IFH 843: How to Turn a Short Film Into a Film Career with Jennifer & Kevin Sluder

Jennifer and Kevin Sluder share their journey from North Carolina to Los Angeles and how they built Sunshine Boy Productions into a growing independent film company. Kevin’s early recognition as a screenwriter opened doors, but instead of waiting for projects to materialize, the couple chose to produce their own short films. Their first project ignited a passion for hands-on filmmaking and laid the foundation for their creative partnership.

As their experience grew, so did their ambitions. Jennifer stepped into marketing and branding while Kevin transitioned into directing with Heartless, a Poe-inspired horror short now touring festivals. Their story highlights the importance of networking, strategic growth, and creating opportunities instead of waiting for them—offering a practical blueprint for filmmakers ready to take control of their own careers.

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
forty three. Cinema should make You forget 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 3 (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 3 (00:38):
I am your humble.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
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
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(01:03):
and there needs to be a change the future of
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(01:44):
filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy
today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
On this week's show, speaking of which we have two
great guests. They're a husband and wife team who were
both from North Carolina and now they both live out
in Los Angeles. They started their own film production company
called Sunshine Boy Productions in twenty fifteen, and even before that,
the husband was a was a Nicole Fellowship semifinalist, a

(02:16):
two time Script Pipeline Top twenty finalist, a tracking would
recommend He's won a ton of other screenwriting competitions, and
they went out to LA and they started to you know,
produce their own films, and they finally now are going
to produce their own film which is called Heartless, which
we're going to talk about in the show. And we
talk about all these different things about putting together packages,

(02:37):
about attracting investor, about how you do all this other stuff.
And you know, their a husband and wife team wo
work together. Do they kill each other or they plotting
each other's you know, they plot each other's demise like
almost like a movie. We're gonna talk about all that
good stuff on this week's episode of the podcast with
guests Jennifer and Kevin Slutter. Yeah. I mean, Philly, I

(02:59):
think it's like twenty dere he's outside right now.

Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah, because it wore from that Super Bowl championship, so
so that I'll carry you through the long cold winter man.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, the fires of the city burning down are kind
of out by now.

Speaker 4 (03:12):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
When when they had gone when they won the Super Bowl,
the people were actually messaging me like you're not out
in that, are you? And I was like, no, I
know way better than that I said that people out
in that we were just either they knew didn't know
any better, or they were so plaster they didn't know
where they were because uh, it was it was unbelievable
because like I have friends and they were posting videos

(03:35):
on their facebooks, like people were out in the street
firing their guns and stuff and like that.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Yeah. We we had that back when the Lakers won
the NBA Finals and we were out in a bar
and man, there was this energy because everybody knew they
were going to win, and then they did win, and
I just turned to Gen. I was like, uh, we
need to go home. We uh, let's uh, the game
was cool, but let's go home. Let's go home. Because
we were on Hollywood Boulevards. There's a little bit of

(04:01):
a drive. So I was like, all, let's book it now.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
And we made it homestake.

Speaker 4 (04:05):
Ye we did.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
But yeah, uh that's smart. That's that's very smart. Uh yeah, yeah, seriously,
So you got some of these crowds, man, people get
so excited, so U Joe, just to get started, you know,
I know you both went to the University of North Carolina,
North Carolina Chapel Hill, and I just wanted to ask,

(04:27):
did did you guys actually meet while you were both
attending the school? Uh?

Speaker 4 (04:31):
Yeah, yeah, we met sophomore year and then we started
dating junior year. Uh. Folly warred down and she said yes,
and we went out, and uh yeah, the rest is history.
We got married five years after that and we've been
together since then. Twenty years of marriage and twenty five
years of everything else.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, you know the reason I asked is I saw
that you both go to the same college and I
and I figured, well, either they met on set when
they met at college, you know, so I figured I
had a fifty to fifty shot.

Speaker 4 (05:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it makes sense.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
So you know, what were some of the things that
you actually took away from I know, you know, going
to film school or going to college in general, something
I talk about a lot on this podcast. But you know,
while we're on the topic, you know, what were some
of the things that you both took away from at
your time in college.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
But on the film school side, it was interesting because
North Carolina didn't have a straight on film degree, kind
of like USC and schools like that. But I took
away a lot of film theory. There weren't a lot
of practical applications. There were like editing classes, and I
took a directing class, took an acting class, took few
screenwriting classes, but it wasn't kind of a hands on

(05:43):
make a film kind of film school that you have
at AFI and USC and UCLA out here. I took
away like a knowledge about, you know, why films are
made and what they're trying to say. And I think
that's kind of stood up over time, as well as
the writing experience, but it was it was a cool experience.
It was actually a radio, Television, Motion Pictures degree, so

(06:04):
I got a wide range of education.

Speaker 5 (06:08):
Yeah, and my education there actually wasn't in film. A
lot of people who know me and my filmmaking capacity
are not aware that actually my day job is pediatrician.
So I went to college and medical school at UNC
and met Kevin an undergrad. But I did have a
love of film at that time. We both took movie
criticism classes together. And it was a funny story because

(06:32):
our first movie date that we took that that Kevin
took me to.

Speaker 4 (06:35):
Thank you, This might be one of those things that
we should stay away from. That a doubt.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
The first one he took me to at a movie
criticism class that we both shared was Clockwork.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
Orange, Good Job, Good Job Vine. Yeah, well, I mean
it was it was like a classic, well known film,
and I thought, you know, as she loves film, I
love film. It was Kubrick, you gotta see it. It
was a Kubrick Scorsese, which was a really cool film
theory class when you get to watch Kubrick and Scorsese
for a month. But yeah, that was that was when

(07:06):
I went to and took her. Hey night, yeah, good job. Actually,
afternoon date, my ta gave me a ton I mean,
oh yeah. I walked in and H. The Ta was like, oh,
so everybody enjoyed the film, and H Kevin, did your
date enjoy the film? I was like, oh man, you
know it lasted. It lasted.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
I was waiting for you to turn to Jennifer and
she's going, well that was something, all right, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
That kind of happened, but we're over it now.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
So Jennifer were saying to him, like, so what was
going on to that film? It was like, why why
would you take me to see that?

Speaker 5 (07:47):
Clearly clearly it's such a romantic story.

Speaker 6 (07:49):
Yeah, yeah, hopefully we've gone to some some more A
couple friendly films over our twenty five years. Yeah, I
tried to start on a low point like and and
just work my way up from there.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
I guess it was faith though, because here are in
Los Angeles producing varcom so that kind of kind of
makes sense actually now I think about it.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, and after that, you're like, well, there's there's other
can go up from here, right, So it's kind of
like this ultra violent film, and you know it, it reminds
me of this whole funny story. I had a friend
of mine and and he was going on a date
with with this girl that he had known for a while,
and he didn't know what to He wanted to take
her to the movies, and he didn't know what to
to take her to see. So he, you know, he's
looking at what's playing and the movie, uh Bruno was playing,

(08:36):
you know Bruno.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
Oh yeah, and he didn't.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Quite know what it was. So he takes this girl
in there and to see it. And right around when
they had like the the whole uh where he was
showing that the people like his show, then they had
a test audience and that in the film and they
were like, this is awful. What is this crap? Well
the girl was, you know, more on the religion side,
and she goes, I can't watch any more of this,

(09:02):
and the whole get and so he takes her out
out out of the theater right and he forgot where
he parked his car. So he's trying to walk around
Philadelphia trying to figure out where he parked his car.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Trauma, like, oh my god, I took a girl. What
ab I done?

Speaker 3 (09:19):
And it was just hilarious because now she's upset already,
and now he can't find the car and he's like,
I think I parked it down here or was it?
Oh my I'm forget. Finally, like about an hour later,
they found the car and he goes, she never called
me again.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
Oh my god, it's along ride home. I feel better
now thanks to the sewer.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Dave, no problem, No problem at all, Kevin. Usually my
stories helped build people up.

Speaker 4 (09:45):
I am. I'm feeling much better about myself.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
So so if you both, you know, graduate from college,
you know, when when is it that you both decide,
you know, to to take the trip out to Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
We'll be right back after word from our sponsor, and
now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (10:08):
It was after her residency in Michigan. She worked in Kalamazoo,
Michigan through Michigan State, and we were kind of we
had left North Carolina to go there and it was
I don't know, I guess that was step one and.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Yeah, yeah, basically he went to Michigan with me for
we knew no one and for me to pursue my
dream of pediatrics. And then when I was on with that,
I was like, well, there are kids you can take
care of worldwide. Where are we going for you next?
And he's like Los Angeles. I'm like, let's do it.
So that's that's kind of how that happened.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
Yeah, So then we hopped in a truck and head
out to Beverley did So.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
You actually drove the whole way there. So what was
that like? Because I've had a couple other people I
know who have just taken that trek and they've driven
across the country, you know, So what was that like
for both of you?

Speaker 4 (11:02):
It was cool because we met with family and stuff.

Speaker 5 (11:05):
Yeah, really, we met with family in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yeah, hung out in Denver, and our brother was living
in Vegas at the time, So it was it was
kind of cool because it was going to take the
truck like four days to get there something. So we
had a little time and we took my car and yeah,
we I mean we rode through the Rockies and I
mean I grew up in you know, North Carolina with
mountains around, but not like the Rockies. So that was amazing.

(11:30):
So it was a beautiful drive. It was a beautiful drive,
and it was cool and you know a little bit
of excitement, you know, going out to a new state.

Speaker 5 (11:37):
Yeah, I was back in the day when you had CD.
So he was popping a CD and hit the road
and that was it was fun. It was a lot
of fun.

Speaker 3 (11:44):
So that was that. That's actually pretty cool. So how
long did it take you, like totally get out there?
Did you actually? Like so so it sounds like you
spaced it out for a while rather than do like,
you know, like a marathon just drive to get there.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah, we weren't the kind of people that were like
we got to get a certain number of miles done
to day. It was, you know, he's just riding along
listening to music. And I guess one is we spend
a day and maybe day and a half in Denver
and then then day day and a half in in
Vegas and yeah, but yeah, yeah, might have been a week.
I have no idea it was. It was a while back,

(12:18):
but we we did take our time and we got
to see uh sea, parts of the country I had
never seen before, so that was kind of cool.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
Yep, that's awesome. So so when you finally get out
to l A, did you already have a place to
stay or did you sort of get out there and
and and have like somebody to stay with at that point.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
We we actually went to Huntington Beach, just where Jim
got our first job. So I do remember having never
been to California when we first got there, and we
we lived only like a mile or so from the beach,
so we hopped in the car. We didn't have anything
in the apartment because the truck wasn't there yet, so
as well, you know, nothing here, let's go see the town.

(12:54):
And we're like, oh my god, let's go to the beach.
And this is in July, yeah, and we're like, oh,
it's you know, it's all sunny during the day or whatever.
And we went down to the beach and it was
probably like fifty eight that night. We froze our Can
I say asses. Yeah, it's totally hard, asses off. And
so it was like, all right, cool, cool, we saw

(13:15):
the beach, let's get back in the car, let's go right.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
We just moved from sun from snowy Michigan, and we're like,
oh my gosh, what did we do? But it just
gets cold here at night, that's all well, relatively speaking.

Speaker 4 (13:30):
Yeah, it's like cold Pacific water cold. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
Yeah, you leave the nice warm weather and you're like,
oh my god, what mistake have we made?

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Well? I was used to that East Coast beach water
that's you know, like ninety degrees and the being at
the North Carolina South Carolina beaches, So I thought it
was gonna be like that, and oh no it was not.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
It's a two different between two coasts.

Speaker 4 (13:54):
Right.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
So when you get out there and you know, I know, Jennifer,
you actually have you know, one of your first jobs
out there, you know. So, so Kevin, while you know,
while your wife is is you know, working like a
good full time job, did you start to go into
movies full time? And and sort of you know, so
you use that as a leaping off point.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
It was half on, half off. It was temping and
and writing. But I did. I did quite a bit
of writing. We Actually the big decision was made to
come out here because I had I had a sci
fi specscript and I thought it was the next greatest thing,
and and here's my ticket and all that sort of stuff.
And I think I had that the move to l
a with your script and you'll make it in a

(14:33):
couple of years kind of kind of mindset, not realizing
that it takes a bit longer to do that. But yeah,
it was. It was uh yeah, kind of kind of
half on, half off, uh, and then gradually over time, Uh,
it became full time deal for me.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
So when when you actually came out, you had already
written a feature length script, uh, the sci fi script
you were just talking about. So what you know did
you use did did Were you able to use that
as like a calling card to get your foot in
the door to to a couple of different places?

Speaker 4 (15:01):
Actually, let me let me think of which one was.
Uh it actually, yeah, that one was the one, now
that I think about it. It never it never moved
into production, but it actually did well in Nichols, I
think in like two thousand and six or two thousand
and five or something like that. And but it. It
never never picked up and I'm actually rewriting it now,

(15:23):
but uh so it did. It wasn't necessarily a calling card,
but uh I moved on to other projects from there
and kept on writing, writing, writing, writing, and and uh yeah,
and different things kind of got picked up at different
times and got got interest.

Speaker 3 (15:40):
So did you ever were able to sort of use that?
And they would say, hey, Kevin, you know we like
the way you write, you know, could you write something else?
You know, maybe for us something like that.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
Uh, it was it was more the line you get.
Uh it's like, wow, I really like the writing in this,
but you know it wasn't for us, but uh, you
know it would it be okay if we contacted you
down the line. I'm like, yeah, sure, that'd be great.
And then they didn't contact me. So but you know,
there's there's always stories like that with with scripts and

(16:08):
writing and and uh yeah that's part of the Yeah, yeah,
it definitely is.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I thought you were going to tell me keV that
they asked you, so what else you got? And you
were like, well, I because I had a friend of
mine who had him that happened to him where he
got his foot in the door he had a script
and they actually asked him what else do you have
or what else you got? And he had nothing else
to show him.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
Then I was like, hey, what I mean, I did
this one? Come on, come on, yeah, it's it's generally
a plan when when when you're going out with specscripts
or whatever, you have to answer that question before you
go out. That's continually a thing. The one I was
saying that I came out here with and I said,
I'm rewriting that one now, you know that's basically coupled

(16:51):
with another sci fi that that actually optioned this week,
when I'm pretty happy about that. So that would be
the kind of companion there's like, all right, this is cool.
What else you get? Well, here you go. So but
it takes time to get you know, that enough scripts
that you have that option.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Yeah, and also just to put that portfolio together for
any writer, you know, just to put together like even three,
you know, solid pieces of work is a challenging of
itself because you're always wondering, you know, how to be
cause I mean, you know, whenever and I'm sure you
had this too, because it happened to me as well.
You know, when you when you go to start writing
screenplays or TV pilots or whatever. You know, you say

(17:28):
to yourself when you're first starting, you're like, ah, look,
I've seen ten thousand TV shows, I've seen ten thousand movies.
I know how to write a screenplay. And you kind
of start putting this together and you're like, oh, this
is a lot different than I thought it was gonna be.
It's it's a lot different, you know, from from reverse
engineering it. Oh, I've seen every episode of you know,
mash and I'm gonna make a you know what I mean,
and I'm gonna just kind of reverse engineer it and
then actually doing it, you know, from the ground up.

(17:51):
So you know. But so did you ever have when
I'm trying to tie in this all together, and did
you ever have like a writing group or anything like
that to to sort of you he says, like a
feedback meter or maybe or maybe you just give the
scripts to like Jennifer and she was like, Kevin, you
what are you doing here? What is this?

Speaker 4 (18:07):
Yeah? Why did we come out here? This is horrible? No,
actually I haven't really been a member of a writing group.
I did get involved with this online service that actually
has a really great screenwriting competition the script Pipeline, and
there was a guy there, Dave Klein. He he had
a lot to do with me being too able to

(18:30):
elevate ideas and do better larger budget scripts, and he
worked with me on a sci fi script and he
actually worked with me on the one that optioned.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
And just the tips that he gave me about how
to make ideas better and how to make scripts better,
We're really good. So he would kind of be the
writing group on the independent front, like the independent horror
stuff that I've been doing. And I do have a
feature that I'm finishing up with that you know, I've
had people read it. I've had uh you know, luckily,

(19:01):
I know quite a few talented actors and they came
in and did a script read and illustrated what needed
to what needed to change, what was good, and uh,
I rewrote based off of that, but not technically a
writing group. But Jen does read my stuff and she
does give notes it, but uh, not not as much
as before.

Speaker 5 (19:20):
Yeah, I'm not sure how helpful it is because basically
I just put smiley face.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
Kind of stuff. That's what I know. I really nailed
the seeing Davis, I get a smiley face.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
I'm like, yes, yes, So jen's not like busting out
like a red pen and being like crossing out like.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
Noah, No, it used to be like that, but it's
just it just created at tension in the marriage and
there's no real need for that. So yeah, it's like
why don't you love me?

Speaker 5 (19:45):
It's like why don't you love now? I just look
for titles and put this stuff I like nowadays it's
pretty nice.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Yeah, and smiley faces. It does make you feel good
when you get a smiley face at the end.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, and that that that does sound a lot
better than my red pen. And I read bad idea
because I used to be that guy who when whenever
you would hand me a script to read, I would
always bust out the red pen and I would make
notes like I wasn't And then somebody was like, you
know how obnoxious you're being by doing this, and I said,
I said, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be obnoxious.
I said, it's just to me, it's easy to read
on a you know, it's a it's a white piece

(20:26):
of paper with black font and I said, it's just
easy to read.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know, yeah, but it hurts our feelings.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
Man.

Speaker 4 (20:36):
We're sensitive writers, man, we can't take too much.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Yeah. I mean like when I used to hand in
my stuff, I you know, I would get all sorts
of feedback, and uh there was one guy who just
hated every single thing that I would write, and uh
he he yeah. He would just be like he would
write stuff to me like I don't know what's going
on here, you know, He's like I you know, or
like he didn't really say some people. And that was
him being nice to me, because some people he would

(21:00):
write things like I'm bored and one and one person
he wrote on the front of the paper, I mean
front of the script. No, and that was it.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
Oh man, Oh that's rough.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:14):
I was like, no, go into another line of work.
This is it for you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:20):
I was like, man, I thought I was getting a band.
I was like, but he was thinking he was He
must have either liked me or or or or at
least I liked the stuff at some point, because I
didn't get it that bad, right, Yeah. Man, So you
know at this point, Kevin, you know, you moved on
and he started working with Jose Rivera and he started
working for him right, and he started because by the way,

(21:42):
i've your bio open, I don't know, just so you know.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Jose, Yeah, he's a he's one of the best writers
in America.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
You know.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
It was I was a director of development with the company,
so it was kind of trying to get packaging together
with one of the scripts that he had written and
and working on. Basically my job was to uh make
the project look good to potential investors and and then
uh you know, just kind of having a couple of
conversations with him. But yeah, it was as it was

(22:14):
a job where you know, we developed projects from those
writers and Donald Harrington was on there too, and that
was just you know, my job was to make their
projects look enticing to investors.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
And so like you would like, you know, maybe you
would get the book and sort of like read it
over a weekend and maybe make notes and say, hey,
this would be a good property and then maybe put
together pitch packet stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (22:35):
Yeah. Yeah, the with with the Harrington book, Yeah, I
read it and I was like, hey, I think we
should do this. The producer was like, yeah, yeah, I
think we should, and and then uh, she she handled
the uh the optioning of the material and all that,
and then you know it was it was my job
to find writers for it. So went out to different legacies,

(22:55):
got uh, got recommendations, and you know, it was just
it was one of those things where just things didn't
come in line, and that book never got never got
off the ground. But you know it was it was
a pretty awesome piece of material. So you never know,
I left that company and they may still have it
on their have it on their slate, not really sure,

(23:16):
but I mean it would be a pretty pretty cool, uh,
pretty cool movie, yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
Because you know that's that's the big thing now, right,
everything is pretty much an existing property. And I know
most of the movies you've seen in theaters now you
know they're based off a graphic novel, they're based off
an existing property, like all these superhero movies, or in
this case, they're based off of a book, which you
see a lot of more movies coming out. You know,
they're already based on something. So you figure something like
this would be you know, like perfect, a perfect project

(23:44):
so to speak, you know what I mean, Like then,
you know, for for to make a movie out of it.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
Yeah, actually not just with superhero movies. We watched the
movie which is really great. It's a horror film called
The Ritual, and that was based off of a book.
I would have I don't know. I thought that was
like a digital speck idea, but no, that was that
was based off of a book. So yeah, it's it's
uh when you have I p it just it really
helps out with with the marketing of the film because

(24:09):
you have a built in audience, and the bigger the
built in audience, the bigger the film. So I mean
I get it from that perspective. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
Yeah, it's kind of like the The Hunger Games, you
know when what's that that that that series or and
obviously the Harry Potter series. I mean that that that
series was a gold miye even before they made it
into movies.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yeah. I remember when in that d D job. I
remember when Twilight got set up and and I remember
talking to my boss and I was like, oh my god,
we need to get away a property. People are going
to be lined up around the block to see this film,
and and then it just yeah, it took off even
bigger than than I thought it was going to be.
But that was kind of I think this was two

(24:49):
thousand and seven or so that I had this job
two thousand and eight around in that range, and uh yeah,
and it's just kind of grown from there having books
being the on the source for your larger budget movies
and you're in your like three four different movies in
a series and all that.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
Yeah, and uh, because that's something you know, that's just
some of the things I've noticed more and more is
that a lot of these things are based off of books.
Even like, you know, I was going through all the
Best Picture nominees uh for this year's Academy Awards, and
I'm like, you know which ones are actually based upon
you know, ips, and which ones are original ideas?

Speaker 2 (25:25):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (25:26):
And then you got to take it and say, well,
what movies have actually done well in the box office,
you know versus versus we know what they've done. So,
you know, the more the ip that you have to
back you up. I mean, you know, right now as
we're recording this, Black Panthers number one, Uh, Black Panthers
are you know, intellectual property, and then and then Jumanji
was a remake, and then that was number one. I mean,
we can go on and on, but it's like that
seems to be like the thing.

Speaker 4 (25:46):
You know, Yeah, pretty much. You can get a lot
of advertising dollars behind behind an ip as well because
of that built in an audience, and and I think
that that boosts up your sales as well. It's tougher
for a SPECS, even if it's even if it's something
that would have a larger budget, just because you don't
have that brand name knowledge. So uh yeah, it's a

(26:08):
it's a it's a tipped scale, so to speak, in
in in favor of the books.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
So you know, as we sort of you know, continue
on with your with your journey, going through going through la.
You know, at this point you started writing screening full
time and I started doing screening screwing full time. And
you you you were in Nicle Fellowship finalist. Uh, you
were on the script pipeline.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
And then I also saw you were on the twenty
fourteen Young and Hungry list. So when you when you
were on these lists, Kevin, like, at what point, I mean,
was there at some point like were you getting agents
and managers that were coming after you saying like hey Kevin,
you know, uh, you know, are you represented?

Speaker 4 (26:48):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (26:48):
You know, were they trying to set things up for
you in a in a way like meaning that if
you come to them, you know, they had a lot more,
they had more contacts that can help you get you know,
uh something funded.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Uh yeah, yeah, the the one that landed me on
the Young and Hungary List. Interesting story. Yeah, all all
that happened. It was a Tracking Board recommend Tracking Board
is a site, an online site that that basically says
what's going on in the industry. I was just looking

(27:20):
at it today and it's all like announcements, so everything
from jobs in the industry to reviews of films, to
announcements of attachments in movies and you know, Michael Fassbender
is starring in this or he just signed on to
do this. So it really keeps you up to date
on everything that's going on in the town. And they
have contests. They have the launch Pad competition for screenplays,

(27:41):
and they also have a Tracking Board recommend and that
one there's not as many awarded. But I got that
in twenty fourteen with a script called The Memory Sphere.
And yeah, I had had a manager and then the
manager handled the taking out to agents and all that,
and you know, unfortunately, I think The interesting thing with

(28:05):
that script is the budget on it wasn't big enough
to be one of those let's go into the studios
and get that size of budget, So it's kind of
an in between project. It was too big to be
an independent feature, and then it was too small to
be a big studio feature. So it was kind of
in this this middle range, and so it got passed

(28:25):
on by by the people that read it, and then
it was kind of just around and I got the
property back and and wasn't with the manager anymore. So
then I started marketing myself, and that's the one that
option this week. So there was a producer that came
along and he optioned it. So and I think that's

(28:46):
because the budget hasn't changed on it. I just think
the marketplace has changed, and you have places like Netflix
and Amazon studios that would take a movie of this
size or even a movie that's bigger than that, and producers.
So I think that opens up a lot of avenues
for riders to ride in that budget range. Uh. And

(29:07):
and that's very exciting because that really was unsure whether
that film was going to get made or or if
I could get interest back in it. And so so
we'll see where it goes, you know, and options one
thing as sales another thing.

Speaker 3 (29:19):
So yeah, you know, and uh, you know Netflix, since
you brought that up, you know, they've been doing a
lot more stuff, you know, their own original programming, which
is great. And then uh, just down the line, guys
were talking about anyway, Uh, Apple's coming out with their
own original content. And then uh, you know what I heard.
The next big thing is Kevin by the way, an
original content. But you know it's going to be creating

(29:43):
content for people while they're driving in their autonomous cars.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh look God, whoa wow, I want to go there. Yeah.
So you like you you watch you watch a TV
show on your way to work, You're being driven to work?
Is that what that is?

Speaker 2 (30:01):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Correct, And basically they would be specifically where you could
only watch it inside your car, so that that would
be the hook of it. So like if you made
a partnership with like let's just say Dodge or BMW
or something, they're only on their channel where you can
watch inside the car at first, that would be the thing.
I'm sure they probably expand it where you could probably

(30:32):
watch it with whatever. But that would be the thing
where their programming would just be for people who have
their car.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Oh, I just I just thought of a stopa movie
just like everybody's riding along in these cars is like
ten years from now, and everybody's just staring at a screen,
but they're being fed like all this information and they're
being mind controlled. Yeah, my paranoia got the best of me. There,
it's a cool that's a cool outlet for product.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Yeah, and that is that sounds like the episode of
Black Mirror.

Speaker 4 (31:04):
Uh I did I've been watching too much Black Mirror
because I went I went too dark on that. Yeah,
it's sork if I stole your thunder there man.

Speaker 3 (31:11):
No, No, it's all good because it's kind of like,
you know, everyone has their own news channel now, so
what what actually happened? What's the actual news? What's fact?
What's not true?

Speaker 4 (31:20):
Yeah? I would need one that was just just like
tell me good stuff about me, you know, just stare
at the screen. You're good enough, you're smart enough, you
can do it today on the job.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
That's it. That sounds like Kevin and that sounds great.
H you know what I mean? Like, usually if you
watch too much bad news. I mean, they actually did
a report on this if you watched you know, and
this is obvious if you if you watch too much
bad news, you start to have a bleak outlook on everything,
you know what I mean, And then suddenly you're kind
of like, well, you know, everything sucks.

Speaker 4 (31:51):
Yeah, yeah, I just uh yeah of the Facebook, Tom
One's the thing that I just went to. There. Sometimes
I just like I can't do it. I can't do it.
I can't look at anything else. Yeah, a horrible place.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
That that also was part of it too, was just
the whole h you know, social media aspect of it,
where it's like I can share something and it doesn't
necessarily need to be true. It could be some some
person with an opinion and they kind of make it
look like a news channel, you know what I mean. Like,
you know, you know it is your spouse, let's give
a microchip in his brain. You're like, what.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
That's scary, stough Man.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
Yeah, yeah, yeah it's hot. So you know, just going
back to you, Kevin, Sorry, we're going I'm going off
of like this Black Mirror episode now, but just going
back to you.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
No, let's ditch it let's let's make it, make it happen, man.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, seriously.

Speaker 6 (32:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
So, so in twenty fifteen, you actually started Sunshine Boy Productions,
which I think is a really good idea because again,
just going back to original content, I think, you know,
the more control you have, the better you know. And
I've talked to different guests about this, and you know,
there's all a different opinion and different varying viewpoints of this,
but you know, I always but I really liked that
you started your own company because I started my own

(33:06):
company too, just to just to make you know, it
gives you a little more leeway on things. But so
you started. So at one point, did you know you
started your first short film, play Violet for Me, and
you actually had a director and everything on board. So
you know, what point did you know you wanted to
produce something? And then and you know, and then just
sort of you know, what was that impetus for for

(33:27):
you to finally say, all right, this is the year
I'm gonna I'm just gonna produce something.

Speaker 4 (33:31):
Uh. Tying in with the story from before, it is
like uh, you know, the Young and Hungry List and
the the getting the award and and then having a
ton of people pass in Hollywood. I was kind of like, man,
I just want to get something on screen. I just
want to get something on screen. And my friend Matt
Mercer is a talented director, and uh, we were at

(33:53):
a we were at a friend's birthday party. Actually, I
remember that's where I pitched Play Violet for me. And
I knew nothing about how to produce a film. I
had no clue. I'd just been a writer up to
that point. And I was like, you know, I didn't
know how much it was going to cost, and I
didn't know, you know, I knew who I you know,
I knew what the idea was going to be sort of,
but I pissed it and he was like, well, yeah,

(34:14):
let's put it together. And he told me I wish
you would cause I was like, oh wow, because you
can really put a movie together, a quality movie together,
for not a lot of money, and and so I
was like, well, that's worth the investment. And once we
had actually shot the film and got everything together, that's
when I was kind of like, oh wow, I guess
I'm a producer now, you know. I learned how to

(34:35):
deal with sag, I learned how to do the paperwork,
I learned how to you know, get people on board
to star in the film, and and uh, and then
I was like, oh wow, I guess I guess that's producing.
I don't know. So after that, because I had the
execut producer title on the thing, I was like, well,
let's have a company and you know, form that with
Jen and and the rest is history.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
So so, Jenny, what we you know? Did did Kevin
pitch this to you and say, you know, I want
to start my own company and you and you were
kind of like, what are you thinking? What do you
go crazy?

Speaker 5 (35:09):
Actually I think it was the opposite. I mean, Kevin
correct me if I'm wrong, But I was like, we
should start a company.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Let's do this because now the truth comes out. Now
the truth comes out. It was actually her idea day,
but a man, I thought I could fake it.

Speaker 5 (35:22):
No, No, what happened was again I was like Kevin,
I knew nothing about filmmaking, and we were on set
for play vitel for me all day and basically I
was just like in awe. I was just taking pictures
and just just watching it all unfold and just just
watching just these incredible talented human beings say the lines

(35:43):
that my husband wrote.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
I was hooked.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
I was hooked. I love being on set. I love
that experience. And after we you know, went through the
festival run, I was like, well, I think, I think
this is really great and I really like to do
more of it and I want to see more of
your work on screen. And so just kind of came
about like that, like I've done some other startup things,
other projects for my other work for for pediatrics, and

(36:07):
so I had a little bit of knowledge and how
did we get things going? And uh, we just looked
into starting our small business and just incorporated actually this month.
So yeah, so here we are.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
So as sort of you've gone along with this, Jennifer,
and you became the director of marketing. You know, what's
sort of the challenge that you've seen thus far with
just you know, marketing you know, different short films, different movies. Uh,
you know, just with the current current social media climate
and everything and with the way it is.

Speaker 5 (36:36):
I guess the biggest challenge for me was just learning
how to do it because I obviously didn't have any
background any training in it, so but I really love
learning new things. So it started out first with web design.
I wanted to see if I could make a website,
and there's all these wonderful platforms out there I went.
I ended up going with Squarespace because they just have

(36:58):
these beautiful templates, wonderful customer service, because I knew I
was gonna need a lot of help building the first one,
and then I just it just went from there. I thought, well, Okay,
we've got this this presence online, what's another way of
inexpensive advertising, And it's it's through social media, and it's
it's readily available, it's free. So then I learned how

(37:20):
to how to manage Twitter, and then uh then just
worked on the Facebook pages and then Instagram came after that.
So as far as the current social media climate, I
think we're kind of far removed from, you know, a
lot of the negativity that's that's out there in the
current climate because we're a short film producing company working

(37:41):
our way up to features, and our our movies don't
really have any specific sort of political message or or
anything like that. They're all about entertainment on horror, sci fi,
and neo noir. So unfortunately, I've been very far removed.

Speaker 4 (37:56):
I was.

Speaker 5 (37:56):
I was concerned, honestly when I first started on Twitter
about what I might experience. And you know, you see
all these negative comments on television screen whatever you're watching.
You'll see some really really nasty people out there. But
I've been pretty far removed from it. We try and
keep our messages positive and not respond to the negative stuff,
so I think that helps. So I've been pretty fortunate

(38:19):
not to have to experience much of that yet.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
So also though, as part of the climate, what I
was what I was actually, I'm sorry I should have clarified.
I was actually referring to was just the because everything
is a little crowded out nowadays. I know there is
trolls and and things take get negative, but you know,
there is so many people out there on Twitter now,
different filmmakers, everyone has a podcast, you know. So I
was just wondering, you know some of the you know,

(38:43):
how do you get your message out there? I mean, so,
what are some of the things that you've learned with
you know, how to sort of cut through all the noise?

Speaker 5 (38:50):
Oh, okay, sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
No, no, it's my fault. I actually should have been
much more more specific.

Speaker 5 (38:54):
No, no, no, no, that's good. I guess I just sort of
let things happen organically. I ended up connecting with some
filmmakers on Twitter and just promoting their stuff on our site,
and they ended up just promoting some of our stuff,
and then I ended up getting actually we met Lillian
through Twitter. Lilian Sue our you know, publicists who connected

(39:16):
us with you. So I think I just we just
sort of put a positive message out there, and I
like to tweet stuff about behind the scenes and the
stills and just just the beautiful pictures that the wonderful
cinematographers we've worked with have created. So just sort of
putting that out there and seeing what comes back. We've

(39:40):
just been pretty lucky to connect with some people. Yeah,
So I actually haven't had a real targeted goal except
for specific instances like when we go to a particular
festival or we have a trailer put.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
Out, We'll be right back after a word from our
sponsor and now back to the show.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
So I do have a targeted approach for that, But
in general, I'm just trying to connect with other filmmakers
and that's sort of.

Speaker 4 (40:11):
Work for us.

Speaker 3 (40:12):
So what have you had the most success with in
terms of social media? Have you have you you know,
have the most success with YouTube or Instagram or Twitter.

Speaker 5 (40:20):
We haven't paid into YouTube yet. I have not had
the time, honestly to get that together, unfortunately with my
other full time work. That's one of my goals. I
think probably we've had the biggest success on Twitter simply
because play Biler for me, our first film is a
noir and it's such a small genre that has rabid fans,

(40:42):
but they're a small, small number of them. So I
think that's where I was able to connect with people
the most, is tweeting about noir, reaching out about noir,
talking to people about noir and noir sites. So we
end up getting several reviews based on that that we
would not have before because that was our very first
a film for for a brand new company. So I

(41:04):
feel like that's where I had some success. And I
guess the biggest claim to fame is that Oscar Isaac
actually ended up watching play Violet for me, and that
was true. That yeah, I was, actually I was. Actually
there was a direct message back and forth between myself
and another screenwriter who was working on a project in Texas,

(41:26):
and we were just chatting about Violet and he liked
it and he complimented the writing and I was like, well,
that's so rare. Like, no, people don't compliment the right
and they compliment everything else about a film, but most
people don't mention the writing. And I said, thanks, that's awesome,
and I passed them on the Kevin, He's gonna be
really happy to hear that. And he's like, oh, yeah, yeah,
I'm a screenwriter too. So we started talking about his

(41:46):
projects back and forth, and then he's like, oh, yeah,
by the way, you know, I grew up with Oscar
Isaac and you know, he sent me some pictures of
them when they grew up and he was like, yeah,
he watched it and thought it was cool. I was like,
oh my god, that's amazing. Yeah. So that's Twitter, I
think has been the biggest support for our film so far,
in our in our company.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah. It just goes to show you the power of
social media, or the power of Twitter, I should say.
I always I'm a big fan of Twitter. I actually
meet most people through Twitter. I met Lillian through Twitter.
So it's very very you know, it's social media. It's
all just a tool. You just have to know how
to wield it.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
So, uh, you know, and last year, Kevin, you just
to go back to the entire Sunshine Point Productions. You
know you actually we're gonna you actually directed your first film,
which was Heartless, so so, and you're hitting the festival
circuit now right.

Speaker 4 (42:38):
Yes, yeah, we just had our world premiere last weekend
in Oxford, Mississippi. Awesome festival alone, great and yeah it
couldn't be happier. It's it's rolling along.

Speaker 3 (42:49):
So so you know what what you know what what
finally decided? What finally made you decide to sort of
go behind the camera and direct your first film?

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Uh? I had written a horror uh feature, and a
couple of my friends were like, hey, you should direct this.
And at first I was like, are you crazy? That's
that's that's crazy. And then uh, the more I thought
about it, I was like, well, okay, maybe. So then

(43:17):
I talked to a couple of director friends of mine
and they they of course recommended that I do a
short just to you know, to see and can like
build my way up. And and then I was I
was just kind of like, all right, well, let's let's
see what we can do. I had the idea for
the Shore. I was on another friend's set and had
the idea for the for the po adaptation that I

(43:39):
turned into Heartless And yeah, I just I guess, uh,
as far as like just getting getting my feet wet
or or whatever, I had to you know, talk to
some people and and get some suggestions and and then
then I just dove into it and and I had
written the script and and people. I guess the biggest

(43:59):
thing was nobody told me no. Nobody was like, are
you crazy, dude, What's what's going on. It's like, there's
no way you can't. You can do this. Everybody was
so supportive and they were like yeah, and everybody I
talked too hopped on board and and you know that
that really helped out. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
It's kind of like your network is your net worth?

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Yeah, yeah, really and and uh, I've been very fortunate
in having the group around me in Los Angeles, all
these just just incredible independent filmmakers and and uh yeah
I had help everywhere. So that was that was very good,
especially when you're when you're doing your your first, uh
your first directorial effort, it's uh, it's daunting, but you

(44:38):
know it can be done. And I also have a
wonderful wife that like calmed me down when I was
freaking out like you know, a week before we went
into shooting. But uh, you know it was it was
a really really great experience.

Speaker 3 (44:51):
So what was the biggest obstacle then, because you know,
this was your first directoral movie, you know, so what
what was like the biggest obstacle that you faced.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Well, it's a it's an adaptation to the telltal heart
By by Poe and I and I didn't want to
the way I looked at it, I was like, if
you want to do Poe, go big or go home.
So I put quite a bit of blood and gore
into it. And this required you know, shooting, shooting in
a way and we shot for three days, but shooting
in a way that you could do seven effect blood

(45:20):
effect sequences in that amount of time. And that was
a challenge just logistically. But I had really great blood
experts on on set and they took care of that.
I think the biggest thing was just scheduling and getting
eleven pages shot with with these kind of intricate sequences
in there. But once again, it's you know, I had

(45:41):
I had people around me that, you know, my DP
had directed films, my gaffer had directed films, my grip
had directed films. Is like at any given time, I
had four or five directors on set, so I had
a great network of people that I could talk to
and and help me through that. So I would say,
you know, outside of the bloodffect, the biggest challenge was
like scheduling in a day and making sure that you

(46:04):
get the shots and and uh, but that that worked out.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
So like you didn't have any actors, no show or
anything like that.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
No, not, It's it's cool. It's like you were talking
about social media. It's like I cast the thing entirely
through Facebook. And there were people that I knew. Uh,
Stacey's a good friend and and we've worked with her
on a short that we produced before this called Feeding Time,
and and uh, she was like she was the one
that I wanted for that role. Reached out to her,
got her. Joanna I had met uh, you know, several

(46:32):
years years earlier, but it never never really talked to
But that was a Facebook message I sent to her
and sent her the script and she signed on like it.
I think the entire casting for the film probably took
about forty five minutes. It was just just a series
of Facebook messages and people that I had met and
then they they read the they read the script forty

(46:54):
five minutes as far as like my part, but yeah,
it's so this is kind of like when you have
a network and you have people you can get to,
it's really help. And then Matt, Matt's in it, and
that's like, you know, one of my best friends. So
it's like, hey, dude, want to do it? Yeah? Cool,
he signed on. So yeah, no cast problems, no, no DEAs, no, uh,

(47:15):
nothing like that. There. They were awesome to work with,
which is really cool. Is the first time director to
not have, you know, any of that kind of conflict.
But no, they were they were awesome, and they were
great with working with me and having patience with me,
and yeah, and it worked out.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Yeah, yeah, you definitely dodged a bullet there, because I
mean we've all heard horror stories. I mean, hell, it's
happened to me where I've had a film and you know,
you cast actors and they they go, oh that was today.
I'm like, man, you what the amount of emails and
texts I've been sending you man? Come on?

Speaker 4 (47:46):
Oh wow? Yeah no, no, I feel very fortunate. Then
I will think all of them when I when I
see them next.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
Yeah, you'd be like, hey, I was talking to this
guy Dave and he was telling me horror stories. And
they'll go like, who's Dave.

Speaker 4 (47:59):
Who the hell? Yeah, I just go up and hug them,
just like thank you for not doing that. They were
they were awesome. They were it was fun, it was good,
and they were all energetic about it and and they
they really really did a great job. And they we
just got a review this week and it was talking
about the acting in the film, so they were they

(48:19):
were tremendous.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
See, and that's good man, because you know they always say, uh,
gooder bad director, gooder bad acting is always a result
of gooder bad directing.

Speaker 4 (48:28):
Well cool, Yeah, see I think it would go the
opposite way too, you know that, Uh it really is.
It does reflect very well on you when you when
you get the talent in there and they do their
job and and just kill it and then all of
a sudden, Wow, you're a good directory. Well had great talent.

Speaker 3 (48:50):
Yeah, and then then that that's the key to directing,
right is uh good script, good script, good actors, and
then uh good cinematographer, and then you look like a genius.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
And yeah, yeah, I came from a retail management background,
and when I was talking to Jen about how I
wanted to put the thing together, you know, I always
harken back to that, and and you know, it is
amazing how much better a manager I was when when
the staff was better. It's like when I wasn't having
staffing problems when you know, you know, it's just it's
just an interesting thing when you surround yourself with with

(49:22):
really really great workers and great people, then all of
a sudden, you're you're so much better at your job.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
Yeah, it's so trut It allows you to focus, so
you're not constantly like on the phone going hey where
are you or you know what's going on?

Speaker 5 (49:35):
Now?

Speaker 3 (49:35):
I got to go to plans Z now because I've
already gone through plans you know, a through y. So
it's kind of like, you know what I mean, It's
just you're kind of now you can actually focus and
and again you will call you a good manager.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
And now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (49:57):
Yeah. Yeah, it's I mean, I've said it on like
the speech to the to the cast and crew on
the on the last day of filming or whatever. But
I mean, it's it. They just all from from you know,
actors to you know, AC to a d to you know,
every single job on that film for us to get

(50:18):
it done in the time that we got it done,
with all the different things that we need to do
with the everything, if one person hadn't pulled their weight,
then you know we have to go back, but you
pickups with to do that. It's like it's really a
credit to just how great that cast and crew were
that you know, I didn't have to do four or

(50:38):
five takes on scenes. I didn't have to you know,
adjust because the the camera person wasn't you know, wasn't
doing their jobs. It's like that wasn't the that wasn't
to worry, which really I mean that that made it.
That made it much more enjoy enjoyable experience and much more.
It just made it go better. And it's a it's

(50:59):
a credit and they were an incredible cast and crew.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yeah, and to see that, that's awesome, you know, and I'm
glad you could take that experience and you know, and
and keep you know, parlaying that. And I know you
mentioned you were you're eventually going to make a feature
so and so I know, Kevin, I I Jen Jennifer.
I know we've been talking for forty five minutes now,
you know, is there anything you want to say to
sort of put a period at the end of this
whole conversation or maybe just say something or anything you

(51:25):
want to discuss that we haven't had a chance to yet.

Speaker 5 (51:29):
Yeah, I guess we could just talk about where to
find us. So we have websites, as we've already discussed.
Sunshine Boy Productions dot com have all of our short
films on there, and Heartlessmovie dot com is the new
one coming out. It just just had its world from
here at Oxford and we're on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

(51:50):
We love to connect with people, so be really happy
to do that.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
And we're we're setting off on the festival trail. We
have three more festivals coming up. We have We're going
to be at Evermore in Durham this weekend or next weekend.

Speaker 5 (52:02):
This weekend, oh yeah yeah yeah, well next weekend now
yeah uh.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
And then after that we have our our West Coast
premiere at the No Host Cinifest, which is an amazing festival.
It's got a great horror line up in that block.
And then after that we're going to uh Chattanooga, uh
And I have never been there, so that's I'm just
super excited about that one.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
So when when you when you're at these film festivals,
do you actually fly out or you drive out?

Speaker 6 (52:30):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Fly? Well, I mean the ones here drive to, but yeah,
we we fly out.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Okay. I was just wondering, honestly, because I imagined, uh, you know,
driving across the country A couple of times, you're like,
all right, it's cool. But now now like we're getting
into double jigs digits now, and it's kind of like,
you know, uh, you know, drive. I had a friend
of mine who actually drove. The reason I always asked
I asked that question is I had a friend of
mine who actually drove from here, uh In in Pennsylvania

(52:58):
out to uh Nevada and and and he was and
but he he he went on like this whole tour
of differently different things. And he was driving I think
it was, I want to say it was Iowa or Wyoming,
and he said it all started to hit him as
he was driving out there, and he goes, it was
just like a flat area. It was all, you know,

(53:19):
completely flat, and he's like, I just saw the same things. Like,
you know, it was kind of like a prairie and
then a farm, and then and then a little bit
and then it was like, you know, just open grassland
like a prairie. So it was like prairie farm, prairie farm.
And he goes it starts to mess with your mind,
and you like.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
You know, uh, yeah, we we've done that job. Actually,
I know the part of the country he's talking about us.
On the way out from Michigan, we drove that.

Speaker 5 (53:42):
I think doing that for for weeks and weeks would
be really I don't think our marriage would.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
Laugh that you didn't mission it was we we with
the with Feeding Time, the short film before Heartless.

Speaker 5 (53:55):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
I did actually go on a road trip with with
Matt and we drove from here to Provo, Utah. Now
that was pretty cool, but that's not like all the
way across the country. It was. That was a ten
hour drive and it was awesome. That was fun. Listen
to music show with your friend. That that was great.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Oh that's all. Yeah, See, that's awesome. It's awesome when
you can when you can go with a friend.

Speaker 4 (54:13):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Because even when I take a trip trip out to Pittsburgh,
it's like four hours, and it really helps if you know,
if everyone's into the trip, you know what I mean,
and everyone's you know, you know, and it just you know,
it makes it go a little easier. When when the
last time I went, it was snowing as we were
getting into Pittsburgh and we were more concentrating on not dying, uh,
because I was like, I think I got a little
fast and He's like, Godelby had a drive. I'm like,

(54:35):
all right, so so uh yeah, you know, it's just uh,
you know, it's it's a it's this crazy journey, right,
so every so everyone, I will link to everything that
that Kevin, Jennifer and I talked about. Kevin and Jennifer,
I want to say thank you so much for coming on. Hey,
thanks for alis man.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
This is a blast.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
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,
had over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
dot com. Forward Slash eight forty three, and if you
have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com,
subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
really helps us out a lot, guys.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
Thank you again so much for listening to guys.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
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