Latest / Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast / IFH 712: Directing Al Pacino in an Indie Film with Johnny Martin
Transcript
- 0:03You are listening to the IFH podcast Network. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
- 0:08podcasts, just go to IFH podcast network dot com. Welcome to the Indie
- 0:13Filmhustle Podcast, Episode number seven twelve. It's not about selling, it's about
- 0:18creating value for your audience. Jerry Aloca broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood.
- 0:26It's the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
- 0:30and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of the film biz. And
- 0:34here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the
- 0:39Indie Film Hustle Podcast. I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari. Today's
- 0:42show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur How to turn your independent film
- 0:47into a profitable business. It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers to
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- 1:06to be a change the future of independent filmmaking is the entrepreneurial filmmaker or the
- 1:11film entrepreneur. In Rise of the Film Entrepreneur, I break down how to
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- 1:19film into a profitable business. With case studies examining successes and failures. This
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- 1:38The book is available in paperback, ebook, and of course audiobook. If
- 1:42you want to order it, just head over to www dot film bizbook dot
- 1:48com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave
- 1:53Bullis. My next guest is a filmmaker and stuntman. He began his career
- 2:00in twenty fourteen just directing with his debut of the horror film Delirium, which
- 2:04is actually coming out the beginning of next year, by the way, which
- 2:07is January twenty eighteen. He went and went on to direct two other films,
- 2:12Vengeance, a Love Story starring Nicholas Cage and Don Johnson and Hangman which
- 2:15is the phone. We're gonna talk about today a lot about Today starring Al
- 2:19Paccino, Carl Urban, and Britney Snow. We also talk a lot about
- 2:23doing stunts because he was in a really cool movie called Killer Clowns Matter of
- 2:27Space with guests Johnny Martin, and I really appreciate that too. You know,
- 2:31we have a mutual friend in mister Kehoe. And uh, you know,
- 2:36is it just me, Johnny, or does Michael Kehoe know everybody?
- 2:39Michael Keho not only knows her, he knows people he doesn't even know yet.
- 2:46Yeah, It's it's always seems like Mike always knows somebody else. He's
- 2:50always, you know, I actually him talking to somebody else or or just
- 2:53you know, mentioning somebody else. I'm like, my god, this man
- 2:55must not sleep. He must just he must just either either call or go
- 3:00to networking parties or just you know, he has his finger on the button
- 3:02like he he has it all working together. Well, I've known him for
- 3:07a long long time, probably over eighteen twenty years, and back then,
- 3:10you know, he always talked about directing and doing all these movies, and
- 3:14I thought, well, these craft service really and I was always told Today's
- 3:16Craft Services Tomorrow's director, and sure enough, this man pulled it off.
- 3:21He's amazing. Yeah, I mean he definitely did. And you know,
- 3:25and speaking about you know, Today's Craft Services Tomorrow's director, you know,
- 3:29there's a lot of ways to get into the film industry. I mean,
- 3:30you know, everyone I've had on here as a unique story. So I
- 3:34wanted to ask Johnny, how did you break into the film industry? Well,
- 3:38it's such a great story and I'm very proud of it. And basically,
- 3:42when I was seven years old, I used to go to car washes
- 3:45all the time because when I grew up it was like the seventies and they
- 3:49always had the hot rods coming into the car washes. And I has a
- 3:51huge car stana. So one day Alston his car pulls up with a trailer
- 3:55behind it with a smashup car, and this guy steps out and he looked
- 4:00like Burt Reynolds coming out of his car. He just was an amazing man.
- 4:02I had to ride ride my bike up to him and ask him,
- 4:05you know, what have you know when I'm your car and he goes,
- 4:06this is that car? Her name's Eleanor. He goes, Eleanor meat,
- 4:11and he asked by my name, and I told him. He goes,
- 4:13yeah, Eleanor's a star in my movie called Gone at Sixty Seconds. And
- 4:15I'm the director, producer, stunt man, actor, writer, and I'm
- 4:19out there delivering my movie to all the theaters and self distribute this film.
- 4:24And I said, I don't understand that. So sweet that for like two
- 4:27hours, and he explained everything to me. At the end of the conversation,
- 4:30I said, I want to do what you do, and he says,
- 4:31well, look, if you go home and study and train, you
- 4:34could come see me win you're eighteen and I will help you out. So
- 4:39sure enough, that day, I went home and I started training. I
- 4:41started training out to be a stunt man and an act I took acting classes,
- 4:45and when I turned eighteen, sure enough, I got in that car.
- 4:47I went to LA called my mom to tell her I was. I
- 4:50was there and she said, Honey, I got bad news for you.
- 4:54Hb Hillicky, he died today at doing the movie Gone at sixty Seconds car
- 5:00too, And so I went there. I was left alone, not knowing
- 5:02what to do. So I worked my butt off and ten years later I
- 5:05got asked to stunt coordinate and design all the actions for an upcoming Jerry Brooklyn
- 5:11a movie where I was starting to get out of that part of it in
- 5:13my life and starting only direct and produced. And I said, what's the
- 5:16name of the movie, and they said, well, it's gone in sixty
- 5:18seconds. And so it was just this amazing turnaround. Was like HP was
- 5:24still taking care of me. And I ended up winning an award for Best
- 5:27Coordination of the Year. So it was really a thrill. You know that,
- 5:31that's absolutely amazing. That's absolutely amazing, Johnny, where you got to
- 5:34actually be a part of the movie that you started with and uh, yeah,
- 5:39you know that. That's amazing. And so because I mean, you
- 5:42did a lot of different stunts and I looked at your IMDb and there's one
- 5:46movie, Johnny, I have to ask about, and you did stunts for
- 5:49Killer Clowns from Outer Space. Oh my god. You know you understand.
- 5:55I did a Titanic, I've done the Matrices, I'd done the Terminators,
- 5:59I've tons of you doing. But the number one question everyone asked me,
- 6:03you were in Killer Clowns. It's so funny. That Little Cold movie was
- 6:08one of my first films that I acted and did stunts, and I played
- 6:11three of the clowns, and I did everything on that show, and it
- 6:15ended up becoming my most memorable movie. You know. I keep getting gifts
- 6:17from all over and autographs signed for that movie too. It's just crazy.
- 6:21Yeah. You know. One day I was I was at like a Big
- 6:25Loss. I don't know if Big Loss is kind of like this big box
- 6:28discount store. And I was there and they have this, they have these
- 6:30they have a movie section and I found Killer Clowns there one day and I
- 6:34said, you know, I remember this movie as a kid. So I
- 6:36take it up to the register, right and I'm checking out and the girls
- 6:40scanning was you know, scanning the DVD's and buying, and she stops on
- 6:43Killer Clowns and she goes, oh my god. She goes, I remember
- 6:47this movie. And she goes to she starts telling everyone around her. She
- 6:50goes, has you ever seen this movie? She goes, it is freaking
- 6:54awesome. She goes, it's about these clowns who coming from outer space and
- 6:57they and they're they're turning people into these concade cocoons and everyone Nail is like
- 7:01good getting around her looking at this DVD case of Killer Clowns and they're like,
- 7:05oh my god, there's are more copies back there, Oh my god,
- 7:09this this looks awesome. And I'm like, it's this. It's this
- 7:12fun movie that that just came out of nowhere and I remember seeing as a
- 7:15as a kid growing up and now and by the way, I have another
- 7:17copy. You can't see it because it's on a podcast, but I have
- 7:20a copy on my bookshelf. That's great. Well, I'm in talks with
- 7:26the Kyoto Brothers to see if I could produce the part of the part two
- 7:29of that, so it's kind of interesting. Yeah, and I think like
- 7:33part two would be absolutely awesome. I think movies, especially in movies like
- 7:38that, I think now are are more prevalent than ever because I mean,
- 7:42I know, you know, I'm starting to get the superhero fatigue and I'm
- 7:45starting to you know what I mean, And I know people who work on
- 7:48those movies, and I want to support them, But at the same time,
- 7:50I'm like, you know, I am way more interested in seeing like
- 7:54a Cohen Brothers movie, you know what I mean, or something like that
- 7:57where it's like this this fun movie, you know, or something even something
- 8:01like you know, uh, something else that has come out recently that that
- 8:05just blew me away was Three Billboards. Have you seen that yet? No?
- 8:09I, oh, yeah, it's it's fantastic. But I'm sorry,
- 8:11I'm getting off track down, Johnny, but but but but yeah, it's
- 8:18uh, you know, that's why I think movies like that, you know,
- 8:20it just it see it stays in that zeitgeist because it's such a fun
- 8:24movie. And you know you mentioned doing uh stunts for Titanic too. I
- 8:28promise, Johnny, I was going to mention that too because I saw you
- 8:31did you know, I saw Titanic on your IMDb and I said, you
- 8:33know, I'll ask about you know, Titanic then and then then Killer Clowns.
- 8:37But I so so so, I mean so Johnny, just you know,
- 8:41as we talked about stunts and everything, you know, there's been like
- 8:45guys like Jason Statham who who mentioned that, you know, stunt guys should
- 8:48get their own category at the Academy Awards because you know, they do a
- 8:52lot of dangerous work. They do a lot of different you know, the
- 8:54car flips, the brick jumping through the glass, all that, all that
- 8:58stuff. You know, all that that dangerous work. You know, so
- 9:01you know, as a sunk by yourself, you know, what are your
- 9:03what are your thoughts about stunt stunt guys getting their own category to Cammy Awards.
- 9:07Well, I agree and disagree with it. And the part I agree
- 9:11with is that, yeah, you know, the number one genre that makes
- 9:15the most money in the film industry is actually movies. So it is it
- 9:18is all of us out there that at least what I was. And but
- 9:24the other point of it too is that you know, you have to declare
- 9:26who is a filmmaker and to me, to be nominated for Cammy Awards,
- 9:31you have to be a true filmmaker. And there are a lot of some
- 9:35people that are are not filmmakers. They are just guys like to get hit
- 9:37by cars and like to crash up and wreck things and all that. But
- 9:41then there's those great seconding the directors and stunt corners out there that know how
- 9:46they're design amazing action that helps drive not only the story, but the characters
- 9:52as well. I mean, there's nothing better than seeing a great a great
- 9:54action. We'll be right back after award from our sponsor, and now back
- 10:03to the show that helps tell you who this character truly isn't and what he's
- 10:09feeling without having to say it, And that's to me very rare to see.
- 10:13Like the Borne Identity movies, to me I'm very impressed by because they
- 10:18you know, the action is really only twenty percent. The rest is all
- 10:20the acting of Matt Damon and you see what he's reacting to him and so
- 10:24believable. Where then you jump into Fast and Furious, which I think is
- 10:28amazing stunt work and all that, but it's and designs very great, but
- 10:33not My issue is that, you know, does it is there a character
- 10:37in that car or is it the car that's being the hero? And that's
- 10:41to me the point that if they do do this, they have to make
- 10:43it clear that it should go to a filmmaker, not because someone made five
- 10:48hundred million in the box office on a great action movie. Yeah, I
- 10:52see what you mean. And again, because you know, sometimes in the
- 10:56movies like Fast and Furious, you know the sort of the the car itself,
- 11:00the muscle car is, the the exotics, they're they're like the sort
- 11:03of center of attention and a lot of those action set pieces. Yeah,
- 11:07and that's not what the story is about, not about the car. It's
- 11:09about who's driving the car where and where they're going. Yeah, and you
- 11:13know that that'd be funny to actually like turn into something like Transformers, where
- 11:16it's kind of like the same thing. You know. So as you as
- 11:20you took your career, Johnny, you know, as you got you know,
- 11:22to do more and more stunts, you started producing. And you know,
- 11:26again as we were talking, you know, it's always interesting to see
- 11:28the trajectory of careers. So as you go from stunts to producing, how
- 11:33did you make that that sort of transition from one of the other. Well,
- 11:39I mean the whole reason why I got into the stunts I happen to
- 11:41be really good at it. So I was fortunate to stay in it for
- 11:45as long as I did, probably longer than I wanted to stay. But
- 11:48but I wanted to learn from some of the top directors. Look better way
- 11:52of getting behind Tony Scott and James Cameron than to get on the set of
- 11:54the Stuntman and stay on for a few weeks instead of just trying to sneak
- 11:58on. So that was mainly my main idea. Then when I started to
- 12:01watch it, I realized how much money is being overspent when people are just
- 12:05trying to spend money. When you look at studio movies, you look at
- 12:09it where there has spend an eight hundred million dollars. Well, really only
- 12:11fifty million got put in the movie. The rest are executive charges, studio
- 12:16charges and all that, So movies aren't really a hundred million. I'm like,
- 12:18well, why can't you make you know? And I started seeing the
- 12:20decline of video and blockbusters and all that, and I'm like, well,
- 12:26where is the recoupment going to come from? But we have to start making
- 12:28movies for less. And sure enough that's started happening. And so when I
- 12:31started the studying that I wanted to produce, I knew that I can knew
- 12:35how to shoot action, and I knew how to do it quickly, and
- 12:37that was the most expensive part of making action movies is the action. So
- 12:43I went to Millennium Films Hobby Learner, and I told him, well,
- 12:46how much do you do your sci fi movies for? And he says one
- 12:48point eight million? I said, and you shoot it where? And he
- 12:50goes in Bulgaria. I said, well, what if I tell you I
- 12:52could shoot one of your sci fi movies the same style, same way,
- 12:56for three hundred thousand, and I'll shoot it in la He said possible,
- 13:01And so I had my actors Casper Vandean and Michael Rooker call up Bobby and
- 13:03say, I think he could do it. I really believe in him.
- 13:05And sure enough we have pulled it off for three hundred and ten thousand.
- 13:09Movie became sci fi film in the year and then I did another one and
- 13:13I said, can I have the one point five and he said no,
- 13:15I'll give you seven hundred if he wanted to test me. And sure enough
- 13:18I did that one for seven hundred, and that became sci fi movie the
- 13:20year of the following year, and then obviously started giving me more and more
- 13:24films to produce after that. So it's more or less knowing and I through
- 13:28my career, I've always wanted to learn every department. I thought, learning
- 13:31from this man HB. A. Lackey that I met when I was seven
- 13:33years old, the key to becoming a great filmmaker is to learn everyone's job.
- 13:37I learned how to do special effects. I learned how to do visual
- 13:41effects. I learned every single creb. When I had a day off,
- 13:43I'd go spend it with some of my buddies that did another career than I
- 13:48did, and I try to learn it so I could become the ultimate filmmaker.
- 13:52And that's where I thought producing would be very very good for me,
- 13:54and it's paid off very well for me as far as my career. I
- 13:58got to be the first company to travel to China and to co co produce
- 14:03a movie with China Film Group A five years ago twenty thirteen called Urban Games,
- 14:09and I got to show them how you could pull off a movie where
- 14:11they thought they needed eighteen million. I did it for seven and a half
- 14:16on so it worked out really well. They wanted me to stay there,
- 14:18and I just couldn't stay in China. I wanted to come back home and
- 14:22do some real movies. So well, if you did stay in China,
- 14:28just just sort of playing like a what if game, Johnny, if you
- 14:30did stay in China, do you think that they would have just been coming
- 14:33up to you with like, you know, project at the project and just
- 14:35saying, hey, Johnny, could you you know, produce this film and
- 14:39produce this film in Beijing and then go to to to like you know,
- 14:41to SESSH want to do this film? Yeah. I was asked to go
- 14:46to Canada, you know, and my my movie we went to Soul,
- 14:50Korea and Beijing. And the problem I had with it it is similar to
- 14:54TV in China, where the producer isn't the film acre it's really the director,
- 15:01and in TV it's the writer who is the producer. And so it
- 15:05became something where I'm a creative producer and I'm not the kind of producer that
- 15:09just needs to push numbers around and get things done at a certain price.
- 15:13I want to be a part of the filmmaking experience and to help scenes get
- 15:16better. And when I went to China, it was more that I had
- 15:18these ideas, but the director got to override me. Where in my films,
- 15:22here as a producer, I got to say what I wanted and felt
- 15:26that you needed to shoot this no matter what, and I got it done.
- 15:28And so that's why I really didn't want to stay in China for very
- 15:31much longer, because I didn't want to just be a guy that did the
- 15:35numbers. I was in that I was built to make movies, not to
- 15:37just help create movies by money. Yeah, and I think that's very very
- 15:43virtuous of you, Johnny, because you realize you want to stay true to
- 15:46yourself. You know, you don't want to just sit there, and you
- 15:48know you want to make your own movies. You don't want to make other
- 15:50people's movies exactly. So by the way, you know, I don't know
- 15:56if you do. You know Peter Marshall, uh name sounds familiar. He's
- 16:03like a he does a lot of first A D work. He's worked a
- 16:06lot with John Woo, but he actually was in China uh for a while
- 16:10doing different movies and stuff like that. But but yeah, I just I
- 16:14just wanted to ask if you knew him, just in case you two ever
- 16:15cross paths. It very well might be that I do know because I've done
- 16:21a few job in the movies. So yeah, and he's a he's a
- 16:23real good guy to it and so U. But yeah, if if you
- 16:26don't though, if you don't know him, though, Johnny, let me
- 16:27know and I'll introduce you to you. Got it sounds great. So so
- 16:33so as you sort of you know, got better at producing, you know,
- 16:36you're able to sort of, you know, do do different things with
- 16:37money. You know, was your was your budget sort of rising incrementally or
- 16:45did you ever find yourself Johnny like somebody would say, oh, no,
- 16:47look Johnny, we're all gonna give you, you know, five hundred thousand
- 16:49or a million. And then when you make and when you went to make
- 16:52that your second, third, and fourth, they were there. You know,
- 16:55they just kept at that same point where it was like Johnny willing gonna
- 16:56give you fifty million or five hundred thousand or a million. They allow you
- 17:00to or did you were able to get it to go up incrementally? Well
- 17:06after I do those two two sci fi movies, that's when Obvious asked me
- 17:08to do a third, and I said, no, I want to step
- 17:11up to a budget where I could actually make a film that I believe in,
- 17:15not just having to put it together and do whatever I could for the
- 17:18money. So you know, immediately there I jumped up to the five to
- 17:22seven million dollar range and I did three or four Cuba Gooden junior movies that
- 17:26he started. It was just right when Wesley Snipes went to jail and Cuba
- 17:30was right there to fill in for the next great action hero where I was
- 17:34hoping to try to get these dramas and rewrite them into action pieces, but
- 17:40not action movies. Where you know, it helped Cuba because I'm a real
- 17:44big fan of Cuba Gooding, and I just wanted to see him just raise
- 17:47his career up by not being sold out as an action start, but being
- 17:51an action quality actor. And so that's what I started to do, and
- 17:55I found a niche in that spot. And that's where I realized that if
- 17:59you have like two point one to two point five below the line, that's
- 18:02where most movies today are being made. Everyone gets caught up in numbers and
- 18:06they think that, you know, I got eleven million dollars budget. I
- 18:08guarantee that eleven million dollars budget still has a below the line to make the
- 18:12movie around two point one to two point nine. You know it, just
- 18:15because it flects with I've done movies for seven millions and nine millions, twelve
- 18:19millions to thirteen million, and yet to below the line is still around three
- 18:22million or less. That doesn't change because you know, you know, today's
- 18:26movies because there is no payoff in VD and Blockbuster I mean, excuse me,
- 18:34and Netflix isn't buying as much as as we thought they would, and
- 18:37China stop buying all together. You know, it really makes it hard for
- 18:41anyone to recoup. So I was lucky that I found that niche because right
- 18:45when I started really getting further and further into it, that's when I realized
- 18:48that all the movies have to be made for that, unless they're sequels or
- 18:52they're a Marvel comic. You know, all the rest of the movies are
- 18:53still being done at this level. And the problem is a lot of the
- 18:56studio guys don't know how to do movies at a price. You know,
- 19:00they don't know about sales. That's where Abby Learners taught me. You know
- 19:04what each country buys films for whatever reactor is worth, and how much you
- 19:08have to make movies. His goal along, let's always make a movie for
- 19:11what you could pre sell this movie, lower it by a million dollars,
- 19:15and then you can make that movie for that and know that you always have
- 19:18a million dollars problem. And no matter what the movie is, you have
- 19:22to as a great producer. You have to figure out how to do that
- 19:23movie for the money that's going to make the company money. So that's what
- 19:30I learned, and so now basically I'm still doing the same I mean,
- 19:33my movie is eleven million, but yeah, it's still below the lines.
- 19:36Are still under three. And that's a great bit advice. By the way,
- 19:40Johnny, I really liked that that advice because you know just how it
- 19:42ties in as well, you know, just the with just this podcast.
- 19:47You know, I've had filmmakers on who've done their first movie, their second
- 19:51movies are third movies, and some of them have made a comedy as their
- 19:55first movie. We'll be right back after a word from our spon, sir,
- 20:03and now back to the show. And one of the things that we
- 20:07talked about on here, they said, David's when wherever we go to like
- 20:10foreign sales agents or we go to do vod or to any of these like
- 20:15aggregators like you know, uh, you know, there's there's tons of out
- 20:18there, but if they go to any of them, they always say,
- 20:21well, who's in it? And they go, well, you know it's
- 20:22it's nobody. Well, they say, we can't really sell a comedy as
- 20:26your first movie with a lot of unknown actors and expect it to get a
- 20:30wide release. So they always said, you know, go out and make
- 20:34a horror movie instead. Uh, what do you think about that advice?
- 20:38So John, just to make a horror movie as your first movie. Well,
- 20:41I think that the advice that that person said is even worse than what
- 20:45we all thought today. I mean, nowadays, you know, eight eighty
- 20:49percent of the movies that are being made are being made by independent not studios.
- 20:52Studios just buy our movies, throw their name on it, and now
- 20:56everyone thinks I got a line skate movie. It's like, no, I
- 20:57did it through Patriots Picture and then they just bought it at the end for
- 21:02two point seven or two point eight, But now it looks like it was
- 21:03a Lionscape movie. So knowing that, yeah, I mean, we can't
- 21:07even sell movies. And since we're in the independent world, we're not fortunate
- 21:11to do movies without cast. I mean that we can't even sell it and
- 21:15get our domestic out of it. So we have to have a cast for
- 21:18it. If you try to make a movie without an actor and you think
- 21:19you've got gold, well guess what's probably gonna end up sitting on a shelf,
- 21:23or it's going to be sold to a distributor that will prove that you
- 21:26never made a dime when he made all the money. So you should never
- 21:30ever try to get horror movies. It's very tricky. It's like a good
- 21:33example is what happened to me is that I need to show everyone I could
- 21:37direct. Everyone knew I could produce, every knew I could do action direct
- 21:40action, but they didn't know if I could direct a film with actors.
- 21:44So I went ahead and wrote a movie about my friends that I grew up
- 21:48with that we used to go to the scary house when we were kids,
- 21:51and we had this hell gang, and I created this story around it,
- 21:55and I shot at the original house that we used to sneak in at night,
- 21:57and I made it found foolish. Sound footage was dead, while I
- 22:00started getting the news from everyone that sound footage was going to die sooner or
- 22:04later. So I had to rush and get this movie into editing and post
- 22:07and clean it up and get it ready. And by the time that I
- 22:11was ready to sell it, I missed the window by about a month.
- 22:14Everyone said, fund footage is too many people did it because it's cheap to
- 22:17do, so you know what, we're done with it. So now they're
- 22:19done with it. So what am I going to do with this movie now?
- 22:22Well, I went back, I rewrote it, and I followed it
- 22:25another fifty thousand, and I changed it into a mix of sound footage and
- 22:29real footage, a real film. And now that movie has done very well
- 22:33for me. I was very very lucky. I did it with kid actors
- 22:36from Disney Channel and all that, where you know, you could get them
- 22:40at scale and at least they're they're they're not known names, but at least
- 22:42they have a resume that you could at least put on a poster. And
- 22:47that's what I suggest you're doing. You know, if worst comes worse and
- 22:51you can't afford an actor or can't get an actor, you know, always
- 22:52turned to a TV star because at least they got some kind of cloud to
- 22:56them. Yeah, and with with TV being so prevalent nowadays, you know,
- 23:02there's a lot more you know, TV stars out there because you know
- 23:04Netflix alone there's like what three hundred shows the episodic shows now, but you
- 23:10know the Yeah, there's there's a lot of you know Amazon, uh,
- 23:12and then you have your cable package and then you have your Netflix and and
- 23:17all the other channels. You know, there's a lot of episode of content
- 23:18up there now. Yeah. Well, and the problem with all this is
- 23:22a ten years ago Lockbuster would hold onto your movie forever. I mean,
- 23:26you here you could go in there and get a movie from twenty years ago.
- 23:30Nowadays, where you go other than the number one distributor in the world,
- 23:33and that's Walmart. Walmart, believe it or not, is the number
- 23:37one distributor because they hold onto your movies for years and years, and they
- 23:40put in that fight dollar bucket. And if you could be thrown in that
- 23:41fide dollar bucket, you're the luckiest producer in the world because that's where the
- 23:45money is to be had because they can keep it in that bucket for three
- 23:48years. Where Netflix is lucky the whole lot. If you get into Netflix
- 23:52could hold on your movie for only three months. Red Box you're lucky to
- 23:55be in it for months. So there's nowhere that has a lasting way of
- 24:02selling your movie other than Walmart right now. And that's a very good point,
- 24:06Johnny. You know I was at one time, I was actually at
- 24:08a film producer sort of seminar, and they also talked about, you know
- 24:12what the cost of shelf space is. So if you walked into a Target,
- 24:17a best Buy, a Walmart, and you start looking around the movie
- 24:19section, you know each time the cover is horizontally versus vertically. You know
- 24:25what I mean with the covers facing out towards you and you can see it
- 24:27versus if you just see the spine. You know, there's a huge cost
- 24:30difference between those two because it's it's about shelf space. And you know,
- 24:33they have the you know what eye level everyone goes to. First they had
- 24:37they were talking about all that stuff, and you know, now you now,
- 24:41you know, with with Blockbuster gone, and you know, now it's
- 24:45just you know, Netflix, and you know, like you said, Walmart,
- 24:48you know, giving into that bin, now that bends a whole another
- 24:51you know, almost like another revenue cycle or another opportunity, you know what
- 24:53I mean. And that's sort of and I know what you mean too about
- 24:56going to that beIN I've seen tons and tons of movies that I from friends
- 25:00of mine. I've made movies that I've seen them in there, and they
- 25:03said, you know, that was actually good because people do actually buy from
- 25:06those, from those big barrels of movies. Oh oh oh, yeah,
- 25:10it really is. I mean, that's that's really that's the only place that
- 25:14people, you know, are film watchers, the real film watchers go to
- 25:17that buck against they want to watch something new, and they want something that
- 25:21they could buy three of them instead of going to the theater and having to
- 25:23pay for one movies. Yeah, and uh, you know, and and
- 25:27yeah and Joseph Johnny just to sort of just to sort of reminisce, you
- 25:32know, we talk about Blockbuster. I remember going there too a lot,
- 25:34and I wanted to ask, you know, do you think that the Blockbuster
- 25:37in any way, shape or form is going to come back, like where
- 25:41you could actually just go to a store with with your friends and actually just
- 25:44you know, actually rent physical movies, you know what. I wanted to
- 25:48open up one so bad, But every time I do, I do the
- 25:52research and you know, from is you know, like my daughters right now,
- 25:56even though I'm in the business, I'll catch them watching a movie that's
- 26:00theaters here right now because everything's being poppirated, everything's online, everything's free now.
- 26:04I mean, you could really watch anything you want at anytime for free.
- 26:07So why would you need to go out when you could just download it
- 26:11or get it online. And that's the problem is is that, you know,
- 26:15I used to love going to the Blockbuster with my kids, and that's
- 26:18going through every movie. I mean, that was fun, and now it's
- 26:22it's that to hear that time's gone and it's really hurting families. And that's
- 26:26what movies are all about. Movies are all about bringing families together and enjoying
- 26:32and experience a dream, you know. And now it's just a matter of
- 26:34do they have time to watch one? And that's where it's I really miss
- 26:38Blockbuster and I think the film industry is really hurting because it's gone. Yeah,
- 26:45it's I know there's a lot of piracy out there. And uh and
- 26:48I also wonder too, as we're talking about net neutrality, you know how
- 26:52how much that will play into it, because if you're paying more for your
- 26:56Internet, if you're paying more for certain features and packages, you know,
- 27:00going to those those torrent sites is not going to be as readily accessible as
- 27:04it as it is now if net neutrality goes away. Yeah, yeah,
- 27:10yeah, Well the other thing you got to remember is that you own a
- 27:12block Buster, you gotta buy how many DVDs where online? You just need
- 27:18a copy of the movie and you don't have to make anything anymore. Yeah,
- 27:22exactly. Yeah, but it would be fun though, it's just in
- 27:26the best case to just own a Blockbuster or something. You know. Other
- 27:30guys almost like what Tarantino used to work at you know what was the video
- 27:33Archive. I totally agree, I am, and I think it can still
- 27:38work in certain cities. I really do, because a lot of people don't
- 27:41want to go on the internet. You know, it's just such finding the
- 27:45right the right town, like LA's not the right town, but maybe somewhere
- 27:48in uh in Spokane, Washington or boys Tido maybe the perfect spot for that.
- 27:55Yeah, you know, there's still a few Blockbusters left and they're all
- 27:57in Alaska. Really I believe that, See there are you know, people
- 28:03don't want to be hyber naming in or how else they want to get out.
- 28:06That's great love hearing that. Yeah, and also because you know the
- 28:11internet there is slow as well, but do and and you know, you're
- 28:14right, I do want to get out. But you know they were able
- 28:17to go out and you know, go to the Blockbuster and you know they
- 28:18don't have to stream it or anything. They can just you know, play
- 28:21it right from the blue ray or the DVD. And uh when I when
- 28:23I did read that, you know, I started saying, you know what,
- 28:26it makes sense, you know, because you know, you're you know,
- 28:30I don't know how populated Alaska is, and you know, but I
- 28:33know it's it's not that populated, you know what I mean. It's you
- 28:36know, when you think of Alaska, you think of igloos and polar bears.
- 28:41Yeah. Absolutely, So, you know, Johnny, as we as
- 28:45we talked about, you know, getting back to I'm sorry now I started
- 28:47to get off topic again, but as we as we go back to to
- 28:49talking about you know, your your career and you in producing and everything and
- 28:52you and you said you had to prove that you could direct. And I
- 28:56think that's very, very critical because I think that's that happens to a lot
- 29:00of people. You know, I think that's that's one of those uh,
- 29:03you know, it's unique to everybody, but it's also universal at the same
- 29:07time, because people want to see what you're capable of. They want to
- 29:08see what you can do. So you made the horror movie Delirium, and
- 29:14you know, what was your experience, you know, just just getting that
- 29:17made in terms of, hey, this is the movie where I'm going to
- 29:19show everybody what I can do. Well. The thing is that, you
- 29:25know, going back the whole subject is that you know, people don't want
- 29:26to be your first trying. They just won't do it no matter what script
- 29:30you have. You know that's their career on the line. So that's why
- 29:33you have to be able to show and improve yourself. And that's what's tricky
- 29:37is that you know, unless you have you know, everyone doesn't look at
- 29:40your movie as one hundred thousand dollars movie or two hundred dollars movie. They
- 29:44look at it as as a movie. So you can't tell someone well,
- 29:48this was only this, that's why I did this. They don't care.
- 29:51They only care did you make a quality movie, not caring about your budget
- 29:55or anything else. So now you're competing against that. We'll be right back
- 30:00after a word from our sponsor, and now back to the show, which
- 30:07really makes it hard. So when I did my movie, the background that
- 30:12I had was the most important of learning every one's job. Because once I
- 30:17did that, that allowed me to have a six man crew. That's all
- 30:22I shot my movie with. I didn't have any more than that. I
- 30:23knew what I needed to do. I prepped it. Prep is the most
- 30:26important thing. Where today's movies, they don't give you prep anymore. They
- 30:30give you four weeks to do a great movie. It needs me prep so
- 30:33great and having every backstop every way of a problem happens, and ready to
- 30:38make change at any time. I don't think I've ever shot a script that
- 30:41we shot to the script itself. There's always a moment where you think,
- 30:45oh my god, what if I did this? And you have to be
- 30:48prepared for that, and you have to have a great team behind you.
- 30:51Remember, when you're directing, your number one thing that you should be doing
- 30:55at that moment is finding the right DP for you because you're not just in
- 31:00the movie. His eyes behind that thing and he needs to move that camera.
- 31:03No director ever says, Okay, now move that camera here there,
- 31:04and that's great, But you've got to find moments through the dialogue that gets
- 31:08you to that other character to not cause this delay of a camera's before a
- 31:12hard cut. And that's what's so important to hire, is that finding that
- 31:18perfect soulmates that you could find in a DP that you guys think alike,
- 31:22imagine each other like, and you guys could pick the shot perfectly and know
- 31:26that he has a free range to do whatever he wants to do to find
- 31:30that as well, and it's a partnership. And that's what everyone wants to
- 31:33say, Well, I did this movie, it's not I. I mean
- 31:34every movie I've done, I've done with my dps. I have two dps
- 31:38I trust wholeheartedly, and I don't want to do a movie without them because
- 31:42we know each other, we know what we both like, and so I
- 31:45would suggest that to everyone and product. Know what your product is, I
- 31:51mean, know what is going to sell for the next four years. Don't
- 31:53like found footage. For me, when I made the found fohig, I
- 31:56did the worst mistake because I created thing that was hot at the moment.
- 32:00I didn't look into the future. And that's what you need to do.
- 32:04If I could do a sound footage, imagine how many other films are going
- 32:07to be sound footage. So what can I do? What can I do
- 32:09to be different? Because at two hundred thousand dollars, the only thing is
- 32:13gonna make you stand out is if you have something that's different and new and
- 32:15fresh, and so that's what you really have to consider. Just I'm glad
- 32:21to shoot a movie to show that you have to know how to direct,
- 32:22because no one's gonna The only time someone's gonna tell you that you're a great
- 32:25director is when they love your movie, not love your shots, love your
- 32:30movie. Yeah, and that's a good point, Johnny. You know,
- 32:35it's always about that that whole experience, right, And you mentioned building a
- 32:37team, so you know, just about finding the right director of cinematography so
- 32:42you know, how to work together. I couldn't agree more because I've been
- 32:45a part of film sets like that. I've seen film sets like that where
- 32:49you know, they want to hire somebody because they got a nice camera,
- 32:51they want to hire somebody because they can talk to talk, but you know,
- 32:54when it comes time to it, when it becomes crunch time, it
- 32:58all sort of falls away. Yeah, absolutely so Yeah, and you know,
- 33:04and also we talked about just standing out from the pack. I think
- 33:07that is you know, obviously it's more important than ever, you know,
- 33:09because right now it's a war of eyeballs and ears, right, you know,
- 33:12it's a war of you know, how can I get my movie seen
- 33:15by by making it, you know, as unique as possible, not sounding
- 33:17like something that someone's already has already seen, which, as we talked about
- 33:22found footage. That's why I think Paranormal Activity really found that niche even like
- 33:27the Blair Witch Project as well, the Blair Witch Project, they really were
- 33:30able to capitalize on the fact that the Internet was so new, it was
- 33:34in an infancy stages and you know, everyone really believed they and the marketing
- 33:37was brilliant behind that because it made it seem like it was a real mystery
- 33:42that and this movie was going to be you know, you're watching a documentary,
- 33:45you know. And then with Paranormal Activity, it was you know,
- 33:49I think they did something similar, but they were able to just capitalize on
- 33:52this, and he made it for even cheaper than from than h. Blair
- 33:55Witch was we I think it worn't made it from what thirteen thousand, So
- 33:59it's like, you know, standing out. You know, just finding that
- 34:01niche and standing out is sort of key, and I think you know,
- 34:06to do that rather than just you know, reverse engineer, I think that
- 34:09the way to do that is, you know, find what movies you like
- 34:13and write a script that you'd like to see and and go from there and
- 34:16then sort of use your own what resources you have and then see how you
- 34:20can get it to sort of fit in that context. So you're not looking
- 34:22going out and going well, I need to you know, go out and
- 34:25rent a yacht to blow up or something like that. You know, it's
- 34:29stuff you have. It's stuff that you have access to that you can use
- 34:31to make your movie well. And the most important thing is like when I
- 34:36say find find something new and fresh, you have to be willing to get
- 34:40ready to change your whole thought pattern of that because it could fall on you
- 34:45could fall in your face by but by doing that, just as fast as
- 34:49you get successful. And by what I mean by that is that when I
- 34:52made my movie, I knew I had to be different. So I wanted
- 34:54to make stand by Me meets a horror movie. I wanted five characters,
- 34:59and I made these guys hang out with each other for three months. I
- 35:01filmed them for three months, just hanging out until I knew they were best
- 35:06friends and wanted to hang out with each other. That's when I made the
- 35:07movie. And that's how I knew it was going to get that stand by
- 35:10me moment. It was more about character, and so I made this movie.
- 35:14It was had scares in it and had these great moments. And when
- 35:17I made it, I turned around and people, you know what, when
- 35:20they got that title horror on there and you're not delivering horror. My idea
- 35:23was great and it looked great at won some film festivals. But at the
- 35:25end of the day, when people buy it, they said, Johnny,
- 35:29we don't know how to categorize this movie. We don't even know how to
- 35:30sell it because it's not really horror and it is so we don't know what
- 35:35to do with it. So that's when I had to go back, not
- 35:37only to change it out of found footage, but I had to put more
- 35:39scares in it and cut out a lot of the dramatic parts where I built
- 35:44these characters. So a lot of stuff I truly believed in I had to
- 35:46change because at the end of the day, it's not about what I think
- 35:51is pervious, what you know, the audience and what the buyers and the
- 35:54distribution companies thinks. It's good. Yeah, And as we talked about sort
- 36:00of selling, it's sort of like, you know, exactly what is everyone
- 36:04looking for, what is everyone buying? How do I get people to buy
- 36:06this movie? And uh, you know, as we as we talked about
- 36:08your your second film that you know, in the past couple of months,
- 36:12because again in the pre interview we were talking about how the past couple of
- 36:15months we've been actually you know, really good for you uh you know,
- 36:16not now Delirium is coming out soon, which is the movie we're just talking
- 36:20about. And now you have a second film that's coming out, Vengeance,
- 36:23a love story with Nicholas Cage. So how did you go about, you
- 36:28know, getting that film, Johnny? Did you put that together or was
- 36:30that something that was sort of pitch to you? Well? No, it
- 36:35was a great movie. The Patriot Pictures asked me to produce it with Nick
- 36:38Cage, who I've been friends with for twenty years and I met him during
- 36:43Gone in sixteen. We did a lot of movies after that together, and
- 36:46so I hear us producing it. The director. I didn't believe it.
- 36:50I didn't think he could pull it off for what I had, So I
- 36:52basically had to fire him. And Nick wanted to direct the movie himself,
- 36:57and I said great. So since me and him had this great laboration together,
- 37:00you know, he was so busy with his schedule and I would you
- 37:04know, he called me up, he goes, hey, can you start
- 37:05the shot list? Hey, you know, show me the locations I'll pick
- 37:08and all this stuff. So we were working hand in hand and then you
- 37:10know when when when the budgets started getting tighter and tighter and tighter. You
- 37:14know, I had to cut days out of the movie. And I told
- 37:15him, you know, you have to do this movie in twenty one days,
- 37:17and he said, that's gonna be very hard for me to do plus
- 37:22my schedule. Johnny, I don't know if I could pull it up.
- 37:23Why why don't you do it? And so everyone agreed, the producers and
- 37:29everyone said, yeah, John Jarny should do it. He knows the movie
- 37:30the best. Then DJA stepped in and said, nope, Johnny can't do
- 37:35it because he's a producer on the film and by Directors Guild rules, you
- 37:39can't take over a movie for a director if you're the producer. So we
- 37:44didn't have a director. We were supposed to start shooting in forty eight hours,
- 37:47and eight hours before we started shooting the d my producer, my financier,
- 37:52got his attorneys on after the DGA and they finally agreed that I could
- 37:57direct the movie. So I didn't have that much warning that this was my
- 38:00movie and it was about rape, and it was a sensitive story and it
- 38:04was very hard. So I just worked every every night and every day I
- 38:07was off to prep this movie, and you know, for every day,
- 38:10and it was a really hard, hard movie. But I'm very proud of
- 38:15it, and Nick is very very proud of it, and I think we
- 38:16pulled us up special. So when you mentioned prepping even on your days off,
- 38:22Johnny, was that more like you were in your producer's hat, like
- 38:24You're thinking to yourself, Okay, well is this location really locked? U?
- 38:29You know what could go wrong? What else am I going to need?
- 38:30Was this stuff like that? No, I already you know I do
- 38:36that. I mean like when I direct, like when I threw my last
- 38:37wee Hangman, everyone else my ear. My deal in my head is I'll
- 38:40go produce it for the first two weeks and I'll get everything handled with unions,
- 38:45everything else and make all the deals. But then I shut off from
- 38:50my producer at take that off, and I go dright into direct. And
- 38:52when I did this on Vengeance, it was about seeing seeing the scenes.
- 39:00I usually have this weird thing that people make fun of me for it,
- 39:02but I could see things. I could see scenes in my head go around
- 39:07me. I could see cars passed by my body when I'm just standing there
- 39:09looking. So I like to close down the street and sit in the middle
- 39:13of the street and look at it and find the scene and when I see
- 39:16that, and I could really the picture where all my cameras could go and
- 39:21all that. And that's why again saying a great DP can visualize your story
- 39:24because as I talk out loud, he's seeing what I'm seeing now too.
- 39:28So I had to make this movie. It was Nick's movie, and I
- 39:30had to try to find out how to make it mine where I could believe
- 39:34it, you know, And shooting a rape scene is very sensitive, and
- 39:37it's very hard to shoot rape scene because people get so disturbed by it that
- 39:43your movie could be ruined by a bad rape scene by making it too much.
- 39:46And so my rape scene this movie, a little girl's watching her mom
- 39:51getting raped, and I thought the way I could do this and make it
- 39:53violent because it need to be violent, because we needed to know why these
- 39:57guys should get what they get. By the end of this movie, we'll
- 40:00be right back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the
- 40:07show that I said, what better than the show a rape scene through the
- 40:13eyes of this girl and what her visual is and what her pain is that
- 40:16she's feeling, and very show very little of the rape itself. And that's
- 40:21was different than you know, Nick's version version of it, and that's where
- 40:25I brought mine. And so that's what I do during prep to try to
- 40:29prepare what I feel the movie should look like. Yeah, and I think
- 40:34that's a good point too, because you know, there are movies that have
- 40:37very very violent rape scenes, you know, like I spent on Your Grave,
- 40:39Irreversible, uh, straw Dogs, just to name a few. And
- 40:44you know, and again you were mentioning, you know, doing things a
- 40:46little bit differently, and I think the way that you did it it definitely
- 40:51sounds like, you know, obviously you're taking a very touchy subject, a
- 40:54very you know, hard subject, but it's it's a different way to sort
- 41:00of show this narrative rather than obviously at the graphic rate like I was just
- 41:02in the three movies I just mentioned, right, absolutely, you're right,
- 41:07so so as you know, and you mentioned your your third movie by the
- 41:10way, and I this is actually the movie that got us talking through mister
- 41:15Kehoe was is Hangman? Again. I saw the poster and I said,
- 41:19wow, that looks awesome. And again then Michael, you know, just
- 41:22introduced us out of sheer luck or law of attraction, whatever you want to
- 41:27call it. But you know, as we talk about Hangman, Uh,
- 41:30I wanted to ask, you know, what is it like? Well,
- 41:32I wanted to ask actually because I want to ask what it's like working without
- 41:35Puccino. But I also want to ask you know too, Johnny, you
- 41:37know, how how did you go about with this movie and getting this made?
- 41:42Uh? With Hangman? Did you you know, was this another project
- 41:45that you were able to get made by yourself or was this pitch to you?
- 41:50Well? I afrated, uh A Vengeance the love story Hangman was in
- 41:53the company's patriot, and so they had a director already attached to it.
- 41:59And when Michael, the financier saw the movie Vengeance, he said, I
- 42:04want you to do Hangman. And so I had to talk my way into
- 42:07Arnold Rifkin, who was the other producer, and he didn't really want me
- 42:10because he already had his director. So it was a struggle and Michael said,
- 42:15well, I'm not going to finance unless Johnny directs it. And he
- 42:17goes, well, well, well it's not our decision, it's it's it's
- 42:21Albacinos. So out here Albaccino, you know, didn't want to set up
- 42:25the meeting. He said, well, let me see what he did before,
- 42:28and he watched My Venie s The Love Story. He stopped after the
- 42:32rape scene and called and said I'd like to meet him because he was blown
- 42:37away by how I treated the rape scene. And he didn't watch the risk
- 42:39of the movie, which was funny. He just wanted to see something that
- 42:43really caught his eye. And so the scariest day of my life is knowing
- 42:47I'm going to go meet the number one filmmaker of all time and the iconic
- 42:52Albaccino. You know, how can I top this? And how am I
- 42:55going to talk to this man who's worked with Scorsese in some and Coppola and
- 43:00let him think that I'm as good as them, you know. And there's
- 43:06one thing I have, and that's passion. I don't care about the money,
- 43:08I don't care about anything else but to try to make a film that
- 43:13is emotionally that gets people emotionally involved. And that's what I am about.
- 43:17Almost I hear my favorite movies or like Miracle and Rocky and all those movies,
- 43:22not you know, great action movies, and so going in there,
- 43:25I guess I gave out a pitch that he just said, your energy is
- 43:30so big and you believe in it so much your words. And before we
- 43:34knew it, we were doing lines opposite of each other and he would do
- 43:38when I say this, and I'd come back with the line right after that,
- 43:43and he would come back to me. And we started improving, and
- 43:45before I know it, I was going there every day and we were doing
- 43:49improv and finally he had called me two in the morning, go okay,
- 43:52this person with two lines, Johnny the cop that's in the police station.
- 43:55I said, cop number two and he goes, yeah, he was.
- 43:59Where were they born? I go Minnesota? He goes, is he from
- 44:02a single family? I said, no, their family is still married,
- 44:05but they're having problems. And it was what we thought of what the characters
- 44:09would be, so when we got to the set, he was able to
- 44:13focus differently on each character, knowing what they went through in their lives,
- 44:15even if it was a one line character. And that's what really made this
- 44:20movie so amazing, is because it just became so real and to work with
- 44:23Alpaccino. Probably any any director in the world should be as lucky to have
- 44:30the moment that I had with this man who's probably the most incredible actor and
- 44:36human being other men. Yeah, I mean I just wanted to That's one
- 44:38of the questions I want to ask about working with Alpaccino, was you know,
- 44:43I mean obviously there had to be some kind of almost like a tmidation
- 44:46because you know, Alpaccino has been in so many freaking movies that have just
- 44:50you know, skyrocketed, like you know, Surproco and you know which where
- 44:53he played a detective also, And I mean that's what I was going to
- 44:57ask, is you know, if you ever, if he ever are just
- 45:00you know, not not like coming with an ego, but just the fact
- 45:02that you know, hey, look it's Albaccino. I mean, this man
- 45:05has just made so many awesome movies and it's like, you know, how
- 45:08do you direct somebody like that his work with Scorsese ego and stuff like that.
- 45:12You know, it's just without being like, well, uh, you
- 45:15know, you know what I mean and so and so that's good, Johnny.
- 45:17I'm glad that you know you were able to sort of find that that
- 45:21core. And again, you know, you're passionate, you know what you're
- 45:22doing, and you know so and I want to ask you too, as
- 45:27you're sort of going back and forth forth of him, and he asked,
- 45:30you know, where was this character born? You know, that's just you
- 45:32ad libbing. I mean, you know what would have happened, just as
- 45:36what if if you would have said, Al, I don't know. Well,
- 45:40the thing is that I prepared myself so well that I knew everything that
- 45:45I need. I read that script eighteen times before I met with Al,
- 45:50and I was involved with everyone. I knew where they were in the scene.
- 45:52I I already pictured the set, already pictured who they were, how
- 45:55they carried their shoulders, how they walked, and everything else. So,
- 46:00I mean, great part about Hangman is that every role drove the story,
- 46:04so it was easy to know what emotions these people felt. It's like in
- 46:07my opening scene when we probably the first hanging, you know, everyone said,
- 46:10well, Johnny, this girl is so weak. You know why,
- 46:14So why isn't she supposed to be a cop? I said, yeah,
- 46:15she's a beat cop, work in two in the morning shift, and and
- 46:19you know, and she works a schoolyard. And so to me that that
- 46:23character needed to be a little bit weaker. So my lead character, Rooney
- 46:27could come into this movie and be strong and not be compared to another cop
- 46:31and so it was stuff like that that made me realize that when I met
- 46:35Al is that I already thought this stuff out and I already pretty much knew.
- 46:38I didn't know the backstory so much, which I learned a lot of,
- 46:40but I pictured this girl was wounded somehow and she was weak, and
- 46:45so what would that lead to? And that led to what her family life
- 46:46would be, And so Al brought it more out in me as well.
- 46:52You know, but we did a lot of rewrites from me from from the
- 46:54prep. It was an everyday meeting, everyday talk why I prepped the movie.
- 46:59So it was really quite interesting. He wouldn't allow stuff that he felt
- 47:02that the audience would stop at. As a matter of fact, he sat
- 47:05in the editing room with me probably seven days, didn't say a word,
- 47:08just hung out with me to watch see how we were doing this. And
- 47:12you know, at the end of the movie, I told him out,
- 47:14I know you thought we made seven But it's a character piece about four four
- 47:17people struggling with their lives to find out how they could help each other.
- 47:22And that's what the movie kind of is. Again, I'm all about relationships
- 47:25and movies, and I know that everyone's going to go see it, probably
- 47:29is going to go into it. Oh my god, this is another seven,
- 47:30because that's what the trailer looks like, and it is. It's like
- 47:34a seven. But it's more about having a relationship with these actors more than
- 47:39the normal seventh kind of movie. Yeah, and uh, you know,
- 47:45I have the I haven't seen the movie yet, but I actually I actually
- 47:49ordered it on Voodoo and it's out early on night right now, so I'm
- 47:52actually gonna watch it, not tonight but tomorrow, so I can't wait.
- 47:55And I saw it was up there and I said, oh, I said,
- 47:58I actually ordered. I was like, you know what, I'm gonna
- 48:00have Johnny on the podcast, and I thought I was gonna time to watch
- 48:04it, but I didn't, but I made sure to order it. And
- 48:07by the way, everyone, I'm going to link to that in the show
- 48:08notes Hangman on Voodoo it's actually out before it's in theaters or the same times
- 48:13in theaters, and which I think, by the way, Johnny, I
- 48:15think that's a really good idea for for a lot of films in general,
- 48:21because it sort of gives you, uh, you know, so get a
- 48:25different form of access, you know, in case you know, the movie
- 48:29isn't playing around you, or if you know, there's not a theater like
- 48:31around you. I've always said this is a really good idea that I you
- 48:35know what I mean, as we talk again about VOD and everything else,
- 48:37I always think that's a good idea for for a lot of films to do
- 48:42that is to come out either at the same time, uh it's in theaters
- 48:45or even or shortly then after you know what I mean, right exactly,
- 48:50I totally agree with you, and so so Johnny, you know, as
- 48:53we as we sort of you know, I've been talking for about forty five
- 48:57minutes, you know, is there anything include closing that you want to talk
- 49:00about, Johnny, or or anything that we can get a chance to discuss.
- 49:05You know. Half the reason why I do these these interviews, and
- 49:08I'll ask because again I care about movies, and the worst thing about this
- 49:13business is failure and how low it could really bring you, and how easy
- 49:17it is to quit this business. And there's so many people that are more
- 49:22passionate about films than probably anything in this world. And I just have to
- 49:25tell everyone is that, you know, knowledge is everything, and the key
- 49:30thing you got to be is the smartest guy in the room. Learn more
- 49:32than the guy that you're meeting, and learn everything you can about him him
- 49:37as well. I mean, no have the knowledge of knowing his work and
- 49:42how it compares to your work. But people, you know, the ego
- 49:45gets really big in this industry and that is what destroys people Unsfortunately, we'll
- 49:52be right back after a word from our sponsor and now back to the show.
- 50:00So I just say, knowledge is everything, and learn as much as
- 50:04you can before you are ready to go out there. And you get one
- 50:07chance at this, don't don't blow it just because you get that opportunity.
- 50:10Be ready for your opportunity, you know, Johnny that is that is absolutely
- 50:15great advice. You know, Always be ready and always learn as much as
- 50:19you possibly can. And Johnny, where we'll find you out online? Well,
- 50:24I'm the Martini Films dot net. Martini Films dot net. That is,
- 50:32I have a website that explains my story and my whole career from stunts
- 50:37to acting to producing. I'm going to start the opening up seminars of how
- 50:43to raise money and help people in Georgia. All my crew members and all
- 50:46that that want to become better filmmakers and even more filmmakers. So I'm going
- 50:51to start putting on seminars how to go about putting together films and all that.
- 50:54Hopefully i'll have that recorded. And I do have an upcoming movie with
- 50:59our friend Michael Keyhill, which I gotta tell you I'm very very proud of
- 51:01and I cannot wait to get started on this thing. And the movie is
- 51:05called Judge Not. I think that is more like the seven that that everyone
- 51:09wants to see. It's really dark and gritty and that's kind of like my
- 51:12genre that I want to go with, like Dave, David Flincher Pincher did.
- 51:17That's really really cool. And you and mister Keyhoe together that's, uh,
- 51:21that's gonna be interesting because you know, again because Keyho knows everybody,
- 51:24and uh, you know, yeah, it was absolutely and very excited.
- 51:30Yeah and yeah, Johnny, when you are doing those sevens, let me
- 51:34know and I will add them to the show notes as well. I'll update
- 51:37them. Uh, you know, everybody, everything that Johnny and I talked
- 51:39about on the show in this episode will be on the show notes at Dave
- 51:44Bullis dot com Twitter. It's at Dave Underscore Bullis, Johnny Martin, I
- 51:49want to say thank you so much for coming on. Thank you very much,
- 51:52Dave, very nice, mean you all. I want to thank Dave
- 51:55so much for doing such a great job on this episode. If you want
- 51:59to get linksd any thing we spoke about in this episode, head over to
- 52:00the show notes at Indie Film Muscle dot com Forward slash seven twelve. If
- 52:05you have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com. Subscribe
- 52:10and leave a good review for the show. It really helps us out a
- 52:14lot. Guys. Thank you again so much for listening to guys. As
- 52:16always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe out
- 52:20there, and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to the Indie
- 52:22Film Hustle podcast at Indie Film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
- 52:28E F I L M h ustl dot com.