BPS 430: Shooting Sharks in Your Living Room: The Art of DIY Filmmaking with Ron Bonk

In this episode, we dive into the wild, wonderful world of Ron Bonk, an indie filmmaker and founder of SRS Cinema known for the cult horror-comedy House Shark. Ron shares his journey from studying accounting and criminal justice to becoming a self-taught director, driven by a passion for storytelling and a deep love for genre cinema. With no Hollywood backing, Ron used camcorders, community college equipment, and his own home as a film set to bring his visions to life. House Shark began as a joke about roof noises and turned into a full-blown production that he wrote, directed, and shot over a year. His philosophy? Use what you have, stay true to your weird ideas, and don't be afraid to break the rules. He talks about the challenges and joys of indie filmmaking, how crowdfunding works behind the scenes, and why authenticity matters more than perfection. As Ron puts it, “You tell people whatever they need to hear in order to keep shooting.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four thirty.
The greatest lesson about filmmaking is to never take no
for an answer, especially if you have a lot of
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
Room in Hollywood when we really should be working on
that next draft. It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you
the craft and business of screenwriting while teaching you how
to make your screenplay bulletproof. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now, today's show
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(01:37):
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
My next guest is a filmmaker and founder and the
head of the distributor SRS Cinema. His latest film, How Shark,
is an Amazon prom prime right now, Yes, I said
How Shark with guest Ron Bank.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
You know, I grew up liking making up stories and
knack them out with friends. Didn't have a you know,
a film camera or video cameras before you know, video
before camp quarterers really came along. And I had always thought,
you know, like that would be the dream to direct movies,
but didn't really take it serious. You don't think it

(02:18):
was feasible basically, so, you know, went off to school
for a variety of other things, but after doing it,
for a while, long story short, decided that hey, you know,
I took the wrong route. The thing I wanted to
do was to make movies. Meanwhile, though I had already
you know, I had a bunch of years in college,
you know, didn't want to continue in college, wanted to

(02:40):
you know, I didn't want to accumulate any more debt,
and so started looking into what, you know, how I
could do this, and in the process of being self trained,
you know, I was learning about film and how expensive
it was to make a movie and it's looking at
a minimum of like one hundred thousand dollars to you know,
to shoot anything on film, according to like the best

(03:01):
you know sources, which obviously it has been done for cheaper,
but that's what I was, you know, hearing, you know,
pretty much caught across the board at the time, and
then eventually came across the idea of shooting at you know,
cam quarters, which would become more prevalent. And they were
still pretty expensive and you know, not as user friendly,

(03:23):
you know, as they would they would come to be,
but they you know, I think of the first one
I got was twenty five hundred and thirty five hundred dollars.
It was as PHS Cam quarter. I mean it's really
it was a solid machine, did a good job, but
it you know, created an option for me. Maybe it
wasn't that much. He's just been so long. Maybe it
was like twenty to fifteen hundred, But anyway, I got

(03:47):
that and started making the movies on video, and you know,
proceeded from there. I've only shod a little bit of
stuff on film. Everything that was released was a little
bit in my college, you know, and in my college
years when I decided to become a filmmaker, I took
a few film classes, but for the most part, uh,
you know, went from the analog video to digital nowadays,

(04:08):
shooting on HD for She Kills in four K for
House Shark.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
So when you were in college, Ron, you know, did
did you actually try to film on campus at all?
Like did you try to like grab any any of
the equipment from like the av studio or anything, just
try to film anything there?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
No, what it happened is I had I mean I
guess a little bit what I had shot or I'd
been to school for four years and have been had
an associates in accounting. I was working on a criminal
justice degree when I decided to switch over to film,
so I for I went to a fifth year of school.
But it was just like the unit a college. They
had a TV and uh well basically TV classes there,

(04:49):
so uh, you know, we were I was using their
camp quarters and their VCRs. You know, they had like
high end decks. Might have been shooting on some beta
camp for the TV stuff, you know, like the studio stuff.
But you know, I was able to borrow their camp
quarter to shoot on vhs off campus. But I also

(05:09):
took there. That was a Monroe Community College in Rochester,
but at Brockport nearby. I took a single film class
each semester, and we were shooting on film for that.
So they had Bowlex sixty milimeter camera that we can borrow.
But the two things I shot on film, they both

(05:29):
I think I shot them almost exclusive within the apartments
I was renting at the time. So and then the
stuff I shot with video. I remember doing some exterior
stuff of like the apartments you know I was renting,
you know, run that I think a different one each
each semester. No, maybe it was one over both semesters.
But now I didn't really get down into the school

(05:51):
unless you know, there was stuff we were doing for
the TV classes around the school, so it was a
very short period. Didn't really do a lot there. I
mean I really didn't get out there with a camp
quarder until I was out of school, uh, you know,
working full time and the antique business and had invested
in the camp Corrider and I shot like an instructional
video first, was down in Florida for half the year,

(06:14):
and then once I got back, I shot my first feature.
And that's when I really for the first time got
out and was being artistic with a camera, you know,
on a regular basis.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
So so Ron when you were made a change from
accounting and with a criminal justice background to to you know,
wanting to do wanting to just go into film. You
know where people like say what do they say that?
Run your nuts?

Speaker 3 (06:36):
Ers?

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Or like you Ron, what the hell you're thinking?

Speaker 3 (06:40):
More so back then, but nowadays not so much. I
mean there's still you know, for this area, there's still
people be surprised, but Syracuse has grown that the film
community has grown, and there's there's you know, it's not
that uncommon for there to be a sizable production in
the area. You know, a few times a year. So

(07:02):
if I say, you know, I make movies, you know,
I produce and distribute features, I don't get like when
I start off, I'd always get like, oh, pornos, you know,
but like another they're logo tot you know, horror movies,
and a lot of people weren't educated or still aren't
even educated to the fact that you could shoot on
Assumer brand you know, VHS cameras and distribute those movies,

(07:26):
you know, during the eighties, you know, late eighties and nineties.
But nowadays, like I said, if I mention it, you know,
it's still true with surprise, you know, maybe a little
bit of skepticism, but most part it's it's more like
oh yeah, cool, and then I'll usually get a follow up,
but like, are you're part of this production that they
might have read about recently, you know on an area
or something like that.

Speaker 4 (07:48):
That's where you should say the hell, yeah I am,
you know, because like what I used to fill in
parts and stuff like that, Like people would still you know,
they see you with a camera whenever you and I'm
not talking about like a dsl R, but I'm talking
about like anything that looks like a camcorder, you know,
like a bigger variety of the camporders, whether it be
mini TV or digital. People associate that with like professional

(08:10):
grade cameras. As soon as they see that, it's like,
oh my god, this this guy must know what he's doing.
But you know, when they're talking to me a little bit,
do they know that I'm a complete lunatic? So what happens?
So when I when I you know, when I'm out
filming stuff, we know, no matter what it was, people
would stop and they'd say, oh my god, you gott
are you filming some kind of movie? And I would
just say, oh, hell, yeah, I'm Micky, you know, no

(08:30):
matter what, you know what, I'm just like, yeah, I
mean why not?

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Yeah, we just just to the h Yeah. You can
almost be like a chameleon, you know. He So I'll
adjust to whatever the setting is. So if i'm just
you know, say I'm meeting someone in a casual setting,
I'll be more clear about what I do. But if
I'm out at the park and someone seems interested, I
might be like, yeah, I'm shooting a movie, you know,

(08:55):
or I'm shooting a documentary, or yes I am part
of this group, or or for you they can get
away with like, oh, it's a it's a college film,
you know, you know, if cops are interested, you know anything,
so so yeah, you kind of It's kind of like,
you know, he's equated to the Edwarod movie when he
was trying to you know, get the church to you know,
fund his production, and he would tell him whatever they

(09:17):
needed to to hear in order to get that money. Basically,
tell people whatever you think they need to hear in
order to be able to keep shooting. You know.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
Yeah, that's so true. And you know that's one of
the benefits of being in college or just out of college.
You can always say, hey, I'm just shooting a student film,
and usually everyone's kind of cool with that, and like, oh,
now if you're a student, all right, we'll be a
little more lenient on you. What if you call location
up and you're like, hey, you're Almo, a senior in college.
I need some help with this. You know, people are

(09:49):
you know a little more willing to help. You know,
you try to got it you.

Speaker 3 (09:53):
Have to do.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
You should want to get away with that and use
that card as much as you can.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Sure, yeah, I told my nephew's getting ready to he's
a finish champ his senior year, and he, uh, he's
getting ready to you know, he wants to gear up
and do his first feature. It's called blind Cop two
and there's no Blind Cop one. It's just called blind
Cop two. And I told him to use that as
much as possible. And he was like, really, won't people like,
you know, you guys being professional and stuff. And I

(10:30):
told him the same things that you know, you tell
people you're doing a college you know, your college to
making a college you know project or working on a
college show the assignment, and you know they're going to
be more forgiving, more, willing to work with you more,
you know, will and let you get away with more
as opposed to being like, no, this is a professional feature.
Then suddenly you know it could change anything like oh, okay,

(10:52):
well how much you're going to pay me, you know,
to use my location or or whatever, you know.

Speaker 4 (10:57):
And he also has to built an excuse to of
I don't know. So somebody goes, hey can't you can't
you can't be filming Blonde Cop two out here? And
he can go hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know. I'm
just a student. So it's like it's such a great
get out of jail free card.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
Oh yeah, I definitely. It works with the you know
everywhere from like you said, building businesses to the police,
you know, like, hey, you got to permit, you know,
do a permission to go into there. Oh I thought
it was public area. I'm just a college student.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
And then most of time, you know, you can get
away with it, so you can you can take that
risk and hope, you know, hey, I'm gonna you know,
I'm going to give it a try and get in
out there as quick as I can and get some
cool production values.

Speaker 4 (11:41):
Yeah, exactly right. And then you can always say you're
shooting a documentary, so it's kind of like I'm just
shooting this documentary. But you know, when you were in
college and you were, you know, filming things in your
apartment and just using the locations you had, you know,
what point did you, you know, start to say, because
I know you you mentioned you were the antiquing business
and you kind of you know, bought the so what
point did you start really taking it seriously?

Speaker 3 (12:05):
I mean I was taking it seriously. When I was,
you know, in college, I hadn't yet determined that, you know,
that last year college, I hadn't yet determined that I
was going to start making movies on camp quarters. I
remember even talking to someone in college about shooting on
camp quarters, and they immediately you know, like a fellow student,
but they'd been taking it for a few more years.

(12:27):
You know, they're actually in film class and there, oh no, no,
you can't shoot on camp quarters. So I pretty much
dismissed it. But I mean I was, you know, looking
at it, It's like, Okay, how can I go out
there and turn this into a living and also, uh,
you know, make the movies that I wanted to make,
you know, because I could easily gone down the root

(12:48):
of you know, shooting pornos or shooting wedding videos every weekend,
you know, and and both potentially I have a lot
of you know, like a good income in them. But
they weren't you know, some that was true to my heart.
So I wanted that was like how can I turn
still living? And you know, initially it was I'm going
to make some so amazing that you know, Hollywood be

(13:09):
paying me to sit out in Syracuse, New York, and
make indie films that I wanted to, you know, with
the stories I wanted to tell to, you know, reaching
the point after the first one was done, being like,
there's not really you know, any distributor I want to
give my movie to that I would trust that I
ever see another penny out. So I need to become
a distributor too, and release my own stuff. And and

(13:31):
that's how it's gone ever since. You know, I might
license out parts of the movies or or certain media rights,
or do my own initial release and then a why
to release of someone else, But you know, I, you know,
I still will make my movies and then do the
initial launch on my own. And lately with the last

(13:53):
couple of you know, pictures, the initial launch is at
least paid for the production, you know, if not more.

Speaker 4 (14:00):
You mentioned, you know, people who like shoot wedding videos
every weekend. You know, I had a friend who used
to do that where he he would do it part time.
He called it, you know, he would just go shoot
a couple of things on the weekend and he would
always be like, Hey, look I'm gonna make a movie
this and that, and he never ended. He ended up
where the wedding video gave ended up becoming his full
time job, and he you know, he was just go

(14:22):
every weekend he was shooting a new wedding and he
never actually made a movie. So it's very easy, it's
gonna be probably awarded that trap because it's very easy
to kind of get you know, sucked into that, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah, you can go right down that rabbit hole, and
it's hard to turn away from that kind of money.
And the you know, the weddings are weekends. You know,
that's usually ideal time to shoot if you're doing low
budget you know features is you know, people have you
have the you know, usually you have weekends off. People
you want to work on the movies have weekends off,
you know, So you know, unless you're gonna take you know, uh,

(14:53):
you know, three or four weeks stretch off from weddings
and just shoot a feature, and it seems like it's doable.
It's like it's something should be possible if you really
want to make a feature. But it's like you know,
having a job, you know and pay you know, regular
job and paying your bills every day, it's it's easy
to be like, well, I won't work on movies today
because I need to you know, all my bills aren't

(15:15):
paid this month, or I want to be able go
on vacation, or my kids need new clothes or whatever,
you know. So it's it's it's easier said than done.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Yeah, yeah, very true. And you know that. That's why,
you know, and I'm glad you didn't go that route.
And I also, you know, I had an option to
go that route, and I was like, hell with that.
I've made many many mistakes in my life, ron, but
that's not one of them. Us. So, uh, you know,
just to sort of with you know, with your career,
you know, just starting back with like a City of
Vampires even to now you know, making you know, she

(15:45):
Kills and House Shark. You know, what are some of
the strategies that you've used, uh, you know, when you're
approaching about you know, not about you know, writing and
producing these films.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
There's strategies. Let me think, I mean, most of the
movies that I've made, I mean, primage, all of them,
you know, start off with an idea that I liked
for some reason, you know, within the story, and said, Okay,
you know, I'm gonna write this out and is is
you know. And There's been scripts that I've written that
I've never made, and some I've always dreamed of maybe

(16:18):
didn't have the money. Some you know, I wrote and
just said, you know, you know I wasn't into or later,
you know, I plan to come back to and decide
I was no longer into or want to tell that story.
But if I finished the script and I really was
happy with it, then I was like, Okay, this is
the next thing I want to make, and then you
would go through the process of making. So there wasn't

(16:39):
necessarily I mean, nowadays sometimes i'd look for this strategy
as far as like the stuff I produce, where I'll go, Okay,
if I'm gonna put money into this, I want it
to sell, you know. So if it's a movie I'm
producing from afar, then you know there has to there
has to be more of a finance basis behind it.

(17:03):
If it's a movie I make for myself, then it's
more of like, hey, this is the story I want
to tell and I don't care if it fits financially
into anything. And and you know, you're lucky when that
stuff crossed over. It doesn't always, but you know, sometimes
you just rely on a movie to you know, hopefully
come out extra cool and it builds its own fan

(17:23):
base and and does recently well generates you know, at
least a modest profit. And I've been lucky with you know,
the last two She Kills a house Shark that they
both were able to do that, you know, she kills
with a grindhouse movie, you know, when there had already
been a lot of grindhouse type movies out there, so
the market was pretty saturated. I'd made it a few

(17:45):
years earlier, it would have had a lot more potential,
you know, it would have been a bigger release than
it was. But it's still you know, people responded to
it well. I had people were at fans of my
world for years, but this was something vastly different than
I'd done before. But they you know, you know, the

(18:05):
fans spread, you know, good words about it, and you know,
continues to sell and continues to build and was able
to you know, recoup before I went even into the
wide release. And howse shark. People loved the idea and
they happen to be the most marketable idea that I
had come up with. But I'd always wanted to do
a JAS movie. So I wasn't doing it because I

(18:26):
was like, oh, you know, this is gonna be a
big money maker. I was doing it because it was just,
you know, it was a story I wanted to tell.
And it was definitely, you know, the most expensive movie
that I directed myself. And I was lucky that the
campaign basically made enough money back to cover the cost
of making it, and then thanks to some outside sales,

(18:48):
I was able to cover the cost of running all
the media. Because people don't realize that you do, like
an Indigogo campaign, yeah you might make say you got
twenty I had like twenty one thousand house share, and
we did like twenty two thousand, so you know, with
all their fees and stuff, Yeah, the production was paid for,
but then it was like another ten grand. I think
it was actually twelve grand. And all the stuff that

(19:11):
had to be made for the campaign we end up
doing you know, full printed Blu rays and DVDs, you know,
fully replicated vhs and all these extras that I kept
adding to stretch goals, like stickers and pins and patches
and stuff like that. And you know, once I got
all that done, stuff done, the extra you know sales
I had were like, okay, I'm pretty much back to even.
So whatever it didn't sell from the campaign, I keep

(19:33):
selling this bonus money. And that was lucky enough to
get it like into Walmart and stuff and have it
do well and wide release. But I mean it came
out in August of last year, and just a few
weeks ago I actually got my first check from the
wide release, so I've had like this modest profit from

(19:54):
but then I finally got the first check from like
the Walmart deal and all the other sales around there.
Because all the money cost to release it and all
the money to get into Walmart and stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (20:05):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
Basically ate up all my profits, you know, for like
half a year that I had come and you know,
in distribution, so I was living off, you know, all
the limited releases I do and all the stuff I
do direct with fans and any additional house Sharrek sales
and the other movies that I made and stuff like that.
And then to finally see and so much it was

(20:35):
eating up. It was still worth it overall, but it's
it's just kind of diverged from your strategy question quite
a bit, but that's kind of where it starts. To
start with that initial strategy of of you know, the
twofold approach. Is a movie I'm making for myself, then
I'm not worried about making something that sells as much,

(20:56):
but I still try to make sure it'll sell. You know,
I don't want to lose, you know, like if how
share it cost me twenty one thousand and I want
to lose twenty one thousand on and I was a
matter of fact, I was sweating. So it was great
to get all that money back and have a successful
Indiegogo campaign pretty quick there. But if it's a movie
that I'm producing, uh, you know, strictly as a producer

(21:16):
to put money into it, letting a filmmaker and you know,
to reach his own vision and bring his own vision
to life with some you know, financial for me, then
I go, okay, but this has to be something that
sells for me. If I'm going you know, it's almost
guaranteed to be a good seller if I'm going to
put money into it.

Speaker 4 (21:36):
Yeah, you know, I've actually done a few inegog campaigns myself,
and you know I did it, you know, before it
became like a thing, like it became like the word kickstarter,
crowdfunding became, you know, part of the lexicon. And basically
I always told people like, you know, you know, once
you start, you know, making the perks, you know that
are part of your campaign, you know, you're starting to

(21:57):
realizing this is a big you have to kind of
add that in forehand. You know, you have to actually
start to calculate up all those numbers and add them
into the budget. Uh, and then what you have, you know,
what you need, what you really need, all that all
that good stuff, and uh, you know that that's something
that you know. I'm glad you brought that up because
it's always a good reminder, you know about that that
that stuff, because it's so easy to forget. You know,

(22:18):
you're you're focused on making a movie and you're like, oh, ship,
now I gotta you know, but see, Ron, that's where
your accounting degree comes in handy.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
Sure it does. It does help a little bit. You know,
it's been it's been a long time since uh, you know,
have taken accounting classes. But you know, coming out of
uh you know, coming out of those and going almost
right into business you know, for myself immediately, U it helped.
It made it easier for me to do at least
my own bookkeeping. I won't do my own taxes, you

(22:46):
I'll let professional account and handle that because they're they're
up to date on the the tax laws and all
that sort of stuff. But it does help, you know,
with the with the book keeping and going okay, is
this something I can apply to the business and how
should it be applied?

Speaker 4 (22:59):
That's true on it and if they can get al capone.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
They can get anybody true exactly.

Speaker 4 (23:05):
So you mentioned, you know, some of the grindhouse movies,
and you mentioned the you know, some of the oversaturation
of the market, and you know sometimes you know, maybe
the market's a little sugar saturator, what have you. You know,
what are some of the grindhouse movies that you saw
maybe when you were releasing you know, she Kills that
you were kind of like, you know, maybe there's too
many out there, because I mean, I remember when HBO
with a Shotgun came out. I was, you know, maybe Matchette,

(23:29):
you know, I'm really glad to see movies like that.
By the way, get like a wider release. I don't
know how many like, you know, kind of clones of
those that came out. But did you start to see
like a lot of movies sort of you know in
the space of where you were like or we're going,
you know, in the Walmart space.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Well, I didn't expect She Kills Again to Walmart, and
I didn't necessarily see too many of the grindhouse movies
in the Walmart stores. But I think when I was
really since She Kills Machete Kills had come out around
the same time and hand and done really well at
the box office. But I mean, I'd seen so many
low budget movies at least using that look, even if

(24:07):
they didn't really have the you know, the the They
didn't they weren't really trying to be grindhouse movies, but
they liked that looks, so they'd all the grain and
scratch and stuff like that, but weren't really capturing the
spirit of those movies. And then I had also noticed
a lot of movies that were trying to be grandhouse
movies were really more like eighties you know, horror movies

(24:28):
or action movies, using like a seventies grindhouse look by
adding again like scratches and grains and stuff, and that's
not really what the grindhouse movies looked like. They were
very unpolished. But I mean what movies. I mean, you
mentioned Hopot a Shotgun. It was a good example, you know,
but that was a movie that was had done really well.

(24:49):
Father's Day was another one that had that grindhouse look
or at least aesthetic that people were associating with it.
But outside of those and trying to think, what are
the ones I saw before for that, I don't remember
the low budget titles. I just remember seeing that look
so much. I don't know if that really helped, that
really answered your question.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Well, you know, you brought up some of the what
what I've seen a lot of recently is they're kind
of like to throwback to the eighties.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Now.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
I love the eighties, you know, I love the eighties
horror and you know, I love all that stuff. But
now I think there's so many attempts by filmmakers nowadays
to make something look like the eighties. You're starting to
get this kind of oversaturation in the market, you know
what I mean. And I think we kind of capped
out as stranger things and I think, you know what
I mean, I kind of think now it's starting to

(25:37):
get a little uh I want to say repetitious, So it.

Speaker 3 (25:42):
Could be on its way out for sure. I mean
I've noticed that. I think I saw, like my first
startup on like nineties horror, you know, we're gaining, you know,
in popularity. The thing with the eighties horror, though, is
it's one of the most i think iconic decades for horror.
So if you make a cool horror movie that has

(26:05):
you know, awesome you know or uh horror practical FX
in a you know, cool monster carries that just sort
of the vibe. You don't have to necessarily be like, hey,
let me throw you know, like nods to video games
or uh, you know, our video arcades or the clothing
or whatever, you know, into that. But you could still

(26:26):
there's a lot of great horror movies that capture the
eighties vibe without you know, looking like they were made
in the eighties. So I mean, I think that's something
that could never you know, get old if it's if
it's done right. But but overdoing the nostalgia can certainly
you know, burn itself out on any you know before
the eighties and seventies you know movies, not just the Grindhouse.

(26:48):
But you know, seventies horror in general was uh, you know,
it was the hot topic, you know, and then I see, uh,
it was a little more prevalent a year or so go,
but it still comes up. People were shooting movies on
camp quarters, old camp quarters to kind of capture that
nineties you know, shot them video feel for their movies,

(27:13):
and it's amazing you could shoot on a you know,
an old camp quarter and you know and come pretty
close with just that alone take capturing that sort of vibe.
But it's all revolving. You know, there'll be another you know,
five ten years with people you know in low budget
and then eventually moving up to big budget doing nods

(27:33):
to two thousand horror movies, and then you know, the
twenty ten horror movies, and then it'll come back to
the seventies again. Or you know, it's just these fads
and rages hit and sometimes it's you know, based on
the current status of the world or the country. It

(27:54):
could be politically motivated, it could be could be anything.
You know, if we're facing war, you know, we're facing
climate change, you might see more and more horror movies
about that, you know, But they're you got the seventies
or eighties or nineties, you know, setting to them.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
Yeah, yeah, very And I think you're gonna sur seeing
a lot of horror movies come out just about the
political climate. And I'm not saying that like any particular party.
I'm not saying. What I'm saying is the kind of
divers uh how diversive diverse? No, wait, how divisive the
nation is right now? You know how that That's what
I'm trying to say, you know what i mean, just

(28:33):
trying you know that that I think is going to be,
which is why I think when the first Purge came out,
I think that was you want to talk about, you know,
wish fulfillment. I think a lot of people, you know,
not that they would, but maybe maybe they kind of
wish they could, you know, one night, we just kill anybody,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
It's an extension. It's possible, you know, I mean, when
you're when you're director, actor, or you're working in the
creative field. I think he had to be a little
bit crazy. But I think a lot of horror filmmakers
are more closer to activists, you know, than anything. There
a lot of times they're trying to make a statement
against you know, these things that anger them, you know,

(29:19):
lack of gun control and mass shootings, you know, the
Trump government, the the worries over climate control, you know,
the the abandonment of the arms treaty with Russia, you know,
raising the risk of you know, potential war again. And uh,
you know, we used to have the nuclear war used
to hang over you know, I grew up in the seventies,

(29:40):
you know and into the eighties, and and the threat
of nuclear war was always there, you know. And and
that's you know, people, a lot of young people, they
don't realize like how heavily they hungover society. So yeah,
and you're seeing it in this you know, like the
Jordan Peel you horror movies.

Speaker 1 (29:59):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
You know, uh, you know, addressing social issues, you know,
or back to the forefront. So yeah, it does it
does reflect that. I'm the movie Apostle I thought was
a really good movie. I hope I'm saying that right.
I've heard other people pronounce it different. Looks like Apostle
to me. The one on Netflix, you know, addressed climate change,
you know, so so yeah, people, Uh again, I think,

(30:30):
like I said, the horror horror filmmakers are are very
much trying to make a statement as much as they're
trying to tell you a story that you know is entertaining,
it scares you or makes you laugh whatever. But in
the end, you know, a lot of them make you think, you.

Speaker 4 (30:47):
Know, and I mean, and you did one that's a
very good, uh you know horror movie genre that to
to kind of put you know, political or cultural uh
you know, protests for exactly. And that's the you know,
the knowledge just horror in general, but also the zombie
genre of the sub genre sub genre of horror. And

(31:08):
I mean, you know, if you look at Romero's you
know first three zombie films are all brilliant. Uh you know,
you did Empire, State of the Dead and and by
the way, I want to say, you know, this is
a great idea because I you know, I'm gonna be
one of those guys right now. Ron I had an ideal,
an idea years ago similar where you take a bunch
of different directors and you put them together, you know

(31:28):
what I mean, each one makes a segment. But I
think that's a brilliant idea man.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
To do something with that, you know, just yeah, we
should have done a little better, because I would have
done you know, like a United States of the Dead
start of a movie in the World of the Dead
or something, or you know, encourage more shorts from other filmmakers,
and maybe one day I will. But I was, you know,
I was seeing so many people taking shorts and putting
together and the shorts didn't really have a common theme

(31:55):
among them, and just turning them into anthologies, and I thought,
what have you know? We need you know, someone needs
to do this with a with a wrap around. And
I wasn't first movie you know, producer or director ever
to do that by any means I'm saying, you know,
it was being done, you know, VHS. I think for
the most part, was trying to tie all the stories together.
But I want these to have a very direct theme,
so when you put them all together, it felt like

(32:17):
you're watching one movie, not a movie by a bunch
of different filmmakers with a bunch of storylines. And when
they're each direction and felt I want each story to
kind of propel this the or each yea, each individual
short kind of propelled to propel the story forward. So
and then and then I saw what I had to
work with them. From there, I was like, Okay, what's
the wrap round story I can make? So game set

(32:37):
rules which basically, for the most part, folow the Romero
zombie rules set up, you know base it was happening
in the timeline. What they couldn't you know, go on
to explore like it was early on in the zombie Apocalypse,
that couldn't make it seem like it was like, you know,
deep into it or far end of it or whatever.
And from there I was like, and I had the
base idea I would do something like soldiers, you know,

(32:59):
trying to keep border and using those as cutaways. And
and it was a harder one to uh think of
a you know, a theme for because I mean all
my movies do have like a subtext to them almost
you know, straight across the board. But this was a
harder one because I wasn't you know, it's only contributing
as you know, a small portion of the you know,

(33:22):
the full project, but just the idea of the you know,
the battle of the classes that would kind of emerge
between you know, the you know, basically the government and
the individual factions that would rise up, and you know,
we pretty much addressed one, but but they're one of
the other shorts kind of had you know, its own
like roving gang in it and uh uh you know

(33:44):
where this battle power might you know, might lead to
or or or evolve into.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
Yeah, and uh yeah, you know. And that's a great
idea too, because you see some of the shorts that
really don't have anything you know that that kind of
ties everything together.

Speaker 3 (34:03):
Yeah, I mean the one short, the girl in the apartment,
you know, faced with the uh, the the the monumental
decision what to do with her sister who's died and
you know, was turning into a zombie, was very isolated.
Even the one you know when they were taking refuge,
you know, basically in the in the room, uh and

(34:24):
find that the dead body in there. You know, very
very isolated, very you know, small, uh, you know, centered stories.
You know, in many ways, those actually were a little
easier to plot out as opposed to the wider, you know,
expansive type of uh plots you know, some of the shorts.

(34:44):
But uh, it gave it gave a wide guy, it
gave a wide range of of uh. Basically you know,
uh situations that the populace was facing in the in
the u uh in the face we'll facing a repeating
facing in the threat of this emerging zombie virus in

(35:06):
in society falling apart.

Speaker 4 (35:09):
And you know when when you were released it, you know,
did have the type of interception that you were hoping for.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, I mean the reviews, for the most part, seem
to be positive. Uh, you know that there's all you know,
everyone who worked on it, you know, from the directors
down and you know, to the you know, the actors
and so forth, you know, all seemed to enjoy it.
I was overall pretty happy with it. Uh, some of
the stuff with the shorts, you know, with the with
the wrap around stuff I was shooting. It doesn't always

(35:37):
come out the way you wanted to. You're you know,
tighten money, tight on time. I think that's the biggest one.
Usually you're you're stuck, you're tight end time. So you
shoot it one weekend and something's not quite working right.
You don't have the option to go back and fix it.
Kind of pretty much make the decision to fix it
on set and hope it comes out okay. So it
was it was. It was a fun project to do.

(35:57):
I enjoyed it wasn't uh, you know, one of the
ones that was as you know, close to my heart
as the others. But I was pretty happy with it.
And I'll usually start with that because I you know,
sometimes you know, the audience might not like it as
much as you did, but if you felt like you
told the story you wanted to tell, you know that.

(36:18):
I'm still pretty satisfied with that, you know, so. But yeah,
I mean what, I've people like you who have told
me that they really enjoy it, and I'm always glad
to hear. You know, any movie that I've made resonates
with the fans. You know, my first movie, City the Emperors,
I still think it came out horrible, and it is
not just because it's not the movie that I wanted

(36:39):
to do, you know, because it's because I was falling
apart along the way. My first movie, first feature, you
try to take on way too much and lack the
skill to to shoot that movie right. But I'll still
get people who will tell me that they they love it,
and I'll I'll just look at it and be like,
I don't, I don't know what you love about it,
but I'm glad that you do, because you know, I

(37:01):
would feel bad that you went out there and bought
this movie and watched it and we're like, oh, it's
a piece of shit. You know, I'm happy to hear
that you went out and bought it. Hopefully you bought
it and watched it and got enjoyment out of it
and continue to get enjoyment out of it.

Speaker 4 (37:19):
Well yeah, I mean, and you're you know, you're very
welcome and for the you know everything, and it's just
you know, I have a friend of mine who made
a zombie film and it did not hit with a
zombie genre, and to him, I was like, dude, I
was like, that's that's your key demographic right there.

Speaker 3 (37:33):
Man.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
If you fail to get that, yeah, forget it. You're done.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yeah. I think if you're gonna go something specific as
a zombie movie, then you do have to cater to
the fans. Now, you could, you could try to set
them off balance and go in a different direction they've
seen before, and usually most fans will appreciate that. But sometimes,
you know, you gotta be careful. You know, there's there's limits,

(37:57):
and you know, but but anyone who goes out there
really tries to do something different with a genre or subgenre.
I applaud them even if the fans didn't get it,
Even if I didn't like it personally, I always appreciate
that they at least try it, because at least it
gets you thinking about your own work, you know.

Speaker 4 (38:12):
Yeah, exactly, And I mean, you know, especially making something
like specifically a zombie film, you know, you have to
there is a specific expectation for audiences, and you know,
and that's true, you know, and that's why I think
they maybe missed. But but you know, it is what
it is.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
But if you go out and make a zombie movie
with say no zombies and there are no you know,
brutal zombie killings, then yeah, you probably run the risk
of like, there's certain things you got to you gotta
put in there, you know. So if you don't do that,
then yeah, you run the big risk of your audience
just being like, oh that sucked. I love zombie movies

(38:49):
and you didn't have you know, one good zombie gutting
or something on it. You know, So yeah, I agree
with you there.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
I had a friend, this is a true story. I
had a friend who it's a zombie film that had
no zombies in it, and I said, what is the.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
What's the idea of when what's the zombie angle of it? Then,
if there's no zombies in.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
It, you hear them, so they're outside, you kind of
hear them. They allude to them, but you never see one.
And I said, is there at least is a kill
anywhere he goes? No, there's no killing by the zombies.
And I'm like, I don't think anyone's gonna you know,
what I want to buy, But I don't think any
producer is gonna.

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Be like, yeah, that's great.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
I mean, maybe they'll save money on makeup, But I mean,
would they really want to invest in something like that.
I mean, so it was like a one location movie
with zombies like surrounding the place so you're hearing them stratched.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
Maybe as a short or something. I mean, I could
see it being real spooky like a bird box, you know,
type of thing or something. But but but yeah, it's
a it's a it's a it's definitely a fine line.
I'm not sure if it would work.

Speaker 1 (39:56):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (40:05):
But but but I love the idea of you know, audience,
you know, filling in the blanks, and they've certainly seen
enough zombie movies that they could you know, they could
picture it. But yeah, that's a that's a fine line.
You got to really be skilled if you're going to
pull that off and make it effective.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
Yeah, it's newest to say he never made it. I
think I think it was gonna be such a fine
line to walk. I I don't really. The only person
I think they could have pulled that off would have
probably been somebody like Georgia Merrow, because you know, he
went you know, full tilt the first three. Maybe he
made Land of the Dead. Maybe he you know, on
the rest of those, maybe that was the next evolution.

(40:41):
I don't know, but you know, I.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Think I was gonna say, take like a hitchcock or something.
I think the ball that off because he you know,
it's you need you definitely need a master of You
need someone who's a master of not showing the monsters,
someone playing with you everything else sounds and and uh
uh and and having the audience filling you fill in

(41:04):
the blank, building up the suspense and tension, you know. Yeah, yeah, or.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Maybe even somebody like Christopher Nolan or something somebody like that,
just somebody to kind of yeah. So uh but but
you know, run, I just you know, said, I know
we're running out of time, but uh, you know the
one movie I wanted to talk about which actually got
us talking is is House Shark. Uh you know, I
saw the trailer was up to like, what is it
almost a million views?

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Now? Uh yeah, past a million views I think like
a week or so ago. I was right around the
time I announced that it was getting close, and then
suddenly it was over like really quick. So uh yeah,
that was I mean, it was in part due the
fact that movie Web covered it, hosted and everything, but
it was cool to have a trailer reached that milestone.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
So and by congrats, by the way, that is huge,
Thank you. So Ron, like, where was the impetus for
House Shark.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
In writing it?

Speaker 4 (42:00):
You know, cause I know you're you wrote, you wrote it,
you're producing directedness. You know, where was the impetus or
sort of that idea to come up with this?

Speaker 3 (42:07):
Well? I'd always as I mentioned earlier, I think as
part of this conversation, I was saying how I'd always
wanted to do a shark movie. I always was like
I want to come up with the Jaws sequel. That's
a you know, that is the awesome sequel, you know. Uh,
I mean I loved I love all the Jaws movies
in cheesy ways. For three and four, I wouldn't put

(42:27):
it in my top movies, but two definitely is one
of you know, I think is as an underrated uh movie.
But but I was trying to come up with a plot,
like how could I do, you know, bring bring Jaws
back and make it very cool and and even you know,
like a year or so before I, uh, start working
on how Shark it thought like, you know, we have
a a lake Ontario near me which you can't see across.

(42:50):
I was like, make a shoot on Lake Ontario and
make it look like an ocean. Try to come up
with a simple idea, you know that was still effective
that we could be done within a budget, you know,
within my budget levels and make you know, a cool
shark movie. And then it was actually during the winter time. Uh.
And I tell this story all the time. It's not
like a great story, but this is really how it

(43:12):
came across. Is we had this it had been freezing
temperatures for like a week or two straight and all
this ice had built up on the roof of the
houses and and uh, my house particular, I'll get these
loud booming noises. And so I looked up. I found
out it was like the ice actually cracking, you know,
on the roof. Uh. And I made a comment online

(43:34):
about it, and uh and some you know, some of
my friends on Facebook were making comments back, and we
were joking back and forth, and eventually made this joke
of zombies on an ice or zombies on a roof,
you know. Movie that was basically like, there's a zombie invasion,
but all the zombies basically, I'll just live on live
on the roofs of your houses, so they weren't really

(43:56):
much of a threat. But as soon as I said that,
I came with that, I popped in my head was
howse shark shark in a house? You know? And and
it hit me right there. I remember I texted my producer,
I said, I got the title for my next movie.
It's cale howse sharks shark in a house? But it's
done like, you know, like a shark out in the water,
you know, except it's within a house. I was like,

(44:17):
holy god, I could do my Shark movie that I've
wanted to do, and I can control the location, you know,
which is a big It was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
You know.

Speaker 3 (44:27):
Uh, you know when we worked this low budget and
you know, you lack funds to have places you know,
unlimited stretch at the time or even necessarily very long
periods of time to be able to shoot it. Look
at it, cut it together real quick, go okay, what's wrong,
and go back and fix it, you know. So and then,
you know, in Syracuse sometimes I forget how crazy the

(44:50):
weather can be here because you know, we'll have days
that are super hot and no clouds, and so you
get these heavy shadows and it's so hard to shoot outside.
You know, especially comes around midday out here, uh, you
know without phil lights and bounce like, so you can't
really just go on location and shoot, you know, running
gunna quick. It takes a little bit more effort than that.

(45:12):
You can't necessary shooting shadows and everything's blown out. And
then and then you'll have tons of rain for days,
and then you'll have you know, be super cold and
snowy and heavy snow. And then when you want the snow,
you know, we'll get like a crazy early thaw or
series of warm days. It's just all over the place.
It's you know, the weather is just a nimer So
to be able to shoot inside a house and control it,

(45:32):
you know, it just so much was appealing about it.
But I thought it was a fun idea I completely ran.
Originally it was gonna be more like a kid's movie.
My son had always, uh give me a hard time
about not being able to watch him and movies, and
I was going to make a movie that was safe
for him to watch. And it was going to be
done very much in the in the style of that

(45:53):
that Super eight short, like a Super eight shot, but
like the Super eight short at the end of Super
eight that they showed, you know, very cheesy, you know,
going for a lot of humor, completely playing off the
idea of what it is. It's a shark in a house.
I wasn't going to take it that serious, but I
didn't shoot that first summer I was intending to, and
over the course of the next year of revisiting it,

(46:14):
I made it more and more grown up, but it's
still maintained very much that sort of kid sense. I
wanted it to feel like a movie I was making.
If I had had a film camera or a cam
quarter back in you know, the late seventies or early
eighties and got all my friends around the neighborhood to
come and help me make a shark movie. You know.
So it started as that and then just rolled from there.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
So when did you actually, you know, decide that, you know,
to put the old production dates together and stuff like that.
I mean, I imagine you kind of had to say, Art,
I'm shooting this in my house. I can control location,
but you know, I'm sorry, are you married?

Speaker 3 (46:57):
No, I'm not?

Speaker 4 (46:57):
Okay? So that actually that okay, that actually helped.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
Yeah, I was like I was just thinking.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
I was like, hey, I don't know if you are
or not. And I was like, okay, because I can
imagine that would have to That's a whole other conversation,
you know, of being like, well I had to tell
my wife that you couldn't come home.

Speaker 3 (47:13):
Yeah, hopefully you're with someone who doesn't mind you doing that.
And I mean when I have you know, been shooting
and was dating someone or with somebody. I never really
ran into many issues with that for the most part,
pretty clear early on, like I love making movies and
this is what I'm going to be doing and you know,
in most cases they would actually be in set or

(47:33):
trying to help out and that sort of stuff. So
that hasn't been a big issue. And originally I wasn't
going to shoot it, you know, in my house. I
was trying to find a house to shoot at. And
eventually it just made sense. I was like, you know,
if I shoot at my house, I don't have to
pay for a location. We're all there. We literally get up,
go downstairs, start shooting it, you know. So all that

(47:55):
sort of stuff just kind of came together throughout the
throughout the process. But I don't remember what year, you know,
I don't remember what year I shot off the time
I had enough to go go and look. But I know,
like I said, the summer before I was gonna start
shooting it, and things weren't coming together fast enough for
me to feel like, Okay, I'm comfortable shooting right now,

(48:17):
So let me take a year off and just develop
it some more and take some more time to you know,
get the things I need. And and I said, a
lot just changed, you know, in that process. But once
you do set a day, and eventually somewhere along the way,
I set a lot doing like the three separate chunks
of shooting. We shot in August, then we shot in March,

(48:37):
and then we shot in August again. So shooting off
the course of a year, which was you know, fairly
stressful because you always worry about, you know, losing an
actor or something along the way. You know, the people
I work with, you know, they're always trying together acting gigs,
or there's a chance they can move so far away
you can't get them, or whatever, you know. But it

(48:58):
allowed me to alter so make the movie a little
more leisurely. It was a bigger project. It was a
much bigger project than originally attendem. I was gonna do
it for a few thousand dollars, and that's always the plan,
you know, with every movie. I'm gonna make this cheap
and quick for a few thousand dollars. And then as
you play around with and work with and expand on it,
you know, the budget keeps growing and growing, and the
ideas grow and grow. And it's only I went from

(49:20):
having you know, basically a very simple shark to a
more elaborate shark and more scenes added to the movie,
and uh, and it was very much like almost being
back on City the Vampire is going like, okay, I
have to do too much stuff on this s you know,
lighting it, and I had people help with the lighting,

(49:41):
but I was still in charge of the lighting, and
when they weren't there, which you know, people weren't always there,
I still had to go out and move the lights.
So when you're setting up the camera simp the shot
and you're like, oh, these lights are perfect, and we're
putting all the lights outside and shining, then I'd have
to go outside go around adjust him. If I did
have someone to check them on the inside for him.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Me, we'll be right back after a word from our
sponsor and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Then I have come back in and recheck them. Or
if someone I was sending outside who was supposed to,
you know, adjust them, wasn't getting it right. You know,
I'd be looking to the camera. I'm trying to, you know,
tell them you know where to adjust it to, and
sometimes it's just not getting it, you know. Between that,
it's just physically exhausting. Focus so much on the shots,

(50:32):
you're not always focused on the acting. It's just uh,
I mean, you know, it's when you're doing these low
bunch of movies. It's, uh, you wear a lot of
different hats and and uh it's exhausting, but it's still fun.
I mean, we had a great time in that set,
and that's another big reason to enjoy doing it.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
Definitely, ron And then you finally it's that spot where
you're like, what the hell, Why the hell did I
start doing this.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
It's always those first couple of days where I'm like, oh,
I made a horrible mistake, and you're like, I'm in
way over my head. Let me just cancel this production, regroup,
and I'll you know, restart and you know, another week
or two, and then you just like, now I got
to push forward. And then you hit your you know,
you start hitting your stride, you know, three four days
in and then suddenly you know everything's going smooth and

(51:22):
you write only stuff off quick and you're going back
and fixing some of the stuff you know you did
wrong early on, and you and next thing you know,
it's all done, and and then you fall into depression.
Is you're not in a movie set anymore.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
You know, yeah, right, And you know, because when you're
on the movie set, you're like you're actually doing it.
There's no thinking like Am I actually making something? No,
because you are. You can feel it, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
Yeah, you're really kind of like living the dream at
that point. You know, you don't have to. I mean
most cases, I still have to do like a little
work every morning and keep things going. But in most
part you're able to get away from your regular job.
Be on the side. You're laughing at you with your friends,
and you know, you're eating you know, a good food
all day, and uh, it's you know, it's just it's

(52:07):
like being on vacation, you know, except here with a van,
you know, with a camquorder and you're telling people what
to do, and then it gets all done and then
you're like, oh, shoot, I got to go back to
sitting in front of my computer every day.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
Right, exactly right. You're like, I need this high again.
How the hell do I get there?

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Yeah? And I need to make back all that money
I just spent. Yeah, it's making more money to pay
bills and so yeah, just it'd be great. You know,
someone paid for the production and paid for you to
then take the rest of your What are the chances?

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Right, Yeah, that's that's where you're really living the dream man.
That's what you know, you've made it. Uh you know, Ron,
I know we're we've we're almost at a time. We've
been talking for about an hour now, you know, so Ron,
just to sort of, you know, just sort of put
a period to end of this conversation, do you have
anything you'd like to just to say that kind of
finalize everything.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
If you're looking for like a last minute advice or something,
I guess I've done that so many times. You could
definitely look up old interviews and stuff. But if you
wanted to track me down and stuff, look, you know.
Srscinema dot com is the website you can definitely follow
me on. Facebook is probably one of the most active
Instagram too, and uh uh and if you if you

(53:30):
if you my personal profiles maxed out, it's tough for
me to you know, uh uh friend request everyone. But
the SRS Cinema Facebook pages, you know, great spot to
stay up to date on what I'm doing. There's also
like a house shark and she kills individual pages and
trying to else a little bit on Twitter, but any

(53:52):
of the social media places work and looks up see
I release a lot of other movies from filmmak all
around the world. And so not only are you supporting
you know, my little distribution company by picking up these
movies and checking them out, you are also supporting these
filmmakers because you know, the more stuff. If I do

(54:14):
well with them, I can license more works from them.
In some case, I can pay them to make movies.
And you're helping other filmmakers, you know, sometimes hunters of
filmmakers you know live live there a little part of
the dream too, and you know.

Speaker 4 (54:30):
And that's a very good point, Ron and everybody. I'm
going to link to everything Ron and I talked about
in the show notes. I know how Shark Hey, my pleasure, Ron,
I know how Shark is actually on Amazon Prime right now.
I'm going to make sure to link to that in
the show notes as well. By the way, Ron, I
don't know who to your poster, but that's exactly what

(54:50):
the poster should have been. That is on the money,
because you know why, it's intriguing. It explains the movie,
and it stops people in their tracks and goes what
the hell is that it does?

Speaker 3 (55:00):
Yeah, it catch a lot of attention. I had to.
I actually paid a lot of money for the work
to get done. But I knew there was a chance
of getting into Walmart and it really needed killer to
make it happen. So yeah, so sometimes you just you
got to put it out there. But I try to
apply it to the project. I think the projects. I
always try. I do the illustrated artwork for the limited

(55:20):
edition release that we do, and I do a lot
of those. You know, it's only fifty one hundred or
two hundred units, you know, sold directly from the site
pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I'll list them the leftovers on
Amazon and might move you know, five ten more copies
there or something like that. But for the most part,
you know, you get them from my site with the
illustrated art because that's what the fans that are closest

(55:41):
rs like the best. But then we'll do the what's
called like the real art, you know, with the actors
or in case of Shark, with the shark and the
real house and stuff for the wide releases, because that's
what the retailers like they have on their story on
their shelves and stuff. So you know, you just like
I said, you apply a strategy to teach release, you know,

(56:02):
depending on what you're doing with each release at the time, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (56:07):
You're you're always trying to, you know, get as much
eyeballs as possible, and I think, whatever, and again this
poster is is do just exactly that because I remember,
remember a couple of years ago, I actually had a
friend of mine who when he went to he went
to like AFM in all those different places, and he
was talking about pitching and he goes, Dave, if there's
one thing I learned, He's like, if you don't have

(56:27):
a killer poster that sums up the movie and just
one image, He's like, you're sunk no matter what it is.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yeah, you got to start there, the title and the image,
and then they want a good, you know, short synopsis.
Having a killer trailer, like a one minute like trailer
just shows the you know, the money shots from the
movie and then they might not even ever look at
the movie. If they love your artwork and they love
your trailer, you can meet in a red box. You know,

(56:53):
you could be potentially in Walmart or Family Video or
Best Buy or whatever based off of just that stuff.
You know, it also help if you know, you have
a genre that they like, like Walmart does. Real while
with these sorts of movies where our red box howse
Shark hasn't gotten in the red Box probably never will

(57:13):
because red Box like more serious horror, you know, So
if you have a serious like a paranormal horror movie
with killer artwork and a great trailer, then you increase
your chances of you know, getting it out on red Box.

Speaker 4 (57:26):
Yeah, right, And again, you know we talk about all
those different streaming platforms and what they're all looking for,
and uh, you know, but I guess you know, we know, Ron,
Let's say that for the next conversation. You know, whenever
your next film comes out, you let me know. You
can come back on and we'll sounds good, We'll keep
this conversation going wrong.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Sounds good.

Speaker 4 (57:44):
Thank you, Ron Bok, Thank you so much, Buddy, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Bulletproof Screenwriting dot
tv for it. Slash four, thank you so much for
listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter what.
I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproof
Screenwriting dot tv.