BPS 455: How to Turn a Script Into a Movie Without Hollywood’s Help with Chris Jay

and we wanted to focus on that. At Bulletproof script coverage, our readers have worked with Marvel Studios, CIA, w MEE, NBC, HBO, Disney, Scott Free, Warner Brothers, The Blacklist, and many many more. So if you need your screenplay or TV script covered by professional readers, head on over to covermiscreenplay dot Com. Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullets.

of this. It was a really interesting experience. But you look on the back of these resumes, Dave and some of these people, you don't know who the person is, you've never heard of them, but they've been on the coolest stuff in the world, Like oh my god, you were on Friends and you were on Seinfeld and blah

blah blah blah blah. And then at the bottom there's like a little note that just says featured extra, you know, and it's like, wait a minute, You're like an extra just showing up for lunch, which is badass, you know what I mean. But it's crazy that you put this on your resume, you know.

I mean, I always love music and I always love movies. Quite frankly, nothing else really interests me period. I like wrestling too, in boxing, but that's getting off off topic. But with that said, so I did the music thing. Man in arm Freshman was one of those bands that didn't blow up. We were always opening up for bigger bands, but we'd be like the first band on the bill, Like we'd come and play the Trocadero in Philly or the TLA, right, but we wouldn't be the band on

the marquee. We would be the band that you didn't know that played first, right, And it was it was awesome, man. We got to travel around the world, and I mean I put my blood, sweat, tears, heart. I spent my whole twenties and practically early thirties doing Army of freshmen. And right around the time that we were close to finally signing a major label deal in the late two thousands, which in the old music industry was like, you know,

that was the goal, right, that was the goal. And dude, downloading cane and it came like a violent, terrible, evil wave and it literally destroyed bands of my size. And we were the middle class bands, if that makes sense, you know, like we weren't the big boys, but we weren't the garage bands. We were just those hard working bands Chris Cross in the United States and Europe in mini bands. You know, it was really honorable and noble and you could make enough to maybe pay the rent

and eat, right. But when downloading came and then the what the financial collapse in two thousand and eight, dude, it just all went to hell and you quick, you know, it was really really ugly for the music business. And with that said, we were very close to signing to a major label and the A and R guy that was ready to do the deal. Literally the financial collapse hit. They froze all signings for the year. Right, So I'm like,

oh my god, Oh my god, what's going on. Literally thirty days later, I called to check in to see how things are working and see if we could do the deal in January, something I had been working for basically my whole life, right, Dave, And the receptionist says he was fired and there's nobody else to talk theory is the only A and R guy that wanted us. So I kind of went through, I don't want to say a depression, but I really had to take a

hard look at my life. And I had always bounced around the idea of writing a screenplay because I'm a writer, like I would pay the bills kind of doing freelance journalism for local newspapers and stuff, Right, So I always wanted to write a film just because I'm in I'm in southern California, right, Dave, like everybody, every waiter's got an idea for a movie, right, and that it would

be fun to do, not even necessarily to make. So I got with my partner in the band, Aaron Goldberg, who co wrote the screenplay with me, and I got in touch with a producer friend by the name of Reza Riazzi who had produced one of our videos. And this is kind of like the key link here to the story. Reza kind of guided us along. So we

were first time screenwriters, right, but he helped us. He kind of gave us just the you know, just kind of the focus of what we're trying to do and trying to get across, and he kind of guided the screenplay and we worked on it off and on for a while. We didn't sit down for like two weeks, Sylvester Stalone style and cram out Rocky. You know, there

was a work in progress here and there. We got to the point where we thought it was pretty good, and Resa thought the same thing, and we made the decision that I spent my whole life doing music, going in front of and our guys, you know, begging to get signed or get this or kissing button giving demo tape that I said, you know what, if we're gonna do this movie, let's just do it right, Like, no

matter how much money we get. If we get ten thousand dollars and we've got to turn it into a short film and shoot it in my garage on an iPhone, let's do it. Let's just not have anybody tell us we can't do this. I didn't want to be begging for people to read a screenplay because think of that, Dave, who the hell is going to read a raunchy comedy screenplay first time screenwriters? Oh and they were in a

rock band. I mean that just sounds awful, Like I wouldn't want to read that if that was the background and you gave it to me. So I kind of knew going in that we were going to have to do it on our own. And we set out at that point too, let's make this movie. You know, Amresa agreed to produce it, and he had produced some indie films before. So the good news is we had somebody helping us. And that's the key thing. I don't want you to think that we were just two guys from

a band that just did all this. We had somebody guiding us, but there was no money. He just hopped on because I think at that point he had given us so much advice. He had taken a little sabbatical because he had a film that really got taken from him and turned upside down, and he kind of moved into stand up and I think this was an opportunity to like, hey, maybe I can get back in the game a little bit, and let's find a young, hungry director.

And that's basically the genesis. I know that's a lot of backstory, but I think it's important to know because we didn't come from movies at all. The closest we had to that was I mean I was an extra in one or two movies, a featured extra, right and then also making our music videos. But that was it, man. I mean, we as screenwriters went into this blind. We just had that determination from the indie music world that we weren't gonna we were gonna do it, you know

what I mean. We came from a very diy music background, and I think we sort of took those ethics and put it into the film. So that's how we got to the point of, yes, we're making a movie. And there's a long backstory, and I'm sorry for that day.

really like really burning out. And then basically I still, if that's right, around of time, I ended up helping King Kong Bundy, So I had that match sorted like, and I still had tons of contacts and they were like, oh, I hope you're not going to leave, and I said yeah, I said, you know, I'm not six foot four, I'm five foot nine, you know what I mean. I'm a ginger who's going to cheer a five foot nine ginger?

still lived. And I was always fascinated to see where these girls that I had crushes on where they ended up. And I don't mean that in a negative way, but just like, man, in the sixth grade, this girl was, you know, the hottest girl in school, or the girl that I just had a crush on, or whatever it may be. And you know what would happen if you met your crush twenty years later? Like where are they? Who are they? And that kind of just kind of bounced around in my head and at one point I

don't have her Uretha moment or I remember it. I just always remember when I thought a movie idea is that that was at the top of my list. A guy gets in a bet where he's got to go back and meet every girl that he had a crush on in high school. Because it's essentially just a fantasy that I assume I'd like to have, but the reality is it's not going to be all good. Just because that girl was the cutest girl in sixth grade, she could be like, you know, a white trash drug addict.

And I thought, what would be funny about that premise is if the guy had to hook up with the girl, right, no matter what scenario she's in, He's got to bite the bullet and do so. And it just kind of sounded like it would be a good, fun, raunchy, wacky movie, and I just that was the genesis. So I think it was kind of an influenced by having met some of the girls I went to school with and being oh,

jeez man, that was my cross. Glad that didn't work out right, But at the same time, I think it lent itself to a good premise and it, you know, just kind of once Aaron came in and started writing it together. You know, that's the fun part about script writing. As much as you set it up, you go down different avenues with the script. The new characters get introduced and things change, and I find that such a fun

and fascinating process. How different the project is like because when you think about it at first, because you're a writer, Dave, you know, you see it just like this word for word, and it's got to be like this, and these are the characters and this is a story. But when you start writing that, baby, these characters kind of take a life for their own and even in a silly launchy movie like ours directions, they start moving in different places and you you know, motivations and scenes and that's a

fun process. I think it's really when you know, when you're just cooking with gas and you really like where something's going with a script. That's a cool moment. Man, that energy if you can capture it. And I like writing with a partner because I think you can really feed on off people. I think it would be very difficult if I wrote a screenplay by myself, because you don't have that quality control of the other person.

that's what you need. You need to always, you know, be excited to come back to it when you cause you got to write. You know, nobody sits down, just writes out the whole thing and one one foul swoop. You know, you come back and you write it in pieces. You know, you write three pages, five pages, and you when you come back, you always have to have that that excitement and you know what I mean, You have to have that excitement of Okay, I see where it's going,

what's going to happen? Now, I'm going to be just as surprised as the audience, you know what I mean. So when you were writing this, Chris, I wanted to ask, you know, did you buy any of those writing books, like You Have a Key Story or Save the cap I Blakesciter. Did you buy any of those books?

you know, But I definitely grabbed. Uh, you know, once we're getting ready to make the movie, I ordered a book online. It was like the Real Truth about Indie filmmaking, a complete guide from top to bottom, right, that kind of deal, you know, and uh, you'll love this. But you know, the book now, I keep it by the bathroom.

It's like the bathroom read dude, the thing was made like five years ago, okay, And as I'm reading it getting ready to make the movie, just looking for pointers, you know, half the information was defunct and the book was only five years old. Like they were talking about like, well this new Netflix saying nobody's really figured it out yet, and you know, they're talking about Lonely Girl fifteen was an internet phenomenon. But how can you? I mean, and

I'm like, my god, this is garbage. I mean, things are moving so fast in the world of technology and film that a book, and a definitive book on the subject in two thousand and twelve is now literally archaic. And that's that's wild to me. So it's almost like what the hell do you read unless you read the most recent stuff on the internet. I don't know if anything could really help, you know.

do any of that. I could use my phone. I don't need a DV tape. I could you know, an edit and I movie or edit and Windows movie maker or Premiere, whatever one I wants to, I can just put it right to YouTube. Wild huh.

That's process. Isn't supposed to be like that, Like where's the growth, where's the learning? And I think the same thing has happened to film, where it's certainly a much more complicated process than writing a song, of course, no doubt.

then you slowly grow and get better at it. Now kids are making their very first thing and throwing it up on YouTube hoping they get like a viral thing. I don't know, it's just it just seems it's like it's a hard time for the cream to you know, was it the Crean Rise at the Top or whatever the saying is. I just it's just really muddy. Man. Technology has made things so awesome. We could never make

the movie that we made without it. But at the same time, I am also aware that there's a lot of films maybe some people would think are film that are being made and it's almost, you know, blocking the path for other movies. It's a weird time, man. I feel like we're just living in a very strange age, you know.

your rights. I want to sell this. I mean, but you're right there are a lot more players out there now, but you know, I think that as long as you have something that is that can stand above anybody else.

I had Paul Patido on here and he and I were talking about the exact same thing, because he was always saying, you know, he tells his film students, you know, you have to make something, and they're saying, well, there's like ten chillion things on on YouTube right now, and he says, you have you know, how do you stand out? How do you get on the front page of iTunes? How do you get on the front page of Netflix?

You know what I mean? And it's just all and it just it really depends upon what's hot, your concept, how polished it is. I mean, you have a lot of different factors. Now maybe it's the same factors always have been there, but they're always but you know, they're always have to sort of work out, like in your favor.

Like we were talking earlier in the pre interview. Maybe you know, some guy, some somebody, some guy wakes up, has a great morning and all of a sudden, your TV polic gets made, you know what I mean?

the music world about ten years ago. Right. Yes. I used to tell kids, dude, just get in the van, man, just do it, dude, just go for it, just do it. You know, good bad, learn, go do it, dedicate some time. And now I don't say that. And it really freaks me out that if a kid comes to me and says, we just started a band, what do we do? I don't tell him to hop in a van. Where are they gonna go, where are they gonna play? Who's gonna

give a shit? You know? And I wonder in some ways, if it's that similar to the film world, you know, like if a kid right out of the gate wants to do it, I mean it's probably not you know, I don't want to say going for the big time the brass ring, but it's probably much more honing your craft on web series and smaller things instead of jumping right into it, you know, guns blazing, you know. I

just it's strange, man, you know. And I come from such a different perspective because I didn't have that educated film background that somebody like yourself does. So I think some of the reason we got this made was sheer tenacity and dumb luck and a lack of education, because I think if we knew what we were getting into and how much time it would be and how expensive it would be, we probably wouldn't have done it, you know.

And that's kind of that. Sometimes being naive can lead to good things if you're willing to put the work in. You know, a lot of people I think, too Mercy see hon Us Dave, they were just like, you're doing what, Like you can't do that? Oh god, okay, well let me help you. Good luck, good luck falling on your face on this one, good luck making a feature film, come on, you know. And somehow we pulled it off. But we surrounded ourselves with good people to help pull

it off. But I mean, man, people heard our budget. When people here were we wanted to shoot it in Ventura and not Los Angeles, they were looking at us like we were lunatics, dude. I mean, like, you know, the cool thing is we proved a lot of people wrong. We got it done, but it was a painful, long process. It was not smooth sailing.

first draft or two drafts that we did. We turned it into you know, Reza who was kind of helping us and giving us some guidance, who ended up producing the film, and he was like, man, he was like, there's something wrong with your final draft and we're like, what do you mean, he was like, don't tell me you type this, and we're like yeah, he was like, oh my god, you know what I mean. He was like, dude, he was like that's remarkable. He was like, how long

did this take? And we're like, what would take hours? You know, we'd write it and then spend another couple hours like indenting, indenting in denting, centering, you know, bracketing. I mean, it was trial by fire man. If you can believe that we did get final draft, then it was like, oh no, you know, like it just changed everything. But you like, literally that's how backwards were. It was like Mick foley Wright in his biography on pen and paper.

You know, it's like there's something kind of cool about that, but I can't believe we did it. I'd love to get those hours of my life back.

because every note has changed my life. Because that's where I just if I have an idea, pulled my phone and go okay, hold on, let me just write this down real quick. Okay, so you know what I mean, I just type like that and then I'll come back later on and put you know, pull it all up and then go, okay, now I'll get into a final draft or fade in and wherever I'm using.

and then they bang scripts out. I mean you just kind of wonder as much as it's made things easier, like has that affected worth work ethic in a lot of ways?

You know. We went the mom and dad, you know, aunts and uncles, Aaron and I you know, literally pitched them personally. A couple people came in with just a little bit of money. We found a couple thousand dollars to be completely blunt. And what we did, Dave, is we used that as seed money to try and find bigger money. And what I mean is, if you're trying to let's say take me or you need to fly somewhere or whatever it.

we printed pitch packs. We you know, put a little budget for travel, we put a little budget for food, and we sort of use that for a money to try and find more money, if that does that make sense. So we didn't take the first five grand and like, hey, here's our first five grand for the movie. We took it as almost our money. And I had to give ourselves a couple of bucks not to lie to you, so we could take a little time off work and

actively take two months right and look for money. So that's what we did, and I think maybe that's a little different than most people you know, because I think some people put the money away in the budget for the film, but then how do they you know, how do they fly out to get that meeting? How do they do this or that? And I think talking to somebody in person is infinitely always better when you're talking about finances. You know, you can look them in the eye,

they can see your passion. It's it's it's real, it's tangible. You're dealing with the human being, you know. And this is what happened. This is how we got our executive producers. First off, luck is a huge part of it. But obviously being an army of freshmen, right, we had, you know, a lot of connections in the music world. We were I was friends with and very kind of casual friends obviously now grown to be very close friends, but casual friends with to if you can believe this, theater producers

in the United Kingdom. Fat When I say theater, I mean theater, you know, like musicals, like shows, right, And I know that they have been friends with some other bands that I that I was friends with, and I knew that they were visiting the United States, and uh, you know, they kind of told me once say, if you ever have some projects going on. Just keep us posted,

you know, that kind of thing. But basically, I knew these were people that were open to the arts, if that makes sense, because they came from a theatrical background. So I reached out to them because I knew they're going to be in the United States. I said, hey, I'd have this project i'd love to tell you about. They said, hey, come on out. And this is completely true. And this is where I talk about the seed money.

They were going to be in Disneyland, and I live in California, so they were going to be in the you know, Disney, the Disney in Florida, right, So we took We took the last money and the pot right, bought a plane ticket, bought a cheap motel six, got the cheapest rental possible, okay, and I flew out by myself because we couldn't afford to bring Rezer Aaron with me,

that's a co writer and the producer. And I met them at Disneyland, and I sat down over lunch at Disney, right, and I told them what we were doing, and I told them what we were trying to do, and I told them we were looking for you know, executive producers and investor for the project. And I gave them, you know, two budgets. You know, I gave them the the not the ghetto backyard budget, but I gave them our moderate and I gave them our ideal. And again when I

say ideal, it wasn't like, hey, millions more. I'm talking like, hey, another twenty thousand dollars or something, right, And they said, okay, well think about it. Thanks, she's talking to us, blah blah blah. And then about two weeks later, I got an email saying that they're in. They were down to be the lead investor, you know, as long as we could find a couple other smaller investors to you know, do it. And that was that we were off and run. And literally that is the story of how we got

our executive producers for the project. And I have to say this because you just got to plug the people to help you. Right. Their names are Craig Beach and Teresa Beach, theatrical producers over in the United Kingdom, and they were so awesome. Literally, I tell other people about our executive producers and they're like, they start crying because they can't believe it because usually the executive producers are, Hell, when's it getting released? When are we getting our money?

What's going on? How come it's taken so long?

my project filmed? Find a couple dollars and almost use that as as I say, seed money, but use it as the money that you're going to use to try and find the investors, if that makes sense at all. Almost like find a little bit of money just to be able to give yourself a month or two months to send emails all day and make phone call day and connect dots like these are dots. I wasn't in film where I just called up a film producer and

they said, I want to back your movie, right. I was in music and I knew somebody in music that had been involved in some musicals in the UK, so I knew they were involved in theatrical projects, right. I has a bit of a relationship with them, So it was outside the box. And I think in this day and age, that's the only way to find money for

film unless you're one of the big daddies. And I may be wrong, but unless you're a big daddy, or unless your parents are filthy rich, which mine certainly are not, you have to think outside the box. You have to look in different places. So this small, tiny, micro budget, raunchy indie comedy essentially was made and executive produced by

to theatrical producers in another country. So I know that's a bit of a long story, but I just want to stress that if someone's looking for money, you've got to look in places where maybe people haven't looked before. Theater people help make a movie as opposed to movie people that are bitter, right, and they've gone down that road, and they know how difficult it is for any film.

Theater people actually found it more fascinating then then then actual film producers who we met with that just rolled their eyes and said, good luck.

this is this is still cool to them. And if you do get some film people, there's a lot of bitter, burned out people in the film industry and they just sort of go, oh, another film, blah blah blah. And and that's why I try to be the difference to that. You know, I'm always trying. I always try to stay upbeat and positive. And you know, and it's the same

thing too, you know, for you know, everyone listening. If you're gonna make a production staff or whatever crew you have, make sure that they all believe in the project and that no one is negative or bitter, because that attitude spreads like a virus.

DP that's thrilled to be there, you know. I'd rather have somebody that maybe's not on a TV show and I found him in a theater program, but they're believing in that character. They're becoming that character, because dude, that jadedness is terrifying. And the great thing that we did one of the key things to get this thing done because I'm Tony. We didn't have enough money to do it, Dave, we didn't have enough time to do it. We didn't have enough people to do it. But we got people

that were stoked. We got our director. Our producer knew a guy that was doing a web series. Right, didn't go to film school. Director by the name of Ryan Ederer. Right, had never done a feature, had never done a TV show. We literally had just done a web series, right, and our producer, when he was looking for the director for this, went to see him work on a web series. He had mutual friends and he said the director was holding the boom mic and shouting instructions right, and also running

to get coffee for everybody. And he said, that's when he knew this could be our guy, right, because he was so passionate right over a little web series that most likely no one's going to see. How passionate would he be if he got to do a very very small feature. So we met with him at a Denny's. Right. You know, he actually reminds me of you, to be quite frank, you know, because just because he's positive like that.

And he just said, guys, if you let me direct this movie, all I want to do is direct a feature. He said, I will quit my job. I'm a waiter in LA I will quit my job for pre production and for the filming, and for at least a solid month after done. I will live on nothing, you know. I mean, we gave him peanut s day pen. Everybody worked for so cheap on this, but I think it was we found the good people. But I also think they believed in my passion, in Aaron's passion and ress passion.

I mean when I hunted down some of the casts, which are some really super crazy cool stories, but dude, I was coming to them with nothing, but I was coming to them with passion, you know what I mean, Like please, you know, you know, just like, let's get behind this if that makes sense and it appeals to a certain type of person. Not everybody, dude, some people blew me right off, right, but you'd be surprised some of the cool little people you can pull because they're

just good people. At the end of the day, it's getting to them. It's getting to them. It's all connections, and it's all how do you get to that person? You know?

And and you know, because I've been on those sets, Chris, you know where all of a sudden, someone comes in and they're like, oh, this is okay, We'll get someone to be here. And then then you have people who were just flat out like, oh, I don't you know, I don't want to be here anyway. This thing's gonna suck. Let me tell you about mine. Let me I have

a real quick story. I was on a film set one time, and this is years ago, when I was just goofing now making a student film, and I had this guy come on and all he did all this he was he's my director of cinematography, and he came recommended by this other guy I know, and all he did was tell everybody about his latest project. He could you could not stop him from talking about it between takes. All he did he's like, you know what this reminds

me of mind my movieah blah blah blah. Like Jesus Christ, you know, I got it, dude, You're making a zombie film. Congratula, congratulations. You know there's twenty five coultrillion of them. You know, you know you can add here.

of filming here. We you know, we are making the tiniest movie of all time. Like we don't have time for this, Like we just stay on board here, man, call next week and we'll talk about the zombie movie.

great for these roles. Let's try them first. I got an actor buddy that was in this other indie. I did try him, and lo and behold. I look at the cast. There's a handfield of people that we got from open casting. And we had huge open casting. We brought tons of people in, but I'd say seventy five percent of that cast is a direct connection in one way or another. It's probably only a handful of people that we walk in and didn't know and they just

kick so much, but we put them in. And I think a lot of people like to work with who they know. But there's a reality to that. So it's good to make a lot of friendships and connections because you got a better chance of getting thrown into a film as an actor if you're a waiter with the director who just got this small indie then just going to an open casting call. I almost wonder if it's even possible to do that anymore, to even get in a movie, just as a dude who walked in a room. Hi,

you don't know me. I'm here to show you how awesome I am. Because in the back of the head they're sitting there and they got their buddy or their nephew, or their uncle, or their neighbor or you know, it's very incestuous, and our movie was no exception to that. But you trust those people. They didn't screw us. You know, we had strange We have one lady take us to SAG because we canceled her because we had to cut

the roll because we couldn't fill in the scene. Dave, it was one hundred and fifty dollars a roll, and she contacted SAG and said I need to be paid because they canceled on the day of. She hadn't even left her house yet. Dude, you know what I mean. So will we ever work with her again? Hell no, If we ever hear about her again, we'll be like, dude, that fill in the blank literally cost us one hundred and fifty dollars when we had nothing in the bank

because a role got cut. She wasn't in a car, she wasn't on set, literally, she was just waking up. And I said, I'm so, so so sorry, But that just gives you an example of that type of attitude can be deadly, you know. So I'm glad she wasn't in it, because if somebody would do that to a small, tiny, little movie to get you one hundred and fifty bucks, like,

how would you have been on set? You know? I just I just don't think you can be positive enough, even if you're not a positive person learned to be, because I don't think this is the business for you if you're not ready to really just be nothing but good energy.

on an elevated stage. And I had a rule, Nope, we I am going to cast everybody that I don't know people got you know that I knew got to go up there, and I gave everyone a shot who I think even had a remote shot, and we whole day and I actually ended up casting everybody who I did no completely, I had no friends, no family, nothing. Everybody was somebody I didn't know I was meaning for the first time. Though, all those people proved out to

be right. Uh, they were all great, great people except for I. Actually, let me let me amend what I just said. There's one person I hired based upon the producer who wanted him, and I said, okay, I said, I will, I will tell I will take a chanceless person. That person ended up.

Oh my god, the drama on Facebook? Like who needs this ship? Honestly?

to do it. I almost feel like they invented that, they made it awesome, and then once they had the whole world on it, they decided to start getting fucking paid and screw you. The whole purpose of this is out the window. So then I mean Facebook to me is I want it to go the way of my Space. Let it burn.

they did not say that. Blah blah blah. I told my producer, I said, don't even talk to him. I said, I told you about this guy. And then I mean that caused the problem between us, and I mean all because of this this really wormy guy.

He's terrible, right, But why tell chuck that he's a terrible person. I even in life, I don't do that when I meet somebody that don't like It's like, what's the point, dude, Like why throw that negative energy out there? I mean it's just but I just think people that do that in this business, what are they fools? They don't think people talk. I mean, it's just insanity. You know.

because there's no way this guy is serious. They start going back and forth all over Facebook and the one and the guy chimes back with, well, it's not a good idea to make enemies with a producer.

when they got up. I literally, even the girl who plays our lead actress, who's gone on to do some really cool stuff. I said, because I loved her. I thought she was great, And I was just like, I have one last question, like are you a nice person?

And she was stunned and she was just like, uh, what do you mean, Like I don't know, just like we're new to this, and you know, we're scared of like the whole actress Hollywood reputation, Like we just want nice, normal people, Like are you friendly like in real life? And she started laughing and she's like, yeah, yeah, I'm friendly in real life. But she was so stunned to hear that question, but it came from a very honest place,

you know, like are you being real right now? Or are you being nice because you want to get cast in this Like if we're having lunch, can we talk to each other? Are you going to be.

we passed on. I think that could have maybe even helped the movie because they had a bit of a name because I met him and I was like, I got a bad feeling, man, I got a bad feeling, like they're not going to take this seriously. They wanted being bigger shit. I'd like those people that are kind of bubbling, that are really hungry and want to do good work. Because there was a lot of like with

the dads, we cast two professional wrestlers. We cast a Diamond, Dallas Page and Jake the Snake Roberts, which is a

wild story. But we had a couple of leads on some dads or more like character actors and I won't say any names, but dudes that you and I know, But there were these B movie dudes, dave, these dudes that like, yo, you give them five grand a day, right, and they'll come and they'll barely know the lines, but you can say, you've got the dude from this TV show in it, or the guy that was in this movie, you know, and they just make a living popping around

these B movies. I even hear one guy wore an earpiece and I'm like, what, that guy's not even that big. But they're like, he wears an ear piece and you feed him his lines, but hey, you can give him five grand and then you can say so and so is the dad in your little tiny movie. And I just thought that was so horrifying and kind of sad too, but it's a reality, you know, yeah.

You know, I don't have to do das. You see those guys that just they're like, why are they in so many B movies where they just take the five grand a day and that's that, and then people cram their scenes in one day because they can't afford him for two days. You know, it's crazy, man.

fast and loose, just wants to have fun. So you know what I mean, It's just stuff like that, you know, and and it's most and I would never recommend anybody like we were just talking about, I would never recommend anybody who I wasn't one hundred percent confident in, you know what I mean, And I mean that that really is critical, you know. And I would, by the way,

I would love to work with Michael Gross someday. I think I've not only heard good things about him, but I heard you know, I still I love everything he's in, all the Tremors movies. He makes those Tremors movies.

go get the catering guys. And Aaron and I were also the Oh geez, we were, I mean we were we were so much. We were so much and it was too many hats. The less that I learned, hopefully, when we make our next one. Oh actually, I just talk positive. When we make our next one next year, right, The key thing I think would be is you just

can't have enough of those assistants. Not people to beat up or bully or make you go get coffee, you know what I mean, but just somebody there with you, like, hey, like this is kind of my guy, you know what I mean, Like, you know, hey, I'm just gonna make this up. But Steve, Steve, you're with me, Ryan, You're with Aaron. Yo, We'll treat you great, nothing but love. But we just need it. Sec a set of hands that you're always with me, almost like give me two

extra arms. You know. We're gonna be doing some fun stuff, you know. But we just bid off more than we could choose, so it was hard to focus on that. And then I was also picking up wrestlers at airports, and we also had other people helping with this, Dave, I don't want you to think it was just four people making this movie, right, but we just thought we could do more. I wanted to be on set more, dude,

you know, and to be sitting there watching it. And you know, as the writer and co producer, I wanted to be watching the actual movie get made. And I spent fifty percent of that movie not on set but setting up the set or picking people up or picking up food because we were so small, you know. So I guess I guess the most difficult thing was wearing too many hats. You got to find a way to find more people to help with the hats, but you have to trust them, and I really and don't trust

many people. I had a vision of how every room should look. I had a vision of I knew the relationships with the restaurants that were doing the catering, So how can I send somebody when I need to be the one that goes in there, And it's Chris's face that they know, and that's why they're giving them a bunch of tacos. So it was just that, you know, I think you can wear too many hats, and sometimes

that can probably be the death of small movies. But again, we had a lot of good people around us, so that, to me, was the most difficult thing. I should have trimmed a couple things off the list that I was responsible for, but we wanted to take that money, Dave

and put it in other places. And I think that's why our movie Hopefully, when you see it, hopefully you'll like it and find it funny, but I think you'll see man for the budget, damn, these guys did a good job of making this stuff look legit, you know, And I think that's because we put money. We saved money in certain places where other places would get trailers right, or other places would hire a catering company, or where other places would pay for food, or other places would

hire a set dresser. We did all of that, you know, and that really I think made things difficult but made us to make a movie that's better.

that money elsewhere. That's what I've always thought of, too, is you know, why should I have? You know, I can be the camera operator and the cinematographer and the boom mic operator, and I'll edit this thing and you know what I mean, and I'll be the colorists. Well I'll do Follward just.

the filming, filming was awesome, is post production. We were not prepared, We were not ready. We ran out of money. Tech issue after tech issue after tech issue after tech issue. To the point of the film is out upon release of this podcast right came out today, I believe. So the film can be seen blah blah blah. But I'm talking to you a couple of days before we release it, right, let's be honest. So our premiere is in Los Angeles in forty eight hours, and we just just got the

Blu ray completed to show it. Because the poor producer and director has spent the past ten days doing program after program after recording after program to burn a freaking blue ray. I mean, like that's what we're talking about, and it's tech tech tech tech tech has been a complete nightmare for something like this because we haven't had the money to have a real proper post production team, and it really made things take a long time and

was really was brutal. Man. So I would say tech is the hardest part of it, which is funny because it's the first thing you and I said when we got on the phone in the pre interview.

whatever reason. You know what I mean. There is so many movies in the philadelph especially in the Philadelphy area where you know where I am.

is this going to be one of these things? You know what I'm saying, like, is this going to be one of these things that can't get done because we ran out of money? That was a real tough time, you know, I mean post production look a long time,

and uh man, it's depressing. It's kind of scary, like, oh my god, Like you know, what are the investors going I mean, I'm being honest with you because it's a filmmaking podcast, right, but like, what are the investors going to do if if we can't pull this off? What happens to the footage. What happens to our reputations. I mean, like, so we just stayed in the pocket.

But I mean the amount of work. My god, Dave, if you could have told me ahead at the time, I would have done it, of course, But geez, what I questioned my sanity, you know, because I mean, I've basically remained in poverty just to get this thing done, because I can only work part time because I need to spend the rest of the time working on the movie. Man. I mean, it's god, is it a labor of love. I just have such a deep respect for people that make movies. Now, I will never shit on a movie.

I may not like it, but an indie film, I'll shit on the studio ones all day, you know. But I will never shit on an indie film again. And when I say Indy, let's talk about real indies, dude, I'm not talking about a million dollar indie with Daniel Radcliffe being a guy who farts as a corpse. I'm talking about like, you know, I'm talking about like, hey, you made a movie for one hundred thousand dollars. You made a movie for one hundred and fifty, You made

a move for seventy five. Basically, you pull off a movie for under one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and you have my respect forever, you know.

probably costs like one hundred thousand dollars. You know, you and I could have made five shorts for that, you know.

play and fill in the blank with anything else. Music. Okay, maybe I'm not going to be you know, I'll give you bon Jovie reference and you're that part of the world. I'm not gonna be bon Jovi, But I can still write a song. I can still find a little coffee house, open mic and I can play it for people, right, But you just can't make a film. Okay, you can grab your iPhone, of course, I'm not saying you can do that, but do you know what I mean, an

actual full length feature film. You just can't do it. There's a million hurdles, there's all these people. I don't I just think it's just such a such an undertaking to go down that road that I just support anybody man, like, just awesome, hell, it's great. How can I help you? You know? What? Do you need? Guys? Because you're about to go to war, like you are about to go to war, and it doesn't end in the filming. You know, here I am two years later, finally releasing the thing,

and the distribution. You're dealing with and doing the premiere and and doing the press, and you're all doing I mean, dude, I mean, I'm just again. You are talking to me at a time where my head's spinning, so you're probably getting a very emotional version of me. If we talk in three months, we could probably have a very relaxed So Chris, how did it happen? Well, Dave, this happened, you know. But I'm in the midst of like, ah, and but it's an exciting one and I asked for

this and I'm pumped up. And we're proud of it too. Man. You know it's a it's a big life goal and a huge accomplishment, you know, yeah, oh absolutely, Chris.

experience in this whole process. I kind of feel like we went to film school without going to film school, right, And I'm sure film school people were like, fucking idiot, No, you didn't know. It's true, I don't know the difference between this brand of camera this brand of camera. Right. But we wrote this next script and we're very excited about it. We actually want to shoot it next year in South Jersey and your neck of the woods. And it was so cool because we got to write a

script knowing what it's like to make a movie. Now we know what we need. Now we know too can't write that scene that's ridiculous, it'll get but so it got to be very focused. And that's just the education that comes with time that guys like you have. But

it was very exciting to put that into play. And if this movie does well, you know, your your hope is that it opens the door for another executive producer, or the same executive producers, or just more connections in the business to back this and get behind another one. But I definitely learned we need more money if we want to make the type of movie we made. We're not gonna be able to do it on that budget. Again,

we're gonna need to find a couple more bucks. You got to move up the ladder a little bit, right, You can't, you can't go in the opposite direction.

what I mean. That's where I I've always said too, is you know, people ask me about making stuff and why haven't made anything like four or five years, and my answer is is because I'm an idiot and I write things and I go, holy shit, I would never be able to even using all my methods that I talked about in this podcast. Even having all the people who who've talked to me and saying, look, what do you have access to? What can you make today with it?

With all you have access to? I end up writing stuff that I'm like, dude, I look at one effect and I'm like, this thing would cost fifty grand, or I look at this, this one goes you know, I mean, I mean, but then again, Chris, you know, I don't know if I don't know if you ever listened to this other couple of the podcasts. But I mean, I'm the guy who was able to get a live working tank and also able to get fake police cars to

destroy And it wasn't that I wasn't you know. We couldn't make it because not because we couldn't find the tank and the police cards are destroyed, but because me and the director couldn't get along. So it was a very odd I love it.

it on iTunes. But it'll also be available for around on Xbox, PlayStation, Fandango, now, Voodoo, so basically all the digital outlets, the VOD outlets, and then we'll be doing a DVD at the end of August, and then god willing fingers crossed conversation for another time.

It's certainly not for everybody. It's not highbrow, Dave, but you know, in a weird way, it came from all the right places. You know, it came from good people that worked really hard against a lot of odds. And you know, I think, as any indie filmmaker, regardless of the content, it's the type of movie you want to download by at once and support it because you know, I think a lot of people can relate to the struggle. Man. You know, it is real, and it's always cool when

somebody cracks through and gets it out there. We'll see what happens. Man, I don't know what's gonna happened, but it's exciting. It's exciting to find out, you know. Yeah.

It was strange to have made friends with a hero like that and then worked with him on this and started to talk to him about other projects, and just as quickly as he came in my life, he left. But it's a real honor to me. If if the only thing that this movie becomes known for historically that's a stretch of a word, but is if it's known, oh that was that last movie that Roddy popped in for a couple of minutes. Fine by me, Man, Fine

by me. I'm honored to be the guy that made Roddy Piper's last movie.

some talented people in it, man. You know, our two lead actors, Amanda Clayton is going to be in a Martin Scorsese movie at the end of the year. She's on a Tyler Perry show right now. Our lead actor has a small role in Guardians of the Galaxy too. So you're gonna see some faces in here that I truly believe in my heart. In the next year or two, you're going to see a lot more of And I think we just took casting so seriously that you know, hopefully it's one of those films that go gains momentum

as it goes to Netflix. As people see it, they're like, hey man, I saw this movie and it's kind of wild, but it's actually funny. I like to think it's kind of I don't know, you know, I think it's a funny movie. You don't make a comedy to not make people laugh, and that was our goal. You know.

I just know that we had the Alexa camera that everybody was super excited and it looked great, especially when we put that color on it. It's like, man, this looks like a real movie quote unquote, you know it's uh.

a two. Does that okay? So two K two k okay, that's what I want to say in ALEXA two k okay. Good? Is that a good thing? Date or bad thing?

you know, I think it's a great thing. Honestly, if you shoot, I think we're waves away from shooting everyone shooting in four K and being able to enjoy in four K as well, because you have to crush all this stuff anyway. So my answer is, yeah, I think that's great. Man.

camera it was shot on. So these are you know, you're the type of guy that needs to see this film. You know.

that do. That's not you. You're always so supportive to your guests and I always learned something so I am a fan. Man. It was a real pleasure talking to you.