June 3, 2025 • 75 mins
When the moon is high and the muse is low, we often find ourselves in deep conversation with our own souls, asking, "Why do I do this?" And on today’s episode, we welcome the steadfast and visionary Ron Newcomb, a former Marine and police officer who has traded in his uniform for a camera, answering that very question not just with thought—but with action.
Many walk the tightrope between dreams and reality. But Ron doesn’t walk it; he builds it. With a full-time job, family responsibilities, and the unrelenting buzz of daily life, filmmaking becomes more than a pursuit—it becomes a pilgrimage. In our conversation, Ron unveils the raw truth behind being a modern-day storyteller, caught between the 9-to-5 grind and the eternal call of the creative. His journey is not just about making films; it's about making space in a crowded world to remember who we really are when the credits roll.You see, filmmaking, as Ron wisely puts it, "isn't a want—it’s a calling." It’s not about lighting up a screen; it's about lighting a fire.
There is a reverence in his approach, a kind of worship in the way he speaks of independent cinema. He isn’t interested in chasing fame or fortune but in answering that whispering voice within that says, “Tell this story. It matters.” In an age where distractions are currency, Ron is cashing in for clarity. He’s figured out that doing the work is the real prayer.As a self-proclaimed “storyteller,” Ron lays out three sacred paths for the indie filmmaker: seeking a manager to break through studio gates, finding a producing partner to align energies with, or rallying investors to go it alone. “I'm going to bang the drum on all three,” he says. That’s not just a plan—it’s a mantra. And true to that vow, he’s organizing a bold, DC-based pitch event to connect filmmakers with gatekeepers. It's a beautiful paradox—waiting for no one while creating opportunities for everyone.
We explored how the daily discipline—rising at six, family dinners, late-night writing—becomes the framework for spiritual resilience. This isn't just about making movies; it's about making meaning. Ron explains, “Contentment is found in the process, not the end result.” How very Zen. Each film, each failed Kickstarter, each late-night script rewrite is not a detour—it is the path. As he puts it, “You should feel filmmaking breathe within you.” And if it doesn’t? It may be time to let go.Ron also speaks with reverence for collaboration, knowing that the alchemy of filmmaking lies not in the lone genius, but in the orchestra of souls rowing in rhythm. He is generous in spirit and grounded in grit, reminding us that the true power isn’t just in raising capital or climbing a ladder—it’s in raising each other. "If we all just left ego aside for a moment, I believe that all of us could get what we wanted." There’s more than wisdom in that; there’s a way forward.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
Many walk the tightrope between dreams and reality. But Ron doesn’t walk it; he builds it. With a full-time job, family responsibilities, and the unrelenting buzz of daily life, filmmaking becomes more than a pursuit—it becomes a pilgrimage. In our conversation, Ron unveils the raw truth behind being a modern-day storyteller, caught between the 9-to-5 grind and the eternal call of the creative. His journey is not just about making films; it's about making space in a crowded world to remember who we really are when the credits roll.You see, filmmaking, as Ron wisely puts it, "isn't a want—it’s a calling." It’s not about lighting up a screen; it's about lighting a fire.
There is a reverence in his approach, a kind of worship in the way he speaks of independent cinema. He isn’t interested in chasing fame or fortune but in answering that whispering voice within that says, “Tell this story. It matters.” In an age where distractions are currency, Ron is cashing in for clarity. He’s figured out that doing the work is the real prayer.As a self-proclaimed “storyteller,” Ron lays out three sacred paths for the indie filmmaker: seeking a manager to break through studio gates, finding a producing partner to align energies with, or rallying investors to go it alone. “I'm going to bang the drum on all three,” he says. That’s not just a plan—it’s a mantra. And true to that vow, he’s organizing a bold, DC-based pitch event to connect filmmakers with gatekeepers. It's a beautiful paradox—waiting for no one while creating opportunities for everyone.
We explored how the daily discipline—rising at six, family dinners, late-night writing—becomes the framework for spiritual resilience. This isn't just about making movies; it's about making meaning. Ron explains, “Contentment is found in the process, not the end result.” How very Zen. Each film, each failed Kickstarter, each late-night script rewrite is not a detour—it is the path. As he puts it, “You should feel filmmaking breathe within you.” And if it doesn’t? It may be time to let go.Ron also speaks with reverence for collaboration, knowing that the alchemy of filmmaking lies not in the lone genius, but in the orchestra of souls rowing in rhythm. He is generous in spirit and grounded in grit, reminding us that the true power isn’t just in raising capital or climbing a ladder—it’s in raising each other. "If we all just left ego aside for a moment, I believe that all of us could get what we wanted." There’s more than wisdom in that; there’s a way forward.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the indieilm Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight, No.
Five Cinema should make You forget. You're sitting in a theater,
Roman Polanski.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle podcast.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur
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(01:44):
filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy
today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I'm so glad to talk to my next guest. We
talk about all this stuff. We also going to talk
about a very high topic, which is how the hell
do you make a film while working a full time
day job. How do you do that? How do you
go work a job and that's eight to twelve hours?
You come home, You got family responsibilities, You got people
always asking for your attention, You got people constantly And
I'll tell you A little side story here. The other day,
(02:16):
I actually had a friend of mine who I didn't
talked to any years, asking me to help him with
different projects. I mean, you know, as soon as I
go on Facebook Messenger, man, it's over. I get dinged
like crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
And a friend of.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Mine was telling me to remove it, and I one
time I actually suspended my Facebook and I was just
I got people then bombarding me on Twitter or my email.
That's why when I tell people, if I don't get
back to you, trust me, there's a reason I'm not
ignoring you. But we're gonna talk about all that stuff.
This is a really really cool episode with guests Ron Nukem.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah, no, definitely appreciate it. Yeah, Scott is awesome. You know,
I'm a fan of the of Scott's and yours, and
are so many other other guys and gals out there
doing at a level that we're all kind of doing
it at and just love what Scott was doing. So yeah,
I connected with him and have gone on to kind
of help with doing a few of those. But you know,
(03:15):
it kind of gets to a point where when you're
working full time and you have your full time job,
you have your family, and really the podcast becomes such
a left and I know you know this, but filmmaking
started to take second seat.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
So I've even reevaluated just okay, what.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Is my why?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
You know, what am I doing and why am I
doing it? And then what's the goal.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And so I even recently, and I know a lot
of people out there can relate. We're always having to
kind of reinvent ourselves. You know, that's the whole mantra
of the start of the new year. We're all setting
goals and resolutions, and you know, twenty eighteen definitely for me,
is about leveling up. I want to level up my
filmmaking game. That's the goal.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah. So when you say like level up, I mean
do you mean just like the scope of projects? The
amount of projects says how we're referring to.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So really what I want to do is is I
realized I kept being very passive about my filmmaking career.
And so you know, as an I consider myself an
indie filmmaker, but I'm not anti studio. You know, if
the studio was willing to come in and jump in
(04:30):
and fund some of my projects, hey, game on. You know,
I think even Kevin Smith and Tarantino and Rodriguez. Look,
you know they all started out independent, but the studios
funded their dreams, you know, and got their stories told.
And it really goes down to the why, And I think,
why are we all in this storytelling thing? Why are
we all in this business? And it's because, you know,
(04:52):
filmmaking is powerful. Right as Americans, our number one export
is our culture, and we predominantly do that through the
power of film. Just go to anywhere outside the States
and you see the impact.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
And influence of things, and you see Nike and all
these different things.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
And film can also reflect culture at times, but it
can also dictate culture. It's powerful, but it must be
a calling. It can't just be a want or a desire.
And I started to realize that I'm getting ready to
turn forty five, and you know, every film that I've
(05:29):
ever been.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
A part of feature it's taken five to seven years.
So the math doesn't add up.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
You know, I going to get to tell all the
stories I want to tell. I have over twenty five
treatments ready to go. I literally just yesterday type the
end on a screenplay, man, and that was you know,
it took about a little over six months to write
this latest feature that I've done. So when you start
to look at those things as an endie, because we
(05:57):
don't get to do this in a full time capacity.
For most of us. I've had intermittent moments where I've
been able to do filmmaking full time at three year intervals,
ironically enough, but right now I've had to go back
and get another nine to five job. And so I've
realized that, Okay, Ron, you have three predominant paths as
(06:20):
an independent filmmaker. I believe that you can take. One
is you can try to go get a manager, you know,
as a director, as a writer, and level your career
up that way. And so that's one path that I'm pursuing,
going seeking representation to try to get into that whole
studio system because the likelihood of you breaking in on
your own is you know, almost non existent. And then two,
(06:44):
it's to find the right production partner that can help
team up with me and get the stories that I
want told out there, and those are hard to find
as our managers, but there are production companies producing partners
rather that are out there that are looking for that
next right thing. And then thirdly, I could look at
(07:08):
bringing on investors to do my own projects, and I
think I'm going to bang the drum on all three
of them. And again I think that's the the Indie way,
that's the Indie spirit. Is I'm going to try to
seek about security manager. I'm going to try to be
getting a producing partner that can bring me to that
next level. And then I'm also going to be trying
(07:29):
to seek out my own investors on I have two
projects and wrapping up on a third project that is packaged,
if you will, not in the context of the studio
package per se, like I have a named writer, director
and an actor because I wrote it, I want to
direct it, but I've packaged it in the sense I've
(07:52):
got all my comps done and all these the business
plan done and ready to go. And so the next
step would be trying to get on that producing partner
that can then bring in those relationships where I might
be able to, let's say, bring on an A list
or B less talent level. So when I talk about
leveling up, those those are the three things that I've
(08:15):
identified that I'm going to be trying to do this year.
So much so Dave that I actually I live in
the DC metro area, and on August twenty fifth, I
just signed the paperwork. I'm going to do an event
because I think I'm the only one. I'm not the
only one out there that feels like this, and I'm
going to invite managers, producing partners, and investors to.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Up DC to host an event where we can pitch them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Think of it as Shark Tank meets the independent world.
And it's not like you get five minutes, you get
ninety seconds to pitch. I went to this other pitch event,
entrepreneurial pitch event, and it was so well done that
it was such a light bulb moment, and so I
talked to a few investors and they were like, yeah,
you know, we like to see something like that. There's
no guarantee that we'll all walk out with something, but
(09:05):
you know, I think a lot of independence. Man.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
We just want up the back. Just give me the shot,
you know, put me in the game.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah. You know, it's funny you mentioned that event because
a couple of years ago I was actually part of
like a producer's group here in Philly and we were
gonna do something similar and it just all fell apart
for a ton of reasons. But that's why I'm glad
you're doing this, Ron, because I think it's awesome. Ours
(09:33):
was probably gonna be a little bit probably different. Yours
is probably gonna be ten thousand times better. So just
because I won't go into it, I'll start going off
on a tangent. But basically, see this is what I'm
talking about. Like we were just talking about, you know,
all these different projects and you know they take seven years.
I mean, the biggest problem that I find to run
(09:54):
is not only you know, you have to work a
full time day job and then you got to come
home and you have all these family commitments or what
have you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
And then you want to gets to you working, and
by the end you're either too tired or you're so
stressed out you can't work. I fall into that latter part,
by the way, and you're just like I just can't
concentrate on it, like I've got ten thousand other things
run through my mind. But like I think that you know,
just events like this, you know, should become more commonplace
(10:32):
because there are people out there like that feel that
way and if you could say to these investors, these producers,
these channels, what have you, and say, look, this isn't
going to be a free for all kind of like AFM.
This is going to be more of a structured Hey, look,
you know there's some you know, you have to there's
gonna be a certain level of quality, a certain momometer
that people have to piss and you're only going to get,
(10:54):
you know, people who can actually generally do stuff. It's
not going to be like hey, a first time filmmaker
or even a YouTuber who's trying to you know, raise
fifty thousand dollars or whatever.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah, exactly. You know, there is a kind of levels, tiers,
if you will, Like I've had some marginal success, I've
done some features, and hey, by the way, I think
anybody out there listening that has done a feature film
should win an Oscar Man. We should just be able
to walk up and accept our work. It takes, you know,
an act of God. A film will fight you every
step of the way. You have to pull it into existence.
(11:26):
So for all the people that have finished a feature, bravo.
But there are I do believe kind of different levels,
different tiers, and I really want to do it at
a high end, professional level, just simply in the indie market.
So I'm definitely not talking about running around with a
handicam on my backyard, you know, trying to film my
(11:47):
daughter's and turn it into a feature.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Although say that might be an idea right there.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
We can we can film.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Breat that down.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, I will. No, it definitely is. You know
about One of the things that I find is there's
not a ton of opportunities for us, and so people
always we're waiting for someone else. We're waiting for someone else.
And I just said, you know what, this year, I'm
just not going to wait for anybody else. I'm just
gonna do and I'm gonna you know, we live in
(12:17):
the day and age of you know, Gary Vaynerchek and
all these others where you got to do more, you
got to do more, you got to do more, and
so you walk away feeling a little bit defeated, like, man,
like I can't do more. You know, I'm staying up.
I don't have a full time job and then a
part time job. I do full time jobs. You know, filmmaking.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Independent filmmaking is a full time job.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I stay up till nine ten o'clock every night, you know,
trying to work on something I don't give try to
give myself too many luxuries of watching this or that,
although I do think it's important as a filmmaker to
watch stuff, don't get me wrong, but you know, I'm
really trying to spend the time to put myself in
(12:58):
the best possible position and yet have enough grace for
myself not to be all consuming because you know, film
can be defeatism. Man, I mean, you could get completely
defeated and wiped out. Like, you know, why am I
doing this? And I think that's the important question. Why
are you doing this if it's for fame or fortune?
(13:21):
You know, if I can deter anybody to get out
of it. I don't want to come off as a
you know, a pessimist. I hate it when you listen
to podcasts and people are like, man it dud's a downer.
But I do want to be This is a school
of hard knocks. Indie filmmaking, true indie filmmaking. Trying to
do it vacasionally and make money at it and do
a full time is not for the week at heart.
(13:43):
You know, there's a tax to be paid and it's
not paid by you, it's paid by your family. And
it's a challenge, you know it. And this is just
one man's point of view. This is just the way
I've done it. And I also has heard the right
to change my mind later and mighty and contradict myself.
But it is something that I believe at forty five
(14:06):
that I have been able to look back on and say, Okay,
if I can give some thoughts, guidance and insight into
something and try to pull people up at least to
where I'm at and push them beyond, you know, hopefully
I can give some little nuggets to people to make
it happen, because it's not you know, it's not easy,
(14:28):
right and we all know that, but I do think
there is a pathway to make it happen. You know,
there's a great resource out there that I'm a big
fan of is Stage thirty two. I think that they're
doing a really good job out there for filmmakers. And
I got to interview RB, the CEO of Stage thirty
two and just a real sharp guy. And there's so
(14:52):
many other great resources to get information from, like yourself, Dave,
you know, Jason Bruce Baker Jason buff Alex Ferrari, you know,
Scott of course, Ashley, tom Alloyd. You know. We can
go on and on about people that are equipping us
to get out there. But one of the things I've realized, Dave,
(15:14):
is that one of the best things I can do
for my sphere of influence is really do a film.
That's what really people want, you know, they want opportunity.
And it wouldn't be great if I could call you up,
Dave and say, hey, man, you're in Philly. You know
you're You're just a couple hours up the road for me,
come on down here and let's let's do a feature
for the next three weeks. You know, and by the way,
(15:36):
I'm paying.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, that would be absolutely amazing because you know,
and this is what I was alluding to earlier, was
you know, I think this is why a lot of
guys get burned out because you know, again, just to
go back to the seven year time span or even
the three to five year time span, you know, people
join projects and as a producer most of the time
(15:59):
or what have you, you and it's and it goes
through these cycles where it's like f ok, We're feel
like we're putting something together and then it falls apart.
Then we're gonna put it back together again, and then
it falls apart. And then that's why people get so
burned out in this industry, because it's so much like
it's it's one step forward, one step back. Yeah, Usually
you don't get anywhere, you know, Yeah, and then you
start going, well, god damn, you know, we we've wasted
(16:20):
a year. And and and then also on the flip
side of that, I've been a part of projects where
a few years ago I actually swore off producing other
people other people's projects because as I was getting I
was putting all this together, spending all this time, and
the person was getting cold feet, the person who was,
you know, gonna direct this. And I said, I don't
(16:40):
tolerate that stuff. I said, I, if you're not one
hundred percent into it, I should not care about this
project more than you should like you you know, you know,
And and because it was his thing, and eventually we
I just I just bowed out. And then we had
a band falling out, and he blamed me for for
the project falling apart. And I said, I told you,
you know, I told you this is going to happen
if I left. You know, I need you to be
(17:03):
all hands on deck. You know, it needs you to
be one hundred and ten percent into this. You know
it just and it's happened before too. I mean, there's
numerous projects I've been involved with where something like that
has happened, and it's not an isolated incident. And finally,
I just say, you know what, why am I even
doing this? You know, what's the point of all of this?
You know? And then you know, I decided to start
a podcast, which was another bad idea, and now here
(17:25):
I am Ron. I'm so far deep. I can't stop
no man.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
But and it's because you know why, Matt, Because you
know you're bringing strong value add to the community that
you love. And I totally agree, man, if you're not
all in, and let me speak to that for a second,
because I believe, you know, tonight's talk is about like
the twenty percenters, the twenty percenters that are really going
to make it happen.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I kind of believe. And I don't mean this this
arrogantly or to.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Devalue all the people out there wanting to do film,
but I want to esteem the filmmakers, those that have
done it all right, that have completed a film, because
it is difficult to finish a film, the try and
true you know again school of hard knocks, filmmakers that
have to get out there and grind it out because
(18:12):
there is a lot of hurdles and again, the film
will fight you. And there's a lot of people that
simply just talk, you know, they they are not going
to follow through. This has to be about the doers.
If I can do anything and do you a favor tonight,
it would be to try to deter you. If you're
not all in, then you shouldn't try to dip your
(18:33):
toe in the water. I talked to look, actors, act writers, right.
I talk to actors and they'll say, because that's the
lens that I wear. That's how I got into this
whole thing is through the vehicle of acting. And I say,
you know, are you acting right now? And they go no,
I'm not okay, Well are you doing shorts or plays? No? No, no,
I just do features. When was the last feature you did?
(18:55):
Oh well that was five years ago. So well you're
not really that serious then, because it should should should
breathe within you, ignite something in you so much that
you have to go and do it, and it doesn't
matter if you're doing it on stage or for a
short or on a feature film. Actors act or I'll
see actors they'll fire off one email and and wonder
(19:18):
why people aren't getting back to them, or why it's
not happening for them, or they don't seek a manager out,
or they're not doing these these other things.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
And they you know, you need to go beyond.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Just the simplicity of things and do your passion. You're
calling and if it's not a calling, then you know
there there might be other things that you can do
to be a part of it. And this is another
thing that that a acting professor told me that is
(19:53):
is hard to hear, but I believe his wisdom, and
he says, sometimes we'll be right.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Back after a word from our sponsor, and now back
to the show.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
If a person's not getting cast, that's the industry speaking
to you.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
And I know that's hard to hear. I know that's
hard to hear. But if you're not getting cast over
and over and over and over again, and you're still
trying to do the same thing without take trying to
level up, taking a class or getting a manager or
securing things. Then you got to wonder why, right, I mean,
isn't that the definition of insanity. There's a lot of
(20:35):
other ways that you can be involved with filmmaking. And
that's another thing that I think, as INDI's we need
to do is never see yourself just as one thing.
You're never just an actor, You're never just a writer
or just a crew member. You know, do we do
this thing collaboratively and there's usually one person that kind
(20:56):
of spearheads it and takes it on and then we
all get to live out our callings and our passions.
But if we could all just leave ego aside for
a moment, I believe that all of us could all get.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
What we wanted. You know. I find it funny that
there's a bunch of indie filmmakers that I know, and
each of them kind of know a few not major investors,
but they know like someone that could give ten thousand
here or fifteen thousand there. And I'm like, guys, gals,
you know, if we all just came together, we got
about one hundred and fifty grand here, and nobody want
They all want to do their project, and then I'm
(21:29):
saving that person for my own project.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
And so years and years go bys when nothing getting.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Done, and so this year, you know, kind of like you,
I'm I'm trying to produce my own stuff. You know. Now,
I will say, hey, I'm always up for looking for
the right project, you know, to come along to, maybe
to jump in and be a part of.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
But it needs to be the right project. You can't keep.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Doing stuff for free, you know. So yeah, I mean
it's it's a challenge and we should be going beyond
that challenge and not expecting, you know, an easy road.
You know. It's another thing that I see a lot.
It's usually a rate of revolved around working out. But
(22:14):
when you when you hear the Rock and Mark Wahlberg,
you know, I hear a guys saying, well, if I
had their money, I would look like that too, And
you know, I laugh, right these guys if you've seen
really you know, drill down and got to see some
intimate interviews with those guys and others too. You know,
(22:34):
both of them get up at four a m. In
the morning and go work out for like several hours.
They eat like extremely strict and these guys are just
they're not They're beyond passionate. It is a calling for them,
and it's why can they continue to work? And we
should use that as an inspiration to level up ourselves
(22:58):
and to go the distance. I don't know that we
need to do more, because again that's as Americans, that's
what we keep telling ourselves, like, man, I just I'm
not doing enough. I gotta do more.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
I gotta and you white knuckle it and try to
force it into success.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
And I don't know that that's right. What I think
you have to do is the right thing, and you
got to keep doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, But you know, as you mentioned, you know, going
to sleep, you know, nine ten o'clock at night. You know,
I was going to ask Ron, you know what time
do you wake up in the morning, because I know
I've read a book, you know, last year that was
just completely life changing and it's called Extreme Discipline. Yeah, Josh,
I mean tell you, it's absolutely a life changing book,
and I wanted to ask, you know, what time do
(23:43):
you do up in the morning?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
All right, So, first of all, Dave, I listened to
that podcast that you mentioned that book. I went out
and got that book as a result to your podcast
and read it and You're totally right. It is completely
like life changing. Jacko and Leaf are just phenomenal warriors.
But I try to get up at six, and you know,
(24:06):
one of the things that they talk about in the
book of Course is don't hit that snooze button. You know,
don't don't give in hit that snooze button, because that's
one of the great things great leaders do is you
you get up.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
They don't waste the minute. So it's not like, you know,
they need more.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
They're gonna do what they can within the a lot
of time, and they're gonna just suck every nutrient out
of that time slot that they have. So I've been
trying to get up at six, and you know, I
do try to get my workouts in, and I do
have a nine to five. So I go to work
and I'm getting home around you know, six thirty, and
(24:46):
then I have dinner with the family and I have
family time, you know, that is a priority for me,
and then I'm back in front of the computer. We
start getting them down, the kids down about eight thirty,
and then I'm in front of the computer from you know,
let's a nine to ten or eleven. Now some days
I'll get motivated, and I'll wake up at uh not often,
(25:06):
but I will wake up at like four if I
really want to get some writing done. But I don't
know that I'm.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Like a a great writer.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
I'm just tenacious and I know I'll get a draft
done and get out there so that someone can basically
rewrite rewrite me. You know, rewriting is the easy part.
But anyways, I I am trying to do that. I
don't always get it right, but I do seek value
(25:36):
in what they're doing in that book on so many levels.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Extreme ownership, taking ownership over things.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
And certainly that's one of the things that I'm talking
about about leveling up, is that you know this is.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Your life and don't live it passively.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
No one's gonna come up and hand you something to
give you something, and it doesn't mean you've got to
go in and break the doors down and the barriers
down and all that stuff. Because you know, one of
the things that that I had to wrestle with is
do you realize that only two percent of people in
SAG are doing acting full time? Or what about you know,
(26:13):
I can it to professional football? How many athletes hoped
that they would end up in the in the NFL
and yet didn't make it in the NFL. Several people
that I played football with growing up with I thought
were going to go on and and the ones that didn't,
uh uh, you know, I I was just shocked about.
(26:33):
And yet did their did their life end? Did their
life have no meaning? You know? And the and the
answer is no. I'd like to point out, you know,
the Rock didn't make it into the NFL, and he
pivoted and turned it into something pretty powerful, right, you know,
pretty pretty successful. And so this thing called film. One
of the things that I want to caution people out
at is trying to do it at any cost. Cause again,
(26:57):
many times you're not the one paying that cost. A
lot of times it is your family paying that cost.
So you know, it shouldn't be at your peace, your contentment.
And that's something at forty five I definitely have learned
is learned that life is the journey. Contentment is done
(27:18):
in the process of filmmaking, not necessarily the end result.
Because once I'm done with one film, I'm ready to
go on to the next film. And if I never
make a studio film, if Ron nukeomb never does that,
am I okay with that as long as I get
to tell stories and I get to have a conversation
into storytelling, then I'm okay with that, and my contentment
(27:42):
no longer in my peace and my joy doesn't have
to come from that. But I got to tell you, man,
you know, for the longest time I was feeling I
was trying to white knuckle it and force my way
into success and trying to make it happen. And success
was very, very defined in a very particular way, and
you know, I had to realize that that's not what
(28:05):
life's about. It isn't what it's about. And so yeah,
you know, I'm trying to take ownership on leveling up
to that, to that next next filmmaking level.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It will. And that's the thing too, is not only
just extreme ownership in the fact that you know, hey,
whatever happens to us, you know, we have to own that,
we have to own these responsibilities. But also it's just
about you know, toughening up. Because one of the things
that I was getting, you know, a real bad habit
of was whenever something would happen, I would just lose
(28:41):
my shit. I would just go, oh my god, another roadblock,
another problem, and I started to realize. I was like,
you know what, I if I just were accept the
fact that there's going to be problems, I think I
would be able to if I go in there expecting
it to be a do you know what I mean,
like expect the worst, to prepare for the worst, expect
the best. So if I went in there and did that,
(29:02):
it wouldn't be such a problem, you know what I mean.
And it's just like that that's what I do nowadays.
It just feels like half the time in I feels
like I don't know about you, Ron, it just feels like,
forget about there not being enough hours in the day.
Well we all say that. I just feel that it's
almost like the days are getting so shorter where it's
like you wake up, you pound coffee, you go to work,
(29:26):
you just work through lunch, you come home and then
you got obviously you're still answering your cell phone or whatever,
you're what you're allowed to have, answering emails, and then
as soon as all of a sudden, everyone wants to
talk to you as soon as you get into the door,
and then it's like you know, six seven, eight at night,
and it's like all right, well, I have now about
an hour and to be by myself to work on
this thing. You know, does that happen to you?
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh man, I mean all the time? I mean yeah.
I think that is definitely a lot of the tenacious
effort that a indie filmmaker.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Has to find within them the fortitude to be able
to kind of carry on. And I think it's important
to answer that why. You know, what is your why?
To understand your why, because again, if you can be
talked out of this crazy thing, you should be. Now
that doesn't mean you won't make your little forty eight
hour film hour, you know, film projects and have fun
telling some stories. But I'm talking about truly trying to
(30:28):
make independent filmmaking as of a full time vocation, because
it takes a full time effort and a lot of times,
you know, the world doesn't have to respond, it doesn't
have to reply to you, and so it can be
a challenge out there. And yet we know though that
when it does. There's a reason why we are so
(30:51):
tenacious is that there's beauty in the end result of
what we create. And I got to tell you I
love the filmmaking collaboration process too. I love working with
other artists and you know, it's kind of like Zorg
and Fifth Element. If you remember that scene when he
drops the glass and then all these little things start
(31:13):
to come out and clean up the glass. You know.
I was also I was a cop for a little
while Dave here in Alexandria, Virginia, and there was one
person on the squad that would usually go out and
get the rest of the squad into something, and that
guy was me. You know, I was going out trying
(31:34):
to be the one of like, all right, let's go
find some you know, somebody selling drugs or doing something wrong,
you know, and we can get into to deter or
protect this city. And you know, as a filmmaker I
kind of carry that same mantra into into what we're doing,
is that it be the one to do the film
(31:58):
project because that in of itself creates opportunities. But trying
to do it at this other second tier, this other level.
You know, again, we're not newbies, and yet we're not
we're not able to do it potentially one hundred and
ten percent full time all the time, just yet and
so we have this balance that we have to take on,
(32:22):
and I do believe that you also have to find yourself.
Just like the filmmaking process is collaborative, life is collaborative.
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Life is not meant to be a solo sport. Neither
is filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
And when you're feeling that way, you got to be
able to reach out, you know, you got to be
able to reach out to others and to remind you
of that dream. And so when people are doing filmmaking
and isolation, that is such a mountain to climb. I'm
not saying that people can't do it, but I'm certainly
not wired that way. I'm not a one man shop
(32:58):
where I write film at it, you know, color sound
as I'm not that type of filmmaker. I like the
collaborative part. And yet I also liked you like you, Dave.
I've lost friends along the way, brother, You know, I've
lost friends along the way for not being clear enough
or frankly taking extreme ownership over things, and have unfortunately
(33:22):
wiped out on a few dreams. I was on a
feature film and our ROI, you know, our return didn't
come back the way we all necessarily wanted to. And
then next thing, you know, you know, fingers started to
get point and people leave. I've been on other projects
where expectations weren't laid out, and you know, people stopped
(33:42):
doing or working in an efficient enough manner to where
someone that thought they were secure, you know, wasn't. And
these are hard things to have to live out. But
if you know your why then and you have around
you surrounded yourself with like minded people that know what
(34:04):
you're going through, And I think that's that's the deal,
right is you have to be able to find people.
One of the challenges I think people are trying to
do as filmmakers is level up so far that the
person they're trying to reach out to is such at
a high level that the likelihood of them joining you
on your project is not likely. So find someone who's
(34:26):
at your level or maybe just slightly above you, right, yeah,
maybe don't swing for the fences in that context for
a partner. Find people that are doing like mindedness. You know,
I think you and I are are kindred spirits that way.
And again that list I gave earlier, Tom Scott, Ashley,
Alex Jason, you know, the other Jason Buff. You know,
(34:50):
all of us are are We're rowing, man, We're rowing hard,
you know, because we know our why. And you know,
I think the best thing I could do for you guys,
Like I said, Man, I would love to be able
to call you guys up and be like, hey, guys,
I got funding. We're rolling, we're rolling cameras, man, you know,
do the podcast live on set here we're making a movie.
(35:12):
I think it gets to a point where that's the
best gift that I can I can give people. And
when those moments do get tiresome and tight, and it's
you know, it's I'm ready to go to bed and
I and I'm trying to get a few more pages
checked off the script, it's it's pulling back to those things.
(35:33):
And you know, again, it is finding contentment in the process,
finding contentment and grabbing a beer with some friends, you know,
and hanging out or talking shop, you know, or talking
movies because it is such a passion that we all have.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, well, Ron, if you get funding for your movie,
I'll do the podcast on set. But at that point
I'd be like, hey, look, Ron, I'll come back to
produce the thing. Let's just do it that one.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Let's do it. Yeah, I like it man now, you know,
and you know, be a doer man, Be a finisher.
There's so many filmmakers that again that call themselves filmmakers
and they haven't finished anything. They've wiped out, you know,
be a finisher, you know. I think that's why, frankly,
Kickstarter has become such a challenge for all of us filmmakers.
We kind of did it to ourselves. We didn't finish
(36:19):
and do things and come in on promises of different things,
and so people are like, you know, you know, I'm
not given to that or now. Granted, the life cycle
of a film is long. It always is, you know,
Like I said, the average for me has been five
to seven years. I mean, we all saw Giama del
Torre get up there and accept his award and they
were like raising the music up, you know, and you
(36:40):
heard what he said. He was like, hey, guys, it
took me twenty five years to get up here. Give me,
give me a little grace here, give me a moment
to speak, you know. And I just was like, yes, right,
because everyone thinks it's an overnight success and it's not,
and yet people do it. But I know I have
(37:00):
a thing where when I first started to try to
get into filmmaking. It was right after the Marine Corps
that I was trying to get on a set. Now
this is pre digital, right, so this is you know,
a good time ago, and no one would even let
me come in and just you know, get work for
free or come on and grab coffee or you know,
like a pre pa almost. And I told myself, Man,
(37:22):
if I ever get a set that, I'm not going
to do that. So if people are willing to come
on now you don't you know, there's no passive viewers
on my set, you're going to work. But I want
to create opportunities. That's what I get jazzed about. That's
why I got into the whole film education component of it,
you know, with the podcast and Scott does a super
(37:45):
job over at Film Trooper there is I really do
believe that opportunities and storytelling is what we all want
to do.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
And that's the best gift that we can give each other.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Because if I'm doing a project and you're doing a
project and then you hire me, you know, and.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Then it it all works.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
And I know we see this and frankly, it's just
difficult to raise capital. You know, it's difficult to raise
the amount of money you need, and there's no guarantees
out there. But I do believe that we could do
better by each other. I do believe that.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, and you mentioned too, the people that don't finish
and Kickstarter. You know, I've donated to a shit ton
of kickstarters, and I started to realize a lot of
these filmmakers just stopped the communication process. And I actually
got really really burned out when this guy that I
knew donated, like Tony, I've actually raised like twenty grand
(38:41):
to make a short film and he never did it,
and he never did anything with it, and people were like, hey,
where the hell happened to the money, you know, twenty
thousand dollars, Like what did you do with this? He
took down his Facebook and I've never heard from him since.
And yeah, a lot of people have been burned by
stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, you know, you know, I have a project out
there that the whole goal of the project was to
level up the project, and part of me doing this
event is part of that fulfilling that mission. Is that
now I've had some good meetings, but I didn't sign anybody.
So I've been trying to knock on doors with managers
and producing partners, and we have a short of it
(39:23):
out there that we did as a result of it.
It's a little like twelve minute, twelve and a half
minute thing. We put it out on Facebook and we
have over three hundred thousand hits on it, but I've
yet to kind of been able to take it to
the next level. It's this steampunk western sci fi, very
a lah firefly fans and got some nice traction with it,
(39:47):
but nothing. You know, people got to write checks, right,
I mean, that's the stuff that gets it produced. So no,
I hear people all the time talking about Kickstarter, wearing
it where we are in a funny kind of a we'll.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
That way with how to do financing and raising capital
and then just how long it takes, you know. That's
the other thing is setting people's expectations. Now, I will
say I used to not do shorts, and you know
what happened, Dave years went by and I did nothing.
I didn't film anything, and so I went from not
(40:34):
liking shorts, and frankly it was because you couldn't monetize them.
So now I really like shorts because as filmmakers, if
as an artist, we know that ten thousand hours, you
know it constitutes you to technically be an expert. At
what point are you going to get your ten thousand
hours in? You know it? Filmmaking is one of the
few things that you got to knock it out of
(40:56):
the park your very first film. So I think, you know,
put it in the context of Kickstarter, if filmmakers just
got it finished, that there's value in that saying something.
You know, there's a lot of films that I have
on my website, the Ford Studios dot com. If you
(41:18):
go to the Ford Studios, there's a lot of shorts
out there that they it didn't turn out exactly the
way I had written it. And we all know as filmmakers,
you know it's made during writing, filming, and editing. And
there's some out there that I look at and I cringe,
But I think of, you know what, that's my ten
thousand hours, and I'm putting in those are my ten
(41:38):
thousand hours. You got to get out there and film something.
You got to get out there and tell a story.
That's how we're going to get better and nobody's going
to come up and just give you the opportunity to
go and do it. You know. Spielberg and Lucas, those
things are rare, you know, and luckily they hit it
out of the park. There were plenty of opportun unities
(42:00):
for them to wipe out and they were able to
do it. So I'm trying to level up not just
with opportunities, but to also every year get out and
do what I call an intentional epic short film. This
is one that is an intentional film something I can
(42:23):
do in a weekend because then when you ask people
to do it for free, when you're doing a short,
they can sprint two days. So basically I can film
about five pages a day, so that's about a ten
minute short. What can we do with the resources that
we have around here? And I tend to focus on
fantasy and sci fi, and so that's what I try
to do, are these intentional epic short films. And I
(42:46):
treat my sets professional so that when we do get
the feature, you know, we've got people ready to go.
I've vetted crew that way, I vetted actors that way.
It's a really good way to do something.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
And we talked about this too on Facebook, where people
will say things like you know, maybe you know if
you if you do something wrong, I'll try to show up.
Or they'll say things like, hey, when you're doing when
you're casting, make sure you remember me and and and
you and I were laugh at about that. Yeah, And
because because you hear all the freaking time, you're like, well,
well you're going to try to show up? What the
hell does that mean? Yeah? I don't even know what
(43:22):
that means. I honestly don't. You're either going to show
up or you're not. And when people say things like hey,
remember when you're casting, remember to reach out to me,
it's like, really, like I have to? Should I? Should
I go pick you up? Too? I once had that
I wanted an actor who actually asked me if I
could pick him up for auditions for to audition for
me and they and I said, are you fucking crazy?
(43:45):
I mean, I mean, what the hell I mean? It's
it's just unbelievable. By the way, ron I cursed a
lot on this show, So I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Yeah, I'm a fan. I've heard you before, brother Mark.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
OK, all right, good, it's Phil It's Philly. I It's like,
you know, we we curse. It's like in a Chris
A story where some some people's fathers using paint. Well,
we use curse words here as some other fathers use paint.
But but I mean, you know, I see I didn't
know that run, you were of a marine, you were
a police officer. See, I didn't know any of that
stuff til now.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
Yeah, man, And you know I gave all that up.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
And that's kind of my you know, my own personal
point when I'm sitting there at night and I'm you know,
again looking back over things. So I'm like, Ron, you
didn't give up those things great career paths to stop now,
to wipe out, to quit. And I do believe that,
you know, I believe in a higher power. And then
I'm called to filmmaking and the world needs to hear
our stories. The world needs the lens the voice that
(44:41):
we can give it. You know, filmmaking immortalizes, mortalizes you
and the story itself.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
And so I want to have a conversation in that.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
So so yeah, you know, I'm hoping those the things
that experiences that I've had and things that I've given
up will hopefully parley into filmmaking and my storytelling. But
you know it doesn't necessarily have to. There's that other
side of sounding a little contradictory. You know. It's funny
we as America Americans, we're graduating people from college at
(45:16):
an alarming rate with film degrees, with the expectation that
there's all these great opportunities out there. And I'm seeing
young people all the time graduating and I'm like, wow, man,
they've really kind of set them up, you know, because
it's just a money thing for the school, not just
and not all schools. I mean, there's some great film
programs out there, but there's you know, point a school,
(45:40):
point to a school, and I'll show you a film
program I guarantee is there. And it's because they just
saw an opportunity to monetize, not an opportunity to really
teach people the craft of telling story. Now, I do
think there's a strong place for film school. It's a
great way to meet your peers, people that are serious
and are aim for it. You're gonna find your your
(46:02):
peer group, and it's a great way to get gear
and other and other people. But when I watch a film,
nobody knows if you're uh graduated from film school or
not right. Nobody knows if I was a copper marine, nobody,
nobody knows any of that. It's whether or not they
liked it or didn't like it. And like I said,
there's several shorts that I look at and I go, yude,
(46:23):
that wasn't wasn't my best work. But that doesn't mean
you're like, ah, you know what, I'm not a filmmaker then,
And if that can deter you, it should, and do
it early. And you know they say fail fast, fail often, right,
if you can fail and get out of.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
It, do it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
But if it's got you, if I'm the if you're
the twenty percent, and you know who I'm talking about,
if it's got you like it does Dave and I,
there's nothing going to stop you anyway. So the best
thing I can do is equip you and then create opportunity.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Yeah. And also to what I'm doing this year, Ron
is I'm actually exploring the other mediums too, And and
what I mean by that is, I'm not just you know,
and obviously doing the podcast and obviously doing film stuff,
but I do want to release a graphic novel this year.
I'm actually putting I don't want to I know I
talked about last year and a few people actually followed
up and said, is are you still doing that? And
(47:16):
I said, yes, yeah, I still I'm gonna I have
I'm putting all my ducks in a row. Let's just
call it like, let's just say that. And so I
am going to use Kickstarter, probably just to get a
little bit of seed money if if necessary. Otherwise I
would just find it out in my own pocket. But
I mean just getting you know, used to being a storyteller.
(47:37):
Because I was talking to a couple different people who
are out in sun Dance right now, and they were
were just talking about different things, and they said, basically, now,
if you and Iron or were to write a specscript,
that's where you would go with it, because basically, you know,
all Hollywood wants to do is make superhero movies. And
(47:58):
you kind of start to realize, like, you know what
it's it's all you know, existing properties where they're Marvel,
d C, Star Wars, Disney whatever, and the actual movies
that are made from original scripts, they hardly have replace
And if you and and I'm not really sure by
the way, but I'm gonna go look through the number
one movies at box offices, and just to see what
was a what was a based on an actual existing property,
(48:20):
and what was completely original and new. Because but I
already know what's going to be the majority is going
to be a existing property.
Speaker 4 (48:28):
No, there's no doubt about it. And I'm glad you
said that, man, because that is something that I learned
to kind of change the lens, is that I'm not
just a filmmaker. When I was really trying to drill
down of my why, what's my why? I really figured
out I'm a storyteller. That's really what I am. So
I too, I remember you've talked about it a few
times on some previous podcast about the graphic novel potential.
(48:52):
So this year I have teamed up with a local
DC area comic con called All Star Comic Con, and
I'm like their filmmaker lead guy. And one of the
reasons I did that is the guy that one of
the guys that runs at Kevin He's a phenomenal artist.
So as a as a payout, I was like, Hey,
(49:13):
would you be willing to do a comic for me
for my steampunk Western And He's like, yeah, let's do it.
So I have that comic coming out this year hopefully,
and I definitely have another one around. I did this
fantasy called The Rangers, and it's very much like you
know it sounds. It started from when you see Eric
Gorn and Lord of the Rings sitting in the inn
(49:35):
at the Prancy Pony and he puffs on the pipe
and it's like, who are these Ranger guys? Well, let's
take that idea and kind of run with it and
created my own ip in a completely different world. But
it's hard not to get compared to Tolkien when you
do a fantasy. But I have a sixty minute pilot
that I did and then a different cut.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
We'll be right back after a word from ours, and
now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
And have done some web series, some shorts around that.
I've teamed up with some other guys, some guys called
on Instagram called Fell and Fair and anyways, I'm doing
a comic around The Rangers as well. So there's a
term called transmedia. Have you heard of that day of transmedia?
Speaker 3 (50:25):
Yes? I have?
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, so you know that right. What it really means,
and it's pure definition, is how you view stuff over
different platforms like your iPad and your phone and your
tablet and you know, but I the indies are defining
that even further to say that trans media also means
how many ways my story's getting out there. So I
(50:48):
have the script, I've got the graphic novel. I've got
the novel, the comic, the video game for the Rangers.
We did a card game. I've got a board game
that I'm coming out with the Rangers. So it's the
same story and IP and these different mediums, these different platforms,
and I just find that fascinating. Man, I'm super excited
about all those ways. And I agree I too. I
(51:09):
would say am a storyteller, you know.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
And you mentioned college to Ron, and I have to
kind of take a step back just to go into that.
You know, when I see all the filmmakers, the film majors,
and I sit there and I think, if I was
going to run a film school, what I would do
is this. I would not first off, in your freshman year,
you'd be given a camera, no ensits or butts about it,
(51:35):
like you got to make it. Where I used to
work and I and forced to teach, they didn't give
you a camera until your senior year. And I said
to the teachers, who obviously nothing about any of this stuff,
I said, do you not realize that this is like
completely counterintuitive, like their senior sam projects is when you're
finally putting a camera in their hands, there's senior sam projects.
(51:57):
Let me it was madness, Ron, it was And then
they finally all I mean, all the kids were like,
if it wasn't for Dave, we would not know anything
about any of this stuff because it was all theory based.
It was all you know, it was all you know,
complete fluff. So anyways, I if I was doing it
freshman freshman year, you'd be given a camera bar none
(52:18):
and I would show you movies that you could make
and how to improve from them. Because here's the here's
the rub with all them. If you go to a
film school, they show you these big budget films and go, oh,
look at this movie, blah blah, it doesn't matter because
Ron their donut budget. It's bigger than any budget you're
gonna have for the next ten years. Right so and
so they have a huge army. You don't have that luxury.
(52:41):
You got to show them movies that they could go
out right now and make. And you see what they did,
This is what you shouldn't do. And you know, if
we talked about the film school kind of tropes and
the film student kind of tropes, let me just let
this label a couple. So, I mean, I'll start us
off if you like, Hey, actors against the White Wall
or actors against the Bland Wall, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (53:03):
How they do that.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
They do a lot of close ups and they started
on an alarm clock going off the whole black and
white thing, you know what I mean, and it's just yeah,
it goes on and on and it's just that type
of stuff. I mean, if you wanted to make a
laugh of a movie, hey, go for it, my man.
But you know what I mean, Ei, there's so much more.
And that's one of the things I would do is
you can make these movies. And that's what you're here for,
(53:27):
is to learn how to make a movie.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
You're not here to learn.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
How to work on a big budget movie because you don't
need to go to school for that. You can get
a job as a PA and be right as rain.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (53:38):
No, I mean, I've been working on this book for
like five years.
Speaker 4 (53:41):
And the reason I started writing this book is because
I found that there's a niche specifically that's kind of
wide open about the business of indie filmmaking is not
taught at colleges, and it just baffles my mind. I agree.
Speaker 5 (53:56):
I think I would add to not only do they
get a camera, which.
Speaker 4 (54:00):
I love that idea. I think that's exactly right, is
that they should have a business plan by the time
they're they're graduating. You know, they should know how to
do a complete business plan, and they should know the
business around it, how to go and raise capital, how
to I get so many questions about that, like how
did you raise the money and where do you go
(54:21):
and how legally? I mean, there's a whole legal parameter
you got to be be careful of of how you
go about doing that. And I know, like a lot
of these uh these other are are counterparts, are are
doing that, are teaching those things.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
But yeah, you know, you wonder sometimes.
Speaker 4 (54:39):
What these what they're doing at at college, what what
they're they're teaching. And it is a lot of theory
not wrong in and of itself, but look at you know,
one of the most famous that didn't go to film school,
of course, Quentin Tarantino, right, and that dude is a mastermind.
So he's self taught himself all the theory and you
(55:01):
can just see the passion that he has for film
and film history and film that you know, French film,
and he's he knows it right. So there's a there's
a place for it. But if I'm paying twenty grand
a year, is that at the end of it. What
I'm hoping to get out of it is to impress
my friends at a some party that I can tell them, Oh,
(55:22):
that's the French you know, new age film. No, it's hey,
you know I finished the film, I got it funded,
I would raise money for it, and it's coming out
in two months. You know, please be there.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah. It's kind of like you ever see back to School?
Oh yeah, you remember when running Dangerfield is sitting in
class and then one teacher's like, this is how you
start a business and my Dangerfield goes, oh, you left
out a bunch of stuff, and the teacher goes, what
do you mean? He goes, well, first of all, the
concrete is is it going to be free? Because the
team's just gonna have Yeah, and there's this group and
(55:56):
we got to tell you who they are. They ain't
the boy Scouts and he's a mister Melon Mafia kickbacks
and underhanded bribes of like you do business, but not
how we do business here. But it's like Thornton's actually
he's a multi multi self made million there, and he's
telling you straight up how it is. And then this
professor is just you know, telling you, well, this is
(56:17):
what the book says it is, and this is what
the theory of it is. You know. Maybe it's because
I've worked at a college before, but I mean I've
become I'm sure as most people can tell, I've become
kind of a blase about college. The more I live
and the more i've i've especially working there at a college,
I just became very like, what's the point of all this?
(56:37):
You know, half the time you go out into the
real world quote unquote the real world and you don't
even need that degree that you got, and you spend
that money for you spend that money to become learned.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
But you're saying to.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Yourself that I have to spend one hundred thousand dollars
to become to learn how to learn or any of
that stuff. I mean, I could have just done it.
And that's why I'm glad this podcast exists. I Mean, honestly,
if I can help one person out and just say, hey, listen, Dave,
I'm not going to send my kid to college. I'm
just going to have him or her listen to your podcast.
I'm going to set them up with the they can
(57:09):
use their phone to start off with, which is not
a bad idea at all, and just go from there
and start teaching themselves filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (57:16):
I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Lecture is like I mean, I mean, this is like
a lecture. Every week you give a different personal on
and it's like a different teacher teaching you this stuff.
And it's not theory based because every single solidary person
I've had on here has done still has done a movie,
still works in the movie business, and they and we
discuss how things are changing, what they grew up with,
(57:39):
how they made their movie. I mean, all this stuff.
I mean there's in fact, this is probably what college
should be. Ninety percent application and then ten percent to
allow some kind of you know, philosophical theory if.
Speaker 4 (57:51):
You'd like, Yeah, sign me up, man, where do I
sign me? I have a master's degree in counseling, and
you know I don't I don't even work in that field.
So it's not that I dislike education and it sounds
like you're the same. It's it's what kind of education
like at the end of it, what am I getting
(58:12):
out of it? And that I believe you're spot on with. Man,
sign me up for that. I'll help teach that.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
I think in the next ten years run, I think
you're going to see a huge, huge downfall in a
lot of colleges. I think all of the I think
you're going to be left and in twenty years, if
even at that that, if even at that time, you're
gonna be left with two versions of college, your state school, sorry,
your your community colleges, which are probably going to be
(58:38):
now a two year I think bachelor's degrees they could
maybe stay at four, maybe they should be at two.
And now the MicroMasters are becoming big and there are
a year long program instead of two years for a
normal masters. And then on the flip side of that,
you're going to have your big Ivy League schools. So
here's how they're both going to know. Everything between is
(59:00):
gonna go to shit. Everything you're in between is not
going to exist anymore. So if I said, hey, Ron,
I went to Gudger College, you know up in Tallahassee,
or whatever or down in Tallahassee. Rather that college isn't
gonna exist anymore. What's gonna happen is the community colleges
are paid for by the state, and they'll be fine.
The Ivy League schools have already seen what's coming, and
(59:21):
they're already hedge funds that just dabble in education. They're
gonna be fine. And what you're gonna do is you're
gonna have everyone else who just goes you know what,
I'll go on to you, to me or even YouTube
and or con academy. I can learn all this stuff
for free or at most ten bucks, and then I
can test out if I even like it or not.
I always tell kid, I say to people, if you
(59:43):
really are dead set on sending your kid to a college,
take a gap year, have them study you, to me,
a YouTube, whatever, and see if they even like the course,
or seeven even they even like that subject to devote
not only the rest of their lives but just the
next four years.
Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
To pursuing that.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
And if they decide they don't like it, hey, look
you're only out ten bucks. If they decide they do
like it. Hey, guess what, you're now ahead of the
great game going into college when all these other kids
just blindly just went into a full force.
Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Yeah, no, absolutely, Matt. I think that's the time where
you can take risk. You know, if I was looking
back and was going to talk to my eighteen year
old self, you know, that would be the time I
would do a you know, try to do a film.
I would pull people in and try to do it.
I tell a lot of young filmmakers that are getting
ready to go to college that I would consider getting
(01:00:48):
a degree and let's say marketing, because that's you're basically
telling the story of a company. So there is some storytelling.
Every marketing department now generally has an in house video department,
and you set yourself up for a nice career path
that you can parlay the indie world and do filmmaking
on the side, versus you know, I've got a buddy
(01:01:10):
mine who went to film school, has a film degree,
and he works at a motorcycle shop, and you know,
not that that, and he loves motorcycles. But the point
is is that he's not doing with the very thing
he's set off to go to school to do as
most of us don't, you know. And I think there
is going to be a backlash. I totally agree, and
I think it's going to because all the alumni, as
(01:01:32):
they get older, they start thinking about you know, man,
that didn't really help me out all them, but they're
going to be upset and bitter and they lose the
alumni support, you know, And we know as filmmakers the
crowd is a finny key bunch. But so goes the crowd,
so goes the eyeballs. That's the power is in the crowd.
And that's the one thing that no matter what you
(01:01:55):
do when you're trying to level up, that the studios
can't take away, like from US indies, is that we
have a voice just like anybody else. And if the
crowd goes with us, then we can do whatever we
want to do because because we've won the crowd, we've
got to stick together in this. It's and it's not
(01:02:16):
in us first them. It is a wei. It's a wei.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
And you know, speaking of the alumni association, like when
I had like, for instance, like Liz Manichelle on here
from Sundance Institute, we and I her and I talked
about that because the alumni association for a lot of
these colleges will only call you to ask for money.
And they just call up and they say, hey, Ron, listen,
you know, we see you're in film. Do you have
any internships you could give some of our kids, because
(01:02:41):
all they care about is the next incoming class of
fresh And what they do is, I don't know if
you know this, Ron, but once you become a sophomore
or once you get into essentially your third year what
is that, a junior or sophomore, junior, they essentially stop
caring about you because you're already your credits won't transfer.
(01:03:02):
You're pretty far in. They got you, yeah, and then
once you become a senior, forget about They don't want
to do anything for you. And they always go, oh, well,
the seniors don't care anyway. They just want to get
out of there. Well that's partly true anyway. So it's
kind of like a win win from the school because
they don't have to do anything they retain you. You
just want to get out of there. So a freshman,
freshmen and sophomore, they're kissing your ass, they're doing all
(01:03:25):
this cool stuff. Oh yeah, we're the best college ever
because they want to keep you there so you can't leave.
You see all the stuff I've learned from working at.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Age may I see it, brother, I so see it.
I'm hoping some young filmmakers will listen to this and
striking some winsdom Up. I've got a buddy of mine,
Errol Avelino of Avellino Studios, and instead of going to college, man,
he did what we were talking about. He went out
and just started film and stuff and he got really
(01:03:53):
good at film and stuff. And like I said, when
people watch this stuff, no idea whether or not he
went to film school or not.
Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Yeah, exactly. No one's ever gonna stop you from care. Yeah,
And they're not gonna stop you and say, hey, ron
do you have did you have do you have a flagury?
Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
No one goes with the care.
Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
They don't they're gonna say hey, do you have a
degree or do you have an MFA. I mean, it's
just it's just ludicrous, man. And I think that that
whole thing is going to go away very very fast,
particularly with how things are moving in terms of technology
in business. I think if you're gonna get new skills,
and that's the other thing too. I know, I'm sorry
(01:04:29):
everyone listening to this. I'm going off on a tangent here.
But but but just just one more quick thing and
then I want to get to Ron. I want to
talk about this this seminar in DC. You know, I
think as we talk about well, you know, we we
don't invest enough. I hear people can constantly complain about this,
well we don't invest enough in education. And I say,
Jesus Christ, if we we already are like what two
trillion dollars in debt from studid loan debt, how much
(01:04:52):
more education do we freaking know, man, well we need?
I would say, you know what is if you if
people would be able to if you could actually teach
people how they learn, and and just try to make
it where if you were to take an online class
or something like that, and you'd be able to write
it off in your taxes, or or if you bought
a lot of books you could write that off your
(01:05:12):
taxes in one way or another. That would solve the
problem right there, You wouldn't I always run, I always
cringe when somebody says the answer is more college, because
I just cannot agree with that.
Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
Yeah, no, man, I like I mentioned already mentioned stage
thirty two.
Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
I think they're doing a lot of good and breaking
down barriers for us. And you know, in a lot
of times when you're talking college and you know a
lot of your listeners out there, they're thirty forty somethings,
fifty something, they don't that's that's not an option anymore.
You know, I'm not going back to college again to
get my degree in stuff. That's not an option. It's
(01:05:48):
these little one off, these little things. Or you know,
I'm devouring podcasts all the time. You know, there's some
they yield some great information. So yeah, I think if
I'm training and I'm getting educated, that's what I think
we're after. But the institutionalized foundation of a college and
a structure of that it is, it comes off because
(01:06:09):
it is just a monetary ends to the means there.
Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Yeah, it's really truly true. And uh, all right, everyone,
I'll stop talking about college now, but Ron, I want
to I know we're starting to run out of time here. Yeah,
I'm gonna talk about this seminar that you got going
on in YC.
Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
So again, I think it's an awesome idea. It's something
that I was trying to do a few years ago
that fell apart. But I mean, I wish you the
best of luck with us, I really really do. And
so so you know, what are the dates for whereas
do you have everything? Yeah, down terms of vocation and stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
I do. So we're gonna be at the Dullest Marriott
in Dulles, Virginia on August twenty fifth. You can go
to the Forge Studios dot com website and I'll least
have a link on that. I have the website ready
to go. I haven't launched it yet because I want
to get some fancy URL to make it easy to remember,
and I haven't locked that in just yet, but you'll
(01:07:05):
certainly be able to go to the Forge and find it,
and you can join my newsletter as well to kind
of get it. But the primary point of the event
is to take a proactive approach to I'm not in Hollywood,
I'm not in LA and I'm not going to be
(01:07:27):
moving there. I'm from DC and I believe that I
have a voice in the space of storytelling that I
want to be able to do. But I can't take
this passive approach like somebody's going to come to me
and say, oh yeah, Ron, this is it. You know,
I'm going to represent you. That rarely happens, and so
my goal of leveling up is to get an opportunities
(01:07:53):
to put filmmakers in front of managers that can represent them,
particularly in the area of screenwriting and directing. So I'm
talking like you know that is your full time job,
like legit job. There are management companies out there that
find work for you. That way is to pitch the managers.
(01:08:13):
And then second would be these strategic producing partners. These
are production companies that have the relationships with the majors
and can work with them. They usually have distribution outlets
and they usually help with financing and securing talent. Get
your eyeballs in front of them. And then lastly is
(01:08:36):
to talk to investors, people that can write a check,
that are credited investors. And we're going to do panels
of around five of them per section and then have
ten people are going to get up and pitch a
ninety second pitch for it. We're going to have a
huge networking event at the end of it, because hey, look,
(01:08:56):
let's face it, you know, if your guys are working
on project, you got a project funded I want to
be a part of that and vice versa. You know,
that's how we can all continue this, this filmmaking journey
together as a full time vocation. And so I've put
a networking opportunity the foods included in on it. You know,
you can stay for the weekend and also hang out
(01:09:18):
where Stone Strow away from DC. But really it is
meant to create opportunity to not be passive and to
explore if this is an option, like can I secure
a manager? Can I find these proper producing partners and
to make it happen. And then it also sometimes we
(01:09:39):
just need a reason to get that business plan completed
or that script finished, or if you're not ready and
you just want to observe, you can still come and
you don't have to pitch, So you would come and
not be a pitcher. Only ten people are going to
get chosen to pitch anyways, and so you can sit
there and be a part of it. But you could
still network. You can still meet the people. You could
see what they're they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
And I'll tell you this, Dave. Look, this is coming
out of my pocket, right, So if the crowd doesn't
get behind it, I've always said I'll give people what
I believe that they want, but if they don't want it,
then that, you know, then I can't do it. So
if we don't get a minimum sign up, then the
event won't go forward. So it's kind of as simple
as that is that if people are like, man, I'm
(01:10:32):
digging this idea, let's do it, and they sign up
sign up early, there's definitely gonna be an early registration discount.
But the point is is that if I can't get
these people and fly them in, then I'll have to
cancel the event. Anyways, but I'm really excited about this event.
I do think that a lot of filmmakers, when I
(01:10:54):
start to talk to them about it and say what
do you guys think of this idea? Hands down, they
all are like, oh my god, why hasn't this happened before?
And I do believe in like La and New York
to some degree it has. But I want to do
it for US indies. DC areas of prime market. We
have a nice big airport so you can fly into
(01:11:17):
where a stone strow away from Philly, so you can
just come on down, Dave. And you know, there's a
lot of people in this whole region, this whole area
where there's no film we can't do. We have the people,
we have the gear, you know, we have the desire,
we have the passion. We just need the opportunity and
that's what I want to look to create.
Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Yeah, I definitely have to come down for this event,
not only just because you know it's so close, but
also because it's just again, this is something that an
event I was trying to do years ago and it
just fell apart just for for a bunch of reasons,
and it's kind of like this is like a make
good That's why I'm really really interested in this event.
Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
As we were talking about this, is there like a
is there a website that that that like I could
go to.
Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
Yes, I'll definitely send you the link.
Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
But right now, if people went to the Ford Studios
dot com and got on my newsletter, I'm definitely gonna
have a link off that I do have the website,
Like I said that it's ready. I just want to
get a very simplistic U r L. And that's what
I don't have right now, is the simple U r
L and then I'll make I'll make sure that I
that I get that out there as well.
Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
And when you do, Ron, let me know. Not only
will I put that in the in the show notes,
I can always edit it later on, but I will
link to your your website in the show notes, and
also I'll promote that on on social media because there's
a lot of people on the East Coast who you know,
you know, who follow the podcast so I'm from, and
anyone in the area too. I mean there's a there's
(01:12:52):
there's a ton of different people. But you know, Ron,
I I see by the clock, we're actually out of time.
I know you got to run, but as do I actually,
But just in closing run, where can people find you
at online?
Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
Yeah, the biggest thing is the Ford Studios dot com
and certainly you know I'm on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.
Those are definitely the areas to go. But if you
go to the Ford Studios, I've got some videos up
there as well. I've got a few things in the
work that I'm excited about. But you know, Dave, this
is our year, brother. No one's gonna come and hand
it to us. So if we could stick together, we
(01:13:27):
can make this thing happen. Man, I definitely appreciate you
allow me to come on and let me have a
voice on your podcast and people listening. And I do
hope people get fired up and excited, man, because I'm
ready to roll.
Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Yes, I know what you mean, man, And it's it's
a do or die time. You know, one thing, if
you sit around talking about it, sometimes you get a
little blase and you talk yourself out of it, and
then then then you still talk about it and people,
you know, you finally realize you I gotta do something.
Either I gotta stop talking about it or I gotta go. Yes,
you know, it's one of those things, man, you're here
(01:14:02):
that you know I had on really quickly. I just
want to make say one quick antidote antidote anecdote, not antidote.
But I had on the Shaker Brothers and they did
the same thing.
Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
One one brother hit thirty five and he said, you
know what, I've been talking about making this move for years.
I'm not gonna wait anymore. And he actually quit his
day job and he actually they actually made the movie
and it's it's called col Christmas, and I actually want
had him on the show. I think they're like one episode,
like one night, and it was just a hell of
an episode. Man, two Jersey guys they met, they got this,
(01:14:38):
all that stuff in the movie. It's it's on Google Play,
it's on Amazon, it's on iTunes. But yeah, yeah, and
that's what they did.
Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
They got tired of just sitting on talking about and
they went and they did the thing.
Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
Man. And that's right. Don't talk about it, be about it.
Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
That's right, that's true, man, Ron Nukem, thank you very much,
so for good.
Speaker 4 (01:14:56):
Thank you, Dave, thank you Man. Great show.
Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
I want to thank Day thanks 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 Indie film Huscle
dot com.
Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Forward Slash eight No.
Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Five, and if you have it already, please head over
to Filmmaking podcast dot com. Subscribe and leave a good
review for the show. It really helps us out a lot, guys.
Thank you again so much for listening. Guys, as always,
keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe
out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
INDIEFILM Hustle dot com. That's I N D I E
F I L M h U s t l E
dot com.
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the indieilm Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight, No.
Five Cinema should make You forget. You're sitting in a theater,
Roman Polanski.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle podcast.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
I am your humble host Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur
How to turn your independent film into a profitable business.
It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers to
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filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy
today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
I'm so glad to talk to my next guest. We
talk about all this stuff. We also going to talk
about a very high topic, which is how the hell
do you make a film while working a full time
day job. How do you do that? How do you
go work a job and that's eight to twelve hours?
You come home, You got family responsibilities, You got people
always asking for your attention, You got people constantly And
I'll tell you A little side story here. The other day,
(02:16):
I actually had a friend of mine who I didn't
talked to any years, asking me to help him with
different projects. I mean, you know, as soon as I
go on Facebook Messenger, man, it's over. I get dinged
like crazy.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
And a friend of.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Mine was telling me to remove it, and I one
time I actually suspended my Facebook and I was just
I got people then bombarding me on Twitter or my email.
That's why when I tell people, if I don't get
back to you, trust me, there's a reason I'm not
ignoring you. But we're gonna talk about all that stuff.
This is a really really cool episode with guests Ron Nukem.
Speaker 4 (02:53):
Yeah, no, definitely appreciate it. Yeah, Scott is awesome. You know,
I'm a fan of the of Scott's and yours, and
are so many other other guys and gals out there
doing at a level that we're all kind of doing
it at and just love what Scott was doing. So yeah,
I connected with him and have gone on to kind
of help with doing a few of those. But you know,
(03:15):
it kind of gets to a point where when you're
working full time and you have your full time job,
you have your family, and really the podcast becomes such
a left and I know you know this, but filmmaking
started to take second seat.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
So I've even reevaluated just okay, what.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
Is my why?
Speaker 5 (03:35):
You know, what am I doing and why am I
doing it? And then what's the goal.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
And so I even recently, and I know a lot
of people out there can relate. We're always having to
kind of reinvent ourselves. You know, that's the whole mantra
of the start of the new year. We're all setting
goals and resolutions, and you know, twenty eighteen definitely for me,
is about leveling up. I want to level up my
filmmaking game. That's the goal.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah. So when you say like level up, I mean
do you mean just like the scope of projects? The
amount of projects says how we're referring to.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
So really what I want to do is is I
realized I kept being very passive about my filmmaking career.
And so you know, as an I consider myself an
indie filmmaker, but I'm not anti studio. You know, if
the studio was willing to come in and jump in
(04:30):
and fund some of my projects, hey, game on. You know,
I think even Kevin Smith and Tarantino and Rodriguez. Look,
you know they all started out independent, but the studios
funded their dreams, you know, and got their stories told.
And it really goes down to the why, And I think,
why are we all in this storytelling thing? Why are
we all in this business? And it's because, you know,
(04:52):
filmmaking is powerful. Right as Americans, our number one export
is our culture, and we predominantly do that through the
power of film. Just go to anywhere outside the States
and you see the impact.
Speaker 5 (05:04):
And influence of things, and you see Nike and all
these different things.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
And film can also reflect culture at times, but it
can also dictate culture. It's powerful, but it must be
a calling. It can't just be a want or a desire.
And I started to realize that I'm getting ready to
turn forty five, and you know, every film that I've
(05:29):
ever been.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
A part of feature it's taken five to seven years.
So the math doesn't add up.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
You know, I going to get to tell all the
stories I want to tell. I have over twenty five
treatments ready to go. I literally just yesterday type the
end on a screenplay, man, and that was you know,
it took about a little over six months to write
this latest feature that I've done. So when you start
to look at those things as an endie, because we
(05:57):
don't get to do this in a full time capacity.
For most of us. I've had intermittent moments where I've
been able to do filmmaking full time at three year intervals,
ironically enough, but right now I've had to go back
and get another nine to five job. And so I've
realized that, Okay, Ron, you have three predominant paths as
(06:20):
an independent filmmaker. I believe that you can take. One
is you can try to go get a manager, you know,
as a director, as a writer, and level your career
up that way. And so that's one path that I'm pursuing,
going seeking representation to try to get into that whole
studio system because the likelihood of you breaking in on
your own is you know, almost non existent. And then two,
(06:44):
it's to find the right production partner that can help
team up with me and get the stories that I
want told out there, and those are hard to find
as our managers, but there are production companies producing partners
rather that are out there that are looking for that
next right thing. And then thirdly, I could look at
(07:08):
bringing on investors to do my own projects, and I
think I'm going to bang the drum on all three
of them. And again I think that's the the Indie way,
that's the Indie spirit. Is I'm going to try to
seek about security manager. I'm going to try to be
getting a producing partner that can bring me to that
next level. And then I'm also going to be trying
(07:29):
to seek out my own investors on I have two
projects and wrapping up on a third project that is packaged,
if you will, not in the context of the studio
package per se, like I have a named writer, director
and an actor because I wrote it, I want to
direct it, but I've packaged it in the sense I've
(07:52):
got all my comps done and all these the business
plan done and ready to go. And so the next
step would be trying to get on that producing partner
that can then bring in those relationships where I might
be able to, let's say, bring on an A list
or B less talent level. So when I talk about
leveling up, those those are the three things that I've
(08:15):
identified that I'm going to be trying to do this year.
So much so Dave that I actually I live in
the DC metro area, and on August twenty fifth, I
just signed the paperwork. I'm going to do an event
because I think I'm the only one. I'm not the
only one out there that feels like this, and I'm
going to invite managers, producing partners, and investors to.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Up DC to host an event where we can pitch them.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Think of it as Shark Tank meets the independent world.
And it's not like you get five minutes, you get
ninety seconds to pitch. I went to this other pitch event,
entrepreneurial pitch event, and it was so well done that
it was such a light bulb moment, and so I
talked to a few investors and they were like, yeah,
you know, we like to see something like that. There's
no guarantee that we'll all walk out with something, but
(09:05):
you know, I think a lot of independence. Man.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
We just want up the back. Just give me the shot,
you know, put me in the game.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah. You know, it's funny you mentioned that event because
a couple of years ago I was actually part of
like a producer's group here in Philly and we were
gonna do something similar and it just all fell apart
for a ton of reasons. But that's why I'm glad
you're doing this, Ron, because I think it's awesome. Ours
(09:33):
was probably gonna be a little bit probably different. Yours
is probably gonna be ten thousand times better. So just
because I won't go into it, I'll start going off
on a tangent. But basically, see this is what I'm
talking about. Like we were just talking about, you know,
all these different projects and you know they take seven years.
I mean, the biggest problem that I find to run
(09:54):
is not only you know, you have to work a
full time day job and then you got to come
home and you have all these family commitments or what
have you.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
And then you want to gets to you working, and
by the end you're either too tired or you're so
stressed out you can't work. I fall into that latter part,
by the way, and you're just like I just can't
concentrate on it, like I've got ten thousand other things
run through my mind. But like I think that you know,
just events like this, you know, should become more commonplace
(10:32):
because there are people out there like that feel that
way and if you could say to these investors, these producers,
these channels, what have you, and say, look, this isn't
going to be a free for all kind of like AFM.
This is going to be more of a structured Hey, look,
you know there's some you know, you have to there's
gonna be a certain level of quality, a certain momometer
that people have to piss and you're only going to get,
(10:54):
you know, people who can actually generally do stuff. It's
not going to be like hey, a first time filmmaker
or even a YouTuber who's trying to you know, raise
fifty thousand dollars or whatever.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
Yeah, exactly. You know, there is a kind of levels, tiers,
if you will, Like I've had some marginal success, I've
done some features, and hey, by the way, I think
anybody out there listening that has done a feature film
should win an Oscar Man. We should just be able
to walk up and accept our work. It takes, you know,
an act of God. A film will fight you every
step of the way. You have to pull it into existence.
(11:26):
So for all the people that have finished a feature, bravo.
But there are I do believe kind of different levels,
different tiers, and I really want to do it at
a high end, professional level, just simply in the indie market.
So I'm definitely not talking about running around with a
handicam on my backyard, you know, trying to film my
(11:47):
daughter's and turn it into a feature.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Although say that might be an idea right there.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
We can we can film.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
Breat that down.
Speaker 4 (11:55):
Yeah, yeah, I will. No, it definitely is. You know
about One of the things that I find is there's
not a ton of opportunities for us, and so people
always we're waiting for someone else. We're waiting for someone else.
And I just said, you know what, this year, I'm
just not going to wait for anybody else. I'm just
gonna do and I'm gonna you know, we live in
(12:17):
the day and age of you know, Gary Vaynerchek and
all these others where you got to do more, you
got to do more, you got to do more, and
so you walk away feeling a little bit defeated, like, man,
like I can't do more. You know, I'm staying up.
I don't have a full time job and then a
part time job. I do full time jobs. You know, filmmaking.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Independent filmmaking is a full time job.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
I stay up till nine ten o'clock every night, you know,
trying to work on something I don't give try to
give myself too many luxuries of watching this or that,
although I do think it's important as a filmmaker to
watch stuff, don't get me wrong, but you know, I'm
really trying to spend the time to put myself in
(12:58):
the best possible position and yet have enough grace for
myself not to be all consuming because you know, film
can be defeatism. Man, I mean, you could get completely
defeated and wiped out. Like, you know, why am I
doing this? And I think that's the important question. Why
are you doing this if it's for fame or fortune?
(13:21):
You know, if I can deter anybody to get out
of it. I don't want to come off as a
you know, a pessimist. I hate it when you listen
to podcasts and people are like, man it dud's a downer.
But I do want to be This is a school
of hard knocks. Indie filmmaking, true indie filmmaking. Trying to
do it vacasionally and make money at it and do
a full time is not for the week at heart.
(13:43):
You know, there's a tax to be paid and it's
not paid by you, it's paid by your family. And
it's a challenge, you know it. And this is just
one man's point of view. This is just the way
I've done it. And I also has heard the right
to change my mind later and mighty and contradict myself.
But it is something that I believe at forty five
(14:06):
that I have been able to look back on and say, Okay,
if I can give some thoughts, guidance and insight into
something and try to pull people up at least to
where I'm at and push them beyond, you know, hopefully
I can give some little nuggets to people to make
it happen, because it's not you know, it's not easy,
(14:28):
right and we all know that, but I do think
there is a pathway to make it happen. You know,
there's a great resource out there that I'm a big
fan of is Stage thirty two. I think that they're
doing a really good job out there for filmmakers. And
I got to interview RB, the CEO of Stage thirty
two and just a real sharp guy. And there's so
(14:52):
many other great resources to get information from, like yourself, Dave,
you know, Jason Bruce Baker Jason buff Alex Ferrari, you know,
Scott of course, Ashley, tom Alloyd. You know. We can
go on and on about people that are equipping us
to get out there. But one of the things I've realized, Dave,
(15:14):
is that one of the best things I can do
for my sphere of influence is really do a film.
That's what really people want, you know, they want opportunity.
And it wouldn't be great if I could call you up,
Dave and say, hey, man, you're in Philly. You know
you're You're just a couple hours up the road for me,
come on down here and let's let's do a feature
for the next three weeks. You know, and by the way,
(15:36):
I'm paying.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
Yeah, yeah, that would be absolutely amazing because you know,
and this is what I was alluding to earlier, was
you know, I think this is why a lot of
guys get burned out because you know, again, just to
go back to the seven year time span or even
the three to five year time span, you know, people
join projects and as a producer most of the time
(15:59):
or what have you, you and it's and it goes
through these cycles where it's like f ok, We're feel
like we're putting something together and then it falls apart.
Then we're gonna put it back together again, and then
it falls apart. And then that's why people get so
burned out in this industry, because it's so much like
it's it's one step forward, one step back. Yeah, Usually
you don't get anywhere, you know, Yeah, and then you
start going, well, god damn, you know, we we've wasted
(16:20):
a year. And and and then also on the flip
side of that, I've been a part of projects where
a few years ago I actually swore off producing other
people other people's projects because as I was getting I
was putting all this together, spending all this time, and
the person was getting cold feet, the person who was,
you know, gonna direct this. And I said, I don't
(16:40):
tolerate that stuff. I said, I, if you're not one
hundred percent into it, I should not care about this
project more than you should like you you know, you know,
And and because it was his thing, and eventually we
I just I just bowed out. And then we had
a band falling out, and he blamed me for for
the project falling apart. And I said, I told you,
you know, I told you this is going to happen
if I left. You know, I need you to be
(17:03):
all hands on deck. You know, it needs you to
be one hundred and ten percent into this. You know
it just and it's happened before too. I mean, there's
numerous projects I've been involved with where something like that
has happened, and it's not an isolated incident. And finally,
I just say, you know what, why am I even
doing this? You know, what's the point of all of this?
You know? And then you know, I decided to start
a podcast, which was another bad idea, and now here
(17:25):
I am Ron. I'm so far deep. I can't stop
no man.
Speaker 4 (17:28):
But and it's because you know why, Matt, Because you
know you're bringing strong value add to the community that
you love. And I totally agree, man, if you're not
all in, and let me speak to that for a second,
because I believe, you know, tonight's talk is about like
the twenty percenters, the twenty percenters that are really going
to make it happen.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
I kind of believe. And I don't mean this this
arrogantly or to.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Devalue all the people out there wanting to do film,
but I want to esteem the filmmakers, those that have
done it all right, that have completed a film, because
it is difficult to finish a film, the try and
true you know again school of hard knocks, filmmakers that
have to get out there and grind it out because
(18:12):
there is a lot of hurdles and again, the film
will fight you. And there's a lot of people that
simply just talk, you know, they they are not going
to follow through. This has to be about the doers.
If I can do anything and do you a favor tonight,
it would be to try to deter you. If you're
not all in, then you shouldn't try to dip your
(18:33):
toe in the water. I talked to look, actors, act writers, right.
I talk to actors and they'll say, because that's the
lens that I wear. That's how I got into this
whole thing is through the vehicle of acting. And I say,
you know, are you acting right now? And they go no,
I'm not okay, Well are you doing shorts or plays? No? No, no,
I just do features. When was the last feature you did?
(18:55):
Oh well that was five years ago. So well you're
not really that serious then, because it should should should
breathe within you, ignite something in you so much that
you have to go and do it, and it doesn't
matter if you're doing it on stage or for a
short or on a feature film. Actors act or I'll
see actors they'll fire off one email and and wonder
(19:18):
why people aren't getting back to them, or why it's
not happening for them, or they don't seek a manager out,
or they're not doing these these other things.
Speaker 5 (19:26):
And they you know, you need to go beyond.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Just the simplicity of things and do your passion. You're
calling and if it's not a calling, then you know
there there might be other things that you can do
to be a part of it. And this is another
thing that that a acting professor told me that is
(19:53):
is hard to hear, but I believe his wisdom, and
he says, sometimes we'll be right.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Back after a word from our sponsor, and now back
to the show.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
If a person's not getting cast, that's the industry speaking
to you.
Speaker 5 (20:15):
And I know that's hard to hear. I know that's
hard to hear. But if you're not getting cast over
and over and over and over again, and you're still
trying to do the same thing without take trying to
level up, taking a class or getting a manager or
securing things. Then you got to wonder why, right, I mean,
isn't that the definition of insanity. There's a lot of
(20:35):
other ways that you can be involved with filmmaking. And
that's another thing that I think, as INDI's we need
to do is never see yourself just as one thing.
You're never just an actor, You're never just a writer
or just a crew member. You know, do we do
this thing collaboratively and there's usually one person that kind
(20:56):
of spearheads it and takes it on and then we
all get to live out our callings and our passions.
But if we could all just leave ego aside for
a moment, I believe that all of us could all get.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
What we wanted. You know. I find it funny that
there's a bunch of indie filmmakers that I know, and
each of them kind of know a few not major investors,
but they know like someone that could give ten thousand
here or fifteen thousand there. And I'm like, guys, gals,
you know, if we all just came together, we got
about one hundred and fifty grand here, and nobody want
They all want to do their project, and then I'm
(21:29):
saving that person for my own project.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
And so years and years go bys when nothing getting.
Speaker 4 (21:34):
Done, and so this year, you know, kind of like you,
I'm I'm trying to produce my own stuff. You know. Now,
I will say, hey, I'm always up for looking for
the right project, you know, to come along to, maybe
to jump in and be a part of.
Speaker 5 (21:48):
But it needs to be the right project. You can't keep.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
Doing stuff for free, you know. So yeah, I mean
it's it's a challenge and we should be going beyond
that challenge and not expecting, you know, an easy road.
You know. It's another thing that I see a lot.
It's usually a rate of revolved around working out. But
(22:14):
when you when you hear the Rock and Mark Wahlberg,
you know, I hear a guys saying, well, if I
had their money, I would look like that too, And
you know, I laugh, right these guys if you've seen
really you know, drill down and got to see some
intimate interviews with those guys and others too. You know,
(22:34):
both of them get up at four a m. In
the morning and go work out for like several hours.
They eat like extremely strict and these guys are just
they're not They're beyond passionate. It is a calling for them,
and it's why can they continue to work? And we
should use that as an inspiration to level up ourselves
(22:58):
and to go the distance. I don't know that we
need to do more, because again that's as Americans, that's
what we keep telling ourselves, like, man, I just I'm
not doing enough. I gotta do more.
Speaker 5 (23:08):
I gotta and you white knuckle it and try to
force it into success.
Speaker 4 (23:12):
And I don't know that that's right. What I think
you have to do is the right thing, and you
got to keep doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Yeah, But you know, as you mentioned, you know, going
to sleep, you know, nine ten o'clock at night. You know,
I was going to ask Ron, you know what time
do you wake up in the morning, because I know
I've read a book, you know, last year that was
just completely life changing and it's called Extreme Discipline. Yeah, Josh,
I mean tell you, it's absolutely a life changing book,
and I wanted to ask, you know, what time do
(23:43):
you do up in the morning?
Speaker 4 (23:44):
All right, So, first of all, Dave, I listened to
that podcast that you mentioned that book. I went out
and got that book as a result to your podcast
and read it and You're totally right. It is completely
like life changing. Jacko and Leaf are just phenomenal warriors.
But I try to get up at six, and you know,
(24:06):
one of the things that they talk about in the
book of Course is don't hit that snooze button. You know,
don't don't give in hit that snooze button, because that's
one of the great things great leaders do is you
you get up.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
They don't waste the minute. So it's not like, you know,
they need more.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
They're gonna do what they can within the a lot
of time, and they're gonna just suck every nutrient out
of that time slot that they have. So I've been
trying to get up at six, and you know, I
do try to get my workouts in, and I do
have a nine to five. So I go to work
and I'm getting home around you know, six thirty, and
(24:46):
then I have dinner with the family and I have
family time, you know, that is a priority for me,
and then I'm back in front of the computer. We
start getting them down, the kids down about eight thirty,
and then I'm in front of the computer from you know,
let's a nine to ten or eleven. Now some days
I'll get motivated, and I'll wake up at uh not often,
(25:06):
but I will wake up at like four if I
really want to get some writing done. But I don't
know that I'm.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
Like a a great writer.
Speaker 4 (25:14):
I'm just tenacious and I know I'll get a draft
done and get out there so that someone can basically
rewrite rewrite me. You know, rewriting is the easy part.
But anyways, I I am trying to do that. I
don't always get it right, but I do seek value
(25:36):
in what they're doing in that book on so many levels.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Extreme ownership, taking ownership over things.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
And certainly that's one of the things that I'm talking
about about leveling up, is that you know this is.
Speaker 5 (25:48):
Your life and don't live it passively.
Speaker 4 (25:51):
No one's gonna come up and hand you something to
give you something, and it doesn't mean you've got to
go in and break the doors down and the barriers
down and all that stuff. Because you know, one of
the things that that I had to wrestle with is
do you realize that only two percent of people in
SAG are doing acting full time? Or what about you know,
(26:13):
I can it to professional football? How many athletes hoped
that they would end up in the in the NFL
and yet didn't make it in the NFL. Several people
that I played football with growing up with I thought
were going to go on and and the ones that didn't,
uh uh, you know, I I was just shocked about.
(26:33):
And yet did their did their life end? Did their
life have no meaning? You know? And the and the
answer is no. I'd like to point out, you know,
the Rock didn't make it into the NFL, and he
pivoted and turned it into something pretty powerful, right, you know,
pretty pretty successful. And so this thing called film. One
of the things that I want to caution people out
at is trying to do it at any cost. Cause again,
(26:57):
many times you're not the one paying that cost. A
lot of times it is your family paying that cost.
So you know, it shouldn't be at your peace, your contentment.
And that's something at forty five I definitely have learned
is learned that life is the journey. Contentment is done
(27:18):
in the process of filmmaking, not necessarily the end result.
Because once I'm done with one film, I'm ready to
go on to the next film. And if I never
make a studio film, if Ron nukeomb never does that,
am I okay with that as long as I get
to tell stories and I get to have a conversation
into storytelling, then I'm okay with that, and my contentment
(27:42):
no longer in my peace and my joy doesn't have
to come from that. But I got to tell you, man,
you know, for the longest time I was feeling I
was trying to white knuckle it and force my way
into success and trying to make it happen. And success
was very, very defined in a very particular way, and
you know, I had to realize that that's not what
(28:05):
life's about. It isn't what it's about. And so yeah,
you know, I'm trying to take ownership on leveling up
to that, to that next next filmmaking level.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
It will. And that's the thing too, is not only
just extreme ownership in the fact that you know, hey,
whatever happens to us, you know, we have to own that,
we have to own these responsibilities. But also it's just
about you know, toughening up. Because one of the things
that I was getting, you know, a real bad habit
of was whenever something would happen, I would just lose
(28:41):
my shit. I would just go, oh my god, another roadblock,
another problem, and I started to realize. I was like,
you know what, I if I just were accept the
fact that there's going to be problems, I think I
would be able to if I go in there expecting
it to be a do you know what I mean,
like expect the worst, to prepare for the worst, expect
the best. So if I went in there and did that,
(29:02):
it wouldn't be such a problem, you know what I mean.
And it's just like that that's what I do nowadays.
It just feels like half the time in I feels
like I don't know about you, Ron, it just feels like,
forget about there not being enough hours in the day.
Well we all say that. I just feel that it's
almost like the days are getting so shorter where it's
like you wake up, you pound coffee, you go to work,
(29:26):
you just work through lunch, you come home and then
you got obviously you're still answering your cell phone or whatever,
you're what you're allowed to have, answering emails, and then
as soon as all of a sudden, everyone wants to
talk to you as soon as you get into the door,
and then it's like you know, six seven, eight at night,
and it's like all right, well, I have now about
an hour and to be by myself to work on
this thing. You know, does that happen to you?
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh man, I mean all the time? I mean yeah.
I think that is definitely a lot of the tenacious
effort that a indie filmmaker.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (30:06):
Has to find within them the fortitude to be able
to kind of carry on. And I think it's important
to answer that why. You know, what is your why?
To understand your why, because again, if you can be
talked out of this crazy thing, you should be. Now
that doesn't mean you won't make your little forty eight
hour film hour, you know, film projects and have fun
telling some stories. But I'm talking about truly trying to
(30:28):
make independent filmmaking as of a full time vocation, because
it takes a full time effort and a lot of times,
you know, the world doesn't have to respond, it doesn't
have to reply to you, and so it can be
a challenge out there. And yet we know though that
when it does. There's a reason why we are so
(30:51):
tenacious is that there's beauty in the end result of
what we create. And I got to tell you I
love the filmmaking collaboration process too. I love working with
other artists and you know, it's kind of like Zorg
and Fifth Element. If you remember that scene when he
drops the glass and then all these little things start
(31:13):
to come out and clean up the glass. You know.
I was also I was a cop for a little
while Dave here in Alexandria, Virginia, and there was one
person on the squad that would usually go out and
get the rest of the squad into something, and that
guy was me. You know, I was going out trying
(31:34):
to be the one of like, all right, let's go
find some you know, somebody selling drugs or doing something wrong,
you know, and we can get into to deter or
protect this city. And you know, as a filmmaker I
kind of carry that same mantra into into what we're doing,
is that it be the one to do the film
(31:58):
project because that in of itself creates opportunities. But trying
to do it at this other second tier, this other level.
You know, again, we're not newbies, and yet we're not
we're not able to do it potentially one hundred and
ten percent full time all the time, just yet and
so we have this balance that we have to take on,
(32:22):
and I do believe that you also have to find yourself.
Just like the filmmaking process is collaborative, life is collaborative.
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
Life is not meant to be a solo sport. Neither
is filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (32:37):
And when you're feeling that way, you got to be
able to reach out, you know, you got to be
able to reach out to others and to remind you
of that dream. And so when people are doing filmmaking
and isolation, that is such a mountain to climb. I'm
not saying that people can't do it, but I'm certainly
not wired that way. I'm not a one man shop
(32:58):
where I write film at it, you know, color sound
as I'm not that type of filmmaker. I like the
collaborative part. And yet I also liked you like you, Dave.
I've lost friends along the way, brother, You know, I've
lost friends along the way for not being clear enough
or frankly taking extreme ownership over things, and have unfortunately
(33:22):
wiped out on a few dreams. I was on a
feature film and our ROI, you know, our return didn't
come back the way we all necessarily wanted to. And
then next thing, you know, you know, fingers started to
get point and people leave. I've been on other projects
where expectations weren't laid out, and you know, people stopped
(33:42):
doing or working in an efficient enough manner to where
someone that thought they were secure, you know, wasn't. And
these are hard things to have to live out. But
if you know your why then and you have around
you surrounded yourself with like minded people that know what
(34:04):
you're going through, And I think that's that's the deal,
right is you have to be able to find people.
One of the challenges I think people are trying to
do as filmmakers is level up so far that the
person they're trying to reach out to is such at
a high level that the likelihood of them joining you
on your project is not likely. So find someone who's
(34:26):
at your level or maybe just slightly above you, right, yeah,
maybe don't swing for the fences in that context for
a partner. Find people that are doing like mindedness. You know,
I think you and I are are kindred spirits that way.
And again that list I gave earlier, Tom Scott, Ashley,
Alex Jason, you know, the other Jason Buff. You know,
(34:50):
all of us are are We're rowing, man, We're rowing hard,
you know, because we know our why. And you know,
I think the best thing I could do for you guys,
Like I said, Man, I would love to be able
to call you guys up and be like, hey, guys,
I got funding. We're rolling, we're rolling cameras, man, you know,
do the podcast live on set here we're making a movie.
(35:12):
I think it gets to a point where that's the
best gift that I can I can give people. And
when those moments do get tiresome and tight, and it's
you know, it's I'm ready to go to bed and
I and I'm trying to get a few more pages
checked off the script, it's it's pulling back to those things.
(35:33):
And you know, again, it is finding contentment in the process,
finding contentment and grabbing a beer with some friends, you know,
and hanging out or talking shop, you know, or talking
movies because it is such a passion that we all have.
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Well, well, Ron, if you get funding for your movie,
I'll do the podcast on set. But at that point
I'd be like, hey, look, Ron, I'll come back to
produce the thing. Let's just do it that one.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Let's do it. Yeah, I like it man now, you know,
and you know, be a doer man, Be a finisher.
There's so many filmmakers that again that call themselves filmmakers
and they haven't finished anything. They've wiped out, you know,
be a finisher, you know. I think that's why, frankly,
Kickstarter has become such a challenge for all of us filmmakers.
We kind of did it to ourselves. We didn't finish
(36:19):
and do things and come in on promises of different things,
and so people are like, you know, you know, I'm
not given to that or now. Granted, the life cycle
of a film is long. It always is, you know,
Like I said, the average for me has been five
to seven years. I mean, we all saw Giama del
Torre get up there and accept his award and they
were like raising the music up, you know, and you
(36:40):
heard what he said. He was like, hey, guys, it
took me twenty five years to get up here. Give me,
give me a little grace here, give me a moment
to speak, you know. And I just was like, yes, right,
because everyone thinks it's an overnight success and it's not,
and yet people do it. But I know I have
(37:00):
a thing where when I first started to try to
get into filmmaking. It was right after the Marine Corps
that I was trying to get on a set. Now
this is pre digital, right, so this is you know,
a good time ago, and no one would even let
me come in and just you know, get work for
free or come on and grab coffee or you know,
like a pre pa almost. And I told myself, Man,
(37:22):
if I ever get a set that, I'm not going
to do that. So if people are willing to come
on now you don't you know, there's no passive viewers
on my set, you're going to work. But I want
to create opportunities. That's what I get jazzed about. That's
why I got into the whole film education component of it,
you know, with the podcast and Scott does a super
(37:45):
job over at Film Trooper there is I really do
believe that opportunities and storytelling is what we all want
to do.
Speaker 5 (37:54):
And that's the best gift that we can give each other.
Speaker 4 (37:57):
Because if I'm doing a project and you're doing a
project and then you hire me, you know, and.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
Then it it all works.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
And I know we see this and frankly, it's just
difficult to raise capital. You know, it's difficult to raise
the amount of money you need, and there's no guarantees
out there. But I do believe that we could do
better by each other. I do believe that.
Speaker 3 (38:17):
Yeah, and you mentioned too, the people that don't finish
and Kickstarter. You know, I've donated to a shit ton
of kickstarters, and I started to realize a lot of
these filmmakers just stopped the communication process. And I actually
got really really burned out when this guy that I
knew donated, like Tony, I've actually raised like twenty grand
(38:41):
to make a short film and he never did it,
and he never did anything with it, and people were like, hey,
where the hell happened to the money, you know, twenty
thousand dollars, Like what did you do with this? He
took down his Facebook and I've never heard from him since.
And yeah, a lot of people have been burned by
stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (39:01):
Yeah, you know, you know, I have a project out
there that the whole goal of the project was to
level up the project, and part of me doing this
event is part of that fulfilling that mission. Is that
now I've had some good meetings, but I didn't sign anybody.
So I've been trying to knock on doors with managers
and producing partners, and we have a short of it
(39:23):
out there that we did as a result of it.
It's a little like twelve minute, twelve and a half
minute thing. We put it out on Facebook and we
have over three hundred thousand hits on it, but I've
yet to kind of been able to take it to
the next level. It's this steampunk western sci fi, very
a lah firefly fans and got some nice traction with it,
(39:47):
but nothing. You know, people got to write checks, right,
I mean, that's the stuff that gets it produced. So no,
I hear people all the time talking about Kickstarter, wearing
it where we are in a funny kind of a we'll.
Speaker 2 (40:02):
Be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (40:11):
That way with how to do financing and raising capital
and then just how long it takes, you know. That's
the other thing is setting people's expectations. Now, I will
say I used to not do shorts, and you know
what happened, Dave years went by and I did nothing.
I didn't film anything, and so I went from not
(40:34):
liking shorts, and frankly it was because you couldn't monetize them.
So now I really like shorts because as filmmakers, if
as an artist, we know that ten thousand hours, you
know it constitutes you to technically be an expert. At
what point are you going to get your ten thousand
hours in? You know it? Filmmaking is one of the
few things that you got to knock it out of
(40:56):
the park your very first film. So I think, you know,
put it in the context of Kickstarter, if filmmakers just
got it finished, that there's value in that saying something.
You know, there's a lot of films that I have
on my website, the Ford Studios dot com. If you
(41:18):
go to the Ford Studios, there's a lot of shorts
out there that they it didn't turn out exactly the
way I had written it. And we all know as filmmakers,
you know it's made during writing, filming, and editing. And
there's some out there that I look at and I cringe,
But I think of, you know what, that's my ten
thousand hours, and I'm putting in those are my ten
(41:38):
thousand hours. You got to get out there and film something.
You got to get out there and tell a story.
That's how we're going to get better and nobody's going
to come up and just give you the opportunity to
go and do it. You know. Spielberg and Lucas, those
things are rare, you know, and luckily they hit it
out of the park. There were plenty of opportun unities
(42:00):
for them to wipe out and they were able to
do it. So I'm trying to level up not just
with opportunities, but to also every year get out and
do what I call an intentional epic short film. This
is one that is an intentional film something I can
(42:23):
do in a weekend because then when you ask people
to do it for free, when you're doing a short,
they can sprint two days. So basically I can film
about five pages a day, so that's about a ten
minute short. What can we do with the resources that
we have around here? And I tend to focus on
fantasy and sci fi, and so that's what I try
to do, are these intentional epic short films. And I
(42:46):
treat my sets professional so that when we do get
the feature, you know, we've got people ready to go.
I've vetted crew that way, I vetted actors that way.
It's a really good way to do something.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
And we talked about this too on Facebook, where people
will say things like you know, maybe you know if
you if you do something wrong, I'll try to show up.
Or they'll say things like, hey, when you're doing when
you're casting, make sure you remember me and and and
you and I were laugh at about that. Yeah, And
because because you hear all the freaking time, you're like, well,
well you're going to try to show up? What the
hell does that mean? Yeah? I don't even know what
(43:22):
that means. I honestly don't. You're either going to show
up or you're not. And when people say things like hey,
remember when you're casting, remember to reach out to me,
it's like, really, like I have to? Should I? Should
I go pick you up? Too? I once had that
I wanted an actor who actually asked me if I
could pick him up for auditions for to audition for
me and they and I said, are you fucking crazy?
(43:45):
I mean, I mean, what the hell I mean? It's
it's just unbelievable. By the way, ron I cursed a
lot on this show, So I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (43:52):
Yeah, I'm a fan. I've heard you before, brother Mark.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
OK, all right, good, it's Phil It's Philly. I It's like,
you know, we we curse. It's like in a Chris
A story where some some people's fathers using paint. Well,
we use curse words here as some other fathers use paint.
But but I mean, you know, I see I didn't
know that run, you were of a marine, you were
a police officer. See, I didn't know any of that
stuff til now.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
Yeah, man, And you know I gave all that up.
Speaker 4 (44:17):
And that's kind of my you know, my own personal
point when I'm sitting there at night and I'm you know,
again looking back over things. So I'm like, Ron, you
didn't give up those things great career paths to stop now,
to wipe out, to quit. And I do believe that,
you know, I believe in a higher power. And then
I'm called to filmmaking and the world needs to hear
our stories. The world needs the lens the voice that
(44:41):
we can give it. You know, filmmaking immortalizes, mortalizes you
and the story itself.
Speaker 5 (44:48):
And so I want to have a conversation in that.
Speaker 4 (44:51):
So so yeah, you know, I'm hoping those the things
that experiences that I've had and things that I've given
up will hopefully parley into filmmaking and my storytelling. But
you know it doesn't necessarily have to. There's that other
side of sounding a little contradictory. You know. It's funny
we as America Americans, we're graduating people from college at
(45:16):
an alarming rate with film degrees, with the expectation that
there's all these great opportunities out there. And I'm seeing
young people all the time graduating and I'm like, wow, man,
they've really kind of set them up, you know, because
it's just a money thing for the school, not just
and not all schools. I mean, there's some great film
programs out there, but there's you know, point a school,
(45:40):
point to a school, and I'll show you a film
program I guarantee is there. And it's because they just
saw an opportunity to monetize, not an opportunity to really
teach people the craft of telling story. Now, I do
think there's a strong place for film school. It's a
great way to meet your peers, people that are serious
and are aim for it. You're gonna find your your
(46:02):
peer group, and it's a great way to get gear
and other and other people. But when I watch a film,
nobody knows if you're uh graduated from film school or
not right. Nobody knows if I was a copper marine, nobody,
nobody knows any of that. It's whether or not they
liked it or didn't like it. And like I said,
there's several shorts that I look at and I go, yude,
(46:23):
that wasn't wasn't my best work. But that doesn't mean
you're like, ah, you know what, I'm not a filmmaker then,
And if that can deter you, it should, and do
it early. And you know they say fail fast, fail often, right,
if you can fail and get out of.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
It, do it.
Speaker 4 (46:41):
But if it's got you, if I'm the if you're
the twenty percent, and you know who I'm talking about,
if it's got you like it does Dave and I,
there's nothing going to stop you anyway. So the best
thing I can do is equip you and then create opportunity.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
Yeah. And also to what I'm doing this year, Ron
is I'm actually exploring the other mediums too, And and
what I mean by that is, I'm not just you know,
and obviously doing the podcast and obviously doing film stuff,
but I do want to release a graphic novel this year.
I'm actually putting I don't want to I know I
talked about last year and a few people actually followed
up and said, is are you still doing that? And
(47:16):
I said, yes, yeah, I still I'm gonna I have
I'm putting all my ducks in a row. Let's just
call it like, let's just say that. And so I
am going to use Kickstarter, probably just to get a
little bit of seed money if if necessary. Otherwise I
would just find it out in my own pocket. But
I mean just getting you know, used to being a storyteller.
(47:37):
Because I was talking to a couple different people who
are out in sun Dance right now, and they were
were just talking about different things, and they said, basically, now,
if you and Iron or were to write a specscript,
that's where you would go with it, because basically, you know,
all Hollywood wants to do is make superhero movies. And
(47:58):
you kind of start to realize, like, you know what
it's it's all you know, existing properties where they're Marvel,
d C, Star Wars, Disney whatever, and the actual movies
that are made from original scripts, they hardly have replace
And if you and and I'm not really sure by
the way, but I'm gonna go look through the number
one movies at box offices, and just to see what
was a what was a based on an actual existing property,
(48:20):
and what was completely original and new. Because but I
already know what's going to be the majority is going
to be a existing property.
Speaker 4 (48:28):
No, there's no doubt about it. And I'm glad you
said that, man, because that is something that I learned
to kind of change the lens, is that I'm not
just a filmmaker. When I was really trying to drill
down of my why, what's my why? I really figured
out I'm a storyteller. That's really what I am. So
I too, I remember you've talked about it a few
times on some previous podcast about the graphic novel potential.
(48:52):
So this year I have teamed up with a local
DC area comic con called All Star Comic Con, and
I'm like their filmmaker lead guy. And one of the
reasons I did that is the guy that one of
the guys that runs at Kevin He's a phenomenal artist.
So as a as a payout, I was like, Hey,
(49:13):
would you be willing to do a comic for me
for my steampunk Western And He's like, yeah, let's do it.
So I have that comic coming out this year hopefully,
and I definitely have another one around. I did this
fantasy called The Rangers, and it's very much like you
know it sounds. It started from when you see Eric
Gorn and Lord of the Rings sitting in the inn
(49:35):
at the Prancy Pony and he puffs on the pipe
and it's like, who are these Ranger guys? Well, let's
take that idea and kind of run with it and
created my own ip in a completely different world. But
it's hard not to get compared to Tolkien when you
do a fantasy. But I have a sixty minute pilot
that I did and then a different cut.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
We'll be right back after a word from ours, and
now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
And have done some web series, some shorts around that.
I've teamed up with some other guys, some guys called
on Instagram called Fell and Fair and anyways, I'm doing
a comic around The Rangers as well. So there's a
term called transmedia. Have you heard of that day of transmedia?
Speaker 3 (50:25):
Yes? I have?
Speaker 4 (50:26):
Yeah, so you know that right. What it really means,
and it's pure definition, is how you view stuff over
different platforms like your iPad and your phone and your
tablet and you know, but I the indies are defining
that even further to say that trans media also means
how many ways my story's getting out there. So I
(50:48):
have the script, I've got the graphic novel. I've got
the novel, the comic, the video game for the Rangers.
We did a card game. I've got a board game
that I'm coming out with the Rangers. So it's the
same story and IP and these different mediums, these different platforms,
and I just find that fascinating. Man, I'm super excited
about all those ways. And I agree I too. I
(51:09):
would say am a storyteller, you know.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
And you mentioned college to Ron, and I have to
kind of take a step back just to go into that.
You know, when I see all the filmmakers, the film majors,
and I sit there and I think, if I was
going to run a film school, what I would do
is this. I would not first off, in your freshman year,
you'd be given a camera, no ensits or butts about it,
(51:35):
like you got to make it. Where I used to
work and I and forced to teach, they didn't give
you a camera until your senior year. And I said
to the teachers, who obviously nothing about any of this stuff,
I said, do you not realize that this is like
completely counterintuitive, like their senior sam projects is when you're
finally putting a camera in their hands, there's senior sam projects.
(51:57):
Let me it was madness, Ron, it was And then
they finally all I mean, all the kids were like,
if it wasn't for Dave, we would not know anything
about any of this stuff because it was all theory based.
It was all you know, it was all you know,
complete fluff. So anyways, I if I was doing it
freshman freshman year, you'd be given a camera bar none
(52:18):
and I would show you movies that you could make
and how to improve from them. Because here's the here's
the rub with all them. If you go to a
film school, they show you these big budget films and go, oh,
look at this movie, blah blah, it doesn't matter because
Ron their donut budget. It's bigger than any budget you're
gonna have for the next ten years. Right so and
so they have a huge army. You don't have that luxury.
(52:41):
You got to show them movies that they could go
out right now and make. And you see what they did,
This is what you shouldn't do. And you know, if
we talked about the film school kind of tropes and
the film student kind of tropes, let me just let
this label a couple. So, I mean, I'll start us
off if you like, Hey, actors against the White Wall
or actors against the Bland Wall, you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (53:03):
How they do that.
Speaker 3 (53:04):
They do a lot of close ups and they started
on an alarm clock going off the whole black and
white thing, you know what I mean, and it's just yeah,
it goes on and on and it's just that type
of stuff. I mean, if you wanted to make a
laugh of a movie, hey, go for it, my man.
But you know what I mean, Ei, there's so much more.
And that's one of the things I would do is
you can make these movies. And that's what you're here for,
(53:27):
is to learn how to make a movie.
Speaker 4 (53:29):
You're not here to learn.
Speaker 3 (53:31):
How to work on a big budget movie because you don't
need to go to school for that. You can get
a job as a PA and be right as rain.
Speaker 4 (53:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (53:38):
No, I mean, I've been working on this book for
like five years.
Speaker 4 (53:41):
And the reason I started writing this book is because
I found that there's a niche specifically that's kind of
wide open about the business of indie filmmaking is not
taught at colleges, and it just baffles my mind. I agree.
Speaker 5 (53:56):
I think I would add to not only do they
get a camera, which.
Speaker 4 (54:00):
I love that idea. I think that's exactly right, is
that they should have a business plan by the time
they're they're graduating. You know, they should know how to
do a complete business plan, and they should know the
business around it, how to go and raise capital, how
to I get so many questions about that, like how
did you raise the money and where do you go
(54:21):
and how legally? I mean, there's a whole legal parameter
you got to be be careful of of how you
go about doing that. And I know, like a lot
of these uh these other are are counterparts, are are
doing that, are teaching those things.
Speaker 5 (54:35):
But yeah, you know, you wonder sometimes.
Speaker 4 (54:39):
What these what they're doing at at college, what what
they're they're teaching. And it is a lot of theory
not wrong in and of itself, but look at you know,
one of the most famous that didn't go to film school,
of course, Quentin Tarantino, right, and that dude is a mastermind.
So he's self taught himself all the theory and you
(55:01):
can just see the passion that he has for film
and film history and film that you know, French film,
and he's he knows it right. So there's a there's
a place for it. But if I'm paying twenty grand
a year, is that at the end of it. What
I'm hoping to get out of it is to impress
my friends at a some party that I can tell them, Oh,
(55:22):
that's the French you know, new age film. No, it's hey,
you know I finished the film, I got it funded,
I would raise money for it, and it's coming out
in two months. You know, please be there.
Speaker 3 (55:35):
Yeah. It's kind of like you ever see back to School?
Oh yeah, you remember when running Dangerfield is sitting in
class and then one teacher's like, this is how you
start a business and my Dangerfield goes, oh, you left
out a bunch of stuff, and the teacher goes, what
do you mean? He goes, well, first of all, the
concrete is is it going to be free? Because the
team's just gonna have Yeah, and there's this group and
(55:56):
we got to tell you who they are. They ain't
the boy Scouts and he's a mister Melon Mafia kickbacks
and underhanded bribes of like you do business, but not
how we do business here. But it's like Thornton's actually
he's a multi multi self made million there, and he's
telling you straight up how it is. And then this
professor is just you know, telling you, well, this is
(56:17):
what the book says it is, and this is what
the theory of it is. You know. Maybe it's because
I've worked at a college before, but I mean I've
become I'm sure as most people can tell, I've become
kind of a blase about college. The more I live
and the more i've i've especially working there at a college,
I just became very like, what's the point of all this?
(56:37):
You know, half the time you go out into the
real world quote unquote the real world and you don't
even need that degree that you got, and you spend
that money for you spend that money to become learned.
Speaker 4 (56:47):
But you're saying to.
Speaker 3 (56:48):
Yourself that I have to spend one hundred thousand dollars
to become to learn how to learn or any of
that stuff. I mean, I could have just done it.
And that's why I'm glad this podcast exists. I Mean, honestly,
if I can help one person out and just say, hey, listen, Dave,
I'm not going to send my kid to college. I'm
just going to have him or her listen to your podcast.
I'm going to set them up with the they can
(57:09):
use their phone to start off with, which is not
a bad idea at all, and just go from there
and start teaching themselves filmmaking.
Speaker 4 (57:16):
I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (57:17):
Lecture is like I mean, I mean, this is like
a lecture. Every week you give a different personal on
and it's like a different teacher teaching you this stuff.
And it's not theory based because every single solidary person
I've had on here has done still has done a movie,
still works in the movie business, and they and we
discuss how things are changing, what they grew up with,
(57:39):
how they made their movie. I mean, all this stuff.
I mean there's in fact, this is probably what college
should be. Ninety percent application and then ten percent to
allow some kind of you know, philosophical theory if.
Speaker 4 (57:51):
You'd like, Yeah, sign me up, man, where do I
sign me? I have a master's degree in counseling, and
you know I don't I don't even work in that field.
So it's not that I dislike education and it sounds
like you're the same. It's it's what kind of education
like at the end of it, what am I getting
(58:12):
out of it? And that I believe you're spot on with. Man,
sign me up for that. I'll help teach that.
Speaker 3 (58:17):
I think in the next ten years run, I think
you're going to see a huge, huge downfall in a
lot of colleges. I think all of the I think
you're going to be left and in twenty years, if
even at that that, if even at that time, you're
gonna be left with two versions of college, your state school, sorry,
your your community colleges, which are probably going to be
(58:38):
now a two year I think bachelor's degrees they could
maybe stay at four, maybe they should be at two.
And now the MicroMasters are becoming big and there are
a year long program instead of two years for a
normal masters. And then on the flip side of that,
you're going to have your big Ivy League schools. So
here's how they're both going to know. Everything between is
(59:00):
gonna go to shit. Everything you're in between is not
going to exist anymore. So if I said, hey, Ron,
I went to Gudger College, you know up in Tallahassee,
or whatever or down in Tallahassee. Rather that college isn't
gonna exist anymore. What's gonna happen is the community colleges
are paid for by the state, and they'll be fine.
The Ivy League schools have already seen what's coming, and
(59:21):
they're already hedge funds that just dabble in education. They're
gonna be fine. And what you're gonna do is you're
gonna have everyone else who just goes you know what,
I'll go on to you, to me or even YouTube
and or con academy. I can learn all this stuff
for free or at most ten bucks, and then I
can test out if I even like it or not.
I always tell kid, I say to people, if you
(59:43):
really are dead set on sending your kid to a college,
take a gap year, have them study you, to me,
a YouTube, whatever, and see if they even like the course,
or seeven even they even like that subject to devote
not only the rest of their lives but just the
next four years.
Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:00:11):
To pursuing that.
Speaker 3 (01:00:12):
And if they decide they don't like it, hey, look
you're only out ten bucks. If they decide they do
like it. Hey, guess what, you're now ahead of the
great game going into college when all these other kids
just blindly just went into a full force.
Speaker 4 (01:00:25):
Yeah, no, absolutely, Matt. I think that's the time where
you can take risk. You know, if I was looking
back and was going to talk to my eighteen year
old self, you know, that would be the time I
would do a you know, try to do a film.
I would pull people in and try to do it.
I tell a lot of young filmmakers that are getting
ready to go to college that I would consider getting
(01:00:48):
a degree and let's say marketing, because that's you're basically
telling the story of a company. So there is some storytelling.
Every marketing department now generally has an in house video department,
and you set yourself up for a nice career path
that you can parlay the indie world and do filmmaking
on the side, versus you know, I've got a buddy
(01:01:10):
mine who went to film school, has a film degree,
and he works at a motorcycle shop, and you know,
not that that, and he loves motorcycles. But the point
is is that he's not doing with the very thing
he's set off to go to school to do as
most of us don't, you know. And I think there
is going to be a backlash. I totally agree, and
I think it's going to because all the alumni, as
(01:01:32):
they get older, they start thinking about you know, man,
that didn't really help me out all them, but they're
going to be upset and bitter and they lose the
alumni support, you know, And we know as filmmakers the
crowd is a finny key bunch. But so goes the crowd,
so goes the eyeballs. That's the power is in the crowd.
And that's the one thing that no matter what you
(01:01:55):
do when you're trying to level up, that the studios
can't take away, like from US indies, is that we
have a voice just like anybody else. And if the
crowd goes with us, then we can do whatever we
want to do because because we've won the crowd, we've
got to stick together in this. It's and it's not
(01:02:16):
in us first them. It is a wei. It's a wei.
Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
And you know, speaking of the alumni association, like when
I had like, for instance, like Liz Manichelle on here
from Sundance Institute, we and I her and I talked
about that because the alumni association for a lot of
these colleges will only call you to ask for money.
And they just call up and they say, hey, Ron, listen,
you know, we see you're in film. Do you have
any internships you could give some of our kids, because
(01:02:41):
all they care about is the next incoming class of
fresh And what they do is, I don't know if
you know this, Ron, but once you become a sophomore
or once you get into essentially your third year what
is that, a junior or sophomore, junior, they essentially stop
caring about you because you're already your credits won't transfer.
(01:03:02):
You're pretty far in. They got you, yeah, and then
once you become a senior, forget about They don't want
to do anything for you. And they always go, oh, well,
the seniors don't care anyway. They just want to get
out of there. Well that's partly true anyway. So it's
kind of like a win win from the school because
they don't have to do anything they retain you. You
just want to get out of there. So a freshman,
freshmen and sophomore, they're kissing your ass, they're doing all
(01:03:25):
this cool stuff. Oh yeah, we're the best college ever
because they want to keep you there so you can't leave.
You see all the stuff I've learned from working at.
Speaker 4 (01:03:32):
Age may I see it, brother, I so see it.
I'm hoping some young filmmakers will listen to this and
striking some winsdom Up. I've got a buddy of mine,
Errol Avelino of Avellino Studios, and instead of going to college, man,
he did what we were talking about. He went out
and just started film and stuff and he got really
(01:03:53):
good at film and stuff. And like I said, when
people watch this stuff, no idea whether or not he
went to film school or not.
Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
Yeah, exactly. No one's ever gonna stop you from care. Yeah,
And they're not gonna stop you and say, hey, ron
do you have did you have do you have a flagury?
Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
No one goes with the care.
Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
They don't they're gonna say hey, do you have a
degree or do you have an MFA. I mean, it's
just it's just ludicrous, man. And I think that that
whole thing is going to go away very very fast,
particularly with how things are moving in terms of technology
in business. I think if you're gonna get new skills,
and that's the other thing too. I know, I'm sorry
(01:04:29):
everyone listening to this. I'm going off on a tangent here.
But but but just just one more quick thing and
then I want to get to Ron. I want to
talk about this this seminar in DC. You know, I
think as we talk about well, you know, we we
don't invest enough. I hear people can constantly complain about this,
well we don't invest enough in education. And I say,
Jesus Christ, if we we already are like what two
trillion dollars in debt from studid loan debt, how much
(01:04:52):
more education do we freaking know, man, well we need?
I would say, you know what is if you if
people would be able to if you could actually teach
people how they learn, and and just try to make
it where if you were to take an online class
or something like that, and you'd be able to write
it off in your taxes, or or if you bought
a lot of books you could write that off your
(01:05:12):
taxes in one way or another. That would solve the
problem right there, You wouldn't I always run, I always
cringe when somebody says the answer is more college, because
I just cannot agree with that.
Speaker 5 (01:05:24):
Yeah, no, man, I like I mentioned already mentioned stage
thirty two.
Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
I think they're doing a lot of good and breaking
down barriers for us. And you know, in a lot
of times when you're talking college and you know a
lot of your listeners out there, they're thirty forty somethings,
fifty something, they don't that's that's not an option anymore.
You know, I'm not going back to college again to
get my degree in stuff. That's not an option. It's
(01:05:48):
these little one off, these little things. Or you know,
I'm devouring podcasts all the time. You know, there's some
they yield some great information. So yeah, I think if
I'm training and I'm getting educated, that's what I think
we're after. But the institutionalized foundation of a college and
a structure of that it is, it comes off because
(01:06:09):
it is just a monetary ends to the means there.
Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
Yeah, it's really truly true. And uh, all right, everyone,
I'll stop talking about college now, but Ron, I want
to I know we're starting to run out of time here. Yeah,
I'm gonna talk about this seminar that you got going
on in YC.
Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:06:28):
So again, I think it's an awesome idea. It's something
that I was trying to do a few years ago
that fell apart. But I mean, I wish you the
best of luck with us, I really really do. And
so so you know, what are the dates for whereas
do you have everything? Yeah, down terms of vocation and stuff.
Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
I do. So we're gonna be at the Dullest Marriott
in Dulles, Virginia on August twenty fifth. You can go
to the Forge Studios dot com website and I'll least
have a link on that. I have the website ready
to go. I haven't launched it yet because I want
to get some fancy URL to make it easy to remember,
and I haven't locked that in just yet, but you'll
(01:07:05):
certainly be able to go to the Forge and find it,
and you can join my newsletter as well to kind
of get it. But the primary point of the event
is to take a proactive approach to I'm not in Hollywood,
I'm not in LA and I'm not going to be
(01:07:27):
moving there. I'm from DC and I believe that I
have a voice in the space of storytelling that I
want to be able to do. But I can't take
this passive approach like somebody's going to come to me
and say, oh yeah, Ron, this is it. You know,
I'm going to represent you. That rarely happens, and so
my goal of leveling up is to get an opportunities
(01:07:53):
to put filmmakers in front of managers that can represent them,
particularly in the area of screenwriting and directing. So I'm
talking like you know that is your full time job,
like legit job. There are management companies out there that
find work for you. That way is to pitch the managers.
(01:08:13):
And then second would be these strategic producing partners. These
are production companies that have the relationships with the majors
and can work with them. They usually have distribution outlets
and they usually help with financing and securing talent. Get
your eyeballs in front of them. And then lastly is
(01:08:36):
to talk to investors, people that can write a check,
that are credited investors. And we're going to do panels
of around five of them per section and then have
ten people are going to get up and pitch a
ninety second pitch for it. We're going to have a
huge networking event at the end of it, because hey, look,
(01:08:56):
let's face it, you know, if your guys are working
on project, you got a project funded I want to
be a part of that and vice versa. You know,
that's how we can all continue this, this filmmaking journey
together as a full time vocation. And so I've put
a networking opportunity the foods included in on it. You know,
you can stay for the weekend and also hang out
(01:09:18):
where Stone Strow away from DC. But really it is
meant to create opportunity to not be passive and to
explore if this is an option, like can I secure
a manager? Can I find these proper producing partners and
to make it happen. And then it also sometimes we
(01:09:39):
just need a reason to get that business plan completed
or that script finished, or if you're not ready and
you just want to observe, you can still come and
you don't have to pitch, So you would come and
not be a pitcher. Only ten people are going to
get chosen to pitch anyways, and so you can sit
there and be a part of it. But you could
still network. You can still meet the people. You could
see what they're they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
And I'll tell you this, Dave. Look, this is coming
out of my pocket, right, So if the crowd doesn't
get behind it, I've always said I'll give people what
I believe that they want, but if they don't want it,
then that, you know, then I can't do it. So
if we don't get a minimum sign up, then the
event won't go forward. So it's kind of as simple
as that is that if people are like, man, I'm
(01:10:32):
digging this idea, let's do it, and they sign up
sign up early, there's definitely gonna be an early registration discount.
But the point is is that if I can't get
these people and fly them in, then I'll have to
cancel the event. Anyways, but I'm really excited about this event.
I do think that a lot of filmmakers, when I
(01:10:54):
start to talk to them about it and say what
do you guys think of this idea? Hands down, they
all are like, oh my god, why hasn't this happened before?
And I do believe in like La and New York
to some degree it has. But I want to do
it for US indies. DC areas of prime market. We
have a nice big airport so you can fly into
(01:11:17):
where a stone strow away from Philly, so you can
just come on down, Dave. And you know, there's a
lot of people in this whole region, this whole area
where there's no film we can't do. We have the people,
we have the gear, you know, we have the desire,
we have the passion. We just need the opportunity and
that's what I want to look to create.
Speaker 3 (01:11:40):
Yeah, I definitely have to come down for this event,
not only just because you know it's so close, but
also because it's just again, this is something that an
event I was trying to do years ago and it
just fell apart just for for a bunch of reasons,
and it's kind of like this is like a make
good That's why I'm really really interested in this event.
Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Ron.
Speaker 3 (01:12:00):
As we were talking about this, is there like a
is there a website that that that like I could
go to.
Speaker 5 (01:12:05):
Yes, I'll definitely send you the link.
Speaker 4 (01:12:07):
But right now, if people went to the Ford Studios
dot com and got on my newsletter, I'm definitely gonna
have a link off that I do have the website,
Like I said that it's ready. I just want to
get a very simplistic U r L. And that's what
I don't have right now, is the simple U r
L and then I'll make I'll make sure that I
that I get that out there as well.
Speaker 3 (01:12:31):
And when you do, Ron, let me know. Not only
will I put that in the in the show notes,
I can always edit it later on, but I will
link to your your website in the show notes, and
also I'll promote that on on social media because there's
a lot of people on the East Coast who you know,
you know, who follow the podcast so I'm from, and
anyone in the area too. I mean there's a there's
(01:12:52):
there's a ton of different people. But you know, Ron,
I I see by the clock, we're actually out of time.
I know you got to run, but as do I actually,
But just in closing run, where can people find you
at online?
Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
Yeah, the biggest thing is the Ford Studios dot com
and certainly you know I'm on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.
Those are definitely the areas to go. But if you
go to the Ford Studios, I've got some videos up
there as well. I've got a few things in the
work that I'm excited about. But you know, Dave, this
is our year, brother. No one's gonna come and hand
it to us. So if we could stick together, we
(01:13:27):
can make this thing happen. Man, I definitely appreciate you
allow me to come on and let me have a
voice on your podcast and people listening. And I do
hope people get fired up and excited, man, because I'm
ready to roll.
Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Yes, I know what you mean, man, And it's it's
a do or die time. You know, one thing, if
you sit around talking about it, sometimes you get a
little blase and you talk yourself out of it, and
then then then you still talk about it and people,
you know, you finally realize you I gotta do something.
Either I gotta stop talking about it or I gotta go. Yes,
you know, it's one of those things, man, you're here
(01:14:02):
that you know I had on really quickly. I just
want to make say one quick antidote antidote anecdote, not antidote.
But I had on the Shaker Brothers and they did
the same thing.
Speaker 4 (01:14:14):
You know.
Speaker 3 (01:14:15):
One one brother hit thirty five and he said, you
know what, I've been talking about making this move for years.
I'm not gonna wait anymore. And he actually quit his
day job and he actually they actually made the movie
and it's it's called col Christmas, and I actually want
had him on the show. I think they're like one episode,
like one night, and it was just a hell of
an episode. Man, two Jersey guys they met, they got this,
(01:14:38):
all that stuff in the movie. It's it's on Google Play,
it's on Amazon, it's on iTunes. But yeah, yeah, and
that's what they did.
Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:14:45):
They got tired of just sitting on talking about and
they went and they did the thing.
Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
Man. And that's right. Don't talk about it, be about it.
Speaker 3 (01:14:51):
That's right, that's true, man, Ron Nukem, thank you very much,
so for good.
Speaker 4 (01:14:56):
Thank you, Dave, thank you Man. Great show.
Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
I want to thank Day thanks 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 Indie film Huscle
dot com.
Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Forward Slash eight No.
Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Five, and if you have it already, please head over
to Filmmaking podcast dot com. Subscribe and leave a good
review for the show. It really helps us out a lot, guys.
Thank you again so much for listening. Guys, as always,
keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive, Stay safe
out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (01:15:27):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
INDIEFILM Hustle dot com. That's I N D I E
F I L M h U s t l E
dot com.
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