IFH 833: Making Movies Without Sight: Inside the Creative Mind of Gough

Gough, the world’s first legally blind filmmaker to write, produce, edit, direct, and star in a feature film, has built a groundbreaking career through his production company, Beer Nuts Productions. After years of rejection due to his disability, he took control of his creative destiny, launching his career with I Will Not Go Quietly, a documentary exploring disability and mental health. Gough proved that passion, skill, and determination—not vision—define a filmmaker.

Over the years, he has produced 14 films, multiple books, and audio projects, all infused with his sharp comedic voice. Combining DIY filmmaking with strategic marketing, Gough has mastered both storytelling and self-promotion. His success reminds creators everywhere that limitations are simply challenges to be redefined. Through humor, heart, and sheer willpower, he continues to prove that creativity has no barriers.

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight
thirty three, Cinema Should make You forget You're sitting in
a theater, Roman Polanski.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
Film Hustle Podcast, where we showed you how to survive
and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
the film biz.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari.

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur
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It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers to
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(01:03):
and there needs to be a change the future of
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(01:24):
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want to order it, just head over to www. Dot

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

Speaker 5 (01:54):
On this episode of the podcast, I have a very
special filmmaker because he is a very special journey, a
very special case, even more so than usual because he's
actually blind. This person is the first legally blind person
to write, produce, edit, direct, and start a feature film,
which is the first time that's happened, I mean, you know.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
And then he's going on to.

Speaker 5 (02:15):
Write and produce and direct many other projects, including a
number of films, audiobooks and books. His film production company,
Beer Nuts Productions, has worked with some of Australia's finest actors,
artists and production crew and he has been able to
you know, he's doing you know, following his dream. He's
doing it right there in Australia. And that's one of
the things about this podcast is pulling people from all

(02:36):
over the world, and it's seeing that all of the
great things are happening all over the place, and we
talk all about that stuff and how do you make
a film when you're blind? And you know, all the
doors were closed in his face and nobody really took
him seriously. And now he's out there doing it. And
now he's on this podcast with guest Goff. You know,

(02:58):
by the way, you are actually the first per from
Australia that they've actually had on the podcast.

Speaker 6 (03:03):
Oh I feel honored. I feel honored.

Speaker 7 (03:06):
So, yeah, you're making it global. Now you're going global.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
We've had Canadians on, I've had some British filmmakers on
and now and I've had New Zealand filmmakers on. So
now we're going to go to Australia.

Speaker 7 (03:22):
Now I'm a little upset that New Zealand came before Australia.
I do have to say, I mean, you know, I
don't know that that's quite I think you've got the
order there a little bit mixed up, you know, so
because obviously in Australia we make all of our jokes
about New Zealanders like you guys do about Canadians, you know.
So you know, I'm just a little bit upset that

(03:42):
New Zealand came first.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
I'm sorry man it What happened was she reached out
to me, and that was our good friend at film
sprats pr and she actually reached out to me and
just said, hey, Dave, you want to do this, and
I said sure. You know what you know, GoF, I
did not think about it, though I should have. I
should have said I'm sorry, I have that's something on
Australia first, and then I can have you on.

Speaker 7 (04:09):
Your life the next time.

Speaker 5 (04:11):
Yeah, exactly, I'll make sure to make that now. I'll
never make that mistake again, I swear to God. So
so goff if we get started, uh, you know, just
discussing your career, you know you have a very interesting,
uh you know, backstory because you know, I've never had
anyone on the show before that has that is actually.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Legally blind and you're a filmmaker, and.

Speaker 5 (04:35):
I mean, I think that is so unique and so
just incredible, and I think, you know a lot of
people are interested to here, you know, how you actually
your your process and how you work. So so just
to get started, goff. You know, how when when did
you get started actually you know, making films and making
movies well, being.

Speaker 6 (04:54):
Out to Productions, which is my production company.

Speaker 7 (04:57):
I started that back in two thousand and six, so
a long time ago now, And I first started, like
I had a bunch of scripts that I had written,
and I was sending them out to distributors, networks, production companies,
private investors. I mean, I was sending out what to play.
You couldn't even imagine the places I was sending out
the pictures and scripts. And it became clear to me

(05:20):
that nobody wanted to pick up my work. And it
was based purely on the fact that they knew I
had a disability, and they're like, oh, he's blind. This
is what the hell's this guy thinking. So you know,
they weren't, they weren't actually you know, reading the work promptly.
They were just you know, dismissing me out of hand.
So in twenty ten, I thought, well, the best thing

(05:41):
to do is to make a film myself, and I'll
show them that I can actually do what I say
I can do. So that's when I made my very
first film, which was a ninety minute full length documentary
all about disability and mental health called I Will Not
Go Quietly. And so I did all of that myself.
So I shot up my self. I've edited myself, I

(06:02):
got the funds myself, you know, I bought my own equipment,
I did the lot myself, and so I thought that
would That's part of the narrative of the story of
that particular documentary is is actually showing that, yes, I
can actually do what I say I can do as
well as obviously we interview twenty four experts like neurosurgeons

(06:24):
and school teachers and psychologists and even comedians as well
to get their take on disability and mental health issues
and stuff like that. So after I did the documentary,
then I thought, well, you know, I want to keep
going with doing what I'm doing. And so yeah, I
just started making my own, turning my scripts that I
had that I was sending out. I thought, we'll just

(06:45):
make them myself, and so I, yeah, I just funded
them myself and started the gravy train, so to speak.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
So just to sort of take a step back, when
you mentioned when you were, you know, getting rejected, and
it was of saying, you know, what does this guy know? Well,
you know what kind of scripts were you writing? Was
it like a full was it full length scripts or
was it like short film scripts?

Speaker 7 (07:08):
I had everything, man, I mean I've been writing ever
since I was a little kid. So I had everything
from TV series to short films to feature films, like
things that were big budget and things that were tiny.
And so I was sending out all different kinds of
things to all different kinds of people, and yeah, just
putting together some what I thought were really strong pictures.

(07:29):
And yeah, like I said, just nobody wanted to know.
So I figured, you know, I didn't want to give up.
I mean, I figured I spent all this time writing
all this this great work. You know, I want people
to enjoy it and be entertained by what I do.
So you know, the best way to do it is
to just do it myself. If they're not going to
help me, then I'll just do it myself pretty much.

Speaker 5 (07:51):
Yeah, and that DYI attitude to do yourself. I think
that that you know, as we were, you know, in
twenty seventeen, and that attitude is prevalent everywhere because you
can make your own film now. You know, you can
shoot it on a cell phone, as we've had Sean
Baker who did Tangerine, he'd.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
Shut his film on a cell phone.

Speaker 5 (08:11):
You can distribute it yourself, with a Jason brubriger On
talking about that. So you know, things have definitely changed
goff where you can now do those types of things
yourself and you could be almost a one man army,
you know what I mean. You can go out and
produce your material and say, you know what, I can
do this stuff and you know I am going to
do it.

Speaker 7 (08:31):
And here it is absolutely man. I couldn't agree more. Actually,
there's a very famous Australian comedian, writer, producer directory done
a bit of everything called a Ian mcfadgen who was
huge in the nineteen eighties on Australian television and he
now is a lecturer at university and I remember meeting
him one day and he said to me, he said, Gos,

(08:53):
it's never been easier to make because they were talking
about TV. He said, it's never been easier to make
a TV show, but it's never been harder to get
it out. And he's absolutely right. I mean, the equipment
prices have gone down, Like you say, you can even
shoot stuff with a cell phone if you want to,
so that I mean, so it's never been easier to
make it and edit it and get it packaged and

(09:15):
ready to go, But it's now so hard to get
it out to the public because it's hard for you
to promote your work and get the public to your
particular website, you know, to your wherever you're housing your
your gear. It's hard for them to for you to
put your hand up in such a crowded marketplace and say,
look at me, look at me. So it's never been

(09:36):
easier to do it, but it's also never been harder
to get your work out there for people to enjoy.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Yeah, it's the new war of eyeballs and ears.

Speaker 7 (09:46):
And you.

Speaker 5 (09:48):
See and you say, you know, how do I get
people to see my stuff? How do I get people
to listen to my stuff? How do I get people
to read my stuff? You know, since content creation is
increasing every every year, every month, week, every day.

Speaker 4 (10:02):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Every hour.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
It's like, you know, and there's so much stuff being
you know, out there, and the barriers are are are
gone and the sort of you know, the barrier's entry
are gone, and now you know everyone has the Internet.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Well, uh well for the time being here in America
we all have the Internet.

Speaker 5 (10:27):
I don't know if you I don't know if you
know this, Golf, but the the they might end net
neutrality here and I don't know how that's going to
play in the content creation and all this stuff, but
uh well we'll see about that. But so so, but
just to sort of go backs talking about with with
everyone being able to make stuff, it's it's the war
of you know, how do you stand out from the pack? So,

(10:48):
you know, and I do want to talk also about
your documentary, but as one of this topic, you know,
what are some of the things that you found Golf
that that that are that enabled you to stand out
and sort of you know, stand up from the pack.

Speaker 7 (11:01):
Well, with each project, I do, because I've done fourteen
films now, so with each film, but I do I
do a reasonably heavy marketing campaign. I've got a young
lady called Amy on board who helps me with all
my marketing stuff, and so we do social media stuff,
but we also do a lot of old school marketing
campaign so we contact the media, you know, send out

(11:23):
your press releases to local media and international media and
even like podcat like yourself, and yeah, just contact as
many media outlets as we can and try and get
some interview and some press that way as well as
obviously the social media kind of kind of angle as well.
So we sort of hit it in two ways, is

(11:43):
how we go about it at the moment. So yeah,
every time we do a film, we do a reasonably
heavy kind of marketing campaign to go with each film.

Speaker 5 (11:52):
So is there any particular like social media channel or
outlet that works best for you?

Speaker 7 (11:59):
Well, I have found Facebook and Instagram to be the
two best, But I mean I've heard other people love
Twitter and use Twitter a lot. I'm on Twitter. So
if people jump on all of those platforms and type
in be and uts productions, obviously I'll come straight up.
And I obviously encourage people to life follow and share
my social media pages. So yeah, just being nuts productions,

(12:20):
But yeah, I've found Facebook probably to be the best
in Instagram as well. But I mean I think it's
a bit of horses for courses, you know, whatever you're doing.
I mean, everybody's different in their genre, in their style,
and their way they go about doing things. I mean,
so yeah, it's a little bit that works for me,

(12:42):
but what works for me probably won't work for another guy,
you know what I mean. So yeah, but I have
found them to be helpful. But you need to do
more than that. You know, you can't just put something
up on YouTube or put something up on Facebook and
expect to go insane. You know, you got to It's
a full time job. Market is the first why I
had to hire somebody, because it really is. It's a

(13:03):
full time gig is marketing, and so you need you
need that extra help to make sure that people can
enjoy your work. Because at the end of the day,
what's the point in making something if people aren't going
to enjoy it. I mean, that's the whole point of
doing this is so that you can entertain people and
make people happy. I mean, that's why we all do
what we do. So you know, it's important, but you

(13:24):
get the work out there, so people can enjoy it.

Speaker 5 (13:27):
Yeah, I agree completely, Guff. And you know it's in
speaking of you know, all these social media channels and stuff.
I wanted to ask because I haven't had a chance
to really ask anyone this yet.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
So you're very close, well reasonably speaking to China.

Speaker 7 (13:43):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (13:44):
And in China, the number one social media app is Webo.
Have you ever attempted to use like Webo for anything?
And the reason I bring that up was just because
you know, the country has you know, I think a
couple hundred million people on there. I've always and I
just as a marketer, you see to yourself, My god,
a country that has on a couple hundred million people

(14:06):
then and it's legit, you know. And and it just
keeps rising as China keeps pulling more and more people
towards the city from rural areas to maybe they could
reach their full cap. But with so many people on that,
have you ever attempted to try to use waibel?

Speaker 7 (14:22):
I haven't.

Speaker 6 (14:22):
I'm sorry, Yeah, no, I wish I could give.

Speaker 7 (14:25):
You a really clever answer, but I can't. But no,
it's no, I never have. It's not something that Amy
and I have discussed, to be honest, with you, I
think mainly because we mainly go for English speaking audiences
for the simple reason is, you know, my films are
mainly comedy base. Well pretty much all of my work
is comedy base, and so you really need to have

(14:47):
a fairly good grasp of the English language. So we
mainly go for you know, your western sort of country,
so to speak, so you had more English speaking audience.
But I mean, it's something that we'd absolutely look into
in the future, but uh yeah, for now, probably probably not,
but it's you know, it's on that on the right.

Speaker 6 (15:05):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Yeah, I figured i'd ask.

Speaker 5 (15:08):
I mean just because I've never had seen anyone actually
use it yet, and I was just interested, uh, you
know obviously, you know, just because anything that's a couple
hundred million users, you're kind of like, well, I guess
I actually at least attempt to see what you wanted
to see what this is about, you know, uh, and
you being a lot closer to China than I am.
And uh, but but you know, as we sort of good,

(15:29):
I just want to take a step back. I mean,
I know we've we've kind of gone away to the
marketing aspect of this, but you know, with all your
writing and everything, and and you know, you grew up
with this love of writing, and you started to write
all these screenplays and short film scripts and you know, nobody,
you know, like like you just said, nobody really took
you seriously or nobody wanted to produce it, and you

(15:51):
ended up making your own film, which ended up becoming
I Will Not Go Quietly.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
And you know what was the impetus and.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
Where you finally said, you know, to yourself, I'm gonna shoot,
I'm gonna prove them all wrong and I'm just going
to shoot this movie myself and I'm just gonna I'm
going to do it, and I'm just going to move
forward with this.

Speaker 7 (16:14):
Yeah well yeah, well yeah, pretty much out of frustration,
you know, people just not understanding. I mean, there's a
lot of ignorance in the world in regards to disability.
But the good news is is that ignorance is a
curable disease. You know, all you need to do is
get yourself educated, which is pretty easy to do in
now day and age. So it came out through frustration

(16:35):
of people just not understanding, you know, my disability and
what I can and can't do. So I thought, well,
if I use my own story as a template, and
then like I say, get a range of experts to
talk with their knowledge on these subjects of disability and
mental health. Then yeah, I reckon I could make a
pretty good film. And sure, en up, I got myself

(16:56):
for my ninety minute feature out of it, which I'm
really really proud of. So yeah, like I said, that
was back in twenty ten, so a little while ago now,
But yeah, I I'm very happy with how it turned out.
But yeah, it was. It was all came about through
basic frustration really and just not being able to be heard,
I guess, really yeah.

Speaker 5 (17:16):
And I think a lot of people have felt that way,
and also instills feel that way. You know, when I
and I read about different paths that we've all taken,
and not only guests on this podcast, but just hearing
people from Hollywood and hearing people in any film world
from all over the world, you know, you start to
see these different paths that people take. And there is

(17:38):
always a time when people sort of say, you know what,
there's no it seems like every door is closed. You
try to go this route and screwing and competitions and
that that door is closed you try to go to
this route and you try to get film financing and
then you know that door is closed because it always
becomes a catch twenty two right off where it's like.

Speaker 7 (17:56):
But you gotta always find a way, man, Well you
know where a will there's a way. You've got to
figure out that that's what it's about, though, because you're
absolutely right. I mean, there's nothing more frustrating, and I'm
sure a lot of your listeners who are filmmakers would
absolutely agree with There's nothing more frustrating than knowing you're
sitting on a really terrific script, a really great idea,

(18:19):
and just people just aren't getting it for whatever reason.
I mean maybe maybe your pitch isn't as good as
it should be, or maybe they're not reading it ry,
or they're not understanding a character, whatever the case may be.
But you know you're sitting on something great. So you
just need to figure out, well, how can I get
this now made? How can I get this out there?
You know what angle do I cake? Because I mean

(18:41):
that's the traditional way of making films. I mean, it
doesn't really work for everybody. So you've got to figure out, well,
how can I get this done? So for me, it was, well,
you know what, I'll fund it myself. You know, because
a documentary at the end of the day, a documentary
isn't that expensive to do, because I mean, once you
get the equipment do, all you have to do is
just organize the interviews that you want to do and

(19:03):
get the clips that you need to get and put
it together. I mean, it's not that different. I mean
there's no big stunts or special effects or anything like
that that you have to worry about. So a documentary
is a reasonably easy thing to do. And then of
course the money that you make from that then you
can put to which is what I did, put towards
your next project. And then the money you make from that,

(19:23):
you put towards your next project, and before you know it,
you're churning them out, which is absolutely what you want
to do. So that's sort of how my business model
has been. So with every project that I release, I
get the money from that, I put it into the
next project and hopefully make it bigger and better, and
then you know, I can get more money and make
the next film bigger and better. And so that's that's

(19:44):
sort of how I go about it, because that things
to work for me.

Speaker 5 (19:47):
So yeah, it's like what Walt Disney always said that,
you know, he always he only makes he only makes movies,
so we can make more movies. And that's why, you know,
when the money would come and you take that and
you put.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
It towards your next project.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (20:10):
Absolutely, no, absolutely, I mean and like I love what
I do. I really do, so you know, I don't
want to I don't want to low all my money
on something something that isn't going to be helpful to me.
I mean, I want to keep I've got tons of
scripts still to make. You know, I've still got lots
of great ideas and still got lots of scripts that

(20:31):
I need to make. So I'm going to keep going.
You know, I'm not going to stop. So yeah, when
people hit the website, the Benutsproductions dot com or c
you know, we've got five books, we've got seven audio downloads,
and we've got fourteen films for people to enjoy. And
so yeah, we're just going to keep on keep on
rocking them out as quickly as they possibly can.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
And that's just to do.

Speaker 5 (20:54):
You have to keep that momentum going. And that's something
I've found is that once you hit some even if
it no matter what it is, even if it's a
short film that's that's five ten seconds, or a podcast, whatever,
you have to keep that momentum going. Because if there's
one thing I found, Garf, it's this confidence is a

(21:16):
very hard thing to attain and very easy to lose.
But once you have that confidence and you can start
keeping momentum going, and it builds up. I mean, once
you have confidence, Garf, you feel like you can conquer
the world.

Speaker 7 (21:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
Well that's very true, but it's also.

Speaker 7 (21:31):
The confidence of others. So for example, when I first
did my first scripted projects and not the documentary, when
I did my first scripted film, like the talent agent,
so I go about making a film like anybody else does.
So you know, I contact all the talent agents around
Brisbane and the Gold Coast and I give them a
brief of you know, let's say, for example, I need

(21:51):
a thirty year old guy and he's got to look
he's playing a bad guy, so he's got to have,
you know, an evil kind of look about him. He's
got to look a bit dark and shady. So I'll
send out my brief to the agents. They'll send me,
you know, back a whole heap of actors who have
got on their books who they think would suit. I
do auditions. I hire the best actors, so I do
it all how a profer film should be made. So

(22:12):
the very first time I did that, man, I struggled
so bad to get the agents to take me seriously.
They're going, you're gonna make a short film by like
with what you know, You're going to fund it yourself,
and you've got a couple of crew members. I mean that,
you know, they didn't really take me seriously. But now
I'm onto my you know, I just finished my fourteenth film.

(22:34):
Now they now have got confidence in me. You know,
they know that, you know, I am actually going to
pay their actors. They know that I'm not full of shit.
I do do what I say I'm gonna do, you
know what I mean. So it's also having the confidence
in and also the confidence from your audience to know that,
you know, they can hit the bea Uts Productions website
and they know that they're going to get a really entertaining,
funny film. So they're happy to come back time and

(22:56):
time again and keep clicking back. So you're absolutely right,
confidence as well, that goes up, but it's also the
confidence of people you work with and the confidence of
the general public as well to enjoy your work.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
Yeah, it's uh, I know what you mean about the
confidence of others. And you mentioned by the way you're
putting everything together, and I wanted to actually ask about
that when you were actually making your documentary. Your documentary,
I will not go quietly, you know, how did you
put everything together?

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Since this was your first outing?

Speaker 5 (23:27):
You know, I imagine you know, obviously you're you're you're
still building a network, you're still making contacts, you're still
looking for equipment. So how did you go about, you know,
getting everything together for your first project?

Speaker 7 (23:38):
Yeah? Well when when that particular one? So I basically
pulled all my funds together that I had, so pretty
much all my savings, which probably isn't the greatest idea
in the world, but I thought, well, you know, I've
got to go for it. Because that's the other thing too,
just going back to your previous point, sometimes you just
got to take a risk, you know, you've got to
take a punt and just believe in yourself and believe
in your work. So I got all my funds together,

(23:59):
I bought the equipment that I thought I would need,
like just a regular sort of handicam tripod, you know,
a little raiding couple of radio mics, you know, just
basic standard equipment. I organized the interviews with the people.
I just went out. I shot them myself, so, you know,
just pretty much pointed the camera and hoped for the best,
because obviously framing's not going to be something I'm going

(24:22):
to be fantastic at. So I just, yeah, I shot
it myself. And then I actually, when I first finished
high school, my first job was working at a radio
station as an audio producer, making their commercials and their promos.
So I did that for about three years. So I've
had a lot of practice in editing audio. So when
it comes to editing a film, I do it like

(24:43):
I'm editing a radio commercial, in this case, a ninety
minute radio play. So I get the clips that I want,
I put them to one side, and then I just
put the clips together like a jigsaw puzzle, so just
making sure that they all make sense and they're all coherent,
so to speak, and put it together like that. So
I just edit by audio, and that still happened today.

(25:03):
So I've got Simon, who's my right hand man now,
who I edit with, and so he makes sure that like,
for example, let's say somebody is getting exiting a car,
for example, so he'll make sure that the shot from
inside the car is going to marry up with the
shot outside of the car that is not, you know,
so it's nice and smooth, you know. So he makes

(25:24):
sure all that stuff is how it should be for me.
But I pretty much tell him my cues as to
you know, when we're going from a if it's a conversation,
for example, if we're going from a long shot to
a close shot, I'll know in my mind the audio
the cue point that. So when the girl finished the speaking,
for example, I want to cut to the two shot

(25:46):
then and have them both on shots. So I know
all my cues by audio, So I'll say to Simon, right,
cut it there, two shot, and so he'll make it
all happen for me now. So I still edit by
audio even today.

Speaker 5 (26:00):
Yeah, and I wanted to ask too before I forget,
did you did you have a full time job while
you were making this film? No?

Speaker 7 (26:10):
No, no go, Yeah, I I well, yeah, like I said,
I started in radio doing and then I also was
While I was working in radio, I was also touring
as a stand up comedian. So I've toured all over
the plate doing stand up comedy. And so when I
started up being up to productions, I was still doing

(26:31):
the stand up comedy. But then as obviously as the
films have sort of taken over the doing stand up comedy,
I don't really do that anymore, so I sort of
gave that away. So yeah, when I was doing I
Will Not Go Quietly the first film, I was doing
the occasional stand up gig. But yeah, no, that was
pretty much the end of stand up and working full

(26:52):
time on the production company.

Speaker 5 (26:55):
The reason I brought that up was because a lot
of filmmakers when they're making their first, you know, first movie,
they're either working a full time job, they're going to school,
they have a family, uh, you know, or a combination
of the three, and it's it's always like, how the
hell do you have.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
The time to do it? You know what I mean,
do anything else?

Speaker 5 (27:14):
So and then it's always at that point, you know,
whether when you know you're you decided you've had enough,
you're gonna make something of your own, and you're this
is going to be you.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Know, your shot.

Speaker 5 (27:25):
It's also about you know, you're at that point where
you have really nothing left to lose, so to speak,
and you know, you know, we're just pulling yourself off
out of that and making those connections and finding the time,
and you don't have them.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
What you don't you get up early, you go to
bed late.

Speaker 5 (27:40):
You know, you call in every favor you can to
to make sure that this this movie is as good
as possible. Because I actually had on the guy Elliott
Grove who runs rain Dance, and he actually, uh was
was the person who helped Christopher Nolan make his first film.
Following and Christopher Nolan made it on weekends and he
would come to his office and you know, borrow the

(28:02):
same equipment and he was done, you know, he you know,
Christopher Noll went off and was making other movies at
that point, you know, and the rest is history. But
you know, that's why I'm always fascinated about people's first
films because it's always a very like David Lynch with Eraserhead.
It took me years to finish that film, and you
know that's why I'm always interested about people's first films

(28:24):
because there's always a unique even a unique story within
the story.

Speaker 7 (28:28):
Yeah, well well that's why I say, you know, yeah,
you just like you are absolutely correct. I mean it
came to a point where I was like, you know what,
I can't I can't keep getting rejected by people that
don't understand me and my work and whatnot. So you
know what, I just have to do this, I mean,
otherwise I'm going to be going around in circles like

(28:50):
on a racetrack like for the next ten, fifteen, twenty
thirty years. I mean there's guys that I used to
do stand up comedy with who were still working the
same rooms doing the saying jokes fifteen years later. I mean,
like I said, I haven't done a stand up comedy
gig I Reckon in at least five, probably seven years.
But I mean, these guys that I used to tour with,

(29:10):
they're still doing the same stuff. You know that they're
they're in a rutso to speak. You know, they need to,
and some of them are really funny, talented guys who
could actually really kick some goals if they just sort
of put their mind to focusing on what they really
want to achieve and what they want to do, you know.
So I suppose it's just comes down to a case
of having the confidence, like you said earlier, to back

(29:32):
yourself in and go, you know what, I can actually
do this. I want to do it, and you never Hey, look, Ben,
you've only got one life. You may as well give
it or you've got you've got to give it a shot,
you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (29:42):
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Guff.

Speaker 5 (29:45):
You know that by the way, You know, as you
were describing those comedians that you that you used to
work with, you know, that would make an interesting documentary
just following.

Speaker 7 (29:54):
Them around, would Yes? Absolutely?

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Have you ever thought about that?

Speaker 4 (30:00):
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
and now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (30:09):
Well, because the other thing too, I mean, I don't know.
I'm sure a few of your listeners probably a comedy
nerds or go and watch a lot of stand up
comedy or whatever. But behind the scenes, it's a very
caddy kind of backstabbing kind of industry because, especially in Australia,
there's a lot of comedians and not enough rooms, so

(30:29):
people are fighting for work, so there's a lot of
you know, like mean girls kind of you know, pretty
high school bullshit that goes on behind political nonsense that
goes on behind the scenes. You know, Like so it
would absolutely make if you were able to do it properly.
I mean, like really do a proper fly on the

(30:50):
wall and absolutely expose all the bullshit that goes on.
Because everybody thinks comedians are just happy, wonderful, hilarious, great people,
But that's I mean, just changing topics slightly. That's why
I think comedians make such fantastic actors. I mean, you
look at somebody like Robin Williams, you know, Billy Connolly
is another one. You know, comedians make great actors because

(31:12):
every night they go on stage and they play a character,
you know it. So what you're seeing on stage, they're
really funny and they're doing funny jokes, but that's not
who they are when they get off stage, they're a
completely different person. That's just their stage persona. So they're
acting you know, five sometimes even seven nights a week,
and so that's why I think that when it comes
to doing a serious role, a lot of comedians of

(31:35):
fantastic actors. I mean, I saw will Farrell I mean,
people wouldn't think of him as being a great actor,
but I saw him in a film called Stranger Than Fiction,
which I think I was the only person who actually
saw that film. It was a really great film. But
he and he had to play a sort of a
Truman Show kind of a serious sort of a character,
and he was absolutely fantastic. He did a wonderful job.

(31:58):
You know, he was really great. I think that's why
comedians make great actors, is because they're acting every night.
So going back to the original point, I think a
documentary like that would be really really fascinating because you'd
actually see what they're actually like when the camera, you know,
when when when they're not on stage, you know, and
you'd see all the the agents and the bullshit that

(32:21):
goes on back behind the scenes. You know. It's it's
like it's like politics, you know, it's it can be
a terrible industry. Really. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (32:30):
I actually had a Din Barris on here for episode
one hundred and he and I you know, discussed that briefly,
but about because he was he actually works at the
comedy store.

Speaker 3 (32:41):
He actually closes there every night.

Speaker 7 (32:43):
And he know, man, yeah, he know.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
Yeah, it's just all about you know, all the different
comedians that have come come back through and their you know,
over time. And on Mark Marin's podcast, he and and
Mark just discussed working with Sam the legendary comedian, and
they would say some of the stuff that he would
come out with and we and you know, just just
some of the stuff where it was it was so
petty over absolutely nothing, and it's like, you know, you know,

(33:11):
it a joke too similar, you know, did this guy
get a bigger laugh than me?

Speaker 3 (33:16):
I go on before him because I'm a bigger star
than this guy. And it's you know, a lot of
the guys are just like, is it really like it?
Does it all this really matter at the end?

Speaker 6 (33:25):
Yeah, well well yeah, that's that. And that's why I reckon.

Speaker 7 (33:29):
But I think it would be difficult to make that
documentary because I think it would be hard to get
that on camera. I think they would make sure that
you know, they were playing up for that. That's why
I don't I don't know that you'd be able to
do it for that exact reason. I think it would
be really hard to get them to actually, you know,
show that side of themselves and show the cattiness and

(33:50):
the I kid coming. I mean, that's the phrase we
use on the stroke. But I mean, if you've seen
the movie Mean Girls, I mean, that's what it's like,
except to fully grown men who should know better, you
know what I mean. So yeah, but it would it
would be an interesting doco if you could actually do
it properly, it could be a really interesting doco.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
You know.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
I had a friend of mine who made a documentary
and he nobody was really like wanting to speak their mind,
so to speak, and he was really pissed off. He
was frustrated and he's like, it's not coming together. So
what he did was, by chance, he went to an
after party one night and he was like, I'll just
see what happens here. Well, some of the people got

(34:30):
a few beers in them, and suddenly they're they're going
up to him and they're just like, let me tell
you about this son of a bitch about it And
he's like, oh my guy, he goes, this is what
I wanted. Oh I needed was a couple of alcohol.
I should have thought of that in the first place.

Speaker 6 (34:44):
Well, when I did, I will not go quietly.

Speaker 7 (34:47):
I purposely was very vague with everybody because, like I said,
I interviewed twenty four people, and I was purposely vague
on my emails as to what I was going to
ask them, because I mean a lot of people especially,
I mean, there was a few people that wouldn't speak
to me because, for example, in the disability sector in Australia,

(35:08):
the employment disability sector. I mean, one thing I found
out was seventy percent of all blind of vision impaired
people in Australia are unemployed. They can't get work because
no one will give them a go. It's disgrace. And
so a lot of people in the disability work sector
just would not talk to me because they know they're
not doing their jobs properly and they can't put these
people into work, and you know, it's just a complete

(35:31):
shambles of an organization. So I was deliberately vague. When
I would send out the emails, I was just you know,
I'd introduce myself, tell them who I was and what
I was, you know, I was making a documentary on
disability and mental health. But I wouldn't tell them any
more than that. You know. Some people said, oh, I
want to see the questions in advance, in which case
I'd send them some very loose questions. But I always

(35:52):
was deliberately vague, because if you give people a chance
to rehearse what they're going to say, it's not true,
you know, the they'll like, well but that weren't law
per se, but they'll put a positive spin to make
the situational themselves look as positive as possible. So I was, Yeah,
like I say, I was deliberately vague with the people

(36:12):
I was interviewing them so I would get more honest
answers and feedback for when I interviewed them.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
And you know that that's actually ties into with a
question I really wanted to ask you Golf, and I'm
glad you actually brought it up. Is when you were
making you know, not only this documentary but everything else,
you know, with you know, you being legally blind, it is,
is there ever a time when you're watching like maybe
the field monitor or playback when.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
You're I mean, I'm generally interested.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
I mean, is there ever a time when you have
where you actually you know, can't I don't you know
what I'm saying trying to say, like, can you ever
like have do you have trouble sometimes seeing playback or
or sometimes you know what I mean, like, or do
you do you have like a DP that you depend
on for that?

Speaker 7 (36:56):
Yeah, well, well a little bit of all of that.
So we're I can if I knows to monitor, I
can see what's going on pretty good. But when we're shooting,
because our budgets aren't big, we just got to shoot
and we've got to move on, so I don't have
a chance to actually see the footage until we begin editing,
and then I'll look through the footage then. So for example,

(37:18):
the very first scripted film I did, which was the
Heather Roses Interview, I hired a crew and the guy
who was on one of the cameras decided that my
direction wasn't up to his liking and he was shooting
all different things, and so I went insane because that
wasn't cool, man. I mean, that's not the right thing

(37:40):
to do at all. I mean, and there's no way
we could go back and reshoot it because we didn't
have the budget to do that. So obviously he only
lasted the one project and he was gone. So it
comes down to having a team around me that I
can trust and that I know that if I give
them a direction, they can follow it and it's also
about them under standing what I want to achieve. So

(38:02):
it's about me being able to communicate with my my
you know, my director of photography, you know, this is
what I want and this is why I want it,
and then he'll be like, Okay, I understand, I get it.
So you know, I can just then leave him alone
to do his job, because I'm a big believer in
that as well. Is you know, if you have a
great team of people around you, you don't have to

(38:22):
babysit them. You know, you can give them their direction
and they'll go and they'll do their job. And that
means that I can then spend more time with my
actors making sure that I get the performances that I
want because at the end of the day, man if
a performance from an actor isn't believable, then it doesn't
matter how good your sound is or your lighting is
there anything. Man, I mean, people are going to tune

(38:43):
out instantly if the actor's crap, then I mean there's
not much you can do without you know what I'm saying.
So I make sure I spend a lot of time,
you know, really working the script with my actors to
make sure they understand precisely exactly what I want, and
not being able to see I think actually helps because
I really focus on tones and inflections and things like that.

(39:04):
So if they're getting a word wrong, I pick it
up immediately, so, you know, because I've spent a lifetime
having to listen to people, so you know, I really
really spend a lot of time with my actors with
rehearsing their lines to make sure they get them absolutely
spot on. And I, you know, like I say, with
the DP and I I just I give. I've got

(39:24):
a really good relationship with him now, so he knows
exactly how I like to shoot my work and what
I you know, my sort of style, and so he
sort of almost knows before I do kind of thing,
how I'm going to say I want this shot. He
sort of knows immediately now because we've done well, we've
done twelve films together now, so yeah, he knows how

(39:45):
I roll now. So it works really well. But it's
all about trust, you know. You've got to have a
crew that you can trust and actors that you can
trust as well, and the thing goes as well. So
when I'm directing my actors, I can't see their facial
expressions obviously.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Be right back after a word from our sponsor and
now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (40:08):
So I'll say to Simon, you know, mate, how are
they are they giving me good face? And He'll say, yeah,
they're giving you good face. And so that's how I
know that I'm getting the facial expressions that I needed. Well,
we can move on to the next shot. So yeah,
a lot of trust goes into it. But you just
can't have I mean, we're unprofessional anyway, but you can't
have people going rogue on you and just doing their

(40:30):
own thing because it just makes a mess of the
whole production.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
Yeah, and you touched on something that I'm a big
advocate of, which is if you're going to hire somebody,
let them do that job. You know, I've been on
sets before a golf where it's like people want to
directors or producers, they want to micromanage everybody to the
nth degree, and you sit there you go, well, didn't
you hire this person? I mean if they don't know

(40:55):
what to do, I mean, that's that's on you, you know,
because you're you're you know what I mean. If you
hire the person and they don't know what they're doing,
that's your fault, you know, So just just let them
do their thing.

Speaker 6 (41:06):
But even when it comes down to things like costume
and makeup.

Speaker 7 (41:08):
So I'm a boy, so you know I'm not you know,
I don't know a lot about this stuff. So I'll
sit down with the makeup artists, for example, and she'll say,
you know, how do you want this girl to look?
And so I'll give a basic description of how I
wanted to look, and if she's got any questions, she'll
ask me. But basically it's okay, I get it all right, Well,
off you go and make her look like that. I mean,

(41:29):
you know, I mean I don't know about you know,
different shades for the eyeshadow and whatnot. I've told you
the general look of the girl, the character. So make
her look like that. That's your job. Off you go.
So that that's kind of how I work, and it's
important to do that because then, like I say, I
can focus on the things that I really need to
focus on, and if somebody does have an issue, they

(41:52):
can come to me and I've got time to help
them solve whatever problem that they might have.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
You know, yeah, yeah, very true.

Speaker 5 (42:00):
And you know that's why you have to hire good
people as best as you can, you know, and that's
that goes back to networking.

Speaker 3 (42:07):
And you know, I always tell people, even if you.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Can't afford to pay people, you know, work on their
movie for free, and then have them work on your
movie for free, just as you know, as sort of
a tip for tat if you can't afford to pay people,
there's always a creative way to solve problems.

Speaker 3 (42:21):
And you know, money is not always the answer.

Speaker 5 (42:24):
I mean sometimes it's you know, people always say it's
the it's the number one answer, because you know, money's money.
But if you if you do sort to meet new
people and say, hey, look, I have a small thing
to do, like a small short film or a small
web or a web series or whatever, you know, just
help each other out, you know, on that project, rather
than just try to, you know, constantly compensate people with cash.

Speaker 7 (42:46):
Yeah. Yeah, well, well that's true. I mean it's like
I said earlier, and I trust is so important when
you're when you're working with people. So if you if
you have a good relationship with your cat and your crew.
I mean, there's actors that I've worked with three or
four times in the film because I know that they'll
always do a good job for me. They're a quality actor.
So if I've got a film coming up and i've

(43:08):
got a particularly I don't necessarily right for actors, but
if I've got a film that's coming up and I think,
you know, so and so would be really good for
that role, I'll call him up straight away and say, hey, buddy, man,
I've got a job for you. Do you want it?
And then you know, we go from there. So it's
I'm a big believer in that in loyalty. You know,
if people it's silly to go out and hire somebody

(43:30):
new when you've got somebody who like I mean, Simon,
he's been working with me now for the best part
of five years, and I'm not gonna fack the guy
anytime soon because he does a fantastic job for me.
So I mean it's important as well to make sure
that once you find good people, you do whatever you
can to get him to stick around, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
Yes, absolutely, you got to keep that team going.

Speaker 5 (43:52):
And that's why, you know, I always see directors working
with the same people over and over again. It's because
they've built that team and they sort.

Speaker 3 (43:59):
Of work well together.

Speaker 5 (44:00):
And you know, as you made your film I Want
to Go Quietly, which by the way, is free on
your website.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
I think that's really really cool, by the way.

Speaker 5 (44:08):
And you know, you started to make some other films,
you know, other projects, other short films, so you know,
did you know.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
What was what was sort of that that journey?

Speaker 5 (44:17):
You know obviously you know, just making these other films,
I mean, did you start to get more and more
of a budget or do you always try to keep
the same sort of style and same budget moving forward?

Speaker 7 (44:29):
Oh? No, No, try and try and get as big
a budget as I possibly can, you know, so it
gives me a little bit more breathing space, so I
can maybe hire an extra crew member or if I
need a few other extras or whatever I could, I
can do that. So you know, I always try and
get as big a budgets as I can. But like
I say, it always depends on the sales of the
last film. So that's why obviously I encourage people to

(44:51):
hit up being auto productions dot Com and they'll see
all the films and whatnot up there, and they can
download whatever they want to and they're safe in the
knowledge that while they're getting entertained by that particular film,
that that that purchase of download is going towards making
my next film to entertain them. So again, everybody wins,
you know. So yeah, I try and try and scrape

(45:12):
together as much in the way of funds as I
possibly can. So yeah, because it does help, Let's be honest,
I mean it really does help. You know. The more
money you have, the better you can do things, the
more relaxed things can be. So so yeah, no, I
do try and do try and raise as much as
I can. But like I say, it all depends on sales.

Speaker 5 (45:31):
So you know, just as we talked again about you know,
your project in sales, You're sorry your project and sales.
You know what what has been the most challenging aspect
of all this has it? Has it ever been? You know,
getting a location? Has something ever fallen through that was
a guarantee?

Speaker 7 (45:46):
You know?

Speaker 5 (45:46):
What was one of the biggest challenges that you that
you faced, Garfin and how did you overcome that?

Speaker 7 (45:52):
Well? The films are reasonably straightforward. I mean, like I say,
I've got a good experience in this industry, so you know,
and I'm not one to jump up and down and panic,
So if something for locate, like for a film that
we're doing currently at the moment, we've had a bit
of trouble finding a specific location, but that's okay. I'll

(46:13):
just keep going until I find someone who wants to
play nice and let us film it their location. But
so so it's more about the marketing side of things.
That's what I've really found a struggle. Going back to
one of the things we discussed earlier in the in
the chat was marketing, and that's the number one thing
that we constantly are fighting. And that's why, like I said,

(46:33):
I had to employ somebody full time for that because
it was just trying to constantly market and then make
the films as well. Was just it was getting too much.
So and a plus, I needed somebody with more specific
skills because that's not my skill set, isn't marketing. That's
another important thing as well, when I think with filmmaking
is you've got to know what you're good at. So

(46:54):
I mean when it comes to the writing and directing
that I can do and producing, I can do all that,
but when it comes so I mean, I'm no good
with the artwork because I can't see. So I get
someone in to do that. And same with marketing. I
mean I tried the best I could, but in the end,
I just I knew I had to find somebody else,
someone with more experience and knowledge in that area. So

(47:14):
that's where Amy came in, and she's taken it through
the roof for me, which has been fantastic. But yeah,
as far as the films themselves go, well, I just
I just do what I do, man. I mean, like
I said, I do it all like a normal film
would get made. You know. I get the locations I need,
I get the actors I need. If I need any
specific crew members, I just search around till I find

(47:37):
the right people and I just keep going. We just Yes,
there hasn't been any any real big challenges in that regard.
Like I say, it's all about marketing. That's the number
one thing that as always, ever since day one, has
been the number one challenge has been getting the work
out there to the people.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
And so now that you have all this together, you
have that you have the website, and you have all
your all of your projects all in one spot. You know,
have you noticed have you noticed a sort of a
steady increase of views as you sort of get out
there more and more if you were discovering you and
your story. Have you noticed that or is it something

(48:18):
or are you trying to sort of you know, are
you still sort of looking for that that silver bullet
if you know what I mean?

Speaker 7 (48:24):
Oh no, no, it is. It is steadily increasing. I
mean I'd always like it to increase more, obviously, you know,
but it is. It is steadily slowly but surely growing,
you know, which is fantastic. I mean so, and that's
why I'm so grateful to people like yourself for having
me on the podcasts and letting me, you know, talk

(48:44):
about being nuts productions and what I do so that
people can have a chance to enjoy my work. And
so that's why I, like I say, I'm very grateful
for your time and for the podcast. You know, it
helped out people like me tremendously to share their work.
So yeah, but it's steadily rising, but yeah, hopefully hopefully

(49:04):
keeps growing and growing and growing, because that's like I
said in the beginning, Man, I mean, there's seven billion
people on this earth, and I'm not going to be
happy until all seven billion have watched one of my films.
So that's the goal. You know, so it'll never be
big enough.

Speaker 3 (49:18):
And that's exactly it, my friend, You've hit the nail
on the head.

Speaker 5 (49:22):
That's what I've I have that I always said to
myself too. I'm always like, there's seven billion people on
this planet, and by what two thousand and thirty or
twenty and fifty, there's going to be like I think
it's going to be up to like ten billion because
of the additions of all the dishes of China and India,
their populations keep rapidly expanding, especially India, and you know Indi,

(49:45):
you know, India is going to be the most populated
country in the world soon.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
Yes, yeah, yeah, we'll be right back after a word
from our sponsor. And now back to the show.

Speaker 7 (50:00):
Bill. Well, I mean and they just their film industry,
the Bollywood film industry. I mean, that is that is mass.
I think I could be way wrong, but I think
I heard somewhere I was watching a documentary on it,
and I'm pretty sure they said it's the second biggest
grossing product for India is Bollywood. Their film industry earned

(50:22):
the second you know, amount of money for that particular
country's income comes from Bollywood film which is just daggering.
It's mind blowing. So, you know, the film industry in
India is a huge, huge, huge thing.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
Yeah, and I did hear that as well.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
And because they've they produced so many different movies, you know,
a month, I mean there's.

Speaker 6 (50:46):
They turn them out like butter Yeah.

Speaker 5 (50:47):
Yeah, seriously, there's always another hit Bollywood movie coming out.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
It's you know, and then then.

Speaker 5 (50:53):
Some of them, the rare, the rare top couple find
their way over here to the USA and they sort
of they play in certain areas which which you know,
which some of them you know, are fantastic, and then
other ones. I you know, I try to watch films
from all over and I'm not a big musical guy,

(51:14):
so sometimes when they break out the song and dance,
it's just not my jam, you know.

Speaker 7 (51:23):
Yeah. No, they do have a very unique style. I mean,
I'm not saying that that or it's screwed or anything
like that. I'm just saying, you know, they've got their
own way in style of making film in Bollywood. You know,
it's very bright, it's very in your face. It's very yeah,
song and dance and then a fight scene or break out.
It's a it's a bit of a Yeah, it's just
all sort of action going on twenty four to seven.

(51:45):
It's a very different style to to how how the
Western side of the world makes film, no doubt about that.

Speaker 5 (51:53):
Yeah and yeah, but you know, there are some of
the really cool ones out there, and that's a whole
nother story for the time. You know, GoF We've been
talking for about, you know, fifty minutes now, So just you're.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Just in closing.

Speaker 5 (52:06):
Is there anything you wanted to say to sort of
put a period at the end of this whole conversation.

Speaker 7 (52:11):
Well, well, just my latest film is The Environment The
Real Truth, which is a mockumentary about the environment. So
I'm in a bit of a mockumentary kind of a mood.
I've made one about drugs, and I've made one about
the porn industry, and now I did one about the environment.
The next one that I'm going to do is about
the fitness industry. So I'm in a bit of a
mockumentary kind of a feel. At the moment I sort

(52:33):
of get into a mood of a style of filmmaking
and then I sort of just ran that into the
grounds kind of thing. So yeah, the last film was
The Environment. The real truth. So where I interview you know,
fake scientists and conservationists, like a thieve Irwin kind of
a conservation guy. And then I've got a park ranger

(52:53):
and like I say, a few different scientists as well.
So it was a lot of fun. So go through
about twenty five minutes and yeah, people can download that
particular film and all the films, all the film, audio
products and books are all available at just Beernutsproductions dot com.
So people can drink a beer, eat the nuts, and
enjoy my work. That's what it's all about.

Speaker 3 (53:13):
Yeah, that's a really cool name.

Speaker 5 (53:14):
By the way, I was actually going to mention that
beer Nuts. I was like, you know, it's like, yeah,
like beer nuts, I serve at a bar, you grab
a so obviously you know before I would be verbos.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
If I didn't actually mention this.

Speaker 5 (53:26):
Go.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
They don't really drink Fosters in Australia, right, No, no.

Speaker 6 (53:31):
No, we sell that to the idiots overseas.

Speaker 7 (53:33):
We've drunk good beer over here.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
So what is your beer of choice?

Speaker 7 (53:41):
Well, in Australia, the number one beer over here is
Carlton Draft. It's a yeah, that's our number one beer
over here. But We're big beer drinkers in Australia, man,
I mean there are literally hundreds and hundreds of the Actually,
it's kind of funny. The last film that we did,
The Environment, The Real Truth, we had to film the
in a brewery, and so there's quite a few around

(54:03):
the Gold Coast where I live, and so I contacted
one and they're like, yeah, man, come in film. That's fine.
I say, you're sure, I mean work play tells and
safety or you know you're processing like food kind of products.
I mean, are we cool to He said, yeah, just
come into what you want to do. They were the
most easy going people I've ever worked with ever. So
we've rocked up to film the scene that we need

(54:25):
to do and I'm like, well, is there any places
you don't want us to go or is there anything
that we need to know or He's like, na, man,
just wherever you want to go. It's all sweep, all fine, okay, great,
And then he gave us a couple of beers before
we left it. It was delicious. Were yeah, I need
to everybody saying to me now, like all my crew
are saying to me, you have to write something else

(54:46):
about it being in a brewery so we can go back.
So yeah, but it's nice when you have people like
that that, you know, I just want a nice and
cooperative and easy going and just want to help out.
So yeah, but yeah, that was for the last film
we were in. The bolt Of Brewing Company helped us
out a lot with the location.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
You know, I should mention them in the show notes.
That was actually really really cool of them. So if
you shoot me their name, GoF, I'll make sure to
mention them in the show notes.

Speaker 7 (55:15):
Well, actually, I don't know for your listeners who might
be big fans of surfing, the sport of surfing. Three
Australian surfers, Mick Fanning, the guy that punched a shark
in the face a few years ago in South Africa
that made the news all over the world. But sir
Nick Fanning, who's a number one surfer, Joel Parkinson and
oh man, I've forgot the other guy. Those three lads

(55:37):
they just wanted with their spare cash. They were like, oh,
what shall we do, We'll open a brewery. So that's
what they did, and like a year later it's just
kicking goals and going from strength to strength. So it's
actually their brewery is where we filmed, and because there's
a big surfing culture here on the Gold Coast where
I live, because I've sort of on the Florida of
Australia is where I live, so there's big waves just

(55:59):
outside my front door pretty much. So Mick Fanning and
Joel Parkinson and that they come from where I'm at.
So yeah, they decided to start a brewery and good
for me because we end up filming there. So yeah,
it's it's worked out well for everybody. So yeah, it's
it's funny how things work out like that.

Speaker 6 (56:17):
But yeah, really cool.

Speaker 5 (56:18):
You know, some a surfer punching a shark. That might
be the most Australian thing I've heard of ever.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
That's show.

Speaker 7 (56:27):
Yeah, if people haven't seen it, I mean it was
on the news. It happened about a year ago. If
you just jump on YouTube and type Mick Fanning part
of shark punch or something like that. It happened in
a competition in South Africa and Jbay and yeah he
was Julian Wilson was the other surfer in the water,
and yeah, it's it's really remarkable footage and the I

(56:48):
mean it's funny now because everything was okay. But the
part that makes me laugh the most is the commentator
who's commentating the action his reaction because he's like, holy shit,
it's like it was, it was very He's freaking out
because you know, the wade goes over just as this
shots coming at Mick Fanning and they're like, has he
gone under? What's really? You know, it's actually but the

(57:10):
commentator's reaction is actually very, very funny. So yeah, people
could just jump on YouTube and watch that. It's a
it's a funny clip.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
Yeah, I will make sure to look for that and
put that in the show notes. But but that definitely
I I now, every time I think of Australia, I'm
just gonna think of that. Even though it didn't happen
in Australia, happened in South Africa, but still it's a
it's an Australian thing to happen. I I remember there
was this this this video I saw one time. This uh,
this kangaroo actually had this guy's dog and it was

(57:38):
holding them and and this guy wanted to save his dogs.
We leapt over this fence and he punched the kangaroo
straight in the face and the kangaroo. The kangaroo fell
back on its tail and then just stood back upright,
and the guy just ran off because the kangaroo, I.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
Mean, you've seen kangaroos. They can take a punch, so it's.

Speaker 7 (57:56):
Like they're like that big foot tall. I mean, you
don't fuck with a kangaroo. But they're vicious animals. I
mean people think there's like koala's. I mean koalas are
actually quite I mean they clause, they call on trees
and so they closed like a rip your throat out.
So I mean you don't you don't fuck with the
Australian wildlote man. That's just that's just the no goes on.
So yeah, but I have seen that clip with the kangaroo.

(58:17):
It's very funny.

Speaker 5 (58:20):
Yeah, I I've seen some of those kangaroos and their
tail they can move it so it's kind of like
they never actually fall down. They're always uh oh GoF.
It has been a hell of a time talking to
you man, and I'm glad we could actually connect again
because you have a unique story as is there you
know again, everyone has a journey in the in this
uh in the filmmaking world, making content, making media, whatever,

(58:44):
that might be and it's cool. I'm glad we could
connect and everybody. Everything Goff and I talked about will
be in the show notes. Goff, I want to wish
you the best, buddy, and I will talk to you
very soon.

Speaker 7 (58:54):
Thanks very much for having me on.

Speaker 6 (58:56):
I really appreciate you time Dive.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
I want to thank Dave so so much for doing
such a great job on this episode. If you want
to get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
head over to the show notes at Indie film huscle
dot com.

Speaker 3 (59:07):
Forward slash eight thirty.

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Three, and if you have it already, please head over
to Filmmaking podcast dot com.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
really helps us out a lot.

Speaker 7 (59:18):
Guys.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Thank you again so much for listening to guys.

Speaker 4 (59:20):
As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
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.