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Behind The Film: Christmas at the Kringles with Kevin Lewis and Don Worley · Indie Film Weekly

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Indie Film Weekly Behind the Film.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Glenn Reynolds.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Jason Connell.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going behind Christmas at the Kringles, a holiday horror comedy about a family whose new neighbors celebrate Christmas all year.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Their over-the-top hospitality soon turns into something far more sinister.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our guest are director, Kevin Lewis, and actor and executive producer Don Worley.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: I had a lot of fun watching this movie.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: You start with these neighbors who are just a little too into Christmas, which is funny enough, but then things get weirder and darker, and the movie just keeps pushing it further and further.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: I loved how completely nuts the Kringles are.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: But what surprised me is that underneath the craziness in the movie, there's actually a pretty sweet story about a family trying to reconnect.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let's meet Kevin and Don and go behind Christmas at the Kringles.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Kevin and Don, welcome.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for joining us.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you guys for letting us be here.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: So every film starts somewhere.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe, Kevin, you can kick us off with where did Christmas at the Kringles start for you?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I got the script submitted to me through the writer, Zac and Barge, you know, four years ago.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been on this quest to put this movie together.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_03: Through the years, you know, there are other producers that want to change it and make it more action-based.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: It was always a horror comedy ensemble piece, you know.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: And Tom Wartenberg and Andrew Wartenberg, and they did the fantastic job producing this movie, and they saw the movie the way I saw it, and we just started working on it.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: And literally, it was like a year from when we met to we were shooting.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: And Don, how about you?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: How did you come across this?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I had known Tom Ortenberg and had spoken to him a few times.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_04: Great respect for him.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you know it or not, but he has three Oscars behind his name: Monsters Ball, Crash, and um Spotlight.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, great films.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: So he's been around a while.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: So, no, I've always been a big fan, and um, I got to know his son, Andrew, through a mutual friend, Jordan Dykstra.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: And uh Jordan sent me the script and I read it and I said, This is crazy.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, of course, I'm in.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_04: My background is, you know, I was an actor years ago, studied at the University of Texas in Second City, and I was a stand-up comedian for a while, and I sort of left it for a while to become a lawyer, and this is my beautiful law office here.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_04: So a trial lawyer.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, we actually did a little TV show about it.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_04: But at this point, I guess coming back, and my company is actually called Second Chance Picture because it's my second time around.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_04: I only want to do cool projects.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm not interested in doing something that's already been done.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_04: So this is the kind of thing that was that interests me.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_04: So I help basically help put the money together.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: The executive producer, so you know, you guys know what that is, but the audience may not know.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_04: That's basically the guy who does nothing but helps put the money together.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_03: Don and I share something because it's interesting because he said second chance.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: And for me, it's the same kind of thing.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had my I went to film school at SC, I went out, I made movies in the 90s, early 2000s, you know, and then um I took a break, and it wasn't until Willie's Wonderland I kind of got back in.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_03: So I look at this as my career.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_03: I've been making a movie every year since, and this is my seventh film.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: So I look at my career as second chance, a second career.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I always like to say the old man beat the young man.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_03: I did six movies when I was younger, and well, I think that's just awesome what Don said about second chance.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's true.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I just said my old self built beat my young self too, because I'll have, I guess since I came back, I'll have 20 movies under my belt as an actor that I did is the but to be fair, there's more roles for old guys.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_04: You can be the CIA guy, the FBI guy, the dad, the husband, bad guy, whatever.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_04: So the young man's just the young strapping, good-looking lead guy, but you know, that's the limited, more limited.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So were you guys both drawn to Christmas movies or this Christmas horror comedy mashup, or like what drew you to this in particular particular project?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_03: I love deconstructing things, I love tearing stuff down that we maybe I don't say hold sacred, but you know, thought this movie was like a Hallmark Goes to Hell movie.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so my my wife's all into the Hallmark shows.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_03: Her and my daughter, you know, they're watching them, and I'm and I'm like Mark Severson from the movie, going, What are you guys doing?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna be watching Godfather, Lawrence of Arabia.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, there were so many themes in this.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: We've all had the crazy neighbor and just the idea of taking something way too far.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I love movies like Election and Three O'Clock High back in the day.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so good.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just you know, three o'clock high is, you know, it's you're gonna get beat up by this big bully at the end of the school day.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: But they take it and they make this whole dramatic pie out of it, which is incredible.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so the idea of a Christmas cult family representing Christmas 365 days a year, I was like, oh, there you go, you know.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: So, um, and I'm like Don, like what Don said, you know, I I like the weird and the different, and we've all seen some of these just the kind of the homogenized films.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, let's just do something fun and different, you know, and be be creative.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I saw this material as a chance to stretch those muscles, you know.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love how the Kringle's non-stop Christmas cheer gradually becomes genuinely threatening.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: How did you find that tone?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was funny because you know, I love the horror comedies, but you are walking that fine balance, right?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: And you can go a little too much or a little, you know, too soft or whatever, but I always thought at the end of the day, it's like you're just revving it up.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: Like the the the idea of the Kringles show up and it's like a non-stop assault on the senses and the viewer.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: I shot a lot of stuff like when they would look at the camera, it was like a 75 mil lens, and they did that on Science of Lambs with Anthony Hopkins and Dr.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: Lecter because they're looking at the audience, right?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so I wanted the Kringles to kind of penetrate the screen and look right into the to the viewer.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so the idea of doing that and then taking something, you know, that we we cherish and whatever, and then building a little more sinister into it, and a little more, and a little more, and a little more until you get like that joy scene where you're like, oh my god, these guys are out off the rocker.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: That was just a lot of fun.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_03: I love taking things just like we did with Willie's, you know, Pizza Place with animatronics and just kind of flipping it on its head.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: The idea of that Nick didn't, you know, this janner, he he didn't run from these, you know, every all these movies, they're always running from them and getting scared.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, this guy just beat him up and then he went back to work.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_03: Because he was an old school guy, right?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's like you shake your hand and it's like I'm gonna clean the joint up and then I'm gonna get my car and get the heck out of here, you know.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's what he did, you know.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: So that's with Kringles.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: It was the same kind of thing.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: It's like these guys just take the Christmas and they just keep notching it up.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Don, I know that you're an actor in the movie, but you're also an EP executive producer.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, how did you go about assembling this amazing cast?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh well, that was pretty much mostly Kevin that did all that, but that was one of the things that drew me to it also because like most people, I'm a I was a fan of Office Space.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I know Ron wants to be remembered for more than that, but that movie was just something that was amazing.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_04: And it came up at the uh, you know, after the screening, I think someone on stage was like, we didn't want to think office space when we were making this movie, but it's hard to get that movie out of your mind because it made such an impression on me as uh when I watched it.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, I'm fans with and I so I got to act with him and then also Donald.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: You guys know him from Scrubs, but he was also in a movie called Remember the Titan Speck and my days.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_04: Getting to work with Ron and Donald as an actor and then working with Kevin as the director.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and Tom Ortenberg is the Academy Award-winning producer who would say no, you know, it was a great opportunity as an actor to have fun and uh do a little fun scene and then also be a part of making the movie.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's not forget swingers with Ron Livingston as well.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: When I got the script, guys, I I immediately Ron was the guy I pictured as Mark Severson.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_03: He's the guy I wanted.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: So kind of the same thing with like when Willie's, I got the script, I wanted Nick.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's really cool to have the actor that you picture when you're reading the script actually say yes, and they want to do it, you know.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_03: So Ron, Ron's amazing, and all the actors were just incredible.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: And Don and I, you know, we had a lot of fun with that scene because some of that stuff was improv.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: As through a lot of the movie, is you know, we have the lines, we knew the narrative beats and everything was going.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: But to me, it's like you prep, prep, prep.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: So you prep the movie, and if you have the movie prepped, everything you can go, okay, now we can play a little.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: Don brought a lot of that flavor to the bouncer with the club, you know, and it was like that was just exciting to work with all these amazing talented artists and actors and stuff and kind of say, all right, you know, what do we like about this?
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_03: And let's do it, do it this way.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it's uh so much fun.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, every day shooting this movie, I I came home, was just delighted, uh elated, you know, of the footage we had, seriously.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was gonna ask you because Tom Thomas Lennon and Harden Myron completely to that manic cheer.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: I guess you gave them a lot of room to play.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we all knew kind of the beats again, what we're going, and uh and then yeah, and what's interesting, like with Tom and Arden, but Tom especially it's like every take's different, you know, every take something.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, but what's cool is like, oh, I like that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Let's take that and put it in the next take.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_03: Great, you know, and he's the kind of guy who would rather shoot it and get it going than talk about it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_03: Don't the same way when we did that nightclub scene.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like we didn't have time you talk about, we were setting up cameras, like we talked on the side and stuff, but we shot, we shot, we shot, you know, because as doing these indie films, you don't have the luxury of time.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: That is that that's that's your worst enemy, you know.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, you prep it and you get it where you know you got it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: Like, okay, this is the characters, we're going here, but now we can play a little.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_03: So, and just Thomas took this character and they all did, man.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody was just great.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: Ron is such a this movie to me is like a masterclass of reactions with him, even with Don's like scene, like he's just he's so good with the crazy orbiting around him.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_03: Don't character is crazy, he's a bouncer at the Santa bar, you know, and asking if you got a freaking coin, you know what I mean?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, if you really think about it, it's like it's absolutely insane, you know.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, and and and Ron just lets it go and it just bounces off of him, man.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's just it's just amazing, you know.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I was gonna say to go lead off of what he was saying about it being fun.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_04: Normally, an EP doesn't always go to the set, and an actor will go to the set just for his or her scene.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: But I would found myself hanging out on the set because it was so much fun.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like I went to the bar scene when they were shooting the bar scene when I guess Donald's character was trying to pick up that girl at the bar while you know Ron was going through a crisis.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, and Santa was there talking about rescuing them.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just fun to hang out on the set because it was a fun movie.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we had a good time.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_03: You know, movie making's very pressure, and there's money being spent and a lot of things going, moving pieces and stuff, but we did.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: We we all had a good time.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I hope I've had some people that see the movie and they said, you know, you can really see you guys having a good time, you know, and then hopefully the audience has a good time too, because we make movies for the audience, you know.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so when I'm looking at that monitor and I'm I'm watching performances and I'm thinking of myself in the theater and what am I responding to, and what other people respond to joke-wise, and then it's interesting because humor can be very particular.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe what you find funny is not what I find funny, right?
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_03: But to me, you got to commit.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so we committed to this kind of dark gallows humor of a movie, you know.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: And uh if you try to pull back and try to try, oh no, wait a minute, you know, or focus group it or something, it's like it's gonna be vanilla.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I don't want to do.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: I just want to go to the jugular, you know, on this.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I was just gonna say, I love how Nick announces that he has a favorite child.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so so dark in front of the kids.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh, it's the hootstery thing for a parent to say.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: How did you approach making him funny without losing sight of like how disturbing it is?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's funny because I I got four kids and I have two in college and then two 10 and 12-year-old boys, and they always tell my wife the 10-year-old boy is the favorite, you know.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: So, like these are the things that I took from I and I could have made this movie a younger 10 years ago.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: It would have been a different like I had to have kids, I had to go through it because I am Mark Severson.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_03: Like I had I called him father of the year.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_03: He was our neighbor in our older house, and he would be across the street at two girls, and he would light up the house, everything, and and he would have ramps, and the girls would like, you know, and they're and I but I always thought it was performative.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: I thought he was doing it more for the neighborhood, not just for his kids.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: So one day I drive up and like our house is all dark, you know, and then you see his house all lit up, you know, and I was like, Yep, father year's at it again.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: So like I took all these things.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_03: My my wife, she's like a Nazi with the Christmas pajamas.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_03: It's like we got to take pictures every year.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: We go, you know, to the photographer that's almost an hour away, grabbing the kids.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, okay, we gotta have Christmas jammies in this movie.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: There's just things that I I put like the whole opening, the angel, you know, that's me like on a ladder every year, trying to get this dang angel on the top of the tree.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like, all right, you know, so that was that was kind of just bored out of, you know, and also like you know, burning the hallmark flag.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's yeah, just all that stuff is is life experience, to be honest, you know.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_03: And what's interesting, and Don can attest to this, it's like the writer Zach, and he said this the QA, it's like he almost got into a cult in in Los Angeles, like he was close to like buying into the whole thing.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what started his thing.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: And he did have a neighbor that had they kept their Christmas stuff to like March or April and the things like browning out and all that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_03: But it's like, so write what you know, you know, and direct what you know.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: But I will go off what Kevin said about Focus Group because at the screening, it wasn't a casting crew screening because it was at a film festival.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: So there were people that had no exposure to this at all.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I brought two producing partners that had no idea what it was sitting next to me, and they laughed, you know, especially on the opening scene, introducing the family and asking the kid if he's special needs or on the spectrum or whatever the question was.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_04: So it's people not even related to the project were enjoying the film and laughing out loud at what was going on.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_04: So that's all seeing the seeing the audience reaction who had no idea, wasn't a part of what they weren't a part of the the project was you know reassuring that something good was here.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And Kevin, speaking of the comedy and the humor, which you nail, but how did you balance that with the scares and the action?
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's a tough thing to walk and to nail, you know, and to be consistent.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: I did like a 75-page shot list on this movie.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: So my DP and I, we worked tirelessly, and and so I had everything mapped out.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: And again, you know, making films to me, it's all about prep, prep, prep.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I had that, and I knew I had comic gold with the actors, and then we had a great script.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so the idea was all right, where am I gonna spend my time on?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: What am I gonna kind of highlight here?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: Where do I go from here?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so there were things where sometimes I let the actors riff, you know, even like with the Don's Don scene, like, you know, we just kind of like let's played with it, you know, which is great.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then there were times where it's like, okay, I gotta get this line here, I gotta make sure we get that.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: Like that scene when Daryl takes the wallet out of Mark, that was total improv on Donald.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: It was great.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_03: In fact, he said, Can you have the wallet here because he lifted it up?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: It's perfect, you know.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: So you have all this great talent with you, and it's like, you know, yeah, we want to just all kind of pitch ideas, and to me, the best idea wins.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm always that way.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: It is about tone too, you know.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_03: Comedy horror is tricky, and it's interesting because a friend of mine said this the other day, I thought it was really interesting.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, you know, a lot of people when they go to a movie, they want to see what they expect to see.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, if they're gonna come in our movie, they want to see terrifier, and we don't give them terrifier because we don't give a lot of all this gore or whatever, they're disappointed.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: So the movie's not good.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, well, it was never that movie to begin with, you know.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: We never set out when I talked about the horror, especially to like Ron and everybody, because they were very interested, like, what's the tone gonna be?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: And it was like it was more like Beetlejuice horror and you know, haunted house horror.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't gonna do terrifier, and I'm not trying to do hereditary and midsommer.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: Those are great movies.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: I love all of them, but I just didn't fit, especially with a kid in the house and what was going on with him.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like that just doesn't didn't to me jive.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: So throw back more to like the Spielberg Amblin horror.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_03: I would also throw in Sean of the Dead, sort of love Sean of the Dead.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, there you go.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the the editing of Sean of the Dead, the Cornado trilogy, those those extreme close-ups, which we call insert shots.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_03: I called them Kringle cuts.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: So every time we would do shots, I go five cut Kringle because I knew the eddie's gonna I I didn't have time to do all these grand exterior shots or like you know, uh jib arm crane, and we're going through the sky, landing.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_03: No, we're gonna go and we're into the next scene.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: So more like music beats, you know.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: So the inside of the Kringles house is Christmas on steroids, right?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's a haunted Christmas house.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a favorite detail in that house that viewers might miss?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: I felt like I was missing stuff because there's just so much to look at.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_04: I walked through with the set designer when he was doing it, which he was great, by the way.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: He's done a lot of things.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: I can't list his resume here, I would I'd leave out something, but he's done everything.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: He did some of the Abel Ferrero movies like uh Bad Lieutenant.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and television shows, and coming and do this little indie movie.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the fact that all these people jumped on board to make this indie movie, your podcast is indie film.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, just to be humbled, even as a producer, to have all these great, even the set designers say, Hey, you know what?
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_04: I want to do this movie, and and made the house.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_04: Not just the house, but everything you saw, just the bar, yeah, the house, this every little attention to detail.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_04: And everybody on the set was cool.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: I've worked on sets with people who were not cool.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_04: There was no divas.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_04: Ron Livingston and Donald talked to you just like you're a normal person on the street and hung out with you in the green room.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: And there were no divas on this set.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_04: It was just all fun, and uh, and everybody was a team player and picked up and did whatever they needed to do, even if it wasn't their job.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: And it was uh a fun experience to see.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_04: So, yes, it we were very fortunate to have the set design guy we had, you know, and team.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: There were a lot of people on the team, but yes.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds like a great team, a wonderful production, which doesn't always turn into a good movie.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: We had the best time ever, and then they made a melon, right?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the case here.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's like one memorable day that comes to mind?
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was just a daunting day and you got through it, but there's some sort of takeaway that you could share.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: There were a couple for me, I mean, every day, but there was a great moment when I was going through the script and making movies is like puzzle piece, right?
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: You're taking the pieces, and especially when you're shooting out of order and you're trying to, like, okay, get here, I got this here, got to put over here.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I was going through the script and I was going through the weapons of Mark, how he goes and gets the crowbar, then he goes to get the axe and get it.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, okay, what did I shoot?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: What did I need to get?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: What there was a piece, blah, blah.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I had like a diagram of like the weapons and the geography of where he was.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: And Ron comes by and he's like, Oh, good.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to talk to you.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: And he opens his thing and he had the same thing of like the weapons and where he was and what he was thinking.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, This is awesome, man.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: We're just all on the same page, trying, you know, and that was just about picking up the weapons and stuff.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_03: It was his intent of the weapons and where it was.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_03: So that really comes to memory for sure.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Nice working with Don, the idea, you know, we shot that whole Santa Bar stuff, and then we were gonna go out.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_03: I did another thing with the other bouncer, Newton, which was fantastic, and then going there, and we were supposed to shoot outdoors, but it was already nighttime.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, I had to figure out if I'm gonna pick the outdoor shot, have Don be there.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, no, it's dressed like Charlie dressed, had the elevator dressed and things like that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, okay, let's do it there.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then it's like, all right, we're running out of time because that bar took a lot of time.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, how do I cover this scene and still make it interesting and everything?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: And Don was fantastic because we were up to improv and it was like, okay, we were still here.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then when I've got the camera up, it's like, nope, I need it over here, no problem.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: They move, the actors move.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like I said, Donald said, I want to get the wallet, so it's like, okay, my DP and I were like, all right, how are we gonna make sure we get that that wallet in that one move?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_03: And just just working on that.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: And that's the exciting part of making movies, especially the indie movies, is like when you get pressed up at the wall, some the studios, you know, they just throw money at things, and that doesn't mean necessarily make it better, you know.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: No, you got to be creative and really think about how do I pull this off?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: The fight scenes, people were worried, like, okay, the stunts are gonna be there, but how am I gonna do Beverly and so it's like, well, I'm gonna do this point of view fight scene.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: The idea always, like we talk about three o'clock high and stuff, the camera's its own character.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: So when we whip over, we do a whoosh in the sound effects, right?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_03: In the mix, because I want people to be aware of the camera because it is kind of like Looney Tunes, it's like it's everywhere and it's its own character.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: So those are the things that was just fun to do on a movie like this, you know.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you especially feel that with Rob Riggle, I think.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: His owl mouth Santa is a great counterweight to the Kringles.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Why you thought of him for Santa Claus character-wise, he fits, but like it wouldn't have been my first thought, but then he's so perfect.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: But maybe how you approach the scenes with him.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was great.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: Tom and Andrew worked with Rob on a movie called Nichols, and they brought him up to me, and I'm like, oh my god, he's perfect, you know.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: So we got in the script, he liked it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: I had a meeting with him, it went great.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, he's the Marine, so he has a physicality, and he's got, of course, the comedy chops.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: He was on SNL and Daily Show, and he's got so many movies, 21 Jump Street.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, so much great stuff.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew he was gonna be right.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, I'm gonna grow out my beard.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: I remember talking to him in the December, and he's like, I'm gonna grow out my beard.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, man, this is great.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: He's committing.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: And we really just saw it, we had fun with it.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: And there were some things in the script that were a little more one liners at times.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: He wanted to make it more like, hey, it's about the family.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to say, like, you know, go get your family, stuff like that.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, cool.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you wouldn't think you think, oh, he's always just throwing one-liners and jokes.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: But no.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I think Rob is definitely wanting to do a little more serious work.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like drunk Santa is like that perfect thing of got the comedy, it's got the physicality, but it's also got heart, you know, especially that ending, you know, the freezer and that ending scene out there.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_03: He's like the magic.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, let's segue into distribution.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Distribution kind of comes together.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: We can speak to that.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just curious, is it normal or was it always a strategy to release this Christmas-themed horror comedy movie at Halloween?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is that a trend now that I don't know about?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: It's interesting because we talked about having it come out Black Friday.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, as an indie movie, you're up against these giants, man, with these studio movies.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: So let's just talk about Christmas, right?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: So let's release this movie during Christmas.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we all know we got Marvel Doomsday and Dune 3.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: Like, are you kidding me?
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: That's suicide.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you I don't care how great your movie is, you're gonna get slaughtered.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: So the idea is, okay, you know, well, let's go like we talked about, you know, Black Friday.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like, well, okay, so you got Quentin Tarantino, Derek, David Fincher, Brad Pitt coming out.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_03: There's just things like it's just smart not to do.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_03: And even though, you know, we have Clayface coming, which looks cool and stuff, I think it's a different little audience than ours.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: But I feel like Halloween and Christmas, it's funny because some people are like, I don't want to get my Christmas yet.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: I still in my Halloween mode.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, really?
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: Would you turn on your TV to see Lowe's and Home Depot?
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: They got the animatronic Christmas stuff right right now, man.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_03: They're pushing it target.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like every year it gets like encroaches.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's how crazy things are.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I don't know.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: I just feel that this movie, it's a fun movie regardless.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's definitely a Halloween movie, it's definitely a Christmas movie, you know.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I think hopefully it's a movie that people are gonna rewatch during the holidays and just have fun with it, you know.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's another bad Santa, like it's coming back, like people are gonna watch it for sure.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_04: The theory is to get the horror fans for Halloween, because it comes out October 30th.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then they everyone finds out about it, and then you get the Christmas fans to watch it during Christmas.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_04: So they stream they'll be streaming by then.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's uh that's the hook.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's the answer right there.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Good job.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and Briar Briarcliffe's wonderful at this.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_03: This is what they do, and so I take the lead on something like this.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: So with Tom Ordenberg's saying we need to put this out then, it's like I'm not gonna argue, you know.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, right.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I literally, it was at the rap party when we finished it, where he stuck told me he's like thinking about October 30th, and I was like, gulp, you know, because I was just still cutting this thing, man.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know what's beautiful about this movie though?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: It was all hands on deck, and I got my composer that I worked with that I can trust, M Wah did Willie's, I got my editor who's cut my movies, sugar is the post-production.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: We got everybody that we can trust, and we told them like this is the date.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you want to do this job, this is what we're doing.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_03: And they were like, all in, and everybody gave 110%.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: They gave me more mixing days than my other films on this, more days to color grade.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_03: It's been a really wonderful experience.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody has been full of joy, you know, working on Kringles.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: Don, you mentioned uh seeing it at a festival, and when you were watching it with a crowd, I was curious if you, Don, or even Kevin too, were there any laughs or scares that surprised you, you know, after watching it so many times that with an audience came out?
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_04: I think that comedy is the hardest movie to make, and maybe that's coming from my stand-up comedy background, knowing how hard it is to make an audience laugh for 45 minutes or you know, whatever I'm getting paid 600 bucks to do.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: Getting an audience to laugh and knowing when to pause so that you don't you get as much laughs as you can, but then you don't interrupt it, but then also you don't wait too long where it's awkward silence in the middle of it.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: So comedy is the hardest kind of movie to make because you don't know if Kevin's editing it to where someone's gonna come in over over laughter and no one's gonna hear that line, or or there's too much of a pause waiting for a laugh and no one's laughing, and then it's just weird.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: But it was just a great blend, and Kevin just kind of nailed it because the audience was perfect, they laughed.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I was surprised that as a comedian, also just how laughing out loud the audience would laugh out loud at certain things, you know, that I noticed the laughter the m the most, maybe because I was caught up in the movie.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: But when they were the neighbors introduced themselves for the first time, I think we spoke about that scene earlier, but I just noticed maybe because it was the first of the movie, and but how people laughed out loud around me uh so hard at that.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: That surprised me.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't really the laughter, but yeah, yeah.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_04: But laughing out loud, you know, at a movie, don't see that a lot anymore, to be honest.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: There's not a lot of comedies out there, you guys.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_03: That you there used to be, you know, some great, you know, and they just don't make them anymore.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I don't know if it's like you know, people don't want to get offended or you know, things like that.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: But to me, humor is offensive, you know, if it makes you uncomfortable.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: George Carlin's one of my favorite comedians.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: I I saw him twice live, man, and he's just I imagine what he would think today, you know, what's going on.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_03: For me, it's like you have to push buttons, it does make you uncomfortable.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: The Kringles are crazy.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody knows it when they're watching it.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: But what's interesting is you have a thing where like Mark, he's kind of saying what we would all like to say to, you know, but we don't, you know.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: So if our my neighbor's a crazy neighbor, I'm just like, uh-huh, you know, whatever.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_03: But I'd like to tell him your parents are batshit crazy, like he says to the kids.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this sounds like an incredible experience.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so do you guys see it as a sequel, or do you have something else that you're equally excited by, the next project, or or what's coming up?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_03: Don has a lot of projects going for me too.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I would love a sequel.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_03: I've got some, I think, some pretty cool ideas.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: I talked to the writer today about some stuff, like God, fingers crossed, you know.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I know it's the movie gods have to shine, shine very nice upon thee, you know.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we're kind of waiting to see if people dig the movie as much as we had a good time making it.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it'd be great.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's a lot of stuff we could do in the in the Kringles universe, um, for sure.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's definitely a it could be a franchise there if it takes off and a lot of you know product stuff, like little characters of all the people that ran out and all kinds of fun stuff to be done.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, so yeah, I have a comedy coming out, Mandate with John Lovett to myself, and unlike Kevin, we focus grouped it five times because they get because you know, just we're holding too long for laughs sometimes, and then sometimes uh we weren't holding long enough because Chris Catan's in it, and basically everything he says, everybody laughs.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_04: Oh wow so we had to adjust adjust for the Chris Catan factor.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah, that's coming out.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_04: But we have a lot of fun stuff slated, and I really would like to see.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'm excited for Kringles, and I hope audiences take it in and uh they go to the theater during Halloween and then stream it on Christmas, and it does really well so that we can do more.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_04: And uh I know Kevin and I want to do some more stuff together, and obviously anything Tom calls me about, I'm gonna say yes just from his.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a big fan of his career.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_04: Tom doesn't go out much, he's a producer, so uh I was laughing because Carrie, who you guys may have met, that that helps me out with stuff, she sent me a picture that Getty Images took, and it had me and Tom Wartenberg on the red carpet, and it said Tom Whirley and Don Whirley attend the Christmas at the screen.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's a part of the family now.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_04: I was gonna sit at the Tom and go, We're brothers.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: It's hilarious.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's just so funny because he's like, in my opinion, one of the biggest people in Hollywood with four Oscars around him and Getty him and just got his name wrong.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's hilarious.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: You can happen to him, it can happen to anybody.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_02: So Kevin and Don, there's a section now we're gonna do called Quick Cuts, and it's 10 rapid fire questions.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: Don't overthink them.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: We'll ask the question, ask, and then Kevin, then Don can answer.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about the film, it's about the theatrical going experience in general.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: All right, here we go.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Popcorn or candy?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: Popcorn, popcorn, butter or no butter.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: Butter, no butter, aisle seat or center seat.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: Center for the filmmaker in me, aisle for the family guy in me, because the kids are always leaving.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I'll talk about aisle.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Good answer.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_03: How about you, Don?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_03: Isle for the claustro in me.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: And how many trailers do you like to see before a movie?
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: I love trailers.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_03: When I was a kid, I would always say coming to a theater near you.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_03: I was the trailers are a huge part of the experience.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_03: So as many as they as they can show, not commercials, but trailers.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: How about you, Don?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_04: How many is too many?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_04: I like good ones.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_04: A funny story that you can it doesn't answer, it's not part of this podcast, so if you want to edit it out, you can.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_04: But I'm in this little movie, horror movie, just for a few minutes.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_04: I die, you know, I'm in there for three minutes and die.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_04: But I went to see it last night because it's in limited release theater in Houston, and I go sit down to watch the horror movie that I'm in.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: And here comes the trailer of Christmas at the Kringles.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, wow.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, Don.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_04: No, everybody that was in there to see that horror movie saw that, so maybe they'll go watch go watch that movie.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_04: So that was that was fun.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_04: What's the horror movie?
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_04: You can't leave.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: You can't leave.
• 31:31
  unknown: Okay.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Matt and A or late night screening.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_03: Oh man.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: Again, filmmaker and me is midnight all the way, but the dad and me with the kids, Matt Nay.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: Matt and I because I can skip work.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Kevin, is there a uh favorite movie theater of yours either growing up or today?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I worked at a movie theater growing up in Denver.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_03: It was called the Continental Movie Theater.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_03: They just bulldozed it uh last year, and that's why I saw the Star Wars movies, and I was an usher there.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um, they had 70 millimeter diehard and all that.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_03: So I would say Continental comes to mind.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_04: Mine is, you know, I guess just from second chance coming back, like we talked about, Man's Chinese theater is still my favorite just because of the history, and that I loved having the premiere there.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I've had every movie premiere that I've been in control of at man's just because the history of it, and that's awesome.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was the first movie you remember seeing in a theater?
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_03: I have to say the original Star Wars, I was six years old.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: That was it's funny because you know that movie it was like, and God created Star Wars, right?
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: Like I didn't see any mechanics behind it or whatever.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_03: And then Raiders of Lost Ark was the first movie where I was like, oh, the director does shooting, cutting, music, all that stuff.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_03: I started seeing like that's a filmmaker behind it, you know.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, because Evil Dead, like I said, what you could do with a camera.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_03: So but yeah, Star Wars, New Hope original.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_04: How about you, Don?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_04: Same for me, 1977, Star Wars.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: But I'll tell you the most memorable at that age was my sister bought me a ticket to a rated R movie so I could sneak in.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_04: You know, wanting to wanting to see things that a young teenager shouldn't be able to see, it ended up it ended up being first blood.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh wow.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: So good.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: Still one of my favorite movies ever.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I just remember that movie because I snuck into a rated R movie not knowing anything about it.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_04: And right here, I got it.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, so good.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_02: And so this next question might be the same answer, but what's the movie you've seen the most times in a theater?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_03: Raiders Lost Ark.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen that 50.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: I just love that movie.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_04: So good.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_04: How about you, Don?
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_04: In a theater?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_04: Had to be Star Wars because that was the only way to see it.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's right.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_04: Had to be Star Wars in a theater, but not the one I was.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: Our first blood.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: You kept getting it back in that rated R movie.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_04: I have seen First Blood probably more times.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that and the hangover and uh uh Dumb and Dumber, I've probably seen more than any other movie.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: All good.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, what was the last movie you saw in a theater?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Besides this one.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: I took my kids to see Street Fighter Sunday.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, yeah.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_04: Mine was a horror movie I saw last night, uh You Can't Leave, that I'm in briefly.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_04: So that was the last one I saw.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to see that.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_04: Is that out?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Can we see that?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's in theaters right now.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, okay.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna check out.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of uh Hangover, Rob Riggle was in that and then Kevin's thumbs up or thumbs down on Street Fighter.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you like the game, it definitely has the heart of the game with the characters and everything.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_03: The ending I was disappointed in, honestly, my kids, my three boys loved it, so I'm like, I'm not gonna be a Scrooge.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, I loved it because the dad in you gives it a thumbs up, yeah.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_03: And we know, like Don, like we all know, like it's hard to make a movie.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: I know that's a studio movie and there's a lot of money, but it's still hard to make films, man.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: They're not easy.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_03: So they always say the first rule of thumb is make the movie, the second rule of thumb is make a good movie, right?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, like even Don was saying, like, you know, you could be working on a film and everybody's having a great time, but at the end of the day, it's like we don't know how it's gonna be, you know, a lot of things that go into it with editing, right?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_03: And stuff like you have the script, and then you rewrite the script when you shoot the movie, and then you re-rewrite that when you cut it, you know, and you can enhance it or you can destroy it in a way.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, there's just a lot of ways, like landmines on the way to making a film.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_04: Every step of the way.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you can't you make a you can make a bad movie from a good script, but you can't make a good movie from a bad script.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: So it starts there.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it starts there, but then like Kevin said, the director makes a big difference, but also the editor.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_04: I have a little movie, it's just me, the whole movie, a contained thriller called A Time for Sunset that's streaming now, and the editor turned it into a movie.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_04: The editor, he actually was nominated for an Emmy, I think his he does a lot of television, but uh he basically, yeah, the editor created magic and made it a watchable movie.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, it takes the script, the director, and the editor, all three, to make a great movie for sure.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: Not to take away from Kevin and what he does, but you need all three of those parts.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you need the you need the writer, Zach, the editor Ryan, right?
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, Ryan.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's great.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_04: You need all those moving parts, and of course, actors like me.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, you need actors uh and producers.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: You can't make it without the producers, but the critical parts of making a good movie is the writer, the director, and the editor.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: So now we're it's time for what we call the final cut, which just means it's the last question.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: And that is if there's one lesson we should take away from Christmas at the Kringles, is it that Christmas brings out the best in people?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: Or that we should be extremely suspicious of anyone who loves it this much?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's a great question.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, Christmas brings the best out of people, you know.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: All right.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, at the end of the day, this movie's really about being present with what you have and not looking towards the future and we don't worry about that.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's like being content for look around you with your loved ones and whatever and what you have, and be in the moment because time is going so fast, you know, and that's the whole thing Mark realized at the end.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_03: It's like be in the moment, be present.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: I give the opposite answer.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: I'm suspicious of anyone who loves any holiday too much.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_04: Good.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'll let you be the Scrooge, Don.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I'm saying.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_04: There must be something missing from your life if you love Thanksgiving this much or Halloween that much, or Christmas this much.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: You're obsessed by it, but you know, I'm just kidding.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no doubt.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Kevin and Don, thanks so much for joining us, and thanks for taking us behind Christmas at the Kringles.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, I had a great time, guys.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_04: And thanks for doing this.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: Uh thanks for promoting indie movies too, by the way.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Kevin and Don, where can people see Christmas at the Kringles?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_03: Coming to a theater near you October 30th, you know, AMC Regals.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_04: I will say a plug for AMC because they're very indie film friendly.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing against any of the other theater chains.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: Love you, go to you.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_04: But if you can support if there's an AMC close to you and you can support them and you're in the indie movies, that should be your choice because they're very, very supportive of indie movies.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_04: They even started the distribution company for indie movies themselves.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, thank you guys.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was a pleasure having you both on, and the best of luck with the film.