October 21, 2025 • 52 mins
Melanie Wise, a former model and actress, discusses her transition to producing due to height-related challenges in acting. She produced the horror action film "Hannah's Gift," which she also starred in, and faced issues with lost masters and ineffective editors.
Wise co-founded the Artemis Film Festival to showcase women in action roles, highlighting historical female contributions and contemporary achievements. The festival, fan-backed and media-partnered, aims to prove the marketability of women in action films. Wise also discusses the potential of VR technology and its impact on storytelling.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
Wise co-founded the Artemis Film Festival to showcase women in action roles, highlighting historical female contributions and contemporary achievements. The festival, fan-backed and media-partnered, aims to prove the marketability of women in action films. Wise also discusses the potential of VR technology and its impact on storytelling.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indie-film-hustle-a-filmmaking-podcast--2664729/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
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Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight ten
twenty five. Cinema should make You forget You're sitting in
a theater. Roman Polanski.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
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I am your humble.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
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today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Hi, Melie, thanks off for coming on the show.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Thanks so much for having me. It is a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh it's great having you want Melanie, And I just
wanted to ask and question I ask everybody, and that is,
you know, how did you start in the film industry?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Oh? God, you know it's uh, I'm six feet tall
and you know, so you know, I started out modeling,
I moved to acting and I do think that my
height was absolutely a detriment, so you know, basically yeah
(02:30):
that yeah, you know, I think I knew when I
was ADYBD that I wanted to you know, the arts
horror where uh what what blew my skirt up? You know,
but it just it took me a while to get
around to it. I think I started modeling, I think
when I was like twenty, which is actually kind of
old in model terms, you know, finally turned my attention
(02:53):
to acting. And you know, it was like I'd come
in to read for producers you know, quite a lot,
and they've never hired me. And I think a lot
of it had to do with being taller than the
leading men. So so that's when I, you know, I
started producing uh my own content, and you know, and
and that even is a struggle, there is, I do
(03:21):
think there is this. It's I think it's tougher for
taller women. And I'm the other tall women that I've
spoken to that are in the industry, I it has
been a common theme that they struggle as well. You know.
And then and then add to that that you know,
I don't well, actually, let me be really bald about it.
I completely suck at selling the victim, which is usually
(03:44):
the roles that are available to women. So and you know,
it was one of those where you know, for a
long time, uh, our our interest, you know that the
me and my teammates, we just we like strong female
leads and we like women in action. And after running
(04:05):
into so many obstacles with it, we were like, screw it,
Let's start a festival. And you know, you can say,
if we want to see more of this stuff in
the world, then we'll create a place for it to play.
And that brings us all the way to the festival.
And I didn't mean to like jump that far ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
No, no, it's no problem. Yeah, but you know, but
but you know you were talking about, you know, auditioning,
and you know I did read your bio and you
were a former basketball standout, correct, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Used to play that. Well, I I grew up playing
sports and you know I still play sports. So but yeah, no,
I I don't. I guess you could say I have
a lot of Mars energy.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I think that's the best way, you know, and that
that that warlike nature. Yeah, that's me.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So when you were modeling any answered the age round twenty,
you know what were some of the experiences there, and
was it anything similar to when you started doing acting.
Did you find any parallels between the two.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Actually, it was just stellar irony because I started modeling
here in California, and at the time, the majority of
the industry here was this one suit industry because everyone goes, oh, well,
models need to be tall, well for the swim suit industry,
they hire these itty bitty chicks, and I didn't fit
(05:36):
that either. So I think my timing has just been
kind of sucky, you know. And then I went to
Europe and I did okay there. I wound up coming
home and I hung up my modeling issues for reasons
I don't even think I remember clearly, and I think
(05:58):
it was about three years later that I started banging
on the door, you know, in terms of acting.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So when you went to your first audition, you know,
what were some of your memories in there? Actually, I
mean you were just saying, you know, you were since
you're six foot tall, you're taller taller than than some
of the leading men. So when when you were going
with some of these auditions or maybe some of these
casting calls, you know, you know, what were some of
your experiences there did you did you know they did
anyone say anything about your height or or did you
(06:32):
know it wasn't the experience there. That's what I trying
to say.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, yeah, I know, well they can't say anything about
your height.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
No, I don't. I was just wondering if I maybe
said like, oh wow, Melanie, you know you're tall or
anything like that.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
No. No, well it's you know, typically on your resume,
your your height is there. So I mean, if they
were surprised when I showed up, that was for their
lack of reading because it was right out in front.
But you know, I would get a lot of calls
for the dumb ass fleet or you know, I actually
got cast in a sun Kiss commercial because I was
(07:05):
big enough to tackle a guy. You know, stuff like that.
You know, so it while you know, I don't consider
height a specialty, I think the film industry might.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You know that that's just like you know.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Anyway, Yeah, no, I got odd stuff and you know,
and I didn't get the auditions for Victims and such,
and you know, honestly, I suck at it. I can
I can try. I can spend you know, weeks in preparation.
I don't think I will ever sell the victim.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Well, well, I want to. I wanted to, you know,
as we talk about you know, auditions and stuff, and
I wanted to ask about Hannah's Gift. And you know,
you know, you were the lead actress in the horror
action film Hannahs Gifts, and you also won Best Actress
at the indie Fest Film festival. So you know when
you all now when you auditioned for that, you know,
(08:03):
was was there? You know, I'm gonna tell you, I don't.
I haven't seen the film obviously, but it were you know,
were you taller than leading man? Was there?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I want to I actually want to hear about about
that film.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Uh well I didn't have to audition for that because
I produced it. So yeah, no, that's but was I Yes,
I was taller than the than the than the men
that were cast in it, but that's usually you know,
I wasn't. It wasn't like they were a dybd in,
(08:38):
which does happen in a lot of cases. But you know,
I was probably an inch taller than the guy that
was in it. You know, it doesn't show, but I
knew that, and and honestly I wouldn't care, you know,
I I am. I I love coming across people that
don't care because the bottom line of it is as
(08:58):
just as there are tall men out there, there are
short men. They are tall women, there's short women. You know,
it's like we're going to be all over the place.
And then this idea that the leading man is always
supposed to be taller than the female is confusing to
me because the only thing that I think that it
(09:19):
offends is the male ego.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, and I can you know, I understand perfectly what
you mean. And you know, I want to talk more,
you know, about Hatta's gift, and you mentioned you were
a producer on the film, and now now I'm interested
in hearing you know, about the whole producing aspect of this, uh,
you know, because I always like to hear about actors
who get into you know, screenwriting and producing, because what
you're doing is you're making your own opportunities, which I
(09:43):
think is absolutely golden. I think that is so imperative,
you know that, you know not you know, everybody should
be out there, you know, trying to make their own opportunities,
you know, and at the same time looking at the projects.
So that way you always have you know, almost like
a fallback plan or having you know, multiple irons in
the fire or so to speak.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So when you're producing you know, Hanna's gift, where did
you step you know, step in as as the producer did.
Did you meet with the director and the writer and
and and sort of you know, say hey, I I
could actually help produce this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
No, actually, well yes, and no. The writer director is
we've been producing content together for a long time and
he has he wrote strong female leads, you know, long
before it was popular. And you know, so I met
(10:44):
him and the reason why we got on so well
is because we had a similar taste. But I mean
he writes absolutely beautiful female characters. And so now when
we went forward to produce, I didn't step in an offer.
You know, it was something that he and I actually
(11:07):
steadfastly planned out, you know, of the the for the
resources that we had and the projects that we had,
it was the best one to produce because you know,
when you get into low budget production, you know, you
can't do an epic fantasy on a micro budget. That's
just the simple truth of it. So you have to
(11:30):
choose the project that you can pull off the best
with the resources that you have. And you know, in
terms of actual production, I mean I did everything from
you know, planning all of it to carrying the trash
out on set. You know, it's one of those where
if you are going to produce your own content, unless
you're showing up to the table with a decent budget,
(11:54):
you are you're gonna bust your ass.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, it's true. It's extremely on you as as a
producer when you're producing stuff you know, independent film, uh
and stuff you know with with you know, small locations
of smaller crew. You know, everyone does have to play
multiple roles, you know, wear multiple hats. And that's not
something I you know, I've been as I've been doing it.
You know, things that I learned up along the way
(12:17):
is that you know, hey, you know, even if you're
a producer, you got to you know, figure out, you know,
how how to get from point A to point B.
And mean what I mean by that is, you know, hey,
you gotta someone's got to go out there and wave
the pizza guy down. Someone's got to go out there
and make sure these guys are you know, coming on
to set at the right time. Uh and and but
you're also got to do something else at the same time.
(12:38):
So it's it's like juggling constantly to make sure that
that engine, so to speak of the film is constantly moving.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Yes, now it's for me, it's like I don't do
Some people are are very comfortable sitting and and I'm
probably the most a type personality I've ever met. It's like,
you know, I do better when I'm actually in motion.
(13:04):
So for me acting and producing, I don't think is
wearing too many hats on set. It's a little bit differicult,
but you know, you know your pre production. There are
a few things that I can do on set and
then impost. That's post is where probably the bulk of
(13:24):
my experience actually lends the most to any anything, because
it's like I can. I have a lot of post
production skills. You know, I edit, I do sound effects.
You know. You know, I'm pretty much a one stop
post house. So yeah, I mean I can. There's a
(13:46):
lot that I can do with footage.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
So did you do any of the post product work
for Hand's Gifts?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I did, I did, I didn't do. I didn't do,
I didn't edit it. No, we had. We had several editors,
and we actually went through a mountain of editors for
the film because it was told from the The conceit
of the film is that it's in real time and
(14:16):
it's told from the point of view of one of
the characters, which is actually really difficult to pull off
in terms of a production. But the second thing is
is that when we started, you know, interviewing editors, you
know that we would explain ad nauseum, you know, how
we wanted the film to be edited. And I'm not joking.
(14:39):
I think five different editors tried to cut it as
a standard film and you know, it was just one
of those where it wasn't landing. So we went through
a lot of editors. Ultimately, our masters got destroyed, so
we wound up shooting the film a second time and
that's when I was able to bring the appropriate crew
(15:02):
to the table and I'll not finish it.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So what so, Melanie, that that's that's really interesting and
heartbreaking to hear. So how did your masters get destroyed?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Like my guess is, see, it was interesting. Everybody nobody
wanted to start with in the ingested footage. Everybody wanted
to start from scratch. You know, I'll get the I'll
add you know, I'll inguest the footage, and literally the
teaps just suffered. I I I'll bet money somebody had
(15:38):
a deck that was out of calibration and it stretched
the tape.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So when when you learned that that you had to
reshoot the movie again, what was the first thing that
came through your mind?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You know, it's funny, Uh, you know, I sweat the
small stuff in life. That one I didn't. I wasn't
like up in arms over it, but you know, pretty
much it was. I think it was like a month
after we uh learned that the masters had been destroyed,
we were actually producing the film for a second time.
Because the stuff just wasn't fixable. We would have had,
(16:17):
you know, all kinds of artifacts.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
In the.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
In the footage. Yeah, it was just easier to reshoot it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know that. That's something similar, somewhat similar to what
happened to me. I had a editor who I gave
we had meant, we shot on actual SD cards, and
we gave him all the footage. And that was my
first mistake. I should have I should have kept a
copy for myself. And what happened was he took the footage,
he started to edit it, and then basically he had
(16:49):
a bunch of problems with his with his business partners
and basically stopped working on everything. Well, his laptop started
to go all wonky and he was asking people for
money need to fix it. And I said to him, well,
you know if you still have the footage, and he
said yes, and I said, well, I need to get
that back, so I'll chip in some money. Well, he
comes back to me finally about a couple weeks later,
(17:10):
and he says, well, I couldn't raise any money all
I had, you know, and this laptop is just about
to die, and this, that and the other thing. So
I kept hounding on him to get me back this footage,
and he never responded to calls. And then one day
he just deleted me off Facebook. And I actually sent
an email and I said, you know, I said, you're
you're lucky that I don't hold you accountable for that
(17:32):
lost footage. And he didn't respond back to that. And
about a month or so after that, some people also
said that he had gotten them into trouble because he
had taken on like wedding videos and he hadn't edited
any of it. He just sat on the footage and
people were like, you know, different brides were asking him, Hey,
where's my footage at? And he just let it all sit.
(17:53):
And I don't think that guy works in the film
industry anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
And yeah, no, with it with a reputation like that,
you're not going to go yeah, I see, Yeah, No,
It's well, you know, it's funny because I tend to
be a little bit more old school about editing. It's like,
I don't do anything on the laptop. I'm you know,
strictly desktop based and uh. And one of the reasons
(18:19):
why is is just more stable.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
So so let me ask you this, Melanie. When you
re shot it and you did you use it? I mean,
like you said, you don't you you sweat the small
stuff and and that you you were you took a
lot better? Uh did did you look at it as
a sort of like a way to say, Okay, now
I can sort of change any any problems I had before,
or maybe I could fix any issues that arise before.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Fuck yeah, any any anything you shoot, you are going
to have an extraordinary learning curve. And you know, you know,
and you get to cringe through post you know, beating
yourself over the head with how come I didn't think
of this at that time? And so you know, by
by shooting the film a second time, yes, we absolutely
(19:06):
came up with a better finished product. There were I mean,
it was you know, I have to say, if you
don't learn, you know, if you have the opportunity to
learn from your mistakes and you don't well out anyway. No,
but we we learned a lot at shooting it the
first time. So when we shot it the second time,
(19:27):
it was literally the same story, but we did it
a little differently. And you know, we've but but it
took a long time. It was like I said, you know,
it's one of those where you know, I can look
at something and if somebody explains it to me, you know,
it's like I try to ask enough questions to really
(19:49):
get a firm grip of what they are looking as
for as their end product. And you know, having gone
through I think we wound up going through a total
of seven at a on that project.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
And it was just mind numbing to me, where you
know you just see them, yes, yes, yes, you when
you explained it, but then when you started getting your
first cuts back, you're like, wow, you didn't you know
or it was. And it's one of those where I
have a hard time believing it was so far, you know,
out of the ordinary, that someone just couldn't digest it,
(20:32):
you know, but that's literally what happened to sell.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, it's you know. I've experienced that too, where some
some editors, and particularly when I was talking about was
saying things like, oh, yeah, I understand exactly what you mean,
and then you get it back and you say, wait
a minute, that's that's nothing what I wanted. This is
completely wrong. And I usually find that that's why that
is one regard where I think emails like every anytime
(21:00):
I would, I would talk to him, whether it be
in person, because we actually had him in person to
come down, and we were talking to him about edits right,
and we're we're we had a big whiteboard in front
of us, and we're marking it up and we're saying, okay,
let's do this and this and this, and we marked
it all down, and then I sent him an email
of everything we talked about. And then when we saw
the edit about a week or two later, it was
(21:22):
completely wrong. And I'm sitting there going, was I not clear?
And I look back at the email and I'm sitting
and I say to myself, well, no, I can see
that I was. I told him this. It's just, you know,
either they didn't understand, or they didn't read it, or
they you know, or we're just trying to basically reinvent
the wheel.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Well yeah, and I have you know, I have come
across editors who think they know better. And it doesn't
matter if you know better than the person that is
standing there. If if someone is paying you to edit something,
give them what they're asking for, you know, And because
I've seen plenty of people who would like to kind
of you know, direct from the editing or which you
(22:00):
can do. And you know, but it's also one of
those where I I also take, uh, you know, what's
clear to me? If I was communicating to myself and
I consider something clear, it doesn't necessarily mean it's clear
to anyone else but me. So even if as I
(22:22):
express it, you know, I could be saying, well, the
sky is blue, and they can be hearing that the
sky is green, and you know, those kinds of communication
breakdowns occur all the time, especially when you are trying
to breathe a life into something that's not average or typical.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So yeah, it's very true. And you know that. That's
why there's an old saying Melanie by sun Sooth, the
the guy who with the art of war. It's basically,
you know, if the communication breaks down, it's the fault
of the commander to the generals and he's and basically
if if that, if he checks that out, but the
(23:04):
instructions have been clear, then it must be the general's fault.
It's something along the lines. I always butchered saying here
by the way on this podcast, but it was something.
It was something like that, And basically, you know, he
was telling the story that you know, communication is always
the first person, who who's who used the communication, who
is communication is from. They should always assume that this
(23:25):
is not clear to anybody but me, or this is
maybe not clear to everybody else. So maybe so if
there's ever a miscommunication, I should go back to myself first.
But if I do, but if it is clear, then
it is the fault of that person. And you know,
obviously in warfare, you know that's he was talking about
you know, making sure that troop movements were well okay, uh,
you know, in our in our world, the filmmaking, we
(23:46):
have to make sure. You know, communication is key because
it's moving crews around, it's moving actors around, it's and
also it's instructions on editing a final piece.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, it's it's it's a tough job. Producing is not
simple at all. And you know, unless like you know,
until you make it into you know, the area of
the industry where you know you've got a decent budget,
you're going to be understaffed. And you know that means,
(24:15):
you know, it's like the thing that you give up
without money, you're going to spend time mhm. And but no,
I mean it's a fun ride. It's an absolutely fun run.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So when you finally got the the second you finally
shot the movie for a second time and you know
you got the funnel edit down the way you wanted to.
So did did did you go about submitting to to
certain festivals or did you have certain festivals targeted for
the film?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Well, yeah, no, no. Sometimes you know what, this sounds
like a harsh judgment of myself, but it really isn't.
It's it's more of a humorous one. It's like sometimes
I feel like I have idiots sam time my form
because the thing that you've got to realize with anything
that is not a dramaedy, excuse me, a drama comedy
(25:10):
or a documentary, most film festivals are not geared to
ingest that content unless it's a specialty festival, and so
people make things that are a little unusual or a
little off the beaten track, and it's it is more
difficult to get those types of films placed in any festival.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, as you know, there's more submissions that various festivals.
I know, it is you know, the marketplace gets a
little more crowded and it's a little you know, harder
to stand out, so to speak. But but but you know,
you actually won for Best Actress at the indie Fest
film festival. So were you in attendance to collect that award?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
No, actually I wasn't. We Actually with that we got
we won Audience Choice at Chakerfest. I think we collected
a total of I think four or five awards for
that film. And it was it was funny because you know,
(26:14):
it was kind of alert. I'm not answering your question,
and I don't mean to not answer it, but I
was going to distract with something else. So I get,
you know, when I submitted us to Chakra Fest, and
then I get the rejection notice, and like a week later,
they're saying, hey, you've been you know, or you've been
selected to screen at this and I write them this
(26:34):
kind of sniffy email back saying, you know, hey, you
just told me I didn't get in, So what's the
real story here? So I think what happened was is
they had something that they picked had fallen out, and
so they were taking an alternate And it was one
of those where I don't think the people who ran
the festival were particularly fond of the film, but they
(26:57):
were absolutely shocked when we won audience Choice, So that
was kind of funny. Yeah, yeah, it's it's one of
those where even if it's one of the reasons that
we started the festival, it's like because a lot of
the content that we play is not going to show
at a lot of other festivals because those festivals, if
(27:19):
you just look at the whole festival world and and
what gets played, our films are not what they play.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So you know, as as we were going to talk
about now about the Autmish Film Festival. You know what
was sort of the empathus to start that? Was it,
you know, just to show those films, like you just said,
just to show films that wouldn't get shown anywhere else.
Or so I shouldn't say I should certain gives a
were getting shown at certain festivals. I should say.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Actually, more to the point is that I have had
a long standing belief that women in action is a
very lucrative thing, you know, and every few years or
so you'll see, you know, should come out from the
studios where they say that women in action as box
(28:08):
office poison. And I don't remember if you do, you
remember that film aon Flux that starred Charlie's their own well,
that did not do very well. And I remember at
the time, at that time, I was, you know, very
much into studying box office revenues and what stuff was earning.
(28:30):
And hands down, for many years, action is the best
selling genre of films above ever anything. And you know,
and it's one of those where we have probably almost
five decades where we have a smattering of films that
feature women in action, and there's always some excuse not
(28:52):
to make more and when A on Flux. The last
time I saw it in the trades, you know, where
they're saying, oh, women in action as Box Office Poison
was right around A on Flux, and you know, it
was like, you know, a few years prior to that,
you know, you'd see comments here and there. But now
we're seeing, you know, especially in the last like three
(29:15):
or four years, we're seeing and we're seeing a tide change.
And if you look on TV, you've got an extraordinary
number of shows that feature you know, pretty empowered women
and female characters, a lot of women in action, and
so that market is there. But if you look at
(29:40):
it's one of those where I think the biggest impetus.
There was two impetuses for the festival. One was to
create a space for the content to play, and two
is to prove that there's an extraordinary audience for it.
Because you know, it's like we get films from twenty
five countries around the globe on most every year.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
We have a worldwide audience, you know, our our our
our our social media fans are all over the world,
you know, so it's like, this isn't something that is
just interesting to a certain group of the population on
a certain in a certain area of the world. It's
(30:33):
all over. I mean our first year we had we
actually had a it was an animated film. It was
you know, claymation from Iran, and you know, so of
all places in the world where we're literally taking in
content from Iran where they are celebrating the strength of
(30:55):
the female of the species, which is really kind of ironic.
And you know, it's like because of the festival, we
get extraordinary pieces of history for you know, women that
a lot of people don't know about. That's really cool too.
I mean, like, you know, odd fact, did you know
that the winningest basketball team in all of written history
(31:18):
is a women's basketball team out of Texas. I think
they were called the Flying Queens, and I think they
played from like like nineteen it was like the mid
fifties through like I can't remember the years stretch it is,
but it started in like nineteen fifty six I think,
(31:40):
and they have the literally the winningest basketball record in
all of history. Nobody knows about this, you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
No, I was just say, yeah, I didn't. I didn't
know that.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yeah, well when we showed it at the festival, nobody
knew it. It was It was interesting. Last year we
had a couple of articles written by peoples. They were
published during the festival, but they were published by people
who were actually showed up to a few of the
screenings and events that we had, and you know, it
(32:14):
was really awesome to see them. Right, Wow, I had
no idea, you know, but this is I mean, these
are things that should be widely available then they're not,
and and and it should be widely available, not just
because we're sitting here going, oh, it's time to pay
attention to women, but because they're part of our history
(32:35):
and they're out there and nobody knows about it. So
it it's like when you talk about women in action,
you're going to be talking about you know, women in sports, military,
you know, narrative obviously of any genre, but it's like
you're in the you know, in the military stories we get,
(32:58):
you know, they're jaw dropping because you don't realize how
much women have actually contributed to you know, military efforts
all the way back to World War Two. You know,
we've showed films about you know, the first ladies that
actually ever flew aircraft for the military, and they would
(33:20):
even test the ship for the guys to fly, and
you know, and so they had these you know, amazing
few years of flying airplanes and having this incredibly adventuresome life.
And then when the men came back to war, they
were you know, told to go back home and cook
for their kids.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, there's also a history of War two. There's the
history of you know, of female fighters. And you know,
when the when the Nazis invaded in nineteen forty one,
there was you know, like women were fighting alongside the
battlefield and they actually, you know, were pilots. I think
they are called the There was actually a pilot group
called the uh I think the Witches or something or
(33:58):
something like that. It was they were basically, you know,
flying these old fashioned planes. But they was just but
you know, because they were taking on the invading Nazi force.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Yeah, onreen't they the Witches out of Russia?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, but I think there was a name. I think
it was something Witches. I can't remember, but I'll look
that in the show notes. Everybody.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Yeah, no, I'm pretty I'm pretty sure you are correct.
And then for the US you had the Wasps, and
they were the women Air Force Service pilots, I believe. Yeah,
we actually were lucky enough to have a ninety three
year old WASP at the festival for one of our
Warrior Women panels last year.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I'm sorry, ye, no, go ahead, I was gonna say,
did a lot of people you know ask her about
the war?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Oh? Hell yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And it was literally,
I think it was late last year they actually finally
started getting death benefits for these ladies that died in service.
You know, because during that period of time when these
women were flying, because they were they were flying back
and forth, or some of them were stationed in Europe,
(35:04):
but they basically just did a lot of supply flying
and other types of flying for the US. And you know,
if one of their if one of the lady pilots
died in service, the ladies literally collected money between themselves
to actually bring their bodies back because because because the
(35:30):
US government wouldn't pay for it, and they literally just
I think it was late last year where they they
actually got that. I think they got the law to
change so that their death benefits were covered. I mean
some of the stuff, I mean, you know, some of
this stuff is mind thembing and people need to know
(35:50):
about it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Absolutely, it's very fascinating and you know that. And again
I'm looking at you know, some of the people that
that you've had at the festival, some of the honorees.
You've had Zoe Bell, You've had Yancy Butler, and you've
even had Paul fag On some of es. Yes, yeah,
and it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah. No, And this year, and there's more, there's more
to announce. But this year we have Tom Cruise Michelle Nichols,
who was Lieutenant Ahura in The First Star Trek. So
I mean and this, I mean this lady literally broke
so many barriers by playing that role. It's you know,
I mean to recount that would take a moment, so
(36:36):
I won't bore you at the gory details. And then
we have some absolutely fantastic stunt ladies and one stunt guy,
Andy Armstrong, who is Andy Armstrong is probably one of
the top second unit action directors for you know, big
budget blockbuster films, and he happens to be an extraordinary
(36:58):
supporter of female stunt and he actually uh hires a
lot of them, which is really cool. Jennifer Capudo who's
been a stunt woman for more than two decades and
she does all kinds of wacky shit. And then Tammy Beard,
who's ah, she does an amazing body of stunt work
(37:18):
as well, but she does the best car hits you
can imagine. So I mean she literally, you know, steps
out in front of a car in high heels and
adoily for address and and lets the car hit her.
And then there's, uh, gosh, there's one more person, and
I'm totally spacing enough. I feel like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
But don't feel Ben. Don't feel Ben Melanie. Every time
I do this podcast, my brain stops working, I swear
to God.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah. But now, I mean, we have this year, we'll
have some amazing Honore's and we have we actually have
a couple of other announcements coming down the pipeline that
are going to be pretty juicy too.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
That's fantastic. I mean, I and you know, you have
some great media partners. You have Film Inquiry, you have
Ink Tip, and you have Action Movie Freak. You know,
and you know that that's actually a question I wanted
to ask, is are you at a position now where
where like different partners pitch you. You know, you know
what I mean to sore are they finding you out
(38:18):
and saying, hey, you know, Melanie's got you know, the
Artamis Film Festival. You know we should we should you know,
talk about you know, sponsoring something here.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, no, okay, just so you know, so our first
two years of putting the festival on, we were we crowdfunded,
and so I mean, so we are a fan backed festival,
you know, and our media partners to date are you know,
basically it's you know, we basically do cross promotions because
we benefit each other and and it's it's you know,
(38:48):
it's it's great to find and people that you are
proud to promote for the stuff that they do. But yeah,
I think we are. We are on sponsorship, you know,
the actual dollar kind, which you know, so we are
working on that. But we will be you know, we
(39:09):
will be crowdfunding again, probably starting right at the beginning
of February.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
So are you going to be crowdfunding through Indiegogo or Kickstarter?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
We'll probably run on indiego go, which is where we've
been the last two years. Although I am considering I
am considering another crowdfunding platform for a few a few
different reasons. But but yeah, the last two years we've
run on indiegog and you know, we we we generally
(39:39):
call it the women Kick Ass Project because that's our hashtag,
and uh, you know, but we you know, it's it's
kind of cool to be able to say, hey, we
have a completely fan backed festival, which is what we have.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, it is amazing you have a fan back festival.
It really, it really truly is because that way, you know,
you know exactly, you know where it's you know where
the bread is buttered, so to speak, you know exactly
what you know, you know, you know what I mean, Like,
there's no somebody pull the strings behind the scenes, so
to speak. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
No, that, well, there's that. But also to me, the
fact that it's fan based. We have we have a
base of fans that are willing to literally financially get
behind the production of the festival. It should speak loudly
to the fact that people like women in Action, damn
it period. So you know, and and we get we
(40:50):
get backers all from all over the place too. So
it's it's that that part is you know, corporate sponsorship
will make would make our life a lot easier. But
I don't I I can't really express a my gratitude
(41:11):
but also the for lack of better words, pride that
our fans like us so much that they contribute to
the production of the film festival. I mean, you know,
I plaster their names all over our website and I
put them in our festival program because I want everyone
to know.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
And when you know it is twenty seventeen, when is
the festival for twenty seventeen? You have a set date
right now?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, I know we're going to be Our opening night
is going to occur at the Area in Los Angeles.
It's a theater that's right near Wilshow in Los Angeles,
Los Angele and Beverly Hills. That'll be April twentieth, and
then the last three days of the festival, the twenty
first through the twenty third, will occur in Santa Monica
(41:57):
at Lenley's on Second in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
And can people just go to do artistfolfestshole dot com
buy tickets?
Speaker 4 (42:06):
They can, They're not They're not available for sale. What
what will happen is when we open up our crowdfunding.
That's the first place screening passes will go up for sale.
After that, obviously, you know they'll be available through Lemley
as well as our website. And you know, we have
an extraordinary year coming. We've got some we have really
(42:27):
astounding content to share, and you know, we'll have an
extraordinary array of panels. You know, we'll have our stunt
Woman panel, We'll probably have a Warrior Women panel. We
are also gonna put together probably a VR panel, because
virtual reality is an extraordinary burgeoning field that is wide
(42:52):
open if women want to jump in.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, I've seen more filmmakers starting to, you know, sort
of dabble in VR, sort of putting their foot in
the water, so to speak, you know, testing the waters out,
just to see, you know, see you know what it's
all about. And I'm I'm actually interested, to be honest
with you, Melanie, about which way it's gonna go. I
have a few I could see. On one hand, VR
going the way of something like three D, where you
(43:18):
know it was it works well in some areas, but
most people sort of you know, go back to, you know,
the way we do things, you know, normally, or if
it's going to be like sort of like the future
where you just put on the VR headset and you
can pretty much, you know, you can do you know,
go play video games. Then you switch it. Now you're
watching a movie and it's all that you know, that
(43:38):
VR immersive experience.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Yeah. One of the things that I get that is
very interesting to me is is as it comes to narrative,
it will be very curious to me to see how
that plays out, because we generally don't stand, you know,
and you know VR. If you're doing immersive VR, you've
got a headset on and you know, whichever direction you turn,
(44:03):
you have some view available to you, right, which requires
the ability to stand. I wonder if people will literally stand.
Let's say, if it was a narrative film you're looking at,
you know, somewhere between ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes.
I'm having a hard time seeing people stand to watch
(44:24):
a movie like that. Yeah, you know, so I do
think I am one hundred percent certain we're VR is
going to blow a lot of shit open. You know,
it's it's going to be you know, we're always I mean,
come on, look, you know, every every few years we're
updating our technology, and so it's it's part of life.
(44:45):
And that's just the way it goes. Is things are
going to change. People are going to be looking for
the next best new you know, bigger, better, faster, more
kind of a thing. And you know, and and you know,
I do think that you know, people will still continue
to watch flatties, you know, so I don't think. I
(45:06):
just think it's going to be in another area of
you know, the filmed moving image. And but the other
the other cool part about VR is some of the
stuff that they're doing, uh to actually make a difference,
you know, in terms of learning. And there are people
that I know that are developing programs for you know, empathy,
(45:30):
They're doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, VR is
a vast, vast world, and I think that you know,
it's how it's getting used hasn't even been tapped. There's
and and there's it's it's just it's a brand new,
wide open field.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Yeah. And you know, again, I am very interested to see,
you know, which way it actually goes. And I wonder too,
if you know, that will be just the new norm.
I also wonder if that would be like the new
way to go to work, will literally just be like
you know, hey, I'm gonna put on my VR headset
and work remotely because we can have conferences remotely and
you know, I can throw my headset or maybe I
(46:10):
can even work through like almost like actually in the
VR world and using holograms and moving holograms around or
what have you were actually coming out you know, you
know what I mean, because again, you know, now everything
is so accelerated with tech. You know, every like you said,
every few years or something new coming down the pike
that sort of disrupts what was just disrupted.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Yeah. Yeah. One one of the things that I always
look at with our technology is, you know, the more
we immerse ourselves into technology, the less we are can be,
not always, but the less we are available to you know,
just basic human interaction. And so I mean there is
(46:51):
it's a blessing curse kind of a thing, you know,
because the more disconnected we become from actual real life.
You know, that cast some some pretty big problems. You know.
But you know, tech is it's an amazing tool, and
you know, I think that we need we we really
(47:12):
need to use it wisely. You know. Just it's no
different than the messages that we create with our with
our flat moving images. You know, I think content creators
have a responsibility and I think they really need to
take an extraordinary consideration of the messages that they're putting
(47:33):
out into the world.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, very true, Very true, Melanie. So you know, Melanie,
you know, we've been talking for about forty five minutes now,
and I want to ask you, you know, in closing,
is there anything that we weren't able to discuss that
you maybe wanted to talk about or do you have
any sort of closing thoughts for this whole conversation.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
Wow, that's a tough question, now, it is.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
It's a very open ended question. I usually ask that
on purpose, just to because it can be anything.
Speaker 4 (48:00):
Really Yeah, now, honestly, uh wow, we I mean we
we've we've talked about so much, you know, but no.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
I obviously, you know, for for people who who like
seeing empowered images on screen, or or or just I
mean literally badass women in action.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
You know, hey, check us out. It's Artemisfilmfestival dot com.
And you know, we love hearing from you people.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
And I will link to that in the show notes. Everybody.
Dave Bulls dot com. We you can also follow me
everywhere among all the social media channels, just like Melanie is.
And uh, you know, I I'm getting really big into
YouTube now, Melanie. I've realized, yeah, that that's where I've
I've should have been. Uh well, I don't want to.
I don't want to bore you with with my.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Whole if you don't mind telling me, I want to
hear this.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
Okay. So about a few years ago, I had two
opportunities to do to do web series for on YouTube.
Both both were comedies, both were like you know, one
was like half hour, another one was like ten minutes.
I passed on both of them, and for a number
of reasons. Well you know, now I kind of look
(49:09):
back and I go, you know, it just makes sense
for me being in the film industry. Meaning on this podcast,
I upload the podcast to YouTube as well. And what
I'm trying to say out of all this is I
should have been in YouTube first, beyond Twitter, beyond Facebook,
beyond Instagram, because it just it's more, it's more correlates
(49:30):
more to what we do. And that's why I'm now
I'm getting back into doing you know, the YouTube stuff.
And I and I actually switched channels about two years ago.
I had one before where I would just but it
was like it wasn't really filmmaking stuff. It was like
random stuff I was throwing up there for different stuff.
I was doing a lot of freelance videography work. Just
there's a whole bunch of other stuff. So finally closed
down that channel, got this new channel. I upload pretty
(49:53):
much every podcast episode on there, and slowly just trying
to grow more of an audience on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (50:09):
Wow, yeah, no YouTube. YouTube is the number two search
engine behind Google. Yeah, And you know, it's like I've
known for a long time that YouTube is a very,
very very powerful platform. But it's also one of those
where I I have also been delinquent on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
See we can both. We can both now, you know, uh,
not be sort of linquid anymore. We could both finally
get up on YouTube and start you know, putting off
our stuff on there, because honestly, I've had a lot
of people find the podcast through YouTube. I've had people
find some of my short films. I basically try to
throw everything I could up there that I want people
to see, because you know, I've made a few few
(50:50):
student short films that I didn't really weren't really that
good at the end of the day, so I was like,
I won't show this to anybody else.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
Yeah, you know, you gotta do it, you gotta do them.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yeah yeah. And I just basically use them as a
learning experience and then basically was like, I'll never talk
about this ever again. I hear you, well we have.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
I will. Uh. I will make sure to check out
your your your YouTube page. What is what's the name
of it?
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Real iron fist films.
Speaker 4 (51:23):
I would not have found that. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Oh no, my pleasure is all mine, you know. I
want to say thank you for coming on Melanie. Oh yeah, no,
it's fun.
Speaker 4 (51:32):
It is a blast.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Melanie. I want to wish you the best of luck
with the Artomist Film Festival and and everything you do.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Well, thank you and and and did.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Oh oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Yeah. Well, I'll be on your YouTube page.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna look for you there, all right, cool,
all right, take care of Melanie. Ever a great day YouTube,
bye bye bye.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
dot com.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
Forward slash eight.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Ten twenty five and if you have it already, please
head over to filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe and leave
a good review for the show. It really helps us
out a lot, guys.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Thank you again so much for listening to guys.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
indiefilm hustle dot com. That's I N D I E
F I L M h U S T l E
dot com.
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the INDIEILM Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight ten
twenty five. Cinema should make You forget You're sitting in
a theater. Roman Polanski.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we show you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I am your humble.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Host, Alex Ferrari. 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
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(01:42):
want to order it, 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):
Hi, Melie, thanks off for coming on the show.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Thanks so much for having me. It is a pleasure.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Oh it's great having you want Melanie, And I just
wanted to ask and question I ask everybody, and that is,
you know, how did you start in the film industry?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Oh? God, you know it's uh, I'm six feet tall
and you know, so you know, I started out modeling,
I moved to acting and I do think that my
height was absolutely a detriment, so you know, basically yeah
(02:30):
that yeah, you know, I think I knew when I
was ADYBD that I wanted to you know, the arts
horror where uh what what blew my skirt up? You know,
but it just it took me a while to get
around to it. I think I started modeling, I think
when I was like twenty, which is actually kind of
old in model terms, you know, finally turned my attention
(02:53):
to acting. And you know, it was like I'd come
in to read for producers you know, quite a lot,
and they've never hired me. And I think a lot
of it had to do with being taller than the
leading men. So so that's when I, you know, I
started producing uh my own content, and you know, and
and that even is a struggle, there is, I do
(03:21):
think there is this. It's I think it's tougher for
taller women. And I'm the other tall women that I've
spoken to that are in the industry, I it has
been a common theme that they struggle as well. You know.
And then and then add to that that you know,
I don't well, actually, let me be really bald about it.
I completely suck at selling the victim, which is usually
(03:44):
the roles that are available to women. So and you know,
it was one of those where you know, for a
long time, uh, our our interest, you know that the
me and my teammates, we just we like strong female
leads and we like women in action. And after running
(04:05):
into so many obstacles with it, we were like, screw it,
Let's start a festival. And you know, you can say,
if we want to see more of this stuff in
the world, then we'll create a place for it to play.
And that brings us all the way to the festival.
And I didn't mean to like jump that far ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
No, no, it's no problem. Yeah, but you know, but
but you know you were talking about, you know, auditioning,
and you know I did read your bio and you
were a former basketball standout, correct, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
Used to play that. Well, I I grew up playing
sports and you know I still play sports. So but yeah, no,
I I don't. I guess you could say I have
a lot of Mars energy.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
I think that's the best way, you know, and that
that that warlike nature. Yeah, that's me.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So when you were modeling any answered the age round twenty,
you know what were some of the experiences there, and
was it anything similar to when you started doing acting.
Did you find any parallels between the two.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Actually, it was just stellar irony because I started modeling
here in California, and at the time, the majority of
the industry here was this one suit industry because everyone goes, oh, well,
models need to be tall, well for the swim suit industry,
they hire these itty bitty chicks, and I didn't fit
(05:36):
that either. So I think my timing has just been
kind of sucky, you know. And then I went to
Europe and I did okay there. I wound up coming
home and I hung up my modeling issues for reasons
I don't even think I remember clearly, and I think
(05:58):
it was about three years later that I started banging
on the door, you know, in terms of acting.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
So when you went to your first audition, you know,
what were some of your memories in there? Actually, I
mean you were just saying, you know, you were since
you're six foot tall, you're taller taller than than some
of the leading men. So when when you were going
with some of these auditions or maybe some of these
casting calls, you know, you know, what were some of
your experiences there did you did you know they did
anyone say anything about your height or or did you
(06:32):
know it wasn't the experience there. That's what I trying
to say.
Speaker 4 (06:35):
Yeah, yeah, I know, well they can't say anything about
your height.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
No, I don't. I was just wondering if I maybe
said like, oh wow, Melanie, you know you're tall or
anything like that.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
No. No, well it's you know, typically on your resume,
your your height is there. So I mean, if they
were surprised when I showed up, that was for their
lack of reading because it was right out in front.
But you know, I would get a lot of calls
for the dumb ass fleet or you know, I actually
got cast in a sun Kiss commercial because I was
(07:05):
big enough to tackle a guy. You know, stuff like that.
You know, so it while you know, I don't consider
height a specialty, I think the film industry might.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
You know that that's just like you know.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
Anyway, Yeah, no, I got odd stuff and you know,
and I didn't get the auditions for Victims and such,
and you know, honestly, I suck at it. I can
I can try. I can spend you know, weeks in preparation.
I don't think I will ever sell the victim.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
Well, well, I want to. I wanted to, you know,
as we talk about you know, auditions and stuff, and
I wanted to ask about Hannah's Gift. And you know,
you know, you were the lead actress in the horror
action film Hannahs Gifts, and you also won Best Actress
at the indie Fest Film festival. So you know when
you all now when you auditioned for that, you know,
(08:03):
was was there? You know, I'm gonna tell you, I don't.
I haven't seen the film obviously, but it were you know,
were you taller than leading man? Was there?
Speaker 4 (08:12):
You know?
Speaker 3 (08:12):
I want to I actually want to hear about about
that film.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
Uh well I didn't have to audition for that because
I produced it. So yeah, no, that's but was I Yes,
I was taller than the than the than the men
that were cast in it, but that's usually you know,
I wasn't. It wasn't like they were a dybd in,
(08:38):
which does happen in a lot of cases. But you know,
I was probably an inch taller than the guy that
was in it. You know, it doesn't show, but I
knew that, and and honestly I wouldn't care, you know,
I I am. I I love coming across people that
don't care because the bottom line of it is as
(08:58):
just as there are tall men out there, there are
short men. They are tall women, there's short women. You know,
it's like we're going to be all over the place.
And then this idea that the leading man is always
supposed to be taller than the female is confusing to
me because the only thing that I think that it
(09:19):
offends is the male ego.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Yeah, and I can you know, I understand perfectly what
you mean. And you know, I want to talk more,
you know, about Hatta's gift, and you mentioned you were
a producer on the film, and now now I'm interested
in hearing you know, about the whole producing aspect of this, uh,
you know, because I always like to hear about actors
who get into you know, screenwriting and producing, because what
you're doing is you're making your own opportunities, which I
(09:43):
think is absolutely golden. I think that is so imperative,
you know that, you know not you know, everybody should
be out there, you know, trying to make their own opportunities,
you know, and at the same time looking at the projects.
So that way you always have you know, almost like
a fallback plan or having you know, multiple irons in
the fire or so to speak.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
And now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So when you're producing you know, Hanna's gift, where did
you step you know, step in as as the producer did.
Did you meet with the director and the writer and
and and sort of you know, say hey, I I
could actually help produce this.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
No, actually, well yes, and no. The writer director is
we've been producing content together for a long time and
he has he wrote strong female leads, you know, long
before it was popular. And you know, so I met
(10:44):
him and the reason why we got on so well
is because we had a similar taste. But I mean
he writes absolutely beautiful female characters. And so now when
we went forward to produce, I didn't step in an offer.
You know, it was something that he and I actually
(11:07):
steadfastly planned out, you know, of the the for the
resources that we had and the projects that we had,
it was the best one to produce because you know,
when you get into low budget production, you know, you
can't do an epic fantasy on a micro budget. That's
just the simple truth of it. So you have to
(11:30):
choose the project that you can pull off the best
with the resources that you have. And you know, in
terms of actual production, I mean I did everything from
you know, planning all of it to carrying the trash
out on set. You know, it's one of those where
if you are going to produce your own content, unless
you're showing up to the table with a decent budget,
(11:54):
you are you're gonna bust your ass.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah, it's true. It's extremely on you as as a
producer when you're producing stuff you know, independent film, uh
and stuff you know with with you know, small locations
of smaller crew. You know, everyone does have to play
multiple roles, you know, wear multiple hats. And that's not
something I you know, I've been as I've been doing it.
You know, things that I learned up along the way
(12:17):
is that you know, hey, you know, even if you're
a producer, you got to you know, figure out, you know,
how how to get from point A to point B.
And mean what I mean by that is, you know, hey,
you gotta someone's got to go out there and wave
the pizza guy down. Someone's got to go out there
and make sure these guys are you know, coming on
to set at the right time. Uh and and but
you're also got to do something else at the same time.
(12:38):
So it's it's like juggling constantly to make sure that
that engine, so to speak of the film is constantly moving.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
Yes, now it's for me, it's like I don't do
Some people are are very comfortable sitting and and I'm
probably the most a type personality I've ever met. It's like,
you know, I do better when I'm actually in motion.
(13:04):
So for me acting and producing, I don't think is
wearing too many hats on set. It's a little bit differicult,
but you know, you know your pre production. There are
a few things that I can do on set and
then impost. That's post is where probably the bulk of
(13:24):
my experience actually lends the most to any anything, because
it's like I can. I have a lot of post
production skills. You know, I edit, I do sound effects.
You know. You know, I'm pretty much a one stop
post house. So yeah, I mean I can. There's a
(13:46):
lot that I can do with footage.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
So did you do any of the post product work
for Hand's Gifts?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I did, I did, I didn't do. I didn't do,
I didn't edit it. No, we had. We had several editors,
and we actually went through a mountain of editors for
the film because it was told from the The conceit
of the film is that it's in real time and
(14:16):
it's told from the point of view of one of
the characters, which is actually really difficult to pull off
in terms of a production. But the second thing is
is that when we started, you know, interviewing editors, you
know that we would explain ad nauseum, you know, how
we wanted the film to be edited. And I'm not joking.
(14:39):
I think five different editors tried to cut it as
a standard film and you know, it was just one
of those where it wasn't landing. So we went through
a lot of editors. Ultimately, our masters got destroyed, so
we wound up shooting the film a second time and
that's when I was able to bring the appropriate crew
(15:02):
to the table and I'll not finish it.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
So what so, Melanie, that that's that's really interesting and
heartbreaking to hear. So how did your masters get destroyed?
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Like my guess is, see, it was interesting. Everybody nobody
wanted to start with in the ingested footage. Everybody wanted
to start from scratch. You know, I'll get the I'll
add you know, I'll inguest the footage, and literally the
teaps just suffered. I I I'll bet money somebody had
(15:38):
a deck that was out of calibration and it stretched
the tape.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
So when when you learned that that you had to
reshoot the movie again, what was the first thing that
came through your mind?
Speaker 4 (15:52):
You know, it's funny, Uh, you know, I sweat the
small stuff in life. That one I didn't. I wasn't
like up in arms over it, but you know, pretty
much it was. I think it was like a month
after we uh learned that the masters had been destroyed,
we were actually producing the film for a second time.
Because the stuff just wasn't fixable. We would have had,
(16:17):
you know, all kinds of artifacts.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
In the.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
In the footage. Yeah, it was just easier to reshoot it.
Speaker 3 (16:26):
You know that. That's something similar, somewhat similar to what
happened to me. I had a editor who I gave
we had meant, we shot on actual SD cards, and
we gave him all the footage. And that was my
first mistake. I should have I should have kept a
copy for myself. And what happened was he took the footage,
he started to edit it, and then basically he had
(16:49):
a bunch of problems with his with his business partners
and basically stopped working on everything. Well, his laptop started
to go all wonky and he was asking people for
money need to fix it. And I said to him, well,
you know if you still have the footage, and he
said yes, and I said, well, I need to get
that back, so I'll chip in some money. Well, he
comes back to me finally about a couple weeks later,
(17:10):
and he says, well, I couldn't raise any money all
I had, you know, and this laptop is just about
to die, and this, that and the other thing. So
I kept hounding on him to get me back this footage,
and he never responded to calls. And then one day
he just deleted me off Facebook. And I actually sent
an email and I said, you know, I said, you're
you're lucky that I don't hold you accountable for that
(17:32):
lost footage. And he didn't respond back to that. And
about a month or so after that, some people also
said that he had gotten them into trouble because he
had taken on like wedding videos and he hadn't edited
any of it. He just sat on the footage and
people were like, you know, different brides were asking him, Hey,
where's my footage at? And he just let it all sit.
(17:53):
And I don't think that guy works in the film
industry anymore.
Speaker 4 (17:57):
And yeah, no, with it with a reputation like that,
you're not going to go yeah, I see, Yeah, No,
It's well, you know, it's funny because I tend to
be a little bit more old school about editing. It's like,
I don't do anything on the laptop. I'm you know,
strictly desktop based and uh. And one of the reasons
(18:19):
why is is just more stable.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
So so let me ask you this, Melanie. When you
re shot it and you did you use it? I mean,
like you said, you don't you you sweat the small
stuff and and that you you were you took a
lot better? Uh did did you look at it as
a sort of like a way to say, Okay, now
I can sort of change any any problems I had before,
or maybe I could fix any issues that arise before.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
Fuck yeah, any any anything you shoot, you are going
to have an extraordinary learning curve. And you know, you know,
and you get to cringe through post you know, beating
yourself over the head with how come I didn't think
of this at that time? And so you know, by
by shooting the film a second time, yes, we absolutely
(19:06):
came up with a better finished product. There were I mean,
it was you know, I have to say, if you
don't learn, you know, if you have the opportunity to
learn from your mistakes and you don't well out anyway. No,
but we we learned a lot at shooting it the
first time. So when we shot it the second time,
(19:27):
it was literally the same story, but we did it
a little differently. And you know, we've but but it
took a long time. It was like I said, you know,
it's one of those where you know, I can look
at something and if somebody explains it to me, you know,
it's like I try to ask enough questions to really
(19:49):
get a firm grip of what they are looking as
for as their end product. And you know, having gone
through I think we wound up going through a total
of seven at a on that project.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
And it was just mind numbing to me, where you
know you just see them, yes, yes, yes, you when
you explained it, but then when you started getting your
first cuts back, you're like, wow, you didn't you know
or it was. And it's one of those where I
have a hard time believing it was so far, you know,
out of the ordinary, that someone just couldn't digest it,
(20:32):
you know, but that's literally what happened to sell.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, it's you know. I've experienced that too, where some
some editors, and particularly when I was talking about was
saying things like, oh, yeah, I understand exactly what you mean,
and then you get it back and you say, wait
a minute, that's that's nothing what I wanted. This is
completely wrong. And I usually find that that's why that
is one regard where I think emails like every anytime
(21:00):
I would, I would talk to him, whether it be
in person, because we actually had him in person to
come down, and we were talking to him about edits right,
and we're we're we had a big whiteboard in front
of us, and we're marking it up and we're saying, okay,
let's do this and this and this, and we marked
it all down, and then I sent him an email
of everything we talked about. And then when we saw
the edit about a week or two later, it was
(21:22):
completely wrong. And I'm sitting there going, was I not clear?
And I look back at the email and I'm sitting
and I say to myself, well, no, I can see
that I was. I told him this. It's just, you know,
either they didn't understand, or they didn't read it, or
they you know, or we're just trying to basically reinvent
the wheel.
Speaker 4 (21:39):
Well yeah, and I have you know, I have come
across editors who think they know better. And it doesn't
matter if you know better than the person that is
standing there. If if someone is paying you to edit something,
give them what they're asking for, you know, And because
I've seen plenty of people who would like to kind
of you know, direct from the editing or which you
(22:00):
can do. And you know, but it's also one of
those where I I also take, uh, you know, what's
clear to me? If I was communicating to myself and
I consider something clear, it doesn't necessarily mean it's clear
to anyone else but me. So even if as I
(22:22):
express it, you know, I could be saying, well, the
sky is blue, and they can be hearing that the
sky is green, and you know, those kinds of communication
breakdowns occur all the time, especially when you are trying
to breathe a life into something that's not average or typical.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
So yeah, it's very true. And you know that. That's
why there's an old saying Melanie by sun Sooth, the
the guy who with the art of war. It's basically,
you know, if the communication breaks down, it's the fault
of the commander to the generals and he's and basically
if if that, if he checks that out, but the
(23:04):
instructions have been clear, then it must be the general's fault.
It's something along the lines. I always butchered saying here
by the way on this podcast, but it was something.
It was something like that, And basically, you know, he
was telling the story that you know, communication is always
the first person, who who's who used the communication, who
is communication is from. They should always assume that this
(23:25):
is not clear to anybody but me, or this is
maybe not clear to everybody else. So maybe so if
there's ever a miscommunication, I should go back to myself first.
But if I do, but if it is clear, then
it is the fault of that person. And you know,
obviously in warfare, you know that's he was talking about
you know, making sure that troop movements were well okay, uh,
you know, in our in our world, the filmmaking, we
(23:46):
have to make sure. You know, communication is key because
it's moving crews around, it's moving actors around, it's and
also it's instructions on editing a final piece.
Speaker 4 (23:54):
Yeah, it's it's it's a tough job. Producing is not
simple at all. And you know, unless like you know,
until you make it into you know, the area of
the industry where you know you've got a decent budget,
you're going to be understaffed. And you know that means,
(24:15):
you know, it's like the thing that you give up
without money, you're going to spend time mhm. And but no,
I mean it's a fun ride. It's an absolutely fun run.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So when you finally got the the second you finally
shot the movie for a second time and you know
you got the funnel edit down the way you wanted to.
So did did did you go about submitting to to
certain festivals or did you have certain festivals targeted for
the film?
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Well, yeah, no, no. Sometimes you know what, this sounds
like a harsh judgment of myself, but it really isn't.
It's it's more of a humorous one. It's like sometimes
I feel like I have idiots sam time my form
because the thing that you've got to realize with anything
that is not a dramaedy, excuse me, a drama comedy
(25:10):
or a documentary, most film festivals are not geared to
ingest that content unless it's a specialty festival, and so
people make things that are a little unusual or a
little off the beaten track, and it's it is more
difficult to get those types of films placed in any festival.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, as you know, there's more submissions that various festivals.
I know, it is you know, the marketplace gets a
little more crowded and it's a little you know, harder
to stand out, so to speak. But but but you know,
you actually won for Best Actress at the indie Fest
film festival. So were you in attendance to collect that award?
Speaker 4 (25:52):
No, actually I wasn't. We Actually with that we got
we won Audience Choice at Chakerfest. I think we collected
a total of I think four or five awards for
that film. And it was it was funny because you know,
(26:14):
it was kind of alert. I'm not answering your question,
and I don't mean to not answer it, but I
was going to distract with something else. So I get,
you know, when I submitted us to Chakra Fest, and
then I get the rejection notice, and like a week later,
they're saying, hey, you've been you know, or you've been
selected to screen at this and I write them this
(26:34):
kind of sniffy email back saying, you know, hey, you
just told me I didn't get in, So what's the
real story here? So I think what happened was is
they had something that they picked had fallen out, and
so they were taking an alternate And it was one
of those where I don't think the people who ran
the festival were particularly fond of the film, but they
(26:57):
were absolutely shocked when we won audience Choice, So that
was kind of funny. Yeah, yeah, it's it's one of
those where even if it's one of the reasons that
we started the festival, it's like because a lot of
the content that we play is not going to show
at a lot of other festivals because those festivals, if
(27:19):
you just look at the whole festival world and and
what gets played, our films are not what they play.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
So you know, as as we were going to talk
about now about the Autmish Film Festival. You know what
was sort of the empathus to start that? Was it,
you know, just to show those films, like you just said,
just to show films that wouldn't get shown anywhere else.
Or so I shouldn't say I should certain gives a
were getting shown at certain festivals. I should say.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Actually, more to the point is that I have had
a long standing belief that women in action is a
very lucrative thing, you know, and every few years or
so you'll see, you know, should come out from the
studios where they say that women in action as box
(28:08):
office poison. And I don't remember if you do, you
remember that film aon Flux that starred Charlie's their own well,
that did not do very well. And I remember at
the time, at that time, I was, you know, very
much into studying box office revenues and what stuff was earning.
(28:30):
And hands down, for many years, action is the best
selling genre of films above ever anything. And you know,
and it's one of those where we have probably almost
five decades where we have a smattering of films that
feature women in action, and there's always some excuse not
(28:52):
to make more and when A on Flux. The last
time I saw it in the trades, you know, where
they're saying, oh, women in action as Box Office Poison
was right around A on Flux, and you know, it
was like, you know, a few years prior to that,
you know, you'd see comments here and there. But now
we're seeing, you know, especially in the last like three
(29:15):
or four years, we're seeing and we're seeing a tide change.
And if you look on TV, you've got an extraordinary
number of shows that feature you know, pretty empowered women
and female characters, a lot of women in action, and
so that market is there. But if you look at
(29:40):
it's one of those where I think the biggest impetus.
There was two impetuses for the festival. One was to
create a space for the content to play, and two
is to prove that there's an extraordinary audience for it.
Because you know, it's like we get films from twenty
five countries around the globe on most every year.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
We have a worldwide audience, you know, our our our
our our social media fans are all over the world,
you know, so it's like, this isn't something that is
just interesting to a certain group of the population on
a certain in a certain area of the world. It's
(30:33):
all over. I mean our first year we had we
actually had a it was an animated film. It was
you know, claymation from Iran, and you know, so of
all places in the world where we're literally taking in
content from Iran where they are celebrating the strength of
(30:55):
the female of the species, which is really kind of ironic.
And you know, it's like because of the festival, we
get extraordinary pieces of history for you know, women that
a lot of people don't know about. That's really cool too.
I mean, like, you know, odd fact, did you know
that the winningest basketball team in all of written history
(31:18):
is a women's basketball team out of Texas. I think
they were called the Flying Queens, and I think they
played from like like nineteen it was like the mid
fifties through like I can't remember the years stretch it is,
but it started in like nineteen fifty six I think,
(31:40):
and they have the literally the winningest basketball record in
all of history. Nobody knows about this, you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
No, I was just say, yeah, I didn't. I didn't
know that.
Speaker 4 (31:53):
Yeah, well when we showed it at the festival, nobody
knew it. It was It was interesting. Last year we
had a couple of articles written by peoples. They were
published during the festival, but they were published by people
who were actually showed up to a few of the
screenings and events that we had, and you know, it
(32:14):
was really awesome to see them. Right, Wow, I had
no idea, you know, but this is I mean, these
are things that should be widely available then they're not,
and and and it should be widely available, not just
because we're sitting here going, oh, it's time to pay
attention to women, but because they're part of our history
(32:35):
and they're out there and nobody knows about it. So
it it's like when you talk about women in action,
you're going to be talking about you know, women in sports, military,
you know, narrative obviously of any genre, but it's like
you're in the you know, in the military stories we get,
(32:58):
you know, they're jaw dropping because you don't realize how
much women have actually contributed to you know, military efforts
all the way back to World War Two. You know,
we've showed films about you know, the first ladies that
actually ever flew aircraft for the military, and they would
(33:20):
even test the ship for the guys to fly, and
you know, and so they had these you know, amazing
few years of flying airplanes and having this incredibly adventuresome life.
And then when the men came back to war, they
were you know, told to go back home and cook
for their kids.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, there's also a history of War two. There's the
history of you know, of female fighters. And you know,
when the when the Nazis invaded in nineteen forty one,
there was you know, like women were fighting alongside the
battlefield and they actually, you know, were pilots. I think
they are called the There was actually a pilot group
called the uh I think the Witches or something or
(33:58):
something like that. It was they were basically, you know,
flying these old fashioned planes. But they was just but
you know, because they were taking on the invading Nazi force.
Speaker 4 (34:07):
Yeah, onreen't they the Witches out of Russia?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, but I think there was a name. I think
it was something Witches. I can't remember, but I'll look
that in the show notes. Everybody.
Speaker 4 (34:15):
Yeah, no, I'm pretty I'm pretty sure you are correct.
And then for the US you had the Wasps, and
they were the women Air Force Service pilots, I believe. Yeah,
we actually were lucky enough to have a ninety three
year old WASP at the festival for one of our
Warrior Women panels last year.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
I'm sorry, ye, no, go ahead, I was gonna say,
did a lot of people you know ask her about
the war?
Speaker 4 (34:42):
Oh? Hell yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. And it was literally,
I think it was late last year they actually finally
started getting death benefits for these ladies that died in service.
You know, because during that period of time when these
women were flying, because they were they were flying back
and forth, or some of them were stationed in Europe,
(35:04):
but they basically just did a lot of supply flying
and other types of flying for the US. And you know,
if one of their if one of the lady pilots
died in service, the ladies literally collected money between themselves
to actually bring their bodies back because because because the
(35:30):
US government wouldn't pay for it, and they literally just
I think it was late last year where they they
actually got that. I think they got the law to
change so that their death benefits were covered. I mean
some of the stuff, I mean, you know, some of
this stuff is mind thembing and people need to know
(35:50):
about it.
Speaker 5 (35:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Absolutely, it's very fascinating and you know that. And again
I'm looking at you know, some of the people that
that you've had at the festival, some of the honorees.
You've had Zoe Bell, You've had Yancy Butler, and you've
even had Paul fag On some of es. Yes, yeah,
and it's absolutely amazing.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Yeah. No, And this year, and there's more, there's more
to announce. But this year we have Tom Cruise Michelle Nichols,
who was Lieutenant Ahura in The First Star Trek. So
I mean and this, I mean this lady literally broke
so many barriers by playing that role. It's you know,
I mean to recount that would take a moment, so
(36:36):
I won't bore you at the gory details. And then
we have some absolutely fantastic stunt ladies and one stunt guy,
Andy Armstrong, who is Andy Armstrong is probably one of
the top second unit action directors for you know, big
budget blockbuster films, and he happens to be an extraordinary
(36:58):
supporter of female stunt and he actually uh hires a
lot of them, which is really cool. Jennifer Capudo who's
been a stunt woman for more than two decades and
she does all kinds of wacky shit. And then Tammy Beard,
who's ah, she does an amazing body of stunt work
(37:18):
as well, but she does the best car hits you
can imagine. So I mean she literally, you know, steps
out in front of a car in high heels and
adoily for address and and lets the car hit her.
And then there's, uh, gosh, there's one more person, and
I'm totally spacing enough. I feel like an idiot.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
But don't feel Ben. Don't feel Ben Melanie. Every time
I do this podcast, my brain stops working, I swear
to God.
Speaker 4 (37:46):
Yeah. But now, I mean, we have this year, we'll
have some amazing Honore's and we have we actually have
a couple of other announcements coming down the pipeline that
are going to be pretty juicy too.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
That's fantastic. I mean, I and you know, you have
some great media partners. You have Film Inquiry, you have
Ink Tip, and you have Action Movie Freak. You know,
and you know that that's actually a question I wanted
to ask, is are you at a position now where
where like different partners pitch you. You know, you know
what I mean to sore are they finding you out
(38:18):
and saying, hey, you know, Melanie's got you know, the
Artamis Film Festival. You know we should we should you know,
talk about you know, sponsoring something here.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Yeah, no, okay, just so you know, so our first
two years of putting the festival on, we were we crowdfunded,
and so I mean, so we are a fan backed festival,
you know, and our media partners to date are you know,
basically it's you know, we basically do cross promotions because
we benefit each other and and it's it's you know,
(38:48):
it's it's great to find and people that you are
proud to promote for the stuff that they do. But yeah,
I think we are. We are on sponsorship, you know,
the actual dollar kind, which you know, so we are
working on that. But we will be you know, we
(39:09):
will be crowdfunding again, probably starting right at the beginning
of February.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
So are you going to be crowdfunding through Indiegogo or Kickstarter?
Speaker 4 (39:19):
We'll probably run on indiego go, which is where we've
been the last two years. Although I am considering I
am considering another crowdfunding platform for a few a few
different reasons. But but yeah, the last two years we've
run on indiegog and you know, we we we generally
(39:39):
call it the women Kick Ass Project because that's our hashtag,
and uh, you know, but we you know, it's it's
kind of cool to be able to say, hey, we
have a completely fan backed festival, which is what we have.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Yeah, it is amazing you have a fan back festival.
It really, it really truly is because that way, you know,
you know exactly, you know where it's you know where
the bread is buttered, so to speak, you know exactly
what you know, you know, you know what I mean, Like,
there's no somebody pull the strings behind the scenes, so
to speak. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 4 (40:24):
No, that, well, there's that. But also to me, the
fact that it's fan based. We have we have a
base of fans that are willing to literally financially get
behind the production of the festival. It should speak loudly
to the fact that people like women in Action, damn
it period. So you know, and and we get we
(40:50):
get backers all from all over the place too. So
it's it's that that part is you know, corporate sponsorship
will make would make our life a lot easier. But
I don't I I can't really express a my gratitude
(41:11):
but also the for lack of better words, pride that
our fans like us so much that they contribute to
the production of the film festival. I mean, you know,
I plaster their names all over our website and I
put them in our festival program because I want everyone
to know.
Speaker 3 (41:29):
And when you know it is twenty seventeen, when is
the festival for twenty seventeen? You have a set date
right now?
Speaker 4 (41:36):
Yeah, I know we're going to be Our opening night
is going to occur at the Area in Los Angeles.
It's a theater that's right near Wilshow in Los Angeles,
Los Angele and Beverly Hills. That'll be April twentieth, and
then the last three days of the festival, the twenty
first through the twenty third, will occur in Santa Monica
(41:57):
at Lenley's on Second in Arizona.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
And can people just go to do artistfolfestshole dot com
buy tickets?
Speaker 4 (42:06):
They can, They're not They're not available for sale. What
what will happen is when we open up our crowdfunding.
That's the first place screening passes will go up for sale.
After that, obviously, you know they'll be available through Lemley
as well as our website. And you know, we have
an extraordinary year coming. We've got some we have really
(42:27):
astounding content to share, and you know, we'll have an
extraordinary array of panels. You know, we'll have our stunt
Woman panel, We'll probably have a Warrior Women panel. We
are also gonna put together probably a VR panel, because
virtual reality is an extraordinary burgeoning field that is wide
(42:52):
open if women want to jump in.
Speaker 3 (42:56):
Yeah, I've seen more filmmakers starting to, you know, sort
of dabble in VR, sort of putting their foot in
the water, so to speak, you know, testing the waters out,
just to see, you know, see you know what it's
all about. And I'm I'm actually interested, to be honest
with you, Melanie, about which way it's gonna go. I
have a few I could see. On one hand, VR
going the way of something like three D, where you
(43:18):
know it was it works well in some areas, but
most people sort of you know, go back to, you know,
the way we do things, you know, normally, or if
it's going to be like sort of like the future
where you just put on the VR headset and you
can pretty much, you know, you can do you know,
go play video games. Then you switch it. Now you're
watching a movie and it's all that you know, that
(43:38):
VR immersive experience.
Speaker 4 (43:41):
Yeah. One of the things that I get that is
very interesting to me is is as it comes to narrative,
it will be very curious to me to see how
that plays out, because we generally don't stand, you know,
and you know VR. If you're doing immersive VR, you've
got a headset on and you know, whichever direction you turn,
(44:03):
you have some view available to you, right, which requires
the ability to stand. I wonder if people will literally stand.
Let's say, if it was a narrative film you're looking at,
you know, somewhere between ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes.
I'm having a hard time seeing people stand to watch
(44:24):
a movie like that. Yeah, you know, so I do
think I am one hundred percent certain we're VR is
going to blow a lot of shit open. You know,
it's it's going to be you know, we're always I mean,
come on, look, you know, every every few years we're
updating our technology, and so it's it's part of life.
(44:45):
And that's just the way it goes. Is things are
going to change. People are going to be looking for
the next best new you know, bigger, better, faster, more
kind of a thing. And you know, and and you know,
I do think that you know, people will still continue
to watch flatties, you know, so I don't think. I
(45:06):
just think it's going to be in another area of
you know, the filmed moving image. And but the other
the other cool part about VR is some of the
stuff that they're doing, uh to actually make a difference,
you know, in terms of learning. And there are people
that I know that are developing programs for you know, empathy,
(45:30):
They're doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, VR is
a vast, vast world, and I think that you know,
it's how it's getting used hasn't even been tapped. There's
and and there's it's it's just it's a brand new,
wide open field.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
Yeah. And you know, again, I am very interested to see,
you know, which way it actually goes. And I wonder too,
if you know, that will be just the new norm.
I also wonder if that would be like the new
way to go to work, will literally just be like
you know, hey, I'm gonna put on my VR headset
and work remotely because we can have conferences remotely and
you know, I can throw my headset or maybe I
(46:10):
can even work through like almost like actually in the
VR world and using holograms and moving holograms around or
what have you were actually coming out you know, you
know what I mean, because again, you know, now everything
is so accelerated with tech. You know, every like you said,
every few years or something new coming down the pike
that sort of disrupts what was just disrupted.
Speaker 4 (46:30):
Yeah. Yeah. One one of the things that I always
look at with our technology is, you know, the more
we immerse ourselves into technology, the less we are can be,
not always, but the less we are available to you know,
just basic human interaction. And so I mean there is
(46:51):
it's a blessing curse kind of a thing, you know,
because the more disconnected we become from actual real life.
You know, that cast some some pretty big problems. You know.
But you know, tech is it's an amazing tool, and
you know, I think that we need we we really
(47:12):
need to use it wisely. You know. Just it's no
different than the messages that we create with our with
our flat moving images. You know, I think content creators
have a responsibility and I think they really need to
take an extraordinary consideration of the messages that they're putting
(47:33):
out into the world.
Speaker 3 (47:35):
Yeah, very true, Very true, Melanie. So you know, Melanie,
you know, we've been talking for about forty five minutes now,
and I want to ask you, you know, in closing,
is there anything that we weren't able to discuss that
you maybe wanted to talk about or do you have
any sort of closing thoughts for this whole conversation.
Speaker 4 (47:53):
Wow, that's a tough question, now, it is.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
It's a very open ended question. I usually ask that
on purpose, just to because it can be anything.
Speaker 4 (48:00):
Really Yeah, now, honestly, uh wow, we I mean we
we've we've talked about so much, you know, but no.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
I obviously, you know, for for people who who like
seeing empowered images on screen, or or or just I
mean literally badass women in action.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
You know, hey, check us out. It's Artemisfilmfestival dot com.
And you know, we love hearing from you people.
Speaker 3 (48:26):
And I will link to that in the show notes. Everybody.
Dave Bulls dot com. We you can also follow me
everywhere among all the social media channels, just like Melanie is.
And uh, you know, I I'm getting really big into
YouTube now, Melanie. I've realized, yeah, that that's where I've
I've should have been. Uh well, I don't want to.
I don't want to bore you with with my.
Speaker 4 (48:46):
Whole if you don't mind telling me, I want to
hear this.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
Okay. So about a few years ago, I had two
opportunities to do to do web series for on YouTube.
Both both were comedies, both were like you know, one
was like half hour, another one was like ten minutes.
I passed on both of them, and for a number
of reasons. Well you know, now I kind of look
(49:09):
back and I go, you know, it just makes sense
for me being in the film industry. Meaning on this podcast,
I upload the podcast to YouTube as well. And what
I'm trying to say out of all this is I
should have been in YouTube first, beyond Twitter, beyond Facebook,
beyond Instagram, because it just it's more, it's more correlates
(49:30):
more to what we do. And that's why I'm now
I'm getting back into doing you know, the YouTube stuff.
And I and I actually switched channels about two years ago.
I had one before where I would just but it
was like it wasn't really filmmaking stuff. It was like
random stuff I was throwing up there for different stuff.
I was doing a lot of freelance videography work. Just
there's a whole bunch of other stuff. So finally closed
down that channel, got this new channel. I upload pretty
(49:53):
much every podcast episode on there, and slowly just trying
to grow more of an audience on YouTube.
Speaker 2 (50:00):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor,
and now back to the show.
Speaker 4 (50:09):
Wow, yeah, no YouTube. YouTube is the number two search
engine behind Google. Yeah, And you know, it's like I've
known for a long time that YouTube is a very,
very very powerful platform. But it's also one of those
where I I have also been delinquent on YouTube.
Speaker 3 (50:30):
See we can both. We can both now, you know, uh,
not be sort of linquid anymore. We could both finally
get up on YouTube and start you know, putting off
our stuff on there, because honestly, I've had a lot
of people find the podcast through YouTube. I've had people
find some of my short films. I basically try to
throw everything I could up there that I want people
to see, because you know, I've made a few few
(50:50):
student short films that I didn't really weren't really that
good at the end of the day, so I was like,
I won't show this to anybody else.
Speaker 4 (50:58):
Yeah, you know, you gotta do it, you gotta do them.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
Yeah yeah. And I just basically use them as a
learning experience and then basically was like, I'll never talk
about this ever again. I hear you, well we have.
Speaker 4 (51:15):
I will. Uh. I will make sure to check out
your your your YouTube page. What is what's the name
of it?
Speaker 3 (51:21):
Real iron fist films.
Speaker 4 (51:23):
I would not have found that. It's been a pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (51:27):
Oh no, my pleasure is all mine, you know. I
want to say thank you for coming on Melanie. Oh yeah, no,
it's fun.
Speaker 4 (51:32):
It is a blast.
Speaker 3 (51:34):
Melanie. I want to wish you the best of luck
with the Artomist Film Festival and and everything you do.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Well, thank you and and and did.
Speaker 3 (51:40):
Oh oh, thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (51:42):
Yeah. Well, I'll be on your YouTube page.
Speaker 3 (51:44):
Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna look for you there, all right, cool,
all right, take care of Melanie. Ever a great day YouTube,
bye bye bye.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
a great job on this episode. If you want to
get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Indie film Muscle
dot com.
Speaker 3 (52:02):
Forward slash eight.
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Ten twenty five and if you have it already, please
head over to filmmaking podcast dot com, subscribe and leave
a good review for the show. It really helps us
out a lot, guys.
Speaker 3 (52:13):
Thank you again so much for listening to guys.
Speaker 2 (52:15):
As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1 (52:22):
Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
indiefilm hustle dot com. That's I N D I E
F I L M h U S T l E
dot com.
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