A critically acclaimed actor, Tom Malloy wowed Hollywood with his stunning turn in the indie-cult favorite Gravesend in 1998, which was produced by Oliver Stone. Tom became a trend setter as one of the first successful triple-hyphenate Actor/Writer/Producers and made it his business to learn as much about the filmmaking industry as possible. Over the years, Tom has raised more than $25 million in private equity from independent financiers and has written, produced and starred or co-starred in nearly all the films that his company Trick Candle Productions has made.
Tom Malloy is the author of the book Bankroll that is a must read for filmmakers, actors and producers that want to finance their independent feature films. Tom has now turned Bankroll into a video course for filmmakers as a new approach financing feature films. Get the Course. In our interview you can hear Tom talk about his experiences financing films and the great stories he has to share from behind and in front of the camera.
Tom wanted to be an actor and thought that’s what he wanted to pursue
He was cast for the movie Gravesend in 1998 that was filmed in Brooklyn
Gravesend was picked up by Oliver Stone he thought he’d made it
When he didn’t become an overnight success he started learning every other aspect of the business
Tom Malloy has now produced 15 movies and written over 20 screenplays
The book Bankroll is considered the gold standard for film financing that he wrote in 2009
Being a Dancer
If you can do martial arts you can be a dancer
It’s similar to martial arts in learning patters, forms and moves
Tom took a job as a ballroom dancer when he was preparing for the movie Love N Dancing with co-star Amy Smart
Dancing is something he thinks anyone can do
Becoming a Producer
Producing became a means to an end
Tom discovered he was good at raising money by persistence and motivation
It took 6 movies before he was confident enough to produce
“If you do it long enough people start to trust you.”
How Do You Raise Money For Film
Network with people that are outside of the movie business
Act as a conduit for them to get into the movie business
Everyone wants to be part of the movie business.
They want to have celebrity friends. If you can be the person to bring that to the investor you’re in great shape.
The book Bankroll had two editions and Tom didn’t want to write a third. Working with Jason Brubaker, their video course contains 85 videos on funding a feature film. Get the Course. In this course Tom is giving away all of his secrets about how he personally raised $25 million to finance feature films.
This week’s guest is Jon Foley from the Las Cruces Film Office in New Mexico. We met Jon at the American Film Market in 2017 and decided to pick his brain on why filmmakers should contact a film office for their next movie. Many filmmakers don’t realize the benefits working with a local film office can have including incentives, locations and a local crew. Filming in a location like Las Cruces may surprise with its vast landscapes, mountains, deserts and miles of pecan trees.
Jon Foley began his journey into film & video production at the age of 11 in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His path has had many detours; Digital Video Content Manager for an online ethical hacking university, video production company owner, 1 feature and countless smaller projects as a Director of Photography, Producer of short films premiering at festivals like Festival de Cannes, Brussels Short Film Festival, and Hollyshorts, viral content creation (5+ million views across the web), landscape photographer, and the list goes on. Currently, he is the Film Liaison for Las Cruces and has his full attention on bringing more film and television productions to his area.
Have an interesting story about working with your local film office or film commission? Share it with us in the comments
The Las Cruces Film Office is about to be certified to become a film commission
Jon’s job is to market the city of Las Cruces New Mexico film producers, location scouts and anyone looking to shoot television, film, commercial work or anything video related that will get local crew members work and the area seen.
The film office also helps with permits, facilitating locations or working with local departments such fire and police.
What are the benefits of filming in Las Cruces?
One major benefit is not having to pay for permits and Jon usually turns them around in 1 to 2 days.
If you’re doing a non-union shoot, Jon has access to over 60 local crew members ready to work including camera operators, grips and production assistants.
Las Cruces has an abandoned court house / prison you can shoot at for free for the next year! Dona Ana Detention Center
Visit Film Las Cruces to see their database of locations available.
What are the qualifications for shooting in Las Cruces?
Jon helps everyone from the micro budget indie film to Hollywood sized budgets.
There is no minimum spend as long as you are willing to fill out the paperwork.
There is a 25% film rebate as long as you keep track of the money spent.
How does the film rebate work?
The rebate is processed through the New Mexico Tax & Revenue department.
As a filmmaker you’ll be buying the lumber, paying for locations, food, gas and transportation.
In 2016 there was $505 million spent on TV & Film in the state of New Mexico.
How do you acquire locations?
Jon drives around taking pictures of city property to add to the database regularly.
Who you know and how you get to know helps in acquiring private property.
Find locations across the United States using LocationsHub powered by Reel-Scout.
Fun Fact: The car crash in “Due Date” was filmed in Las Cruces
We are back from the American Film Market in sunny Santa Monica, California where we spent three days learning, pitching and meeting the film industries biggest players from around the world. The American Film Market hosts one of the industries biggest events for film makers, screenwriters and distributors. We also interviewed 8 film industry heavy hitters.
Our #1 tip for success at the American Film Market is preparation. Setup your meetings in advance, don’t wait for the last minute to schedule them because the likelihood of getting into a meeting without an appointment is very low. Even if you have an appointment the odds of it being on time may dwindle the later you wait to make that meeting. Not only do you have to prepared to schedule meetings with buyers and distributors, you have to be prepared with your pitch. You need to be professional and have a plan and understand why your film may be saleable and even more importantly what aspects of your film may not be saleable.
Tip #2 for success at the American Film Market is having a completed project. Nobody wants to hear about your concept or idea. Everyone has ideas. Distributors won’t even touch you if you don’t have a completed production. Screenwriters need completed scripts. Networking and building relationships take time. If you’re a first time filmmaker, nobody is going to hand you a check after a 15 minute pitch meeting. If they do, we’d love to hear about it on our podcast!
Interviews at the American Film Market
Pilar Alessandra
Creator of On The Page Script Consultation Company. Pilar is the director of the screenwriting and TV writing program On the Page®, host of the popular On the Page Podcast and author of the top-selling book “The Coffee Break Screenwriter. She was at AFM as the moderator of the Pitch Conference for the 2nd year in a row. The Pitch Conference at AFM was eye opening to us. If you’re a screenwriter her podcast is invaluable.
We submitted our pitch for Seymour the Unfortunate Vampire and while we weren’t selected to pitch live, we learned how to craft and deliver a pitch for the meetings we were about to take.
Alex Ferrari
Filmmaker and Creator of Indie Film Hustle. Alex shares what he’s learned over the years as a writer, director, producer and post production/VFX supervisor. We were excited to finally meet Alex in person after having him as a guest on our podcast. Alex was more than generous with his time and shared a ton of insights with us. Look for his interview with AFM Director Jonathan Wolf on Indie Film Hustle.
Jason is a Los Angeles based movie distribution executive specializing in direct to consumer distribution strategies. He is the Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Distribber. Jason is also the founder of Filmmaking Stuff, a professional resource for independent filmmakers and provides tips on screenwriting, producing, crowdfunding, directing, movie marketing and film distribution.
Branscombe Richmond
A Native American actor, stuntman and singer most known for his role in Renegade with Lorenzo Lamas. Branscombe stands at 6′ 3″ and has been on the receiving end of the fists of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando (1985), gotten pummeled by Carl Weathers in Action Jackson (1988) and tangled with Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill (1990). At the American Film Market we saw a different while he was there to represent the Southern Kentucky Film Commission.
The most fun about meeting Branscombe is that he is long time friends with Marshall Teague who was on our show as well. Check out our Interview with Marshall Teague.
Susan Yang
General Manager of Shanghai Pusheng Translation Co. Susan was there as a translator helping a producer navigate the film market.
Paul Ayre
Paul has been writing and creating comedy for 15 years now and has worked with some of the biggest names in comedy – including Jeff Goldblum, SketchShe and toured with The Umbilical Brothers through Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia and Sweden. He won the biggest prize in webseries history: $70,000 for The Justice Lease in which he acted, wrote and produced. We caught up with Paul at the pitch conference where he delivered one of the most animated pitches at the AFM. Check out his work at http://severecomedy.com
Sean Crayne
Sean was another dynamic presenter at the AFM Pitch Conference where he asked the audience “Would you kill for fame?” For more on Sean and his film Twisted check out https://www.twistedthefilm.com/home. Sean also organized an indie horror filmmaker meetup on Saturday night which was a great place to meet other like minded filmmakers.
Mike Lippert
Michael Lippert is an Ontario-based Writer/Director/Producer. He was at the AFM shopping his debut feature film called Expecting. Mike had a great story to share about how managed to get Lloyd Kaufman to do a cameo in his film.
Mark Belasco
Mark is the Vice President of Sales & Acquisition at Adler & Associates Entertainment. They pride themselves on being a true indie company, one with a risk-taking spirit and an unbiased eye for new talent from around the globe. If you’re an indie filmmaker looking for distribution and a true partner we recommend a conversation with Adler & Associates Entertainment.
Share Your American Film Market Experiences
If you’ve attended the American Film Market and want to share your story, tell us in the comments. If you have questions about AFM and whether or not its right for you give us a shout on Twitter or Facebook and we will answer anything you want to know!
Have a question for our guests on this episode of the Imperfect Podcast? Leave it in the comments and we’ll make sure they answer it for you.
This week’s guest is your humble host, Alex Ferrari, known for his film making blog and podcast Indie Film Hustle. With his 20 years of experience in the industry Alex dishes the straight line on making it in the film business. He shared his experiences with us as a film maker, making the rounds at every film festival imaginable and why film festivals may or may not be a good idea for film makers. This year he put his money where is his mouth is and shot the micro budget feature film This is Meg starring Jill-Michelle Melean who also co-wrote the film with Alex.
Indie Film Hustle Roots And Why Alex Started the Popular Film Making Blog
Alex talks about escaping Miami to Hollywood and cutting his teeth as an editor. Remember what cutting ¾” tape was like?
He talks about running garage sales as early as the age of 10 and walking around with a wad of cash
Listening, watching, reading for a year Alex studied the business of an online business, creating content and SEO
His rise was quick his content on Indie Film Hustle was resonating because Alex wasn’t afraid to tell filmmakers the truth.
Providing value is his number 1 priority because he was tired of seeing filmmakers get beat up and ripped off in the film industry.
Where do You Find Time To Create That Much Content?
Alex admits he has 150 unpublished blog articles and 50 videos just waiting!
“There’s a lot of time in the day”
Over the course of 2 years he’s learned how to process all of the content efficiently. Alex says he can put together a podcast in 2 to 2.5 hours.
If he didn’t have a family, Indie Film Hustle might be even be bigger.
Alex puts in 10 to 12 hours a day and rarely works weekends. When he does work, Alex says he’s efficient. He stops every day at 6:30.
Ask most high achieving entrepreneurs and they’ll admit what Alex did to us. He says, “I feel like I’m a slacker, I feel like I’m not doing enough. I feel like I could do better, like I could do more.”
How Do You Feel About Film Festivals For Film Makers?
Alex has been to every film festival you can imagine totally upwards of 500 festivals including Sundance.
Quote: “If you’ve never gone through the experience, it’s magical. The first time you go to a festival and see your film projected, it’s the most amazing thing ever.”
When do you that 500 times and spend a lot of money you realize what its worth.
Alex doesn’t like the cost to many film festivals and feels like they are ripping off the film makers.
After spending $1000 on 35 film festivals he learned how to get into festivals for free and his movie Broken ended up in 150.
If you live in a small town, do it every year because it’s the only place you are going to connect with other local filmmakers, producers & investors.
Watch the Interview with Alex Ferrari on YouTube:
Sundance Film Festival: Alex recounts his experience
His first time at Sundance he had just finished Broken and walked around with a laptop asking people if they wanted to watch a movie
Sundance was like Disneyland. He would just take pictures with every celebrity he could.
Name dropping time!!
What is your opinion of The American Film Market?
This is Meg is going to be screened at The American Film Market
Alex has been to AFM once before but this is the first time he’s heading upstairs with the big boys.
Right now AFM is still the way to do international sales. It’s all about relationships.
Quote: “You can sense that energy when somebody comes up to you and they just want to take and suck from you.”
The bottom line is give more than you get.
Where did the concept for your feature film This is Meg start?
Find out what a scriptment is and why film makers use them.
Alex was tired of waiting for permission to make his first feature film.
He called his co-producer Jill-Michelle Melean and said, “I wanna make a movie and we are gonna do it this way and this is story I want to tell. I wanna tell your story as a comic and actress who is not 21 anymore and who’s been a little famous but is not a household name and what it’s like for you.”
1 week later Jill had a scriptment for This is Meg, 3 days later they locked up the cast and were shooting a few weeks later. This is Meg was shot in 8 days total over 6 weeks.
Alex talks about how much he loved the process because he put absolutely no pressure on himself about the outcome of the film. And never even shot more than 6 to 8 hours.
This is Meg was the most effortless project he’s ever been involved in.
What the trailer for This Is Meg
What was the distribution plan for This is Meg?
Alex admits This is Meg is a dramedy that’s may not be for everyone.
We have wonderful actors that you’ll recognize but we have no bankable stars.
I created a lot of content around the process of making it so I’d be able to sell it to my audience which brings in revenue.
I made a relationship with Distribber to be able to self-distribute the film which can now be seen on Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, Google Play & Vudu.
Oddly enough, it sold to China, South Africa and have a pending UK deal. Little by little it’s made some money and was a great proof of concept.
If you don’t have an audience there’s no point in self-distributing with something like Distribber.
Alex made a movie within the resources that he had. A lot of filmmakers become too ambitious too early.
This week’s guest is Bill Ostroff, the First Glance Film Festival Director who tells us how indie film festivals have evolved in the past 20 years. Bill shares his insights on festival submission trends, storytelling, camera technology and most importantly marketing. First Glance Films is the creator of the hashtag #SupportIndieFilm that has engaged and united thousands of indie film makers around the world.
William Ostroff, the FirstGlance Film Festival’s creator and director, is a Producer, Independent Media Consultant and DGA Assistant Director who has worked on over 100 film and television productions. He graduated from Temple University in 1993 with a degree in film and video and has since worked with major studios such as Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Dreamworks, and Paramount on feature films and television series.
As the FirstGlance Film Festival Director, he has produced 37 film festivals to date, has watched over 20,000 indie films and is hands on with programming and decision making of all aspects of the Film Festivals. In 2013, he created the World’s Largest Traveling Comic Con Film Festival, which has screened genre indie films to over 5 million attendees over the 1st fours year in 2 countries, with plans of taking this concept global.
When did you start the First Glance Film Festival?
This is our 20th in Philadelphia. We’ve been doing this since 1996. I wanted to work in movies and I had started the film festival right out of college. When I moved to Los Angeles to make movies I said I’d try to keep the Philly thing going and I did and then I was in LA and said we may as well do one here too.
How has the film festival evolved since you started the First Glance Film Festival?
When we first started it, we would screen on projectors that would run reels of celluloid. Having to mail those back and forth would be very expensive. We would cut and paste our program, literally, cut and paste with Elmers glue and tape. We actually advertised in newspaper and when we started we were pretty much the only independent film festival in Philadelphia. There was no one else here. At the time there was the Festival of World cinema which turned into the Philadephia Film Festival. It’s funny to me because the Philadelphia Film Festival says its 25 years old but it’s not. It’s only 5 years old because it used to be the Festival of World Cinema which forced us to change our name.
I don’t think people really get confused between us and them. We are the Slamdance to Sundance. We are the separate indie arm and don’t get mistaken. It would be nice if a big sponsor would.
Where has the First Glance Film Festival progressed to?
It used to be interesting because every year I’d have to go to IKEA to add to the shelves for the VHS collection. Then the VHS collection turned into the DVD collection. Now almost the entire screening is on a thumb drive. Between DCP’s and thumb drives I figure in the next couple of years we will figure out to stream directly to the projectors. The problem is because we’re an indie film festival we don’t always use state of the art venues. We try to use venues that have great screens and sound but may not be up to snuff with major corporations.
How did you come up with the idea for First Glance Film Festival?
When I was at Temple University I started a theater company with three friends of mine and I was kinda the behind the scenes guy saying we should do something film. I started brainstorming and looking at the film festivals that were around. Sundance was always one that I wanted to go to or have my film in and then Slamdance came. I said to myself I need to come up with something that has a feel like Slamdance or Sundance so we don’t just call ourselves the Philadelphia International Independent Film Festival of America. In my mind and most filmmakers know, the longer the title of the film festival, probably the smaller the venue or they don’t actually exist.
I had a couple of films in school and tended to make things more commercial than the professor wanted. I always seemed to lose out to the slow motion opening of the petal of a flower. You know I’d really like to show my stuff to people instead of classmates. The venue we were showing musical theater in was an underground space. I just decided I have 3 short films I’d like to show and put ads in the newspaper and made flyers and we ended up with about 30 films. This way I didn’t feel like it was my film festival it was their film festival. We screened for 3 nights and I thought that was going to be it.
People started calling and emailing and asking and we continued. I’ve kept continuing now 20 years later. As of next week I’ll have produced 37 film festivals and watched 18,000+ films. As a festival director I have and will always watch every single entry. I also have a screening committee I pull together. If it gets by me then I drop it into their boxes and have them watch a percentage of the films and grade them.
One of the things we do different. I want my screeners to take their jobs seriously. I don’t drop 100s of hours of film on them. They may watch 15 to 20 hours of film over 2 months. It’s not their job. The pre-screening committee and myself do nominations in a whole bunch of categories and we actually do them. Speaking of Film Freeway there are lots of scam festivals that will take your money. It may only be a $5 entry fee but they aren’t really watching your film and then you get an award for Best Costume Design and you’re like huh?
How has marketing the First Glance Film Festival changed?
One of the things I’ve always realized was we are not a huge film festival. We are a weekend independent film festival. Social media has been huge for us. I’ve learned how to use social media quite well including Twitter and Facebook. It’s not only how we cultivate filmmakers but we also teach them how to market. If you ask any of our alumni filmmakers, from the time of acceptance we will get to them and say here’s some of the things you need to do to market your film. People aren’t going to come to your film if they don’t know it exists. I want to educate people. A lot of filmmakers aren’t very good at marketing.
My goal when I was a filmmaker was I yes I want to have a film festival, I want to show my film but I want as many people to see it as possible. How do I make that happen? Before the internet the only way you could do that was call or invite people, make flyers or postcards. What I did was as I was learning Facebook and Twitter I would create a Facebook event and invite everyone. It was us working really hard doing it ourselves.
As we started to grow I knew if I could educate the filmmakers to use Twitter 1/10th as well as I do then they’ll be able to promote. Even if they can’t get people to First Glance if that’s their first showing, by the time they finish their festival circuit they’ll have full rooms and will have their audience. It’s one of the few ways you can build an audience without really spending. You have to spend time but you can build an audience.
When I came up with the idea #SupportIndieFilm hashtag this is when I noticed hashtags were sort of came into being. I noticed big companies like Pepsi using it. I need something to bring the community together to understand indie film is not the kind of indie film Hollywood is talking about made for $25 million and distributed by Sony Classics. LaLa Land is not an independent film.
We threw the hashtag out there and used it every single day. We have thousands of followers that have tagged #SupportIndieFilm in their profiles that use it every day. On average #SupportIndieFilm reaches 15 to 25 million people a day. In the last couple of years I’ve noticed big names starting to use it and companies starting to notice. I think we are on the cusp of something happening. There’s a lot of true indie filmmakers that are making them for $100k to $200k that would sell it to break even. These big giant 20 screen multiplexes and walk in any day and only find 5 people. If these megaplexes would open up one of their screens to someone like me I could put a new project on their screen every day.
What do you look for when screening independent film submissions?
Look at our alumni films on YouTube and watch the trailers. You’ll see a wide variety of content across genres. I’ve always been someone that enjoys all types of entertainment. I look at things for the production value, acting, sound, cinematography. A lot of people will ask if only accept film shot in a certain medium and it’s not about that. It’s about the storytelling. It could be shot on an iPhone and if the story is good and the acting is good and the sound is decent then there is no real criteria other than will an audience enjoy this film in some way. Will you laugh, will you cry, is this a great short film or cutest animation I’ve seen. Is this web series different or original?
When you have a finite amount of time to program it’s hard. I don’t think a lot of people have the knowledge I have. Watching the amount of film I have, I have an eye for it now. I get it, every filmmaker wants to be in a film festival. That’s why film festivals keep popping up left and right. Eventually your film will end up somewhere. Will it end up in First Glance? I don’t know. It depends on the other entries that come in and do we have the time? If it’s a 7 minute short film, it may be a better opportunity. If it’s a 109 minute feature film, it better be good. When we screen, we never screen just one film. We screen a program.
Do you see any trends in film festival submissions?
It’s cyclical. Because technology has made things easier and affordable, I think we are seeing more SciFi and Horror. We are seeing things that are extraordinarily topical. Back in the day when you would shoot on film and edit, if it’s an indie film it could be 2 to 3 years old before it went to festival. We are finding a lot of interesting voices and filmmaking. People are using all types of instruments to shoot.
We even get people who say they’d like to show their Virtual Reality film at the festival and we don’t have the capability to make that happen yet. The theater we are in isn’t going to be able to provide 200 headsets. We tried to do 3D a few years ago and it just didn’t pan out. It’s a hard process and I think VR is in that same position. I couldn’t even watch that Hardcore Henry that came out a few years ago.
Every year it changes depending on the mood of the country. It’s interesting to me. The genre stuff is great and the production value seems amazing and they’ll go after the production value and special fx but the acting is subpar. As a filmmaker and festival director, one of the main things they should look at is getting the right actors before they shoot. If you have to postpone a bit, unless your grandmother is Jane Fonda don’t cast your grandmother in your movie. I understand with time and money but with the magic of editing, you don’t have to shoot grandma at the same time.
I think the trend is also people want to use the most high tech cameras and that doesn’t matter either. I’m looking at the story and I don’t mind if it’s gritty when it calls for it. I’m not dead set on a certain criteria for anything. I can pretty much enjoy anything. If it gets by me it goes to the screeners for the nominations and we go from there. As a backup we usually do a short online contest that runs for 30 days to give the opportunity to other filmmakers and the winner premiers at the next First Glance Film Festival.
Things have been moving along quite nicely thanks to all the amazing contributions! We are so happy to see everyone embracing the indie spirit. Seymour the Unfortunate Vampire is now 40% funded which means we are halfway to getting the green light from Seed & Spark.
Every $1 counts with only 14 days to go!
Earlier today, Marshall Teague and Tonya Kay joined Sal and Joe on The Jimmy Star Show with Ron Russell for an interview about our streaming series Seymour the Unfortunate Vampire. Listen to the playback here and tune in at the 1h 19m mark.
Surprise Casting!
Coming up in our next update we will be announcing some surprise cast members and cameos.
Help us spread the word and to reach 500 followers by sharing our Seed & Spark link on social media. Tag it with #SeymourTheVamp
Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel for more video updates from Seymour!
This week’s Imperfect Podcast guest is Manon de Reeper, who is the Editor in Chief and founder of independent film magazine Film Inquiry. Manon is also a screenwriter currently shopping her Screencraft Fellowship quarter finalist MORAL TREATMENT. She has two academic degrees and currently lives in beautiful Perth, Australia. Starting as her own personal blog, Film Inquiry has grown to having over 100 contributors.
Film Inquiry is an independent, crowd-funded magazine with which purposefully steers away from the current online journalism trends of meaningless click bait. Instead you’ll find long-form reviews and articles, as well as in-depth resources that are interesting to cinephiles and filmmakers. Film Inquiry also supports women and minorities in film and behind the camera.
Since December ’16, Film Inquiry is a Rotten Tomatoes approved publication and all of our reviews are counted towards their tomato-meter. To support Film Inquiry, you can join the Film Inquiry Society that will grant you complete access to all of their archives, as all posts older than 30 days (aside from a few freebies) are locked. Once a member, all the content is ads-free. Members also get a 10% discount to the Film Inquiry shop, and more.
Watch How To Get Your Independent Film Reviewed by Film Inquiry
Interview Highlights with Manon de Reeper Editor in Chief of Film Inquiry
How did Film Inquiry get started?
I founded Film Inquiry as my own personal film blog where I was doing my own amateurish film reviews. I had just graduated from university and was doing some research while studying criminology. It’s still the most geeky thing ever, where I studied how a science fiction film effected the future effects of real life policies.
It was the best time of my life and I wanted to keep doing it because I always wanted to do film. Film was my biggest passion but friends and family recommended I not go to film school but I ended up making everything about film anyway.
I moved to Australia with my partner and he got a job here and I was hoping that I’d be able to do something with my criminology degree and it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. I’m not one to sit still so it was my chance to jump into the whole film thing.
People liked the blog and I wanted to involved more people so we could do more. The ball started rolling in early 2014. Every since, we’ve been steadily publishing. I don’t want to publish too much because I get too overwhelmed with how some of these magazines push out content. We want to keep the content schedule minimal but the actual articles bigger. It gives us the opportunity to go more in depth and explore one film more. More and more people are joining us to write.
People have told me they are pretty disillusioned with the current online film journalism. We really want to be able to talk about film in a context more than Marvel’s easter eggs. It’s fun and more people are picking up on it. I’m stoked an excited that all the hard work is paying off.
How do you decided which films you write about?
Honestly, at this point I have the luxury of having a team of 100 people so I have a combined amount of a time. I personally don’t review many films anymore. I’m trying to get a YouTube series going for myself but even choosing the films I’m going to watch every day is becoming a challenge. It’s starting to get so busy but I feel like I have this responsibility to watch movies.
What does a typical day as editor in chief at Film Inquiry look like?
I have to say I set it up pretty smoothly. What I do is coordinate when film makers ask us to review films, then I make sure that my team knows this film is available for review. They let me know if they want to review it, I request the screener, send it to them, they write the review and it’s reviewed by a few editors. I’m always the final review before publishing. We have a pretty strict schedule we adhere to so I make sure all the time slots are filled in. For general feature articles, its mostly all the writers pitching their good ideas. It’s a lot of work but it’s also fun.
Where does your love of films come from?
My Dad was very much into films and my Mom too actually. They would always take me to the movies. For instance, on Christmas we wouldn’t go to church, we’d go to the movies. That was our thing and it just stuck with me throughout life. I started exploring film myself when I got a little older.
What was the first article published on Film Inquiry?
I think it was a review of the film Elysium, by the South African director Neil Blomkamp. Everyone was raging on how incredibly poor it was and I thought it was pretty good. I wrote a little essay on how the criminological aspects of it were interesting.
How does your degree in criminology influence your writing?
It definitely taught me to look further than just the actor’s performances or the visuals. I always want to explore the idea of the film more. What are the film makers trying to tell us. We learn so much from film. Most of the situations these characters find themselves in, we wouldn’t ever find ourselves in. Seeing those things it teaches us a lot about life.
The way a camera is used and how a scene is framed adds to an idea. If you shoot someone from below, it elevates the person and adds meaning.
What is your screenplay Moral Treatment about?
I wrote a story influenced by academic background. It’s about a woman who is a British Royal set in the late 1800’s. It’s a Victorian era script. She has the privilege of receiving education in the UK and is married off to a rich guy in the US, an industrialists son. She starts to work at a local asylum because she’s a psychiatrist. It’s quite fascinating to me because there are so many terrible horror films set in these type of asylums. I wanted to do the opposite and give a very realistic portrayal of mental health and how these people were treated back then.
How does it differ from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
In a way, it was quite influenced by One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I personally really love that one because it’s a realistic portrayal of mental illness and what a mental hospital was like back then. It does have a big twist in the end like Moral Treatment does. I say it’s a mix between One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Shutter Island.
Is Moral Treatment your first screenplay?
No it wasn’t but it’s the first one I fully completed and edited. It was a challenge for me specifically how do you get into the mindset of writing. You need to put a lot of creative energy into writing which I did for 30 days. If you don’t keep at it every day, it’s easy to get out of that again. I adapted the National Writing Novel Month for my own needs. I was traveling and working during that time but because I had this goal of writing 3 pages a day, which is doable, I finished writing 90 pages in that month and had 30 pages before that. If you’re just focused on writing you don’t have the time to go back and edit it constantly.
Watch Manon’s video on “How I Wrote a Script in One Month”
I had seen the deadline for the Screencraft contest and gave myself that concrete goal. It was my first complete script and I wasn’t thinking I would ever win. Considering there were over 2000 submissions I was completely stoked to have made it to the quarter finals. It doesn’t even matter how good your screenplay is at that point. It’s more like a game of luck because there are so many people that submit great work. I still think there may be an audience for my script and winning one contest isn’t going to win you the Hollywood game.
What did you learn as Editor in Chief of Film Inquiry?
I learned it’s more about the people you know. I feel for the people that believe they need to win a contest to make it because that’s not the way it works. I’m in Perth Australia and trying to get to know people in Hollywood. Film Inquiry has definitely helped with that in a very casual way. Knowing people is the most important thing.
How can film makers get coverage at Film Inquiry?
Everyone can send their request to [email protected] and I will always put their requests in front of the team. It’s up to the team whether they pick it or not. It happens sometimes that nobody is interested. We also cannot guarantee a positive review.
I try to put everything out there. There is an audience for every film so I don’t filter it. I offer it up to my team for them to decide.
This week we talk to Tonya Kay, actress, stunt woman and self proclaimed most dangerous woman in Hollywood. She is crazy and that’s what we love about her. Being a dancer, Tonya brings a lot of physicality to her performances which is unique in and of itself. She is an actress appearing as a series regular in the upcoming Puppet Master: Axis Termination by Full Moon Productions.
As a lead actress she has graced the screen with leading film roles in A Better Place (Cannes), Dark Space and Earthtastrophe on SyFy and The Other Wife on Lifetime Movie Network. The only female nominee, Tonya Kay won Best Villain from the Horror Society 2016 for her lead role in Bastard (20th Century Fox) and draws upon Meisner, Anthony Meindl, Second City and iO West training to shape her fearless instincts.
Adding to Tonya’s diversity she’s been a stunt woman for Pink and a stilt walker in American Horror Story. Tonya also used a whip on stage with Howie Mandel as a contestent on America’s Got Talent. This is guaranteed to be one of the most diverse Imperfect Podcasts to date due to the varied talents Tonya brings to the table.
Watch Puppet Master: Axis Termination starring Tonya Kay
Watch the Live Interview with Actress Tonya Kay
Where are you from originally?
I grew up in farm town in Michigan. Very rural. (a wholesome midwest girl?) My grandpa always said, “When they made you Tonay, they broke the mold.” I like that. I do appreciate nature and I do appreciate all the things that the small gave me and now I live in the city to pursue the things that the small town didn’t give me. I’ve lived in Chicago, I’ve lived in New york, I’ve lived and worked in Los Angeles. I’ve toured the nation.
I do appreciate that I did grow up in rural area because I can just sit down at a bonfire, stare at the stars and consider it a good time. I can also be around immense diversity in saturation of culture and art and feel like I’m still a pioneer, I’m still progressive and I’m still making shit happen. I’ve enjoyed that I’ve worked in all three cities so that I have a perspective on the markets and the type of vibe each city offers.
How long were you in New York?
I was in New York for a couple of years and I did Stomp, I did De La Guarda, I did concert dance and I taught dance as well. I worked in mostly experimental theater. New York is where I found out I was good at weird shit.
What are some examples of weird shit you’re doing?
I spin fire, I throw knives, I pole dance, I drum, body percussion and I started out as a tap dancer. As grinder girl, I grind sparks of my metal bikini cod piece. I swallow animal balloons whole.
What jobs have you landed because of grinder girl?
That’s my signature act. That’s landed me all over the world. I’ve done it in Spain, South Africa and the Caribbean. I’m brought in to do it because it’s so weird. I’ve done it in all sorts of music videos, television on Comedy Central. I have done stilts, dance and fire on Glee. On The Voice I just finished a stint doing dance, stilts and drumming. In LA its a small community after you do weird shit, then people know you do weird shit.
I’ve got this reputation where one day I fielded calls from five different agencies that don’t represent me. Everyone in town knows I do weird shit so this agent who doesn’t even represent me is like, “Oh this is weird, get a hold of that Tonya Kay girl.” It’s nice to know that if it’s the exact right gig its going to find you no matter what.
What came first dancing or acting?
When my parents read me bedtime stories, I acted them out on the stage of my bed. I’d say in my soul, acting came first. I started classes for dance first and then my first public performance was in theater, acting, singing, dancing, all together.
Where did you go to college?
I didn’t go to college, I was working before I graduated. I did graduate as valedictorian so I could have gone to any college I wanted but I didn’t want to. I’m very anti-system and I wasn’t into college and higher education. If you want to go to college that’s fine but it wasn’t right for me. You couldn’t convince me that going into debt was going to be good for my artist career. I couldn’t think of a single career that I wanted that I required a college education for and I didn’t want to go into debt.
I remember the time that I realized the whole system was lies. I’ve always been like this. I was in the fifth grade and we were handing in our social studies paper and all of the answers were guys names. I was a fifth grade chick walking up there going, this is lies. My history answers were all male. I said that’s not true, women did stuff. At
that moment I just thought I’m gonna ace this test and get outta here.
I was pressured to go to college. I had an argument with my Vice Principal. She was saying no valedictorian of ours isn’t going to college. She says what are you gonna do with your life? That’s the type of support I got and I said, “Be a tattoo artist.” I’m not a loser I’m an artist.
How was working with Eric Roberts in Paradise Club?
It was great, Eric is cool. He’s a vegetarian and he and his wife Eliza are big on animal rights which we share in common. I’m a vegan so we had a ton to talk about on set. He and his wife were both on set, she was in the movie too. It was fun to work with him, he’s such an old pro. He’s done more movies than I think any actor in Hollywood. (Over 400 listed on IMDB). He doesn’t turn down roles, he likes to work and I do too. I look forward to having 400 credits some day myself.
With over 63 acting credits, what roles have stood out and why?
I would say every single one. This year on Lifetime, a movie called The Other Wife was cool because I learned a lot about myself as an actor. Through that process the director Nick Lyon and I both found out I can do what’s called ‘cry-on-command.’ I’m pretty good at it and now know that. He used that to the extreme.
Every scene, they’d setup then do a rehearsal and get in place. Nick would walk up to me and say very quietly right before saying action, “It’d be good to get a few tears on this one. Action!” I did it for every scene and I learned so much about myself. I call it always on the verge of breakdown but in acting they call it cry on command. I’m really good at it. I’m good at accessing a genuine despair on command. That’s why I really like The Other Wife because I learned a lot about myself as an actor.
What about the horror film Bastard?
I get a lot of villain roles. Everyone says I’m nice off stage but you’re so evil on. Bastard was really cool, it was cool to work with the co-directors who were fresh out of school. This is their first feature every and look at it. It’s beautiful. They were a joy to work with, they had that comradery vibe, nothing was a big deal. The product was great, it got theatrical release, it got released by 20th Century Fox. People saw it, it got great reviews. I won Best Villain for it from The Horror Society. That was cool because I like villains. It’s my favorite. Who would want to be an ingenue when you could be a villain? I can be very cold inside and love it.
I’ve thought a lot about villains. What makes a bad girl/guy different than a villain? The difference is if you’re the bad girl/guy you are that way from the top of the film all the way to the end of the film. As soon as people lay eyes on you they are like that’s the bad guy. If you’re a villain, they don’t know. You win their affection, they engage with you, root for you and even support you. They relate to you and then, flip, you’re a villain. You destroy their world but they’re still in admiration of you because you’ve earned their respect and the relationship before that. That’s why villains are way better than the bad guy/girl.
How was working with Penn Jillette?
Working with Penn Jullette was unlike working with anybody else in the world. He has a loud voice. He has a strong presence and he has big opinions. And he’s a big dude. By the way I can say after we worked together he stopped eating animal products and lost over 100lbs. I’m not saying thanks to me I’m just saying there could be something to it. Working on that show it had a lot of heart. It was called Street Cred on Travel Channel. It took us out to the streets and we went to Boston for example and unbeknownst to the street performers in the square we were watching them.
We were on microphone broadcasting back to our secret lair where we were judging them. We had someone on the ground walking around talking about what they were seeing in person and we were back in the room judging them from different camera angles. In the end, we saw so many street performers and award $10,000 to one of them just by putting it in their hat but they have no clue they are even on the show. It had a lot of heart to it.
America’s Got Talent or The Voice or whatever talent competition show, the heart isn’t there like it was for this show. Because all those people have expectations. They are going to be seen by 11 million people. They’re going to be a star. They have ideas of fame and these people were just street performers, performing for the people in front of them and we gave them $10,000.
Didn’t you whip a rose out of Howie Mandel’s mouth on American’s Got Talent?
I’ve been on Amercan’s Got Talent a few times, Season 1 and Season 8. Howie Mandel was very brave. I got to work with him for five minutes. He did a great job.
What’s the craziest stunt you’ve ever had to perform?
The craziest stunt I ever had to perform is drowning. It was in a supernaturl thriller and I’m scared of water, I don’t swim. In the shower I don’t get water on my face. In fact I don’t even take a shower, I take bathes. It’s more controllable that way. We shot in Maryland and it wasn’t in the script. I knew I had a death stunt. I don’t remember what it was supposed to be but it wasn’t drowning.
We got there, all the way to Maryland, Washington D.C. and we did the table read and the script was different than the one I had read back in Los Angeles. Now it said you’re going to pulled by the unseen force under water. Pulled! Forecably! Under water! I said I’ll do it but looking back at the playback the terror in my face is true. That was the craziest stunt because I don’t like water.
I think indie film making, in some cases, we’re doing 10 to 13 pages a day. I’ve also been on blockbuster sets where they do half a page a day. When you think of the team work and the ability that needs to come together to accomplish a 12 page day, you feel like, who’s the real film makers here? And we don’t have money! That’s some real film making when you can do that day after day and get it done. It’s like boot camp for film making.
What was the job like as a stunt double for Pink?
It was for a commercial campaign for Cover Girl, she was their Cover Girl. It was pretty easy actually. At the time I looked a lot like Pink. My hair was cut like hers, I’m a lot taller than her but we do some of the same specialties like fire and aerial. That’s why I got it because I looked like her and could do the same specialties. On the day it wasn’t that hard because she does a lot of her own stuff.
It wasn’t an uncontrollable stunt like drowning. They had me doing specialty stuff like fire and breaking glass, kicking glass and standing in for the aerial stuff. It was cool working with her because she took the time to learn my name and some celebrities don’t. She took the time to acknowledge me and say hi to me and talk with me so I got a lot of respect for her.
Tell us about your role as a series regular in Puppet Master on the El Rey Network?
Puppet Master is a franchise by Full Moon Features. You have probably all seen Charles Bands work, Evil Bong & Puppet Master. This is number 11. I was hired on as the villain in a feature length film but because distribution is so interesting these days it is actually going to premiere on the El Rey Network as a mini-series first. Can’t wait to see it on El Rey Network. They feature a lot of grindhouse stuff and they’re interested in entertaining the English speaking Hispanic audience. Puppet Master is a perfect fit for that network. It was a quick shoot for the actors but the animitronics takes months.
It’s going to take months but I think, don’t quote me on this, but February 2017 is a projected idea so it’s still a short amount of time. Puppet Master is Full Moon Features 273rd film. This is a production company that knows how to make their product. They know how much time it’s going to take, who’s going to be working on it, they know the budget and what they’re going to recoup. Charles Band is brilliant. Full Moon Features is brilliant. There is such a cult following for these films.
Do you have aspirations to produce your own films or web series?
I have a television pilot that I’m working on with a development company and we’re going to pitch it. I’ve pitched in the past, TV series ideas. Just the other week I was thinking I should executive produce my own film. It’s time.
How has your diversity including Burlesque dancing helped or hindered your crossover to network television?
It’s both. I’ve worked as a performer exclusively for my income for 26 years. I’ve never had to waitress or do any other jobs. My diversity in performance genres is why. If I just acted it would be so much more difficult to make the money I need to live in LA or New York. I happen to be good at many things which works to my advantage. On the other hand, sometimes it’s a hiccup.
I try to keep things segregated even on my website. If you go to my website, if you’re there for acting hopefully I make it easy on you to look for the acting stuff all in one place. Because burlesque especially and grinding sparks of your metal bikini cod piece, it’s so sensational, once you see it you can’t forget it. You can never unsee that. I kind of keep it away from my acting contacts until it comes up.
Where can people find you online?
I’m on every social media there is and available to interact because I likes my fans and interacting and having genuine connections with people. I think that’s why we do it. In theater its very easy. It’s to go, those are my employers sitting in the seats because they paid for a ticket and that pays my wages. We sometimes forget that when we are on camera. We see our employer as the studio or the network. They’re our buyer but they’re not our consumer. Our consumer is still the audience and the fans and the people that watch us and support us. To me those are the most important people to please and be interactive with and have a positive conversation with. Find me, I will interact with
you.
On this week’s Imperfect Podcast, we talk about our experience at the 2016 Winter Film Awards 48-hour Film Challenge. There were 21 teams chosen to demonstrate how well they could create a 2-7 minute short film based on a given genre, tag line, and a prop. Each team was called into a conference room and asked to pick a genre out of a hat. The genres were Horror/Slasher or Monster, Romance or Comedy, Martial Arts or Super Hero, Buddy film/Chick flick, Spy/Cop, Zombie/Musical, Science-fiction, Western, Thriller/ Suspense or Film Noir.
The tag line for this year’s 48 hour film challenge, which every group had to incorporate into their short film, was the following quote from Oscar Wilde: “This is New York and there’s no law against being annoying.” The last requirement and most challenging was the prop, Grand Central Station. Each group was issued a permit to film in that location for 1 hour.
We discuss the difficulties inherent in a challenge such as this as Heckler Kane Creations was one of the participating teams. Here are all the films submitted on YouTube.
Find out more info about the Winter Film Awards 48 Hour Film Challenge on twitter @winterfilmawards
Watch Our Short Film The Drop Off
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