November 26, 2024 • 56 mins
I get the opportunity to sit down with actor and director Eric Willis. Tune in while we talk about his experiences in the film industry.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Oh, the whole point is to share on here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Embarrassed the ship out of yourself keeping conversations.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You know, you're random, is possib and you're doing your
friend job on What's Happening and everybody, welcome back to
another episode to start. I'm right here on JJ's lounge.
I'm really excited about tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I've I've got touched base with my guest Eric here,
uh several months back, and we've you know, been back
and forth over the last few months and finally made
it happen.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Man, Eric, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, of course, man, I'm glad to be a first
experience for you on this whole podcast thing. Hopefully you're
not nervous or anything, because these go pretty smoothly.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I know, I'm good. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited
to be here. Man.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Good. Good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's That's that's how it should be, the whole episode.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So why don't you kind of give everybody a little
bit of a back ground about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Man, Well, my name is Eric Willis. I've been doing
independent film since my own film since twenty sixteen. We
just wrap production at the end of October on my
thirty ninth projects since twenty sixteen, my third feature film
called Southern Fried Romance.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's impressive. That's a lot of content in what eight years?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. Yeah, I've been busting my home for a while.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And has it all been local like Can City area?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely all. I've done like five music
videos with a friend of mine, Dale Tige, and basically
it's been mostly short films. And then, like I said,
my third feature film.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
That's exciting. Feature film just sounds awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, you see that now. Yeah. It takes a lot
of time, a lot of dedication, a lot of flexibility
because things pop up during the production that you don't
plan on, so you have to have to be able
to adapt.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Is this something that you wanted to do since you
were a kid or is this something you kind of
fell into.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, my background is in theater. I've got an undergraduate
degree in theater and I didn't even know independent film
existed until twenty fifteen and I was thumbing through Facebook
and I saw an ad for casting calls caseing for
you know, roles, and I was like, you know, my
son's sixteen years old. I got a lot of free
(02:38):
time on my hands. Maybe I'll get back into that,
and I did. I auditioned for a few roles, got
you know, a few roles a couple of films that
never saw the light of day. And I had a
short story that I'd written back in college and I
still had a copy of it. So I was like, hmmm,
(02:59):
I think I can make that into a short film.
And I literally I didn't know anything about how to write,
how to format, had nothing, and so I literally had
a copy of the script in this hand, and I
was just like going back and forth and I pieced
it together. And my first film was just me, the actor,
and my cinematographer and luckily, the entire film was inner monologue.
(03:22):
So luckily my actor that I cast worked at a recording studio,
so he recorded all his dialogue and we just went
and shot. Basically it's him doing a lot of walking,
and it was simple and it worked, and for a
first film, it didn't turn out too bad.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So as being a first film, like, did you already
kind of have do a little bit of research on
some of the equipment that you were gonna need, or
did you just kind of win it.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I completely winged it. Filmmaking has been a blessing for
me because like in the past, I would have saw
something like this and I would have second guest myself
and maybe talked myself out of it. Once I got
into this, I was like, I was like balls out.
I'm just I'm just like going. I didn't even think
(04:09):
twice about it, right, And we shot most of that
first film up in Saint Joe, which I'm originally from
Saint Joe, So I knew like the locations I wanted
and how to film it and so, and it took
like six hours total to shoot the film.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Wow, I do want to throw this in there.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
If everybody that's watching, there's several of you watching, feel
free to comment interacting the show. You got questions, throw
them out there. So, I mean the equipment that you used,
what I mean, what did you use for a first film?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think he had a cannon, just a little small
canon camera. I've I think I owned a camera for
a couple of years and then I sold it to
a friend of mine. I've I and my specialty is
writing and like directing and producing. What I really love
to do is to and to produce. Okay, I've like
(05:03):
I've done all those thirty nine projects. I've still got
like ten short films and like four feature scripts that
I've written that I haven't shot yet.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I love that, and I have to say, like, so
for me, like with podcast sing I got to the
point where I now have like nineteen shows. I mean
I host like five of them, but I produced the
rest of them and help distribute. But I've really wanted
to start getting into the editing of what I do.
So I started doing these short skits called burn after playing,
(05:35):
and it's crazy. All have people from all over the
US in a Messenger group chat and I'll say, hey,
here's what the idea is. You guys improv your scenes
and then I get to edit it make it into
these short films. This huge challenge, but it's also helped
me kind of grow in this. So that's why I
kind of asked you, like, where did you start at?
(05:56):
Because I imagine as you progress to where you are now,
I mean you probably got the whole camera crew on
half your stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh yeah, I had to learn, Like my third film,
I had to learn how to edit myself and if
my neighbor downstairs and YouTube were my teachers. I didn't
know anything about anything. So if I wanted to do something,
I found the instructional video on YouTube and I figured
out how to do it right. And so, like I said,
(06:22):
it's just over the years, I've met people and develop
relationships and they are the ones that have helped me
get to where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right right, you mentioned Facebook, I mean, and some of
these Facebook groups, is that probably? Is that? How do
you kind of reach out for camera crew and stuff
like that?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You just get hold of.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It, Like I f C Casey and Actors and Filmmakers
in Kansas City are the two main Facebook pages I use,
And those are the couple of the biggest in town
where you can advertise saying, Hey, got a project going,
I need crew cast. You post for roles and you know,
they can submit their experience and then you go from there.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Right when when it comes to kind of the advertising
side of things, I mean, would you would you say
that that's been your biggest influence of social media? Or
do you do you submit some of your films to
like film festivals and oh yeah, other stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, I each project, I do a minimum of five
festivals Wow. Yeah, at bare minimum at least five festivals
and it all depends. You know. There's Film Freeway is
the main, you know, the main hub for film festivals
right now, and you can select what kind of festival
(07:42):
you want, whether it's specialty, how much you want to
pay when the festival occurs, all that kind of stuff,
And it's really helped, you know, because there's monthly festivals,
which some of them are easier to get into than
some of the bigger festivals, and it gets your work
out there. And so that's the main conduit I use.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Thanks Kyle.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, and I've got like saying, I've got too short
films in the circuit right now, and I think I've
got at least fifteen festivals that I'm waiting on notifications are.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
And what is the hardest part as far as like
the process of getting a film published?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh god, honestly, I think it's it's the end process,
like when we get into production. It's the adaptation that
I talked about earlier, because so many things can come
(08:56):
up that can ruin I mean, you know, like when
you try to shoot a film, you always have outdoor shots.
In Kansas City, there's literally like two months out of
the year that can you can shoot outdoors comfortably, whether
it's too hot, too cold, or whether it's raining, and
you have to adjust to that, like you know, we
(09:17):
had when I did Wholesome Grove, we had a we
had a location picked out. I had worked it out
with the lady beforehand. When we got there early, she
flipped out and she was like, you're not supposed to
be here for three hours. And we were just, okay,
what are we gonna do? You know, I don't want
to sit in here for three hours not shooting right.
(09:38):
And my cinematographer was like, well, why don't you call
your friend out and belt and we go shoot there.
I was like, huh, okay, So I texted her, I
said we're coming out. She's like, okay, so yeah. And
to me, that's the hardest part of the process. I mean,
you've got everything. I'm one of the things I really
love to do, and I think I'm I don't normally
blow my own horn, but I'm pretty good at is
(10:00):
scout site scouting, finding locations.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I like hearing about that because I feel like it's
it's a process.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It's it's honestly. In Kansas City, it's a lot easier
than people think. You just can't be afraid. You can
just say, you know, you just go down and if
you find a location you want, you say, hey, you
email them or call them whatever, say this is my film,
this is what we wanted to do. We'd like to
shoot at your place. Ninety percent of the time they'll
(10:29):
say yes. And see. I specialize in family drama, which
is like Lifetime Hallmark kind of you know, hokey.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, wholesome.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Grove definitely has that kind of Hallmark vibe.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I've watched that. That's good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And so I like to go out to the country
towns like Wellsville, like Baldwin. US shot in Baldwin City
a lot, and they are more receptive to shooting than
maybe in Kansas City. You just hey, i've got this,
you know, and like when you go out, you know,
(11:05):
to find a site, you always say, you know, you
always provide a copy of the script so they can
get an idea of what you're shooting, think about like
what you're shooting, say oh yeah, sure, no problem, and
then you just go out there and shoot. And you know,
for all the indie filmmakers out there, you're usually working
with no budget and you know it's the country locations
(11:29):
will say yeah, we don't care.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, sure right, And well when you talk about the budgeting,
I mean, has that made it difficult with casting? I
know quite a few of the people that you've utilized
are really just about getting their name out there, which
is wonderful, But I mean have you had issues with
what people wanting to get paid and you just you
just can't do it?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Rarely? I mean people know going in after I did
this for a few years, they know, you know, this
is like you know when you when you post something
on the IFC case and your actors and filmmakers, you
let know a headtime this is a no budget film.
You're not going to get paid.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
We're going to provide food for you. That's number one
rule for any filmmaking. You can't pay them, feed them.
And you know, I've been incredibly blessed with some of
the talent that I've worked with around here, and and
they understand, and it's an exchange. When the film's done,
(12:29):
you know, they say, well, can I get footage for
my acting? Real? I'm like, sure, you know, here's the
link downloaded, it's yours. You did the work right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
That's how I feel with this stuff too. Whenever I'm
doing with the show, I always tell the people, I'm like,
this is your content too, you want to make a
clip out of it?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I mean, that's and we're all a community and it's
and we're all doing it because we love it, right,
because none of us are making any money, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
For me, you know, I got a day job, I'm
a husband, I'm a father, and I don't I don't go.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Out to the clubs, I don't go to the bar.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
This this is me going out and having a good
time right here in my basement.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Hell, I'm a grandpa, so.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I get it. It's fun though, Like I think, seeing.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
The end result of the product that you produced, it's
a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
This is literally the most fun I've ever had in
my life. And I think that's why I put so
much into it, because you know, if I wasn't, if
I wasn't enjoying doing it, I wouldn't do it. And
that's what I like to convey to my cast and crew.
I want the entire project. I want them to enjoy it.
(13:38):
I want them to have a good time. I want
them to be proud of the product they've created and say, Hey,
if somebody asked about me, I want them to say, yeah,
we had a great time on the shoot. You'd be
You'd be I have a lot of fun working.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
With it, right, Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Let's let's talk about let's see what what's one of
the toughest films that you had to shoot like that
had maybe a lot of I don't know, reshot or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, we just finished up Southern Fried Romance and I
actually had kidney stone removal surgery him by a month
in shooting and that was one of the obstacles we
had to overcome. I was actually on set fifteen hours
(14:33):
after I got discharged, which my cast and crew kind
of lambasted me for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But just take a bunch of pain meds.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Oh yeah, I had some good and you know, we
had some some location issues, we had some weather issues
we had we just had a lot of stuff come
up that, you know, like I said, we had to
reschedule some Look, we had to reschedule some shoots. But
(15:06):
we got it done. I mean it was perseverance. I had,
you know, a few weeks after I had the surgery,
my mom passed, so I had to deal with that.
So it was it was mentally and physically. This was
the roughest film I've done, but not because of anybody
(15:27):
involved with the film. It was it was just my
health issues and.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know, yeah, but life happens, man, I mean it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'm pretty thick into the editing process and it's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I'm very proud the editing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The editing, Oh my god. I when I first started
doing this, editing wasn't my best. I like doing the
live streams because people have the opportunity to be a
part of the show and the commentary, but making clips
and reels, that's kind of my way of kind of
giving back to my guests, is like, hey, I'm you're
tagged in all this stuff and putting out there and
then obviously crediting on IMDb. But uh, the editing has
(16:09):
always been something that I've improved on over the years.
But it is not easy.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Oh no, I get it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
No. The thing like when I do when I do
a feature film, I like to as I go. We
shoot only on the weekends and then during the week
I'll edit, try to edit like the footage we shot
the past weekend. So once we wrap, I'm not starting
from from scratch and somebody will have to wait a year,
(16:36):
you know, or two for the film to be done.
That's I'm borderline OCD. I couldn't do that, right, I Like,
I know Kyle's out there, I've you know, I heard
him talk about projects that were three or four to
five years in the making. Yeah, that would drive me insane.
Uh We When we did my first feature film, Loved
(16:59):
Miss in the goth Girl, I didn't edit. I'm the
cinematographer edited it, and so you know, I'd meet with
him once a week and we'd go over editing, and
we'd edited, and it took a year to edit. And
and that was like six months too long.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
For me, just because just how dragged out it was.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah. Well, and no, I mean, in in all fairness,
he owns his own business. I mean, he had other
stuff to do. So we meet once a week and
that's when we can edit. But when I edit my
own stuff, I'm like, you know, almost every day I'm
in doing something so trying, you know, I had to
develop patience. But yeah, that borderline, yes, you knows. Yeah,
(17:51):
I call it anal retentive. But it's kind of on
the high side.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean when you're i mean, you're
looking for perfection. But I mean if when you're talking
about dragging out. That's my biggest fear was like working
with somebody because I know, like I have no problem
doing it, but like when you just aren't sync up
for timing and stuff like that, that could be a
(18:17):
real bummer because like you get so hesitant.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, Like I mean, jan just came over last week
and she did her adr for a few scenes. You know,
we re recorded the audio nothing that she did. We
had a couple of our love mics that started to
crap out towards the end of the shop, and so
we had to re record the audio. And but she's great.
She was awesome. I love her to death, And it's
(18:42):
just you know, a little stuff like that that you
have to It was kind of an adjustment for me
as I started, because like I'm on that high end,
and then I had to learn to realize that there's
stuff you just got to deal with. There's stuff you
can't fix. I mean, it's independent film. There's just like yeah,
(19:06):
I just there's stuff you gotta deal with, right and there,
and there's like through the editing process, there's stuff in
in several films that I know is a mistake, right,
but as you might be watching it, you wouldn't realize it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Right, I mean it's part of the critiquing, you know too. Yeah,
I know.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
When I first started doing this, I buy a thirty
five dollars mic set on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I was like, okay, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And that was the I mean, I probably had a
dozen episodes out of scrap because there was too much
popping noises, and feedback.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Was guard exactly the popping, you know, yeah, or like you.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Forgot to hit you know, turn it on. You know,
I've done stupid stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And Jen, yeah, she knows. We actually had a few.
As we was doing the audio clips, I'm like, okay,
the person that ran the boom, mic didn't turn on,
didn't record, So that's why we had to do the
dr because there's no backup. But it's stuff you just
gotta realize and say, hey, it's part of the process
(20:06):
and you want to fix it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Right, Let's let's get into some of the stuff you've done.
How's that sound?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Okay? Oh now wow? You dug way back didn't you
where I started you, That was before I started doing
my own films, like twenty fifteen. I started acting first.
(20:34):
I didn't have, like I said, And the funny story
about that project was, I was restaurant owner and we
got an apron and literally I went to my mom's
apartment and we got every condiment in her fridge and
I dirtied it all up. We shot one scene and
(20:59):
some thing happened to where we had to delay in
my next scene for two weeks, So that apron kind
of fermented in my closet for like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You're stopping or making me hungry?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh no, it did not smell well, It did not
smell good by time I got on set, but it
was I've literally met several people on that set that
I still work with today.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Let's see it. And that's I think huge.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I think you kind of build relationships and kind of
I guess as you're doing films now, you probably kind
of have an idea of who you want for certain
characters and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, that's it's kind of a catch twenty two. With that,
I try to write. I mean, there are some scripts
I've written that as soon as I write the script,
I know who I want to play this part. Because
it's Kansas City, it's a small community. I'm like, Okay,
this is perfect for this person. There's other stuff that
I've written. I have no idea who would ever play this.
(21:56):
I just go with the flow and then hopefully I
can find somebody to play it. Mm hmm. But I
met Jeremy Walter on that on that film, and he's
been in seven or eight of my films, and he's
one of the best people I've ever worked with. He's
incredibly talented.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, Jan, yes, the and I did notice quite a
bit of what's the Daniel fact?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But he goes Rick Daniels right, Yes, love Daniel.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I actually met him. It was on that film. Yeah,
And he's just he's a very enjoyable person to work with,
if you like we. I did one film called My
Second Self and it was a short film, and he
showed up just to be an extra, okay, And the
(23:03):
person I had cast that had a few lines didn't
show up stood me up on the day of the shoot.
So I went to Daniel and said, hey, I got
a couple of lines. You want to do this? He
was like sure, and it's it's so important to have
people like that you can't count on. Yeah, and he
I just I love working with him.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I had him on the other night. Great guy. Yeah,
love the time.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Very corky, corky and funny. Oh yeah, I totally could
see how you can easily just be like yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yet in that short film he played, he was hitting
on the two actresses in the film and they were
at least forty years younger.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Than I actually can believe that. Yes, all right, let's
see what else we got here. That's a little dark.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But can you see that I only did I did
sound on that for one week.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yes, I saw only for a weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yeah, I just know you were like a sound engineer
part of it or something like that.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, I ran boom Mic for one weekend when the
person they had run it was like not available. But
the funny thing about that shoot was the guy that
wrote it is from Maryville, and we were in Maryville.
I actually stayed at his parents' house one night. And
(24:30):
my first year and a half of college, I went
to school in Maryville, and we literally stayed like a block,
like a half a block from one of the front
houses that I used to go to and you know,
and we were shooting some b roll footage outside of
a restaurant A and G steakhouse up there, and the
owner come out. He was like, what you're doing? I said,
(24:52):
you know, we were like, hey, we're shooting road And
I said, you don't remember me, do you. He's like, no,
I said, I worked for you like thirty years ago.
I used, I said, you used to call me Black Pete.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
He was like, oh my god, yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah it was. It was a short involvement in the project,
but it was you know, it was good to get experience.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I just you know, what all have you done?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
But like behind the scenes, like as far as the
like camera crew and all that.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Oh jeez. I like I said, for Dale's music videos,
I shot all the footage for that. I've been script supervisor.
I've been boom mic. I've been producer on one film
called Killing with Kindness.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You know pretty much did Killing with Kindness I watched
last night. It was whoever came up with that concept
of that was you?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
That's that was good?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, it wasn't. It was actually an ex friend of
mine that it was his and he wanted me to
produce it and the uh location at the end with
all the bullfrogs in the cicadas that were noisy as hell.
(26:06):
That's actually a good friend of mine's location out in Wellsville, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, her husband is a retired electrician and he
actually set up a breaker box by their pond so
we so you have power and we can do lights
and everything. And like a lot of the change scenes
around that, we're at her place out in Wellsville.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
The the serial killer, like whoever the character. He made
it so like comically innocent, it was. It was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah. Yeah, that's actually that location in the kitchen is
actually the same house where we shot film set Tourette's.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, all right, next up, we got just try.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
That's my buddy Dustin. I worked with him, like said,
barely behind the scenes on that one. But I met
Dustin during COVID. Okay, we actually because I didn't want
(27:18):
COVID to interfere, We actually managed to get too short
film shot during COVID that year, and Dustin came over
and he friended me on Facebook and we got to
talking and he shot. We did a film in the
fall called The Strongest The Strongest Branch, which is one
(27:41):
of the two films I've done about suicide. And he's
He's awesome. He's one of the most talented people I've
met in this business.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Okay, I feel I feel like, especially when you get
into like the style of film, it takes a lot
to kind.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Of oh, yeah, this is kind of film I couldn't do.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It's it's a lot of work just to get actors
and actresses to be a certain way.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Well, and he's a much better editor than I am,
so he can do all the special effects and the
after effects and all the stuff that I can't do.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
So I'm guessing this is the guy that you reach
out to and you're struggling.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, if I can't find it on YouTube, I called Dustin. Uh.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
YouTube is great, I mean it is is that And
that's where I post all my stuff, you know. I
mean I posted on multiple Facebook YouTube like right now
are streaming on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, rumble uh and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
If I already said that.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Sure, well and Southern Fried Romance. There was a little
spot at the end that I wanted to do something specific.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I will actually.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Tag him in the final I can put all that
in the description, like the link to your YouTube page.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
So okay, yes we'll have that on.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Here, Yes we will. But there's something for Southern Fried Romance.
There's something I wanted to do at the end of
the film. I have something specific. Usually, I mean I
have a friend in Saint Louis that he's a graphic designer.
Sometimes I've went through him and I email him. I said,
this is what I want to do. Can you find
me a video that textes me how to do it?
And within like thirty seconds he sent me the link.
(29:23):
And it was one of those things where like the
video turns to like a snapshot of a photo when
it's real cutesy and and he sent me the link
and I figured out how to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
See that's how I am. Like, I'm not carliterated at all,
So that's how I learned all myself. Think car tricks
I learned on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, I will send this this film coming up, Southern
Fried Romance. It's incredibly cheesy and it's supposed to be.
It's I wrote it about a year ago, and I'm
I wanted to do a pretty much buy the book
Hallmark type movie, and I googled Hallmark Scripts, and I
(30:09):
found one and I just kind of like, okay, the action,
what action takes place? And he's seen and after a
while I was like, oh, I got this, and then
you know I wrote it and you know we shot
up in the ear.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
What would you say that?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
What is the difference between a short film and a
feature film?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I mean, by the book, it's the length. I mean,
if if you go through the festival circuit, most of
them will say anything under thirty minutes is a short film,
anything over thirty minutes is a feature film.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Does that kind of vary a little bit depending.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
On Yeah, a little bit on the festival, but like
for most of them, it's that's kind of the cutoff.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Okay, sounds good. I feel like it wouldn't be that
difficult to do a feature film. Then well, I mean
as far as length wise, obviously making a film is
not easy.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So yeah, the longest short film I've done was twenty minutes. Okay,
the shortest one I did was fifty three seconds.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
It is a fifty three second film.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yes, I did. It's called more and the concept it
was originally supposed to be like a PSA, but I
don't know a damn thing about marketing. So we just
made it into a short film and literally from start
to the end of the credits, it's fifty three seconds.
That's actually won a couple of awards.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So are there actually festivals for stuff like that?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Supero? There are festivals that are like a minute and
under there are festivals are like five minutes and under
which I did a film called One Last Sunrise and
it's five minutes in one second, and it's actually entered
in a few festivals that are five minutes or less.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
All Right, I have ventured on to film freeway, so
I am familiar with it. Yeah, I never really know
where to submit, and I know there are some big
festivals that are like fifty fifty to seventy five dollars submissions.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Oh yeah, you know, and I can't really afford that.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
But no still, I mean I've sometimes I'll post in
there just to see.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yet we'll see.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Thirty five or forty bucks per festival. Is where I
kind of it's my cut off what I can afford
and what I think, you know, you know, the bigger festivals,
it's I mean, honestly, it's a waste of money because
and even what I found over the years. Is even
like some of the smaller festivals that you think, you know, Okay,
(32:48):
I can probably get into the men some of them
I have got into. They're getting between five to seven
hundred submissions per festival, okay, and I I am like,
for a couple of months, I did some judging for
some festivals in Atlanta, and I I had to do
(33:08):
script reading. I had to watch short films, I had
to watch feature films, and I had to you know this,
you should take this film, you should reject this film.
It's it's a ton of work.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And that's something that we haven't really talked too much
about yet, is script writing. I mean I wouldn't even
know where to begin when it comes to script writing, Like,
how do you like, what's the setup for a script?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I use? Well, the format I use Celtics celt X.
I've been using it for years and but I mean
it all depends. Like when I first started screenwriting, I
pull up videos say, oh, you have to do this,
you have to do this. One video I'd watch, say
you have to outline everything. I'd watch another video and
(33:54):
this guy'd be like he's successful, and he's like I've
never outlined anything in my life, and that's me. I've
never created that outline for anything I've ever written. As
far as my feature films, I always started to end.
I know how the film to end, and then I
(34:14):
have to go back to the beginning and figure out, Okay,
how am I going to get there? I never know
how many characters I'm gonna have, you know, like the
plot just develops as I go. I've added characters of
remote characters, and like like sometimes just writing, Okay, this
person needs a sidekick, We're going to write that person in. Yeah,
And it's literally like a bare minimum fifty rewrites perst scribes.
(34:40):
You always go in and you're like, Okay, I can
tweet that, I can tweet that. I don't I don't
like that. Let's move that. Let's let's delete that. Let's
move that. That's that needs to go up here. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
I'm guessing you're kind of visualizing how it's going to
play as you're reading it.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh yeah, that's that's especially like when I first started
and when I'm like I'll be righting scripts and I've
heard it all in my head like hundreds of times,
and one of the biggest joys I've got was like
when when you the first time you hear somebody else
say one of the lines you've written right, and you're like,
(35:13):
oh wow, okay. Like when we were shooting Southern Five Romance,
there was a scene and a line that I had
written that always made me laugh, and we shot it
towards the end of the shoot and once after Leah
said it, I was like, oh my god, I've been
went two months to hear that line.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Has there been characters that you've casted for a spot
and it wasn't what you wanted but it still worked out.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah. Usually the way I work is when I cast
somebody I as an actor, I will let you go
with it. But there's certain scenes that Okay, there are
certain scenes were like, Okay, I want this, I want
to hear it this way, Please do it this way,
(36:08):
and then I'm gonna do a couple of takes like
you know, you can do it your way, but I
want to hear it. But for the most part, I'll
let them go and do their interpretation. Like when we
were doing Southern Fried Romance. When we first started shooting,
I had a concept in my head of the character
of the lead actor, but I let him go, and
I was like, once he said a few lines, I
(36:30):
was like okay, and I pulled him aside. I was like, okay,
I had this envision, but hearing you do the lines
this way, we're gonna go with your concept. And so
it sounded better to me the way he was doing
it then the way I had it in my head.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Now does that kind of throw off the script?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Though?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Like, not at all. It was just like the way
he played it was a way I wouldn't have visualized,
you know, in my head. But it worked. If it
wouldn't have worked, then I would have said, hey, you know, yeah,
you know, it didn't really work. Yeah, No, it was.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I do have a short clip of a scene from Crossroads.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
As you win it.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
It's about fifty seconds, law, it's about fifty seconds long,
So I wanted to play that. That's fine, Yeah, sure,
all right, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, no, shit, that's a problem. You guys are gonna
pay for the repairs.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Right, all right?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Thanks?
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Man?
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Started your day, mister, there's a motel down the road.
You can stay out till I figure out what's wrong
with your car.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Well, it's not my car. It's a rental.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
You should have to pay for repairs. Thank God for
small favors. Ain't gonna send your replacement?
Speaker 1 (37:54):
No, I think I'll hang around till you get it fixed.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Maybe awhile got anywhere to be Nope, Man, a few words.
Gotta respect that. Uh there's a diner down the road.
I can call him and fix your car. Foods real good.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
What happened to the Beard Man?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
That's my feature film Beard. I always grow it out
because I knew I was playing on shooting in the fall,
so I started to grow it out, and then when
the feature film's done, I trim it down. That was
like thirty five pounds ago. We shot that on the
main strip on four Street up in Levenworth. It was
(38:42):
a little bitty old you know, a little mechanic shop
that was closed the day. I just emailed him say
hey can we shoot there? They're like sure? And a
good story about that. That actor that was in that,
he now lives in Japan and he's teaching English over
in Japan.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yea, yeah, he was great to work with.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
That.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
That's Is that the only scene you are in the
whole film? Or are you in other bits?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, and then Crossroads. Yeah, that's only film. I was
like there, Like I was like, eh, why why cast somebody,
I'll just do it. It's just a few lines, you know. Yeah,
And I found that shirt down in a antique chop
down in the West Bottoms.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
That sounds accurate. That's good.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I'm sure when it comes to props and stuff like
that is do you find stuff is extremely random areas?
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, always. Yeah, it's just like if there's
certain things and as much as as much guff as
it gets, Facebook's always a great resource if you need
something specific. But yeah, I just went chopping down in
the West Bottoms and it had it mess eye. So yeah,
it was a shot where it had like you had
(40:02):
to go up in one of those elevators where you
pull the gate down and then there was three different levels.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
And well, you know, it's it's it's always exciting to
hear this kind of stuff. And I really loved that, Like,
even through some of your struggles, you still cut through
with that Southern Fried romance.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
It sucks that I kind of had to get dragged.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Out because of the circumstances, but you seem pretty excited
about it.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, it is I mean it was only honestly, it
was on like a couple of weeks. I mean we
had you know, I had it planned out. We were
supposed to have finished in early October, and we finished
October twenty seventh. I mean, it was only like a
couple of weeks the way. But and you know, I'm
(40:51):
always incredibly grateful for the people that dedicate their time
for my project, because I mean, without them, it's just
words on a computer screen.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I do have to say a lot, I've seen a
lot of your stuff, even before we really started talking,
because of the people that you've had on your sets.
There's a lot that's a big respectful thing. When when
people can say, you know, Eric Willison, he's the guy
check out this.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
You know I was on this.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
It's something I like. I like to brag about that
people like Kyle m come back to work with me
more than once. And that's something I pride myself in. Right,
I would kick myself in the butt if somebody come
up on my set and they said I'll never work
(41:41):
with him again, I'd have to. I mean, there have
been a couple of instances, but not my fault.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Right, right, right, Like maybe somebody to the scene you
didn't really care for and they're like, no, it was great.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
This is too much work for no pay. You knew
that coming out.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
So it was, yeah, it was. It was in fine
line right there.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And that's actually we were talking about love misery and
the goth girl, and a great story about that is
like the actress quit after the first weekend of shooting,
and normally in the past I would be depressed and like,
oh yeah, I was like, no, I'm not gonna let
it run it And like one of the comedic actor
(42:28):
in the film message mes hey, my wife did theater
in college and she sent me an audition. She already
had blue hair, which was perfect, and she was great,
and it all worked out for the best. And she
is one of the sweetest, nicest, incredible people I've ever met.
Doing this.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
That's actually works out really well.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
It did. I mean, like we shot one of the
like the second weekend up in eleven Worth at an Airbnb,
and there's like just that one scene we shot like
everybody meshed, everybody clicked, and like the entire rest of
the shoot we were we were very close.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Do you have to go all over the town for
some of these things, and I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Oh yeah. I've shot as as far north as Saint Joe,
h as like far south as like Baldwin City, Wellsville,
Hillsdale Lake, done in that area, all the way out,
I mean, all over the metro. Yeah, And I've had
actresses kind of get a little irritated with me because
(43:42):
we shot at a little church in the middle of nowhere.
But it worked, right.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Sometimes you just got to drive.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, yeah, it is and any you know, like I said,
some of the best locations out in the middle of
nowhere at least for my.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Projects, right, kind of for what you're going for at least, you.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Know, and when they see it on film, I'm like, okay,
I get it now.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
I always kind of like to wrap up with sort
of like social media, and especially when it's people that
are of my age or older that kind of live
through the transition of technology and how it's advanced. And
I have like this hate love for social media, Like
realistically I hate social media, but as far as podcasting
and promoting and getting the name out there, yeah, you
(44:33):
kind of have to. That's the only way to get
it out there.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Now. That's yes, You've you hit it just right. On
the head. I have a love hate relationship with social media.
It's the best way to get your your work out there.
It's the best way to get people involved in your work.
But you have to deal with the idiots. I mean, right,
(44:56):
It's just it's just a fact, you know. I I
just took a month off of like TikTok and you
know Instagram. I'm like, I just I can't do it.
I need a break. You guys are just.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Yeah, yeah for you, and you know, for filming and
everything's one thing, and for podcasting, like making clips of
the shows stuff like that. Like it's like, if you're
not consistently utilizing them, sometimes they'll kick you out, like
they'll boots, you're from the algorithm, and it's it's just
a name area.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
That's one of my weakest areas is self promotion. I'll
be honest, because like I said, you know, I've done
thirty nine projects, and since twenty sixteen, I moved from
project to project to project, and I don't like take
the time to promote the project that it just finished
because I'm onto the next project.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, I get it, I do, because I mean that's
why I have so many different freaking podcasts because I'm like,
I want to do something on this topic. Well that
doesn't really fit the show, I'm gonna start another show.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I did six short films in one year.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, Like did they overlap too?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
No. A couple of them were literally one weekend shoots,
like the fifty three second one, and you know another
one was just maybe a couple of minutes, and then
you know someone were like six to seven minutes and
it only involved like a weekend or two. And from
January to December, I did six short films.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
The craziest thing that I've figured out about the algorithm
is that three seconds, you have three seconds to capture
their attention. If they swipe away within three seconds, the
algorithm bucha. Yeah, so there's this short stuff is amazing,
you know, I have I've had comedians on and actors
(46:51):
that I do show like that I made clips and
reels for and I've found out the dead errors and
like that. If you're not hitting the main points of
of what you're trying to hit, people lose interests.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, and we we we live in an ad D
society and that's what social media is. If you know,
if it's not like that, you know, you move on.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Uh, and you independent short films are actually pretty popular
right now.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
But you know, like you said, promodium is something that's
kind of a it's a struggle, but it's necessary sometimes,
you know. I mean a lot of your stuff you
can find on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
It's it's just.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
I do the best I can, but I get so
backed into all these other things too. So like I'll
try to knock out a couple of clips from the
show and then move on, because.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's like, you know, one of the things it's actually
helped me in the past is you know, and the
reason I go with shining like industries is because I
don't only do films. I'm also an efficient I perform
weddings on the side. Yeah, intermingle the both. So like,
if you know, somebody sees pictures of the weddings, they
(48:02):
could find my YouTube page and then they can go
to both and mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
So I go to link tree. You get yourself a
link tree.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Yeah, I know, I need a manager for that, take
care of that.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Uh, you know, I could probably help you get one
set up, okay, if that's something that you'd be interested.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, definitely, Like I said, it's self promotion is one
of my weaknesses, and I know somebody out there is
listening that is helping me with that.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Well, and that's that's the biggest thing. So for me,
if if somebody says, hey, where can I find yourself?
I just send them my link tree. Then there's like
direct links to you know, individual films would like you said, yeah,
wedding stuff. You put all those tabs on there, and
it's just so much easier. It's it's like my business card.
I just say go there.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah. Literally, literally everything I have is on Shining Light
Industries on YouTube mm hm. So yeah, if anybody else
they go there right.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
Well, and you also have I mean I watched Wholesome
Grove on to.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
B mm hm. Yeah. Love Misering the Goth Girl and
Wholesome Grove. We're both on two be Wholesome Grove. You
can actually find them like eight or nine different streaming services.
It's on Prime and then it's it's on some like
(49:26):
some other, like it's on someone's YouTube page. It's on
like several streaming services that are new. Right. It's like,
I mean, I'm happy because it's like eight or nine
different streaming services. I never thought I would be able
to do something.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Then how did that happen? Like, how did it get
on those platforms?
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Well, you either go through film Hub, is when I
went through for Wholesome Grove for Love, Misering the Goth Girl.
I went through indie Rights, and it's harder for me
because the genre that I do is not as popular
as some of the others. Like you submit your film
(50:05):
to film Hub and then they market it for you,
and then like to B and Amazon, they'll request the
rights from film Hub and then they'll send it to
them and then they'll put it on their on their
streaming services and then that's that's when you start to
get a little bit of money.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
In Yeah, you make it a little Every time somebody watch it,
you probably get a few cents or something of that.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, it's like, I mean Prime is the biggest name
and the lowest payer. I mean, wow, you have to
watch my entire film and I make like twenty cents
and to be's a little better. But yeah, yeah, I
mean I've had enough to break even.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
But well, and you're talking about to a lot of people, don't.
A lot of people like I like to be because
it's free. Yeah, I pay for Amazon Prime. So I
do watch stuff on Prime, but some people don't. And yeah,
so you get these platforms that pick you up and
they're like some people don't even know what they are.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
But yeah, and the good thing is, you know with
like to B had a commercial on the Super Bowl
and for people like man, that's great. It's like, you know,
people didn't even know what to be is and then
they go on to B and then I'm like, you know,
they may find my film and watch it.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
That's exciting. Yeah, especially when you don't expect it.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
With that side of it though, like do you get
notified that it got picked up by these platforms?
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah? Uh. Film Hub you actually have to make the
effort to log on and go in and see what's
going on. Indie Rights was a little a little better
as far as notifying you what's going on. They will
send you emails and say hey, you know, like a
quarterly email. But with film Hub, you actually have to
log in and they'll give you a little a rundown
(51:57):
of what's going on.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Oh, so what's up, what's up next? What are you
working on now?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Editing? Yeah, we're doing some adr for Southern Fire Romance
I'm actually I mean, we wrapped on the twenty seventh
of October. I'm looking to have a working copy by
the time we have the wrap party on December fourteenth.
(52:25):
I'm wanting to get a good copy done by the
time so I can submit it to Casey Film Fest
and get try to get it in there. Because Wholesome
Grove actually won Best Heartland Feature at Casey Film Fest
last year.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah, and it's a very funny story. We shot part
of it in Saint Joe and my lead actress and
some of the others words from Saint Joe. So we
planned a screening up there, and so we went to
Casey Film Fast screened it at one thirty. Me and
the Cinema talk for We went up to Saint Joe.
(53:05):
We're having dinner with the lead actress and her mom
and my phone starts to blow up. I'm like, what
the hell's going on? And they said, they're like, where
are you. I was like, I'm up in, saying Joe. Why.
They said, oh, your film just one Best Heartland Feature.
I was like, no way, because they don't Casey Filmfast
(53:27):
doesn't tell you. They don't warn you ahead of time.
That you're even nominated. I was like, I didn't even
know I was supposed to go and tell Yeah, we were.
We're very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
That's a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
As far as projects next year, I'm I'm with everything
I've had going on. I'm kind of taking a few
months off, a little sabbatical to kind of get my
head right. Yeah, there's a couple of small projects I
have in mind maybe, and there is a feature film
(54:02):
that I have in mind. It's my favorite script I've
ever written. But there is one casting obstacle that I
have to overcome in order to even think about doing
this project.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
It was like this specific person twin six to eight
year old boys.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah, that's an obstacle exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
That's the biggest obstacle I have to overcome. There was
actually a couple of location issues that I've already had
leads on, so but yeah, that's the biggest. Yeah, if
I could find twin boys that can act, then it's
(54:46):
literally my favorite script I've ever written. It's very hallmark issue. Yeah,
actually more lifetime. It's not actually a love story.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
But you know, as far as like the style of
show or yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, no, no language, no, you know, very sweet, tug
at the heart strings kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
All right, that's exciting, man, that's my specialty. Okay, Well,
you know.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I really appreciate you coming on tonight, and it's it's
always fun to kind of hear the stories of like
who you know, your background, and the stuff that you've done,
some of your big accomplishments and behind the scenes stuff
that people don't really get to hear about. So thank
you for taking some time out of your data to
hang out with me on here.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
I appreciate you having me man. I've had a blast,
good good.
Speaker 3 (55:38):
The whole idea is to just relax and talk like
just two people that go back and it's it's not
meant to it's not supposed to feel like you're being interrogated.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
That's that one. Oh no, no, good good uh.
Speaker 3 (55:53):
And I'd love to have you back on sometime and
then if you any help with promotions, I'm always down
to help out with that.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
So yeah, I will be in touch. And do you
have anything else before we wrap this up?
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Everyone have a good holidays.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yes, agreed what he just said and everybody tuned in tonight.
Speaker 3 (56:14):
Thank you Jan Kyle for being in the comments and
I know others are watching too, So thank you guys,
and until next time, we'll see you around.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
Thank you.
Oh, the whole point is to share on here.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Embarrassed the ship out of yourself keeping conversations.
Speaker 3 (00:08):
You know, you're random, is possib and you're doing your
friend job on What's Happening and everybody, welcome back to
another episode to start. I'm right here on JJ's lounge.
I'm really excited about tonight.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I've I've got touched base with my guest Eric here,
uh several months back, and we've you know, been back
and forth over the last few months and finally made
it happen.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Man, Eric, how you doing.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, of course, man, I'm glad to be a first
experience for you on this whole podcast thing. Hopefully you're
not nervous or anything, because these go pretty smoothly.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I know, I'm good. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm excited
to be here. Man.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Good. Good.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
That's That's that's how it should be, the whole episode.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
So why don't you kind of give everybody a little
bit of a back ground about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Man, Well, my name is Eric Willis. I've been doing
independent film since my own film since twenty sixteen. We
just wrap production at the end of October on my
thirty ninth projects since twenty sixteen, my third feature film
called Southern Fried Romance.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
That's impressive. That's a lot of content in what eight years?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah. Yeah, I've been busting my home for a while.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
And has it all been local like Can City area?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Oh yeah, yeah, definitely all. I've done like five music
videos with a friend of mine, Dale Tige, and basically
it's been mostly short films. And then, like I said,
my third feature film.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
That's exciting. Feature film just sounds awesome.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, you see that now. Yeah. It takes a lot
of time, a lot of dedication, a lot of flexibility
because things pop up during the production that you don't
plan on, so you have to have to be able
to adapt.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Is this something that you wanted to do since you
were a kid or is this something you kind of
fell into.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, my background is in theater. I've got an undergraduate
degree in theater and I didn't even know independent film
existed until twenty fifteen and I was thumbing through Facebook
and I saw an ad for casting calls caseing for
you know, roles, and I was like, you know, my
son's sixteen years old. I got a lot of free
(02:38):
time on my hands. Maybe I'll get back into that,
and I did. I auditioned for a few roles, got
you know, a few roles a couple of films that
never saw the light of day. And I had a
short story that I'd written back in college and I
still had a copy of it. So I was like, hmmm,
(02:59):
I think I can make that into a short film.
And I literally I didn't know anything about how to write,
how to format, had nothing, and so I literally had
a copy of the script in this hand, and I
was just like going back and forth and I pieced
it together. And my first film was just me, the actor,
and my cinematographer and luckily, the entire film was inner monologue.
(03:22):
So luckily my actor that I cast worked at a recording studio,
so he recorded all his dialogue and we just went
and shot. Basically it's him doing a lot of walking,
and it was simple and it worked, and for a
first film, it didn't turn out too bad.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
So as being a first film, like, did you already
kind of have do a little bit of research on
some of the equipment that you were gonna need, or
did you just kind of win it.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
I completely winged it. Filmmaking has been a blessing for
me because like in the past, I would have saw
something like this and I would have second guest myself
and maybe talked myself out of it. Once I got
into this, I was like, I was like balls out.
I'm just I'm just like going. I didn't even think
(04:09):
twice about it, right, And we shot most of that
first film up in Saint Joe, which I'm originally from
Saint Joe, So I knew like the locations I wanted
and how to film it and so, and it took
like six hours total to shoot the film.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Wow, I do want to throw this in there.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
If everybody that's watching, there's several of you watching, feel
free to comment interacting the show. You got questions, throw
them out there. So, I mean the equipment that you used,
what I mean, what did you use for a first film?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I think he had a cannon, just a little small
canon camera. I've I think I owned a camera for
a couple of years and then I sold it to
a friend of mine. I've I and my specialty is
writing and like directing and producing. What I really love
to do is to and to produce. Okay, I've like
(05:03):
I've done all those thirty nine projects. I've still got
like ten short films and like four feature scripts that
I've written that I haven't shot yet.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
I love that, and I have to say, like, so
for me, like with podcast sing I got to the
point where I now have like nineteen shows. I mean
I host like five of them, but I produced the
rest of them and help distribute. But I've really wanted
to start getting into the editing of what I do.
So I started doing these short skits called burn after playing,
(05:35):
and it's crazy. All have people from all over the
US in a Messenger group chat and I'll say, hey,
here's what the idea is. You guys improv your scenes
and then I get to edit it make it into
these short films. This huge challenge, but it's also helped
me kind of grow in this. So that's why I
kind of asked you, like, where did you start at?
(05:56):
Because I imagine as you progress to where you are now,
I mean you probably got the whole camera crew on
half your stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Oh yeah, I had to learn, Like my third film,
I had to learn how to edit myself and if
my neighbor downstairs and YouTube were my teachers. I didn't
know anything about anything. So if I wanted to do something,
I found the instructional video on YouTube and I figured
out how to do it right. And so, like I said,
(06:22):
it's just over the years, I've met people and develop
relationships and they are the ones that have helped me
get to where I'm at.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Right right, you mentioned Facebook, I mean, and some of
these Facebook groups, is that probably? Is that? How do
you kind of reach out for camera crew and stuff
like that?
Speaker 1 (06:42):
You just get hold of.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
It, Like I f C Casey and Actors and Filmmakers
in Kansas City are the two main Facebook pages I use,
And those are the couple of the biggest in town
where you can advertise saying, Hey, got a project going,
I need crew cast. You post for roles and you know,
they can submit their experience and then you go from there.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Right when when it comes to kind of the advertising
side of things, I mean, would you would you say
that that's been your biggest influence of social media? Or
do you do you submit some of your films to
like film festivals and oh yeah, other stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, I each project, I do a minimum of five
festivals Wow. Yeah, at bare minimum at least five festivals
and it all depends. You know. There's Film Freeway is
the main, you know, the main hub for film festivals
right now, and you can select what kind of festival
(07:42):
you want, whether it's specialty, how much you want to
pay when the festival occurs, all that kind of stuff,
And it's really helped, you know, because there's monthly festivals,
which some of them are easier to get into than
some of the bigger festivals, and it gets your work
out there. And so that's the main conduit I use.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Thanks Kyle.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, and I've got like saying, I've got too short
films in the circuit right now, and I think I've
got at least fifteen festivals that I'm waiting on notifications are.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
And what is the hardest part as far as like
the process of getting a film published?
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Oh god, honestly, I think it's it's the end process,
like when we get into production. It's the adaptation that
I talked about earlier, because so many things can come
(08:56):
up that can ruin I mean, you know, like when
you try to shoot a film, you always have outdoor shots.
In Kansas City, there's literally like two months out of
the year that can you can shoot outdoors comfortably, whether
it's too hot, too cold, or whether it's raining, and
you have to adjust to that, like you know, we
(09:17):
had when I did Wholesome Grove, we had a we
had a location picked out. I had worked it out
with the lady beforehand. When we got there early, she
flipped out and she was like, you're not supposed to
be here for three hours. And we were just, okay,
what are we gonna do? You know, I don't want
to sit in here for three hours not shooting right.
(09:38):
And my cinematographer was like, well, why don't you call
your friend out and belt and we go shoot there.
I was like, huh, okay, So I texted her, I
said we're coming out. She's like, okay, so yeah. And
to me, that's the hardest part of the process. I mean,
you've got everything. I'm one of the things I really
love to do, and I think I'm I don't normally
blow my own horn, but I'm pretty good at is
(10:00):
scout site scouting, finding locations.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
I like hearing about that because I feel like it's
it's a process.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
It's it's honestly. In Kansas City, it's a lot easier
than people think. You just can't be afraid. You can
just say, you know, you just go down and if
you find a location you want, you say, hey, you
email them or call them whatever, say this is my film,
this is what we wanted to do. We'd like to
shoot at your place. Ninety percent of the time they'll
(10:29):
say yes. And see. I specialize in family drama, which
is like Lifetime Hallmark kind of you know, hokey.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, wholesome.
Speaker 3 (10:39):
Grove definitely has that kind of Hallmark vibe.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I've watched that. That's good.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
And so I like to go out to the country
towns like Wellsville, like Baldwin. US shot in Baldwin City
a lot, and they are more receptive to shooting than
maybe in Kansas City. You just hey, i've got this,
you know, and like when you go out, you know,
(11:05):
to find a site, you always say, you know, you
always provide a copy of the script so they can
get an idea of what you're shooting, think about like
what you're shooting, say oh yeah, sure, no problem, and
then you just go out there and shoot. And you know,
for all the indie filmmakers out there, you're usually working
with no budget and you know it's the country locations
(11:29):
will say yeah, we don't care.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Yeah, sure right, And well when you talk about the budgeting,
I mean, has that made it difficult with casting? I
know quite a few of the people that you've utilized
are really just about getting their name out there, which
is wonderful, But I mean have you had issues with
what people wanting to get paid and you just you
just can't do it?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Rarely? I mean people know going in after I did
this for a few years, they know, you know, this
is like you know when you when you post something
on the IFC case and your actors and filmmakers, you
let know a headtime this is a no budget film.
You're not going to get paid.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Hmm.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
We're going to provide food for you. That's number one
rule for any filmmaking. You can't pay them, feed them.
And you know, I've been incredibly blessed with some of
the talent that I've worked with around here, and and
they understand, and it's an exchange. When the film's done,
(12:29):
you know, they say, well, can I get footage for
my acting? Real? I'm like, sure, you know, here's the
link downloaded, it's yours. You did the work right.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
That's how I feel with this stuff too. Whenever I'm
doing with the show, I always tell the people, I'm like,
this is your content too, you want to make a
clip out of it?
Speaker 2 (12:46):
I mean, that's and we're all a community and it's
and we're all doing it because we love it, right,
because none of us are making any money, you know.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
For me, you know, I got a day job, I'm
a husband, I'm a father, and I don't I don't go.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Out to the clubs, I don't go to the bar.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
This this is me going out and having a good
time right here in my basement.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Hell, I'm a grandpa, so.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I get it. It's fun though, Like I think, seeing.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
The end result of the product that you produced, it's
a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
This is literally the most fun I've ever had in
my life. And I think that's why I put so
much into it, because you know, if I wasn't, if
I wasn't enjoying doing it, I wouldn't do it. And
that's what I like to convey to my cast and crew.
I want the entire project. I want them to enjoy it.
(13:38):
I want them to have a good time. I want
them to be proud of the product they've created and say, Hey,
if somebody asked about me, I want them to say, yeah,
we had a great time on the shoot. You'd be
You'd be I have a lot of fun working.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
With it, right, Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Let's let's talk about let's see what what's one of
the toughest films that you had to shoot like that
had maybe a lot of I don't know, reshot or
something like that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, we just finished up Southern Fried Romance and I
actually had kidney stone removal surgery him by a month
in shooting and that was one of the obstacles we
had to overcome. I was actually on set fifteen hours
(14:33):
after I got discharged, which my cast and crew kind
of lambasted me for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
But just take a bunch of pain meds.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Oh yeah, I had some good and you know, we
had some some location issues, we had some weather issues
we had we just had a lot of stuff come
up that, you know, like I said, we had to
reschedule some Look, we had to reschedule some shoots. But
(15:06):
we got it done. I mean it was perseverance. I had,
you know, a few weeks after I had the surgery,
my mom passed, so I had to deal with that.
So it was it was mentally and physically. This was
the roughest film I've done, but not because of anybody
(15:27):
involved with the film. It was it was just my
health issues and.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know, yeah, but life happens, man, I mean it's yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I'm pretty thick into the editing process and it's really good.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
I'm very proud the editing.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
The editing, Oh my god. I when I first started
doing this, editing wasn't my best. I like doing the
live streams because people have the opportunity to be a
part of the show and the commentary, but making clips
and reels, that's kind of my way of kind of
giving back to my guests, is like, hey, I'm you're
tagged in all this stuff and putting out there and
then obviously crediting on IMDb. But uh, the editing has
(16:09):
always been something that I've improved on over the years.
But it is not easy.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Oh no, I get it.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
No. The thing like when I do when I do
a feature film, I like to as I go. We
shoot only on the weekends and then during the week
I'll edit, try to edit like the footage we shot
the past weekend. So once we wrap, I'm not starting
from from scratch and somebody will have to wait a year,
(16:36):
you know, or two for the film to be done.
That's I'm borderline OCD. I couldn't do that, right, I Like,
I know Kyle's out there, I've you know, I heard
him talk about projects that were three or four to
five years in the making. Yeah, that would drive me insane.
Uh We When we did my first feature film, Loved
(16:59):
Miss in the goth Girl, I didn't edit. I'm the
cinematographer edited it, and so you know, I'd meet with
him once a week and we'd go over editing, and
we'd edited, and it took a year to edit. And
and that was like six months too long.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
For me, just because just how dragged out it was.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah. Well, and no, I mean, in in all fairness,
he owns his own business. I mean, he had other
stuff to do. So we meet once a week and
that's when we can edit. But when I edit my
own stuff, I'm like, you know, almost every day I'm
in doing something so trying, you know, I had to
develop patience. But yeah, that borderline, yes, you knows. Yeah,
(17:51):
I call it anal retentive. But it's kind of on
the high side.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Yeah, yeah, but I mean when you're i mean, you're
looking for perfection. But I mean if when you're talking
about dragging out. That's my biggest fear was like working
with somebody because I know, like I have no problem
doing it, but like when you just aren't sync up
for timing and stuff like that, that could be a
(18:17):
real bummer because like you get so hesitant.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yeah, Like I mean, jan just came over last week
and she did her adr for a few scenes. You know,
we re recorded the audio nothing that she did. We
had a couple of our love mics that started to
crap out towards the end of the shop, and so
we had to re record the audio. And but she's great.
She was awesome. I love her to death, And it's
(18:42):
just you know, a little stuff like that that you
have to It was kind of an adjustment for me
as I started, because like I'm on that high end,
and then I had to learn to realize that there's
stuff you just got to deal with. There's stuff you
can't fix. I mean, it's independent film. There's just like yeah,
(19:06):
I just there's stuff you gotta deal with, right and there,
and there's like through the editing process, there's stuff in
in several films that I know is a mistake, right,
but as you might be watching it, you wouldn't realize it.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Right, I mean it's part of the critiquing, you know too. Yeah,
I know.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
When I first started doing this, I buy a thirty
five dollars mic set on Amazon.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I was like, okay, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
And that was the I mean, I probably had a
dozen episodes out of scrap because there was too much
popping noises, and feedback.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Was guard exactly the popping, you know, yeah, or like you.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Forgot to hit you know, turn it on. You know,
I've done stupid stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
And Jen, yeah, she knows. We actually had a few.
As we was doing the audio clips, I'm like, okay,
the person that ran the boom, mic didn't turn on,
didn't record, So that's why we had to do the
dr because there's no backup. But it's stuff you just
gotta realize and say, hey, it's part of the process
(20:06):
and you want to fix it.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Right, Let's let's get into some of the stuff you've done.
How's that sound?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Okay? Oh now wow? You dug way back didn't you
where I started you, That was before I started doing
my own films, like twenty fifteen. I started acting first.
(20:34):
I didn't have, like I said, And the funny story
about that project was, I was restaurant owner and we
got an apron and literally I went to my mom's
apartment and we got every condiment in her fridge and
I dirtied it all up. We shot one scene and
(20:59):
some thing happened to where we had to delay in
my next scene for two weeks, So that apron kind
of fermented in my closet for like two weeks.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
You're stopping or making me hungry?
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Oh no, it did not smell well, It did not
smell good by time I got on set, but it
was I've literally met several people on that set that
I still work with today.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Let's see it. And that's I think huge.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
I think you kind of build relationships and kind of
I guess as you're doing films now, you probably kind
of have an idea of who you want for certain
characters and stuff like that.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, that's it's kind of a catch twenty two. With that,
I try to write. I mean, there are some scripts
I've written that as soon as I write the script,
I know who I want to play this part. Because
it's Kansas City, it's a small community. I'm like, Okay,
this is perfect for this person. There's other stuff that
I've written. I have no idea who would ever play this.
(21:56):
I just go with the flow and then hopefully I
can find somebody to play it. Mm hmm. But I
met Jeremy Walter on that on that film, and he's
been in seven or eight of my films, and he's
one of the best people I've ever worked with. He's
incredibly talented.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah, Jan, yes, the and I did notice quite a
bit of what's the Daniel fact?
Speaker 3 (22:33):
But he goes Rick Daniels right, Yes, love Daniel.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I actually met him. It was on that film. Yeah,
And he's just he's a very enjoyable person to work with,
if you like we. I did one film called My
Second Self and it was a short film, and he
showed up just to be an extra, okay, And the
(23:03):
person I had cast that had a few lines didn't
show up stood me up on the day of the shoot.
So I went to Daniel and said, hey, I got
a couple of lines. You want to do this? He
was like sure, and it's it's so important to have
people like that you can't count on. Yeah, and he
I just I love working with him.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
I had him on the other night. Great guy. Yeah,
love the time.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
Very corky, corky and funny. Oh yeah, I totally could
see how you can easily just be like yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yet in that short film he played, he was hitting
on the two actresses in the film and they were
at least forty years younger.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
Than I actually can believe that. Yes, all right, let's
see what else we got here. That's a little dark.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
But can you see that I only did I did
sound on that for one week.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yes, I saw only for a weekend.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
Yeah, I just know you were like a sound engineer
part of it or something like that.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Well, I ran boom Mic for one weekend when the
person they had run it was like not available. But
the funny thing about that shoot was the guy that
wrote it is from Maryville, and we were in Maryville.
I actually stayed at his parents' house one night. And
(24:30):
my first year and a half of college, I went
to school in Maryville, and we literally stayed like a block,
like a half a block from one of the front
houses that I used to go to and you know,
and we were shooting some b roll footage outside of
a restaurant A and G steakhouse up there, and the
owner come out. He was like, what you're doing? I said,
(24:52):
you know, we were like, hey, we're shooting road And
I said, you don't remember me, do you. He's like, no,
I said, I worked for you like thirty years ago.
I used, I said, you used to call me Black Pete.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
He was like, oh my god, yeah, that's fun.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah it was. It was a short involvement in the project,
but it was you know, it was good to get experience.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
I just you know, what all have you done?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
But like behind the scenes, like as far as the
like camera crew and all that.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Oh jeez. I like I said, for Dale's music videos,
I shot all the footage for that. I've been script supervisor.
I've been boom mic. I've been producer on one film
called Killing with Kindness.
Speaker 3 (25:36):
You know pretty much did Killing with Kindness I watched
last night. It was whoever came up with that concept
of that was you?
Speaker 1 (25:45):
That's that was good?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
No, it wasn't. It was actually an ex friend of
mine that it was his and he wanted me to
produce it and the uh location at the end with
all the bullfrogs in the cicadas that were noisy as hell.
(26:06):
That's actually a good friend of mine's location out in Wellsville, Kansas.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yeah, yeah, her husband is a retired electrician and he
actually set up a breaker box by their pond so
we so you have power and we can do lights
and everything. And like a lot of the change scenes
around that, we're at her place out in Wellsville.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
The the serial killer, like whoever the character. He made
it so like comically innocent, it was. It was hilarious.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah. Yeah, that's actually that location in the kitchen is
actually the same house where we shot film set Tourette's.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Yeah, all right, next up, we got just try.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
That's my buddy Dustin. I worked with him, like said,
barely behind the scenes on that one. But I met
Dustin during COVID. Okay, we actually because I didn't want
(27:18):
COVID to interfere, We actually managed to get too short
film shot during COVID that year, and Dustin came over
and he friended me on Facebook and we got to
talking and he shot. We did a film in the
fall called The Strongest The Strongest Branch, which is one
(27:41):
of the two films I've done about suicide. And he's
He's awesome. He's one of the most talented people I've
met in this business.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Okay, I feel I feel like, especially when you get
into like the style of film, it takes a lot
to kind.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Of oh, yeah, this is kind of film I couldn't do.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
It's it's a lot of work just to get actors
and actresses to be a certain way.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Well, and he's a much better editor than I am,
so he can do all the special effects and the
after effects and all the stuff that I can't do.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
So I'm guessing this is the guy that you reach
out to and you're struggling.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, if I can't find it on YouTube, I called Dustin. Uh.
Speaker 3 (28:25):
YouTube is great, I mean it is is that And
that's where I post all my stuff, you know. I
mean I posted on multiple Facebook YouTube like right now
are streaming on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, rumble uh and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
If I already said that.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
Sure, well and Southern Fried Romance. There was a little
spot at the end that I wanted to do something specific.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I will actually.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
Tag him in the final I can put all that
in the description, like the link to your YouTube page.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
So okay, yes we'll have that on.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Here, Yes we will. But there's something for Southern Fried Romance.
There's something I wanted to do at the end of
the film. I have something specific. Usually, I mean I
have a friend in Saint Louis that he's a graphic designer.
Sometimes I've went through him and I email him. I said,
this is what I want to do. Can you find
me a video that textes me how to do it?
And within like thirty seconds he sent me the link.
(29:23):
And it was one of those things where like the
video turns to like a snapshot of a photo when
it's real cutesy and and he sent me the link
and I figured out how to do it.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
That's pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
See that's how I am. Like, I'm not carliterated at all,
So that's how I learned all myself. Think car tricks
I learned on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Yeah, I will send this this film coming up, Southern
Fried Romance. It's incredibly cheesy and it's supposed to be.
It's I wrote it about a year ago, and I'm
I wanted to do a pretty much buy the book
Hallmark type movie, and I googled Hallmark Scripts, and I
(30:09):
found one and I just kind of like, okay, the action,
what action takes place? And he's seen and after a
while I was like, oh, I got this, and then
you know I wrote it and you know we shot
up in the ear.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
What would you say that?
Speaker 3 (30:24):
What is the difference between a short film and a
feature film?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
I mean, by the book, it's the length. I mean,
if if you go through the festival circuit, most of
them will say anything under thirty minutes is a short film,
anything over thirty minutes is a feature film.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
Does that kind of vary a little bit depending.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
On Yeah, a little bit on the festival, but like
for most of them, it's that's kind of the cutoff.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Okay, sounds good. I feel like it wouldn't be that
difficult to do a feature film. Then well, I mean
as far as length wise, obviously making a film is
not easy.
Speaker 2 (31:04):
So yeah, the longest short film I've done was twenty minutes. Okay,
the shortest one I did was fifty three seconds.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
It is a fifty three second film.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Yes, I did. It's called more and the concept it
was originally supposed to be like a PSA, but I
don't know a damn thing about marketing. So we just
made it into a short film and literally from start
to the end of the credits, it's fifty three seconds.
That's actually won a couple of awards.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
So are there actually festivals for stuff like that?
Speaker 2 (31:40):
Supero? There are festivals that are like a minute and
under there are festivals are like five minutes and under
which I did a film called One Last Sunrise and
it's five minutes in one second, and it's actually entered
in a few festivals that are five minutes or less.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
All Right, I have ventured on to film freeway, so
I am familiar with it. Yeah, I never really know
where to submit, and I know there are some big
festivals that are like fifty fifty to seventy five dollars submissions.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Oh yeah, you know, and I can't really afford that.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
But no still, I mean I've sometimes I'll post in
there just to see.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Yet we'll see.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Thirty five or forty bucks per festival. Is where I
kind of it's my cut off what I can afford
and what I think, you know, you know, the bigger festivals,
it's I mean, honestly, it's a waste of money because
and even what I found over the years. Is even
like some of the smaller festivals that you think, you know, Okay,
(32:48):
I can probably get into the men some of them
I have got into. They're getting between five to seven
hundred submissions per festival, okay, and I I am like,
for a couple of months, I did some judging for
some festivals in Atlanta, and I I had to do
(33:08):
script reading. I had to watch short films, I had
to watch feature films, and I had to you know this,
you should take this film, you should reject this film.
It's it's a ton of work.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
And that's something that we haven't really talked too much
about yet, is script writing. I mean I wouldn't even
know where to begin when it comes to script writing, Like,
how do you like, what's the setup for a script?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
I use? Well, the format I use Celtics celt X.
I've been using it for years and but I mean
it all depends. Like when I first started screenwriting, I
pull up videos say, oh, you have to do this,
you have to do this. One video I'd watch, say
you have to outline everything. I'd watch another video and
(33:54):
this guy'd be like he's successful, and he's like I've
never outlined anything in my life, and that's me. I've
never created that outline for anything I've ever written. As
far as my feature films, I always started to end.
I know how the film to end, and then I
(34:14):
have to go back to the beginning and figure out, Okay,
how am I going to get there? I never know
how many characters I'm gonna have, you know, like the
plot just develops as I go. I've added characters of
remote characters, and like like sometimes just writing, Okay, this
person needs a sidekick, We're going to write that person in. Yeah,
And it's literally like a bare minimum fifty rewrites perst scribes.
(34:40):
You always go in and you're like, Okay, I can
tweet that, I can tweet that. I don't I don't
like that. Let's move that. Let's let's delete that. Let's
move that. That's that needs to go up here. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
I'm guessing you're kind of visualizing how it's going to
play as you're reading it.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Oh yeah, that's that's especially like when I first started
and when I'm like I'll be righting scripts and I've
heard it all in my head like hundreds of times,
and one of the biggest joys I've got was like
when when you the first time you hear somebody else
say one of the lines you've written right, and you're like,
(35:13):
oh wow, okay. Like when we were shooting Southern Five Romance,
there was a scene and a line that I had
written that always made me laugh, and we shot it
towards the end of the shoot and once after Leah
said it, I was like, oh my god, I've been
went two months to hear that line.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Has there been characters that you've casted for a spot
and it wasn't what you wanted but it still worked out.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Yeah. Usually the way I work is when I cast
somebody I as an actor, I will let you go
with it. But there's certain scenes that Okay, there are
certain scenes were like, Okay, I want this, I want
to hear it this way, Please do it this way,
(36:08):
and then I'm gonna do a couple of takes like
you know, you can do it your way, but I
want to hear it. But for the most part, I'll
let them go and do their interpretation. Like when we
were doing Southern Fried Romance. When we first started shooting,
I had a concept in my head of the character
of the lead actor, but I let him go, and
I was like, once he said a few lines, I
(36:30):
was like okay, and I pulled him aside. I was like, okay,
I had this envision, but hearing you do the lines
this way, we're gonna go with your concept. And so
it sounded better to me the way he was doing
it then the way I had it in my head.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Now does that kind of throw off the script?
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Though?
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Like, not at all. It was just like the way
he played it was a way I wouldn't have visualized,
you know, in my head. But it worked. If it
wouldn't have worked, then I would have said, hey, you know, yeah,
you know, it didn't really work. Yeah, No, it was.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
I do have a short clip of a scene from Crossroads.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
As you win it.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
It's about fifty seconds, law, it's about fifty seconds long,
So I wanted to play that. That's fine, Yeah, sure,
all right, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, no, shit, that's a problem. You guys are gonna
pay for the repairs.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
Right, all right?
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Thanks?
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Man?
Speaker 2 (37:37):
Started your day, mister, there's a motel down the road.
You can stay out till I figure out what's wrong
with your car.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Well, it's not my car. It's a rental.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
You should have to pay for repairs. Thank God for
small favors. Ain't gonna send your replacement?
Speaker 1 (37:54):
No, I think I'll hang around till you get it fixed.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Maybe awhile got anywhere to be Nope, Man, a few words.
Gotta respect that. Uh there's a diner down the road.
I can call him and fix your car. Foods real good.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
What happened to the Beard Man?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
That's my feature film Beard. I always grow it out
because I knew I was playing on shooting in the fall,
so I started to grow it out, and then when
the feature film's done, I trim it down. That was
like thirty five pounds ago. We shot that on the
main strip on four Street up in Levenworth. It was
(38:42):
a little bitty old you know, a little mechanic shop
that was closed the day. I just emailed him say
hey can we shoot there? They're like sure? And a
good story about that. That actor that was in that,
he now lives in Japan and he's teaching English over
in Japan.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
That's interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yea, yeah, he was great to work with.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
That.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
That's Is that the only scene you are in the
whole film? Or are you in other bits?
Speaker 2 (39:13):
Yeah, and then Crossroads. Yeah, that's only film. I was
like there, Like I was like, eh, why why cast somebody,
I'll just do it. It's just a few lines, you know. Yeah,
And I found that shirt down in a antique chop
down in the West Bottoms.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
That sounds accurate. That's good.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
I'm sure when it comes to props and stuff like
that is do you find stuff is extremely random areas?
Speaker 2 (39:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, always. Yeah, it's just like if there's
certain things and as much as as much guff as
it gets, Facebook's always a great resource if you need
something specific. But yeah, I just went chopping down in
the West Bottoms and it had it mess eye. So yeah,
it was a shot where it had like you had
(40:02):
to go up in one of those elevators where you
pull the gate down and then there was three different levels.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
And well, you know, it's it's it's always exciting to
hear this kind of stuff. And I really loved that, Like,
even through some of your struggles, you still cut through
with that Southern Fried romance.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
It sucks that I kind of had to get dragged.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Out because of the circumstances, but you seem pretty excited
about it.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Yeah, it is I mean it was only honestly, it
was on like a couple of weeks. I mean we
had you know, I had it planned out. We were
supposed to have finished in early October, and we finished
October twenty seventh. I mean, it was only like a
couple of weeks the way. But and you know, I'm
(40:51):
always incredibly grateful for the people that dedicate their time
for my project, because I mean, without them, it's just
words on a computer screen.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I do have to say a lot, I've seen a
lot of your stuff, even before we really started talking,
because of the people that you've had on your sets.
There's a lot that's a big respectful thing. When when
people can say, you know, Eric Willison, he's the guy
check out this.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
You know I was on this.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
It's something I like. I like to brag about that
people like Kyle m come back to work with me
more than once. And that's something I pride myself in. Right,
I would kick myself in the butt if somebody come
up on my set and they said I'll never work
(41:41):
with him again, I'd have to. I mean, there have
been a couple of instances, but not my fault.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Right, right, right, Like maybe somebody to the scene you
didn't really care for and they're like, no, it was great.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
This is too much work for no pay. You knew
that coming out.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
So it was, yeah, it was. It was in fine
line right there.
Speaker 2 (42:07):
And that's actually we were talking about love misery and
the goth girl, and a great story about that is
like the actress quit after the first weekend of shooting,
and normally in the past I would be depressed and like,
oh yeah, I was like, no, I'm not gonna let
it run it And like one of the comedic actor
(42:28):
in the film message mes hey, my wife did theater
in college and she sent me an audition. She already
had blue hair, which was perfect, and she was great,
and it all worked out for the best. And she
is one of the sweetest, nicest, incredible people I've ever met.
Doing this.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
That's actually works out really well.
Speaker 2 (42:54):
It did. I mean, like we shot one of the
like the second weekend up in eleven Worth at an Airbnb,
and there's like just that one scene we shot like
everybody meshed, everybody clicked, and like the entire rest of
the shoot we were we were very close.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
Do you have to go all over the town for
some of these things, and I mean, yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Oh yeah. I've shot as as far north as Saint Joe,
h as like far south as like Baldwin City, Wellsville,
Hillsdale Lake, done in that area, all the way out,
I mean, all over the metro. Yeah, And I've had
actresses kind of get a little irritated with me because
(43:42):
we shot at a little church in the middle of nowhere.
But it worked, right.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Sometimes you just got to drive.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
Yeah, yeah, it is and any you know, like I said,
some of the best locations out in the middle of
nowhere at least for my.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Projects, right, kind of for what you're going for at least, you.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Know, and when they see it on film, I'm like, okay,
I get it now.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
I always kind of like to wrap up with sort
of like social media, and especially when it's people that
are of my age or older that kind of live
through the transition of technology and how it's advanced. And
I have like this hate love for social media, Like
realistically I hate social media, but as far as podcasting
and promoting and getting the name out there, yeah, you
(44:33):
kind of have to. That's the only way to get
it out there.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Now. That's yes, You've you hit it just right. On
the head. I have a love hate relationship with social media.
It's the best way to get your your work out there.
It's the best way to get people involved in your work.
But you have to deal with the idiots. I mean, right,
(44:56):
It's just it's just a fact, you know. I I
just took a month off of like TikTok and you
know Instagram. I'm like, I just I can't do it.
I need a break. You guys are just.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
Yeah, yeah for you, and you know, for filming and
everything's one thing, and for podcasting, like making clips of
the shows stuff like that. Like it's like, if you're
not consistently utilizing them, sometimes they'll kick you out, like
they'll boots, you're from the algorithm, and it's it's just
a name area.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
That's one of my weakest areas is self promotion. I'll
be honest, because like I said, you know, I've done
thirty nine projects, and since twenty sixteen, I moved from
project to project to project, and I don't like take
the time to promote the project that it just finished
because I'm onto the next project.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, I get it, I do, because I mean that's
why I have so many different freaking podcasts because I'm like,
I want to do something on this topic. Well that
doesn't really fit the show, I'm gonna start another show.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
I did six short films in one year.
Speaker 1 (46:07):
Yeah, Like did they overlap too?
Speaker 2 (46:10):
No. A couple of them were literally one weekend shoots,
like the fifty three second one, and you know another
one was just maybe a couple of minutes, and then
you know someone were like six to seven minutes and
it only involved like a weekend or two. And from
January to December, I did six short films.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
The craziest thing that I've figured out about the algorithm
is that three seconds, you have three seconds to capture
their attention. If they swipe away within three seconds, the
algorithm bucha. Yeah, so there's this short stuff is amazing,
you know, I have I've had comedians on and actors
(46:51):
that I do show like that I made clips and
reels for and I've found out the dead errors and
like that. If you're not hitting the main points of
of what you're trying to hit, people lose interests.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
Yeah, and we we we live in an ad D
society and that's what social media is. If you know,
if it's not like that, you know, you move on.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
Uh, and you independent short films are actually pretty popular
right now.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
They really are.
Speaker 3 (47:19):
But you know, like you said, promodium is something that's
kind of a it's a struggle, but it's necessary sometimes,
you know. I mean a lot of your stuff you
can find on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (47:30):
It's it's just.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
I do the best I can, but I get so
backed into all these other things too. So like I'll
try to knock out a couple of clips from the
show and then move on, because.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It's like, you know, one of the things it's actually
helped me in the past is you know, and the
reason I go with shining like industries is because I
don't only do films. I'm also an efficient I perform
weddings on the side. Yeah, intermingle the both. So like,
if you know, somebody sees pictures of the weddings, they
(48:02):
could find my YouTube page and then they can go
to both and mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (48:07):
So I go to link tree. You get yourself a
link tree.
Speaker 2 (48:11):
Yeah, I know, I need a manager for that, take
care of that.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Uh, you know, I could probably help you get one
set up, okay, if that's something that you'd be interested.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Yeah, definitely, Like I said, it's self promotion is one
of my weaknesses, and I know somebody out there is
listening that is helping me with that.
Speaker 3 (48:32):
Well, and that's that's the biggest thing. So for me,
if if somebody says, hey, where can I find yourself?
I just send them my link tree. Then there's like
direct links to you know, individual films would like you said, yeah,
wedding stuff. You put all those tabs on there, and
it's just so much easier. It's it's like my business card.
I just say go there.
Speaker 2 (48:51):
Yeah. Literally, literally everything I have is on Shining Light
Industries on YouTube mm hm. So yeah, if anybody else
they go there right.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
Well, and you also have I mean I watched Wholesome
Grove on to.
Speaker 2 (49:04):
B mm hm. Yeah. Love Misering the Goth Girl and
Wholesome Grove. We're both on two be Wholesome Grove. You
can actually find them like eight or nine different streaming services.
It's on Prime and then it's it's on some like
(49:26):
some other, like it's on someone's YouTube page. It's on
like several streaming services that are new. Right. It's like,
I mean, I'm happy because it's like eight or nine
different streaming services. I never thought I would be able
to do something.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Then how did that happen? Like, how did it get
on those platforms?
Speaker 2 (49:45):
Well, you either go through film Hub, is when I
went through for Wholesome Grove for Love, Misering the Goth Girl.
I went through indie Rights, and it's harder for me
because the genre that I do is not as popular
as some of the others. Like you submit your film
(50:05):
to film Hub and then they market it for you,
and then like to B and Amazon, they'll request the
rights from film Hub and then they'll send it to
them and then they'll put it on their on their
streaming services and then that's that's when you start to
get a little bit of money.
Speaker 3 (50:23):
In Yeah, you make it a little Every time somebody watch it,
you probably get a few cents or something of that.
Speaker 2 (50:28):
Yeah, it's like, I mean Prime is the biggest name
and the lowest payer. I mean, wow, you have to
watch my entire film and I make like twenty cents
and to be's a little better. But yeah, yeah, I
mean I've had enough to break even.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
But well, and you're talking about to a lot of people, don't.
A lot of people like I like to be because
it's free. Yeah, I pay for Amazon Prime. So I
do watch stuff on Prime, but some people don't. And yeah,
so you get these platforms that pick you up and
they're like some people don't even know what they are.
Speaker 2 (51:05):
But yeah, and the good thing is, you know with
like to B had a commercial on the Super Bowl
and for people like man, that's great. It's like, you know,
people didn't even know what to be is and then
they go on to B and then I'm like, you know,
they may find my film and watch it.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
That's exciting. Yeah, especially when you don't expect it.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
With that side of it though, like do you get
notified that it got picked up by these platforms?
Speaker 2 (51:34):
Yeah? Uh. Film Hub you actually have to make the
effort to log on and go in and see what's
going on. Indie Rights was a little a little better
as far as notifying you what's going on. They will
send you emails and say hey, you know, like a
quarterly email. But with film Hub, you actually have to
log in and they'll give you a little a rundown
(51:57):
of what's going on.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Oh, so what's up, what's up next? What are you
working on now?
Speaker 2 (52:05):
Editing? Yeah, we're doing some adr for Southern Fire Romance
I'm actually I mean, we wrapped on the twenty seventh
of October. I'm looking to have a working copy by
the time we have the wrap party on December fourteenth.
(52:25):
I'm wanting to get a good copy done by the
time so I can submit it to Casey Film Fest
and get try to get it in there. Because Wholesome
Grove actually won Best Heartland Feature at Casey Film Fest
last year.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
That's huge.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Yeah, and it's a very funny story. We shot part
of it in Saint Joe and my lead actress and
some of the others words from Saint Joe. So we
planned a screening up there, and so we went to
Casey Film Fast screened it at one thirty. Me and
the Cinema talk for We went up to Saint Joe.
(53:05):
We're having dinner with the lead actress and her mom
and my phone starts to blow up. I'm like, what
the hell's going on? And they said, they're like, where
are you. I was like, I'm up in, saying Joe. Why.
They said, oh, your film just one Best Heartland Feature.
I was like, no way, because they don't Casey Filmfast
(53:27):
doesn't tell you. They don't warn you ahead of time.
That you're even nominated. I was like, I didn't even
know I was supposed to go and tell Yeah, we were.
We're very proud of that.
Speaker 1 (53:39):
That's a good feeling.
Speaker 2 (53:41):
As far as projects next year, I'm I'm with everything
I've had going on. I'm kind of taking a few
months off, a little sabbatical to kind of get my
head right. Yeah, there's a couple of small projects I
have in mind maybe, and there is a feature film
(54:02):
that I have in mind. It's my favorite script I've
ever written. But there is one casting obstacle that I
have to overcome in order to even think about doing
this project.
Speaker 1 (54:15):
It was like this specific person twin six to eight
year old boys.
Speaker 3 (54:22):
Yeah, that's an obstacle exactly.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
That's the biggest obstacle I have to overcome. There was
actually a couple of location issues that I've already had
leads on, so but yeah, that's the biggest. Yeah, if
I could find twin boys that can act, then it's
(54:46):
literally my favorite script I've ever written. It's very hallmark issue. Yeah,
actually more lifetime. It's not actually a love story.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
But you know, as far as like the style of
show or yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:00):
Yeah, no, no language, no, you know, very sweet, tug
at the heart strings kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (55:07):
All right, that's exciting, man, that's my specialty. Okay, Well,
you know.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
I really appreciate you coming on tonight, and it's it's
always fun to kind of hear the stories of like
who you know, your background, and the stuff that you've done,
some of your big accomplishments and behind the scenes stuff
that people don't really get to hear about. So thank
you for taking some time out of your data to
hang out with me on here.
Speaker 2 (55:34):
I appreciate you having me man. I've had a blast,
good good.
Speaker 3 (55:38):
The whole idea is to just relax and talk like
just two people that go back and it's it's not
meant to it's not supposed to feel like you're being interrogated.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
That's that one. Oh no, no, good good uh.
Speaker 3 (55:53):
And I'd love to have you back on sometime and
then if you any help with promotions, I'm always down
to help out with that.
Speaker 1 (55:59):
So yeah, I will be in touch. And do you
have anything else before we wrap this up?
Speaker 2 (56:06):
Everyone have a good holidays.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Yes, agreed what he just said and everybody tuned in tonight.
Speaker 3 (56:14):
Thank you Jan Kyle for being in the comments and
I know others are watching too, So thank you guys,
and until next time, we'll see you around.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
Thank you.
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