January 27, 2025 • 47 mins
Chuck chats with filmmakers from "Clone Cops," which is out in theaters and streaming January 31st and has a special screening at the Tara in Atlanta on Feb. 22nd!
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
You are listening to the IFH podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
ifhpodcastnetwork dot com. Hey everybody, I'm gonna get you over
to the episode with the filmmakers from Clone Cops. But
they forgot to mention the film is now available to
pre order on Apple TV. So head to Apple TV
and pre order Clone Cops right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Hey, you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Welcome back to the show. Everybody got a great one tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's actually a kind of funny story is supposed to
be taking place a while ago, but you'll remember when
the snow blew through. Not this current storm is blowing
through right now that I'm talking about, but the older
one that came through and froze this out for a minute,
and it froze out the screening of Clone Cops that
I was supposed to get to go see. Me and
(01:22):
editor Josh, we're gonna go check it out. But Mother
Nature or i should say climate change actually had other
plans and we turned into Frozen Hill. But all is
not lost because the film is coming back to the Tarra,
the historic tra and we're very excited and we have
the filmmakers from Clone Cops.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Guys, how are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Doing great? Man? Yeah, thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thanks, and also Laura's here, an actress from the film.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
How are you doing, I'm great, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, so tell me what is the story of Clone Cops?
And like, how did you get to screening at the tea?
You guys are from Nashville, I understand, So I'm curious
are you taking this on the road. I want to
hear the whole story about Clone Cops.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Danny, you start, then I'll hop in on the theatrical house.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
All right, yea sounds good man. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
So Clone Cops it's a sci fi action comedy. It's
set in an alternate future. It follows a gang of
criminals quote unquote criminals who have to defend their hideout
against an army of replicating security officers called the Clone Cops.
The whole kind of thing kind of takes place in
(02:36):
this empty warehouse, and the more of these Clone Cops
that the gang kills, the more they make, and the
more they make, the dumber they get until the so
it's just kind of you know, hijinks and sue.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Hijings and suit nice. That's that reminds me of Multiplicity
a little bit. The further you get out from the copies,
it starts to devolve a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
That was definitely on the that was kind of definitely
one of the influences that I had when I was
thinking about those I kept I've reference that several times.
It's like when you make a copy of a copy,
you know, and it comes out kind of walky.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I don't even I don't think anybody younger than
me remembers Multiplicity, Like it's not the most common movie.
That's a pretty obscure one. And as a screenplay reader
reader for the Atlanta Film Festival, I just I know
how you get that idea and it's like, well, it's
I'm influenced by this and this and this, but it's
my unique way of telling the story that's going to
(03:37):
become my thing. So that's why I always find it
exciting about a project like that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Is that would you say that's the same for you?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah? Absolutely. I mean I think.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I'm a lover of sci fi movies and comedy stuff,
and so you can't help but be influenced by the
stuff that you love, and I think we make some
really fun kind of references to things. But the the
movie itself is very unique. It's a very interesting like
(04:11):
I had a friend describe it as schizophrenic in a
good way, where you know, we kind of we've got
three kind of storylines that we're weaving together, and we
jump back and forth between them, and some of them
are wild and weird, and some of them are really
heartfelt and sincere, and we kind of weave them all
together in a really fun way that I think it's interesting.
(04:35):
And I would like to say that you never really
get a chance to be bored because we're onto the
next interesting thing pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
That seems like such a simple thing that you just
said that just to I. Don't you know, You're never
gonna be bored. That's that's so difficult to do in
a feature. It's hard to do in a short much
lesser feature is to keep people engaged the whole time,
because there's you're gonna have, you know, those peaks and
valleys and kind of stuff. Uh So, i'd love to
hear both of you guys, since you both worked on
(05:07):
the script, what how did you approach that that keep
them entertained at old times kind of vibe?
Speaker 5 (05:18):
We talked a lot about hooks.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
You know, and and and making sure that we're barrying
hooks into each of our scenes, and and uh, just
creating a spectacle and a roller coaster ride for for
the viewers, because in this in this age of two screens,
people will space, rite out and check out what's going on.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
On social media if you if you lose their attention.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
And so we we from the from the first scene
where we attempt to throw in some weird stuff that
lets people know what kind of film it is, all
the way through the end credits.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We uh, we kind of.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Try to keep popping people with little pops of visual
language and excitement and gross out and and touching and
and all of the.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Above he means heartfelt touching, not like.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, henzy.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Yeah, and uh and chuck to circle back with how
we ended up at the terra. Uh, we are independent filmmakers,
and we're doing the full indie ride, which to us
included we always wanted our film to be seen in
a theater.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:28):
And that's kind of theatrical recognition, I think is some
every filmmaker wants, and we know so few of us
can get put together these days. And so we had
a distributed distribution deal in place for V O D
and UH, and they said, you guys keep the theatrical
do whatever you.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
Can with it.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
And so through kind of some cosmic alignment, we we
found a theater chain based in Tennessee here, the Malco
Theaters and UH, and they put us in a few
spots and and we we just kind of took it
from there and it wasn't it was no single per
And I can tell you Laura helped, you know, hop
dried in to help help get our Philadelphia screening off
(07:05):
the ground. And yeah that I mean, every every little
screening that takes place is kind of a miracle. And
everyone takes its own negotiation and and Laura, I know
you put some time and effort into into shaking a
bunch of trees in Philly for us to find.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
A spot, right, Yeah, not many trees left to shake,
but I shook all of them. Yeah, concrete jungle. No, okay,
I'll show myself out.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I guess you're you're from the area, phil Philly area.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I am from New Jersey and I lived just outside
basically Eagles Territory like South Jersey for the first you
know better part of my first decade, and then I
moved up north and was in Giants territory. I don't
know why I'm talking about football suddenly. This is very
uncharacteristic of me.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Also, taking out of context, it sounds crazy like I
stayed near Eagle Country and then it was near Giant Country.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And then there were a lot of harps and it
was really intense. Yeah, so Jersey, you know, near Ish Philly.
I lived in Philly as an adult for a while
and have a lot of people that I know and
love there, so it was nice. Some of them really
rallied in the middle of a giant snowstorm to come
(08:19):
out and see the movie in it and they all
loved it, which was even better.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Nice.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Yeah, that's been the really So I say that the
incredible thing Chuck is like, you know, whether it's twenty
people or one hundred and twenty people, it the theater
experience still works, and it's still real and we're getting
these real life connections and people are making fan art now.
It's just there is something to being in a physical
space and sharing this experience that we don't get when
(08:46):
we just check out and watch it at home by ourselves.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
That said, please stream at January thirty first on.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
All of.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That was good, that was really good.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
But you're right, You're right like this, you can't replicate
the theater experience at home unless you have unless you're
crazy rich and you just build your own theater, I
guess in your basement or something.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But it's just I mean, I'm the same way. Like
one of my.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Major things, my my milestones would be to get a
future film out into theaters, like distributed through the theaters.
You know, I've seen some of my stuff on the
big screen, but it's not I haven't hit that that
goal yet. And then I got into movies because my
dad and I went to the movie theater all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Like that was fun for us. That's what we did.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You know. Yeah, it's just how it.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Sucks that it's just on a downward spiral. It seems like.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
I was we were in Baton Rouge and Memphis this
past weekend and we're sitting in or you know, we're
in the lobby in Baton Rouge, and it kind of
dawned on me that, like my career kind of started
in a movie theater. You know, I was a I
started in the concession stand and I was a manager
and a partist, and so yeah, it's definitely holds a
(10:03):
special place in my heart. You know, begetting to show
them in theaters like that is incredible. And also I
think comedy, you know, for a comedy film, it really
benefits from having other people around. I think laughter is contagious,
and when one person starts laughing at something, other people
start laughing at it, and it turns, you know, what
might have just been a little chuckle joke into a
(10:25):
full blast laugh, you know, and that's that's hard to achieve.
I think when you're at home, you did get a
lot of like the fast exhalation of air laughs, right.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Did you did you perhaps take that into account when
you're writing the script, Like did you feel like I'm writing,
you know this will play better in the theater versus
at home?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Or is it just like a joke as a joke,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't think we.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
I don't think we ever really we hoped it would
be in theaters, but we certainly didn't plan on it,
and it wasn't really a thing. When we were shooting it.
I was very cognizant of the fact that most people
were probably gonna watch this at home, So okay, Corey
Allen and the cinematographer and I talked a lot about
how we were framing stuff, and we work a lot
(11:14):
of close ups in we don't do a ton of
wide shots because.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
We knew it was going to be playing on smaller
screens and we weren't going.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
To be able to get this this big, you know,
huge landscape y kind of kind of look. That being said,
now here we are in theaters and it looks great
and it's amazing. But yeah, as far as the writing goes,
you know, I think for us, the jokes are there's like,
(11:40):
you get the joke that the first joke you write
is kind of like that's the joke everybody can think of,
and so we really were cognizant of like, let's dig
a little deeper and try to find the joke that
only we can tell.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So that's really.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Where yeah, you know, like and when we did a
table read, and after the table read, Phil and I
sat down to compare notes and both of us had
the exact same note written huge on the first page,
needs to.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Be funnier it.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
We were just like, oh, we thought this was like
this really funny movie, and we you know, we just
dawned on. It's like we have to go back to
the drawing board. Here we have, we're missing a lot
of opportunities.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That is why I'm a huge, huge fan of table reads,
and I suggest that's one of my major, my top
suggestions every time when people ask me advice for screenwriting,
like say that shit out loud, because you will quickly learn, hey,
this doesn't sound like human language, and there's there's no
really other way to do it besides hearing it in
your ear poles.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I think, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Well, and a lot of the people that were at
our table read wound up being in the movie.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh nice.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
So it was kind of amazing because we got to
hear it in their voices and a lot of them
came up with really great jokes and really great kind
of ad during the table read that wound up in
the final script.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Now, I want to know who played my role in
the table read, but I'll ask you guys that later.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Your your role was a man. Originally Porter was a man.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That was one of the things we changed after the
table read, was we we we changed it to be
Cipher's mom.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Wow yeah, wow, Well, I'm so glad you did, because
it would have been a lot harder for me done it.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
If anybody yeah the chops, you've got.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
The chops chopped, sure, but looks yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So Actually, Laura, I was going to ask how you
came onto the project, and it sounds like you were.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You auditioned and.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Got har I did, but but I find it it's
for me. It's my most I learned more. I learned
a bigger lesson from this process of auditioning as an
actor than ever before, because in you know, nearly twenty
years nope, not nearly twenty one years in the Union.
(14:09):
As of this year, I had never and this is
now that I'm saying this out loud, it sounds ridiculous,
but I had never asked someone if I could audition
for their project. I just relied on agents and friends,
and you know, I didn't really, I don't know. I'm
just too much of a people pleaser, I think to
(14:30):
put people out working on it in case, you know,
my therapist is listening. But I tangentially knew these guys.
We were acquainted, and I was I coach actors as well.
I'm a teacher as well, and I was coaching young
men for the role for the lead role in this film,
and after the second, you know, I was reading this
(14:52):
role porter with them in the audition, and I thought, man,
I think I think I might be good for this part,
you know. And I don't usually have that experience either.
I mean, all actors think they're great for every role,
but after twenty years you realize that's not true, you know.
So I had Phil's phone number and I texted him
(15:12):
and I just said, Hey, I'd really liked audition. If
you see fit, I would love to come in for
any role you see fit. I don't remember what else
I said, something like, I'm just so excited you guys
are making a movie in Nashville. I want to do
whatever I can, you know. And so three days later
I got an audition. I didn't know. I don't know still,
(15:33):
I don't know if we've talked about this, but if
I would have gotten the audition, but I don't think
I would have because first of all, I sent it
in late, which I've also never done. I've never sent
in an audition in late. But my kid broke her
arm and my weekend got screwed up. Anyways, so I
sent it in late, and I remember thinking, it doesn't matter.
(15:54):
I'm not I'm once I got the breakdown for her.
I was like, I'm not old enough. They're looking to
go about ten years older than me. So anyway, I'll
do the audition and it'll be fun. So I do
the audition, I send it in late. They happen to
have production offices in the same building as my studio.
I walked down and popped my head into their office
and said, hey, guys, I just want to let you
know I'm sorry. I don't usually send things in late,
(16:14):
you know, And because we knew each other, I didn't
want it to be awkward when they didn't give me
the role, so I said, you know, I might see
them in the hall or something. So I said, and also,
I know, thank you for the audition. I know I'm
not right for this role. And Danny, do you remember
(16:35):
what you said?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I no, I don't. Please please remind me.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You said, he said instantly. He was like, yeah, you're
too young. But there's this other role. It's a you know,
co star one line or whatever, and it was supposed
to be a dude, but we think you could play
it weight I'm sensing a pattern. Now I'm super butch,
so I I was like, yeah, I literally said, I
(17:03):
will work craft services for you guys. I'm so grateful
that this movie is being made here in town. Thank
you for doing that. And I left and I was
watching a movie with my family three nights later and
I got a text from Phil and it was like, hey,
thanks so much. It was really sweet, as he is,
and I thought he was just He was like, we
(17:23):
all agreed that you know you your tape was the best.
And I was like, wow, Phil, thanks so much. You know,
as an actor, you never get feedback like this. You
just never hear anything. And it really means a lot
to me that you would do that even though I'm
not getting the role or whatever. And he was like, no, no, no,
you don't understand. You have the part and we're gonna
(17:44):
I think you said we're going to aid your daughter
down just a tad to make it work or something
like that, and I, you know, started crying. I'm sure,
because that's that's what we do. But that's how I
got the part. I asked for an audition, and I
don't think I would have gotten one otherwise.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That sounds like, despite your best efforts. You've still got
cast right.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It was a fantastic audition.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
I do remember that, and yeah, I mean I think
we we really kind of just decided like, hey, this
is sci fi.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We can make up whatever we want any.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
You know, we and you know, I don't want to
give away too much, but within the within the film, uh,
some circumstances arise that can easily explain away age difference.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We weren't too worried about it.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
It works. I still can't believe it. I still can't
believe it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's truly.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I wrote a I tend to write horror and sci
fi kind of stuff. But a few years ago and
I was getting my master's, I wrote a comedy script.
And I'd written comedy before. But I mean, this is
a full like comedy feature. And you're you're so right
about like the freeing aspect of it. It's like this
doesn't have to make one hundred sense because it's funny
(18:59):
when it does makes sense, Like you can just go
for it. Like there's pretty strict rules and horror and
other stuff. You know, there's some there's some things you
just got to make sure you do, but comedy whatever
gets the people laughing, is all that matters.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Just get them laughing and you're good.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Yeah, I mean that's certainly my kind of philosophy on it.
And as a co writer, Philip is great at kind
of dragging me back into the realm of like, well,
why does this happen? You know, I'm he we would
I would write something and then he would kind of
be the devil's advocate there and be like, yeah, but
(19:38):
I mean, we have to figure out why it does
it like, And so it ended up creating a lot
of depth to the to the movie that otherwise wouldn't
have been there.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
And I'm so thankful that he did. I wasn't at
the time.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
I was very stand offish about it and defensive, but
but yeah, I mean, you know, when you watch the movie,
I think it comes out that we actually really did
sit down and think about like why this world functions
the way it functions, what everything is, what it does,
and it created a nice depth to the world in
(20:12):
the world building that I think you probably won't find
on a lot of like movies of this size and budget.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So I'm really curious you guys are talking about the
Nashville film industry. I'm I'm just I'm just in here
thinking about it. Like, so right now in Atlanta, we've
got this, I mean, things are pretty much did uh,
pretty much in the toilet. And yeah, it's it's weird.
We're in this weird position where and we're talking about
it now. We don't we didn't really really have a
(20:41):
lot of house building in that we don't have a
lot of stuff coming from here. You know, we have
Marvel and all the stuff shooting here when it shoots here,
and it's great, but a lot of our stuff isn't
getting made here from us because we don't have access
to anything. How how is it in Tennessee in a
specific Nashville?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Uh, well, I'm you know, I'm lucky enough right now
to be working on a Bloomhouse show for Amazon called Scarpetta.
Uh so we're we're shooting the first season of that
right now. But that's about the only game in town
right now. There's there's still music videos and commercials, and
Nashville has always had that. It's a music city, so
(21:25):
you know, it is music city. So there's always been
music video work here in smaller production. But I've always
kind of been in the the long form world. So
it's been rough, you know, like this, this is the first,
this is the first gig that I've had, like a
long form gig since.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Gosh and a year and a half.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I was, I mean, I was delivering food, I was
doing I was I was door dashing, I was I
worked at any or any ensper for a little while
to make ends me like, I was just doing whatever
needed I needed to do to kind of keep the
dream alive.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And so, you know.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
It's it's been rough, and I think it's rough across
the board. I've got friends in LA who are in
the same position outing like, hey, you know, when work
coming back, I'm we're struggling.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I can't. You know.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
It's it's when you built your career on this assumption
that you know there's always another job down the line,
which we all did, you know, like we always had
kind of you kind of knew like once you had
your reputation, you're good, you're something will come along. And
nothing came along, man, And it's been it's been tough.
I've seen a lot of people just bow out of
the industry.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Mm hmm, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Same here.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I mean some of the top names I mean in here,
like my buddy Molly Coffee who started the podcast with me,
and she's even she has been struggling and she's like
the number one set deck person design or whatever in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Like if she's not working, like things are dire. But
how is it? How is it?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How does Tennessee handle Do you guys have the tax
credits and all that stuff? Like is the old overall industry?
Like do you feel like it's really rising up regardless
of the current climate or whatever, but like overall, do
you feel like it's it's climbing up in the world
and get more stuff?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
So glad you asked.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
By comparison in I believe twenty twenty two, Tennessee had
about thirteen million dollars in our available tax pool for
tax credits, and Georgia, which does not have a cap right,
you guys have got an uncapped rebate, did two billion
that year.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
You know, So, like Tennessee is the smallest fish.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
In the region for TV and film credits compared to Kentucky,
North Carolina and Georgia. But with that said, our project
was small enough that when we rereached out to the
Tennessee Entertainment Commission and told them what we were doing,
they said, yeah, we'll probably have some money left for
something that's small. Soually applied for and did two and
(24:02):
a half years worth of paperwork to receive a twenty
five percent rebate on all qualified Tennessee expenditures.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Wow and that money.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
Yes, So dude, it's like that's the indie dream, right,
there's a rebate out there.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
We did it.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
We got that money, and that's what's helped us fund
our marketing push.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Now.
Speaker 7 (24:21):
You know, so often filmmakers, we dump all the money
into the project and when it comes time to let
people know about it, there's nothing left to let them
and we just hope that word of mouth takes it
or we get into a big festival or whatever. And
so yeah, I can say again, by comparison, the tax
credit is much smaller than a lot of our competitive states.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
But for us, it worked out great.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
And just you know, just like Danny's story, I mean,
it's all part of our origin story. And when Danny
was was delivering food or whatever, I was like, dude,
this is all part of the origin story.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Of this in years to come.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
You know, his optimism fell on deaf ears, I assure you.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Well, but uh, it's it's always been next I mean,
I'll let Laura to speak to this. It's always been
next to impossible to be. I don't think you're going
to be a full time actor in Nashville. There's just
not enough work. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Well, I mean, if you mean, like you don't have
to do other things, what do you define the full time?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:25):
Yeah, like that's that's you know, I mean, that's always
the giveaway questions like cool, what's.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Your day job?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
What do you do for money?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
You know, for most of my creative friends, because it's
rare for people like like you. Through you know, through
your Laura is an accomplished acting teacher and Danny is
an accomplished prop master, and they've found a way to
get to do what they love kind of within our industry,
but most people don't.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah, it's like a means to an end that turned into,
you know, great gratefully turned into something that I actually
really do love because I love acting so much and
such a nerd about it that it winds up here
just sitting around, sharing your experience and talking about the
thing you love all the time. So or at least
(26:10):
two nights a week so yeah, but most people here,
I mean I do know people that live here that
don't have other jobs, but they got they were established
names before they moved back here. Anybody who starts here,
you know, has to kind of leave here probably a lot.
(26:33):
And that's anything. I think. This is the only, maybe
the second thing I've ever shot in.
Speaker 7 (26:37):
Nashville, and we see that as an opportunity to plan
a flag like we want to be the Robert Rodriguez
or you know, the guys that are like, hey, this
is what Nashville film scene looks like. You know, we're
the indie creators here making it happen, So that lack
of somebody able to make it happen look like an
opportunity to us to be the guys or to be
(26:59):
the team.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, yeah, I that's I mean, that's amazing that you
that you got any help from because Georgia does. We
just don't have. We don't have, That's what I talking about.
We don't We're not building houses like there.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
We don't have. We don't even have that. They don't
give us anything.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
And we've been talked about like like like you talk
about that billions of dollars literally none of it comes
back to you know, uh fucking Cronenberg started his career
in Canada because Canada was like, here's some money, go
make some weird shit, and he did and he got
famous like it just kind of So that's really that's
really cool that Tennessee is doing that. I I am jealous,
(27:41):
but I'm very happy for you guys because it sounds
like they're maybe being a little bit more careful. But
I think they It sounds like they've got some some
good heads on their shoulders.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's cool, thanks man.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, So anyway, uh, back to Clone Cops.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, yeah, you've got another screening coming up up in
Atlanta after the frozen craziness that happened. Tell us more
about that and what we can where else where else
are you headed?
Speaker 8 (28:10):
Actually?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Where where's the tour going?
Speaker 7 (28:13):
Yeah, we're headed tomorrow to San Francisco and we'll do
a screening out there on Thursday the twenty third. Then
we're back here in Nashville for a screening on Saturday,
the twenty fifth. Then we're back to Los Angeles for
Thursday the thirtieth, and then from there we fly to
New York City for February the first, so we're you know,
(28:36):
we're leaving no stone unturned the film. And then the
film comes out January thirty first, both in theaters as
well as on all your favorite VOD platforms, whether that's Amazon,
Apple TV, Fendego Home and just as of today. Actually
we added two more theaters for week long runs that
ended up just kind of falling in our lap and
(28:57):
we're like, oh, this looks cool.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Well here, yeah, yeah, hot seting.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Yeah, it's great. It's been so hard to like be
you know, we would have missed out on all this
if we would have just said, yeah, theatricals hard, let's
skip it. And instead we've gotten this incredible experience. And
again we've really been able to create some great relationships
and connections with people in the cities we visited. And
so yeah, so New York on the first, and then
(29:27):
I believe we'll be in it at We qualified for
the Boston sci Fi, the fiftieth Boston Sci Fi.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, and that's in February.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
That's after the film came out, So we're working through
some distribution questions with them in terms of what that
might look like.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
And then and Snow definitely won't be an issue in.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
For that one Boston in February.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
No, they handled a business up there.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
And then and then and then we'll be in Birmingham
and Atlanta at the weekend of the twenty first and
twenty second for those makeup dates that you mentioned. And
we can't wait to get to Atlanta. Man, We've got
so many friends and family.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
And uh Skylar Chillett, Yeah, one of our one of
our leads in the Gang.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Uh, he lives in Atlanta, and I know he's looking.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Forward to to watching the movies with his friends down
there as well.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I I've talked to a lot of filmmakers that do
these these big tours.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
It just seems like the only is it it? Do
you think it?
Speaker 8 (30:28):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
The only way? Is social media just kind of dead now?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I don't even get any traction on Atlanta film chat
stuff anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Like it's just there's it's just noise. I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Do you do you think that this kind of tour
is the only way to get indy like notice or
or is there something else out there?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Am I missing?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Man? I mean I think that you're right, there's a
lot of noise.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
I kind of have felt like social media has been
a boon for us, oh.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Just because it's.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
I think if we were trying to just like organically
break through all that clutter, that would be very difficult
to do. But because we did get that money back
and we are able to put some money into our marketing,
social media gives you this really robust tool set to
advertise your film to people who you know, Taylor those
(31:22):
ads exactly to where they're.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Going to do the most good.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
So instead of us just flooding people's feeds with something
they're not interested in, we're able to like say like, hey,
if you liked these other movies, you know that we
know we're kind of similar to or For instance, we
premiered our film at gen Con, which is the largest
tabletop gaming convention in the United States. There are seventy
(31:46):
thousand people in attendance, and so it allows us to say, hey,
here's to all those seventy thousand people. If you like
gen Con, you probably saw us. You know, we were
probably there, you probably talked to us at some point,
so we can feed and add directly to them, which
I think is great, not only because you know, it's
(32:06):
great for us, but it's great for the consumer as well,
because we're showing you something that we think you're probably
already going to be interested in.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
That's true. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah. I was going to say that these I've been
so impressed with these two. You know, I'm not gonna
make them make their egos grow too much. But we wouldn't.
We wouldn't be able to take it, would we. But
I I think that you know, I've produced features as well,
and I have been in the industry a long time
(32:39):
in many many different more and many different hats, and
I have not seen anyone take the reins like they are.
And you know, Phil, we talked about the optimism and
these guys just they balance each other out really well.
They work together really well as writers, but also so
(33:00):
just as humans. And the optimism is like, well, we're
just going to do this and it's going to work,
and you know, and then it like does because they're
so they are willing to do the work in a
way that, you know, without the support behind you from
a studio, in indie studio or whatever it's it's it's
(33:22):
really remarkable to watch what they've done. The content that
they've created. It's just like relentless. Like every time I
open my thing and I'm like, oh I should post,
They've already posted like five times. I'm like, how are
they doing that? You know, it's really impressive and it works.
And I think that's the thing is you have to
be willing to do that work, and not just the
(33:42):
work of like creating the content, but the work of
who do I target? I mean, that's so important what
you just said about gen con right, who's my demographic?
That's the work that most people hire other people to
do that stuff, you know. And it's not like they
don't have support and and a team behind them, but
I see them kind of boots on the ground doing
(34:04):
so much themselves. And it's not a coincidence that it's
doing well.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well. You know, we thank you, and my ego is
now ginormous.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Now we talk only Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
We.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
We talked a lot about and we continue. Philip and
I kind of we call them our Friday pop up talks. Uh,
it's like once a week, I feel like we we
get on the phone and we talk about how this
is gonna work. It's gonna work, right, It's gotta work.
But one of the things that we kind of keep
coming back to and to any filmmakers that are out
(34:45):
there listening to this, Uh, nobody's gonna care about your
project more than you do. If you wanted to succeed,
you have to be the one that's at the front
with the banner leading the charge. And you know, getting
distribution was huge and amazing and great, and Freestyle has
been a wonderful partner for us. And it's not that
they don't care. They just don't care as much as
(35:07):
I do, and they never will and they shouldn't, you know.
I That's that's just the truth of it. And so
that's kind of the tact that we've taken is this
is our chance. This is the one I'm calling in
every favor, Chuck. I sent mass emails, I've I spammed.
I've never spammed, but you know, it's just kind of like,
(35:27):
I'm gonna do it because it's it's the one time
that I'm ever going to do this, and I want
to make sure I turn over every stone. So yeah,
it's been it's been great and incredible to do and
it certainly does get tiring. But again, you know, we
were we were doing this weekend tour and uh. And
(35:49):
I'm working sixty hours a week already on this show,
so it's certainly tiring. But every time I start to
feel worn down, I just think, like, man, this is
the thing you wanted, you know, I'm getting to do
the thing I've always thought. How cool would it be
to tour the country with your movie showing it in theaters?
And now I'm getting to do that. And it's like, yeah,
(36:10):
you might be tired, but you only tired, tired, temporary,
but this is an experience that I'll I'll have the
rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And yeah, you're you're right, Uh, I mean, yeah, no
one will. No one will love your film as much
as you do. It's just not possible because it, you know,
spring from your your brain and you put in your
life experiences into it, and like probably you know, like
if you're like me, look everything it ever happened to
you springs up into mind, Like how do I fit
(36:41):
this into the script?
Speaker 8 (36:43):
Right?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (36:45):
And then it I think as a writer, you probably
appreciate this too, Like every time something weird is happening
to me in my life, I'm like, this is great,
this is incredible. That this is happening. I'm gonna put
this in a script. This is the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Always my first thought.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
That gratitude that they're talking. I mean, they didn't use
the word, but like, that's what I hear, is that
there's this gratitude about this team that they embody in
a way that is so rare. And it also applied
to set, which was an unbelievable experience. And you know,
(37:24):
I had just done a couple episodes of television and
kind of sandwiched this movie on, you know, with these
episodes and that vibe, you know, which I'm so so
grateful to get to experience. Anytime I do is just
so different than what these guys created. And I think
because they understand what that's like, they were like, you
(37:46):
know what, we're going to have a really awesome set.
You guys are going to get to go home for
dinner with your families. We can do this, We can
we can do this, right, Yeah, we can do it.
And everybody they hired from the top down was just lovely,
Like the whole set. I couldn't wait to go to
work every day. I can't wait till they make clone
(38:08):
cops too and put me in every scene and you know,
but for real, they're just they're special. And I think
it comes through in the movie too, you know that
that translates and the joy, the joy making the film
comes through when you're watching it. In my opinion, I've
only seen it, you know, five times.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Well, that's very thank you, Laura, that's very nice.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Well, don't get used to it, Danny.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
No, Yeah, the well I was, okay, I'm gonna be
a name dropper.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
I was talking to Oz Perkins, director of Long Legs
of the Monkey, and he was.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Actually talking about that too.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
He said, I don't understand why people are jerks on
movie sets. We're literally making dreams happen. Why would anybody
be an asshole? Like, like, why would I want to
work with it anybody who's a jerk and gonna stink
up my set? I want to work with people I like.
And I was like, yeah, that seems like there's such
an obvious thing. But yeah, like why would you want
(39:08):
to work with a jerk? Even if it's like the
biggest star in the world, Like it's just like a
set cancer get away, Like we're having fun here, dude,
what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (39:17):
Mean, and I've worked on some really you know, I
did a show called Women of the Movement that was
about Emmitt Till It was a very heavy, you know,
very heavy subject matter, and you certainly want to be
respectful of those those things, you know, And it's when
when an actor is trying to get where they need
to get for a scene that's super heavy, Like the
(39:38):
last thing you want is a couple of goobers over
craft services yucking it up, you know. Like, so you know,
I think there's I think there's a level of respect
for people's work that you need to maintain. But it's
the same time, like that's what I say all the time,
is like, hey, we're making this is make Believe. We're
doing make Believe today, so it should be fun. And
(40:02):
we all got into this because we love it. Nobody
there's a lot easier ways to make money than working
in film and and so you know, I mean it's like, yeah, man,
you we're here because we love it.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
So that's really nice to hear from Laura about that,
because we really did try to make make sure that
people were taken care of and respected and for me.
A big part of that too, is there's a line
in the movie that's making fun of me. That's where
(40:35):
a character says it's a collaborative art, because it is,
and I firmly believe that filmmaking is very collaborative. And
I love like you were saying earlier, like every character
is me and Phil. You know, that's all we can write.
That's all I know is my life experience. So every
character is a facet of our personalities. So I love
(40:55):
when an actor comes in and takes with that over
and creates their own version of that. And it was
fantastic to work with all all the actors in this
film because they were all so good at not only
you know, performing the words on the page, but in
creating their own takes on it and and talking about
(41:18):
and asking if they can change lines.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
And that's which I love.
Speaker 6 (41:20):
I'm all about it because if you come up with
a better line, I still get credit for it.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
So about that, actually, Dandy, I wanted to. I know
it's awkward to do it here, but you know, while
I didn't actually feel respected, but it was a very.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Pleasant I need to be kind of the opposite of like,
if you change any of my words. I'll fire you,
not not really, but like still you get that twinge
in your chest.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I remember I remember a guy I was working.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
On a TV show, a TV pilot that I wrote,
and one of the actors was like, came up and
I was like, Hey, what do you think about this edition?
I was like, oh, damn it, that's funnier than anything
I wrote.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Yeah, yes, with comedy, it's especially I think that that
happens a lot more in my experience, like I didn't,
I don't recall well. I also went to like the
David Mammontt school of acting, where you never ever, ever
ever changed one word. But I don't remember doing that
(42:26):
at all, but I but a lot. I also don't
really get to be funny in this movie. I do
kind of a lot of the like you know, but
I don't want to give anything away, but I do
some like emotional heavy lifting. But all the other folks
I watched the collaboration with them and it was really
really interesting. There was one moment where I was like, hey,
I don't know why I can't say this line. I
(42:48):
don't know, I don't remember what it was, but it
was just not working. It was like not coming out
of my mouth, and he was like change and he
was like change what feels better? Yeah, that's stupid, let's
change it. It was so easy and chill. And I
really respect when when writer, directors or just I respect
not changing it too you. I mean, people work really
hard on that stuff for a lot longer than I have,
(43:10):
you know, but it's cool that you can be flexible.
Speaker 6 (43:14):
Well, and I think that was kind of a bin
I've worked on so many TV shows and movies where
the writer, you know, is in La or somewhere else,
and so you are kind of locked in to the
words on the page because no, this is this is
the script that the studio bought, and this is what
needs to be delivered to the editor, and so you
(43:34):
do that. But knowing that Phil and I wrote it
and I was going to edit it, it just made
it easy for us to be able to say, like, well,
this isn't working, let's just change this.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
And we did it a bunch.
Speaker 6 (43:47):
I mean there were plenty of times where things that
could have been shows stopping hurdles turned into bonuses, you know,
because we just rolled with it and said, well, that's
not going to work, so what can we do that's
better and we would come up with another idea and
shoot that instead. And I'm very grateful for those moments
(44:08):
as well.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Nice like dying with your eyes open. I'm not going
to say who, Hey, I'm not going to say who. Yeah,
some actor decided.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Some actor decided that they should die with their eyes
open and had to had to stare at a wall
and get dust motes in their eyes for entire takes.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
Yeah, that what an idiot? What an idiot. We'll just
not name any names, you know, but well we'll.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Find out who that is when Clone Cops comes to
the Tarra in February. Tell everyone again when the screening
is and where can we find information about the movie
and yourselves?
Speaker 7 (44:52):
Yeah, that screening is Saturday, February twenty second at six
pm at the Terror Theater and you can find details
and gets at Clone copsmovie dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
And uh, do you guys have any personal websites or
Instagram's or whatever?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
TikTok. That's back now, I guess anything you want.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
To throw out there, it's a day at a time
with TikTok. Yeah, Hi, you can find me on Instagram
at Hey Laura Holloway h O L l O W
A Y and I have a podcast called The Actors Helpline,
which you can find on the socials as well. And
I guess i'll plug my acting studio, which is the
studio for Acting in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Nice. Yeah, plug anything you want.
Speaker 7 (45:35):
Yeah, you can find me at Philip dot Cordell on
the gram and uh and of course at clone Cops
on all social platforms.
Speaker 5 (45:43):
We're out there. We're on YouTube, we're on TikTok, we're
on Instagram.
Speaker 6 (45:48):
Yeah, and I'm Danny dot Dones on Instagram. But it's
basically a second Clone Cops account.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
That's pretty much.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
All I close, right, No, I guess it always the
repost this like it's all the same stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, but you gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
But Yeah, I really appreciate y'all coming on and talking
about this great stuff. And I can't wait to meet
hopefully all three of y'all in person at the being
at the Tara.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I'm very excited. Thanks for coming.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Yeah, we're super excited. Can't wait to see you, and
thanks so much for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 8 (46:22):
Thanks Chuck, Thanks for listening to Atlanta Film Shit. Subscribe
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcast.
The show is produced by Trankle Aggression Productions and Zombie
(46:43):
Cat Productions. Your host is Chuck Thomas. Editing is by
Josh we goal Key. The soundtrack is by Michael Breezy
Keys Joe I am your humble announcer Rob Scheimer. Remember
you are your own big this trained, So go out,
make your projects and don't let anyone stop you.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
M
You are listening to the IFH podcast Network.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
ifhpodcastnetwork dot com. Hey everybody, I'm gonna get you over
to the episode with the filmmakers from Clone Cops. But
they forgot to mention the film is now available to
pre order on Apple TV. So head to Apple TV
and pre order Clone Cops right now, right now.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Hey, you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Welcome back to the show. Everybody got a great one tonight.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
It's actually a kind of funny story is supposed to
be taking place a while ago, but you'll remember when
the snow blew through. Not this current storm is blowing
through right now that I'm talking about, but the older
one that came through and froze this out for a minute,
and it froze out the screening of Clone Cops that
I was supposed to get to go see. Me and
(01:22):
editor Josh, we're gonna go check it out. But Mother
Nature or i should say climate change actually had other
plans and we turned into Frozen Hill. But all is
not lost because the film is coming back to the Tarra,
the historic tra and we're very excited and we have
the filmmakers from Clone Cops.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Guys, how are you doing.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Doing great? Man? Yeah, thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thanks, and also Laura's here, an actress from the film.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
How are you doing, I'm great, Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, so tell me what is the story of Clone Cops?
And like, how did you get to screening at the tea?
You guys are from Nashville, I understand, So I'm curious
are you taking this on the road. I want to
hear the whole story about Clone Cops.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Danny, you start, then I'll hop in on the theatrical house.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
All right, yea sounds good man. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (02:14):
So Clone Cops it's a sci fi action comedy. It's
set in an alternate future. It follows a gang of
criminals quote unquote criminals who have to defend their hideout
against an army of replicating security officers called the Clone Cops.
The whole kind of thing kind of takes place in
(02:36):
this empty warehouse, and the more of these Clone Cops
that the gang kills, the more they make, and the
more they make, the dumber they get until the so
it's just kind of you know, hijinks and sue.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Hijings and suit nice. That's that reminds me of Multiplicity
a little bit. The further you get out from the copies,
it starts to devolve a little bit.
Speaker 6 (03:00):
That was definitely on the that was kind of definitely
one of the influences that I had when I was
thinking about those I kept I've reference that several times.
It's like when you make a copy of a copy,
you know, and it comes out kind of walky.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah, I don't even I don't think anybody younger than
me remembers Multiplicity, Like it's not the most common movie.
That's a pretty obscure one. And as a screenplay reader
reader for the Atlanta Film Festival, I just I know
how you get that idea and it's like, well, it's
I'm influenced by this and this and this, but it's
my unique way of telling the story that's going to
(03:37):
become my thing. So that's why I always find it
exciting about a project like that.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Is that would you say that's the same for you?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Yeah? Absolutely. I mean I think.
Speaker 6 (03:50):
I'm a lover of sci fi movies and comedy stuff,
and so you can't help but be influenced by the
stuff that you love, and I think we make some
really fun kind of references to things. But the the
movie itself is very unique. It's a very interesting like
(04:11):
I had a friend describe it as schizophrenic in a
good way, where you know, we kind of we've got
three kind of storylines that we're weaving together, and we
jump back and forth between them, and some of them
are wild and weird, and some of them are really
heartfelt and sincere, and we kind of weave them all
together in a really fun way that I think it's interesting.
(04:35):
And I would like to say that you never really
get a chance to be bored because we're onto the
next interesting thing pretty quickly.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
That seems like such a simple thing that you just
said that just to I. Don't you know, You're never
gonna be bored. That's that's so difficult to do in
a feature. It's hard to do in a short much
lesser feature is to keep people engaged the whole time,
because there's you're gonna have, you know, those peaks and
valleys and kind of stuff. Uh So, i'd love to
hear both of you guys, since you both worked on
(05:07):
the script, what how did you approach that that keep
them entertained at old times kind of vibe?
Speaker 5 (05:18):
We talked a lot about hooks.
Speaker 7 (05:21):
You know, and and and making sure that we're barrying
hooks into each of our scenes, and and uh, just
creating a spectacle and a roller coaster ride for for
the viewers, because in this in this age of two screens,
people will space, rite out and check out what's going on.
Speaker 5 (05:37):
On social media if you if you lose their attention.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (05:40):
And so we we from the from the first scene
where we attempt to throw in some weird stuff that
lets people know what kind of film it is, all
the way through the end credits.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
We uh, we kind of.
Speaker 7 (05:53):
Try to keep popping people with little pops of visual
language and excitement and gross out and and touching and
and all of the.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Above he means heartfelt touching, not like.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Right, henzy.
Speaker 7 (06:12):
Yeah, and uh and chuck to circle back with how
we ended up at the terra. Uh, we are independent filmmakers,
and we're doing the full indie ride, which to us
included we always wanted our film to be seen in
a theater.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (06:28):
And that's kind of theatrical recognition, I think is some
every filmmaker wants, and we know so few of us
can get put together these days. And so we had
a distributed distribution deal in place for V O D
and UH, and they said, you guys keep the theatrical
do whatever you.
Speaker 8 (06:44):
Can with it.
Speaker 7 (06:45):
And so through kind of some cosmic alignment, we we
found a theater chain based in Tennessee here, the Malco
Theaters and UH, and they put us in a few
spots and and we we just kind of took it
from there and it wasn't it was no single per
And I can tell you Laura helped, you know, hop
dried in to help help get our Philadelphia screening off
(07:05):
the ground. And yeah that I mean, every every little
screening that takes place is kind of a miracle. And
everyone takes its own negotiation and and Laura, I know
you put some time and effort into into shaking a
bunch of trees in Philly for us to find.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
A spot, right, Yeah, not many trees left to shake,
but I shook all of them. Yeah, concrete jungle. No, okay,
I'll show myself out.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I guess you're you're from the area, phil Philly area.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I am from New Jersey and I lived just outside
basically Eagles Territory like South Jersey for the first you
know better part of my first decade, and then I
moved up north and was in Giants territory. I don't
know why I'm talking about football suddenly. This is very
uncharacteristic of me.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Also, taking out of context, it sounds crazy like I
stayed near Eagle Country and then it was near Giant Country.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
And then there were a lot of harps and it
was really intense. Yeah, so Jersey, you know, near Ish Philly.
I lived in Philly as an adult for a while
and have a lot of people that I know and
love there, so it was nice. Some of them really
rallied in the middle of a giant snowstorm to come
(08:19):
out and see the movie in it and they all
loved it, which was even better.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Nice.
Speaker 7 (08:24):
Yeah, that's been the really So I say that the
incredible thing Chuck is like, you know, whether it's twenty
people or one hundred and twenty people, it the theater
experience still works, and it's still real and we're getting
these real life connections and people are making fan art now.
It's just there is something to being in a physical
space and sharing this experience that we don't get when
(08:46):
we just check out and watch it at home by ourselves.
Speaker 5 (08:48):
That said, please stream at January thirty first on.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
All of.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
That was good, that was really good.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
But you're right, You're right like this, you can't replicate
the theater experience at home unless you have unless you're
crazy rich and you just build your own theater, I
guess in your basement or something.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But it's just I mean, I'm the same way. Like
one of my.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Major things, my my milestones would be to get a
future film out into theaters, like distributed through the theaters.
You know, I've seen some of my stuff on the
big screen, but it's not I haven't hit that that
goal yet. And then I got into movies because my
dad and I went to the movie theater all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Like that was fun for us. That's what we did.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You know. Yeah, it's just how it.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Sucks that it's just on a downward spiral. It seems like.
Speaker 6 (09:40):
I was we were in Baton Rouge and Memphis this
past weekend and we're sitting in or you know, we're
in the lobby in Baton Rouge, and it kind of
dawned on me that, like my career kind of started
in a movie theater. You know, I was a I
started in the concession stand and I was a manager
and a partist, and so yeah, it's definitely holds a
(10:03):
special place in my heart. You know, begetting to show
them in theaters like that is incredible. And also I
think comedy, you know, for a comedy film, it really
benefits from having other people around. I think laughter is contagious,
and when one person starts laughing at something, other people
start laughing at it, and it turns, you know, what
might have just been a little chuckle joke into a
(10:25):
full blast laugh, you know, and that's that's hard to achieve.
I think when you're at home, you did get a
lot of like the fast exhalation of air laughs, right.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Did you did you perhaps take that into account when
you're writing the script, Like did you feel like I'm writing,
you know this will play better in the theater versus
at home?
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Or is it just like a joke as a joke,
you know.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
I don't think we.
Speaker 6 (10:53):
I don't think we ever really we hoped it would
be in theaters, but we certainly didn't plan on it,
and it wasn't really a thing. When we were shooting it.
I was very cognizant of the fact that most people
were probably gonna watch this at home, So okay, Corey
Allen and the cinematographer and I talked a lot about
how we were framing stuff, and we work a lot
(11:14):
of close ups in we don't do a ton of
wide shots because.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
We knew it was going to be playing on smaller
screens and we weren't going.
Speaker 6 (11:20):
To be able to get this this big, you know,
huge landscape y kind of kind of look. That being said,
now here we are in theaters and it looks great
and it's amazing. But yeah, as far as the writing goes,
you know, I think for us, the jokes are there's like,
(11:40):
you get the joke that the first joke you write
is kind of like that's the joke everybody can think of,
and so we really were cognizant of like, let's dig
a little deeper and try to find the joke that
only we can tell.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So that's really.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
Where yeah, you know, like and when we did a
table read, and after the table read, Phil and I
sat down to compare notes and both of us had
the exact same note written huge on the first page,
needs to.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Be funnier it.
Speaker 6 (12:10):
We were just like, oh, we thought this was like
this really funny movie, and we you know, we just
dawned on. It's like we have to go back to
the drawing board. Here we have, we're missing a lot
of opportunities.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
That is why I'm a huge, huge fan of table reads,
and I suggest that's one of my major, my top
suggestions every time when people ask me advice for screenwriting,
like say that shit out loud, because you will quickly learn, hey,
this doesn't sound like human language, and there's there's no
really other way to do it besides hearing it in
your ear poles.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I think, I don't know.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Well, and a lot of the people that were at
our table read wound up being in the movie.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Oh nice.
Speaker 6 (12:51):
So it was kind of amazing because we got to
hear it in their voices and a lot of them
came up with really great jokes and really great kind
of ad during the table read that wound up in
the final script.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Now, I want to know who played my role in
the table read, but I'll ask you guys that later.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Your your role was a man. Originally Porter was a man.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Oh really yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That was one of the things we changed after the
table read, was we we we changed it to be
Cipher's mom.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Wow yeah, wow, Well, I'm so glad you did, because
it would have been a lot harder for me done it.
Speaker 5 (13:31):
If anybody yeah the chops, you've got.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
The chops chopped, sure, but looks yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So Actually, Laura, I was going to ask how you
came onto the project, and it sounds like you were.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You auditioned and.
Speaker 4 (13:46):
Got har I did, but but I find it it's
for me. It's my most I learned more. I learned
a bigger lesson from this process of auditioning as an
actor than ever before, because in you know, nearly twenty
years nope, not nearly twenty one years in the Union.
(14:09):
As of this year, I had never and this is
now that I'm saying this out loud, it sounds ridiculous,
but I had never asked someone if I could audition
for their project. I just relied on agents and friends,
and you know, I didn't really, I don't know. I'm
just too much of a people pleaser, I think to
(14:30):
put people out working on it in case, you know,
my therapist is listening. But I tangentially knew these guys.
We were acquainted, and I was I coach actors as well.
I'm a teacher as well, and I was coaching young
men for the role for the lead role in this film,
and after the second, you know, I was reading this
(14:52):
role porter with them in the audition, and I thought, man,
I think I think I might be good for this part,
you know. And I don't usually have that experience either.
I mean, all actors think they're great for every role,
but after twenty years you realize that's not true, you know.
So I had Phil's phone number and I texted him
(15:12):
and I just said, Hey, I'd really liked audition. If
you see fit, I would love to come in for
any role you see fit. I don't remember what else
I said, something like, I'm just so excited you guys
are making a movie in Nashville. I want to do
whatever I can, you know. And so three days later
I got an audition. I didn't know. I don't know still,
(15:33):
I don't know if we've talked about this, but if
I would have gotten the audition, but I don't think
I would have because first of all, I sent it
in late, which I've also never done. I've never sent
in an audition in late. But my kid broke her
arm and my weekend got screwed up. Anyways, so I
sent it in late, and I remember thinking, it doesn't matter.
(15:54):
I'm not I'm once I got the breakdown for her.
I was like, I'm not old enough. They're looking to
go about ten years older than me. So anyway, I'll
do the audition and it'll be fun. So I do
the audition, I send it in late. They happen to
have production offices in the same building as my studio.
I walked down and popped my head into their office
and said, hey, guys, I just want to let you
know I'm sorry. I don't usually send things in late,
(16:14):
you know, And because we knew each other, I didn't
want it to be awkward when they didn't give me
the role, so I said, you know, I might see
them in the hall or something. So I said, and also,
I know, thank you for the audition. I know I'm
not right for this role. And Danny, do you remember
(16:35):
what you said?
Speaker 3 (16:36):
I no, I don't. Please please remind me.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
You said, he said instantly. He was like, yeah, you're
too young. But there's this other role. It's a you know,
co star one line or whatever, and it was supposed
to be a dude, but we think you could play
it weight I'm sensing a pattern. Now I'm super butch,
so I I was like, yeah, I literally said, I
(17:03):
will work craft services for you guys. I'm so grateful
that this movie is being made here in town. Thank
you for doing that. And I left and I was
watching a movie with my family three nights later and
I got a text from Phil and it was like, hey,
thanks so much. It was really sweet, as he is,
and I thought he was just He was like, we
(17:23):
all agreed that you know you your tape was the best.
And I was like, wow, Phil, thanks so much. You know,
as an actor, you never get feedback like this. You
just never hear anything. And it really means a lot
to me that you would do that even though I'm
not getting the role or whatever. And he was like, no, no, no,
you don't understand. You have the part and we're gonna
(17:44):
I think you said we're going to aid your daughter
down just a tad to make it work or something
like that, and I, you know, started crying. I'm sure,
because that's that's what we do. But that's how I
got the part. I asked for an audition, and I
don't think I would have gotten one otherwise.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
That sounds like, despite your best efforts. You've still got
cast right.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It was a fantastic audition.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
I do remember that, and yeah, I mean I think
we we really kind of just decided like, hey, this
is sci fi.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
We can make up whatever we want any.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
You know, we and you know, I don't want to
give away too much, but within the within the film, uh,
some circumstances arise that can easily explain away age difference.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
We weren't too worried about it.
Speaker 4 (18:32):
It works. I still can't believe it. I still can't
believe it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
It's truly.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
I wrote a I tend to write horror and sci
fi kind of stuff. But a few years ago and
I was getting my master's, I wrote a comedy script.
And I'd written comedy before. But I mean, this is
a full like comedy feature. And you're you're so right
about like the freeing aspect of it. It's like this
doesn't have to make one hundred sense because it's funny
(18:59):
when it does makes sense, Like you can just go
for it. Like there's pretty strict rules and horror and
other stuff. You know, there's some there's some things you
just got to make sure you do, but comedy whatever
gets the people laughing, is all that matters.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Just get them laughing and you're good.
Speaker 6 (19:18):
Yeah, I mean that's certainly my kind of philosophy on it.
And as a co writer, Philip is great at kind
of dragging me back into the realm of like, well,
why does this happen? You know, I'm he we would
I would write something and then he would kind of
be the devil's advocate there and be like, yeah, but
(19:38):
I mean, we have to figure out why it does
it like, And so it ended up creating a lot
of depth to the to the movie that otherwise wouldn't
have been there.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
And I'm so thankful that he did. I wasn't at
the time.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
I was very stand offish about it and defensive, but
but yeah, I mean, you know, when you watch the movie,
I think it comes out that we actually really did
sit down and think about like why this world functions
the way it functions, what everything is, what it does,
and it created a nice depth to the world in
(20:12):
the world building that I think you probably won't find
on a lot of like movies of this size and budget.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So I'm really curious you guys are talking about the
Nashville film industry. I'm I'm just I'm just in here
thinking about it. Like, so right now in Atlanta, we've
got this, I mean, things are pretty much did uh,
pretty much in the toilet. And yeah, it's it's weird.
We're in this weird position where and we're talking about
it now. We don't we didn't really really have a
(20:41):
lot of house building in that we don't have a
lot of stuff coming from here. You know, we have
Marvel and all the stuff shooting here when it shoots here,
and it's great, but a lot of our stuff isn't
getting made here from us because we don't have access
to anything. How how is it in Tennessee in a
specific Nashville?
Speaker 6 (21:02):
Uh, well, I'm you know, I'm lucky enough right now
to be working on a Bloomhouse show for Amazon called Scarpetta.
Uh so we're we're shooting the first season of that
right now. But that's about the only game in town
right now. There's there's still music videos and commercials, and
Nashville has always had that. It's a music city, so
(21:25):
you know, it is music city. So there's always been
music video work here in smaller production. But I've always
kind of been in the the long form world. So
it's been rough, you know, like this, this is the first,
this is the first gig that I've had, like a
long form gig since.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
Gosh and a year and a half.
Speaker 6 (21:52):
I was, I mean, I was delivering food, I was
doing I was I was door dashing, I was I
worked at any or any ensper for a little while
to make ends me like, I was just doing whatever
needed I needed to do to kind of keep the
dream alive.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
And so, you know.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
It's it's been rough, and I think it's rough across
the board. I've got friends in LA who are in
the same position outing like, hey, you know, when work
coming back, I'm we're struggling.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
I can't. You know.
Speaker 6 (22:20):
It's it's when you built your career on this assumption
that you know there's always another job down the line,
which we all did, you know, like we always had
kind of you kind of knew like once you had
your reputation, you're good, you're something will come along. And
nothing came along, man, And it's been it's been tough.
I've seen a lot of people just bow out of
the industry.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Mm hmm, yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Same here.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I mean some of the top names I mean in here,
like my buddy Molly Coffee who started the podcast with me,
and she's even she has been struggling and she's like
the number one set deck person design or whatever in Atlanta.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Like if she's not working, like things are dire. But
how is it? How is it?
Speaker 2 (23:02):
How does Tennessee handle Do you guys have the tax
credits and all that stuff? Like is the old overall industry?
Like do you feel like it's really rising up regardless
of the current climate or whatever, but like overall, do
you feel like it's it's climbing up in the world
and get more stuff?
Speaker 5 (23:18):
So glad you asked.
Speaker 7 (23:21):
By comparison in I believe twenty twenty two, Tennessee had
about thirteen million dollars in our available tax pool for
tax credits, and Georgia, which does not have a cap right,
you guys have got an uncapped rebate, did two billion
that year.
Speaker 5 (23:38):
You know, So, like Tennessee is the smallest fish.
Speaker 7 (23:41):
In the region for TV and film credits compared to Kentucky,
North Carolina and Georgia. But with that said, our project
was small enough that when we rereached out to the
Tennessee Entertainment Commission and told them what we were doing,
they said, yeah, we'll probably have some money left for
something that's small. Soually applied for and did two and
(24:02):
a half years worth of paperwork to receive a twenty
five percent rebate on all qualified Tennessee expenditures.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Wow and that money.
Speaker 7 (24:10):
Yes, So dude, it's like that's the indie dream, right,
there's a rebate out there.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
We did it.
Speaker 7 (24:16):
We got that money, and that's what's helped us fund
our marketing push.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Now.
Speaker 7 (24:21):
You know, so often filmmakers, we dump all the money
into the project and when it comes time to let
people know about it, there's nothing left to let them
and we just hope that word of mouth takes it
or we get into a big festival or whatever. And
so yeah, I can say again, by comparison, the tax
credit is much smaller than a lot of our competitive states.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
But for us, it worked out great.
Speaker 7 (24:44):
And just you know, just like Danny's story, I mean,
it's all part of our origin story. And when Danny
was was delivering food or whatever, I was like, dude,
this is all part of the origin story.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
You know.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
Of this in years to come.
Speaker 6 (24:58):
You know, his optimism fell on deaf ears, I assure you.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Well, but uh, it's it's always been next I mean,
I'll let Laura to speak to this. It's always been
next to impossible to be. I don't think you're going
to be a full time actor in Nashville. There's just
not enough work. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Well, I mean, if you mean, like you don't have
to do other things, what do you define the full time?
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:25):
Yeah, like that's that's you know, I mean, that's always
the giveaway questions like cool, what's.
Speaker 3 (25:28):
Your day job?
Speaker 5 (25:29):
What do you do for money?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
You know, for most of my creative friends, because it's
rare for people like like you. Through you know, through
your Laura is an accomplished acting teacher and Danny is
an accomplished prop master, and they've found a way to
get to do what they love kind of within our industry,
but most people don't.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:49):
Yeah, it's like a means to an end that turned into,
you know, great gratefully turned into something that I actually
really do love because I love acting so much and
such a nerd about it that it winds up here
just sitting around, sharing your experience and talking about the
thing you love all the time. So or at least
(26:10):
two nights a week so yeah, but most people here,
I mean I do know people that live here that
don't have other jobs, but they got they were established
names before they moved back here. Anybody who starts here,
you know, has to kind of leave here probably a lot.
(26:33):
And that's anything. I think. This is the only, maybe
the second thing I've ever shot in.
Speaker 7 (26:37):
Nashville, and we see that as an opportunity to plan
a flag like we want to be the Robert Rodriguez
or you know, the guys that are like, hey, this
is what Nashville film scene looks like. You know, we're
the indie creators here making it happen, So that lack
of somebody able to make it happen look like an
opportunity to us to be the guys or to be
(26:59):
the team.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
You know.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
No, yeah, I that's I mean, that's amazing that you
that you got any help from because Georgia does. We
just don't have. We don't have, That's what I talking about.
We don't We're not building houses like there.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
We don't have. We don't even have that. They don't
give us anything.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
And we've been talked about like like like you talk
about that billions of dollars literally none of it comes
back to you know, uh fucking Cronenberg started his career
in Canada because Canada was like, here's some money, go
make some weird shit, and he did and he got
famous like it just kind of So that's really that's
really cool that Tennessee is doing that. I I am jealous,
(27:41):
but I'm very happy for you guys because it sounds
like they're maybe being a little bit more careful. But
I think they It sounds like they've got some some
good heads on their shoulders.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
That's cool, thanks man.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, So anyway, uh, back to Clone Cops.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
All right.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
So, yeah, you've got another screening coming up up in
Atlanta after the frozen craziness that happened. Tell us more
about that and what we can where else where else
are you headed?
Speaker 8 (28:10):
Actually?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Where where's the tour going?
Speaker 7 (28:13):
Yeah, we're headed tomorrow to San Francisco and we'll do
a screening out there on Thursday the twenty third. Then
we're back here in Nashville for a screening on Saturday,
the twenty fifth. Then we're back to Los Angeles for
Thursday the thirtieth, and then from there we fly to
New York City for February the first, so we're you know,
(28:36):
we're leaving no stone unturned the film. And then the
film comes out January thirty first, both in theaters as
well as on all your favorite VOD platforms, whether that's Amazon,
Apple TV, Fendego Home and just as of today. Actually
we added two more theaters for week long runs that
ended up just kind of falling in our lap and
(28:57):
we're like, oh, this looks cool.
Speaker 5 (28:58):
Well here, yeah, yeah, hot seting.
Speaker 7 (29:02):
Yeah, it's great. It's been so hard to like be
you know, we would have missed out on all this
if we would have just said, yeah, theatricals hard, let's
skip it. And instead we've gotten this incredible experience. And
again we've really been able to create some great relationships
and connections with people in the cities we visited. And
so yeah, so New York on the first, and then
(29:27):
I believe we'll be in it at We qualified for
the Boston sci Fi, the fiftieth Boston Sci Fi.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, and that's in February.
Speaker 7 (29:36):
That's after the film came out, So we're working through
some distribution questions with them in terms of what that
might look like.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
And then and Snow definitely won't be an issue in.
Speaker 5 (29:46):
For that one Boston in February.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
No, they handled a business up there.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
That's right.
Speaker 7 (29:52):
And then and then and then we'll be in Birmingham
and Atlanta at the weekend of the twenty first and
twenty second for those makeup dates that you mentioned. And
we can't wait to get to Atlanta. Man, We've got
so many friends and family.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Uh.
Speaker 7 (30:04):
And uh Skylar Chillett, Yeah, one of our one of
our leads in the Gang.
Speaker 5 (30:13):
Uh, he lives in Atlanta, and I know he's looking.
Speaker 7 (30:16):
Forward to to watching the movies with his friends down
there as well.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
I I've talked to a lot of filmmakers that do
these these big tours.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
It just seems like the only is it it? Do
you think it?
Speaker 8 (30:28):
Is it?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
The only way? Is social media just kind of dead now?
Speaker 3 (30:32):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I don't even get any traction on Atlanta film chat
stuff anymore.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Like it's just there's it's just noise. I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Do you do you think that this kind of tour
is the only way to get indy like notice or
or is there something else out there?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Am I missing?
Speaker 3 (30:48):
Man? I mean I think that you're right, there's a
lot of noise.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
I kind of have felt like social media has been
a boon for us, oh.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
Just because it's.
Speaker 6 (31:01):
I think if we were trying to just like organically
break through all that clutter, that would be very difficult
to do. But because we did get that money back
and we are able to put some money into our marketing,
social media gives you this really robust tool set to
advertise your film to people who you know, Taylor those
(31:22):
ads exactly to where they're.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
Going to do the most good.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
So instead of us just flooding people's feeds with something
they're not interested in, we're able to like say like, hey,
if you liked these other movies, you know that we
know we're kind of similar to or For instance, we
premiered our film at gen Con, which is the largest
tabletop gaming convention in the United States. There are seventy
(31:46):
thousand people in attendance, and so it allows us to say, hey,
here's to all those seventy thousand people. If you like
gen Con, you probably saw us. You know, we were
probably there, you probably talked to us at some point,
so we can feed and add directly to them, which
I think is great, not only because you know, it's
(32:06):
great for us, but it's great for the consumer as well,
because we're showing you something that we think you're probably
already going to be interested in.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
Hm.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
That's true. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah. I was going to say that these I've been
so impressed with these two. You know, I'm not gonna
make them make their egos grow too much. But we wouldn't.
We wouldn't be able to take it, would we. But
I I think that you know, I've produced features as well,
and I have been in the industry a long time
(32:39):
in many many different more and many different hats, and
I have not seen anyone take the reins like they are.
And you know, Phil, we talked about the optimism and
these guys just they balance each other out really well.
They work together really well as writers, but also so
(33:00):
just as humans. And the optimism is like, well, we're
just going to do this and it's going to work,
and you know, and then it like does because they're
so they are willing to do the work in a
way that, you know, without the support behind you from
a studio, in indie studio or whatever it's it's it's
(33:22):
really remarkable to watch what they've done. The content that
they've created. It's just like relentless. Like every time I
open my thing and I'm like, oh I should post,
They've already posted like five times. I'm like, how are
they doing that? You know, it's really impressive and it works.
And I think that's the thing is you have to
be willing to do that work, and not just the
(33:42):
work of like creating the content, but the work of
who do I target? I mean, that's so important what
you just said about gen con right, who's my demographic?
That's the work that most people hire other people to
do that stuff, you know. And it's not like they
don't have support and and a team behind them, but
I see them kind of boots on the ground doing
(34:04):
so much themselves. And it's not a coincidence that it's
doing well.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Well. You know, we thank you, and my ego is
now ginormous.
Speaker 7 (34:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (34:16):
Now we talk only Yeah.
Speaker 5 (34:18):
We.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
We talked a lot about and we continue. Philip and
I kind of we call them our Friday pop up talks. Uh,
it's like once a week, I feel like we we
get on the phone and we talk about how this
is gonna work. It's gonna work, right, It's gotta work.
But one of the things that we kind of keep
coming back to and to any filmmakers that are out
(34:45):
there listening to this, Uh, nobody's gonna care about your
project more than you do. If you wanted to succeed,
you have to be the one that's at the front
with the banner leading the charge. And you know, getting
distribution was huge and amazing and great, and Freestyle has
been a wonderful partner for us. And it's not that
they don't care. They just don't care as much as
(35:07):
I do, and they never will and they shouldn't, you know.
I That's that's just the truth of it. And so
that's kind of the tact that we've taken is this
is our chance. This is the one I'm calling in
every favor, Chuck. I sent mass emails, I've I spammed.
I've never spammed, but you know, it's just kind of like,
(35:27):
I'm gonna do it because it's it's the one time
that I'm ever going to do this, and I want
to make sure I turn over every stone. So yeah,
it's been it's been great and incredible to do and
it certainly does get tiring. But again, you know, we
were we were doing this weekend tour and uh. And
(35:49):
I'm working sixty hours a week already on this show,
so it's certainly tiring. But every time I start to
feel worn down, I just think, like, man, this is
the thing you wanted, you know, I'm getting to do
the thing I've always thought. How cool would it be
to tour the country with your movie showing it in theaters?
And now I'm getting to do that. And it's like, yeah,
(36:10):
you might be tired, but you only tired, tired, temporary,
but this is an experience that I'll I'll have the
rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
That's really cool.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
And yeah, you're you're right, Uh, I mean, yeah, no
one will. No one will love your film as much
as you do. It's just not possible because it, you know,
spring from your your brain and you put in your
life experiences into it, and like probably you know, like
if you're like me, look everything it ever happened to
you springs up into mind, Like how do I fit
(36:41):
this into the script?
Speaker 8 (36:43):
Right?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (36:45):
And then it I think as a writer, you probably
appreciate this too, Like every time something weird is happening
to me in my life, I'm like, this is great,
this is incredible. That this is happening. I'm gonna put
this in a script. This is the weirdest thing.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Always my first thought.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah, yep.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
That gratitude that they're talking. I mean, they didn't use
the word, but like, that's what I hear, is that
there's this gratitude about this team that they embody in
a way that is so rare. And it also applied
to set, which was an unbelievable experience. And you know,
(37:24):
I had just done a couple episodes of television and
kind of sandwiched this movie on, you know, with these
episodes and that vibe, you know, which I'm so so
grateful to get to experience. Anytime I do is just
so different than what these guys created. And I think
because they understand what that's like, they were like, you
(37:46):
know what, we're going to have a really awesome set.
You guys are going to get to go home for
dinner with your families. We can do this, We can
we can do this, right, Yeah, we can do it.
And everybody they hired from the top down was just lovely,
Like the whole set. I couldn't wait to go to
work every day. I can't wait till they make clone
(38:08):
cops too and put me in every scene and you know,
but for real, they're just they're special. And I think
it comes through in the movie too, you know that
that translates and the joy, the joy making the film
comes through when you're watching it. In my opinion, I've
only seen it, you know, five times.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Well, that's very thank you, Laura, that's very nice.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
Well, don't get used to it, Danny.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
No, Yeah, the well I was, okay, I'm gonna be
a name dropper.
Speaker 4 (38:40):
Sorry.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
I was talking to Oz Perkins, director of Long Legs
of the Monkey, and he was.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
Actually talking about that too.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
He said, I don't understand why people are jerks on
movie sets. We're literally making dreams happen. Why would anybody
be an asshole? Like, like, why would I want to
work with it anybody who's a jerk and gonna stink
up my set? I want to work with people I like.
And I was like, yeah, that seems like there's such
an obvious thing. But yeah, like why would you want
(39:08):
to work with a jerk? Even if it's like the
biggest star in the world, Like it's just like a
set cancer get away, Like we're having fun here, dude,
what are you doing?
Speaker 4 (39:17):
Yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 6 (39:17):
Mean, and I've worked on some really you know, I
did a show called Women of the Movement that was
about Emmitt Till It was a very heavy, you know,
very heavy subject matter, and you certainly want to be
respectful of those those things, you know, And it's when
when an actor is trying to get where they need
to get for a scene that's super heavy, Like the
(39:38):
last thing you want is a couple of goobers over
craft services yucking it up, you know. Like, so you know,
I think there's I think there's a level of respect
for people's work that you need to maintain. But it's
the same time, like that's what I say all the time,
is like, hey, we're making this is make Believe. We're
doing make Believe today, so it should be fun. And
(40:02):
we all got into this because we love it. Nobody
there's a lot easier ways to make money than working
in film and and so you know, I mean it's like, yeah, man,
you we're here because we love it.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:15):
So that's really nice to hear from Laura about that,
because we really did try to make make sure that
people were taken care of and respected and for me.
A big part of that too, is there's a line
in the movie that's making fun of me. That's where
(40:35):
a character says it's a collaborative art, because it is,
and I firmly believe that filmmaking is very collaborative. And
I love like you were saying earlier, like every character
is me and Phil. You know, that's all we can write.
That's all I know is my life experience. So every
character is a facet of our personalities. So I love
(40:55):
when an actor comes in and takes with that over
and creates their own version of that. And it was
fantastic to work with all all the actors in this
film because they were all so good at not only
you know, performing the words on the page, but in
creating their own takes on it and and talking about
(41:18):
and asking if they can change lines.
Speaker 3 (41:19):
And that's which I love.
Speaker 6 (41:20):
I'm all about it because if you come up with
a better line, I still get credit for it.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
So about that, actually, Dandy, I wanted to. I know
it's awkward to do it here, but you know, while
I didn't actually feel respected, but it was a very.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Pleasant I need to be kind of the opposite of like,
if you change any of my words. I'll fire you,
not not really, but like still you get that twinge
in your chest.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I remember I remember a guy I was working.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
On a TV show, a TV pilot that I wrote,
and one of the actors was like, came up and
I was like, Hey, what do you think about this edition?
I was like, oh, damn it, that's funnier than anything
I wrote.
Speaker 4 (42:04):
Yeah, yes, with comedy, it's especially I think that that
happens a lot more in my experience, like I didn't,
I don't recall well. I also went to like the
David Mammontt school of acting, where you never ever, ever
ever changed one word. But I don't remember doing that
(42:26):
at all, but I but a lot. I also don't
really get to be funny in this movie. I do
kind of a lot of the like you know, but
I don't want to give anything away, but I do
some like emotional heavy lifting. But all the other folks
I watched the collaboration with them and it was really
really interesting. There was one moment where I was like, hey,
I don't know why I can't say this line. I
(42:48):
don't know, I don't remember what it was, but it
was just not working. It was like not coming out
of my mouth, and he was like change and he
was like change what feels better? Yeah, that's stupid, let's
change it. It was so easy and chill. And I
really respect when when writer, directors or just I respect
not changing it too you. I mean, people work really
hard on that stuff for a lot longer than I have,
(43:10):
you know, but it's cool that you can be flexible.
Speaker 6 (43:14):
Well, and I think that was kind of a bin
I've worked on so many TV shows and movies where
the writer, you know, is in La or somewhere else,
and so you are kind of locked in to the
words on the page because no, this is this is
the script that the studio bought, and this is what
needs to be delivered to the editor, and so you
(43:34):
do that. But knowing that Phil and I wrote it
and I was going to edit it, it just made
it easy for us to be able to say, like, well,
this isn't working, let's just change this.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
And we did it a bunch.
Speaker 6 (43:47):
I mean there were plenty of times where things that
could have been shows stopping hurdles turned into bonuses, you know,
because we just rolled with it and said, well, that's
not going to work, so what can we do that's
better and we would come up with another idea and
shoot that instead. And I'm very grateful for those moments
(44:08):
as well.
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Nice like dying with your eyes open. I'm not going
to say who, Hey, I'm not going to say who. Yeah,
some actor decided.
Speaker 6 (44:21):
Some actor decided that they should die with their eyes
open and had to had to stare at a wall
and get dust motes in their eyes for entire takes.
Speaker 4 (44:32):
Yeah, that what an idiot? What an idiot. We'll just
not name any names, you know, but well we'll.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Find out who that is when Clone Cops comes to
the Tarra in February. Tell everyone again when the screening
is and where can we find information about the movie
and yourselves?
Speaker 7 (44:52):
Yeah, that screening is Saturday, February twenty second at six
pm at the Terror Theater and you can find details
and gets at Clone copsmovie dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
And uh, do you guys have any personal websites or
Instagram's or whatever?
Speaker 1 (45:09):
TikTok. That's back now, I guess anything you want.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
To throw out there, it's a day at a time
with TikTok. Yeah, Hi, you can find me on Instagram
at Hey Laura Holloway h O L l O W
A Y and I have a podcast called The Actors Helpline,
which you can find on the socials as well. And
I guess i'll plug my acting studio, which is the
studio for Acting in Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (45:32):
Nice. Yeah, plug anything you want.
Speaker 7 (45:35):
Yeah, you can find me at Philip dot Cordell on
the gram and uh and of course at clone Cops
on all social platforms.
Speaker 5 (45:43):
We're out there. We're on YouTube, we're on TikTok, we're
on Instagram.
Speaker 6 (45:48):
Yeah, and I'm Danny dot Dones on Instagram. But it's
basically a second Clone Cops account.
Speaker 3 (45:55):
That's pretty much.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
All I close, right, No, I guess it always the
repost this like it's all the same stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, but you gotta do it.
Speaker 4 (46:05):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
But Yeah, I really appreciate y'all coming on and talking
about this great stuff. And I can't wait to meet
hopefully all three of y'all in person at the being
at the Tara.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
I'm very excited. Thanks for coming.
Speaker 3 (46:18):
Yeah, we're super excited. Can't wait to see you, and
thanks so much for having me appreciate it.
Speaker 8 (46:22):
Thanks Chuck, Thanks for listening to Atlanta Film Shit. Subscribe
on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcast.
The show is produced by Trankle Aggression Productions and Zombie
(46:43):
Cat Productions. Your host is Chuck Thomas. Editing is by
Josh we goal Key. The soundtrack is by Michael Breezy
Keys Joe I am your humble announcer Rob Scheimer. Remember
you are your own big this trained, So go out,
make your projects and don't let anyone stop you.
Speaker 7 (47:18):
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