IFH 807: Making Your Own Damn Movies: Inside Dave Campfield’s Troma-Fueled Filmmaking Path

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

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

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

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.

Episode Transcript

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 Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight.
Host seven 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 3 (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
make money with their films from predatory film distributors ripping
them off to huckster film aggregators who prey upon them.
The odds are stacked against the indie filmmaker. The distribution
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(01:03):
there needs to be a change the future of independent
filmmaking is the entrepreneurial filmmaker or the film entrepreneur. In
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actually make money with your film projects and show you
how to turn your indie film into a profitable business.
With case studies examining successes and failures. This book shows

(01:24):
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available in paperback, ebook, and of course audiobook. If you
want to order it, just head over to www dot

(01:44):
filmbiz book dot com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy
today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
On this episode, my guest plays Caesar in the comedy
team Caesar and Auto. He hosts the Truemanow podcast, and
he also was a filmmaker himself. We also talk about
he going to a college that no longer exists, which, again,
as you know, I probably find really funny, not the
fact that he went there and it doesn't exist, but the
fact that the college, you know, the college doesn't exist

(02:15):
anymore because you know, we talk about all that stuff
that we talk about, the worst on set experiences, including
when someone pulled a knife on a first a d
and we talked about getting to work with trauma, creating
his own movies, finding an audience, tons more stuff. This
is a really awesome interview about going out there and
just doing it yourself and finding all the ways in

(02:35):
different connections and you never know what's going to happen.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
With guest Dave Campfield.

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Actually we got two days right here. It's going to
become like that chieftains shng sketch. Hey, Dave's not here, man, No,
it's me Dave, your guest Dave. So happy New Year.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, same to you, buddy. Is it snowing where you are?

Speaker 5 (02:56):
By the way, I haven't looked at the window today.
I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm a bit of
a shut in.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Hey, same here, man.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
I just kind of look at my window from time
to time, being like, oh, that's what it's doing outside.

Speaker 3 (03:06):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (03:07):
Actually I have a huge window right in front of me,
but you can't see it because we're on a podcast.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
But I swear it's there.

Speaker 5 (03:16):
We can swear a lot of things there that's some
beauty podcasting. You know. I'm talking to you from the
Shuttle Tiberian out of space, and yeah, welcome to the
podcast today.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
Yeah, it's it's great man. I mean I could just
make up anything too, you know, it's great.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
It's my My supermodel wife is actually going in the
kitchen right now making me some lunch.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
So it's great.

Speaker 5 (03:42):
You have a supermodel wife. I do too.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
It's great, man, it's great. Oh, it's a small world.
Both named Dave, both have supermodel wives. It's great, man.

Speaker 5 (03:51):
And both those podcasts, yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Both, Oh my god.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Well we should just make a new show called Dave
and Dave and and every week we just come on
and just whatever whatever stream of consciousness, every any lie,
any whatever comes off the top of our head. No
one would know the truth either way, and they can
kind of like figure out, you know, what are ryan about?

Speaker 3 (04:09):
What's the truth.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
This is very psychedelic. Let's get back to reality for
a second here.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
So, so, Dave, I wanted to have you on the podcast, uh,
because we actually met through again to the magic of Twitter,
and you host your own podcast. You're a filmmaker and hey,
you know what, you have an awesome first name. So
I figured, you know, why why not you know, have
you on.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
We could talk about all this good stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
We were kind of you know, missing each other so
to speak, because I know we we trying to make
our s schedule sync.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
But you're on now.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
So so that's why I wanted to have you on.
Also because you know, we both you know, watch a
lot of Trouma movies. We both know Lloyd Kaufman. Uh
he's actually been on the show as well, and it's
just you know, again small world. So, you know, just
to get started, Dave, we're want to ask you know
about your whole career and how you got started in
the film industry. And also what really cool you do

(05:00):
too is Dave, you do what I've been starting to
move this podcast to do, and that is you actually
make movies.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
At the same time to the podcast.

Speaker 4 (05:09):
You know what I mean, Like you're actually out there
doing stuff at the same time. I actually haven't made
anything since I started this podcast, which is crazy, but
and this in your episode one ninety eight, so it's
kind of crazy, man. But so I wanted to just
to get started at the beginning, and that is, you know,
when you finally started making your own films. So just

(05:30):
to start us at the beginning, did you did you
go to film school?

Speaker 5 (05:34):
I went to a college that doesn't exist anymore, went
to the College Centa Fe in New Mexico. And I
went there because it was the only film college in
the United States I think college United States that had
a film studio on campus. So parts of basically it
was they took their gym and they renovated it and

(05:58):
they shot part of City Slippery there and other big films.
So like I when you go into this massive facility
and in New Mexico where this was, all of the
houses and all of the architecture of the building is
to code and everything looks like an Adobe building. So yeah,

(06:18):
I had this visual land of imagination between like the
amber tones of the of the stand of the you know,
there was no grass there. It was like it was
like go to school on Tate Wine in Star Wars.
And the film college was was the renovated gym. I mean,
the film studio was the renovated gym. And you could

(06:40):
see and I'm being pointed to where they shot City Slickers.
You know, this is where they shot a night time
fire scene indoors. You know like it was. It was
a lot of the exteriors at night were actually shot inside,
even though like they were able to transform it into
the into a grand vista ground land escape. And I

(07:02):
could see on the gone ground too when they shot
City Slickers that the basketball court had still existed. The
chalk marks from the from the the basketball court were
still there. But the appeal of going there was really
just to be able to witness filmmaking firsthand, and you know,
I wanted to. I was in school with people who
went off to be pretty successful, like Rockland Dunbar was

(07:26):
a classmate of mine, and now you could see him
in a lot of things, from prison Break to he
was in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. He's one of those
guys you've seen many many times. But you know, back
then we were both just kids and trycky on find
a way. And I think college tends to be more

(07:48):
about the experience you get working on film sets and
meeting other people film college that it is necessarily even
some of the stuff that you learn in the classroom
because that you can learn hands on. And so that's
where I got started. You know, I met a good
group of friends that I continue to collaborate with over
the years and stay in touch with. And my roommate

(08:13):
and I were working on a production. We're trying to
get a production off the ground, and he secured two meetings,
two meetings, one with a New Line Cinema, one with Universal,
and like, this is ridiculous. For about twenty one years old,
we got a meeting with these teen major studios. So
things are looking good. The future is looking right so
bright I had to wear shades and so we got

(08:37):
the Universal meeting, and I realized there was nothing to
lose because right up front they told us, look, fellas,
we're having this meeting, but to tell you the truth,
we're not going to take your work, but we're interested
in meeting you. Like all right, Well that takes the
pressure off. Yeah, because however we have no background. But
we make our best pitch and it was a good

(09:00):
meeting and at the end of which we realized we
weren't going to get anything out of it, maybe other
than a contact. When we went to New Line, that's
when the pressure was on, because it was a somewhat
i'll be a tiny chance that they can look at
the script and hire us to make and we got
prepped by like an entertainment lawyer that was a friend

(09:21):
of a friend, and they were giving us all the
pointers that you have to sing in your big production meeting.
And he was telling us, when you guys go in,
what they want to hear is that you're young, you're
from the streets, You've got a story to tell, and
you've got a dark coming of age comedy, you know,

(09:43):
and like that the stuff they liked in the past,
like gross point blank or Heather's stuff like that. Just
tell them that's the language they speak. We'll be right.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Back after a word from our sponsor. And now back
to the show.

Speaker 5 (10:02):
So we're going to the New Line Cinema meeting with
Matt Alvarez and so Fellas tell us, tell us what
you got. I said, hey, Matt, where we're young, we're
from the streets. We're telling a story from hard dark
comedy sort of like you know, like a key Grosse

(10:22):
point blank or like a Heather's. And there's a pause
as he's sitting looking at us from across the table
when he says to us, you know, I have to say,
this is all very intriguing. So and that began at
one of the age twenty one, like a year long
relationship with New Line Cinema in which it was it

(10:43):
was the absolute character being dangled in front of the
rabbit and being just out of reach. Because it went
on like I would do little changes for them, and
he Matt would respond, and I would do another change
and take a few months for him to respond again,
and there was clearly in touch. But you know, I

(11:04):
saw the writing on the wall. I felt like they
were intrigued enough to keep me on the leash, but
not intrigued enough to make that thing happen. And Matt
went off to do you wound up producing all the
ice Cube movies, and I decided that I was going
to try to, you know, not become one of those
people that get into that limbo of just waiting for

(11:25):
that big opportunity to happen. You just had to make
it happen on your own. So I began production on
on my own film called Under Surveillance, later retitled Dark Chamber,
and my attitude going into it is I've seen a
lot of indie film, like straight to DVD movies, and
they tend to fit a certain pattern, and the kind

(11:47):
of emphasis was on the murder mayhem destruction and following
the paint by numbers plot, you know, and that stuffing again.
So but that's what they do, you know, Like when
you go to some of these movies, it's sort of like, okay,
the Friday thirteenth homage number two thousand, and I really

(12:07):
wanted to do something different. I wanted to take I
wanted to make a character based. I wanted to make
it different. I wanted to surprise you, maybe more of
a mystery thriller with some horror in there. And that
was my attitude going into it. And after like five
years for I spent five years on this, and the
things went wrong. This documentary is online if you type
in you know, the release title was Dark Chamber. If

(12:29):
you type in making a Dark Chambers, you will see
everything that could go wrong in five years, because it
usually does. When you're making a film. It's amazing how
many things could go wrong, especially you just don't because
you're always cutting quarters, you're always compromising, things are always
you know, money is not on your side, so you're
constantly working around issues. And so I spent that time
making this, and I was so happy that I made

(12:51):
a film that as I see broke the conventions of
the genre, and I'm proud of my litter, the young self,
and like I go to the studios of like yere
and then their response is we wanted something that was
more familiar, like a Sunvavage. I thought, like, I, you know,
so all of those times when I'm looking at these

(13:13):
movies is because they're encouraged to be familiar, and they're
encouraged to follow the same things, and character matters less
than does hitting certain beats of of core and other
marketable elements. And I didn't really make that kind of film,
but a couple of companies said we were interested, you know.

(13:34):
And the one I went with was can't most pictures
lash Shakarama, And he told me right off the bat,
I like this, but to get it into the marketplace,
we're gonna have to sell it as a horror. And
at that point, all right, do what you have to do.
And yeah, I got it to Netflix, and you know,
people were expecting saw when they saw a cover with

(13:56):
the pentagram carved into the back of the of the actress.
There was a woman in the movie, you got the
pentagram carved in her back. Then maybe they made the
film look so gory, and that was simply what they
felt was going to make it viable in the marketplace,
and at the same time it changed the expectations of
the audience. But you know, if I had this perfectly
marketed as a film with the property, like if it

(14:18):
was called under Surveillance and it had a cover that
totally dig that thoroughly representative film, maybe ten people would
have seen it. So that's the you know, that's the
trade off. I guess if you if you have a
film that doesn't have big stars and and it doesn't
have a content that that looks like a standard horror,

(14:40):
people who's interested, you know, And and why why see
that one? Hollywood's presenting the bigger budget equivalent to that
same thing, with more production values and more polished so
you know, the you live, you learn, and that was
that was a very educational experience. And from there I
began doing comedy horrors because I want to be different

(15:02):
in the marketplace and I want to tell I also
want to tell stories that I miss, the kind of
story and and the season not a franchise, you know,
shut it off with Summer Camp, Mascure, Deadly X Mess
and Paranormal Halloween. These are their comedy horror sapphires wearing
lampoons the genre. And I hadn't seen like these real

(15:24):
comedy horrors other than, you know, the scary movies, but
something more akin to Abad and Guestola met Frankenstein and
those crossover movies where you have two doofy comedy characters
and and they're in the middle of of this of
of a horror film, you know, genre they have no
right being in, but somehow when they are, and it's
a lot of fun. And that has sort of been

(15:46):
the path I've had, and more recently I got into
the Truma Now podcast, which was simply Lloyd appeared in
one of the season NATA films and I saw him
at a convention and I said, Lloyd, Who's do you
have a podcast? You know? He he noticed me, even
though at first he was like, oh are you. I said,
I'm Dave. I dirt to you. You remember, Oh God, Dave,

(16:06):
I'm sorry, sir. And he said, there's nobody, there's nobody.
We want to do one, but there's nobody doing it.
I said, I want to do one. We really want
to do your podcast. I think I could, you know,
we can have some fun, and he said, yeah, talk
to Levi. The He gave me like some contacts, and
then we wound up, we wound up making this thing happen.

(16:27):
You know. Basically, they give me a little bit of
notes before each episode and then I send them the
final product. They approve it, and they put it up
and they've never yet denied an episode I've done. You know,
I could be like, hey, we don't like this, you know,
because I tease Trauma a lot in the podcast, and
they're always game with whatever, and that they've been a
wonderful company to collaborate with, you know, just because of

(16:47):
the freedom that they give you. And coming next year,
you know, like you know, I'm hoping it sounds like
Lloyd's going to be the first guest of the new year,
and it possibly two part episodes, so we will we
will see time to get him on there. It's his podcast.

Speaker 4 (17:02):
Yeah, I was gonna say it's it's it's kind of like,
where the hell is he?

Speaker 3 (17:04):
Like, you know, it's gonna be there's a.

Speaker 5 (17:06):
From board Game, where's Lloyd. Yeah, he's wearing the striped
shirt and the glasses over in the corner in the
adult bookstore. So he's, Uh, yeah, he's he's set to
come on, and uh, there's I haven't actively been making
films since I've done the podcast. Uh. And as a
matter of fact, I had another show that I was

(17:27):
hosting and I had to go on hiatus while I
while I made the film. Well, I made my last feature.
So it is definitely difficult to juggle podcasting and filmmaking.
It is because like if you're doing if you're filmmaking
and you're taking wearing a lot of hats, you tend
to you tend it tends to become your life, you know,

(17:49):
for that period of five months, six months a year.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, it's it's so true.

Speaker 4 (17:55):
And just trying to get everyone's schedule to sink and
all that good stuff.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Why I now now I focus more on my writing.

Speaker 4 (18:01):
When I say I haven't made anything so I started
this podcast, that means I haven't actually produced anything, you
know what I mean, other than just just focusing on
this and and sort of trying to get some stuff
off the ground.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
And just just to make it. But but next year,
I'm dead set.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
I'm actually I was actually gonna make something this year
and just kept getting pushed back.

Speaker 5 (18:18):
Well, you've got a day.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
Yeah, I know, right, I got a data to come
up with this.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
I actually was next year.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
I actually have already like put the groundwork in now
because I haven't made anything, like I haven't directed anything
in a long time, just because of you know, oh well,
I mean people who've listened this podcasts now, I've talked
about it ad nauseam. But basically I want to start
doing something next year and just getting back on the horse,
so to speak, or getting back on the wagon or

(18:45):
off the wagon or whichever wagon it is. But but
you're making just making sure I'm actually doing stuff now, Dave.
I just want to actually backtrack just a second here
because you mentioned something that that I really took note of,
which is that the college you went to doesn't exist anymore.
Did it just lose all its funding and it couldn't
operate anymore?

Speaker 5 (19:03):
No, apparently I did it. You know. I went there
and they're like when it's well, close the doors in
this place, and.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
It was.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
It was. It was a small school. I was one
of the thousand students that went there. And I think
some of these privately funded schools sometimes have a hard
time staying afloat unless the you know, the tuition is egregious,
and you know it was, and so I, you know,
I had been out there ten years. But when when

(19:31):
they had when they had closed, and you know, it's funny,
is like the college like was military barracks at one point,
so it was like World War Two, it was rather
our our mess hall or what do you call our
lund was originally like military barracks from the Second World War.
I'm like, this is a hell of a place to
go to school. So I think they just actually just

(19:53):
became another college. They just you know, gave it a
cosmetic gloss and turned into another school with less of
an emphasis on film.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
You know, with this whole I was talk about college
and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 (20:17):
I remember when there were a couple of years ago
Sweetbriar College in Maryland was going to close, and Mark
Cuban actually said, see this is the beginning of the
start of the college apocalypse where all these small colleges
are going to close.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
And I think he's absolutely.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
Right, like so once he so I actually looked at
all the college closing for like the past like twenty
years and like the most I think I ever saw,
like on that line, I think was like nine or ten.
But like even the college I went to, I had
an awful college experience, by the way, and I just
I still don't understand, you know, why I even went
to college. But and I still you know, everyone tells

(20:54):
you you have to have that degree, and I went.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
For one year, Dave. So that's that's my whole college
experience and the rest of the time. And I left
specifically to pursue this and do it on my own.
So my mind's not a traditional college experience. It's a
very short one.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Well see.

Speaker 4 (21:10):
But that's the smart idea though, is go honestly, man,
I've known people who've gone for a day. I've known
people who've gone for a year or two and then
they said, look, this isn't for me, Like I don't
get it. Like I struggled through, you know, all the fluff,
bullshit classes and got at the end, got that degree
and then you find out it means absolutely nothing. So
it's like, you know, what was the point of all that? So,

(21:32):
you know, because if everyone has a bachelor's then what
does it actually mean? So it's almost like and then
now you know, anyways, I'm gonna get off on the top
of a higher ed anyway, So what happened so with that?
You know, I've actually so so when you actually were
going to pitch, and when they talked about you know,
things like you know, hey, you know, we want something familiar,

(21:53):
you know. I you know, I have a friend of
mine who actually pitched a different way. And what he
does is when he goes into business meetings, he says
a lot of business buzzwords and it's worked out damn.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Well for.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
Well, I'll tell you this much. Uh are you still there?
It sounded like there was a little blip, I'm here, okay.
So a number of years ago, I was in California
when when we were on the same pitch and by
the way that these were for this was for a
different movie, the film and a pitch to New Line.

(22:27):
But when we were in California, we got together with
another friend who got a million dollars and he was
saying that his whole method of securing this money, as
he would going to a meeting, was he was a
scam artist. Not that he didn't deserve the money, but
like his methods were, like what he's going to have
his friend buzz him on the cell phone in the

(22:48):
middle of the meeting and say that he has to
take the call. It's from another investor, And he had
all of these little methods planned that would make the
investors think that he's more important that he is. And
so sometimes there's tools of manipulation that are used. But
I've never been that guy. I really would like to

(23:10):
think of myself as on the level realistic with who
I am, what I'm capable of, and that's it, and
not try to turn myself into something I'm not. And
for a lot of people, that's how they get their money.
You know, if I feel like I wasn't I couldn't
do something terrific, then I don't deserve it. And you know,

(23:32):
I continue with that philosophy of mind and if it
pays off, wonderful, and if it doesn't, whatever, I'm still
the person that I am, and I'm still moving forward
and making films. And you know, even if something is
like this is a great experience just doing podcasts and
making indie films, it's nice and hopefully you get that opportunity.
Like I was telling you before we started recording that

(23:54):
I I was interviewed for a History channel hosting gig
and it was a program, and that was as a
result of staying the course. You know, I have a
friend of mine who's done very well, and he says,
I like what you do, and I want you to
co host a program with me. I want you to

(24:14):
audition to a co host with a foreign edition with me.
Maybe before I showed that I was going to be hosting,
had I not been doing what I've been doing, that
opportunity wouldn't come through. So a lot of times you
have to stick to your gun if it's what you
really believe in, be willing to to knock you out,
but learn along the way and see what it all
takes you. And as a matter of fact, that show

(24:37):
did happen, and whereas I wasn't the co host, I
was involved with it and I had to like, I
was one of the reenactors or whatever. This is cool.
This is all bigger than the stuff I've done, and
it leads that led to more opportunities. So that's why,
if you really believe in it, you get to stick
to your guns.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yeah, it's I find that, you know, And as we
talk about just going forward, with the podcast and talk about,
you know, making movies. At the same time, I find
that you have to keep that momentum going because if
you stop, it's way too easy just to lose sort
of track of everything, a lose sight of everything, and
then suddenly you're like, oh shit, didn't I want to
do this by now, you know what I mean? And

(25:17):
it just it's kind of you got to keep that.
You got to keep on that as best as you
possibly can.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
I've been working on a one script called Awaken the
Reaper for about on and off for about ten years,
so like, and it started off as just a fairly
generic horror film with a couple of cold twists maybe,
and has evolved into something extremely personal. And I don't

(25:43):
think I've ever done anything this personal. And that's what
I've been working on really for the last year, trying
to get you know, like fairly full time sure to
get this off the ground and find the proper budget
for it, because these seas are not of comedy movies
I've done. They've they've done for you know, between six

(26:03):
and ten thousand dollars, and I can't do this anymore.
I can't do films. I mean, their wonderful experiences for
the most part, But I can't keep doing films for
so little money where I'm getting criticized primarily because I
don't have money. It's an incredibly insulting there's insult to
be criticized for. I have to show what I'm more

(26:24):
capable of on a bigger budget, because you have with
a bigger budget, you just have higher production values, you
have more tools to play with, you have a wider
palette to paint from. And so what started off as
this generic film just really became the story of me
and how in the story hopefully of all of us,
where we get in to a lot in life, we

(26:44):
get into a place where we feel stock and you
feel like you can't move forward, and you feel like
every day is you're not moving forward, and you're regretful
of past and afraid of the future. And that's I
think where a lot of us are. And I want
to tell that story about sort of getting out of

(27:05):
the way of your own fear within the context of
a very thought out horror film. And if I can
make this work the way that I'm imagining and hoping for,
if I could touch people on a human level with
us it will make for a really unique car experience
because it's rare that a horror touches you on a

(27:26):
human level and feels real. And that's what I'm hoping for.
And maybe in twenty eighteen we'll really get to make
this happen. We'll find out.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
Yeah, you know, money is always that magical thing, but
you know, I always you know, now I'm sort of
working with the other way where I'm trying to sort
of build it up where you know, I build it
up again as we talk about the past.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
You know, I'm trying to build it up again to the.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
Point now where you know, I when I do go
to an investor, whatever, I actually have a body of
war that's more recent. And I think that's what that's
an advantage you have. Again, here's your business term unfair advantage.
You know's what's the unfair advantage, And I think that's
yours is only that you have the podcast and also
you have the body of work and you could say, hey,

(28:13):
look I've made this for a few thousand dollars. You know,
imagine what I could do for fifty you imagine what
I could do for one hundred, and you know, everything
would still be profitable.

Speaker 5 (28:22):
Well profitable is harder and harder to accomplish these days.
You just do the best that you can. And I've
aligned with Wild Eye Releasing has been a wonderful company
for me and I do a lot of work for them.
They've released my last couple of movies. They just released
my compilation back if you.

Speaker 6 (28:38):
Do the Holiday Horrors, the Holiday Horrors Horrors DVD if
you type it in, that's all of my Caesaronano comedy
horor films which they just re released.

Speaker 5 (28:49):
And I've been able to to work and work on
other indie films and do some a bunch of stuff
for them. And I've gotten to a point where or
you know, my films make something back then will necessarily
make their budget back. But it shows you how difficult
in this day and age, with with so many movies

(29:10):
being made, how how challenging is to make a profit.
But it can be done. It can be done. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
And that's something too that I talked about too on
this podcast.

Speaker 4 (29:19):
With all with a lot to of other guests, is
that you know, with so many movies being made, how
do you stand out? You know, how do you stand
out in any which way, shape or form, and how
do you get your movie seen now? So that sort
of becomes the new you know how, the distribution method
and the marketing for that distribution method. Let's just say
I decided to make a movie. I put it on

(29:40):
YouTube for the hell of it. I make a movie.
This weekend, you and I make a movie, Dave. There's
one one day left in twenty seventeen, So let's make
a movie. And you and I make a movie. And
we decided just to throw it on YouTube. It's a
short film, and you know what, we just say, let's
just keyword the hell out of it. Let's just hope
for you know, somebody discovered you know, let's just hope.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
Uh No, I'm sorry, let's let's be worded.

Speaker 4 (30:11):
Let's just use it as a plan of long tail
keywords and that you know, as longer it's up there,
the more chance it has it being discovered. And we
just sort of use that method and hopefully somebody stumbles
upon it again. I keep saying hopefully. I don't I
don't like that word hope. I don't, you know what
I mean. It sounds too much like blind fake. But

(30:31):
you know what I'm saying, like, that's that's the the
way of distribution of marketing, and there's a but there's
a thousand other ways to do it.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
It's all about trying to get the movie seen.

Speaker 5 (30:39):
Well, you know the uh, the most successful person that
I worked with on YouTube was an actress named Lauren Francesca.
She oh, I know her, No, She had a little
cameo in one of my films, and I was pretty
friendly with her for a couple of years there. We
did a lot I wrote and directed, in co starred,
and a bunch of videos for her. But I found
what I think the key to her success was that

(31:01):
she understood YouTube better than I know anybody, better than
anybody I know, like, and she would show me science
of it and the keywords and this and that. So
it's two things, you know, do you have the content
and do you know how to market yourself? And I
made a film that should have gone I think, Gangbusters
on YouTube, like because it was sort of made for YouTube,
and it did okay, like people really seem to respond

(31:22):
to it, but not that many people who have really
seen it overall. And it's because I don't understand YouTube that. Well,
look at piggy Zilla, pigg y z I l l
A you like Godzilla? Do you like guinea pigs? Piggy
Zilla And it's you know, like a bunch of two
minute shorts and they I thought it would be more
of a hit on YouTube because it's sort of made

(31:44):
for it. It's short, silly, it's got animals.

Speaker 3 (31:47):
So I got a linked that in the show notes.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
By the way, Dave, I actually just looked that up
real quick, so I will link to that in the
show notes everybody, so.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
We can check out piggy Zilla.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
But no, but the uh, but like I understand what
you mean about like stuff like that, because I actually,
you know, I've I've gotten more in to YouTube. I
actually have a friend of mine who who runs one
of the top YouTube channels, not like it's like the
top one percentile, and unfortunately he doesn't do much with
it anymore. And I've always said, like, give it, you know,

(32:17):
give it to somebody who could actually use it, and.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
He he just won't. We'll give it up.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
I mean, it just kind of sits there, rotting away.
Which is how how.

Speaker 5 (32:25):
Often does the post videos? Uh?

Speaker 4 (32:28):
Not very often at all, and by that I mean
like probably once every six months at most, and I
mean like I mean honestly, I've had him on the
podcast and and we actually talked about that, and it's
kind of like this where you know, he he wants
to he wants to make content for it, but he
wants to be a certain kind of content, and it's

(32:49):
just it takes time to make that content and then
it's just it's everything sort of keeps going into the
back burner.

Speaker 3 (32:54):
So it's one of those situations.

Speaker 4 (32:55):
And but uh, I keep telling him, I said, you know,
you can be making a pretty good amount of money
every month from this thing if it was just constantly
have being the monster was.

Speaker 5 (33:06):
Of course, there are people who make livings off of YouTube,
and to make pretty good livings off YouTube, and that's
like to me unfathomable, but it can be done, you know,
So by all means, do you tell me? There's the reason.
To tell you the truth, The advantage of doing the
Truman Now Podcast instead of the Day Canfield podcast is
that I come out on their channel and they already

(33:28):
have it built in in fan base, and I know
their content and I like them personally, so uh, you know,
teaming with with somebody who's already established themselves and given
them product that they're that they like is always a
win win.

Speaker 3 (33:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (33:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
And also too, when you do the Truman Now podcast,
it's you know, it's branding and and and honestly, I
I that's so.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Important because you know, people know what trauma is.

Speaker 4 (33:52):
You know, maybe I would go back and I change
the name of this podcast because like guys like Alex Ferrari,
you have the Any Film Hustle podcast, You know, Any
Film Hustle just kind of rolls off the tongue and
you kind of kind of vision what it is. You know,
you hear my name, you hear this podcast?

Speaker 3 (34:04):
What the hell? Who the hell is Dave Bullets? And
then too, I don't even care who he is, So
it's it's.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
It's a reverse. It's almost like that guy just met.
Once you've done a podcast with a brand name, then
you've got your own name, because what would Lloyd be
without Trauma's Trauma came and then people knew Lloyd. So
it's sort of like you have to come up with
the brand name and then you get known for your
brand name.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
Where were you three years ago when I was doing this.

Speaker 5 (34:31):
Call it the Bullets. Your name sounds like bullets, right,
you gotta use bullets, film, bullets film, man, you know,
like it's just something something bullet because you know, you
had a cool kind of you got a cool edge
to your name.

Speaker 3 (34:43):
So oh thank you.

Speaker 5 (34:46):
Yeah, absolutely, and uh yeah, let me just have to
well too late now Dave, you got to you gotta
stick to you to Dave Bullets podcast.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
So yeah, I know we're.

Speaker 4 (34:54):
One hundred and uh we'll actually we're over two hundred episodes.
Now you're you're one ninety eight, but we've actually recorded
the other the couple. So now yeah, you're you're actually yeah.
So so through the magic of podcasting, you're actually the
prequel to to the sequel, which has been released yet.

Speaker 5 (35:12):
Wow, we're shooting out a sequence here. I like it.

Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah yeah, just like a movie shooting at a sequence.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Oh man.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
It's just you know, and and for everyone listening, you know,
if you're gonna start your own podcast, if I if
I just give you a really quickly before we get
to talking about you know, Dave and all the stuff
he's up to, I want to just say, if you're
gonna start a podcast, here, here's my recommendations for right now.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
The name has to really be unique. The the the.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
It has to you know, roll off the tongue, and
but it also has to do with so people can
when they hear it, it envisions what they're going to
be listening to.

Speaker 5 (35:45):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
The format has to be you know, obviously around the
the round the idea of what the core of this
is gonna be. And you can make it short, you
can make it long as long as it's always in
tune with that idea. And I mean there are some
podcasts I listen to that are five and it's like,
that's exactly how long this should be. And there's podcasts
that I've listened to that are you know, an hour

(36:06):
hour and a half and that's exactly how long that
should have been because they're they're telling like a murder mystery,
you know what I mean. Like there's story type of
podcasts where which have gotten pretty popular on like you know,
My American Life and MPR and all that good stuff.

Speaker 3 (36:19):
And and then and then you have the other stuff.

Speaker 4 (36:21):
So always, you know, because I think the interview podcast
I think we've kind of reached like max interview podcasts,
even though this is an interview podcast. But like you know,
Mark Maron's WTF, Adam Carolla's, you know, Joe Rogan's podcast.
I think that the more you can stand out, the
the better it is. But I think the reason you
stand out, Dave is again you have that unique angle

(36:43):
again unfair advantage of going with trauma. And also you know,
you sound like a radio host. Like like I said
before the pre interview.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Thanks well, I thank you, Dave. Maybe I should push
it a little more and become the exaggerated radio host.
But I was gonna say that when you talk about
Mark maren and all of these guys just get got
started on the when the when it was beginning, when
when podcasts were really beginning, they got in. Then if
Mark Maron tried to come out of nowhere right now,

(37:11):
maybe he wouldn't have that luck. It probably wouldn't, to
tell you the truth. So it has a lot to
do with when he started. He sort of pioneered the
you could say podcasting in general. So as one of
the first he you know, he thrived. So it's almost
like we have to for we have to see where

(37:32):
where the next evolution in uh in media is going
to be, and get in on the ground level, which
is what a lot of these guys did. They saw
where the industry was going, or at least took a
gamble on it and got it at the right time. So, yeah,
that was a million podcasts. Now it is a million podcasts.
It's very it's harder for us to stand out.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
Yeah, very very very true.

Speaker 4 (37:52):
Man, it is just getting in that ground floor then
just dominating the industry. What is dominating that niche? You know,
when Maren started, it was just in its early days
and now he's up to over a thousand episodes, and
you know the same thing with like Joe Rogan and Corolla.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
And that's why when a.

Speaker 4 (38:08):
New podcast comes out, they usually have a ton of
marketing money behind it. Like what some of these other
podcasts that have done well or are doing is because
they just have a ton of marketing and they don't
market to the traditional way because again that would be foolish.
They are, but they market specifically on social media. They
market it's all direct marketing.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
It's no more.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
It's like there's hardly any permission based marketing or anymore.
And it's all basically you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
So, so I want to tell you something that my
friend Ethan Wiley, who he's a he's a filmmaker, has
made a lot of fun films you might have seen before.
He made the House Movies one and two. He made
Children in the Court five, He's done a lot of things,
and he told me the problem with hosts these things

(38:52):
is that it's almost like having a billboard in the jungle.
It's like you're sharround. No one will see it, you know,
no one will know it's there because there's so much
around us. And it's hard in a world where where
you know one out of ten people and make it
a guess. Well, like, so when people have podcasts, how

(39:12):
do you get seen? You know? I have another podcast
that I do occasionally. I've told one episode called Production Hell,
and that's all about the trials and tribulations of indie filmmaking,
like really getting to the nightmare stories. So what couldn't
go wrong and what has gone wrong on film sets?
I made one episode and it's you know, it's not
even at one hundred listens, you know, because there's nothing

(39:33):
you know. I don't promote it, but it's nothing, you know,
no buzzwords that people are are tapping into. People aren't
finding it, so you know, therefore, I stick with the
tromanapp podcast until people really get a sense of, you know,
my style, and hopefully check out whatever else I do.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 4 (40:03):
I like that, by the way, production Hell, that's that
is a really good good idea for a podcast.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
It's on zac claud find a one episode.

Speaker 4 (40:13):
It's almost like it will be a good podcast. Is
something like that where you have like two people who
fell out during the filming of a film, like like
like the director producer or the two directors or whatever,
and you bring them on there and you almost view
that as like a kind of like a film court
where each guy gets to tell the side of the story.
That would be interesting, man, because there's a thousand and

(40:35):
one things that I you know what I mean, like
on film sets where I've had people draw like friendships
have ended on a film set.

Speaker 5 (40:41):
You know.

Speaker 4 (40:41):
I've had people on this podcast where one has the audio,
one has the video. You know, even you know what
I mean, stuff like that that would should be cue.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
I have I have somebody a new in college who
pulled a knife on on his productions system or something
like he so things have things have gone down serious?
Lay wrong?

Speaker 3 (41:01):
Why did he pull a knife on him or her?

Speaker 5 (41:04):
Think you get an it was her, to my understanding,
there was a fight about and probably maybe it was
an assistant director. So one was a director, and the
assistant director was probably saying that she's leaving you. She
doesn't think this makes sense, you doesn't want to do
it anymore, and yeah, apparently this was bad. This is
as bad as a film argument can go. So there

(41:28):
are countless stories about all of the things that can
go wrong. And also I have countless stories about things
that could have gone right if things were just have
happened a little bit differently, like I'll tell you, I'll
tell you this story and maybe well i'll leave it
at this years ago, you know, I think what was
nineteen and I dropped out of college and making my

(41:48):
own film and a friend of mine is doing Boom
Mike on a little indie film in New Jersey and
he's telling me he's got my script and he's pitching it.
He's showing through a couple of people in this and
they responded to it. I'm like, okay, cool, cool, and
tells me about one actor that's I was promising, you know,
I really think he'd be good in this role. But
I'm talking to this other guy. He's not really big yet.

(42:11):
I'm like, okay, but he seems to like the script
so far. He says, wow, this is dark. I'm like, okay,
tell me who is He rent this film? And I
had he had me rent this film that he had
a little cameo in a little comedy from Universal Literal,
And I'm like, I don't know if this guy's really
right for anything in this movie. He's like totally. It
is a total disconnect. No, I don't Yeah, I don't worry

(42:33):
about pursuing him. I don't think it's a good match.
That actor's name was Ben Fleck, and I closed the
door on Beneflex before he became Beneflec. And the film
that they were shooting was Chasing Amy, you know, the
one that really defined it. And the film that I
looked at it from his was Maulrats. If you look
at him in Malrats, you know it's very particular. He's

(42:54):
not at his best and he's not he didn't, he's
not what he became. He's fine, but you know, there
was no role for so, I mean, what's the truth.
I mean if I said, yeah, this guy's great, I mean,
it probably would have fallen part anyway because he would
have gotten too big and like, you know, we would
have lost touch. Like it's the same thing that happened
with my New Line Cinema experience. But but still, to

(43:14):
think Ben Affleck was reading my stuff and saying this
is cool. I like it, and before he became famous
is pretty funny.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
That's that's that's that's the door to close. You know,
it's just funny with mal Rats. I remember that Kevin
Smith told a story about mal Rats when he showed
it to uh Rob Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and he said,
you know, what do you guys think?

Speaker 3 (43:41):
And they were like, oh, you know, I think you
went a little too much. I mean, he said. Both
of them just kind of looked dejected.

Speaker 4 (43:47):
And then when he made chasing Amy, he said both
of them like, all right, now you found your mark again.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Great, good job.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
Yea once once one is like true Kevin Smith, and
the other one sort of like Kevin Smith troning a
piece of studio. You know, you sort of there's your core,
like it lose your uniqueness, your distinctness, and you know
it's great that he got to I'll tell you truth,
I think up the game, you know from you know
Clerks was very raw and very true to Kevin's style

(44:13):
and voice, and Maul Rats was sort of, I guess, diluted,
sort of like hey guys, you like this, and then
chasing Amy's kind of looking more but sure not that
mature but more mature version of his of his voice,
and you know, you see, you know worth the evolution
and I met Kevin Smith. It was the funniest, It

(44:35):
was most bizarre circumstance because I really so badly wanted
him to see you see like one of my Caesarada films,
because he could think, wow, this is a kin to
Jane and Silent Bob in their own way, like and
and so I had been trying to get in touch
of them, might try to emailing. Nothing worked, nothing worked,
And one day I'm on a flight to California to
do some reshoots on Caesarado's Diadley Xmas, and I looked

(44:57):
at my right in Son of a Bitch, He's coming
out of the airport terminal, he's he's he's going through
bag he's going through. He's putting his stuff on a
conveyor belt. I see a hockey jersey, a beard, and
a baseball cap on backward. I'm like, that's fucking Kevin Smith.
I've got something like what do I do? And I
had my I had my Summer Camp Masacre movie in
my bag, like and I heard him recently talk about

(45:18):
sleep Away Camp but like on a podcast, and he
was in my film Summer Camp, Spoosh Sleepwoy Camp's got
the actors from sleep Boy Camp. My good friend Felissa Rose,
she's she's in there like okay, uh So I wore
a sachet over to him and I say, can I
pay you a compliment? He's like, yeah, sure, man. I
want you to know I you're probably the best verbal

(45:39):
storyteller I've ever heard my life. And he's like, oh thanks, man.
You know no, I'm no Jeane Shepherd, he says, because
you know, I always thought the verbal storytelling is my
best gift, because God knows, my films ain't worth a shit, like,
oh my God, look at this modesty for a success story,
a pure success story. And and at one point, and

(46:00):
I say to him, you liked that film Sleepway Camp, right,
remember that eighties slasher film. He says, yeah, sleep I Camp,
the girl with a face, And I said, I have
I made a spoof for that film and I used
the same actress. No shit, man like, yeah, yeah, I
have in my bag. You want it, sure, man? And
I road up in my bag. I'm like, I'm like,

(46:21):
oh my god, I can't believe this is going so well.
And I run my bag and I had to him
it was just like just released and shrink wrap, and
I said, you know, like if you ever have a
chance to see it, you know, just email me, let
me know what you think. Ah, you know, And so
we give it to him. A few weeks later, I
my friend tells me he hears on a podcast that

(46:41):
he mentioned the whole interaction. And on this podcast, on
the episode called Cannabis, he's talking about like how he
was in an airport and ran into a guy that
was because they were talking about Sleepway Camp, and like
he just retold the whole experience. So I'm like, wow,
you remember, I don't think you ever saw the movie.
Because I later heard him say that people give him

(47:03):
stuff all the time. And it goes into a pile
of stuff I'll watch one day when he when he's sick.
So it's somewhere maybe in the middle of that pile.
And by that point, you know, like you know, you're
always going as a filmmaker, so it'd be like looking
at somebody's early, really early work. So that's uh. And incidentally,
that film Summer Camp, which you could see on YouTube,

(47:24):
but like it was put on YouTube legally through the
first distributor, was the first movie. You have an actor
named Trey Buyers. I cast him like I like this guy.
He was an Italian, he was an Italian role, but
this actor is African American. He's got great personality, he's
got a great presence. Liked him a lot. Now Trey
stars on Empire. So I have this I have this

(47:47):
ability of like casting people in their first role and
they come to become famous. And then I never talked
to him again because Peter skin of you know, my
first film, Dark Chambery stars on Law and Order now,
so I basically my films, my first two films cast
one of the stars of Law and Order and one
of the stars of Empire, and I'm still a nobody.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Well then there you go.

Speaker 4 (48:08):
You find people who are going to become big. So
that's that's your gift, Dave. So that way, I'm gonna
encourage every actor now just to shoot you their head
shot and everything else and then you can find out.
No I'm just kidding, but uh no no, but seriously,
that is cool though, you see you meet people before
they become big. And you can't say it again because
one of the podcasts. But I actually have a Kevin

(48:29):
Smith figure, a podcast figure. I actually saw it one day.
It was like on sale and I decided to get it.
So it's actually him with the beard. It says puck
you on there, and he's got a microphone in his hand,
and it's actually just just in front of my desk here.
It's one of my three figures in front of me.
But it's just really really cool that you got to
meet him like that.

Speaker 5 (48:47):
Yeah, I mean, of all, it was almost like I
would say stemne intvention, except for nothing came out of
it so other but he did plug he did he
did mention it on the on the podcast, So it
was it was a little gift from heaven, you could say.
So was there anything was there anything else that you
wanted to touch on regarding because I know, like if
you really talk to somebody, it's a podcast that goes

(49:09):
on forever and people are on the patience for that.
But was there anything that that else you were interested
in terms of what I was up to?

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Uh, well, well just just you know, well two things.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
I know, I know we are running out of time,
but just two things before we before we sort of
say goodbye. Just just creating you know, Caesaron auto and
just making films that you do right now, you know
how you know, so basically, you know, you had to
have a time framement of all this stuff in play.
So you know, were a lot of these films you
know when you were starting out, did you did you

(49:40):
self financed like the first couple of Cason autos and
then you shot it and then you just started shopping
for a distributor. And I mean, now do you have
like sort of like a set plan in place, Like
they come they say, hey, Dave, you know, are you
making something else that we can just put you know,
just put out.

Speaker 5 (49:54):
The first causar or on a film came about this way.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
So when I when Chakarama released Dark Chamber. Mike Rosso,
the head of the company, asked if I had any uh,
if I had anything else that I was working on,
and I said, I had this film Awake in the
Reaper and I said, no, that sounds serious. I want
a comedy, comedy horror. And I said that thought occurred

(50:30):
to me. I had made a seven hundred dollars feature
film called Caesar and Auto and it was just about
us two duf ball you know, characters, and I was
institaneously imagined, like an abbot who stole me franking side,
what if I put them in a horror film? Okay? So?
And then I was spitballing right off the top of
my head. I said, Mike, what about you know, Caesarnado

(50:51):
in a horror film, maybe like a summer camp film.
You know, I know the star sleep Boy Camp. Maybe
I can talk her into this. And it's a you know,
Caesar Nano and a summer camp Masacre. And he says, right.
I took thirty days I wrote it, and they approved it.
They gave me a little bit of money to make it.
And then by the time that it was made, like
I showed him rough gout we love this, and then

(51:13):
by the time it was to release it, like there
was the DVD implosion where everything they were selling was
less and less, especially comedies, and by the time they
were releasing it, it's like, Dave, the whole market's falling apart.
They had released a few comedies back and back and
they all lost money. He says. So, I don't know
really what we're gonna do with this. We might shelve
it for now, put on a compilation DVD, like here's

(51:35):
your money back. I'm going to find another home and
I you know, and that's what we did. I found
another home for it. It did better than Chakarama would
have anticipated. And then from that distributor, I went to
another one we did in Deadly Xmas, which was you know,

(51:55):
finance between a friend of mine and I. And then
lastly Paranormal Halloween. It was mostly funded through Indiegogo, you know,
and at that point there had been enough traction from
the previous films to give the audience an idea of
what they were going to get. And and you know,
I offered a lot of perks that I think they enjoyed. Uh,

(52:17):
and that helped as well.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
Yeah, and so that's kind of you know again, like
you you sort of as a touch off at the
beginning of this podcast, you have that that that it's
almost like a method and or plan in place where
you know, you can do the podcast, you get your
name out there still and then you're still doing the films.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
And I think that's important now.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
Is you have to have almost like a pre existing
fan base, you know, you know what I mean with
a lot of this stuff now, because if you just
go out cold, it's kind of it's a it's a
lot harder to only make people aware of it, but
also just to sort of get the attention of you know,
the right piece.

Speaker 5 (52:50):
Well, my fan base is small but intense. I mean
I can rattle them off on two hands, so you know,
like name by naps. But but it's you know, it's helpful.
It's very helpful that they're out there too, you know,
to champion this stuff. And without them, I probably wouldn't
be able to do any of this. Really.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
Yeah, you know, it's like they say, a thousand true
fans that's all you need.

Speaker 5 (53:14):
Well, it's a low less than that. Maybe one day here,
one day a thousand of kids.

Speaker 3 (53:22):
So they've just been closing.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
I know we've been talking for about fifty minutes now,
but just in closing, is there anything we need a
chance to discuss or anything that you want to say
right now? Just to put a period. Then at the
end of this whole conversation, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
Follow me on Twitter. I'm gonna be doing an interview
with Lloyd coming up. So if you have a question
you would like me to ask Lloyd you know at
me and uh I help bro hopefully bring it up.
And yeah, just you know, you can see my work
cut IMDb, get an idea of what I worked on.
If you have any questions, you know, anybody gonna be
up on Facebook. I'm always receptive to answering questions and all.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Of that, and I we'll link to all that in
the show notes.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Everybody.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Everything that David I talked about at Dave Bullus dot com. Twitter,
it's at Dave Underscore Bullis. The podcast is at dB podcast.
David Camfield, I want to say thank you so much
for coming on. Man.

Speaker 5 (54:12):
One last thing, you called me David Campfield. Man, No, no,
that's that's not a problem. But get this, it's an
uncommon name. Clearly, David Camfield, Dave Camfield. These are not
everyday names, not John Smith. There's another David Camfield out
there who wants to be an actor. Son of a bitch.

(54:34):
Both of us want to be actors. Both of us
are actors. He was in movies, I was in movies.
And it's very confusing. So if you IMDb David Campfield
to get him, you IMDb Dave Camfield to get me.
And when it comes to unions and gets even more confusing,
all right, you can take David, I can take Dave.
So there's another David Camfield out there, and he's an
actor of all things. I can't believe it. So, yeah,

(54:58):
we're friends with each other.

Speaker 4 (55:00):
Oh that's good because there's another Dave Bullis out there
and he actually has a Twitter, Dave Bullis, because I'm
my Twitter's at Dave at Dave Underscore Bulls. So I said,
on one day, I said, Hi, I'm Dave, and I said, listen,
I think it'd be better for you if we just
kind of like swap Twitter names. And I said, you know,
if there's something I could do to help you out,
I said, because people were killing him, they were tweeting

(55:21):
him all the time, and finally he you know, he
finally responded back like I'm not that Dave bulls this
guy blah blah blah. And finally he blocked me one
day and I said, like, I tried to help you
out here, and like he had like twenty followers. Now
he doesn't even use Twitter anymore, and but yeah, he
ended up blocking me all because he got angry people
were tweeting at him looking for me.

Speaker 5 (55:42):
Well that's an impractical response. There's you know, there's at
least one percent of the population that's completely unreasonable. So
he's one of those. So wonderful talking to you, fellow
Dave and podcasting. Yeah, hopefully, Well we'll be speaking again.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
I'm sure we will. Trust me.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
I'm sure our pets will cross at some point.

Speaker 5 (56:05):
But where where are you from? By the way, what state?

Speaker 4 (56:07):
I'm in, Philadelphia, which is Pennsylvania.

Speaker 5 (56:09):
Well not too far. You know. I just edited a
commercial for the Philadelphia Pet Expo, so coming up you'll
be able to see dogs and cats living together in massysteria.
So actually, seriously, I do I do some uh, I
do some part time editing on the on the side,
and editing Get Philadelphia Pet Extra is one of my gigs.
That's that's the fun thing about being a freelancer.

Speaker 3 (56:33):
It's where are you in Jersey?

Speaker 5 (56:35):
No, I'm on Long Island.

Speaker 3 (56:36):
Oh, Long Island. Okay.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
So so it is not snowing where you are?

Speaker 5 (56:40):
Probably no, you you can let me now. It is
how it's snowing though. I just as I said, I'm
not kidding when I said I haven't looked at the
windows today.

Speaker 4 (56:47):
Oh it's a problem, it's it's it's actually just stopped.
Actually during this podcast, the snow has actually stopped.

Speaker 3 (56:53):
It's not doing anything anymore.

Speaker 4 (56:54):
So uh, probably way, but I've already I've already been
outside many times already just to push it all out
of the So I'm gonna go do that now. So anyways,
just just to get the rest of it out of here.
So Dave again, it's been a blast, and thanks again
for coming on.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
And yet well I'm sure we'll talk soon.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
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 oh seven, and if you
have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com,
subscribe and leave a good review.

Speaker 5 (57:28):
For the show. It really helps us out a lot, guys.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
Thank you again so much for listening to guys.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
stay safe out there, and I'll talk too soon.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle podcast at
Indie Film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
E F I L M h U S T L
E dot com.