IFH 806: Shooting Sharks in Your Living Room: The Art of DIY Filmmaking with Ron Bonk

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

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
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Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight.
Host six 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. And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
I am your Humble host Alex Ferrari. Today's show is
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just head over to www dot filmbiz book dot com.
That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's episode with guest
host Dave Bullis.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
My next guest is a filmmaker and founder and the
head of the distributor SRS Cinema. His latest film, House Shark,
is an Amazon prom prime Right now, Yes, I said
House Shark with guests Ron Bank.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
You know, I grew up liking making up stories, knack
them out with friends. Didn't have a you know, a
film camera or a video cameras before you know, video
before camp quarterers really came along, and I had always thought,
you know, like that would be the dream to direct movies,
but didn't really take it serious. You don't think it

(02:30):
was feasible basically, so you know, went off to school
for a variety of other things. But after doing it
for a while, long story short, decided that, hey, you know,
I took the wrong route. The thing I wanted to
do was to make movies. Meanwhile, though I had already
you know, I had a bunch of years in college,
you know, didn't want to continue in college, wanted to

(02:52):
you know, I didn't want to accumulate any more debt,
and so started looking into what, you know, how I
could do this, And in the process of being self trained,
you know, I was learning about film and how expensive
was to make a movie and it's looking at a
minimum like one hundred thousand dollars to you know, uh
to shoot anything on film according to like the best

(03:14):
you know sources, which obviously it has been done for cheaper,
but that's what I was you know, hearing, you know,
pretty much caught across the board at the time, and
then eventually came across the idea of shooting at you know,
cam quarters, which would become more prevalent, and they were
still pretty expensive and and uh, you know, not as

(03:35):
user friendly, you know, as they would they would come
to be, but they you know, I think of the
first one I got was twenty five hundred and thirty
five hundred dollars as PHS camp quarter. I mean it's
really it was a solid machine, did a good job,
but it you know, created an option for me. Maybe
it wasn't that much. He's just been so long. Maybe
it was like a thousand to fifteen hundred, But anyways,

(03:59):
I got that and started making the movies on video
and you know, proceeded from there. I've only shot a
little bit of stuff on film ever. Anything that was
released was a little bit in my college, you know,
and in my college years when I decided to become
a filmmaker, I took a few film classes, but for
the most part, uh, you know, went from the analog

(04:19):
video to digital nowadays, shooting on HD for She Kills
in four K for House Shark.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
So when you were in college, ron, you know, did
you actually try to film on campus at all? Like
did you try to like grab any any of the
equipment from like the av studio or anything, just try
to film anything there.

Speaker 4 (04:37):
No what it happened is I had I mean I guess
a little bit what I had shot or I'd been
to school for four years and I have been had
an associates in accounting. I was working on a criminal
justice degree when I decided to switch over to film.
So for I went to a fifth year of school.
But it was just like men A College. I had
a TV and uh, well basically TV classes there, so

(05:02):
you know, we were I was using their camp quarters
and their VCRs. You know, they like high end decks.
May have been shooting on some beta cam for the
TV stuff, you know, like the studio stuff. But you know,
I was able to borrow their camp quarters to shoot
on vhs off campus. But I also took there was
a that was a Monroe Community College in Rochester, but

(05:24):
at Brockport nearby. I took a single film class each
semester and we were shooting on film for that. So
they had bowl x sixty milimeter camera that we can borrow.
But the two things I shot on film, they both
I think I shot them almost exclusive within the apartments
I was renting at the time. So uh, and then

(05:47):
the stuff I shot with video, I remember doing some
exterior stuff of like the apartments, you know, I was renting,
you know, running I think a different one each each semester. No,
maybe it was one over both semesters. But I didn't
really get down into the school unless you know, there
was stuff we were doing for the TV classes around
the school, So it was a very short period. Didn't

(06:08):
really do a lot there. I mean I really didn't
get out there with a camp Quorder until I was
out of school, you know, working full time and the
antique business, and had invested in the camp Quorder and
I shot like an instructional video first it was down
in Florida for half the year, and then once I
got back, I shot my first feature. And that's when

(06:29):
I really for the first time got out and was
being artistic with a camera, you know, on a regular basis.

Speaker 3 (06:37):
So so Ron when you were made a change from
accounting and with a criminal justice background to to you know,
wanting to do wanting to just go into film, you know,
where people like say, what do they say that? Run
your nuts ers? Or like you Ron, what the hell
you're thinking?

Speaker 4 (06:52):
More so back then, but nowadays not so much. I
mean there's still you know, for this area, there's still
people will be surprised, but Syracuse has grown, uh that
the film community has grown, and there's there's you know,
it's not that uncommon for there to be a sizable
production in the area, you know, a few times a year.

(07:13):
So if I say, you know, I make movies, you know,
I produce and distribute features, I don't get Like when
I start off, I'd always get like, oh, pornos, you know,
like now another they're logo tot you know, horror movies,
and a lot of people weren't educated or still aren't
even educated to the fact that you could shoot on

(07:34):
Assumer brand you know, VHS cameras and distribute those movies,
you know, during the eighties, you know, late eighties and nineties.
But nowadays, like I said, if I mention it, you know,
it's still true with surprise, you know, maybe a little
bit of skepticism, but most part it's it's more like
oh yeah, cool, and then I'll usually get a follow up,
but like, are you're part of this production that they

(07:55):
might have read about recently, you know an area or
something like that.

Speaker 3 (08:00):
That's where you should say the hell, yeah I am,
you know, because like when I used to fill in
parks and stuff like that. Like people would you know,
they see you with a camera whenever you and I'm
not talking about like a DSLR, but I'm talking about
like anything that looks like a camporder, you know, like
a bigger variety of the camporders, whether it be mini
TV or digital. People associate that with like professional grade cameras.

(08:23):
As soon as they see that, it's like, oh my god,
this this guy must know what he's doing. But you know,
when they're talking to me a little bit, do they
know that I'm a complete lunatic. So what happens is
so when I when I you know, when I'm out
filming stuff, you know, no matter what it was, people
would stop and they'd say, oh my god, you gotta
are you filming some kind of movie? And I would
just say, oh, hell yeah, Micky, you know, no matter what,

(08:43):
you know what, I'm just like, yeah, I mean why not?

Speaker 4 (08:46):
Yeah, we just just to the h You can almost
feel like a chameleon, you know. He So I'll adjust
to whatever the setting is. So if i'm just you know,
say I'm meeting someone in a cab setting, I'll be
more clear about what I do. But if I'm out
at the park and someone seems interested, I might be like, yeah,

(09:06):
I'm shooting a movie, you know, or I'm shooting a documentary,
or yes, I am part of this group, or or
for a years they can get away with like, oh
it's a it's a college film, you know. You know,
if cops are interested, you know anything, so yeah, you
kind of It's kind of like, you know, he's equated
to the Edwarod movie when he was trying to you know,
get the church to you know, fund his production, and

(09:29):
he would tell him whatever they needed to hear in
order to get that money. Basically, tell people whatever you
think they need to hear in order to be able
to keep shooting. You know.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
Yeah, that's so true. And you know that's one of
the benefits of being in college or just out of college.
You can always say, hey, I'm just shooting a student film,
and usually everyone's kind of cool with that and like, oh,
now you're a student, all right, we'll be a little
more lenient on you.

Speaker 2 (09:56):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
And now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
What if you call location up and you're like, hey,
you're almost senior in college, I need some help with this.
You know, people are you know a little more willing
to help. You know, you try to got it you
have to do. You should want to get away with
that and use that card as much as you can.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
Sure, Yeah, I told my nephew's getting ready to he's
a finishing camp his senior year and he, uh, he's
getting ready to, you know, he wants to get up
and do his first feature. It's called blind Cop two
and there's no blind Cop one. It's just called blind
Cop two. And I told him to use that as
much as possible. And he was like, really want people like,
you know, have you that as being professional and stuff?

(10:42):
And I told him the same things that you know,
you you tell people you're doing a college you know,
your college, making a college you know project or working
on a college show the assignment, and you know they're
going to be more forgiving, more willing to work with
you more, you know, will and let you get away
with more as opposed to being like, no, this is
a professional feature. Then suddenly you know it could change

(11:03):
anything like oh, okay, well how much you're gonna pay me,
you know, to use my location or or whatever?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
You know, And he also has to build an excuse
too of I don't know. So somebody goes, hey can't
you can't you can't be filming Blonde Cop two out here,
and he can go, hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know.
I'm just a student. So it's like it's such a
great get out of jail free card.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
Oh yeah, I definitely it works with the you know everywhere,
from like you said, building businesses to the police, you know, like, hey,
you got to permit, you know, do a permission to
go into there. Oh I thought it was public area.
I'm just a college student. Yeh. And then most of time,
you know, you can get away with it, so you
can you can take that risk and hope, you know, hey,

(11:47):
i'm gonna you know, I'm going to give it a
try and get in out there as quick as I
can and get some cool production values.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, exactly right. And then you can always say you're
shooting a documentary. So it's kind of like I'm just
shooting this documentary. But you know, when when you were
in college and you were you know, filming things in
your apartment and just using the locations you had, you know,
what point did you you know, start to say because
I know you you mentioned you were the antiquing business,
and you kind of you know, bought the camera. So
what point did you start really taking this seriously?

Speaker 4 (12:17):
I mean I was taking this seriously when I was,
you know, in college. I hadn't yet determined that, you know,
that last year college, I hadn't yet determined that I
was going to start making movies on cam quarters. I
remember even talking to someone in college about shooting on
camp quarters, and they immediately you know, like a fellow student,
but they'd been taking it for a few more years.

(12:39):
You know, they're actually in film class and there, oh no, no,
you can't shoot on camp quarters. So I pretty much
dismissed it. But I mean I was, you know, looking
at it. It's like, Okay, how can I go out
there and uh turn this into a living and also, uh,
you know, make the movies that I wanted to make,
you know, because I could ease had gone down the

(13:00):
root of you know, shooting pornos or shooting wedding videos
every weekend, you know, and and both potentially I have
a lot of you know, like a good income in them.
But they weren't, you know, something that's true to my
heart so I wanted that was like, how can I
turn still living? And you know, initially it was I'm
going to make some so amazing that you know, Hollywood

(13:21):
be paying me to sit out in Syracuse, New York
and make indie films that I wanted to, you know,
with the stories I wanted to tell to, you know,
reaching the point after the first one was done, being like,
there's not really you know, any distributor I want to
give my movie to that I would trust that I
ever see another penny out. So I need to become
a distributor too, and and release my own stuff. And

(13:43):
and that's how it's gone ever since. You know, I
might license out parts of the movies or or or
certain media rights, or do my own initial release and
then a why to release of someone else, but you know,
you know, I still well make my movies and then
do the initial launch on my own. And lately with

(14:05):
the last couple of you know, pictures, the initial launch
is at least paid for the production, you know, if
not more.

Speaker 3 (14:13):
You mentioned, you know, people who like shoot wedding videos
every weekend. You know, I had a friend who used
to do that where he he would do it part time.
He called it. You know, he would just go shoot
a couple of things on the weekend, and he would
always be like, hey, look I'm gonna make a movie
this and that, and he never ended he ended up
where the wedding video gave ended up becoming his full
time job. And he you know, he was just go

(14:34):
every weekend he was shooting a new wedding and he
never actually made a movie. So it's very easy. It's
gonna be probably aworided that trap because it's very easy
to kind of get you know, sucked into that, you
know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (14:45):
Yeah, you can go right down the rabbit hole and
it's hard to turn away from that kind of money.
And the you know, the weddings are weekends. You know,
that's usually ideal time to shoot if you're doing low
budget you know features is you know, people of you
have the you know, usually you have weekends off. People
you want to work on the movies have weekends off.
You know, so you know, unless you're going to take
you know, uh, you know, three or four weeks stretch

(15:07):
off from weddings and just shoot a feature, and it
seems like it's doable. It seems like it's something should
be possible if you really want to make a feature.
But it's like you know, having a job, you know
and pay, you know, regular job, paying your bills every day.
It's it's easy to be like, well, I won't work
on movies today because I need to you know, all
my bills aren't paid this month, or I want to

(15:29):
be able to on vacation, or my kids need new
clothes or whatever. You know. So it's it's it's easier
said than done.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Yeah, yeah, very true. And you know that that's why,
you know, and I'm glad you didn't go that route.
And I also, you know, I had an option to
go that route, and I was like, hell with that.
I've made many many mistakes in my life, ron, but
that's not one of them. Us. So, uh, you know,
just to sort with you know, with your career, you know,
just starting back with like you a City of Vampires
even to now you know, making you know, She Kills

(15:57):
and House Shark. You know, what if some of the
strategies that you've used, you know, when you're approaching about
you know, not about you know, writing and producing these films.

Speaker 4 (16:09):
There's strategies. Let me think, I mean, most of the
movies that I've made, I mean, primage all of them,
you know, start off with an idea that I liked
for some reason, you know, within the story, and said, Okay,
you know, I'm going to write this out and is
is you know. And there's been scripts that I've written
that I've never made, uh, and some I've always dreamed

(16:30):
of maybe didn't have the money. Some you know, I
wrote and just said, you know, you know I wasn't
into or later, you know, I plan to come back
to and decide I was no longer into or want
to tell that story. But uh, if I finished the
script and I really was happy with it, then I
was like, Okay, this is the next thing I want
to make. And then you would go through the process
of making. So there wasn't necessarily I mean, nowadays, sometimes

(16:53):
i'd look for the strategy as far as like the
stuff I produce, where I'll go, Okay, if I'm gonna
put money into this, I want it to sell, you know.
So if it's a movie I'm producing from afar, then uh,
you know, there has to there has to be more
of a financial basis behind it. If it's a movie

(17:16):
I make for myself, then it's more of like, hey,
this is a story I want to tell and I
don't care if it fits financially into anything. And and
you know, you're lucky when that stuff crossed over. It
doesn't always, but you know, sometimes you just rely on
a movie to you know, hopefully come out extra cool
and it build its own fan base and and does

(17:37):
recently well generates you know, at least a modest profit.
And I've been lucky with you know, the last two
She kills a house Shark that they both were able
to do that. You know, she kills with a grindhouse movie,
you know, when there had already been a lot of
grindhouse type movies out there, so the market was pretty saturated.
I'd made it a few years earlier, I would have

(18:02):
had a lot more potential, you know, it would have
been a bigger release than it was. But it's still
you know, people responded to it well. I had people
were at fans of my work for years, but this
was something vastly different than I'd done before. But they
you know, you know, the fans spread, you know, good
words about it, and you know, continues to sell and

(18:22):
continues to build and was able to you know, recoup
before I went even into the wide release and howse
Shark people loved the idea and they had to be
the most marketable idea that I had come up with.
But I'd always wanted to do a JAS movie, so
I wasn't doing it because I was like, oh, you know,
this is gonna be a big money maker. I was
doing it because it was just, you know, it was

(18:44):
a story I wanted to tell, and it was definitely,
you know, the most expensive movie that I directed myself,
and I was lucky that the campaign basically made enough
money back to cover the cost of making it, and
then thanks to some mouth sales, I was able to
cover the cost of running all the media. Because people

(19:05):
don't realize that you do, like an Indigogo campaign, yeah
you might make say you got twenty I had like
twenty one thousand House Shark, and we did like twenty
two thousand, so you know, with all their fees and stuff, Yeah,
the production was paid for, but then it was like
another ten grand. I think it was actually twelve grand,
and all the stuff that had to be made for
the campaign, we end up doing you know, full printed

(19:26):
Blu rays and DVDs, you know, fully replicated vhs, and
all these extras that I kept adding to stretch goals
like stickers and pins and patches and stuff like that.
And you know, once I got all that done stuff done,
the extra you know sales I had were like, okay,
I'm pretty much back to even. So whatever it didn't
sell from the campaign, I keep selling this bonus money.

(19:47):
And that was lucky enough to get it like into
Walmart and stuff and have it do well and wide release.
But I mean it came out in August of last year.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Be right back after a word from our sponsor, and
now back to the.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Show, and just a few weeks ago I actually got
my first check from the wide release. So I've had
like this modest profit from but then I finally got
the first check from like the Walmart deal and and
all the other sales around there. Because all the money
it costs to release it, and all the money to
get into Walmart and stuff like that basically ate up

(20:28):
all my profits, you know, for like half a year
that I had come and you know in distribution, so
I was living off you know, all the limited releases
I do and all the stuff I do direct with
fans and any additional house Shark sales and the other
movies that I made and stuff like that, and then
to finally see in so much it was eating up
it was still worth it overall. But it's it's just

(20:52):
kind of diverged from your strategy question quite a bit,
but that's kind of where it starts to start with
that initial strategy of of you know, the twofold approach.
Is a movie I'm making for myself, then I'm not
worried about making something that sells as much, but I
still try to make sure it'll sell. You know, I
don't want to lose you know, like if how share

(21:15):
it cost me twenty one thousand and I want to
lose twenty one thousand on it. I was a matter
of fact, I was sweating. So it's great to get
all that money back and have a successful Indiegogo campaign
pretty quick there. But if it's a movie that I'm producing, uh,
you know, strictly as a producer to put money into it,
letting a filmmaker and you know, to reach his own
vision and bring his own vision to life with some

(21:38):
you know, financial for me, then I go, okay, but
this has to be something that sells for me. If
I'm going you know, it's almost guaranteed to be a
good seller if I'm going to put money into it.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
Yeah, you know, I've actually done a few inegog campaigns myself,
and you know I did it, you know, before it
became like a thing, like it became like the word kickstarter,
crowdfunding became you know, part of the lex A con
And basically I always told people like, you know, you know,
once you start, you know, making the perks you know
that are part of your campaign, you know, you're starting

(22:09):
to realizing this is a big you have to kind
of add that in beforehand. You know, you have to
actually start to calculate up all those numbers and add
them into the budget. Uh, and then what you have,
you know, what you need, what you really need, all
that all that good stuff, and uh, you know that
that's something that you know. I'm glad you brought that
up because it's always a good reminder, you know about
that that that stuff, because it's so easy to forget.

(22:30):
You know, you're you're focused on making a movie and
you're like, oh, ship, now I gotta you know, but see, Ron,
that's where your accounting degree comes in handy.

Speaker 4 (22:37):
Sure it does. It does help a little bit. You know,
it's been it's been a long time since uh, you know,
taken accounting classes. But you know, coming out of uh
you know, coming out of those and going almost right
into business. You know, for myself immediately, Uh, it helped.
It made it easier for me to do at least
my own bookkeeping. I won't do my own taxes. You know,

(22:58):
that professional accountant handle that because they're they're up to
date on the tax laws and all that sort of stuff.
But it does help, you know, with the with the
book keeping and going okay, is this something I can
apply to the business and how should it be applied?

Speaker 3 (23:11):
That's true, Ron And if they can get al capone, they.

Speaker 4 (23:14):
Can get anybody, true exactly.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
So you mentioned, you know, some of the grindhouse movies,
and you mentioned the you know, some of the oversaturation
of the market and you know sometimes you know, maybe
the market's a little sugar saturator, what have you. You know,
what are some of the grindhouse movies that you saw
maybe when you were releasing you know, she kills that
you were kind of like, you know, maybe there's too
many out there, because I mean I remember when HBO
with a Shotgun came out, I was, you know, maybe

(23:40):
Machet da you know, I'm really glad to see movies
like that, By the way, get like a wider release.
I don't know how many like, you know, kind of
clones of those that came out. But did you start
to see like a lot of movies sort of you know,
in the space of where you were like or we're going,
you know, in the Walmart space.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
Well, I didn't expect She Kills again to Walmart, and
I didn't necessarily see too many of the grindhouse movies
in the Walmart stores. But I think when I was
really since She Kills, Machete Kills had come out around
the same time and hadn't done really well at the
box office. But I mean, I'd seen so many low
budget movies at least using that look, even if they

(24:20):
didn't really have the you know, the they didn't they
weren't really trying to be grindhouse movies, but they liked
that look, so they'd all the grain and scratch and
stuff like that, but weren't really capturing the spirit of
those movies. And then I had also noticed a lot
of movies that were trying to be grandhouse movies were
really more like eighties, you know, horror movies or action movies,

(24:41):
using like a seventies grindhouse look by adding again like
scratches and grains and stuff. And that's not really what
the grindhouse movies looked like. They were very unpolished. But
I mean what movies. I mean you mentioned about a Shotgun.
It was a good example, you know, that was a
movie that had done really well. Father's Day was another

(25:03):
one that had that grindhouse look or at least aesthetic
that people were associating with it. But outside of those
and trying to think what other ones I saw before that,
I don't remember the low budget titles. I just remember
seeing that looks so much. So I don't know if
that really helped. That really answered your question.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Well, you know, you brought up some of what I've
seen a lot of recently, is they're kind of like
the throwback to the eighties. Now. I love the eighties,
you know, I love the eighties horror, and you know,
I love all that stuff, But now I think there's
so many attempts by filmmakers nowadays to make something look
like the eighties. You're starting to get this kind of
oversaturation of the market, you know what I mean, And

(25:43):
I think we kind of capped out as stranger things,
and I think, you know what I mean, I kind
of think now it's starting to get a little uh
I want to say, repetitious.

Speaker 4 (25:54):
So it could be on its way out for sure.
I mean I've noticed that. I think I saw, like
my first article on like nineties horror, you know, we're gaining,
you know, in popularity. Uh. The thing with eighties horror, though,
is it's one of the most I think iconic decades
for horror. So if you make a cool horror movie

(26:17):
that has you know, awesome you know or uh horror
practical FX in a you know, cool monster carries that
just sort of the vibe. You don't have to necessarily
be like, hey, let me throw you know, like nods
to video games or uh, you know, our video arcades
or the clothing or whatever, you know, into that. But

(26:37):
you could still there's a lot of great horror movies
that capture the eighties vibe without you know, looking like
they were made in the eighties. So I mean, I
think that's something that could never you know, get old
if it's if it's done right. But but overdoing. The
nostalgia can certainly you know, burn itself out on any
you know, before the eighties and seventies you know movies,

(27:00):
not just the Grindhouse, but you know, seventies horror in
general was uh, you know, it was the hot topic,
you know, and then I see, uh, it was a
little more prevalent a year or so ago, but it
still comes up. People were shooting movies on cam quarters,
old camp quarters to kind of capture that nineties you know,

(27:21):
Shadom video feel for their movies, and it was amazing.
You could shoot on a you know, an old camp
quarter and you know, and and come pretty close with
just that alone take capturing that sort of vibe. But uh,
it's all revolving. You know, there'll be another you know,
five ten years with people you know in low budget

(27:42):
and then eventually moving up to big budget doing nods
to two thousand horror movies, and then you know, the
twenty ten horror movies, and then it'll come back to
the seventies again, or you know, it's just uh, these
feds and then rages hit and sometimes it's you know,
based on the current status of of the world or

(28:06):
the country, it could be politically motivated. It could be
it could be anything. You know, if we're facing war,
you know, we're facing climate change, you might see more
and more horror movies about that. You know, but there
you got the seventies or eighties or nineties, you know,
setting to them.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
Yeah, very and I think you're going to start seeing
a lot of horror movies come out just about the
political climate. And I'm not saying that like any particular party.
I'm not saying. What I'm saying is the kind of
diverse uh, how diversive, diverse way, how divisive the nation
is right now? You know how that That's what I'm
trying to say, you know what I mean, just trying

(28:46):
you know that that I think is going to be,
Which is why I think when the first Purge came out,
I think that was you want to talk about, you know,
wish fulfillment. I think a lot of people, you know,
not that they would, but maybe maybe they kind of
wish they could, you know, one night, we just kill anybody,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
Uh, it's an extension. I don't know, it's possible, you know.
I mean when you're when you're a director or actor,
or you're working in the creative field. I think he
had to be a little bit crazy. But but I
think a lot of horror filmmakers are more closer to activists,
you know than anything. There a lot of times they're

(29:25):
trying to make a statement against you know, these things
that anger them, you know, uh, lack of gun control
and mass shootings, you know, the Trump government, the the
worries over climate control, you know, the the abandonment of
the arms treaty with Russia, you know, raising the risk
of you know, potential war again. And uh, you know,

(29:48):
we used to have the nuclear war used to hang
over you know, I grew up in the seventies, you
know and into the eighties, and and the threat of
nuclear war was always there, you know. And and that's
you know, people, a lot of young people, they don't
realize like how heavily they hungover society. So yeah, and
you're seeing it in this, you know, like the Jordan
Peele horror movies.

Speaker 2 (30:11):
Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
The show, you know, you know, addressing social issues, you know,
or back to the forefront. So yeah, it does. It
does reflect the time the movie Apostle I thought was
a really good movie. I hope I'm saying that right.
I've heard other people pronounce it different. Looks like Apostle
to me, the one on Netflix, you know, addressed climate change.

(30:38):
You know, so so yeah, people again, I think, like
I said, the horror horror filmmakers are are very much
trying to make a statement as much as they're trying
to tell you a story that you know is entertaining,
it scares you or makes you laugh whatever. But in
the end, you know, a lot of them make you think.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know, and I mean, and you did one that's
a very good, uh, you know, horror movie genre that
to to kind of put you know, political or cultural uh,
you know, protests or examination. And that's the you know,
the the not only just horror in general, but but
also the the zombie genre, the sub genre sub genre
of horror. And I mean, you know, if you look

(31:20):
at Romero's you know first three zombie films are all brilliant.
Uh you know, you did Empire, State of the Dead
and uh and by the way, I want to say,
you know, this is a great idea because I you know,
I'm gonna be one of those guys right now. Ron
I had an ideal, an idea years ago similar where
you take a bunch of different directors and you put
them together, you know what I mean, Each one makes

(31:41):
a segment. But I think that's a brilliant idea man
to do.

Speaker 4 (31:44):
Something with that, you know, just to yeah, we should
have done a little better, because I would have done
you know, like a United States of the Dead start
of a movie in the World of the Dead or something,
or you know, encourage more shorts from other filmmakers, and
maybe one day I will. But I you know, I
was seeing so many people taking shorts and putting together
and the shorts didn't really have a common theme among them,

(32:08):
and just turning into anthologies. And I felt, what, you know,
we need, you know, someone needs to do this with
a with a wrap around. And I wasn't first movie,
you know, producer or director ever to do that by
any means I'm saying, you know, it was being done,
you know, VHS. I think for the most part, was
trying to tie all the stories together. But I want
these to have a very direct theme. So when you
put them all together, it felt like you're watching one movie,

(32:30):
not a movie by a bunch of different filmmakers with
a bunch of storylines and when they're each direction, and
felt I want each story to kind of propel the
or each yea, each individual short kind of propelled to
propel the story forward. So and then and then I
saw what I had to work with them. From there,
I was like, Okay, what's the wrap round story I
can make? So I game set rules which basically, for

(32:51):
the most part, Filo the Romero zombie rules set up,
you know, base of was happening in the timeline. What
they couldn't you know, go on to explore like it
was early on and the zombie apocalypse that couldn't make
it seem like it was like you know, deep into
it or far end of it or whatever. And from
there I was like, and I had the base idea
I would do something like soldiers, you know, trying to

(33:11):
keep order and using those as cutaways. And and it
was a harder one to think of a you know,
a theme for because I mean all my movies do
have like a subtext to them almost you know, straight
across the board. But this was a harder one because
I wasn't you know, it's only contributing as you know,
a small portion of the you know, the full project,

(33:35):
but just the idea of the you know, the battle
of the classes that would kind of emerge between you know,
the you know, basically the government and the individual factions
that would rise up. And you know, we pretty much
addressed one, but but they're one of the other shorts
kind of had you know, its own like roving gang
in it, and uh uh you know where this battle

(33:57):
power might you know, might lead to or or or
or evolve into.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Yeah, and uh yeah, you know. And that's a great
idea too, because you see some of the shorts that
really don't have anything you know that that kind of
ties everything together.

Speaker 4 (34:15):
Yeah, I mean the one short, the girl in the apartment,
you know, faced with the the the monumental decision what
to do with her sister who's died and you know,
was turning into a zombie, was very isolated. Even the
one you know, when they were taking refuge, you know,
basically in the in the room h and find that

(34:36):
the dead body in there, you know, very very isolated,
U very you know, small, uh, you know, centered stories.
You know, in many ways those actually were you a
little easier to plot out as opposed to the wider
you know, expansive type of uh plots, you know, some
of the shorts, but uh, it gave it gave a

(35:00):
wide the guy gave a wide range of of uh
basically you know, UH situations that the populace was facing
in the in the uh in the face well facing repeating,
facing in the threat of this emerging zombie virus in
in society falling apart.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
And you know, when when you're released it, you know,
did have the type of interception that you were hoping for.

Speaker 4 (35:27):
Yeah, I mean the reviews, for the most part, seem
to be positive. Uh. You know that there's all you know,
everyone who worked on it, you know, from the directors
down and you know to the you know, the actors
and so forth, you know, all seemed to enjoy it.
I was overall pretty happy with it. Uh, some of
the stuff with the shorts, you know, with the with
the wrap around stuff I was shooting. It doesn't always

(35:49):
come out the way you wanted to. You're you know,
tighten money, tight end time. I think that's the biggest one.
Usually you're you're stuck, you're tight end time. So you
shoot it one weekend and something's not quite working right.
Don't have the option to go back and fix it.
Kind of pretty much make the decision to fix it
on set and hope it comes out okay. So it was,
it was, it was a fun project to do. I

(36:09):
enjoyed it wasn't uh, you know, one of the ones
that was as you know, close to my heart as
the others. But uh, I was pretty happy with it.
And I'll usually start with that because I you know,
sometimes you know, the audience might not like it as
much as you did, but if you felt like you
told the story you wanted to tell, you know that.

(36:30):
I'm still pretty satisfied with that, you know. So, But yeah,
I mean what, I've people like you who have told
me that they they really enjoy it, and I'm always
glad to hear. You know, any movie that I've made
resonates with the fans. You know, my first movie, City
the Empires, I still think it came out horrible. And
it is not just because it's not the movie that

(36:50):
I wanted to do, you know, because it's because I
was falling apart along the way. My first movie, first feature,
you try to take on way too much and lack
the skill to to shoot that movie right. But I'll
still get people who will tell me that they love it,
and I'll I'll just look at it and be like,
I don't. I don't know what you love about it,

(37:11):
but I'm glad that you do, because, you know, I
would feel bad that you went out there and bought
this movie and watched it and we're like, oh, it's
a piece of shit. You know, I'm happy to hear
that you went out and bought it. Hopefully you bought
it and watched it and got enjoyment out of it
and continue to get enjoyment out of it.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
Well, yeah, I mean, and you're you know, you're very
welcome and for the you know, everything, and it's just
you know, I have a friend of mine who made
a zombie film and it did not hit with a
zombie genre, and to him, I was like, dude, I
was like, that's that's your key demographic right there.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
Man.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
If you fail to get that, yeah, forget it. You're done.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Yeah. I think if you're gonna go something specific as
a zombie movie, then you do have to cater to
the fans. Now you could, you could try to set
them off balance and go in a different direction they've
seen before and usually most fans will appreciate that. But sometimes,
you know, you gotta be careful. You know, there's there's limits,

(38:09):
and you know. But anyone who goes out there and
really tries to do something different with a genre or subgenre,
I applaud them. Even if the fans didn't get it,
even if I didn't like it personally, I always appreciate
that they at least try it, because at least it
gets you thinking about your own work.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
You know, yeah, exactly, And I mean, you know, especially
making something like specifically a zombie film, you know, you
have to there is a specific expectation for audiences and
you know, and that's true, you know, and that's why
I think they maybe missed. But but you know, it
is what it is.

Speaker 4 (38:41):
But if you go out and make a zombie movie
with say no zombies and there are no you know,
brutal zombie killings, then yeah, you probably run the risk
of like, there's certain things you gotta you gotta put
in there, you know, So if you don't do that,
then yeah, you you run the big risk of your
audience just being like, oh that sucked. I love zombie
movies and he didn't have you know, one good zombie

(39:03):
gutting or something in it, you know, So, yeah, I
agree with you there.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
I had a friend, this is a true story. I
had a friend who pitched a zombie film that had
no zombies in it, And I.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Said, what is the what's the idea of when what's
the zombie angle of it? Then if there's no zombies
in it?

Speaker 3 (39:21):
You hear them, so they're outside, you kind of hear them.
They allude to them, but you never see one. And
I said, is there at least a kill anywhere he goes? No,
there's no killing by the zombies. And I'm like, I
don't think anyone's gonna you know what I want to buy.
I don't think any producer is gonna be like, yeah,
that's great. I mean, maybe they'll save money on makeup,

(39:42):
but I mean, would they really want to invest in
something like that? I mean, so it was like a
one location movie with zombies like surrounding the place, so
you're hearing them scratched.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
Maybe as a short or something. I mean, I could
see it being real spooky, like a bird box, you know,
type of thing or something. But but yeah, it's a
it's a it's a it's definitely a fine line. I'm
not sure if it would were.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (40:17):
But but but I loved the idea of you know, audience,
you know, filling in the blanks, and they've certainly seen
enough zombie movies that they could you know, they could
picture it. But yeah, that's a that's a fine line.
You got to really be skilled if you're gonna pull
that off and make it effective.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
Yeah, it's newss to say he never made it. I
think I think it was gonna be such a fine
line to walk. I I don't really The only person
I think they could have pulled that off would have
probably been somebody like Georgia Merrow, because you know, he
went you know, full tilt the first three. Maybe he
made Land of the Dead. Maybe he you know, and
the rest of those. Maybe that was the next evolution.

(40:53):
I don't know, but you know, I think I.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
Was gonna say, take like a Hitchcock or something. I
think the pull that off because he you know, it's
you need you definitely need a master of you need
someone who was a master of not showing the monsters,
someone playing with you everything else the sounds and and
uh uh and and having the audience filling you know,

(41:16):
fill in the blank, building up the suspense and tension,
you know.

Speaker 3 (41:19):
Yeah yeah, or maybe even somebody like Christopher Nolan or something,
somebody like that, just somebody to kind of yeah. So
uh but but you know what I just you know said,
I know we're running out of time, but uh, you know,
the one movie I wanted to talk about which actually
got us talking is is House Shark?

Speaker 4 (41:37):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (41:37):
You know, I saw the trailer was up to like,
what is it almost a million views?

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Now? Uh yeah, past a million views? I think like
a week or so ago. I was right around the
time I announced that it was getting close and the
suddenly it was over like really quick. So uh yeah,
that was I mean, it was in part due to
the fact that movie Web covered it, hosted and everything.
But it was cool to have a trailer reached that milestone.

Speaker 3 (42:02):
So uh and congrats, by the way, that is huge,
thank you. Uh so, Ron, like, where was the impetus
for House Shark in writing it? You know, because I
know you're you wrote, you wrote it, you producing directed it,
so you know, where was the impetus or sort of
that idea to come up with this.

Speaker 4 (42:19):
Well, I'd always as I mentioned earlier, I think as
part of this conversation, I was saying how I'd always
wanted to do a Shark movie. I always was like,
I want to come up with the Jaws sequel. That's
a you know, that is the awesome sequel, you know, uh,
I mean I loved I love all the Jaws movies
in cheesy ways. For three and four, I wouldn't put

(42:39):
it in my top movies, but two definitely is one
of you know, I think is a is an underrated
uh movie. But but I was trying to come up
with a plot like how can I do, you know,
bring bring Jaws back and make it very cool and
and even you know, like a year or so before I,
uh start working on how Shark, I thought like, you know,
we have a Lake Ontario near me which you can't

(43:02):
see across. I was like, make a shoot on Lake
Ontario and make it look like an ocean. Try to
come up with a simple idea, you know, that was
still effective that could be done within a budget, you know,
within my budget levels, and make you know, a cool
shark movie. And then it was actually during the winter
time Uh. And I tell this story all the time.

(43:22):
It's not like a great story, but this is really
how it came across. Is we had this It had
been freezing temperatures for like a week or two straight,
and all this ice had built up on the roof
of the houses and and my house particular, get these
loud booming noises, and so I looked up. I found
out it was like the ice actually cracking, you know,
on the roof. Uh. And I made a comment online

(43:46):
about it, and uh, and some you know, some of
my fan friends on Facebook were making comments back, and
we're joking back and forth, and eventually I made this
joke of zombies on an ice, zombies on a roof,
you know, a movie that was basically like there's a
zombie invasion, but all the zombies basically, I'll just live
on live on the roofs of your houses, so they

(44:07):
weren't really much of a threat. But as soon as
I said that, I came with there that popped in
my head was house shark, shark in a house, you know,
And and it hit me right there. I remember I
texted my producer, I said, I got the title for
my next movie. It's cole House Sharks Shark in a house,
but it's done like, you know, like a shark out
in the water, you know, except it's within a house.

(44:29):
I was like, holy cow, I could do my shark
movie that I've wanted to do and I can control
the location, you know, which is a big It was
a big deal, you know. Uh, you know when we
worked this low budget and you know, you lack funds
to have places, you know, unlimited stretch at the time,
or even necessarily a very long period of time to

(44:49):
be able to shoot it. Look at it, cut it
together real quick. Okay, what's wrong, and go back and
fix it, you know. So and then, you know, in Syracuse,
I forget how crazy the weather can be here because
you know, we'll have days that are super hot and
no clouds, and so you get these heavy shadows and

(45:10):
it's so hard to shoot outside, you know, especially comes
around midday out here, you know, without phill lights and
bounce like, so you can't really just go on location
and shoot, you know, running gunna quick. It takes a
little bit more effort than that. You can't necessary shooting shadows.
Everything's blown out, and then and then you'll have tons
of rain for days, and then you'll have you know,
be super cold and snowy and heavy snow. And then

(45:32):
when you want the snow, you know, we'll get like
a crazy early thaw or series of warm days. It's
just all over the place. It's you know, the weather
is just a nimer. So be able to shoot inside
a house and control it, you know, it just so
much was appealing about it. But I thought it was
a fun idea. I completely ran Originally, it's gonna be
more like a kid's movie. My son had always, uh

(45:55):
give me a hard time about not being able to
watch any movies, and I was going to make a
movie that was safer to watch. And it was going
to be done very much in the in the style
of that that Super eight shot like a super A show,
but like the Super eight short at the end of
Super eight that they showed, you know, very cheesy, you know,
going for a lot of humor, completely playing off the
idea of what it is. It's a shark in a house.

(46:17):
I wasn't going to take it that serious, but I
didn't shoot that first summer I was intending to, and
over the course of the next year of revisiting it,
I made it more and more grown up, but it's
still maintained very much that sort of kid sense. I
wanted it to feel like a movie I was making
if I had had a film camera or a cam

(46:38):
quarter back in you know, the late seventies or early
eighties and got all my friends around the neighborhood to
come and help me make a shark movie. You know.
So it started as that and then just rolled from there.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
So when did you actually, you know, decide that you
you know, to put the all production dates together and
stuff like that. I mean, I imagine you kind of have
to say, I'm shooting this in my house. I can
control location, but you know, I'm sorry, are you married?

Speaker 4 (47:08):
No, I'm not?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Okay, So that actually, okay, that actually helps out. Then
I was like, I was just thinking. I was like, hey,
I don't know if you were or not. And I
was like, okay, because I can imagine that would have
to That's a whole other conversation, you know, of being like,
well I had to tell my wife that you couldn't
come home.

Speaker 4 (47:24):
Yeah, hopefully you're with someone who doesn't mind you doing that.
And I mean, when I have you know, been shooting
and was dating someone or with somebody. I never really
ran into many issues with that for the most part,
pretty clear early on, like I love making movies, and
this is what I'm going to be doing, and you know,
in most cases they would actually be in set or

(47:45):
trying to help out and that sort of stuff. So
that hasn't been a big issue. And originally I wasn't
going to shoot it, you know, in my house. I
was trying to find a house to shoot at, and
eventually it just made sense. I was like, you know,
if I shoot at my house, I don't have to
pay for a location. We're all there. We literally get up,
go downstairs, start shooting it, you know. So all that

(48:07):
sort of stuff just kind of came together throughout the
throughout the process. But I don't remember what year, you know,
I don't remember what year I shot of the time
I had a d have to go go and look.
But I know, like I said, the summer before I
was gonna start shooting it, and things weren't coming together
fast enough for me to feel like, Okay, I'm comfortable
shooting right now, So let me take a year off

(48:30):
and just develop it some more and take some more
time to you know, get the things I need, and
and like I said, a lot just changed, you know,
in that process. But once you do set a day,
and eventually somewhere along the way, I set a lot
doing like the three separate chunks of shooting. We shot
in August, then we shot in March, and then we
shot in August again. So shooting of the course of

(48:51):
a year, which was you know, fairly stressful because you
always worry about, you know, losing an actor or something
along the way. You know, the people I work with,
you know, they're always trying to get their acting gigs,
so there's a chance they can move so far away
you can't get them or whatever, you know. But it
allowed me to also make the movie a little more leisurely.

(49:13):
It was a bigger project. It was a much bigger
project than original Attendai. I was gonna do it for
a few thousand dollars, and that's always the plan, you know,
with every movie. I'm going to make this cheap and
quick for a few thousand dollars. And then as you
play around with and work with and expand on it,
you know, the budget heeps growing and growing, and the
ideas grow and grow, and suddenly I went from having
you know, basically a very simple shark to a more

(49:35):
elaborate shark and more scenes added to the movie, and
and and it was very much like almost being back
on City. The Vampire is going like, okay, I have
to do too much stuff on this set. You know,
I'm lighting it, and I had people help with the lighting,
but I was still in charge of the lighting. And
when they weren't there, which you know, people weren't always there,

(49:57):
I still had to go out and move the lights.
So when you're setting up the camera, sim up the
shot and you're like, all these lights are perfect, and
we're putting all the lights outside and Shiningman, I'd have
to go outside go around adjust them. If I have
someone to check them on the inside for me, we'll.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Be right back after a word from our sponsor and
now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (50:22):
Then I have come back in and recheck them. Or
if someone I was sending outside who was supposed to,
you know, adjust them, wasn't getting it right. You know,
I'd be looking to the camera. I'm trying to, you know,
tell them you know, where to adjust it to, and
sometimes it's just not getting it, you know. Between that
it's just physically exhausting, focus so much on the shots,

(50:43):
you're not always focused on the acting, and just uh,
I mean, you know, it's when you're doing these low
bunch of movies. It's, uh, you wear a lot of
different hats and and it's exhausting, but it's still fun.
I mean, we a great time in that set, and
that's another big reason to enjoy doing it, definitely.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Ron And then you finally gets that spot where you're like,
what the hell, Why the hell did I start doing this.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
It's always those first couple of days where I'm like, oh,
I made a horrible mistake, and you're like, I'm in
way over my head. Let me just cancel this production, regroup,
and I'll you know, restart and you know, another week
or two, and then you just like, now I got
to push forward. And then you hit your you know,
you start hitting your stride, you know, three four days
in and then suddenly you know everything's going smooth, and

(51:34):
you write only stuff off quick and you're going back
and fixing some of the stuff you know you did
wrong early on, and you and actually you know it's
all done, and and then you fall into depression. Is
you're not in a movie set anymore, you know, yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:47):
Right, And you know because when you're on the movie set,
you're like, you're actually doing it. There's no thinking like
am I actually making something? No, because you are. You
can feel it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (51:57):
Yeah, you're really kind of like living the dream at
that point. You know, you don't have to. I mean
most cases, I still have to do like a little
work every morning and keep things going. But in most
part you're able to get away from your regular job.
Beanna say, you're laughing at you with your friends. You know,
you're eating you know, a good food all day, and uh,
it's you know, it's just it's like being on vacation,

(52:20):
you know, except you're with a you know, with a
camquarterer and you're telling people what to do, and then
it gets all done and then you're like, oh, shoot,
I got to go back to sitting in front of
my computer every day.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Right, exactly right, You're like, I need this high again.
How the hell do I get there?

Speaker 4 (52:36):
Yeah? And I need to make back all that money
I just spent. Yeah, make more money to pay bills,
you know, and so yeah, just it'd be great. You know,
someone paid for the production and paid for you to
then take the rest of your you know, what are
the chances.

Speaker 3 (52:54):
Right, Yeah, that's that's where you're really living the dream man,
that's what you know, you've made it. Uh, you know, Ron,
I know we're we've we're almost at a time. We've
been talking for about an hour now. Uh you know,
so Rod, just to sort of, you know, just sort
of put a period to end of this conversation. Do
you have anything you'd like to just to say that
kind of finalize everything.

Speaker 4 (53:17):
If you're looking for like a last minute advice or something,
I guess I've done that so many times. You could
definitely look up old interviews and stuff. But if you
wanted to track me down and stuff, look, you know,
srscinema dot com is the website you can definitely follow
me on. Facebook is probably where the most active Instagram too,

(53:38):
and uh uh and if you if you if you
my personal profiles maxed out, it's tough for me to
you know, uh uh friend request everyone. But the srs
Cinema Facebook pages, you know, great spot to stay up
to date on what I'm doing. There's also like a
house shark and she kills individual pages and trying to

(54:02):
else a little bit on Twitter, but any of the
social media places work and looks up see I release
a lot of other movies from filmmakers all around the world.
And so not only are you supporting you know, my
little distribution company by picking up these movies and checking
them out, you are also supporting these filmmakers because you know,

(54:24):
the more stuff. If I do well with them, I
can license more works from them. In some case, I
can pay them to make movies. And you're helping other filmmakers,
you know, sometimes hundreds of filmmakers you know, live live
there a little part of the dream too.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
And you know, and that's a very good point, Ron
and everybody. I'm gonna link to everything Ron and I
talked about in the show notes. I know how Shark Hey,
my pleasure, Ron, I know how Shark is actually on
Amazon Prime right now. I'm going to make sure to
link to that in the show notes as well. By
the way, Ron, I don't know to your poster, but

(55:01):
that's exactly what the poster should have been. That is
on the money, because you know why, it's intriguing. It
explains the movie, and it stops people in their tracks
and goes, what the hell.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Is that it does. Yeah, it catch a lot of attention.
I had to. I actually paid a lot of money
for the work to get done, but I knew there
was a chance of getting into Walmart and it really
needed killer or to make it happen. So yeah, so
sometimes you just you got to put it out there.
But I try to apply it to the project. I
think the project is. I wish I do the illustrated
artwork for the limited edition release that we do, and

(55:33):
I do a lot of those. You know, it's only
fifty one hundred or two hundred units, you know, sold
directly from the site, pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I'll list
them the leftovers on Amazon and might move you know,
five ten more copies there or something like that. But
for the most part, you know, you get them from
my site with the illustrated art, because that's what the
fans that are closest rs like the best. But then

(55:54):
we'll do the what's called like the real art, you know,
with the actors or in case I'll short of the
shark in the real house and stuff for the wide releases,
because that's what the retailers like, they have on their
story on their shelves and stuff. So you know, you
just like I said, you apply a strategy to teach release,
you know, depending on what you're doing with each release

(56:16):
at the time.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Right, Yeah, you're you're always trying to you know, get
as much eyeballs as possible. And I think, whatever, and
again this poster is is does exactly that because I remember,
remember a couple of years ago, I actually had a
friend of mine who when he went to he went
to like AFM in all those different places, and he
was talking about pitching and he goes, Dave, if there's
one thing I learned, He's like, if you don't have

(56:38):
a killer poster that sums up the movie and just
one image, He's like, you're sunk no matter what it is.

Speaker 4 (56:43):
Yeah, you got to start there, the title and the image,
and then they they want a good, you know, short synopsis.
Having a killer trailer, like a one minute like trailer
just shows the you know, the money shots from the
movie and then they might not even ever look at
the movie. If they love your artwork and they love
your trailer, you can be in red Box. You know,

(57:04):
you could be potentially in Walmart or Family Video or
Best Buy or whatever based off of just that stuff.
You know and also help if you know you have
a genre that they like, like Walmart does real well
with these sorts of movies. We're our red Box. Howse
Shark hasn't gotten in the Red Box probably never will

(57:25):
because red Box like more serious horror, you know, So
if you have a serious like a paranormal horror movie
with killer artwork and a great trailer, then you increase
your chances of you know, getting it out on red Box. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
Right, And again, you know we talk about all those
different streaming platforms and what they're all looking for, and uh,
you know, but I guess you know, we know what, Ron,
Let's say that for the next conversation. You know, whenever
your next film comes out, let me know what you
come back on and we'll sounds good, We'll keep this
conversation going wrong.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
Sounds good.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
Thank you, Ron Bok, Thank you so much, buddy.

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at indie film huscle
dot com Forward slash eight O six 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

(58:21):
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 (58:29):
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.