Archives April 2017

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.