June 30, 2025 • 30 mins
Author Rambo Van Halen joins the program to discuss his new release, "Hollywood Samizdat," being published by Passage Press, his longtime interest in writing, and his career working behind the camera in the film industry.
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome to the program.
My name is Michael Finney. Today I am joined by Rambo Van
Halen. Would you like to say hello,
Sir? Hello, Michael Finney, Thanks
for having me. Glad we can make this happen.
Glad we can talk about you and your new release.
Tell us a little bit about you. You know where you come from.
(00:24):
You know how you developed as a creative Anything you feel is
important in the mythos and background of Rambo?
Sure. Here we go.
Rambo's not my real name. I know it's kind of shocking,
Michael, but I just. That's my pseudonym.
(00:45):
And I guess now I'm an author. We'll call it a pen name.
But yeah, no, I'm a I'm a high school dropout.
I did try to go to college that didn't last very long or do very
well. And gosh, I, I fell into the
film industry as a young man andI've been there for, for over 20
years now, mostly in production roles.
(01:10):
You know, sometimes as as a lineproducer, it's sort of the the
highest I rose in in in the business, which is sort of a mid
level management role. But that involves doing a lot of
different stuff. And these days, I'm still in it,
and I do what I call specializedcrew work outside of Los
Angeles. Very cool.
(01:30):
I have no exposure to Hollywood or the traditional film making
industry, but I I do feel like it's valuable to mention we
share this little bit of filmmaking overlap.
You know, I have, I have no realcredentials or credits in that
(01:52):
sense, but I've put out a coupleof couple of shorts and I I got
a documentary out and I like making film.
I guess maybe what was your favorite part of any of that
being? You know, I feel like more on
the behind the camera, technicalproduction side of things.
(02:15):
It's just, you know, it can be fun and you know, I'm not the
type of person who, who is qualified to work in an office.
It's something I just could never hack.
So it's, it's nice that every day is different and we're
always, you know, I'm always, it's always something new,
always learning new things. But there's something about, you
know, working with a team, thereis a camaraderie that happens
(02:40):
because you're working such longhours and under such pressure
with these people. That's I think the thing I like
the most. It's just really just the
camaraderie with with the crew and, and everybody.
But do something about just, youknow, building something.
And that's sort of what we do. I see, you know, film production
at a large scale. It's, it's more like, it's not
(03:03):
even like a factory. It's more like millwork.
The workflows that we use in in the industry, they really
haven't changed that much since Thomas Edison invented movies in
the 1890s. So it's really like working in a
Victorian era mill. A lot of people don't get that
it's very blue collar work and there's a veneer of glamour to
(03:26):
it. But once you're on the inside,
there's no glamour at all. There's nothing glamorous not
getting up at 4:00 in the morning and going to work no
matter what, no matter what you're doing.
And there's nothing glamorous about working 16 hour days and
there's nothing glamorous about,you know, these, these stages
are really just mills or, you know, this is what they are.
(03:49):
They're not I, I, I hesitate to even call them factories because
the way we do things was invented before, you know, Henry
Ford started mass producing automobiles, right?
So we're, we're kind of buildingthese, these things one at a
time, sort of design building and every project is totally
unique. And yeah, there you go.
(04:10):
It's, it's just kind of fun and it's, you know, I've had a good
run and it's sort of the best opportunity I've found in life.
Unfortunately. You know, it's, it's a, it's a
funny business. You know, nobody wants their
kids doing this shit. Like nobody, including me,
although I think I think one of my sons is, is has some, he
(04:35):
might have some skills. So, you know, we'll, we'll see
if it turns into a marketable career for him.
But there you go, the film business.
People are going to be sad to hear that it's more grind than
romance, but you know what isn't?
No, it really is. I mean, and it's, and it's such
a funny business because, you know, on one hand we're, it's a
(04:55):
consumer product, it's a mass consumer product that we're
making, right. But on the other hand, you know,
unlike a washing machine or an automobile, it's also art at the
same time. And, and there's some, you know,
very weird tensions that happensjust between sort of the
artistic interest in the business interests, which, you
know, as I'm learning now that I've, I've kind of gone through
(05:17):
the publishing process, probablynot that different from
publishing. Right.
Fair. You have you have this, this
book that is a piece of art, butit also needs to be sold.
So that's been fascinating, going through that process.
This is a great point to transition into your background
on writing. You know well done.
Tell us where it the interest came from in in writing.
(05:40):
Maybe when you started getting familiar with the written word
or falling in love with putting your words on page or screen.
Anything like that? Yeah, I got, I think, I mean, I
can even go back to to grade school.
I was a late reader, right? I, I was sort of AI don't want
(06:04):
to say a broken home, but it waskind of a broken home that I
grew up in. And the schools didn't care.
My my parent figures didn't care.
And I was actually, this is in the book.
I was actually taught to read bya librarian in the local library
from where I would sort of go after school and hang out and
look at picture books. And this woman, you know, God
(06:24):
bless her, took the time to teach me how to read.
And that would have been, you know, about fifth grade,
something like that. And, you know, from there I kind
of took off with, with reading and just became a voracious
reader. And I started writing.
I started writing, you know, little dumb stories.
And I continue that and through,through high school until I, you
know, couldn't take the bullshitanymore and dropped out after
10th grade. But even then, you know, I, I
(06:46):
kept writing in my 20s, I started submitting stuff just
to, you know, any publication that, that, that had a way to
submit things either by mail or by e-mail.
And nobody bit, not one single person, not even a rejection
note. And, you know, after, after many
(07:07):
years, I gave up. But I, you know, I would, I
would return to it from time to time.
I tried my hand at screen writing, you know, wrote.
I have a couple of screenplays that are, you know, somewhere, I
have no idea, in the bowels of some hard drive somewhere.
I could probably dig them out. But, you know, nobody really
took an interest in my writing until I started posting on
(07:31):
Twitter, which wasn't that long ago.
I mean, this was about a year and a half ago.
I just started writing on Twitter, and it was sort of an
exercise for me to create without really caring about the
consequences because I think we all have this little voice
inside of us that tells us, like, oh, nobody's going to like
this and this will never sell. And it's not good enough and you
(07:52):
need to make it better. And, you know, this Rambo Van
Halen thing was just an exercisein ignoring that voice and just
putting stuff out there. And very rapidly I gained a
Twitter following and, you know,started writing more on Substack
and, you know, people started, you know, my, my followers
(08:13):
started saying, hey, you should write a book, something cool,
I'll write a book. So last July I started writing
this book and kicked it out in about 5 weeks.
And I was, you know, going to planning on self-publishing.
I was looking for an editor and then Passage Press, my publisher
(08:36):
saw it and so they wanted to publish it.
So there you go. Very cool.
Yeah, great development arc inside of not only the the deep
background, the the, the youth lore, but then coming up and
finding success and finding a publisher willing to take a
chance on it and and put it out there for you.
(08:57):
Yeah. And you know, the amazing thing
about the Internet is I just started putting stuff out there
and the audience found me, right?
I didn't have to go to them. And that was kind of shocking.
I didn't think that was going tohappen.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Who are you reading coming up? Who do you pay attention to now?
(09:17):
Gosh, you know, it's so funny. I read, I mean, you know, I
love, I love Cormac McCarthy. You know, I, and I have my faces
like I've gone through, you know, my sci-fi phases and I've
gone through my hard boiled detective fiction phases and
I've gone through my, you know, gonzo journalism phases.
(09:38):
Gosh, you know, and, and one of the things I really like reading
honestly, is just dry heavy history.
That's, that's one of the thingsI like, I love the most.
You know, as far as, gosh, what's the last novel I read?
I reread Fight Club recently. I, I, you know, read that soon
after I saw the movie, I guess around the year 2000.
(10:01):
So it's been almost 25 years, but, you know, revisited that
that still holds up. I think maybe with there's one
thing, we grabbed the book real quick.
If there's one thing that maybe influenced this book, it was a
book called The Long Haul. And it's a memoir by a guy named
Finn Murphy. And it's about the trucking
(10:22):
industry and has a young man he fell into being a truck driver.
And it's just, you know, it's a great read.
But it there's something about that that kind of reminded me of
my own journey in the film industry.
And I'll just, you know, this kid with no prospects just fell
into it and everything kind of clicked and I rolled with it.
And I entered this very strange world.
(10:43):
And I didn't really realize how strange it was at the time.
It's taken me a long time to kind of, you know, when I think
back about these incidents, I'm like, wow, that was really
fucking weird. So I mean, if there's any
influence on this book, it's probably that that Finn Murphy
book. It's funny how we find
influences and how they kind of work their way through the
(11:07):
things that we create along the the path, you know, where it
surfaces or how it surfaces. And when you know, something can
kind of sit under our attention for long periods of time, years,
and then all of a sudden you find it kind of bubbling up to
(11:27):
the top. No, exactly.
No. And it's, it's a, it's a, it's a
funny thing. And it's, it's really funny too,
because, you know, I, I've neverreally thought about style or
I've never really thought about,you know, technical, you know,
the, the, the, I don't even havethe language to describe it.
Michael, like, because, you know, I didn't go to school,
(11:48):
right. And, and I, I never was trained
as a writer. It's something I just did.
And I just sort of wrote what felt intuitively correct.
So, you know, and you know, who knows really what influenced me.
And it certainly wasn't any any teachers along the way.
So it's a funny thing. So, you know, where, where my
(12:10):
style came from, I really don't know.
I really couldn't tell you. I mean, obviously I've been
influenced by everything I've ever read.
But you know what? In particular I'm not sure.
That's all right. I got a couple of popcorn
questions for you here. Favorite Rambo movie?
For Rod, the first one, first blood.
Fair. Yeah, Absolutely.
(12:30):
Yeah. Thread off of that.
What is what is the movie with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee
Jones came out in the mid 2000s.It's very much like first blood.
Oh, God. Oh.
My God, I have no idea. Oh man, it's so good.
Actually, yeah, we're going to look that up real quick because
if you have not seen that and you like First Blood, it's
(12:51):
basically it's a spiritual remake almost.
I feel like, hold on, let's let's find this because the, the
oh man, I love that movie. Amy Lee Jones have been used to
El Toro. The haunted right?
Is that it? I've.
Never seen that. Oh no, I've never.
I've never seen that. Yeah, you got to see it.
(13:12):
Absolutely must, must see the haunted.
No Was it like AUS marshals spinoff or?
No, it's a stand. Alone.
OK, interesting. Yeah, great.
Great film though. Yeah, I will check it out.
Yeah, definitely put that on thelist because it it's, it's like
Rambo the first blood, but it's it's even more.
(13:36):
Oh, it's William Friedkin. Oh very cool.
How have I not seen this? I don't know you it, you must
have been busy. It just snuck, snuck by.
A lot of people didn't see it. Yeah, I mean, that happens, that
happens in the movies. You know, I wish I had some
encyclopedic knowledge of of film, but one of the ironies
working at the film business is,I mean, one, you're just too
busy, right? I mean, it's, it's just such an
(13:58):
all-encompassing thing. And, and two, like a movie has
to be like really excellent for me to enjoy it because I see all
the mistakes and I see all the compromises that I, I'm not sure
that, you know, most people would see just because I know
what happens behind the scenes. Yeah, you've you've seen how the
how the sausage gets made. Exactly.
(14:20):
So I skip a lot of movies. Like if I even smell it I'm like
forget that. Follow up question here.
Favorite Van Halen, You know, era album, song.
Favorite. All of it.
All of it. I mean, you know, definitely
1984, the whole album, you know,and I, and despite the name, I'm
(14:44):
not a huge Van Halen fan. It's just this absurd name that
I came up with works and it's, and I actually cribbed it from
a, there's a Montenegrin musician named Rambo Amadeus.
And I long story, but I met thisdude once.
I don't remember anything about him.
Couldn't tell you anything abouthis music.
I think he was on the EurovisionSong Contest a few times.
(15:07):
But I that name just stuck with me at Rambo Amadeus.
And over the years as as a producer, I would need a
pseudonym once in a while. And it was usually if I was
doing a non union production andI had a union person on the
crew, I'd have to make up a namefor them so the union wouldn't
figure out they're doing it. And I, for a long time I used
(15:28):
Rambo Amadeus and I had this, this friend of mine who is
Austrian, who I needed to like cover his name.
And I thought, OK, Amadeus is a little too on the nose.
So I went with Van Halen. I just thought that that just
sounds awesome. And so that just became my, my
go to pseudonym over the years. And eventually, you know, I
(15:48):
started this new Twitter account.
That's that's the name I chose. Massive 80s mash up.
Exactly. Exactly.
Favorite decade, perhaps? Possibly, I mean, there's
there's some sort of awesomenessabout about 80s culture between,
you know, when heavy metal, whenglam and you know, the popcorn
movies that era, the big action films, something very cool and
(16:12):
something vital, you know about it that I I think we're missing
today. And it, and it was just fun, you
know, just fun culture. We weren't trying to do anything
deep, profound or change society.
It was just like, this is fun. This is entertainment.
Yeah, good perspective. I, I, I feel like there's so
much media that came out, well there, there always is.
(16:34):
But so much that came out that is it's, it's like distilled in
the 80s down to, you know, the core of what it needed to be as
opposed to trying to do too much, really.
Well, I mean, yeah, possibly. I mean, I, I think, I think in a
lot of it, I think it was just, you know, it's just sort of pure
entertainment. But, you know, but all the glam
(16:55):
rockers like, you know, and not that I'm a huge, I don't want to
say glam, but you know, the hairmetal bands, not that I'm a huge
fan of that, but there's something in that aesthetic that
boy, it's it's very attractive. It's just like we're having fun
and we don't give a fuck. Let's talk about the book.
Sure. Hollywood Semisdad Where'd it
come from? How did it start?
(17:18):
What were your goals? You know, anywhere you like.
I had, I had no goals. There were no goals.
The goal is just to, to write a book.
And a lot of this, what it started as was a collection of,
of, of stories. You know, I, I hesitate to call
it a memoir, but a collection ofbiographical stories mostly
revolving around, around the film industry.
(17:40):
And a lot of these actually the route were Twitter posts and
they went back and rewrote them for the book and sort of, you
know, expanded on a lot of a lotof points.
You know, it's funny what happened.
What what I wanted to the goal was sort of just to kind of show
people sort of what it's really like to be on the inside.
Not about, you know, technical stuff, not about, you know,
celebrity gossip stories, but you know, how it feels to be
(18:05):
there because, you know, most people just have no clue what
it's like and what they think it's like.
Is, is completely wrong. But, you know, it's a funny
thing that happens that, you know, once I started writing, it
didn't become as much as a storyabout about Hollywood is a story
about myself. And you know how I got there and
you know what drives me And yeah, and and a lot of my demons
(18:28):
just talking about that, too. And especially in the context of
this, this business that it's hard to separate myself from
because I've been there so long and it's so intense.
And you, I've spent so many hours doing it, you really don't
have a life. When you're making a movie, you
don't have a life. You're there, you know, 1516
(18:49):
hours a day. You go home, you sleep, you come
back and do it again the next day.
And you do that for months on end.
And as such, you know, it's really hard to make personal
relationships. It's really hard to keep a
marriage together. The divorce rate is
astronomical. And it's, it's, you know, it
really takes a toll on people and it took a toll on me like
(19:11):
straight up and a lot of the books about that.
And, you know, and this questionof, you know, as it was, you
know, eating me alive and, and Iknow it's eating me alive.
Why do I still do it? Why do I still go back?
And so that that's sort of whereit went.
And it's, it's just amazing, youknow, when you, you know, start
(19:33):
creating something, you don't really know what's going to come
out. And we just let it.
I just let it flow. How long did it take you to put
it together? Oh, I had a pretty solid what,
what I thought was a pretty solid first draft in or you
know, a good draft in about 5 weeks just, and just me writing
(19:56):
everyday, you know, spending twohours a day doing it.
I, I can write pretty quickly. I can, you know, kick out 2000
words an hour if I want to. And then one of one of the nice
things about going with. The publisher as opposed to
self-publishing. So they found a really great
editor for me and I went throughit with him for four months,
(20:18):
five months back and forth. And you know, it was, it was
great. It was like having a, this is my
first time working with an editor and it's like, you know,
having a coach. And it's really funny too,
because you know, his role as aneditor, it's a lot like what I
used to do as a producer, actually with directors, you're
(20:39):
just trying to make it better and just trying to bring out the
best product we possibly can. And so, yeah, it was, it was a
wonderful experience. And and yeah, actually that was
probably the best experience of the writing process.
And, you know, and along the way, I sort of got this sort of
crash course in writing that that I'd never had before.
(20:59):
And that was interesting too. And I think I think I'm a better
writer after going through that with his name's Michael McCoy,
who you might know. And no, I would, I would highly
recommend, I mean, if if you, you know, if for any writer, if
you're considering self-publishing, set some money
aside and hire an editor. Don't just have your buddy do
it. Get someone who's a pro who's
(21:22):
gonna tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to
hear. And I think I think things will
turn out a lot better. That's that's my that's my
advice after after $1.00. Hey, you know that's.
What I'd say. It doesn't take any more than
one experience to inform you about better processes and
(21:44):
procedures. So yeah, it's good to, it's good
to hear those things, these sortof technical behind the scenes
aspects of, you know, working infilm, making a book and as it
turns out, a book about working behind making films.
Right, right. When does the book come out?
(22:08):
It is available for pre-order now from Passage Press, and I
think it ships at the end of July.
Very cool. Yeah, Yeah.
So I'm told that that was a really fast turn around that
like, you know, from writing to actually having a published book
in under a year is almost unheard of.
But God, it felt like, you know,compared to what I usually do,
(22:31):
it felt very slow. No, it's pretty fast.
I mean, honestly find if you're going say the traditional route
with, you know, the publishing companies that we all know, say
New York based or whatever, yeah, that process can take a
(22:52):
long time because they're, they have a schedule, they have a
process. It might not necessarily fit
within what they already have inline.
But if you're working with and, and arguably Passage is an, is
(23:12):
an indie publishing company, youknow, and they can really focus
on what you're doing to be able to get the thing together and
out the door. Yeah.
You know, ideally they would allwork that way to be able to just
get it, get it put together, getit edited, get covers produced
(23:33):
and deal with printing and shipping and ordering and all
the rest. Marketing, you know, that's
that, you know. Yeah.
And the marketing which is ongoing forever, you know,
easily the, the if, if your whole process of getting the
book out is only a year, you know, you can be marketing the
(23:54):
thing for indefinitely right into the future and trying to,
to drive awareness and, and readership for it 'cause it's
not, it's an Evergreen piece of media or product.
It's not as if it expires at some point.
No, exactly. Exactly.
No. Yeah.
So I mean, yeah, definitely interesting process and you
(24:16):
know, and and like, you know, kind of like film how we're you
still doing things like they were in the 1890s.
I feel like publishing really hasn't changed that much since
since Gutenberg. I don't think I I think whatever
workflows they the Gutenberg setdown way back when are probably
alive and well today in in today's publishing industry.
What are some things we haven't heard or don't know that perhaps
(24:40):
we should know about the book oryourself or writing, you know,
your thoughts on media, film industry, anything like that?
Well, it's, it's a dying thing and that's it's kind of sad.
And even even in the year since I've kind of finished, you know,
since I started writing, there'sbeen so much change in the
industry that, you know, I don'treally know what's going to be
(25:01):
there in in three to five years.I don't know there's gonna be
anything left in Los Angeles is a production center is dead.
And I don't think that's ever coming back.
That was unclear when I started writing the book.
Now it's I, I, I think we can probably write the eulogy for,
for Hollywood now. People are always going to want
movies. They're always going to want
(25:22):
stories told in a visual way. But you know, how that happens?
I, I really don't know. And you know, of course AI is,
is going to be eating into it. And I don't know that's a bad
thing. It's certainly bad for all the
film workers out there like me. It might be great for the
audience and it might be great for independent creators who
(25:44):
suddenly have access to, to do things that they they couldn't
do. Right.
You know, I don't think people realize how many people and how
much money it takes to make a movie like, you know, your your
typical bog standard Marvel movie.
Thousands of people worked on that thing and and they were all
(26:05):
very well paid or most of them were very well paid.
And that's going away. And it's going to go from
thousands to hundreds to maybe dozens to maybe just two or
three people. And then, you know, the last
step is the algorithm is just going to do it for you.
It's just going to say, hey, Michael, there's a movie.
Here's a movie we think you'll like and you might like it.
(26:28):
And so that's, that's a, you know, it's a huge change that
we're going from something that was painstakingly crafted to,
you know, these new tools that'sdefinitely going to change
things. And you know, and Mike, you
know, the question that I, I, I don't know the answer to is if
that, you know, the AI generatedactors can do the same
(26:50):
performance as a human. I, I don't know.
It'll be interesting to see if we ever get there.
And you know, there's something like that happens on a, on a set
where it's a collaboration between the actor and the
director and the camera guy and they're all kind of vibing off
each other. And that's how these great
performances happen. And it'll be interesting to see
(27:12):
if if that can take place being all digitally generated.
Authors making boutique films and books, the handcrafted,
homespun way that could still exist, that could fit in there
somewhere. It could, but I think when you
look at the cost difference as instead of spending $100 million
(27:34):
on a movie, if you could spend soon it's going to be, you know
20 million and then a million and then probably under a
million and maybe just a few $1000 eventually in render time
to make something. When you look at that cost
difference, I mean it would you would be nuts to do it the old
fashioned way. Yeah, it has to be for a
particular application or value.You have to really want to see
(27:58):
certain actors or certain aesthetics choices, people
involved, names that can put an audience into the seats.
Yeah. And that's a funny thing is, you
know, we're not making new celebrities Like that's that's
kind of stopped. Yeah, the Internet and social
media kind of killed that because it's, it used to be you
would take a guy like Brad Pitt,he's a very good actor by the
(28:20):
way. He's a very, you know, he's a
great, great on screen presence.And you would sort of make him
into a star because, you know, he's, he's a talent, but he's
not unique. There are many Brad Pitt's out
there that we could take and, and shape his public persona
and, and turn into that, turn into a celebrity.
That whole machine died. It's done.
(28:43):
Back when there were three TV channels on the air, you could
do that. You can't do that now.
So that's why you look at, you know, who's still a big
celebrity. It's the people who stars were
kind of forged in the 90s and early 2000s, and there's nobody
who's come along who's eclipsed the Tom Cruises and the Brad
Pitt's and the George Clooney's of the world.
(29:04):
Yeah, agreed. They're definitely seeing that.
And the only people maybe still kind of, I don't know, finding a
way to the top are talent threats that can do different
things like music, stage performance, acting.
Somebody like an Ariana Grande. I think she's ascended maybe
(29:26):
over the last 10 years. Sure, and there and there's lots
of talent out there like there'slots of people who can do that,
who can act, they can sing, theycan play an instrument, they can
dance. They've always been there.
But, you know, they kind of get pitch and holed in these roles
that most of these guys, when they trained, they trained in
all these things. Yeah.
And and that's sort of the the path they took.
(29:46):
But, you know, I guess so they're out there.
But, you know, in this age of social media and this fragmented
audience, yeah, I don't know that you can, You can.
You're we're going to have starsthat are still living that you
could build a movie around. Because with AI, I we can take
(30:06):
dead celebrities and build movies around them.
You know, I wouldn't, I would not be surprised if we see a new
Humphrey Bogart movie in the near future.
And. Wouldn't that be nice?
Wouldn't that be nice? It might be good.
Well, hey, Rambo Van Halen, I appreciate you taking the time
to talk today and telling us about your book, your
background, your professional life, and this has been a good
(30:29):
conversation. Yeah.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
It's been fun. Absolutely.
Good luck with the book. And you know, whatever happens
with Hollywood and film making, you know you'll find your way
through it and you're going to make AI films.
Yeah, I'm probably working at Walmart as well as the greeter.
I think that's my my next careermove.
(30:49):
I doubt it, but hey, enjoy the rest of your day and we'll talk
again before too long. Cool.
Thanks, Mike.
Hello and welcome to the program.
My name is Michael Finney. Today I am joined by Rambo Van
Halen. Would you like to say hello,
Sir? Hello, Michael Finney, Thanks
for having me. Glad we can make this happen.
Glad we can talk about you and your new release.
Tell us a little bit about you. You know where you come from.
(00:24):
You know how you developed as a creative Anything you feel is
important in the mythos and background of Rambo?
Sure. Here we go.
Rambo's not my real name. I know it's kind of shocking,
Michael, but I just. That's my pseudonym.
(00:45):
And I guess now I'm an author. We'll call it a pen name.
But yeah, no, I'm a I'm a high school dropout.
I did try to go to college that didn't last very long or do very
well. And gosh, I, I fell into the
film industry as a young man andI've been there for, for over 20
years now, mostly in production roles.
(01:10):
You know, sometimes as as a lineproducer, it's sort of the the
highest I rose in in in the business, which is sort of a mid
level management role. But that involves doing a lot of
different stuff. And these days, I'm still in it,
and I do what I call specializedcrew work outside of Los
Angeles. Very cool.
(01:30):
I have no exposure to Hollywood or the traditional film making
industry, but I I do feel like it's valuable to mention we
share this little bit of filmmaking overlap.
You know, I have, I have no realcredentials or credits in that
(01:52):
sense, but I've put out a coupleof couple of shorts and I I got
a documentary out and I like making film.
I guess maybe what was your favorite part of any of that
being? You know, I feel like more on
the behind the camera, technicalproduction side of things.
(02:15):
It's just, you know, it can be fun and you know, I'm not the
type of person who, who is qualified to work in an office.
It's something I just could never hack.
So it's, it's nice that every day is different and we're
always, you know, I'm always, it's always something new,
always learning new things. But there's something about, you
know, working with a team, thereis a camaraderie that happens
(02:40):
because you're working such longhours and under such pressure
with these people. That's I think the thing I like
the most. It's just really just the
camaraderie with with the crew and, and everybody.
But do something about just, youknow, building something.
And that's sort of what we do. I see, you know, film production
at a large scale. It's, it's more like, it's not
(03:03):
even like a factory. It's more like millwork.
The workflows that we use in in the industry, they really
haven't changed that much since Thomas Edison invented movies in
the 1890s. So it's really like working in a
Victorian era mill. A lot of people don't get that
it's very blue collar work and there's a veneer of glamour to
(03:26):
it. But once you're on the inside,
there's no glamour at all. There's nothing glamorous not
getting up at 4:00 in the morning and going to work no
matter what, no matter what you're doing.
And there's nothing glamorous about working 16 hour days and
there's nothing glamorous about,you know, these, these stages
are really just mills or, you know, this is what they are.
(03:49):
They're not I, I, I hesitate to even call them factories because
the way we do things was invented before, you know, Henry
Ford started mass producing automobiles, right?
So we're, we're kind of buildingthese, these things one at a
time, sort of design building and every project is totally
unique. And yeah, there you go.
(04:10):
It's, it's just kind of fun and it's, you know, I've had a good
run and it's sort of the best opportunity I've found in life.
Unfortunately. You know, it's, it's a, it's a
funny business. You know, nobody wants their
kids doing this shit. Like nobody, including me,
although I think I think one of my sons is, is has some, he
(04:35):
might have some skills. So, you know, we'll, we'll see
if it turns into a marketable career for him.
But there you go, the film business.
People are going to be sad to hear that it's more grind than
romance, but you know what isn't?
No, it really is. I mean, and it's, and it's such
a funny business because, you know, on one hand we're, it's a
(04:55):
consumer product, it's a mass consumer product that we're
making, right. But on the other hand, you know,
unlike a washing machine or an automobile, it's also art at the
same time. And, and there's some, you know,
very weird tensions that happensjust between sort of the
artistic interest in the business interests, which, you
know, as I'm learning now that I've, I've kind of gone through
(05:17):
the publishing process, probablynot that different from
publishing. Right.
Fair. You have you have this, this
book that is a piece of art, butit also needs to be sold.
So that's been fascinating, going through that process.
This is a great point to transition into your background
on writing. You know well done.
Tell us where it the interest came from in in writing.
(05:40):
Maybe when you started getting familiar with the written word
or falling in love with putting your words on page or screen.
Anything like that? Yeah, I got, I think, I mean, I
can even go back to to grade school.
I was a late reader, right? I, I was sort of AI don't want
(06:04):
to say a broken home, but it waskind of a broken home that I
grew up in. And the schools didn't care.
My my parent figures didn't care.
And I was actually, this is in the book.
I was actually taught to read bya librarian in the local library
from where I would sort of go after school and hang out and
look at picture books. And this woman, you know, God
(06:24):
bless her, took the time to teach me how to read.
And that would have been, you know, about fifth grade,
something like that. And, you know, from there I kind
of took off with, with reading and just became a voracious
reader. And I started writing.
I started writing, you know, little dumb stories.
And I continue that and through,through high school until I, you
know, couldn't take the bullshitanymore and dropped out after
10th grade. But even then, you know, I, I
(06:46):
kept writing in my 20s, I started submitting stuff just
to, you know, any publication that, that, that had a way to
submit things either by mail or by e-mail.
And nobody bit, not one single person, not even a rejection
note. And, you know, after, after many
(07:07):
years, I gave up. But I, you know, I would, I
would return to it from time to time.
I tried my hand at screen writing, you know, wrote.
I have a couple of screenplays that are, you know, somewhere, I
have no idea, in the bowels of some hard drive somewhere.
I could probably dig them out. But, you know, nobody really
took an interest in my writing until I started posting on
(07:31):
Twitter, which wasn't that long ago.
I mean, this was about a year and a half ago.
I just started writing on Twitter, and it was sort of an
exercise for me to create without really caring about the
consequences because I think we all have this little voice
inside of us that tells us, like, oh, nobody's going to like
this and this will never sell. And it's not good enough and you
(07:52):
need to make it better. And, you know, this Rambo Van
Halen thing was just an exercisein ignoring that voice and just
putting stuff out there. And very rapidly I gained a
Twitter following and, you know,started writing more on Substack
and, you know, people started, you know, my, my followers
(08:13):
started saying, hey, you should write a book, something cool,
I'll write a book. So last July I started writing
this book and kicked it out in about 5 weeks.
And I was, you know, going to planning on self-publishing.
I was looking for an editor and then Passage Press, my publisher
(08:36):
saw it and so they wanted to publish it.
So there you go. Very cool.
Yeah, great development arc inside of not only the the deep
background, the the, the youth lore, but then coming up and
finding success and finding a publisher willing to take a
chance on it and and put it out there for you.
(08:57):
Yeah. And you know, the amazing thing
about the Internet is I just started putting stuff out there
and the audience found me, right?
I didn't have to go to them. And that was kind of shocking.
I didn't think that was going tohappen.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
Who are you reading coming up? Who do you pay attention to now?
(09:17):
Gosh, you know, it's so funny. I read, I mean, you know, I
love, I love Cormac McCarthy. You know, I, and I have my faces
like I've gone through, you know, my sci-fi phases and I've
gone through my hard boiled detective fiction phases and
I've gone through my, you know, gonzo journalism phases.
(09:38):
Gosh, you know, and, and one of the things I really like reading
honestly, is just dry heavy history.
That's, that's one of the thingsI like, I love the most.
You know, as far as, gosh, what's the last novel I read?
I reread Fight Club recently. I, I, you know, read that soon
after I saw the movie, I guess around the year 2000.
(10:01):
So it's been almost 25 years, but, you know, revisited that
that still holds up. I think maybe with there's one
thing, we grabbed the book real quick.
If there's one thing that maybe influenced this book, it was a
book called The Long Haul. And it's a memoir by a guy named
Finn Murphy. And it's about the trucking
(10:22):
industry and has a young man he fell into being a truck driver.
And it's just, you know, it's a great read.
But it there's something about that that kind of reminded me of
my own journey in the film industry.
And I'll just, you know, this kid with no prospects just fell
into it and everything kind of clicked and I rolled with it.
And I entered this very strange world.
(10:43):
And I didn't really realize how strange it was at the time.
It's taken me a long time to kind of, you know, when I think
back about these incidents, I'm like, wow, that was really
fucking weird. So I mean, if there's any
influence on this book, it's probably that that Finn Murphy
book. It's funny how we find
influences and how they kind of work their way through the
(11:07):
things that we create along the the path, you know, where it
surfaces or how it surfaces. And when you know, something can
kind of sit under our attention for long periods of time, years,
and then all of a sudden you find it kind of bubbling up to
(11:27):
the top. No, exactly.
No. And it's, it's a, it's a, it's a
funny thing. And it's, it's really funny too,
because, you know, I, I've neverreally thought about style or
I've never really thought about,you know, technical, you know,
the, the, the, I don't even havethe language to describe it.
Michael, like, because, you know, I didn't go to school,
(11:48):
right. And, and I, I never was trained
as a writer. It's something I just did.
And I just sort of wrote what felt intuitively correct.
So, you know, and you know, who knows really what influenced me.
And it certainly wasn't any any teachers along the way.
So it's a funny thing. So, you know, where, where my
(12:10):
style came from, I really don't know.
I really couldn't tell you. I mean, obviously I've been
influenced by everything I've ever read.
But you know what? In particular I'm not sure.
That's all right. I got a couple of popcorn
questions for you here. Favorite Rambo movie?
For Rod, the first one, first blood.
Fair. Yeah, Absolutely.
(12:30):
Yeah. Thread off of that.
What is what is the movie with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee
Jones came out in the mid 2000s.It's very much like first blood.
Oh, God. Oh.
My God, I have no idea. Oh man, it's so good.
Actually, yeah, we're going to look that up real quick because
if you have not seen that and you like First Blood, it's
(12:51):
basically it's a spiritual remake almost.
I feel like, hold on, let's let's find this because the, the
oh man, I love that movie. Amy Lee Jones have been used to
El Toro. The haunted right?
Is that it? I've.
Never seen that. Oh no, I've never.
I've never seen that. Yeah, you got to see it.
(13:12):
Absolutely must, must see the haunted.
No Was it like AUS marshals spinoff or?
No, it's a stand. Alone.
OK, interesting. Yeah, great.
Great film though. Yeah, I will check it out.
Yeah, definitely put that on thelist because it it's, it's like
Rambo the first blood, but it's it's even more.
(13:36):
Oh, it's William Friedkin. Oh very cool.
How have I not seen this? I don't know you it, you must
have been busy. It just snuck, snuck by.
A lot of people didn't see it. Yeah, I mean, that happens, that
happens in the movies. You know, I wish I had some
encyclopedic knowledge of of film, but one of the ironies
working at the film business is,I mean, one, you're just too
busy, right? I mean, it's, it's just such an
(13:58):
all-encompassing thing. And, and two, like a movie has
to be like really excellent for me to enjoy it because I see all
the mistakes and I see all the compromises that I, I'm not sure
that, you know, most people would see just because I know
what happens behind the scenes. Yeah, you've you've seen how the
how the sausage gets made. Exactly.
(14:20):
So I skip a lot of movies. Like if I even smell it I'm like
forget that. Follow up question here.
Favorite Van Halen, You know, era album, song.
Favorite. All of it.
All of it. I mean, you know, definitely
1984, the whole album, you know,and I, and despite the name, I'm
(14:44):
not a huge Van Halen fan. It's just this absurd name that
I came up with works and it's, and I actually cribbed it from
a, there's a Montenegrin musician named Rambo Amadeus.
And I long story, but I met thisdude once.
I don't remember anything about him.
Couldn't tell you anything abouthis music.
I think he was on the EurovisionSong Contest a few times.
(15:07):
But I that name just stuck with me at Rambo Amadeus.
And over the years as as a producer, I would need a
pseudonym once in a while. And it was usually if I was
doing a non union production andI had a union person on the
crew, I'd have to make up a namefor them so the union wouldn't
figure out they're doing it. And I, for a long time I used
(15:28):
Rambo Amadeus and I had this, this friend of mine who is
Austrian, who I needed to like cover his name.
And I thought, OK, Amadeus is a little too on the nose.
So I went with Van Halen. I just thought that that just
sounds awesome. And so that just became my, my
go to pseudonym over the years. And eventually, you know, I
(15:48):
started this new Twitter account.
That's that's the name I chose. Massive 80s mash up.
Exactly. Exactly.
Favorite decade, perhaps? Possibly, I mean, there's
there's some sort of awesomenessabout about 80s culture between,
you know, when heavy metal, whenglam and you know, the popcorn
movies that era, the big action films, something very cool and
(16:12):
something vital, you know about it that I I think we're missing
today. And it, and it was just fun, you
know, just fun culture. We weren't trying to do anything
deep, profound or change society.
It was just like, this is fun. This is entertainment.
Yeah, good perspective. I, I, I feel like there's so
much media that came out, well there, there always is.
(16:34):
But so much that came out that is it's, it's like distilled in
the 80s down to, you know, the core of what it needed to be as
opposed to trying to do too much, really.
Well, I mean, yeah, possibly. I mean, I, I think, I think in a
lot of it, I think it was just, you know, it's just sort of pure
entertainment. But, you know, but all the glam
(16:55):
rockers like, you know, and not that I'm a huge, I don't want to
say glam, but you know, the hairmetal bands, not that I'm a huge
fan of that, but there's something in that aesthetic that
boy, it's it's very attractive. It's just like we're having fun
and we don't give a fuck. Let's talk about the book.
Sure. Hollywood Semisdad Where'd it
come from? How did it start?
(17:18):
What were your goals? You know, anywhere you like.
I had, I had no goals. There were no goals.
The goal is just to, to write a book.
And a lot of this, what it started as was a collection of,
of, of stories. You know, I, I hesitate to call
it a memoir, but a collection ofbiographical stories mostly
revolving around, around the film industry.
(17:40):
And a lot of these actually the route were Twitter posts and
they went back and rewrote them for the book and sort of, you
know, expanded on a lot of a lotof points.
You know, it's funny what happened.
What what I wanted to the goal was sort of just to kind of show
people sort of what it's really like to be on the inside.
Not about, you know, technical stuff, not about, you know,
celebrity gossip stories, but you know, how it feels to be
(18:05):
there because, you know, most people just have no clue what
it's like and what they think it's like.
Is, is completely wrong. But, you know, it's a funny
thing that happens that, you know, once I started writing, it
didn't become as much as a storyabout about Hollywood is a story
about myself. And you know how I got there and
you know what drives me And yeah, and and a lot of my demons
(18:28):
just talking about that, too. And especially in the context of
this, this business that it's hard to separate myself from
because I've been there so long and it's so intense.
And you, I've spent so many hours doing it, you really don't
have a life. When you're making a movie, you
don't have a life. You're there, you know, 1516
(18:49):
hours a day. You go home, you sleep, you come
back and do it again the next day.
And you do that for months on end.
And as such, you know, it's really hard to make personal
relationships. It's really hard to keep a
marriage together. The divorce rate is
astronomical. And it's, it's, you know, it
really takes a toll on people and it took a toll on me like
(19:11):
straight up and a lot of the books about that.
And, you know, and this questionof, you know, as it was, you
know, eating me alive and, and Iknow it's eating me alive.
Why do I still do it? Why do I still go back?
And so that that's sort of whereit went.
And it's, it's just amazing, youknow, when you, you know, start
(19:33):
creating something, you don't really know what's going to come
out. And we just let it.
I just let it flow. How long did it take you to put
it together? Oh, I had a pretty solid what,
what I thought was a pretty solid first draft in or you
know, a good draft in about 5 weeks just, and just me writing
(19:56):
everyday, you know, spending twohours a day doing it.
I, I can write pretty quickly. I can, you know, kick out 2000
words an hour if I want to. And then one of one of the nice
things about going with. The publisher as opposed to
self-publishing. So they found a really great
editor for me and I went throughit with him for four months,
(20:18):
five months back and forth. And you know, it was, it was
great. It was like having a, this is my
first time working with an editor and it's like, you know,
having a coach. And it's really funny too,
because you know, his role as aneditor, it's a lot like what I
used to do as a producer, actually with directors, you're
(20:39):
just trying to make it better and just trying to bring out the
best product we possibly can. And so, yeah, it was, it was a
wonderful experience. And and yeah, actually that was
probably the best experience of the writing process.
And, you know, and along the way, I sort of got this sort of
crash course in writing that that I'd never had before.
(20:59):
And that was interesting too. And I think I think I'm a better
writer after going through that with his name's Michael McCoy,
who you might know. And no, I would, I would highly
recommend, I mean, if if you, you know, if for any writer, if
you're considering self-publishing, set some money
aside and hire an editor. Don't just have your buddy do
it. Get someone who's a pro who's
(21:22):
gonna tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to
hear. And I think I think things will
turn out a lot better. That's that's my that's my
advice after after $1.00. Hey, you know that's.
What I'd say. It doesn't take any more than
one experience to inform you about better processes and
(21:44):
procedures. So yeah, it's good to, it's good
to hear those things, these sortof technical behind the scenes
aspects of, you know, working infilm, making a book and as it
turns out, a book about working behind making films.
Right, right. When does the book come out?
(22:08):
It is available for pre-order now from Passage Press, and I
think it ships at the end of July.
Very cool. Yeah, Yeah.
So I'm told that that was a really fast turn around that
like, you know, from writing to actually having a published book
in under a year is almost unheard of.
But God, it felt like, you know,compared to what I usually do,
(22:31):
it felt very slow. No, it's pretty fast.
I mean, honestly find if you're going say the traditional route
with, you know, the publishing companies that we all know, say
New York based or whatever, yeah, that process can take a
(22:52):
long time because they're, they have a schedule, they have a
process. It might not necessarily fit
within what they already have inline.
But if you're working with and, and arguably Passage is an, is
(23:12):
an indie publishing company, youknow, and they can really focus
on what you're doing to be able to get the thing together and
out the door. Yeah.
You know, ideally they would allwork that way to be able to just
get it, get it put together, getit edited, get covers produced
(23:33):
and deal with printing and shipping and ordering and all
the rest. Marketing, you know, that's
that, you know. Yeah.
And the marketing which is ongoing forever, you know,
easily the, the if, if your whole process of getting the
book out is only a year, you know, you can be marketing the
(23:54):
thing for indefinitely right into the future and trying to,
to drive awareness and, and readership for it 'cause it's
not, it's an Evergreen piece of media or product.
It's not as if it expires at some point.
No, exactly. Exactly.
No. Yeah.
So I mean, yeah, definitely interesting process and you
(24:16):
know, and and like, you know, kind of like film how we're you
still doing things like they were in the 1890s.
I feel like publishing really hasn't changed that much since
since Gutenberg. I don't think I I think whatever
workflows they the Gutenberg setdown way back when are probably
alive and well today in in today's publishing industry.
What are some things we haven't heard or don't know that perhaps
(24:40):
we should know about the book oryourself or writing, you know,
your thoughts on media, film industry, anything like that?
Well, it's, it's a dying thing and that's it's kind of sad.
And even even in the year since I've kind of finished, you know,
since I started writing, there'sbeen so much change in the
industry that, you know, I don'treally know what's going to be
(25:01):
there in in three to five years.I don't know there's gonna be
anything left in Los Angeles is a production center is dead.
And I don't think that's ever coming back.
That was unclear when I started writing the book.
Now it's I, I, I think we can probably write the eulogy for,
for Hollywood now. People are always going to want
movies. They're always going to want
(25:22):
stories told in a visual way. But you know, how that happens?
I, I really don't know. And you know, of course AI is,
is going to be eating into it. And I don't know that's a bad
thing. It's certainly bad for all the
film workers out there like me. It might be great for the
audience and it might be great for independent creators who
(25:44):
suddenly have access to, to do things that they they couldn't
do. Right.
You know, I don't think people realize how many people and how
much money it takes to make a movie like, you know, your your
typical bog standard Marvel movie.
Thousands of people worked on that thing and and they were all
(26:05):
very well paid or most of them were very well paid.
And that's going away. And it's going to go from
thousands to hundreds to maybe dozens to maybe just two or
three people. And then, you know, the last
step is the algorithm is just going to do it for you.
It's just going to say, hey, Michael, there's a movie.
Here's a movie we think you'll like and you might like it.
(26:28):
And so that's, that's a, you know, it's a huge change that
we're going from something that was painstakingly crafted to,
you know, these new tools that'sdefinitely going to change
things. And you know, and Mike, you
know, the question that I, I, I don't know the answer to is if
that, you know, the AI generatedactors can do the same
(26:50):
performance as a human. I, I don't know.
It'll be interesting to see if we ever get there.
And you know, there's something like that happens on a, on a set
where it's a collaboration between the actor and the
director and the camera guy and they're all kind of vibing off
each other. And that's how these great
performances happen. And it'll be interesting to see
(27:12):
if if that can take place being all digitally generated.
Authors making boutique films and books, the handcrafted,
homespun way that could still exist, that could fit in there
somewhere. It could, but I think when you
look at the cost difference as instead of spending $100 million
(27:34):
on a movie, if you could spend soon it's going to be, you know
20 million and then a million and then probably under a
million and maybe just a few $1000 eventually in render time
to make something. When you look at that cost
difference, I mean it would you would be nuts to do it the old
fashioned way. Yeah, it has to be for a
particular application or value.You have to really want to see
(27:58):
certain actors or certain aesthetics choices, people
involved, names that can put an audience into the seats.
Yeah. And that's a funny thing is, you
know, we're not making new celebrities Like that's that's
kind of stopped. Yeah, the Internet and social
media kind of killed that because it's, it used to be you
would take a guy like Brad Pitt,he's a very good actor by the
(28:20):
way. He's a very, you know, he's a
great, great on screen presence.And you would sort of make him
into a star because, you know, he's, he's a talent, but he's
not unique. There are many Brad Pitt's out
there that we could take and, and shape his public persona
and, and turn into that, turn into a celebrity.
That whole machine died. It's done.
(28:43):
Back when there were three TV channels on the air, you could
do that. You can't do that now.
So that's why you look at, you know, who's still a big
celebrity. It's the people who stars were
kind of forged in the 90s and early 2000s, and there's nobody
who's come along who's eclipsed the Tom Cruises and the Brad
Pitt's and the George Clooney's of the world.
(29:04):
Yeah, agreed. They're definitely seeing that.
And the only people maybe still kind of, I don't know, finding a
way to the top are talent threats that can do different
things like music, stage performance, acting.
Somebody like an Ariana Grande. I think she's ascended maybe
(29:26):
over the last 10 years. Sure, and there and there's lots
of talent out there like there'slots of people who can do that,
who can act, they can sing, theycan play an instrument, they can
dance. They've always been there.
But, you know, they kind of get pitch and holed in these roles
that most of these guys, when they trained, they trained in
all these things. Yeah.
And and that's sort of the the path they took.
(29:46):
But, you know, I guess so they're out there.
But, you know, in this age of social media and this fragmented
audience, yeah, I don't know that you can, You can.
You're we're going to have starsthat are still living that you
could build a movie around. Because with AI, I we can take
(30:06):
dead celebrities and build movies around them.
You know, I wouldn't, I would not be surprised if we see a new
Humphrey Bogart movie in the near future.
And. Wouldn't that be nice?
Wouldn't that be nice? It might be good.
Well, hey, Rambo Van Halen, I appreciate you taking the time
to talk today and telling us about your book, your
background, your professional life, and this has been a good
(30:29):
conversation. Yeah.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
It's been fun. Absolutely.
Good luck with the book. And you know, whatever happens
with Hollywood and film making, you know you'll find your way
through it and you're going to make AI films.
Yeah, I'm probably working at Walmart as well as the greeter.
I think that's my my next careermove.
(30:49):
I doubt it, but hey, enjoy the rest of your day and we'll talk
again before too long. Cool.
Thanks, Mike.
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