VFX Secrets & Scares: 2025 International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival Sneak Peek!

Episode Transcript
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Paul DeNigris (00:01):
We're getting a sneak peek at the 2025
International Horror and Sci-FiFilm Festival and discussing how
visual effects have evolvedover the festival's history.
On this episode of VFX forIndies, a podcast about the

(00:33):
intersection of visual effectsand independent filmmaking, I'm
your host, paul DeNegres, vfxartist, filmmaker and CEO of
boutique visual effects shopFoxtrot X-Ray.
With me today is the executivestaff of the International
Horror and Sci-Fi Film FestivalFestival Director Amante Yazzie,
horror Program DirectorsBrandon Kinchin and Danny
Marianino, and Sci-Fi ProgramDirector Michael Stackpole.

(00:57):
Welcome to the podcast.
Gents, glad to be here On thisshow.
Our goal is to explore thecrossover between visual effects
and indie film productionwithout going too deep into the
weeds of tech talk.
If you like what we're doinghere, please like and subscribe
to stay updated as we releasenew episodes, and you can find
our back catalog atvfxforindiescom.
As I mentioned, these gentlemenare the executive staff of the

(01:19):
International Horror and Sci-FiFilm Festival.
The Horror Sci-Fi Film Festivalis a program of the 501c3
nonprofit Phoenix FilmFoundation.
It's a sibling of the PhoenixFilm Festival, the Phoenix Film
Society, ifp Phoenix, the PeoriaFilm Fest, the Arizona Student
Film Festival and the PhoenixCritics Circle.
Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival hasbeen running since 2005,.

(01:41):
And this year runs alongsidethe Phoenix Film Festival's 25th
anniversary edition, from March27th through April 6th 2025.
Before we talk about thefestival and the films, I want
to ask each of my guests tointroduce themselves.
Guys, tell the audience who youare, what you do and how you
came to be involved with theInternational Horror and Sci-Fi

(02:01):
Film Festival.

Danny Marianino (02:02):
Well, I can start.
I think Stackpole is probablythe oldest veteran in the mix
here, me and Brandon actually.

Brandon Kinchen (02:13):
Yeah, our stories are going to be the same
.
It's going to be the same story.

So we had a website here in town years ago
called it Blows my Mind.
What was it called?
I Can Smell your Brains, I your, I can smell your brainscom and
we were.
This was back when, um 20 yearsago yeah, brian palito actually
was the festival director andwe, uh, we were kind of

(02:38):
pre-screening guys, uh, for theshort films and the feature
films at the time and and thenthat was like maybe 2007.

That was the first year, I think we came on
like the second year, as likesponsors yeah.

And then the third year we actually came in
because Brian Pulido left andour friend Andrea came in and
she was the horror director andwe started doing the.
I started doing the shorts.

One year Brandon started doing the full
feature films it was after wehad a fire in his house.
We did them together for acouple years and then you had
the fire and you had a lot ofshit going on.
So I'm like I'll take thefeatures, you do the shorts, and
we just kept it that way fromthere on out.
Yeah well, and then Andrea leftand Monty came in.

So I'm like I'll take the features you do
the shorts, and we just kept itthat way from there on out.
Yeah, and then Andrea left andMonty came in and we've been I
guess we've been doing it almost20 years now from.

I think it's the 15th year of the horse
sci-fi.
I feel like it's longer, but itfeels like longer.
I'll tell you that it feelslike forever.

On the website it said it goes back to 2005, but
that didn't seem right to me andI'm not sure if maybe it ran
sporadically during the firstfew years.

Michael Stackpole (03:51):
It was there since 2005.
It's been there every year.
I think it was for the firstsix years.
It was independent and done inOctober, and then we jumped over
and became part of the PhoenixFilm Festival, co-located and
everything like that.
I started with Brian back whenit was proposed.

(04:13):
Brian and I were doing scriptstogether and one day he said hey
, we're doing this film festival, I want you to be the science
fiction guy and knowing nobetter, I said sure.
So you know I've been the.
I've been programming both thesci fi shorts and the sci fi
features for the for the life ofthe of the festival background.

Brian Polito is an Arizona guy as well comic
book creator most famously knownfor Lady Death Is that correct,
yeah?
And also a filmmaker, who Ithink some of my back when I was
teaching, I think some of mystudents worked on a couple of
films that he shot here inArizona that some of our mutual
friends produced.
Michael, you've also got a lotof serious sci-fi bona fides

(05:11):
which I want to hear about.
But before we do, let's hearfrom Monty.
How did you get involved withthis organization?

Monte Yazzie (05:18):
You know I was watching all of these
programmers' films from theaudience, because I've been
going since 2005.
So I've been.
I started as an attendee forman almost 10 years, nine,
almost 11 years and then in 2016or I think 2015, somewhere
around there, andrea left andshe had, you know, I had been

(05:42):
going so much by that time thatshe kind of came through and
said, you know, hey, is thissomething that you think you
might want to do?
And you know I was like I'dlove to do it.
It'd be a dream to do it.
I love this festival and youknow Jason and everybody else
kind of got on board and youknow I was asked to kind of come
on board and help out.
And you know I often tell peoplethey'll say why has it lasted

(06:04):
so long?
And I said it lasts so long notbecause of leadership, but
because of the great people thatprogram the films we have here,
everything Very, very.
You know, 100 percent, there'sno, I'm always excited to see

(06:34):
what they program and you know,sometimes I like to be surprised
as well, to show up and sit inthe audience and watch what they
program.
So, but it is that it is thatbalance I think of.
You know, understanding, likeyou know, there's a reason why
we've lasted so long and why wehave been so successful, and you
know, and you can attributethat to the people that are have
been with the program for aslong as they have.

Absolutely.
I mean every every year.
The festival is a celebrationof these genres and it's obvious
that the folks that pick thefilms program the, the, the
blocks, that it's obvious youguys love these genres, right,
which is the secret ingredient,right?
The Phoenix Film Festival haslasted as long as it has because
those folks love film.

(07:10):
International horror, sci-fihas lasted this long because you
guys love horror and sci-fi.
Michael, I think you gaveyourself short shrift in your
intro.
Just tell the audience a littlebit about your history with the
sci-fi genre and why you werethe obvious choice when Brian
Pulido tapped you to join thefestival.

Yeah, my day job is writing science fiction
and fantasy.
I started out as a gamedesigner and computer game
designer and then in the 80smoved into doing novels and I
was very fortunate in 96 97 gotto write in the Star Wars
franchise and so I've done ninenovels there.

(07:56):
All of those hit the New YorkTimes bestseller list and you
know, that kind of puts me in aposition of um it makes it look
like I know what I'm doing.

Which is which is really kind of important
appearance is everything in thisbusiness, right?
Yeah, no, michael does actually, really, really genuinely know
what he's doing and and again,loves sci-fi and uh and uh and I
enjoy.
You know when I see him at thefestival every year uh, getting
to nerd out on stuff and uh andchatting about things.
Know, when I see him at thefestival every year uh, getting

(08:26):
to nerd out on stuff and uh andchatting about things like the
mandalorian, and you know thedifferent directions of the star
wars franchise.
I don't know if I should putyou on the spot on the uh, on
the podcast, michael, but we'llsee if we have time, time no
problem uh, danny brandon monty.
What do you guys do as your, asyour day jobs, when you're not
programming film festivals?

Well, I myself I work for my wife currently,
but I used to be in bands owneda music venue in Flagstaff and
sold that during the pandemic,came back to Phoenix and been
working for my wife in realestate, honestly and on the side
, but mostly stay-at-home dogdebt.

I work at a bank.
I manage a portfolio ofcustomers, but I also write
books.
I'm not on New York Times, I'mnot at a stackpole level, but
I've got about seven differentbooks out kids' books to adult,
humor, kind of comedy stuff, andI used to play in kind of a

(09:28):
popular band back in the day.
So once on a blue moon we'll dosomething in music here and
there, but you know, mostlythese days working on children's
books, nice.

Nice Monty, how about you?
Working on children's books,nice, nice Monty, how about you?
So my day job is I don't haveas storied of a background as
these fellows with what they'vedone.

My day job is.

I'm a public health officer for a tribal
community here in Arizona, so Ido a lot of work with health
standards, injury prevention,emergency management and
planning for a tribalcommunity's you know kind of
increased health components asthey move forward.
And on top of all that, I havebeen heavily involved in film in

(10:15):
Arizona for a very, very longtime.
So I'm the president of thePhoenix Critics Circle right now
, which is our local filmcritics society here in Arizona
right now, which is our localfilm critics society here in
Arizona, and you know we have awide range of members who are
all local, who writeconsistently or do podcasts
consistently, and you know wehold a pretty high standard for

(10:35):
our group of esteemed writers.
I've been part of thatorganization since it was
founded about I think like nineyears ago now and on top of that
, I have dabbled in filmmakingfor a very, very long time, and
only recently have I had theopportunity to produce my first
feature film.
It's called the Dead Thing.
It's on Shudder AMC Networksright now.

(10:56):
You can stream it right now ifyou'd like to, but that was a
labor of love.
I shot it in 2022, right at theend of the pandemic Well, right
when we were coming out of thepandemic.
But we were doing a lot of workback then and it took two years
to finish up and get it out tothe masses.
But it's been pretty amazing tosee the success that it's had

(11:16):
and the word of mouth that it'sachieved.
I've been a Shudder subscribersince day one, so the fact that
you know I have a movie that hasmy name on it my participation
in some way shape or form on itis pretty amazing, so I tell
people this I don't want topinch myself because I'm worried
I'm going to wake up a collegekid wondering how I'm going to
make my first short film.

I actually finally watched it last night.

Oh hey nice.

Me and Jay Photos caught it over some
cigars in the backyard.
It was awesome.

Did you see my cameo?
Did you see my cameo?
I didn't catch a cameo by you,did I?
I'm playing pool in thebackground of one of the scenes.

I'm going to have to go back and look at it.

Very cool.
Congrats, monty.
I'll have to catch up with thatas well.
I don't think I I have everystreaming service known to man,
but I don't think I have shutter, yeah, so I'll have to check
that out.
Uh, and you know, this is one ofthe things I love about about
film festivals in general, andthe phoenix film festival in
particular is, um, there's acommunity that's built around
this organization that isunified by this love for film,

(12:21):
and you've got people from alldifferent walks of life, all
different experiences, there.
You know people who, likemyself, work in the industry all
the time, and then people whohave jobs that are not related
to the, to film.
Uh, but they, they dedicatetheir time as volunteers because
, you know, none of us, nobody'sgetting paid to to run a film

(12:42):
festival.
Really, um, you're doingbecause you love it right.
You're doing it because youlove it right.
You're doing it because this ismy community, this is my genre,
this is what I want to do, tocelebrate my love of these
things and join with thecommunity, and that's what makes
it awesome and that's why Ilook so forward to the Phoenix
Film Festival and Horror Sci-FiFilm Festival every year.

(13:02):
It's like homecoming, it's likea family reunion.
You get to hang out with people.
I don't see Michael Stackpoleregularly we don't run in the
same social circles but I seehim.
We share a drink, we chat aboutsci-fi.
I see Monty and we chat aboutpizza and all sorts of things.
It's because of our mutual loveof film that brings us together

(13:24):
.
It's pretty magical.
If you haven't been to a filmfestival my listeners out there
if you haven't been to a filmfestival, find one near you and
go and you will realize theseare my people.
This is who I'm supposed tohang out with.
So obviously this is a visualeffects podcast, so I want to
talk about what you guys haveseen in terms of VFX, visual

(13:48):
effects, special effects, anysort of effects work, over your
years of watching movies for thefestivals, both the films that
you've accepted and the onesthat you didn't.
Both horror and sci-fi genrescan really heavily rely on
effects work, both in camera,special effects and
post-production visual effects,and obviously there's always

(14:09):
exceptions.
I can think of primer as a goodexample of a sci-fi movie that
just didn't rely on effects workat all.
So tell me, what have you seenover the years, what's worked
and what didn't work well, I'mgoing to say, first off,
everything's improved greatly inthe last few years.

You know people were a little more practical
effects on a short film at leastyou know, for horror stuff.
But you know, I've seen it getbetter and better and better
through the years and sometimesyou sit back and you say to
yourself, wow, this is shortfilm and this guy was able to

(14:48):
pull this off visually withprobably a budget to feed his
crew at Denny's, you know.
So it's been.
It's really been pretty amazingto see such a change, pretty
amazing to see such a change.
Honestly, I think Stackpole'sreally got the biggest change in

(15:09):
things, because I mean sci-fi,it really heavily relies on
effects and I've seen, I saw hisrun last year and I was like
wow, holy shit, can I say shit?
uh, I guess I said it alreadyall right cool yeah, I was like

(15:30):
I was like wow, man, like likepeople are really they're
getting.
Technology is either gettingeasier to use or people are just
getting better at it yeah, Imean that's very, very true.

I, down through the years the effects
have gotten so much better andit seems that people are a lot
more comfortable working witheffects.
And it makes it really, reallyimportant, because years ago you

(16:02):
would have people that hadperfected an effect and then
would try and build a storyaround it and and it wouldn't.
It just wouldn't be there.
I mean, they'd have a, they'dhave a 10 minute short and five
minutes of it was the effect,and then they didn't really do
anything with the other, withthe other five minutes, and so
it didn't really hold togetheras a story.

(16:22):
But now, because that world ofpossibilities is so opened up,
they're able to have theirreally good story and go and
then I put this effect in hereand I put this effect in here
and it really feels kind oforganic to the stories, whereas
before it was just tacked on.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen it, it's run the gamut
over the years.
I could say I mean anythingfrom more like trauma-esque
effects, you know where.
It's just kind of justsplattery all over the place to
stuff that looks like it mayhave been done with an iPhone as
like just as a standard push-ineffect.
But for a lot of stuff, when weget some of these films early

(17:05):
and they could be pre-effectsthat I'll have to watch and,
yeah, they'll have stand-ineffects.
So you have to, you have tokind of go with what feels like
oh, it's going to go along withit, because you know you may
have incomplete stuff that youjust have to kind of rely on how
the story is going, howeverything is working and well,
is it going to come togetherwhen they do have that effects
put in?
And?
But the thing is, a lot offilms don't have to worry about

(17:28):
when submitting if the effectsis done, because a lot of people
can get around it, watch, watchand really feel how it is while
they're still trying to perfectit.

Yeah, you know, the program that I do is
showcases, so a lot of what wesee and showcase are films that
have distributors and they havefunding or they have you know
something that is giving them alittle bit more of a advantage
over competition films.
Um, and it's interesting tohear how filmmakers are using
visual effects to add productionvalue to their, to their films.

(17:58):
And you know, I remember thereremember a few years ago, there
was this zombie apocalypse filmthat came out.

And the landscapes.
I was like, where did?

you shoot this at?
Did you shoot this in thedesert?
Or where did you find thatbackground house?
And he goes oh, it's all VFX.
He goes, it's all stuff that weadded.
And after it was over, we knewwe wanted to have this landscape
that looked like a real bigdense desert over.
We knew we wanted to have thislandscape that looked like a
real big, like dense desertbecause we didn't.
We couldn't find it, wecouldn't shoot off of some place
, so we just masked it off andshot green screen and built it

(18:27):
in, built in the backgrounds,and you would have never have
noticed it like it was.
It was so seamless and how theywere able to do it, and you know
listening to some of thesefilmmakers now that are coming
through who are using VFX toreally adds like a, a, a value
that they, that they can'tpurchase and the value that you
know that gives their film moredepth and more drama.

(18:50):
It's pretty amazing and you knowthat even comes with like you
know what I call, like what youknow I will always be a
practical effect guy for horrorfilms.
That is what I love.
But you'll see, sometimespeople are using blood splatters
or they're using, you know,wounds and stuff to like add
this drama to the scene and makeit a little bit bigger.
And you know, for the longesttime when that was coming out,

(19:10):
you know your, your eye, kind ofthe uncanny valley of it all,
like kind of sees, you know allthat didn't look like that's not
how blood moves or that's nothow fluid moves.
And now, like it, people aregetting better and better and
better if the color is gettingbetter, the, the, the look is
getting better and it's just,it's pretty amazing.
Like you, you start to see itnow and now, now I think in the
last probably five years I willwatch a film, go through the

(19:34):
credits and see, like who istheir vfx coordinator, who's the
guy that's doing it, just tosee.
Oh, I wonder if they even putsome in here, if they even
thought about that.
I think about like even for thedead thing as well too.
Like our mobile app that wehave in the film is actually not
shot on the.
On our app it's actually greenscreened out and we built it in
over top of it and we were soworried about how that would

(19:54):
look because we were like thatyou know it, it it might not
track right.
You know, we weren't even sureif we were shooting with the
right color green at the timeand before you knew it, like you
see it on screen and it's soseamless.
And the guy who did our VFX waslike, oh yeah, it wasn't that
hard.
Like he was so calm about it.
Like we were like, oh, this iswhy these people get these jobs,

(20:14):
because they don't make itstressful at all.
And we were stressed, Iremember on set we were stressed
.
We were like, oh, we aren'tdoing it right, we're not sure
what's going on.
And then he just looks and hegoes oh, you guys got it all,
we're good, don't worry about it.
And like maybe the thumb,because the girl had to swipe on
the on the screen, so maybe thethumb's gonna get into it.
It's gonna be an issue?
No, no problem at all.
It looked perfect.

I freshly saw it last night, so it's funny.
You know, you're right, yousaid something that really makes
a lot of sense there.
I think we've all gotten alittle bit more used to it as
well, because I remember whenspartacus came out, the showtime
show, and my dad was all aboutit he was, you got to watch his
show, spartacus and I put on thefirst episode and I'm like this
is all like digital bullshit.

(20:55):
Blood like this is there'snothing practical about.
How could you like you likethis.
It's like a cartoon fuckingshow.
And you know, then I continuedwatching it a little bit and I
got into season.
Episode three was awesome andthen I'm like I'm hooked.
But now I don't think twiceabout that.
I mean, you know we mentionedthe Mandalorian earlier.
I forgot that Mandalorian IIIcame out and I never went back

(21:19):
and watched it.
So I literally started watchingit like the last couple days and
I was thinking about it lastnight like how incredible this
like dinosaur or bird thing thatflew in that grabbed the little
training kid from you know, theMandalorians and took them off.
This thing looked incredible.
I mean it looked like it wasreal the days of things looking

(21:50):
a little shoddy in thebackground.
You know, it's really gottenabsolutely incredible and some
of our independent filmmakershave kind of tapped into this
market and it's it's.
I'm seeing stuff that I'm justlike.
You know, even sometimes thestory may not be that good, but
he pulled off something and I'mlike do I put this in there
because it deserves for thiseffect, deserves it for an

(22:14):
independent guy, or do I?
Eh, the story's not that good.
Sometimes I got to flip thatcoin around you know.

But I think you point out something which is
really, really important.
Yeah, the tools are gettingbetter, but also what people are
willing to accept when they usethose tools and the fact that
they've got a lot of experiencewatching what other people have
done and they're able to go okay, I didn't like how they did it,
so I'm going to do it just thisway, just a little bit more.

(22:43):
And everybody keeps refiningthe, their techniques and, and
you know, the other filmmakerssee that they learn from it, and
so it there's just sort of anexhalation of of competence, as,
as you get this feedback builtinto the system.

Yeah, and, like I was, a few years ago the Void
was submitted.
I don't know if you've seen theVoid, it was probably about a
decade ago.
It actually got picked up fordistribution before it could be
in the festival, so it actuallygot pushed out.
But I was blown away by the useof both practical and digital
effects in it.
They did such a good job ofmarrying the two together.
I was so stoked.

(23:21):
I'm like how how they were ableto do that on such a small,
shoestring budget was wasincredible, and that one was one
that really stood out.
It was unfortunate that wecouldn't actually show it at the
end, but it was.
There's several examples likethat.

Yeah, I mean anytime that you can marry
practical and digital together,that's married.
Practical and digital together.
That's that's the sweet spot,right?
You know, I always look at, uh,peter jackson's lord of the
rings versus his hobbit movies.
Right, hobbit leaned way tooheavily on digital, whereas lord
of the rings trilogy it waspractical, it was digital.
It was.
It was you know, small peoplein wigs.
It was digital compositing tomake elijah wood small.

(23:57):
It was a, you know a, a CGcreature in a miniature
environment that was sculpted.
It was all of these differenteffects combined together to
create this illusion of reality.
Do you guys think that theincrease and improvement in
effects that you've seen overthe years, do you think it's
driven by technology?
Is it driven by what I callYouTube film school, where

(24:19):
there's a tutorial foreverything?

Or is it just driven by filmmaker passion?
Probably a little bit of both.
It's the accessibility to it,you know, just be able to have
access to the tools and know howto use them in a way that you
know you can look up on youtubehow to do basically anything
anymore.
So if you want to do something,you can get an idea on how to
do it.
So there is some of that I.
I think that has helpeddrastically, and especially for
people that were maybe afraid toget their feet wet to begin
with.
They know okay, maybe I cangive this a try and do it

(24:47):
instead of just going.
You know what.
Throw other hands over the headlike this is something we can't
even attempt to do.

So I think it gives people more creative
leeway to try and get to theplaces they're trying to go, and
they may have more of a more ofa pathway to do so everything
is going to evolve, even likeplaying in a band and going into
a recording studio with anengineer and a guy and he's
doing the recording for you andhe's an expert, he knows what
he's doing.
You're going to find that kidthat figures out how to do that

(25:14):
technology at home.
He's going to record his ownalbum at home.
He he's gonna record his ownguitar parts right into his
computer and do it all like thatand do it on his own.
And I'm one of those guys thatstill feels the need to find the
expert to do things.
I like to try to figure somethings out, but I really believe

(25:35):
that somebody that is a masterin their craft and does what
they do for a living is gonna doit better than me trying to do
it.
But you know, with technologytoday you can learn how to do
shit on your own.
You can figure it out If youfind the right tools.
As my father would say, it'sthe tools that make the man.
If you find the right tools andyou learn how to do those tools

(25:58):
, you could do a lot of it athome.
I personally am a bigger youknow, phil Tippett guy.
You know I like the practicaleffects, the Ray Harryhausen
moving the Medusa or the Cyclopsa little bit.
I still love when I watchRoboCop and I see Ed 209 come on

(26:19):
stage and it's that wonky, youknow claymation thing versus
versus seeing something todaythat maybe is not.
But I listen, I appreciate thethe work that goes into
digitally making you know someof that stuff as well.
I mean, it's, it's prettyincredible.

I think.
I think one other aspectinvolving the technology.
Um, yeah, you can go to youtubeand see how to do stuff, but
then on the back end of prettymuch any youtube program, you
know, there's always aninvitation to go to their
discord.
You know where you're meetingother filmmakers that are doing
the same sort of thing.
I mean, I see it with withwriters groups all over the

(27:01):
place, so that you know there'sthere's this ability to reach
out to people on a very informal, one-on-one basis, where
they're all being treated as,hey, we're all the same and,
yeah, this is how I did this.
You want to look for this.
This is the filter you want touse, and I think that that
ability to share thatinformation back and forth

(27:24):
democratizes everything and endsup raising the level of quality
, just because now everybody'sstarting from the same
foundation.
You know it's not that.
You know, back in the oldendays, you know you'd have to go
to Hollywood and you'd have toapprentice out there for 10
years before you'd have accessto some of this stuff.

(27:44):
But now it's hey, yeah, you'rehaving fun doing this, so am I.
You ought to try this.

It'll blow your mind of the idea that
filmmakers' visions are justgetting more and more passionate
.
Right, they want to see thingsthat they haven't seen before,
which is making the developers,the programmers, the people that
are doing the work, have tolearn more and more aggressively

(28:11):
and think bigger.
And you know, you think back to, like you know, what James
Cameron was doing on Terminator2, you know with you know fluid
liquid effects and like how,like even that looked amazing.
I still go back and watch thatmovie and I'm like that's really
good, that's really really good.

And then I just watched the abyss like a month
ago I haven't seen that in years.
Talk about incredible, yeah,and you know like.

You know that.
That's that's where I think youalso get that piece as well too
.
It's just the demand fromfilmmakers who are trying to
make something more grand.
You know, you think about someof these novels now that people
are like we don't know how tomake it, because we just don't
know how to envision it.
And now, like with technology,you know doing leaps and bounds
from when I started on aterrible videotape camera that I

(28:58):
was shooting stuff on, and nowyou, my cell phone has a better
camera setup than anything I hadjust five years ago.
So you know, that's that'samazing, that how far, how fast
it's come in just that time.
You know to where it was beforeand I think you know it comes
from a thing of necessity, andpassion, I feel like, is where
it comes from.

Yeah for sure, technology has always been a
driver of art and vice versa.
You know, if you think about itlike every, when we had I also
started with the you know crappyVHS cameras and stuff like that
, every button on that cameraexisted because some artists was
like, hey, I want to do this,hey, I need to control this
aspect, and so then theengineers would figure out how
to do it Right.

(29:40):
So technology and art havealways been in this dance
throughout human history.
Uh, and we're seeing itaccelerate because of the
internet.
You know, uh, like you guys aretalking about the, the
accessibility of information,the uh, accessibility of.
Here's how I did it, and thenI'm happy to share my, my
secrets and show you behind thecurtain and all of that uh,

(30:01):
which is which is great, and I,I imagine, uh, I don't I don't
look at tutorials for practicaleffects as much.
You know squibs and and goreeffects and things like that,
but I imagine it's the same as,as sort of uh, what I see in the
digital effects realm, wherethere's a dozen new tutorials
every day on YouTube byreputable folks who've done

(30:23):
serious, you know, excellentwork.
Um, so, you know, for anyfilmmakers starting out to me
film.
The YouTube film school is.
The is the place to start.
You're going to find you wantto do an effect.
You saw an effect in a SamRaimi movie, or you know a
Robert Eggers movie or a youknow an A24 horror movie.

(30:46):
You want to do that effect.
Hit YouTube first.
How do I do this effect?
You're going to find a tutorialfor it.

If you want to do anything, hit YouTube first.
I had a hard wire, a garbagedisposal, in my sink because it
doesn't come with a plug.
And I'm reading instructionslike I've got no idea how to do
this and I watch the YouTubevideo and the guy goes you take
the kit, you buy the wire kit,you do this, you plug it in.
I did it yeah.

Same thing applies to and I'm not handy.

I promise you.

At all.
He's not.

Well, you're brave're brave.
Plumbing and electrical iswhere I draw the line I can.
I can swing a hammer, but don'task me to fix anything that.
Uh, that doesn't justautomatically come with a plug
and I don't want to touch waterat all.
No, forget it.
So question for uh, for brandonand danny what do you guys look
for in selecting films for thehorror portion of the festival?

(31:43):
Are there specific themes orstories that appeal to you, or
specific sub genres Like?
Horror can be pretty broad.
There's supernatural horror,there's slasher horror.
You know what are the thingsthat grab you when you're
looking at these films that aresubmitted.

Well, myself, I mean, I love the whole genre
and I have a soft spot forslasher horror from from the 80s
.
That's kind of where I groundmy teeth.
You might say, uh, but I mean,as far as for these it's.
I mean, I particularly myselfdo not like found footage films,
but even this year there's afound footage film.
If it works, it works.

(32:18):
You know, I try to take my, someof my personal preferences and
maybe some of my things that Idon't like and put them aside
when I watch it and go.
What is going to work for anaudience, for one, and sometimes
there'll be.
You know, some years there'ssix found footage films, some
years there's nine zombie filmsand nobody wants all.

(32:39):
You know, I get three films.
You don't want all three ofthem to be a zombie film, so you
go.
All right, this is the bestzombie film, this is the best
one of this genre and these willall kind of fit together to be
an interesting spectrum.
You know, you don't want allhorror comedies, you don't want
all vampire films, but you, soyou go.
You want to kind of what I whenI'm doing it, I want to kind of
run a variety and not just betoo pigeonholed in like one

(33:03):
different area.

Yeah, you know, every year it seems to be
there's a certain theme going onand maybe it's just a theme of
society or whatever it is.
But, like this year was a lotof ghost stuff that I got, last
year was a lot of womenempowerment things that I had.

The pandemic years.
You really saw that thepandemic year it was a lot of
COVID short films.

You know, when I watch the short films, I watch
them over and over and over andI start to grade them in A, b,
c and then I go back and watchthe A's and the B's, and I go
back and watch the A's and Imake notes and I literally try
to put together.
It's like listening to amixtape.

(33:49):
So you know you got the songthat comes in the first song of
the album has got to be nuts,and then you got a good, solid
song and then the next songcould be a little slower, and I
and I watch once I put the listtogether what I like, I start to
watch them in order.
Now, I don't watch the wholething over and over from start
to finish, but I get the feeland to try to put it together in

(34:12):
a, in a way where that mixtapeflows well.
Um, one thing I, I, I, I, I'm.
We get a lot of zombie stuff andI try not to do too much zombie
stuff.
It's not that I don't likezombie stuff.
I mean, you can see over thatshoulder that's a Dawn of the
Dead poster signed by Ken Forayback there.
I'm a big zombie fan, it's just, I feel, like some of those

(34:35):
zombie short films.
It's just like they.
It's like they called it in andjust did it.
We made a short film.
It's a zombie, unless there'ssomething a little bit more
extraordinary, unique about thestory that may grab me I really
like.
I'm a humor horror guy, fromthe Evil Dead to Slither to even

(35:02):
you know Frank Henlotter'sstuff like Basket Case and
Frankenhooker.
So I like to mix a little bitof that into it as well, because
I think if you've got too muchhorrific gore and blood and guts
, the average person isn't goingto want to sit there and just
watch that over and over.

(35:22):
So I try to mix some of thecomedy stuff in the middle of it
just to kind of bring you upand down, up and down.
A little bit of a rollercoaster.
You know, with the short filmsI got more leeway to kind of
play than Brandon does, becauseBrandon if you got three movies.
You got three movies, that's it,that's the end of the story.
I have, you know, maybe eight,fifteen short films between two

(35:46):
horror segments to put togethera horror A and a horror B, to
really kind of get a good feeland that flow.
And I have only had one or twomovies.
The short films have to comeout of the festival, for maybe
they got picked up to make afeature film or something
happened.
Brandon, I know you've lost afew here and there.

Yeah, but I think almost every year at least
the winner usually gets pickedup.
I think we have a very goodtrack rate of our films getting
distribution that have been inthe festival.
It's been great.

Yeah, like that death metal horror movie.
That was a selection one year.
I think they made a second onefinally that one.
A lot of the ones he picks endsup getting picked up for sure.

Yeah, we've had really good luck with it.
It's been really cool andmeeting filmmakers that were
very small, that are now andhave blown up, you know it's
crazy, you know.

Yeah, that's also one of the exciting things
about film festivals is younever know.
You never know when thedirector whose hand you shake
after the q a is going to blowup and be the next, the next big
thing.
And it's kind of neat to uh tosee them at sort of that ground
floor of their career.
It sounds to me like you guysput a lot of thought into how

(37:04):
you program your films, which isgreat, and it's one thing that
I don't think enough independentfilmmakers realize.
A lot of filmmakers, when theysubmit to festivals, when they
get rejected, they think it's astatement about the quality of
their film, or they think it's astatement about you know the

(37:25):
politics of the film festival,or or that they didn't have an
inside connection or anything.
But it's a lot more it's.
It's a lot more nuanced thanthat, right it's as you say yeah
, you're trying to program anexperience.
Um, you know, when I was makingfilms before I shifted fully
into vfx, one time one and onlytime I got a, a letter, a

(37:49):
handwritten letter, from afestival programming committee
that said we loved your movie,we just couldn't fit it that's
happened too, yeah oh yeah, yeah.
There's plenty of times whereI'm sure you guys love a movie,
but it's like uh, like you said,I can't program three zombie
horror movies, so I gotta pickthe best one, even though I love

(38:10):
these other two yeah, like whenI, when I submit, I have my
three and for each of thosefilms there's an alternate.

So if this film doesn't make it, then this film
needs to be the next one inline whether but it not.
If but it goes by.
If this film doesn't make it,then this film needs to be the
next one in line whether but itnot.
If but it goes by.
If this film, then this film,not.
You know a list that, if what,any one of these, this is the
next one, but a very particularbut if this film can't make it,
then this is the next film.
If this one can't, then thisone.
So you know, you have to reallythink about what's, because I
mean all films get picked up.

(38:38):
I mean it happens almost everyyear.
One of mine is going to getpicked up and it can't be shown.
So you gotta, you gotta expectthat, you have to anticipate it
yeah no that's great, michael.

Let's let's turn to you on the sci-fi side of the
festival.
You know what guides you inselecting films.
What, uh, what's your process?
Uh, you know what are thethings that get you fired up
when you're putting together aprogram.

So what I look for, especially in the
features, because you're goingto have a long time commitment
First thing I look for is arethere characters that are
interesting?
Are these characters I want tospend time with?
Because if they're not, youknow, then really the the SFX

(39:23):
budget and what they do reallydoesn't matter.
And the second thing is is thisreally science fiction?
You know, does the technologyyou're representing does?
Does whatever the story is hassomething to do with science and
and how science is going tohelp resolve the problem?
And the classic sort of sciencefiction.
What separates classic sciencefiction from just the stories

(39:47):
that would appear in SaturdayEvening Post?
You know, it's got to have thatunreal element that works into
it.
And then after that, if you'vegot good characters, if the
acting's good, I mean all of usare going to be looking for good
acting, and that's part of it.
If the acting's good, I meanall of us are going to be
looking for good acting, andthat's part of it.
But if the story is good andthe characters are good, then it
comes down to the quality ofthat filmmaking.

(40:08):
And so those are the mainthings that I look at when it
comes to the short films,exactly what Danny was saying.
You know you're looking forthese films and it's, to my mind
, it's like curating ananthology of fiction.
You know you're looking for allof these stories and you're
going to put them in a way thatwhen the people go in, that

(40:34):
first film is going to hit themand sit there and go.
They're going to go wow.
And then you take them throughthat roller coaster and
hopefully that last film goingout leaves them with another wow
, uh.
So you know they're looking atthis whole package and saying
that was very cool.
And because I have an A programand a B program, uh, my A

(40:54):
program is is generally my, uh,science fiction, you know, catch
all basket I sort of want.
You know, if I can, if there'sa cartoon, great, I want that to
be in there.
If there's a, you know, a StarTrek II kind of you know
organized exploring picture,that's great.
If there's, you know, a nerdout on the web, that's great.

(41:17):
Anything that would fit sciencefiction, that will go into that
.
And then in the other program,as they were saying, there tend
to be themes, and so you'rewatching these films and there
will be just a theme thatabsolutely lines itself up, and
so you try and put all of thosein there.
You know, this year for me the Bprogram was my international

(41:40):
program, because there were tonsof films that came in from out
of the United States and theywere really really good and they
all just lined up really reallynicely.
And, going to a point that wasmade earlier, one of the films
that made it into thatinternational program this year

(42:01):
had been submitted two yearsprevious and I hadn't been able
to use it, and it wasn't becauseit was a bad film, it just
didn't fit into any program.
But you know, this year it waslike oh okay, you know, now
we've got something where we canaccommodate this and so yeah,

(42:22):
absolutely.
You know it's again.
As a writer, I've gotten myshare of rejection slips and you
always do think, you knowhorrible things of, oh my God,
they hated it, I'm an awfulperson, and it's like no, no,
you know, loved your film, youdid great things.
You just weren't quite there.
Yet you know the competitionwas fierce this year, know, so,

(42:45):
sorry, try again.

You know there was a short film a few years ago
that I really wanted and, uh,it just it was a little long and
it just didn't fit.
I couldn't get it in eitherprograms and I hit up jason the
next year, asked them toresubmit because I really wanted
to show this movie, this, thisis the movie.
I don't know whatever happenedwith that, but maybe they just

(43:08):
were like, yeah, I'm notresubmitting to this guy again,
but I really wanted to show it.
It just was a little long thatyear and it stuck with me.
It was like it was like a blackand white.
It looked like King diamondsvideo for sleepless nights in
the graveyard and it was allblack and white and dark and it

(43:28):
was just it was awesome.
But sometimes you know you geta short film that's 35 minutes
or 40 minutes.
I mean you're, I'm gonna.
Yeah, if you're gonna make ashort film.
Make a short film, yeah, I'mgonna have to cut a lot of other
people out that maybe make somereally good films, out that
maybe make some really goodfilms to fit that.
And I think this year I got a.
I think I got one that's 24, 25minutes.

(43:50):
I liked it.
It was really done well, but itdefinitely takes down the fact
that I, you know, I could havefit maybe three or four more
five to seven minute short filmsthat were really good, but this
guy's 25 minute one was just.

It was worth putting it into the mix, you
know, for at least 25 yeah, ifyou're doing a short film in in
my mind every second over 12minutes, that film better be
getting better and better andbetter, because otherwise you
know, you're, you're, you'rereally hard to fit into a I.
I mean, we'd like what?

(44:25):
8 films in a short program ifyou can do that.
Our program is supposed to be80-90 minutes, so you know as
many films as you can get in.

It would be great yeah, you're going to lose
people on that drum solo justsitting there.
This guy's still playing thefucking drums already.

Come on that's a great analogy, monty.
Anything you want to add as a,as a, you know, an overarching,
uh thought about programming oror selecting movies, or or any
of the stuff that these guyshave talked about so, first and
foremost, um, I work with a lotof other festivals and my film

(45:08):
toured a bunch of festivals thisyear.

I love what just happened this last 10 minutes of
conversation because this iswhy we have programmers who've
been here for 20 years, becausethey think about the films the
way they do and not saying thatother film programmers don't do
this.
But there's a reason why theseguys are doing it.
It's because they put so muchthought into it, they put so
much attention into it and youknow you can feel how all three

(45:35):
of them have kind of differentfeelings and ideas about what
their program's going to be.
But that's what makes them sogreat and that's why you know
when we do come to the festivalgoing to be.
But that's what makes them sogreat and that's why you know
when we do come to the festival.
I'm oftentimes telling people Isay oh, you got an open spot
here in your schedule.
Here's Horror Shorts A.
Here's Sci-Fi B.
Here's a horror feature.

(45:56):
Go watch them because Iguarantee you you're going to
get something that you haven'tseen before, something that is
unique because that's what ourprogrammers do.
You know, for showcase filmsit's a little different.
We're kind of at the beck andcall of the distributor.
So a lot of times these filmshave found distribution already
or they're on the festivalcircuit already looking for
distribution, so working withthem.

(46:17):
Sometimes there's big asks.
We have films that we really,really want, that they aren't
doing anybody that isn't Southby Southwest or sundance or one
of the big, big, major horror,horror uh festivals out there.
So you know, we're constantlycompeting against those places
and, um, you know, this year weare.
We have some crazy films thatwe were able to get.

(46:39):
You know, freaky tales with themandalorian, we got the surfer
with nick cage.
Um, you know, these big, bigmovies that are coming already
have major distribution.
We have them in our programthis year.
That's usually how it goes.
We have these very big,well-known films and then you'll
get something smaller.
You'll get something like DeadLover, which is a small little

(47:00):
indie and it's completelydifferent than every other film.
I think that's where I that'swhy I love, you know, horror,
sci-fi programming and the stuffthat we do is because you can
get everything.
You can get comedy, you can getsomething really dark, you can
get something really unique.
You know there's the, the, thethemes and genres are so
flexible that you can geteverything out of these programs

(47:23):
and, yeah, it's pretty amazingto see these all come together
Every year that I do this.
I'm very, very just blown awayby how much better it feels like
we're getting right.
I think to an extent there'sgoing to be a time when I'm like
, I don't know, maybe this isthe year that it doesn't all
work out, or something like that, but I haven't gotten there yet

(47:44):
.
Every year just continues toblow me away, and that's the
credit of these programmers.

Well, that's a perfect segue to my next
question, Monty.
Let's talk about this year'sfestival.
What films and filmmakers areyou guys most excited about?

Well, I'm excited about my three films
that I've got in the Curty Point, the Crucifix, blood of the
Exorcist and Black Theta.
They're all three very smallindependent features.
As far as Monty's picks,there's two Texas Chainsaw story
films that I'm reallyinterested in.
Like you mentioned, the Surfer.

(48:21):
I'm really stoked to see that.
Let's see.
There's Pedro Pascal horrorfilm that was on that list.
I'm really looking forward toseeing him.
That looked really interesting.
Basically, I'll go down thereand I'll just look at the
schedule and try and see as muchas I can while I'm there,
because usually if you have time, look to see what you got.

(48:42):
I pick a film and you go.
I love it.
It's great to do it like that.
So it's always fun and there'sso much to do down at the
festival.
Whether it's down and you'regoing around looking at the all
the booths or with a silentauction, or going to the party
pavilion or going to the panels,you know you could walk around
and you go.
Oh shit, I need to get to afilm in three minutes and run

(49:03):
off.
There's so much to do.
You feel like you're beingpulled in 90 directions.
That's awesome.
I think that's a great aspectof the festival.
I'm stoked for it.
I'm stoked for it every year.

Yeah, I've got a lot of good shorts in the mix.
One of them actually is CThomas Howell, penelope Ann
Miller and the little scrawnyguy from the show Bookie.
He's the guy that owns thefuneral parlor.
He's in a lot of other stuff.
I think he was in Road Trip.
He hooked up with the girl whowas totally different sizes

(49:38):
between the two of them.
It's that guy.
That's a pretty good story.
There's stuff that's everythingfrom witches to uh uh, a guy
that works for like a UPScompany who has got to deliver
body parts.
Um, there's one that I reallyliked called porcelain.
That was, uh, almost likeGuillermo del Toro made the

(50:01):
movie and then uh said I'm goingto give it to another guy and
put his name on it.
It really had a really coolfeel with this guy that lives in
this gothic castle and this kidshows up and jumps over the
wall and he's got all theserobots working for him that he's
created it.
Really, you know, it's just agood mix of stuff.
Me and Brandon are also hostingJesse James meets

(50:26):
Frankenstein's daughter.

Yes, as like a Mystery of Science, theater riff
commentary thing.
So this is the first time we'vedone this.

We're looking forward to it April 5th.
We're doing that.
And it's not his daughter, bythe way, it's his fucking
granddaughter who makes a titlelike that.
First two minutes into it itsays his grandfather did it.
I'm like grandfather what thefuck I'm looking at the title
what?
I guess it just didn't ring.

Well, you know, paul, I want you to know that
there's one film that I put atthe top of my list for this, and
it's these two.
Riffing on that, I know just bybeing in a room with them, and
I've been in a room with themwhere I have done nothing but
listen and laugh for like threehours straight so the only thing
I asked was can we curse?

because if we couldn't curse I don't think we
could do it yeah it's gonna beamazing, I can't wait.

It's gonna be amazing, I bet well on my
schedule Now.

I have something I want to do there, Michael.
How about you?
What are you most excited aboutin terms of films and
filmmakers?

Well, again, listening to those two guys I
think is going to that's reallya lot of fun.
You know I'm really happy withthe films that I've got.
Silent Planet is just a reallycool science fiction film.
Two prisoners are on a planetserving out life sentences, and
just how they end up relating toeach other and discovering

(52:01):
things about themselves.
You know, it's just two reallygood actors, you know, in one
place and it's just a brilliantfilm and I enjoyed that.
And then there's another onecalled the Strange Dark, which
is a film about a family.
The father's made a discoveryand other people want that
discovery and the funny thingabout that was apparently they

(52:23):
got picked up for another set ofprograms in the same festival,
so there'll be plenty ofopportunities to actually go
ahead and see that.
And again, the internationalprogram on the shorts.
We've got films from Malaysia,canada, korea, germany, sweden,
mexico and Great Britain, mexicoand Great Britain.

(52:43):
It just, it was just amazingwatching these films come in
from everywhere and just seeingyou know how much science
fiction means to to folks.
I mean, you think of sciencefiction as being largely, you

(53:05):
know, american and sure it'spopular in Germany and a little
bit in England, but to see, youknow, people coming in from all
over the place is justunbelievably cool.
And I think you know, at thefestival, the other thing which
I really, really enjoy and we'vetalked about this a little bit
is getting to meet and talk withthe filmmakers, getting to find
out what their goals were.
You know here, you've chosentheir films, they're in the

(53:25):
thing, and now you get to findout you goals were.
You know here, you've chosentheir films, they're in the
thing, and now you get to findout.
You know, what were youthinking?
You know, or, or you know, inthe conversation having them,
you know, say look, I wasn'tsure if this worked, what did
you think?
You know, and you just sort ofwatch this, this creative, uh,
uh creative dialogue going onwhere everybody is suddenly

(53:46):
getting better or getting someinsights, and it really becomes
kind of a magical experience.
You know, even if you're just afly on the wall, listening to
filmmakers talk to otherfilmmakers, it's just really,
really cool.

I'm excited to see too.
It's not a horror, sci-fi oranything like that, but there's
a documentary on George Siegel.
I'm a real big fan of GeorgeSiegel's stuff, from St
Valentine's Day Massacre to thatmovie he did with Burt Reynolds
Anytime you see him in a moviethe movie he did with he found

(54:22):
that his son was black.
It was what's the guy's nameFrom the Equalizer.
Oh, I met him in Italy.
We're with you.

We can't help.

Yeah whatever.

You never take us to Italy.
Yeah, no, come on.

The guy's hang on, but anyways, I got to look
him up.
I can't remember.
I can't believe I can'tremember his name.
I won him days today, but yeah,he's just, he was a great actor
.
I thought he was DenzelWashington, come on.

Denzel Washington there we go.

He told the story he ran into him.
Well, I mean to of theEqualizer.
I'm not talking about that guywith the rapper girl.
It really only narrows it downto two Queen Latifah from
Equalizer.
But yeah, I know I was a hugefan of the Goldbergs when he was

(55:19):
on that.
He was like one of those guysthat seemed like he was like
your old uncle, that you had allreally love, and I guess they
filmed a lot of stuff about himbecause he had all these crazy
stories.
During the Goldbergs they werefilming interviews with him.
I can't wait to see it.

Yeah, I couldn't think of the name
earlier.
Mike Flanagan is who I wasthinking of, as the director
that got his start at thePhoenix Film Festival.
His first film in Satia was thefirst festival he ever
submitted to.
First festival he got picked upwas F&I.
I watched it.
It was awesome and he's blownup huge since then.
I can't wait to see what hedoes with the Dark Tower, you
know.
So it's awesome to be able tosee these progressions of

(56:00):
careers.
He was such an awesome, coolguy and very, very humble then,
so it was super awesome to dosomething like that.

Yeah, I love his stuff.
I'm, by and large, not a horrorfan, but anything that Mike
Flanagan does I'm there for andI actually I was lucky enough to
go to the Toronto film festivallast year and I stepped off the
train from the airport, steppedoff the train and ran into him

(56:29):
and his wife on the street andtalked to them for a bit and
they were such lovely people.
Yeah, yeah, they're fantastic.
And the Life of Chuck, which ishis film that comes out in a
couple of months, incrediblemovie, and it's got horror
elements.
It's an adaptation of anotherStephen King adaptation, which
he's done several of.
It's not a straight horrormovie.

(56:51):
It's really wonderful.

Cool.

Monty, what are you excited about this year's
festival?

I love the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
I often will tell people say,monty, what's the best horror
film ever made?

I say it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I
often will tell people, saywhat's the best horror film ever
made.

I say it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre because there
is everything that was beforeTexas Chainsaw Massacre and
there's everything after TexasChainsaw Massacre because of how
much impact that had forindependent films.
So we have two Texas ChainsawMassacre themed films playing a
documentary called Dinner withLeatherface, which is a really
heartfelt kind of story aboutGunner Hansen and his upbringing

(57:32):
within the Leatherfacefranchise, being known as this
pretty intimidating characterbut being just a big softie
behind the scenes, which I thinkif you get to know anybody
who's a horror movie fan orhorror movie lover, we might
look a little rough on theoutside, but I promise you we're
all you know.
A lot of us are doing prettyamazing things.

(57:52):
I always look at these two guys, not that they look rough or
anything like that, but uh, yeah, I am actually for for, uh, the
audience members who are onaudio.

Only Danny was just doing his best, monstrous
impression.

My tour Johnson .

You got a good one.

So we got Dinner with Leatherface, and then we
have another movie called ChainReactions, which is a breakdown
of five artists who've beeninfluenced by Texas Chainsaw
Massacre.
A breakdown of five artistswho've been influenced by Texas
Chainsaw Massacre PattonOswalt's one of them, takashi
Miike's in it, karen Kusama's init as well too.
Just people have beeninfluenced by that movie, which
I just found like reallyadorable.

(58:35):
And how?
Because I'm very influenced byTexas Chainsaw Massacre.
Freaky Tales, like we mentionedearlier with Pedro Pascal, is a
wild mixtape of like fivedifferent genres molded into one
, all set in 1987, Oakland.
There's another movie.
We have the surfer withNicholas Cage, which just go
watch the trailer.
There's no other reason for meto explain it, because once you

(58:55):
see the trailer, you're going tobe sold.
Nicholas Cage, I love.
Nicholas Cage we got a reallycool dystopian future film
called 40 acres which is allabout a post-pandemic,
post-plague United States inCanada where a family is kind of
living off the land but theyend up being hunted by cannibals

(59:18):
.
Pretty great film has liketones of Jordan Peele and social
commentary about kind of whereour world's at moving into the
future and let me see.
I'll give you a couple more.
There's a movie called A Desert, which is a neo-noir horror
film about a photographer whobefriends two people on a road

(59:39):
trip and it just turns out to bejust awful for him.
Really great group offilmmakers, really passionate
filmmakers as well too.
They just have done a reallygood job with this film.
And then, this one hasn't beenseen a whole lot.
I think we're like maybe it'smaybe fourth or fifth time it's
being seen, but it's calledJimmy and Stiggs.
Jimmy and Stiggs is a storyabout two best buddies who have

(01:00:02):
a pretty wild night, and one ofthem believes that they've been
kidnapped by aliens and believesthat an alien invasion's coming
in.
So he gets his buddy to comeand help him defend the world.
But it's directed by Joe Bigos,who has done some pretty wild
out there horror films andreally believes in practical
effect groupiness.

(01:00:23):
Jimmy and Stiggs is is gonnablow people away because it's
it's funny it's a littledifferent than what he's done
before.
Um, and it's uh, it's very, uhhard-edged in terms of its uh,
its, its content as well too.
So it's a it's really good.
I believe joe is trying to behere for that screening um, for
our major showcase films.
You know, we're pretty, we'repretty excited about who might

(01:00:44):
show up to the film festival.
So just keep looking at thatprogram, keep looking at social
media.
We start doing announcements.
As we get a little bit closer,we'll tell you some pretty cool
things that are coming up interms of some guests that we'll
be having, as well as some coolevents that will be coming up as
well too Fantastic.

Paul DeNigris (01:01:03):
Can you guys think of any standout effects
work If there's an effects fanlistening or watching what's one
or two movies that theydefinitely need to see?

Brandon Kinchen (01:01:14):
The Thing.
Just watch the Thing.
No, no, no, I mean in yourfestival.

Oh, in the festival, sorry, sorry, I should
be more specific.

Overall In mine , black Theta it's got some
really cool very budget.
You can tell they're all doneon a budget.
It was, uh, it was it's writtendirected and starring uh, tim
conley, you know he's did thewhole thing.
You could do the visual effects.
It was done on a shoestringbudget but they did them very

(01:01:42):
well on for very.
So the particular effectsthere's a lot of good blood but
it's a lot of digital blood andit works.

Danny Marianino (01:01:50):
So I would definitely check that out as far
as how to do some homespuneffects on a budget, well, I
don't know if I would sayanything that like specifically
really jumps out effects-wise,but I really like the makeup on
the witches and lifeboat.
Um, they got these like kind ofsea hag looking witches and

(01:02:15):
they're on this boat with thisguy and there's a little twist
behind it.
But uh, uh, I, I, they got likea creature that we could see in
the water that looks like akraken, you know, like you could
kind of see like the pentacle.
It was pretty cool.
I mean, listen, it's shortfilms.

(01:02:37):
They got stuff that kind ofcomes in and comes out and it
comes out quick and you're on tothe next film.
It's even hard for me toremember right now which ones
that had something that reallyjumped out.
I would say that one I reallyliked, the Porcelain Robots I
thought I mean for a short filmthat was pretty nuts out there

(01:03:01):
and the Flying Dick in theParcel.
I'll throw in the Flying Dick.
Gotta, throw in the flying dick.
There's a flying dick.

When there's a flying dick, you gotta look out
for it.

Yeah, it's not my first dick in the short films
.
There was one a couple yearsago and I remember I hit up
Jason.
I'm like there's a dick in thisand he's like, well, if it's
good, use it.
And I was like, eh, okay, now Ilet the doors open on on dicks.

I'm like put a flying dick in this one, michael
, any, uh, any standout effectsthat you recommend?

Michael Stackpole (01:03:34):
I think, just silent planet.
The way that they put togetherthis, this prison world, I mean
this just world where peoplewere in pods and and showed the
effects of them having beenthere for a long time, that was
very, very cool.
And then in the shorts program,um, there's a film called while
some must sleep and the.

(01:03:55):
There the effects were usedjust really sparingly, but you
know little things here andthere that just let you know
that.
You know it's the future, thisis different.
Um, you know.
So it's like oh yeah, we're not.
You know that.
You know it's the future.
This is different.
Um, you know.
So it's like oh yeah, we're not.
You know, we're not just insomebody's apartment anymore.
Uh, it made it very, uh, veryalive and very, very real monty,
anything come to mind for youyeah, I got one called the demon

(01:04:17):
, the daemon.

Monte Yazzie (01:04:18):
Um, uh, it's a lovecraftian cosmic horror film.
Uh, really great specialeffects, really great practical
effects, really great VFX Goodcombination of all those little
pieces in there.
It's basically a slow burnhorror film about a man who goes
to a lake to resolve sometrauma and something's in the

(01:04:39):
lake.
You take the Lovecraftian pieceof it and take that wherever
you want to take it and it'sgoing to take you there.
So it's a.
It's a pretty great one, areally good combination of kind
of everything effects drivenFreaky Tales does some beautiful
background effect works andreally great like kind of
built-in designs that are reallyjust kind of put there to kind

(01:05:00):
of give a little bit more depthand drama to the atmosphere.
There's some great stuff inthat as well too.

Fantastic.
Where can people find out moreabout the International Horror
and Sci-Fi Film Festival?

You can go to phoenixfilmfestivalcom.
The full schedule's up there.
We have what we have in ourprinted physical schedule, which
is always something thateverybody wants in a few
probably a week or so, but rightnow you can look at your entire
schedule.
You can build your entireschedule for every day of the
festival.
I always tell people when theycome to the film festival go to
that website.
There's so much more than justmovies as well too.

(01:05:33):
You know, while we're there formovies, there's all these great
interactive pieces.
There's a lot of great parties.
There's a lot of greateducational elements as well too
.
So you know too, you don't justhave to be a film lover to
enjoy the film festival.
You could be a film maker.
You could be just a film fan.
You could just like going to acool party.
There's a lot going on.
We have a film prom.
We have a lot of cool eventsduring the week.
Look at the schedule and you'llfind something that you'll love

(01:05:56):
.

The silent auction is always awesome too.
There's some good stuff.
I got a Texas Chainsaw Massacrepicture signed by Leatherface
from Part 2 last year.

I think we have one of our posters this year
that is signed by all theLeatherfaces.
Oh wow.

Every Leatherface.

Only if Daniel and I bid it against each other
on that.

All of the Leatherfaces have signed it, so
that might be cool to see verynice and if listeners, viewers,
if you've never been to thephoenix film festival, um, you
should know.
It's all happening in one place, at the scottsdale harkin,
scottsdale 101 location.
The festival basically takesover half of the the multiplex

(01:06:44):
and, uh opening weekend there'sa big party tent out behind the
theater where the silent auctionwill be.
Industry night on, uh on fridaynight, kids day on saturday
during the day, uh, film prom,saturday night, uh, panel
discussions, all that sort ofstuff.
Everything's central.
It's all happening in one place.
Um, it's a great shoppingcenter.

(01:07:06):
There's a ton of goodrestaurants in there tons of
good restaurants is in there Imean the pizza the cigar you
don't first order a piece tohave a cigar and the cigar bar
and trevor's.

You know that's what we'll be it's a good time.

Yeah, I'll see you guys over at trevor's, for
sure trevor's is there Seventimes, by the way, trevor's got
good pizza over there.
Dave Fortnoy called rates itthe best pizza in Arizona.

You know what I would say?
It's definitely $35, $40 forthe pizza I think we got.
It wasn't cheap.

You can smoke a cigar and have a great
old-fashioned there.
I mean, what was it?
$35, $40 for the pizza, I thinkwe got.

It wasn't cheap.

It wasn't cheap , but you can smoke a cigar and
have a great old-fashioned there.
Yeah, yeah.

We've done that several times so in case if you
haven't gotten the picturealready, the film festival is
just a great time all around.
I put everything else in mylife on hold for the 11 days of
the festival.
I'm there as much as I possiblycan be and uh and I help out
where I can.
I'll be helping out at uh atkids day on Saturday in the tent

(01:08:14):
uh, myself and Chris Lamont, uhlongtime friend and colleague.
He and I run the VFX booth inthe uh in kids day.
So we have the big green screenand kids can come and do their
their skits, uh, with costumesfrom Valley youth theater and um
, and we put them in whateverbackground, whatever environment
they want and it's uh, it's alot of fun.

(01:08:35):
So if you've got kiddos who arethinking about film or just uh
or super creative, bring themout to that.
And that brings this episode ofVx for indies to a close.
Don't forget, the internationalhorror sci-fi film festival
runs parallel to the phoenixfilm festival, march 27th
through april, april 6th.
Like I said, at the harkinscottsdale 101 you can also see

(01:08:56):
some vfx that were done by myteam at foxtrot x-ray in two
feature films at this year'sfestival, dark side of night,
march 29th, march 31st and april5th.
That's a?
Uh, an arizona made crimethriller.
And the other film is lovedanielle.
That's april 4th, 5th and 6th.
That's a?
Uh, a comedy drama about uh twosisters battling uh hereditary

(01:09:23):
breast cancer.
I know it doesn't sound funnybut it actually is, and we did a
bunch of really good invisibleeffects for that film.
Showtime's ticket links found,as Monty said, at
phoenixfilmfestivalcom, and Iwill also have the links to
those particular screenings onmy website at foxtrotxraycom.
Thanks so much to my guests,monty Yazzie, brandon Kinchin,

(01:09:47):
danny Marianino and MichaelStackpole for being here with me
today and thank you, viewers,for tuning into our discussion.
If you enjoyed this episode,please like, follow, subscribe,
leave a comment or review.
All of those helpful thingshelp us get the word out about
our show For Foxtrot X-Ray.
I'm Paul DeLingris.
Thanks so much for being partof the VFX for Indies community

(01:10:24):
and I hope to see you at theFilm Festival.

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