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Burnout Nearly Broke Us | Indie Film Podcast · Indie Film Podcast

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I sat down to watch my very first feature, my very first
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film ever, and I was horrified. I had little hints along the way
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of the mistakes that were being made, but I had no idea it was
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this bad. Welcome to indie film podcast.
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I'm Vic. And I am Chuck, and this week
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I'm sick of everything. And I am sick of writing
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introductions. Well then, let's just move on to
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the topic burnout. As described by the World Health
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Organization, burnout is an occupational syndrome from
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chronic workplace stress characterized by energy
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depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance,
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cynicism about the job, and reduced professional advocacy or
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effectiveness. And while not a disease and more
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of an occupational hazard, it can lead to more pressing issues
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like depression if left unchecked.
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Oh nice, I'm getting anxious and burnt out.
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Just listen to you read that so quickly.
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Well. So why should any film makers be
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worried about burn burned out? Well, most indie film makers
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should worry about burned out because we wear a lot of hats,
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we burn the candle at both ends, We're going all the time.
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And it can be kind of real. And maybe it's OK to just talk
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about it and accept that feeling burnt out, even about something
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you're passionate and you love, is totally valid.
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Yeah. And it's actually ubiquitous on
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all job sites, all Hollywood sets.
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They happen a lot, too. And before we talk about our own
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examples, I read an interesting example about the movie
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Deliverance. Are you familiar with?
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Deliverance. I'm familiar with Deliverance.
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Yeah, and so that's the gentleman travelling in a canoe,
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going down the river and then the famous banjo riff.
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Yes, so great, great movie. So the making of.
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John love that this movie made the banjo riff famous.
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I think that that's, yeah, I think a lot of people know the
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banjo riff more than the. Movie I would just.
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About guess I was. That's how I was introduced to
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Deliverance. Fair.
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OK, so. So the making of Because I was
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introduced to the film young and you can't really watch it until
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you get a lot older because of the end.
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So the The making of John Borman's Deliverance is full of
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horrific production stories, one of which includes an alleged
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fistfight that broke out between the director and the
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screenwriter James Dickey. Even more worrisome was Borman's
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decision to have his leading actors perform all their own
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stunts in the movie, which was dangerous since the follows the
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characters as they head out on a perilous canoe trip.
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Burt Reynolds once said Borman was adamant about filming the
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movie in chronological order in case an actor died.
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Yeah, that seems like a actually very realistic fear when you're
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making all these actors do their own stunts.
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Yeah, and you know it is. It would be easier to shoot
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chronologically. I mean, not not.
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It would be easier to do it for performances.
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But shooting cryologic, shooting chronologically is not
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necessarily that efficient. But if someone's going to die,
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it's very efficient, OK. Anyway, in one scene, Reynolds
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was in a canoe when it went barreling over a waterfall.
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He cracked his tailbone. Jon Voight, meanwhile, put his
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life on the line to film a rock climbing sequence without a
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harness or any wires. Borman wanted the scene to be
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shot in a close up, preventing preventing Voight from using a
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stunt double. And you can find that article on
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Indie Wire that talks about like, dangerous sets and sets
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where people got burnt out. But Deliverance, obviously they
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were, they were not super happy. No, I don't.
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I don't see feeling great about that one.
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I don't know if there's a role I would be like, yeah, I'm ready
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to risk my life for this. I don't know, because especially
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on the rock climbing thing, like that was very legitimate fear.
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Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, any of the canoeing
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stuff, yeah. You never know, Like accidents
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happen all the time. Yeah, that's you got to train.
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You got to train for the part though, if you're an actor,
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right? Hopefully Jon Voight was
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training on rock climbing. I mean.
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Even though that wasn't necessarily what the character
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was. Yeah.
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Do you want to talk about some of your burnout stories
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personally, Vic? Yes, I have my favorite burnout
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story. I don't think I want to phrase
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it as my favorite favorite story, my favorite burnout.
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No, I it was late spring into summer of 2022.
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So the main period that I'm thinking about is like four
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months. But if you extend it out a
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little bit longer, there was more I had.
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Simultaneously, I was creating and designing all the assets for
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the fundraiser gifts for the man who would not shake hands
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because we had giveaways and things.
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Which you can see online right now.
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That film is actually available on YouTube.
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Yeah, so if you would like to see the chaos that is the man
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who would not shake hands in all the decades that we decided to
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cover for God only knows what reason in one short film, you
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can find that right on. And then we were of course
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finishing up all the pre production stuff, finalizing all
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the locations, the catering, the forms, the props, everything
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like that. We were starting test shots and
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had our first actual couple of shooting days and also
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organizing A fundraiser screening for a collection of
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local short films, one of which I was still finishing post
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production on. But it was a completely
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different set of films and a different fundraiser for a
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completely different charitable organization.
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Oh nice. I was in early stages of
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directing a musical at a local community theater, which was the
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first musical I had ever directed.
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At that point I was also. The Evil Dead musical.
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Yes, Evil Dead the Musical. Right on.
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So you're getting ready for that in October?
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Yes. And then attending film
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festivals for yet a different short that I'd completed
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recently. I was writing my first book, I
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was flipping a house and I was working full time, but like
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technically a little bit more than full time because I was
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actually leaving one position and transferring into a new one.
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So the stress of ending one job and starting a new one was very
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real. So that was all a four month
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period. It was a lot of stuff.
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But then if you expanded it out to include the rest of the
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summer in the fall, then it also continued into actually filming
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The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands and doing all of the post
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production on that. And then also doing everything
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for the musical and continuing to flip the house cuz that was
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an ongoing saga. So you know.
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And what was the burnout like for you?
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Painful. It was the first time in my life
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that I can recall and I tend to be an overcommitter and not
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manage my time incredibly well, and I know that I do this.
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I was driving home from work one day and it was summer, almost
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summer, so the days were a little bit longer, not like
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sunsets at 10:00 PM late like we get in the middle of July and
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August, but later. And it was the sun was already
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going down on my way home from work where I still had a whole
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night of work ahead of me. And I was just like, I think for
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the first time ever, I have too much on my plate.
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I felt very, very exhausted and completely detached from those
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things. So you were just going through
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the motions. Yeah, I wasn't really enjoying
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most of it, especially not the way that I wanted to be.
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And it was, yeah, it was exhaustion in a whole different
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way. Yeah, no, I, I, I totally get
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that. If you hear scratching on the
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door, just so you know there is a cat that is outside the studio
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that wants to get in. I was just going to leave people
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wondering about the. Just in case you can hear it, I
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was. Going to leave people wondering.
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So I actually have a similar story where I bit off way more
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than I can chew. And you what year was this was?
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So for me it was March of 2021 through March of 2023.
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Yours was. Oh, so it overlapped, Yeah,
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'cause mine was like end of March, early April 2022 into the
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summer, and then by the time you pulled in the fall as well, then
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it it just. So basically the back half, a
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little more than the back half of 2022, was just chaos.
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Right on. No, so I think.
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But yours was like a two year period.
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It was a two year period, but I think a lot of us coming out of
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the pandemic, we felt like we just needed to be super
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productive. Yeah, we felt like we'd lost
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them and, and to be fair, I think that was a very common
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feeling among everybody. It was everybody felt like we've
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just had years of our lives, kind of like stolen.
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Yeah. And so we need to make.
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Up. Yeah, like that's not the right
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word here. It's.
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Not. It just feels like it's missing.
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Yeah, we haven't been able to do so much for so long.
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Yeah, and so for me, during that time, I was able to, this is
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just a kind of a list of all the things that I I helped or
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accomplished. We I shot and edited or excuse
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me, I helped produce, edit and capture sound for 12 short
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films. That's the chit chat series on
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lower Gentry Studios YouTube channel.
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I shot a feature film or help produce and do audio on a
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feature film Stalking at the Table Rock.
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And had post production for it too.
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Post production for that as well.
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Post sound and then 13 live music videos on Treasure Valley
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Live. I also released a four song EP
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and 16 singles with my brother as the band The Orange Teeth
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because I wanted to learn how releasing music worked.
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And so, yeah, that all comes down to like a bunch of short
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films. I also probably worked on other
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sets. And I think you wanted me to be
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on the man who would, who would not shake hands for sound.
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And that was like right in the middle of that.
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And I was, I was just kind of like barely able to breathe.
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And it's, it's, I'm not taking on it.
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I don't care if it's bad. I'm not taking on more projects,
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right? Now, yeah, it was.
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It was just a lot. It was just a lot.
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And let's talk about. But that was important to have
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that boundary and say no, because I think I know Burnout's
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kind of a rough topic to talk about.
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I think because so many people feel like something this
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intangible shouldn't be real or shouldn't be affecting them as
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much as it does. And I also think that there's
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sort of this, I don't know if it's sort of an offshoot of the
9:54
sunk cost fallacy, but this idea of because this is how I've felt
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ever since then is I don't have as much on my plate as I did
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back then, so why do I feel overwhelmed now?
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Yeah. I know how much I can do because
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I've done it before. Correct.
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And now if I have less on my plate but I'm feeling just as
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exhausted or super tired and just I don't have the energy to
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do this, I can't pull 3 all nighters in a row anymore.
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And I refuse to admit that that is because we're aging.
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That is not a thing. I think that it just helped set
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really unrealistic expectations in my brain for what is an
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allowable threshold of productivity.
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And I hate that most of all because that is so wrong.
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If anybody else came to me with as much stuff as is on their
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plate and it's like, yeah, but this isn't as much as I was
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doing 2-3 years ago. Whatever, Yeah, I shouldn't be
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exhausted by this. I know I can do it.
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I did it once. I can do it again.
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It's like. And I still had time to exercise
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during that time. Everyone was bothersome.
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Oh, OK. Well, no, I'm just saying
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hypothetically. No, but I.
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I did. I did make time though.
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I was and I was teaching as well.
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And then I had a job. So the summer was nice, but then
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that summer I took a job doing electronic videos for a large
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electronic manufacturer here. Because you weren't doing
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enough. Yeah, so I was, I also like if
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if I were to Add all that other stuff in there, there's like
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countless YouTube videos with my hands in there showing how to
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like repair computers and stuff. So that I didn't even include
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that and I did all that. You were a hand model the entire
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time, yeah. Yeah, plus hand modeling.
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I mean I. Had to learn that on set.
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So I don't know what Jon Voight's complaining about.
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I mean, yes, I know that he needed to learn how to rock
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climb and it was pretty dangerous.
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But you know, hand modelling, there's a lot that goes into
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that. Yeah, you got to subsist on a
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diet of Diet Coke and cigarettes.
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I mean, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.
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That is just a very old joke. Yeah.
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And thankfully, I hope model culture does not embrace that
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the way that it used to. I really hope.
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Well, should we talk about some ways that we've dealt with dealt
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with our own personal burnout because I've I've done that, but
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or maybe we should talk a. Little bit, but first I don't
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want to hear. Yeah, I was like, I would rather
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hear an embarrassing moment from you.
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OK, well I do have a moment of humility, OK, from recent
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history and I talk a lot about my sound experience, which I'm
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self-taught. Yeah, so I'll preface it with
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that. But I recently did post audio on
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a short film that our our friend and listener Cody Lockwood did
12:47
the location sound. He did great location sound on
12:49
the short film set and I realized when I brought all the
12:52
audio into my sound editing software that he was he was
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recording Poly waves. OK so for those of us who don't
13:01
do audio, can you tell me what a Poly wave is?
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So what a Poly wave is, is like a stereo wave file, has two
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channels left and right. But if you're doing location
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sound, location sound recorders can usually do a channel for
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each input separately plus the mix, but it's all in one file.
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So I was recording separate files because I learned how to
13:24
record doing music where I want to have the instrument on one
13:29
separate audio file, just a mono one or the microphone one
13:32
separate audio file. But apparently it's like
13:34
standard for location sound recorders to record in a Poly
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WAV file and I didn't even know that.
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But there were a couple of corporate people that never
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messaged me back after I sent them my files because I sent
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them. I have everything labeled in
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folders and things like that. But it's a lot easier.
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To sync one file in post than to sync multiple.
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Yeah, I'm thinking back on every time you've worked sound and I
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go through and I take all four to six layers.
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Yeah, that's that I have. That's how you record music, but
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you're not supposed to record film location sound that way.
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So it was like a humbling moment for me.
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Like, I don't know, there's a lot of stuff I don't know
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because I was never taught. Until like, how would you know
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that unless you were specifically getting a sound
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file from somebody else and as somebody who typically does the
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sound recording? Absolutely.
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And I, and I do a lot of the the post work on my own thing too.
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So it's like I'm not used to, I'm used to my own stuff.
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So anyway, it's good to work with other people.
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Get on, set your horizon. Anyway and learn some lessons,
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so thanks so much Cody for teaching me that one.
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And now anyone listening if you are an aspiring location sound
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recordist, polywaves. Polywaves for sure.
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That's fun. Do you want to talk about some
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ways that you've mitigated burnout?
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I do OK because I am not good at it yet.
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I'm still working on it right now.
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I can be a work in progress. I'm allowed to be a well.
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As long as it's getting better and not worse, then that's
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important, right? So I stole one method and and
15:06
maybe this isn't the best way to deal with burnout.
15:09
This is more how I deal with the aftermath of admittedly
15:15
committing to too many projects. Lots of boos.
15:18
No, I'm just kidding. Don't do that.
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Yes, No, I mean, sometimes it helps, but not while you're
15:24
working. Not while you're working.
15:26
You got to have the the cocaine or the meth to get you through
15:28
the projects and then the booze to sleep.
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There was one marketing team that I worked on that we're
15:34
very, very big proponents of. We drink wine at night and
15:39
that's how we come up with all the good ideas, and then we will
15:41
drink as much coffee as we can fit inside ourselves in the
15:44
morning to make those ideas happen.
15:46
Right on. I wonder what the toilet paper
15:48
budget was for that office. I assume pretty substantial.
15:51
I don't know. I don't know.
15:53
I don't want to. Find out what the coffee costs.
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That's that's somebody's salary. That's somebody's for sure,
15:58
because the wine wasn't cheap either.
16:00
Yeah. Yeah.
16:00
Makes sense tech industry man, they splurge for the good stuff
16:04
anyway. So what's your what's your
16:05
advice? So my my advice is to follow
16:08
what I like to call the snowball method.
16:11
I'm pretty sure I stole that I think from some finance guy who
16:16
has this theory on like you have to pay down certain debts first.
16:22
I don't remember if it was like you're supposed to pay down like
16:25
your. Oh yeah, I'm familiar with that.
16:28
That idea where it's like some people say, pay down the highest
16:32
interest rate debt. Yeah.
16:33
So that way then once you're done with that, because it's the
16:36
one costing you the most money, then once you're done with that,
16:39
then you take all that money and you put it all into the next one
16:42
and your snowball's a little bigger.
16:43
Or maybe it was a waterfall and it's.
16:45
I go with snowball because I think it's fun to imagine it
16:47
rolling downhill and just gaining more momentum as it
16:49
goes, because that's what I really, really need.
16:51
But I also gain more momentum as I get other things done because
16:55
that is encouraging and inspiring to me.
16:57
So I start which one with whichever 1 is like the biggest,
17:01
most problematic obstacle. For example, rather recently,
17:07
like last week, I was realizing I physically cannot take any
17:11
more projects on. I have no more available drives
17:15
to record to with my camera. Oh yeah, that's a good
17:18
limitation. Yeah, they are all full.
17:20
My hard drives are full and I missed the Black Friday sales so
17:23
unfortunately I'm just going to wait for another sale and that's
17:25
when I'll take on my next project.
17:27
No, it wasn't even fair that that sale ended before Black
17:30
Friday. That wasn't even fair.
17:32
There was a hard drive so mad. Yeah.
17:34
There's a hard drive I will spot.
17:35
Terabytes. 8 terabyte SSD for like 420 bucks.
17:40
Or yeah, it was really cheap and I wanted to get one too.
17:42
And then they sold out immediately.
17:44
Yeah, but there was still another alternative on a less
17:48
reputable shopping site. Yeah, well, probably as
17:51
repeatable. No, it was.
17:53
I would not trust anything from that side.
17:55
Absolutely not. No, but the logo looks a little
17:57
bit like a :) going from A-Z, if you know what I'm talking about.
18:01
Had another one that was, that was not out of stock.
18:03
It was completely available. It was in my cart.
18:06
I was just waiting until the what was that the day before
18:09
Black Friday or two days before when all the sales started.
18:13
And then I was like, OK, cool, now I can get all the other
18:16
toiletries and staples anyway. It doesn't matter.
18:18
It was no longer on sale by the time.
18:21
Spend your money when you. Spend your money when you.
18:23
Avoid. Smoke them if you got them.
18:24
That's what I'm saying. Smoke them if you got.
18:28
So you avoid you avoid burnout by just waiting until you can't
18:32
possibly have anymore room for projects on your hard drive.
18:36
No. But what I did do was look at
18:39
what project is taking up two of my drives right now as opposed
18:44
to just one. So if I finish that one now, I
18:48
have two drives that I can actually use and that's good.
18:52
And then there's another project, perfect.
18:54
I'll finish that one up because that one's on my 4 terabyte and
18:56
I know I'm going to need that so I can nip that one in the bud
19:00
next. And it's just sort of that
19:02
snowballing effect of, OK, yes, I have my daily to do's, yes, I
19:06
have my emails or whatever, but these are the biggest literal
19:10
obstacles to my brain space and my camera's brain space.
19:15
So that's how I that's how I decide what to do.
19:19
Oh, right on. Well, yeah, that makes sense
19:21
because you are building up momentum.
19:22
Then, because you got your stuff, you cleared out a hard
19:24
drive. Exactly.
19:25
That's that's. Now feels.
19:27
Measurable. Now if I need to take footage
19:30
off of the SD cards inside my Canon, I can because it has a
19:34
drive to go on to. Nice, because that was that was
19:38
the problem. Yeah, we got to push those
19:40
projects off too. I enjoy deleting them.
19:43
And I do like a client's project and I'm like, I gave this to
19:47
you. I told you I'm going to delete
19:49
it at the end of the year and I, I left it up for you to grab and
19:53
I hope you have it because this is getting deleted.
19:55
And then I delete it and then inevitably wait for them to be
19:57
like, Oh my God, what's that? I had I had one come back from
20:00
like. A year A.
20:02
Year and a. Half a year and a half ago where
20:04
they're like, do you have these, these files?
20:06
And that's oddly enough for the polywave.
20:08
I'm like, I did the pose sound for that.
20:10
So it was more than one one track anyway, But I sent them
20:13
all the stems. But I had held onto it for that
20:15
long. On my impressive.
20:17
So it's like, you know, stuff happens when you're in film and
20:21
video and you're doing commercial stuff.
20:22
You, you understand, and your own projects too.
20:24
But I I think my lesson when I was trying to do way too much
20:29
coming out of the pandemic was I realized I wasn't enjoying the
20:33
stuff that I was doing. Oh, that's even worse.
20:37
That doesn't. No wonder you were burnt out.
20:39
Well, you can't I, I realize you have to balance the part that
20:42
you like with the part that you dislike.
20:45
And I'm not a fan of post work. Like that's not my favorite
20:50
thing to do. It's, it's not that I dislike
20:52
it, It's just that a lot of post work is not necessarily all that
20:56
creative. And so when you're, when you're
20:58
releasing, when you're mixing songs, when you're, you know,
21:03
doing audio mixing and dialogue clean up, and that's ends up
21:06
being a majority of what you're doing as far as like getting out
21:09
there shooting, everybody knows that the post work is longer
21:13
than the shoot days usually. And so when you get that many
21:17
the projects piled on you at once, then you don't have time
21:21
to do the part that you enjoy, which is, you know, like the
21:25
sound design aspect, which is probably about like 20% of audio
21:29
mixing and post, you know, depending on the project.
21:31
Like if it's a horror film or something gnarly, then you get
21:33
to do some really cool stuff. But yeah, so if you're out there
21:38
and you are not enjoying the thing that you're doing, you
21:42
know, I think that's kind of like a huge red flag to step
21:45
back. And that's honestly why I quit
21:47
my job, you know, doing those, those training videos for tech
21:51
people. Like I started to really hate
21:53
it. And I'm like, I don't want this
21:55
to ruin my experience with a camera.
21:58
And I don't want this to ruin my experience with with audio
22:01
editing. It's like, this is not fun.
22:04
It's taking up 40 hours a week of my time, sometimes more if
22:07
they'd get a busy weekend. And it was it was awful.
22:10
And so it's like, if I don't do this, then it's going to ruin
22:13
it. And then, you know, who knows
22:15
what I end up doing. Yeah, just at that point, if
22:18
like your number, isn't that why they say don't always make your
22:22
hobby a job? Oh yeah, true.
22:25
Because if it brings you joy, maybe don't also make your
22:28
financial security depend on it. Yeah, for sure.
22:32
Which? Indie film makers don't always
22:35
to have that luxury, right? So maybe find another take up
22:38
baking and don't become a pastry chef, but like camera work could
22:42
be your job, yeah. Focus on the one aspect that you
22:44
enjoy on that, you know, because it's like walking through every
22:49
single project start to finish was a lot when I was working at
22:52
the tech firm. Yeah.
22:53
Because it's like I first of all, shooting on and on those
22:56
projects was not all that enjoyable because you're filming
22:59
electronics, right? But like, if you enjoy indie
23:02
filmmaking, being on set, there's a lot of opportunities
23:04
for you to fill in and then you get to interact with people.
23:06
Or if you're a little bit more of a loner and you enjoy just
23:09
working on things in post, like I don't think that would be that
23:12
bad of a thing to do for a career if you feel like you can
23:15
just hone in. And be.
23:17
Able to do it and enjoy it, but you know, like it was just too
23:21
many projects where it was from the very beginning all the way
23:24
to the end and watching it go all the way through, it turns it
23:27
turns into a lot. So be careful out there.
23:30
Do you have any tricks? I don't have, I don't have a lot
23:35
of tricks other than sort of making sure you own your
23:40
schedule so I know what parts of the day are best for me.
23:44
And there's that one rule or whatever, like don't send emails
23:48
first thing in the morning or something like that.
23:49
Oh, you send them at the end of the day.
23:51
No, no, somebody says, like, you're not supposed to do like
23:54
your e-mail work at the beginning of the day.
23:55
Oh, really? Yeah, There's some big person or
23:57
I don't know, Tony Robbins or I don't know Tony Robbins out
24:02
there, and I'm going to be completely wrong and it's just
24:04
going to be some random corporate dude who is like,
24:07
yeah, maybe don't send emails at the start of the day.
24:09
Yeah, there's so much advice. Out there to do.
24:11
Anything correctly? It's fine, but like I like
24:15
getting those itty bitty tiny things just checked off my plate
24:18
while my brain's still kind of kicking in to gear because then
24:23
my inbox is clear and I feel like I can focus now everything
24:27
is decluttered and I can settle into my creative stuff.
24:29
So that way like mid morning as my coffee's rolling and I'm, I'm
24:33
like, OK, maybe a whole pot of coffee is too much for one
24:36
person. As I get to that point, I really
24:38
hit my creative stride. Nice.
24:41
I think most people do after a full pot of coffee for.
24:43
Sure. Or than at night.
24:45
I like to do the creative stuff at night too.
24:48
And especially like collaborative meetings.
24:50
I want to save those for the end of the day when I have more
24:52
stuff off my plate and I can really be focused in in the
24:55
meeting. Yeah, because if I do a meeting
24:57
in the morning, I am not paying attention to anything you're
24:59
saying. I'm thinking about my To Do
25:00
List. Oh no, I'm the same way there.
25:02
Yeah, that's good. I actually do the same thing
25:04
where I wake up and try to just cross stuff off.
25:06
Yeah, as quickly as possible. It feels good.
25:08
I want the win. Give me the dopamine a little
25:11
check mark. And what I've learned doing so
25:13
many aspects of Not so, so many, but having to go from start to
25:17
finish on projects as I try to limit the part that I don't
25:20
enjoy to like 3, Max 4 hours a day.
25:24
And so if people are, if I'm working on someone's project and
25:27
it's just 100% dialogue cleanup, not my favorite thing to do.
25:31
It is satisfying, I will say to get it done.
25:33
But in the moment, it's just, you know, it takes, it takes
25:36
focus, but it's, it's, it's arduous.
25:38
And so I'll make sure that I give them a quote, understanding
25:42
that the time that it takes me to do that is going to be capped
25:45
out at, you know, unless there's an emergency, then I'll do like
25:48
6 or 8 or 10 sometimes. But it's hard for me to sit at
25:51
an editing station for that long.
25:52
Some people can just knock it out, which is impressive, but.
25:55
It's very impressive, but also, if you're not one of those few
25:58
people that can do that, that's OK.
25:59
I don't know if it's good for anybody to sit in front of a
26:01
computer for 10 hours or more. No, I shouldn't say that to
26:05
people watching our podcast right now.
26:07
But you know, when you're finished with the episode, go
26:09
for a walk. Yeah, or just walk and listen.
26:11
Oh yeah, treadmill desk. One of my best investments.
26:14
I love that thing. Right on.
26:15
Well, do you want to do a little bit of industry news I.
26:18
Do have some fun industry. News OK.
26:21
OK, so Are you ready for this? Yes, Gen.
26:23
Z is making movie theaters cool again.
26:26
That's awesome. Actually, I don't know if
26:27
they're making it cool again, but they're all excited about
26:30
them again. So movie theater numbers are
26:32
actually up pretty substantially.
26:34
That's big news. Yeah, we can link the full
26:36
report. It's what is it by.
26:38
It's the Cinema United strength of theatrical exhibition OK, but
26:45
apparently the group of 13 to 28 year olds, their movie theater
26:49
attendance jumped 25% year over year Oh nice.
26:53
Which is a big bump. Things don't.
26:55
So they're projecting that 2026 is actually going to be the
27:00
first year that movie theaters are back to the number that they
27:05
are. Not exactly the same, but
27:08
they're forecasting it to look more like 20190 for the first
27:14
time since the 2020. Yes, wild.
27:17
And I loved this most of all as a huge popcorn fan.
27:21
The number one reason that Gen. Z wants the theaters is because
27:24
of the concessions. Nice.
27:26
It has nothing to do with the movies.
27:28
Oh, they just like the snacks. Right on.
27:33
I remember when I was a kid it was all about sneaking in your
27:35
own snacks theater. I know I'm like, wait, they're
27:38
into it now? Do they know how expensive that?
27:40
Is yeah, maybe it's all the same price.
27:41
I haven't looked at the price of dots and since the pandemic, so
27:44
maybe movie theaters are Dots competitive, Maybe this.
27:48
Hook me up with some Junior Mints, then let's talk.
27:50
There we go. Okay, one other note.
27:52
UCLA data inside this report shows that 10 to 24 year olds
27:56
currently rank opening weekend movie going.
27:59
So actually attending a movie on opening weekend is now their
28:02
number one preferred activity above concerts and sporting
28:06
events. Oh cool, so movies are making a
28:08
comeback. There's hope for us to have our
28:10
films seen in a theatre rather than on someone's freaking
28:13
phone. Exactly.
28:15
You'll have it heard as it should be heard and as it should
28:18
be seen, and it'll be beautiful. However, I do feel like I should
28:20
throw in one caveat because they sent me down a little bit of a
28:23
research black hole. But Box Office Mojo has released
28:28
some data indicating that during the last 8 recessions, box
28:31
office sales have increased 6 times over.
28:34
It typically always gives them a boost, except for the outlier of
28:37
the 2020 pandemic. Obviously movie theaters weren't
28:41
open then, but movies are typically just a cheaper form of
28:44
entertainment. The concerts for their live
28:45
events? They're four.
28:47
They win when money's tight. Got it.
28:50
So this is a recession indicator that people are going to the
28:53
movies rather than going to a concert because it's cheaper.
28:56
Or Gen. Z is just making movies cool
28:59
again. Or there's just no jobs for Gen.
29:01
Z people because they don't have any, so all they can do is still
29:05
have to. Go get their education and get
29:08
their experience. Oh boy.
29:10
All right. Anyway, shall we, shall we end
29:12
with the Featured Filmmaker of the Week?
29:15
I would love to end with the Featured Filmmaker of the Week,
29:18
Tricia Furman. And I'm going to do this in my
29:22
best Tricia impression, knowing full well I've never met Tricia.
29:27
But she wrote us a nice a nice note.
29:29
It was so good. We couldn't tweak it or change
29:33
it. We just couldn't.
29:34
Emotionally, I was not going to allow myself to.
29:36
So here we go ladies and gentlemen.
29:41
The 2020 lockdown was a blessing because I was laid off from all
29:44
my jobs. I finally had time to write a
29:47
movie, so I did. I had no idea what I was doing,
29:49
but I did have Google. My chaos was in post production.
29:55
After four years of production, I sat down to watch my very
29:59
first feature, my very first film ever, and I was horrified.
30:05
I had little hints along the way of the mistakes that were being
30:07
made, but I had no idea it was this bad.
30:11
I did everything wrong. I hired all my friends.
30:14
I had a large cast over 40 every day.
30:17
I wore all the hats, producer, director, writer, casting lead
30:20
role, AD, craft services, set design, etcetera.
30:21
I didn't do any research on equipment, so I shot on the
30:24
Nikon 850D, the one with the autofocus issues.
30:27
I used the mic on the camera. I can hear Chuck screaming in
30:30
horror. I trusted an editor who I did
30:32
very little research on who ended up stealing my hard drive
30:35
and I had to take him to court to get it back and then took an
30:38
online course in Adobe Premiere Pro to learn how to edit so I
30:40
could just do it myself. I may not have went to film
30:44
school, but I sure got schooled on this film.
30:46
The thing about having so many people involved in this movie is
30:49
that I have 40 plus people asking me, so whatever happened
30:52
to that movie? Almost daily on different social
30:54
media outlets people call me Tenacious Trish because I don't
30:58
know when to quit. So I cut this one hour and 40
31:02
minute feature into a 14 minute proof of concept and it got into
31:06
the semi finals and the direct monthly online Film Festival and
31:09
won the Human Interest award at the Female Feedback Film
31:12
Festival. That's awesome.
31:14
So truth's not bad ass. Yeah, for sure.
31:17
I mean, sounds horrible, that sounds.
31:21
But you learned so much and you know so much what you would do
31:24
differently. And damn, that was so
31:27
entertaining to read. So thank you, Trisha.
31:29
Berman That that, yeah, humbling story because it is it is hard.
31:33
And you know, we've you went to you went to study
31:36
cinematography. I did no film school at all.
31:38
It's tricky. But even with that educational
31:41
background. Which was not at a film school,
31:43
mind you, because that would have been the smart way to do
31:46
it. But it's fine.
31:48
Yeah, we have to learn this way and sometimes if you just bite
31:50
off more than you can chew, it'll be OK and hopefully you
31:53
don't get burnt. Out you can always just spit a
31:55
little bit. Out.
31:56
Pick it back up later. There it is.
31:57
That's what plates are for. Good place.
32:01
I just like to Mull over that giant bite.
32:04
All right. Well, shall we succinctly say
32:05
farewell? Sounds wonderful.
32:07
Bye bye.