IFH 836: The New Rules of Indie Filmmaking No One Is Teaching with the Jalbert Brothers

The Jalbert Brothers share how they built their filmmaking careers by embracing low budgets, consistent output, and hands-on learning. Rather than waiting for funding or studio approval, they focused on making films with minimal resources, sometimes for as little as $1,000. Each project became a practical lesson in storytelling, directing, editing, and problem-solving, allowing them to sharpen their skills faster than traditional development paths.

The conversation highlights the importance of momentum, repetition, and audience awareness in today’s film industry. By treating filmmaking as both a creative and strategic endeavor, the Jalbert Brothers have learned to use social media and digital platforms as powerful tools for distribution and growth. Their journey proves that success in modern filmmaking comes from action, adaptability, and the courage to keep creating — no matter the budget.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight
thirty six, Cinema Should Make You Forget.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
You're sitting in a theater, Roman Polanski.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we showed you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.

Speaker 4 (00:38):
I am your humble.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Host, Alex Ferrari. Today's show is sponsored by Rise of
the Film Entrepreneur How to turn your independent film into
a profitable business. It's harder today than ever before for
independent filmmakers to make money with their films from predatory
film distributors ripping them off to huckster film aggregators who
prey upon them. The odds are stacked against the indie filmmaker.

(00:59):
The old distribution model of making money with your film
is broken, and there needs to be a change the
future of independent filmmaking is the entrepreneurial filmmaker or the
film entrepreneur. In Rise of the Film Entrepreneur, I break
down how to actually make money with your film projects
and show you how to turn your indie film into
a profitable business. With case studies examining successes and failures.

(01:23):
This book shows you the step by step method to
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The book is available in paperback, ebook, and of course audiobook.
If you want to order it, just head over to

(01:43):
www dot filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot com.
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Speaker 5 (01:54):
On this episode, I have two brothers who start their
careers in video production fifteen years ago as kids making
home videos in the family's backyard. One does a lot
of the producing, one does a lot of the cinematography,
and that's a good team to have. Their credits include
producer and first assistant director for the feature film Apple
of My Eye starring Burt Reynolds and Amy Smart. And

(02:17):
they also teach a hell of a lot of awesome
seminars about making your first film for a few thousand
dollars one thousand dollars, two thousand dollars with guests Brian
and Jake Cholbert, the Jolbert Brothers.

Speaker 6 (02:29):
Well, so I'm gonna take I'm gonna take it back
a little bit. The first time we started going full
time was when we started, actually Jake with an entertainment
company called Iris Entertainment. That was kind of like the
first inkling of it. And Jake's actually does video full time.

(02:50):
I don't. I have a construction company, so therefore I'm
doing that and I'm doing this at the same time.
So Jake actually is the one actually more full time.
He does video, full time, editing, all that good stuff.
But I would say, back in what two thousand and
eight or nine.

Speaker 7 (03:08):
Two thousand and nine, we started a company, yeah, called
Iris Entertainment, where there was four of us. I did video,
there's you know, some guys the DJ and photography. But
really what I think the question you're really asking is,
you know, when do we dive in and start realizing
that we could actually maybe help some people. And because
we've been through a couple projects, and different things, and
from the fugal filmmaker and looking at people talking to

(03:29):
different filmmakers, you hear different stories and it's like, oh,
you know, if you if you just knew this, I
think you could this would help you. And that pretty
much started. I would say, uh January. Yeah, so we've
been doing it about a year.

Speaker 6 (03:43):
Yeah. And the thing about us too, man, is it's
not about really teaching per Se in the typical way
of saying, hey, this is the way you should do something,
But it's more of documenting our journey per Se, what
we're doing, some of the things that helped us and marry,
some of the mistakes that we've made, and and and
try to do options. See. The problem I see is

(04:07):
there's all these old ideals going on right within the
film community and the film ways of doing things. Nobody's
really I should say, nobody is doing it, but people
need to start experimenting. It's it's it's there's new ways
of doing things. There's ultimately gonna be new people that
are gonna be coming out and maybe making it in

(04:29):
those new ways. So figuring it out, whether it's making
episodic and going and putting on Facebook Facebook not Facebook live,
but they got Facebook watch now, and there's so many
different avenues that we need to start, i think, really
opening up to and figuring out how to make it
work for the film community. If that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Yeah, yeah, that makes total sense. Any And you know
you mentioned Facebook too, because with all the ways of
distribution and stuff now, you know, you have to take
it account all social media aspects. And then they all
got into video now and now I mean this is
kind of sort of getting away from what we're talking
about in a way. But I just saw that WWE
is going to start doing live events on Facebook, and

(05:14):
which is what I thought was gonna happen, where you're
gonna start seeing like TV shows or and more sports
and stuff like that. They're not going to count on
you for Nielsen ratings and watching it through TV. They're
going to count on you watching it on your phone
through Facebook.

Speaker 7 (05:27):
Well, if you think about it, they're gonna miss the
boat if they don't. You know, it's like it is
the thing, you know what I'm saying. It is the thing.

Speaker 6 (05:35):
Like like I don't know if you listen to the
Gary V but yeah, if you really listen to those guys.
And the thing about film community is you can't get
stuck in the film community ways what are other people
doing and how can we make that work? You know,
Gary V likes to say, you know, take advantage of
the situation that's going on and really see where the

(05:56):
attention is and like where ultimately, where is people? Where
are people eyeballs? It's on Facebook, It's on it's on
the social media. It's not in the theaters like it
used to be. Now, don't get you wrong. Theaters will
always be there, and theaters are great. And you know,
I love to have my movie. You know, I've had
a movie played in theater, but it was you know,
we four walled it. But if if you you know,

(06:17):
if you actually having a company get it there and
having a wide release, that's that's phenomenal. But that's not
the only way, you know, and that's not the only
way to make it work. You know, it's figuring out
how to make it work.

Speaker 4 (06:28):
I feel, yeah, exactly, you know, And you know, as
you talk about doing this like full time, just to
take a step back, you know that that's sort of
the crux, isn't it. You know, that's sort of the
big question that a lot of filmmakers have, whether they're
you know, twenties or thirties or forties or what have you.
It's you know, how do I make a How do
I become a full time filmmaker? You know, how do

(06:48):
I make my movie? Well at the same time working
a day job, so I don't go crazy trying to
do both, you know, And so you you've actually started
to do that. So, like, what was some of the
steps you took though to to sort of just say,
you know what, I don't want to work in an
office or do whatever. I want to go around shoot video.
I mean, did you start, you know, going around to
small businesses and shooting commercials and stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (07:09):
Well, I just went out well honestly and was just
we filmed it as little kids, and we went in
the backyard, and you know, two thousand and nine, I
just bought a camera and just started filming stuff. And
the biggest thing I would say to become full time
being a filmmaker is just start making stuff. So start
learn how to run camera, learn how to run sound.

(07:29):
A lot of people don't want to learn these things.
They want to just direct. To get a directing job
like that is I mean it's not you. It's just
not You have to learn skills. If you can build
skills within camera, okay, you can make money, people will
pay you. So I mean, you just hit everybody up.
You film stuff for free, film tons of stuff. You

(07:51):
get better and better, you keep getting better. There's Craigsitus
or Facebook. You just post your videos that you do
on and people just start reaching out to you. Say, oh,
you become I'm the video guy in your community. So
now everybody knows me. You know what I'm saying. He
does video, he shoots weddings, he shoots real estate videos,
he shoots film, and you just become that guy and
work just starts coming in. For me, it was like

(08:12):
I was a server, you know, so my job was
doing was serving and then building my business on the side,
video business, and it took about five or six years.
So for me, it took about six years to build
that to be full time to where you know, me
and Brian, we never liked sitting at a desk. We've
never really done that. So we work for ourselves. So

(08:34):
I mean, especially Brian, he won't work for nobody, you know,
he bots this, works for himself and he does a
great job, and he's always managed, and you know, he
kind of took the role as the producer because he's
always managed and he's always kind of put things together,
and you know, knew how to deal with the tough
situations that maybe I didn't know how to do, you.

Speaker 6 (08:54):
Know, And that's I think that's the key. Okay, So
going full time for a filmmaker is what do you
actually doing? Like, are you do you want to be
a director? Like jasonid learned to run camera? You know,
I know a guy that's in our area who does
film full time and he started out in sound, right,
he bought some sound gear, started doing stuff for free

(09:14):
to get his reel up. Now he's known as the
sound guy and then just recently direct a movie.

Speaker 4 (09:20):
So there's ways in.

Speaker 6 (09:22):
You just have to have that option in your brain
looking for those other ways in, Like when I went
and I ended up being a first a d and
a co producer for the Apple of my emvie. Right,
that wasn't by accident. And most people would say, oh,
you gotta start as a PA and you gotta work
your way up. Well, you know, I like jasaid, I

(09:42):
don't like working for people, So I did that for
certain reasons, because I've wanted to work with Burt Browns,
I wanted to work with Amy Smart, you know, I
wanted that credit there. But I was able to jump
a bunch of steps by building a network of people.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (10:07):
And not settling for a lower position per se. You know, Yeah,
I was a co producer first ad Normally I like
to run lead, but for that case scenario, I made
exceptions and went and did it. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (10:21):
So I think that's ultimately what it's like, Jason building
skills and to touch on that ROPEQUI just super quick.
I know we're moving on. But and the worst worst,
you know, worst comes the worst. You've built these skills
that you have forever. And that's where now I can
do video and I can make money and I can
work my way into the industry where I want to be.

Speaker 6 (10:44):
Build it.

Speaker 7 (10:44):
I mean period, building, building skills, sales skills, marketing skills.
We're doing it all because that's what it takes. Now, man,
that's what it takes, I believe.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah, it's like what Rob Rodriguez says, you know, if
you have the talent plus the know how, you're unstoppable,
which means uh and by that he means knowing the
technology how to use it, and then also being you know,
being able to be creative. You know, you're unstoppable then
because you don't have to, you know, depend on a
lot of different people, because you have again you've built

(11:14):
all these skills up and and just to take a
step back to what you were just saying, uh uh, Brian,
I completely get where you're coming from. Man, you don't
want to work for anybody else. I trust me. Man.
I get that so much because I used to get
offers all the time to produce other people's movies and
I would just say no. And when the people would
ask why, I would say, because I want to make

(11:34):
my stuff. I don't want to make your stuff.

Speaker 6 (11:36):
Isn't that? Isn't that?

Speaker 7 (11:38):
It is funny because you know we've if we got
offered to maybe direct a big movie, we probably turned
it down because it's just like I want to We
just want to do what we want to do and
for us, for us, it's doing our own projects, building
our own empire per se.

Speaker 6 (11:55):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah, And you know you want to you want to,
you know, people to make your stuff because we're only
on this earth for what what, maybe eighty years, ninety years,
I don't know. At the rate I'm going, I probably
have about three more years. So anyways, come on, you
got more net? Yeah, man, i'd say you some days
I really wonder anymore. But anyways, it all it's all

(12:18):
jokes everybody. I'm not really like, you know, dying or anything.
But but you know, you know, just as we talk about,
you know, making all these movies and stuff like that,
you guys have a piece of advice that you gave.
And by the way, you guys doing Facebook video like
promotions and Facebook videos live chats. That's all genius marketing,
by the way. So that's huge. And I don't see

(12:38):
any of the filmmaker and I'm friends with a ton
of filmmakers, believe me, I don't see any of them
doing that stuff. I think you guys are really like
ahead of the curve and doing that, doing that type
of of sort of you're talking to your crowd, right,
you know, directly, you're talking to the people that like
your Facebook page. You're talking to people inside the Frugal
Filmmaker page and you're talking to them directly, and it

(12:59):
becomes it's basically what I think that is, by the way,
is what Google Hangout was trying to be, but they
just couldn't get it right, and Facebook just copied it
and just said, hey, you know what, we can do
it better anyway.

Speaker 6 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 7 (13:12):
Yeah, it's just seeing around corners. It's seeing around corners
before anybody else. And that's how most people excel. Further,
that's how Robert Ariguez did you know.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Yeah, and so one of those video chats you guys
mentioned making a movie for a thousand bucks, which I,
by the way, think is terrific advice because I have
seen too many people and I'm sure you have too,
where they want to make a movie and maybe whether
they're first time filmmaker or maybe they made a few shorts,
and all of a sudden, they're trying to either raise

(13:40):
like ten thousand and fifty thousand, one hundred thousand or
more to make a film, and they don't have the
experience to really utilize that budget, you know what I mean,
and they so they end up spending money on the
wrong things, or they just completely end up just you know,
just destroying the whole budget because they dis did it
how to handle it?

Speaker 6 (14:01):
Yeah, I agree one hundred percent. Man, Just to put
it in perspective too, we went to the AFM, right,
so we're there and we got a buddy there, and
then we met this other gentleman. So there's two different
budgets I should say here. One was under ten thousand.
I'm not going to say the number because it's it's
around where we're at what we're talking about, but I

(14:22):
don't want to completely throw it out there. So under
ten thousand, and then this other gentleman made his for
around five hundred thousand, okay, And the two different comparisons
is crazy. The other guy that made it for five
had no experience, didn't get the right talent on board
to make it happen, okay, because it was his first time,

(14:43):
and he actually blew money that was kind of an inheritance.
So it just the problem is he could have took that,
made even a twenty thousand dollars movie and did so
much better with it, versus the guy that made it
under ten is got the sales agent, got it released,
and is gonna is gonna get a release in theaters.

(15:04):
So it's having it's realizing that take your first one,
give yourself a budget of a thousand and three thousand,
because we could all work for a year and save that. Okay,
have a script that's simplistic. It may not be your
ultimate script, but have it creative. Everybody talks about being creative,

(15:24):
but nobody's really creative. They throw money at it. Don't
throw money at your problemate, be creative with it. So
if you do make a mistake and you screw up
on your first one, you will screw up. You will
you make that mistake and you screw up. At least
it's not somebody's one hundred thousands that they gave you,
or you raised through your family and you went to
all your uncles and your your parents and everybody, and

(15:46):
then you raise fifty grand and then you don't get
the right or you get a name on the box
that's maybe diluted because you didn't know his name was diluted,
and you can't sell it because they already got their
movie for the year that has that actor in it,
you know what I'm saying. So it's it's having an
understanding of the market, what's going on, what's your budget,
keep it simplistic, be creative, and you might end up

(16:10):
with a freakin. You might end up with a winner,
or you might end up with a dud, but at
least you did it or experience, or it might take
you twenty years.

Speaker 7 (16:16):
You just don't know. But the biggest hold up I
think filmmakers have is they think they need, especially new
ones that don't know much about it. They think they
need millions or fifty thousand, Like you don't. You just
need experience. So go one location, one actor, write a script,
and just go make a movie for a thousand bucks.
And we get a lot of flak for that. People
don't like that. Half the people like it, half people

(16:37):
don't like it. But it is what it is, and
it's it's getting those kids that wouldn't know what to
do to give them some hope that, oh I can
go make actually make a film and maybe meet a
connection that leads me to this door to that door.
So it's opening doors. Don't sit around and wait for
the fifty thousand, Just go make it for a thousand,
and then eventually that fifty thousand will come knocking.

Speaker 6 (16:58):
The money. You'll get the money when it's ready.

Speaker 7 (17:00):
You.

Speaker 4 (17:01):
Know, it's also when when people look like I'm sure
every filmmaker in one way or another wants to emulate,
you know, the people that they look up to as
their heroes. The problem is sometimes if let's just use
Chrisopher Nolan as an example, you know, if we wanted
to emulate him, you know, we couldn't do an inception
because what was that like one hundred million, one hundred
fifty million. But if if we looked at Following, and

(17:24):
I don't know if you guys have ever seen Following,
it's actually a really cool movie that Christopher Nolan shot
and it didn't cost him a lot of money at all,
and it really just and then that's what sent him
up to make Memento, which was what he was trying
to make to begin with, but he couldn't make it
because he couldn't get the budget, so he made Following instead.

Speaker 6 (17:41):
Makes sense he'd put his ultimate script on the back
burner to get one done and show what he can do.
I think that's the key, show what you can do,
Like if you can't, you know, people think if you
get money, you're gonna make a great film if you
and don't get me wrong, there's people that if you
hire the right people in every spot and you're the
director and you actually don't have the ego and you're

(18:04):
able to listen to what everybody's saying and adjust to
the situation. You got the money, yeah, go ahead, you
know what I mean. You'll have people backing you up
and you'll learn a lot doing it. But for us
that don't have that, we don't have the connections, we
don't have the big bucks, and we weren't able to
raise the money. What do you do do you sit around? No,
you got to get off your ass. You got to

(18:25):
go make something. I mean, And that's just what we did.
And that's why we talk like that because we're like, dude,
we made our first movie on three grand, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Yeah? And you know, I think you also said it too, Brie,
or maybe it was you Jake on one of those
Facebook chats. You know, you have to you have to
show what you can do for nothing, because anybody can
spend money. And that's so true. I mean, that kind
of hit me because I'm saying, sit there going, you
know what, that's that's the truth. You have to be
able to show that you can only take you know,
maybe your cell phone or a lower grade camera that

(18:55):
maybe isn't four K or whatever, right, but you can
make something, but you have to be able to show
you did the hustle or whatever, because you want people
to look at that movie and say, hey, Jake and Brian,
how the hell did you guys shoot this movie? And
then you tell them, oh, we did it for you know,
fifty bucks or a hundred bucks or whatever, one thousand
bucks and they go, how the hell did you do
that for that little amount of money?

Speaker 7 (19:15):
I mean, how how could you not do it for
that kind of money? Like what like phones are almost
like the four K thing, Like if you have the budget, cool, Well,
if you're trying to shoot something super high quality but
you don't know what you're doing, it just turns it
just looks really bad. Like you have a better chance
of using a phone and making it as it's a
phone and shooting something that's really super creative, that's more

(19:38):
interesting to me and something that you could possibly maybe
released on Facebook and build a name for yourself. You
know that that would work so much better, I feel
than trying to polish something when you when it's like
it's just it won't look right, trying to polish something
with something that's not polishable.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
We'll be right back. Throw a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (20:07):
If that makes any sense.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
Yeah, yeah, that makes perfect sense because and you know,
just as a as a as a food for thought
type of experiment, is somebody listening to this, what advice
would you give them if they said they wanted to
make a movie this weekend, just as like a short film,
or not even this weekend, but like you know what
I mean, like actually planning something. You know, would you say,
utilize like the living room that you have right now,

(20:30):
your house you live in right now, or or or
and then just you know, film on your phone something
like that, just to just to sort of get your
uh sort of you know, get your feet under you
as a filmmaker and then just sort of go from
and then just see what you made and then sort
of go from there.

Speaker 7 (20:44):
All right, So let's put in perspective like me and
Brian are going to make a film. What do we
have access to right now?

Speaker 6 (20:50):
We're in my apartment.

Speaker 7 (20:51):
Okay, we know we have our apartment. We know we
have each other, We can work with each other. What
cameras do we have Do we know anybody with cameras?
Do we know somebody that can a camera? If we don't,
you know what, let's just have fun and maybe use
our phone and actually create something on our phone. We
have Brian's daughter here, maybe she can act in it,
you know. So just you have to just utilize what

(21:12):
you have. Don't try to like write what you want
because right now it's not about what you want, about
what you have if you don't have a lot. So
that's what I would say, what do you think? Right? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (21:21):
And keep it simplistic, like you know, like like Jake said,
you know, you get one location. Like our first movie
we did in two locations and the intro scene was
maybe like five minutes, and then the rest of it
was in one location. It was in a house, and
it was a slasher. You know, it is what it is.
It's it's not perfect, but it's ours and we made
it and we we released it ourselves, and you know,

(21:43):
we got a little bit of a name talent on it,
and we had fun with it and we learned a lot.
So I suggest that, yeah, correct, look what's what you got?
What do you have access to be creative and have
some fun with it, you know, I would.

Speaker 7 (21:54):
Focus on more what you have around and then what
you cause most people focus on like I don't know
the camera all right, I just don't have this, or
I don't have that. Like you have a phone because
you're obviously watching our lives or you're watching stuff on
a phone, So a phone's good enough. I mean, just
maybe spend the money on a good good sound, yeah,
because I think that's key. Yeah, good sound, and then

(22:14):
maybe the phone quality would look It would be interesting
if you can come up with something clever. I can't
tell people what to come up with, but coming up
with something cool. Could You could do some damage with
something like that, I think, because that's where it is now.
It's all phone and people are going live, so you know,
we might do something like that. You know, eventually, someone
better do it soon because it's the new. It is

(22:37):
what it is, what it is right now. So to
capitalize on doing someone maybe snapchatting all day would be cool.
I would more or less watch that than trying to
watch a drama or something like that would be that
is the thing. It already has a it has a marketing,
it has a marketability, marketable. You can say this is
my snapchat movie. I'd be like, oh, let me check.
That seems that's different. So I would think outside the box.

(23:00):
If you really want to make something that's going to
leave an impression. If you just want to make something,
just go make it.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
But yeah, did you guys see the that movie? It
was like a well, it was a short film where
it took place all within a person texting her friends.
It was just basically the actual they screencapped her phone
and the whole entire movie was was literally you just
saw her her the screen of her phone as she

(23:26):
was texting people back and forth.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
I did not see that. I'd love to see that.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
Actually, that's great.

Speaker 6 (23:30):
That's an awesome idea.

Speaker 7 (23:32):
I mean, that's what it That's what it is, you know,
that's what it is.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
Like.

Speaker 7 (23:35):
We uh, we wanted to make something and we came
up with what we have. We don't have a I
have a C one hundred, and we want to do
the show, a TV show you know, called Haunted Tours
that we're putting out actually next year, next month. And
we kept it very simple, you know, very simple.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
It's very dark, very real. It's just us.

Speaker 7 (23:54):
It didn't take a bunch of mine.

Speaker 6 (23:55):
Yeah, we go in there and we investigate locations. Now
we're not the investigators. We got other people on board
for that, and we were able to shoot five episodes,
you know what I mean. So it's it's just creating.
I mean, that's the biggest thing. Once you create, you'll
get better and you'll learn from it, and you'll make
mistakes and then you can create again and you keep
creating and before you know it, I mean, you're you're

(24:17):
doing it and you get paid.

Speaker 7 (24:18):
If we if we didn't go live on Monday, you
would have never seen us, and you would have never
you know, we might have not been on your podcast,
you know. And for us, this could lead us somewhere,
This could lead us somewhere good, or you just don't know,
you know, you just got to just got to do it.
I would say, just do it.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Yeah, you never know where what door you open, where
it's going to lead into. Uh you know. And I
found that out too, because even starting this podcast, for instance,
has led to so many doors being opened that I
wouldn't even have thought about. You know when I started
this what three years ago or whatever the hell it's been.
But I mean, it's just been a lot of interesting
stuff happening. And again, you know, I mean, even when

(24:58):
I've done like my stuff around the area in this
Philly area, just doing things, you sort of become I
don't want to use that word an attraction, but but
you know what I mean, it's kind of like that
book The Secret where you kind of like attract things,
you know what I mean, where it's like people see
actually doing stuff and all of a sudden they go, oh,
I want to talk to that person, because it's they're
not just talking about it, they're actually doing it. And

(25:20):
I remember, I forget who it was who gave me
this advice when I when I started years ago, but
he said that there, if you actually make something, you're
not normal. Normal is sitting on your couch talking about
making something.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
That's true.

Speaker 7 (25:38):
Yeah, it's just doing Bro's Yeah.

Speaker 4 (25:43):
And so again I love that advice by the way,
you know, just finding out what you have. Instead of
thinking about the negative, which is what you don't have,
you're thinking about the positive, which is what you do
have and you do have access to. And sometimes when
people start brainstorming things like that, they start getting bigger ideas,
you know what I mean, They start thinking, oh, you
know what I forgot I had access to this, or hey,

(26:03):
you know what, we can go down to the park
and shoot this scene because it's a public park and
you know, we can go off to the side there
and you know, stuff like that where you know you start,
you know, you start actually working. Is stuff starts flowing
a little better.

Speaker 6 (26:16):
Yeah, I mean, you get so much. The thing is,
like we said earlier, building your skills because you get
so much knowledge of how it is. And then and
then one thing to do too is you know, go
on a couple sets that are local that you know,
got some name talent on and learn watch how they operate,
you know, and then you can help operate your set
like that, you know. So I mean that's that's ultimately too,
just just watching, learning.

Speaker 7 (26:37):
Getting in the it's getting in the mix. You know
when we do those lives, we get in the mix.
It's like we're we're we're online networking with other filmmakers,
sharing our advice, hoping to get other advice back, because
we're always learning. The key is always learned. We we
like the mix filmmaking with business because it is ultimately
a business. And if you don't understand that that part

(26:58):
of it. You have to either get somebody who understands
it or I think you'll be doomed unless you're super
creative that someone just grabs you up. I think nowadays
you need to know the whole aspect of it. You
need to know business, sales, marketing, it's all relevant now.

Speaker 6 (27:13):
You need to know it because the biggest thing too,
if you look at it, like when rober Rodriguez made
it and Quentin Tarantino, it was a different error, Like
it was a different time, you know what I mean.
So now it's a different time. So who's going to
be those guys that break out through a new technology
or a new way and they're they're reinventing, not reinventing

(27:33):
the wheel. But because if you look at it, everything
that we're doing, like right now, this is like radio.
You know, when we're on Facebook Live, that's like TV.
But it's just a different way of bringing it to
an audience, you know what I'm saying. So I think
that's the biggest thing is is finding out how to
do it and take capitalize on it and see what happens.
That's all we try to do.

Speaker 4 (27:55):
Yeah, you know that's a good point. By the way,
because I mentioned that too before in past episode. You know,
you had the nineties and you have Tarantino and Smith
and Rodriguez. They all came up and they sort of
became the new celebrity director of replacing the ones in
the eighties like your Carpenter and you know, and you know,
you have all those directors, and you have the seventies
directors like Spielberg but and Scorsese. But what happens is

(28:18):
with today you don't really see that celebrity director anymore.
You don't really see that, and you kind of look
at to see who what what people are really making
films u uh, from our young from the next general,
the general, the next generation you see like Okay, Damian Chase,
James wand you know you have guys like that, but
you're like, but but they don't really they're not really
that celebrity director type where people would notice them unless

(28:40):
they're in the business like us, who would notice you know,
who would say oh, that's that's that's them, you know,
you know, you know what I mean. And that's why
I kind of think that if you look towards like
what YouTube is doing, if you look at the top YouTubers,
I mean you've got like, uh, Peudie Pie, You've got
you know, like like what's that other guy's named, Logan Paul.
You get all those guys and they're just doing like

(29:01):
like skid stuff. And I'm always wondering if you had
somebody like that who actually made short films or something
like that, who was actually a celebrity of that level
on a particular social media channel, they could capitalize on
it and have almost one hundred percent of the marketplace.

Speaker 6 (29:16):
Yeah, I agree so much too, Like nowadays, they don't
want to be celebrities or stars, they want to be
Uccis Dean. It's like you said, you know who I'm
surprised who's never I don't think I've ever seen him
do a feature is Ryan comp from Film Riot Film Riot.
I think he has like what the thiggest instance are

(29:37):
a good audience of people to actually make something really
cool like a feature and actually get some bud behind it.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Yeah. I know Ryanku from No Film School, he's been
making his for a while. But yeah, I know a
lot of these these websites and stuff. He kind of
wonder why they don't have somebody try to capitalize on that.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (30:06):
Yeah, I don't know, man, I don't know, but I
agree with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 7 (30:09):
Man.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
I think I think somebody, you know, somebody's got to
be that breakout and uh, you know, the new way
of doing it. I think it's experimenting.

Speaker 7 (30:18):
Yeah, I think most of the filmmakers get caught up
in the old ways, like we were just talking about.
So if you hone in you capitalize on what is now,
which is social media, I think you will win.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Yeah. And and also too, with social media, that's how
you pre uh you know, pre sell your crowdfunding campaign.
That's how you get you know, you meet other filmmakers,
your network. Because I always tell people and and and
I didn't even ask if you guys went to film school,
But I mean that's what I tell people because I've
actually worked at a college and and and I've actually
you know, I've graduated from college too. And it's just

(30:51):
like you know nowadays, I would just I would if
I was graduating from high school. I wouldn't even bother
with it. I would learn on you to me and
network wherever I I need to go to meetup dot com.
Look at meet up some my area. I'd go on
to Twitter or LinkedIn, you know, I go to YouTube.
I mean, you know what I mean, it's so many avenues,
and I'm like, why would you spend two hundred thousand

(31:11):
dollars to go to college? I mean, you know what
I mean, It just it just doesn't seem to make
any sense to me.

Speaker 6 (31:17):
No, not, I mean, to be honest with you, we're
both high school dropouts. Man, I dropped out at fifteen.
I'm just I just never liked I guess you could
say I'm just kind of a revel dude. I just
never liked system. I've always kind of liked to go
my own way. And I think that's what filmmakers are
missing nowadays, too, is go your own way. Like don't
I know everybody wants to go to the theater and

(31:38):
you want to get a distribution deal with Sony and
all this shit. Well, what's the how can we capitalize
on what's going on? Like they'll come, you know, they'll
come knocking at you when you've got something hot, So
if you can make it hot yourself, like that's that's ultimately,
that's all it is, you know, like people you want
to if you get a name talent in your like

(32:00):
Tom Cruise, you're just helping out with less marketing in
the back end, you know what I mean. So do
a movie. If you're gonna get a budget, you do
a movie. Say you do one on twenty grand, shoot
it on ten, and then use the other ten for marketing,
and use it and get it in a genre that
sells without name talent, you.

Speaker 4 (32:19):
Know what I mean.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
So I think it's being creative and trying different things,
you know.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, yeah, And you know what the whole idea of
college to just to go back to that real quick,
you know, is it's about education. Like we said about
learning skills. You even mentioned you could go onto other
crews and stuff like that, other other sets in the
area and learn that you know the same skills rather
than you know, paying money. I mean. I had a
friend of mine he actually went to NYU I think

(32:45):
it was or ny Film School, and he actually ended
up the senior thesis project. And this is where he
dropped out and said, you know, what the hell is
the point of this? He actually said, they the top
like five projects were chosen and then you had to
work on that person's project. And he said, so I'm
gonna be paying, like, you know, a couple thousand dollars

(33:05):
to sit here and hold a boom pole for somebody else. Like,
what the hell is this?

Speaker 6 (33:09):
That's crazy. You're better off taking you know, like we said,
make take a thousand to three thousand f fuck film
school and go make a feature. That's your film. School.

Speaker 7 (33:21):
School was a business. They want your money.

Speaker 6 (33:23):
The university is just a business in general. I feel,
to be honest with you, I feel like all school
in general, unless it's to be like a doctor or
a lawyer and things like that, it's all there in
place as a business, you know, and I understand it.
You know. Some people learn that way, but me personally,
I don't learn like that. Like I like to get
my hands dirty. I like to get in there, you know,

(33:44):
Jake's the same way. We learn by doing, not so
much like reading a book.

Speaker 7 (33:49):
You know.

Speaker 6 (33:50):
You know, maybe that's because we're dropouts and we're not
very smart. You know, we learn a different way, you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (33:55):
I mean, we learned that we learn a lot more
now than we we ever have. You know, we went
to the Tenets growth con early. This year we went
to we went to the AFM. So we're always getting
knowledge and trying to find different mentors and things like that.
And that's key is finding people who have already done

(34:15):
it and walk those that path.

Speaker 6 (34:18):
And then at the same time too, maybe we don't
have to follow their path, because I think in filmmaking,
it's one of those things where if you talk to
everybody that's made it, there's usually like a they just
it was a different path for the most part, like
you know, they knew a friend of a friend and
then they did something and they directed it and then
it got picked up, or you know, they had a

(34:40):
script and then like like in Quintin's case, he had
a friend that knew Harvey Kaitel and they liked the
script and he was a writer at first. And so
I mean, I think everybody's story is gonna be different,
but it's finding your story, like how are you gonna
make it? And the only way, you know, the only
way you know that story is by just going on
that journey and figuring it out as you go. I feel,

(35:03):
you know, look at what other people have done, take
it in for yourself, adjust with it, and see how
it can work. For you because nobody can tell you
how to do something because you're gonna have your own
ways of thinking. I feel, you.

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Know, yeah, absolutely, And you mentioned growth Con by the way,
so I wanted to ask about your your impressions of
growth of the text Growth Con. Actually, and a side note,
I'm actually talking to Grant Cardon to have them call
on this podcast, so it's kind of interesting we tie
this in. But so you guys went through the text
conference earlier this year, So what were some of your

(35:37):
impressions you took away from it?

Speaker 6 (35:39):
I man, I loved it. I mean the biggest thing
I learned was these guys that make it successfully. They
just do it, and they believed in themselves enough and
they took some risk and calculated risk and they just
went for it. And sometimes you failed, but it was
us so much of a failure as it is of

(36:01):
a learning curve or or that hey that didn't work,
but that worked in it. So let me try that
with this, you know. So, I mean that's one of
the biggest things we learned that I learned. And one
good thing is too, is networking. Man. I mean, we
met a really good connection. One of the speakers there
that's that was the only guy that was the TV

(36:21):
guy we met there because we just went and took
a picture with him, talked to him. And now we've
got a direct access to television. So it's just it's
just doing being being present, you know, And we put
a lot on the line.

Speaker 7 (36:34):
We spent a lot of money, so I would say,
you know, we just went and invested in ourselves. Same
with AFM. We spent a lot of money, you know,
the only way, the only way.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
And and and also a FM. What was your impression
of that because I know you mentioned Jason Brubaker. He's
a mutual friend of both of ours. Uh, you know,
he's actually been on the podcast before as well, but uh,
I know he usually goes to a FM. So what
were some of your impressions from this year's AFM.

Speaker 6 (37:05):
You know, I like the AFM. It's the old way
of doing things to where you you know, you're meeting
with buyers and you're meeting with filmmakers and things like that,
and I think it's great for networking. You know, I
met like fifty connections while I was there. I met
a lot of buyers. We didn't do any deal. We'd

(37:26):
ended up not not doing a deal with with some
of our stuff. But the point of it was was
was getting our feet wet within where we ultimately want
to be, and that's as a distributor and studio to
you know, be able to produce, be able to distribute
and be able to get something out there to buyers
or whether it's self distribution in whatever way. But I

(37:49):
love the AFM. Man learn a lot.

Speaker 7 (37:51):
And I would say, I say, if you're not willing
to take risks, big risks, then it's gonna be super
hard for you. Like we took a big We took
a big risk. We went as actually we didn't go attendees.
We went as exhibitors. So we had like a booth
and we had about like six or eight movies that
we took with us and just yeah, I just did it.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
So look what were some of the did Did you
get a lot of feedback on those movies?

Speaker 7 (38:17):
Yeah? We we We realize what is good, what people want.
I mean, you so you spend years on this movie,
you love this movie.

Speaker 6 (38:25):
You you just this is your baby, right and you you're.

Speaker 7 (38:27):
Like, hey, all right, I'm gonna show you this trailer
and you don't tell them me they don't know you
made it. You're just like, all right, here it goes.
They're like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no like that. So it's like, it's not about how
good you think your movie is.

Speaker 6 (38:40):
It's like, is there a market for it? Is there
people gonna buy it? Are they gonna pick it up?
You know? It's it's freaking it's it's very eye opening
in the way of you are not gonna know exactly
what that's. That's why a distributor doesn't know what's gonna work.
That's why they pick up so many movies because.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
You don't realize giving mgs unless there's yeah, they don't
Bart Reynolds on it or somebody big.

Speaker 6 (39:05):
They don't know what's gonna hit. And that's why you
know when when a buyer walks in, and that's the
biggest thing too, it's having relationships with the buyers already built,
you know what I mean. So if you don't have
these relationships with the buyers, you're walking in kind of
cold because now they're just looking at your product and
they really don't give a shit about to you. It's
more about the product anyways. If you have that warmth

(39:28):
within they already know you you can do some deals,
you know what I mean. So it was ours more
of us just jumping in head first and seeing what
we find. And uh, you know, there's no right way
I feel like to do things. You just got to
do what works for you. And that's what we did
and learned a lot. Jason. Jason was really cool. Got

(39:48):
to meet him. Tom Malloy who was kind of a
I feel like a mentor to me because I read
his book.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
And now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
Years ago bankrolled, which was really good, and Duh and
Dub I got to meet Dove Simmons. So that was
the three mentors that before we you know, before we
were doing it full time to where we actually got
to meet these guys. And you respected me because you're
going in as a distributor. You're going in as an exhibit.
Oh you put you know you spent money?

Speaker 7 (40:24):
Oh yeah you you You walk in and just try
to get a free pass. It's like, get out of here, dude,
Like you didn't put you didn't put no money, I
mean more time up, Like get out of here. You
spent big money to be there like okay, people take
you more serious. And that's the key, Like go all
in and show people like I'm serious, even if it's
putting up money, even if it's putting in like tons
of free time. You know. That's what I did when

(40:46):
I first started doing video, I did a lot of
cheap stuff, a lot of free stuff. I'll still do
free stuff. And that's what it's about. It's about getting
and doing and being out there.

Speaker 6 (40:56):
What's that's a big thing too, is what's the win win,
Like finding the win win within a situation, like how
can this person get what they want and we get
what we want and we all work together.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
Yeah, the win wins in life, right, the win wins
in life.

Speaker 6 (41:10):
Everybody's trying to take a lot of times too, So
it's like, no, let's just let's how can we both win?

Speaker 7 (41:14):
You know?

Speaker 4 (41:16):
Yeah, No, I'm sorry, just Dedni's cut you off, Jake, No, No.

Speaker 6 (41:21):
You're good.

Speaker 7 (41:21):
Not your phone to see if you had anything else
to add to that.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
No, No, I know what you mean. Because sometimes when
especially when even when I do this like podcast, sometimes
I talk to people and they want a pitch to
come on the podcast, and it's almost like, well, what
can I do for them? And I'm like, well, I mean,
come on here, they don't even know my name then
my name's in the freaking title of the podcast, Like
how the hell do you not know my name is Dave?
You know what I mean? And it's like they'll write

(41:47):
they won't even say like hey or hello, or even
though they'll just say like yo, I'm the blah blah
blah blah. And I'm like, you didn't even say like hey,
I enjoy the show or hey, Dave, this is why
I want to come on. It's just like just let
me bombard you with how cool I am day and
so that I will be like, oh, please, come on,
please Jesus, come on. I mean, it's just you know
what I mean. It's just like you have to be

(42:10):
a lot more, you know what I mean. Like you
just said the win win, because I mean, this is
a win win this podcast because you get something, I
get something. We both win and the listeners win too.
So you know it's not this whole one sided thing
where it's like what's in it for me? And you
know it doesn't matter if you get something, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 6 (42:28):
Yeah, I mean I totally agree, dude, you gotta you gotta,
you gotta both work together. It's just working together, man.
It's it's just ultimately what it's always been about and
will be about. I feel.

Speaker 4 (42:41):
Yeah, especially because I mean, you know, this is networking.
You know, people hear you on the podcast, they reach out.
It happens all the time. And I always encourage people
when when when when listeners want to talk to a
specific guests, tweet them and tell them something about the episode,
send them an email. Some people give out their emails,
send them a LinkedIn, you a message or whatever the
hell Facebook, whatever, you know, social media channels they're on,

(43:03):
and just say, hey, you know, I enjoyed the podcast,
and here's why. Here's what I got from it, not
just like you know, hey, hey listen, can you give
me this or that I had on Cassie and Elvis
or it was I always Butcher his name, but who
is one of the top producers in the world. He's
done Dallas Buyer's Club. He just did Mudbound, which is

(43:24):
a you know, up for a ton of awards and
it's on Netflix. And when I had him on, people
were asking like, hey, could you could you like introduce
us to kasion. I'm like, I don't even know who
the hell you are, so how would I how would
I possibly do this?

Speaker 6 (43:37):
You know, it's funny because we get that all the
time where people are just like, hey, can you do this?
Could you can do that? It's like, hold on a second.
First of all, the first thing you got to learn
when you're pitching somebody is you got to get to
know him for a little second. You got to have
an understanding of who they are. There's no reason for
somebody else to give up their time unless you find

(43:59):
out what the person's looking for.

Speaker 7 (44:01):
You know, you know, And this is why we share
a lot of things UH about about business and sales,
because that is sales. A good book recommendation for that
is how to influenced friends and influence people. It's about,
you know, focused on what you know, who the person is,
and don't try to take so much that it is.

Speaker 6 (44:23):
It's like this too, Like you know, you're you're hanging out,
you meet this girl and the first thing that comes
out of your mouth is like, hey, will you go
home and sleep with me? You know what I'm saying,
Like it just that's not how it works, you know
what I'm saying you've got to you got to build
a little bit of a relationship every every big.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
Connection that we've made, and that that worked out good
where we took years building slowly, you know, and it's
always what can I do for you? How can I
help you? And from there it led to you know,
different things, and we're still building relationships and you need
to ask that you ask them what you can do

(45:02):
for them.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
That's what I Yeah, it's like I always say, when
you're gonna make a connection, off for value, kill with kindness,
and always be professional. And that first one is all
for value, which is what can you do for them?
And whether it's promotional on social media like just retweeting
something you know what I mean, or even something similar
like buying, you know, saying hey, look the movie's coming out. Uh,

(45:26):
you know, maybe I'll pick up a copy of it,
or you know, maybe I'll buy a shirt or again,
a retweet costs nothing, right, So it's stuff like that,
you know, you're actually building a rapport with that person.
And when you're doing you know, face to face meetings
at like a networking event, that's the first thing you
want to do is you want to say you talk
about their stuff if you're integer, you know what I mean,
especially if you're gonna ask that person for something. And

(45:46):
when I see people just go up and it's like, hey,
you know you're Hey, it's it's the Jailber Brothers. Hey guys, listen,
I'm gonna be making a movie soon. And uh, you know,
why don't you guys come on board and this and that?
And you're like, well, wait a minute, we don't know
who to hell you are, you know what I mean?
Or asking you for locations or whatever.

Speaker 6 (46:04):
And then they go and then you go, well, what
are you fully funded? And they're like, well, no, that's
why we came to you. It's like, dude, yeah, but
first of all, give us a win win. If you
want us to produce your movie, you know, show the cash,
say hey, I've got fifty grand I want to work
with you guys on a movie, which you produce it,
then you might have some some some wiggle room or
some something to work with it. We can go, well,
what are you trying to do? And maybe we can

(46:26):
help you out because you know it's fifty thousand. You know,
it depends on your script, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (46:32):
Yeah, yeah, and that's also happened to me too, by
the way, is the whole Hey, we want to get
this funded, and I go, okay, you know, well that
there has to be something in it for me now,
because if I'm going to go and pitch your movie
and look for funds and all this other stuff, you know,
what's the deal here? And you know, and the cherry
on top of this is the fact that I'll tell

(46:53):
you a little story is one time I actually had
a person come on who actually know years ago, and
he wanted to I'm on the podcast talk about his
latest project and then wanted me to come on board
as a producer and and and give him my email
list and do all this other stuff. And when I
when I said, well, well, what what is my what's
the contract for this? And he actually said to me,
you want to you want to get paid for that?

(47:14):
I'm like, uh, yeah, I would have something involved in this.
I don't want to. This isn't a charity case.

Speaker 6 (47:21):
Yeah, man, I agree. What said with you? Man?

Speaker 4 (47:25):
Uh, it's as we talked about sort of this crazy
stories and stuff. What were some of the crazy stories
you guys have about just being pitched?

Speaker 6 (47:33):
You know, I haven't had anything too crazy pitched wise.
I mean, I've had people you know that pitch you,
but it's just the way they go about it is
just totally off. One of the ways that I've pitched
and that's worked. The Burt Reynolds movie that I was
able to be a part of as a first a
d and producer like that connection took me two years

(47:55):
before I was able to work with that person. And
it was more or less of those little things that
you do in this beginning, slow baby steps. I'd rather
tell them, you know what they I think, you know,
worked for us than tell them what what not to do.

Speaker 7 (48:08):
So, yeah, I pate on a set and you get
a call sheet, and you know, I had bigger dreams
of doing bigger things. So I took the call sheet
because there's big producers and stuff on there, and I
held on to that call sheet and found out who
the producers were and just you know, let my presence
be known. Cool, cool movie, You did a great job.

(48:28):
Everything was awesome. Was nice meeting you. That was it.
I think like a year later, we end up going
to the premiere of the movie and saying, oh, hey,
you know, I'm Jake and this is Brian, great movie.
You did a great job on this, and then another
you know, six months ago by and hey can you
tell you know, take a look at my trailer. I
just need some expert advice. Did you did a great

(48:48):
job on your last film? It's just a minute and
then bom they give you some advice and it's just
slowly building over time, you know, and show them that
you and in the meantime actually do project, but still
keep you know, it's it's it's doing the projects and
keep moving forward, but slowly, you know, every now and
then reach out and say hi, how you've been and

(49:09):
stuff like that. There's nothing wrong with that, but to
just come off with the ass right away, it's not
gonna I don't think it'll work unless you're you already got,
you know, unless you're somebody.

Speaker 4 (49:22):
It's like Gary Ve says, you gotta do the jab
jab jab, right hook, and those jabs are give, give, give,
and the right hooks and ask.

Speaker 6 (49:30):
That's the new schooling man. I learned everything from just
watching videos like that, Like we love guys like that
just I mean, because it's like, you know, I never
liked reading so much, and I've read books and It's funny.
I've read more books when I was out of school
than when I did when I was in school. And
now I love like, I love podcasts, I love videos,

(49:55):
Grant and all these guys like because there's something that
they're doing that led to their success.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (50:11):
And if you can, if you can read between the lines,
you know, and and not so much what they're saying,
but what are they doing, and then read between the
lines of what they're saying, like, you can really become
successful by following those guides as far as like those
guys are your mentors now, you know.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
Yeah, mentors through books and mentors through podcasts, mentors through videos.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
You know.

Speaker 4 (50:36):
It's a wide wide world now, right, yep.

Speaker 6 (50:39):
I love it, man. And that's what's great about it
because I got people hit me up from like Nigeria
and shit like that's crazy to even think of. Like
we had these guys, you know, because we're pretty we're
down to earth guys, and we had these guys call
us from Nigeria FaceTime us and they're like I'm like holy, like, hey,
what's up man? They're like oh, we're from Nigeria, like

(51:00):
holy shit, and we're talking a little bit and there
they were just calling to just because I think they
were just wanted. They seen our lives and they were
they wanted, you know, they want to talk to us
on FaceTime. And it's like, you know, it's almost like
get to the point because they're just like, oh, hosts
filming and it's like, well, you know, you're calling about
something and you just calling a chat. You know, it's

(51:21):
finding out. But I mean, it's just so cool that
we can have people in all these different countries that
we're talking to, Like just from our live video. We
have a guy Anthony who will probably listen to this.
Our buddy Anthony, who we met through Facebook Live and
he lives in Australia and he's doing movies out there

(51:42):
and he loves the content and we go back and forth.
And his buddies were in at the AFM and we
were hanging out with his buddies. We have a video
one of our live videos. They're from Australia and it's
like wow, like that's to me, that's awesome and that's
just like so different.

Speaker 7 (52:00):
So we never had to leave the house to network,
you know, so we when we went to the AFM,
we got noticed about buying a handful of people that
seen our lives because the Fuger filmmakers a big, big
group and people are actually.

Speaker 6 (52:14):
Coming in our booth like hey, where's the job of
brothers And we're like, we don't even know them, and
it's like it's cool to be able to have that
already established relationship in a way to where they feel
like they know us. And it's like, oh, that's so cool,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (52:30):
And that's where the new future of everything is going.
You don't have to go out and network and fly around.
You can actually just do it over online, which is
so great, you know, and that's what all these these
guys are teaching and actually just doing. You know.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
You know when you mentioned that the Nigerians who called you,
it reminds me because sometimes when I used to get
people coming up to me, No no, no, they didn't call me.
They those Nigerians that contact me are usually those princes
who want money, set of money. But uh, but what
what people usually contact me? They usually want to just
go grab coffee somewhere. And about a year or two ago,

(53:08):
I actually just fully stopped it. So if I don't
know you, when you want to you say, hey, Dave,
can we go grab coffee? The answer is ninety nine
point nine percent of the time gonna be no. The
reason being, it really becomes like what can I do
for them? And I understand that, you know, I you know,
I've you know, I do this podcast, and I've done

(53:28):
some really cool things. I've worked with m Light Shamlan's producer.
You know, I did it. I did it my own
TV pilot. I've done this, that and the other thing.
But like at the end of the day, though, it's
like I I so and I get it, trust me too.
You feel like you have so many options to get
overwhelmed sometimes, But whenever I go to those things, it
always becomes it always feels like what can I do
for them? And it's always like they want to pick

(53:50):
my brain about stuff, and then they go to this
and that and they get all downtrodden and I go, I,
you know, I just don't. This is why I always
have to have screeners of people, you know what I mean,
Like I have to be if you come recommended or
something else, I'll talk to you on the phone. But
the whole coffee thing in general. I'm like, I'm not
traveling thirty minutes, you know, up up to Philly, up
to your north or whatever Philly just to grab coffee

(54:12):
with somebody, you know what I mean. I'd rather just
do a scrape chat for five minutes, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 7 (54:16):
Right, And they don't and they don't know, you know,
they they're like they're in the weeds.

Speaker 6 (54:20):
They don't see it.

Speaker 7 (54:21):
So it's good that that people actually listen to this
stuff and trying to get the knowledge to to become better.
And that's why we try to preach a lot of
this different stuff in marketing and sales and and really
trying to expand filmmaking and show people like you've got
to open your eyes a little bit further than just filmmaking,
because that's where the win, I believe is, is you know,

(54:44):
being able to communicate period communication, because dude, like I've
made these mistakes, like I've went up to people straight.

Speaker 6 (54:51):
For the ass, like and it's learning by like going, yeah,
that that didn't work out good, you know, in dissect it,
why did that work out good?

Speaker 7 (54:58):
Oh?

Speaker 6 (54:59):
You know, because I'm too blunt. I came off that
way so you got to have an understanding of that.
I think that's how we try to talk to talk
is like, hey, this is what we've done, this is
what we've learned. Hopefully it works for you. Some of
it may not, some of it may, and you know,
have at it, like let's work together. Let's let's make
some some fucking magic. Like let's really make some magic

(55:22):
to where the new generation has their voice, you know,
and they do through Facebook and like podcasts and all
this shit.

Speaker 7 (55:30):
So I would say a good way to just approach
anybody who approach yourself, I'm sure approach us. It's just like, hey,
I heard your podcast. Awesome, man, the advice was absolutely amazing.
If you thought it was amazing, you know, thank you
for that, and that's it and leave it, you know,
leave it at that at least for you know, a
couple of weeks or whatever. Let it, let it marinate,

(55:50):
follow them, find out what their interest and what they
like and what's to win for them.

Speaker 6 (55:54):
Yeah, follow up is key too. So if you do
reach out to somebody, you know, don't be scouraged if
they don't get to you right away. Like I've I've
been contacting this one producer over and over again, you know,
every couple of months, just to build that connection. And
I think that's key is just stay stay present and
when it works out, it will eventually if you stay

(56:16):
present enough, because most people want to see if you're
willing to put in the work. I feel, because you know,
if they had to put in the work, you know,
they're not just going to give you their whole email
list or their whole world because you're asking for it.
It's like, well, dude, like I've spent like eight years
of my life building this. Like I can't just give
you my the keys to my kingdom or to my building.

(56:37):
Like I got to get to know you a little bit,
trust you, maybe we work together a little bit, and
then now, yeah, this guy's cool. I can trust them
with my keys. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
Yeah, I see exactly what you mean. And uh yeah,
you know it's all about you know, building those relationships
and also you know building them, you know, just building
the relationships period, you know what I mean. And and
just you want to want to sort of built it
in a in a in the right way. And and again,
I mean we I think I've done the same thing too.
I've been there where I've just asked way too early,

(57:07):
and because you jump the gun, you're like, oh crap,
I'm never gonna see this person again. What should I say?
I don't know read my screenplay, so you're kinda oh shit.

Speaker 7 (57:16):
Uh you know.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
And and and so, if everyone listening, if you took
any advice from from either Jake, Brian or myself, please
just you know, tweet us and let us know. And uh,
and so, I mean, guys, we've been talking for about
fifty five minutes or so now, So just in closing,
is there any anything you you want to say Brian
and Jake to sort of put it periodt this end

(57:39):
of this whole conversation.

Speaker 6 (57:41):
Go make something, Just make you make it?

Speaker 7 (57:48):
No just uh, man, what we're doing? Man, trial and error, dude.
We you know, we go do something and you know,
you just call it a fail. You can call it.
You know, we tried and then you try something else.
You know, we're gonna put out this Haunted Tour show.
It would be a super success. I don't know. We're
gonna do our best, right, We're gonna put everything we
have into it and make it happen. If it doesn't

(58:09):
do very well, fine, figure this out, figure that out.
So the key is just doing figuring it out along
the way, and it'll lead up to places you probably
didn't expect. You might be I never, you know, could
never speak in front of people, and you know, but
more you do it, it's weird. The more you do it,
the better you get at it. And I've gotten a

(58:29):
lot better. Actually, I can go in front of a
crowd now and actually, you know, speak, I still turn
super red. I'm red right now. It's just like you know, speaking,
but you become better as you do. So that's why
I just make your first film. If you're a first
time filmmaker, just go make something and then reach out
to us and say, hey, guys, I heard your podcast.
Great job, and then, you know, build that connection with

(58:50):
us because we want to get to know you guys.
And send us your film if you have it, and
don't go straight to the end though, you know, talk
to us a little thing and get to know me,
and then I would love to look at your stuff,
you know, But don't just send it because I don't
know you, and that's weird and I don't know what
I'm looking at.

Speaker 6 (59:05):
So unless unless you're asked to send it. You know,
there's there's times where we put out calls for scripts
or whatever we're looking for on our Facebook page and
things like that. So that's when you want to send it.
It's knowing when to send it when they're when when
the win win is in place. Hey guys, I'm looking
for one location script.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
Oh I got one?

Speaker 6 (59:23):
Oh really, Okay, send it on over or Hey guys,
I got a movie that's finished. I'd love for you
guys to take a look at it. Maybe you can
distribute it. Okay, cool, let me look at it. Take
a look at it. Yeah, I love this. Let's distribute it.
Hey guys, I got a movie. I've got some money.
I want to pay you guys for your time, put
you on as producers and hire you through your production company. Awesome,

(59:43):
let's do it. Maybe we can come on and work
out a deal to where we distribute it. So it's
finding out what they're looking for, going in for the
ass the right time, and staying present with the follow up.

Speaker 3 (59:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
Yeah, you have to treat everything like a skill and
and just that's something I've learned too, is you have
to treat everything like a skill. You know, speaking of
public as a skill. Uh, you know, doing all sorts
of you know, being good at social media as a skill,
all the different skills on the film set, writing is
a skill, Pitching is a skill.

Speaker 7 (01:00:22):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
The more I've I've learned about this stuff, the more
I realized it's all about if you treat everything like
a skill, uh, and you have to get good at it,
it kind of all sort of falls into place. You
know what I mean that you have to do it
to get good at it, and and you you just
have to do it, which is you know, you have
to have action, right, Yeah, at the end of the day,
everything always involves action, just like a character and a screenplay.

(01:00:45):
Nobody likes a passive protagonist.

Speaker 6 (01:00:48):
No, no, Yeah, it's all about execution. Man.

Speaker 7 (01:00:51):
If you execute, if you search hard enough, you'll find
what you're looking for. It just you got to search,
you know, really really hard and keep searching. Because like
on Baker, it took him what fifteen twenty years I
think he said, yep, exactly, and he wasn't.

Speaker 6 (01:01:06):
So now people think, oh, this Sean Baker guy made
it overnight. Well, dude, you don't know. He's been doing
it for fifteen twenty years, but you may end up
like Robert Ariguez who first feature got some buzz going.
You know, you just never know. That's why we say,
just start doing something and be creative.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Yeah, excellent, that's excellent, guys. And it's always good to
keep things like that in the perspective because there is
no overnight successes. That's the number one rule. There is
no overnight successes.

Speaker 7 (01:01:34):
What are you talking about? Man?

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
Hey, guys, where can people find you out online?

Speaker 7 (01:01:42):
Where we stay on?

Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
Facebook?

Speaker 7 (01:01:44):
At job At Brothers and Instagram? Man, right now, we
have a YouTube, but we're more you know, Facebook and Instagram.
Definitely follow us on Facebook and Instagram ad job At
Brothers JLRT.

Speaker 6 (01:01:55):
Yeah, and then they can check us out at Joberbrothers
dot com too, and then it has all the social
media sites from there as well.

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
Guys, Jake Brian, I want to say thank you so
much for coming on.

Speaker 7 (01:02:05):
Hey, thank you, Dave Man, thanks for having us brother
appreciate the time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Yeah, I want to thank Dave so much for doing
such a great job on this episode. If you want
to get links to anything, we spoke about in this episode.
Head over to the show notes at Indie film huscle
dot com Forward slash eight thirty six, and if you
have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
And leave a good review for the show. It really
helps us out a lot, guys. Thank you again so
much for listening to guys. As always, keep that hustle going,
keep that dream alive, Stay safe out there, and I'll
talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
Indie film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
E F I L M h U S T l
E dot com.