Old you is, folks, it's show time. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater. They want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone for ten podcasting isn't boring off? Hello, I think I know I took your daughter. She was in a cult. For Christ's sake, you really think this person is trustworthy? I lost my wife, I lost my daughter. Forget about the authorities tracking your daughter down. If you want her back,
you got to get her yourself. Where's my daughter? She was allowed two weeks ago. If she had to go through what I did when they took me, it will be like nothing. You can imagine. You didn't say anything about tattoos. Imagine if I showed up at your little church looking like this. Really shouldn't be following man, stupid. Now you're gonna show the ladies in respect. They bringing children here. In the end, they're killed. They keep something like me. You know that? Send Cyrus a message
door. Oh you're crossing over. You better watch yourself. I've tasted a lot of blood, Lady, I'm not sure I'm gonna full stomach yet kill them, kill them? Why am I for are wearing take a look this is God. Hey, folks, welcome to the Projective with I'm your host Mike White. On the special episode, I'm talking with Natalie Peroda all about her career, including her latest work on Nick Cassavetti's God Is a Bullet. The film comes out on June twenty third, twenty twenty three. Be sure
to check that out. And I hope you enjoyed this interview. Can you tell me a little bit more of your background before you even became a producer. I studied psychology at uc R Vine, and when I graduated, I moved to LA and I had a full time job at a PR agency. Actually, so it was my first time in an apartment by myself, my first full time job. I was like a real adult at twenty years old.
One night at the office, we were watching Larry King Live and he was interviewing his long time executive producer Wendy Walker, and she was just going through her experiences and telling worries and I was watching it and I was like everything she was saying was resonating with me, and I was like, I
want to do that. That is exactly what I want to pursue and so the next day I apply to a couple of different production companies and I was offered an assistant position at Patriot Pictures, where I'm currently still here for the last twelve years and worked my way up as an SVP and we've financed and produced over twenty five movies. How do you leverage the psychology? I think that the psychology major really became useful in this industry. Our business has more
people based than anything else, you know. We deal with financiers, artists, lawyers, and every single person has feelings and I was trying to express themselves in some ways. So I've really tried to be a good listener first and foremost, and then make decisions based on the energy that I get from the person. Tell me more about Patriot Pictures. What do you guys do? And you said you've been working there for twelve years and how'd you work
your way up through the ranks? Yes, So, Patriot Pictures is headed by Michael Mendelssohn. He's a long time producer, financier. He started in the banking world. He has been a great teacher and mentor and really has opened the world and welcomed me into it very nicely. We are a small independent film production company. We fully finance and produce all of our films in house, and it's been great. How do you find the films to finance
a lot of different ways. We have submissions that come in through friends and colleagues. They bring their projects and we don't focus on any one genre, which is the amazing part. We were really flexible in what we choose when we finance and produce a film, and we can't do it anywhere based on just we acquire the script and we package it with the cast and the director and make it, or sometimes the package comes to us ready and we just
need to finance it. It just depends what stage the film the project is in. We've also started from scratch where we've hired writers to write scripts based on ideas that we have, so each project is very unique in its own way. So were you a big movie fan when you're growing up? I was, Yeah. I honestly didn't really see myself in this industry. But
my favorite part about it is the business and creative intersection. I really felt like I've been able to express my creative side as well as my love is really business so it's been amazing to be able to intertwine both. Oh no, it's one thing to be a movie fan, but it's another thing completely to be in the business of making movies. What was the hardest thing for you to either learn or experience as you were going through that transition that sometimes
films take a lot longer to make anything. Also, just you know, it's a delicate line trying to bring someone's vision to life while also appeasing to investors and to making sure we have a fiduciary responsibility. And when we're able to appease all of them, then it's really like we've caught magic in a bottle. The movies make it look like it's a lot easier to actually make a movie than it is. So I really respect the process and all of
the people involved. It seeks a village and there's not one person that does any more than another. It's really you cannot survive without the ecosystem of the crew, and it starts at the top with your director, who's really the captain. It's a beautiful process to be a part of. You have been involved in so many movies now, at least twenty that I know of, with a lot more coming out, so I'm even coming out right now. What are the ones that are closest to you, Where do you feel like
you've made that impact the most? They're all our babies, bront Ways. Throughout my career, I've been fortunate enough to be given more and more responsibilities on each project. So I would say the most recent ones are the ones where I've really I've been a part of everretty single decision process in the So I would say God Is a Bullet is a very close one to the heart. It's based on a book by Boston Tran. It's written by Nick Cassavetti's
and directed by Nick. It is a strong, powerful film for our you know Michael Monroe, who's our female lead. It's basically taken in and hell, so it's not for the faith part, but is also based on a true story, so we wanted to stay true to the story. And we are so proud of the film. It comes out on June twenty third,
and we're really excited to share it with the world. And it was an intense experience just because it was also during COVID and we had in our cast is amazing and we were in the jungles of Mexico City and in New Mexico and then just all over and I would say that one is very close.
Another one it would be Get Lost, which is written and directed by Daniela and Meva, and it has Terrence Howard and Sashaless and Ela Trobolta, and it's like a beautiful story, coming of age story of a young girl who lost her mother and she's trying to find kind of herself and where she spread her mother's ashes. And that was the first film that I was actually on
the ground from day one to the end leading the film. So that was like my first experience as taking it head on and being in Budapest halfway across the world while Michael's in Mexico doing God as a Bullet on the other side of the world. And so that one was a very amazing experience. We had a great time in Hungary. So we're really excited for that one. So hopefully that the world we'll get to share that one in the near future.
Now it's a just luck of the draw because he's made so many movies, or do you guys have a connection with Nicholas Cage because they had notice you've produced at least three of his films. Yeah, he's great. We love working with him. Michael has a great relationship with him that stems back years back to family Man. They've always just kept in touch and every time we have a project that we think that he may be great for, we call them and see if he's interested, and most times he is, so
then we get to continue the working relationship with him. It's very important for us to continue work. We love working with the same people. It makes it more of a family experience, and we know we know how people do things and like to work, so it makes it a little bit I wouldn't say easier, because it's not easier, but it just makes it more enjoyable in that sense when we get to reunite with the people over and over again.
And he's a dream to work with. I was so shocked when he did that movie with Son Ocean and from Japan, just that he was making a movie in the English and then that Nicholas Cage was starring at it and then you get to producer. That must have been fantastic. Yeah, it was a little bit of lost in translation while we were in Japan, so that was an experience that I'll never forget. Just the even at a wardrobe department, in the production design and everything was just insane and just so exciting
to watch come to life. Our sets were beautiful out in the middle of nowhere, taking the bullet train to a countryside. It was fantastic. We had our challenges because of the not speaking Japanese, but we made it through and we figured it out. We had some great translators, so it kept us afloat. Which is so fun to do a movie in a different country because everyone works so differently and so you really get to learn how they do things. And that was one that was just it was a wild ride and
you can see it on screen. We've been all over the place. What all countries have you been to? Ever you've lost count Yes, I've been fortunate enough to be able to see a lot of the world through our industry and work with a lot of people from around the world. We have filmed in Hungary and Japan, Poland, Finland, Estonia, the Baltic Sea, mainly Mexico City, Columbia, a lot of places around the United States too. But it's been I consider myself lucky in that sense. Not a lot
of sleep in between, but we make up for it. I just watch Synchronic last night and I love the use of New Orleans and that one, and what a clever film that movie is and we're so proud of it. It was in the Toronto Film Festival. The director there are two guys that were the directors, Justin and Aaron, and there they kind it's amazing what they do. They also edit, they write, They one of them as a cinematographer all on their films, so they really keep it into a nice
close knit experience for them. And we love filming in New Orleans and they really brought that city to life. We actually did that one right after we did Cutthroat City in New Orleans as well, which was directed by Rizza from the Wu Tang And it's a great city to be in and it's very mystical and very you feel like a vampire is going to come out at any second to hang out with you. So it's a nice place. You didn't tell
me a little bit about the making them Zero Bill. I was a big fan of the book that was based on and it felt like that one was in production forever. That was our third film with James franco Is the book. He did a great job the writer adapting the book and he directed it. We had an amazing cast. It was Seth Brogan and Will Ferrell and Making Fox, Joey King, and we did it in l l which was for a smaller budget film. To pull it off in La, it was
a great time. We really brought out the late sixties the atmosphere of it, and it wasn't felt like it was in production longer than it was because we had to release it a bit little bit later than we would have liked, and so it was it was a fun movie in that sense. It
was. It was really cool too. I love filming in La because we don't really get to do it very often, but that one, it's like it was so authentic obviously to the city, and we couldn't do it anywhere else, and so that was really nice go to set and then be able to go home. You mentioned how COVID affected at least shooting got as a bullet. How else did it affect you and the work that you were doing.
COVID is a hard time for a lot of us, and we were very fortunate in the sense that we were actually filmed the first movie we filmed in COVID. It was in Mexico City. We took out. It was called Blackout and it has Josh Dumel, an Abbe Cornish and ignaled Tea. It was just on Netflix and it was number three worldwide for a few weeks,
which were very proud of. But that one we had to basically rent out an entire hotel and we doubled the hotel as a hospital because the hospital was the main premise of the film, the main set, and we lived there for the whole shoot. No one was allowed to go in and out. Everything was brought in very small crew and we were very we didn't have any outbreaks. We're very lucky, very safe. We took it very seriously. But it was like a college dorm room all over again. Lee.
You would see after filming, you would see remote control cars going down the hallways. You would see like just crazy things that happened that you could only imagine happened in a college dorm, it happened in this hotel. Yeah, So we were able to continue that and that kept us busy for the first
part of COVID. Were the restrictions pretty tight in Mexico they were, Yeah, it was, and also just we had to of course respect the SAD rules and it was masks everywhere you would walk in, take your temperature, and we like basically missed it as you walked in with sanitizing spray, and we made sure all the food and everything was cleaned while it was when it entered the building, and if you left, it was you were done working, we finished, or you were done shooting, so you weren't coming back.
So it wasn't somewhere where we would let people come in and out because you know, we wanted we didn't want anyone on our crew or actors to get sick. Of course, how many projects do you have going at the same time. It varies. Sometimes we have three in production, sometimes we have one currently, we have we're prepping for a release, and we are
in pre production casting stages on about four films. So if all of those are windows are green light, they'll probably be staggered throughout the fall winter timeline. We do have quite a few in development and quite a few where we've optioned it now figuring out okay, bringing non casting directors or maybe rewrites or writers to help with the script to get it in a shape where we can go to cast and that ranges. I would say we have a lot of
IP that we like to have and to try to put together. I would say we probably have fifteen to twenty of those projects. How do you even keep track of all that? We have a really great system the checks Star her name's Caitlin, that tracks our projects and where we are. And then each project, or not each of them, but the ones that are a little bit more head they have their kind of group of EPs or producers that
come with them. So it's nice that they come in and out of our office and we're able to work with them on a project by project basis. Yeah, as an outsider, I have to tell you that the whole who's the executive producer, visus associate producer, who happened to bring the project? And they get their name out it. That's always just like from an outsider point of view, it's wow, what is this mess? Yeah? Same
from the inside point of view too. No, Yeah, it all depends on the project and who owns or who bring, who actually has the IP, who's who are optioning it from, who's if the project comes fully packaged, it's a completely different conversation and then if we have to put the project together, so each one is very unique to figuring out who's the producer,
associate producer EPs. We like to really be fair in those things because sometimes a lot of times what happens if people give out vanity credits and so it's hard to give out a vanity for someone who's worked so hard to then be equal to someone with a vanity credit. So we really want to make sure that the people that are working day and night and truly are getting the project off the ground, that they're credited the way they should be and fairly.
I know with the w GA there's that whole arbitration process as far as who gets named. Is there something similar for the PGA? There is if you want the producers mark like so on each I don't know if you've noticed that some names have PGA AFTERM, so for that you do have to go through a very actually pretty complex application process to get that marking, and so they
do. I think they limit it for five producers that can get that mark if I may be mistaken, but they don't allow ten or fifteen like what we have seen, but it happens. How have you seen the business change over the years, especially when it comes to distribution, it's changed immensely.
When the streamers came into our ether, they made it possible for a lot of these indie films too, if you weren't able to get a theatrical release, that you could possibly get an upside by selling to a streamer, because they sometimes do pay they buy the film for an exponential amount. We used to work off the model of making out our films by territory and by the US and then different foreign territories, and then you would have your tax credit.
Was how we would finance the films based on that collateral. And now with the streamers, you want to make sure that if you have an upside by selling to the streamers. So sometimes we keep our projects close to the heart and we finish them and then we show them to the streamers first as a kind of a first look, and then we'll go down the line from there. So it has made it a little bit, I want to say, it has caused us to be a little bit more creative and how we
go about our films and how we finance them and produce them. So it's been a little bit of a challenge but I think we're figuring. We figured it out, and the world's always changing. There's always going to be something else, So we just have to stay with the times and keep going. Fifty years ago, you could sell an entire project off of a poster. I imagine it's a little bit different now. Yeah, it's definitely not like that anymore. Yeah, even five years ago, we could sell a project
off of a sizzle, not even a complete film. But it's getting harder and harder. This might be an unfair question that I'm going to ask it. Anyway, If you had a magic wand what project either something that you've got cooking right now or something that you've just been looking at, what would
you bring to the screen. What would be your dream project? I would say something that means something that when you will walk out of the movie, you're talking about the movie and it has like a deep impact on you. I don't really know what the story is, or I want to say something that resonates with you and makes you or alter kind of the way you look at things and look at the war world, and hopefully it brings you some
peace. I really think that films are a great escape in the sense that if you're having a hard day or a shitty week, you can put on a really good movie to either make you cry or make you laugh, and just for the ninety minutes to two hours, you can really escape. And I hope that we can do that for people, and I hope all of our movies do that. I think one that really is just is remembered for
that. In your position, do you get much feedback about the films themselves or are you getting more of the business feedback or are you actually hearing from the people at c these and go, wow, Natalie, I absolutely love this movie. It really was so fantastic to see. Yeah, I think we do get good feedback from the buyers and from the audience. We do
like to explore the reviews and see what people are saying. Social media has been great because so many people have reached out to us on our social on our Instagram account and have told us the impacts that the movies have had on them or how much they loved Sometimes they don't like them, which is okay. We can't appease everyone, but and yeah, I think that we definitely
do get the feedback. We also love to have screenings of friends of family, see what they think before we lock really any movie, and oh you never know who's going to have a good idea. Maybe we can implement them into our cuts. But we're definitely open to listening and to hearing what people have to say. Natalie, thank you so much for your time. This is such a pleasure talking with you. Thank you. I really appreciate it. It's been fun. There's a true fly checket on the back of the
chair. It's like a moment person forever there. My dad had a lot of big plans for there. Man so proud. Mama's come crazy because a baby to down my some teen days time? Say why the bound It was the wrong place, wrong time, wrong and not my god? Free hit ye forever in the tree and flippen it could be free to kill your play solo playing yourself and oh god, it's a bullet. Have much honest,
effy work. They're gonna call me search do I stoppinking on me? Well, I'm a high school brad, I'm over my foot three, I get a bad and I got out. I'm trying to bed. He didn't have to use the because they put in his hand. When the guy came atam willing and it's a funny, lovely episode. I gave I'm another child free hit your oh God, and I try to slip back. They could have been, could have been straight to kill your blame and shoulder, blame yourself.
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