January 22, 2025 • 56 mins
Meet Chris Cooney! He has spent the last 8 years of his life making A44, the Vegan Zombie Movie. He's the writer, director and star of this extraordinary film that sends your head spinning with wild twists and turns. Prepare to scream! Cooney plays a student trying to figure out why the people around him are turning into zombies. Could it have anything to do with the cheeseburgers and milkshakes they're consuming? You'll have to watch to find out. Cooney funded this feature length film through a Kickstarter and made the entire film production entirely vegan. NO animal products served or used. Along with Cooney, the cast includes famed Dr. Michael Greger, in a mesmerizing cameo, along with UnchainedTV's own Jane Velez-Mitchell playing - what else - a reporter. Make sure to stay tuned for the premiere date of this one-of-a-kind film that will have you squirming in your seat, but unable to look away! Absolutely riveting. Now, get the inside story from the man who made it all happen. For more, @TheVeganZombie & @A44Movie
More about our host:
Jane Velez-Mitchell is an award-winning journalist, TV producer and NY Times bestselling author who founded and runs UnchainedTV, the world's premier streaming TV network to promote the plant-based, compassionate, sustainable lifestyle. UnchainedTV offers 2,000 free documentaries, vegan cooking, lifestyle and news shows as part of its nonprofit media network. You can download UnchainedTV for free on any cell phone. You can watch UnchainedTV for free on any TV via streaming devices like Amazon Fire Stick, Roku device and Apple TV device. And, it's on all Samsung TVs. Here's the online portal: https://watch.unchainedtv.com/browse
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Wow, have we got a show for you.
You're going to meet Chris Cooney.
He has spent the last eight years of
his life making 844, the vegan zombie movie.
He's the writer.
He's the director.
He's the star of this extraordinary film.
It sends your head spinning with, oh my
God, so many wild twists and turns.
(00:22):
Prepare to scream.
Cooney plays a student trying to figure out
why the people around him are turning into
zombies.
Could it have anything to do with all
the cheeseburgers and milkshakes they're consuming?
You're going to have to watch to find
out.
Cooney funded this venture, a feature film, through
a Kickstarter, and he made the entire film
(00:42):
production entirely vegan.
No animal products served or used.
Along with Cooney, the cast includes famed Dr.
Michael Greger in a mesmerising cameo, along with,
well, me, playing, of course, a reporter.
So make sure to stay tuned for the
premiere date of this one-of-a-kind
film that will have you squirming in your
(01:06):
seat.
We have eyes on the ground at Amherst
General reporting live.
Let's see what's unfolding.
Pat, what can you tell us?
Hey, how do you think they actually get
the milk out of a milk?
Maybe we can get together sometime and cook
up some vegan cheeseburger or something.
Yo, bro, I left my wallet in your
truck.
(01:28):
What the...
Hey, we need backup!
People are complaining of dizziness and stomach pain.
People are, oh my God, what are you
doing?
Get down!
(01:48):
Well, help him!
Run!
Wait, wait, wait, that's gotta be it, right?
Okay, wait, what do you mean?
(02:17):
So, don't eat animals, fools.
Hopefully those things don't want to eat us,
too.
And we are so honoured to have Chris
Cooney, the writer, the director, the star of
(02:41):
this incredible film.
Oh my gosh, it is just a five
-star thriller.
And I want to say, Chris, congratulations.
I know you spent, what, eight years working
on this?
What does it feel like to have it
done?
Thank you so much.
Yeah, I mean, we did the Kickstarter six
(03:02):
and a half years ago, but I originally
wrote this in 2009, so 16 years it's
been, you know, in the works.
It feels incredible to finally have the movie
done and looking at what's next.
Well, how did you do this?
Because looking at this, and of course, like
everybody else in LA, I have that screenplay
(03:26):
that I pull out when the police pull
me over.
They say, in Hollywood, you've got to show
a screenplay to the police when they pull
you over.
It's kind of a joke.
Everybody's got a screenplay.
But the truth is, this is a good
screenplay.
I watched this because, well, I've been involved
since you first did the Kickstarter, and that
(03:47):
was something like eight years ago, and I
honestly had no expectations.
Then when I saw the finished product, I
was like, oh my God, this is brilliant.
How did you put it together?
How did you write it, then star in
it, and then direct it?
Break it down for us.
Well, you know, I originally, okay, so it's
(04:08):
kind of a long story, but I'll try
to summarise it a little bit.
Back in 2009, I had a full-time
job that I just didn't like, and I
remember driving the back roads of upstate New
York, where I'm from, and I started saying,
I can't do this the rest of my
life.
I don't want to retire at 65 and
(04:28):
say this is all I did.
I want to be passionate about something.
So I started brainstorming things that I really
loved.
What do I really love?
I've always loved filmmaking.
I've been around film since, you know, my
dad had super eight millimetre cameras since before
I was born.
So I grew up with him taking little
home movies, and I was pretty intrigued by
(04:49):
that.
And, you know, so I love that, but
I especially love the horror genre.
So like, you know, monsters, scary things.
I've always been intrigued by that.
And it was a no-brainer because I,
at that point, I had already been vegan
for the majority of my life at that
point.
So I'm like, well, how can I take
(05:10):
those three elements and kind of like combine
them into something that I could get up
every day and be passionate about something?
And I started brainstorming like vegan vampires, you
know, vampires are my favourite.
So like, ah, no, I don't know.
Vegan werewolves, yeah, that might be too.
And then I had an idea, the vegan
zombie, where I had a whole idea for
(05:31):
a zombie apocalypse that was brought on by
the meat and dairy that people were consuming.
So I went home and I grabbed a
pencil and a notepad and I began writing
out a script.
And I wanted to make this movie.
And at that point, like, I wasn't like
a professional moviemaker.
I just would put two VCRs together.
And I remember one of the first videos
(05:54):
that I ever put together was a skateboarding
video in the 90s.
And I put a song to it that
I really liked at the time, not even
knowing that this musician would align with me
later down the road as a fellow vegan,
which I would later on meet.
And that was the song Go by Moby,
(06:15):
who is a vegan advocate.
And I later got to tell him that
when I met him.
But so I decided at the time there
was nothing like it on YouTube.
There was no vegan YouTube shows or anything
like that.
I just wanted to start making videos so
I could get better at editing with like
a home suite.
I use the Adobe Creative Cloud and I
(06:36):
wanted to start making little zombie skits.
But, you know, I didn't even know if
anybody would even watch us.
So I figured, why don't I also share
some of my vegan recipes?
Because up until that point, my friends and
I would get together like every Thanksgiving or
Christmas, New Year's, and we would bring all
of our vegan, you know, we would make
a vegan potluck and bring something there.
(06:59):
So I decided, why don't, you know, John's
got some great vegan stuffed shells.
And I make like a crescent roll, broccoli
cheddar roll vegan.
So why don't we just start sharing some
of these recipes while we do like zombie
stuff?
So I get better at making, you know,
editing and doing special effects and stuff like
that.
Well, to our surprise, it started getting a
(07:19):
lot of views and we got a lot
of subscribers.
And before we knew it, we had thousands
and thousands of subscribers.
And then they were asking us to do
a cookbook.
And we're like, we don't we don't we've
never made a cookbook.
So we're like, all right, we'll do a
Kickstarter.
And if we can get this, we can
raise this much money.
We'll do we'll do a cookbook.
(07:39):
And I did not think for a second
that we would raise this much money because
it was kind of a lot of money.
How much did you raise?
Well, we we got a hold of another
cook, a vegan cookbook author from Germany.
His name is Justin Moore.
And he does the whole series called The
Lotus and the Artichoke.
And they're really good books.
He travels the world, finds different recipes, and
(08:02):
then he veganizes everything.
All right.
I have to jump in because I want
to get back to the movie, which is
what everybody's talking about.
Right, right.
Well, this does tie in.
This is about to tie in.
Yeah.
Go for it.
OK, so anyway, so we ended up doing
this Kickstarter.
We ended up raising three times what we
(08:23):
were looking for.
I think we ended up with like a
little over forty three thousand dollars.
We made a better cookbook than we were
going to do.
We toured Germany.
We got the 2014 cookbook of the year
and we had a successful Kickstarter.
So with that success and the channel growing
a few years later, I said, OK, now
it's time to do a Kickstarter for the
(08:45):
actual movie.
And let's make a real movie.
So we put up a Kickstarter.
We were looking for we were looking for
more money than eighty five thousand.
But I didn't think we would get eighty
five thousand more than that.
So we had to put like an achievable
goal.
So eighty five thousand for the movie.
By the end of it, we made it
by the skin of our teeth.
And we were now on on on set
(09:08):
to make this movie happen.
And then a few things fell through year
after year went and then the whole pandemic
happened.
But then in twenty twenty two, I met
with a team local.
We weren't sure if we were going to
film it in L.A. or here in
the Syracuse area, which was really what I
wanted to do, because I got a lot
of inspiration for writing this on real events
(09:31):
that happened when I grew up here in
upstate New York.
So we ended up filming it here and
production began in August.
Actually, Dr. Gregor was on the second day
of shooting.
That was August 28th.
And we shot at the actual high school
that I graduated from many years ago.
So August of what year?
(09:52):
Twenty twenty two.
OK, so.
Wow.
So eight years ago, approximately, you started this
Kickstarter.
You get the money.
Twenty twenty two.
You shoot the film.
And now are you editing it as well?
You're the star.
You're the director.
(10:13):
You're probably the producer.
Did you did you edit this, too?
I took on like so many roles for
this project.
I did.
I did all the pre-production, the casting.
Like I was like overworked, like like crazy.
And when it came down to it, after
we were done with production, our budget was
so low at that point that I couldn't
(10:36):
really afford to, you know, look out for,
you know, hiring anybody else to do the
post-production.
I did hire an amazing guy named Rob
Agocella who did all of the sound design.
Amazing, by the way.
I did, in fact, do all of the
editing myself.
I did the special effect, the visual effects,
the colour grading and where it is now.
(10:58):
So the post-production was done by by
myself and Rob.
I want to just hats off, like unbelievable,
because I did not have expectations when I
looked at this.
I thought, well, let's see.
And it's so good.
And I'm not just saying that to blow
smoke.
(11:19):
I had so much fun watching this movie.
I completely forgot that I was watching it
for a purpose like, oh, I've got to
sort of review this film to.
Because it's a vegan event in the vegan
community and we cover that here at Unchained
TV.
I totally forgot all that.
I was just watching this squirming because what
(11:42):
I love about it is how you build
up slowly.
Like, how did you learn that?
And I'll play a clip from the first
part of your trailer to give you a
sense for those watching of how.
Well, yeah, it doesn't just start with like
the zombie apocalypse.
There is a buildup, which I think makes
(12:04):
it more more exciting.
So let's play that first part.
Sure.
Good morning.
It's a beautiful day here in Amherst.
We do have some breaking news to report.
(12:24):
There are several reports of what appears to
be a stomach bug going around.
Now, experts are not quite sure of the
cause, but an investigation is underway.
You are being advised to use discretion and
stay home if you aren't feeling well.
I'll be back.
(12:44):
Cell mutations.
If we consider a virus to be similar
to a eukaryotic cell, where would the actual
mutation originate?
Is there something important outside, Harley?
Never mind.
I guess it's nothing.
Like a ghost town in there.
Everyone's going home sick or something.
(13:05):
Now, you're looking outside while Dr. Greger's talking
and there's a zombie walking down and you're
kind of obviously distracted by that.
He says, is there a reason why you're
looking out the window and you say nothing?
I mean, this was really, really well written.
How did you figure all that out?
(13:28):
I mean, I wrote it and rewrote it
over the last 16 years.
No joke, probably about 50 different times.
I love movies and my inspiration...
I wanted to make a zombie apocalypse movie
that was as plausible in reality as I
could make it.
And I couldn't think of anything more real
(13:50):
than...
I don't want to give too much away,
but by the meat and the dairy that
the people were eating.
And yeah, some of my favourite movies...
This isn't your normal horror movie.
It is a horror movie by every means,
but some of the movies that gave me
inspiration were movies that somewhere in the movie,
(14:13):
usually at the end, there's this emotional tug
at your heart.
And movies like that, for me, I wanted
to make a movie that I would like.
And I just figured if I liked it,
maybe other people would like it too.
So if there's a movie that I would
watch and it did that to me...
If there was a movie that just was
happy and cool and funny, I'd be like,
(14:33):
yeah, that was a good movie, and then
I'd forget about it.
But if there was a movie that really
pulled at my emotions at the end, I
will think about it the next morning, the
next week.
And I will...
Basically, what I'm trying to say is my
favourite movie of all time I saw in
the movie theatres when I was six years
old, and that was E.T. And that
did that to me at the end of
the movie.
And I wanted to take the elements of
that and combine it into this movie right
(14:55):
here, along with some horror.
So I wanted the right character arcs, the
right...
Everything had to be perfect.
And I made so many mistakes.
If you read the first script, it had
all the elements there, but it wasn't what
it is now.
And over the next how many years, rewriting
it...
I was rewriting it all the way until
(15:16):
we were actually on set.
Like, oh, maybe we need to do this.
So yeah, it was just a lot of
rewriting and getting my producers to go over
it with me and taking every little scene
like a fine-tooth comb.
And that went all the way into post
-production.
When I edited the scenes, I'd be like,
how does this look?
We would look at it.
I'm like, hmm.
And that's why it looks as good as
(15:37):
I think it does.
And to go to your point when you
said you didn't really have expectations for it,
I see a lot of the comments and
a lot of other people are the same
way.
And what I would say about that is
I agree.
I feel like it's the movie that nobody's
looking for.
But once they see it, it's like the
diamond in the rough.
It's like, you gotta see it.
I've been trying as hard as I can
(15:58):
to promote this.
And I just feel like it's like falling
on deaf ears.
There's a certain amount of people that do
want to watch it, but other people are
just like, what is this?
And until you actually watch it, you don't
really know.
All right.
I'd like to say that I was one
of the small backers of it because I
interviewed you.
And then there was a way where if
(16:20):
you gave a certain amount, you could be
in the film.
So I am in the film as a
reporter and I'm delighted to be in it.
Now, Mary Zaint, I hope I'm pronouncing your
name right, says she's happy to have been
one of the kickstart backers for this back
in 2018 and really look forward to seeing
it.
Lindsay Baker says, can't wait for the premiere
(16:41):
of this one.
And Tom Vincel says, please bring this to
Chicago, which brings me to the next point.
We would love to help you arrange a
screening here in Los Angeles.
And I think that would be a lot
of fun.
We could do it under the Unchained TV
umbrella and have you speak and get a
(17:02):
nice crowd together.
But what about that touring?
What are your plans?
Obviously, you know, everybody wants to have their
film on Netflix, but not always does that
happen, to put it mildly.
So what are your plans for this film
in terms of physical tours and distribution?
(17:23):
Well, we're obviously trying to get distribution right
now.
We've looked at a couple like horror distribution
platforms, streaming services, but we're also submitted to
several film festivals that we're still waiting on
to see how that pans out through 2025.
(17:43):
I've been saying this.
I've done everything with the moviemaking business all
the way up until where I am right
now.
I've never done this before, so I don't
really know the process here.
But what I would like to be able
to do, as I was talking to you
off camera, is I would like to be
able to go to some local movie theatres.
I'd like to have the right to be
(18:04):
able to, just me, go to a local
movie theatre and do a premier, a fundraiser
for different animal sanctuaries and split some of
those proceeds from an event like that with
different animal sanctuaries.
I actually had somebody reach out to me
from one last month, so that sounds like
(18:27):
a great idea.
That way, we're helping the animals indirectly through
the movie, the message of the movie, and
directly through fundraising for these different sanctuaries.
I know originally when I said I was
doing this, that a certain amount of the
points, if it were to make a lot
of money, would go to a few different
(18:48):
sanctuaries as well.
That's still in the plan, but I don't
know if the movie will make any money
at all, so I'm still new to this.
I would like it to get some distribution
like that.
I know it's on your platform right now
as far as the trailer goes.
We were talking about that, but that's what
our goals are right now is ultimately to
get some kind of distribution but also retain
(19:10):
the right to be able to travel to
different local movie theatres to potentially do some
fundraising that way.
Sure, and I point out not all distribution
is created equally because sometimes where they distribute
to is like Timbuktu.
You've never heard of it.
Nobody's ever going to see it, so just
getting distribution is not necessarily the ultimate goal.
(19:33):
It's what kind of distribution.
Just word to the wise.
So I have to say people are super
excited about the idea of screenings in person.
So we have somebody, Tiffany, a premiere in
LA.
Karen.
Oh, Karen LaCava.
Okay, and here's the ultimate compliment.
(19:53):
Chris, I do a biannual vegan horror event
in LA.
Would be happy to help promote the film
in some way.
So definitely check that out.
We've got, everybody is very, very positive about
Yeah, Mary, that would be awesome.
Yeah, using your film to help animals and
sanctuaries.
What I would say is whatever city or
(20:14):
town you're going to help the sanctuaries in
that area because people have a connection to
their local sanctuaries.
They don't necessarily have the same connection to
sanctuaries that are across the country.
I've experienced that firsthand because that's the idea.
Yeah, that's the idea.
Go to where they are.
Do like a local screening and then split
(20:38):
up proceeds for that specific.
So the event would be like a pre
-sale for whatever sanctuary.
Like the guy that reached out to me
is in Virginia.
I would go down there.
We would do an event.
It could be like a two o'clock
and a six o'clock and proceeds would
be split between the sanctuary and me and
(21:00):
the producers.
And we're getting come to Dallas, Texas, please.
And Karen LaCava is saying she can help.
She's a very well-known vegan caterer.
She could do the catering, I'm sure.
You have some great events.
But yeah, I think there's a lot of
excitement about going to different places around the
country.
And now I want to get back to
(21:21):
the filmmaking process because I can't imagine how
hard it must be.
Forget you wrote it and you edited it
and you star in it.
But directing while you star.
That is something that has always perplexed me.
How are you essentially behind the camera or
(21:43):
directing the cinematographer while you're in front of
the camera?
How did you pull that off?
Well, you know, directing the scenes having it
done the way I wanted to.
The director of photography was doing some he
was watching what was going on so he
was directing some of the different scenes of
where people should be what should be going
(22:03):
on how everything looked when I wasn't able
to do that.
We didn't have an external monitor for me
to check everything.
And because of limited time and funds we
couldn't rewind and watch every little scene.
So I had to basically put a lot
of trust in the cinematographer that he got
the right shots.
Stuff like that.
But yeah, at all times I knew what
(22:26):
was going on.
I knew how I wanted things done.
If we didn't get something shot a certain
way I would like we need to do
this a couple more times.
Because we didn't really have a budget to
go back and do reshoots like other movies
do.
Well, it's very professionally shot.
The zooms, the drone shots.
(22:48):
And we have to talk about Dr. Michael
Greger.
I'm a huge fan.
He's a very serious guy.
He's written many, many New York Times bestsellers.
How did you get him involved?
I reached out and I talked to his
secretary and they didn't even really ask.
They were just like, yeah, we'll be up
there and we'll do it.
You know?
(23:08):
Because they said yes way back when when
we were going to shoot it when we
first did the Kickstarter.
And then plans changed.
So like years later I'm like, are you
still interested?
And sure enough he came up for the
day and he was great.
Yeah, we had a good time.
He's a trip.
I love him.
And I will say that he's the most
(23:30):
generous person on ShaneTV has asked him for
many, many videos which he supplied without even
a blink.
And I love that spirit because we're all
in it for the same reasons.
To save animals and the planet.
Now, this was an entirely vegan production.
So at the very beginning we see people
eating hamburgers.
(23:51):
Were those vegan hamburgers?
In other words, they were supposed to be
meat hamburgers in the script.
But tell us about that.
Yeah, we wanted to make everything.
We wanted everything to look as authentic as
possible.
But in reality, everything was vegan.
So those were either impossible or beyond burgers
that we got.
(24:12):
And like literally everything down.
So there's a scene where there's a little
kid with a baseball and I went to
several different stores so I could find a
synthetic baseball not a leather one.
Everything was as vegan as we could get.
All the catering, all the in-movie food
and the actual catering were all vegan.
(24:34):
When I hired everybody, I mean this is
kind of like not been done before.
It's not really a normal thing.
So every actor or crew member I said,
look, just so you know before I hire
you like I can't tell you what to
eat or what not to eat but this
is a vegan production so as long as
you're cool with this being entirely vegan if
you don't want to eat our food that
(24:56):
you're more than welcome to go off set
in your car go off somewhere else to
eat.
Everybody was more than happy to do that.
We catered everything vegan.
We always had snacks on set that were
vegan and yeah, it was fun.
And we did have a few people that
were actually fellow vegans themselves but not everybody
(25:18):
in the film were vegan so hopefully it
changed other people's perspective that weren't vegan making
a, you know what I think would be
the first non-documentary feature horror movie so
yeah.
Wow.
Now, so not all the actors were vegan.
(25:40):
Interesting.
Did some of them change?
In other words, there's a lot of horror
here.
There's a lot of gore.
Did it get through to these people who
were immersed in the script?
Unfortunately, no, I don't think so.
It became a process just to make this
movie and they just did it really not
(26:02):
thinking anything of the vegan message and you
know, things got kind of, you know, tough
and I had to just, you know, shoot
the days that I had to shoot and
just get the job done.
So originally, I had big aspirations like I
wanted this to be like I wanted all
the vegans to come together but then when
I started putting out the casting call and
(26:23):
all that I was surprised but like I
wasn't nobody was responding.
I mean, this was worldwide like obviously they'd
have to get to Syracuse area but there
was really no vegans that were applying for
any of this so when it got down
to the, you know, the last days and
stuff I basically had to hire whoever I
(26:45):
could that could do the parts.
Some of them were hired the day of
certain small scenes but yeah, some, there is,
well, there's a character named Drew you've already
seen the movie in real life he is
a vegan and then there's a girl in
(27:05):
the movie her name is Paige in the
movie she's also a vegan and it was
funny because when she when she answered the
casting call she, she said I just want
to know if there's going to be anything
on set I can eat because I am
a vegan and I was like oh wow
like everything is going to be vegan and
(27:25):
everything you can eat and she was like
oh wow and I'm like so I got
to meet a fellow vegan just coincidentally like
that.
Now this may seem obvious first of all
everybody wants to know what is A44 mean?
I have a feeling you don't want to
give that away I can't give that away
you gotta watch the movie yeah exactly you've
gotta watch the movie but in terms of
(27:47):
the message you know I really admire what
you're doing because I look at hundreds and
hundreds of videos our streaming network is right
behind me we have 2,000 videos and
that's all I do every day is look
at videos about animal rights and veganism and
so you know there's many powerful films but
(28:08):
a lot of them are luxury you know
don't do this don't eat meat one of
the things that I was talking with the
head of Veganuary the US head of Veganuary
is why they called it Try Vegan and
that that psychologically takes the pressure off people
and they don't feel ordered they feel invited
(28:30):
so messaging is so crucial how we approach
telling people hey you should try this other
way of life for your own health for
the planet for the animals for a gazillion
reasons if you want to end world hunger
if you want to end water pollution ocean
desertification we could go on but the point
(28:50):
is that the medium is the message as
Marshall McLuhan said what I love about your
film is that you're being entertained so you
don't even realise you're getting a message but
what is the message well as you know
like I wanted the message to I wanted
this to be a standalone um horror movie
(29:13):
and I would just expect that since it
is a vegan a pro vegan message movie
that most vegans would support that you know
even people that just don't like horror movies
maybe they're like well I'll support the movie
whatever um I wanted to make this for
like the horror fans that aren't vegan because
as you already know you already saw the
movie but I wanted the message to be
(29:34):
there where you don't really hear the message
until you're already like connected you know to
certain characters where it's like in order to
like say no to this you're kind of
like at that point you're kind of lying
to yourself if you say no at that
point and then the message comes in and
you're like oh man I didn't really think
of it like that or so yeah there's
(29:56):
a character in this movie which I don't
like I don't want to give away that
um hopefully most people fall in love with
right away and at that point you're basically
being hypocritical not to you know connect the
dots at that point but I did want
to do this like as an entertainment movie
(30:17):
I'm not expecting everybody to go vegan after
seeing this movie and really all my you
know I just want people to watch the
movie and enjoy the movie um I do
think that some people will have different choices
they'll make different choices after watching and yeah
maybe some people will go vegan after watching
this movie but um it's just my way
(30:40):
of doing something differently um rather than telling
or or something somebody to do something basically
showing something that's fun and entertaining and then
the message just comes in there and hopefully
I did a good enough a job with
you know what I was explaining earlier the
(31:01):
emotion uh tugging at your heart you know
by by the time the movie wraps up
that you know it's kind of hard to
just like say okay let's go out for
burgers at that point um we have eyes
on the ground at Amherst General reporting live
let's see what's unfolding Pat what can you
tell us hey how do you think they
(31:23):
actually get the milk out of a note
maybe we can get together sometime and cook
up some vegan cheeseburger or something yo bro
I left my wallet in your truck hey
we need backup people are complaining of dizziness
(31:44):
and stomach pain people are freaking oh my
god what are you doing no no get
down what the hell oh oh oh wait
wait that's that's that's gonna be it right
(32:07):
okay wait what do you mean So,
don't eat animals, fools.
(32:32):
Hopefully those things don't want to eat us
too.
It's so good.
People are saying, I'm dying to see this.
I like that, Scarlett.
This looks good.
It is good.
I have to say, I watched it and
(32:53):
I had no expectations and it blew me
away.
It's fun.
I'm not somebody who wants to see sadistic
violence, people being tortured.
So it doesn't go into that realm.
It's not gross in that sense, but it
is keeping you on the edge of your
seat.
You're like, no, I can't describe it.
(33:15):
You caught it.
Whatever that it is that makes people squirm
and makes a horror movie good, you caught
it.
And what would you say that it is?
What is that thing?
I mean, so many people love horror, not
everybody, but there's a lot of people that
love horror and just something, I just wanted,
(33:37):
like you said, the story just progresses from
the beginning and I wanted it to slowly
progress to a point where some movies they
get to the middle and it kind of
dies down.
I wanted this movie just to keep going
to the climax of the movie and then
boom, it's like, wow.
And I feel like, I mean, I've seen
it a million times because I know I've
(33:58):
edited it so many times, but I feel
like by the time you get to the
end, you don't even realise how long it
actually was.
But what is it?
I don't know, it's just something from my
childhood that I've always wanted to do.
I put everything into this.
I showed this to some movie making consultants
of mine that I've met over the years
that live in the United Kingdom and they're
(34:20):
not vegan and they didn't even really know
what this movie was gonna be about.
They were helping me with technical difficulties.
And when I finally showed it to them,
they were like blown away.
They said, Chris, what you have here is
something very special and you can tell that
it's from the heart.
And to me, that means everything because I
put everything into this movie.
(34:42):
So you can tell that this is from
the heart.
It really is.
Okay, I wanna ask about mistakes, blunders, things
that you can teach us to avoid.
Like I said, I too have written a
script with two colleagues.
I can just tell you Jamie Logan, the
(35:02):
actress activist and Justina Adorno, who is a
well-known actress who has appeared in Grand
Hotel and other major films.
And so I'm sure we have some rewrites
ahead of us, but first of all, you
made an independent film for what?
Under $100,000, that's extraordinary.
You look at the budgets of some of
these films, it's crazy, hundreds of millions of
(35:24):
dollars.
This was money well spent.
What would your advice be to people like
myself, Jamie and Justina about pitfalls to avoid?
Some of the worst mistakes were in the
contracts.
So make sure your contracts are ironclad.
(35:48):
Most of the budget will probably go towards
actual cast and crew.
There were some continuity errors, so we did
our best for that.
And I think I did, you can still
find some, but I'm okay with it.
I feel like we'll have fun finding some
continuity errors.
(36:08):
But for the most part, I was able
to fix most of them.
Make sure the cameras, like if I can
go back, like there's some things that is
out of my control, like with the camera
that was used, hot pixels, dead pixels, that's
gonna be extremely difficult to fix.
(36:29):
Just make sure you're communicating very well with
the rest of your team.
And scheduling is extremely difficult with that many
people, especially when you're doing an independent thing
and it's not their full-time job, trying
to get everybody together on a certain day
and then hope it doesn't rain.
So yeah, have a team.
Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of
(36:49):
this stuff myself or with my producer who
happens to live in the UK.
So she wasn't able to be here to
help in person.
So we had to like communicate that way.
So there's a lot of things that, I
will tell you that all the difficulties I
went through, it feels so much better now
(37:10):
than knowing that I'd done and I got
through it.
And I think I've learned so much more
because of these difficulties that I just would
not allow to happen in my second film.
So let's talk about second film.
You brought it up.
Where do you go from here?
Are you going to do a sequel or
(37:32):
is it gonna be something entirely different?
Well, I mean, I definitely wanna do something.
I want the doors to open up and
be able to do another film.
But I would definitely want a proper budget
for that one because I did not pay
myself at all for this.
So all these years I've been working full
(37:54):
-time hours, I've not taken any money.
So I've pretty much driven myself into extreme
poverty right now.
So I'm hoping I have another chance with
another movie with a real budget.
They say that if you prove successful on
a first movie, then you could possibly get
funding, proper funding to make a second movie.
(38:17):
I would hope that that would be the
case.
You've seen the movie, so you know that
people are probably gonna want a sequel to
this movie.
And we had to go out to make
this movie the timeframe that it is, but
there's more in my head that I've already
written out all those years ago.
(38:38):
I know what happens next, so I need
to put that on paper so people can
see a sequel to this movie, yes.
So over the years, since you sat in
this very spot with me when we announced
the start of the Kickstarter, I got updates
from you.
(38:59):
And I'll be honest, at one point, maybe
five years in, I was like, what's going
on?
Is this ever really gonna get made?
And you would send updates saying, don't worry,
it will get made.
But over the course of what, seven, eight
years, what were your low points?
What were the moments where you wondered to
(39:20):
yourself, is this gonna get made?
Because every biography I have read of people
who achieve extraordinary things, there's always this moment
where it seems like it's all falling apart.
And the people who power through are the
ones who are the change makers.
Yeah, it wasn't easy making this movie.
(39:42):
And there's a lot that I haven't made
public, but when it was done, I was
like, what just happened?
But I don't wanna get into all the
negatives about that.
I didn't touch it for a little while
because I literally couldn't.
I couldn't even look at it.
That's how bad things were.
(40:03):
And then I told myself, I need to
do this no matter what.
And I just started working on it every
single day until it was done, and I
did.
I worked on it for like a little
over a year straight, almost every single day,
eight to 14 hours.
And I did all that myself until it
was done.
(40:23):
And yeah, there was- What do you
do when you're not making films?
What is your day job?
Well, YouTube, I've been doing YouTube for 16
years.
I'm one of the oldest running vegan YouTube
channels in existence.
So that's your full-time job?
Well, that's what it...
I did have a full-time job that
(40:44):
I quit and I became a full-time
YouTuber.
Since then, things have changed a little bit.
So it's not as lucrative anymore.
And I totally neglected it because I was
working on the movie.
So there was a long time where I
wasn't posting any YouTube videos.
But yeah, I know what you mean.
Like people were asking me like, you scammed
(41:05):
us, like where's our money?
Where's the movie?
And I get where they're coming from, but
the person that I've always been since I
was a little kid, I've always been the
person that if I say something, no matter
what, I'm gonna do it.
And I did that.
I would never let anyone down.
I make sure that I fulfil all debts.
And that's what I had to do here.
(41:26):
I knew that I need to get this
movie done because there was, to me, there
was no alternative.
If I didn't do it, I would be
wasting a huge opportunity to fill one of
the biggest dreams I've ever had, which was
to make a feature movie.
And I wasn't gonna let that happen.
So I just did what I had to
do.
And I rose above all the challenges that
(41:49):
were there.
And there was times that I was like,
I don't know how I'm gonna make a
movie out of this.
And I can say now that I'm very
happy with the way it came out.
Hey, we've got Jenny Desmond watching from Liberia,
another one of my heroes.
And she says, great work.
And talk about perseverance and sanctuaries.
(42:12):
What they've done with Liberian chimp rescue is
extraordinary.
They're taking care of more than a hundred
chimpanzees who are abandoned on their own.
And so there's so many people doing such
incredible work in this movement.
And I love the fact that everybody is
sticking together on this one.
(42:34):
Like sometimes we have a guest on and
people are like, why do you have to
do it that way?
Why do you?
And I always say, then you go do
your own thing.
Don't criticise them.
Let, do it your way.
It's so important that we gather together in
the vegan movement.
I always say, anytime we're fighting, the other
side's applauding, because that's what they want.
(42:55):
Maybe we can all come together around a
film like this because it's fun.
And the fact is, and I'll say this,
I've learned it myself.
We need to have more entertaining content in
this movement.
People need to laugh and laughter is one
way that the resistance is dropped.
(43:18):
When people are laughing, their resistance to an
idea drops and they become open-minded.
What would you like to say about that,
Chris?
Well, we do have elements of comedy in
this.
Like we don't take everything so seriously that
it's, oh, it's just so serious, but there
are elements of comedy in this movie and
we wanted to just entertain.
(43:40):
There is definitely a message there.
And like I said, some people might change
their choices and some people won't.
And I wanted to put something out there.
I love a lot of these vegan documentaries.
Some of them, I really love them, but
I feel like, at least for me, I
watch them once and that's great.
(44:01):
But I feel like a movie, like an
entertaining movie like this, it's something that somebody
can go back and watch maybe every few
years around Halloween or something like that.
I watch the same Christmas movies every year
and the same horror movies around Halloween time
every year or every other year.
I'm hoping that this can be something like
that where somebody is like, A44 is my
(44:21):
go-to fall movie or Halloween movie.
And they can always go back to it
and reshare it because once it's out there,
it's the world's movie and it does have
an entertaining yet vegan message there.
So- Yeah, let me ask you a
question.
Okay, so I was one of those people
(44:42):
who donated a little bit in the initial
Kickstarter when you were sitting right next to
me in this room and we talked about
it back in, I believe, 2018.
And there were many, many other people.
How many people total and how much did
you raise in your Kickstarter?
We raised a little under 85,000.
(45:04):
It was more like 80 after they took
out their fees and the taxes and stuff.
And there's a little under 1,100 people
came together for that.
So that's a lot of people that already,
right off the bat, want to see this
movie.
And you don't have to pay them back.
They didn't donate.
I certainly didn't donate thinking I was gonna
(45:24):
get anything back.
I donated just to support the project.
So that's good.
You don't have to pay those people back.
Right, the way I see it is like,
you're not giving the money to me per
se.
You're giving it to a campaign, a project
that I'm going to oversee and create.
So yeah, they were all involved in making
(45:46):
this movie.
Some of them were, you are one of
them, and there's a few other people that
are actually in the movie.
So you can see them throughout the movie.
And then everybody else, they get perks and
stuff.
So there's different, some people get the script
and some people come to get to see
(46:07):
the premiere.
And some of those rewards still have to
be given, but they have to wait until
the movie comes out.
And the other thing is, is I'm currently,
I just actually watched this on the big
screen here in Syracuse, New York.
My friend runs one of the movie theatres
there, and we're just looking at it to
see if everything's right.
And then we're gonna probably do a premiere
(46:28):
here in Syracuse somewhere around the end of
March.
But yeah, I want there to be a
premiere here because this is my hometown, but
also out with you in LA.
And I also remember before this was completely
done, you were reading the script and you
were like, oh no, I don't like how
this is.
And I'm like, oh no, she doesn't like
(46:48):
it.
So when I actually gave you the movie,
I was like, oh my God, I really,
I really hope she likes this.
I was super nervous and you were just
like, I'm like, oh, she probably doesn't like
it.
And then you text me like two minutes
after I thought that, and you're like, oh
my God, it's so good, I love it.
And I'm like, oh no, I was so
relieved.
Oh, well that means a lot to me.
And I just wanna say you did make
(47:09):
some revisions.
I did.
Because I'll say I'm squeamish and you had
a few people throwing up in the beginning
of the movie and I was like, cut
that out.
Because it'll turn off a section of the
population that doesn't like to see that.
And I'm a member of that sector of
the population.
So I'm glad that that- Nobody wanted
to do that with me, but the good
(47:31):
thing was, it was my movie, I was
the director.
So I had the ultimate say, but they
didn't agree with me on that.
But I think it worked out.
I think it worked out.
So, especially because you have people eating food
in the movie, it really worked out.
Whatever you did, you worked your magic.
It's a great movie.
You know, when there's a movie that's disjointed
(47:53):
and just doesn't work, you kind of feel
it.
We have that feeling back in the old
days, leaving a movie theatre saying, why the
hell did I waste two hours and 20
bucks on this?
This doesn't leave that.
This is, it takes, it takes.
It's like, it has that beginning, middle and
end, the arcs.
And that's one of the things that I
do wanna ask you is, you said you
(48:15):
watched a lot of movies, but I've actually
taken a screenwriting course where they talk about,
you know, the arcs, and there's gotta be
act one, has to have something happen at
the end that triggers act two and the
arc of act two and then the arc
of act three.
It's even called a formula.
But you intrinsically just incorporated all that without
really studying that craft?
(48:37):
Well, okay, so I originally, the original story
that I wrote was there as a skeleton,
but it wasn't ready to be seen.
And like I said, we would rewrite it
every time.
We would go over it and I would
go over it with my producers and we'd
be like, okay.
And between the three of us, we really
(48:57):
knew, we really knew movies.
I had other people working with me earlier
on in the Kickstarter that kind of fell
off.
And then we just kept rewriting until everything
was basically perfect.
So we couldn't figure anything else that could
be better for that scene.
And that's the way we did it.
(49:18):
And yeah, I basically wrote this if I
was writing a movie based on everything that
I've ever seen that I liked.
Some of my other inspiration were like Goonies
and Stand By Me.
Not necessarily horror movies, but movies that I
really loved.
I just wanted to get that goosebump factor.
(49:38):
I wanted people to get goosebumps at certain
parts.
And I've already had like feedback where people
did say that.
People have said they had goosebumps.
People have said like, wow, that was really
good.
Some people have said they cried.
Like to me, that's like, if a movie
can do that, then to me, that's a
success.
So what are your tips on casting?
(49:59):
Because you had a really good cast and
you said it was hard to cast up
in Syracuse, New York.
But I think casting is one of the
most important aspects of filmmaking.
The thing is, it's a collaborative process and
it's like a three-dimensional chess game.
There's so many things that you have to
get right.
How did you nail the casting?
I just set out for casting and people
(50:21):
sent me their auditions and some of them
were like, amazing, I gotta take this person.
Other people were like, I definitely might want
this person, but I gotta look at what
else I have.
And then when it came down to it,
like, yeah, some people I had to just
get on the fly.
(50:43):
And then my character that I played, I
was looking for somebody all the way until
the day of the shooting.
And I was like, if I can't find
somebody, nobody really applied to that part.
And I really looked for, like I sent,
I specifically sent emails to people to play
that part and nobody did.
So I was like- Like your mom.
That was your mom just there.
(51:04):
How did you find her?
Well, my real mom is in this movie
too, but then my actor mom.
So she's a local actor here in Syracuse
and she applied for the part and she
reminded, like I had in mind like a
Dee Wallace kind of character and I told
her and I think she played it perfectly.
She's good.
(51:25):
And I also like your sort of love
interest, the girl who's got a crush on
you and keeps wanting to go and have
vegan cheeseburgers with you cause you're pretty much
the only vegan in the cast, in the
script.
Right, she is also a local actor.
There she is, right there.
There she is.
And she does a lot of things with
(51:46):
American High, which is a local Syracuse base.
They did a lot of movies.
Well, they've done stuff with Pete Davidson and
some other things.
So she works with them and I see
a lot of reels that she does lately.
So yeah, that's cool that we have her.
And Nick, the guy that plays Nick, he
released his own movie, a horror movie just
(52:08):
this past September and it did really well
over on ScreenBox.
It actually moved into first place above Terrifier
2 for a week or two.
So he's actually in the movie.
He did the same thing.
He directed, acted and wrote his movie and
that's called Creeping Death.
So yeah.
You know, I think as you, this is
(52:30):
just my idea of what do I know
cause we are almost out of time, but
before I forget, what about if you start
raising money for your next film while you're
doing the premieres around the country?
Because people will be inspired.
Certainly you wanna give a percentage to charity,
but it could be a good way to
(52:52):
start your fundraising for the next film because
I can't wait to see a sequel.
So I know that you're saying that cause
you watched it, but I feel like I'm
not gonna be able to raise what I
could raise without people seeing the movie yet.
Like I said, I feel like it's the
movie nobody's looking for until they watch it.
So once people see it, I feel like
(53:14):
we have a way better chance of being
able to raise money for a second one
than if I did it right now.
People might be like, well, I don't really
even know what this one looks like.
So I don't know.
I'll hold off, you know.
Is there a website where people can go
to learn more about the premieres?
The premieres.
Well, they can follow me over on A44movie.
We have a website which is pretty much
(53:36):
like 95% done.
It's called A44movie.com.
There you go.
It shows everybody on there.
It shows social media, all that stuff.
A44movie.com, easy to remember because that is
the name of the film.
Chris, I just wanna say I am super
impressed.
I think you're absolutely amazing.
(53:57):
We're just about out of time, but I
love your perseverance.
I love your attitude.
I love the finished product.
And I'm really humbled and grateful to be
a little part of this venture, a very
small part, but I'm excited.
I'm glad you are.
You played a great part.
(54:18):
And I think, you know, I have it
looking even better than when you saw it
because I fixed a couple of things.
So it looks really good.
We at Unchained TV wanna help you with
your premiere in LA.
Let's plan it maybe for April.
Sounds like a plan.
And everybody go to A44movie.com and get
(54:39):
involved.
And of course, we always tell everybody, please,
please download Unchained TV.
We are the world's only vegan streaming television
network, vegan animal rights streaming TV network.
So it's a vegan Netflix.
Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
I love Unchained TV.
Unchained, Unchained TV.
(55:01):
Your life will change.
It's just that easy.
Unchained TV has all sorts of content for
everybody.
Unchained TV changed my life.
Unchained TV is crushing it.
I love Unchained TV.
Unchained TV is my go-to.
Unchained TV.
Who knew?
Unchained, baby, yes.
Wow, have we got a show for you.
You're going to meet Chris Cooney.
He has spent the last eight years of
his life making 844, the vegan zombie movie.
He's the writer.
He's the director.
He's the star of this extraordinary film.
It sends your head spinning with, oh my
God, so many wild twists and turns.
(00:22):
Prepare to scream.
Cooney plays a student trying to figure out
why the people around him are turning into
zombies.
Could it have anything to do with all
the cheeseburgers and milkshakes they're consuming?
You're going to have to watch to find
out.
Cooney funded this venture, a feature film, through
a Kickstarter, and he made the entire film
(00:42):
production entirely vegan.
No animal products served or used.
Along with Cooney, the cast includes famed Dr.
Michael Greger in a mesmerising cameo, along with,
well, me, playing, of course, a reporter.
So make sure to stay tuned for the
premiere date of this one-of-a-kind
film that will have you squirming in your
(01:06):
seat.
We have eyes on the ground at Amherst
General reporting live.
Let's see what's unfolding.
Pat, what can you tell us?
Hey, how do you think they actually get
the milk out of a milk?
Maybe we can get together sometime and cook
up some vegan cheeseburger or something.
Yo, bro, I left my wallet in your
truck.
(01:28):
What the...
Hey, we need backup!
People are complaining of dizziness and stomach pain.
People are, oh my God, what are you
doing?
Get down!
(01:48):
Well, help him!
Run!
Wait, wait, wait, that's gotta be it, right?
Okay, wait, what do you mean?
(02:17):
So, don't eat animals, fools.
Hopefully those things don't want to eat us,
too.
And we are so honoured to have Chris
Cooney, the writer, the director, the star of
(02:41):
this incredible film.
Oh my gosh, it is just a five
-star thriller.
And I want to say, Chris, congratulations.
I know you spent, what, eight years working
on this?
What does it feel like to have it
done?
Thank you so much.
Yeah, I mean, we did the Kickstarter six
(03:02):
and a half years ago, but I originally
wrote this in 2009, so 16 years it's
been, you know, in the works.
It feels incredible to finally have the movie
done and looking at what's next.
Well, how did you do this?
Because looking at this, and of course, like
everybody else in LA, I have that screenplay
(03:26):
that I pull out when the police pull
me over.
They say, in Hollywood, you've got to show
a screenplay to the police when they pull
you over.
It's kind of a joke.
Everybody's got a screenplay.
But the truth is, this is a good
screenplay.
I watched this because, well, I've been involved
since you first did the Kickstarter, and that
(03:47):
was something like eight years ago, and I
honestly had no expectations.
Then when I saw the finished product, I
was like, oh my God, this is brilliant.
How did you put it together?
How did you write it, then star in
it, and then direct it?
Break it down for us.
Well, you know, I originally, okay, so it's
(04:08):
kind of a long story, but I'll try
to summarise it a little bit.
Back in 2009, I had a full-time
job that I just didn't like, and I
remember driving the back roads of upstate New
York, where I'm from, and I started saying,
I can't do this the rest of my
life.
I don't want to retire at 65 and
(04:28):
say this is all I did.
I want to be passionate about something.
So I started brainstorming things that I really
loved.
What do I really love?
I've always loved filmmaking.
I've been around film since, you know, my
dad had super eight millimetre cameras since before
I was born.
So I grew up with him taking little
home movies, and I was pretty intrigued by
(04:49):
that.
And, you know, so I love that, but
I especially love the horror genre.
So like, you know, monsters, scary things.
I've always been intrigued by that.
And it was a no-brainer because I,
at that point, I had already been vegan
for the majority of my life at that
point.
So I'm like, well, how can I take
(05:10):
those three elements and kind of like combine
them into something that I could get up
every day and be passionate about something?
And I started brainstorming like vegan vampires, you
know, vampires are my favourite.
So like, ah, no, I don't know.
Vegan werewolves, yeah, that might be too.
And then I had an idea, the vegan
zombie, where I had a whole idea for
(05:31):
a zombie apocalypse that was brought on by
the meat and dairy that people were consuming.
So I went home and I grabbed a
pencil and a notepad and I began writing
out a script.
And I wanted to make this movie.
And at that point, like, I wasn't like
a professional moviemaker.
I just would put two VCRs together.
And I remember one of the first videos
(05:54):
that I ever put together was a skateboarding
video in the 90s.
And I put a song to it that
I really liked at the time, not even
knowing that this musician would align with me
later down the road as a fellow vegan,
which I would later on meet.
And that was the song Go by Moby,
(06:15):
who is a vegan advocate.
And I later got to tell him that
when I met him.
But so I decided at the time there
was nothing like it on YouTube.
There was no vegan YouTube shows or anything
like that.
I just wanted to start making videos so
I could get better at editing with like
a home suite.
I use the Adobe Creative Cloud and I
(06:36):
wanted to start making little zombie skits.
But, you know, I didn't even know if
anybody would even watch us.
So I figured, why don't I also share
some of my vegan recipes?
Because up until that point, my friends and
I would get together like every Thanksgiving or
Christmas, New Year's, and we would bring all
of our vegan, you know, we would make
a vegan potluck and bring something there.
(06:59):
So I decided, why don't, you know, John's
got some great vegan stuffed shells.
And I make like a crescent roll, broccoli
cheddar roll vegan.
So why don't we just start sharing some
of these recipes while we do like zombie
stuff?
So I get better at making, you know,
editing and doing special effects and stuff like
that.
Well, to our surprise, it started getting a
(07:19):
lot of views and we got a lot
of subscribers.
And before we knew it, we had thousands
and thousands of subscribers.
And then they were asking us to do
a cookbook.
And we're like, we don't we don't we've
never made a cookbook.
So we're like, all right, we'll do a
Kickstarter.
And if we can get this, we can
raise this much money.
We'll do we'll do a cookbook.
(07:39):
And I did not think for a second
that we would raise this much money because
it was kind of a lot of money.
How much did you raise?
Well, we we got a hold of another
cook, a vegan cookbook author from Germany.
His name is Justin Moore.
And he does the whole series called The
Lotus and the Artichoke.
And they're really good books.
He travels the world, finds different recipes, and
(08:02):
then he veganizes everything.
All right.
I have to jump in because I want
to get back to the movie, which is
what everybody's talking about.
Right, right.
Well, this does tie in.
This is about to tie in.
Yeah.
Go for it.
OK, so anyway, so we ended up doing
this Kickstarter.
We ended up raising three times what we
(08:23):
were looking for.
I think we ended up with like a
little over forty three thousand dollars.
We made a better cookbook than we were
going to do.
We toured Germany.
We got the 2014 cookbook of the year
and we had a successful Kickstarter.
So with that success and the channel growing
a few years later, I said, OK, now
it's time to do a Kickstarter for the
(08:45):
actual movie.
And let's make a real movie.
So we put up a Kickstarter.
We were looking for we were looking for
more money than eighty five thousand.
But I didn't think we would get eighty
five thousand more than that.
So we had to put like an achievable
goal.
So eighty five thousand for the movie.
By the end of it, we made it
by the skin of our teeth.
And we were now on on on set
(09:08):
to make this movie happen.
And then a few things fell through year
after year went and then the whole pandemic
happened.
But then in twenty twenty two, I met
with a team local.
We weren't sure if we were going to
film it in L.A. or here in
the Syracuse area, which was really what I
wanted to do, because I got a lot
of inspiration for writing this on real events
(09:31):
that happened when I grew up here in
upstate New York.
So we ended up filming it here and
production began in August.
Actually, Dr. Gregor was on the second day
of shooting.
That was August 28th.
And we shot at the actual high school
that I graduated from many years ago.
So August of what year?
(09:52):
Twenty twenty two.
OK, so.
Wow.
So eight years ago, approximately, you started this
Kickstarter.
You get the money.
Twenty twenty two.
You shoot the film.
And now are you editing it as well?
You're the star.
You're the director.
(10:13):
You're probably the producer.
Did you did you edit this, too?
I took on like so many roles for
this project.
I did.
I did all the pre-production, the casting.
Like I was like overworked, like like crazy.
And when it came down to it, after
we were done with production, our budget was
so low at that point that I couldn't
(10:36):
really afford to, you know, look out for,
you know, hiring anybody else to do the
post-production.
I did hire an amazing guy named Rob
Agocella who did all of the sound design.
Amazing, by the way.
I did, in fact, do all of the
editing myself.
I did the special effect, the visual effects,
the colour grading and where it is now.
(10:58):
So the post-production was done by by
myself and Rob.
I want to just hats off, like unbelievable,
because I did not have expectations when I
looked at this.
I thought, well, let's see.
And it's so good.
And I'm not just saying that to blow
smoke.
(11:19):
I had so much fun watching this movie.
I completely forgot that I was watching it
for a purpose like, oh, I've got to
sort of review this film to.
Because it's a vegan event in the vegan
community and we cover that here at Unchained
TV.
I totally forgot all that.
I was just watching this squirming because what
(11:42):
I love about it is how you build
up slowly.
Like, how did you learn that?
And I'll play a clip from the first
part of your trailer to give you a
sense for those watching of how.
Well, yeah, it doesn't just start with like
the zombie apocalypse.
There is a buildup, which I think makes
(12:04):
it more more exciting.
So let's play that first part.
Sure.
Good morning.
It's a beautiful day here in Amherst.
We do have some breaking news to report.
(12:24):
There are several reports of what appears to
be a stomach bug going around.
Now, experts are not quite sure of the
cause, but an investigation is underway.
You are being advised to use discretion and
stay home if you aren't feeling well.
I'll be back.
(12:44):
Cell mutations.
If we consider a virus to be similar
to a eukaryotic cell, where would the actual
mutation originate?
Is there something important outside, Harley?
Never mind.
I guess it's nothing.
Like a ghost town in there.
Everyone's going home sick or something.
(13:05):
Now, you're looking outside while Dr. Greger's talking
and there's a zombie walking down and you're
kind of obviously distracted by that.
He says, is there a reason why you're
looking out the window and you say nothing?
I mean, this was really, really well written.
How did you figure all that out?
(13:28):
I mean, I wrote it and rewrote it
over the last 16 years.
No joke, probably about 50 different times.
I love movies and my inspiration...
I wanted to make a zombie apocalypse movie
that was as plausible in reality as I
could make it.
And I couldn't think of anything more real
(13:50):
than...
I don't want to give too much away,
but by the meat and the dairy that
the people were eating.
And yeah, some of my favourite movies...
This isn't your normal horror movie.
It is a horror movie by every means,
but some of the movies that gave me
inspiration were movies that somewhere in the movie,
(14:13):
usually at the end, there's this emotional tug
at your heart.
And movies like that, for me, I wanted
to make a movie that I would like.
And I just figured if I liked it,
maybe other people would like it too.
So if there's a movie that I would
watch and it did that to me...
If there was a movie that just was
happy and cool and funny, I'd be like,
(14:33):
yeah, that was a good movie, and then
I'd forget about it.
But if there was a movie that really
pulled at my emotions at the end, I
will think about it the next morning, the
next week.
And I will...
Basically, what I'm trying to say is my
favourite movie of all time I saw in
the movie theatres when I was six years
old, and that was E.T. And that
did that to me at the end of
the movie.
And I wanted to take the elements of
that and combine it into this movie right
(14:55):
here, along with some horror.
So I wanted the right character arcs, the
right...
Everything had to be perfect.
And I made so many mistakes.
If you read the first script, it had
all the elements there, but it wasn't what
it is now.
And over the next how many years, rewriting
it...
I was rewriting it all the way until
(15:16):
we were actually on set.
Like, oh, maybe we need to do this.
So yeah, it was just a lot of
rewriting and getting my producers to go over
it with me and taking every little scene
like a fine-tooth comb.
And that went all the way into post
-production.
When I edited the scenes, I'd be like,
how does this look?
We would look at it.
I'm like, hmm.
And that's why it looks as good as
(15:37):
I think it does.
And to go to your point when you
said you didn't really have expectations for it,
I see a lot of the comments and
a lot of other people are the same
way.
And what I would say about that is
I agree.
I feel like it's the movie that nobody's
looking for.
But once they see it, it's like the
diamond in the rough.
It's like, you gotta see it.
I've been trying as hard as I can
(15:58):
to promote this.
And I just feel like it's like falling
on deaf ears.
There's a certain amount of people that do
want to watch it, but other people are
just like, what is this?
And until you actually watch it, you don't
really know.
All right.
I'd like to say that I was one
of the small backers of it because I
interviewed you.
And then there was a way where if
(16:20):
you gave a certain amount, you could be
in the film.
So I am in the film as a
reporter and I'm delighted to be in it.
Now, Mary Zaint, I hope I'm pronouncing your
name right, says she's happy to have been
one of the kickstart backers for this back
in 2018 and really look forward to seeing
it.
Lindsay Baker says, can't wait for the premiere
(16:41):
of this one.
And Tom Vincel says, please bring this to
Chicago, which brings me to the next point.
We would love to help you arrange a
screening here in Los Angeles.
And I think that would be a lot
of fun.
We could do it under the Unchained TV
umbrella and have you speak and get a
(17:02):
nice crowd together.
But what about that touring?
What are your plans?
Obviously, you know, everybody wants to have their
film on Netflix, but not always does that
happen, to put it mildly.
So what are your plans for this film
in terms of physical tours and distribution?
(17:23):
Well, we're obviously trying to get distribution right
now.
We've looked at a couple like horror distribution
platforms, streaming services, but we're also submitted to
several film festivals that we're still waiting on
to see how that pans out through 2025.
(17:43):
I've been saying this.
I've done everything with the moviemaking business all
the way up until where I am right
now.
I've never done this before, so I don't
really know the process here.
But what I would like to be able
to do, as I was talking to you
off camera, is I would like to be
able to go to some local movie theatres.
I'd like to have the right to be
(18:04):
able to, just me, go to a local
movie theatre and do a premier, a fundraiser
for different animal sanctuaries and split some of
those proceeds from an event like that with
different animal sanctuaries.
I actually had somebody reach out to me
from one last month, so that sounds like
(18:27):
a great idea.
That way, we're helping the animals indirectly through
the movie, the message of the movie, and
directly through fundraising for these different sanctuaries.
I know originally when I said I was
doing this, that a certain amount of the
points, if it were to make a lot
of money, would go to a few different
(18:48):
sanctuaries as well.
That's still in the plan, but I don't
know if the movie will make any money
at all, so I'm still new to this.
I would like it to get some distribution
like that.
I know it's on your platform right now
as far as the trailer goes.
We were talking about that, but that's what
our goals are right now is ultimately to
get some kind of distribution but also retain
(19:10):
the right to be able to travel to
different local movie theatres to potentially do some
fundraising that way.
Sure, and I point out not all distribution
is created equally because sometimes where they distribute
to is like Timbuktu.
You've never heard of it.
Nobody's ever going to see it, so just
getting distribution is not necessarily the ultimate goal.
(19:33):
It's what kind of distribution.
Just word to the wise.
So I have to say people are super
excited about the idea of screenings in person.
So we have somebody, Tiffany, a premiere in
LA.
Karen.
Oh, Karen LaCava.
Okay, and here's the ultimate compliment.
(19:53):
Chris, I do a biannual vegan horror event
in LA.
Would be happy to help promote the film
in some way.
So definitely check that out.
We've got, everybody is very, very positive about
Yeah, Mary, that would be awesome.
Yeah, using your film to help animals and
sanctuaries.
What I would say is whatever city or
(20:14):
town you're going to help the sanctuaries in
that area because people have a connection to
their local sanctuaries.
They don't necessarily have the same connection to
sanctuaries that are across the country.
I've experienced that firsthand because that's the idea.
Yeah, that's the idea.
Go to where they are.
Do like a local screening and then split
(20:38):
up proceeds for that specific.
So the event would be like a pre
-sale for whatever sanctuary.
Like the guy that reached out to me
is in Virginia.
I would go down there.
We would do an event.
It could be like a two o'clock
and a six o'clock and proceeds would
be split between the sanctuary and me and
(21:00):
the producers.
And we're getting come to Dallas, Texas, please.
And Karen LaCava is saying she can help.
She's a very well-known vegan caterer.
She could do the catering, I'm sure.
You have some great events.
But yeah, I think there's a lot of
excitement about going to different places around the
country.
And now I want to get back to
(21:21):
the filmmaking process because I can't imagine how
hard it must be.
Forget you wrote it and you edited it
and you star in it.
But directing while you star.
That is something that has always perplexed me.
How are you essentially behind the camera or
(21:43):
directing the cinematographer while you're in front of
the camera?
How did you pull that off?
Well, you know, directing the scenes having it
done the way I wanted to.
The director of photography was doing some he
was watching what was going on so he
was directing some of the different scenes of
where people should be what should be going
(22:03):
on how everything looked when I wasn't able
to do that.
We didn't have an external monitor for me
to check everything.
And because of limited time and funds we
couldn't rewind and watch every little scene.
So I had to basically put a lot
of trust in the cinematographer that he got
the right shots.
Stuff like that.
But yeah, at all times I knew what
(22:26):
was going on.
I knew how I wanted things done.
If we didn't get something shot a certain
way I would like we need to do
this a couple more times.
Because we didn't really have a budget to
go back and do reshoots like other movies
do.
Well, it's very professionally shot.
The zooms, the drone shots.
(22:48):
And we have to talk about Dr. Michael
Greger.
I'm a huge fan.
He's a very serious guy.
He's written many, many New York Times bestsellers.
How did you get him involved?
I reached out and I talked to his
secretary and they didn't even really ask.
They were just like, yeah, we'll be up
there and we'll do it.
You know?
(23:08):
Because they said yes way back when when
we were going to shoot it when we
first did the Kickstarter.
And then plans changed.
So like years later I'm like, are you
still interested?
And sure enough he came up for the
day and he was great.
Yeah, we had a good time.
He's a trip.
I love him.
And I will say that he's the most
(23:30):
generous person on ShaneTV has asked him for
many, many videos which he supplied without even
a blink.
And I love that spirit because we're all
in it for the same reasons.
To save animals and the planet.
Now, this was an entirely vegan production.
So at the very beginning we see people
eating hamburgers.
(23:51):
Were those vegan hamburgers?
In other words, they were supposed to be
meat hamburgers in the script.
But tell us about that.
Yeah, we wanted to make everything.
We wanted everything to look as authentic as
possible.
But in reality, everything was vegan.
So those were either impossible or beyond burgers
that we got.
(24:12):
And like literally everything down.
So there's a scene where there's a little
kid with a baseball and I went to
several different stores so I could find a
synthetic baseball not a leather one.
Everything was as vegan as we could get.
All the catering, all the in-movie food
and the actual catering were all vegan.
(24:34):
When I hired everybody, I mean this is
kind of like not been done before.
It's not really a normal thing.
So every actor or crew member I said,
look, just so you know before I hire
you like I can't tell you what to
eat or what not to eat but this
is a vegan production so as long as
you're cool with this being entirely vegan if
you don't want to eat our food that
(24:56):
you're more than welcome to go off set
in your car go off somewhere else to
eat.
Everybody was more than happy to do that.
We catered everything vegan.
We always had snacks on set that were
vegan and yeah, it was fun.
And we did have a few people that
were actually fellow vegans themselves but not everybody
(25:18):
in the film were vegan so hopefully it
changed other people's perspective that weren't vegan making
a, you know what I think would be
the first non-documentary feature horror movie so
yeah.
Wow.
Now, so not all the actors were vegan.
(25:40):
Interesting.
Did some of them change?
In other words, there's a lot of horror
here.
There's a lot of gore.
Did it get through to these people who
were immersed in the script?
Unfortunately, no, I don't think so.
It became a process just to make this
movie and they just did it really not
(26:02):
thinking anything of the vegan message and you
know, things got kind of, you know, tough
and I had to just, you know, shoot
the days that I had to shoot and
just get the job done.
So originally, I had big aspirations like I
wanted this to be like I wanted all
the vegans to come together but then when
I started putting out the casting call and
(26:23):
all that I was surprised but like I
wasn't nobody was responding.
I mean, this was worldwide like obviously they'd
have to get to Syracuse area but there
was really no vegans that were applying for
any of this so when it got down
to the, you know, the last days and
stuff I basically had to hire whoever I
(26:45):
could that could do the parts.
Some of them were hired the day of
certain small scenes but yeah, some, there is,
well, there's a character named Drew you've already
seen the movie in real life he is
a vegan and then there's a girl in
(27:05):
the movie her name is Paige in the
movie she's also a vegan and it was
funny because when she when she answered the
casting call she, she said I just want
to know if there's going to be anything
on set I can eat because I am
a vegan and I was like oh wow
like everything is going to be vegan and
(27:25):
everything you can eat and she was like
oh wow and I'm like so I got
to meet a fellow vegan just coincidentally like
that.
Now this may seem obvious first of all
everybody wants to know what is A44 mean?
I have a feeling you don't want to
give that away I can't give that away
you gotta watch the movie yeah exactly you've
gotta watch the movie but in terms of
(27:47):
the message you know I really admire what
you're doing because I look at hundreds and
hundreds of videos our streaming network is right
behind me we have 2,000 videos and
that's all I do every day is look
at videos about animal rights and veganism and
so you know there's many powerful films but
(28:08):
a lot of them are luxury you know
don't do this don't eat meat one of
the things that I was talking with the
head of Veganuary the US head of Veganuary
is why they called it Try Vegan and
that that psychologically takes the pressure off people
and they don't feel ordered they feel invited
(28:30):
so messaging is so crucial how we approach
telling people hey you should try this other
way of life for your own health for
the planet for the animals for a gazillion
reasons if you want to end world hunger
if you want to end water pollution ocean
desertification we could go on but the point
(28:50):
is that the medium is the message as
Marshall McLuhan said what I love about your
film is that you're being entertained so you
don't even realise you're getting a message but
what is the message well as you know
like I wanted the message to I wanted
this to be a standalone um horror movie
(29:13):
and I would just expect that since it
is a vegan a pro vegan message movie
that most vegans would support that you know
even people that just don't like horror movies
maybe they're like well I'll support the movie
whatever um I wanted to make this for
like the horror fans that aren't vegan because
as you already know you already saw the
movie but I wanted the message to be
(29:34):
there where you don't really hear the message
until you're already like connected you know to
certain characters where it's like in order to
like say no to this you're kind of
like at that point you're kind of lying
to yourself if you say no at that
point and then the message comes in and
you're like oh man I didn't really think
of it like that or so yeah there's
(29:56):
a character in this movie which I don't
like I don't want to give away that
um hopefully most people fall in love with
right away and at that point you're basically
being hypocritical not to you know connect the
dots at that point but I did want
to do this like as an entertainment movie
(30:17):
I'm not expecting everybody to go vegan after
seeing this movie and really all my you
know I just want people to watch the
movie and enjoy the movie um I do
think that some people will have different choices
they'll make different choices after watching and yeah
maybe some people will go vegan after watching
this movie but um it's just my way
(30:40):
of doing something differently um rather than telling
or or something somebody to do something basically
showing something that's fun and entertaining and then
the message just comes in there and hopefully
I did a good enough a job with
you know what I was explaining earlier the
(31:01):
emotion uh tugging at your heart you know
by by the time the movie wraps up
that you know it's kind of hard to
just like say okay let's go out for
burgers at that point um we have eyes
on the ground at Amherst General reporting live
let's see what's unfolding Pat what can you
tell us hey how do you think they
(31:23):
actually get the milk out of a note
maybe we can get together sometime and cook
up some vegan cheeseburger or something yo bro
I left my wallet in your truck hey
we need backup people are complaining of dizziness
(31:44):
and stomach pain people are freaking oh my
god what are you doing no no get
down what the hell oh oh oh wait
wait that's that's that's gonna be it right
(32:07):
okay wait what do you mean So,
don't eat animals, fools.
(32:32):
Hopefully those things don't want to eat us
too.
It's so good.
People are saying, I'm dying to see this.
I like that, Scarlett.
This looks good.
It is good.
I have to say, I watched it and
(32:53):
I had no expectations and it blew me
away.
It's fun.
I'm not somebody who wants to see sadistic
violence, people being tortured.
So it doesn't go into that realm.
It's not gross in that sense, but it
is keeping you on the edge of your
seat.
You're like, no, I can't describe it.
(33:15):
You caught it.
Whatever that it is that makes people squirm
and makes a horror movie good, you caught
it.
And what would you say that it is?
What is that thing?
I mean, so many people love horror, not
everybody, but there's a lot of people that
love horror and just something, I just wanted,
(33:37):
like you said, the story just progresses from
the beginning and I wanted it to slowly
progress to a point where some movies they
get to the middle and it kind of
dies down.
I wanted this movie just to keep going
to the climax of the movie and then
boom, it's like, wow.
And I feel like, I mean, I've seen
it a million times because I know I've
(33:58):
edited it so many times, but I feel
like by the time you get to the
end, you don't even realise how long it
actually was.
But what is it?
I don't know, it's just something from my
childhood that I've always wanted to do.
I put everything into this.
I showed this to some movie making consultants
of mine that I've met over the years
that live in the United Kingdom and they're
(34:20):
not vegan and they didn't even really know
what this movie was gonna be about.
They were helping me with technical difficulties.
And when I finally showed it to them,
they were like blown away.
They said, Chris, what you have here is
something very special and you can tell that
it's from the heart.
And to me, that means everything because I
put everything into this movie.
(34:42):
So you can tell that this is from
the heart.
It really is.
Okay, I wanna ask about mistakes, blunders, things
that you can teach us to avoid.
Like I said, I too have written a
script with two colleagues.
I can just tell you Jamie Logan, the
(35:02):
actress activist and Justina Adorno, who is a
well-known actress who has appeared in Grand
Hotel and other major films.
And so I'm sure we have some rewrites
ahead of us, but first of all, you
made an independent film for what?
Under $100,000, that's extraordinary.
You look at the budgets of some of
these films, it's crazy, hundreds of millions of
(35:24):
dollars.
This was money well spent.
What would your advice be to people like
myself, Jamie and Justina about pitfalls to avoid?
Some of the worst mistakes were in the
contracts.
So make sure your contracts are ironclad.
(35:48):
Most of the budget will probably go towards
actual cast and crew.
There were some continuity errors, so we did
our best for that.
And I think I did, you can still
find some, but I'm okay with it.
I feel like we'll have fun finding some
continuity errors.
(36:08):
But for the most part, I was able
to fix most of them.
Make sure the cameras, like if I can
go back, like there's some things that is
out of my control, like with the camera
that was used, hot pixels, dead pixels, that's
gonna be extremely difficult to fix.
(36:29):
Just make sure you're communicating very well with
the rest of your team.
And scheduling is extremely difficult with that many
people, especially when you're doing an independent thing
and it's not their full-time job, trying
to get everybody together on a certain day
and then hope it doesn't rain.
So yeah, have a team.
Unfortunately, I had to do a lot of
(36:49):
this stuff myself or with my producer who
happens to live in the UK.
So she wasn't able to be here to
help in person.
So we had to like communicate that way.
So there's a lot of things that, I
will tell you that all the difficulties I
went through, it feels so much better now
(37:10):
than knowing that I'd done and I got
through it.
And I think I've learned so much more
because of these difficulties that I just would
not allow to happen in my second film.
So let's talk about second film.
You brought it up.
Where do you go from here?
Are you going to do a sequel or
(37:32):
is it gonna be something entirely different?
Well, I mean, I definitely wanna do something.
I want the doors to open up and
be able to do another film.
But I would definitely want a proper budget
for that one because I did not pay
myself at all for this.
So all these years I've been working full
(37:54):
-time hours, I've not taken any money.
So I've pretty much driven myself into extreme
poverty right now.
So I'm hoping I have another chance with
another movie with a real budget.
They say that if you prove successful on
a first movie, then you could possibly get
funding, proper funding to make a second movie.
(38:17):
I would hope that that would be the
case.
You've seen the movie, so you know that
people are probably gonna want a sequel to
this movie.
And we had to go out to make
this movie the timeframe that it is, but
there's more in my head that I've already
written out all those years ago.
(38:38):
I know what happens next, so I need
to put that on paper so people can
see a sequel to this movie, yes.
So over the years, since you sat in
this very spot with me when we announced
the start of the Kickstarter, I got updates
from you.
(38:59):
And I'll be honest, at one point, maybe
five years in, I was like, what's going
on?
Is this ever really gonna get made?
And you would send updates saying, don't worry,
it will get made.
But over the course of what, seven, eight
years, what were your low points?
What were the moments where you wondered to
(39:20):
yourself, is this gonna get made?
Because every biography I have read of people
who achieve extraordinary things, there's always this moment
where it seems like it's all falling apart.
And the people who power through are the
ones who are the change makers.
Yeah, it wasn't easy making this movie.
(39:42):
And there's a lot that I haven't made
public, but when it was done, I was
like, what just happened?
But I don't wanna get into all the
negatives about that.
I didn't touch it for a little while
because I literally couldn't.
I couldn't even look at it.
That's how bad things were.
(40:03):
And then I told myself, I need to
do this no matter what.
And I just started working on it every
single day until it was done, and I
did.
I worked on it for like a little
over a year straight, almost every single day,
eight to 14 hours.
And I did all that myself until it
was done.
(40:23):
And yeah, there was- What do you
do when you're not making films?
What is your day job?
Well, YouTube, I've been doing YouTube for 16
years.
I'm one of the oldest running vegan YouTube
channels in existence.
So that's your full-time job?
Well, that's what it...
I did have a full-time job that
(40:44):
I quit and I became a full-time
YouTuber.
Since then, things have changed a little bit.
So it's not as lucrative anymore.
And I totally neglected it because I was
working on the movie.
So there was a long time where I
wasn't posting any YouTube videos.
But yeah, I know what you mean.
Like people were asking me like, you scammed
(41:05):
us, like where's our money?
Where's the movie?
And I get where they're coming from, but
the person that I've always been since I
was a little kid, I've always been the
person that if I say something, no matter
what, I'm gonna do it.
And I did that.
I would never let anyone down.
I make sure that I fulfil all debts.
And that's what I had to do here.
(41:26):
I knew that I need to get this
movie done because there was, to me, there
was no alternative.
If I didn't do it, I would be
wasting a huge opportunity to fill one of
the biggest dreams I've ever had, which was
to make a feature movie.
And I wasn't gonna let that happen.
So I just did what I had to
do.
And I rose above all the challenges that
(41:49):
were there.
And there was times that I was like,
I don't know how I'm gonna make a
movie out of this.
And I can say now that I'm very
happy with the way it came out.
Hey, we've got Jenny Desmond watching from Liberia,
another one of my heroes.
And she says, great work.
And talk about perseverance and sanctuaries.
(42:12):
What they've done with Liberian chimp rescue is
extraordinary.
They're taking care of more than a hundred
chimpanzees who are abandoned on their own.
And so there's so many people doing such
incredible work in this movement.
And I love the fact that everybody is
sticking together on this one.
(42:34):
Like sometimes we have a guest on and
people are like, why do you have to
do it that way?
Why do you?
And I always say, then you go do
your own thing.
Don't criticise them.
Let, do it your way.
It's so important that we gather together in
the vegan movement.
I always say, anytime we're fighting, the other
side's applauding, because that's what they want.
(42:55):
Maybe we can all come together around a
film like this because it's fun.
And the fact is, and I'll say this,
I've learned it myself.
We need to have more entertaining content in
this movement.
People need to laugh and laughter is one
way that the resistance is dropped.
(43:18):
When people are laughing, their resistance to an
idea drops and they become open-minded.
What would you like to say about that,
Chris?
Well, we do have elements of comedy in
this.
Like we don't take everything so seriously that
it's, oh, it's just so serious, but there
are elements of comedy in this movie and
we wanted to just entertain.
(43:40):
There is definitely a message there.
And like I said, some people might change
their choices and some people won't.
And I wanted to put something out there.
I love a lot of these vegan documentaries.
Some of them, I really love them, but
I feel like, at least for me, I
watch them once and that's great.
(44:01):
But I feel like a movie, like an
entertaining movie like this, it's something that somebody
can go back and watch maybe every few
years around Halloween or something like that.
I watch the same Christmas movies every year
and the same horror movies around Halloween time
every year or every other year.
I'm hoping that this can be something like
that where somebody is like, A44 is my
(44:21):
go-to fall movie or Halloween movie.
And they can always go back to it
and reshare it because once it's out there,
it's the world's movie and it does have
an entertaining yet vegan message there.
So- Yeah, let me ask you a
question.
Okay, so I was one of those people
(44:42):
who donated a little bit in the initial
Kickstarter when you were sitting right next to
me in this room and we talked about
it back in, I believe, 2018.
And there were many, many other people.
How many people total and how much did
you raise in your Kickstarter?
We raised a little under 85,000.
(45:04):
It was more like 80 after they took
out their fees and the taxes and stuff.
And there's a little under 1,100 people
came together for that.
So that's a lot of people that already,
right off the bat, want to see this
movie.
And you don't have to pay them back.
They didn't donate.
I certainly didn't donate thinking I was gonna
(45:24):
get anything back.
I donated just to support the project.
So that's good.
You don't have to pay those people back.
Right, the way I see it is like,
you're not giving the money to me per
se.
You're giving it to a campaign, a project
that I'm going to oversee and create.
So yeah, they were all involved in making
(45:46):
this movie.
Some of them were, you are one of
them, and there's a few other people that
are actually in the movie.
So you can see them throughout the movie.
And then everybody else, they get perks and
stuff.
So there's different, some people get the script
and some people come to get to see
(46:07):
the premiere.
And some of those rewards still have to
be given, but they have to wait until
the movie comes out.
And the other thing is, is I'm currently,
I just actually watched this on the big
screen here in Syracuse, New York.
My friend runs one of the movie theatres
there, and we're just looking at it to
see if everything's right.
And then we're gonna probably do a premiere
(46:28):
here in Syracuse somewhere around the end of
March.
But yeah, I want there to be a
premiere here because this is my hometown, but
also out with you in LA.
And I also remember before this was completely
done, you were reading the script and you
were like, oh no, I don't like how
this is.
And I'm like, oh no, she doesn't like
(46:48):
it.
So when I actually gave you the movie,
I was like, oh my God, I really,
I really hope she likes this.
I was super nervous and you were just
like, I'm like, oh, she probably doesn't like
it.
And then you text me like two minutes
after I thought that, and you're like, oh
my God, it's so good, I love it.
And I'm like, oh no, I was so
relieved.
Oh, well that means a lot to me.
And I just wanna say you did make
(47:09):
some revisions.
I did.
Because I'll say I'm squeamish and you had
a few people throwing up in the beginning
of the movie and I was like, cut
that out.
Because it'll turn off a section of the
population that doesn't like to see that.
And I'm a member of that sector of
the population.
So I'm glad that that- Nobody wanted
to do that with me, but the good
(47:31):
thing was, it was my movie, I was
the director.
So I had the ultimate say, but they
didn't agree with me on that.
But I think it worked out.
I think it worked out.
So, especially because you have people eating food
in the movie, it really worked out.
Whatever you did, you worked your magic.
It's a great movie.
You know, when there's a movie that's disjointed
(47:53):
and just doesn't work, you kind of feel
it.
We have that feeling back in the old
days, leaving a movie theatre saying, why the
hell did I waste two hours and 20
bucks on this?
This doesn't leave that.
This is, it takes, it takes.
It's like, it has that beginning, middle and
end, the arcs.
And that's one of the things that I
do wanna ask you is, you said you
(48:15):
watched a lot of movies, but I've actually
taken a screenwriting course where they talk about,
you know, the arcs, and there's gotta be
act one, has to have something happen at
the end that triggers act two and the
arc of act two and then the arc
of act three.
It's even called a formula.
But you intrinsically just incorporated all that without
really studying that craft?
(48:37):
Well, okay, so I originally, the original story
that I wrote was there as a skeleton,
but it wasn't ready to be seen.
And like I said, we would rewrite it
every time.
We would go over it and I would
go over it with my producers and we'd
be like, okay.
And between the three of us, we really
(48:57):
knew, we really knew movies.
I had other people working with me earlier
on in the Kickstarter that kind of fell
off.
And then we just kept rewriting until everything
was basically perfect.
So we couldn't figure anything else that could
be better for that scene.
And that's the way we did it.
(49:18):
And yeah, I basically wrote this if I
was writing a movie based on everything that
I've ever seen that I liked.
Some of my other inspiration were like Goonies
and Stand By Me.
Not necessarily horror movies, but movies that I
really loved.
I just wanted to get that goosebump factor.
(49:38):
I wanted people to get goosebumps at certain
parts.
And I've already had like feedback where people
did say that.
People have said they had goosebumps.
People have said like, wow, that was really
good.
Some people have said they cried.
Like to me, that's like, if a movie
can do that, then to me, that's a
success.
So what are your tips on casting?
(49:59):
Because you had a really good cast and
you said it was hard to cast up
in Syracuse, New York.
But I think casting is one of the
most important aspects of filmmaking.
The thing is, it's a collaborative process and
it's like a three-dimensional chess game.
There's so many things that you have to
get right.
How did you nail the casting?
I just set out for casting and people
(50:21):
sent me their auditions and some of them
were like, amazing, I gotta take this person.
Other people were like, I definitely might want
this person, but I gotta look at what
else I have.
And then when it came down to it,
like, yeah, some people I had to just
get on the fly.
(50:43):
And then my character that I played, I
was looking for somebody all the way until
the day of the shooting.
And I was like, if I can't find
somebody, nobody really applied to that part.
And I really looked for, like I sent,
I specifically sent emails to people to play
that part and nobody did.
So I was like- Like your mom.
That was your mom just there.
(51:04):
How did you find her?
Well, my real mom is in this movie
too, but then my actor mom.
So she's a local actor here in Syracuse
and she applied for the part and she
reminded, like I had in mind like a
Dee Wallace kind of character and I told
her and I think she played it perfectly.
She's good.
(51:25):
And I also like your sort of love
interest, the girl who's got a crush on
you and keeps wanting to go and have
vegan cheeseburgers with you cause you're pretty much
the only vegan in the cast, in the
script.
Right, she is also a local actor.
There she is, right there.
There she is.
And she does a lot of things with
(51:46):
American High, which is a local Syracuse base.
They did a lot of movies.
Well, they've done stuff with Pete Davidson and
some other things.
So she works with them and I see
a lot of reels that she does lately.
So yeah, that's cool that we have her.
And Nick, the guy that plays Nick, he
released his own movie, a horror movie just
(52:08):
this past September and it did really well
over on ScreenBox.
It actually moved into first place above Terrifier
2 for a week or two.
So he's actually in the movie.
He did the same thing.
He directed, acted and wrote his movie and
that's called Creeping Death.
So yeah.
You know, I think as you, this is
(52:30):
just my idea of what do I know
cause we are almost out of time, but
before I forget, what about if you start
raising money for your next film while you're
doing the premieres around the country?
Because people will be inspired.
Certainly you wanna give a percentage to charity,
but it could be a good way to
(52:52):
start your fundraising for the next film because
I can't wait to see a sequel.
So I know that you're saying that cause
you watched it, but I feel like I'm
not gonna be able to raise what I
could raise without people seeing the movie yet.
Like I said, I feel like it's the
movie nobody's looking for until they watch it.
So once people see it, I feel like
(53:14):
we have a way better chance of being
able to raise money for a second one
than if I did it right now.
People might be like, well, I don't really
even know what this one looks like.
So I don't know.
I'll hold off, you know.
Is there a website where people can go
to learn more about the premieres?
The premieres.
Well, they can follow me over on A44movie.
We have a website which is pretty much
(53:36):
like 95% done.
It's called A44movie.com.
There you go.
It shows everybody on there.
It shows social media, all that stuff.
A44movie.com, easy to remember because that is
the name of the film.
Chris, I just wanna say I am super
impressed.
I think you're absolutely amazing.
(53:57):
We're just about out of time, but I
love your perseverance.
I love your attitude.
I love the finished product.
And I'm really humbled and grateful to be
a little part of this venture, a very
small part, but I'm excited.
I'm glad you are.
You played a great part.
(54:18):
And I think, you know, I have it
looking even better than when you saw it
because I fixed a couple of things.
So it looks really good.
We at Unchained TV wanna help you with
your premiere in LA.
Let's plan it maybe for April.
Sounds like a plan.
And everybody go to A44movie.com and get
(54:39):
involved.
And of course, we always tell everybody, please,
please download Unchained TV.
We are the world's only vegan streaming television
network, vegan animal rights streaming TV network.
So it's a vegan Netflix.
Okay, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard.
I love Unchained TV.
Unchained, Unchained TV.
(55:01):
Your life will change.
It's just that easy.
Unchained TV has all sorts of content for
everybody.
Unchained TV changed my life.
Unchained TV is crushing it.
I love Unchained TV.
Unchained TV is my go-to.
Unchained TV.
Who knew?
Unchained, baby, yes.
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