Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 430: Shooting Sharks in Your Living Room: The Art of DIY Filmmaking with Ron Bonk

Transcript

BPS 430: Shooting Sharks in Your Living Room: The Art of DIY Filmmaking with Ron Bonk · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the IFH podcast Network.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: ifahpodcastnetwork dot com.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four thirty.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: The greatest lesson about filmmaking is to never take no
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for an answer, especially if you have a lot of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: passion and inspiration to do something. David o' russell broadcasting
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: from a dark, windowless.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Room in Hollywood when we really should be working on
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you how
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: is sponsored by Bulletproof script Coverage.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: on the con of project you are and the goals
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: of the project you are, So we actually break it
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market and
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: studio film. There's no reason to get coverage from a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: reader that's used to reading temp pole movies when your
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: movie is going to be done for one hundred thousand dollars,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: and we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof Script Coverage,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, WME, NBC, HBO, Disney,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot Com.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: My next guest is a filmmaker and founder and the
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: head of the distributor SRS Cinema. His latest film, How Shark,
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: is an Amazon prom prime right now, Yes, I said
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: How Shark with guest Ron Bank.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: You know, I grew up liking making up stories and
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: knack them out with friends. Didn't have a you know,
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: a film camera or video cameras before you know, video
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: before camp quarterers really came along. And I had always thought,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: you know, like that would be the dream to direct movies,
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: but didn't really take it serious. You don't think it
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: was feasible basically, so, you know, went off to school
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: for a variety of other things, but after doing it,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: for a while, long story short, decided that hey, you know,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I took the wrong route. The thing I wanted to
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: do was to make movies. Meanwhile, though I had already
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: you know, I had a bunch of years in college,
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: you know, didn't want to continue in college, wanted to
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: you know, I didn't want to accumulate any more debt,
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: and so started looking into what, you know, how I
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: could do this, and in the process of being self trained,
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: you know, I was learning about film and how expensive
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: it was to make a movie and it's looking at
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: a minimum of like one hundred thousand dollars to you know,
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: to shoot anything on film, according to like the best
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: you know sources, which obviously it has been done for cheaper,
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: but that's what I was, you know, hearing, you know,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: pretty much caught across the board at the time, and
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: then eventually came across the idea of shooting at you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: cam quarters, which would become more prevalent. And they were
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: still pretty expensive and you know, not as user friendly,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: you know, as they would they would come to be,
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: but they you know, I think of the first one
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: I got was twenty five hundred and thirty five hundred dollars.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: It was as PHS Cam quarter. I mean it's really
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: it was a solid machine, did a good job, but
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: it you know, created an option for me. Maybe it
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: wasn't that much. He's just been so long. Maybe it
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: was like twenty to fifteen hundred, But anyway, I got
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: that and started making the movies on video, and you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: proceeded from there. I've only shod a little bit of
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: stuff on film. Everything that was released was a little
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: bit in my college, you know, and in my college
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: years when I decided to become a filmmaker, I took
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: a few film classes, but for the most part, uh,
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: you know, went from the analog video to digital nowadays,
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: shooting on HD for She Kills in four K for
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: House Shark.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: So when you were in college, Ron, you know, did
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: did you actually try to film on campus at all?
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: Like did you try to like grab any any of
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: the equipment from like the av studio or anything, just
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: try to film anything there?
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: No, what it happened is I had I mean I
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: guess a little bit what I had shot or I'd
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: been to school for four years and have been had
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: an associates in accounting. I was working on a criminal
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: justice degree when I decided to switch over to film,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: so I for I went to a fifth year of school.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: But it was just like the unit a college. They
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: had a TV and uh well basically TV classes there,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: so uh, you know, we were I was using their
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: camp quarters and their VCRs. You know, they had like
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: high end decks. Might have been shooting on some beta
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: camp for the TV stuff, you know, like the studio stuff.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: But you know, I was able to borrow their camp
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: quarter to shoot on vhs off campus. But I also
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: took there. That was a Monroe Community College in Rochester,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: but at Brockport nearby. I took a single film class
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: each semester, and we were shooting on film for that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: So they had Bowlex sixty milimeter camera that we can borrow.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: But the two things I shot on film, they both
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: I think I shot them almost exclusive within the apartments
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: I was renting at the time. So and then the
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: stuff I shot with video. I remember doing some exterior
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: stuff of like the apartments you know I was renting,
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: you know, run that I think a different one each
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: each semester. No, maybe it was one over both semesters.
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: But now I didn't really get down into the school
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: unless you know, there was stuff we were doing for
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: the TV classes around the school, so it was a
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: very short period. Didn't really do a lot there. I
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: mean I really didn't get out there with a camp
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: quarder until I was out of school, uh, you know,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: working full time and the antique business and had invested
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: in the camp Corrider and I shot like an instructional
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: video first, was down in Florida for half the year,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: and then once I got back, I shot my first feature.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: And that's when I really for the first time got
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: out and was being artistic with a camera, you know,
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: on a regular basis.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: So so Ron when you were made a change from
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: accounting and with a criminal justice background to to you know,
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: wanting to do wanting to just go into film. You
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: know where people like say what do they say that?
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Run your nuts?
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: Ers?
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: Or like you Ron, what the hell you're thinking?
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: More so back then, but nowadays not so much. I
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: mean there's still you know, for this area, there's still
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: people be surprised, but Syracuse has grown that the film
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: community has grown, and there's there's you know, it's not
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: that uncommon for there to be a sizable production in
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: the area. You know, a few times a year. So
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: if I say, you know, I make movies, you know,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: I produce and distribute features, I don't get like when
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I start off, I'd always get like, oh, pornos, you know,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: but like another they're logo tot you know, horror movies,
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: and a lot of people weren't educated or still aren't
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: even educated to the fact that you could shoot on
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: Assumer brand you know, VHS cameras and distribute those movies,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: you know, during the eighties, you know, late eighties and nineties.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: But nowadays, like I said, if I mention it, you know,
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: it's still true with surprise, you know, maybe a little
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: bit of skepticism, but most part it's it's more like
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: oh yeah, cool, and then I'll usually get a follow up,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: but like, are you're part of this production that they
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: might have read about recently, you know on an area
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: or something like that.
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: That's where you should say the hell, yeah I am,
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: you know, because like what I used to fill in
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: parts and stuff like that, Like people would still you know,
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: they see you with a camera whenever you and I'm
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: not talking about like a dsl R, but I'm talking
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: about like anything that looks like a camcorder, you know,
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: like a bigger variety of the camporders, whether it be
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: mini TV or digital. People associate that with like professional
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: grade cameras. As soon as they see that, it's like,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: oh my god, this this guy must know what he's doing.
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: But you know, when they're talking to me a little bit,
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: do they know that I'm a complete lunatic? So what happens?
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: So when I when I you know, when I'm out
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: filming stuff, we know, no matter what it was, people
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: would stop and they'd say, oh my god, you gott
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: are you filming some kind of movie? And I would
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: just say, oh, hell, yeah, I'm Micky, you know, no
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: matter what, you know what, I'm just like, yeah, I
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: mean why not?
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we just just to the h Yeah. You can
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: almost be like a chameleon, you know. He So I'll
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: adjust to whatever the setting is. So if i'm just
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: you know, say I'm meeting someone in a casual setting,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: I'll be more clear about what I do. But if
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I'm out at the park and someone seems interested, I
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: might be like, yeah, I'm shooting a movie, you know,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: or I'm shooting a documentary, or yes I am part
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: of this group, or or for you they can get
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: away with like, oh, it's a it's a college film,
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: you know, you know, if cops are interested, you know anything,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: so so yeah, you kind of It's kind of like,
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: you know, he's equated to the Edwarod movie when he
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: was trying to you know, get the church to you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: fund his production, and he would tell him whatever they
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: needed to to hear in order to get that money. Basically,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: tell people whatever you think they need to hear in
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: order to be able to keep shooting. You know.
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's so true. And you know that's one of
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: the benefits of being in college or just out of college.
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: You can always say, hey, I'm just shooting a student film,
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: and usually everyone's kind of cool with that, and like, oh,
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: now if you're a student, all right, we'll be a
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: little more lenient on you. What if you call location
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: up and you're like, hey, you're Almo, a senior in college.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: I need some help with this. You know, people are
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: you know a little more willing to help. You know,
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: you try to got it you.
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: Have to do.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: You should want to get away with that and use
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: that card as much as you can.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, I told my nephew's getting ready to he's
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: a finish champ his senior year, and he, uh, he's
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: getting ready to you know, he wants to gear up
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: and do his first feature. It's called blind Cop two
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: and there's no Blind Cop one. It's just called blind
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Cop two. And I told him to use that as
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: much as possible. And he was like, really, won't people like,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: you know, you guys being professional and stuff. And I
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: told him the same things that you know, you tell
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: people you're doing a college you know, your college to
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: making a college you know project or working on a
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: college show the assignment, and you know they're going to
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: be more forgiving, more, willing to work with you more,
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: you know, will and let you get away with more
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: as opposed to being like, no, this is a professional feature.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: Then suddenly you know it could change anything like oh, okay,
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: well how much you're going to pay me, you know,
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: to use my location or or whatever, you know.
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: And he also has to built an excuse to of
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: I don't know. So somebody goes, hey can't you can't
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: you can't be filming Blonde Cop two out here? And
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: he can go hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: just a student. So it's like it's such a great
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: get out of jail free card.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I definitely. It works with the you know
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: everywhere from like you said, building businesses to the police,
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: you know, like, hey, you got to permit, you know,
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: do a permission to go into there. Oh I thought
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: it was public area. I'm just a college student.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And then most of time, you know, you can get
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: away with it, so you can you can take that
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: risk and hope, you know, hey, I'm gonna you know,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give it a try and get in
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: out there as quick as I can and get some
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: cool production values.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly right. And then you can always say you're
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: shooting a documentary, so it's kind of like I'm just
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: shooting this documentary. But you know, when you were in
• 11:50
  Speaker 4: college and you were, you know, filming things in your
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: apartment and just using the locations you had, you know,
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: what point did you, you know, start to say, because
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: I know you you mentioned you were the antiquing business
• 11:58
  Speaker 4: and you kind of you know, bought the so what
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: point did you start really taking it seriously?
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: I mean I was taking it seriously. When I was,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: you know, in college, I hadn't yet determined that, you know,
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: that last year college, I hadn't yet determined that I
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: was going to start making movies on camp quarters. I
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: remember even talking to someone in college about shooting on
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: camp quarters, and they immediately you know, like a fellow student,
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: but they'd been taking it for a few more years.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: You know, they're actually in film class and there, oh no, no,
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: you can't shoot on camp quarters. So I pretty much
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: dismissed it. But I mean I was, you know, looking
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: at it, It's like, Okay, how can I go out
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: there and turn this into a living and also, uh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: you know, make the movies that I wanted to make,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: you know, because I could easily gone down the root
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: of you know, shooting pornos or shooting wedding videos every weekend,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: you know, and and both potentially I have a lot
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: of you know, like a good income in them. But
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: they weren't you know, some that was true to my heart.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: So I wanted that was like how can I turn
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: still living? And you know, initially it was I'm going
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: to make some so amazing that you know, Hollywood be
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: paying me to sit out in Syracuse, New York, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: make indie films that I wanted to, you know, with
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the stories I wanted to tell to, you know, reaching
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: the point after the first one was done, being like,
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: there's not really you know, any distributor I want to
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: give my movie to that I would trust that I
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: ever see another penny out. So I need to become
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: a distributor too, and release my own stuff. And and
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: that's how it's gone ever since. You know, I might
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: license out parts of the movies or or certain media rights,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: or do my own initial release and then a why
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: to release of someone else, But you know, I, you know,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: I still will make my movies and then do the
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: initial launch on my own. And lately with the last
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: couple of you know, pictures, the initial launch is at
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: least paid for the production, you know, if not more.
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: You mentioned, you know, people who like shoot wedding videos
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: every weekend. You know, I had a friend who used
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: to do that where he he would do it part time.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: He called it, you know, he would just go shoot
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: a couple of things on the weekend and he would
• 14:13
  Speaker 4: always be like, Hey, look I'm gonna make a movie
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: this and that, and he never ended. He ended up
• 14:17
  Speaker 4: where the wedding video gave ended up becoming his full
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: time job, and he you know, he was just go
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: every weekend he was shooting a new wedding and he
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: never actually made a movie. So it's very easy, it's
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: gonna be probably awarded that trap because it's very easy
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: to kind of get you know, sucked into that, you
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: know what I mean.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you can go right down that rabbit hole, and
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: it's hard to turn away from that kind of money.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: And the you know, the weddings are weekends. You know,
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: that's usually ideal time to shoot if you're doing low
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: budget you know features is you know, people have you
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: have the you know, usually you have weekends off. People
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: you want to work on the movies have weekends off,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: you know, So you know, unless you're gonna take you know, uh,
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: you know, three or four weeks stretch off from weddings
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: and just shoot a feature, and it seems like it's doable.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: It's like it's something should be possible if you really
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: want to make a feature. But it's like you know,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: having a job, you know and pay you know, regular
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: job and paying your bills every day, it's it's easy
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: to be like, well, I won't work on movies today
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: because I need to you know, all my bills aren't
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: paid this month, or I want to be able go
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: on vacation, or my kids need new clothes or whatever,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: you know. So it's it's it's easier said than done.
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, very true. And you know that. That's why,
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: you know, and I'm glad you didn't go that route.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: And I also, you know, I had an option to
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: go that route, and I was like, hell with that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: I've made many many mistakes in my life, ron, but
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: that's not one of them. Us. So, uh, you know,
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: just to sort of with you know, with your career,
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: you know, just starting back with like a City of
• 15:42
  Speaker 4: Vampires even to now you know, making you know, she
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: Kills and House Shark. You know, what are some of
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: the strategies that you've used, uh, you know, when you're
• 15:50
  Speaker 4: approaching about you know, not about you know, writing and
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: producing these films.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: There's strategies. Let me think, I mean, most of the
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: movies that I've made, I mean, primage, all of them,
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: you know, start off with an idea that I liked
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: for some reason, you know, within the story, and said, Okay,
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: you know, I'm gonna write this out and is is
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: you know. And There's been scripts that I've written that
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I've never made, and some I've always dreamed of maybe
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: didn't have the money. Some you know, I wrote and
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: just said, you know, you know I wasn't into or later,
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: you know, I plan to come back to and decide
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: I was no longer into or want to tell that story.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: But if I finished the script and I really was
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: happy with it, then I was like, Okay, this is
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the next thing I want to make, and then you
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: would go through the process of making. So there wasn't
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: necessarily I mean, nowadays sometimes i'd look for this strategy
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: as far as like the stuff I produce, where I'll go, Okay,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: if I'm gonna put money into this, I want it
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: to sell, you know. So if it's a movie I'm
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: producing from afar, then you know there has to there
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: has to be more of a finance basis behind it.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: If it's a movie I make for myself, then it's
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: more of like, hey, this is the story I want
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: to tell and I don't care if it fits financially
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: into anything. And and you know, you're lucky when that
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: stuff crossed over. It doesn't always, but you know, sometimes
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: you just rely on a movie to you know, hopefully
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: come out extra cool and it builds its own fan
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: base and and does recently well generates you know, at
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: least a modest profit. And I've been lucky with you know,
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: the last two She Kills a house Shark that they
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: both were able to do that, you know, she kills
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: with a grindhouse movie, you know, when there had already
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: been a lot of grindhouse type movies out there, so
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: the market was pretty saturated. I'd made it a few
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: years earlier, it would have had a lot more potential,
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: you know, it would have been a bigger release than
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: it was. But it's still you know, people responded to
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: it well. I had people were at fans of my
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: world for years, but this was something vastly different than
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: I'd done before. But they you know, you know, the
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: fans spread, you know, good words about it, and you know,
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: continues to sell and continues to build and was able
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: to you know, recoup before I went even into the
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: wide release. And howse shark. People loved the idea and
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: they happen to be the most marketable idea that I
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: had come up with. But I'd always wanted to do
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: a JAS movie. So I wasn't doing it because I
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: was like, oh, you know, this is gonna be a
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: big money maker. I was doing it because it was just,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: you know, it was a story I wanted to tell.
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: And it was definitely, you know, the most expensive movie
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: that I directed myself. And I was lucky that the
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: campaign basically made enough money back to cover the cost
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: of making it, and then thanks to some outside sales,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: I was able to cover the cost of running all
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: the media. Because people don't realize that you do, like
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: an Indigogo campaign, yeah you might make say you got
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: twenty I had like twenty one thousand house share, and
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: we did like twenty two thousand, so you know, with
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: all their fees and stuff, Yeah, the production was paid for,
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: but then it was like another ten grand. I think
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: it was actually twelve grand. And all the stuff that
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: had to be made for the campaign we end up
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: doing you know, full printed Blu rays and DVDs, you know,
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: fully replicated vhs and all these extras that I kept
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: adding to stretch goals, like stickers and pins and patches
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: and stuff like that. And you know, once I got
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: all that done, stuff done, the extra you know sales
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: I had were like, okay, I'm pretty much back to even.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: So whatever it didn't sell from the campaign, I keep
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: selling this bonus money. And that was lucky enough to
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: get it like into Walmart and stuff and have it
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: do well and wide release. But I mean it came
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: out in August of last year, and just a few
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: weeks ago I actually got my first check from the
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: wide release, so I've had like this modest profit from
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: but then I finally got the first check from like
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: the Walmart deal and all the other sales around there.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: Because all the money cost to release it and all
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: the money to get into Walmart and stuff like that.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: Basically ate up all my profits, you know, for like
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: half a year that I had come and you know,
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: in distribution, so I was living off, you know, all
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: the limited releases I do and all the stuff I
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: do direct with fans and any additional house Sharrek sales
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: and the other movies that I made and stuff like that.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: And then to finally see and so much it was
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: eating up. It was still worth it overall, but it's
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: it's just kind of diverged from your strategy question quite
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: a bit, but that's kind of where it starts. To
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: start with that initial strategy of of you know, the
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: twofold approach. Is a movie I'm making for myself, then
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: I'm not worried about making something that sells as much,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: but I still try to make sure it'll sell. You know,
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: I don't want to lose, you know, like if how
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: share it cost me twenty one thousand and I want
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: to lose twenty one thousand on and I was a
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: matter of fact, I was sweating. So it was great
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: to get all that money back and have a successful
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: Indiegogo campaign pretty quick there. But if it's a movie
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: that I'm producing, uh, you know, strictly as a producer
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: to put money into it, letting a filmmaker and you know,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: to reach his own vision and bring his own vision
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: to life with some you know, financial for me, then
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I go, okay, but this has to be something that
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: sells for me. If I'm going you know, it's almost
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: guaranteed to be a good seller if I'm going to
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: put money into it.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I've actually done a few inegog campaigns myself,
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: and you know I did it, you know, before it
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: became like a thing, like it became like the word kickstarter,
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: crowdfunding became, you know, part of the lexicon. And basically
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: I always told people like, you know, you know, once
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: you start, you know, making the perks, you know that
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: are part of your campaign, you know, you're starting to
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: realizing this is a big you have to kind of
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: add that in forehand. You know, you have to actually
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: start to calculate up all those numbers and add them
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: into the budget. Uh, and then what you have, you know,
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: what you need, what you really need, all that all
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: that good stuff, and uh, you know that that's something
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: that you know. I'm glad you brought that up because
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: it's always a good reminder, you know about that that
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: that stuff, because it's so easy to forget. You know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: you're you're focused on making a movie and you're like, oh, ship,
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: now I gotta you know, but see, Ron, that's where
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: your accounting degree comes in handy.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: Sure it does. It does help a little bit. You know,
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: it's been it's been a long time since uh, you know,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: have taken accounting classes. But you know, coming out of
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: uh you know, coming out of those and going almost
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: right into business you know, for myself immediately, U it helped.
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: It made it easier for me to do at least
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: my own bookkeeping. I won't do my own taxes, you
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: I'll let professional account and handle that because they're they're
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: up to date on the the tax laws and all
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: that sort of stuff. But it does help, you know,
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: with the with the book keeping and going okay, is
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: this something I can apply to the business and how
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: should it be applied?
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: That's true on it and if they can get al capone.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: They can get anybody true exactly.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: So you mentioned, you know, some of the grindhouse movies,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: and you mentioned the you know, some of the oversaturation
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: of the market, and you know sometimes you know, maybe
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: the market's a little sugar saturator, what have you. You know,
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: what are some of the grindhouse movies that you saw
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: maybe when you were releasing you know, she Kills that
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: you were kind of like, you know, maybe there's too
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: many out there, because I mean, I remember when HBO
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: with a Shotgun came out. I was, you know, maybe Matchette,
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: you know, I'm really glad to see movies like that.
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: By the way, get like a wider release. I don't
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: know how many like, you know, kind of clones of
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: those that came out. But did you start to see
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: like a lot of movies sort of you know in
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: the space of where you were like or we're going,
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: you know, in the Walmart space.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: Well, I didn't expect She Kills Again to Walmart, and
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: I didn't necessarily see too many of the grindhouse movies
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: in the Walmart stores. But I think when I was
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: really since She Kills Machete Kills had come out around
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: the same time and hand and done really well at
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: the box office. But I mean, I'd seen so many
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: low budget movies at least using that look, even if
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: they didn't really have the you know, the the They
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: didn't they weren't really trying to be grindhouse movies, but
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: they liked that looks, so they'd all the grain and
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: scratch and stuff like that, but weren't really capturing the
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: spirit of those movies. And then I had also noticed
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: a lot of movies that were trying to be grandhouse
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: movies were really more like eighties you know, horror movies
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: or action movies, using like a seventies grindhouse look by
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: adding again like scratches and grains and stuff, and that's
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: not really what the grindhouse movies looked like. They were
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: very unpolished. But I mean what movies. I mean, you
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: mentioned Hopot a Shotgun. It was a good example, you know,
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: but that was a movie that was had done really well.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: Father's Day was another one that had that grindhouse look
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: or at least aesthetic that people were associating with it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 3: But outside of those and trying to think, what are
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: the ones I saw before for that, I don't remember
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: the low budget titles. I just remember seeing that look
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: so much. I don't know if that really helped, that
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: really answered your question.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, you brought up some of the what
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: what I've seen a lot of recently is they're kind
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: of like to throwback to the eighties.
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 25:16
  Speaker 4: I love the eighties, you know, I love the eighties
• 25:19
  Speaker 4: horror and you know, I love all that stuff. But
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: now I think there's so many attempts by filmmakers nowadays
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: to make something look like the eighties. You're starting to
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: get this kind of oversaturation in the market, you know
• 25:30
  Speaker 4: what I mean. And I think we kind of capped
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: out as stranger things and I think, you know what
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, I kind of think now it's starting to
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: get a little uh I want to say repetitious, So it.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: Could be on its way out for sure. I mean
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: I've noticed that. I think I saw, like my first
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: startup on like nineties horror, you know, we're gaining, you know,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: in popularity. The thing with the eighties horror, though, is
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: it's one of the most i think iconic decades for horror.
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: So if you make a cool horror movie that has
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: you know, awesome you know or uh horror practical FX
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: in a you know, cool monster carries that just sort
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: of the vibe. You don't have to necessarily be like, hey,
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: let me throw you know, like nods to video games
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: or uh, you know, our video arcades or the clothing
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: or whatever, you know, into that. But you could still
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of great horror movies that capture the
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: eighties vibe without you know, looking like they were made
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: in the eighties. So I mean, I think that's something
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: that could never you know, get old if it's if
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: it's done right. But but overdoing the nostalgia can certainly
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: you know, burn itself out on any you know before
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: the eighties and seventies you know movies, not just the Grindhouse.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: But you know, seventies horror in general was uh, you know,
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: it was the hot topic, you know, and then I see, uh,
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: it was a little more prevalent a year or so go,
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: but it still comes up. People were shooting movies on
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: camp quarters, old camp quarters to kind of capture that
• 27:07
  Speaker 3: nineties you know, shot them video feel for their movies,
• 27:13
  Speaker 3: and it's amazing you could shoot on a you know,
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: an old camp quarter and you know and come pretty
• 27:18
  Speaker 3: close with just that alone take capturing that sort of vibe.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: But it's all revolving. You know, there'll be another you know,
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: five ten years with people you know in low budget
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: and then eventually moving up to big budget doing nods
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: to two thousand horror movies, and then you know, the
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: twenty ten horror movies, and then it'll come back to
• 27:39
  Speaker 3: the seventies again. Or you know, it's just these fads
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: and rages hit and sometimes it's you know, based on
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: the current status of the world or the country. It
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: could be politically motivated, it could be could be anything.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: You know, if we're facing war, you know, we're facing
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: climate change, you might see more and more horror movies
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: about that, you know, But they're you got the seventies
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: or eighties or nineties, you know, setting to them.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, very And I think you're gonna sur seeing
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: a lot of horror movies come out just about the
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: political climate. And I'm not saying that like any particular party.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying. What I'm saying is the kind of
• 28:23
  Speaker 4: divers uh how diversive diverse? No, wait, how divisive the
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: nation is right now? You know how that That's what
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I'm trying to say, you know what i mean, just
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: trying you know that that I think is going to be,
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: which is why I think when the first Purge came out,
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: I think that was you want to talk about, you know,
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: wish fulfillment. I think a lot of people, you know,
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: not that they would, but maybe maybe they kind of
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: wish they could, you know, one night, we just kill anybody,
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: It's an extension. It's possible, you know, I mean, when
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: you're when you're director, actor, or you're working in the
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: creative field. I think he had to be a little
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: bit crazy. But I think a lot of horror filmmakers
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: are more closer to activists, you know, than anything. There
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: a lot of times they're trying to make a statement
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: against you know, these things that anger them, you know,
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: lack of gun control and mass shootings, you know, the
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: Trump government, the the worries over climate control, you know,
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: the the abandonment of the arms treaty with Russia, you know,
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: raising the risk of you know, potential war again. And uh,
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: you know, we used to have the nuclear war used
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: to hang over you know, I grew up in the seventies,
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: you know and into the eighties, and and the threat
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: of nuclear war was always there, you know. And and
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: that's you know, people, a lot of young people, they
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: don't realize like how heavily they hungover society. So yeah,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: and you're seeing it in this you know, like the
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Jordan Peel you horror movies.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: You know, uh, you know, addressing social issues, you know,
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: or back to the forefront. So yeah, it does it
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: does reflect that. I'm the movie Apostle I thought was
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: a really good movie. I hope I'm saying that right.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: I've heard other people pronounce it different. Looks like Apostle
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: to me. The one on Netflix, you know, addressed climate change,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: you know, so so yeah, people, Uh again, I think,
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: like I said, the horror horror filmmakers are are very
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: much trying to make a statement as much as they're
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: trying to tell you a story that you know is entertaining,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: it scares you or makes you laugh whatever. But in
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: the end, you know, a lot of them make you think, you.
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: Know, and I mean, and you did one that's a
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: very good, uh you know horror movie genre that to
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: to kind of put you know, political or cultural uh
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: you know, protests for exactly. And that's the you know,
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: the knowledge just horror in general, but also the zombie
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: genre of the sub genre sub genre of horror. And
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, if you look at Romero's you
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: know first three zombie films are all brilliant. Uh you know,
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: you did Empire, State of the Dead and and by
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: the way, I want to say, you know, this is
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: a great idea because I you know, I'm gonna be
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: one of those guys right now. Ron I had an ideal,
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: an idea years ago similar where you take a bunch
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: of different directors and you put them together, you know
• 31:28
  Speaker 4: what I mean, each one makes a segment. But I
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: think that's a brilliant idea man.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: To do something with that, you know, just yeah, we
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: should have done a little better, because I would have
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: done you know, like a United States of the Dead
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: start of a movie in the World of the Dead
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: or something, or you know, encourage more shorts from other filmmakers,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: and maybe one day I will. But I was, you know,
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: I was seeing so many people taking shorts and putting
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: together and the shorts didn't really have a common theme
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: among them, and just turning them into anthologies, and I thought,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: what have you know? We need you know, someone needs
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: to do this with a with a wrap around. And
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: I wasn't first movie you know, producer or director ever
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: to do that by any means I'm saying, you know,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: it was being done, you know, VHS. I think for
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: the most part, was trying to tie all the stories together.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: But I want these to have a very direct theme,
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: so when you put them all together, it felt like
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: you're watching one movie, not a movie by a bunch
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: of different filmmakers with a bunch of storylines. And when
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: they're each direction and felt I want each story to
• 32:24
  Speaker 3: kind of propel this the or each yea, each individual
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: short kind of propelled to propel the story forward. So
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: and then and then I saw what I had to
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: work with them. From there, I was like, Okay, what's
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: the wrap round story I can make? So game set
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: rules which basically, for the most part, folow the Romero
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: zombie rules set up, you know base it was happening
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: in the timeline. What they couldn't you know, go on
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: to explore like it was early on in the zombie Apocalypse,
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: that couldn't make it seem like it was like, you know,
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: deep into it or far end of it or whatever.
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: And from there I was like, and I had the
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: base idea I would do something like soldiers, you know,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: trying to keep border and using those as cutaways. And
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: and it was a harder one to uh think of
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: a you know, a theme for because I mean all
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: my movies do have like a subtext to them almost
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: you know, straight across the board. But this was a
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: harder one because I wasn't you know, it's only contributing
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: as you know, a small portion of the you know,
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: the full project, but just the idea of the you know,
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: the battle of the classes that would kind of emerge
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: between you know, the you know, basically the government and
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: the individual factions that would rise up, and you know,
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: we pretty much addressed one, but but they're one of
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: the other shorts kind of had you know, its own
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: like roving gang in it and uh uh you know
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: where this battle power might you know, might lead to
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: or or or evolve into.
• 33:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and uh yeah, you know. And that's a great
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: idea too, because you see some of the shorts that
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: really don't have anything you know that that kind of
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: ties everything together.
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the one short, the girl in the apartment,
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: you know, faced with the uh, the the the monumental
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: decision what to do with her sister who's died and
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: you know, was turning into a zombie, was very isolated.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: Even the one you know when they were taking refuge,
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: you know, basically in the in the room, uh and
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: find that the dead body in there. You know, very
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: very isolated, very you know, small, uh, you know, centered stories.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: You know, in many ways, those actually were a little
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: easier to plot out as opposed to the wider, you know,
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: expansive type of uh plots you know, some of the shorts.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: But uh, it gave it gave a wide guy, it
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: gave a wide range of of uh. Basically you know,
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: uh situations that the populace was facing in the in
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: the u uh in the face we'll facing a repeating
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: facing in the threat of this emerging zombie virus in
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: in society falling apart.
• 35:09
  Speaker 4: And you know when when you were released it, you know,
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: did have the type of interception that you were hoping for.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the reviews, for the most part, seem
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: to be positive. Uh, you know that there's all you know,
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: everyone who worked on it, you know, from the directors
• 35:24
  Speaker 3: down and you know, to the you know, the actors
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: and so forth, you know, all seemed to enjoy it.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: I was overall pretty happy with it. Uh, some of
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: the stuff with the shorts, you know, with the with
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: the wrap around stuff I was shooting. It doesn't always
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: come out the way you wanted to. You're you know,
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: tighten money, tight on time. I think that's the biggest one.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: Usually you're you're stuck, you're tight end time. So you
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: shoot it one weekend and something's not quite working right.
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: You don't have the option to go back and fix it.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: Kind of pretty much make the decision to fix it
• 35:52
  Speaker 3: on set and hope it comes out okay. So it
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: was it was. It was a fun project to do.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: I enjoyed it wasn't uh, you know, one of the
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: ones that was as you know, close to my heart
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: as the others. But I was pretty happy with it.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: And I'll usually start with that because I you know,
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: sometimes you know, the audience might not like it as
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: much as you did, but if you felt like you
• 36:15
  Speaker 3: told the story you wanted to tell, you know that.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: I'm still pretty satisfied with that, you know, so. But yeah,
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: I mean what, I've people like you who have told
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: me that they really enjoy it, and I'm always glad
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: to hear. You know, any movie that I've made resonates
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: with the fans. You know, my first movie, City the Emperors,
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: I still think it came out horrible, and it is
• 36:36
  Speaker 3: not just because it's not the movie that I wanted
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: to do, you know, because it's because I was falling
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: apart along the way. My first movie, first feature, you
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: try to take on way too much and lack the
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: skill to to shoot that movie right. But I'll still
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: get people who will tell me that they they love it,
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: and I'll I'll just look at it and be like,
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: I don't, I don't know what you love about it,
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: but I'm glad that you do, because you know, I
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: would feel bad that you went out there and bought
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: this movie and watched it and we're like, oh, it's
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: a piece of shit. You know, I'm happy to hear
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: that you went out and bought it. Hopefully you bought
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: it and watched it and got enjoyment out of it
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: and continue to get enjoyment out of it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Well yeah, I mean, and you're you know, you're very
• 37:21
  Speaker 4: welcome and for the you know everything, and it's just
• 37:24
  Speaker 4: you know, I have a friend of mine who made
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: a zombie film and it did not hit with a
• 37:28
  Speaker 4: zombie genre, and to him, I was like, dude, I
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: was like, that's that's your key demographic right there.
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: If you fail to get that, yeah, forget it. You're done.
• 37:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I think if you're gonna go something specific as
• 37:39
  Speaker 3: a zombie movie, then you do have to cater to
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: the fans. Now, you could, you could try to set
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: them off balance and go in a different direction they've
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: seen before, and usually most fans will appreciate that. But sometimes,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: you know, you gotta be careful. You know, there's there's limits,
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: and you know, but but anyone who goes out there
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: really tries to do something different with a genre or subgenre.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: I applaud them even if the fans didn't get it,
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: Even if I didn't like it personally, I always appreciate
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: that they at least try it, because at least it
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: gets you thinking about your own work, you know.
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, And I mean, you know, especially making something
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: like specifically a zombie film, you know, you have to
• 38:18
  Speaker 4: there is a specific expectation for audiences, and you know,
• 38:22
  Speaker 4: and that's true, you know, and that's why I think
• 38:25
  Speaker 4: they maybe missed. But but you know, it is what
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: it is.
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: But if you go out and make a zombie movie
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: with say no zombies and there are no you know,
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: brutal zombie killings, then yeah, you probably run the risk
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: of like, there's certain things you got to you gotta
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: put in there, you know. So if you don't do that,
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: then yeah, you run the big risk of your audience
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: just being like, oh that sucked. I love zombie movies
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: and you didn't have you know, one good zombie gutting
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: or something on it. You know, So yeah, I agree
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: with you there.
• 38:56
  Speaker 4: I had a friend, this is a true story. I
• 38:59
  Speaker 4: had a friend who it's a zombie film that had
• 39:01
  Speaker 4: no zombies in it, and I said, what is the.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: What's the idea of when what's the zombie angle of it? Then,
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: if there's no zombies in.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: It, you hear them, so they're outside, you kind of
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: hear them. They allude to them, but you never see one.
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: And I said, is there at least is a kill
• 39:18
  Speaker 4: anywhere he goes? No, there's no killing by the zombies.
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: And I'm like, I don't think anyone's gonna you know,
• 39:24
  Speaker 4: what I want to buy, But I don't think any
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: producer is gonna.
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: Be like, yeah, that's great.
• 39:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, maybe they'll save money on makeup, But I mean,
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: would they really want to invest in something like that.
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: I mean, so it was like a one location movie
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: with zombies like surrounding the place so you're hearing them stratched.
• 39:39
  Speaker 3: Maybe as a short or something. I mean, I could
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: see it being real spooky like a bird box, you know,
• 39:44
  Speaker 3: type of thing or something. But but but yeah, it's
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: a it's a it's a it's definitely a fine line.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if it would work.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: But but but I love the idea of you know, audience,
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: you know, filling in the blanks, and they've certainly seen
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: enough zombie movies that they could you know, they could
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: picture it. But yeah, that's a that's a fine line.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: You got to really be skilled if you're going to
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: pull that off and make it effective.
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's newest to say he never made it. I
• 40:24
  Speaker 4: think I think it was gonna be such a fine
• 40:27
  Speaker 4: line to walk. I I don't really. The only person
• 40:30
  Speaker 4: I think they could have pulled that off would have
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: probably been somebody like Georgia Merrow, because you know, he
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: went you know, full tilt the first three. Maybe he
• 40:37
  Speaker 4: made Land of the Dead. Maybe he you know, on
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: the rest of those, maybe that was the next evolution.
• 40:41
  Speaker 4: I don't know, but you know, I.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: Think I was gonna say, take like a hitchcock or something.
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: I think the ball that off because he you know,
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: it's you need you definitely need a master of You
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: need someone who's a master of not showing the monsters,
• 40:57
  Speaker 3: someone playing with you everything else sounds and and uh
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: uh and and having the audience filling you fill in
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: the blank, building up the suspense and tension, you know. Yeah, yeah, or.
• 41:10
  Speaker 4: Maybe even somebody like Christopher Nolan or something somebody like that,
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: just somebody to kind of yeah. So uh but but
• 41:16
  Speaker 4: you know, run, I just you know, said, I know
• 41:18
  Speaker 4: we're running out of time, but uh, you know the
• 41:20
  Speaker 4: one movie I wanted to talk about which actually got
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: us talking is is House Shark. Uh you know, I
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: saw the trailer was up to like, what is it
• 41:28
  Speaker 4: almost a million views?
• 41:29
  Speaker 3: Now? Uh yeah, past a million views I think like
• 41:32
  Speaker 3: a week or so ago. I was right around the
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: time I announced that it was getting close, and then
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: suddenly it was over like really quick. So uh yeah,
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: that was I mean, it was in part due the
• 41:43
  Speaker 3: fact that movie Web covered it, hosted and everything, but
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: it was cool to have a trailer reached that milestone.
• 41:51
  Speaker 4: So and by congrats, by the way, that is huge,
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: Thank you. So Ron, like, where was the impetus for
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: House Shark.
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: In writing it?
• 42:00
  Speaker 4: You know, cause I know you're you wrote, you wrote it,
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: you're producing directedness. You know, where was the impetus or
• 42:05
  Speaker 4: sort of that idea to come up with this?
• 42:07
  Speaker 3: Well? I'd always as I mentioned earlier, I think as
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: part of this conversation, I was saying how I'd always
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: wanted to do a shark movie. I always was like
• 42:16
  Speaker 3: I want to come up with the Jaws sequel. That's
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: a you know, that is the awesome sequel, you know. Uh,
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: I mean I loved I love all the Jaws movies
• 42:24
  Speaker 3: in cheesy ways. For three and four, I wouldn't put
• 42:27
  Speaker 3: it in my top movies, but two definitely is one
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: of you know, I think is as an underrated uh movie.
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: But but I was trying to come up with a plot,
• 42:36
  Speaker 3: like how could I do, you know, bring bring Jaws
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: back and make it very cool and and even you know,
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: like a year or so before I, uh, start working
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: on how Shark it thought like, you know, we have
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: a a lake Ontario near me which you can't see across.
• 42:50
  Speaker 3: I was like, make a shoot on Lake Ontario and
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: make it look like an ocean. Try to come up
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: with a simple idea, you know that was still effective
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: that we could be done within a budget, you know,
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: within my budget levels and make you know, a cool
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: shark movie. And then it was actually during the winter time. Uh.
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: And I tell this story all the time. It's not
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: like a great story, but this is really how it
• 43:12
  Speaker 3: came across. Is we had this it had been freezing
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: temperatures for like a week or two straight and all
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: this ice had built up on the roof of the
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: houses and and uh, my house particular, I'll get these
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: loud booming noises. And so I looked up. I found
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: out it was like the ice actually cracking, you know,
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: on the roof. Uh. And I made a comment online
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: about it, and uh and some you know, some of
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: my friends on Facebook were making comments back, and we
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: were joking back and forth, and eventually made this joke
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: of zombies on an ice or zombies on a roof,
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: you know. Movie that was basically like, there's a zombie invasion,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: but all the zombies basically, I'll just live on live
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: on the roofs of your houses, so they weren't really
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: much of a threat. But as soon as I said that,
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: I came with that, I popped in my head was
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: howse shark shark in a house? You know? And and
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: it hit me right there. I remember I texted my producer,
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: I said, I got the title for my next movie.
• 44:08
  Speaker 3: It's cale howse sharks shark in a house? But it's
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: done like, you know, like a shark out in the water,
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: you know, except it's within a house. I was like,
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: holy god, I could do my Shark movie that I've
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: wanted to do, and I can control the location, you know,
• 44:23
  Speaker 3: which is a big It was a big deal.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 44:27
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know when we worked this low budget and
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: you know, you lack funds to have places you know,
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: unlimited stretch at the time or even necessarily very long
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: periods of time to be able to shoot it. Look
• 44:39
  Speaker 3: at it, cut it together real quick, go okay, what's wrong,
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: and go back and fix it, you know. So and then,
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: you know, in Syracuse sometimes I forget how crazy the
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: weather can be here because you know, we'll have days
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: that are super hot and no clouds, and so you
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: get these heavy shadows and it's so hard to shoot outside.
• 45:00
  Speaker 3: You know, especially comes around midday out here, uh, you
• 45:04
  Speaker 3: know without phil lights and bounce like, so you can't
• 45:07
  Speaker 3: really just go on location and shoot, you know, running
• 45:09
  Speaker 3: gunna quick. It takes a little bit more effort than that.
• 45:12
  Speaker 3: You can't necessary shooting shadows and everything's blown out. And
• 45:14
  Speaker 3: then and then you'll have tons of rain for days,
• 45:17
  Speaker 3: and then you'll have you know, be super cold and
• 45:19
  Speaker 3: snowy and heavy snow. And then when you want the snow,
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: you know, we'll get like a crazy early thaw or
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: series of warm days. It's just all over the place.
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: It's you know, the weather is just a nimer So
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: to be able to shoot inside a house and control it,
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: you know, it just so much was appealing about it.
• 45:34
  Speaker 3: But I thought it was a fun idea I completely ran.
• 45:39
  Speaker 3: Originally it was gonna be more like a kid's movie.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: My son had always, uh give me a hard time
• 45:44
  Speaker 3: about not being able to watch him and movies, and
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: I was going to make a movie that was safe
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: for him to watch. And it was going to be
• 45:50
  Speaker 3: done very much in the in the style of that
• 45:53
  Speaker 3: that Super eight short, like a Super eight shot, but
• 45:56
  Speaker 3: like the Super eight short at the end of Super
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: eight that they showed, you know, very cheesy, you know,
• 46:01
  Speaker 3: going for a lot of humor, completely playing off the
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: idea of what it is. It's a shark in a house.
• 46:05
  Speaker 3: I wasn't going to take it that serious, but I
• 46:07
  Speaker 3: didn't shoot that first summer I was intending to, and
• 46:10
  Speaker 3: over the course of the next year of revisiting it,
• 46:14
  Speaker 3: I made it more and more grown up, but it's
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: still maintained very much that sort of kid sense. I
• 46:21
  Speaker 3: wanted it to feel like a movie I was making.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: If I had had a film camera or a cam
• 46:26
  Speaker 3: quarter back in you know, the late seventies or early
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: eighties and got all my friends around the neighborhood to
• 46:31
  Speaker 3: come and help me make a shark movie. You know.
• 46:34
  Speaker 3: So it started as that and then just rolled from there.
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: So when did you actually, you know, decide that, you know,
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: to put the old production dates together and stuff like that.
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: I mean, I imagine you kind of had to say, Art,
• 46:48
  Speaker 4: I'm shooting this in my house. I can control location,
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: but you know, I'm sorry, are you married?
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not?
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: Okay? So that actually that okay, that actually helped.
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like I was just thinking.
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: I was like, hey, I don't know if you are
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: or not. And I was like, okay, because I can
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: imagine that would have to That's a whole other conversation,
• 47:09
  Speaker 4: you know, of being like, well I had to tell
• 47:11
  Speaker 4: my wife that you couldn't come home.
• 47:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, hopefully you're with someone who doesn't mind you doing that.
• 47:15
  Speaker 3: And I mean when I have you know, been shooting
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: and was dating someone or with somebody. I never really
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: ran into many issues with that for the most part,
• 47:25
  Speaker 3: pretty clear early on, like I love making movies and
• 47:28
  Speaker 3: this is what I'm going to be doing and you know,
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: in most cases they would actually be in set or
• 47:33
  Speaker 3: trying to help out and that sort of stuff. So
• 47:36
  Speaker 3: that hasn't been a big issue. And originally I wasn't
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: going to shoot it, you know, in my house. I
• 47:41
  Speaker 3: was trying to find a house to shoot at. And
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: eventually it just made sense. I was like, you know,
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: if I shoot at my house, I don't have to
• 47:48
  Speaker 3: pay for a location. We're all there. We literally get up,
• 47:51
  Speaker 3: go downstairs, start shooting it, you know. So all that
• 47:55
  Speaker 3: sort of stuff just kind of came together throughout the
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: throughout the process. But I don't remember what year, you know,
• 48:03
  Speaker 3: I don't remember what year I shot off the time
• 48:05
  Speaker 3: I had enough to go go and look. But I know,
• 48:07
  Speaker 3: like I said, the summer before I was gonna start
• 48:09
  Speaker 3: shooting it, and things weren't coming together fast enough for
• 48:12
  Speaker 3: me to feel like, Okay, I'm comfortable shooting right now,
• 48:17
  Speaker 3: So let me take a year off and just develop
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: it some more and take some more time to you know,
• 48:21
  Speaker 3: get the things I need. And and I said, a
• 48:24
  Speaker 3: lot just changed, you know, in that process. But once
• 48:28
  Speaker 3: you do set a day, and eventually somewhere along the way,
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: I set a lot doing like the three separate chunks
• 48:34
  Speaker 3: of shooting. We shot in August, then we shot in March,
• 48:37
  Speaker 3: and then we shot in August again. So shooting off
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: the course of a year, which was you know, fairly
• 48:42
  Speaker 3: stressful because you always worry about, you know, losing an
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: actor or something along the way. You know, the people
• 48:49
  Speaker 3: I work with, you know, they're always trying together acting gigs,
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: or there's a chance they can move so far away
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: you can't get them, or whatever, you know. But it
• 48:58
  Speaker 3: allowed me to alter so make the movie a little
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: more leisurely. It was a bigger project. It was a
• 49:04
  Speaker 3: much bigger project than originally attendem. I was gonna do
• 49:06
  Speaker 3: it for a few thousand dollars, and that's always the plan,
• 49:08
  Speaker 3: you know, with every movie. I'm gonna make this cheap
• 49:10
  Speaker 3: and quick for a few thousand dollars. And then as
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: you play around with and work with and expand on it,
• 49:15
  Speaker 3: you know, the budget keeps growing and growing, and the
• 49:17
  Speaker 3: ideas grow and grow. And it's only I went from
• 49:20
  Speaker 3: having you know, basically a very simple shark to a
• 49:23
  Speaker 3: more elaborate shark and more scenes added to the movie,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: and uh, and it was very much like almost being
• 49:32
  Speaker 3: back on City the Vampire is going like, okay, I
• 49:36
  Speaker 3: have to do too much stuff on this s you know,
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: lighting it, and I had people help with the lighting,
• 49:41
  Speaker 3: but I was still in charge of the lighting, and
• 49:43
  Speaker 3: when they weren't there, which you know, people weren't always there,
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: I still had to go out and move the lights.
• 49:47
  Speaker 3: So when you're setting up the camera simp the shot
• 49:49
  Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, these lights are perfect, and we're
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: putting all the lights outside and shining, then I'd have
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: to go outside go around adjust him. If I did
• 49:57
  Speaker 3: have someone to check them on the inside for him.
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: Me, we'll be right back after a word from our
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: sponsor and now back to the show.
• 50:11
  Speaker 3: Then I have come back in and recheck them. Or
• 50:13
  Speaker 3: if someone I was sending outside who was supposed to,
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: you know, adjust them, wasn't getting it right. You know,
• 50:18
  Speaker 3: I'd be looking to the camera. I'm trying to, you know,
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: tell them you know where to adjust it to, and
• 50:24
  Speaker 3: sometimes it's just not getting it, you know. Between that,
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: it's just physically exhausting. Focus so much on the shots,
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: you're not always focused on the acting. It's just uh,
• 50:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's when you're doing these low
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: bunch of movies. It's, uh, you wear a lot of
• 50:43
  Speaker 3: different hats and and uh it's exhausting, but it's still fun.
• 50:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, we had a great time in that set,
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: and that's another big reason to enjoy doing it.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: Definitely, ron And then you finally it's that spot where
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: you're like, what the hell, Why the hell did I
• 50:59
  Speaker 4: start doing this.
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: It's always those first couple of days where I'm like, oh,
• 51:03
  Speaker 3: I made a horrible mistake, and you're like, I'm in
• 51:06
  Speaker 3: way over my head. Let me just cancel this production, regroup,
• 51:10
  Speaker 3: and I'll you know, restart and you know, another week
• 51:13
  Speaker 3: or two, and then you just like, now I got
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: to push forward. And then you hit your you know,
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: you start hitting your stride, you know, three four days
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: in and then suddenly you know everything's going smooth and
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: you write only stuff off quick and you're going back
• 51:24
  Speaker 3: and fixing some of the stuff you know you did
• 51:26
  Speaker 3: wrong early on, and you and next thing you know,
• 51:29
  Speaker 3: it's all done, and and then you fall into depression.
• 51:33
  Speaker 3: Is you're not in a movie set anymore.
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: You know, yeah, right, And you know, because when you're
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: on the movie set, you're like you're actually doing it.
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: There's no thinking like Am I actually making something? No,
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: because you are. You can feel it, you know what
• 51:44
  Speaker 4: I mean.
• 51:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you're really kind of like living the dream at
• 51:48
  Speaker 3: that point. You know, you don't have to. I mean
• 51:51
  Speaker 3: most cases, I still have to do like a little
• 51:52
  Speaker 3: work every morning and keep things going. But in most
• 51:55
  Speaker 3: part you're able to get away from your regular job.
• 51:57
  Speaker 3: Be on the side. You're laughing at you with your friends,
• 52:00
  Speaker 3: and you know, you're eating you know, a good food
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: all day, and uh, it's you know, it's just it's
• 52:07
  Speaker 3: like being on vacation, you know, except here with a van,
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: you know, with a camquorder and you're telling people what
• 52:12
  Speaker 3: to do, and then it gets all done and then
• 52:14
  Speaker 3: you're like, oh, shoot, I got to go back to
• 52:17
  Speaker 3: sitting in front of my computer every day.
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: Right, exactly right. You're like, I need this high again.
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: How the hell do I get there?
• 52:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah? And I need to make back all that money
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: I just spent. Yeah, it's making more money to pay
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: bills and so yeah, just it'd be great. You know,
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: someone paid for the production and paid for you to
• 52:39
  Speaker 3: then take the rest of your What are the chances?
• 52:43
  Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, that's that's where you're really living the dream man.
• 52:46
  Speaker 4: That's what you know, you've made it. Uh you know, Ron,
• 52:50
  Speaker 4: I know we're we've we're almost at a time. We've
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: been talking for about an hour now, you know, so Ron,
• 52:56
  Speaker 4: just to sort of, you know, just sort of put
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: a period to end of this conversation, do you have
• 53:00
  Speaker 4: anything you'd like to just to say that kind of
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: finalize everything.
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: If you're looking for like a last minute advice or something,
• 53:08
  Speaker 3: I guess I've done that so many times. You could
• 53:12
  Speaker 3: definitely look up old interviews and stuff. But if you
• 53:15
  Speaker 3: wanted to track me down and stuff, look, you know.
• 53:18
  Speaker 3: Srscinema dot com is the website you can definitely follow
• 53:22
  Speaker 3: me on. Facebook is probably one of the most active
• 53:24
  Speaker 3: Instagram too, and uh uh and if you if you
• 53:30
  Speaker 3: if you my personal profiles maxed out, it's tough for
• 53:34
  Speaker 3: me to you know, uh uh friend request everyone. But
• 53:39
  Speaker 3: the SRS Cinema Facebook pages, you know, great spot to
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: stay up to date on what I'm doing. There's also
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: like a house shark and she kills individual pages and
• 53:50
  Speaker 3: trying to else a little bit on Twitter, but any
• 53:52
  Speaker 3: of the social media places work and looks up see
• 53:57
  Speaker 3: I release a lot of other movies from filmmak all
• 54:00
  Speaker 3: around the world. And so not only are you supporting
• 54:04
  Speaker 3: you know, my little distribution company by picking up these
• 54:07
  Speaker 3: movies and checking them out, you are also supporting these
• 54:11
  Speaker 3: filmmakers because you know, the more stuff. If I do
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: well with them, I can license more works from them.
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: In some case, I can pay them to make movies.
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: And you're helping other filmmakers, you know, sometimes hunters of
• 54:23
  Speaker 3: filmmakers you know live live there a little part of
• 54:27
  Speaker 3: the dream too, and you know.
• 54:30
  Speaker 4: And that's a very good point, Ron and everybody. I'm
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: going to link to everything Ron and I talked about
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: in the show notes. I know how Shark Hey, my pleasure, Ron,
• 54:40
  Speaker 4: I know how Shark is actually on Amazon Prime right now.
• 54:44
  Speaker 4: I'm going to make sure to link to that in
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: the show notes as well. By the way, Ron, I
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: don't know who to your poster, but that's exactly what
• 54:50
  Speaker 4: the poster should have been. That is on the money,
• 54:53
  Speaker 4: because you know why, it's intriguing. It explains the movie,
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: and it stops people in their tracks and goes what
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: the hell is that it does?
• 55:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it catch a lot of attention. I had to.
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: I actually paid a lot of money for the work
• 55:04
  Speaker 3: to get done. But I knew there was a chance
• 55:06
  Speaker 3: of getting into Walmart and it really needed killer to
• 55:09
  Speaker 3: make it happen. So yeah, so sometimes you just you
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: got to put it out there. But I try to
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: apply it to the project. I think the projects. I
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: always try. I do the illustrated artwork for the limited
• 55:20
  Speaker 3: edition release that we do, and I do a lot
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: of those. You know, it's only fifty one hundred or
• 55:25
  Speaker 3: two hundred units, you know, sold directly from the site
• 55:27
  Speaker 3: pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I'll list them the leftovers on
• 55:31
  Speaker 3: Amazon and might move you know, five ten more copies
• 55:34
  Speaker 3: there or something like that. But for the most part,
• 55:37
  Speaker 3: you know, you get them from my site with the
• 55:38
  Speaker 3: illustrated art because that's what the fans that are closest
• 55:41
  Speaker 3: rs like the best. But then we'll do the what's
• 55:44
  Speaker 3: called like the real art, you know, with the actors
• 55:47
  Speaker 3: or in case of Shark, with the shark and the
• 55:49
  Speaker 3: real house and stuff for the wide releases, because that's
• 55:52
  Speaker 3: what the retailers like they have on their story on
• 55:54
  Speaker 3: their shelves and stuff. So you know, you just like
• 55:58
  Speaker 3: I said, you apply a strategy to teach release, you know,
• 56:02
  Speaker 3: depending on what you're doing with each release at the time, right, Yeah.
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: You're you're always trying to, you know, get as much
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: eyeballs as possible, and I think, whatever, and again this
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: poster is is do just exactly that because I remember,
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: remember a couple of years ago, I actually had a
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: friend of mine who when he went to he went
• 56:20
  Speaker 4: to like AFM in all those different places, and he
• 56:23
  Speaker 4: was talking about pitching and he goes, Dave, if there's
• 56:25
  Speaker 4: one thing I learned, He's like, if you don't have
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: a killer poster that sums up the movie and just
• 56:29
  Speaker 4: one image, He's like, you're sunk no matter what it is.
• 56:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you got to start there, the title and the image,
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: and then they want a good, you know, short synopsis.
• 56:38
  Speaker 3: Having a killer trailer, like a one minute like trailer
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: just shows the you know, the money shots from the
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: movie and then they might not even ever look at
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: the movie. If they love your artwork and they love
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: your trailer, you can meet in a red box. You know,
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: you could be potentially in Walmart or Family Video or
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: Best Buy or whatever based off of just that stuff.
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: You know, it also help if you know, you have
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: a genre that they like, like Walmart does. Real while
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: with these sorts of movies where our red box howse
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: Shark hasn't gotten in the red Box probably never will
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: because red Box like more serious horror, you know, So
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: if you have a serious like a paranormal horror movie
• 57:19
  Speaker 3: with killer artwork and a great trailer, then you increase
• 57:23
  Speaker 3: your chances of you know, getting it out on red Box.
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, right, And again, you know we talk about all
• 57:29
  Speaker 4: those different streaming platforms and what they're all looking for,
• 57:32
  Speaker 4: and uh, you know, but I guess you know, we know, Ron,
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: Let's say that for the next conversation. You know, whenever
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: your next film comes out, you let me know. You
• 57:39
  Speaker 4: can come back on and we'll sounds good, We'll keep
• 57:42
  Speaker 4: this conversation going wrong.
• 57:44
  Speaker 3: Sounds good.
• 57:44
  Speaker 4: Thank you, Ron Bok, Thank you so much, Buddy, Thank you.
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 57:55
  Speaker 1: head over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: tv for it. Slash four, thank you so much for
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter what.
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: I'll talk to you soon.
• 58:06
  Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: Screenwriting dot tv.