
• 44:01
  Speaker 4: oh my god.
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: Right, no, that's listen great, listen to talk. You know,
• 44:07
  Speaker 3: like at one point, Netflix was a business that would
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: mail DVDs to you. You know, at one point Netflix
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: was almost acquired by a Blockbuster. Think about that. Blockbuster
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: is like you know that archaic model of you have
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: to go to a store, stand in line, take a
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: VHS tape, bring it home, plug it in your system
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: or your DVD and watch it and then make sure
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: that you return it or are you going to get
• 44:31
  Speaker 3: paid to a late charge? Crazy? But you know again,
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: when Netflix was breaking and being disruptive and breaking through
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: and you know, mailing DVDs to homes, this this, you know,
• 44:43
  Speaker 3: this ott model comes through and now look at it,
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: the Great Red Tide as it is called.
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's uh it definitely, Yeah, the whole everything has changed.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 44:55
  Speaker 4: I think I have some friends of mine and myself,
• 44:57
  Speaker 4: I think we're the only people left who still maybe
• 44:59
  Speaker 4: by Blue Race when they come out with the physical media, but.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: Said, hey, that's that's collective, that's collectors. And I will
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: say this, I love seeing stuff like like in a
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: sense life the cyclical artist cyclical, the world is cyclical.
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: And you know you're looking at vinyl sales going through
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: the roof. People want because there's been a massive generation
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: that is that that doesn't like when you say own content.
• 45:28
  Speaker 3: It's like there's something about lifting that blu ray up,
• 45:31
  Speaker 3: holding it, touching it physically, touched, putting it in a machine,
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: looking at the additional components, you know, content offerings that
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: it has on it, I mean, you drop that needle
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: on a piece of vinyl, you know there's you know,
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: you know, there's an audience that there's never touched music.
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: It's just Spotify, it's the Apple playlist, it's this I
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: want to hear this song right now, put it on,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: you know, versus taking a record out of a sleeve,
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: touching it, physically, putting it on something, listening to the
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: music filled the room. That's that's an analog experience. That
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: is I mean, I think it's coming back strong. And
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: when you look at things like I'm not sure about
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: blue rays, but when you look at vinyl sales, you
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: know they're just increasing. You know, they're going to the roof,
• 46:15
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 46:16
  Speaker 4: I I have a friend of mine, I just you know,
• 46:18
  Speaker 4: he has a lot of you know, physical media, and
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: I asked him, I said, how many blu rays do
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: you have? And he actually has a catalog of every
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: single a Bluery that he has and he just as
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: shy of ten thousand blu rays.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: Geez, where does he keep it all?
• 46:37
  Speaker 4: Well, it's I'm glad you asked that, Sean. It's it's
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: his So he has a house all to himself and
• 46:45
  Speaker 4: it's basically like a Best Buy warehouse in there.
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah for sure. Yeah, some people would call that hoarding,
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: But no, I hear what you mean, as long as
• 46:54
  Speaker 3: it's organized, he's not hoarding.
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: Well, I told him that, I said, I said, I
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: think you're at the verge now, where like if if
• 47:02
  Speaker 4: like a pile of these Blu rays were to fall
• 47:05
  Speaker 4: on you, I said, I think that it would be
• 47:07
  Speaker 4: like days before anybody found you. And and he started laughing.
• 47:10
  Speaker 4: He's like, yeah, that's probably true. It's almost like, you know,
• 47:13
  Speaker 4: uh in like one of those horder shows where the
• 47:15
  Speaker 4: guy gets you know, on you know, they start unearthing
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: stuff and they find like just like people buried underneath
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: there under the mountain of Blu rays.
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that'd be a great question. Okay, so if you
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: were to pick the top one hundred films to crush you,
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: what would they be in your pile of Blu rays?
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: But you know what, Listen, that's that's content. I mean,
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: that's an individual who whatever appreciates content, and like that's
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: that's no different than your you know, Listen, I own
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: a ton of movies. I just own them now digitally,
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: and you know, I have a digital suitcase of films
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: you know, listen, and there's something very cool about going
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: to Apple TV. And I do this all the time,
• 47:54
  Speaker 3: like Wolf Copper or you saw Wolf Cup on Netflix.
• 47:57
  Speaker 3: But you go to your you've worked very hard to
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: make a film, and you know the team that you've
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: put together and that you've worked hard with. You know,
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: there's a real celebration of getting you know, getting that story,
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: that that piece of content out there. And there's something
• 48:16
  Speaker 3: very cool about, just as a filmmaker about going to
• 48:20
  Speaker 3: Apple TV and seeing it up there and you know
• 48:23
  Speaker 3: you and I purchase it, purchase my own film, and
• 48:26
  Speaker 3: I dropped it and put it into you know, a
• 48:29
  Speaker 3: purchased portfolio because I don't know, there's something about you
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: know it it being out there to find audiences. I mean,
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: that's at the end of the day while you do it.
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's by the way, just to mention too, that
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: the whole uh movies to crush you. It's like, yeah,
• 48:48
  Speaker 4: forget figure about the movies, your top ten, top one
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: hundred island lists. It's movies a desert island. Just get
• 48:53
  Speaker 4: the hundred movies that will crush you to death and
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: go from there. No, just I was just laughing at
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: that that was but but yeah, you know, you're absolutely right,
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: you know, Sean, and uh, you know, I mean, you know,
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: we've been talking for about, you know, about an hour
• 49:06
  Speaker 4: or so, so I wanted to ask, you know, kind
• 49:08
  Speaker 4: of in closing, is you know, is there anything you
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: wanted to say that to put a period at the
• 49:12
  Speaker 4: end of this whole conversation.
• 49:14
  Speaker 3: I appreciate your time, David, Thank you so much. Yeah,
• 49:18
  Speaker 3: it's the one thing is is that I like? Is
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: that the concept of looking back and you know, when
• 49:29
  Speaker 3: I look at the portfolio of what Buck has created
• 49:34
  Speaker 3: and I've got the I've got the advantage of looking
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: at it from twenty five years and the journey. Is
• 49:40
  Speaker 3: the one resounding component about all of it is is
• 49:46
  Speaker 3: that that minimalization of regret, like these young content makers
• 49:50
  Speaker 3: is don't don't be don't tread lightly into it, don't
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: be fearful. If you have a voice and you have
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: a story and you want to tell it and you're
• 50:00
  Speaker 3: leave in yourself.
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: Now more than ever, you know, there's an opportunity to
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: do it and outlets to get it on. And is
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: it competitive, absolutely competitive as one could ever imagine. But
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: whatever it's it's always been competitive because, as we discussed
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: at the beginnings of this conversation, it's all about barriers
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: to entry. And you know, you know, if you did
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: not have a thirty five mili camera, you were not
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: making a movie period, full stop. And if you couldn't
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: get it cut on a two hundred and fifty thousand
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: dollars editing suite called a NAVID, you weren't assembling it.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: So those are all challenging things to navigate and they're
• 50:52
  Speaker 3: no longer here. So it's just it's but you know,
• 50:56
  Speaker 3: there's more players, it's more competitive. If you will, I would,
• 50:59
  Speaker 3: so I would just say, you know, like if you
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: look at the portfolio block, I'm super proud of it,
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: super proud of the teams that I've had the great
• 51:07
  Speaker 3: fortune of working with. And I looked back and it's like,
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: you know, what, I've enjoyed and still got lots to do,
• 51:15
  Speaker 3: but I've really enjoyed the experience, the adventure and the
• 51:20
  Speaker 3: opportunity to play in the landscape of storytelling, which is
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: something really that I just always wanted to do.
• 51:29
  Speaker 4: And that's kind of the price you know what I mean, Sean,
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: Where you get to do what you love and you know,
• 51:34
  Speaker 4: especially in this in this market, in this industry, you
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: know what I mean. It's it's it's tough, but if
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: you can do it, more power to you. Right absolutely
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: shall where people find you at online.
• 51:46
  Speaker 3: Buck Productions dot com, where we're on Instagram. Buck Productions
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: is on Instagram and we're kind of updating people primarily
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: through Instagram. We're on Facebook Buck Productions and yeah, that's
• 52:02
  Speaker 3: kind of us and we're you know, if you want
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: to check out our work, our portfolio is a worker
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: at our website and we're always updating kind of what
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: we're doing out there and some of the cool stuff
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: that we're working on on social.
• 52:17
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: dot com Forward slash seven seventy four, and if you
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
• 52:36
  Speaker 2: really helps us out a lot.
• 52:37
  Speaker 3: Guys.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: Thank you again so much for listening. Guys, as always,
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: Indie Film hustle dot com. That's I N D I
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: E F I L M h U S t l
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: E dot com.