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Download Indie Film Distribution Through the Decades with Sam Sherman

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-imperfect-podcast/id1107133885

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Welcome to Part 2 of our interview with writer, producer and distributor Sam Sherman. In case you missed it here’s Part 1: Indie Horror Icon Sam Sherman. In this part of our interview with Sam, we discuss how film making and distribution has changed, his relationship with director Al Adamson and how films like Dracula vs Frankenstein came to be.

Sam Sherman attended New York’s City College Film Institute, where he ran “Flash Gordon” serials and “The Mask of Fu Mancho” in the student film program and made the 16mm short “The Weird Stranger” in a single day. The first picture he distributed was a re-release of The Scarlet Letter (1934) in 1964. He also worked in the publicity department of Hemisphere Pictures prior to forming the hugely successful production and distribution outfit Independent-International Pictures with Do-It-Yourself indie filmmaker ‘Al Adamson (I)’ in 1968. Independent-International produced and/or released a slew of movies in such genres as horror, Western, science fiction, comedy, action and even blaxploitation for the drive-in market throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Watch Sam Sherman Discuss Indie Film Distribution Through the Decades

Sam Sherman Part 2  Interview Highlights

Whats your view of indie film distribution today?

I’ve been in contention with the major studios from the beginning. When I realized that I was not going to be involved with them. I wanted to be originally it made me declare my oath of independence. My opinion is they are to blame for everything that’s happened in this industry. As a result of the stupid things they’ve done the major studios have hurt the whole industry.

In the past year Paramount and Warner Bros fired a third of their employees on the west coast. They employ a lot of people that effects the economy out in Hollywood. As far as young people I try to encourage young film makers because when I started out I met veteran people in the industry. Whether it was Otto Preminger or John Wayne, they were always very nice to me and encouraged me. So I always want to encourage the next crew coming up.

It’s tougher today than it was because it’s tough to get into the major studios. They control 95% of the major theatrical market. When I look back the independents used to control 35% of the market. They hated to see when we were making all the money and they weren’t. We were making more horrific or sexy pictures and the studios were making old fashioned movies. The studios didn’t grow with the changes in the marketplace.  But they are certainly smart. When someone picks up on an idea such as Blair Witch or Paranormal Activity which is an awful picture. I had to walk out on it. It was a waste of time, yet there were 2 or 3 sequels and made mega millions of dollars. You can’t possibly understand why that is or even be influenced by it because its so freakish and impossible.

Can indie film makers compete the studios?

It’s like The Boob Tube (1975) in a way. As much as that was influenced by a movie called the The Groove Tube,  no matter what we tried to do to clone the Boob Tube we couldn’t do it. If you looked at Paranormal Activity and said that’s a great idea I’ll make a picture like it, you can’t. It’s just so weird and freakish that nobody has succeeded in copying it.

If you look at what pictures the majors are making today, they’re big production pictures like Batman vs Superman based on comic books or it’s a big Tom Hanks movie. They are well directed, shot all over the world. These pictures are costing $100 million dollars or more. It means film making is a very hard thing. Is it impossible? No, but one has to realize, especially young film makers that the cards are stacked against you.

At the time when I started out, it wasn’t an industry that didn’t want me. They didn’t care one way or the other about me. Couldn’t care less whether or not I wanted to do something. Today they don’t want you at all. You have to look at what is going on.

Today we are seeing things change so amazingly fast. We’ve seen the growth of the internet and internet programming. Not even the studios know where its going. One thing we can look at is where the stocks are going. Companies like Alphabet, Inc. that own Google and YouTube, their stock is worth over $900 per share. Amazon stock is over $900 per share. Disney owns studios, two theme parks and a great library of movies. Disney is a great company with branded entertainment and their stock is probably $30 per share. Who would believe that?

I can only give one piece of advice and that’s my credo. Never give up!

Tell us about your partner and director Al Adamson

I suggested you look at the film Nurse Sherri. Nurse Sherri was made for as next to nothing as it could be. I said to my director Al Adamson we have no money to pay you now but we have money that’s due. Go out and put a second mortgage on your house and we’ll do this picture. Who would do that?

Unfortunately if you know the story of Al Adamson he was sadly murdered. Al Adamson was like my brother. We started this company together and made all these films and did a lot of great things. Al was murdered by a man who was rebuilding his home in Indio, CA south of Palm Springs. It was a great tragedy. He went missing for a long time, we went looking for him and brought in the police and FBI. Eventually he was found entombed in his house.

Six months before he died he said something to me that was so strange. We had a little gag where I’d ask Al to do something for me and he’d ask what is it and I’d say I’m not telling you. You have to agree first. Who would do that? What a relationship we had. Only once did Al say to me he had something he wanted me to do. He made me agree first and said I want you to do three things. First I want you to tell my story to the world, what I’ve directed and my career. Number two I want you to keep the films that I directed in distribution so that people can see them. Number three I want you to finish the UFO film we were working on. I haven’t finished that film which bothers me especially because I gave my word on it.

In the case of tell his story to the world I worked on a book called Schlock-O-Rama The Films of Al Adamson by David Konow. It’s a great book that tells the whole story of this. Then we had an E! True Hollywood Story about Al. I was following the background of Ed Wood. He had a book written about him, then he had a documentary done about him and then he had a movie done about him. We are working on a movie about Al and myself making films together for a number of years.

How did you make Dracula vs Frankenstein?

Dracula vs Frankenstein was very popular. It went through several levels of shooting and edits. It started as a spinoff of Satan’s Sadists with some of the same people involved and it was originally called The Blood Seekers. The picture was rushed into production and Al wasn’t really ready but he was being pushed by other people. Al sent us the work print for a screening in New York with myself and some investors. Everyone hated it. They said better to take your first loss early, we don’t want to release this film.

I asked if they would mind if I tried to fix this thing up with my background as a film editor and writer. I belong to the school of waste not, want not. The main doctor was played by J. Carrol Naish, a two time Academy Award Nominee and 5 or 6 other well known actors in it. A concept had come to me that Dr. Durray, at least that’s what he called himself, was actually Dr. Frankstein, the last of the Frankensteins. I decide to change the picture in that direction. If we could put Frankenstein in, we could put Dracula in for good measure. I had to find a good editor to fix up the original material and then re-shoot the whole thing into what became Dracula vs Frankenstein.

The film is still around, still playing, it’s just now on Blu-Ray and wentthrough TV distributors MGM Studios. It’s one of those weird things. It became a great cult film. There are producers also working with us to remake it.

What’s in the future for Independent International Films?

Continuing to keep our library in release. Making new films, working with young film makers and encouraging them while figuring out a way to deal with this stranger market that exists today.

How did you get films into distribution?

We came in off the street and didn’t know anything. I had one film, The Scarlett Letter that I brought to a regional distributor in Boston that don’t exist anymore. There were probably 500 regional distributors around the country at that time. Denver Dickson, Al Adamson’s father knew some of them in the south from distributing a Western him and Al had made called Half Way to Hell which helped but he didn’t know every area.

I thought going up to New England, where the Scarlet Letter took place that I’d get some distribution. It never played in New England and they had no interest in my picture. They told me they had no interest in old pictures. They had interest in horror films and others. That was the turning point for me. I realized we’re forced to go into whatever the market dictates.

What’s different or the same about film making today?

Number one, the thing that’s always interesting to me is how cheaply can you make a film. At the time if you were shooting a film on 35mm if nobody else got paid, you still had to pay for the film stock, the lab to develop it. Today you don’t have that. Back then we had films shot in 16mm and blown up to 35mm because that would cut the cost up front way down. Satan Sadists was shot in 16mm. Dracula vs Frankenstein was shot in 16mm. Pictures that were popular were shot on 16mm but I didn’t like that. I wanted to shoot on 35mm. Today digital is digital. It doesn’t have to cost anything.

The one thing all movies have in common and that’s the secret. That great thing is ideas. Ideas are more important than money. If you have a picture that costs $400 million dollars and it was stupid idea who cares. If you shot it on digital and it cost zero dollars but the idea was great.

How do you protect your ideas?

Anybody can steal anything or change it a little bit. The one thing you can do that costs nothing is the Writers guild of America allows you to register written materials with them. You can take a script, a story, a one page idea and register it for free with the Writers Guild. That’s respected in this industry everywhere.

Download Independent Horror Film Icon, Sam Sherman Interview

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-imperfect-podcast/id1107133885

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-129479778/indie-horror-film-icon-sam-sherman-part-1

This week we take the Imperfect Podcast on the road with horror icon, Sam Sherman. Sam is has been a writer, producer and distributor that continues to work in the film industry today. We were fortunate enough to be introduced by our friend Ethan Marten who you may remember from our podcast about Eyes of the Roshi.

Sam Sherman attended New York’s City College Film Institute, where he ran “Flash Gordon” serials and “The Mask of Fu Mancho” in the student film program and made the 16mm short “The Weird Stranger” in a single day. The first picture he distributed was a re-release of The Scarlet Letter (1934) in 1964. He also worked in the publicity department of Hemisphere Pictures prior to forming the hugely successful production and distribution outfit Independent-International Pictures with Do-It-Yourself indie filmmaker ‘Al Adamson (I)’ in 1968. Independent-International produced and/or released a slew of movies in such genres as horror, Western, science fiction, comedy, action and even blaxploitation for the drive-in market throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Sam is a humble, intelligent film maker who gravitates toward “the weird.” We couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to learn from someone who made his mark in the film industry as an independent for decades. Part of 1 of this interview discusses Sam Sherman’s background and early career. Stay tuned next week for Part 2.

Watch one of Sam Sherman’s classic films: Dracula vs Frankenstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjQP_eaFVuU

Watch the Entire Interview with Indie Horror Icon Sam Sherman

Sam Sherman Interview Highlights

Where did your love of movie making come from?

It started with a love of still photography then in whole movie photography. I had been given my uncles 8mm camera and projector. I started making my own 8mm movies and also started collecting movies like Charlie Chaplin and westerns. When I started going to the movies at the age of 4 I always had a love for it. First time I was in a theater, what impressed me was how enormous the screen was and that was before TV or home movies.

Television started running old films that I took a liking to which took me in that direction. I basically started as a collector of movies. Regular 8mm, short 5 and 15 min films and then I got a 16mm projector for movies that ran longer. At that time there was no home video and I wanted to have certain movies I could see and preserve. I thought a lot of them were so obscure that if I didn’t have them nobody would have them.

Through all of that I became a film historian, studying the history of films going back to the late 1800s. I was hired by James Warren who produced the Famous Monsters of Film Land as a writer and film historian. He had an editor but couldn’t keep up with everything so they would farm out articles to me. Along the way I got to interview many directors, producers and actors.
I was always interested in the more obscure films but I did get meet famous people such as John Wayne. John Wayne liked me because I knew all about his early work as a young man starting out. He couldn’t believe I had all of his films on 16mm prints. At that time actors or producers would have 35mm screening rooms in their homes and didn’t even know these 16mm prints existed that you could run yourself.

I got to meet John Wayne over a dozen times in different circumstances. I sat with for an interview article from 8am until 1pm. No acting, just shooting the breeze about old 1930’s pictures. He couldn’t believe some of the facts I knew about those old films like the time they were shooting live ammo on set.  I had a good friend Joe Franklin who had a television show in NYC and he helped me with a lot of things whether it was getting to do a film or meeting someone. He knew just about everyone in the industry.

What was the first independent horror you filmed?

It’s a funny how that happened. Things like that don’t get planned. If I had said I’d like to make horror films it doesn’t happen like that. There’s always a million impediments to you doing something. I was a big fan of photography and I subscribed to a popular photography magazine. There was an article about City College Film Institute that seemed interesting. A place to learn about making films, use equipment, and meet people. To get into the film program you had to have top grades and be a science student which I was.

That gave me an in because I was a step up from the average student in the New York area. It was a free school if you got there. At the time, other schools that taught film were on the west coast like UCLA & USC and it was too costly for my family to send me to California. I was also very young because I skipped two grades. I was 16 and looked like I was 12 which was hard to get people to experience me.

I was going to college and working as a film editor, projectionist and teaching audio/visual use at Hunger College, plus making my own little movies. The fact that I liked horror films came from two areas: One was comic books and they always had horror and in addition to that I would listen to radio programs. Most of the dramatic shows were in the mystery or horror genre. The weirder the better for me. That background and working for Famous Monsters of Film Land Magazine pushed me into horror.

The Weird Stranger: Sam Sherman’s City College Film Project

I was in charge of programming at City College and they came after me in the school newspaper and called me the ‘Horror Man: Sherman is lowering the standards of City College.” The head of the film institute was teaching a course and we had to make a small film to pass the class. It took most students almost 6 months to make their short films. Everyone else was pretty artsy and I was low class. The end of the semester was coming and I had nothing. He said to me I should make a horror film about a vampire who robs a blood bank.

I end up making a film called The Weird Stranger. It was a crazy horror satire and it was technologically way ahead of what the others were doing. I had a full synchronized score that matched the moods and sound effects. As much as he hated it, the professor had to give me an A. What he hated the most was that I wouldn’t put the City College logo on the film. I shot my film on location, with my own equipment and had my own logo. It turned out to be the best film of the class and years later my sister was taking a course at City College and invited me to a screening. They announced they were going to show their favorite student film and it turns out they start showing my film The Weird Stranger. People loved it. Since I made the film, peoples taste changed.

What makes horror films so unique and likeable?

It’s because it’s different. Everything in life today, seems too similar and uninteresting but when you get to horror, you have the undead coming back to life or zombies or whatever. Way back when, not many were made. People wanted to see something different.

How did you start making films professionally?

I was friendly Irwin Pizor who owned a company called Hemisphere Pictures. They were located in New York with offices in the Philippines who had made one horror film but at the time I met them they were making war films because there was a big demand for them overseas in 1963. Make them in the Philippines and sell them around the world but they were making no money in the United States. I had bought a picture from Irwin Pizor based on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and I wanted to re-issue it.

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.

Keep up with Manon de Reeper and Film Inquiry:

https://www.filminquiry.com/about/
https://www.facebook.com/filminquiry/
https://www.instagram.com/filminquiry/
https://www.twitter.com/filminquiry/

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 info@filminquiry.com 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’s guests on the Imperfect Podcast are Trish Rainone and Katie Uhlmann. They are the writers and producers of the new hit web series, My Roomate’s An Escort. The web series is an off kilter comedy about two polar opposite roomates who influence each other’s lives for better or worse. Trish and Katie personally bonded over break-ups and roommate stories and began writing together two days later and haven’t left eachother’s side’s since. The two share a lot of laughs together on the screen and in real-life. Trish is thrilled at how My Roommate’s an Escort came together and can’t wait to make more!

We had a great time chatting with these ladies who are super funny and clever. They talk to us about funding the web series through crowd funding, investors and sponsors. Like many other talented people in the entertainment industry, they needed to create their own path to showcase their abilities. Fortunately for Trish and Katie, My Roomate’s An Escort seems to winning over audiences with over 69k views in less than 4 weeks.

Writers, Producers & Actresses Katie Uhlmann & Trish Rainone

Katie Uhlmann is an award winning director, writer, and actor and was born and raised in Trenton, Ontario, Canada. After graduating from Queen’s University with a degree in drama and psychology, she started pursuing a career in film and moved to Toronto. Katie has acted in countless shows (Workin’ Moms, Just Passing Through, Paranormal Witness), commercials and independent films (Kingdom Come). She is also known for her work as a host on her web show entitled Katie Chats where she completed over 3000 interviews with guests including David Cronenberg, Tatiana Maslany, and oscar-winning actress Juliette Binoche.

Trish Rainone is an actress, writer and producer from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. She initially studied Film at Carlton University, but moved home to The Soo after some horrible roommate experiences and a bout of home-sickness. After working on several commercials, short films and the odd pause-or-you’ll-miss-her roles in popular films such as The Void, she decided to begin creating her own content with people she connected with and respected. Her first short film, Constance, (which she Produced and Co-wrote) had a successful film festival run in the States and Canada. She earned a Best Actress Award at the Horrorizon Film Festival in 2016.

Watch How to Make Successful Comedy Web Series

Interview Highlights with Trish Rainone & Katie Uhlmann

How Did You Meet?

Drunk at a bar where all of our relationships begin. We met at a friends birthday party in January of 2016 and hit it off and seemed to have the same sense of humor and the same angst towards exes. At the time, we were both going through “something.”

I had just gotten out of a 3 year relationship and crying a lot. We were both frustrated actors because we weren’t getting opportunities for roles that we wanted so we decided to pursue the dream.

Why did you choose to produce a web series?

I think because we had good chemistry we decided to do some writing together. We both had produced some short films and put them in festivals. With short films you do festivals and then wonder what has changed. We thought tackling a web series would be a better approach to tackling stardom. (just kidding)

We are still taking My Roomates an Escort to festivals but it was the idea of getting something out there immediately and distribute ourselves online. Although I do have to say there is something about being in a theater with an audience and seeing what jokes they laugh at. That’s something that’s nice about festivals. On the internet you just have a bunch of assholes attacking you.

Has My Roommate’s An Escorted offended anyone yet?

We took some heat early on when the trailer was released but now that it’s released everyone knows we aren’t making fun of escorts. Both of these girls are just girls. When you’re figuring out your life in your 20’s you go through some ups and downs.

We started with reality since we both had disaster roomates and branched out from there embellishing things and making them more absurd. The hope is that it’s relatable on some level.

Some people no matter what your job is you might not be great at it. You can be a low achiever in any field is what we’ve learned from our experience. We can be fired from almost every job. That’s something we talked about for Heather’s character because we never explored. I’ve had a lot of different jobs in life. As an actor you go through a lot of jobs because you want to keep acting the priority and for some reason bosses don’t like that at day jobs.

What was the creative process like for My Roomate’s an Escort?

We wrote the series over 7 months. We both have day jobs, I work at a casting studio and at the time Trish was working at a bar which she’s likely going back to. Whenever we weren’t at our day jobs we’d be writing and sometimes I’d go sit at the bar when she was working. Other customers would be like what’s going on? Did you say escort?

We had no lives for 7 months but really still have no lives. We crowdfunded on IndieGoGo and raised $20k and we threw a big party during the Toronto International Film Festival where we sold tickets to the party and got free alcohol from sponsors. Then we charged people $30 to go to the party that went directly to the IndieGoGo campaign but they got free food and drinks. A local business Adrenalin Tattoo gave us $5k and they were in the show. Our executive producer also contribute a lot of money.

Crowd funding and asking people for money was very stressful. Some people don’t like it and get offended. I had one person actually say I’ve tried chatting with you and you never write me back and now you’re asking me for money. My Mom got mad at one her friends for not supporting the campaign.

It’s one of those things where you can’t hold it against people if they don’t support you. A good approach is being grateful when they do support you. Have low expectations but be appreciative when people do pull through. What’s interesting is that the people you least expect are the most generous.

How long did it take to shoot each episode of My Roomates an Escort?

We did a block shoot and shot the whole series in 6 days. We ended up with a few pickup days.

How much PR & marketing was there leading up to the release of My Roomates an Escort?

We had $10k left we saved for marketing. There was a very strategic social media scheduled where we pre-planned our posts for every single day.

What was the web series filmed on?

We shot it on a Canon C300. I directed the series and come from a performance background so I don’t know a lot about lenses. Our director of photography helped and collaborated with us a lot. I kept it pretty simple. It was a very efficient set but super fun.

How did you get sponsors for your events?

Katie is really good at writing emails but we also found that going in person is successful. Getting a personal introduction is also helpful.

What did you learn from shooting My Roomates an Escort?

Build your own success.

What’s next for the series?

We are taking meetings. It’s doing what we hoped it would do and grabbing network interest. Our dream would be to have a half hour comedy but we are proceeding with guarded optimism because a lot of things would have to line up for that to happen. We are just going to keep asking people to give us money until it works. We just want to be paid to write and create our show.

Jared Cohn was born in New York and is an avid writer and director. Jared graduated NYIT with a B.F.A in communication arts and works in production while continuing to hone his craft as an actor and filmmaker. He’s also a spiritual person who says he believes in karma.

Jared has quickly racked up 22 directing credits, including Jailbait, Evil Nanny and Born Bad in part due to his relationship with The Asylum, a full service production company. We talk to Jared about his latest film King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable, which is an independent film that stands out from the pack. With a slim budget, unique story-line and CGI visual effects to rival the big boys, Jared continues to prove himself as a director worth watching.

Added Bonus! Jared also talks about his future film that will surely be his biggest project to date. He’s producing Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash.

Watch How to Become A Film Director in Hollywood with Jared Cohn

Interview Highlights with Director Jared Cohn

What brought you to Hollywood?

I’ve been out in Los Angeles for 14 years. I originally came out as an actor and did 30+ movies, TV shows and commercials. Then I started writing and slowly transitioned behind the camera. Now I’m a behind the camera guy and it’s been working out much better. I think that was the universe’s way of telling me to stop acting.

The acting definitely helped the film making. Everything happens for a reason.

How does being an actor effect the way you direct?

Communicating with the actors in a way that they understand better. There’s a lot of technical directors that don’t understand the acting side. They refer to me as an actors director but you still need to know the technical side of things. That’s what I went to school for. When I started directing I was good with the actors but I didn’t know anything about cameras and lighting. I went to the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in West Babylon.

What was your first movie as a director?

My first film was self-financed. I took out my life savings on a horror movie that made no money. I ended up doing some work with The Asylum as an actor on Sharknado. I wrote a script to act in myself and they asked me if I wanted to act or direct it. I’m glad I decided to direct it because it was a big movie for Lifetime and I’ve since directed 10 movies for The Asylum. They gave me my break in this crazy industry.

How did you start your relationship with The Asylum?

Acting. I had acted in four movies for them and that’s how I got to know the producers and was able to get them the script. I will always remember that phone call while I was actually in Long Beach Long Island and I was a plane the next day. That was one of the best experiences of my life shooting that movie, Born Bad. It still plays on Lifetime.

I have three movies coming out in May on DVD and VOD including the horror movie Evil Nanny. I try to stay active, an object in motion stays in motion.

How did you get involved with King Arthur & The Knights of the Roundtable?

The writer of Sharknado, Scotty Mullen who is also the casting director at The Asylum, wrote it and we shot it in Thailand. It was produced by The Asylum. It’s a fun, off the wall movie, with giant robots and sword fighting. It’s a wacky take on the King Arthur story if you don’t take it too seriously. It was a tight schedule and budget but I’m familiar with that world. We finished shooting in about 12 days.

What was shooting a film in Thailand like?

At this point I’ve done three movies in Thailand. You have a language barrier but the key personnel of each department speak and relay the info to the crew. Every time I go out to Thailand I end up eating something that fucks up my stomach.

I was walking down the street in Thailand and I pulled out like 4 movies I directed out of cardboard bin.

How integral was the CGI and Special FX to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?

The Asylum team has 15 guys in house doing visual effects and animation.  At the time it was head up by Joe Lawson. They are well oiled machine that does everything from composites to 3D modeling. It’s a full in house studio.

There is a learning curve to shooting VFX sequences. We did some green screen shots. I learned a lot shooting Atlantic Rim.  You shoot something then you have to unstack it. After you make a few mistakes, the VFX guys yell at you. Having a VFX supervisor on set can sometimes stifle creativity because they want you to lock every shot off. They can motion track the sequences but its more work for them.

The most important thing with shooting visual effects is being able to visualize it and explain it to the actors and the crew. One day it just clicks.

How important is pre-production with a tight shooting schedule?

Pre-production is even more important than production. If you get your pre-production on point then your production runs smoothly. If your pre-production isn’t on point then your shoot will be a disaster. On King Arthur the final sequence was the hardest to map out.

Now when I do movies, if it’s a basic scene with two actors talking I’m not making shot lists or story boards. I used to and then you do it enough to learn what you need on set. I like to design shots on set with the actors and keep the camera moving.

When you’re doing crazy action scenes with very specific shots that you need, then it’s important to write a shot list.

Who did the fight scene choreography for King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table?

We had a great stunt team, local guys, and one of the actors who played Merlin helped choreograph some of the action. When they weren’t filming I had them practicing because you can’t put together a cool fight on the day. We spent as much time as we could working out the fight scenes.

What was the budget and production like for King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable?

It was about $250,000. We shot on a Red Scarlet and had some other toys like a crane dolly. I don’t think we did any handheld shooting.

In Thailand, they shoot a lot of Bollywood movies, so there are some good production services. It’s different how they do it though. Every light comes with a crew guy and that’s his job to move the light. There’s a lot of gear to rent for camera and lighting packages and actually that’s the most expensive thing. It’s not the labor or crew rates, it’s the equipment rental.

Story is more important than the gear. You could have a $100 million dollar movie  with a terrible story and it’s going to be a terrible movie and you could have a $100 thousand dollar budget with a great script and make a great movie. It always starts and ends with the story.

What is the distribution plan for King Arthur & The Knights of the Roundtable?

It will be available May 2, 2017 on DVD and VOD. It’ll be transactional VOD first to get as much juice as possible before going to streaming VOD but it really depends on the deal. Every deal is different.

What did you learn from shooting King Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable?

The biggest takeaway was the choreography from the fight scenes that we had. I put as much time in as we had and it wasn’t enough time. The next movie I did, Locked Up, had a lot of fight scenes it and I made sure they were choreographed before production.

I learned more about visual fx and interactive lighting as well. You grow as a film maker and get more confident. When I first started directing compared to now it’s worlds apart.

Download the episode to hear Jared Cohn talk about his most recent film in pre-production

Street Survivors, The True Story of the Lynyrd  Skynyrd Plane Crash

David LaRosa is an actor, director, producer and writer as well as the president of Feenix Films, an independent film production company. He was born and raised in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. David received a Gold Remi Award from the 2016 Worldfest Houston International Film Festival in the Crime/Drama category for his latest release, “Clandestine.” He also received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Special Agent Thomas Mackenrowe.

In this episode of the Imperfect Podcast we discuss the business of indie film making.  Unfortunately man filmmakers don’t understand the business and one of two things happen. They don’t have a plan for making money with their film or they get taken advantage of by a distribution company that doesn’t have the filmmakers best interests in mind.

Keep up with Filmmaker David LaRosa

Feenixfilms.com

Twitter: @davefeenix

Davids LaRosa IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1390287/

Clandestine IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3325098/

Watch Clandestine

Local Police and Federal Officials join together to unravel a sinister meth crisis in a small suburban town. Faced with the prospects of life changing events, the team struggles to balance their personal fears with their professional duties. Starring: Nick DeMatteo, David LaRosa, Janine Laino.

David LaRosa Interview Highlights

How did you catch the film bug?

It’s hard to say exactly, but many years ago I found out that my cousin, who I never met, starred in a 70’s sitcom. He was actually my favorite character on the show. I think the fact that I could watch someone related to me perform on TV sparked my interest in the field.  Also growing up in the 70’s and watching a movie like Star Wars, made my head explode with possibilities.

I eventually got involved with my High School plays, but when I went to college, I didn’t want anything to do with acting, so I majored in Political Science until I realized that field was actually acting as well. I eventually dropped out and took acting classes, where I met my wife and business partner. We started a theater company in 2006 and then decided to do our own thing, so we created a web-series. A couple years later in 2008, we formed Feenix Films.

It’s an LLC. I am the president, Janine Laino is the treasurer, Nick DeMatteo is the Vice President, and Kate McGrath is the Business director.

Making movies is a business. You do all this creative stuff, but you need to have this super structure underneath that allows you to do the creative fun stuff.  We developed a strategic plan, which consisted of two phases. Phase 1 was to create and learn from our mistakes. This meant to evaluate what skills we had and what skills we didn’t have in house. The skills we didn’t possess, we went outside and hired professionals, which were our DP and a sound person.  “Clandestine” is the culmination of Phase 1.  Phase 2 is: we use what we learned from the film and build up. Now we have several scripts, which we will use to attract investors.

Where did the idea for Clandestine come from?

Kate McGrath, the screenwriter, was influenced by her father’s stories of life as a Long Island police officer. She never forgot this disturbing incident that scared her as a child. This film brought that image to life.  There is a form of meth in Long Island that is coming up from Mexico. Also no one has explored the use of meth in this particular area yet. It makes the war on drugs a little fresher. The film is an analogy of the entire war on drugs and what people and towns go through.

How important is the relationship between the DP and the Director?

That’s the most important relationship there is. We interviewed many DP’s. We received over 300-400 resumes and reels. I went through all of them before deciding on Brad Rego. He quickly understood the feel and type of images I wanted and why.

Where does your business acumen come from?

I went back to school and changed my major to psychology and minored in political science, then got my masters in social work. I completed my studies with a dual concentration in administrative and therapy. I used this to develop the business aspect.

Also, my partners and I work together using our composite knowledge and a bit of common sense.

We realized that Feenix Films’s focus is the story and our ability to relate to our audience.

When you made this film did you have a distribution plan or did that come after the fact?

Right from the start, we placed a lot of the money toward PR. Chris Ryan, who played Billman in Clandestine, said, “Twitter is a huge room where everyone is yelling at the exact same volume level.” So how do you get above the volume level? You need to pay for a spotlight or a megaphone, which translates into, “pay for PR.”

The Indie film market has changed. In the 90’s the question was, “how many theaters are showing your film or what city is your premier? Now the question is, “how many platforms and which ones is your film showing on?” With the help of our sales agent, Circus Road Films, and our distributors, Candy Factory Distribution, our film Clandestine, is on multiple platforms with more on the way.

Do you find directing yourself as an actor in the film difficult?

I keep waiting for the big problem, but it didn’t come. I love it. Maybe taking some of those psych classes helped me to compartmentalize. My whole acting approach is to think like the character, step into those thoughts and you’re there, you’re done.

It’s like when you’re a kid, you’re not thinking, you’re playing.

What gear did you use to shoot this film?

We shot the entire film on the Cannon 5D, DSLR. It came in handy because some larger cameras would be unable to capture some of the shots due to space restrictions. We edited the film using Final Cut 7, because I can’t stand Final Cut X. I guess it is what you get used to working with.

Have you done any crowd funding?

We have but it didn’t go so well until we learned several strategies that helped. You have to work at it.  There are pros and cons to it.

What did you learn from making Clandestine that you can apply to your next feature film?

 The most important thing for me is to make sure you spend the time necessary to put together a team of people you can rely on.

Remember that guy in the famous Got Milk commercial in the 90s who couldn’t say Aaron Burr? How about the kid with no tongue in Wes Craven’s People Under the Stairs. That’s just two of the 116 acting credits for a guy who face you’d likely recognize before his name. Today we had a great talk with character actor Sean Whalen who gets mistaken for Steve Buscemi more often than himself.

Sean told us about his upcoming role as Satan in Harrison Smith’s Death House, how Drew Barrymore stuck up for him on the set of Never Been Kissed and rubbing elbows with other talented actors as the Comedy & Improv teacher at James Francos Acting School in Los Angeles. Plus, we got to hear about his latest feature film now crowdfunding on IndieGoGo called Crust.

We hope you enjoy our interview with That Guy Sean Whalen on How to Succeed as a Character Actor in Hollywood. Be sure to leave us a review on iTunes to help get the word out and

Watch How To Succeed as a Character Actor in Hollywood

Watch People Under the Stairs

Sean Whalen Interview Highlights

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Maryland right between Washington DC & Baltimore. It was kind of rural and I loved it there.

Were you a theater kid growing up?

I did a lot of plays but 5th grade was a turning point. They said I could do a class project so I directed and starred in Rumpelstiltskin. I’ll never forget doing it and then at the very end when I ran out on stage I slid across for my curtain call and got a huge round of applause from the whole school. Not only did I have fun doing the show but I also got huge accolades for it. In high school I was active in community and school theater.

When did you move to Hollywood?

I received a scholarship from my high school when I was accepted into the UCLA theater program. A lot of people have lived in different places. I basically grew up in Maryland for 18 years and then came out here. I didn’t get to do Chicago, New York and London like some other actors but I like it here.

I always tell actors, give it two years and 100% of your time and energy. If after two years you can say things are proceeding, that doesn’t even mean you’re getting a paid gig. It means you’re doing well in acting school or things are going well, then stick around. After two years things were going well for me. I was performing in the Groundlings and thought things were going okay. In the summer of 1987 I started to pursue things again and I recorded my first commercial in the fall of 1988. I just kept going and kept at it.

I had Alan Ruck (Cameron from Ferris Buller’s Day Off) in my acting class recently. He told me he had done Ferris Bueller and moved to LA and it wasn’t really going that well and was working in a factory. It goes to show you the ups and downs out here. I can’t imagine being in such a huge movie and then lugging boxes in a factory.

What was your first paid acting gig?

My first commercial was for Kaboodles that ran on MTV. It was a makeup fishing tackle box that you could keep makeup in. It got me my SAG (Screen Actors Guild) card and it got me my first car after driving around on a Vespa out here. After that I started doing a lot of Little Caesar’s commercials. Then I got People Under the Stairs in 1991.

Watch People Under Stairs on iTunes & Amazon Prime

What was it about the character Roach that stuck with audiences?

It took me a long time to figure out why. They used me in the publicity for People Under the Stairs with these weird pictures they took before we shot the movie. It was me with long spikey hair and I never really looked like that. Recently I was asked which character would you like to be in real life? I thought I don’t even know and then I thought Roach.

Now I understand why people like Roach so much. It’s because he was smart enough to leave the basement as a 15 year old kid and not be caught. Obviously if he was smart enough to get out and be behind the walls, he was smart enough to leave. He stuck around to not only give shit to the people that put him there but also to make sure that little girl was going to be okay. He was a martyr, dying to save Fool so he could help Alice get out of the house and have a new life. Roach did it all with an innocence.  I actually wasn’t that young. I was 27 playing a 15 year old.

What was working with Wes Craven like?

I always say he’s like the favorite uncle at the BBQ. Not the one that’s behind the thing grill screaming but the one who hands you the hot dog and takes it from the loud guy. Wes Craven is so mellow and nice and very nurturing. He wanted us to do good acting work and really cared about that. Wes was protective of that and it made you want to do a good job. You could tell he was so nice and wanted it to be good that you instinctively wanted it to be better. You just didn’t want to suck for him.

It’s a weird twisted movie but he made it so safe. I thought if I’m going to be in this movie I may as well play and give 100%. At the time I was very lucky to be with a coach, Mark Speigel and I was also at Playhouse West with Robert Carnegie and they taught me to act act. I had come out of the Groundlings with comedy. So I was at the right place to be able to say I want to create this character and play this real. Wes let me go for it.

When I had my death scene I sat in the corner for over an hour by myself and he kept everyone away and let me prepare for it. I said I’m going to be over there getting ready while you guys setup the lights. Wes Craven was very sweet, nurturing and mellow but obviously a very dark twisted imagination.

Recently I feel like Rob Zombie is the same way. Super nice, mellow and kind of dorky. If you sat down to talk to him you’d realize he’s a cinephile. Same with Guillermo Del Toro. He was giddy when I met him on the set of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He remembered me as Roach from People Under the Stairs. You realize those are the best kind of people because they are fans of good work and the genre.

How important was studying acting to your success?

Definitely. I feel like an acting teacher said it to me best. You don’t walk into a hospital and go, “I wanna do a brain surgery.” It doesn’t work that way. You put in hours and hours and become a doctor. You put in hours and hours and become a lawyer. And we put in hours and hours and you don’t even know if we’ll succeed. At least they know they’ll have a job when they finish school. Actors don’t.

My acting coach told us we better know plays and movies. I loved movies and entertainment anyways. When I was working with my class and said we need to do a film noir thing, they said what’s film noir? My students think being good and putting out some videos on YouTube, that’s not what it is. Every meeting you have someone will it’s just like Repo Man meets Edward Scissorhands and you better know what that means.

Not only do you study the craft but you have to study the industry and know movies. You don’t have to watch the shows but you can at least go on Wikipedia and read about it and watch a YouTube clip so you know. I’ve never watched all of Dexter but I know what it is. I met with a young set director for my new film Crust and I mentioned Repo Man and he was like oh yeah, not like an early Tim Burton movie.

What TV shows and movies influenced you?

I watched I love Lucy. That redefined comedy in the modern age. Desi Arnez was a pioneer, 3 cameras with the audience, it’s still done the same way because of him. I watched the Three Stooges and Warner Bros cartoons, Fantasy Island, 6 Million Dollar Man and Gilligan’s Island.
Saturday morning cartoons were the greatest thing ever. You’d get a huge preview on Friday for what’s coming on Saturday like HR PufnStuf.

How did the Aaron Burr Got Milk commercial boost your career?

People Under the Stairs was number 1 for six weeks and I thought my life was going to change and it didn’t which was interesting. All my guy friends that were character actors would all audition and we were all there for this one. They gave us bread and a big jar of peanut butter and said this is what’s going on, just go with it. The radio announcer lines were playing and I shoved a shit load of peanut butter in my mouth. What was told after I got the commercial was that they didn’t have an ending. Most actors were angry and throwing the phone and screaming. I was the only guy to just show he got screwed. I just did what I thought was funny at the time.

When I got there, Michael Bay, who directed the commercial said just do what you did in the audition. That was his last commercial before he broke into movies and got The Rock after that. The commercial blew up and won all kinds of awards and Michael Bay got a lot of accolades and a huge career. For me, I was in acting class and somebody said your life’s going to change. Steven Spieldberg saw that commercial and said he liked it. It’ll mean good things for you.

After that I got cast in Twister which Steven Spieldberg executive produced, Men in Black which he executive produced. His friend was Tom Hanks who put me in That Thing You Do and Drew Barrymore put me in Never Been Kissed.

I was working a ton in commercials, 5 or 6 per year and then it all ended. I think I’ve done 2 since then and that commercial is 20 years old. It was a huge campaign and I’m so associated with it. It started my theatrical career and ended my commercial career.

What are the similarities and differences of horror and comedy?

Comedy is just fun because when you say cut the crew laughs. If you can make the crew laugh you’re doing well. Horror is usually like drama, unless it’s a horror comedy which is rare. In drama, it’s more draining emotionally because of the intense circumstances. Usually in a horror, the circumstances are so intense that it’s exhausting to put yourself through it.

I did NYPD Blue with Dennis Franz in my face interrogating me thinking this is awesome but that was exhausting. I just like giving it 100% and getting a reaction.

How did you get involved with Death House?

My good friend Felissa Rose who’s a producer and I had worked with Harrison Smith before or we were trying to work together before. They wanted as many iconic horror people as possible. It was a fun part, playing Satan. I can’t talk about more than that but it was very cool. This is one they are trying to keep under wraps.

Check out our interview with Death House producer Harrison Smith

What actors have you worked with that were memorable?

One was Drew Barrymore, who fought for me because I wrote my part for Never Been Kissed. It was supposed to be one line and the director wanted to keep it that way. She thought what I created was funny and working and wanted to see it through. It was her first time as a producer and Drew wanted to let me do my thing because it was better and it was working.

The other that was Dennis Franz who stunned me. After we were done on NYPD Blue he said he was sorry. He had a bit of a cold and was worried he was giving as much as he should. I was like that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life! He’s great, that’s how I want to be. I never forgot that and now on any set I try to introduce myself to the extras. He was so gracious and talented. I realized that you can be really good and still be super nice at the same time.

The biggest people I’ve worked with, Tim Burton, Tom Hanks, they were always the coolest people. It was the younger people who had attitudes. I never really understood that.

How important are relationships as an actor?

My daughters will laugh because I say it’s all about the hustle. Networking and then being really good when you get an opportunity is the most important thing. The more people you know, the bigger your funnel is and the more stuff that can come in. Relationships are key.

What is your latest film Crust about?

It’s about a former child star working in a laundry mat. All his co-stars have either killed themselves or are addicts. He collects the single socks from the dryers in the laundry machines and blows his nose in them, wipes his sweat off on them, bleeds on them and they are all in a little pile. One day he cries into the sock pile and it becomes Crust, the sock monster. It avenges and kills for him unbeknownst to him ala Little Shop of Horrors.

It’s fun, Felissa Rose is attached as my girlfriend and it’s on IndigeGoGo now: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/crust-movie-fun-horror. We are also taking meetings with other investors.

How long have you been an acting coach?

I started in August of 2016 but I’ve been teaching workshops for 3 or 4 years. We just had our new teacher meeting yesterday with James Caan. We spoke yesterday which was cool because I got a call from the supervisor at the school saying James Caan really likes what I’m doing and the way I think. Wow James Caan! I’m going to dinner with him next week which is cool. You come in and learn comedy and we put on shows regularly. I’m trying to build a comedy department that rivals the Groundlings or Upright Citizens Brigade. It’s every Tuesday night throughout the year.

I love teaching. It’s like giving back. All you want to do is teach them things I wish I knew.

Have more questions for Sean? Leave them in the comments below and we’ll make sure he gets them! Don’t forget to sign up for our weekly email and if you really love us, leave us a review on iTunes.

Tony Germinario is a writer and indie film director behind the award winning feature film Bad Frank. Born and raised in NJ. Tony went to school at Fairfield University where he initially began his screenwriting career. Since then, he has always been involved in creative outlets. At first, he focused on music and became one of the lead songwriters for a touring band called Jel, but then turned his writing skills from songs back to scripts roughly eight years ago.

Since focusing on film, Tony has written 9 feature scripts, several shorts, and has experienced increasing levels of success with his film-making. His first feature film “Wingman, Inc.”, starring Kristopher Turner, Erin Cahill, and Reid Ewing was picked up by Lion’s Gate/Grindstone and was released in April 2015.

Tony’s latest feature film Bad Frank, featuring Kevin Interdonato and Tom Sizemore has people talking. It’s won 11 awards on the film festival circuit and recently picked up a distribution deal with Gravitas Ventures. We learned a lot from Tony this week about transitioning from short films to creating feature films. The devil’s in the details and preparation can be the difference between success and failure. Surrounding yourself with a team you can trust is also the key to making big things happen on small budgets in the indie film world.

Keep up with Tony Germinario and Bad Frank

Twitter: @tonygerm & @badfrankmovie
Instagram: @tonygerm
Tony on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4894287/
Bad Frank on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3362238/

Watch Bad Frank

Director Tony Germinario Interview Highlights

Where are you from?

Born and raised in Bergen County New Jersey. We actually have a big New Jersey contingency on this film. Kevin Interdonato, Russ Russo, Lynn Mancinelli and about ¾ of the cast and crew were from New Jersey. Keeps down travel expenses.

How long have you been making independent films?

For about 6 years now. In my younger days I was a touring musician for a number of years in NYC and the northeast. You reach a certain age and have kids where you can’t drive to Maryland at 11pm on Wednesday anymore. I wound up transitioning out of that into film.

Probably about 8 or 9 years ago I wrote my first script and it was awful. Then I wrote my second script and it wasn’t as awful and it progressively got better each time I wrote one. I was hired by a gentleman, Choice Skinner to write a script for him. He had written an advertisement looking for a writer so I sent in a few samples and was hired. I was paid all of $100 and I was a professional screenwriter so I was thrilled. We hit it off. Choice is New York guy himself even though he lives in Los Angeles. The script is still sitting in development limbo on some executives desk.

We hit it off after that and I went to one of Choice’s acting classes. If you’ve never been to an acting class, go! It’s insane. I met a couple of people there and I wrote a couple of short scripts that they could use for class and he said why don’t we just make them ourselves. I had no idea what he was talking about, I had never produced anything. I just wanted to write.

We ended up raising a little bit of money and shot two short films over the course of a weekend. That was really the start of it. I made another short film after that. Then I wrote a feature film that we produced called Wingman Inc. A professional wingman falls in love with a professional cockblocker. That was more of a comedic film than Bad Frank.

I wrote Bad Frank and wanted to see if I could do it all myself with the feedback I had been getting from people like Choice Skinner. I had worked with Brandon and Kevin before so we decided to do something really low budget. We were very fortunate to get great performances from great people involved. I feel very lucky to work with all these people and am beholden to them. Whatever I do next, any success I have is due to the people I worked with. I’ll do anything I can to help them out as well.

What is your philosophy on working with the same team for your films?

It helps you get a cohesive set. Especially for Bad Frank, we shot the whole thing in 12 days. If we didn’t have a good working knowledge of how we all fit together, there is no way we could have pulled it off. As you work on projects you determine this is someone you can work with again so you keep them in the fold and there are other people that may not fit. You know pretty quickly who fits your model. I like to think I don’t have much of an ego. I don’t really care as long as it comes out good. As long as everyone is working hard and doing what they are supposed to they’re good with me. That’s why I like keeping these people close.

Look at Judd Apatow who uses the same guys or Kevin Smith who uses Ben Affleck even though he’s one of the biggest actors in the world now.  That’s who I aspire to be. I bring Kevin Smith up because we were lucky enough to work with Brian O’Halloran. That was surreal. Clerks was one of those movies growing up I was like how did he do this. Brian walked on set the first day and I probably came across as a little jerky but I was really just intimidated. Probably more intimidated by Brian than Tom Sizemore.

I said it recently to a friend of mine. My next project I do, I want to have him back to give him more time to do what he does. He had two great scenes in the film but it wasn’t very much screen time.

Why did you start with short films?

I’m a kid out of Jersey. I just had to figure out a way to make a calling card. There are  a lot of festivals out there and if you start winning some awards you start to get your name out there. Maybe now it’s a little easier if you get on a Vimeo channel or something like that and you might find a way to monetize it but you’re never going to make your money back. I didn’t go to film school. If I was going to learn, that’s how I was going to learn. Still money well spent.

How did your process change from making short films to a feature film?

For the first feature, Wingman Inc. I was just a writer and showed up on set to watch and learn. Choice was the director and I kinda sat on his shoulder and watched how he did things. What I learned is, if you hire the right people, the director doesn’t have to do much. It’s all in the preparation beforehand. You’re going to setup your shot lists and work with your director of photography to do that. That was a learning process too but fortunately my DP was great, Mike Heachanova.

It’s about figuring out how do you get the right people in the right spots and letting them do what they do. My process is typically I’ll do a couple of takes and not say anything. On the 3^rd take I might say here’s a little note to guide them. If you’re working with talented people which every single person on our set was, you don’t have to do that much. Make it an easy place to work and the rest takes care of itself.

What is Bad Frank about?

It’s a love story…just kidding. It’s about Frank who has impulse control disorder. In his younger days he ruined all of his relationships with his family and friends. Years later he has himself straightened out and he’s medicated and trying to repair his old relationships. Just as he’s going to do that he meets up with someone from his past who sucks him in to his old ways. That’s when “Bad Frank” is reborn.

This film is all about performances. There are no special effects, no crazy car chases, we’ve got a couple of fights we shot but it’s about performances.

If you notice, one of the cool things throughout the film is that there isn’t much music but there’s a lot of sound design. We mixed these eery creepy sounds as things start effecting Frank and it gets stronger and harder as things progress. That’s something a lot of people don’t think about as well in the post production world. If our sound guy didn’t do a good job on that part it wouldn’t have been as intense. As good as Kevin is, you have to have the audio with the video. If it’s not there it would have been more challenging to keep people interested in it.  It keeps the intensity going and its such an integral part of the film.

What are the details of the Bad Frank shoot?

We shot on a RED EPIC. It was a two camera shoot. We didn’t really have that many takes. If we got 3 or 4 takes that’s it. If got a good performance we don’t have time to mess around. We probably had 20 to 30 minutes of film we cut. We had very fortunate circumstances. It was a 12 day shoot, 6 days on 1 off then 6 more days of shooting. I still have a regular job. I took 4 days off to shoot and while everyone else had a day off I was still working at my regular job. It was a total of 8 work days for me but it was well worth.

When you can pull something like this together and see it on screen I was stoked.

What was the budget for Bad Frank and how did you get funding?

The budget for Bad Frank was $80,000. Myself and one of my other producers put up the money. Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife. We filmed at our house. Every single room in our houes the furniture was moved around. The final scene in the dining room where the big fight breaks out, we smashed everything in our dining room. If you want to do it cheap  you gotta use what you have.

What was it like being the writer and director on Bad Frank?

I had the original idea for the script and then Brandon and Russ added their input. It was a collaboration in the way we did. From a director’s standpoint it really helped. I knew the script inside and out. I knew the motivations of the characters in every scene. That’s one of the reasons Kevin and Russ were able to give such great performances. It’s all about the preparation.

I think I’d find it more challenging directing something I didn’t write. You then have to intrepret what the writers motivation was and you could be off the mark if you don’t have enough time or money. I’m planning to direct the next two or three projects of my own unless someone wants to give me $1 Million to pay for it. These are my babies at this point.

How did Tom Sizemore get involved with Bad Frank?

Tom Sizemore was great. We knew someone who knew him and him the script. He loved it and wanted to be a part of it. The great thing about Tom is, he’s just a regular guy when he’s on set. In one of the scenes where we’re throwing him around in the mud, asking if needs a mat or anything. He just said fuck it, lets just do it it’s gotta be real. You don’t expect it from guys like that.

When we originally started the schedule, Tom Sizemore was going to show up for filming on the 3^rd day. I was going to have 2 days to get my legs because I never directed anything before. I wanted a couple days before we bring in Academy Award Nominee Tom Sizemore directed by Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone and then this schmuck Tony Germinario. Schedules changed and there we are day 1 of shooting with Tom Sizemore.

After some travel complications, Tom actually admitted he was nervous about showing up on set. He said he didn’t know any of us. Tom just wanted it to work out good and put on a good performance for us. He did everything we asked of him, rolling around in the dirt and mud. When we were done he actually could have taken off but he stuck around for another day just to hang out and have dinner with us. You can’t say no to having dinner with Tom Sizemore. He’s a legend.

With Tom we could give him the framework and he just says whatever he wants. I don’t know if you caught it but he talks about something that happened in real life based on some research he did for a film. He actually brings it up saying someone else did it but he tied it to a true person.

What is the distribution strategy for Bad Frank?

After winning 11 film festival awards we just signed our distribution deal. We are getting the dates set but in early July it looks like we are going to have full domestic distribution through Gravitas Ventures. Bad Frank will be available on Amazon, iTunes, DVD and probably Netflix 6 months later. We also work with Lotus Entertainment who’s our sales agent and international distributor. We have already sold to the Middle East, Turkey and Japan.

Kevin knew them and they had liked the script from the onset. They were pretty much onboard before we made the film as long as we didn’t fuck it up. We’ve been very fortunate at festivals and with the backing of Lotus Entertainment and now Gravitas Ventures I think it’s really going to help launch this film. Even though it’s a small it doesn’t look like a small film in my opinion. The proudest thing for me is to get the performers recognition. They all did it for peanuts and I know the reason they do it, just to work but I want to see them succeed and not have to worry about taking the $100 job.

What did you learn from the making of Bad Frank?

Number 1 is preparation. The preparation is going to guide the end result. I spent months working on locations and shot lists. You can’t just show up and hope the magic is going to happen. You gotta be prepared for any contingency, sun to rain, lighting goes out. What do you do when things go wrong? As a director you can never show fear. You always have to be calm and be able to pivot.

Next I’d say, think smart. Know what your capabilities are and how you can handle them. Work with your team. Find people you can trust that you work well with. I’m extremely loyal to the people I work with and if I didn’t treat them well they wouldn’t by loyal to me as well.

Talking with actress Chanel Ryan we learned that being an actor is like being self-employed. That means you need to treat acting like a business. As an actor or actress have you asked yourself, should I take acting classes? It’s no secret that to make it Hollywood it takes guts and a whole lot of work. By taking classes you’ll get a solid foundation that will translate into confidence for yourself and the potential casting directors and other actors you’ll be working with.

Chanel Ryan is an American actress who has successfully navigated the acting and modeling industry over the past decade. Descriptions of Chanel are as varied as the roles she plays which you’ll see in our interview. A ball of energy with captivating eyes in a pretty blonde package. She’s a chameleon with strength, vulnerability, and great comedic timing in equal amounts. She shines in the lighter, bubbly types and specializes in darker material, playing edgy and troubled young women.

In 2011, she shifted her attention to acting full time. Her recent roles include a guest appearance on THE LATE LATE SHOW opposite James Corden and John Stamos; Starring roles in two independent films, horror film CIRCUS OF THE DEAD alongside genre legend Bill Oberst Jr., and the psychological thriller HOUSE ON RODEO GULCH. She can also be seen in the upcoming release of the comedy HYPNOTIZED starring Vinnie Jones and Kevin Pollak, as well as the drama BIGGER THAN THE BEATLES.

This past year, Chanel believed in getting a solid foundation for her career so much that she took time off to do just that. She’s been working on her craft daily to make sure she can lands the type of parts that will make her proud. We hope you learn as much as we did from Chanel Ryan.

Keep up with Chanel Ryan:

Web Site: http://www.chanelryan.com
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752457
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chanel-Ryan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChanelRyan
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/therealchanelryan

Watch The Complete Interview

Read The Highlights of Why Actors Should Take Acting Classes:

Are you a Los Angeles native?

No I grew up on the east coast in Pennsylvania but we moved a lot. From Pennsylvania, to New Jersey to Northern California to Southern California. I feel very fortunate to have had the best of both worlds. We had a pond so in the summer you swim in the pond and in the winter we would skate on the pond. Then when we moved to California there was the beach and we had a pool. I got to experience the country as well as the beach.

When did you catch the acting bug?

When I was little I wanted to do one of three things. I loved art and was always drawing and painting. A lot of the grocery stores where I grew had contests. Around Easter who ever colored the egg the best and Christmas it would Santa or a tree and Halloween it’s a witch or a cat. I would win every holiday. I’m a vegetarian but I would win my family a turkey or a ham. A couple of times a store manager thought I was cheating and had an adult do it so I had to go in there with my little art box and color for them.

I had an illustrated children’s book published when I was little and my stuff appeared at the festivals in Laguna Beach. That’s what I always wanted to do.

I always liked the thought of acting but it seemed so far away. I don’t have any friends or family in the industry. I’m not from LA or New York and I had no idea how to get into it. I laugh now because I thought it would be a very glamorous and easy job. There are parts of it that are glamorous but 95% of it is not glamorous.

How did you transition to acting?

I was fortunate. In junior high I was living in Southern California I was approached on the beach to model for a swimwear campaign. From there a few other jobs came in. Around the same time I was at a park with my girlfriend and someone approached us to audition for commercials and I got that as well. It was a series of events like that. A friend was doing wardrobe on a film and I went for dinner at her house and the director was there. He thought we were all cute and asked if we want to be in a movie and that’s how I got my first part.

I was planning to go to art school because I really wanted to be a fashion designer or an interior designer. I started working so much, modeling first and acting equally with a lot of success modeling in other countries.  It’s really hard to turn down a paid job in an exotic location rather than stay in town in hopes that you’ll get an audition and then from that audition hope that you’ll get a call back and then hope that you’ll get a job.

Does acting account for more of your career than modeling now?

It does. I still model a little bit. They are both really full time jobs. You can only do so much. A few years ago I decided if I didn’t want to be one of those girls who used to have a career. I kept saying I wanted to be an actress so I needed to switch my focus, stay in town and buckle down.

The first few acting jobs I had were huge studio productions and I no clue what a big deal that was. When I worked with John Frankenheimer I auditioned on the set and he offered me a part. I worked on the film for about 2 weeks and you barely see me.  He had said to me I’m going to put you in all of my movies, I’m going to make you a star. His assistant would call my home to try and book me for stuff and I would come to messages on my answering after I was off modeling wherever I was.

The first movie I did regardless of what IMDB says is called Waitin for the Rocket. I was about 16 years old and I had switched my ID to say I was older so I could work. It was Disney style family comedy and I was one of the lead roles I had no idea what a big deal that was to book the lead in any film. Shortly after I worked with Frankenheimer. I did an Easter special with Andy Williams for the BBC with 60s themed skits. I did a pilot with Bill Murray called The Sweet Spot. I did a lot of big things when I was very young and unfocused.

When did you start taking your acting career more seriously?

I had done a lot of commercials so a lot of agents were interested in me because I could make them money. I’ve studied with some of the biggest acting teachers in Los Angeles and each one of them I took something away from them. I had really been looking for a more solid foundation so about a year ago I started studying the Meisner technique with Alex Taylor. I recommend any actors in Los Angeles study with him. It’s a big time commitment but it’s worth it. With the intensive program you go the first 4 months 4 days a week.  It’s like condensing 1 year into 4 months.

I’ve been turning down a lot of jobs so I can focus on class. A lot of films I had been in I felt like some I was good in and some I was terrible. When I did something that was good I didn’t necessarily know how to do it again. This is why I was searching for a solid foundation and he’s given me that. I feel like I can handle anything now. Every Monday we would do a different accent and every Thursday we would do a different impediment. It’s a full on drama school. I’ve given myself a gift and taken some time off to grow as an actress so I can always deliver good work and feel confident about it.

Whats the difference between indie films and studio work?

I go back and forth between studio and indie. Comedy is actually my first love. On the indie films it’s hard for me because I know what it’s like to be on a studio set. I know how its run, what the rehearsals are like, everyone’s fully trained and memorized their lines. It’s really easy to do good work under those circumstances. I love the indie world and I’m booked for indie roles coming up but one of the problems I was having and really wanted to study was a lot of times you only get one take. There aren’t many rehearsals. Sometimes the people you are working with are trained sometimes not. Sometimes they’ve memorized their lines and other times not. It’s challenging to good work.

I was on a film recently and the other actor hadn’t memorized his lines. He said he had the gist of it.  I had to explain that each character has an arc with a beginning middle and end. If we don’t by the script we will never get to those. Depending on the director there may be room for improv but if you don’t have everything down there is no room for improv.

Do you have any audition war stories to share?

I’m sure I do but I tend to block out the traumatic stuff. We’re all busy. There are times you run into an audition and you’re not prepared, looking it over in the car. That can never be good. There are a few instances where you just have the right look and you get the character but for the most part it’s never good if you’re not prepared. I’ve done some terrible auditions I’m sure.

Which actors did you work with that inspired you?

All of them. I feel so fortunate that I’ve been cast so often among people that are way more talented and successful than myself. You’re only as good as the person you’re working with. Each person I worked with I learned different thing. Bill Oberst Jr. and I had a great time shooting Circus of the Dead. We were laughing and joking between takes and then I’m crying and running and screaming. I’m a vegetarian and at one point he licks my face after he had just eaten meat for dinner. It actually helped me because it smelled like meat. Bill is the nicest guy and would apologize in advance.

Judd Nelson was great to work with in Bad Kids Go To Hell. It’s interesting to see actors who are seasoned veterans how they come to the set. He was much more experienced than anyone else on the set in front or behind the camera. Judd was offering his advice to everyone about the scenes and stood up and fought for what he believed was right.

What was working with John Stamos like?

So nice, such a professional. Everyone was jealous and I’m a huge James Corden fan and watch his show every night. I heard about the audition while out of town and I had to put something on tape. It was me being a complete fan girl. The guy that taped me was like, “Are you sure you want to send this in?” I was like yes and I got it. I never watched Full House if you can believe that. John Stamos is ridiculously good looking. His comedic timing is amazing and a consummate professional.

When you work with people who have that sort of status it can be intimidating. I’ve been lucky that everyone I’ve worked with has been super nice.

Is establishing relationships important for getting more work?

I have a lot of the same people that hire me over and over since I was a teenager, especially commercially. I probably have 8 to 10 producers that book me. If I just worked for them, everything would be great and I have the same thing with a lot of theatrical directors which is great. Don Richardson I did a fun comedy called Attack of the Bimbos and we are about to do called Busted Reality. It’s about 3 girls who wanted to be famous by getting reality shows.

When I had first auditioned for him he was interested in me for a role but I was leaving for Canada. He really wanted to have rehearsals but I couldn’t be there. I was in Canada at a convention hosting different events and I get a call from Don offering me the lead role because he was having issues. Long story short I ended up cancelling some things in Canada and learned the script on the flight and started shooting.

What advice do you have for actors & actresses looking to break into Hollywood?

Don’t do it! There’s so many amazing things about it but I think a lot of teenagers are so influenced by reality television and think you can become famous by doing something stupid. What a lot of people don’t understand and only see the glamorous side. You’re basically self-employed and there are not enough hours in the day. You have to treat it like a business.

If you wanted to be an interior designer you would go to school for that, study for that, get an internship, start working under someone to learn the ropes before you go off on your own. It’s the same with acting. It’s a job. Every day you should be taking a serious class and working towards your goal. Whether it’s working on an accent, memorizing, researching casting directors or scripts. That way when you get an audition with one of these casting directors you understand how they operate.

My first jobs were offered to me but I was always prepared. If I was asked to bring wardrobe, I brought the best wardrobe I could. I always gave 110% and took advantage of every opportunity that came my way. I get to work with creative people in ridiculously exotic locations I might not otherwise see.

Have more questions for Chanel Ryan? Ask us here and we’ll make sure she gets em!

Download The Melanie Wise Interview For Free:

An accomplished actress and stunt woman, Melanie Wise has been acting professionally for over a decade. As lead actress of the award-winning horror-action film, Hanah’s Gift,  Melanie won best actress at the IndieFest Film Festival. She is also an accomplished producer, video and sound editor with skills in sound effects, graphic design, 2D motion graphics, and specializes in polishing troubled projects.

Melanie is the founder of the Artemis Film Festival. Now in its 3rd, it’s more than your typical indie film festival. It not only celebrates women, but women who kick ass.  From female action heroes and stunt women to female activists and business women, the Artemis Film Festival features 3 days of action packed content in Santa Monica, CA.

Talking with Melanie we learn what it takes to run a film festival, what being a female stunt woman is like in Hollywood and why women kick so much ass!

Support The Artemis Film Festival:

Crowd Funding page:  http://www.WomenKickAss.com
Artemis Film Festival:  http://www.ArtemisFilmFestival.com
Artemis Motion Pictures: https://www.artemismotionpictures.com

Every Wednesday at 7pm PST join Melanie for the #WomenKickAss Twitter chat

Twitter Handle(s):
Melanie Wise, Founder @IamMelanieWise
Artemis Motion Pictures:  @ArtemisPics
Artemis Film Festival:  @Artemis_FF

Team Members:
Sean Newcombe, Co-Founder: @therealnewk
Megan Hubbell, Social Media Goddess: @MeganHubbell
Indus Alelia, PR & Outreach Mgr: @IndusAlelia

Watch The Entire Melanie Wise Interview

Read The Melanie Wise Interview Highlights

How did you get involved in the film industry?

I started out modeling and that was a non-starter which doesn’t make sense at my height. They say models have to be tall but in Los Angeles it was the bathing suit industry and all the models are 5ft tall. I eventually ventured into acting and I’ve always been physically inclined so stunts were a no-brainer. One of the first jobs I worked was a Sunkist commercial. They only hired me because I was big enough to tackle a guy.

It was a non-union with just a day rate, no residuals and no bumps for stunt hits and I was dumb enough to not know to ask for it. There were a pile of people jumping into this one thing and I would end up at the bottom every time we did a take. I was covered in bruises from one end to the other but it was fun. At the end of the day, I got paid for a day on the beach to tackle a guy.

Was that your first professional job?

It wasn’t the most professional, but yeah. Some people consider low budget film making, not very professional and I’m not sure I align well with that sentiment. Anytime you have less resources, the thing that you need to excel at is creative problem solving. I think that’s where the professionalism does show up.

How did you make the jump to film and stunt work?

I’ve done all of my own fight scenes and I love fight stunts. I don’t get into things like fire burns and high falls. I consider the stunts that I do to be the simplest version. When people call me a stunt woman it’s kind of a lie because there isn’t much an “oops” factor to it. If I screw up I might break a bone but in some stunts if you screw up you might be dead. I have a long athletic history so doing a fight scene is a long athletic dance.

Have you had any formal martial arts or fight training?

I do have some martial arts training, some boxing training and some stunt training. I want to start training on wire work.

What’s the craziest stunt you’ve ever done?

It wasn’t crazy, just difficult. The film Hanah’s Gift was shot from the point of view from one of the characters and in real time. The whole movie looks like a 90 minute cut. There is a fight scene in it that’s kind of short but the actual take was 9 minutes long. In most fight scenes you setup angles and takes and directions. For what we shot there were not cut-to’s. You had to nail it. We wound up taking that 9 times and when it was all said and done I had broken two bones.

I don’t know if I could live with myself if I was careless and actually hurt somebody. There was a fight scene I did with a guy and we choreographed and rehearsed. We know it was going to be dark on set going in. I’m supposed to swing a flashlight at him and for whatever reason he stepped into it and I rotated my hand and I actually clocked him in the head. It was just an extraordinary error. Looking back I’m just glad nothing serious happened. Simple simple things can cause big big problems.

What goes into choreographing and prepping a fight scene?

It depends on the difficulty level of it. Punches and kicks and basic throws aren’t bad to do. When we shot our crowdfunding video we shot 4 short action sequences. I think our entire shooting time for choreography and shooting was probably 12 hours. We choreographed and rehearsed on one day and shot on another.

When you choreograph you’re not necessarily doing it on location so you have to make some adjustments on the day of. It depends on the skill level and strengths of the people you have. You wouldn’t ask someone who’s not good at kicks to do a head kick.  Part of doing stunts is getting bumps and bruises.

Where did you get the idea for the Artemis Film Festival?

There’s a team of us. I’m called the founder but I prefer my title “Fucking Professional Picky Bitch.” I want to put Melanie Wise, FPPB but you know. All of us have known each other for a lot of years and love content that was action oriented with female leads. We struggled with putting that type of content into the world so we started our own festival. It’s a great thing and I’m honored we can do it every year but it’s a lot to do.

Our first year I thought we were going to get laughed out of the park but we actually got over 200 submissions from 25 different countries in 2 months. You get content that doesn’t fit but the majority was content with badass women in it including narratives, documentaries. Things about history that aren’t known from shorts to feature length films. We block together shorts that are similarly themed.

The regulation for the festival is that the film needs to feature a female in a leading or co-leading role in a physical action role or some type of activism. We don’t have distinctions that women need to produce or direct. On screen we just need to see empowered images of women.

What is your selection process like?

What’s interesting is, if you look at most film festivals, unless it’s a genre festival like horror or action, there’s not a huge number of festivals these films can play at. Most film festivals program documentaries, dramas and comedies. A lot of these films don’t have a good home and they should.

How many years have you been running the Artemis Film Festival?

We are in our 3^rd year. We are still very young and have been fan backed every year. I think it’s fair to say our fans like us. It’s been an amazing ride. I’ve had the belief for years that women in action is something that popular audiences are into. That’s true the world over because we are getting films from all over. Our first year we got a film from Iran about female empowerment.

What films standout as a favorite of yours?

I’m not a festival goer, I think it’s a yawn to me. We program exciting stuff. It’s not like you’re going to walk in and fall asleep. This year amongst our submissions we have a film that won Student Academy Award. It’s a period piece that features a female racecar driver. We’ve got a documentary from Tazmania of all places. The lady that actually brought the piece together and actually told her story through the events that happened. They took down a billion dollar logging company. Those kinds of stories are ones we really need to see.

When are submissions open for the Artemis Film Festival?

Submissions closed on December 15, 2016. For our 2018 festival we are getting ready to announce the submission schedule which we probably open in August. The festival takes place Thursday April 20 – Sunday April 23. Our red carpet will be in Beverly Hills and the last 3 days of the festival will be in Santa Monica.

What film makers inspire you?

One of my favorites is Joss Whedon. He does amazing action. From what I’ve read for Avengers is that he wrote so many female roles and fought tooth and nail and ended up with one female character. He tells amazing and brilliant stories and casts equal distribution of men and women roles.

Are women in film making headway in Hollywood?

I definitely think things are changing. I can’t look at it and say wow we’ve accomplished so much. The cool thing is TV is way ahead of film. We have a snobbery between the small screen and the big screen. The bottom line of it is cable is turning out some badass female characters. We still have a lot of room to make up in film and we aren’t anywhere we need to be.

I just participated in article discussing sexism in Hollywood. They included some quotes of mine and I read the stories from the others that were included. One lady talked about she was physically intimidated for saying something she didn’t say and tracked down to her by 4 men.

What’s in store for you in the future?

I’m trying to get a better sense of balance and either get my energy back to content making or something else. I really would like to see our whole team focus on making content. We’ve been working really hard behind the scenes. We have more honoree announcements to make for this year but I have so much on my plate I’m trying not to plan too much. Honorees this year include Tom Cruise and Nichelle Nichols, the original Lieutenant Uhura. The stunt people we have every year are legendary.

Herding film makers is like herding cats. The amount of people that make a film and don’t make cover art. When I start asking for deliverables like high res files and I don’t get what I need. We need Blu-Ray to be able to showcase their films or they come in with region 0 and don’t play in a region 1 DVD player. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it but film makers need to start mastering the business side of things.