April 29, 2024 • 54 mins
In a riveting episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast, host Buddy Rahming converses with accomplished director and martial arts expert Robert Parham. Their discussion covers vast topics including the richness of independent cinema, the Comedy Cash Cow competition, and the critical role of mentorship in the entertainment industry. Explore Robert's journey to becoming a respected filmmaker, learn about the thriving talent in NorCal, and draw inspiration from his philosophy of community and camaraderie in filmmaking.
Robert recounts how he moved from being an extra to an acclaimed filmmaker, emphasizing that independence in cinema provides artists with control over their work and opens doors for untapped talent. He attributes his success to industry veterans who served as his mentors, imparting essential wisdom and support. This episode concludes with Robert's thrilling recount of winning the Best Director award at the Sactown Movie Buff Film Festival for his film 'Mad as Hell'.
Delve into Robert's approach to handling rejections and cultivating opportunities in the film industry, reiterated by his mantra - "If you want something done, do it yourself." This episode is flush with intriguing narratives about working with industry giants, the influence of martial arts discipline, and the momentous experience of directing his childhood heroes.
This power-packed podcast episode goes beyond filmmaking, addressing themes of hero worship, self-improvement, and the creative process. Gain an engrossing insight into the backstory of Cocaine Roach, Robert's ambitious future plans, and his thoughtful perspective on validation and progression in the art realm.
In his thoughtful conversation with Buddy Rahming, Robert Parham accentuates the key facets of successful teamwork and the importance of treating everyone with dignity in a collaborative environment. The actor shares his Mount Rushmore of action actors, reflects on his journey in the film industry, providing an eye-opening glimpse into the business dimension of filmmaking. For a dose of inspiration, resilience, and informative dialogue on the film industry, tune into this engaging episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We are hot. Yes, yes, yes. What's going on, world? This is your man,
Buddy Romming, and we are back at it with another episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast.
And this episode is brought to you by the Comedy Cash Cow competition.
So if you want to see 25 comedians compete for their chance to win a thousand
dollars and star in their own short film, you need to go to www.comedycashcow.com
(00:24):
because tickets are available.
Available the whole competition and event is going down may 25th in vacaville
california at the journey theater y'all so go get those tickets right now asap
see these comedians battle it out for the title of the cash cow winner we're
gonna have a whole bunch of.
Entertainment people up in there we're gonna have some agents some some film
commissioners people from iheart media is going to be a real dope networking
(00:48):
event so y'all please go out and support it and let's get into this episode
y'all like i said this is the yeah buddy podcast just Just like every single episode,
I always try to bring some of my friends in the entertainment business,
give us a chance to chop it up, catch up, see what we've been going on, what we got coming up.
And this episode is like no other. Y'all, this episode we have filmmaker.
(01:08):
Award winning director, man, martial arts expert, man.
This dude has movies to be. He's really out here grinding, doing his thing,
putting on for like the independent filmmakers up here in the Bay Area.
He's a shit Mr. Do it all when it comes to filmmaking. making i'm gonna
try to make it live and make it loud for my good friend mr robert parham right
here at the yeah buddy podcast thank you man thank you great
(01:29):
introduction man i try to i try to do my research i try to do my research and
shit like that i try i try yeah man so we are familiar with your work but i
think we got formally introduced at the sacktown movie buff film yeah that's
right that's right i saw you there and uh we connected and we had a great time
at that movie film festival Yeah.
Yeah. So what what what did like like just recap it?
(01:51):
What did you take away from the film from like the mixer all the way to,
you know, your movie premiere?
Well, what I took away is that there's a lot of talent here in NorCal.
Some of my friends call it Hollywood North and people are underexposed here.
Yeah. So that's what I took away from. And they do some great work.
The short films and the feature length films were just phenomenal.
(02:14):
You know, so, yeah, that's what I took away from. Yeah, there's definitely.
Like I said, people call it Hollywood in the North. There's definitely a film
community up here where, like I said, the one thing that I really took away from.
Especially Friday night at the mixer was like, that's the first time I seen
so many different filmmakers, just like all in just one area.
(02:34):
And there's like people like, like actors, directors, producers,
you know, DPs, PAs, just everybody just over just like here in this one, with this one area.
So just seeing everybody being able to put like their egos to the side.
Right, no agenda, just mixing and having a good time. Yeah, mixing and mingling
and like, you got, you're doing this, you're doing that. Okay, cool.
(02:56):
You know, cause sometimes, especially up here, I feel like,
I mean, you got to have an ego in this, in this industry, but like,
sometimes it kind of gets in the way of people actually helping each other out
and just getting, just getting to know people in general.
So just being a part of that, that mixer was definitely a good, a good experience.
And like I said, I got to meet you and the whole, your whole entire,
(03:16):
your whole entire production team.
Most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys roll pretty deep. Yeah.
But then we segue into sunday right
where you had the your movie was shown
at the sacktown movie buff film festival called uh
(03:37):
mad as hell did you like it i'll be completely honest
with you i had work i had work that day so i got i
got i came i got it there just in time for the
uh for the award ceremony so you missed the movie i missed
i missed everything i'm getting getting off yeah i did go
back watch the trailer i was trying to watch it on to be on my way up
here and stuff like that but no yeah i do gotta apologize for that
(03:59):
i did i did i did have that that that day we call the job yeah that kind of
gets in the way of uh pursuing this type of stuff but no i definitely didn't
want to check it out though well i want to shout out to the other filmmakers
that had their features shown as well david john foster had centauri 29 and he won a,
award for special video effects.
(04:22):
And then Simp won Best Picture by Tremaine Hale.
Best Picture and Best Actress. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then Mad as Hell, we came in with Best Director, Best Supporting Actor,
and Best Supporting Actress. Yeah. We did well.
No, yeah, y'all came away with some trophies. Like I said, that part I did see.
You have won the Best Director. You're right.
(04:42):
So what did you take? Did you know you was going to win? No.
Yeah? No. Did you have any type of like clue indication? Like just like,
yeah, this is, this is my award.
No, no. I, I let the work speaks for itself.
And if the community chooses to recognize it as such, then that's a blessing.
Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm more about the work and the people involved in the work.
(05:04):
I don't look for awards or accolades, but I'm open to them if they come my way. Yeah.
So what was that feeling like? Like I said, first off, anybody that didn't see,
it was premiering at like the IMAX as it was.
So that's like just that big, big screen. I know it's premiered at like,
it's been shown at film festivals at like Las Vegas and stuff like that.
(05:26):
Were you, but like seeing it on like the IMAX, just like. Yeah,
I've never seen it at IMAX. So the IMAX is six, the screen is six stories tall.
Yeah, yeah. So I've never seen it at the IMAX. You know, I've seen it in other
theaters and this thing.
And so it was, I was like, wow, I was a little overwhelmed.
I mean, we've had other movies that we have made that played at the IMAX,
(05:48):
but I never saw Matt as Hellier.
So it was pretty cool. Nice.
And so once when Kier had announced your name as the winner,
Best Director, what was going through your mind?
Wow. You know, it was wow, because it was a tight.
The other two directors that were in competition were just as deserving.
(06:12):
I was just flabbergasted, you know, our, our, our movie collectively has won
34 awards throughout the world.
And it's just, it just says a lot for the cast and crew and all of the hard
work that they put in. Mm-hmm.
There it is. Yeah, man. What goes into making an independent film?
(06:33):
Because it's not a studio. You know what I'm saying?
It's literally like you're putting your all into it.
What goes into it? And we'll just talk about it right now specifically for Mad as Hell.
But I know you have a long resume of independent films that you have created.
Created what what goes into building the
(06:54):
creating an independent film starting from like
just building the team because i know it's like you because it's
mayhem productions right and it's so eric james
myers and then you how did that what how did y'all two get together and then
how did that you know blossom to like what it is what it is now it was gonna
(07:14):
be i met jim at a film festival that they had in Vacaville called the Vacaville
International Film Festival. Okay.
And we just connected from there. And we decided to start making our own feature films.
So, we took his last name and my last name, May and Ham, May and Ham Films.
(07:34):
And our first production was Jackson Bolt.
Okay. We started, myself and Fred Williamson, and R. Marcus Taylor,
and the hosts of other talent out here in Sacramento.
And then we just moved on and he would make a movie under the production.
I would make a movie under the production. He would make a movie under the production.
And it just grew from there.
When you do independent films, you attract a lot of talent behind the scenes
(08:01):
that people just, you know, because people appear they don't have the opportunity to use their skills.
Yeah you know so everybody had the
opportunity to work on our film whether you
were a dp or pa or a
costume designer or makeup or hair or what have you so you know we try to keep
it as simple as possible because it's an independent film yeah and we don't
(08:24):
have big budgets like hollywood and the set and the other and make the best
product we can yeah because i had nakia bryant on an episode previously.
She had one, also she had one best supporting actress at the Sagtown movie Buffalo Fest.
And that's what she had talked about is how your approach to filmmaking is you're
very much like, you know, you're giving people work, giving people jobs,
(08:47):
giving people opportunities, stuff like that.
Where does that mentality come from?
One of my mentors when I moved out to California was Jim Kelly.
And you might remember Jim Kelly from Black Belt Jones, Opposite Bruce Lee and
Enter the Dragon. And he told me a long time ago to own your work.
(09:07):
Meaning that don't let a studio dictate what they want you to do.
So I own my work. And when I own my work, I have the opportunity to share it
with other people, whether it's for them working, whether it's people exploiting
their or using their talent.
It also keeps me sharp you know as as a director as an actor etc and so forth
(09:31):
as a producer so that's where all of that comes from that's where all it stems from i i hate to see,
for example the people i call it the black renaissance era yeah yeah some people
call it blaxploitation a lot of those actors aren't working anymore yeah and
why is that and the The reason is when Hollywood is done with you,
(09:54):
they just toss you to the side. They done. It's an industry.
It's like a factory line, man. And once you, yeah, once your time is up,
man, they just. They just toss you to the side. That's it. Now we need the new model.
Exactly. Exactly. So when you're independent, you can make movies infinity, you know?
So that's the route I chose to go.
Awesome. And then so like I said, with being an independent filmmaker,
(10:17):
not having the big budgets, not having to worry about the studios,
the thing that you had just really just stuck to me is how you said Jim Kelly was like your mentor.
I feel like as if you're going to be like, take that independent route,
that is the most important thing that you do need is mentors.
You need to have somebody who
has accomplished the things that you want to accomplish in this industry,
(10:39):
or maybe even not, you know, at least tried or, you know, able to learn from
not only their success, but learn from their failures and be able to apply it to yourself.
How important was it for you to have strong mentorship?
It was, it was, it's very important because, you know, when I first started
in this business, I started out as an extra, you know, and so you're behind
(11:01):
the scenes and you see how everything works and you're like,
oh, I want to do that. I want to learn how to do that.
I want to, I fortunately was connected with Jim Kelly.
And then, you know, I have my cousin, Gloria Hendry, great mentor.
My other mentors, Fred Williamson, great mentor. Look at all that he's accomplished.
Art Camacho, great mentor, Ron Van Cleef, great mentor, Conan Lee,
(11:24):
great mentor, and I have other mentors, but those are my people who will take
the time, take, Robert, do this, don't do that.
Yeah, yeah. Watch this, say this, don't say that, you know, work with this story,
work with this camera angle, et cetera, and so forth.
So I learn from them. I stand on their shoulders.
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's definitely the, like just having
(11:46):
somebody who because you can't find the mentor your
mentor's got to find you he's got to be able to look at you and say okay this
dude he just needs a little bit you know experience just somebody in his ear
and then he'll be he'll be he'll be cool he'll be perfectly fine i know like
speak like doing extra work man like extra work i tell people is like.
(12:08):
It's it's like entry-level work into this industry you know it's not something
that that you wanna get tied to like forever.
So just having somebody who could show you how to.
Take you from being an extra to now having a job
in the in the in the entertainment business because
that's really what it's about it's not i mean being the
(12:30):
the movie star and stuff like
that is such a small percentage of that but then like when
you look at like movies and you tested this like when you
look at movies and you have like those end credits like the actors are like
just this portion of the you know of the credits and then if you're talking
about like the leads the the stars it's like this but then there's all these
other jobs and all those jobs is just basically opportunities for you to still
(12:52):
be in the game be in the mix and just really just to pursue,
and keep chasing your dream and turn it from what we call as a dream to now
reality into a career right and so how did you go from being started off as
an extra to now doing like you still act but you're also directing your own
(13:14):
films. Well, it was a lesson learned.
I, like many other actors, auditioned for a role, and I didn't get it.
And then I saw the movie later on. I'm not going to name the movie or call anybody out.
And the acting was absolutely subpar. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(13:37):
And I said to myself, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to buy a camera
and a computer, and I'm going to do this myself.
And that's right around the time Jim and I connected. So that was the...
The jump of my acting foray into this business, real acting foray and directing,
et cetera, sort of into this business.
(13:58):
So if you want something done, you got to do it yourself.
Yeah. You know, that's, that's what happened. Yeah. I mean, isn't that the worst,
the worst experience ever, bro?
Like when you like, you go into it and especially when you like,
you feel like you killed it. Yeah.
I did it, man. Yeah. Whoop, whoop. And then like, you know, you don't get the
part of you like, all right, cool.
Like, I understand that Noah's part of this business, but then,
(14:18):
like, when you see the film or commercial or whatever it be that you auditioned
for, you see the person that they picked and the person looks just like you. Yeah.
But, like, you know, you're more talented than this dude and you'd be all like, fuck.
Yeah, damn. You'd be like, all right.
All right. I got to do something. I got to do something now.
(14:39):
That's one of those when one door closes, another door opens.
Yep. Or if one door closes, you make your own doorway. Yeah,
you make your own doorway.
Yeah, you kick in the walls or something. Because that's what they also got
to understand is that when people call this the movie business,
the film business, like the longest word there is business. And it's the most important thing.
(15:01):
So you can't take those no's. You can't take those rejections personally.
You got to take it. I say don't take it personal. Take it professional.
Right. Anytime somebody tells you, no, says you're not right for this part that
you just got to take, you just got to make your own part.
And O means another opportunity.
Yep. Yep. Next opportunity. Next opportunity. We're going to keep this party
(15:21):
rolling, man. So keep this party rolling.
So now with you jumping into being direct director, first like short film experience.
Do you remember what that was what that was like let me see i i directed a short film called.
(15:42):
Called oh gee whiz what was the name of that short film
i had it on your imdb yeah you might have to look it up because yeah because
we was just talking about this me and the kid was just talking about that the
last time the kid was in it yeah yeah yeah it was like buster no that was that
was the second one that was i didn't direct that oh i was one of the producers
on it but it It was called, um,
(16:04):
uh, it wasn't the difference, was it? The difference. That's it.
So that was the first film I directed. Short film. Yeah. That's it. That's it.
Ali D'Souza, who was my acting coach, we had a film club and one of the things
we took away from the film club was make your own short film.
Yeah. So I wrote a script, my first script, so to speak, and we shot it and
(16:29):
it did well. It did pretty well.
There were some challenges because I really didn't know what I was doing. I learned.
You said Ali was your acting coach? Yes, Ali.
Awesome. Yeah. Okay. I went to one of his movies that he had on.
The i think it was the crest theater like a long long
(16:50):
time ago and then i think that's that's the first time i became
familiar with his work but then i was just
talking like it's it's it's crazy just like how
small of a community this
is and how yeah everybody is everybody
is connected in this game so being able to
like say being able to have the opportunity to catch up with him at
(17:11):
the sacktown movie buff film festival was a dope experience but like i said
just seeing the how he played like i said he was it was his movie you know this
this this big entity but seeing just how much he's part of a team right you
know how important is it for you,
the process of or how important it
(17:33):
is to have it to have your team build up your
team and and what is your process of bringing
people out because i noticed that you do work with a lot of the same people well
i mean it's it's a don't recreate
the wheel if you look at martin scorsese he's always
working with robert de niro joe pesci al pacino
they're in countless movies together if
(17:56):
you look at what's that actor's name adam sandler he's got the same people in
his movie i even go back to one of my idols bruce lee he's got the same people
in all his movies yeah So that must mean that they have a cohesive team because
they work very well together.
I decided to replicate that. So we got my lady, Elise Hollywood Evans.
(18:19):
We got Amy Naylor. We got Nikki. We got Gary Turner.
We got Jim Meyer. We got Vert Wright.
Once in a while, we'll use some other people that come in, Blaine Santos,
Freeman Williams, you know, and we keep the team going.
Keep everybody motivated and why change
(18:40):
yeah why change that's funny like as i said
like probably about like 80 of those people that you had just named
i know you know i've worked with us to some
type of capacity and stuff like that so this this this
field community up here is so crazy man because like how we
you said earlier some people call it hollywood north i feel like it does really
have the potential to reach those type of heights because we are so connected
(19:03):
everybody is just It's about mostly just everybody being on the same page of
understanding that we're just trying to, one, create art, but then eventually wanting to,
I mean, you're going to have to make some money off of these things.
Right, right. But the art comes first, and then the team building is the most important thing.
Right. You've got to have a, if you want to be successful in anything,
(19:24):
but in this particular case, independent filmmaker, you've got to have a great
team because you can't do it by yourself.
I didn't do all of this by myself. So, you know, I was blessed with a great
team. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm.
And then so besides also doing the filmmaking, you also have a background in martial arts.
(19:46):
Yes, I do. I got beat up and I was in I think I was in the fifth grade. I got beat up by a girl.
Mylene DeJouin. Mylene, if you watch and I'm mentioning your name.
She just did it because she had a crush on you. That's why.
That's why they do it. They don't understand back back there where they are.
They beat you up because they like you. She beat me up because I talked about her brother.
(20:07):
She hit me with my own lunchbox. And when I got home, after my dad finished
laughing at me, he was involved into the martial arts. So he taught me martial arts.
And my cousin took me to some martial arts studios in New York.
And then when I left New Jersey and joined the Air Force, I ran into gentleman Dr.
(20:34):
Alonzo Jones, who became my primary instructor, who I ranked up on.
So I've been doing martial arts since I was about nine, 10 years old.
I'm not going to tell you how old I am.
It's been a minute. I've been doing it for a minute. Yeah, I've been a successful competitor.
(20:54):
Competitor i parlayed that
into kickboxing i used to box as well and then
kickboxing i won five world titles and five actually technically
six world titles and five different weight divisions and i
kept going up in weight not to test the champion but because i have an affinity
for ice cream so i couldn't move up to the next weight division and i had a
(21:17):
really good manager so yeah there it is so what do you attest to take it like
the there's a lot of discipline that comes and comes with martial arts.
I mean, you know how to kick somebody's ass, but they teach you dope. Yeah. Yeah. They do.
What kind of, how did that discipline with martial arts help you transition into filmmaking?
(21:38):
Because did you always want to be an actor or filmmaker?
I knew that when I was a kid, I wanted to be like my heroes that I saw on the screen.
I wanted to be Fred Williamson. I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I wanted to be Jim
Kelly, Ron Van... I wanted to be those guys. Mm-hmm.
And when you're a kid, even though it's a movie, you kind of think it's kind
of real life. So I wanted to be like them in real life. Yeah.
(22:01):
Not knowing that would parlay into entertainment.
So getting back to your question, the discipline allows me to focus on what I need to focus on.
So from writing a script, I'm going to write the script.
If I'm writing a script, editing, coloring, well, from this time to this time, I'm going to do this.
(22:21):
From this time to that time, I'm going to do that. From this time to that time, I'm going to do that.
It helps me structure and stay focused.
Otherwise, I would be lost in my mix.
I'm currently working on one, two, three, four projects right now. Five.
Five projects right now. Six.
(22:43):
I'm sorry. Busy. God damn. At this moment right now, six projects that I have
to make time, allocate time to do.
Otherwise, nothing will get done. Mm-hmm, you know, so that's that's what a
martial arts discipline comes into and these all gonna be like feature films
or two Let me see one two three four four feature films,
(23:06):
TV show and a short film and one of those films is those that the cocaine Roach
one of them is cocaine we gonna get into that a little bit because I was I,
Seed the trailer for it, man.
I see the Oh my word, I see the teleport, I see my man Marlon up in there,
and I was just like, what the fuck is this, man?
(23:28):
I was like, all right, yeah, we, like, when I texted you, I was like,
is there anything you specifically want to talk about? I was like,
yeah, coca-cola. I'm like, nope, don't worry about that. It's already covered.
We're going to get into that in a little bit of stuff.
Working with your heroes, that's something that I feel is something that's like,
really kind of like goes under the rug, like where people don't really understand
(23:49):
just the whole mystique of that.
Cause one of the things that people say a lot of times, especially in this industry
is like, you don't want to meet your, you don't want to meet your heroes.
You don't want to meet your idols.
Cause they're going to be, they're not going to be who you expect because just
watching things from like the TV screen, you think that's who they are 24 seven.
But I think you kind of had the opposite of that. Like you want to be like,
you work like working with like Fred Williamson.
(24:09):
My first introduction to him was on dust till dawn.
But like you have the opportunity to like work
with your heroes and like you're like
directing them you know what i'm saying it's it's it's an out-of-body experience
i was directing this movie snow black and there's a scene where ron van cleef
and cammy ferry are they're going over their lines and they're speaking to each
(24:32):
other and i'm going over the script with them there's a picture like like on
my Facebook page with all three of us.
And I had to step back and said, oh my God, I'm directing Ron.
It's like, oh my God. You know, I used to watch him, the black dragon.
That's what they call him. I used to watch him, you know, at the Adams movie
(24:56):
theater, the Paramount movie theater, the Newark drive-in, et cetera.
So seeing him on the cover of magazines, watched him fight in the UFC.
I was like, Like, I'm director Rod Van Cleve. Oh, my God. This is real. This is real.
Same thing with Lawrence Hill Jacobs is in Cocaine Roach.
I sat back. I was like, it's Lawrence Hill Jacobs.
(25:18):
I used to watch that guy. I used to really watch this guy and study him.
Oh, my God. I watched him.
One of the really, really good movies he was in was called, that's of late.
It's called A Chance in the World. So, I got to see him in that,
and he was excellent in that film.
You know, as well as, you know, the other movies, the Jacksons,
(25:41):
and you go way back to Cooley High, people don't realize he was in the first
Death Wish movie. I was like, wow, that's cool.
And he's so cool. Yeah. He's so cool. So down to earth. Yeah. Yeah.
It's always a cool feeling, man. It's just a good feeling in general where,
I mean, like I said, working with these people that you like,
(26:03):
that inspired you to be this.
And then when you meet them in real life, you're like, okay,
they are who I thought they were.
Yeah. Like I said, it gives you that validation, but then also that motivation
to keep pursuing what it is that you're doing.
Because like I said, you can just have one bad experience with somebody who
you looked up to as like a hero.
(26:24):
And then it will change your whole entire perspective. It will.
It will. I haven't had that experience.
I've just been blessed to work with some really great people.
You know, Eric Roberts, Vernon Wells. I mean, I'm directing these guys. I'm like, wow.
And they're really, really down to earth, really cool people.
(26:46):
You know, there hasn't, I haven't ran into anybody. Cinda Williams.
Yeah. She's like my sister. You know, I haven't ran into anybody who I deem eccentric.
You know, the original G-Man of hip hop had an opportunity to direct him.
I'm like, wow, this is so cool.
You know, these people are so cool.
(27:09):
It's so down to earth, you know, so it's just, when they say you don't want
to meet your heroes, I kind of disagree with that because I think meeting your
hero will motivate you, even if your hero turns out bad.
To whoever it is, to be an asshole. It helps you like, I can be better than.
(27:30):
Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, but I know that like
once the tables are turned, there's somebody looking at me for the perspective of like their hero.
Right. I know how to approach it. Cause I don't, I don't, I don't want nobody
feeling the same way I felt and stuff like that.
I mean, it just, it only thing, only thing having a bad experience will do like
for me, like my mentality would just make me go harder, you know,
(27:52):
make me try harder just to, Make sure that somebody else doesn't have that experience.
But not everybody else is built like that.
That's true. Now, Muhammad Ali would never refuse an autograph. And do you know why?
Because when he was a kid, Sugar Ray Robinson denied him an autograph.
He went to Sugar Ray Robinson to get an autograph. Sugar Ray Robinson's like, go away, kid. Yeah.
(28:19):
Certainly be alone. so now you know
they're they're both passed on but that's the
mentality that i have you know so okay
cool now let's get into this this cocaine roach man
this new film that you you you wrote this um yes how did that give people backstory
(28:39):
like cocaine roaches is basically a movie about roaches roaches and cocaine
cocaine they do cocaine and they just wreak havoc so so i saw So, of course,
we all saw Cocaine Bear, which was good. It was hilarious.
And then the spinoffs come. There was Cocaine Cougar. There was Cocaine Shark.
(29:00):
There was Meth Gator. There was Cocaine Crabs from Outer Space.
And I think they're doing one called Cocaine Werewolf. Yeah. Yeah.
So I saw them and they were okay. You know, I'm like, I don't speak bad on anybody's film.
And then I talked to the distributor who distributed cocaine crabs from outer space.
They sold 150,000 copies in a week.
(29:24):
I was like, whoa, well, I can do that. You know, but let me add a story to it.
Let me, what's in these animal drug movies was missing.
And I think a lot that was missing is a story because if you take the gimmick
away, there's no movie Mm-hmm, if you take the cocaine cougar away from cocaine
(29:44):
cougar, there's no movie you take the bear away from cocaine beard There's no
movie. There's no story.
So I wanted to make a story Whereas if we took the roaches away,
it's still a story Yeah, you know and then how many times are you gonna run into a bear?
Yeah, not too often or a cougar I wish a man we black we stay out of the world.
That's right. Oh, that's right we might run into a crab
(30:06):
at the buffet right oh y'all run into a bear at the zoo or something
like that that's about it yeah now how many times you're gonna see
a roach oh yeah so i wanted
to use something that everybody's familiar with everybody has seen at least
once and have have dealt with especially in the black community so because none
(30:26):
of these movies have anything to do with the black community yeah so i wanted
to make something specifically,
a little more urban, a little more fun, and compelling story.
So that's how Cocaine Roach came about. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Can you give us a little, you don't gotta give us a whole storyline,
unless you want to, but just like how you said, there's a story behind it.
(30:48):
Can you give us a little backstory to what the story is?
So the backstory to the story, well, there's like three different stories.
Of course, there's the drug story, where a woman.
Cross-dressing kingpin gives two of her clients a bag of coke to make some money
(31:09):
to go to the safe house and wait for the money man.
So that's the basics, you know, story. And the safe house is,
of course, filled with drug-crazed roaches.
Then you have the story of the character Tanisha and her daughter,
how she kind of leaves her daughter so she can go out and party and have fun
with the guys and so forth.
(31:30):
Then you have the story of Tanisha and her current boyfriend,
Gary L. Turner, who killed that role.
Then you have the story of Tanisha and her ex-boyfriend, Marlon,
who plays Omar, who happens to be the drug lord's enforcer and bodyguard.
(31:52):
So you put all four of those guys in a room together. Oh, and we can't forget
Alvin, his, his, his character's name is, oh gee, I can't remember Alvin's character's name.
Cas-o-ski-Jamal. Jamal. Okay.
(32:14):
So he's kind of like just in for the ride.
So you put Jamal, Ski, Omar, and Tanisha in a room together and they can't get out.
Until the money man comes yeah with four kilos of coke and cocaine filled roaches.
What's gonna happen the roaches just start
(32:37):
eating people you gotta see it we gotta see it man i'm i'm looking forward to
that with that one i know i missed mad as hell i had work but i will i will
call it i will call it to work to watch fucking cocaine roach i will that reminds
me of like this man like growing up watching a lot of
the, like the sci-fi original movies, you know?
(32:59):
It was, there was something about them to where like, that independent filmmaking
type of aspect, or like, you know,
like those grindhouse movies where they just, they not say it cheesy,
but they're just, you could tell they're films that were just made from the heart. Right, right.
And this isn't cheesy.
I mean, it's low budget, it's definitely low budget.
(33:22):
They said, we got Lawrence Hilton Jacobs in it. We got Todd Sinafonte.
Todd, it was Jean-Claude Van Damme Slanto.
It's just, it's a really, I wish I had my phone with me. I would pull up.
We got two critic reviews so far on an unfinished movie.
And they love it. They love it. They absolutely love it. I'm going to send you
(33:43):
those critic reviews so you can read those.
Yeah, because I think that's what people are yearning for right now, man.
Like, just something that they could just sit back, watch it,
be like oh this is like we're watching a movie you know
nothing that they take like we're getting like that popcorn it just
nothing too extravagant nothing too but
something we could they're gonna love it elise hollywood evans
plays two roles so she plays tanisha
(34:06):
and she plays diva big deal now we had a private screening yesterday for a mutual
friend of ours just to test it outside of excuse me just to test it outside
of me because you know i've watched it a thousand times outside of her and outside
of people who are in that real tight circle because we're keeping a lid on the movie.
And he, oh my God, he loved it. He laughed and then he just,
(34:30):
he was real quiet during the serious parts.
So it's kind of a fun rollercoaster ride. It's not a slow movie.
You know, I mean, you know, the introduction leads up to everything.
And we had a lot of help. We had help from the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley,
Berkeley black rep helped us out a lot.
(34:51):
I'm just, I'm just very thankful that we got it off and it's great, man.
It's, I, I actually, every time I look at it, it gets better and better and better. Yeah.
And then what is it like when you, cause of course, like as filmmakers,
our own, we look at our own art, like that's our baby.
Like we, we, we treat it like our baby, like we love it. But what is it like
when you see, like how you say, like you showed it to your mutual friend or
(35:16):
like with Mad as Hell, you know, saying you said it won like what,
34 awards and stuff like that.
What's that feel like for you when other people look at your work and they have
that same appreciation for it that you do, that validation?
That lets me know that I'm on the right path, but it also lets me know that I can do better.
Our last movie, Mad as Hell, was really good.
(35:39):
I was very proud of it. But now we got Cocaine Roach, and I'm like, it's on another level.
We're doing a vampire movie also called The Thirst, which is on another level.
You know so we have to keep progressing you
know we have to keep stepping i never want to
in this business plateau yeah even even
if we take a dip even if i make a bad movie
(36:01):
i'll learn from it yeah but i don't want to make the same movie every time every
time every time every time then then you're like for lack of a better word you're
like a steven seagal movie he just cranks out these movies he's just the same
guy same guy in every movie i just want the same lines from this movie That movie. Same character.
So, you know, I'm dipping into this horror thing.
(36:23):
I have an idea in my head and we're working with my guy, Timothy Beal,
to get the rights to Blackenstein so that we can do our spin on Blackenstein.
Did you see Blackenstein? Mm-mm.
No. Cool. I'll take that one off the bucket.
(36:46):
I'll wait for you to break to, to remake it. Yeah. We're going to,
we're going to hopefully remake it and make it with a, and I'm not saying don't
see it because it's horrible movie.
You might laugh at it. Okay. Yeah. In today's cause that was made way back in the seventies.
So in today's standard, it really wouldn't be on par.
(37:06):
We really cut the mustard. So I would like to remake it and give it a story, a real story.
And I have an idea on how to do that. Okay.
Do you, with having such an extensive resume now with films that you produce,
having your own production studio, do you feel like there's pressure to outdo the last film you did?
(37:29):
Or is it, I just want to make this film the best film it could be,
this next film? I want to make each film the best film it can be.
Now, when we were doing Cocaine Roach, Elise Evans, Elise Hollywood Evans,
would be over my shoulder, and she would say, is that the best you can do for that?
I'm like, yeah, because the technology has been made. Well, yes, it has.
(37:50):
Somebody has a technology, and somebody's done this, and somebody's done that,
and it's just a computer program.
And though it was a little aggravating, you had to step outside of yourself
and be like, she's right, we can do better.
We can do better like when i
first did the roaches they looked
(38:11):
absolutely horrible they were like they were like this big and just brown and
you can do better robert you can do better yeah and so i tried to make it the
best we could be and when this is over i'll give you a glimpse of it so you
You can see they look like real roaches.
(38:32):
So every project I can do, do I want it to be better than the last project I
did? Yes, of course. But that's not my mindset.
My mindset is to make this project right here the best it can be.
And if it's better than the last project, great. If it's not, great.
But this one right here has got to be more than 100% for what I give it to.
(38:54):
Yeah. And so you mentioned at least Hollywood Evans a couple of times.
What is the, like with having such a big production team, having to be in charge
of so many people and so many people dependent on you, what's it like having
like a partner there like that's just like your rock that you,
that person that you can now lean on?
Because everybody looks at you at the leader, but now you have somebody who
(39:16):
you just, like she understands not only the entertainment business,
she doesn't understand just Robert the filmmaker, but Robert the person.
Well, she checks me, you know, when I fall short on things, cause I'm,
I'm a human being. I forget things.
Things I don't do, things I don't push myself to do, because sometimes I fall
into a cycle of that's good enough.
(39:39):
You know, she pushes me, you know, hey, you can do better.
Hey, what does this look like? Hey, what is your audience going to think of
this scene? What is your audience going to think of these words?
You know, so it helps me be very conscious, very, very conscious,
you know. And there are other people.
Amy Naylor is my, she's like our set production person. So she is on the script.
(40:04):
Robert, you forgot this scene. You forgot that. Don't forget this.
You know, she keeps, I'm like, what scene are we on? And I just turn to her
and she knows. We're on scene 34.
You know, she just knows. She knows.
So she's a big help. You know, Gary Turner.
He's my, whatever I need him to be.
(40:25):
So when we're on set, Gary and I'll direct and Gary will pull me to the side
and say, hey, Rob, what if you did the scene like this?
That's a pretty good idea, Gary. Let's do it like that. And let's see how it
turns out. Yeah. You know, so it's a collective effort.
I wouldn't say I'm the leader. I would say I'm the spearhead mm-hmm,
(40:47):
but not necessarily the leader because we all have,
sight and Insight into what we do because we've done it long enough to make a Great film.
Yeah, you know Just so happens that I'm the director.
Mm-hmm. Yeah could have been any one of us. Mm-hmm So is that that also your
(41:08):
approach to like I say just put it together your your production team it's like
you said, it's a lot of familiar people from a lot of familiar parts.
That also goes into the.
You've been able to trust their input. Right. And then vice versa,
them being able to trust you as the director.
Right, right. Because if there's something that they say and I don't think it's
(41:30):
going to work, I'm going to tell them, hey, that's not going to work.
And I'll tell them why it's not going to work. And then they won't get offended.
Yeah. You know, and I don't get offended when they tell me, hey,
Rob, I don't think that's going to work.
I don't get offended because we're trying to make a product. It's not about the ego.
It's about the product. Yeah. You know? So we all vibe off each other with that.
(41:51):
Of course, I have a vision where I would like something to look,
but in somebody else's eyes, it might look a little better if we did it like this.
I got to take that into consideration because I'm not making the movie for me.
I'm making the movie for the audience, for the populace. So I got to take everybody's opinion.
(42:13):
Nice, nice. And I said, being on those types of film sets, especially being
independent filmmakers, I mean, you should almost call it the opposite of being
independent, man. It's like codependent.
This is a codependent film. Just like this person is trusting me,
I'm trusting this person.
I'm hoping this person shows up. I'm hoping this actor knows their lines.
(42:35):
I'm hoping this light person actually knows how to operate lights. It's like my DP.
We did this music video in LA for a rapper, Q Ali Bey.
It's got over, I don't know, 200,000 views on YouTube or whatever.
And I had Gary in the head, my guy Vert Wright, his DP.
(42:57):
And so we worked long enough together. And they were like, what do you think
of this shot? I don't want to see it. I trust you. I asked you what I wanted.
Just get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don't show me every shot unless I ask to see the shot. I trust you. Yeah.
You know, to me, that's.
That is time that I could be spending doing something else to move the set forward.
(43:24):
Yeah. You know, that's just me. That's the way I work.
Some people are, oh, you got to see the shot after every shot to make sure you
like it. Of course I like it. You know, I trust you. Yeah. So.
Yeah. That's definitely the, like you say, the camaraderie of once you build
up your team, people you trust.
Because I have a similar situation on, like I said, I produce my own comedy
(43:44):
shows. Eventually, you know, grow, take learning to take what I learned for
producing a comedy show into, you know, producing my own films and things of that nature.
But talk to comedian at my show last time. And he was just all like,
you know, because we got to from a comedian standpoint, we got to look at the
audience, you know, judge from what the audience looks like.
What jokes we might feel are going to be the best thing. You know,
(44:06):
one of the comedians, he just asked me, hey, man, so what could I do?
What kind of jokes can I tell? I was like, bro, just do you.
Right. Like, like, I'm like, you don't, I'm like, you are way past the point
of asking me, you know, what type of jokes to say. Cause like,
you've grown as a comedian.
I've watched you grow as a comedian.
Like I put you on this show because I trust you as a comedian, bro.
(44:28):
Just go out there, do you, and have a blast.
He killed it. Absolutely killed it.
So just, it takes, I feel like it takes a little while to get there because
like everybody treats, you know, everybody has art.
They, everybody has their own vision. But once you get in sync with that person,
it's just, it's like, bro, just do you, man.
You got to get past people's, or you don't have to, but people have to get past the insecurities.
(44:52):
Mm-hmm. You know, once you, and it's not a level of arrogance.
That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for confidence. Yeah.
So once you get past the insecurity and you become confident in what you do,
then it's all gravy from there.
How, as an artist or filmmaker in general, do we, because it's a thin line between
(45:16):
the confidence and ego, especially in this business, because people's personalities
are so, so fragile at times, man.
How do you, how do we kind of like instill that confidence, but then understand,
but like take away like the ego part of it?
Well, for me, I, I, I, I, I worship God at the end of the day.
(45:40):
I know that I'm not going to be here forever.
And I know that I have to answer for what I do.
So for me to say, oh, I'm a better actor than you. That's a little arrogant.
And maybe I said that and hurt your feelings. Right. But if I do that and hurt
your feelings one day, I'm going to have to answer for that.
So my thing would be, Hey, let's help you move to the next level.
(46:04):
So that's what works for me. Now what works for anybody else,
the difference between confidence and arrogance, I can't tell you.
I really don't know. I've seen a lot of arrogance in this business, a lot of cockiness.
And i i think you need a little
bit of that to stay on top of your game yeah
(46:27):
but it shouldn't be maybe it's gonna spill over to
it's something that you just keep it inside yourself it's something that it
should have spilled over that you end up taking out on the next person yeah
shouldn't spill outside of yourself it really shouldn't you know you should
it's like when i was in the ring i had the confidence to know that i'm gonna
beat this guy in front of me I had the confidence to know that it wasn't arrogance,
(46:50):
you know, I wasn't, you know, sticking my tongue out and shaking my hips and,
you know, playing mind game. Well, I did play mind games, but.
Yeah, no, it's a mental game. It's a mental game. More than a physical fight,
it's a mental game. It's a mental game of chess, you know.
So it's the same thing in this business.
Got to leave your ego at the door you
(47:12):
know if you want to make a great product leave your
ego at the door because if i come into the set
all arrogant well i'm gonna suck all the energy out
of you and i'm gonna you know i'm a director i'm gonna make you do this take
20 times let's get two more for safety everybody's all the energy's raining
yeah yeah yeah yeah that's the that's one of the most like most important things
(47:35):
like being on a film set i say number one is the food right,
And then number two is just the personalities because people will work hard
if there's good food and there's good people, if they're around good people, good energy.
But once that energy is sucked out the room, man, it just, because we are working.
(47:59):
This is a job. Everybody has their own things that they have to do,
their own responsibilities. but the second you walk in and treat it like it's
a job, it just sucks the energy out of the frickin' room, man. It does.
It does. And the good food is real important. We have, I usually have my daughter cater our film set.
(48:21):
So when Lawrence Hilton Jacobs was here, we had...
Like two different kinds, three different kinds of chicken. We had mac and cheese.
We had a salad. We had some banana pudding.
Oh man, we laid it out. And we took a lunch break and I didn't want to go back.
(48:42):
No, I was about to go to sleep. I'd be going to sleep.
I'm about to catch the itis just looking. I was like, golly.
And see, those are the type of films because those just show that you care about
the people. Yeah. You care about the filmmakers.
You got to. You got to. Because you want them to come back. You want them to come back.
Imagine if I got on set and treated Lawrence Hilton Jacobs like trash.
(49:05):
After all of his experience and I went in there and treated him like trash.
You know what he's going to do? He's never going to work with me again.
Then he's going to tell all of his friends never to work with me again. Oh, yeah.
You can't do that. And like I said, it's a small world.
It's small. It's the community. It's small, man. like yeah I mean I think I
just friended you on Facebook but then you look at our Facebook friends we probably
(49:26):
got over a hundred mutual friends and I'm like this is a this is a,
small small world man small world
yeah so before we do like wrap up wrap up the episode one thing I always do
is call like the Mount Rushmore which is basically like your top four and I
always say like your top four you know action actors you know top four action
(49:48):
actors yeah and they're probably people that you've already named but you know
know, just people who inspired you,
motivated you, that you watched on the TV screen or in the magazines that said, oh yeah, I could do this.
Bruce Lee, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Ron Van Cleef.
Boom. Yeah. Top four. Yeah. And you know what was dope about that?
Like the reason why I love doing the Mount Rushmore and stuff like that,
(50:10):
because it always comes back to some part previously in this episode and stuff
like that, like all those people that you named for the most part.
We're all like literally people like mentors, mentors in your life,
people who, like I said, help shape who you are, not from just like the visual
standpoint, from you visualizing, oh, I could be that.
But there are people who like probably in your phone book, people who put their
(50:31):
arm around your shoulder, like, Robert, this is how you got to do this, bro. Exactly.
Exactly. And that's the thing, because eventually you're going to get to the
point to where, let's say 10 years from now, 15 years from now,
somebody might be watching this podcast. They'd be like, hey,
man, I want to do, I'm going to copy that and I'm going to do a Mount Rushmore.
And then that person is going to interview somebody.
But who's your Mount Rushmore? Think about, oh, it's Robert.
(50:54):
You know, it's this person, that person. You don't say it because everything
comes full circle in this business. It does.
Everything comes full circle in this business. It does. It really, really does.
So you have to be conscious of how you act, what you say, what you do,
because this is a small business.
(51:15):
It's a real small business and you want to work with open arms with people.
Yeah. Yeah. No tension on the set.
No disparaging words. It's all about love, man. Yep. Yep.
That's what it's all about, man. We just, I heard just trying to make movies, man.
We trying to turn our dreams into plans and our plans into reality.
(51:37):
That's right. So that's the goal.
So yeah. Was there, where can people find you at?
You can find me on Facebook at Robert.Parham.
P-A-R-H-E-M. You can find me on Instagram at TheRealRobertParham and you can
find me on TikTok at Kickboxin5.
K-I-C-K-B-X-N-5.
Okay, sure. And now if they wanted to go back and see your movies,
where could they see? My movies are on Plex, Voodoo, Hoopla, and,
(52:03):
What is that? Tubi? Tubi and Peacock.
Okay. So you can just type in my name and the movies will come up.
Okay. Awesome, man. Awesome, man. I'm going to bring you back and we can talk
about that whole, the second part to like the production part.
Well, actually I can say the third part, which is there's pre-production,
production, then post-production, which is actually like getting your movie,
you know, out there and onto the streaming platforms.
(52:25):
I feel like that's just a whole another conversation in itself because that's
where I really like at the networking end, you know, who, who,
you know, and really knowing the business side of things, who,
you know, is who knows you, you can know anybody,
but if they don't know you, you're not moving forward.
Powerful. All right, man. So yeah, my name is a bit buddy. Rami got been the host.
(52:46):
You can follow me at yeah, buddy E and T or at funny business on all social media platforms.
And if you're listening, if you're watching, it's just, it's just right there down there for y'all.
And then, uh, like I said, this is the yeah, Bad Buddy Podcast.
It has been brought to you by the Comedy Cash Cow Competition,
which goes down May 25th, Vacaville, California.
Tickets are available right now. You can see 25 comedians compete and battle
(53:09):
it out for their chance to win a thousand dollar grand prize and the chance
to star in their own short film, which we will then take and send out to like
a whole bunch of film festivals and stuff like that.
So we're breaking comedians into the film industry.
We're going to have a whole bunch of industry people there like agents managers
media personalities people from iheart radio
(53:30):
film commissioners film distributors
i just found i just found that out today we're gonna have some film distributors
out there too as well so it's not only an opportunity for like comedians i was
like say actors and filmmakers like that you come network and meet people you
might even find a comedian for your next uh show your next movie well no you
got me you got me now you got me now i'm trying to try to have those three different types of chicken.
(53:53):
Yeah but yeah oh yeah buddy buddy rami y'all
this has been another episode of the yeah buddy podcast robert man thank you
for being a guest thanks man thanks for having me yes sir yes sir and we out
man i'll catch y'all on the next episode you catch us streaming everywhere on
from youtube spotify uh wherever you listen to podcasts that man we we there
we there we everywhere like air all righty man i'll catch y'all later.
We are hot. Yes, yes, yes. What's going on, world? This is your man,
Buddy Romming, and we are back at it with another episode of the Yeah Buddy podcast.
And this episode is brought to you by the Comedy Cash Cow competition.
So if you want to see 25 comedians compete for their chance to win a thousand
dollars and star in their own short film, you need to go to www.comedycashcow.com
(00:24):
because tickets are available.
Available the whole competition and event is going down may 25th in vacaville
california at the journey theater y'all so go get those tickets right now asap
see these comedians battle it out for the title of the cash cow winner we're
gonna have a whole bunch of.
Entertainment people up in there we're gonna have some agents some some film
commissioners people from iheart media is going to be a real dope networking
(00:48):
event so y'all please go out and support it and let's get into this episode
y'all like i said this is the yeah buddy podcast just Just like every single episode,
I always try to bring some of my friends in the entertainment business,
give us a chance to chop it up, catch up, see what we've been going on, what we got coming up.
And this episode is like no other. Y'all, this episode we have filmmaker.
(01:08):
Award winning director, man, martial arts expert, man.
This dude has movies to be. He's really out here grinding, doing his thing,
putting on for like the independent filmmakers up here in the Bay Area.
He's a shit Mr. Do it all when it comes to filmmaking. making i'm gonna
try to make it live and make it loud for my good friend mr robert parham right
here at the yeah buddy podcast thank you man thank you great
(01:29):
introduction man i try to i try to do my research i try to do my research and
shit like that i try i try yeah man so we are familiar with your work but i
think we got formally introduced at the sacktown movie buff film yeah that's
right that's right i saw you there and uh we connected and we had a great time
at that movie film festival Yeah.
Yeah. So what what what did like like just recap it?
(01:51):
What did you take away from the film from like the mixer all the way to,
you know, your movie premiere?
Well, what I took away is that there's a lot of talent here in NorCal.
Some of my friends call it Hollywood North and people are underexposed here.
Yeah. So that's what I took away from. And they do some great work.
The short films and the feature length films were just phenomenal.
(02:14):
You know, so, yeah, that's what I took away from. Yeah, there's definitely.
Like I said, people call it Hollywood in the North. There's definitely a film
community up here where, like I said, the one thing that I really took away from.
Especially Friday night at the mixer was like, that's the first time I seen
so many different filmmakers, just like all in just one area.
(02:34):
And there's like people like, like actors, directors, producers,
you know, DPs, PAs, just everybody just over just like here in this one, with this one area.
So just seeing everybody being able to put like their egos to the side.
Right, no agenda, just mixing and having a good time. Yeah, mixing and mingling
and like, you got, you're doing this, you're doing that. Okay, cool.
(02:56):
You know, cause sometimes, especially up here, I feel like,
I mean, you got to have an ego in this, in this industry, but like,
sometimes it kind of gets in the way of people actually helping each other out
and just getting, just getting to know people in general.
So just being a part of that, that mixer was definitely a good, a good experience.
And like I said, I got to meet you and the whole, your whole entire,
(03:16):
your whole entire production team.
Most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Most of them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You guys roll pretty deep. Yeah.
But then we segue into sunday right
where you had the your movie was shown
at the sacktown movie buff film festival called uh
(03:37):
mad as hell did you like it i'll be completely honest
with you i had work i had work that day so i got i
got i came i got it there just in time for the
uh for the award ceremony so you missed the movie i missed
i missed everything i'm getting getting off yeah i did go
back watch the trailer i was trying to watch it on to be on my way up
here and stuff like that but no yeah i do gotta apologize for that
(03:59):
i did i did i did have that that that day we call the job yeah that kind of
gets in the way of uh pursuing this type of stuff but no i definitely didn't
want to check it out though well i want to shout out to the other filmmakers
that had their features shown as well david john foster had centauri 29 and he won a,
award for special video effects.
(04:22):
And then Simp won Best Picture by Tremaine Hale.
Best Picture and Best Actress. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And then Mad as Hell, we came in with Best Director, Best Supporting Actor,
and Best Supporting Actress. Yeah. We did well.
No, yeah, y'all came away with some trophies. Like I said, that part I did see.
You have won the Best Director. You're right.
(04:42):
So what did you take? Did you know you was going to win? No.
Yeah? No. Did you have any type of like clue indication? Like just like,
yeah, this is, this is my award.
No, no. I, I let the work speaks for itself.
And if the community chooses to recognize it as such, then that's a blessing.
Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm more about the work and the people involved in the work.
(05:04):
I don't look for awards or accolades, but I'm open to them if they come my way. Yeah.
So what was that feeling like? Like I said, first off, anybody that didn't see,
it was premiering at like the IMAX as it was.
So that's like just that big, big screen. I know it's premiered at like,
it's been shown at film festivals at like Las Vegas and stuff like that.
(05:26):
Were you, but like seeing it on like the IMAX, just like. Yeah,
I've never seen it at IMAX. So the IMAX is six, the screen is six stories tall.
Yeah, yeah. So I've never seen it at the IMAX. You know, I've seen it in other
theaters and this thing.
And so it was, I was like, wow, I was a little overwhelmed.
I mean, we've had other movies that we have made that played at the IMAX,
(05:48):
but I never saw Matt as Hellier.
So it was pretty cool. Nice.
And so once when Kier had announced your name as the winner,
Best Director, what was going through your mind?
Wow. You know, it was wow, because it was a tight.
The other two directors that were in competition were just as deserving.
(06:12):
I was just flabbergasted, you know, our, our, our movie collectively has won
34 awards throughout the world.
And it's just, it just says a lot for the cast and crew and all of the hard
work that they put in. Mm-hmm.
There it is. Yeah, man. What goes into making an independent film?
(06:33):
Because it's not a studio. You know what I'm saying?
It's literally like you're putting your all into it.
What goes into it? And we'll just talk about it right now specifically for Mad as Hell.
But I know you have a long resume of independent films that you have created.
Created what what goes into building the
(06:54):
creating an independent film starting from like
just building the team because i know it's like you because it's
mayhem productions right and it's so eric james
myers and then you how did that what how did y'all two get together and then
how did that you know blossom to like what it is what it is now it was gonna
(07:14):
be i met jim at a film festival that they had in Vacaville called the Vacaville
International Film Festival. Okay.
And we just connected from there. And we decided to start making our own feature films.
So, we took his last name and my last name, May and Ham, May and Ham Films.
(07:34):
And our first production was Jackson Bolt.
Okay. We started, myself and Fred Williamson, and R. Marcus Taylor,
and the hosts of other talent out here in Sacramento.
And then we just moved on and he would make a movie under the production.
I would make a movie under the production. He would make a movie under the production.
And it just grew from there.
When you do independent films, you attract a lot of talent behind the scenes
(08:01):
that people just, you know, because people appear they don't have the opportunity to use their skills.
Yeah you know so everybody had the
opportunity to work on our film whether you
were a dp or pa or a
costume designer or makeup or hair or what have you so you know we try to keep
it as simple as possible because it's an independent film yeah and we don't
(08:24):
have big budgets like hollywood and the set and the other and make the best
product we can yeah because i had nakia bryant on an episode previously.
She had one, also she had one best supporting actress at the Sagtown movie Buffalo Fest.
And that's what she had talked about is how your approach to filmmaking is you're
very much like, you know, you're giving people work, giving people jobs,
(08:47):
giving people opportunities, stuff like that.
Where does that mentality come from?
One of my mentors when I moved out to California was Jim Kelly.
And you might remember Jim Kelly from Black Belt Jones, Opposite Bruce Lee and
Enter the Dragon. And he told me a long time ago to own your work.
(09:07):
Meaning that don't let a studio dictate what they want you to do.
So I own my work. And when I own my work, I have the opportunity to share it
with other people, whether it's for them working, whether it's people exploiting
their or using their talent.
It also keeps me sharp you know as as a director as an actor etc and so forth
(09:31):
as a producer so that's where all of that comes from that's where all it stems from i i hate to see,
for example the people i call it the black renaissance era yeah yeah some people
call it blaxploitation a lot of those actors aren't working anymore yeah and
why is that and the The reason is when Hollywood is done with you,
(09:54):
they just toss you to the side. They done. It's an industry.
It's like a factory line, man. And once you, yeah, once your time is up,
man, they just. They just toss you to the side. That's it. Now we need the new model.
Exactly. Exactly. So when you're independent, you can make movies infinity, you know?
So that's the route I chose to go.
Awesome. And then so like I said, with being an independent filmmaker,
(10:17):
not having the big budgets, not having to worry about the studios,
the thing that you had just really just stuck to me is how you said Jim Kelly was like your mentor.
I feel like as if you're going to be like, take that independent route,
that is the most important thing that you do need is mentors.
You need to have somebody who
has accomplished the things that you want to accomplish in this industry,
(10:39):
or maybe even not, you know, at least tried or, you know, able to learn from
not only their success, but learn from their failures and be able to apply it to yourself.
How important was it for you to have strong mentorship?
It was, it was, it's very important because, you know, when I first started
in this business, I started out as an extra, you know, and so you're behind
(11:01):
the scenes and you see how everything works and you're like,
oh, I want to do that. I want to learn how to do that.
I want to, I fortunately was connected with Jim Kelly.
And then, you know, I have my cousin, Gloria Hendry, great mentor.
My other mentors, Fred Williamson, great mentor. Look at all that he's accomplished.
Art Camacho, great mentor, Ron Van Cleef, great mentor, Conan Lee,
(11:24):
great mentor, and I have other mentors, but those are my people who will take
the time, take, Robert, do this, don't do that.
Yeah, yeah. Watch this, say this, don't say that, you know, work with this story,
work with this camera angle, et cetera, and so forth.
So I learn from them. I stand on their shoulders.
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's definitely the, like just having
(11:46):
somebody who because you can't find the mentor your
mentor's got to find you he's got to be able to look at you and say okay this
dude he just needs a little bit you know experience just somebody in his ear
and then he'll be he'll be he'll be cool he'll be perfectly fine i know like
speak like doing extra work man like extra work i tell people is like.
(12:08):
It's it's like entry-level work into this industry you know it's not something
that that you wanna get tied to like forever.
So just having somebody who could show you how to.
Take you from being an extra to now having a job
in the in the in the entertainment business because
that's really what it's about it's not i mean being the
(12:30):
the movie star and stuff like
that is such a small percentage of that but then like when
you look at like movies and you tested this like when you
look at movies and you have like those end credits like the actors are like
just this portion of the you know of the credits and then if you're talking
about like the leads the the stars it's like this but then there's all these
other jobs and all those jobs is just basically opportunities for you to still
(12:52):
be in the game be in the mix and just really just to pursue,
and keep chasing your dream and turn it from what we call as a dream to now
reality into a career right and so how did you go from being started off as
an extra to now doing like you still act but you're also directing your own
(13:14):
films. Well, it was a lesson learned.
I, like many other actors, auditioned for a role, and I didn't get it.
And then I saw the movie later on. I'm not going to name the movie or call anybody out.
And the acting was absolutely subpar. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
(13:37):
And I said to myself, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to buy a camera
and a computer, and I'm going to do this myself.
And that's right around the time Jim and I connected. So that was the...
The jump of my acting foray into this business, real acting foray and directing,
et cetera, sort of into this business.
(13:58):
So if you want something done, you got to do it yourself.
Yeah. You know, that's, that's what happened. Yeah. I mean, isn't that the worst,
the worst experience ever, bro?
Like when you like, you go into it and especially when you like,
you feel like you killed it. Yeah.
I did it, man. Yeah. Whoop, whoop. And then like, you know, you don't get the
part of you like, all right, cool.
Like, I understand that Noah's part of this business, but then,
(14:18):
like, when you see the film or commercial or whatever it be that you auditioned
for, you see the person that they picked and the person looks just like you. Yeah.
But, like, you know, you're more talented than this dude and you'd be all like, fuck.
Yeah, damn. You'd be like, all right.
All right. I got to do something. I got to do something now.
(14:39):
That's one of those when one door closes, another door opens.
Yep. Or if one door closes, you make your own doorway. Yeah,
you make your own doorway.
Yeah, you kick in the walls or something. Because that's what they also got
to understand is that when people call this the movie business,
the film business, like the longest word there is business. And it's the most important thing.
(15:01):
So you can't take those no's. You can't take those rejections personally.
You got to take it. I say don't take it personal. Take it professional.
Right. Anytime somebody tells you, no, says you're not right for this part that
you just got to take, you just got to make your own part.
And O means another opportunity.
Yep. Yep. Next opportunity. Next opportunity. We're going to keep this party
(15:21):
rolling, man. So keep this party rolling.
So now with you jumping into being direct director, first like short film experience.
Do you remember what that was what that was like let me see i i directed a short film called.
(15:42):
Called oh gee whiz what was the name of that short film
i had it on your imdb yeah you might have to look it up because yeah because
we was just talking about this me and the kid was just talking about that the
last time the kid was in it yeah yeah yeah it was like buster no that was that
was the second one that was i didn't direct that oh i was one of the producers
on it but it It was called, um,
(16:04):
uh, it wasn't the difference, was it? The difference. That's it.
So that was the first film I directed. Short film. Yeah. That's it. That's it.
Ali D'Souza, who was my acting coach, we had a film club and one of the things
we took away from the film club was make your own short film.
Yeah. So I wrote a script, my first script, so to speak, and we shot it and
(16:29):
it did well. It did pretty well.
There were some challenges because I really didn't know what I was doing. I learned.
You said Ali was your acting coach? Yes, Ali.
Awesome. Yeah. Okay. I went to one of his movies that he had on.
The i think it was the crest theater like a long long
(16:50):
time ago and then i think that's that's the first time i became
familiar with his work but then i was just
talking like it's it's it's crazy just like how
small of a community this
is and how yeah everybody is everybody
is connected in this game so being able to
like say being able to have the opportunity to catch up with him at
(17:11):
the sacktown movie buff film festival was a dope experience but like i said
just seeing the how he played like i said he was it was his movie you know this
this this big entity but seeing just how much he's part of a team right you
know how important is it for you,
the process of or how important it
(17:33):
is to have it to have your team build up your
team and and what is your process of bringing
people out because i noticed that you do work with a lot of the same people well
i mean it's it's a don't recreate
the wheel if you look at martin scorsese he's always
working with robert de niro joe pesci al pacino
they're in countless movies together if
(17:56):
you look at what's that actor's name adam sandler he's got the same people in
his movie i even go back to one of my idols bruce lee he's got the same people
in all his movies yeah So that must mean that they have a cohesive team because
they work very well together.
I decided to replicate that. So we got my lady, Elise Hollywood Evans.
(18:19):
We got Amy Naylor. We got Nikki. We got Gary Turner.
We got Jim Meyer. We got Vert Wright.
Once in a while, we'll use some other people that come in, Blaine Santos,
Freeman Williams, you know, and we keep the team going.
Keep everybody motivated and why change
(18:40):
yeah why change that's funny like as i said
like probably about like 80 of those people that you had just named
i know you know i've worked with us to some
type of capacity and stuff like that so this this this
field community up here is so crazy man because like how we
you said earlier some people call it hollywood north i feel like it does really
have the potential to reach those type of heights because we are so connected
(19:03):
everybody is just It's about mostly just everybody being on the same page of
understanding that we're just trying to, one, create art, but then eventually wanting to,
I mean, you're going to have to make some money off of these things.
Right, right. But the art comes first, and then the team building is the most important thing.
Right. You've got to have a, if you want to be successful in anything,
(19:24):
but in this particular case, independent filmmaker, you've got to have a great
team because you can't do it by yourself.
I didn't do all of this by myself. So, you know, I was blessed with a great
team. Yeah. You know? Mm-hmm.
And then so besides also doing the filmmaking, you also have a background in martial arts.
(19:46):
Yes, I do. I got beat up and I was in I think I was in the fifth grade. I got beat up by a girl.
Mylene DeJouin. Mylene, if you watch and I'm mentioning your name.
She just did it because she had a crush on you. That's why.
That's why they do it. They don't understand back back there where they are.
They beat you up because they like you. She beat me up because I talked about her brother.
(20:07):
She hit me with my own lunchbox. And when I got home, after my dad finished
laughing at me, he was involved into the martial arts. So he taught me martial arts.
And my cousin took me to some martial arts studios in New York.
And then when I left New Jersey and joined the Air Force, I ran into gentleman Dr.
(20:34):
Alonzo Jones, who became my primary instructor, who I ranked up on.
So I've been doing martial arts since I was about nine, 10 years old.
I'm not going to tell you how old I am.
It's been a minute. I've been doing it for a minute. Yeah, I've been a successful competitor.
(20:54):
Competitor i parlayed that
into kickboxing i used to box as well and then
kickboxing i won five world titles and five actually technically
six world titles and five different weight divisions and i
kept going up in weight not to test the champion but because i have an affinity
for ice cream so i couldn't move up to the next weight division and i had a
(21:17):
really good manager so yeah there it is so what do you attest to take it like
the there's a lot of discipline that comes and comes with martial arts.
I mean, you know how to kick somebody's ass, but they teach you dope. Yeah. Yeah. They do.
What kind of, how did that discipline with martial arts help you transition into filmmaking?
(21:38):
Because did you always want to be an actor or filmmaker?
I knew that when I was a kid, I wanted to be like my heroes that I saw on the screen.
I wanted to be Fred Williamson. I wanted to be Bruce Lee. I wanted to be Jim
Kelly, Ron Van... I wanted to be those guys. Mm-hmm.
And when you're a kid, even though it's a movie, you kind of think it's kind
of real life. So I wanted to be like them in real life. Yeah.
(22:01):
Not knowing that would parlay into entertainment.
So getting back to your question, the discipline allows me to focus on what I need to focus on.
So from writing a script, I'm going to write the script.
If I'm writing a script, editing, coloring, well, from this time to this time, I'm going to do this.
(22:21):
From this time to that time, I'm going to do that. From this time to that time, I'm going to do that.
It helps me structure and stay focused.
Otherwise, I would be lost in my mix.
I'm currently working on one, two, three, four projects right now. Five.
Five projects right now. Six.
(22:43):
I'm sorry. Busy. God damn. At this moment right now, six projects that I have
to make time, allocate time to do.
Otherwise, nothing will get done. Mm-hmm, you know, so that's that's what a
martial arts discipline comes into and these all gonna be like feature films
or two Let me see one two three four four feature films,
(23:06):
TV show and a short film and one of those films is those that the cocaine Roach
one of them is cocaine we gonna get into that a little bit because I was I,
Seed the trailer for it, man.
I see the Oh my word, I see the teleport, I see my man Marlon up in there,
and I was just like, what the fuck is this, man?
(23:28):
I was like, all right, yeah, we, like, when I texted you, I was like,
is there anything you specifically want to talk about? I was like,
yeah, coca-cola. I'm like, nope, don't worry about that. It's already covered.
We're going to get into that in a little bit of stuff.
Working with your heroes, that's something that I feel is something that's like,
really kind of like goes under the rug, like where people don't really understand
(23:49):
just the whole mystique of that.
Cause one of the things that people say a lot of times, especially in this industry
is like, you don't want to meet your, you don't want to meet your heroes.
You don't want to meet your idols.
Cause they're going to be, they're not going to be who you expect because just
watching things from like the TV screen, you think that's who they are 24 seven.
But I think you kind of had the opposite of that. Like you want to be like,
you work like working with like Fred Williamson.
(24:09):
My first introduction to him was on dust till dawn.
But like you have the opportunity to like work
with your heroes and like you're like
directing them you know what i'm saying it's it's it's an out-of-body experience
i was directing this movie snow black and there's a scene where ron van cleef
and cammy ferry are they're going over their lines and they're speaking to each
(24:32):
other and i'm going over the script with them there's a picture like like on
my Facebook page with all three of us.
And I had to step back and said, oh my God, I'm directing Ron.
It's like, oh my God. You know, I used to watch him, the black dragon.
That's what they call him. I used to watch him, you know, at the Adams movie
(24:56):
theater, the Paramount movie theater, the Newark drive-in, et cetera.
So seeing him on the cover of magazines, watched him fight in the UFC.
I was like, Like, I'm director Rod Van Cleve. Oh, my God. This is real. This is real.
Same thing with Lawrence Hill Jacobs is in Cocaine Roach.
I sat back. I was like, it's Lawrence Hill Jacobs.
(25:18):
I used to watch that guy. I used to really watch this guy and study him.
Oh, my God. I watched him.
One of the really, really good movies he was in was called, that's of late.
It's called A Chance in the World. So, I got to see him in that,
and he was excellent in that film.
You know, as well as, you know, the other movies, the Jacksons,
(25:41):
and you go way back to Cooley High, people don't realize he was in the first
Death Wish movie. I was like, wow, that's cool.
And he's so cool. Yeah. He's so cool. So down to earth. Yeah. Yeah.
It's always a cool feeling, man. It's just a good feeling in general where,
I mean, like I said, working with these people that you like,
(26:03):
that inspired you to be this.
And then when you meet them in real life, you're like, okay,
they are who I thought they were.
Yeah. Like I said, it gives you that validation, but then also that motivation
to keep pursuing what it is that you're doing.
Because like I said, you can just have one bad experience with somebody who
you looked up to as like a hero.
(26:24):
And then it will change your whole entire perspective. It will.
It will. I haven't had that experience.
I've just been blessed to work with some really great people.
You know, Eric Roberts, Vernon Wells. I mean, I'm directing these guys. I'm like, wow.
And they're really, really down to earth, really cool people.
(26:46):
You know, there hasn't, I haven't ran into anybody. Cinda Williams.
Yeah. She's like my sister. You know, I haven't ran into anybody who I deem eccentric.
You know, the original G-Man of hip hop had an opportunity to direct him.
I'm like, wow, this is so cool.
You know, these people are so cool.
(27:09):
It's so down to earth, you know, so it's just, when they say you don't want
to meet your heroes, I kind of disagree with that because I think meeting your
hero will motivate you, even if your hero turns out bad.
To whoever it is, to be an asshole. It helps you like, I can be better than.
(27:30):
Yeah. Yeah. Like I'm, I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, but I know that like
once the tables are turned, there's somebody looking at me for the perspective of like their hero.
Right. I know how to approach it. Cause I don't, I don't, I don't want nobody
feeling the same way I felt and stuff like that.
I mean, it just, it only thing, only thing having a bad experience will do like
for me, like my mentality would just make me go harder, you know,
(27:52):
make me try harder just to, Make sure that somebody else doesn't have that experience.
But not everybody else is built like that.
That's true. Now, Muhammad Ali would never refuse an autograph. And do you know why?
Because when he was a kid, Sugar Ray Robinson denied him an autograph.
He went to Sugar Ray Robinson to get an autograph. Sugar Ray Robinson's like, go away, kid. Yeah.
(28:19):
Certainly be alone. so now you know
they're they're both passed on but that's the
mentality that i have you know so okay
cool now let's get into this this cocaine roach man
this new film that you you you wrote this um yes how did that give people backstory
(28:39):
like cocaine roaches is basically a movie about roaches roaches and cocaine
cocaine they do cocaine and they just wreak havoc so so i saw So, of course,
we all saw Cocaine Bear, which was good. It was hilarious.
And then the spinoffs come. There was Cocaine Cougar. There was Cocaine Shark.
(29:00):
There was Meth Gator. There was Cocaine Crabs from Outer Space.
And I think they're doing one called Cocaine Werewolf. Yeah. Yeah.
So I saw them and they were okay. You know, I'm like, I don't speak bad on anybody's film.
And then I talked to the distributor who distributed cocaine crabs from outer space.
They sold 150,000 copies in a week.
(29:24):
I was like, whoa, well, I can do that. You know, but let me add a story to it.
Let me, what's in these animal drug movies was missing.
And I think a lot that was missing is a story because if you take the gimmick
away, there's no movie Mm-hmm, if you take the cocaine cougar away from cocaine
(29:44):
cougar, there's no movie you take the bear away from cocaine beard There's no
movie. There's no story.
So I wanted to make a story Whereas if we took the roaches away,
it's still a story Yeah, you know and then how many times are you gonna run into a bear?
Yeah, not too often or a cougar I wish a man we black we stay out of the world.
That's right. Oh, that's right we might run into a crab
(30:06):
at the buffet right oh y'all run into a bear at the zoo or something
like that that's about it yeah now how many times you're gonna see
a roach oh yeah so i wanted
to use something that everybody's familiar with everybody has seen at least
once and have have dealt with especially in the black community so because none
(30:26):
of these movies have anything to do with the black community yeah so i wanted
to make something specifically,
a little more urban, a little more fun, and compelling story.
So that's how Cocaine Roach came about. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
Can you give us a little, you don't gotta give us a whole storyline,
unless you want to, but just like how you said, there's a story behind it.
(30:48):
Can you give us a little backstory to what the story is?
So the backstory to the story, well, there's like three different stories.
Of course, there's the drug story, where a woman.
Cross-dressing kingpin gives two of her clients a bag of coke to make some money
(31:09):
to go to the safe house and wait for the money man.
So that's the basics, you know, story. And the safe house is,
of course, filled with drug-crazed roaches.
Then you have the story of the character Tanisha and her daughter,
how she kind of leaves her daughter so she can go out and party and have fun
with the guys and so forth.
(31:30):
Then you have the story of Tanisha and her current boyfriend,
Gary L. Turner, who killed that role.
Then you have the story of Tanisha and her ex-boyfriend, Marlon,
who plays Omar, who happens to be the drug lord's enforcer and bodyguard.
(31:52):
So you put all four of those guys in a room together. Oh, and we can't forget
Alvin, his, his, his character's name is, oh gee, I can't remember Alvin's character's name.
Cas-o-ski-Jamal. Jamal. Okay.
(32:14):
So he's kind of like just in for the ride.
So you put Jamal, Ski, Omar, and Tanisha in a room together and they can't get out.
Until the money man comes yeah with four kilos of coke and cocaine filled roaches.
What's gonna happen the roaches just start
(32:37):
eating people you gotta see it we gotta see it man i'm i'm looking forward to
that with that one i know i missed mad as hell i had work but i will i will
call it i will call it to work to watch fucking cocaine roach i will that reminds
me of like this man like growing up watching a lot of
the, like the sci-fi original movies, you know?
(32:59):
It was, there was something about them to where like, that independent filmmaking
type of aspect, or like, you know,
like those grindhouse movies where they just, they not say it cheesy,
but they're just, you could tell they're films that were just made from the heart. Right, right.
And this isn't cheesy.
I mean, it's low budget, it's definitely low budget.
(33:22):
They said, we got Lawrence Hilton Jacobs in it. We got Todd Sinafonte.
Todd, it was Jean-Claude Van Damme Slanto.
It's just, it's a really, I wish I had my phone with me. I would pull up.
We got two critic reviews so far on an unfinished movie.
And they love it. They love it. They absolutely love it. I'm going to send you
(33:43):
those critic reviews so you can read those.
Yeah, because I think that's what people are yearning for right now, man.
Like, just something that they could just sit back, watch it,
be like oh this is like we're watching a movie you know
nothing that they take like we're getting like that popcorn it just
nothing too extravagant nothing too but
something we could they're gonna love it elise hollywood evans
plays two roles so she plays tanisha
(34:06):
and she plays diva big deal now we had a private screening yesterday for a mutual
friend of ours just to test it outside of excuse me just to test it outside
of me because you know i've watched it a thousand times outside of her and outside
of people who are in that real tight circle because we're keeping a lid on the movie.
And he, oh my God, he loved it. He laughed and then he just,
(34:30):
he was real quiet during the serious parts.
So it's kind of a fun rollercoaster ride. It's not a slow movie.
You know, I mean, you know, the introduction leads up to everything.
And we had a lot of help. We had help from the Black Repertory Theater in Berkeley,
Berkeley black rep helped us out a lot.
(34:51):
I'm just, I'm just very thankful that we got it off and it's great, man.
It's, I, I actually, every time I look at it, it gets better and better and better. Yeah.
And then what is it like when you, cause of course, like as filmmakers,
our own, we look at our own art, like that's our baby.
Like we, we, we treat it like our baby, like we love it. But what is it like
when you see, like how you say, like you showed it to your mutual friend or
(35:16):
like with Mad as Hell, you know, saying you said it won like what,
34 awards and stuff like that.
What's that feel like for you when other people look at your work and they have
that same appreciation for it that you do, that validation?
That lets me know that I'm on the right path, but it also lets me know that I can do better.
Our last movie, Mad as Hell, was really good.
(35:39):
I was very proud of it. But now we got Cocaine Roach, and I'm like, it's on another level.
We're doing a vampire movie also called The Thirst, which is on another level.
You know so we have to keep progressing you
know we have to keep stepping i never want to
in this business plateau yeah even even
if we take a dip even if i make a bad movie
(36:01):
i'll learn from it yeah but i don't want to make the same movie every time every
time every time every time then then you're like for lack of a better word you're
like a steven seagal movie he just cranks out these movies he's just the same
guy same guy in every movie i just want the same lines from this movie That movie. Same character.
So, you know, I'm dipping into this horror thing.
(36:23):
I have an idea in my head and we're working with my guy, Timothy Beal,
to get the rights to Blackenstein so that we can do our spin on Blackenstein.
Did you see Blackenstein? Mm-mm.
No. Cool. I'll take that one off the bucket.
(36:46):
I'll wait for you to break to, to remake it. Yeah. We're going to,
we're going to hopefully remake it and make it with a, and I'm not saying don't
see it because it's horrible movie.
You might laugh at it. Okay. Yeah. In today's cause that was made way back in the seventies.
So in today's standard, it really wouldn't be on par.
(37:06):
We really cut the mustard. So I would like to remake it and give it a story, a real story.
And I have an idea on how to do that. Okay.
Do you, with having such an extensive resume now with films that you produce,
having your own production studio, do you feel like there's pressure to outdo the last film you did?
(37:29):
Or is it, I just want to make this film the best film it could be,
this next film? I want to make each film the best film it can be.
Now, when we were doing Cocaine Roach, Elise Evans, Elise Hollywood Evans,
would be over my shoulder, and she would say, is that the best you can do for that?
I'm like, yeah, because the technology has been made. Well, yes, it has.
(37:50):
Somebody has a technology, and somebody's done this, and somebody's done that,
and it's just a computer program.
And though it was a little aggravating, you had to step outside of yourself
and be like, she's right, we can do better.
We can do better like when i
first did the roaches they looked
(38:11):
absolutely horrible they were like they were like this big and just brown and
you can do better robert you can do better yeah and so i tried to make it the
best we could be and when this is over i'll give you a glimpse of it so you
You can see they look like real roaches.
(38:32):
So every project I can do, do I want it to be better than the last project I
did? Yes, of course. But that's not my mindset.
My mindset is to make this project right here the best it can be.
And if it's better than the last project, great. If it's not, great.
But this one right here has got to be more than 100% for what I give it to.
(38:54):
Yeah. And so you mentioned at least Hollywood Evans a couple of times.
What is the, like with having such a big production team, having to be in charge
of so many people and so many people dependent on you, what's it like having
like a partner there like that's just like your rock that you,
that person that you can now lean on?
Because everybody looks at you at the leader, but now you have somebody who
(39:16):
you just, like she understands not only the entertainment business,
she doesn't understand just Robert the filmmaker, but Robert the person.
Well, she checks me, you know, when I fall short on things, cause I'm,
I'm a human being. I forget things.
Things I don't do, things I don't push myself to do, because sometimes I fall
into a cycle of that's good enough.
(39:39):
You know, she pushes me, you know, hey, you can do better.
Hey, what does this look like? Hey, what is your audience going to think of
this scene? What is your audience going to think of these words?
You know, so it helps me be very conscious, very, very conscious,
you know. And there are other people.
Amy Naylor is my, she's like our set production person. So she is on the script.
(40:04):
Robert, you forgot this scene. You forgot that. Don't forget this.
You know, she keeps, I'm like, what scene are we on? And I just turn to her
and she knows. We're on scene 34.
You know, she just knows. She knows.
So she's a big help. You know, Gary Turner.
He's my, whatever I need him to be.
(40:25):
So when we're on set, Gary and I'll direct and Gary will pull me to the side
and say, hey, Rob, what if you did the scene like this?
That's a pretty good idea, Gary. Let's do it like that. And let's see how it
turns out. Yeah. You know, so it's a collective effort.
I wouldn't say I'm the leader. I would say I'm the spearhead mm-hmm,
(40:47):
but not necessarily the leader because we all have,
sight and Insight into what we do because we've done it long enough to make a Great film.
Yeah, you know Just so happens that I'm the director.
Mm-hmm. Yeah could have been any one of us. Mm-hmm So is that that also your
(41:08):
approach to like I say just put it together your your production team it's like
you said, it's a lot of familiar people from a lot of familiar parts.
That also goes into the.
You've been able to trust their input. Right. And then vice versa,
them being able to trust you as the director.
Right, right. Because if there's something that they say and I don't think it's
(41:30):
going to work, I'm going to tell them, hey, that's not going to work.
And I'll tell them why it's not going to work. And then they won't get offended.
Yeah. You know, and I don't get offended when they tell me, hey,
Rob, I don't think that's going to work.
I don't get offended because we're trying to make a product. It's not about the ego.
It's about the product. Yeah. You know? So we all vibe off each other with that.
(41:51):
Of course, I have a vision where I would like something to look,
but in somebody else's eyes, it might look a little better if we did it like this.
I got to take that into consideration because I'm not making the movie for me.
I'm making the movie for the audience, for the populace. So I got to take everybody's opinion.
(42:13):
Nice, nice. And I said, being on those types of film sets, especially being
independent filmmakers, I mean, you should almost call it the opposite of being
independent, man. It's like codependent.
This is a codependent film. Just like this person is trusting me,
I'm trusting this person.
I'm hoping this person shows up. I'm hoping this actor knows their lines.
(42:35):
I'm hoping this light person actually knows how to operate lights. It's like my DP.
We did this music video in LA for a rapper, Q Ali Bey.
It's got over, I don't know, 200,000 views on YouTube or whatever.
And I had Gary in the head, my guy Vert Wright, his DP.
(42:57):
And so we worked long enough together. And they were like, what do you think
of this shot? I don't want to see it. I trust you. I asked you what I wanted.
Just get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Don't show me every shot unless I ask to see the shot. I trust you. Yeah.
You know, to me, that's.
That is time that I could be spending doing something else to move the set forward.
(43:24):
Yeah. You know, that's just me. That's the way I work.
Some people are, oh, you got to see the shot after every shot to make sure you
like it. Of course I like it. You know, I trust you. Yeah. So.
Yeah. That's definitely the, like you say, the camaraderie of once you build
up your team, people you trust.
Because I have a similar situation on, like I said, I produce my own comedy
(43:44):
shows. Eventually, you know, grow, take learning to take what I learned for
producing a comedy show into, you know, producing my own films and things of that nature.
But talk to comedian at my show last time. And he was just all like,
you know, because we got to from a comedian standpoint, we got to look at the
audience, you know, judge from what the audience looks like.
What jokes we might feel are going to be the best thing. You know,
(44:06):
one of the comedians, he just asked me, hey, man, so what could I do?
What kind of jokes can I tell? I was like, bro, just do you.
Right. Like, like, I'm like, you don't, I'm like, you are way past the point
of asking me, you know, what type of jokes to say. Cause like,
you've grown as a comedian.
I've watched you grow as a comedian.
Like I put you on this show because I trust you as a comedian, bro.
(44:28):
Just go out there, do you, and have a blast.
He killed it. Absolutely killed it.
So just, it takes, I feel like it takes a little while to get there because
like everybody treats, you know, everybody has art.
They, everybody has their own vision. But once you get in sync with that person,
it's just, it's like, bro, just do you, man.
You got to get past people's, or you don't have to, but people have to get past the insecurities.
(44:52):
Mm-hmm. You know, once you, and it's not a level of arrogance.
That's not what we're looking for. We're looking for confidence. Yeah.
So once you get past the insecurity and you become confident in what you do,
then it's all gravy from there.
How, as an artist or filmmaker in general, do we, because it's a thin line between
(45:16):
the confidence and ego, especially in this business, because people's personalities
are so, so fragile at times, man.
How do you, how do we kind of like instill that confidence, but then understand,
but like take away like the ego part of it?
Well, for me, I, I, I, I, I worship God at the end of the day.
(45:40):
I know that I'm not going to be here forever.
And I know that I have to answer for what I do.
So for me to say, oh, I'm a better actor than you. That's a little arrogant.
And maybe I said that and hurt your feelings. Right. But if I do that and hurt
your feelings one day, I'm going to have to answer for that.
So my thing would be, Hey, let's help you move to the next level.
(46:04):
So that's what works for me. Now what works for anybody else,
the difference between confidence and arrogance, I can't tell you.
I really don't know. I've seen a lot of arrogance in this business, a lot of cockiness.
And i i think you need a little
bit of that to stay on top of your game yeah
(46:27):
but it shouldn't be maybe it's gonna spill over to
it's something that you just keep it inside yourself it's something that it
should have spilled over that you end up taking out on the next person yeah
shouldn't spill outside of yourself it really shouldn't you know you should
it's like when i was in the ring i had the confidence to know that i'm gonna
beat this guy in front of me I had the confidence to know that it wasn't arrogance,
(46:50):
you know, I wasn't, you know, sticking my tongue out and shaking my hips and,
you know, playing mind game. Well, I did play mind games, but.
Yeah, no, it's a mental game. It's a mental game. More than a physical fight,
it's a mental game. It's a mental game of chess, you know.
So it's the same thing in this business.
Got to leave your ego at the door you
(47:12):
know if you want to make a great product leave your
ego at the door because if i come into the set
all arrogant well i'm gonna suck all the energy out
of you and i'm gonna you know i'm a director i'm gonna make you do this take
20 times let's get two more for safety everybody's all the energy's raining
yeah yeah yeah yeah that's the that's one of the most like most important things
(47:35):
like being on a film set i say number one is the food right,
And then number two is just the personalities because people will work hard
if there's good food and there's good people, if they're around good people, good energy.
But once that energy is sucked out the room, man, it just, because we are working.
(47:59):
This is a job. Everybody has their own things that they have to do,
their own responsibilities. but the second you walk in and treat it like it's
a job, it just sucks the energy out of the frickin' room, man. It does.
It does. And the good food is real important. We have, I usually have my daughter cater our film set.
(48:21):
So when Lawrence Hilton Jacobs was here, we had...
Like two different kinds, three different kinds of chicken. We had mac and cheese.
We had a salad. We had some banana pudding.
Oh man, we laid it out. And we took a lunch break and I didn't want to go back.
(48:42):
No, I was about to go to sleep. I'd be going to sleep.
I'm about to catch the itis just looking. I was like, golly.
And see, those are the type of films because those just show that you care about
the people. Yeah. You care about the filmmakers.
You got to. You got to. Because you want them to come back. You want them to come back.
Imagine if I got on set and treated Lawrence Hilton Jacobs like trash.
(49:05):
After all of his experience and I went in there and treated him like trash.
You know what he's going to do? He's never going to work with me again.
Then he's going to tell all of his friends never to work with me again. Oh, yeah.
You can't do that. And like I said, it's a small world.
It's small. It's the community. It's small, man. like yeah I mean I think I
just friended you on Facebook but then you look at our Facebook friends we probably
(49:26):
got over a hundred mutual friends and I'm like this is a this is a,
small small world man small world
yeah so before we do like wrap up wrap up the episode one thing I always do
is call like the Mount Rushmore which is basically like your top four and I
always say like your top four you know action actors you know top four action
(49:48):
actors yeah and they're probably people that you've already named but you know
know, just people who inspired you,
motivated you, that you watched on the TV screen or in the magazines that said, oh yeah, I could do this.
Bruce Lee, Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Ron Van Cleef.
Boom. Yeah. Top four. Yeah. And you know what was dope about that?
Like the reason why I love doing the Mount Rushmore and stuff like that,
(50:10):
because it always comes back to some part previously in this episode and stuff
like that, like all those people that you named for the most part.
We're all like literally people like mentors, mentors in your life,
people who, like I said, help shape who you are, not from just like the visual
standpoint, from you visualizing, oh, I could be that.
But there are people who like probably in your phone book, people who put their
(50:31):
arm around your shoulder, like, Robert, this is how you got to do this, bro. Exactly.
Exactly. And that's the thing, because eventually you're going to get to the
point to where, let's say 10 years from now, 15 years from now,
somebody might be watching this podcast. They'd be like, hey,
man, I want to do, I'm going to copy that and I'm going to do a Mount Rushmore.
And then that person is going to interview somebody.
But who's your Mount Rushmore? Think about, oh, it's Robert.
(50:54):
You know, it's this person, that person. You don't say it because everything
comes full circle in this business. It does.
Everything comes full circle in this business. It does. It really, really does.
So you have to be conscious of how you act, what you say, what you do,
because this is a small business.
(51:15):
It's a real small business and you want to work with open arms with people.
Yeah. Yeah. No tension on the set.
No disparaging words. It's all about love, man. Yep. Yep.
That's what it's all about, man. We just, I heard just trying to make movies, man.
We trying to turn our dreams into plans and our plans into reality.
(51:37):
That's right. So that's the goal.
So yeah. Was there, where can people find you at?
You can find me on Facebook at Robert.Parham.
P-A-R-H-E-M. You can find me on Instagram at TheRealRobertParham and you can
find me on TikTok at Kickboxin5.
K-I-C-K-B-X-N-5.
Okay, sure. And now if they wanted to go back and see your movies,
where could they see? My movies are on Plex, Voodoo, Hoopla, and,
(52:03):
What is that? Tubi? Tubi and Peacock.
Okay. So you can just type in my name and the movies will come up.
Okay. Awesome, man. Awesome, man. I'm going to bring you back and we can talk
about that whole, the second part to like the production part.
Well, actually I can say the third part, which is there's pre-production,
production, then post-production, which is actually like getting your movie,
you know, out there and onto the streaming platforms.
(52:25):
I feel like that's just a whole another conversation in itself because that's
where I really like at the networking end, you know, who, who,
you know, and really knowing the business side of things, who,
you know, is who knows you, you can know anybody,
but if they don't know you, you're not moving forward.
Powerful. All right, man. So yeah, my name is a bit buddy. Rami got been the host.
(52:46):
You can follow me at yeah, buddy E and T or at funny business on all social media platforms.
And if you're listening, if you're watching, it's just, it's just right there down there for y'all.
And then, uh, like I said, this is the yeah, Bad Buddy Podcast.
It has been brought to you by the Comedy Cash Cow Competition,
which goes down May 25th, Vacaville, California.
Tickets are available right now. You can see 25 comedians compete and battle
(53:09):
it out for their chance to win a thousand dollar grand prize and the chance
to star in their own short film, which we will then take and send out to like
a whole bunch of film festivals and stuff like that.
So we're breaking comedians into the film industry.
We're going to have a whole bunch of industry people there like agents managers
media personalities people from iheart radio
(53:30):
film commissioners film distributors
i just found i just found that out today we're gonna have some film distributors
out there too as well so it's not only an opportunity for like comedians i was
like say actors and filmmakers like that you come network and meet people you
might even find a comedian for your next uh show your next movie well no you
got me you got me now you got me now i'm trying to try to have those three different types of chicken.
(53:53):
Yeah but yeah oh yeah buddy buddy rami y'all
this has been another episode of the yeah buddy podcast robert man thank you
for being a guest thanks man thanks for having me yes sir yes sir and we out
man i'll catch y'all on the next episode you catch us streaming everywhere on
from youtube spotify uh wherever you listen to podcasts that man we we there
we there we everywhere like air all righty man i'll catch y'all later.
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