Latest / Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast / BPS 436: Lessons in Filmmaking, Failure, and Persistence with Greg Travis

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BPS 436: Lessons in Filmmaking, Failure, and Persistence with Greg Travis · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four thirty six.
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Speaker 1: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullets.
1:39
Speaker 4: My guest has worked with some of the best directors ever,
1:42
Speaker 4: including David Lynch, Paul Verhoeven, and Milos Foreman. My latest
1:46
Speaker 4: guest latest movie, Excuse Me is in which he directed,
1:50
Speaker 4: was actually shot in nineteen eighty four and it's finally
1:53
Speaker 4: being released now. Think about that he started filming this
1:56
Speaker 4: when I was born. It just shows you have to
1:58
Speaker 4: be in the long haul, really does, and that movie
2:01
Speaker 4: Dark Seductions will be out October eleventh on v O
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Speaker 4: D and m OD with guests Greg Travis, Hey, Gregor,
2:10
Speaker 4: thanks off coming on the show.
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Speaker 3: Buddy, My pleasure, Dave, my pleasure. Anytime I can talk
2:14
Speaker 3: to a fellow filmmaker, I'm down, Well.
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Speaker 4: You know I appreciate it.
2:20
Speaker 3: Greg.
2:20
Speaker 4: You know I looked at your IMDb. Watch that I
2:23
Speaker 4: knew of you before I looked at your IMDb because
2:26
Speaker 4: I recognize you from a couple of different roles, and
2:29
Speaker 4: you know, before I start talking about that, and when
2:32
Speaker 4: we get in all your you know, your your very
2:34
Speaker 4: lengthy IMDb with some very impressive credits. My I just
2:37
Speaker 4: want to start off by asking about your background, and
2:40
Speaker 4: that is I just want to ask how did you
2:41
Speaker 4: get started in the film industry? You know, did you
2:44
Speaker 4: always want to act as when you were a kid?
2:46
Speaker 4: You know, so it's pretty much I just want to know,
2:49
Speaker 4: is you know how did you get started?
2:51
Speaker 3: Well, I was in high school. I got a Super
2:55
Speaker 3: eight camera, started using my dad's home movie camera, and
2:58
Speaker 3: then I got one of the cameras, and so I
3:01
Speaker 3: started making these little short Super eight films my junior
3:05
Speaker 3: year and then my high school year, I actually made
3:06
Speaker 3: a feature length Super eight movie called Joe Dynamite, and
3:10
Speaker 3: I showed it at the high school theater and I
3:14
Speaker 3: was able to get the theater for free, and you know,
3:19
Speaker 3: work things out to where I actually made my money
3:21
Speaker 3: back and actually made a little profit on the whole venture.
3:24
Speaker 3: And I thought, Wow, this is easy, I can do
3:27
Speaker 3: this little did I know what I was in for.
3:33
Speaker 3: You know, then I came out to Hollywood and went
3:35
Speaker 3: to film school. And while I was going to film school,
3:37
Speaker 3: I started auditioning at the comedy club and then kind
3:41
Speaker 3: of got a stand up career going and got a
3:44
Speaker 3: few TV shows and started working the clubs. And I
3:47
Speaker 3: did that for about twenty years, and then I moved
3:50
Speaker 3: into the acting direction in the mid nineties and got
3:53
Speaker 3: a few big movies and then I kind of helped
3:55
Speaker 3: launch my acting career and did about forty five films
3:59
Speaker 3: in the fifteen years or so. And now I'm on
4:04
Speaker 3: my third act and trying to get back to what
4:07
Speaker 3: I originally wanted to do here, which was be a
4:09
Speaker 3: director and a filmmaker. And you know, I mean I've
4:13
Speaker 3: written all these years, and I've made a lot of
4:15
Speaker 3: shorts all these years, but in the last eight or
4:20
Speaker 3: nine years, I've really tried to focus in and you know,
4:22
Speaker 3: make some movies. So I've got three features, Night Creep, Midlife,
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Speaker 3: and now Dark Seduction that are finished features and that
4:30
Speaker 3: are getting out there. And Dark Seduction is being released
4:34
Speaker 3: October eleventh on VOD North America, VOD and pay per view,
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Speaker 3: And so I'm super excited about that because it took
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Speaker 3: me about thirty years to complete that movie, which I'm
4:49
Speaker 3: not bragging about. It's kind of embarrassing, to be honest
4:52
Speaker 3: with you, because it should have been finished, you know,
4:55
Speaker 3: at least twenty years ago. But I ran up into
5:01
Speaker 3: I ran into a lot of obstacles and a lot
5:04
Speaker 3: of problems with this particular film that you know, stopped
5:09
Speaker 3: me from finishing it. Every time I would go back
5:11
Speaker 3: to try to finish it, something horrific would happen and
5:14
Speaker 3: just stop me in my tracks, or or sometimes I'd
5:17
Speaker 3: run out of money and I'd have to you know, regroup,
5:20
Speaker 3: you know. So it seemed to be an ongoing pattern
5:24
Speaker 3: in the process of the whole post production thing. But
5:30
Speaker 3: you know, it's one of those things you just, you know,
5:33
Speaker 3: you try what you can, and then when I got
5:36
Speaker 3: back to it the final time, I was able to
5:38
Speaker 3: get everything back and finally finish it up. So I'm
5:42
Speaker 3: really happy about that.
5:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Greg, I understand completely where you're coming
5:47
Speaker 4: from about projects, you know, stalling out and having issues.
5:51
Speaker 4: You know, I've been there before, you know, whether you
5:55
Speaker 4: know it's you know, different you know, personalities, you know,
5:58
Speaker 4: not agreeing on set or different producers, you know, not agreeing,
6:02
Speaker 4: you know, or or even you know sometimes I mean,
6:04
Speaker 4: for instance, Greg I had at one time, I had
6:06
Speaker 4: an editor who every time I asked to see a
6:10
Speaker 4: kind of the movie, he would say, oh, yeah, you know,
6:12
Speaker 4: it's don't going well listen to that, And I say, well,
6:14
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go. I want to come up and see
6:15
Speaker 4: a cut of it, and he would always have an
6:16
Speaker 4: excuse to Finally he you know, he have to admit.
6:19
Speaker 4: He's like, listen, I have been working on it at all.
6:21
Speaker 4: I'm and he's like, you know, I'm sorry. He goes, yeah,
6:24
Speaker 4: So I understand completely what you mean. But you know,
6:28
Speaker 4: I do want to talk more about Dark Seduction, but
6:31
Speaker 4: you know I would be you know, I again, you
6:34
Speaker 4: have such an extensive IMDb resume. I just want to
6:38
Speaker 4: sort of take a step back and you talk about
6:40
Speaker 4: some of your credits. I mean, you have worked with
6:42
Speaker 4: some of the best directors you know, not only going today,
6:47
Speaker 4: but some of the directors that have you know, ever
6:49
Speaker 4: ever lived. I mean, you've worked with David Lynch, Paul Vhoven,
6:52
Speaker 4: You've worked with bobcat Goldthwaite, You've worked.
6:56
Speaker 3: Who did five Easy Pieces, a lot of Jack Nicholson films. Yeah,
7:00
Speaker 3: that was a drill to work with him and a
7:01
Speaker 3: Milosh foreman who did the Andy Kaufman movie A Man
7:06
Speaker 3: on the Moon. And Yeah, I was lucky in the
7:10
Speaker 3: fact that of being a filmmaker and an actor, I
7:13
Speaker 3: had studied films all of my life and was a
7:16
Speaker 3: huge movie goer when I was a kid. So I
7:19
Speaker 3: had seen just about everything any all these guys had done,
7:24
Speaker 3: especially when it came out on video. I rented everything,
7:28
Speaker 3: and my friend in New York had a video store,
7:29
Speaker 3: so I could watch anything that was available. And so,
7:33
Speaker 3: you know, I've always studied film and always loved it.
7:37
Speaker 3: And so when I would meet these directors and go
7:40
Speaker 3: in for the final audition, I would start talking to
7:43
Speaker 3: them about their obscure movie, the one movie that no
7:46
Speaker 3: one knew about. That's the one I would talk to
7:49
Speaker 3: them about. They love that, you know, they absolutely love
7:52
Speaker 3: that because like they don't get a chance to discuss it.
7:55
Speaker 3: So it was like, you know, kind of the inside
7:59
Speaker 3: scoop on some of their obscure films. I would like
8:01
Speaker 3: talk to them about, you know. But David was great.
8:04
Speaker 3: I didn't really have too much to say. He was
8:07
Speaker 3: in the middle of shooting and the cast charactor brought
8:09
Speaker 3: me over to him, and you know, he just said, great,
8:13
Speaker 3: you're right, this is great, you look great, and it'll
8:15
Speaker 3: be perfect. And so that was about it. So, you know,
8:18
Speaker 3: I got lucky on that one. And he was a
8:20
Speaker 3: whole lot of fun to work with. He's really detailed oriented.
8:23
Speaker 3: He put the blood on my face himself, and he,
8:28
Speaker 3: you know, he was like really had ideas about every
8:33
Speaker 3: little movement and every little thing, and it was all
8:36
Speaker 3: very well planned out and very well thought out. You know,
8:39
Speaker 3: he knew what he wanted and all right, you know,
8:41
Speaker 3: you never know exactly what you want. I mean, you
8:43
Speaker 3: got an idea concept of the scene and how it
8:46
Speaker 3: should go, and you try to explain it to the
8:49
Speaker 3: actors and then you just hope for the best and
8:51
Speaker 3: that's basically what every director does, and then you tweak
8:55
Speaker 3: it as you go along. He said, well, maybe you don't,
8:58
Speaker 3: you know, you don't scream that much here. Maybe you
9:00
Speaker 3: bring it down a little bit there. Maybe you don't
9:03
Speaker 3: hit him with the gun there. You know that kind
9:05
Speaker 3: of thing, you know. So, but yeah, i'd always been
9:10
Speaker 3: as a matter of fact, the eraser head was kind
9:13
Speaker 3: of the first midnight movie that I saw when I
9:15
Speaker 3: came out here, and it just dis disturbed me to
9:22
Speaker 3: no when I just didn't quite understand it, but I
9:25
Speaker 3: felt I mean it felt it. I felt there was
9:27
Speaker 3: something really going on here, but I didn't quite you know,
9:29
Speaker 3: I didn't understand what was happening, but it moved me.
9:35
Speaker 3: Help put it that way. You know.
9:38
Speaker 4: It's funny because I took somebody to see Lost Highway
9:41
Speaker 4: and he had never seen it before, and when he
9:44
Speaker 4: left the theater, he goes, you know, Davey goes that movie.
9:47
Speaker 4: I'm not sure what was happening, but he goes, I'm
9:50
Speaker 4: very interested, and he said, you know, a couple of
9:53
Speaker 4: days later on he texted me and he goes, you know,
9:55
Speaker 4: I'm still thinking about Lost Highway.
9:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we'll.
10:00
Speaker 1: Be right back after a word from our sponsor. And
10:06
Speaker 1: now back to the show.
10:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had some really fun stuff and it did
10:12
Speaker 3: some really creepy stuff too. You know, I always thought
10:16
Speaker 3: of it as a revenge dream, you know, by the
10:22
Speaker 3: Bill Pullman character, and you know that sort of I
10:29
Speaker 3: think what it was. You know, he becomes this young
10:33
Speaker 3: guy in his dream and gets revenge on the older
10:37
Speaker 3: guys who messed him up with his girlfriend, you know,
10:40
Speaker 3: or his wife. So at least that's kind of the
10:43
Speaker 3: way I take it. And then he did that same
10:45
Speaker 3: sort of thing in his next movie. It was going
10:48
Speaker 3: to be the TV show that got so many awards?
10:52
Speaker 3: What the hell's the name of it? Drive. Yeah, he
10:55
Speaker 3: did the same kind of thing, only with women. It
10:58
Speaker 3: was the same sort of like switching characters than you know,
11:02
Speaker 3: becoming another person kind of a thing. You know, Yeah,
11:06
Speaker 3: I know exactly what I mean.
11:08
Speaker 4: It's funny because you now he you know, when we
11:10
Speaker 4: saw him when when he he you know, he was
11:12
Speaker 4: actually there and he introduced twin or sorry, he introduced
11:15
Speaker 4: the Lost Highway and he said and people were asking,
11:17
Speaker 4: are you're working on anything else? And he said no.
11:19
Speaker 4: That about a couple of days later, he announces that
11:21
Speaker 4: he's back with Twin Peaks season three on Showtime.
11:26
Speaker 3: Yeah.
11:26
Speaker 4: It was just uh, I was like, wow, if he
11:28
Speaker 4: had only you know, but uh, but it was just amazing.
11:30
Speaker 4: You know, I've just a funny little story real quick.
11:33
Speaker 4: I actually tried to get him on for one hundredth
11:35
Speaker 4: episode of this podcast, and I actually missed him by
11:39
Speaker 4: a couple of I guess maybe a couple of days.
11:41
Speaker 4: His his manager actually said that he's off shooting Season
11:45
Speaker 4: three at Twin Peaks, and he's like, you know, it's
11:46
Speaker 4: all he's doing right now, so uh maybe when it
11:49
Speaker 4: comes back. But I was like, you know, I mean
11:50
Speaker 4: that guy, I mean, he's just you know, phenomenal. I mean,
11:53
Speaker 4: but you know, so I wanted one to ask Greg,
11:55
Speaker 4: is you know, when you're working with somebody you know
11:58
Speaker 4: like Lynch, or you're working with somebody like Paul vay whole,
12:00
Speaker 4: you know, what are some of the biggest takeaways that
12:04
Speaker 4: you think you've had? Do you think there's something that
12:06
Speaker 4: there's there's like one constant that you know, sort of
12:10
Speaker 4: maybe strength that all these directors share that makes them
12:13
Speaker 4: you know, who they are.
12:16
Speaker 3: Well, they all have a kind of definite look that
12:20
Speaker 3: they're trying to achieve with the film itself, the way
12:23
Speaker 3: they shoot it, the way they you know, are going
12:25
Speaker 3: to cut it. The hardest thing I think for any
12:30
Speaker 3: director is to get a mood, a certain type of
12:33
Speaker 3: tone that can carry through throughout the film. I think
12:37
Speaker 3: David Lent that's one of his strengths. He really knows
12:39
Speaker 3: how to set a tone, a dark ominous kind of
12:42
Speaker 3: creepy tone to the thing and keep that, you know.
12:46
Speaker 3: I mean it's not constantly throughout the film, but it's
12:49
Speaker 3: still there. And well, he's really great at that, and
12:55
Speaker 3: every other director has their strength, like Verhoven is a
12:59
Speaker 3: kind of a very strong, just in your face imagery
13:04
Speaker 3: that just really sticks with you and really hits you
13:07
Speaker 3: in the chest, you know, very entertaining, very fun, and
13:12
Speaker 3: just keep coming at you, you know. And I love
13:15
Speaker 3: that kind of stuff. I love, you know, strong imagery
13:18
Speaker 3: and strong choices. And you know, as an actor, when
13:22
Speaker 3: you work with these kind of guys, you just have
13:25
Speaker 3: to kind of like go with your confidence and come
13:28
Speaker 3: in with the strongest ideas that you can think of
13:31
Speaker 3: and just you know, know that that's right, and not
13:34
Speaker 3: worry about exactly what you think they want, but within
13:39
Speaker 3: the script and what you think it needs, that's what
13:43
Speaker 3: you give them. And they'll let you know if it's
13:45
Speaker 3: not what they want or if they want to tweak it.
13:48
Speaker 3: But most of the time they really liked what I
13:50
Speaker 3: did and they were very happy with it. So I
13:54
Speaker 3: was really lucky to be able to work with those guys,
13:57
Speaker 3: you know.
13:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, Greg, I was actually one gonna be.
14:00
Speaker 4: My next question was, you know, as an actor, you know,
14:03
Speaker 4: you know what what is sort of like you know
14:05
Speaker 4: what you're you're bringing. You know, obviously you're bringing, you know,
14:08
Speaker 4: your own unique skills and talents to the role. And
14:11
Speaker 4: you know they you know, they're they're directing you obviously
14:14
Speaker 4: in this in this particular role. And so one of
14:17
Speaker 4: my question was, is what are some of the biggest
14:20
Speaker 4: takeaways that they that they when you're working with them,
14:23
Speaker 4: that that you have used in your own projects, you know,
14:26
Speaker 4: sort of like something that you've learned from you know,
14:29
Speaker 4: Zack Snyder or Verhoven, you know that you're in rob Zombie,
14:32
Speaker 4: you know, something that you've taken and sort of put
14:35
Speaker 4: into your own films.
14:38
Speaker 3: They all do different things, like Zack Snyder does various
14:41
Speaker 3: speed takes where he'll do a shot, you know, twenty times,
14:47
Speaker 3: and he'll do it a little bit differently each time.
14:51
Speaker 3: And I think that's kind of interesting. I haven't been
14:55
Speaker 3: able to use that exactly, but I like the idea
14:59
Speaker 3: of doing a little different each time instead of trying
15:01
Speaker 3: to do it the same wage time. He does it
15:04
Speaker 3: a little differently each time. And I think I've heard
15:07
Speaker 3: that Ridley Scott does that same kind of thing. He'll
15:11
Speaker 3: move the camera an inch or two over with each
15:15
Speaker 3: progressive take so that he gets a little bit different
15:18
Speaker 3: angle and a little bit different look, you know, And
15:22
Speaker 3: I thought that's pretty pretty cool. You know. The film.
15:28
Speaker 3: The last film that I, you know, shot and put
15:31
Speaker 3: out there was Midlife, which was a very Cassavetti's type
15:34
Speaker 3: of a look. I shot at long lens and then
15:38
Speaker 3: the wide shots were like a forty millimeter or so,
15:41
Speaker 3: it was kind of a wide and that's what I
15:43
Speaker 3: was going for, was a very kight, kind of very
15:46
Speaker 3: realistic Cassavetti's type of look. And so that's kind of
15:52
Speaker 3: what I was trying to capture. And so I would
15:54
Speaker 3: go back and study all of his films and see
15:57
Speaker 3: what he was doing exactly, and they're all a little different.
16:00
Speaker 3: They're all shot a little different. There is no one
16:02
Speaker 3: Casavetti's look, but he does do long lens close ups
16:06
Speaker 3: and pretty tight close ups when he does them, and
16:09
Speaker 3: so I use that technique, and you know, you just learn,
16:15
Speaker 3: you just pick up different directorial techniques from working with
16:18
Speaker 3: all these different directors and then also what you know,
16:21
Speaker 3: working as a director for many many reading short films
16:25
Speaker 3: and theater and all kinds of different things in my
16:28
Speaker 3: own shows and stand up, because in stand up, you're
16:31
Speaker 3: really directing yourself, you know, I mean you're really sort
16:35
Speaker 3: of like jumping out of your skin and saying, well,
16:37
Speaker 3: what this look like and what would that look like?
16:39
Speaker 3: And you kind of have to have the second nature
16:41
Speaker 3: about what would make an audience laugh or what would
16:44
Speaker 3: make an audience cry, And you develop those skills as
16:47
Speaker 3: you go along. And I think that I've been able
16:50
Speaker 3: to do that and now I'm ready to really apply
16:54
Speaker 3: a that knowledge to making movies. You know, Yeah, you
16:58
Speaker 3: know that's a good point.
17:00
Speaker 4: And you know that's actually what I wanted to sort
17:02
Speaker 4: of segue into right now was, uh, you know, just
17:04
Speaker 4: looking at your IMDb page, you know you've you've written
17:08
Speaker 4: U five pieces and you know you've directed four, and
17:11
Speaker 4: I just want to ask, you know, your first you
17:14
Speaker 4: know IMDb credit you know, uh that you have is
17:17
Speaker 4: night Creep, and I want to ask you know, you
17:19
Speaker 4: made this in two thousand and three. It was also
17:22
Speaker 4: written by you, So I wanted to ask Greg. You know,
17:25
Speaker 4: you said in the intro that you know you want
17:27
Speaker 4: to sort of want to go back to this because
17:29
Speaker 4: this is why you you got into this, was you
17:31
Speaker 4: wanted to make your own films, right.
17:33
Speaker 3: So was it?
17:34
Speaker 4: Was it the right sort of time and place, so
17:37
Speaker 4: to speak, to make Night Creep?
17:39
Speaker 3: What I mean by it.
17:39
Speaker 4: That is, did you you sort of have the like
17:42
Speaker 4: a sort of like a small window or maybe an
17:43
Speaker 4: opportunity at that point into.
17:45
Speaker 3: You I had hooked up with this, you know, this
17:47
Speaker 3: guy who's gonna invest in it and who's gonna, you know,
17:50
Speaker 3: put the money, And so I wrote it pretty I
17:55
Speaker 3: wrote a script. It was what I thought was pretty commercial,
18:00
Speaker 3: and actually it wasn't very commercial at all. But I
18:06
Speaker 3: was kind of a psychological horror film in a very
18:10
Speaker 3: kind of Lynchian David Lynchian kind of way, to where
18:14
Speaker 3: we don't really know what's going on half the movie
18:17
Speaker 3: and we're waiting to find out. But at least in
18:20
Speaker 3: my movie, I do let the cat out of the
18:22
Speaker 3: bag at the end of the film, and I do
18:23
Speaker 3: explain somewhat what was happening, even though there's a few
18:27
Speaker 3: things left of the air, I suppose to David lynch
18:30
Speaker 3: who doesn't ever explain anything, and you're just like left
18:35
Speaker 3: walking out of the theater and what the fuck was
18:37
Speaker 3: that all about. But you know, you have to study
18:41
Speaker 3: his films and then you know, kind of come to
18:43
Speaker 3: some conclusions on your own. But that's what makes them fun,
18:46
Speaker 3: you know. But yeah, I just had I had a
18:49
Speaker 3: winner of opportunity, and then of course that investor pulled
18:52
Speaker 3: out at the last minute, and then I had to
18:54
Speaker 3: scory around with some of my own money, and so
18:56
Speaker 3: a few other people that I knew put a little
18:58
Speaker 3: money into it, and then we were able to kind
19:01
Speaker 3: of pull it together and do it. But you know,
19:04
Speaker 3: I had made Dark Seduction back in our mid eighties,
19:08
Speaker 3: and I actually felt really really confident at that time
19:12
Speaker 3: because I'd been doing a lot of shorts leading up
19:14
Speaker 3: to that, and I had a very specific look, and
19:18
Speaker 3: the partner that I was working with shot at and
19:20
Speaker 3: he understood what we were going for, and so the look
19:23
Speaker 3: of Dark Seduction I was pretty much satisfied with. I mean,
19:26
Speaker 3: there's a lot you could go back and say, well,
19:28
Speaker 3: I could have done this, I could have done that,
19:30
Speaker 3: but I, for the most part, I got what I
19:32
Speaker 3: was trying to get, you know, and there's always things
19:36
Speaker 3: you could have done better. And some of the shots
19:38
Speaker 3: we did were out of focus, and didn't come out,
19:40
Speaker 3: which was a shame, but you just, you know, you
19:42
Speaker 3: work with what you got. And so then all of
19:45
Speaker 3: that time I would go, you know, you be thinking
19:50
Speaker 3: that I was going to come back and finish Dark Seduction,
19:52
Speaker 3: and then after that that would lead to another film.
19:54
Speaker 3: So we'll be.
19:56
Speaker 1: Right back after a word from our sponsor. And now
20:02
Speaker 1: back to the show.
20:05
Speaker 3: When I made Night Creep, I had just gotten to
20:07
Speaker 3: the place where I just had to do something else
20:09
Speaker 3: and it couldn't depend on, you know, finishing Dark Seduction
20:12
Speaker 3: for that one. I just had to you know, start
20:15
Speaker 3: from scratch and do something new. And so it has
20:19
Speaker 3: some of the similar themes running through it. There's some lesbianism,
20:24
Speaker 3: and there's some you know, kind of like creepiness that's
20:28
Speaker 3: similar to Dark Seduction in a way, but it's not
20:32
Speaker 3: about vampires or anything. It's about a creepy landlord that
20:36
Speaker 3: comes into this girl's room at night while she's sleeping,
20:40
Speaker 3: and we don't know if it's a dream or if
20:42
Speaker 3: it's reality or exactly what's going on because she takes
20:47
Speaker 3: a drug and so we think the Night Creep drug
20:50
Speaker 3: might be causing her to have these hallucinations, and so
20:54
Speaker 3: that's part of the plot. But it came out pretty good.
20:57
Speaker 3: It's a lot of fun, you know. But Dark Seduction
21:02
Speaker 3: is the one that really everybody seems to be responding to.
21:07
Speaker 3: The premiere was a huge success, and the audience loved it,
21:10
Speaker 3: and everybody's really really excited about it, and you know,
21:17
Speaker 3: they really really like it. So it's kind of a
21:20
Speaker 3: weird hybrid of a nineteen forties detective film and an
21:24
Speaker 3: eighties lesbian vampire film. And we're not sure if the
21:30
Speaker 3: vampires are really vampires or if they're just badass chicks
21:35
Speaker 3: that think they're vampires and go around doing these things.
21:39
Speaker 3: And so there's that mystery and there's that angle of it,
21:44
Speaker 3: and you know, it's just a really odd, kind of weird,
21:49
Speaker 3: little cool cult movie that you know, took me forever
21:53
Speaker 3: to finish, but I'm glad I did because the technology
21:57
Speaker 3: has gotten so much better now. It made it so
21:59
Speaker 3: much now. It's much slicker, and the sound and the
22:03
Speaker 3: music and everything about it is much better now having
22:08
Speaker 3: finished it this past year, than it would have been
22:10
Speaker 3: if I would have finished it twenty years ago or
22:12
Speaker 3: thirty years ago. You know.
22:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know that Greg that was actually was going
22:16
Speaker 4: to ask you also, was you know, since you started
22:19
Speaker 4: making that in the eighties, you know, like you said,
22:21
Speaker 4: you started that in the eighties. You know, the camera
22:23
Speaker 4: technology has you know, just you know, gone through so
22:26
Speaker 4: many evolutions. You know, you know now you can you
22:29
Speaker 4: can go out now, and you know our phone is
22:31
Speaker 4: a camera. And now also you know, you know there's
22:33
Speaker 4: cameras out that cost as much as the house, you know,
22:36
Speaker 4: and you know it's amazing this this amount of technology.
22:39
Speaker 4: So I wanted to ask, you know, did did you
22:42
Speaker 4: you know, use any of the of the new cameras
22:44
Speaker 4: sections to sort of put to maybe shoot some new
22:46
Speaker 4: scenes or no, any.
22:47
Speaker 3: No, I shot everything. Everything we shot I did in
22:51
Speaker 3: eighty four and eighty five on sixteen milimeter black and white.
22:55
Speaker 3: And when I did a two K transfer from the negative,
23:00
Speaker 3: it really really I mean it's a little grainy. I
23:03
Speaker 3: mean it's you know, it's grainy in certain areas, but
23:05
Speaker 3: it really looks fantastic. The two K transfer just brought
23:10
Speaker 3: out all the imagery and brought out all the little details.
23:13
Speaker 3: And I couldn't have asked for a better quality, you know,
23:17
Speaker 3: print of it. It's much better than if I'd have
23:20
Speaker 3: made a film print because we have more control with
23:25
Speaker 3: the digital transfer, you know, and it is sharper than
23:29
Speaker 3: a film print. I mean, it is a little bit sharper.
23:32
Speaker 3: So I got everything, you know, And unfortunately the negative
23:36
Speaker 3: have been setting around for a long time. So even
23:39
Speaker 3: though they cleaned it a couple of times and we
23:41
Speaker 3: had it sonically cleaned, there's still a little dust here
23:44
Speaker 3: and there that was embedded in the negative. So, you know,
23:48
Speaker 3: it gives it kind of an old you know, tcum,
23:52
Speaker 3: you know, a little bit of an old quality that
23:55
Speaker 3: you know, kind of makes it even cooler, you know.
23:58
Speaker 3: I mean, nobody complain about the little specks that are
24:01
Speaker 3: on a few of the scenes or you know that
24:03
Speaker 3: pop up from time to time, but it kind of
24:06
Speaker 3: gives it an old feel to it, which is kind
24:08
Speaker 3: of neat too, you know. Yeah.
24:10
Speaker 4: You know, Greg, when I think I either I saw
24:13
Speaker 4: still or I believe watched the trailer. Also, it kind
24:16
Speaker 4: of reminds me of Dark City in a way, because
24:18
Speaker 4: you said it was like a nineteen forties, you know, detective,
24:20
Speaker 4: it's with the ninth eighties.
24:21
Speaker 3: It reminds me.
24:22
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've ever seen the film Dark City,
24:23
Speaker 4: but in a way it reminds me a little bit
24:26
Speaker 4: of that film.
24:27
Speaker 3: Was that a color? Veilm though? Was Dark City a
24:29
Speaker 3: color like the Canadian film? Yeah?
24:33
Speaker 4: It was. I think Valkumer or No probably was about
24:37
Speaker 4: but I'm I forget actually who was in it?
24:40
Speaker 3: Remember Peis And it was a lot of strip joint scenes.
24:43
Speaker 3: He was like a bouncer and a strip joint or something.
24:46
Speaker 3: Was that the one he's talking about? Dark City?
24:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was by It was directed by Alex Provs.
24:52
Speaker 4: I think it's Browns a h and it was.
24:55
Speaker 3: There might be one I'm confusing it with. But yeah,
25:00
Speaker 3: it's definitely a dark and war, you know, and that's
25:05
Speaker 3: kind of what I'm going for with this. You know
25:08
Speaker 3: that that forties war that like had the tough, you know,
25:14
Speaker 3: square jaw detective that was drinking and smoking all the
25:17
Speaker 3: way through the film, kind of a Boguart type character,
25:19
Speaker 3: but a little bit more, a little bit more tougher
25:22
Speaker 3: and bigger and you know, able to take a little
25:24
Speaker 3: bit more punishment than even Bogart. So I found this actor,
25:29
Speaker 3: comedian named Tyler Horn who was perfect for the role,
25:32
Speaker 3: and so I just didn't even have a casting session.
25:36
Speaker 3: I just asked him if he wanted to do it
25:38
Speaker 3: because I knew he'd be great in it, and he
25:41
Speaker 3: really is funny. He's he's quite a perfect kind of
25:45
Speaker 3: dick tracy looking character. So it worked out really well.
25:51
Speaker 4: So Greg, you know, coming from an acting background, do
25:53
Speaker 4: you do you feel that you know, that was sort
25:55
Speaker 4: of like sort of your unfair advantage because that was
25:58
Speaker 4: your biggest strength because you you know, you've worked all
26:00
Speaker 4: these directors. You also yourself are an actor, so you're
26:03
Speaker 4: able to sort of, you know, talk to these actors.
26:07
Speaker 4: Maybe you want to stand them in a different way
26:08
Speaker 4: that maybe most directors don't, you know.
26:10
Speaker 3: If you know what I mean, Well, it's you know,
26:12
Speaker 3: part of it is the casting of the actor. And
26:16
Speaker 3: then you know, sometimes you get into a situation where
26:22
Speaker 3: you know you've got really good improv actors and you
26:24
Speaker 3: would be an idiot not to let them improvise. And
26:27
Speaker 3: some directors are not, you know, savvy to that. They
26:32
Speaker 3: they want to stick to the script verbatim, and they
26:36
Speaker 3: don't know when to expand their idea and to take
26:40
Speaker 3: advantage of a talented improvise, of a talented actor who
26:43
Speaker 3: can improvise, and even if you don't use it in
26:46
Speaker 3: the film, sometimes you just go you just let it happen,
26:49
Speaker 3: and you like play with the ideas. And I think
26:54
Speaker 3: improvisation is a really good technique because you've got the
26:57
Speaker 3: idea in the script, you know where you're going with it.
27:01
Speaker 3: You know, let them play with the lines a little bit.
27:03
Speaker 3: As long as the information you need to drive the
27:05
Speaker 3: plot is in there, then you can, like, you know,
27:08
Speaker 3: you can go off script a little bit and play
27:10
Speaker 3: with the ideas and you never know, you might just
27:13
Speaker 3: use one of those lines in the editing, or you
27:15
Speaker 3: might use a couple of little of those bits, And
27:18
Speaker 3: a lot of times it's better than what you had
27:20
Speaker 3: in mind in the script because you can't always imagine
27:22
Speaker 3: it until you get there. And then when you get
27:24
Speaker 3: there and you see what you've got to work with,
27:26
Speaker 3: go ahead and work with it. Go ahead and expand
27:29
Speaker 3: the idea, you know, and explore it a little bit.
27:33
Speaker 3: I mean, I think that's the key to really good
27:36
Speaker 3: filmmaking is to explore the ideas once you get there.
27:39
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, I can incurk Greg.
27:42
Speaker 4: You know, the more I study and the more I
27:44
Speaker 4: you know, I apply these things, the more I find,
27:47
Speaker 4: especially in my writing, you know, the more you expand
27:50
Speaker 4: and explore and stay curious about these ideas.
27:54
Speaker 3: You know, the more they're able to flow. Yeah, and
27:59
Speaker 3: it's it's you know, it's tricky because I did a
28:02
Speaker 3: lot of improv in Midlife, and the first cut of
28:05
Speaker 3: it was like two and a half hours long, and
28:08
Speaker 3: I thought, you know, that was a pretty good cut,
28:11
Speaker 3: but I was wrong. I ended up taking like forty
28:13
Speaker 3: minutes out of it and kept whittling it down until
28:17
Speaker 3: I got it where it was at its basic essence,
28:19
Speaker 3: and it was just what I needed, but not too much.
28:23
Speaker 3: It was just enough to tell the story. And that's
28:25
Speaker 3: what you try to go for, is just the essence
28:28
Speaker 3: of what you need to tell the story. You know,
28:31
Speaker 3: people like you know, there's a lot of directors who
28:36
Speaker 3: get a little indulgent, and I think the big trick
28:40
Speaker 3: is not to let the line of tension go. You know,
28:45
Speaker 3: that's the most important thing in a film. If you
28:46
Speaker 3: look at for all the classics and all the orson
28:49
Speaker 3: Wells films, he was very adamant about keeping the line
28:52
Speaker 3: of tension in there, you know, which is driving the story,
28:56
Speaker 3: and also keeping the audience interested as to what's going
28:58
Speaker 3: to happen at the end of this story, what's going
29:00
Speaker 3: to happen to these characters? You know. But when you
29:03
Speaker 3: lose that and you veer off and you go into
29:05
Speaker 3: different places for a long period of time that don't
29:08
Speaker 3: have anything to do with the story, it can really
29:12
Speaker 3: derail the train, you know, it can really throw you
29:17
Speaker 3: off and can throw your audience off. So you really
29:20
Speaker 3: have to keep that in mind. The line of tension,
29:22
Speaker 3: I think is the most important thing. Whether it's a
29:25
Speaker 3: comedy or drama or whatever kind of movie you're making,
29:30
Speaker 3: you really want to keep the audience interested in what's
29:33
Speaker 3: gonna happen at the end, you know.
29:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was listening to an art interview by Lawrence Block,
29:39
Speaker 4: who did a walk Aupong the Tombstones. He wrote that,
29:43
Speaker 4: and he was, you know, saying the same thing about,
29:45
Speaker 4: you know, having that tension in there, because you don't
29:46
Speaker 4: want audiences going in going well, hey, I know this
29:49
Speaker 4: guy is not going to die.
29:52
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
29:58
Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
30:01
Speaker 4: Because you know, you know so of because of you know, X,
30:04
Speaker 4: Y and Z, and I know this thing's gonna happen,
30:06
Speaker 4: you know what I mean. And I think that's where
30:08
Speaker 4: you know, I think a lot of people sort of
30:10
Speaker 4: you know, because people who usually you know, go to movies,
30:12
Speaker 4: you know, they've seen other movies before in the same genre,
30:15
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, they've seen you know, action movies.
30:17
Speaker 4: That's why when a Diehard comes around, it just blows
30:20
Speaker 4: people out of the water because they're going, holy crap,
30:22
Speaker 4: you know this is this guy's this John McClain. He's bleeding,
30:26
Speaker 4: he doesn't know what's going on. He's injured, he he
30:28
Speaker 4: doesn't you know, he's not just walking in the room
30:30
Speaker 4: with a machine gun clearing up the whole room, right,
30:32
Speaker 4: you know. They really he really had to you know,
30:36
Speaker 4: dissect what was going on and do this sort of
30:38
Speaker 4: very very you know, cerebrally that's human words, rebelly, but
30:43
Speaker 4: you know he had to go in there and you know,
30:44
Speaker 4: sort of deduce, you know, and sort of use assurgent
30:47
Speaker 4: scalpel and then you know, that's why I think, you know,
30:50
Speaker 4: die Hard is such.
30:51
Speaker 3: A you know, a unique movie that's own right, Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
30:54
Speaker 3: I Mean when it came out, it was just, uh,
30:57
Speaker 3: he was out numbered and the situation and the conflict
31:00
Speaker 3: of the situation was question knew, you know, we didn't
31:05
Speaker 3: see anything like that, you know, in a building where
31:08
Speaker 3: you're stuck in the crawl spaces and you've got to
31:11
Speaker 3: maneuver your way and try to find a way to
31:13
Speaker 3: get rid of these guys. And yeah, it was a
31:16
Speaker 3: great little scripted piece, you know, and it was very
31:20
Speaker 3: well executed on the direction too, because the other cops
31:23
Speaker 3: didn't know what was going on and they weren't taking
31:25
Speaker 3: it seriously, and you know, these guys were We knew
31:28
Speaker 3: as an audience, remember, these guys are super bad and
31:31
Speaker 3: you better take them seriously or you're gonna get you're
31:33
Speaker 3: in for a big surprise. And so we knew that
31:36
Speaker 3: as an audience, but you know, within the film they
31:38
Speaker 3: didn't know that, and so that was kind of an
31:40
Speaker 3: interesting angle on it as well. And there's also those
31:44
Speaker 3: kinds of things. As an audience, you tell the audience
31:47
Speaker 3: certain things, but the characters don't know. Like in Dark Seduction,
31:51
Speaker 3: we know as an audience how he got bit, but
31:55
Speaker 3: he doesn't figure it out until well into the film,
31:58
Speaker 3: you know, because he just came, I remember, and it's
32:01
Speaker 3: not clear to him and he's not sure what's going on.
32:04
Speaker 3: But it's the comedy, I mean, it's it's more of
32:07
Speaker 3: a comedy parody of a nineteen forties detective film that
32:11
Speaker 3: it is anything else, but I tried to make its
32:14
Speaker 3: own unique movie by combining it with an eighties vampire field.
32:18
Speaker 3: So it's like a time shift that that makes any sense,
32:21
Speaker 3: There's like two different time periods going on at the
32:24
Speaker 3: same time. So it's kind of weird that way. You know.
32:29
Speaker 4: Well, you know great, you know, as you talked about
32:31
Speaker 4: dark dark seduction. You know, I want to ask you
32:33
Speaker 4: know your writing style, you know, and you're writing process,
32:36
Speaker 4: you know, so when you're going to sit down and
32:39
Speaker 4: you know, whether you use a notebook or whether you
32:41
Speaker 4: you know, write this on a computer, I want to
32:43
Speaker 4: ask you know, what what is your process? I mean,
32:45
Speaker 4: do you sort of already you know, have you I'm
32:47
Speaker 4: sure you already have an idea in mind, But do
32:49
Speaker 4: you outline it heavily or do you just you know,
32:52
Speaker 4: sort of let it flow nationally. Yeah.
32:54
Speaker 3: When I'm writing a feature, I do a three act
32:56
Speaker 3: outline and I try to outline each scene with a number,
33:01
Speaker 3: and I go through the whole thing and try to
33:03
Speaker 3: get an outline because when when you're scripting it, if
33:07
Speaker 3: you can at least put a few lines of dialogue
33:10
Speaker 3: in that paragraph that you've outlined that scene with. It
33:13
Speaker 3: gives you a jumping off place and you know where
33:15
Speaker 3: you're going next. And then, of course you change things
33:19
Speaker 3: as you go along, and not all outlines, not all
33:22
Speaker 3: scenes in the outline are going to make it into
33:24
Speaker 3: the script, and then you come up with new stuff
33:26
Speaker 3: as you go along too, but at least it gives
33:30
Speaker 3: you sort of a place to start with. And I
33:33
Speaker 3: just sort a little short film and I just kind
33:36
Speaker 3: of you know, did it in a week and just
33:38
Speaker 3: kind of chipped away at it like a page page
33:41
Speaker 3: and a half a day until I got it all done,
33:44
Speaker 3: like you know, thirteen fourteen pages, and then I sent
33:47
Speaker 3: it to some few people, got some feedback, did another
33:50
Speaker 3: draft of it, and now I think it's in pretty
33:52
Speaker 3: good shape. And so I think, you know, you think
33:56
Speaker 3: about these things for a while. You kind of like
33:59
Speaker 3: get a beginning, a middle, and an end and think about,
34:03
Speaker 3: you know, okay, you need the thene you need that theme.
34:05
Speaker 3: And I didn't outline that particular short film. I just
34:08
Speaker 3: actually just scripted it from just what I had in mind.
34:12
Speaker 3: So it's a little different with each project. But I
34:16
Speaker 3: think on a full feature. It's really good to do
34:19
Speaker 3: a detailed outline of the whole thing first. And I
34:22
Speaker 3: learned that from working with I used to write with
34:26
Speaker 3: Rick Overton. We were writing partners back in the eighties.
34:29
Speaker 3: We wrote some scripts for studios and a bunch of
34:32
Speaker 3: screenplays for Independence and whatnot. And I learned that technique
34:37
Speaker 3: from James Keach and Brian Grazer were the producers who
34:40
Speaker 3: were working with in the early days, and so that
34:44
Speaker 3: that's one of the things they like to do. And
34:48
Speaker 3: I think it works pretty well, you.
34:49
Speaker 4: Know, yeah, it's worked pretty well for especially Brian Grazer.
34:54
Speaker 3: Right well, it just gives you an overview of the movie.
34:58
Speaker 3: It's like, oh, okay, now I can kind of see
35:00
Speaker 3: what kind of movie where you know, we're trying to
35:02
Speaker 3: do here. Before you write the script, you kind of
35:04
Speaker 3: have an idea of how it's all going to go down.
35:07
Speaker 3: And a lot of writers say they just jump right
35:10
Speaker 3: into it and they just write right right and they
35:12
Speaker 3: don't even worry about the three act structure, but their
35:16
Speaker 3: scripts definitely fall short and kind of fall flat because
35:20
Speaker 3: of that. I've read a ton of scripts, and you know,
35:24
Speaker 3: if you don't have that three act structure, in there.
35:28
Speaker 3: It really can be quite problematic, you know, not that
35:32
Speaker 3: everything has to have that or that it should have that.
35:35
Speaker 3: I mean with Midlife, the three act structure was sort
35:38
Speaker 3: of hidden and it was not exactly the way it
35:41
Speaker 3: should be, but it was still there. You know, it
35:45
Speaker 3: was still there, And I think that's a good thing
35:50
Speaker 3: to have consciously when you approach an idea, because if
35:56
Speaker 3: it's not there, you're really on shaky ground. You're on
35:58
Speaker 3: shaky territory. And by that tree act structure, I mean
36:01
Speaker 3: like certain things have to happen to your lead character,
36:06
Speaker 3: you know, certain beats and certain things obstacles and the
36:10
Speaker 3: conflict testing creates and you know all those types of
36:13
Speaker 3: things that are script structure.
36:16
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, yeah, And you know that's something I've
36:19
Speaker 4: talked to before, especially with Alan Watt from Eli Raider's Lab.
36:22
Speaker 4: You know, we talked about, you know, what the three
36:24
Speaker 4: act structure is supposed to be, and you know, even
36:26
Speaker 4: even the different system that you've seen like Save the Cat,
36:28
Speaker 4: you know, really what they're trying to do is you know,
36:30
Speaker 4: not only is it trying to guide a transformation, but
36:33
Speaker 4: it's also you know, trying to just make sure that
36:35
Speaker 4: you're always amping it up so that way, you know,
36:37
Speaker 4: you don't sort of you know, on page fifteen, you know,
36:40
Speaker 4: you have some kind of climax, and the rest of
36:41
Speaker 4: the movie you just sort of, you know, just meandering.
36:43
Speaker 4: It's sort of, you know, just trying to give you
36:45
Speaker 4: like a blueprint of where to go right.
36:46
Speaker 3: And he's an expert at that, much more than I am.
36:49
Speaker 3: But the upping the andy on the conflict is an
36:53
Speaker 3: important element to keep in there so that the stakes
36:57
Speaker 3: get higher as you go along, you know, so absolutely,
37:02
Speaker 3: And that can apply to any kind of story, you know,
37:04
Speaker 3: whether you're doing something about a little kid or you know,
37:07
Speaker 3: whatever it is, the stakes keep getting higher and the
37:11
Speaker 3: conflict keeps getting more and more intense, you know. So
37:14
Speaker 3: that's what keeps the line of tension in place and
37:17
Speaker 3: keeps the audience wondering what's gonna happen next? Oh my god,
37:21
Speaker 3: you know, you can't get any worse, you know, especially
37:24
Speaker 3: in horror movies, that's a very prevalent technique to use.
37:31
Speaker 3: You know, when the girls trapped in a castle and
37:34
Speaker 3: she just keep one bad thing happens after another, and
37:37
Speaker 3: you know what, you know what the next bad thing
37:40
Speaker 3: that's going to happen. You know, it's like a horrific
37:43
Speaker 3: thing that's going to happen. It just keeps getting worse
37:45
Speaker 3: and worse. But yeah, yeah, so you know, knowing all
37:52
Speaker 3: of this, you know, and learning all of these things
37:54
Speaker 3: throughout the years is both the writer, actor and the
37:57
Speaker 3: filmmaker is just gives you more ammunition, gives you more
38:02
Speaker 3: confidence going into a project. And you know, films are
38:06
Speaker 3: tricky propositions. You know, they're just not a guarantee that
38:11
Speaker 3: they're going to work, even if you have a good script,
38:14
Speaker 3: even if you you know, have just thought about it
38:20
Speaker 3: and you've got it all worked out and you shoot
38:22
Speaker 3: it perfectly. I mean when people went to see The Shining,
38:25
Speaker 3: they were walking out on it. They didn't like it.
38:28
Speaker 3: You know, it wasn't like the book. Everybody was expecting,
38:31
Speaker 3: you know, Stanley to do the book and he didn't,
38:35
Speaker 3: and it just kind of you know, it didn't really
38:38
Speaker 3: shock you or scare you that much. It had a
38:41
Speaker 3: few scares in it, but not really that scary. But
38:45
Speaker 3: it took years for that film to sort of find
38:48
Speaker 3: its audience and find its place in the horror world,
38:52
Speaker 3: and now it's considered to be one of the best
38:54
Speaker 3: horror movies ever made. But believe me, when it came
38:58
Speaker 3: out in nineteen eighty, nobody knew what to it. They
39:00
Speaker 3: were just like, oh, that was weird, you know, they
39:05
Speaker 3: didn't know how great it was. In other words, is
39:07
Speaker 3: what I'm trying to say. And a lot of his
39:09
Speaker 3: movies are like that. They they tick time to kind
39:12
Speaker 3: of find their audience and to kind of become, you know,
39:16
Speaker 3: as great as they really are. But I don't know
39:19
Speaker 3: how he was able to do that, but somehow he
39:21
Speaker 3: did what he was Films are weird. I mean, you
39:24
Speaker 3: don't always get it the first viewing, you know, and
39:28
Speaker 3: then there's all different ways. If you view something by
39:31
Speaker 3: yourself on television, it doesn't always hit you. But when
39:34
Speaker 3: you see it with an audience in a theater, oh
39:36
Speaker 3: my god, it becomes a whole different thing. You know.
39:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know exactly what you mean with that, because
39:42
Speaker 4: you know, I've had that that happened to me with
39:44
Speaker 4: the certain movies. You know, it's sort of like the
39:47
Speaker 4: shared the shared experience in the theater. And then you know,
39:50
Speaker 4: you try to watch it at home atter wrong. You're
39:52
Speaker 4: like it didn't hit the same way, or even vice versa.
39:55
Speaker 4: You know, it's just very it's very interesting. And even
39:57
Speaker 4: David Lynch had said something about this, he said, you know,
39:59
Speaker 4: don't watch movies on your phone.
40:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
40:08
Speaker 1: and now back to the show.
40:12
Speaker 4: I don't know why people are trying to watch movies
40:14
Speaker 4: on their phone.
40:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's a certain mood, it's a certain
40:21
Speaker 3: excitement that goes along with seeing it on the big screen.
40:24
Speaker 3: You can see everything that the movie has to offer
40:27
Speaker 3: on the big screen, and it's the shared experience that
40:31
Speaker 3: makes it much more elevated and much more of an
40:33
Speaker 3: experience altogether. And yeah, I was real tickled being able
40:37
Speaker 3: to show some of my films to a full pack
40:41
Speaker 3: theater and see the true reactions. And it's amazing. You know,
40:45
Speaker 3: some of the things that I've seen a thousand times
40:47
Speaker 3: and didn't think we're that funny get big laughs and
40:50
Speaker 3: you're just going, what was that all about? I didn't
40:53
Speaker 3: think that would get a laugh? But it does. You
40:56
Speaker 3: just never know, You just never know about you know,
41:00
Speaker 3: certain things in your own movie that you think, you
41:02
Speaker 3: don't even think about them, you know, and then all
41:04
Speaker 3: of a sudden people are reacting to it. And it's
41:07
Speaker 3: just amazing, you know, and just constantly surprising. Yeah, you know,
41:12
Speaker 3: very true.
41:13
Speaker 4: You know, it's you know, a lot of these things
41:15
Speaker 4: can become very subjective, you know, they sort of you know,
41:18
Speaker 4: something's hit, some things don't later on, and then vice versa.
41:21
Speaker 3: And it meaning A problem with sending your movie to
41:23
Speaker 3: a distributor online on a file is like, you know, well,
41:27
Speaker 3: how is this guy going to watch this thing? Is
41:29
Speaker 3: he going to watch it while he's you know, on
41:31
Speaker 3: his laptop on the bus on the way home. Is
41:34
Speaker 3: he going to watch it on his phone? Or is
41:36
Speaker 3: he going to put it on the big screen when
41:37
Speaker 3: he gets home and sit back with some friends and
41:40
Speaker 3: watch it. You know, I mean, they say they, you
41:43
Speaker 3: know they. I don't think anybody can really watch a
41:47
Speaker 3: film by themselves on a small device and really have
41:52
Speaker 3: a good response to it. You know, nothing looks as
41:56
Speaker 3: good on a small device by yourself. I don't care
42:00
Speaker 3: who you are. You know, you're not going to respond
42:02
Speaker 3: to it as much as if, you say, with a
42:04
Speaker 3: few other people, because you're you're focusing more on the
42:07
Speaker 3: movie or watching the movie with other people in the
42:10
Speaker 3: room than you are by yourself. You get distracted you
42:13
Speaker 3: put it down, you stop it for a while. That's
42:16
Speaker 3: not the way a movie is supposed to be. It's
42:17
Speaker 3: a book, it's a it's a one thing, it's a
42:20
Speaker 3: one time. You got to go from A to Z
42:23
Speaker 3: with it, you know.
42:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I want to ask you know, since the
42:29
Speaker 4: you know, your movie Dark Sduction comes out today as
42:32
Speaker 4: you know this podcast is being released. You know, Greg,
42:34
Speaker 4: where can people find Dark Seduction at?
42:36
Speaker 3: It is going to be on pay per view, movie
42:40
Speaker 3: on demand. You can order the BVD on Amazon. I
42:43
Speaker 3: think it's going to be on iTunes and all of
42:46
Speaker 3: the pay per view cable outlets in North America and
42:52
Speaker 3: and just you know, look it up online Dark Seduction
42:57
Speaker 3: pay per view or Dark Seduction VOD video onto MA
43:00
Speaker 3: in in your area. So it's going to be on
43:02
Speaker 3: cable outlets and video on demand outlets. And that's about
43:09
Speaker 3: all I can tell you. I mean, it's gonna be
43:11
Speaker 3: on so many of them. I don't know all the listings,
43:14
Speaker 3: you know, but it should be available you know, Amazon,
43:19
Speaker 3: iTunes and all the cable pay per views, so we'll
43:26
Speaker 3: should be able to find it pretty easily.
43:29
Speaker 4: And for everyone listening, I'm going to make sure to
43:32
Speaker 4: link to that in the show notes as soon as
43:34
Speaker 4: I can find a you know, the where I can
43:37
Speaker 4: sort of send you to, like maybe even Amazon or
43:39
Speaker 4: gave an Xbox or all of them. So that way,
43:41
Speaker 4: I'll put a few links in the show notes. You know, Greg, Greg,
43:45
Speaker 4: you know, as we're talking, I have some Twitter questions
43:48
Speaker 4: that came in. Would you mind answering one or two
43:49
Speaker 4: matter every tournay todays up.
43:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
43:52
Speaker 4: My first question is what do you recommend for a
43:56
Speaker 4: first time filmmaker in directing actors?
44:00
Speaker 3: That seems to be a tough thing. I think first
44:03
Speaker 3: time director might do himself a big favor by maybe
44:07
Speaker 3: taking an acting class. Guys that are coming more from
44:12
Speaker 3: a script or an editing position and then moving up
44:15
Speaker 3: to directing their own things might consider taking an acting
44:22
Speaker 3: class just to get an idea of watching the teacher
44:25
Speaker 3: direct actors and watching the actors work out a thene
44:29
Speaker 3: and rehearse a scene and how it's all supposed to
44:33
Speaker 3: go down. Because in actuality there's a camera rehearsal with
44:39
Speaker 3: the actors rehearsal. Sometimes there's a couple of actors rehearsals
44:43
Speaker 3: before the camera comes in, so that you can kind
44:46
Speaker 3: of find the choreography and find the way you want
44:50
Speaker 3: to do it, and then the camera guy comes in
44:53
Speaker 3: and starts seeing how he can shoot the scene along
44:57
Speaker 3: with the actors rehearsing it, and then you break for
45:01
Speaker 3: makeup and touch ups and whatever else you need to do,
45:04
Speaker 3: and then you come back and you're ready to go,
45:06
Speaker 3: and then you shoot it. But you know, reading books
45:12
Speaker 3: about acting, and it's a little over complicated. I mean,
45:16
Speaker 3: there's this whole methodology that you know, there's different branches
45:20
Speaker 3: of the method and all of that is well and good,
45:23
Speaker 3: but that's usually the actor's responsibility to take that on
45:26
Speaker 3: and learn that and use that as his own technique
45:30
Speaker 3: and part of his craft to get where he needs
45:32
Speaker 3: to be for an imaginary scene, you know, And so
45:38
Speaker 3: directing actors in that, you know, if they need a
45:42
Speaker 3: little time to cry, if they need a little time
45:46
Speaker 3: to get into a certain headspace, an intensity or something,
45:50
Speaker 3: you give them that time as long as it's not
45:53
Speaker 3: too long a time. Give them a little, you know,
45:56
Speaker 3: a minute or so to to do what they need
45:59
Speaker 3: to do to get there, and you're better served. Sometimes
46:03
Speaker 3: that's what it is. Sometimes Sometimes actors are you know,
46:09
Speaker 3: in character, and they stay in character, and so there's
46:13
Speaker 3: that to consider. Sometimes they're in a certain mood that
46:19
Speaker 3: will help them create the character and the mood that
46:22
Speaker 3: they're trying to achieve, and so you can't you kind
46:26
Speaker 3: of have to kind of watch out for that sometimes,
46:29
Speaker 3: and you know, and then some actors, you know, just
46:32
Speaker 3: drop it the minute the ul cut and they're themselves again,
46:36
Speaker 3: and then they jump back into character, you know, when
46:39
Speaker 3: the cameras roll. So there's all kinds of different ways
46:42
Speaker 3: that actors approach it and you just have to be
46:45
Speaker 3: aware of all of that as a director. But basically,
46:50
Speaker 3: you know, you've got to know when somebody hits a
46:53
Speaker 3: sour note and of a line reading is not very good.
46:58
Speaker 3: You really have to be able to tell that and
47:02
Speaker 3: tell the actor how you want to adjust it. Not
47:05
Speaker 3: doing a line you're reading for the actor, but go,
47:07
Speaker 3: let's try that a little quicker, or try it a
47:10
Speaker 3: little different way. It just seemed kind of falling, it
47:13
Speaker 3: didn't sound real, or you know, something to that nature
47:17
Speaker 3: where they you know, they get an idea, but you're
47:20
Speaker 3: not insulting in them at the same time, because you
47:22
Speaker 3: want to be really nice to your actors. You don't
47:24
Speaker 3: want to be mean to them at all, because then
47:26
Speaker 3: they get upset and they get nervous and they don't
47:28
Speaker 3: perform as well. Yeah.
47:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, And you know, just one thing that someone who
47:35
Speaker 4: once told me too it really helped me out when
47:37
Speaker 4: I was, you know, making my student film was and
47:39
Speaker 4: it's something you touched on Greg, which it reminded me
47:42
Speaker 4: of was trying things a little bit differently. And it's
47:45
Speaker 4: sort of what his mistake was the guy give me
47:48
Speaker 4: advice was when he made a student film, he would
47:50
Speaker 4: do every take exactly the same way, so every actor,
47:54
Speaker 4: every performance was the exact same way. Lighting, same way, camera,
47:57
Speaker 4: same way. Well, finally he realized, wait a minute, I
47:59
Speaker 4: really all my takes are pretty much the same. So
48:01
Speaker 4: you know, take you know, take one a you know,
48:03
Speaker 4: take one is the same as take ten. So really,
48:06
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, he said, you know
48:07
Speaker 4: what I should have done was after each take, I
48:10
Speaker 4: should have just tweaked that performance, make that adjustment, you know,
48:14
Speaker 4: and just sort of try everything a different way, so
48:17
Speaker 4: to speak, to sort of try to find the best
48:18
Speaker 4: sort of way to handle a scene.
48:20
Speaker 3: Well, I mean you're going for something very specific. I
48:24
Speaker 3: mean that's the thing. If like I'm a character like,
48:26
Speaker 3: I just did this little horror movie called The borneerless Ones.
48:31
Speaker 3: It's uh, I think it's coming out later in October
48:35
Speaker 3: or whatever, but I saw it at a festival a
48:38
Speaker 3: couple of weeks ago. And you know, if I'm a
48:42
Speaker 3: creepy guy at a gas station, which I play in
48:44
Speaker 3: this film, there's just so much leeway on each line
48:51
Speaker 3: that I've got to work with. I'm going for a
48:54
Speaker 3: specific kind of insulting, kind of creepy, kind of hardcore
48:59
Speaker 3: feeling with this character, So I don't have a lot
49:03
Speaker 3: of latitude. I'm really trying to pinpoint that feeling and
49:08
Speaker 3: that that character, you know, And I think that's kind
49:13
Speaker 3: of unless you're a character that's all over the place.
49:16
Speaker 3: That's kind of what you're trying to do is, you know, endpoints,
49:20
Speaker 3: your reactions, pinpoints, your your your lines to define the
49:27
Speaker 3: character that you're playing, to be that character and how
49:31
Speaker 3: that feels with a character. And there is a right
49:34
Speaker 3: and wrong in that, I do believe. You know, sometimes
49:37
Speaker 3: it feels more like the character, and then you say
49:39
Speaker 3: it slow or you say it in a different way
49:41
Speaker 3: than it doesn't feel like the character. And so that's
49:44
Speaker 3: what you're doing. You're just trying to get that meter
49:47
Speaker 3: as close to that character as possible. You know, yeah,
49:52
Speaker 3: I think that's great advice. I think it's great advice. Greg.
49:55
Speaker 4: You know, Greg, you know, just in closing, you know,
49:58
Speaker 4: we've been talking for about, you know, about forty five minutes.
50:02
Speaker 1: Now we'll be right back after a word from our
50:05
Speaker 1: sponsor and now back to the show.
50:13
Speaker 4: So in closing, is there anything that maybe we didn't
50:15
Speaker 4: want to discuss that you want to sort of talk about,
50:17
Speaker 4: or is there any sort of thing you want to
50:19
Speaker 4: sort of any parting thoughts you have for us. It's
50:21
Speaker 4: sort of for the period end this whole conversation.
50:24
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, I've done a lot of
50:26
Speaker 3: different aspects of the business, and it's a very difficult business.
50:30
Speaker 3: I don't recommend it to anybody, but I at the
50:33
Speaker 3: same time realized that film is a big thing, and
50:36
Speaker 3: I would say, continue to support movies by going to
50:42
Speaker 3: the movies, maybe not so many you know, comic book blockbusters,
50:47
Speaker 3: but more independent cinema, because we still want to see
50:50
Speaker 3: movies in the theater, and we still want to support
50:52
Speaker 3: the theater showings of films. And you know, I would say,
50:58
Speaker 3: don't pirate movies. Don't download pirated films because that only
51:03
Speaker 3: hurts the filmmaker and it makes it much more difficult
51:06
Speaker 3: to put films out there. You know, everybody wants something
51:10
Speaker 3: for free on the internet. But we still we got
51:12
Speaker 3: to get our money back, and we've got to try
51:14
Speaker 3: to support the films that are made on a shoestring
51:19
Speaker 3: budget that are good by paying a little you know,
51:22
Speaker 3: four or five bucks to see them, you know. And
51:24
Speaker 3: I don't think there's anything you know, I think that's
51:27
Speaker 3: an honorable way to go, and I think that's what
51:29
Speaker 3: we as film lovers, you know, should do. That's the
51:34
Speaker 3: right thing to do. And you know, I'm hoping everybody
51:38
Speaker 3: will enjoy Dark Seduction. And I've got another film, Midlife,
51:41
Speaker 3: that's on iTunes and Indie Rain and a few other
51:44
Speaker 3: outlets out there, and check that out. But Dark Seduction
51:48
Speaker 3: is the big one, and it's you know, it's very
51:52
Speaker 3: comic book, it's very cultish, it's very dark and moody,
51:57
Speaker 3: but it's also extremely funny and I'm super proud of it.
52:01
Speaker 3: And it's kind of different. It's it's unique, it's got
52:05
Speaker 3: its own little thing going. Yeah, So I hope people
52:09
Speaker 3: dig it.
52:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I'll make sure to again, everyone's going to
52:13
Speaker 4: link to that in the show notes as well, especially
52:15
Speaker 4: to you know, Greg's films.
52:17
Speaker 3: And there's also a dark Seduction page on Facebook, and
52:20
Speaker 3: there's a dark Seduction Twitter on Twitter. So yeah, the
52:25
Speaker 3: Facebook page is what I'm using now is and my
52:28
Speaker 3: website is Gtfilm Productions dot com is my production company website.
52:36
Speaker 4: You read my mind, Greg sows. The next question we
52:39
Speaker 4: repind you I do online an you're on Twitter too, right.
52:42
Speaker 3: Yes, Greg the actor on Twitter. And then there's a
52:46
Speaker 3: dark Underslash Underslash seductions that's on Twitter as well.
52:53
Speaker 4: So Greg, Greg Travis, I want to say thank you
52:56
Speaker 4: so much for coming on again. I always learned a
53:00
Speaker 4: lot from my guests, and you know, Greg, you've continued
53:03
Speaker 4: that that line of education, and I you know, this
53:07
Speaker 4: has just been a phenomenal interview, especially because I don't
53:09
Speaker 4: get enough actors on that. That's the case usually you
53:12
Speaker 4: know a lot of screenwriters, a lot of directors, a
53:14
Speaker 4: lot of producers. I don't get enough actors on here.
53:16
Speaker 4: Greg Travis, I want to say thank you so much
53:18
Speaker 4: for coming on and I wish you the best with
53:20
Speaker 4: Dark Siding.
53:21
Speaker 3: Thanks to you, Dave, I really appreciate it. Good luck
53:23
Speaker 3: with everything.
53:24
Speaker 4: Oh thank you sir, And if you ever feel like
53:26
Speaker 4: you want to come back on, I would love to
53:27
Speaker 4: have you on anytime. I really look forward to see
53:29
Speaker 4: what you're going to do in.
53:30
Speaker 3: The Fiatre asolutely thanks to Dave appreciate it.
53:33
Speaker 1: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
53:35
Speaker 1: a great job on this episode. If you want to
53:36
Speaker 1: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
53:38
Speaker 1: head over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot
53:42
Speaker 1: tv for it. Slash four, thank you so much for listening, guys,
53:45
Speaker 1: As always, keep on writing no matter what. I'll talk
53:48
Speaker 1: to you soon.
53:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
53:53
Speaker 2: Screenwriting dot tv.