September 9, 2023 • 36 mins
In this video, we'll tell the story of how Jason Wan Lim became Alberta's busiest film producer by quitting his day job. After years of working as a Bartender, Jason decided to switch gears and enter the film industry. In this episode, we'll share with you how Jason's switch to film production has helped him achieve success and make Alberta a destination for film productions. We'll also discuss the importance of networking and how to achieve success in the film industry. If you're interested in learning about the film industry and how to achieve success in it, then this is the video for you! Watch it and learn about the skills and strategies that have helped Jason Wan Lim become one of the busiest film producers in Alberta
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
So on my first feature film,I sent it out to market and got
a response from a couple distributors.One of them was a fellow named Scott
Jones. The company named artist ViewEntertainment, and he's a distributor. This
I think he's I told him eventhirty years in the business. He's like,
Jason, I've been forty years inthe business. But he was born
(00:21):
and raised in Calgary. And hesaw, he said, he saw the
area code of my phone number whichis written on the DVD case when I
sent it out, and he's like, h give this guy a call.
He preferred the phone number over thethe movie. I think of the content
what was on the DVD case asopposed to the contents thereof Talent Talk is
(00:43):
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(01:06):
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(01:38):
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(02:02):
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(02:23):
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(02:43):
Thank you to those amazing sponsors forhelping us out this season. Hopefully
we continue doing this for at leastone or two more years, so thank
you. Now today's guest, heis one of the busiest producers in Alberta
right now, with approximately seventeen differentproductions over the last five years, with
a bunch of those and currently inpost production. This guy he started I
(03:06):
don't know twelve years ago, maybethirteen years ago, and he has just
gone crazy a lot of the productions. He's done numerous things, including the
Callmark Movies of the Week, allunder his production company label Polyscope Productions.
So let's find out more about whatthis guy is, who he is,
what he does, why he doesit, all that kind of fun stuff
(03:27):
and join or welcome Jason one Limbto the show. Well, thank you
very much for the record, Gary, I was crazy before I got in
a film. You have to beto get into this industry, honestly,
right, it doesn't matter what whatlevel you're doing production, acting, it's
you got to be crazy. Absolutely, So what did get you like,
what initiated that interest or I wasa I was a bartender, was service
(03:55):
industry guy for about fifteen years.And the story I tell, which is
pretty much boiled down to a soundbite at this point, is that I
was probably thirty six years old,thirty seven years old, and I was
pouring drinks and I would tell anybodywho would listen, I could do anything
I set my mind too, andI had never set my mind to being
on purpose forty year old bartenders,So I thought I should probably pursue something
(04:18):
that I liked. Film had alwaysintrigued me, and I went to film
school. The irony is that asI was trying to get out of the
bar industry, it turns out thatit was a group of patrons that I
had served monthly for several years thatended up funding my first couple of feature
films. So they helped springboard meout of the industry. I was trying
(04:41):
to get out of them. Okay, yeah, so essentially you're the producer's
side of Bruce Willis. Is what'shappening there? Since he started? I
was all right, I mean,you've got the hair cut forward as well,
so I usually I'm not on theside of the camera, right,
So this is a little bit differentfor you right now. And are you
uncomfortable? No? Good, No, we try not to make the camera
(05:05):
does something it sucks your soul outright, Yes, there's something to you,
but but I'm okay with it.Excellent, I'm glad to hear it.
And so what was kind of yourfirst delving into the producing side of
it then? Like project wise,I had I'm gonna I wind up a
little bit if you don't mind,you got time. So got time.
(05:26):
I had written a screenplay that Ireally wanted produced, and I approached this
group of investors, this one particularindividual who's been a business mentor and a
good friend to me ever since.His name is Dave Goddard, owner president
of West Power. In case Ican throw a plug out there, I
(05:48):
had written a script that he wasgoing to listen to. I remember I
had a table of like twenty fivepeople were reading every part, and there
was the potential actors there and one. We had an audience of one.
And it was a Friday evening,which is the worst time to pick.
He just finished a busy week atwork, and as I'm reading the script
(06:09):
to him, he falls asleep.We're literally we're performing for an audience at
one and he falls asleep. Soafterwards, I was like, hey,
did you like the script? Andhe's got sleep lines on his face,
and he says to me, I'llgive you forty percent of the money that
you need to make the movie.I just heard. To be fair,
he didn't hear the whole thing,but he says, oh, I'll give
(06:31):
you one hundred percent of the moneyyou need to make a movie that I
deemed more marketable. So I foundout my producing chops pretty quickly. I
remember telling him, I'm like,I'm going to need to think about that.
I just wrote this thing for likethree or four months, so I
need to think about that. AndI took about four steps back towards the
table, and then I stopped andturned back around. I'm like, I've
thought about it, I'll do it. So I became a hack instantly.
(06:56):
But I thought i'd be remiss huntingfor something that was being all to me.
And I'd love to tell most filmmakersthis because in ninety nine point nine
percent of all cases it's completely true. But your first couple projects or shit,
so don't cling to them too much. If you're trying to get some
projects under your belt, it's okayto cut your teeth and someone else's dime.
(07:19):
It's okay to learn, and don'tdon't kill yourself too much over a
project that didn't turn out as youwanted in the first place. So,
okay, was that a future project? It was a feature film. I
wanted to make a like an action. It was kind of a diary made.
You mentioned Bruce Willis. It waskind of a die hard in a
school, which turns out school andguns, and it was a little tricky
(07:42):
at the time, and he wantedme to make a teen comedy. He
had two teenage sons and he's like, let's make something that's fun and my
family could enjoy. So I startedwatching Porkis and American Pies and trying to
acquaint myself with all of those asbest I could. And then I wrote
something completely awful and you love didn't. So we made it. And what
was the title of that I hadtitled Getting In It was later changed to
(08:07):
American Virgins. Oh okay, allright, I don't recommend watching it.
We all have that film. Ihave one as well. It's out there.
Some people apparently enjoy it, butI'm like, I don't share with
anybody. Here's is probably a littleless racist and awful than mine was.
(08:28):
Just for the record, I wascopying a template. Okay, all right,
Did you do many shorts then,or did you just dive right into
the whole feature thing? And justI did one short that turned out to
be thirty six minutes long. Ilike the narrative structure of a feature film,
so I was kind of aiming towardsthat, and it was based on
(08:50):
that. It was the experience ofthat short film that that got me the
investor that I did. And thenI did a feature and a whole bunch
of feature films actually, so Ijust started making feature films after them.
Ironically, I've lately been testing theshort film market a bit. Sometimes it's
(09:11):
easier not to have to raise allthe moneys, and it's nice to I
just did a two hundred thousand dollarsshort film. We shot for five days.
I was Stephen king Dollar Baby project, and then we ended up getting
I'm connected and friendly with connected toand friendly with the author of the Maze
(09:31):
Runner series, and he's been tryingto get into screenwriting himself. So he's
like, I'm going to take ahand at this dollar, baby short.
He transposed into a script and turnedout really well. So we raised a
little bit of money and shot itand it was It was a lot of
fun actually for sure. When itcomes to you, because you've already kind
(09:52):
of mentioned a couple of key componentsof folks, you know, how do
you actually come and go about buildingthat network? Like of these folks he
just knew before or no, I'vemet them all on the journey, Like
you mean, like investors and such. Yeah, like I said, my
first investors, I've been serving themlag of oolan scotches once a month,
(10:13):
for a day a month for years. At that point, I just didn't
know that he was interested investing ina filmmaker, which he tells me,
I've no interest in investing in anartist. He told me, invest in
a businessman, but not an artist. I was like, okay, all
right, I had to hide allmy artistic sensibilities. So that's the key.
(10:33):
Okay, I need to be asa bartender first. That's where I
went wrong. Okay, all right, good to know. And so from
that point on, obviously you've continuedto build up these networks to a point
now where like, how many Hallmarkmovies have you done recently? I've people
kind of throw a blanket over agenre of movie, and if you make
(10:54):
a wrong calm, everybody's asking me, how'd you get this Hallmark movie?
I mean, I've done two Hallmarkmovies specific to the Crown Media Corporation.
One was a licensed show for agroup that we did out of a group
out of la and then they approachedme afterwards because they I guess they were
(11:16):
they had a project that was fallingapart and they needed a home for it
quickly, and they approached me,and I did a show called Meet Me
at Christmas with them, and itturned out that was the first that was
the first self managed show here,like Hallmark self managed show and Alberta for
in like something like twenty years orseventeen years or something like that. So
they've been gone for a while sincethen. They've done Ride. I think
(11:37):
that series was shot here, right, I'm trying to call out one Hallmarks
there was just shot here. Ithink they're talking about season two now,
so oh it's actually a series,not just okay, all right, So
I've done two Hallmark movies and I'vedone maybe three other rom coms that I
(12:00):
had to pursue that that structure,that that formula that they do, right,
Okay, And that's yeah, probablywhere some of the confusion comes in.
I think he did some background onone of the ones you did.
I can't remember which one of usthough. And you've you know, you've
worked with some other prolific actress turnproducer director in for example, Kevin Sorbill,
(12:20):
you worked with a couple of timesas well. How did how did
that relationship kind of develop? Soon my first feature film, I sent
it out to market and got aresponse from a couple distributors. One of
them was a fellow named Scott Jones. The company named artist View Entertainment,
and he's a distributor. This Ithink he's I told him, even thirty
(12:43):
years in the business. He's like, Jason, I've been forty years in
the business. But he was bornand raised in Calgary and he saw he
said, he saw the area codeon my phone number, which is written
on the DVD case when I sentit out, and he's like, ah,
give this guy a call. Hepreferred the phone number over the the
movie. I think of the contentwhat was on the DVD case as opposed
(13:07):
to the contents thereof He ended upbeing kind of my first avenue into Hollywood,
and through him I met various people, including Kevin Sorbell. So Kevin
Sorbel came up here and I wasa twenty eighteen and we shot East Texas
Oil. It was called or Miraclein East Texas. I think they just
(13:28):
found a release for it, likeit's happening at the end of this month
or the sorry maybe the yeah,it's happening soon. I don't want to
misquote a date. And then theycame up here and we enjoyed each other's
working relationship. And I know Kevinhas a pretty strong political polarizing quality to
him. I hear people that arevery stoutly and animatedly opposed to him and
(13:52):
some that are very much for him. I can't speak to those those ideas
ologies, but I can speak tohim as a professional. He's a good
director. He doesn't work his setas his cruise or his actors too hard.
He himself has had some I thinkhe's had a few health issues in
(14:13):
the past, and so he's gotto be careful on himself and his own
health so he's gonna he's gotta takeit a little easy. So his sets
are are they're fun, they're light, they're they're quick, and everyone seems
to like him and get along withhim very well. After that, he
brought another Christian type show to uscalled Left Behind, which be shot at
the end of twenty twenty one,and it just came out a few months
(14:35):
ago actually, so yeah, andit did quite well. I think it
did, Like I mean, foran independent film with an independent release,
I think like three point six orthree point seven million US in the box
office, and that was pretty quicklytoo. So those I don't know if
we've noticed, but those, someof those Christian films are they're finding quit
(14:56):
the audience right now, right,Yeah, they're they're they're just the numbers
have taken off of them. Imyself, I will identify as agnostic in
this respect. But they come inwith real money and they make real projects,
and they're good to work with.I'll work with them and and I
mean that's the business side of it. Yeah, yeah, you know,
you're you don't want to limit yourpotential opportunities, right of course. Yeah.
(15:20):
And actually I had another guest onrecently that was a big part of
that film. Charles Pain. Yeah, he spoke quite highly of it as
well, and as I said tohim at that time, I've definitely had
some conversations with people that really seemto enjoy that film. Charles was also
in the first one, Oh yeah, in East Texas as well. Yeah,
(15:41):
yeah, because Aidens just asked mefor some footage. Okay, I
don't want to touch on this toomuch, just because it is pretty fresh
in people's minds when it comes tothe current strike situation. Yeah, there's
there's a little thing in the USright now. It's tiny, it's not
(16:02):
on the headlines at all. However, are you finding that's influencing anything that
you're working on at the Oh yeah, it's It's cut a swath through our
schedule. So, I mean,I had like four movies lined up tentatively
fairly solidly for the back half oftwenty twenty three, and they've all had
(16:26):
to pause right for this strike.Like I've been talking to a group I've
worked with in a good chunk inthe last two and a half years.
I've done like seven movies for them, and they want me to do they
pick up a slate of ongoing tobe films, and we're trying to convince
them that, I mean, theymake these things on the basis of like
(16:47):
one recognizable face and then they wantone SAG actor, but everybody else can
be actra And I've been of themind where we should maybe maybe you can
find somebody because at the level thatthey're shooting the map, they're not necessarily
as recognizable in actors, they mightthink, and they can find a Canadian
(17:07):
equivalent. Now, I'm not sureif I'm stepping on any union toes or
being a scab of any sort bysaying that we should continue to make money
and pay our bills in lieu ofhaving SAG actor availability, but I think
that, you know, I'd liketo try to convince them that we can
shoot these and instead of the oneSAG actor they'd have, we can we
(17:27):
can substitute with a just as recognizableactor actor. Yeah, And I'll be
perfectly honest with you, I'm notone percent clear on what the requirements are
or the limitations are for Canadian productions. Obviously, if you have some sort
of US affiliation, whether it evenbe post production, I think there's certain
limitations as too. For certain actorsto be able to work on those projects,
(17:51):
right, I don't. Yeah,but I don't know what those limitations
are really, They're they're quite ethical, And I think, okay, all
right, because yeah, I know, I've got one actor friend who's a
Canadian actor. Everybody lives in Lacurrently, and he's been trying to maybe
look for some work up here.But I don't know how transferable that is.
But anyway, yeah, like Isaid, I don't want to touch
(18:12):
on that too. I don't wantto step on everybody's stoves exactly. We
don't want too much. Yes,as you you've been kind of trying to
develop your career a bit and everythingelse, have you come across any stumbling
blocks that have slowed down your processat all? Or or you have you
been finding your journey so far tobe relatively smooth. I did a little
(18:37):
fireside interview with Ambia. They askedme to come talk to some people about
my experiences. And there was somebodyin the somebody in the audience raised their
hand or in the Q and A, and and they're like, what does
a government need to do to getyou to stay here and keep making movies?
And I and I honestly said,I it doesn't matter what the government
does. I'd made movies before.It was super easy to make them,
(19:00):
and I'm going to continue making themregardless of what they do. There are
things that can help my bottom line, there's things that can you know,
affect the stability and security the company. But I just make content. I
put my head down and I keepmaking it. So stumbling blocks, I
don't don't. I don't know.It's all been a progression, and lately
it's just been getting busy and busier. So it's been. It's been.
(19:22):
It's been good. And I meanto sound entitled by saying that, but
I work almost ceaselessly, So Imean I rarely turn it off, which
my my new girlfriend is discovering.So yes, well, and that's the
thing, right because I mean,even me doing this little tiny show,
in comparison to what youth you're doing, it takes up all my free time.
(19:45):
So to deal with the number ofprojects that you're dealing with right now,
because you're you're doing how many filmsa year at it now? Right
now it seems at least three orfour, I would say per year.
We did six features and two unitshoots last year docu series and then five
the year before. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This year we're lined up.
I think we'll probably end up withlike four features of depending on the
(20:07):
strike, four features and two littledocu series. So we're busy, for
sure. It was busy as wecan handle. It's funny about time though,
because we just we all have thesame amount of time. It doesn't
matter how big a project somebody's doingor how much gardening you have to do
it all, it's the same amountof energy that goes into it. And
can make a huge, massive,wonderful film with one hundred million dollars and
(20:30):
you have all the money to throwit every in every direction. It's still
the same amount of labor goes intothe same editing and the same you know,
polish and sheen and audio all theway through. So like you can
you make a tiny movie for fivehundred thousand dollars and you can still be
stuck in the editing room for along time and dealing with the same kind
of problems. So yeah, absolutely, And if you when it comes to
(20:53):
the post editing or post production sideof it, how involved are you on
that side of it as well?We're quite involved in. Our company is
on the It's been a slow yearbecause of the strike, and we had
a couple of hiccups at the beginningof the year, but we we are
so so I'm I'm I'm segueing thefact that we were going to start up
(21:15):
post production specific arm because we doso much post in house. That's been
a little delayed, but we're lookingat probably later on this year or the
top of twenty twenty four. Sowe do quite a bit of post.
I mean, I have two partnersin Polyscope. One is uh Kyle Cooper,
who's essentially my producing partner, andthen I have another partner named Chris
(21:37):
Bragg, and he's he does allkinds of things, but he's essentially the
post production arm of Polyscope. Hehe's the reason why we've been able to
do so much post here. Andthen we've we work with I mean,
like the eleven features that we didhere, we posted all of them here,
including from seven hundred thousand dollars filmsto seven million. And that's something
(22:00):
that I'm particularly good at. Itis convincing people that we are talented enough
here and we've got the resources necessary, and I've been good at convincing people
to keep their stuff here. Mostof the time they shoot in Alberta and
then they take it somewhere else rightfor to finish generally, just generally the
trends. So I've been pretty goodat kind of reversing that. Okay,
(22:21):
And like you said, like rightnow, you're you're definitely one of the
busier producers here in Alberta. Isyour goal like would you look to transition
out of Alberta or would you areyou thinking stay in Alberta. I know
you talked a little bit with whenyou mentioned MP and stuff as well,
but I've never done anything outside ofAlberta. Everything I've shot and has been
here. I've been asked to shoota couple of things in BC and it
(22:48):
never quite panned out. I'm notagainst it. I just know this jurisdiction.
And I went from being a kindof a tour based creative guy who
would you know, right direct produceevery thing. And then as I moved
into the service world for a littlebit, I realized that the power that
I had of luring people here werethe power I had of luring people producers
(23:11):
here was my knowledge of the jurisdiction. So knowing Alberta and knowing its vendors
and knowing its locations is what's importantwhen I'm trying to convince someone to shoot
here. Lately the last year orso, and this is I mentioned James
Dashner, the maybe I didn't mentionin my name, but the author,
the maze runner that's meeting in meetinghim, sorry, rather in trying to
(23:37):
move into more the IP generated sideof things instead of services. As much
as I have been trying to bringback some of that, you know,
directing and some of the more handson creative stuff, I've met certain individuals
that are like like James Dashner,who who can lend to them? So
from the IP side, But yeah, so long answer, but I like
(23:59):
making work here. I wouldn't beopposed. There's a there's a project that,
if it happens, we would shootmost of it elsewhere and then shoot
certain scenes here, and then Ihave another project that would shoot everything here
and just the exteriors somewhere else.So yeah, I'm happy to travel.
But I do like I do likeAlberta, like the entrepreneurial spirit here.
(24:22):
I like the people here, andI don't assuming the Cruise as well.
I hate the Cruise the crews ofthe worst. No, I love the
Cruise. The crews are great.Yeah, right, And do you keep
a fairly consistent crew then for mostof your projects? Are that? All
depends on what work I have tooffer, right, So the current iteration,
if I can wind up again fora second, the current iteration of
(24:44):
Polyscope started forming kind of after BlackSummer season two. I did the second
season for it was Netflix's first selfmanaged show in the province of Alberta,
and I didn't love the experience ofthe second season. It was just so
corporate and wasn't It was big andwonderful, but I was so far removed
from the creative and I had toyou know, I butt heads with a
(25:07):
couple of the individuals involved. Afterwards, I'm like, I need to concentrate
on my creativity. That's what Ineed to do. I need to be
creative. So I reached out tothree studios slash production companies, and I
let them know that I was Iwas open to direct. I said,
I want to I want to direct. I want to focus on directing.
I ended up directing eight feature filmsinside of Like a Inside of two years,
(25:33):
like it was a year. Itwas too much. By the end
of it, I was like,I need to step away from directing for
a bit. I don't know,I don't know what I want to be
when I grow up. Yeah,So but I stepped away for a little
bit, and I was like,you know, I can't a film to
direct is very immersive, and inorder to do that properly, you've got
to, you know, you haveto submerge into the material and to do
that and then rap and then walkonto another set and then do it again
(25:55):
and again and again. It's exhausting. It was. It was. It
took quite a bit out of outof me. But as a result,
I realized these people, these studiosI was working with, they want to
make content here and they trust usto make it. So I keep I
keep taking that content. Okay,fair enough, so we'll keep building that
SIDEM and going back to Black Summera little bit. So you're a line
(26:18):
producer for that, Yeah, Andjust for folks that might not be aware
of the comparison between say a lineproducer and what you normally produce, what
is that change or what is thatvariation? Well, on a small show,
I did. I was line producerand producer, right, and creative
producer. As the larger production gets, the more delineation is required for the
(26:40):
separation of duties. Right, There'sjust too many things that need to be
done as a general producer, sothey kind of subdivide, right, so
you have your creative producer on alarge show and then line producers really responsible
for keeping the budget on track.They can or can't. Like on season
one I had, I was theproduction manager who was also the line producer.
(27:04):
It was my first PM gig andit'll be my last. I didn't
didn't love it. And when wewent to the second season, I was
like Netflix Camera, They're like,oh, right, you be the PM
slash line producer again. I'm like, I'll be the line producer. I'm
not going to be the PM.So we had a bit of a negotiation
back and forth, and then weended up hiring somebody that I could work
underneath us, and and it wasit was better. Somebody was better equipped
(27:25):
for that role and I could bemore the more set for you on the
creative Okay, yeah, and doyou have any ambition or inclination to try
something else, like you tried thedirecting, you tried the producing. Do
you want to be in front ofthe camera at all? You know?
There was there was one time Iwas doing auditions and I was watching everybody
(27:47):
failed dramatically in front of the camera. It's the little camera propped up in
it in the company of rogues,actually, and I remember thinking like,
this couldn't be that hard. Iknew the lines, and I sat in
front of the Like I said,it sucks the soul right at you.
I sat in front of the cameraand all of the words fell out of
my head instantly. I was like, I know these words. I fucking
wrote half of them, and Icouldn't get it. I just drove me
(28:07):
nuts. So it's something. It'sit's intriguing to me, and I really
respect the people who can do itwell. I don't. I'd have to
be pretty comfy in other aspects ofmy career before i'd really try to act.
But I wouldn't sign the door onit. But I'll wait till there's
a role that requires an half Asian, you know, fifty five year old
(28:32):
man as opposed to my current self. Is there a certain genre that you
haven't done yet that you would reallylike to delve into like pornography for sure.
I am surprised you didn't start there. I would. I mean with
(28:52):
a last name like one Limb.I feel like it's my destiny to make
at least a couple of good actionmovies. Those are the ones I'd like
to get into, like straight uplike and I came very We had a
couple of scripts that were balls outaction and wild and crazy on the page,
so I was looking forward to those. There was a larger one that
we were trying to land this year. I may have them for next year
(29:15):
that are straight up action films.I'd love to do some action films,
Okay, yeah, like you're talkinglike Car Chase kind of things and some
yeah Jason Born kind of stuff,a little a little bit of that.
I mean I saw that Newest MissionImpossible. It was okay, unbelievable.
It was fantastic. And is therea certain actor you'd like to work with
(29:37):
that you haven't kid? Is thatsomething that's crossed your mind at all?
No? No, No, notreally, Okay, No, I mean
when you're in that casting room,that's when you'd start trying to figure out
those positions. But unless I havea project directly in front of me.
I don't you think of the actorI'm gonna work with. There's a lot
of good ones out there, forsure. Yeah, it's just when you
mentioned Mission Impossible, I was like, oh, com Craise. Would you
(29:59):
want to work with him? Yeah? I don't know if the trajectory of
my career is going to intersect atthe right time in order to work with
him. Maybe I'll work with aneighty two year old Tom Cruise, right,
Well, I mean you might workwith Rock you know, its right?
Yeah, that'd be all right,Okay, No, And we're actually
kind of getting near the tail endof things, so I'll definitely wrap up
current projects you're working on doing alittle that you can talk about any Yeah.
(30:26):
I mean I'm doing a little ghosthunting series, which is kind of
fun. We just did an OprahWinfrey Network Christmas movie, so we just
wrapped on that and it was veryuncreative as far as my side of things,
but the script was really cute.I think it'll be a really sweet
little film. But I mean,after after a blast of summer Christmas,
(30:48):
I kind of want to do somethinga little more creative. So yeah,
a little ghost hunding show, andthen we've got a couple of features,
and I shouldn't mention that we're tryingto line up still for this year,
Okay. And do you deal withthe like trying to find distribution side of
it much as the service model.No. I projects come to me and
they're they're fully financed and they're setup and ready to go, and they
(31:12):
send me a director and a cast, and then I make it for them.
I don't worry about what happens afterI deliver for them. On my
own personal projects, I do,but again it's I'm just moving into that
IP world right now, so soyeah, I'm not so much in the
distribution side as of right now.Okay, ask me that in about a
(31:33):
year from now, I will definitelydo that. And just to throw it
out there, because you and Iwere talking about one of your other first
projects, which was Pizza Guy.It was part of the audition request are
you comfortable showing your butt? Ithink was actually one of the things.
It doesn't sound like something I'd bepart of because I think that one was
(31:56):
kind of it was a comedy aswell to us. Yeah, and is
that something you you do? Looklike you do you try to stay away
from shows that kind of do that, or the shore people's butts, or
you know, just the whole nudityaspect of things, or are you okay
with that kind of thing. I'mnot uncomfortable with it. We had we
were gearing up earlier this year,like in March, I think we were
(32:19):
gearing up for a movie that wasa to B movie called Dancers on the
Dark Side, and we didn't.It ended up going somewhere else, but
it was It was most strippers,so it would have had a healthy dose
of nudity in it. The onlything, my only stipulation there was like,
I really want to make sure thatwe get a female director on board
so we can tweat it properly.That was it. I mean in that
(32:40):
movie as well, there was therewas a scene where there's a there's a
there's a bare breast in it,and I had to It was the first
time, first and only time I'vebeen in the audition room and they cleared
it and it's just myself and theactresses, and there I was the one
that was embarrassed. It wasn't them. They seem to have no problem showing
me their breast and they think theywere quite tickled by the reaction I had
(33:05):
because my face is beat red andthat art time. But uh yeah,
that was that was interesting. Itwas a non sexual scene. It pops
out of her out of her nighther bathrobe as she's at the door for
a pizza guy, and it startsthis this chain reaction and that that it
is trouble for the main character.So okay, And since there's a bit
(33:28):
of bigger interest nowadays in Oh mygoodness, why is the term escaping me?
Intimacy coordinators? Is that something you'veused on your sets? Yeah?
Yeah, And do you do youkind of foresee that becoming a bigger thing?
That's a good question. I mean, in the wake of Hollywood's waking,
(33:52):
I think it's going to at leastinstill itself for the near future.
Hopefully it remains. There's a there'sa moment in in Barbie. I don't
know if you've seen the New BarbieShow, but no, it's Will Farrell
leads this rag tag group of executivesand they're talking about it's a table of
(34:12):
men, right, It's a toynamed at Girls, and it's a table
of male executives and making all thedecisions, and they were talking about like,
isn't there feminism and equality for women, and he's like, no,
we pretend that, but really it'sjust still us behind and that's really the
case. But hopefully, hopefully thatcan that can change, right Yeah.
Yeah. Having the intimacy coordinate there, I think is a fantastic idea,
(34:35):
I really do. I think it'sit makes them more comfortable. It allows
them to to know the depth ofthe scene, and then they if they
know the parameters of the scene,then they can they can spawn, they
can they can be more organic withinthe flow of it, right, they
can lose themselves a little bit andknow that they're not going to be exploited
outside of what they're comfortable with.Okay, so I agree with it.
(34:57):
Awesome, fair enough. As aproducer, sometimes I'm like, fuck,
are we gonna pay another position?Well? Right, that's yeah, of
course I appreciate it. Yeah,and that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
On that note, I think we'llkind of wrap it up. I
want to shoot you for your timetoday coming on the show. You wrapped
it up on me being cheap,damn it? All right, yes,
(35:17):
so, but you put out alot of products, right, It's it's
about the volume not not anyway.No, that's just gonna say quantity over
quality slip. Yeah, So thanksagain for your time. Do you appreciate
it? Thanks to the folks watching, appreciate your your time watching us as
well. Tune in next week whenwe might have somebody else we'll see maybe
(35:40):
And also just reminder to like subscribeon the YouTube channel. Thank you so
much and have a great night.
So on my first feature film,I sent it out to market and got
a response from a couple distributors.One of them was a fellow named Scott
Jones. The company named artist ViewEntertainment, and he's a distributor. This
I think he's I told him eventhirty years in the business. He's like,
Jason, I've been forty years inthe business. But he was born
(00:21):
and raised in Calgary. And hesaw, he said, he saw the
area code of my phone number whichis written on the DVD case when I
sent it out, and he's like, h give this guy a call.
He preferred the phone number over thethe movie. I think of the content
what was on the DVD case asopposed to the contents thereof Talent Talk is
(00:43):
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(01:06):
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(01:38):
Talk. Thanks for tuning in.If you haven't done so already, please
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(02:02):
this our fifth season, very excitedabout that. We need to give a
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(02:23):
work Flow Film, Thank you.And then we have Company of Rogues,
which is a Calgary local acting school, so thank you to them. We
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which is a Calgary local talent agency, and finally we have Actra Alberta.
(02:43):
Thank you to those amazing sponsors forhelping us out this season. Hopefully
we continue doing this for at leastone or two more years, so thank
you. Now today's guest, heis one of the busiest producers in Alberta
right now, with approximately seventeen differentproductions over the last five years, with
a bunch of those and currently inpost production. This guy he started I
(03:06):
don't know twelve years ago, maybethirteen years ago, and he has just
gone crazy a lot of the productions. He's done numerous things, including the
Callmark Movies of the Week, allunder his production company label Polyscope Productions.
So let's find out more about whatthis guy is, who he is,
what he does, why he doesit, all that kind of fun stuff
(03:27):
and join or welcome Jason one Limbto the show. Well, thank you
very much for the record, Gary, I was crazy before I got in
a film. You have to beto get into this industry, honestly,
right, it doesn't matter what whatlevel you're doing production, acting, it's
you got to be crazy. Absolutely, So what did get you like,
what initiated that interest or I wasa I was a bartender, was service
(03:55):
industry guy for about fifteen years.And the story I tell, which is
pretty much boiled down to a soundbite at this point, is that I
was probably thirty six years old,thirty seven years old, and I was
pouring drinks and I would tell anybodywho would listen, I could do anything
I set my mind too, andI had never set my mind to being
on purpose forty year old bartenders,So I thought I should probably pursue something
(04:18):
that I liked. Film had alwaysintrigued me, and I went to film
school. The irony is that asI was trying to get out of the
bar industry, it turns out thatit was a group of patrons that I
had served monthly for several years thatended up funding my first couple of feature
films. So they helped springboard meout of the industry. I was trying
(04:41):
to get out of them. Okay, yeah, so essentially you're the producer's
side of Bruce Willis. Is what'shappening there? Since he started? I
was all right, I mean,you've got the hair cut forward as well,
so I usually I'm not on theside of the camera, right,
So this is a little bit differentfor you right now. And are you
uncomfortable? No? Good, No, we try not to make the camera
(05:05):
does something it sucks your soul outright, Yes, there's something to you,
but but I'm okay with it.Excellent, I'm glad to hear it.
And so what was kind of yourfirst delving into the producing side of
it then? Like project wise,I had I'm gonna I wind up a
little bit if you don't mind,you got time. So got time.
(05:26):
I had written a screenplay that Ireally wanted produced, and I approached this
group of investors, this one particularindividual who's been a business mentor and a
good friend to me ever since.His name is Dave Goddard, owner president
of West Power. In case Ican throw a plug out there, I
(05:48):
had written a script that he wasgoing to listen to. I remember I
had a table of like twenty fivepeople were reading every part, and there
was the potential actors there and one. We had an audience of one.
And it was a Friday evening,which is the worst time to pick.
He just finished a busy week atwork, and as I'm reading the script
(06:09):
to him, he falls asleep.We're literally we're performing for an audience at
one and he falls asleep. Soafterwards, I was like, hey,
did you like the script? Andhe's got sleep lines on his face,
and he says to me, I'llgive you forty percent of the money that
you need to make the movie.I just heard. To be fair,
he didn't hear the whole thing,but he says, oh, I'll give
(06:31):
you one hundred percent of the moneyyou need to make a movie that I
deemed more marketable. So I foundout my producing chops pretty quickly. I
remember telling him, I'm like,I'm going to need to think about that.
I just wrote this thing for likethree or four months, so I
need to think about that. AndI took about four steps back towards the
table, and then I stopped andturned back around. I'm like, I've
thought about it, I'll do it. So I became a hack instantly.
(06:56):
But I thought i'd be remiss huntingfor something that was being all to me.
And I'd love to tell most filmmakersthis because in ninety nine point nine
percent of all cases it's completely true. But your first couple projects or shit,
so don't cling to them too much. If you're trying to get some
projects under your belt, it's okayto cut your teeth and someone else's dime.
(07:19):
It's okay to learn, and don'tdon't kill yourself too much over a
project that didn't turn out as youwanted in the first place. So,
okay, was that a future project? It was a feature film. I
wanted to make a like an action. It was kind of a diary made.
You mentioned Bruce Willis. It waskind of a die hard in a
school, which turns out school andguns, and it was a little tricky
(07:42):
at the time, and he wantedme to make a teen comedy. He
had two teenage sons and he's like, let's make something that's fun and my
family could enjoy. So I startedwatching Porkis and American Pies and trying to
acquaint myself with all of those asbest I could. And then I wrote
something completely awful and you love didn't. So we made it. And what
was the title of that I hadtitled Getting In It was later changed to
(08:07):
American Virgins. Oh okay, allright, I don't recommend watching it.
We all have that film. Ihave one as well. It's out there.
Some people apparently enjoy it, butI'm like, I don't share with
anybody. Here's is probably a littleless racist and awful than mine was.
(08:28):
Just for the record, I wascopying a template. Okay, all right,
Did you do many shorts then,or did you just dive right into
the whole feature thing? And justI did one short that turned out to
be thirty six minutes long. Ilike the narrative structure of a feature film,
so I was kind of aiming towardsthat, and it was based on
(08:50):
that. It was the experience ofthat short film that that got me the
investor that I did. And thenI did a feature and a whole bunch
of feature films actually, so Ijust started making feature films after them.
Ironically, I've lately been testing theshort film market a bit. Sometimes it's
(09:11):
easier not to have to raise allthe moneys, and it's nice to I
just did a two hundred thousand dollarsshort film. We shot for five days.
I was Stephen king Dollar Baby project, and then we ended up getting
I'm connected and friendly with connected toand friendly with the author of the Maze
(09:31):
Runner series, and he's been tryingto get into screenwriting himself. So he's
like, I'm going to take ahand at this dollar, baby short.
He transposed into a script and turnedout really well. So we raised a
little bit of money and shot itand it was It was a lot of
fun actually for sure. When itcomes to you, because you've already kind
(09:52):
of mentioned a couple of key componentsof folks, you know, how do
you actually come and go about buildingthat network? Like of these folks he
just knew before or no, I'vemet them all on the journey, Like
you mean, like investors and such. Yeah, like I said, my
first investors, I've been serving themlag of oolan scotches once a month,
(10:13):
for a day a month for years. At that point, I just didn't
know that he was interested investing ina filmmaker, which he tells me,
I've no interest in investing in anartist. He told me, invest in
a businessman, but not an artist. I was like, okay, all
right, I had to hide allmy artistic sensibilities. So that's the key.
(10:33):
Okay, I need to be asa bartender first. That's where I
went wrong. Okay, all right, good to know. And so from
that point on, obviously you've continuedto build up these networks to a point
now where like, how many Hallmarkmovies have you done recently? I've people
kind of throw a blanket over agenre of movie, and if you make
(10:54):
a wrong calm, everybody's asking me, how'd you get this Hallmark movie?
I mean, I've done two Hallmarkmovies specific to the Crown Media Corporation.
One was a licensed show for agroup that we did out of a group
out of la and then they approachedme afterwards because they I guess they were
(11:16):
they had a project that was fallingapart and they needed a home for it
quickly, and they approached me,and I did a show called Meet Me
at Christmas with them, and itturned out that was the first that was
the first self managed show here,like Hallmark self managed show and Alberta for
in like something like twenty years orseventeen years or something like that. So
they've been gone for a while sincethen. They've done Ride. I think
(11:37):
that series was shot here, right, I'm trying to call out one Hallmarks
there was just shot here. Ithink they're talking about season two now,
so oh it's actually a series,not just okay, all right, So
I've done two Hallmark movies and I'vedone maybe three other rom coms that I
(12:00):
had to pursue that that structure,that that formula that they do, right,
Okay, And that's yeah, probablywhere some of the confusion comes in.
I think he did some background onone of the ones you did.
I can't remember which one of usthough. And you've you know, you've
worked with some other prolific actress turnproducer director in for example, Kevin Sorbill,
(12:20):
you worked with a couple of timesas well. How did how did
that relationship kind of develop? Soon my first feature film, I sent
it out to market and got aresponse from a couple distributors. One of
them was a fellow named Scott Jones. The company named artist View Entertainment,
and he's a distributor. This Ithink he's I told him, even thirty
(12:43):
years in the business. He's like, Jason, I've been forty years in
the business. But he was bornand raised in Calgary and he saw he
said, he saw the area codeon my phone number, which is written
on the DVD case when I sentit out, and he's like, ah,
give this guy a call. Hepreferred the phone number over the the
movie. I think of the contentwhat was on the DVD case as opposed
(13:07):
to the contents thereof He ended upbeing kind of my first avenue into Hollywood,
and through him I met various people, including Kevin Sorbell. So Kevin
Sorbel came up here and I wasa twenty eighteen and we shot East Texas
Oil. It was called or Miraclein East Texas. I think they just
(13:28):
found a release for it, likeit's happening at the end of this month
or the sorry maybe the yeah,it's happening soon. I don't want to
misquote a date. And then theycame up here and we enjoyed each other's
working relationship. And I know Kevinhas a pretty strong political polarizing quality to
him. I hear people that arevery stoutly and animatedly opposed to him and
(13:52):
some that are very much for him. I can't speak to those those ideas
ologies, but I can speak tohim as a professional. He's a good
director. He doesn't work his setas his cruise or his actors too hard.
He himself has had some I thinkhe's had a few health issues in
(14:13):
the past, and so he's gotto be careful on himself and his own
health so he's gonna he's gotta takeit a little easy. So his sets
are are they're fun, they're light, they're they're quick, and everyone seems
to like him and get along withhim very well. After that, he
brought another Christian type show to uscalled Left Behind, which be shot at
the end of twenty twenty one,and it just came out a few months
(14:35):
ago actually, so yeah, andit did quite well. I think it
did, Like I mean, foran independent film with an independent release,
I think like three point six orthree point seven million US in the box
office, and that was pretty quicklytoo. So those I don't know if
we've noticed, but those, someof those Christian films are they're finding quit
(14:56):
the audience right now, right,Yeah, they're they're they're just the numbers
have taken off of them. Imyself, I will identify as agnostic in
this respect. But they come inwith real money and they make real projects,
and they're good to work with.I'll work with them and and I
mean that's the business side of it. Yeah, yeah, you know,
you're you don't want to limit yourpotential opportunities, right of course. Yeah.
(15:20):
And actually I had another guest onrecently that was a big part of
that film. Charles Pain. Yeah, he spoke quite highly of it as
well, and as I said tohim at that time, I've definitely had
some conversations with people that really seemto enjoy that film. Charles was also
in the first one, Oh yeah, in East Texas as well. Yeah,
(15:41):
yeah, because Aidens just asked mefor some footage. Okay, I
don't want to touch on this toomuch, just because it is pretty fresh
in people's minds when it comes tothe current strike situation. Yeah, there's
there's a little thing in the USright now. It's tiny, it's not
(16:02):
on the headlines at all. However, are you finding that's influencing anything that
you're working on at the Oh yeah, it's It's cut a swath through our
schedule. So, I mean,I had like four movies lined up tentatively
fairly solidly for the back half oftwenty twenty three, and they've all had
(16:26):
to pause right for this strike.Like I've been talking to a group I've
worked with in a good chunk inthe last two and a half years.
I've done like seven movies for them, and they want me to do they
pick up a slate of ongoing tobe films, and we're trying to convince
them that, I mean, theymake these things on the basis of like
(16:47):
one recognizable face and then they wantone SAG actor, but everybody else can
be actra And I've been of themind where we should maybe maybe you can
find somebody because at the level thatthey're shooting the map, they're not necessarily
as recognizable in actors, they mightthink, and they can find a Canadian
(17:07):
equivalent. Now, I'm not sureif I'm stepping on any union toes or
being a scab of any sort bysaying that we should continue to make money
and pay our bills in lieu ofhaving SAG actor availability, but I think
that, you know, I'd liketo try to convince them that we can
shoot these and instead of the oneSAG actor they'd have, we can we
(17:27):
can substitute with a just as recognizableactor actor. Yeah, And I'll be
perfectly honest with you, I'm notone percent clear on what the requirements are
or the limitations are for Canadian productions. Obviously, if you have some sort
of US affiliation, whether it evenbe post production, I think there's certain
limitations as too. For certain actorsto be able to work on those projects,
(17:51):
right, I don't. Yeah,but I don't know what those limitations
are really, They're they're quite ethical, And I think, okay, all
right, because yeah, I know, I've got one actor friend who's a
Canadian actor. Everybody lives in Lacurrently, and he's been trying to maybe
look for some work up here.But I don't know how transferable that is.
But anyway, yeah, like Isaid, I don't want to touch
(18:12):
on that too. I don't wantto step on everybody's stoves exactly. We
don't want too much. Yes,as you you've been kind of trying to
develop your career a bit and everythingelse, have you come across any stumbling
blocks that have slowed down your processat all? Or or you have you
been finding your journey so far tobe relatively smooth. I did a little
(18:37):
fireside interview with Ambia. They askedme to come talk to some people about
my experiences. And there was somebodyin the somebody in the audience raised their
hand or in the Q and A, and and they're like, what does
a government need to do to getyou to stay here and keep making movies?
And I and I honestly said,I it doesn't matter what the government
does. I'd made movies before.It was super easy to make them,
(19:00):
and I'm going to continue making themregardless of what they do. There are
things that can help my bottom line, there's things that can you know,
affect the stability and security the company. But I just make content. I
put my head down and I keepmaking it. So stumbling blocks, I
don't don't. I don't know.It's all been a progression, and lately
it's just been getting busy and busier. So it's been. It's been.
(19:22):
It's been good. And I meanto sound entitled by saying that, but
I work almost ceaselessly, So Imean I rarely turn it off, which
my my new girlfriend is discovering.So yes, well, and that's the
thing, right because I mean,even me doing this little tiny show,
in comparison to what youth you're doing, it takes up all my free time.
(19:45):
So to deal with the number ofprojects that you're dealing with right now,
because you're you're doing how many filmsa year at it now? Right
now it seems at least three orfour, I would say per year.
We did six features and two unitshoots last year docu series and then five
the year before. Yeah, yeah, exactly. This year we're lined up.
I think we'll probably end up withlike four features of depending on the
(20:07):
strike, four features and two littledocu series. So we're busy, for
sure. It was busy as wecan handle. It's funny about time though,
because we just we all have thesame amount of time. It doesn't
matter how big a project somebody's doingor how much gardening you have to do
it all, it's the same amountof energy that goes into it. And
can make a huge, massive,wonderful film with one hundred million dollars and
(20:30):
you have all the money to throwit every in every direction. It's still
the same amount of labor goes intothe same editing and the same you know,
polish and sheen and audio all theway through. So like you can
you make a tiny movie for fivehundred thousand dollars and you can still be
stuck in the editing room for along time and dealing with the same kind
of problems. So yeah, absolutely, And if you when it comes to
(20:53):
the post editing or post production sideof it, how involved are you on
that side of it as well?We're quite involved in. Our company is
on the It's been a slow yearbecause of the strike, and we had
a couple of hiccups at the beginningof the year, but we we are
so so I'm I'm I'm segueing thefact that we were going to start up
(21:15):
post production specific arm because we doso much post in house. That's been
a little delayed, but we're lookingat probably later on this year or the
top of twenty twenty four. Sowe do quite a bit of post.
I mean, I have two partnersin Polyscope. One is uh Kyle Cooper,
who's essentially my producing partner, andthen I have another partner named Chris
(21:37):
Bragg, and he's he does allkinds of things, but he's essentially the
post production arm of Polyscope. Hehe's the reason why we've been able to
do so much post here. Andthen we've we work with I mean,
like the eleven features that we didhere, we posted all of them here,
including from seven hundred thousand dollars filmsto seven million. And that's something
(22:00):
that I'm particularly good at. Itis convincing people that we are talented enough
here and we've got the resources necessary, and I've been good at convincing people
to keep their stuff here. Mostof the time they shoot in Alberta and
then they take it somewhere else rightfor to finish generally, just generally the
trends. So I've been pretty goodat kind of reversing that. Okay,
(22:21):
And like you said, like rightnow, you're you're definitely one of the
busier producers here in Alberta. Isyour goal like would you look to transition
out of Alberta or would you areyou thinking stay in Alberta. I know
you talked a little bit with whenyou mentioned MP and stuff as well,
but I've never done anything outside ofAlberta. Everything I've shot and has been
here. I've been asked to shoota couple of things in BC and it
(22:48):
never quite panned out. I'm notagainst it. I just know this jurisdiction.
And I went from being a kindof a tour based creative guy who
would you know, right direct produceevery thing. And then as I moved
into the service world for a littlebit, I realized that the power that
I had of luring people here werethe power I had of luring people producers
(23:11):
here was my knowledge of the jurisdiction. So knowing Alberta and knowing its vendors
and knowing its locations is what's importantwhen I'm trying to convince someone to shoot
here. Lately the last year orso, and this is I mentioned James
Dashner, the maybe I didn't mentionin my name, but the author,
the maze runner that's meeting in meetinghim, sorry, rather in trying to
(23:37):
move into more the IP generated sideof things instead of services. As much
as I have been trying to bringback some of that, you know,
directing and some of the more handson creative stuff, I've met certain individuals
that are like like James Dashner,who who can lend to them? So
from the IP side, But yeah, so long answer, but I like
(23:59):
making work here. I wouldn't beopposed. There's a there's a project that,
if it happens, we would shootmost of it elsewhere and then shoot
certain scenes here, and then Ihave another project that would shoot everything here
and just the exteriors somewhere else.So yeah, I'm happy to travel.
But I do like I do likeAlberta, like the entrepreneurial spirit here.
(24:22):
I like the people here, andI don't assuming the Cruise as well.
I hate the Cruise the crews ofthe worst. No, I love the
Cruise. The crews are great.Yeah, right, And do you keep
a fairly consistent crew then for mostof your projects? Are that? All
depends on what work I have tooffer, right, So the current iteration,
if I can wind up again fora second, the current iteration of
(24:44):
Polyscope started forming kind of after BlackSummer season two. I did the second
season for it was Netflix's first selfmanaged show in the province of Alberta,
and I didn't love the experience ofthe second season. It was just so
corporate and wasn't It was big andwonderful, but I was so far removed
from the creative and I had toyou know, I butt heads with a
(25:07):
couple of the individuals involved. Afterwards, I'm like, I need to concentrate
on my creativity. That's what Ineed to do. I need to be
creative. So I reached out tothree studios slash production companies, and I
let them know that I was Iwas open to direct. I said,
I want to I want to direct. I want to focus on directing.
I ended up directing eight feature filmsinside of Like a Inside of two years,
(25:33):
like it was a year. Itwas too much. By the end
of it, I was like,I need to step away from directing for
a bit. I don't know,I don't know what I want to be
when I grow up. Yeah,So but I stepped away for a little
bit, and I was like,you know, I can't a film to
direct is very immersive, and inorder to do that properly, you've got
to, you know, you haveto submerge into the material and to do
that and then rap and then walkonto another set and then do it again
(25:55):
and again and again. It's exhausting. It was. It was. It
took quite a bit out of outof me. But as a result,
I realized these people, these studiosI was working with, they want to
make content here and they trust usto make it. So I keep I
keep taking that content. Okay,fair enough, so we'll keep building that
SIDEM and going back to Black Summera little bit. So you're a line
(26:18):
producer for that, Yeah, Andjust for folks that might not be aware
of the comparison between say a lineproducer and what you normally produce, what
is that change or what is thatvariation? Well, on a small show,
I did. I was line producerand producer, right, and creative
producer. As the larger production gets, the more delineation is required for the
(26:40):
separation of duties. Right, There'sjust too many things that need to be
done as a general producer, sothey kind of subdivide, right, so
you have your creative producer on alarge show and then line producers really responsible
for keeping the budget on track.They can or can't. Like on season
one I had, I was theproduction manager who was also the line producer.
(27:04):
It was my first PM gig andit'll be my last. I didn't
didn't love it. And when wewent to the second season, I was
like Netflix Camera, They're like,oh, right, you be the PM
slash line producer again. I'm like, I'll be the line producer. I'm
not going to be the PM.So we had a bit of a negotiation
back and forth, and then weended up hiring somebody that I could work
underneath us, and and it wasit was better. Somebody was better equipped
(27:25):
for that role and I could bemore the more set for you on the
creative Okay, yeah, and doyou have any ambition or inclination to try
something else, like you tried thedirecting, you tried the producing. Do
you want to be in front ofthe camera at all? You know?
There was there was one time Iwas doing auditions and I was watching everybody
(27:47):
failed dramatically in front of the camera. It's the little camera propped up in
it in the company of rogues,actually, and I remember thinking like,
this couldn't be that hard. Iknew the lines, and I sat in
front of the Like I said,it sucks the soul right at you.
I sat in front of the cameraand all of the words fell out of
my head instantly. I was like, I know these words. I fucking
wrote half of them, and Icouldn't get it. I just drove me
(28:07):
nuts. So it's something. It'sit's intriguing to me, and I really
respect the people who can do itwell. I don't. I'd have to
be pretty comfy in other aspects ofmy career before i'd really try to act.
But I wouldn't sign the door onit. But I'll wait till there's
a role that requires an half Asian, you know, fifty five year old
(28:32):
man as opposed to my current self. Is there a certain genre that you
haven't done yet that you would reallylike to delve into like pornography for sure.
I am surprised you didn't start there. I would. I mean with
(28:52):
a last name like one Limb.I feel like it's my destiny to make
at least a couple of good actionmovies. Those are the ones I'd like
to get into, like straight uplike and I came very We had a
couple of scripts that were balls outaction and wild and crazy on the page,
so I was looking forward to those. There was a larger one that
we were trying to land this year. I may have them for next year
(29:15):
that are straight up action films.I'd love to do some action films,
Okay, yeah, like you're talkinglike Car Chase kind of things and some
yeah Jason Born kind of stuff,a little a little bit of that.
I mean I saw that Newest MissionImpossible. It was okay, unbelievable.
It was fantastic. And is therea certain actor you'd like to work with
(29:37):
that you haven't kid? Is thatsomething that's crossed your mind at all?
No? No, No, notreally, Okay, No, I mean
when you're in that casting room,that's when you'd start trying to figure out
those positions. But unless I havea project directly in front of me.
I don't you think of the actorI'm gonna work with. There's a lot
of good ones out there, forsure. Yeah, it's just when you
mentioned Mission Impossible, I was like, oh, com Craise. Would you
(29:59):
want to work with him? Yeah? I don't know if the trajectory of
my career is going to intersect atthe right time in order to work with
him. Maybe I'll work with aneighty two year old Tom Cruise, right,
Well, I mean you might workwith Rock you know, its right?
Yeah, that'd be all right,Okay, No, And we're actually
kind of getting near the tail endof things, so I'll definitely wrap up
current projects you're working on doing alittle that you can talk about any Yeah.
(30:26):
I mean I'm doing a little ghosthunting series, which is kind of
fun. We just did an OprahWinfrey Network Christmas movie, so we just
wrapped on that and it was veryuncreative as far as my side of things,
but the script was really cute.I think it'll be a really sweet
little film. But I mean,after after a blast of summer Christmas,
(30:48):
I kind of want to do somethinga little more creative. So yeah,
a little ghost hunding show, andthen we've got a couple of features,
and I shouldn't mention that we're tryingto line up still for this year,
Okay. And do you deal withthe like trying to find distribution side of
it much as the service model.No. I projects come to me and
they're they're fully financed and they're setup and ready to go, and they
(31:12):
send me a director and a cast, and then I make it for them.
I don't worry about what happens afterI deliver for them. On my
own personal projects, I do,but again it's I'm just moving into that
IP world right now, so soyeah, I'm not so much in the
distribution side as of right now.Okay, ask me that in about a
(31:33):
year from now, I will definitelydo that. And just to throw it
out there, because you and Iwere talking about one of your other first
projects, which was Pizza Guy.It was part of the audition request are
you comfortable showing your butt? Ithink was actually one of the things.
It doesn't sound like something I'd bepart of because I think that one was
(31:56):
kind of it was a comedy aswell to us. Yeah, and is
that something you you do? Looklike you do you try to stay away
from shows that kind of do that, or the shore people's butts, or
you know, just the whole nudityaspect of things, or are you okay
with that kind of thing. I'mnot uncomfortable with it. We had we
were gearing up earlier this year,like in March, I think we were
(32:19):
gearing up for a movie that wasa to B movie called Dancers on the
Dark Side, and we didn't.It ended up going somewhere else, but
it was It was most strippers,so it would have had a healthy dose
of nudity in it. The onlything, my only stipulation there was like,
I really want to make sure thatwe get a female director on board
so we can tweat it properly.That was it. I mean in that
(32:40):
movie as well, there was therewas a scene where there's a there's a
there's a bare breast in it,and I had to It was the first
time, first and only time I'vebeen in the audition room and they cleared
it and it's just myself and theactresses, and there I was the one
that was embarrassed. It wasn't them. They seem to have no problem showing
me their breast and they think theywere quite tickled by the reaction I had
(33:05):
because my face is beat red andthat art time. But uh yeah,
that was that was interesting. Itwas a non sexual scene. It pops
out of her out of her nighther bathrobe as she's at the door for
a pizza guy, and it startsthis this chain reaction and that that it
is trouble for the main character.So okay, And since there's a bit
(33:28):
of bigger interest nowadays in Oh mygoodness, why is the term escaping me?
Intimacy coordinators? Is that something you'veused on your sets? Yeah?
Yeah, And do you do youkind of foresee that becoming a bigger thing?
That's a good question. I mean, in the wake of Hollywood's waking,
(33:52):
I think it's going to at leastinstill itself for the near future.
Hopefully it remains. There's a there'sa moment in in Barbie. I don't
know if you've seen the New BarbieShow, but no, it's Will Farrell
leads this rag tag group of executivesand they're talking about it's a table of
(34:12):
men, right, It's a toynamed at Girls, and it's a table
of male executives and making all thedecisions, and they were talking about like,
isn't there feminism and equality for women, and he's like, no,
we pretend that, but really it'sjust still us behind and that's really the
case. But hopefully, hopefully thatcan that can change, right Yeah.
Yeah. Having the intimacy coordinate there, I think is a fantastic idea,
(34:35):
I really do. I think it'sit makes them more comfortable. It allows
them to to know the depth ofthe scene, and then they if they
know the parameters of the scene,then they can they can spawn, they
can they can be more organic withinthe flow of it, right, they
can lose themselves a little bit andknow that they're not going to be exploited
outside of what they're comfortable with.Okay, so I agree with it.
(34:57):
Awesome, fair enough. As aproducer, sometimes I'm like, fuck,
are we gonna pay another position?Well? Right, that's yeah, of
course I appreciate it. Yeah,and that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.
On that note, I think we'llkind of wrap it up. I
want to shoot you for your timetoday coming on the show. You wrapped
it up on me being cheap,damn it? All right, yes,
(35:17):
so, but you put out alot of products, right, It's it's
about the volume not not anyway.No, that's just gonna say quantity over
quality slip. Yeah, So thanksagain for your time. Do you appreciate
it? Thanks to the folks watching, appreciate your your time watching us as
well. Tune in next week whenwe might have somebody else we'll see maybe
(35:40):
And also just reminder to like subscribeon the YouTube channel. Thank you so
much and have a great night.
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