Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 424: From Short to Feature The Filmmaker’s Journey with Michael G. Kehoe

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BPS 424: From Short to Feature The Filmmaker’s Journey with Michael G. Kehoe · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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