BPS 432: Making Your Own Damn Movies: Inside Dave Campfield’s Troma-Fueled Filmmaking Path

When two Daves walk into a podcast, you don’t expect to stumble upon a meditation on art, failure, persistence, and horror-comedy. But that’s exactly what happened in this electric and delightfully unfiltered conversation with Dave Campfield, a filmmaker, actor, and host of the Troma Now Podcast, best known for his work in the cult Caesar and Otto comedy-horror film series.Dave Campfield is a fiercely independent filmmaker whose journey from a now-defunct film college in New Mexico to directing his own cult horror satires has been a long and winding road paved with hustle, humor, and horror.We start in the sand-colored surrealism of Santa Fe, where adobe buildings and the ghost of City Slickers set the stage for Dave’s early filmmaking dreams. In the land of tumbleweeds and tumble-down gym studios turned sound stages, Dave cut his teeth not just on film but on the art of adaptation.

The college no longer exists, but the memories—like chalk lines under studio lights—remain vivid in his story. “It was like going to school on Tatooine,” he says, laughing, but behind that joke is a bittersweet nod to the ephemeral.From there, Dave walks us through the illusion of success—early meetings with Universal and New Line Cinema where hopes were dangled like carrots in front of eager young dreamers. The industry, he quickly learned, speaks its own coded language: familiarity, marketability, and sometimes, plain deception. One mentor told him to “say you're young, from the streets, and have a dark comedy,” regardless of truth. Dave gave it a shot but came away with the haunting realization that "they were intrigued enough to keep me on leash, but not enough to make it happen."That experience seeded his first real film, “Dark Chamber,” a mystery-horror project which deliberately bucked slasher formulas. It took five years to make—five years of blood, sweat, and overdrafts. And yet, when the studios responded with, “We wanted something more familiar,” Dave knew he was swimming upstream. Still, he sold the film to a small distributor, endured its repackaging as something it wasn’t, and got it onto Netflix. A win—just not the one he envisioned.

But here’s the heart of it all: Dave didn’t stop. He pivoted, not with bitterness, but with evolution. “I decided I wasn't going to be one of those people waiting for opportunity. You had to make it happen on your own.” And so, he leaned into comedy horror—a genre he describes as “Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein, but for the splatter generation.” Thus, Caesar and Otto were born: two absurdly lovable doofuses bumbling their way through massacres, monsters, and paranormal mayhem.One of Dave’s secret weapons is loyalty to what’s real. Whether recounting how Lloyd Kaufman forgot him (then remembered) or editing commercials for the Philadelphia Pet Expo, he keeps a kind of grounded magic about his craft. He shares a deeply personal new project, “Awaken the Reaper,” born from a decade of introspection and struggle, calling it “the most personal thing I’ve ever written.” He says, “It’s about being stuck—feeling like every day you’re not moving forward—and finally getting out of your own way.”All along, Dave’s been quietly building a reputation for casting future stars before they break—Trey Byers (Empire), Peter Scanavino (Law & Order)—and hosting a podcast that thrives not just because of brand synergy with Troma, but because he genuinely knows how to talk to people. “They’ve never rejected an episode,” he remarks. “I tease Troma a lot, and they’re always game. It’s a beautiful collaboration.”The conversation wraps not with grandiosity, but a recognition that even the smallest cult followings can keep a creator going. “My fanbase is small, but intense,” Dave says with pride. “I can rattle them off on two hands.” Maybe that’s enough. Maybe that’s everything.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the IFAH podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to
ifahpodcastnetwork dot com.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four thirty two.
Your dream doesn't have an expiration date, Take a deep
breath and try again.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
KT Whitten broadcasting from a dark, windowless room in Hollywood.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
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.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.

Speaker 5 (00:44):
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Now, today's show is sponsored by Bulletproof Script Coverage.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Unlike other script coverage services, Bulletproof Script Coverage actually focuses
on the kind of project you are in the goals
of the project you are, so we actually break it
down by three categories micro budget, indie film, market, and
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(01:12):
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to covermiscreenplay dot Com. Enjoy today's episode with guest host

(01:37):
Dave Bullis.

Speaker 6 (01:39):
On this episode, my guest plays Caesar in the comedy
team Caesar and Otto. He hosts the Truemanow podcast, and
he also was a filmmaker himself. We also talk about
he will go into a college that no longer exists,
which again, as you know, I probably find really funny,
not the fact that he went there and it doesn't exist,
but the fact that the college, you know, the college

(01:59):
doesn't exists anymore, because you know, we talk about all
that stuff that we talk about, the worst on set experiences,
including when someone pulled a knife on a first a
d and we talked about getting to work with trauma,
creating his own movies, finding an audience, tons more stuff.
This is a really awesome interview about going out there
and just doing it yourself and finding all the ways

(02:20):
in different connections, and you never know what's going to
happen with guest Dave Campfield.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Actually we got two Daves right here. It's going to
become like that Chieftains Shong sketch. Hey, Dave's not here, man, No,
it's me Dave, your guest Dave. Happy New Year.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
Yeah, same to you, buddy. Is it snowing where you are?
By the way, I.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
Haven't looked at the window today. I'm not gonna lie
to you. Oh I'm a bit of a shut in.

Speaker 5 (02:46):
Hey, same here, man.

Speaker 6 (02:47):
I just kind of look at my window from time
to time, being like, oh, that's what it's doing outside.

Speaker 5 (02:51):
Okay.

Speaker 6 (02:52):
Actually I have a huge window right in front of me,
but you can't see it because we're on a podcast.
But but I swear it's there.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
We could swear a lot of things there. That's the
beauty of podcasting. You know. I'm talking to you from
the Shuttle Tiberian out of space and yeah, welcome to
the podcast today.

Speaker 6 (03:15):
Yeah, it's it's great, man. I mean I could just
make up anything too, you know, it's great. It's my
My supermodel wife is actually going in the kitchen right now,
making me some lunch.

Speaker 5 (03:26):
So it's great.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
You have a supermodel wife. I do too.

Speaker 6 (03:30):
It's great, man, it's great. Oh it's a small world.
Both named Dave, both had supermodel wives. It's great, man.

Speaker 4 (03:36):
And both those podcasts.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
Yeah both, Oh my god.

Speaker 6 (03:39):
Well we should just make a new show called Dave
and Dave and every week we just come on and
just just whatever whatever stream of consciousness, every any lie,
any whatever comes off the top of our head. No
one would know the truth either way, and they can
kind of like figure out, you know, what are ryan about?

Speaker 5 (03:54):
What's the truth.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
This is very psychedelic. Let's get back to reality for
a second here.

Speaker 6 (04:01):
So, so, Dave, I wanted to have you on the
podcast because we actually met again to the magic of Twitter,
and you host your own podcast, you're a filmmaker and hey,
you know what, you have an awesome first name.

Speaker 5 (04:12):
So I figured, you know, why why not, you know,
have you on? We could talk about all this good stuff.

Speaker 6 (04:17):
We were kind of you know, missing each other so
to speak, because I know we we trying to make
our schedule sync.

Speaker 5 (04:22):
But you're on now.

Speaker 6 (04:24):
So so that's why I wanted to have you on.
Also because you know, we both you know, watch a
lot of Troma movies. We both know Lloyd Kaufman. He's
actually been on the show as well. And it's just
you know, again small world. So, you know, just to
get started, Dave, we're going to ask you know about
your whole career and how you got started in the
film industry. And also something really cool you do too is, Dave,

(04:46):
you do what I've been starting to move this podcast
to do, and that is you actually make movies at
the same time do the podcast. You know what I mean,
Like you're actually out there doing stuff at the same time.
I actually haven't made anything since I started this podcast,
which is crazy. But this in your episode one ninety eight,
so it's kind of crazy, man. But so I wanted

(05:09):
to just to get start at the beginning, and that is,
you know, when you finally started making your own films.
So just to start us at the beginning.

Speaker 5 (05:16):
Did you did you go to film school?

Speaker 4 (05:19):
I went to a college that doesn't exist anymore. They
went to the College Santa Fe in New Mexico, and
I went there because it was the only film college
in the United States, the think college the United States
that had a film studio on campus, so parts of
it basically it was they took their gym and they

(05:41):
renovated it and they shot part of City Slippers there
and other big films. So like I when you go
into this massive facility and in New Mexico where this was,
all of the houses and all of the architecture of
the building is to code and everything looks like in
a to be building. So yeah, I had this visual

(06:05):
land of imagination between like the amber tones of the
of the stand of the you know, there was no
grass there. It was like it was like go to
school on tato Wine in Star Wars. And the film
college was was the renovated gym. I mean, the film
studio was the renovated gym. And you could see and

(06:26):
I'm being pointed to where they shot City Slickers. You know,
this is where they shot at night time fire scene indoors,
you know, like it was it was a lot of
the exteriors at night were actually shot inside, even though
like they were able to transform it into the into
a grand vesta grand landscape. And I could see on

(06:47):
the gone ground too where they shot City Slickers that
the basketball court had still existed, the chalk marks from
the from the the basketball court were still there. But
the appeal of going there was really just to be
able to witness filmmaking firsthand, and you know, I wanted.
I was in school with people who went off to
be pretty successful, like Rockland Dunbar was a classmate of mine,

(07:12):
and now you can see him in a lot of things,
from prison Break to he was in Kis Kiss Bang Bang.
He's one of those guys you've seen many many times.
But you know, back then we were both just kids
and trying to fie on find a way. And I
think college tends to be more about the experience you

(07:35):
get working on film sets and meeting other people film
college that it is necessarily even some of the stuff
that you learn in the classroom because that you can
learn hands on. And so that's where I got started.
You know, I met a good group of friends that
I continue to collaborate with over the years and stay
in touch with. And my roommate and I were working

(07:58):
on a production. We're trying to get a production off
the ground, and he secured two meetings, two meetings, one
with a New Line Cinema, one with Universal, and I'm like,
this is ridiculous. For about twenty one years old. We
got a meeting with these teen major studios. So things
are looking good. The future is looking right so bright
I had to wear shades and so we got the

(08:22):
universal meeting, and I realized there was nothing to lose
because right up front they told us, look, fellas, we're
having this meeting, but to tell you the truth, we're
not going to take your work, but we're interested in
meeting you. Like, all right, Well that takes the pressure off. Yeah,
because however, we have no background. But we make our

(08:42):
best pitch and it was a good meeting and at
the end of which we realized we weren't going to
get anything out of it, maybe other than a contact.
When we went to New Line, that's when the pressure
was on because it was a somewhat i'll be a
tiny chance that they can look at the script and
hire us to make and we got We got prepped

(09:04):
by like an entertainment lawyer that was a friend of
a friend, and they were giving us all the pointers
that you have to sing in your big production meeting.
And he was telling us when you guys go in,
what they want to hear is that you're young, you're
from the streets. You've got a story to tell, and
you've got a dark coming of age comedy, you know,

(09:28):
and and like that the stuff they like in the past,
like Gross point blank or Heathers or stuff like that.
Just tell them that's the language they speak. So we're
going to the New Line Cinema meeting with Matt Alvarez
and so Fellows tell us, tell us what you got.
I said, Hey, what, Matt. Where we're young, we're from
the streets. So we're telling a story from heart, a

(09:52):
dark comedy sort of like you know, like a Gross
point blank or like a Heather's. And there's a pause
as he's sitting looking at us from across the table,
and he says to us, you know, I have to say,
this is all very intriguing.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
So we'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (10:19):
And that began at one of at age twenty one,
like a year long relationship with New Line Cinema, in
which it was the absolute character being dangled in front
of the.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Rabbit and being just out of reach. Because it went
on like I would do little changes for them, and
he Matt would respond and I would do another change
and take a few months for him to respond again,
and there was clearly in touch, but you know, I
saw the writing on the wall. I felt like they
were intrigued enough to keep me on the leash, but

(10:53):
not intrigued enough to make that thing happen. And Matt
went off to the one up producing all the ice
Cube movies, and I decided that I was going to
try to, you know, not become one of those people
that get into that limbo of just waiting for that
big opportunity to happen. You just had to make it
happen on your own. So I began production on a

(11:16):
on my own film called Under Surveillance, later retitled Dark Chamber,
and my attitude going into it is I've seen a
lot of indie film, like straight to DVD movies, and
they tend to fit a certain pattern, and the kind
of emphasis was on the murder, mayhem, destruction and following

(11:39):
the paint by numbers plot, you know, and that's stuff
that against so but that's what they do. You know,
Like when you go into some of these movies, it's
sort of like, Okay, the Friday thirteenth homage number two thousand,
and I really wanted to do something different. I wanted
to take I wanted to make it character based. I
wanted to make it different. I wanted to surprise you,

(12:00):
maybe more of a mystery thriller with some horror in there.
And that was my attitude going into it. And after
like five years for I spent five years on this,
and the things went wrong. This documentary is online if
you type in you know, the release title was Dark Chamber.
If you type in making of Dark Chambers, you will
see everything that could go wrong in five years, because
it usually does. When you're making a film. It's amazing
how many things could go wrong, especially you just don't

(12:22):
because you're always cutting quarters, you're always compromising, things are
always you know, money is not on your side, so
you're constantly working around issues. And so I spent that
time making this, and I was so happy that I
made a film that, as I see, broke the conventions
of the genre. And I'm proud of my little the

(12:43):
young self, and like I go to the studios, I'm
like here, and then their response is we wanted something
that was more familiar, like a sun image. I thought,
like I, you know, so all of those times when
I'm looking at these movies is because they're incouraged to
be familiar and they're encouraged to follow the same things,

(13:03):
and character matters less than does hitting certain beats, of
of course, and other marketable elements. And I didn't really
make that kind of film, but a couple of companies
said we were interested, and what I went with was,
can't most pictures lash Hakarama And he told me right

(13:24):
off the bat, I like this, but to get it
into the marketplace, we're going to have to sell it
as a horror. And at that point, all right, do
what you have to do. And yeah, I got it
to Netflix, and you know, people were expecting saw when
they saw a cover with the pentagram carved into the
back of the of the actress. There was no woman

(13:45):
in the movie who got the pentagram carved in her back,
and maybe they made the film look so gory, and
that was simply what they felt was going to make
it viable in the marketplace, and at the same time
it changed the expectations of the audience. But you know,
if I had this perfect marketed as a film with
the property, like if it was called under Surveillance and
it had a cover that thoroughly that thoroughly representative film,

(14:10):
maybe ten people would have seen it. So that's the
you know, that's the trade off. I guess. If you
if you have a film that doesn't have big stars
and and it doesn't have a content that that looks
like a standard horror, people who's interested? You know? And
and why why see that one? Hollywood's presenting the bigger
budget equivalent to that same thing, with more production values

(14:33):
and more polished so you know, the you live, you learn,
and that was that was a very educational experience. And
from there I began doing my comedy hars because I
want to be different in the marketplace and I want
to tell I also want to tell stories that I miss,
the kind of story and and the Caesar Nino franchise,

(14:55):
you know, shut it off with Summer Camp, Mascure, Deadly
x Mess and Paranormal Halloween are their comedy horror saptires
wearing you lampoons the genre. And I hadn't seen like
these real comedy horrors other than you know, the scary movies,
but something more kin too Abad and Gustol Met Frankenstein
and those crossover movies where you have two doofy comedy

(15:18):
characters and and they're in the middle of of this
of of a horror film, you know genre they have
no right being in, but somehow when they are, and
it's a lot of fun. And that has sort of
been the path I've had, And more recently I got
into the Truman Now podcast, which was simply Lloyd appeared
in one of the season and out of films and

(15:39):
I saw him at a convention and I said, Lloyd,
Who's Do you have a podcast? You know? He he
noticed me, even though at first he was like, who
are you. I said, oh, Dave, I write to you.
You remember, Oh god, Dave, I'm sorry, sir. And he said,
there's nobody. There's nobody. We want to do you one,

(15:59):
but there's nobody doing it. I said, I want to
do one. We'd really want to do your podcast. I
think I could, you know, we can have some fun.
And he said, yeah, talk to Levi and they gave
me like some contacts and then we wound up. We
wound up making this thing happen. You know. Basically, they
give me a little bit of notes before each episode
and then I send them a final product. They approve it,
and they put it up and They've never yet denied
an episode I've done. You know, I could be like, hey,

(16:21):
we don't like this, you know, because I tease trauma
a lot in the podcast, and they're always game with whatever,
and that they've been a wonderful company to collaborate with,
you know, just because of the freedom that they give you.
And coming next year, you know, like you know what
I'm hoping. It sounds like Lloyd's going to be the
first guest of the new year and possibly two part episodes.

(16:42):
So we will we will see about time we got
them on there. It's just podcast.

Speaker 5 (16:47):
Yeah, I was going to say, it's it's it's kind
of like, where the hell is he?

Speaker 4 (16:49):
Like, you know, it's gonna be there's a from Board Game.
Where's Lloyd. Yeah, he's wearing the striped shirt and the
glasses over in the corner in the adult bookstore. So he's, uh, yeah,
he's he's set to come on and uh, there's I
haven't actively been making films since I've done the podcast. Uh.

(17:10):
And as a matter of fact, I had another show
that I was hosting and I had to go on
hiatus while I while I made the film. Well, I
made my last feature, so it is definitely difficult to
juggle podcasting and filmmaking. It is because like if you're
doing if you're filmmaking and you're taking wearing a lot
of hats, you tend to you tend it tends to

(17:32):
become your life, you know, for that period of five months,
six months a year.

Speaker 5 (17:38):
Yeah, it's it's so true.

Speaker 6 (17:40):
And just trying to get everyone's schedule to sink and
all that good stuffy.

Speaker 5 (17:44):
Now I focus on my writing.

Speaker 6 (17:46):
When I say I haven't made anything so I started
the podcast, that means I haven't actually produced anything, you
know what I mean, other than just just focusing on
this and and sort of trying to get some stuff
off the ground.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
And just just to make it. But but next year,
I'm dead set.

Speaker 6 (17:59):
I'm actually I was actually going to make something this
year and just kept getting pushed back just before.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
You've got a day.

Speaker 6 (18:04):
Yeah, I know, right, I got a data to come
up with this. I actually was next year. I actually
have already like put the groundwork in now because I
haven't made anything, Like I haven't directed anything in a
long time, just because of you know, oh well, I
mean people who've listened to this podcast.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
No, I've talked about it ad nauseam.

Speaker 6 (18:23):
But basically I want to start doing something next year
and just getting back on the horse, so to speak,
or getting back on the wagon or off the wagon or.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
Whichever wagon it is.

Speaker 6 (18:32):
But but you're making just making sure I'm actually doing
stuff now, Dave. I just want to actually backtrack just
a second here, because you mentioned something that that I
really took note of, which is that the college you
went through doesn't exist anymore. Did it just lose all
its funding and it couldn't operate anymore?

Speaker 4 (18:48):
No, apparently I did it. You know, I went there
and they're like, man, when it's going to close the
doors in this place? And it was, it was. It
was a small school. I was one of the thousand
students went there. And I think some of these privately
funded schools sometimes have a hard time staying afloat unless
the you know, the tuition is egregious, and you know,

(19:12):
and it was, and so I, you know, I had
been other ten years. But when when they when they
had closed, and you know, it's funny, is like the
college like was military barracks at one point, so it
was like World War two, it was rather our our
mess hall or what do you call our lund was
originally like military barracks from the Second World War. I'm like,

(19:34):
this is a hell of a place to go to school.
So I think they just actually just became another college.
They just you know, gave it a cosmetic gloss and
turned into another school with less of an emphasis on film.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
You know.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
With this whole I was talking about college and stuff
like that.

Speaker 6 (19:51):
I remember when there were a couple of years ago,
Sweetbriar College in Maryland was going to close.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (20:06):
And Mark Cuban actually said, see this is the beginning
of the start of the college apocalypse where all these
small colleges are going to close.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
And I think he's.

Speaker 6 (20:15):
Absolutely right, Like so once he so I actually looked
at all the college closing for like the past like
twenty years, and like the most I think I ever
saw like on that line, I think was like nine
or ten. But like even the college I went to,
I had an awful college experience, by the way, and
I just I still don't understand, you know, why I
even went to college. But and I still, you know,

(20:38):
everyone tells you you have to have that degree, and
I went.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
For one year, Dave, So that's that's my whole college
experience and the rest of the time and I left
specifically to pursue this and do it on my own.
So my mind's not a traditional college experience. It's a
very short one.

Speaker 6 (20:54):
Well see, but that's the smart idea though, is go honestly, man,
I've known people who've gone for a day. I've known
people who have gone for a year or two and
then they said, look, this isn't for me, Like I
don't get it. Like I struggled through, you know, all
the fluff, bullshit classes and got at the end got
that degree, and then you find out it means absolutely nothing.
So it's like, you know, what was the point of

(21:16):
all that? So, you know, because if everyone has a
bachelor's then what does it actually mean? So it's almost
like and then now you know, anyways, I'm gonna get
off on the top of that high red anyway. So
what happened? So with that, you know, I've actually so
so when you actually were going to pitch and when
they talked about you know, things like you know, hey,

(21:36):
you know, we want something familiar, you know, I you know,
I have a friend of mine who actually pitched a
different way. And what he does is when he goes
into business meetings, he just says a lot of business
buzzwords and it's worked out damn.

Speaker 5 (21:49):
Well for.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
Well, I'll tell you this much did Are you still there?
It sounded like there was a little blip, I'm here, okay.
So years ago I was in California when when we
were on the same pitch and by the way that
these were for this was for a different movie, the
film and a pitch to new Line. But when we

(22:11):
were in California, we we got together with another friend
who got a million dollars and he was saying that
his whole method of securing this money, as he would
go to a meeting, was he was a scam artist.
Not that he didn't deserve the money, but like his
methods were, like what he's going to have his friend
buzz him on the cell phone in the middle of

(22:33):
the meeting and say that he has to take the call.
It's from another investor. And he had all of these
little methods planned that would make the investors think that
he's more important that he is. And so sometimes there's
tools of manipulation that are that are used, but I've
never been that guy. I really would like to think

(22:55):
of myself as on the level, realistic with who I
am when I'm capable of and that's it, and not
trying to turn myself into something I'm not. And for
a lot of people, that's how they get their money.
You know, if I feel like I wasn't I couldn't
do something terrific, then I don't deserve it. And you know,

(23:17):
I continue with that philosophy of mind and if it
pays off, wonderful, and if it doesn't, whatever, I'm still
the person that I am and I'm still moving forward
and making films. And you know, even if something is
like this is a great experience just doing podcasts and
making indie films. It's nice and hopefully you get that opportunity.
Like I was telling you before we started recording that

(23:38):
I I was interviewed for a History channel hosting gig
and it was a program and that was as a
result of staying the course. You know, I have a
friend of mine who's done very well and he says,
I like what you do, and I want you to
co host a program with me. I want you to

(23:58):
audition to a co host with foreign ed dish with
me maybe before I show that I was gonna be hosting.
Had I not been doing what I've been doing, that
opportunity wouldn't come through. So a lot of times you
have to stick to your gun if it's what you
really believe in, be willing to to knock to you out,
but learn along the way and see where it all
takes you. And as a matter of fact, that show

(24:21):
did happen, and whereas I wasn't the co host, I
was involved with it and I had to like I
was one of the reenactors or whatever. This is cool.
This is all bigger than the stuff I've done and
the leads that led to more opportunities. So that's why,
if you really believe in it, you get to stick
to your guns.

Speaker 6 (24:41):
Yeah, it's I find that, you know, and as we
talk about just going forward with the podcast and talk about,
you know, making movies, at the same time, I find
that you have to keep that momentum going because if
you stop, it's way too easy just to lose sort
of track of everything, A lose sight of everything, and
then suddenly you're like, oh shit, didn't I want to
do this by now, you know what I mean, and

(25:02):
it just it's kind of you got to keep that.
You got to keep on that as best as you
possibly can.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
I've been working on a one script called Awaken the
Reaper for about on and off for about ten years,
so like. And it started off as just a fairly
generic horror film with a couple of cold twists maybe,
and has evolved into something extremely personal. And I don't

(25:28):
think I've ever done anything this personal. And that's what
I've been working on really for the last year, trying
to get you know, like fairly full time sure to
get this off the ground and find the proper budget
for it, because these seas are not of comedy movies
I've done. They've they've done for you know, between six

(25:48):
and ten thousand dollars, and I can't do this anymore.
I can't do films. I mean, they're wonderful expirencies for
the most part, but I can't keep doing films for
so little money where I'm getting criticized primarily because I
don't have money. It's an incredibly insulting, theorisipe insult to
be criticized for. I have to show what I'm more

(26:09):
capable of on a bigger budget because you have With
a bigger budget, you just have higher production values, you
have more tools to play with, you have a wider
palette to paint from. And so what started off as
this generic film just really became the story of me
and how in the story hopefully of all of us,
where we get to a lot in life, we get

(26:29):
into a place where we feel stock and you feel
like you can move forward, and you feel like every
day is you're not moving forward, and you're regretful of
past and afraid of the future, and that's I think
where a lot of us are. And I want to
tell that story about sort of getting out of the

(26:49):
way of your own fear within the context of a
very thought out horror film. And if I can make
this work the way that I'm imagining and hoping for,
if I could touch people on a human level with us,
and it will make for a really unique car experience,
because it's rare that a horror touches you on a

(27:11):
human level and feels real. And that's what I'm hoping for.
And maybe in twenty eighteen we'll really get to make
this happen.

Speaker 6 (27:19):
We'll find out, Yeah, you know, money is always that
magical thing, but you know, I always you know, now
I'm sort of working with the other way where I'm
trying to sort of build it up where you know,
I build it up again as we talk about the past.

Speaker 5 (27:36):
You know, I'm trying to build it up again to
the point now where you know, if I when I.

Speaker 6 (27:40):
Do go to an investor, whatever, I actually have a
body of work that's more recent. And I think that's
what that's an advantage you have. Again, here's your business
term unfair advantage. You know's what's the unfair advantage? And
I think that's yours. Is not only that you have
the podcast and also you have the body of work
and you could say, hey, look I've made this for
a few thousand dollars. You know, imagine what I could

(28:00):
do for fifty You imagine what I could do for
one hundred, and you know, everything would still be profitable.

Speaker 4 (28:07):
Well profitable is harder and harder to accomplish these days.
You just do the best that you can. And I've
aligned with Wildie Releasing has been a wonderful company for
me and I do a lot of work for them.
They've released my last couple of movies. They just released
my compilation back if you do the Holiday Horrors, the
Holiday Horrors Horrors DVD if you type it in, that's

(28:29):
all of my Caesar Nano comedy horror films which they
just re released. And I've been able to to work
and work on other indie films and do some a
bunch of stuff for them. And I've gotten to a
point where, you know, my films make something back then
will necessarily make their budget back. But it shows you

(28:50):
how difficult in this day and age, with with so
many movies being made, how how challenging is to make
a profit. But it can be done. It can be done. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (29:02):
And that's something too that I talked about too on
this podcast with all with at a ton of other guests,
is that, you know, with Sony movies being made, how
do you stand out? You know, how do you stand
out in any which way, shape or form, and how
do you get your movie seen? Now, so that sort
of becomes the new you know how the distribution method
and the marketing for that distribution method. Let's just say

(29:23):
I decided to make a movie, I put it on
YouTube for the hell of it. I make a movie
this weekend you and I make a movie, Dave. There's
one one day left in twenty seventeen, So let's make
a movie. And you and I make a movie. And
we decided just to throw it on YouTube. It's a
short film, and you know what, we just say, let's
just keyword the hell out of it. Let's just hope
for you know, somebody discovered, you know, let's just hope. No,

(29:44):
I'm sorry, let's let's be word. Let's just use it
as a plan of long tail keywords and that you know,
as longer it's up there, the more.

Speaker 5 (29:52):
Chance it has of being discovered. And we just sort
of use that method.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (30:06):
And hopefully somebody stumbles upon it again. I keep saying hopefully.
I don't I don't like that word hope. I don't,
you know what I mean. It sounds too much like
blind fake. But you know what I'm saying, like, that's
that's the way of distribution of marketing, and there's a
but there's a thousand other ways to do it.

Speaker 5 (30:22):
It's all about trying to get the movie seen.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Well, you know, the uh, the most successful person that
I worked with on YouTube was an actress named Lauren Francesca.
She oh, I know her, No, she had a little
cameo in one of my films, and I was pretty
friendly with her for a couple of years there. We
did a lot, I wrote and directed and co starred
and a bunch of videos for her. But I found
what I think the key to her success was that

(30:45):
she understood YouTube better than I know anybody, better than
anybody I know, like, and she would show me science
of it and the keywords and this and that. So
it's two things, you know, do you have the content
and do you know how to market yourself? And I
made a film that should have gone I think Gangbusters
on YouTube, like because it was sort of made for YouTube,
and it did okay, like people really seem to respond

(31:06):
to it, but not that many people who have really
seen it overall, And it's because I don't understand YouTube
that well. Look at piggy Zilla, pigg y z I
l l A you like Godzilla? Do you like Guinea
Pigs piggy Zilla And it's you know, like a bunch
of two minute shorts and they I thought it would
be more of a hit on YouTube because it's sort

(31:28):
of made for it, short, silly, it's got animals. So
I got to.

Speaker 6 (31:33):
Link that in the show notes. By the way, Dave,
I actually just looked that up real quick, so I
will link to that in the show notes everybody, so
we can check out piggy Zilla. But no, but the
uh But like I understand what you mean about like
stuff like that, because I actually, you know, I as
I've gotten more to YouTube. I actually have a friend
of mine who runs one of the top YouTube channels,

(31:53):
not like it's like the top one percentile, and unfortunately
he doesn't.

Speaker 5 (31:58):
Do much with it anymore.

Speaker 6 (31:59):
And I've always said, like give it, you know, give
it to somebody who could actually use it, and he
he just won't won't give it up.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
I mean it just kind of sits there, rotting away.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
Which is how how often does the post videos? Uh?

Speaker 5 (32:12):
Not very often at all.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
And by that I mean like probably once every six
months at most. And I mean like, I mean honestly,
I've had him on the podcast and and we actually
talked about that, and it's kind of like this where
you know, he wants to he wants to make content
for it, but he wants to maybe a certain kind
of content, and it's just it takes time to make

(32:34):
that content and then it's just it's everything sort of
keeps going into the back burner.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
So it's one of those situations.

Speaker 6 (32:39):
And but uh, I keep telling him, I said, you know,
you could be making a pretty good amount of money
every month from this thing if it was just constantly
have being the monster was.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
Of course, there are people who make livings off of YouTube,
and to make pretty good livings off YouTube, and that's like,
to me unfathomable, but it can be done, you know,
so by all means, tell me there's the reason to
tell you the truth. The advantage of doing the Trouman
Now podcast instead of the Dave Camfield podcast is that

(33:10):
I come out on their channel and they already have
it built in in fan base, and I know their
content and I like them personally, so uh, you know,
teaming with with somebody who's already established themselves and given
them product that they're that they like is always a
win win. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (33:27):
And also too, when you do the Truman Now podcast,
it's you know, it's branding and and and honestly, I
I that's so.

Speaker 5 (33:33):
Important because you know, people know what trauma is.

Speaker 6 (33:36):
You know, maybe I would go back and I changed
the name of this podcast because like guys like Alex
Ferrari of the Any Film Hustle podcast, you know, Any
Film Hustle just kind of rolls off the tongue and
you kind of can envision what it is. You know,
you hear my name, you hear this podcast?

Speaker 5 (33:48):
What the hell? Who the hell is Dave Bullets? And
then too, I don't even care who he is, So
it's it's it's the reverse.

Speaker 4 (33:54):
It's almost like that guy just met. Once you've done
a podcast with the brain name, then you've got your
own name, because what would Lloyd be without Trauma's Trauma
came and then people knew Lloyd. So it's sort of
like you have to come up the brand name, and
then you get known for your brand name.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
Where were you three years ago when I was doing.

Speaker 4 (34:12):
This cull it the Bullets? Your name suns like bullets, right,
you gotta use bullets, film, bullet film man, you know,
like it's just something something bullet because you know, you
had a cool kind of you got a cool edge
to your name. So oh thank you, yeah, absolutely, and
uh yeah, let me just have to well too late

(34:34):
now Dave, you got to you gotta stick to you
today Bullets podcast.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
So yeah, I know we're one hundred and uh, we'll
actually we're over two hundred episodes. Now you're you're one
ninety eight. But we've actually recorded the other other couple.

Speaker 5 (34:45):
So now I'm a prequel.

Speaker 6 (34:46):
Yeah, you're you're actually yeah, so so the through the
magic of podcasting, you're actually the prequel to to the sequel,
which hasn't released yet.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
Wow, we're shooting out a sequence here. I like it.

Speaker 5 (34:59):
Yeah, yeah, just like a a sequest.

Speaker 6 (35:03):
Oh man, it's just you know, and and for everyone listening,
you know, if you're gonna start your own podcast, if
I if I can just give you it really quickly
before we get to talking about you know, Dave and
all this stuff he's up to, I want to just say,
if you're gonna start a podcast, here here's my recommendations
for right now. The name has to really be unique.
The the the it has to you know, roll off
the tongue, and but it also has to do with

(35:25):
so people can win to hear it.

Speaker 5 (35:26):
It envisions what they're going to be listening to.

Speaker 3 (35:29):
Uh.

Speaker 6 (35:29):
The format has to be you know, obviously around the
the round, the idea of what the core of this
is gonna be, and you can make it short, you
can make it long as long as it's always in
tune with that idea. And I mean there are some
podcasts I listen to that are five minutes and it's like,
that's exactly how long it should be. And there's podcasts
that I've listened to that are, you know, an hour,

(35:50):
hour and a half, and that's exactly how long that
should have been because they're they're telling like a murder mystery,
you know what I mean. Like there's story type of
podcasts where which have gotten pretty pop. You're on like
you know, My American Life and MPR and all that
good stuff.

Speaker 5 (36:03):
And and then and then you have the other stuff.

Speaker 6 (36:05):
So always, you know, because I think the interview podcast,
I think we've kind of reached like max interview podcasts,
even though this is an interview podcast, but like you know,
Mark Maron's WTF, Adam Carolla's, you know, Joe Rogan's podcast.
I think that the more you can stand out, the
the better it is. But I think the reason you
stand out, Dave is again you have that unique angle

(36:27):
again unfair advantage of going with trauma. And also, you know,
you sound like a radio host. Like like I said
before the pre interview.

Speaker 4 (36:33):
Thanks well, I thank you, Dave. Maybe I should push
it a little more and become the exaggerated radio host.
But I was gonna say that when you talk about
Mark Maren and a lot of these guys just get
got started on the when the when it was beginning,
when when podcasts were really beginning, they got in. And
then if Mark Maren tried to come out of nowhere

(36:55):
right now, maybe he wouldn't have that luck. It probably wouldn't,
to tell you the truth. So it has a lot
to do with when he started. He sort of pioneered
the you could say podcasting in general. So as one
of the first he you know, he thrived. So it's
almost like we have to for we have to see

(37:16):
where where the next evolution in uh in me is
going to be and get in on the ground level,
you know, which is what a lot of these guys did.
They saw where the industry was going, or at least
took a gamble on it and got it at the
right time. So yeah, that now is a million podcasts.
Now is a million podcasts. It's very it's harder for
us to stand out.

Speaker 5 (37:35):
Yeah, very very very true. Man, it is just getting
in that ground floor then just dominating the industry. What
is dominating that niche?

Speaker 6 (37:42):
You know, when Maren started, it was just in its
early days and now he's up to what like over
a thousand episodes, and you know the same thing with
like Joe Rogan and and Corolla.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
And that's why.

Speaker 6 (37:52):
When a new podcast comes out, they usually have a
ton of marketing money behind it. Like what some of
these other podcasts that have done well or are doing
is because they just have a ton of marketing and
they don't market to the traditional way because again that
would be foolish. They are, but they market speifically on
social media. They market it's all direct marketing.

Speaker 5 (38:10):
It's no more.

Speaker 6 (38:11):
It's like there's hardly any permission based marketing or anymore.
And it's all basically you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (38:15):
So, so I want to tell you something that my
friend Ethan Wiley, who he's a he's a filmmaker, has
made a lot of fun films you might have seen before.
He made made The House Movies one and two. He
made Children the Courrent five. He's done a lot of
things and he told me. The problem with hosts these

(38:36):
things is that it's almost like having a billboard in
the jungle. It's like you're surround. No one will see it,
you know, no one will know it's there because there's
so much around us. And it's hard in a world
where where you know one out of ten people and
make it a guess. Well, like, so when people have podcasts,
how do you get seen? You know? I have another

(38:59):
podcast that do occasionally. I've toil one episode called Production Hell,
and that's all about the trials and tribulations of indie filmmaking,
like really getting to the nightmare stories, so what couldn't
go wrong and what has gone wrong on film sets.
I made one episode and it's you know, it's not
even that one hundred listens, you know, because there's nothing
you know. I don't promote it, but it's nothing, you know,

(39:21):
no buzzwords that people are are tapping into. People aren't
finding it, so you know, Therefore, I stick with the
Troma app podcast until people really get a sense of,
you know, my style, and hopefully check out whatever else
I do.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
I like that, by the way, Production Hell, that's that
is a really good good idea for a podcast.

Speaker 4 (39:42):
It's on zad claud find a one episode.

Speaker 6 (39:46):
It's almost like you will be a good podcast is
something like that where you have like two people who
fell out during the filming of a of a film.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 6 (40:06):
Like like like the director, producer or the dolt two
directors or whatever, and you bring them on there and
you almost view that as like a kind of like
a film court where each guy gets to tell the
side of the story. That would be interesting, man, because
there's a thousand and one things that I you know
what I mean, like on film sets where I've had
people draw like friendships have ended on a film set.

Speaker 4 (40:24):
You know.

Speaker 6 (40:25):
I've had people on this podcast where one has the audio,
one has the video. You know, even you know what
I mean, stuff like that that would should be cute.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
I have I have somebody a new in college who
pulled a knife on his production assystem or something like
he so things have things have gone down seriously wrong?

Speaker 5 (40:45):
Why why did he pull a knife on him or her?

Speaker 4 (40:47):
Did you get it? It was her to my understanding,
there was a fight about and probably maybe it was
an assistant director. So one was a director, and the
assistant director was probably saying that she's leaving you. She
doesn't take this makes sense, he doesn't want to do
it anymore, and yeah, apparently this is bad. This is
as bad as a film argument can go. So there

(41:12):
are countless stories about all of the things that can
go wrong, and also I have catless stories about things
that could have gone right if things were just have
happened a little bit differently, like I'll tell you, I'll
tell you this story and maybe, well I'll leave it
at this years ago, you know, I think what was
nineteen and I dropped out of college and making my

(41:32):
own film. And a friend of mine is doing boom
mic on a little indie film in New Jersey and
he's telling me he's got my script and he's pitching it.
He's showing it through a couple of people on the
set and they responded to it. I'm like, okay, cool, cool,
and tells me about one actor that sounds promising. You know,
I really think you'd be good in this role. But
I'm talking to this other guy. He's not really big yet.

(41:54):
I'm like okay, but he seems to like the script.
So far. He says, Wow, this is dark. I'm like, okay,
tell me who is he rent this film? And I
had he had me rent this film that he had
a little cameo in a little comedy from Universal Literal,
And I'm like, I don't know if this guy's really
right for anything in this movie. He's like totally. It
is a total disconnect. No, I don't Yeah, I don't

(42:16):
worry about pursuing him. I don't think it's a good match.
That actor's name was Ben Fleck, and I closed the
door on Beneflex before he became Beneflex, and the film
that they were shooting was Chasing Amy. Another one that
really defined him, and the film that I looked at
it from his was Malrats. If you look at him
in Malrats, you know it's very particular. He's not at

(42:38):
his best and he's not he didn't he's not what
he became. He's fine, but you know, there was no
frole for him. So I mean, what's the truth. I mean,
if I said, yeah, this guy's great, I mean, it
probably would have fallen part anyway because he would have
gotten too big and like you know, we would have
lost touch. Like it's the same thing that happened with
my new line cinema experience. But but still to think

(42:59):
Benefleck was reading my stuff and saying this is cool.
I like it, and before he became famous, is pretty funny.

Speaker 6 (43:07):
Yeah, that's that's that's that's the door to close.

Speaker 5 (43:13):
You know, it's just funny. With Maul Rats.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
I remember that Kevin Smith told a story about Maul
Rats when he showed it to uh, Rob Rodriguez and
Quentin Tarantino, and he said, you know, what do you
guys think?

Speaker 5 (43:25):
And they were like, oh, you know, I think you
went a little too much. I mean, he said. Both
of them just kind of looked dejected.

Speaker 6 (43:31):
And then when he made chasing Amy, he said both
of them like, all right, now you found your mark again.

Speaker 5 (43:34):
Great, good job.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
Yeah. Once once one is like true Kevin Smith, and
the other one sort of like Kevin Smith's frowning a
piece of studio. You know, you sort of lose your core,
like it, lose your uniqueness, your distinctness, and and you
know it's great that he got to I'll tell you truth,
I think up the game, you know from you know,
uh Clerks was very raw and very true to Kevin's

(43:56):
style and voice and mal Rats was sort of I
guess I alluded sort of like, hey guys, you like this,
and then chasing Amy's kind of looking more but sure
not that mature but more mature version of his of
his voice, and you know, you see, you know, tothic evolution.
And I met Kevin Smith. It was the funniest, It

(44:18):
was most bizarre circumstance because I really so badly wanted
him to see you see like one of my Caesarada films,
because he could think, wow, this is a kind to
Jane and silent Bob in their own way, like and
and so I have been trying to get in touch
with him, might try emailing. Nothing worked, nothing worked. And
one day I'm on a flight to California to do
some reshoots on Caesarado's Didley Xmas. And I looked at

(44:41):
my right in Son of a Bitch. He's coming out
of the airport terminal. He's he's he's going through bag,
he's going through he's putting his stuff on a conveyor belt.
I see a hockey jersey, a beard, and a baseball
cap on backward. I'm like, that's fucking Kevin Smith. I've
got something like what do I do, and I had
my I had my Summer Camp Masacre movie in my bag,
like and I heard him recently talk about sleep Away

(45:02):
Camp like on a podcast, and he was in my
film Summer Camp Spooh, sleep boy Camp has got the
actress from sleep Boy Camp, My good friend Pelissa Rose,
she's she's in there, like okay. Uh So I wore
a sachet over to him and I said, can I
pay you a compliment? He's like, yeah, sure, man, I
want you to know I you're probably the best verbal

(45:22):
storyteller I've ever heard in my life. And he's like, oh,
thanks man. You know well, no, I'm no Jeene Shepherd,
he says, because you know, I always though at that
verbal storytelling is my best gift, because God knows my
films ain't worth the shit, Like, oh my god, look
at this modesty for a success story, a pure success story.
And at one point I say to him, you you

(45:46):
like the film Sleepowy Camp, right, remember that eighty slasher film?
He says, yeah, Sleepot Camp for the girl with a face.
And I said, I have I made a spoof for
that film. Look and I used the same actress. Is
it no shit? Man? Like, yeah, yeah, I have in
my bag. You want it, sure, man? And I rode
up with my bag. I'm like, I'm like, oh my god,
I can't believe this is going so well. And I

(46:07):
run my bag and I had to him it was
just like just released and shrink wrap, and I said,
you know, like if you ever had a chance to
see it, you know, just email me, let me know
what you think, you know, And so we give it
to him. A few weeks later, I my friend tells
me he hears on a podcast that he mentioned the
whole interaction. And on this podcast, on the episode called Cannabis,

(46:30):
he's talking about like how he was in an airport
and ran into a guy that was because they were
talking about Sleepway camp, and like he just retold the
whole experience. So I'm like, wow, you remember, I don't
think you ever saw the movie, because I later heard
him say that people gave him stuff all the time,
and it goes into a pile of stuff I'll watch
one day when he when he's sick. So it's somewhere

(46:54):
maybe in the middle of that pile. And by that point,
you know, like you know, you're always going as a filmmaker,
so it'd be like looking at somebody's early really early work.
So that's uh. And incidentally, that film Summer Camp, which
you could see on YouTube, but like it was put
on YouTube legally through the first distributor. It was the
first movie of have an actor named Trey Buyers. I cast

(47:17):
him like, I like this guy. He was an Italian,
it was an Italian role, but this actor is African American.
He's got great personality, he's got a great presence. Liked
him a lot. Now Trey stars on Empire. So I
have this I have this ability of like casting people
in their first role and they come to become famous.
And then I never talked to him again because Peter

(47:38):
skin of you know, my first film, Dark Chambery stars
on Law and Order now, so I basically my films,
my first two films cast one of the stars of
Law and Order and one of the stars of Empire,
and I'm still a nobody.

Speaker 5 (47:51):
Well then there you go.

Speaker 6 (47:52):
You find people who are going to become big. So
that's that's your gift, Dave. So that way, I want
to encourage every actor now just to shoot their head
shot and everything else and then you can find out. No,
I'm just kidding, but uh no, no, but seriously that
is cool though, you see you meet people before they
become big. And you can't say it again because one
of the podcasts, But I actually have a Kevin Smith figure,

(48:14):
a podcast figure. I actually saw it one day. It
was like on sale and I decided to get it.
So it's actually him with the beard. It says, puck
you on there, and he's got a microphone in his hand,
and it's actually just just in front of my desk here.
It's one of my three figures in front of me.
But it's just really really cool that you got to
meet him like that.

Speaker 5 (48:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
I mean, of all, it was almost like I would
say Stemine intervention, except for nothing came out of it
so other but he did plug, he did he did
mention it on the on the podcast, So it was
it was a little gift from heaven, you could say.
So was there anything Was there anything else that you
wanted to touch on regarding because I know, like if
you really talk to somebody, it's a podcast that goes

(48:52):
on forever and people are on the patience for that.
But was there anything that that Elsie were interested in
terms of what I was up to h.

Speaker 6 (49:01):
Well, just just you know, well two things I know,
I know we are running out of time, but just
two things before we before we sort of say goodbye.
Just just creating, you know, a Caesaron auto and just
making films that you do right now, you know how
you know, so basically you know, you had to have
a time framement of all this stuff in play.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
So you know, we're a lot of these films.

Speaker 6 (49:22):
You know, when you were starting out, did you do
you self financed like the first couple of Cason autos,
and then you shot it and then you just started
shopping for a distributor. And I mean, now do you
have like sort of like a set plan in place,
Like they come they say, hey, Dave, you know, are
you making something else that we can just put you know,
just put out.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
The first Caesar or At a film came about this way.
So when I when Chakra i'ma released Dark Chamber, Uh,
Mike Rosso, the head of the company, asked if I
had any uh, if I had anything else that I
was working on, and I said, I had this film
Awake in the Reaper and he said, no, that sounds serious.
I want to a comedy, comedy, horror.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (50:11):
And I said, that thought occurred to me. I had
made a seven hundred dollars feature film called Caesar and
Auto and it was just about us two dufeball you
know characters, and I was insitaneously imagined, like an Abbocco
stole me fraktic side, what if I put them in
a horror film? Ah? Okay? So And then I was
spitballing right off the top of my head. I said, Mike,

(50:32):
what about you know, Cacarnado in a horror film, maybe
like a summer camp film. You know, I know the
star sleep Boy Camp. Maybe I can talk her into this.
And it's a you know, Caesar Nando and a summer
camp Masacer and and he says, right. I took thirty
days I wrote it and he they approved it. They
gave me a little bit of money to make it.
And then by the time that it was made, like

(50:54):
I showed him, rough guy, we all love this. And
then by the time it was to release it, like
the it was the DVD in Pploy where everything they
were selling was less and less, especially comedies, And by
the time they were releasing it. It's like Dave, the
whole market's falling apart. They had released a few comedies
back and back and they all lost money. He says,
So I don't know really what we're gonna do with this.
We might shelve it for now, put on a compilation DVD,

(51:17):
like here's your money back. I'm going to find another
home and I you know, and that's what we did.
I found another home for it. It did better than
Chakarama would have anticipated. And then from that distributor, I
went to another one we did in Deadly Xmas, which
was you know, finance between a friend of mine and I.

(51:40):
And and then lastly with Paranormal Halloween, it was mostly
funded through Indiegogo. You know, at that point there had
been enough traction from the previous films to give the
audience an idea of what they were going to get
and and you know, I offered a lot of perks
that I think they enjoyed. Uh, And that helped as well.

Speaker 6 (52:03):
Yeah, And so that's kind of you know again, like
you you sort of as a touch off the beginning
of this podcast, you have that that that it's almost
like a method and or plan in place where you know,
you can do the podcast, you get your name out
there still and then you're still doing the films.

Speaker 5 (52:17):
And I think that's important now.

Speaker 6 (52:19):
Is you have to have almost like a pre existing
fan base, you know, you know what I mean with
a lot of this stuff now, because if you just
go out cold, it's kind of it's a it's a
lot harder to only be make people aware of it,
but also just to sort of get the attention of
you know, the right piece.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
Well, my fan base is small but intense. I'm mean
I can rattle them off on two hands, so you know,
like name by nips. But but it's you know, it's helpful.
It's very helpful that they're out there too, you know,
to to champion this stuff. And without them, I probably
wouldn't be able to do any of this. Really.

Speaker 6 (52:52):
Yeah, it's like they say, a thousand true fans that's
all you need.

Speaker 4 (52:57):
Well, it's lotless than that. Maybe one day here, one
day a thousand we be good.

Speaker 6 (53:05):
So, Dave, just in closing, I know we've been talking
for about fifty minutes now, but just in closing, is
there anything we need a chance to discuss or anything
that you want to say right now, just to put
a period, and at the end of this whole conversation, yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
Follow me on Twitter. I'm gonna be doing an interview
with Lloyd coming up. So if you have a question
you would like me to ask Lloyd at me and
uh help but bro hopefully bring it up and yeah,
just you know, you can see my work cut IMDb,
get an idea of what I worked on. If you
have any questions, you know, anybody canna be up on Facebook.

(53:37):
I'm always receptive to answering questions and all of.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
That, and I will into all that in the show
notes everybody. Everything that Dave and I talked about at
Dave Bullus dot com. Twitter, it's at Dave Underscore Bullets.
The podcast is at dB podcast. David Campfield, I want
to say thank you so much for coming on. Man.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Then last thing you called me David Camfield. Wait a man, No, no,
that's not a problem. But get this, it's an uncommon name. Clearly,
David Camfield, Dave Camfield, these are not everyday names. Not
John Smith. There's another David Campfield out there who wants
to be an actor. Son of a bitch. Both of

(54:18):
us want to be actors. Both of us are actors.
He was in movies, I was in movies. And it's
very confusing. So if you IMDb David Campfield to get him,
you IMDb Dave Camfield to get me. And when it
comes to unions and gets even more confusing, all right,
you can take David, I can take Dave. So there's
another David Camfield out there, and he's an actor of
all things. I can't believe it. So yeah, yeah, we're

(54:41):
friends with each other.

Speaker 6 (54:43):
Oh that's good because there's another Dave Bullis out there,
and he actually has a Twitter, Dave Bullis, because I'm
my Twitter's at Dave at Dave Underscore Bulls. So I said,
on one day, I said, Hi, I'm Dave, and I said, listen,
I think it'd be better for you if we just
kind of like swap Twitter names. And I said, you know,
if there's something I could do to help you out,
I said, because people were killing him, they were tweeting

(55:04):
him all the time, and finally he, you know, he
finally responded back like I'm not that Dave bull as
this guy blah blah blah, and finally he blocked me
one day and I said, like, I tried to help
you out here, man, like he had like twenty followers.
Now he doesn't even use Twitter anymore. And but yeah,
he ended up blocking me all because he got angry
people we tweeting at him looking for me.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Well, that's an impractical response people this. You know, there's
at least one percent of the population that's completely unreasonable.
So he's one of those. So wonderful talking to you,
fellow Dave and podcasting. Yeah, hopefully, Well we'll be speaking again.

Speaker 6 (55:43):
I'm sure we will, man, trust me, I'm sure our
pets will cross at some point.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
But where where are you from? By the way, what state?

Speaker 6 (55:50):
I'm in Philadelphia, which is Pennsylvania.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
Well not too far. You know. I just edited a
commercial for the Philadelphia Pet Expo, so coming up you'll
be able to see dogs and cats looking together in massysteria.
So actually, seriously, I do I do some uh, I
do some part time editing on the on the side
and editing get Philadelphia Pet Extras one of my gigs.
That's that's the fun thing about being a freelancer.

Speaker 5 (56:16):
It's where are you in Jersey?

Speaker 4 (56:18):
No, I'm on Long Island?

Speaker 5 (56:20):
Oh Long okay? Cool? So so it is not snow
when you are.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
Probably no, you you can let me now. It is
how it's snowing though. I just as I said, I'm
kidding when I said I haven't looked at the windows today.

Speaker 5 (56:31):
Oh it's a.

Speaker 6 (56:31):
Problem, it's it's it's actually just stopped. Actually during this podcast,
the snow has actually stopped.

Speaker 5 (56:36):
It's not doing anything anymore.

Speaker 6 (56:38):
So uh, probably don't by way, But I've already I've
already been outside many times already just to push it
all out of the way.

Speaker 5 (56:43):
So yeah, I'm gonna go do that now.

Speaker 6 (56:45):
So anyways, just just to get the rest of it
out of here. So Dave again, it's been a blast,
and thanks again for coming on. And yet well I'm
sure we'll talk soon.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Bulletproofscreenwriting dot tv.

Speaker 5 (57:03):
Forward slash four thirty two. Thank you so much for
listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter what.
I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting podcast at Bulletproofscreenwriting
dot tv.