The Art of Independent Horror: Kyle Remminga and Brandon Watts

What happens when you trade Hollywood's corporate machine for the creative freedom of the Midwest? Filmmaker Kyle Remminga reveals his journey from editing yoga DVDs and network commercials to creating the award-winning indie horror anthology "Killanois" in Western Illinois.

Walking through a park during the pandemic, Kyle witnessed a massive production spending a fortune to film two people sitting on a bench. That moment crystallized his frustration with the industry: "I could film six features on that." So he packed up his Hollywood knowledge, returned to his Midwestern roots, and assembled a team of passionate local collaborators.

"Killanois" connects four distinct horror stories through a psychopathic host character (brilliantly portrayed by Brandon Watts) who has kidnapped viewers, threatening them with a brick unless they listen to his twisted tales. The anthology format—inspired by classics like John Carpenter's "Body Bags"—allowed Kyle to finally realize short film concepts he'd been developing for over a decade.

The local community in Macomb embraced the project enthusiastically, with municipal leaders, business owners, and talented locals contributing to make the film possible. This collaborative spirit resulted in "Killanois" winning "Best First Time Filmmakers" at the Hot Springs International Horror Film Festival.

Catch a screening of "Killanois" in Macomb or Galesburg this April, and visit cubeofjustice.com to support their Kickstarter campaign for "Curebreed"—their ambitious next project aimed at creating professional film jobs in Western Illinois and establishing the region as a hub for independent filmmaking.

Check out Dial The Wild on Facebook and Instagram
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yay networking.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
That's what we're here for.
That's what this is all about.
Boom.
Welcome to another episode ofDial the Wild.
And here we are, back inreserve Artisan Nails, thanks to
old buddy Brandon here, brandonWatts, who was a performer in
this film.
And we have what.
Do you consider your stepproducer?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
uh producer, director , writer, editor, uh
professional struggler whateverof the hit movie killinois.
Killinois, not kill noise weshould have killed somebody in
the movie that said who saidillinois?

Speaker 3 (01:26):
yeah, that'd have been the sequel you don't
pronounce it and slam him in thehead with a brick.
God damn all righty.
So how do we get in the movieslike how did this, how did this
thing get started?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
oh, what's the?

Speaker 3 (01:41):
backstory, oh uh get started.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Oh, what's the backstory?
Oh, uh uh.
Bad decision making.
Um uh.
Initially I moved to la when Iwas 21 22 went to film school.
Um was there for a while.
My first job was editing yogainstructional dvds and I did not
fit in with that crowd at allum, to see a lot of weird freaks
, but I I definitely uh learnedfrom that a little bit.
And then, um the uh, I met mywife uh girlfriend at the time

(02:16):
and she's japanese and we endedup moving over to japan after uh
uh in 2008, when the wholeeconomy collapsed and everything
.
So we moved over to japan for awhile.
We came back.
Then we lived back in la againfor another I don't know 11
years, whatnot and then startedworking as a vendor editor doing

(02:39):
commercials for differentclients discovery channel,
disney channel, tbs, tnt, justpretty much anybody and then
ended up in my current day job.
I edit commercials for movies,okay, but um, work with that
whole network and like the wholea and e umbrella.

(03:00):
But kilinoy is something thatis completely independent of
that.
It's um, it's something thatI've been working on for well,
killanoi itself is not somethingI've been working on for a long
time the the short filmsthereof in Killanoi.
Killanoi is an anthology film offour different short films and

(03:21):
I've been working on those fourdifferent films for ever in a
day, um, trying to put themtogether.
And then've been working onthose four different films for
ever in a day trying to put themtogether.
And then when the pandemichappened, everyone was working
from home.
We decided that we could goback to the Midwest and where
I'm originally from, st Louis,and create the short films.
And then we couldn't do thatbecause, again, the day job they

(03:43):
don't have a.
You know, there's tax presencesand things in different states
and each state has differentrules and it's difficult to go
different state to state and itwas easier for them if I came to
Illinois because Chicago has anoffice that's already set.
So we decided to come toIllinois instead.
We went to different collegetowns.
We started actually over atCharleston and made like a
counterclockwise circle aroundillinois.

(04:05):
We had already decided onchampagne, because we loved
champagne so much and we kind ofcame through this area on a
whim, like all right, well,we've got the extra couple days,
let's just go see this lastarea.
And then by the end of the day,in macomb, my phone was, you
know, texts were blown at myphone from local realtors and
business owners and, like, uh,municipal leaders saying we'd

(04:26):
love to have this, we supportthe arts, and they were just
very supportive.
So we ended up there and, okay,we made the first film, the
still um, which is about a bunchof aliens who need people's dna
and they, they eat them as, uh,they feed them to their giant
cocktopus in the basement andthey steal their dna to create
new people.

(04:47):
Uh, we made that one first andit went over so well.
We ended up making like, well,we can do our other three short
film ideas.
We've had forever and I meanwe're talking about like working
on these films for like 10years plus just trying to get
them finally done.
So let's just do them all,because this one's so well,
let's do the other three andthen we got the other three done

(05:08):
and we were considering doingdifferent festivals for each one
, and then we thought you knowwhat?
Let's do a.
If we do a, a host segment,like tales from the cryptid, we
can link this to like an oldschool anthology which people
don't really do that anymore,and so let's think of something
we could do to link them alltogether into one thing.
So we came up with the idea ofhaving a psychopath who is

(05:31):
himself a failed writer, who hastied us into his uh basement
and he has going to either hitus with a brick in the face or
we're going to listen and givehonest feedback on his feature
ideas.
So that's just like your cryptkeeper, yeah, yeah.
And then we're going to listenand give honest feedback on his
feature ideas.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
So is this like your crypt keeper?
Yeah, and then we're like weneed somebody who's genuinely
disturbing.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
And then Curtis is like well, you got to talk to
Brandon Watts and he's showingme Smell's Kitchen a show they
worked on and everything, andit's like yeah brandon's perfect
and then.
So I just went down to thestudio when he was like, hey,
now you're crazy, you want to beon our thing, is that sure?

Speaker 3 (06:10):
so brandon, in his own right, is a very creative
writer, a very good writer, andhe came in great like I play the
role well because I am also afailed writer.
Well, I mean, you still writemusic, you still write poem and
spoken word and well, the the.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
The thing that brandon did really good was like
we had we had kind of a basicscript of what was going to
happen, but we had to doeverything in one take because
it's all told from, like, ourpov and he's yelling at us, so
we couldn't really do cutaway,so we do everything in one take.
So everything you see ofbrandon is pretty much ad-libbed
.
It's just like here's the idea,here's what we kind of have in

(06:48):
the script.
But you just kind of wing itand just get to this point, this
point, this point, and it camethrough just killed it, killed
it, literally killed it, kill anoi give me a brick.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
There you go, I'll make things happen.
Well, how much of how much ofsmells.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
kitchen was like ad-lib stuff, or was that mostly
scripted?
Oh, not mostly all ad lib, wasit?

Speaker 2 (07:09):
So you kind of had an idea of what you wanted to do
and then, just yeah, we had likea basic, like menu plan.
Okay, and then we we like Justrun with yeah.
Like pointed jokes.

Speaker 1 (07:19):
Does everyone know what smells kitchen is?
We've talked about it a littlebit on our podcast.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
If you don't know, get over to.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
YouTube and watch some Smell's Kitchen If you
don't like people throwing up,don't watch it.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Yeah, Art Warehouse is the brand there.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
It's actually great for having dinner at home with
your families.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
A lot of good recipes .
Art Warehouse Smell's.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Kitchen.
Yes, what was the onion catfood milkshake that you had, or
well, I know, yeah, I just Ijust got a kick out of it, like
every tool that you would pulloff the wall yeah, every tool
you'd pull off the wall like youjust smack the counter with it
for no reason, whether it was abutcher knife or a waffle iron
or a katana something it waspretty wild ball gags definitely

(08:06):
fun stuff.
Uh, yeah, we have a little bitof that probably coming out soon
too.
We have a few unreleasedepisodes and then hopefully
we're going to be starting thatback up soon.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
Hopefully that kicks back off this is just really a
for the warped sense of humor.
This tie hangs out with meenough he can tell you how
warped warp sense of humor Tyhangs out with me enough he can
tell you how warped my sense ofhumor is.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
And like no, no, no.
Well then, you'll love killingall.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to, but it
makes me think I which was it?
The creep shows that weresegmented?

Speaker 1 (08:40):
Creep shows were saying yeah, yeah, remember
scarab shows were segmented.

Speaker 3 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, remember having one of those on vhs.
What was the?

Speaker 2 (08:48):
dark side.
Well, the black blob that gotonto the deck and ate the people
wasn't vhs like that vhs islike that.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, tales from the hood as well yeah, tales from
the dark side, the the some ofthe tales from the crypt stuff
what was they?
Also had standalone episodes onhbo.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Yeah, and the uh.
It was the one where it had,like, the black blob that would
come out to you in the pond andeat you up, and then uh, like it
had the wooden Indian out frontof the uh oh yeah, yeah, that
chased the guy down, wasn't it?

Speaker 1 (09:20):
Yeah, Body Bags is really where the main
inspiration for the format ofKillanoi came from.
Have you ever seen Body Bags?

Speaker 3 (09:27):
John Carpenter's.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
No, where John Carpenter himself played the guy
that was keeping the morgue.
And it's more that vein of BodyBags than it is Creepshow,
Because it's more comedy firsthorror second as horror as the
avenue for the jokes.
There are some genuine scaresin it.
I got horror.
Second, as horror as the Avenuefor the jokes.
Um, I, there are some genuine,you know, scares on it.

(09:49):
And we we did have one personat one of our screenings who, uh
, when the toenails startgetting ripped out, just Nope
and just yeah you'll have that.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
I'm also really good friends.
I've done podcasts with, uh,Neil Armstrong too.
I was going really good friends.
I've done podcasts with uh,neil armstrong too.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
Oh yeah, I was gonna try and get him here tonight,
but he had some other thingsgoing.
His toes are the ones that getripped off.
Well, actually they're my toes,but they're his character's
toes, so there's a lot of vfxwork going on to that so, um, so
do you put the?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
you said something about putting together a series
of short films that was going tooverlap into the over.
Was there an overall ending toall of it?
I know you didn't want to droptoo much about it, but the
structure of it seemed veryinteresting.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
The structure of it yeah, there is a through line I
won't give it away.
But in each segment there is arecurring character who may or
may not be human, and that kindof ties the whole thing together
from beginning to end.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
People will love it.
What else about the movie?
What else are we lookingforward to have?
We had a screening already.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
I've had a couple screenings.
It's one of those things likethe hardest thing is getting
people actually to commit tospending a Saturday evening or a
Friday evening to actually sitdown and watch it.
Um, it's once.
People are in the theater andthey see it.
So far we've we've gotten greatreviews on everything we did.
Uh, we won best first timefilmmakers at the hot springs

(11:27):
international horror filmfestival.
Um, that was a great experience.
Uh, we were in the carnival ofdarkness film festival.
Uh, this, the screening we hadbrandon went to.
There was over 100 people.
Everyone was happy.
A lot of them were involved,but we've had several screenings
since where it's all beenstrangers and everything.
People have no reason to kissour ass and we always get
applause and hoots and hollers,so everyone seems to like it.
Especially the scene wherebrandon shoots the mormons at

(11:47):
the door is very popular.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Are the problems not that scary in real life?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
he's a big teddy or he's a teddy bear.
That's kind of a scary teddybear yeah you know the one who's
got the one eye sewed shut,yeah that's.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
That's actually one of the best.
I mean, I'll give listeners aspoiler alert.
If they don't want to hear it,they should fast forward like 30
seconds.
But one of the best moments ofthat film is you know, we're
tied down to the basement.
He goes upstairs and we justhear audio and there's this ring
of the doorbell and then it'sjust a couple of mormons and he

(12:26):
just shoots them and you're like, all right, so you go up and
you answer the door.
I'll put the sounds effects ina post and you just come back
down.
And then I needed to havepeople to be the mormon, so I
called my buddy, nick howard.
He's at chuck dixie productions.
He made a film called christmaschaos and oral history of the
stabba claws, which you canwatch on Troma Now streaming,

(12:46):
which he's very proud of.
It's a great movie.
And then my other friend, scottVigil, who played Stabaclaws in
that film.
I grew up with both those guysand I called them both
independently of each other.
I go, hey, look Scott.
I tell Nick, I say, hey, you'regoing to be the first Mormon
when the door opens.
You're just he's going to shootyou.
So give me a reaction for that.

(13:07):
And then, uh, scott, you'regoing to be the second Mormon.
You saw your brother get shotand then you're going to get
shot.
After that, you guys just kindof wing it, put it together and
I'll put it in the post.
And these two were not in, theyweren't sitting together, they
were totally different parts ofthe city, like they had no idea.
The other was reading the otherpart.
And then I get a thing fromfrom scott and he's like oh my

(13:27):
god, jonathan, you, son of abitch, you shot me.
Oh, it's a great performance.
And then I get one from nick andnick's like hi, I'm with the
church of jesus christ and itall comes together so
wonderfully spoilers over andthen brandon comes down, he's
like, throws the gun on thetable, like don't touch that,
it's still hot.

Speaker 3 (13:48):
Let's get to the next story brandy, you got kind of
like uh, like kip, a brotherfrom napoleon dynamite.
You kind of got that look goingon and and uh well, thank you,
that's adorable was that whatyou were going for?
Socks and sandals?
I mean?

Speaker 2 (14:04):
mean they dressed me.

Speaker 3 (14:05):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (14:06):
We did.
They bought the outfits anddidn't blame me up.
We would Might have been alittle cold, but it was fine.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, we went to Goodwill and we were just like
my wife was pulling outdifferent things, Like what
about this?

Speaker 2 (14:20):
I go, no, that's the one I still have the shoes and
the brick, yeah and the brickyeah, oh, you have the glasses,
yeah we met my wife, she doeseffects and she made a.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
So we had two bricks.
We had a real brick and then wehad an exact copy of the real
brick that was made out ofstyrofoam.
Well, of course, and you, ifyou weren't touching them, you
couldn't tell the two apart ohand then you we're like hey, you
have brandy, you can have it asa souvenir.
And then we go to where he usedto work over at Iron Spike and
he's like he throws it at people.

(14:54):
Oh my God.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
For those that don't know, that whole building is
brick.
Yeah, and it's over herethrowing bricks.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
We are thinking about eventually adding to our
website uh kilnoy bricks formerch oh yeah, we do have.
Uh, we have the materials tomake about uh 50 or 60 fake
bricks and we signed by brandon.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
So we're a little more.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
We might put those up this summer at some point, if
people are interested, who seeKillanoa, who want to have a
collector brick.

Speaker 3 (15:28):
So with it being an independent film and doing like,
what are the steps?
As far as you got an idea, andthen you put the whole thing
together and then there's youknow your festivals and your
screenings and blah, blah, blah.
So like walk me through justkind of a basic outline of what
that looks like hey I got thismovie.

(15:49):
I want to do and go from thereokay because, you did say sorry
but you did say that, like youworked on these for like 10
years, so oh, I mean, most ofthe time was conceptual, right?

Speaker 1 (16:02):
uh, obviously wrote out the scripts a couple of
times and then some of them werejust outlines.
You do your steps when youfirst get your outline to, uh,
if people don't know, youregister your idea with the WGA.
So that way, if someone stealsit, you sure we took those kinds
of steps for some of theseoutlines and some of the titles
have changed over time.
Some of them, uh, we didn'tactually register, we just wrote

(16:26):
in my notebook and then I foundthem later, like, oh, I had
this idea like 12 years ago, Igot to do that or not.
And then, um, there's just a bigprocess for that, um, and I had
to find old ideas that I had,you know, before my current
employment, because I don't wantto have, you know, you don't
want to have any issues with,like, does it belong to us or

(16:49):
them, or whatever.
So it's always something thatwe have to have old ideas.
So we do, I, you know I havehad other concepts since then,
but just live in my head, right,but, uh, you know, these older
concepts we, we worked on and weput together and, uh, uh, three
of them we had scripts foralready and then the other one.
We had a couple versionsoutlined out and then, uh, we

(17:14):
just kind of sat on them for allbecause I I really got just too
busy with with work and, youknow, working in the industry
what's your day other things isit?

Speaker 3 (17:21):
is it still doing the ?
Yeah, I'm still doing that.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
Yeah uh, and it's it keeps me pretty busy.
So it was really really hard tocome up with time.
So I just kind of puteverything on the shelf and you
know, I'm working in hollywood.
I'm working like I lived inhollywood.
I lived two blocks from thechinese theater and I had that
whole like okay, I'm here, I'mdoing it, whatnot.
But then after a while you'relike I, I love my job, but I
didn't move to hollywood to makepromos I didn't move there to

(17:44):
make movies yeah but it becamereally, really difficult to make
it there um everyone always.
I always tell people when theysay hollywood movies suck, now
I'm like no, burbank movies suckhollywood is full of genuine
creative people who move there,who believe it still exists yeah
it doesn't.
It's just, you know, the thingwe say is almost like I am a

(18:05):
movie director.
So, yeah, which Starbucks doyou work at?
And it just came to a headwayone day during the pandemic and
I was walking my dog around toLong Prey Park it's a little
park in Hollywood and there wasa production going on.
I think it was Netflix, I don'tknow, it was four years ago.
I don't know if it was aNetflix or Hulu production or

(18:27):
something, but it was a.
It was a.
It was a production companythat would be releasing under a
Netflix or a Hulu, so it wasn'tactually them.
But uh, I'm walking around thelong play park and I see, uh,
about 10 trailers just parkedthere with like costuming and
wardrobe and catering and justall these huge things full blown

(18:48):
and it was during the pandemic,yeah, and it was.
You know, they had these twohuge floodlights fill in the
park and like, well, this is abig production.
What is it going around?
And I'm walking the dog aroundand I peek in and it's just two
people that I have no idea who.
They are sitting on a on abench having a conversation, and
I'm like for how much thisnight probably cost them quarter
of a million dollars or more,like I could film six features

(19:10):
on that.
And then we just startedtalking about the logistics of
filming there these days, whatit's like, and it's like, well,
we could go back to the midwest,where I have all my friends,
and take the knowledge we'veaccumulated and just do it.

Speaker 3 (19:22):
And that's what we did and then find guys like
brandon watts.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
Yeah, you know, and it turned out that macomb and
galesburg is just full of abunch of freaks and we just fit
right in so horror, horror hasalways been kind of no, uh well
horror.
There are two things abouthorror.
Horror is cheap and it'smarketable.
Okay, um, it in the three.
It's also fun as hell.
Yeah, you know you could.

(19:47):
I mean it's never been like Iwas a horror junkie, but that
everything I've made has beenhorror because of that.
And it's just funner to make.
Like, if I had a hundredmillion dollars, sure, I'd go
for a science fiction orsomething, but I don't, I don't
know something.

(20:07):
But I I don't, I don't know.
I've always wanted to avoidlike cheap looking sci-fi.
But you can have cheap lookinghorror.
That's still really really cooland really really fun, sure,
and doesn't come off as cheap.
Um, you can't do that with,like space battles or anything,
sure.
So, um, we've just stuck withhorror.
And then, you know, I've gonearound different conventions and
festivals and things and youmeet the people and the horror
fans just seem to be very kindof a genuine nice people, open

(20:31):
to doing whatever creep beside acomic-con.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely so.
So start to finish.
When, when you decided to pullthe trigger and you know you're
buying costumes and stuff uh, toactually doing your screenings
like how long of a process wasthat?

Speaker 1 (20:50):
better part of two years.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
Two years, yeah, is that typical, or is that just?

Speaker 1 (20:54):
I mean, yeah, it all depends on how much budget you
have, uh, and where you can pulltalent from uh.
We were coming into the to thisarea blind.
We didn't know anybody inwestern illinois and it started
off with um just going to acoffee shop there, sullivan
taylor, and just went like heyyou guys know anyone who's into

(21:14):
this and then going to the nextshop and going to the uh there,
there's a different comic shopthere at the time called kapow,
which I think they're still openon the other side of the square
now too, but now spellbound isin their old spot.
I've been just talking to likethe people there and getting
word of mouth, going eventuallygoing into the mayor's office
and being like hey, uh, we camehere with every intent to fill

(21:36):
your town with blood and scryingscrying and screaming people
and I hope that's okay andthey're like sure we love the
arts and Western being there.
They.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
I mean it is.
You know, with western beingthere, they, I mean it is you
know, yeah, it's going and Idon't know how much you get
pulled or or resourced from fromwestern or not, but it just
seems like the vibe there isvery open to, I think, the
people are more open therebecause of western and, like the
, the diversity and stuff thatgoes on there we do?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
we do have a couple actors who were students okay um
, and we did do our screening atthe sandberg theater, but, um,
yeah, the the coordination justwas there because when we
started they were in the thickof like their next spring
semester and probably stilldoing a bunch of online classes.

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Yeah, it was it was.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
It was a rough time during the pandemic.
So, um, we kind of did our ownthing, but we just found a bunch
of people and came together andit just kept coming together
and each project we would do,you meet more people and then
they have friends and they andthere's just kind of
exponentially grows from there.
And then our, our friend Curtis, he's, he helped a lot, I would

(22:40):
say probably of anyone who'snot my wife or immediate family,
curtis helped more than anybodyin terms of just diving into a
very talented individual.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah shout out curtis , uh, nomad tattoo.
Who is actually?

Speaker 3 (22:55):
helping out with the next show in mccomb.
So yeah, so yes, there's agreat guy special like.
But yeah, um had some work doneat nomad.
Great place, place, clean place, good people yeah, I'm sure.
Just look at if you'rewondering, just find Curtis on
social media and look at likehalf the videos he's done.

(23:15):
And you'll see him on Smell'sKitchen too, right?

Speaker 2 (23:18):
Smell's Kitchen.
Yeah, he was a you know directproducer, well co-director
producer, along with CarlMcNaught on that project.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
So carl was part of that too yeah, nice.

Speaker 2 (23:30):
Uh, I wrote a little bit and just acted, but you
wrote a lot of bit, a lot of it,but yeah it made all the food
yeah so what was what was it?

Speaker 3 (23:40):
like you coming into the film and like that, he was
saying that like um, you knowthe connection was made there.
Yeah, it was something thatyou've wanted to do.
Or when you heard it, you'rejust like I was just open to it.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
You know it was more on the tail end of it, after we
had already filmed the shortswe'd done a lot of things and we
just met through curtis and heasked me and I want to pass up
an opportunity to beat somebodyto death with a brick Right.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
Beat somebody to death with a foam brick.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Especially when that that somebody is is, uh, the
other, brandon Brandon Thompson.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
From Sullivan.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
Taylor From Sullivan.
Taylor, he's the one that getsbeat to death with a brick.
Uh, as our opening credits.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
Nice, which is fantastic, that's awesome.
I love how you incorporated allthese like small parts of
macomb and, yeah, midwest anyway, anybody who spent like a
decent amount of time in macombespecially.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
We'll get to see somebody that they know or grew
up with get harmed in kilinoy,so that may be a good or bad
thing.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
I'm sorry, I'm not sure which house it was or whose
house it was that we werefilming at when we did those
scenes.
Like before we started even ourfirst scene and we walk into
the basement.
I go to open the door and thefirst scene to where I'm like
coming in, like threatening thepov camera, as if there's
someone there about to listen,and and I open the door and a

(25:06):
bat falls from the curtainstraight to the floor and I was
like, is that a turd?
I get closer and it fliesstraight in my face.
Oh my God.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
So I was like okay, this is going to be a good omen.
Yeah, I hear like on the otherside.

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I'm on the other side of the door and I hear like oh,
shit, shit.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
And I'm like like what is it?
And he's like there's a bat,what?
And then I open the door andthen it flies right in the room
like oh, there's a bat.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
I, I think his first words were oh my god, is it a
turd?
And then turd flew into yourface I mean they're they're just
as dirty as turds they are.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Did you go get your rabies?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (25:45):
I already got my rabies shot.
Yeah, get your turd shot.
It was a prerequisite for thefilm didn't sign a waiver on
that one.

Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah, that's cool and then, after we did kill an oi,
we did another short film proofof concept that uh brandon also
appeared in, called uh merwolf,which is available for viewing
on cube of justicecom.
You can watch the whole thingthere.
That's a, that's a proof ofconcept.
That's my wife's idea.
That is pretty brilliant.

(26:15):
She, she kind of I mean well,she had kind of the base idea of
like what if a small town mayorwas also a werewolf and we call
it mayor wolf?
And it could be like a kind ofAndy Griffith style mare who's a
werewolf and he could get intosome kind of legal trouble
because of some animal rightsactivists.
And then she told me this ideaand then we had a three hour
drive from St Louis back up toMacomb and during that three

(26:38):
hour drive we came up with themost elaborate plot of legal
mumbo, jumbo, mumbo, jumbo.
Um, that's great.
And then we're like we're gonnaneed a million dollars to shoot
this thing.
Let's do a proof of concept andfilm one scene of something
just just for fun and see how itgoes.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
And you know, brandon was in there playing the animal
control guy ready to ready toshoot the mayor with a silver
bullet against the other callingthat he never followed you'd be
a mean dog, guy, dog catcheryeah, animal I know, but that's
what I'm saying is like you'dget down with the mean ones, but
you definitely come here,gotcha.
I mean, oh, pet a kitty and nowI'm gonna wrestle your dog.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
I did have stitches in my face.
Uh, from a dog, what like twomonths ago yeah how'd you manage
that one?
Huh, oh, you know you never peta dog when they have a treat.
Were you the treat apparently?

Speaker 3 (27:33):
yeah smell like alpo.
What's going on, oh man youdidn't.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
You didn't know about that I, I remember it happening
, yeah, yeah, I couldn'tremember why got a nice little
uh extra scar for the nextvideos we do nice yeah, look
even crazier, nice, great, okay,so this two-year process
happens.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Finally get your editing done, your special
effects, everything else, uh,we'll just call it the
production side of things.
And then how do you go aboutsubmitting these things to like?
Well, now it's easier than itever was.
You used to have to go out andtrack to like well, now it's
easier than it ever was.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
You used to have to go out and track down film
festivals.
Now there's a site called filmfreewaycom and it basically
works like a, like a socialmedia for festivals, and you
literally build your profile,your okay, you upload your it's
like a distro kid for yeah, andthen it and then you just submit
it.
There's like lists of lists uponlists of festivals you submit
to and then they can just golike it's kind of like a

(28:29):
LinkedIn for festivals really,um, and that's how pretty much
everyone operates.
And then you submit and youknow you, for every 15 or 20 you
submit to, you'll probably hearback from one, and then from
each one of those you'll getinto one out of five.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
So it's just a numbers game at that point and
that was my next question was isit like you know, I got these
over here that I want to avoid,but these are the ones I really
want, or is it?
No, I just take every one thatI get.
You can't really do that.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
You just got to kind of shotgun it, because unless
you have like a named talentattached or something, I got,
there's a, there's a higher, andyou know each festival is its
own thing.
Some of them have excellentreputations, some of them are
new, some of them are kind ofdodgy, some of them have bad
reputations, what whatnot, andyou don't have time to research
every single one because there'sjust so many film festivals
nowadays and you kind of have toshotgun approach it until you

(29:22):
find a good group of people whoare willing to accept you, who
you also would like to be a partof.
Sure, um and then, um, you knowthere are some.
It's everything from like southby southwest film festival, one
of the biggest art festivals inthe world, down to like scam
festivals that are just made upto get you to pay a 50
submission fee that don't exist.

(29:43):
So you gotta, you gottaresearch before you like submit,
but you can't really.

Speaker 3 (29:47):
You know you're talking there's not much picking
and choosing, you're just happyto get what you get.
Hoping that kind of yeah, aslong as they're you know
reputable.
They got a source and they'vebeen around you.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's just definitely something you want to be a part
of, and most of them are aregreat, so and it's and it's
really really hard work to run afestival, to be fair.
So fair, so a lot of people likeyou don't want to go out there
and say like, oh, this festivalsucks, because it could be just
like two people trying to put ittogether and they're working
really hard and it would getbetter and better and better.
So I mean, like you look atthings like Troma Films,

(30:19):
initially with Toxic Avenger andstuff, like it was rough around
the edges and that's part ofhis charm is that it's rough
around the edges, but then itgrows into something else,
organic.
So some of these festivals thatyou might think are a joke
today could be the next Sundancein 10 years from now you know,
and something that's a big shotright now could be Martin
Scandal in 10 years.

(30:40):
So you just kind of go foreverybody, because everybody's
doing it out of their passionand what they want to do.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
I'm sure it's fun and all having everybody see your
film and watch it and give youthis or that, but it's probably
also a really good networkingtool, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
Absolutely yeah, and you know the the unfortunate
reality of the world we live intoday is that it's it's becoming
less and less of a profitmotive to do these kinds of
things and more and more of justa love of the craft, just
because things have been sorestructured, with the way
streaming works and the theatersshrinking down and, you know,

(31:15):
the DVDs and VHS disappearing,and it's it's not really a
proper stream anymore, unlessyou're like a big fish in a ever
shrinking pond.
So, um, you really really haveto love what you're doing.
And in an ever-shrinking pond,so you really really have to
love what you're doing.
And if someone asks me they go,what's the business model for
making a movie?
I say well, you have an idea,you get some credit, you turn

(31:36):
that credit into debt and thenyou do it again and then you
just keep setting things on fireand hope that some sucker gives
you a million bucks and then,until that happens, you just
keep going, until you're deadand completely broke and
penniless.
So you have an awesomecollection in your house of cool
stuff.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
So is that the goal?
Is that to eventually getpicked up To go?

Speaker 1 (31:59):
broker to find some sucker with a million bucks.

Speaker 3 (32:01):
Either or both, maybe a bit of both.
No, I mean, do the moneyers getmoney?
Get a little bit better andyour ideas get a little bit
better?

Speaker 1 (32:08):
My goal is like, I think, I think we do have some
genuinely really good ideas atCube of Justice that's our
production company.
Okay, I do think, oh, we, we'vehad some things in the can for
20 years, like I've had ideaslisted out for long in the 20
years that we've, we've gotthese scripts completed and

(32:28):
things that can do it, but theyjust take financing.
They just take funding.
Sure, um, and that's that'salways the hard part.
but we're getting better at witheach film we do, we get better
at making those dollars stretchfurther because, we get, we get
better at doing these effects,get better at shortcuts and
things that will still look goodand, luckily, the the ace up

(32:51):
our sleeves is the fact thatI've had now going on 20 years
of I guess more than 20 years ofediting and camera and
production experience working on, you know, things in some of
the big leagues, um, like doingactual film sets that you know,
worked on sets at fox studios,and big things and then even

(33:11):
small things down to, like thoseyoga instructional dvds I told
you like everything adds to thekit, to the tool belt, and so
now I've just got this vast likeutility belt at my hands of
like all these things I'veacquired to learn how to do so.
We save a ton of money that way.
By me.
Just you know the, the currencyis me pulling my hair out and

(33:33):
just stressing my way through it.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
Well, that's why I like the story about walking
through the park and seeing like, yeah, huge production.
You said what quarter of amillion?

Speaker 1 (33:42):
probably I mean who knows?
I mean just equipment.
Yeah, you're talking aboutpaying those actors and then all
the crew and all the makeup andall the caterers and everything
.
It's just a huge amount ofmoney that goes in to kind of
mundane things.
When you think about it,there's a lot of talented people
out there.
A lot of people talk about whyeverything remakes and sequels

(34:05):
and like all these things.
Now, it's because a lot ofthese companies, uh studios, are
afraid to take a risk they'rejust afraid to take a risk.
they put in um, I think a lot oftimes they'll put a producer in
a director's role like theywon't even want to put a
director in there who would takea creative risk with it, and
they'll put a producer in therewho's like we're going to make

(34:25):
sure we've got the coverage andthen they're just going to flood
the editor with way too muchfootage because nobody can make
a damn decision, because they're, all you know, for lack of a
better term, children.
They just don't want that.
Nobody wants to meet an adultand be like nobody wants to be
an adult and be like no, we gotthat shot already, we're moving
on or we need this kind of shotfor this reason.

(34:46):
So you'll get situations whereyou've got really really good
professional people, awesomecinematographers, awesome set
designers, art department,brilliant actors, brilliant
customers, everybody working sohard to do something, and the
person at the top will be somelike you know, producer who's
got no experience on anythingother than marketing commercials

(35:10):
and things, and they're they'rejust calling these shots
because these are the, the shotsthat we need from up top and
like a creative director who's,like I said, serving drinks at
starbucks available, who'sreally really good, and
hollywood's full of of brilliantpeople with bad luck.
So, uh, we just didn't want tobe that, so we decided to to do
our own thing there you go, soHollywood's full of of brilliant

(35:31):
people with bad luck.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
So uh, we just didn't want to be that, so we decided
to to do our own thing.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
There you go.
So, yeah, no, fail on our ownterms if we have to, or succeed
on our own terms.
And uh, so far it's beenworking out pretty good.
We've had a lot of fun.
We've met a lot of cool people.
We've definitely had someexperiences we never would have
had if we had stayed there, andthat's not to bag on LA.
I love LA, but at the same timeI tell people, la is kind of
like a French hooker right, likeit's going to be expensive and

(35:58):
you're going to get stabbed andyou're probably going to get
sick, but goddamn if you're notgoing to have the best night of
your life.
Yeah, it's just an awesomeplace.
So it's pretty wild.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah, so screenings, yeah, you want to get into that,
sure.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Um upcoming screenings that are happening
soon.
There are three still that aregoing to happen this month.
Um, we've got two happening inMacomb.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Those are happening at city hall in Macomb uh, in
the community room uh, andthey're open to the public.
Anyone can come see, put theirown, their two cents, uh,
definitely not, not a.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Uh, uh, all ages screening it is definitely a
horror film, definitely a horrorfilm.

Speaker 1 (36:39):
Definitely.
It's not rated by the motionpicture association of america,
but if it were, you could betyour ass.
You'd have to be id to walk inthe door.
You'd have to be ID'd to walkin the door.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
You'd have to have your parents to watch it at a
theater.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
If you're parents and you want to bring your
teenagers or whatever, that'sparental guidance suggested,
Strongly advised.
But that said, my own kid is inthe movie and she's seven.

Speaker 3 (37:07):
But you know, she was was she the one to open the
basement door?

Speaker 1 (37:10):
yes, and she's, you know.
She's also um uh, what do youcall it?
Like.
She saw how the monsters weremade and she knows that it's
made of so she knows it's alllatex and that it's a puppet,
and so you know she can see, shecan have fun, but it's like you
, you can't.
At the same time, I don't lether watch other horror films
that she doesn't know what it is, because you know she'll get

(37:33):
scared to think that it's real,so like only the things that she
herself, like you, helped memake this, and this is the
results of that labor.
You can see how that that works,but then, of course, we shield
her away from certain aspects ofkilinois as well, yeah, well,
where it's like yeah, you can'tsee this scene because you know
it's probably not good for yourdaughter to watch brandon shoot
mormons on the porch.

(37:53):
Yeah, exactly, so she doesn'tget that she doesn't get that
kind of stuff you never saw.
There's very much like yeah,there's very much like okay,
you're going to see this sceneNow, you go out and go play, so,
but yeah, so there's twoscreenings in Macomb this
Saturday and next Saturday at 7pm.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Those are both at City Hall.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Yeah, you can check out on our website qofjusticecom
.
Yeah, we'll definitely linkthat in there and then there's
one here at the Reserve onThursday April 10th.

Speaker 3 (38:24):
Is it the 10th April?
10th, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
And then we'll see if we can squeeze one into Quincy
or not.
We'll make a couple calls andsee what can happen, yeah.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
We'll hook it up up.
That would be awesome, yeahwe'll get that going.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Um, yeah, and then more to come, but um, mayor wolf
is always available on ourwebsite to just watch whenever.
And um, the first short film wedid, the one that initially
brought us here the still, theone that we did, uh, as a family
, before we ever formed any kindof production group or did

(38:57):
anything like that.
And it was just just uh, youjust just a, you know, just a
family, essentially makingsomething they thought would be
cool for youtube, uh, as like ahobby film, and then it turned
into this.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Some folks you know as a family they go to ball
games or they go do this, or youknow they go to the park or
something.
It's like your family makesfilms.
Yeah, we learn how.

Speaker 1 (39:18):
That's your thing how to make, uh, you know, props,
the fingers getting cut off andthings, but yeah, it's just.
It's just.
You know, my wife is a makeupartist and sure you know I, I
wanted to always be a director,but I'm an editor by trade and
it's just always something thatwe've done and you got to get
the right, right shot on thoseyoga pants oh man, anybody ever

(39:41):
give you help for that.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yeah, a lot of people .

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, that that was.
Um, that job was, uh, I, I Iwon't say anything bad about the
people, because the people whoran it, even the owner of the
company, like they, they wereall great people and they helped
me a lot.
Um, and if you're into yoga, uh, they, I, they, I mean the
company no longer, no longerexists, but, um, they were
really great people and I wishthem nothing but the best, but I

(40:04):
did not fit in that crowd atall, but it took doing stuff
like that to get you whereyou're at now.
That's how you learn, right, youknow cause, like of my, of the
graduating class at my filmschool.
I would say there were like 80of us and I think there's maybe
five of us that actually work inthe industry.
What?

Speaker 3 (40:22):
film school.
Is that I?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
went to Los Angeles film school on uh, it's in uh,
la.
I mean, obviously it's in LosAngeles, it's in Hollywood, it's
right across from the Cineramadome.
A lot of people might know thatit's an accredited school.
They have I think they havebachelor's programs and they do
more things.
I think they've merged with I Ithink don't quote me on this I

(40:45):
think they might've merged withFull Sail at one point.
Florida but, I don't know ifthey did or not.
I haven't really followed themsince I you know, since I went
to Japan.
But when I went there, it was ithadn't been accredited yet it
was literally just like a bunchof producers and camera guys and
uh editors and stuff, who whowere like we need to teach kids

(41:05):
how to do this who can't, youknow, can't afford to get into
your uscs, your afis or yourucla film schools or your new
york film academies and we canjust teach them, you know, like
a trade skill and they can, andthat was that was how my
education was.
Like literally, we had myproducing teacher would take us
to like the commissary at ABCstudios and be like you're going

(41:26):
to have lunch with these guysand, you never know, maybe this
guy comes in here.
He comes in here Like you know,we do that, we.
They took us to um, uh, moleRichardson, where they created a
lot of the stage lights thatare used.
And like we met the guy whoinvented some of these lights
and created some of them and hejust kind of talked us through
and he's like, yeah, you justgrab this.
And we even had, um, there wasa new uh at the time the canon

(41:51):
xl2 had just come out.
Canon xl1 was the all the craze, but canon x XL2 had just come
out and it was not really outfor the public completely yet.
I think it was like a limitedrelease.
But they just got a hugeshipment of these things and
they're like here you go, kids,nobody's ever touched these
cameras before.
Go on out and have a ball, likethat was our first day.
Like, come back and show uswhat you got.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
And we're just running around Hollywood with
these expensive prosumer camerasmaking these things.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
But Hollywood with these expensive prosumer cameras
making these things, and thenthen then, uh, but, but you had
people who had legit creditsthere, like my, my producing
teacher, jeff Young he's an Emmyaward winner, you know and uh,
there were just, um, it was justa really good bunch of folks
and it was a really good kind ofguerrilla filmmaking way to

(42:35):
learn.
And now they've, they've,they've grown, they've become
accredited and good for them.
They've gotten a really goodeducational program.
So if you want to learn, itwould be a great place to to
join to learn this, uh, thetrade, um, but it might be kind
of counterintuitive to what itonce was, which was a cheaper
option for for yeah, there's nowit's now it's more kind of

(42:58):
prestigious, I guess.
Um well, you said you said theright word there in trade school
.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Trade school, yeah, cheaper option for for now it's
now it's more kind of, uh,prestigious.

Speaker 1 (43:02):
I guess, um well, you said you said the right word
there in trade school, tradeschool, yeah, like it was
definitely a trade.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
You're not going for a four.

Speaker 1 (43:06):
It might be now a four year degree, but at the
time I'm not sure the currentprogram, but I think they offer
a bachelor's.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
I'm not sure it was their different tracks like
writing, editing, or were youjust getting a taste of
everything you?

Speaker 1 (43:17):
could um you.
You basically would pick umyour major and your minor and I
majored in um uh directing andminored in editing okay um, but
then there's, there was alsocinematography and set design
and writing whatever you wanted,and that would be your primary
focus.
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
And was there much experience going into that, or
was it just Going?

Speaker 1 (43:41):
into.
That was no, so my love ofmovies started with my again my
friend Nick and Scott, the oneswho did Stabaclaws.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:53):
It was like every filmmakers, like we're in high
school and we're just spending.
You know, other kids are outdrinking and smoking and
partying all weekend and we'reout with my cam corner, covering
my car in blood in the park,getting in trouble with the
police and being like no, no, no, we're making a student film
project and that's why my car iscovered in blood.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
That's the kind of stuff we did.
That wasn't the reasonBrandon's car was covered in
blood in high school.
But we won't go there, it'stotally different.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
I don't think I hit any you don't think you hit
anyone hey, I was a good kid inhigh school, yeah, you were yeah
.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
So, uh, yeah, but that's that's kind of how it
went.
My ball dances yeah, I got intowhen my um, it's not, it's,
it's more of a sad, sadreasoning, but, like when I was
a kid, when I was 11, my dad wasdiagnosed with als, okay, so he
spent most of my childhood in awheelchair, completely bound,
and, uh, he passed away when Iwas 24.

(44:52):
But, um, throughout my whole,like junior, high and high
school uh, existence.
All we could do was watchmovies together because we
couldn't go out, okay, playcatch or do whatever, because he
was stuck in the chair.
So we watched movies and that'swhere I got this like love of
film and then, um, it was one ofthose things like I you know a
lot was going on when there's alot that goes along with that,

(45:13):
with family issues and stuff.
Graduated high school on a pleabargain, but I did get out of
there and then worked at dairyqueen for a while and then
eventually it was just like whatam I doing?
I gotta do something.
And then uh ended up findingthis, this shoestring film
school, a film school which waslike perfect timing, and went
there and got to california anda few hundred bucks and a random

(45:37):
, uh, random dream, and it'skind of come together.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
That's awesome, yeah, and like I said, you rope in
some talented people from thearea, like brandon and like neil
, and oh, curtis, curtis tattooguy.
I will be editing that.
No, like I see him all the timein my home really well, because
it was one of those things likeI.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
so there's uh, he's in the film, he's got a cameo.
Uh, he doesn't have any lines.
Dustin, uh, berg and McComb andhe goes oh, you gotta be my
friend, battle cat I'm likebattle cat, who the hell calls

(46:27):
himself Anyway and then I, andthen he sets it up and, um, we,
we met.
And then it's like, almostimmediately it's like, oh yeah,
it's you, you'd be a greatprotege, and like, we do a lot
of like, a lot of um.
Curtis is a very, very excitedand dedicated student to
anything Right and he's got alot of really creative ideas.
Dedicated student to anythingright and he's got a lot of
really creative ideas, and Ithink we work together pretty
well because he'll be reallygood at like I want to do this
and he'll xyz, and then I'll begood at being like okay, well,

(46:49):
here's how you do it with youknow these next steps.
This is how you actually make itkind of happen what you want to
do, and sometimes it's likeeasier than you think, and
sometimes it's a lot harder thanyou think and yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
But is it like having a brand where you could just
like set them free with a?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
well, that's one of the things a lot of a lot of
times when you're, when you'retaking on someone to to mentor,
a lot of times they'll get kindof like standoffish about some
of the things that it takes likewell, that's when you have the,
when you have those, thosecandid conversations where, like
, you're not going to be able todo that without this kind of
money or this kind of trainingor this kind of thing, or you
need this or whatever.
But curtis is really good atgoing like, okay, so that's what

(47:26):
I need to do, going out andthen doing it and putting his
one foot in front of the otherto make it happen versus, versus
going like nah, I'll show youlike, oh okay, I'll listen, I'll
listen and I'll do that, andthen pulling it off, you know,
quite often better than youexpect him to be able to, so
sure, that's that's, that'sgreat.

Speaker 3 (47:44):
So and how many times have we fought over a song and
then at the end of it it soundsawesome because, we fought for
an hour.
Yeah, no, not at all.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
And then there, you know, like he.
And then, even when it came toKillanoi, like he, he ended up
acting in one of our short filmsand you know, he tripped over
the couch at one point andsmashed his face into the side
of the wall and then, instead ofcomplaining about it, he just
kind of rubbed his thing.
He's like Nope, that was myfault, I shouldn't have tripped
over that couch, let's do itagain.
He's like, really.

(48:14):
He's like, yeah, we'll do itagain.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I'll just take a bigger step.

Speaker 1 (48:18):
That's crazy, yeah, and he's like maybe I can run
into the wall harder.
It's like maybe you shouldn'tdo that, Maybe you should
pretend to hit the wall.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
It's cool that you have the avenue where you can
make a living and pay the billsand you know you've got that
avenue of you.
Know I can still work in film.
It's not exactly what I want todo, but you know it does.
It does support your livelihood, yeah, and then you can still
do the site that you love at thesame time.
I think that's really cool, andwhat you want to do is always

(48:49):
relative you know and it changesa lot once you have a kid your
priorities everything changes soa lot of that is.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
You know, I just want to have fun with my family and
my kid and you know, show herwhat I like to do, which is make
these much.
She helped me design a blood popmachine, which was amazing,
which was my, my daughter's,design and idea.
She was only five years old atthe time she came up with this
concept and it workedbeautifully.
Which was I.

(49:16):
I we were trying to, my wifeand I were trying to figure out
a way to make just a huge,cartoonish amount of blood just
pop over the basement as one ofthese victims got destroyed by a
monster, and just an off-camera, huge blood come in.
And we were thinking about like, oh, we could do, like a air
pump or this and that orwhatever air pump, or this and

(49:39):
that or whatever.
And then my daughter had theidea of like what if you just
she?
She basically came up with thisidea of a box with a hinge on
it that we could put two, twoand a half gallon ziploc bags
full of blood on and then havesomeone karate step on it yeah
and pop, and that's what weended up doing and it worked
beautifully.
And that was all my daughter'sidea.
She was only five.

Speaker 3 (49:56):
She designed this thing, so it like it not being
creepy at all, it's just likehuh, I know how to make that
work.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Yeah, we did tests with water over and over, and
then we, the day up, we did itwith uh, with uh, you know, corn
syrup.
That was then the next two tothree days of cleaning for a
second and a half of film.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
Yeah, those showers are never fun yeah, so that's
awesome well

Speaker 3 (50:22):
I'm happy for you guys.
You want to shout out any plugsor any links to go to just
cubeofjusticecom, that's, that'swhere we put everything up.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Um, for websites that cube like the three-dimensional
shape of justice.
Um, we've got this whole sidestory crafted of like being
these angry aliens who have cometo earth to destroy the boredom
with ridiculous entertainmentwhether you like it or not, I
love um, and we have our carebreed, uh well, no, so cure
breed.

(50:52):
That's, that's what we're.
The whole reason that you know,the whole reason right.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
So we're doing a kickstarter right um, we're
trying to raise that you knowthe whole reason.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
We're talking to you, right?
So we're doing a Kickstarter,right?
Um, we're trying to raise somecash to do, uh, another one of
my wife's genius ideas.
Um, she had an idea for, uh,like a black mirror kind of
episode, um, and then we workedtogether for a while and we we
wrote it out, and then for awhile, and we we wrote it out,
and then, um, basically it'sabout, um, it's set in the

(51:21):
future where, uh, humanity isit's dystopian, humanity's, you
know, endangered and a lot, of,a lot of society's collapse and
most people are dead and it's,uh, a mercenary chasing a man
and his dog through the woods,and the dog's this cute little
corgi named Churro, which wealready have cast, and he's a
really great dog and he's he'sreally uh, he'll, he'll be a joy

(51:43):
to work with, cause he's hesticks to people like glue.
Uh, he's a great dog, but um,basically, what it ends up being
is, um, the civil war thatended humanity was because the
secret to no longer aging orgetting sick was discovered in
our time, but the poor could notget access to it.
Only the rich could get accessto it because of insurance,

(52:06):
co-pays and the way our systemis set up and that led to a
civil war, which led toeverybody who had the treatment
ended up getting killed andwhatnot.
But the treatment still livesin this dog because some
Instagram influencer girl gaveher dog the treatment.
So now he's like a KnightsTemplar protecting this dog from
a guy who wants to get it tocreate an army that can't be

(52:28):
stopped.
So that's the idea behindCurebreed.
So we're trying to raise somemoney for that.
We're trying to raise a fairamount.
We're trying to raise $50,000for it, which sounds like a lot,
but if you think about it, it'sless than a lexus to shoot a
movie.
Um, and at the same time, whenwe did kilnoy, we didn't have

(52:48):
our.
We didn't have a company set up.
We didn't have anything.
It was just friends having funand we were just all working for
lunch or whatever.
But now we formed a company.
We would like to actually setthis up properly where we have
hired jobs, people get paid afair wage, people get, we shoot
on a proper camera, we doeverything you know like you're
supposed to do as a business.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
It's not.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
This one is not just friends making a fun art project
, like Killanoi was.
This one is a film that wouldbe intended to be marketed, that
would intended to be released,not just like some, some youtube
fun stuff, sure so um whichdoes require some more, some
more funding.
Um so, kill an oil was, kill anoil was done, just like I said,

(53:32):
just a bunch of friends withlunch, so that ended up costing
like, but it's cool how that hasevolved to where you can yeah,
you can, you can pursue this nowyeah, and we would love to be
able to, you know, to bringsomething to this region, to
western illinois, I think.
uh, not just macomb, we've.
We didn't know galesburg whenwe first came in, but we've
started spending time up here aswell and then just like, and

(53:54):
even up upwards of quad citiesand, um, even people over
inlington Iowa.
Just this whole region of theworld just seems to have been
forgotten by most people, and alot of people call it forgotten,
yeah, even we like it that way.
But at the same time it's like Ithink there is like a.
I feel like there's a yearninghere for people to do something

(54:16):
creative, and I think that itcould be.
If everyone played their cardsright, not just us maybe some
other people would come in totown and see how collaborative
everybody is how everybody is.
Yeah, and we could create anartistic community here.
That's and that's whyeverybody's diverse, just like
they did in.

Speaker 3 (54:35):
New.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
Mexico and Santa Fe and whatever.
In the nineties, when everyonethought on New Mexico and Santa
Fe and whatever.
In the 90s, when everyonethought, oh, new Mexico, but now
it's.
You know, they call itTamale-wood.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
And that's what the podcast is all about Totally.
I mean there's so many talented, amazing people with amazing
stories in this little chunk ofour world, you know, and it's
not like.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
I will say this like our, our kickstarter goal is
it's, it's ambitious and it'ssomething that we want to do to
we.
Could we do it for way cheaper?
Sure we could, but could we doit to the quality?
We need to be marketable tobring more people here to do
other things?
No, but I will say that, um,we're not gonna be like if the
kickstarter doesn't go through,we're not gonna be like oh well,

(55:18):
shucks I guess we're not goingto find, we already have
something else in the can.
That can be done, you know,cheaper and easier, but it's
just not quite as ambitious.
But it is something that we cango through, like we'll just
steamroll right through to thenight because like I said, we've
got 20 years of ideas we'vebeen sitting on, we've got stuff
to work on.
But we thought, you know, rightnow the iron's hot people are

(55:38):
going.
We just came off of thisfestival win and we should just
see what, see what the pulse is,and maybe we can get it
together and maybe we can bringsome folks together to the
region and do, uh, do, cure,breed.
So we're doing these screenings, people can watch kilnoy, see
what's going on and thenhopefully go donate to the
kickstarter.
If they can't, they can shareit and of course, kickstarter

(56:00):
has um cool souvenirs.
You don't just, you don't justthrow money like it goes from
anything from like you know, setphotos all the way up to like
having a speaking role in thefilm to, like you know,
autograph t-shirts and yeah,that's a fun way to do it, yeah,
so whatever based on what'swhat's in your head brand?

Speaker 2 (56:19):
let's I hear something rattling over there
absolutely all that being said,is like macomb, galesburg
they're both college towns likea lot of the towns you talked
about have a lot of great peoplethat are just coming up.
Lots of talent out there.
Lots of college kids like feellike these are like a great

(56:41):
market yeah, and monmouth too.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Curtis is from monmouth, yeah in monmouth,
monmouth western and thecommunity colleges of the area
are very talented people incanton absolutely like.

Speaker 1 (56:53):
Yeah, there's so much room for us to get you know
traction yeah that's somethingthat I felt about this project,
cause, like a lot of the thingsI've seen since I moved like
I've only been a part of thisregion for three years, to be
fair but I have seen otherthings like, uh, there are music
scenes and uh, well, I won'tsay really music, but like, um,
art scenes, like the art center,like Galesburg has an art

(57:15):
center, macomb has an art center, macoma has an art center, and
then there's like little thingswhere they do clay labs and
rotary clubs and whatever.
Each town seems to keep toitself.
The only thing I've seen bridgethat gap is the music scene,
where people share and sharealike.
You have people from beardston,from from beardstown, from
canton, from galesburg, fromburlington and I think I think

(57:37):
the film thing could be theexact same thing and it could be
another avenue to not focus ontown by town rejection but like
a whole western illinoisunifying cause.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
So yeah, absolutely, it's all about community.

Speaker 1 (57:50):
Yeah, I like it and killing people with bricks.
Well, foam bricks, yeah, I likeit well, thanks for your time I
mean this was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Yeah, I learned a shit ton.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
I like I said I came into this not knowing anything
about film.
I knew he was in the film.
I knew, yeah, neil was in thefilm.
I knew curtis was in the film.
I was like, okay, so there'stoo many cool people in one
place not to you know.
Look into this.
It's a pleasure meeting you andhearing what your vision is for
it and just wanting to do it inthis area.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
I think it's really cool I do have to shout out to
um, how listening, like you youmentioned, like neil and curtis,
whatever, uh, thor and savannah, who are in the, still are,
hands down, the two hardestworkers on this film that were,
uh, involved in the acting scene.
But then, on top of that,clarissa was really, really good

(58:42):
.
Tessa was amazing.
Julia Riley was our lead in thehag and she was literally the
first person that ever contactedme in Macomb and was the most
excited and helped us out quitea bit.
Alex, you know he had a smallrole but he was very excited and
helped out a lot.
And everybody, maggie, um, justjust all the actors and yeah,

(59:06):
we've already talked aboutcurtis and just everyone who
could really go 110 gave 150 andit was just all for love
because we went into this,everyone knowing like, look,
this is a, this is not somethingthat we're doing for profit,
for whatever.
We're just doing this for a fun,stupid thing to do, and

(59:26):
everyone was and look where it'sat and look where it ended up.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
So that's awesome.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
What are the dates of those two Saturdays?

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Uh, saturday April, this Saturday April and then
next Saturday April.
Uh, saturday April and thennext Saturday April.
Uh, let's see, let me pull upmy calendar April 5th and 12th
in Macomb at 7 PM and then hereat the reserve, april 10th.

Speaker 3 (59:49):
And in Galesburg.
Yep Right here in Galesburg andthen what a what a better way
to spend an evening what'swatching some some horror films
and drinking a beer.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
Yeah, what's 85 minutes of of your time and
absolutely, it's like I saidit's.
It's one of those things likegetting people in the door is
the hardest part.
We have not had a single personbe like I didn't like that, it
wasn't for me.
Everybody strangers not justpeople who are involved with
this, they're just.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
They seem to love kilinoy, so well, if you ever
need somebody to get bludgeonedwith a ball bat or something in
one of your movies, I willgladly volunteer Ty to get
smacked with a club.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Don't worry, I won't hit too hard, we'll come up with
something extremely creative.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
We like to always do something that hasn't been done
before, really.

Speaker 3 (01:00:38):
I think Ty's a good candidate for Smell's Kitchen
too, so I think all of ourdeaths we have.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
The most generic one we have is one of our coolest
effects is the throat slit ontothe door with the blood going
off.
But we have, you know, fallingdown the stairs via cat toy.
We have being beaten to deathwith a brick.
We have being fed to a giantcocktopus.
We have.
We have being beaten to deathwith a brick.
We have being fed to a giantcocktopus.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
We have um, we have the dark, the dark monster.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Um, that torments curtis.
We have, uh, the, the coathanger behind the kneecaps with,
oh, beautiful, that wasbeautiful.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
All right, let's not give away too much, all right.
Well, thanks for doing this,guys.
One quick shout out yeah, gofor it.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
All right.
So also, obviously, we're doingthe screening here the 10th
Thursday, but shout out for BeerFest.
We have April 12th before theshowing, so you can come to our
Beer Fest here at ReserveArsenales.
There's going to be dozens ofdifferent breweries from around
the local areas.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
Great, solid like all-star.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
list of area beers All-star list and you know,
check it out Free tasters atalmost all of the different
vendors, all the differentbreweries that are around.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
And then you'll still have time to make it to the
screen.
Yeah, and it to yeah, and it'sperfect timing where, when Beer
Fest stops, you get perfect timeon the Chicago train to Quincy,
where you can catch the trainin Galesburg and have a drunk
ride to Macomb and have a goodold night Watch the screening
and then, after the screening,you can even catch a show.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
There might be a metal show going on at the Ritz
that night as well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:19):
Yeah, you can have a whole night, get all sorts of
fun stuff going on.
Hop the train, make a day of itget off.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
Go see kilnoy, then go see, just did a pod with uh
or get a designated driver, andthen yeah, and then just sleep
in the street in my calm.
We'll get you home the next dayif you're in my calm, you're
not going to sleep in the street.
Someone's going to give you acouch.
I mean, that's just how it goes.
Just holler first.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
I mean yeah it's fine , and I know the sheriff.
He might give you a cell if youneed yeah he might it might be
a concrete floor.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
You might be handcuffed but, all right,
thanks a lot guys, I appreciatethis.
This was a lot of fun laterthank you.