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October 15, 2025 65 mins

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We sit down with award-winning indie filmmaker Jason Morris to map the real path from micro-budget ideas to memorable horror-comedy and lasting rights. He shares hard-won lessons on distribution, festivals, team culture, and why owning your work changes everything.

• leaving film school to learn the business
• first feature Hellhouse and distributor pitfalls
• why owning rights keeps films alive
• starting a distribution label and seeing scams
• building reality projects without hype
• Haunted Objects format choices and host value
• Echoes of the Unknown and oversaturation
• Space Rodent concept, tone, and creature design
• improvisation, practical effects, and on-set wins
• making a feature for $2,000 with resources
• passion vs paychecks on teams
• guidance for writers without budgets
• learning by working every crew role
• finding or starting local film communities
• running festivals and rising venue costs
• what festivals taught about audience memory
• awards at HorrorHound and defining success
• favorite collaborators and wow moments
• creature dreams, Pumpkinhead, and influences
• where to watch and how to follow Jason

Space Rodent is in pre-order now at resurrectionfilms.net and deadendfilms.org

#buzzsprout #horror #horrorfilm #podmatch #jasonmorris #resurrectionfilms #deadendfilms #interview #podcast


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Music Credit: True Living by Patrick Moore

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_08 (00:09):
Everyday people following their passions.

SPEAKER_01 (00:13):
That's probably like one of the highlights of my life
so far.
Just being able to be creativelike that.
Something I've always wanted.

SPEAKER_03 (00:22):
And then I decided to get another hive, and that
turned into a lot of hives.

SPEAKER_01 (00:28):
As long as I can do that, I want to be a good
citizen, help people out.

SPEAKER_08 (00:33):
Putting themselves out there, taking chances, and
navigating challenges along theway.

SPEAKER_05 (00:40):
I I absolutely identified with having stage
right because, you know, anytimeI went on stage, I just felt
like I was having a hot attack.

SPEAKER_02 (00:47):
Very first lap, very first practice session, I
crashed, turned the car upsidedown, made a spectacle of
myself, and I got back on thathorse and started riding again.

SPEAKER_08 (00:56):
As they pursue what makes them happy and brings them
joy.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02):
As long as people are having a good time and I
have the opportunity to putsmiles on people's faces, I love
what I do.

SPEAKER_03 (01:08):
I have done things that I never thought I could do.
To have somebody tell me howreal it looks and how, you know,
from their actual memory.
Because that's telling me Icaptured what I was trying to
get.
Welcome to AssortedConversations.

SPEAKER_08 (01:27):
I'm your host, Helen.
I'm back.
I'm so excited to be back.
I've missed podcasting.
I've missed you.
Um, but my absence for their forthe better part of the last two
years is due to some medicalissues that I've I've had to

(01:50):
work through and continue livingwith.
But um I am on the mend and I amback in the saddle and ready to
continue having greatconversations with folks who are
following their passions andpursuing happiness.
This week's conversation is withan independent horror filmmaker
in honor of my favorite month,Spooky October.

(02:13):
So take a listen to this week'sepisode, and I'll see you on the
other side.
Today's guest is Jason Morris,an award-winning indie filmmaker
dedicated to exploring thestrange, the unsettling, and the

(02:36):
unexpectedly funny corners ofcinema.
Jason is here to share hisjourney as a filmmaker, the
challenges of producing films onsmall budgets, and how he
creates stories that bothentertain and subvert
expectations.
I am so happy to welcome Jasonto Assorted Conversations.
Hi, Jason.

SPEAKER_04 (02:57):
Hi, how's it going?
Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_08 (03:00):
Thanks for being here.
Um, again, you are in myfavorite month and you are in um
an industry and a topic that isnear and dear to my heart, of
the spookiness.
Um, and I'm I'm reallyinterested in finding out how
you got involved with this.
What inspired you to become afilmmaker and how did your whole

(03:20):
journey begin?

SPEAKER_04 (03:23):
That's a it, you know, the older you get, the
bigger of a question that getsthe journey never ends, right?
But ultimately, it started uh inhigh school.
I was sort of like um lost.
My dad wanted me to sort of likebecome part of his business.
He was in construction, um, andit was something I just wasn't
really interested in.
And I ended up taking a class inhigh school called um uh

(03:44):
designing careers, where you hadto sort of like find a career.
It was the whole purpose of theclass.
Somehow I just came across filmdirector and it had a really
high net worth like amount thatyou make per year, which is
ridiculous if you're looking atsomething like that.
Um, and I was like, oh, thatsounds interesting.
And uh I really started lookinginto it, and I already loved

(04:05):
films, but I didn't know thatthat was something that you
could really look at as a careerper se, right?
Um, this is the you know mid90s.
Uh you have people like RobertRodriguez blowing up, Kevin
Smith, you know, all thosepeople, um, Tarantino.
Um, so I started looking intoit, found a local film school up
here in San Francisco, um, andright out of high school, went

(04:26):
into film school.
Um, quickly learned that filmschool uh doesn't teach you the
business side.
Right.
Um teach you a lot of hands-onstuff, which can be helpful if
you just want to be a crew,right?
Um, but if you want to kind ofbe a producer and create your
own stuff, you really need tolearn the business side.
So I I quit film school andimmediately went and just uh

(04:50):
dove headfirst and making afeature film.
So huge, huge challenge, hugeinteresting uh learning curve.
But um, you know, it wasamazing, and I really haven't
stopped since.
You know, I've had little lullshere and there, but um, you
know, with family and life andwhatnot.
But ultimately I just uh I'vejust been continuing to go.

SPEAKER_08 (05:10):
That's fantastic.
What what was the first it whatwas the first feature film that
you you jumped into?

SPEAKER_04 (05:18):
So the first uh the first movie that I did was
called Hellhouse.
Um yeah.
And uh we we uh star I I found aguy online who wrote a short
story, which I I liked, and thenwe had uh got permission from
him to adapt it into a feature.
Um, and this is the first timeI've written a script, and it

(05:39):
ended up being massively long.
So I enlisted a couple friendsto sort of help rewrite it and
adjust that.
And um, so we got it down to aworkable, you know, length
script.
And um with a buddy of mine cameup with the budget.
I think we had like a$15,000budget.
And my favorite part of this islike looking back, uh, we hit we

(06:00):
had a decent budget for what wewere doing, uh, but it we only
ended up spending like 9,000 ofit.
Uh huh.
So so we had a ton left, and wejust didn't know what we were
doing or what to do with it andthat kind of stuff.
So um part the word party didn'tit didn't enter in.
You know, it it didn't, it doesnow.

(06:21):
You know, setting up a premierefor the casting crew, having a
having a party for everybody,you know, all there's all kinds
of things that I know I could dowith it now.
Back then it was kind of like,oh, all you hear about is like,
you know, movies that um dowell, um come in on schedule and
under budget, and we're like,yay, we got part of that, right?
Yeah, so that was great.

(06:42):
Um, so we thought we were doingwell, you know.
Um, but you know, you the morethat you do, the more you learn,
and I guess sophisticated youget at the process, you know,
not necessarily better at whatyou do, but you get smarter with
what you do, with what you have.

SPEAKER_08 (06:57):
Right, right.
Oh, good point.
So, what happened withHellhouse?

SPEAKER_04 (07:02):
So um I knew early on that um if I was gonna do
this, I would want to make surethat whatever I do gets out to
the world, right?
So this is this is right beforeYouTube and Facebook and all
that kind of really took off.
Um, the very, very first projectthat I did was a web series
before web series ever existed.
Um, and that was calledMillennium Apocalypse.

(07:25):
Um, and uh so I had a little bitof um knowledge from
distributing on the internet,and I knew I didn't want to do
that this time.
I wanted to like have an actualmovie in video stores because
those were around at the time.
Um, so I went searching.
Uh you know, the internet isreally your friend.
I would talk to people, I wouldsearch the internet looking for

(07:45):
like a traditional distributorthat releases you know movies to
the masses.
Um, and we eventually found one.
Um, and as classic stories gowith filmmakers, um, we got
screwed.
Uh we never will we I think wereceived um one check for$50, I
think, um, which is nothing, butyeah, it was in stores.

(08:09):
Right.
You know, so it's hard toreconcile that as a young
person, um, you know, kind ofworking that hard and seeing uh
where it goes.
So um that's ultimately whathappened with it.
And and what I've learned fromthat experience is uh own your
own your movies, own your stuff.
Right.
Um, the more that you own andyou can keep control of it, the
more you can do in the futurebecause you never know what's

(08:32):
going to happen and howtechnology is going to change
and that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_07 (08:35):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (08:36):
And today, because I was able to sort of retain that
ownership after that contractwas up, um, it's been the
highest grossing movie that I'veever made.
Wow.
Um, which blows my mind becauseyou know it's not great.
It's it's the first thing thatI've done.
But whether it's the artwork orthe title or whatever it might
be, um, especially duringHalloween, you know, uh October

(08:59):
times, people watch it.

SPEAKER_07 (09:01):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (09:01):
You know, nobody likes it, but they watch it.
And you know, and that's there'ssort of like a that's okay, you
know.
It it's helping, you know, andand it's understandable because
you can see your own flaws andyour own stuff that you create.
And um, you know, you're you'retypically your own worst enemy
in that respect.
Um, and so there's a lot oflike, oh, agreeance in that, but

(09:25):
also like thank you forwatching.
I mean, it's there there's apart of it that's cathartic,
right?
Right.
Um, just to know that people arekind of like, whatever it was
that got them there, they'rethere, and they saw it through.
Yeah.
Um, so yeah, so uh distributionreally is is is my end goal and
always has been from thebeginning.

SPEAKER_08 (09:44):
Yeah, yeah.
And uh again, uh from the thequality of the movie or the
title or you know, whatever itis, not a bad first outing.

SPEAKER_04 (09:54):
No, really not, you know.
I mean, it's like the very firstdistributor and and seeing how
that went really sort of likeallows you to adjust, well, what
am I gonna do next and how am Igonna move forward with with the
next film kind of thing?

SPEAKER_07 (10:09):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (10:09):
Um, and so from that I went straight into like
figuring out uh because that'skind of like how I am.
Like if there's something that Idon't know, I try to figure out
how to do it, right?
And I'm not always successful,but um, you know, coming off
that experience, I was like, I'mgonna start my own distribution
company.
And and I did that for a fewyears, and and I ended up

(10:29):
distributing like 20 titles, andultimately it was right at the
point where uh Netflix wastaking over with streaming, and
that was coming into thepicture.
So DVDs and Blu-rays and stufflike that were falling off,
video stores were closing, andthat was really at the time you
couldn't you couldn't see thereweren't avenues for VOD like
there are today for digitalstreaming.

(10:52):
Um Netflix was really the onlyonly one doing it, and to make
money you have to have more thanone outlet.
Right, you gotta have more thanone store selling a Blu-ray or a
DVD, and that was dwindling.
And then one of our majormiddlemen, uh, it was a company
called Victory Multimedia, juststarted not paying people.

(11:12):
Um, I I think that they sort oflike foresaw stores closing and
and sales dropping, and all of asudden they just stopped paying
uh the money, and uh so thatcaused smaller distributors to
kind of get decimated.
Uh because you know, andideally, like um not ideally,
but uh what would really happenis you would live paycheck to

(11:34):
paycheck uh with with sort of uhthat sort of entity with trying
to get these smaller movies out.
Um but it was a ride and it Ilearned a lot and I learned sort
of like how to speak todistributors and uh kind of ask
for what you want and you don'thave to say yes.
That thing that's the biggestthing with uh uh filmmakers in

(11:54):
general, um, is that they're soexcited uh that somebody's
interested in their movie, yeah.
Right, that it's like if it's abad deal, they still say yes,
because it's like, well, whatall what other options do I
have?
And it's like keep it, hang onto it.
YouTube is now an option, youknow.
Um there's all kinds of thingsout there.
It doesn't mean that it's gonnabe a huge hit or anything, but

(12:18):
you know, zero percent of ahundred percent that they're
making doesn't get you anything.
Exactly.
You know, if if you're gettingpennies from YouTube or
something like that, you'regetting something, you know.
Um, so filmmakers just gotta bereally careful with that kind of
stuff.
And that's sort of my mypersonal journey is like really
taught me that with distributorsand and just to be careful and

(12:42):
find a way to uh trust them, youknow, whether it's reaching out
to other filmmakers that they'vedistributed or just having
conversations with them andseeing what they're about and
why they do what they do.
Um yeah, so it's a it's adangerous, it's a dangerous road
to lose your film.
And there's been a lot of horrorstories, especially recently,

(13:03):
with different companies kind ofgoing under or just sort of
disappearing and holding on tothose rights to those people's
films and them having a hell ofa time getting them out.

SPEAKER_07 (13:13):
Wow.

SPEAKER_04 (13:14):
Um which is terrible because they're still out there
and being distributed, right?
So this company still has them,but there's no communication,
there's no checks coming in,there's no reporting, they're
just like ghosting filmmakers.
Um, so that's that's reallyhard, and that can really, you
know, if you put all of youreggs into a single basket sort
of uh scenario with that, thatcould kill a filmmaker.

(13:36):
They can't go on and and doanother movie, or if they've had
investors, then I mean thoseinvestors aren't gonna
investigate because they're notseeing any return.
What's the point?
Right, right.
Distribution is dangerous, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (13:47):
Like you said, there's a business side to
everything, yeah, especially ifit's a cre if it's a creative um
field.
I find the the the disparitybetween the two just is so huge.
You know, and in and thinkingabout the creative nature of
what you do, you are not just afilmmaker, you have a variety of

(14:12):
different projects that you'veworked on, and some of which I'm
I'm really interested in seeing.
Um, I've seen trailers, andyou've really piqued my
curiosity, but you've got Echoesof the Unknown, which is a
documentary exploring and kindof challenging the world of
cryptids and you know the theworld as we know it.

(14:34):
Is it really what we've beentold or is there something else
going on?
Totally, totally intrigued me.
I'm I think that's a series.
Correct me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_04 (14:48):
So Haunted Objects was interesting because um there
is a a big media company calledJoblo uh Inc.
or Joblo Media, um, and they doa lot of um like um reporting on
the end of entertainmentindustry.
They started a new channel onYouTube called the Paranormal
Network.
So they were looking for newshows.

(15:08):
Um and I had a friend that wasworking there, and so we came up
with this idea uh called HauntedObjects, which was sort of like
a mix between um uh uh what whatis that um old TV show uh with
the guy from Star Trek, BeyondBelief, I think it was.
Okay.
Uh or factor fiction, I think itwas.

(15:28):
I don't know.
He would he would they wouldpresent a story of something,
and then you would decide, isthis real or was it, you know,
oh okay anyway.
It was sort of like acombination of that where we
would present like um uh ahaunted object and tell the
story behind it.
Um and and we didn't want tolike embellish it, we wanted to
sort of like this is what's beenreported, right?

(15:53):
And we're not taking any sort ofstock in like is it true or not?
This is just what the story is.
Um and I felt that was kind ofimportant, especially for 100
objects, because um there's toomuch out there in the world,
like uh Zack Baggins type stuff,where he's really pushing this
like obviously over-the-top kindof narrative towards these

(16:14):
things to make them toointeresting, right?
And it just comes off fake.
So we didn't really want to dothat.
We know we wanted to just reallyreport on these objects as they
have been presented in historyin the best way that we can from
the information that's around.
And I mean, we go way back insome of these um uh uh uh
objects, and and some of themare more recent, um, because

(16:35):
there's been a lot of peoplethat have sort of been coming
out of the woodworks and uhfinding new uh new things to
make themselves popular thataren't exactly you know real.
Like we there there's for a timeuh people listing haunted
objects on eBay to stuff.
Yeah, um, which I mean they'remaking a lot of money off of
these things that are just youknow a store-bought doll or

(16:58):
something like that.
You know, it becomes kind of uhan odd sort of like field for
people that um I I think thatjust becomes a money grab for a
lot of people, you know.
Right.
Um so all those things werereally interesting to us, and
and haunted objects was greatbecause uh we got to work with
an actor, uh Evan O'Hare is thehost in the show, and he's just

(17:20):
amazing, he's just a perfecthost.
And we got the shot in thisspooky old like uh antique
store, which is like we didn'thave to do anything set
dressing.

SPEAKER_08 (17:31):
Right, yeah, it's just there.

SPEAKER_04 (17:34):
Yeah, so it was beautiful.
It was a really beautiful umseries that we did for Joe Blow.
And again, going back to likethe distribution model, my my
contract with this and with themwas uh after this is over, if
this channel doesn't work out, II want to own my show.
Yeah, right.
So they ended up paying for itum every episode, and uh at the

(17:55):
end, after the the channelultimately didn't do the numbers
that they wanted it to, um wegot to retain our show.
So we uh decided we're we'regonna cut this into a feature
and release it and you know outto the world on our own.
Um and before we got a chance todo that, I got linked up with a
new distributor um and talked tothem about it.

(18:17):
And they don't typically releasethis kind of material like uh
reality shows or that ordocumentaries, that kind of
thing.
Um, but they were willing totake a chance.
So I had um Echoes of theUnknown and I had Haunted
Objects, we're both sort ofreality-based.
And um they're like, so let's dothis.
Since you have so much materialon haunted objects, let's split

(18:37):
it up into like um a largerepisodic thing.
We'll do a volume one and avolume two.
Um so right now, volume one isout.
Um you can find that on likeAmazon and and wherever
streaming is at.
I'm writing this down.

SPEAKER_06 (18:51):
Okay.

SPEAKER_04 (18:53):
Volume two, I I'm not sure when it's gonna come
out, but it'll be out at somepoint, you know, once once the
first one, you know, makes itsuh makes its way a bit.
And then um Echoes of theUnknown is a little bit more um
uh obscure, really.
Um I love the cryptid stuff.
Yeah, you know, and and it's notjust cryptic.

(19:16):
We tried to cover all of thesort of mysteries.
There, there's uh aliens,there's telekinesis, there's
cryptids, there's all kinds ofdifferent um supernatural sort
of things that um peopleexperience in the world, you
know.
And again, like haunted objects,we've tried to base it as much
in reality and reporting andthings that are true to life

(19:39):
that that we've seen, um, fromgovernment testing to you know,
real accounts of like ananomalies, you know, like the
Phoenix lights, things like thatthat were like very big public
things that people saw.
Um, and I think it's a reallygreat documentary, but for some
reason it it's just not gettingthe traction.

(20:00):
Um, it it's been released, butnot a lot of the VOD platforms
have picked it up, and and someof that I think is because um
the past like three or fouryears, a lot of documentaries on
this has has come out.
There, there's a ton of likeBigfoot documentaries, a ton of
like supernatural sort ofthings.

(20:20):
There's even whole uh VODchannels just dedicated to it,
and I think that might be partof it.
So like an oversaturation Ithink so, yeah, because it's
it's really good, in my opinion.
I think it it looks great.
I think it there's uh tons ofinformational, uh interesting uh
uh stories that are in there.
Um the only other thing I canthink of is like with haunted

(20:44):
objects, we have an actual hoston screen.
And with Echoes of the Unknown,we do not.
Huh.
And and that could also be partof it.
I I'm not sure.
And that's that's sort of thething when um you make these
projects, you have no idea whatthe distributor is capable of.
You have no idea what theaudience's uh appetite is.
You're just sort of like shot inthe dark.

(21:05):
This is what I want to do, thisis what I'm gonna present to the
world, and you hope it worksout.

SPEAKER_08 (21:09):
Yeah, interesting, interesting.
And then, you know, where it wasfunny because you you drew the
the the correlation to echoesand haunted objects as kind of
being reality-based.
Well, and now we can kind ofmove into more of the current
stuff that you're doing.
You're you're the the movie, thefeature, the space rodent, is

(21:30):
your latest project, which whichhas been creating quite the buzz
in the indie film festivalcircuit.
So tell me a little bit aboutThe Space Rodent.

SPEAKER_04 (21:40):
The Space Rodent.
So um the the title of the movieoriginally was called MacD
versus the Space Rodent.
Um and it was supposed to be,you know, very tongue-in-cheek,
like, what the heck does that?
What does that mean?
Um, and it is a uh in the in thefilm, the two lead characters,

(22:01):
Mac and Dean, sort of form a aspace rodent hunting group uh
called MACD, using theirinitials, their names.
Um, but um anyway, thedistributor thought it's too
confusing, so they wanted tochange it to Space Rodent.
But um so it's a it's a crazymovie um that uh takes place on

(22:23):
Halloween about four friends whoare uh young adults who just
haven't made their way in lifeyet.
They're just sort of kind offiguring things out, they're
goofy over the top, they don'tknow how to you know pay the
bills basically at all.
You know, even if they're makingmoney, they don't know how to
pay the bills, they're they'rehaving fun.

(22:43):
And in the middle of Halloweenday, uh a uh a meteor hits you
know the earth and these littlespace rodents come out and start
attacking people, and you havethese two you know third, you
know, young 30-something peoplethat are just like can't, you
know, wake up on time in themorning and now they're up

(23:04):
against these creatures thatthey have to sort of defend
their home against, right?
Um, and it's super over the top,it's got some raunchy comedy,
it's uh it's it's really a buddycomedy.
If you ever seen like those uhold like 80s or early 90s like
buddy cop films, it it's likethat, but injects like a super

(23:24):
yeah, sci-fi sort of likecreature in the mix, and it's
that's kind of what you got,except for we really wanted to
push it to another level.
We wanted to um, you know, wedidn't want the comedy to just
be comedy, you know.
We wanted uh we wanted to bevisual as well.
Yeah, so not like Jim Carreynecessarily slapstick, although

(23:46):
we have some of that, but um, wereally wanted to try to push the
envelope as much as we could init and um sort of create
something in a in a very veryspecific genre for a very
specific audience that isn't foreveryone.
Right, right.
Um, you know, and that's okaybecause it's not meant to be.
It's it's literally meant forcertain people that like uh

(24:09):
independent micro budget films,um sci-fi horror, and comedy
comedy type.

SPEAKER_08 (24:16):
I think I think comedy and horror go so well
together.

SPEAKER_06 (24:21):
Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 (24:22):
I had uh spoken to a horror film maker, I don't know,
three years ago, and we weretalking about he had a comedy
horror film, and I love beingscared, so I love pure horror.
I also love you know horrorcomedy.
My my podcast partner at thetime hates horror, hates to be

(24:45):
afraid, and appreciated thecomedy because it took away from
the scary moments for her.
I was like, huh.
No, I just like to laugh and bescared at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 (24:57):
You know, fear and comedy really do go hand in
hand, they're very similar uhemotions, I think, uh laughter
and fear.
Um and so the uh Space Runnerwas my first comedy that I've
ever done.
So it was really challenging forme to sort of find a balance.
And I'm still not 100% sure thatI did because it's really hasn't

(25:19):
really been released to theworld yet.
Um, you know, it's in pre-orderright now, but um, you know, it
it was really challenging justto find the right balance of the
tone and make sure that thecomedy is hitting and the you
know, hopefully the scary partsare hitting.
And I think the creaturesthemselves do a lot of the heavy
lifting for the the the scarypart.

(25:40):
I I don't think it's scarypersonally, but um, you know,
I've had I've had people like atlike the premieres and things
like that be like, wow, that wasa lot scarier than I thought it
was.
And I'm just like, really?
You know, so it's it's good tohear those kinds of things
because um sometimes theaudience's perception and what
they're experiencing iscompletely different um from

(26:01):
yours, especially making thething, because obviously when
you're making it, you knoweverything that's gonna be in
the movie, and you'reexperiencing it sort of in real
time, and it's not in that sortof polished not that the film's
polished, but in that sort oflike uh audience perspective
state, right?
With the sound effects, themusic, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_08 (26:20):
Yeah.
I I watched I watched thetrailer online, and I gotta say,
the trailer does not look likethis is a micro-budget film
whatsoever.
And the buddy, the the the buddypart of the story absolutely
comes through.
Like the the the two characters,like I think I went to school

(26:42):
with them.

SPEAKER_06 (26:44):
Exactly what we wanted.

SPEAKER_04 (26:45):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's great.
I love that.
I love to do that.

SPEAKER_08 (26:48):
Yeah, so I'm I'm excited for whenever this does
get released um to the world tobe able to see it.
Um yeah, it looked fantastic.
What you know, what funnystories happened on the set,
like a mishap or I meansomething that was comedic that
maybe wasn't supposed to becomedic.

SPEAKER_04 (27:11):
Oh man, there there's so many things on that
movie.
Uh, you know, my uh because Ihadn't this is my first comedy
and first comedy horror.
Um, I really um I was very loosewith the directing, and I allow
the actors to sort of go off ontangents of ad-libit lines,
right?

(27:31):
So we would we would always getwhat's in the script, but then
there'd be a point where it'slike, okay, if you guys have
something, anything more thatyou want to add to it, just
play, just have some fun.
And sometimes the camera wouldjust be rolling for like 10
minutes.
Like it could be a scene wherethere's like one or two lines,
right?
But we just let the camera roll.
And I mean, they could just uhro Rob Carrera, who wrote the

(27:53):
script um and starred as Mac inthe movie, and then there was uh
David Menard who plays Dean inthe movie.
Those two together, theirchemistry is just it's amazing.
They could be superstars ifsomebody could discover them.
I mean, they're just they'rereally just amazing together.
Um, and they could just go offon Ad Libbe.
And improv for forever.

(28:15):
There's so much in the moviethat wasn't in the script that's
just from them bouncing off eachother.
Um that that's one of the mainuh I think it it's maybe not uh
funny for the audience to likehear that sort of antidote, but
for me it's like that's mygreatest memory of the project,
is because we were all bustingup laughing at these two guys,

(28:36):
just just going constantly.
And it's just you'd forget tocall cut and forget to turn off
the camera, and they're justgoing forever.
Oh, that's right.
And then of course, there's afew times where they're just
like, okay, I'm out of steam,cut, cut, cut this, we're done,
you know.
Um, you know, where they wouldhave to cut themselves because
I'm just over here laughing andenjoying what they're doing.
Um, but I think like the I thinkone of the bigger challenges

(28:58):
that um is the space dronesthemselves, like it's obviously
a puppet, right, in the movie.
There they can be frighteninglooking.
Um, but I did um, you know, partof the design of it is we wired
up these uh uh red lights, youknow, for the eyes.
So the electronics keepbreaking.
And so it's like every time yougo into like, you know, do a

(29:18):
scene, like the the lights arelike flickering and you know
shutting off.
And so it's like it's superchallenging.
Then you gotta take a break andfigure out the electronics and
fix it and then get back inthere and do that sort of stuff.
Um and that could be, you know,kind of a headache, but it's
also it's it's kind of funny inthe middle of the scene because
you see the actor sort ofreacting to like something
that's not supposed to behappening, you know.

SPEAKER_08 (29:40):
My god, the rodent's having a stroke.

SPEAKER_04 (29:42):
Yeah, exactly.
And that's what it kind of feelslike, you know.
And like half the time it's likethe actors, you know, acting
against themselves becausethey're putting their hand up in
the puppet, you know, and kindof holding it as it's attacked,
they're attacking themselves.

SPEAKER_06 (29:55):
You know.

SPEAKER_04 (29:55):
Uh so it's hilarious.
It's hilarious to watch on onset, and it's like, I don't
think they Audience doesn't knowthat when they're watching the
movie.
Right.

SPEAKER_08 (30:03):
Right.
Yeah, they didn't see the comedybehind the comedy.

SPEAKER_06 (30:07):
Right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (30:09):
So again, it it was a micro budget film.
What was the budget?
So people after they see themovie and they hear the budget,
they're usually like, Yeah,because uh from the trailer
alone, I'm like, it doesn't lookcheesy, it doesn't look, you
know, like it was duct tapetogether.

SPEAKER_04 (30:31):
Which is funny because we use a lot of duct
tape in the movie.
Um the so the budget for themovie was 2,000.
Oh my god.
That's the reaction I get fromeverybody.
Wow.
So it's literally what we paidfor.
Like if you if you didn't haveany resources, like I've been
doing this for 24, 25 years now.

(30:52):
If you didn't have resources andkind of know people, it would be
a little harder, right?
To bring that together.
Uh, what we spent all of themoney on was food and props, um,
a little bit on wardrobe, butthat's that's what we spent the
cash on, right?

SPEAKER_08 (31:08):
And so the actors worked for free.

SPEAKER_04 (31:11):
The actors worked for free, they drove to set for
free, you know.
Everybody that was on the movieworked absolutely for free.
So if you don't have thoseresources, uh you haven't
cultivated those sort ofrelationships, um, which uh, you
know, maybe I should take thatback because there were a lot of
people on this particular moviejust met on this movie.
Um, and we're gonna go on to doother stuff and and have become

(31:33):
friends.
But um uh if you didn't if youdon't have that sort of like um
um film sort of community whereyou're at, it'll be much harder
to do this, but it shouldn'tstop.

SPEAKER_08 (31:46):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (31:46):
Um, I just think it might take a little extra time
or a little more effort, um andit might be a slower process.
Um, we could have made thismovie for$20,000 and it probably
would have looked the same.
Um, you know, it probablywouldn't have been any different
because um paying, and I'm notagainst paying people to take
this right away.

(32:06):
Everybody should get paid fortheir work.
Um, but just paying somebodydoesn't make the product any
better better.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, their heart has to be init.
They have to like want toachieve the same goal that you
want.
Um, and that's sort of been myexperience with the the pay
thing.
It's like everybody deserves apaycheck, and I'm not asking
people to work for free if theydon't want to.

(32:29):
Like they have to like, I wantto do this, I want to be a part
of this sort of thing.
Um, and and we all have to sortof like agree like this is our
end goal, this is what we wantto do.
Um, and that's very importantfor doing a movie like this.
Um, and uh I've had films thatI've shot from much, much
bigger, you know,$200,000budgets where you have um crew

(32:50):
that you've hired and cast, andthey they don't they don't have
the same sort of passion for itbecause they're just there for a
paycheck.
Um, and that's that's muchharder of a movie to make um
mentally, right?
Um if you don't have your teamcaring as much as you care
about.
When we made the space road, andit's like everybody cared,

(33:10):
nobody's making money, I'm notmaking money, they're not making
money, but we're like looking atthis thing like this is really
cool, this is fun, this can gosomewhere, we just need to put
the effort in.
And and that is so much morecomfortable and so much more of
a better environment than thanbeing on a you know an

(33:31):
astronomically larger film,which I mean in the terms of
Hollywood,$200,000 is nothing,but um for us that's that's
huge, right?
Um and working on a film likethat where people just don't
care, and you're you care, soyou're working twice as hard to
try to accomplish somethingbecause other people are just
sort of like, yeah, just herefor a check kind of thing.

(33:52):
Yeah, uh that makes it verydifficult, you know.

SPEAKER_08 (33:54):
And the difference between the folks, you know, on
the the$2,000 budget film versusthe$200,000 budget film is is is
the primary motivation to getthe experience, to get the
credit, you know, for theirresume, to again, hopefully have
their work seen, their actingwork seen.

SPEAKER_04 (34:17):
Sometimes it can be.
Um, you know, I I thinkeverybody's sort of motivation
is a little bit different.
Um, there's some people thatjust like for me, for instance,
I work on a lot of films forfree.
Like I do it just because I justlove making movies.
It is not about the money forme, it's not about the the glory
or the status or any of thatkind of stuff because you're not

(34:39):
really gonna get that makingthese micro budget films like
that.
But like uh tomorrow I'm goingto shoot uh an overnight scene
for somebody that asked me tojoin them.
And um, I'm just happy to bethere because I love doing it.
And I think that there's uh somepeople that are that way, they
just love making films.
I think there are some peoplethat are doing it because they
are working their way up in thein the industry, um, you know,

(35:02):
in our perspective, that arelike happy to be there to build
a resume or get the experienceor see how something bigger is
done that they haven't been apart of yet.
Um, you know, because a lot ofpeople they've maybe only
worked, you know, two or threedays on a set, like making a
short or something like that.
And doing a feature, although issimilar in like small chunks as

(35:25):
like a short film, it's a verydifferent sort of long haul kind
of thing.
Like you got to have thestamina, you gotta have there's
so many pieces that have to fittogether, people's schedules and
whatnot.
So they they have to bepassionate about what they're
doing, or you know, it's gonnafall apart for them.

SPEAKER_08 (35:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So, for folks, you know, I thereare people in my life, and I'm
I'm I'm sure there's people Idon't even know that uh are are
struggling with this, thatthey've written a great script
or they've collaborated withsomeone to come up with this
great story idea, and they'rethey're starting to sketch it

(36:04):
out.
And you know, one thing that'sgonna prevent them from moving
forward is the absence ofbudget.
What advice do you have forfolks who are you know at that
point?

SPEAKER_04 (36:18):
So this is a huge it doesn't sound like it, but it's
a huge question because um itdepends on the project for for
starters, right?
Most writers, and and I thinkthis is a good thing, it's not a
negative, but most writers writewhat comes to mind, right?
Um, this is this is the storythat I want to tell.

(36:38):
If you're gonna make a microbudget movie, you have to look
at what resources do I have andcan I build a story around.
It's a reverse sort of likeprocess, right?
So if you're gonna makesomething tiny, that's the
approach you're gonna have tomake.
If you're gonna just write fromthe mind and tell a great story
that you want to tell, um, andand money is your obstacle, you

(37:01):
have to find it somehow.
Um, or you have to find peoplethat are just as passionate in
that story as you are.
The only way to do that um isnetworking, uh, submitting your
script to script competitions,getting out there, yeah, letting
the world see what you've done,right?
Um, there's so many scriptcompetitions, there's so many

(37:22):
great ones, be careful becausethere's a lot of scams too.
Um, but and then people that arelooking, there's filmmakers out
there who are not writers andthey're looking for products.
So uh again, get on those uhmessage boards, get on you know,
whether it's Facebook orInstagram or whatever, whatever
social media is.
Um, if if you're in an area thathas film groups or networking
groups for filmmakers, go tothose.

(37:44):
Get out of your house and beseen.
Um, because once you have thisthing that you're passionate
about, nobody else is gonna bepassionate about it if you can't
present it to them and show themand tell them why.

SPEAKER_06 (37:55):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (37:55):
Why is this amazing?
Why should you join this?
Right.
Um, and that's I think I thinkinherently the biggest challenge
for writers, and I'm I'm supersympathetic to it.
Um, particularly, if it's awriter that wants to be a
director, well then there's acertain amount of the craft of
directing that you need to know.
And if you are a director, Iurge you to get as many books as

(38:17):
you can.
Don't go to film school.
There's so many uh resources atour disposal, whether it's
YouTube or um just people thathave become filmmakers that are
doing um uh training and andclasses and things like that,
it's like I've spent so muchmoney just doing like I know
what I'm doing, but I never tryto stop learning.

(38:40):
Right, you know, so even if Ilike pay a hundred dollars for a
filmmaking course that's aboutmicro-budget filmmaking or or
Hollywood level filmmaking, if Itake one little minute piece of
information that resonates withme, that hundred dollars is well
spent to me.
You know, that that's never stopeducating yourself when it comes

(39:02):
to film.
So if you're a writer and youalso want to get this thing
made, learn every aspect of thefilmmaking process, and you're
gonna be able to wear a lot ofhats and get your project made
because you're educated now.
You know what you're kind ofdoing, even if you haven't done
it before.
Um, you have you have sort of uhan idea of the process.

(39:23):
Relying on somebody else to doit could put that script in a
you know development hell.
It might never get made, itmight get made, who knows?
You know, you're relying onsomebody else.
Um, so I think the biggest youknow advice is also advice that
I hate.
I hate hearing uh people of acertain stature, like in
Hollywood, saying, just get outthere and make your movie.
It's like right, but how?

(39:45):
Right?
Like, but I know, but how you'reright, it's it's terrible
advice.
Um, so there's a lot that goesalong with that educating
yourself, networking withpeople, working on other films.
If you see somebody out therethat needs help that's looking
for free work, get on, yeah.
Learn learn as much as you canby being on set, learn every
whether it's lighting, thecamera, sound, um, learn how to

(40:07):
do it all so that way when it'stime for you to make your movie,
you have all of that knowledgealready in place.
You know, you you have a goodworking knowledge of how it
goes.

SPEAKER_08 (40:15):
Where it, I mean, I'm sure there's there's
millions of places, but arethere any can you recommend any
safe places for folks who arelooking for that kind of
exposure and experience to go toto see what's going on in their
area?

SPEAKER_04 (40:33):
Yeah, so um it kind of depends on where you're at,
right?
Logistically.
If you're near a metropolitancity, like I'm near San
Francisco here, or if you'renear Chicago, or you're near New
York, or there's there's boundto be tons of resources, right?
If you're in a smaller area likein the Midwest or something like

(40:54):
that, it might be a little bitharder, but I guarantee you
they're there.
There are people that uh thriveoff of art everywhere, right?
You just gotta find them.
And now, yeah, how do you findthem?
Well, right now we're in thegolden age of like uh social
media, right?
So search.
Google is your friend, you know,search your area filmmaking
groups, uh, network meetup forfilm, you know, whatever key

(41:18):
terms you can think of tosearch.

SPEAKER_08 (41:20):
Or even start your own and see who comes.

SPEAKER_04 (41:23):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And there's a lot of people thatdo that, but then there's other
people that just like don't eventhink about that.
They're just like, well, I justwant to find something.
But you know, uh, that's agreat, great option for people
to do.
Uh and they will come.
It might take a while, but theywill come, you know.

SPEAKER_08 (41:39):
Good, good advice.
Good advice.
Now, you had mentioned earlieryou had um done your own
distribution company,Resurrection Films.
You have also had experiencewith running film festivals.
What is that like?
And what did you what what wereyou able to squeeze from that
experience?

SPEAKER_04 (42:01):
So um probably about 15 years ago, um, film festival
circuit was a little bitdifferent.
You had you had like the top 10film festivals, and then you had
smaller ones, which are usuallyran by like a city or something
like that, they would have, oror somebody of some kind of

(42:22):
stature that's had distributionexperience or whatever it might
be.
But as it became more accessibleto sort of start your own thing,
um, and the websites like uhAmazon um used to run a company
called Without a Box, which wasthe biggest film festival sort
of submission website.

(42:42):
Um it's been defunct, they gotrid of it, but um, now there's
film freeway, which is thebiggest one.
So um there inherently justbecame a lot of scams, a lot of
film festival scams.
And so you could submit to allthese like never heard of film
festivals and get nothing fromit.

(43:03):
They get your submission fee andyou never hear from them.
Same thing as like kind ofdistributors, right?
Uh, if there's a place to havemoney made, there's gonna be
scams, right?
Um, so I started seeing that andexperiencing I was like, well, I
mean, why don't I just start myown and not be a scam?

SPEAKER_07 (43:20):
Right.

SPEAKER_04 (43:20):
Like, how hard can it be to not scam people?
Start your own.
There you go.
Yeah, like be a good person,it's not really that hard.
Um, and that was just sort of mymy first initial thought of it.
And the other thing was is thatwhen I first started my first
film festival, there was thistaboo amongst film festivals
about um if it's not shot onfilm, we don't want it.

(43:44):
If it's on digital, we don'twant it.
This is back in the days whendigital really started kind of
being viable, right?
I think 28 days later was thefirst like major picture that
was shot on like a Canon XL1,which was like a consumer level
video can even the new one he'sshooting on an iPhone.
Um, but um so there was thistaboo amongst film festivals,

(44:07):
like you know, it needs to beshot in a film, it needs to be
shot within the last year.
And if you're shooting on film,you're gonna have like a
substantial budget becausefilm's expensive.
So the first one that I startedwas geared towards digital
filmmakers.
Quality wasn't really a problem.
It's just like if you've made amovie, send it to us.
We want to see it and we want toput it up on the big screen so

(44:27):
we can celebrate you.
Like, this is this is effort, itdoesn't matter whether it's shot
in film or shot on digital.
Somebody put effort into makingthis and telling the story, and
that was our goal, and that'sreally what we wanted to do.
Um, the problem with it wasduring that time is like to have
an uh a venue for something likethat cost a good amount of
money.
Um, and so we were relying onsubmissions, and you know, when

(44:50):
you're just starting out, youmight have 30 to 60 submissions,
but that's not enough to pay fora venue.
So we did that for a coupleyears, like losing money, and it
needed to hit a certain pointwhere this was substantial, you
know, it could sustain itself.
And we never really got therewith that.
Um, because again, this is sortof like earlier internet social

(45:10):
media was sort of early.
There wasn't like noweverything's advertising to
social media, it's a completelydifferent world.
Um, it was harder to do that ina cost-effective way.
Um and then we sort of reignitedthat again, but became a little
more focused um about five yearsago, um, and started uh one that
was geared towards like horror,sci-fi, noir, the sort of like

(45:33):
genre films.
So um, but although a lotchanged, venues have not gotten
cheaper.
So if anything, they've gottenfar more expensive.
So new danger.
Same problem.
Yeah, yeah.
It's it's there's some there'scertain things that got easier
to do, but then the one very,very important thing where

(45:58):
you're gonna screen it at is thehugest challenge because it's
just it's like it's almost likewe don't want to you know have
you come and have an event here.
We'd rather let the theater sitempty on that day, you know, and
it it's that's really hard forme to to hear as a as an artist,

(46:19):
you know, because it's like, butwhy?
Why can't you just donate likeand I get it?
It's a it's not it's not even anecessarily a business, uh, you
know, nonprofits, most of theselike older theaters that we
would want to screen are likenonprofits, right?
We're not looking to screen atlike AMC or something like that.
You could run an AMC theater for$500, it's not a big deal.
But that's sort of like a falsesense of community, I think.

(46:42):
It's like your film isn'tsupposed to be in an AMC, right?
Right.
Let's find something that's alittle more um, you know, like
an art house, yeah.
An arthouse classic kind of likesetting, like maybe 50, 100
chairs, that kind of thing.
Um, you know, if if it'savailable to you.
I mean, honestly, it's likescreen it wherever you can.

(47:03):
I don't care if it's a bar, youknow.
Um if they've got a screen andthey're willing to let you do
it, you know.
But for us, that's what we werekind of going for, was like more
of an arthousey kind of likelike thing.
So it's it's really rewarding tomeet a lot of filmmakers and to
see their work and sort of like,what is everybody else doing in
the world?

SPEAKER_07 (47:22):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (47:22):
I think that's an important thing for filmmakers
to not, you know, stay in yourown little bubble, right?
Um, you know, and get tunnelvision kind of thing.
It's nice to see what otherpeople are doing.
Um, and that was I think mygreatest takeaway of of doing a
film festival is is that portionof it.
Um and uh just yeah, I mean,just kind of it's almost like

(47:45):
making a movie, you know.
You you're you're you'rebringing something to an
audience and you're kind oftelling your own story in a way,
even though it's not your film.
You get to show people a bunchof other films and you hope they
enjoy it.

SPEAKER_07 (47:57):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (47:58):
How how has your experience with with being a
distribution company as well asyour experience with film
festivals, has it influencedyour filmmaking in any way?

SPEAKER_04 (48:12):
Uh it has actually, unfortunately, and I think
that's an unfortunate thing, butalso a necessary evil.
Um, and I I do try to beconscious of that.
I try to do things like rightnow, I'm I'm playing in this
kind of like world of likepushing envelopes in terms of
like um gross out scenes orthings like things that like I

(48:34):
think that people are gonna belike, I'll remember that scene
for the rest of my life, kind ofthing.
Yeah, uh, even if the movie wasterrible, I'll remember that
scene and I'll tell people aboutit.
Like, I'm kind of after that atthe moment, because I'm I'm not
trying to compete withmillion-dollar films, I'm not
trying to compete with even ahundred thousand dollar film,
right?

(48:55):
It it's it's so hard to do that.
So you have to sort of like umunderstand who your audience is
gonna be and what you want to dowith the film ultimately.
And and so for me, it's likeseeing like I we just got back
from uh Horror Hound, which is apretty big convenient uh horror
convention.
Um, they've got a magazine,they've been doing this for

(49:16):
years, right?
So Space Rodin was in there, wewere up for like 10 or 11
awards, and we we won uh bestspecial effects and uh audience
choice for coolest creature,awesome, which is awesome.
I didn't expect to win anythingat all, or even be in that film
festival.
So when I get there and I'mlooking at the quality of the

(49:36):
films that we're competingagainst, it's like yeah, wow,
yeah.
These look they look so good,but they're not fun.
Yeah, so it's like they lookfantastic, and this guy spent
$200,000 on this movie and shoton film, and it's just like wow,
I could have made 20 films forthat, 30 films for that.

(49:59):
You know what I mean?
And this isn't even fun, itlooks fantastic, but I'll never
watch this again, right?
Right, and and I think thatthat's um a little bit of ego, I
think, for a filmmaker to tolike really they're they're
trying so hard to make a seriousfilm, like and I mean serious,
like be an auteur or likesomebody that's in hall, you

(50:22):
know what I mean?
They're they're just trying toohard.
Yeah, um, and I'm I I'm sort ofpast that, you know.

SPEAKER_08 (50:29):
Yeah, kind of like assuming the role without having
done the work to be there.

SPEAKER_04 (50:34):
Exactly, yeah.
And it again, like the the onefilm that took the that swept
the festival, congratulations tothem.
I mean, it looks fantastic, butI think it's his first film, and
he just happened to have thebudget, you know, to shoot on
film, have a fantastic DP.
But is he a great director?
Is like did he make a moviethat's like lasting and it's
gonna be enduring and people aregonna watch for uh you know 20

(50:57):
years from now?
No, I don't think so.
And and that was a lot of money,you know.
Yeah, another guy there made ashort film that's like 20
minutes and spent$140,000 on it.
Wow.
And I'm just like, this takesplace in a room.
A room, like where did$140,000go?
Like, I don't know, yeah, youknow, and it's like nothing

(51:19):
against them, it's not like I'mI'm judging them, it's just in
the same way where your reactionto me was$2,000.
I'm like$140,000.
It's the same reaction.
Like, where did it go?
And you're like, where did itgo?
How did you do that?
Yeah, it's the same kind ofreaction.
Like, I look at that and I'mjust like, yeah, how did you do
that?
How did you spend that kind ofmoney?

(51:40):
You know, that's a house.

SPEAKER_07 (51:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 (51:43):
I'm like, I don't think I could let myself do
that.
Like, I really don't.

SPEAKER_08 (51:49):
Have you had any wow moments?
Somebody reach out to you to uhsay they loved, you know, one of
your one of your pieces of work,or somebody you got to work
with, or just had a moment thatyou never expected you you would
have had in doing this.

SPEAKER_04 (52:08):
Gosh, uh quite a few, um, you know, kind of
thinking about that sort ofthing.
And it's very, it's kind ofhumbling, honestly.
Like I don't, I don't look atmyself as like being an amazing
script writer.
Like I think the first, well,actually, even going back before
that, the first wow moment was afriend of mine who worked for
the county out here.
They wanted to put together a uhlike a um PSA kind of thing,

(52:32):
public service announcement kindof video about children watching
TV and parents trying to uh givethem their activities to do.
And so I didn't really thinkmuch of it.
It was just like a project todo, and we did it, and we ended
up winning a tele award.
Actually, I I don't know if thisis a video, but um there's a you
know, I still have it back here.

(52:52):
We won a tele award, which ispretty big for TV, right?
Um, and and that was just likewow, we did something really
like that matters, you know, andthey still use that material
today, and that was 15, 20 yearsago, and they still use it
today.
So that's amazing to me.
Oh wow.
Um yeah, but it really is, andthen you know, my one of one of

(53:17):
my first scripts that I wrote iscalled um Dreamland, and I put a
lot of effort into it, and um, Ididn't really, you know, being a
it wasn't my first script, itwas my first like real effort, I
guess you could say, where Itried to seriously like be a
writer and like write this thisscript and wanted it to do

(53:37):
something, right?
Um, so there's a script comic uhcompetition called the Nichelle
Um Script Awards or somethinglike that.
It's from it's uh from Nichellethe um I can't think of her
first name, but uh she was theactress on Star Trek.
Um and she started a competitionand she was very yeah, I can't

(53:57):
remember her last name.
Yeah, um, but um anyway, it's avery prestigious um script
competition, and we ended upplacing as a um a semi-finalist,
and to me that was just likeyeah, that was huge, you know,
that was amazing.
I I it was it's a bigger moviewhere it like needs a budget and
all that kind of stuff, but um,it was never intended to you

(54:22):
know go that far or even getmade, or you know, necessarily,
it was just something that wasreally important to me about and
and the whole idea is this sortof fantastical story of these
what happens to missingchildren, right?
And and developed a story wherethey go to this place called
Dreamland, and um, you know, andit it's this whole sort of
mythology, but um, yeah, so thatwas pretty amazing to to to

(54:47):
place in that at all, much less,you know, that high up.
Yeah, uh and then I I have hadthe opportunity to work with
some um amazing people.
Like I'm I'm such a fanboy, ispart of my problem.

SPEAKER_08 (54:59):
I it's like I I would definitely be fan garling.

SPEAKER_04 (55:03):
I mean, that's just sort of like I I I can't I can't
make myself not enjoy stuff,right?
So when I get to meet somebodythat's like an idol of mine,
even if nobody else gives a shitwho they are.
Sorry, I don't know if I'msupposed to go even if nobody
cares like who they are, it'slike I know who they are.
I grew up watching this person,and they're they're so important

(55:24):
to me in a certain aspect of mylife.
It's like so so there's athere's several people that I've
I've had the chance to meet, andI don't know if you know who
they are or not, but uh LanceHendrickson um is one of my
favorite people in the world.
He's a fantastic actor.
He's best known as playingBishop in Aliens.
Oh uh Okay Camera's Aliens.

(55:47):
Um and uh he he did a TV seriesum that was sort of it wasn't
really a spin-off, but it wasChris Carter's second TV series
after the X-Files.
It was called Millennium, and sohe was in that show, and and
because I was a fan of thatshow, I met some other people
after the the show had wascanceled, and we ended up doing

(56:08):
a documentary on the on the TVshow.
Um, and that's what ourdocumentary after the millennium
is about.
And I got to become good friendswith Lance Hendrickson.
Um, and uh it's just there'sthat starstruck sort of aspect
from yeah, you know, I'm such afan of like his work and always
have been.
The only reason I ever watchedMillennium because a friend was

(56:28):
like, hey, the actor you like isin this show.
And I'm like, I'm like, no, hedoesn't do TV, you know.
And I'm like, whoa, what?
And this is before it waspopular for movie actors to be
in TV shows.
Now it's like you see it quite abit.
Right.
Uh but he was always a movieactor, even if it was like low
budget or high budget, whatever.
He's been in, he's been in some,he's worked with all of the

(56:49):
greats, you know, Sidney Lume, Imean, uh Spielberg, like he's
he's worked with all the greatdirectors, you know.
Um, and uh he's in some of myabsolute favorite films.
Um and so just to meet him,become friends with him, uh
that's so cool.
Yeah, it really is, you know.
Um it's amazing.
And I've I've I've worked withuh you know Eric Roberts, um,

(57:13):
who's such a fantastic, he's gota bad rap, you know, but he's so
it is a picture of him on thewebsite.
Oh, I don't know.
Maybe yeah.
I mean I've definitely I'veworked with him on a couple
things.

SPEAKER_08 (57:23):
Yeah, I said that really looks like Eric Eric
Roberts, but I couldn't tellbecause he had sunglasses on.

SPEAKER_04 (57:29):
Yeah, yeah.
Uh yeah, he's he's such a funny,uh, down-to-earth guy, you know.
Um, I and and the thing aboutEric is he is so talented when
he wants to be.
You know, that's the thing withthem.
If he if he doesn't care aboutit, he's gonna kind of whatever,
it's the paycheck, whatever.
But when he wants to act, he ishe is so good.

(57:54):
Um, and I don't think a lot ofpeople are gonna see that today.
Right.
Um, but he's he's really he'sreally amazing.
He's like a real deal kind oflike actor.
Um Lance is the type of personwhere he's he's got a gravitas,
he can just walk into a role andand he just elevates the
project, right?
Um just being him.

(58:15):
Eric is a guy that like if heputs his effort into it and
figures out what he's doing,he's like you're glued to like
like just art.
Yeah, you know, yeah, it's it'sa different thing.
Um, and they're both amazing,but yeah, those are I think
those are the two that reallywere just sort of like this is

(58:36):
cool, yeah.
Yeah, this is cool.

SPEAKER_08 (58:38):
Oh, it sounds it.
It sounds it.
Where do you see your filmmakingcareer going from here?
We uh what what stories I knowyou've got you've got Space
Rodent getting ready forrelease, you've got the remake
of the millennium before themillennium.

SPEAKER_04 (58:58):
Uh after after the millennium, it's a re-release.
It was in distributionpreviously, but we have a new
distributor now, and it's gonnabe a um much bigger version of
it.
It's gonna, it's got almost anhour of additional footage in
it.
So I think I think people thathave already purchased the
movie, you're gonna want thisversion, honestly.

SPEAKER_08 (59:15):
Awesome.
And then um where do you what'snext for you?
What kind of stories are youexcited to tell?

SPEAKER_04 (59:22):
Yeah.
You know, um, it used to be uh Iused to like have that thing.
I think everybody does as afilmmaker, like I gotta get to
Hollywood, I gotta make my name,you know, kind of thing.
And I never I never reallywanted that.
Like I'm I'm huge fans of likepeople like Lloyd Kaufman with
trauma.
Um and uh you know James Gunncame from trauma.

(59:44):
Uh they just did a remake of uhToxic Avenger.
Like it's like, really?
How does that how does thathappen?
Um, but I mean I'm fans of that,I'm full I'm fans of uh Charles
Band with Full MoonEntertainment.
Like I I love those sort of likeuh 80s, 90s like Like straight
to video horror sort of thingsand I'm happy playing there.
I really am.

(01:00:04):
Like I have no desire of liketrying to make it in Hollywood,
so to speak.
It's just not, it's just notsomething that I um ever really
necessarily wanted for me.
Like if it happens, cool, likewe'll navigate that, but but
it's not like I'm doingeverything that I can to make it
in Hollywood, you know.

(01:00:25):
Right.

SPEAKER_08 (01:00:25):
Um final question.
If you could cast any creature,real, mythical, or completely
made up in your next horrorfilm, what would it be and why?

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:41):
So um I'll just talk about Lance Henderson again.
This is one of one of myfavorite films, is a film called
Pumpkin Head.

SPEAKER_07 (01:00:48):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 (01:00:49):
I don't know if I've seen it, but I love it.
Years ago.
I love Pumpkin Head.
Yeah.
It it you know, it might feel alittle dated today because it's
made in the 80s and has a lot of80s aesthetics, but this is Stan
Winston's first directorialfilm.
I think his only film that hedirected.
And he designed the creature ofPumpkin Head, and I think
Pumpkin Head is the coolestcreature I've ever seen.

(01:01:10):
Uh I just I love the design.
I think it's a beautiful pieceof work.
Um, if I could if I could remakePumpkin Head or do something
with that creature, I would loveto.
That would be my heart's desire.
Um, of course, there's a lot ofother little ones too, like a
critters movie or a trimmer'smovie or something like that.

(01:01:31):
Because I love creaturefeatures, but Pumpkin Head is my
uh number one.
I just I think it's just abeautiful, haunting story, and
uh what a great creature it is.

SPEAKER_08 (01:01:42):
So cool, so cool.
Jason, what can I help promotefor you?
If anybody wants to check outyour work, um, where can I send
them?

SPEAKER_04 (01:01:53):
So I think the easiest place is
resurrectionfilms.net um ordeadenfilms.org.
Those are the two main websites.
Um, Dead End Films is for moreof our genre stuff, and then uh
Resurrection Films is kind ofour uh, I don't know, parent
company, you could say.
Um, usually that's the biggerbudgeted things, and Dead End

(01:02:15):
Films is plays in the uh themicro-budget um films.
Perfect.
But uh Space Rodent right now isin pre-order.
That's the one we're reallytrying to push.
And after the millennium, there-release of our documentary.
Um, if you were a fan of theX-Files, if you're a fan of
Lance Hendrickson, Chris Carter,uh Frank Spotnitz, you know, um,
you know, all of these guys havegone on to do uh amazing

(01:02:38):
television, the people likeHomeland or um, I mean, some Man
in the High Castle.
There's so many great shows thatum these people have produced,
and and we got to sit down andtalk with them about Millennium
that came out in 1996 and stillhas a massive fan base for
people that wish the show wouldcome back.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 (01:02:57):
Great.
Great.
Well, Jason, I will make surethose links are in the show
notes.
Um, so anybody that's interestedcan can check you out.
And um, I want to thank you forall your time today.
This has been great.
I love I love your passion.
I love talking to people whoreally enjoy what they do and

(01:03:18):
have become lifelong longlearners of whatever craft it
is.
It to me, it doesn't matter.
If somebody's passionate aboutit and somebody continues to
learn and they want to sharefreely about it and entertain my
questions, I'm all in.
So thank you so much for yourtime.

SPEAKER_04 (01:03:35):
Oh, you're so welcome.
Thank you for having me.
It's been a such a funconversation.
Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_08 (01:03:40):
Thank you.
Such a fun conversation withJason.
He is so knowledgeable about theindustry.
He really has become a studentof the industry, albeit a lot of
it was trial by error.
Um, but he really has dedicatedhimself to understanding the

(01:04:02):
business side of something he isso passionate about on the
creative side.
So um less than anybody that isis getting involved with maybe a
creative endeavor, but islooking to monetize in some way
that there's always a businessside.
And you will serve your bestinterest by becoming a student

(01:04:24):
of that business side andlearning the ins and outs.
So again, loved having aconversation with him.
Um, jump down to the show notesfor links to his website so you
can take a look at his work umand get a heads up on when his
next big project is beingreleased.
Um, Space Rodent, I believe hesaid it was in pre-production or

(01:04:47):
not pre-production, pre-order.
And you're able to pre-orderthrough his website.
So check that out.
And um until not next week, butthe week after, um, be good,
behave, and uh I will see youall in two weeks.
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