Season 5 Episode 11: BAMPIRE Director Taylor Morden

On this episode of the podcast, Josh Stifter sits down for a conversation with returning guest Taylor Morden. They discuss what has happened since they recorded the last episode, The Last Blockbuster and it's run on Netflix, the challenges of getting projects off the ground, being hired to direct a movie about Build-a-Bear Workshops, and Taylor's newest adventure in crowdfunding with his horror/comedy Bampire! 

Make sure to go over to bampiremovie.com and help support this fun and unique take on indie monster movies. 

Follow the film on social media @bampiremovie

Cheers!

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
You are listening to the IFH podcastNetwork. For more amazing filmmaking and screenwriting
podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dotcom. There are some questions I'd like
to ask you low Budget Rebels past, I don't tell me you're taking all

(00:26):
this seriously. Hey, everybody,I'm back another Low Budget Rebels episode.
So the show went on a hiatus, and part of it was because we
were moving out of our condo whereI had my studio set up and into

(00:48):
a brand new house and we're goingto have a brand new studio. So
I had sort of just put this, put the show to the side so
I could focus on finishing some otherscript projects and and finish some art stuff.
And we're in the process of gettingthe next movie into production, and
so yeah, the podcast kind ofwent away for a bit. But I

(01:11):
was talking to my buddy Taylor Morden, and he directed the last blockbuster documentary
that was on Netflix a while ago, and he's working in a new movie
called Vampire that I'm helping out withanimation on, and you guys will hear
more about that in this episode.But he's running a crowdfunding right now,
and I wanted to get this outbecause I feel like it's a great way

(01:34):
to spread the word about this campaign. He's already shot the movie, the
movie is going to be made,I'm working on animation, he's in the
editing process, and I just reallywanted to help him spread the word so
that they can get the funding thatthey need to get this thing off the
ground. As anyone listening to thisnos, it takes a lot to finish
a movie, even after you've shotit. There's so much that can be

(01:57):
done in post production, and alot of it relies on having the proper
funds to do the visual effects,the animation, all of that stuff.
And so I thought this would bea good way to spread the word.
Taylor is a great dude, andthe clips I've seen from this movie,
i've read the script, I couldtell you it is a really fun time
and I think it's going to bea really enjoyable a little horror comedy sort

(02:19):
of in the vein of evil Deador something like that, but mixing Bambi
and animation and monsters and blood andgore and fun times. So go check
it out. You could go tovampiremovie dot com. I think is where
is the link to go help withthe crowdfunding. And this was a great
episode. I had so much funtalking to Taylor. We talked about crowdfunding,

(02:43):
we talked about what he's done sincethe last Blockbuster and some of the
crazy documentary projects he's worked on orthings that have come up and gone away.
It's really fascinating story of how hegot from a Netflix movie to working
on a low budget indie horror Bambiemovie. So if, yeah, if
you're interested, head over to vampiremoviedot com and help support in whatever way

(03:06):
you can. All right, withoutfurther ado, here is my conversation with
the amazing Taylor Morton. Okay,so Taylor, you're a returning guest.
Since the last time we talked,it was like right before the last Blockbuster
had come out, Like it waslike right you had sent me a private

(03:30):
link to it. Oh wow,And it was right before it came out,
and I don't even think I don'tknow if we were you had talked
about specifics of where it was goingand what was happening, but what happened,
because it's pretty cool story. Uhyeah, I mean wow, it's
so much has happened since then,And thanks for having me back. But
yeah, we talked right before themovie came out, or maybe it was

(03:52):
out transactionally, but it hadn't hitNetflix yet. Yeah, which hadn't hit
Netflix. Yeah, that was abig deal. And I don't remember whether
or not I was allowed to talkabout it yet, because there was like
a six month period, you know, where they're like, you're gonna be
on Netflix, don't tell anyone.Yeah, I think it was at that.
I think there was a lot oflike hinting, like it's gonna go
somewhere cool. Yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, So that was in

(04:14):
that window, and I think rightafter that it started showing up Netflix.
You know, they they, uh, what's it called, licensed it,
so they didn't acquire it, theyjust licensed it for a two year term.
And we're like, oh cool,it's gonna be one of those movies
you know that's kind of buried inNetflix and you got to tell everybody to

(04:35):
hunt for it so you can getbumped up the algorithm. And then like
a month before it hit, theystarted running like coming soon to Netflix,
like the full screen screensaver when youleave Netflix paused back in twenty twenty.
That's how it didn't it be likecoming soon the Last Blockbuster's this huge picture
of like Kevin Smith holding the VHS. That's one of our promos, and

(04:57):
I'm like, that's weird that they'relike they're pushing this like it's a Netflix
original. They're really putting their weightbehind it. And then they started doing
press. They did a huge pressrelease. I have no data behind this,
but I'm guessing they spent more onthe press release than they paid us
to license the movie. But itstarted showing up everywhere because you know the

(05:18):
joke Netflix, Netflix has the Lastlaugh after Blockbuster goes out of business.
Whatever became a meme. It became, you know, the sort of viral
news clip, like way more peopleheard about our movie than ever watched the
movie. Like I tell people Idid The Last Blockbus and they're like,
yeah, I heard about that,you know, yeah, but it's a

(05:40):
positive thing. And then we hitNetflix. We were in the top ten
for I think four weeks. Wepeaked at number four, the number one
documentary. There were only two moviesabove us, and they were both narrative.
So number one documentary on Netflix forat least a week, stayed up
there for a while, was inheavy rotation on the Netflix. You know

(06:01):
how they recommend stuff to people.It was like it was my number one
recommendation because I'm a huge documentary fan, Like I watched more documentaries than I
watched narrative movies. Yeah, andI so that one was like, but
I had already seen it, solike I didn't watch it right away when
it hit or whatever. I actuallythink I may have put it on and

(06:23):
just like played it on in thebackground once or twice just for whatever reason
helped the algorithm, thank you.Yeah. But it also just like it
was always on like my feed becauseI watched so many documentaries. Even after
I'd watched it, it was like, oh, you know, you rewatch
stuff, watch it again, rightright right right? Yeah? And that
was that was cool. You know. We rode that wave for a little

(06:44):
while, and then after I don'tknow, four or five months, it
was one of those buried in Netflixmovies. Uh. And then I got
a weird call from our distributor.I think that was like, hey,
I don't know if you guys knowthis or not, but Netflix is doing
a scripted sitcom called Blockbuster, whichwe had attempted to pitch as soon as

(07:11):
they bought the movie. We're likeHey, you know, it would be
really cool is a sitcom based onthis, because you know, we get
a piece of that. It's ourip. We we made this documentary.
It's very hard to argue that adocumentary isn't just public knowledge that anyone can
adapt, right, So yeah,in Netflix is a juggernaut and no one

(07:32):
can tell them what to do,so they just I don't know if they
ever heard our pitch. You know, we weren't. We didn't get a
meeting, but we did send itout into the universe. And then we
found out they were doing that.We're like, okay, I guess well,
it's gonna help us, right becausewe'll be recommended to people after they

(07:54):
watch the sitcom, So all right, I hope it's great. And then
it came out and I think itwas like their worst reviewed thing, Like
the cancelation notice came out the dayafter Shoe launched, and he vaguely remember
that. Yeah, I vaguely remember, because I like it just didn't had
you been involved, obviously, itwould have been totally different for me to

(08:16):
like go out, but it justit seemed just like any other sitcom.
Yeah, Yeah, and we reachedout when they said they were gonna do
it. We're like, hey,we you know, not like, hey,
we own the idea of the LastBlockbuster, because obviously we don't.
It's a documentary. But we werelike if you need consultants, if you

(08:37):
want, yeah, but we're available. We're you know, broke right,
like call us up and that wenever heard anything back. And then the
show dropped, and I know itdid so poorly that I think it hurt
our movie in their algorithm. Andthen that was about the time we were

(09:01):
about to try to renew the Netflixlicense and they were like, no,
thanks, we don't want to saythe word blockbuster anymore around here. It's
a bad one. Well that's fuckingfascinating. So the movie came off Netflix
last year. I think it's stillavailable to rent, you know, on
Amazon iTunes and stuff like that.But then, and I don't know how

(09:24):
much anybody's saying publicly about this,but but fuck it. You know,
our distributor was ten ninety one andthey got bought up by a company called
Chicken Soup for the Soul. Andif you go on any of these predatory
distributor Facebook groups or anything like that, you might know that a lot of

(09:46):
filmmakers are complaining about Chicken Soup forthe Soul because they bought up our distributor
and a couple more. They alsobought Red Box ironically, and they haven't
paid any filmmakers in over year,and we have money that's coming in to
places. So right now we're tryingto get our movie back because this company

(10:07):
isn't paying anybody. They're saying theymight file for bankruptcy. There's all this
rumor and speculation, and so allthese filmmakers are like, what do we
do? How do we get ourmovies back? Meanwhile, it's still up
earning money on all these platforms thatwe're never going to get. Man.
That's so it's like it's one ofthose things where when you aren't a part

(10:31):
of it like I have been,because I haven't been dealing with distribution at
all. Like everything is out there, everything has its distribution for my stuff
at the moment, and I've beenin like the opposite side now trying to
find a lot more money for projectsthat are bigger projects that have producers,
and you know, it's like awhole Angel investors and all this other bullshit.

(10:54):
I'm like, I'm totally disconnected fromwhat's happening in distribution. But I
lived through it enough to know,like the best company can instantly become the
worst company, and it's I mean, it's business, and they are not
afraid to screw over the little guyover and over and over again. So
that sucks because I mean I've beenthere and as much as I've had to

(11:16):
deal with distribution stuff multiple times inmy past. Yeah, So the short
two sentenced version of all that asBlockbuster came out, was a huge hit,
and we didn't make hardly any money, and most of it we didn't
even get anyway, So it's like, be careful what you wish for,
yeah, I mean, and itis like I was very proud to you

(11:41):
know, know you see it onNetflix. I mean I bragged about it,
like I was like, you guys, got to watch this to all
of my friends who are always like, you know, I watched so many
different types of documentaries that they onlywant the ones that are fun, Like
they want the stuff that's like,you know, American movie and that kind
of like fun stuff. And likelike what was that one the King of

(12:05):
Quarters or King Kong, King Kong, Fistful of Quarters, whatever, the
quarter that such a mass. Ilove that kind of documentary, the fun
documentary, and last Blockbuster was verymuch that sort of like enjoyable, sit
down, have a good time watchingit, learn a thing or two.
Thank you. Yeah, and Ithink everyone out there should go check it

(12:26):
out, even though it's not aseasily accessible, and see if you could
find it somewhere and hopefully you'll getpaid for it at something. Yeah,
the only way it sucks. Sowe did get lucky in that, you
know, Blockbuster spoiler alert for ourdocumentary, but they're still open. It's
been years and they're still thriving.In fact, tomorrow night there's a concert

(12:48):
there and it's Thomas Ian Nichols,the actor from American Pie and uh like
Rookie of the Year, a bunchof those movies from the nineties. His
band is playing at Blockbuster to tomorrow, which is hilarious. But yeah,
the only way we actually really makemoney off the movie is they do sell
our DVDs at Blockbuster, so youknow, if you're in bad or pick

(13:11):
up a DVD you can rent.I mean that's where I made you know,
I got lucky that I ate.The production on my movies was almost
nothing and I had such small castand crew for both of them that like
anything I anything we profited was likemoney in my pocket, like there is
no there was no over it.I mean I got paid to be on

(13:31):
Rebel without a crew, and thenGreat with the block costs nothing to make
and so yeah, I've just likesold DVDs or put out different things,
and that's how I've made I've basicallydone the like garage band method of I
do that to some profit. Blockbusteris the only one that I you know,
we put in with a distributor.The other I've done three other docks

(13:56):
that I just keep my own andI ship DVDs out of my garage.
And it's like, yeah, sella DVD for twenty bucks, cost two
bucks to make two bucks to shipyou make sixteen bucks. That map makes
sense to me. And then youknow Blockbuster, we also had a DVD
distributor and it was out you knowWalmart, Best Budy, the you know

(14:16):
the things you hear like, oh, DVDs and stores which doesn't exist anymore.
Yeah, and we'd get like they'dsell a thousand and we'd get a
check for five hundred bucks or something. So it's like fifty cents a unit.
After you know, the store takestheir cut, and the distributor takes
their cut, and the other distributortakes their cut, and they charge you

(14:37):
eight bucks a copy to manufacture,even though I know it costs too yep,
And so yeah, that diy.You know, go go go to
a comic con, set up atable and sell, yeah, five posters,
you'll make more than two hundred thousand, two B streams. Totally.
That has been very much my methodof making a few extra dollars here and
there to help fund the next thing. That's literally all it's ever doing is

(15:01):
funding the next thing for me.Okay, so then besides last Blockbuster,
what else has been happening? Imean, we'll get to the biggest thing,
which is, you know, aproject that you and I are kind
of working on together. You Iwant to hear about how it came,
like we sort of talked about itvaguely, but I want the behind the
scenes. But before Vampire, whathas been going on in the Yeah?

(15:26):
Well, after Blockbuster came out,the pandemic was in full swing. I
didn't do much. We did.Actually, the first thing we worked together
on was in twenty twenty I orchestrateda shot for shot fan remake of Back
to the Future too. That's rightthat you are in. That's up on
YouTube that anybody can go watch.And it's one of those pandemic DIY projects

(15:52):
that we did to keep from goinginsane. Yeah, and I didn't do
anything for a while because it wasa a global pandemic. Yeah, you
couldn't do very much and no onewas hiring anything because people couldn't be in
the same rooms together for a year. Yeah, and then I got hired
by a little company called Build aBear Workshop because they saw the Blockbuster movie

(16:15):
and they were like, can youmake a documentary about Build a Bear Workshop?
And I was like, I've neverbeen to a Build a Bear workshop.
That's amazing. I've heard of them, I know that they exist,
but well, listen, I knowhow to make a documentary. I'm happy
to And this was still in thepandemic where you know, getting vaccinated,

(16:36):
wearing masks and trying to figure outhow to shoot a documentary where I have
to travel all around the country andtalk to these Build a Bear people.
I did that. That was mostof twenty twenty two, and that movie
came out last year. It's out. You can find it places. I
don't know what platforms it's on becauseI was a director for hire, so
I'm not a producer, meaning Idon't know what the budget was, or

(17:00):
the distribution is or any of that. I got to go to the premiere
at it was a toy fair lastyear. Was that, like, okay,
the Big Toy Convention, which wasreally fun, But that one's that
one's called Unstuffed. It's called Unstuffedto Build a Bear Story, and it's
like the story of the first twentyfive years of Build a Bear and how

(17:21):
they became a company. And wegot to do fun stuff because what they
liked about the Blockbuster one was likethe fun yea querky, you know.
So we got to do animation andI got to interview Mike Tyson about Teddy
Bears and and Mario Lopez and allthese like weird just like why not everybody
loves Bears? You know, evenMike love Teddy Bears. I love it.

(17:45):
So did that and that was acool gig, you know, like
it's it literally is a dream cometrue to have somebody say I want to
pay you to direct a movie.Yeah, so they came to you.
You it thanks to last Blockbuster.They were out there like that's one of
those it like, it's what youwant to happen. I want your work
to speak for itself and make otherpeople go like, oh yeah, I

(18:07):
want to see more. Right,we want the Blockbuster guy to do the
build a Bear thing, and I'mlike, sounds done. Sound to do
it. So that took a yearbecause documentaries, that's like the minimum I
think a documentary can take. Andthat's if you've got a budget, like
you get some Build a Bear moneybehind you. Hm. When that wrapped,
I started working on this lost documentary. So I just want to quickly

(18:33):
go back to the Build a Bearthing. I want to know like mentally
when you're starting this project, becausedocumentaries are so fascinating to me. But
part of that is because I probably, I mean I probably do some documentary
work at some point. I meanI have a little bit in the past,
but nothing that was like my ownpersonal project or whatever. When you
start, what is it, like, where does your mind go, Like,

(18:55):
Okay, build a Bear, howdo we get this thing going?
Well, there were a lot ofproducers involved, and I was working with
Build a Bear, so I hadaccess to all of their archives and you
know the stuff I wish I hadhad access to for the Blockbuster WI.
Yeah, where they're like, we'regoing to open the vault whatever you need.
And they gave me. They hadlike people at building their headquarters helping

(19:19):
me. So I would say,Okay, give me a timeline, what
are the things that have happened inthe last twenty five years, give me
articles, give me all this information. So the first step was just research
of me reading all this like internalthe history, watching all these old you

(19:40):
know. They they kept everything,which is really what you want when you're
making a documentary. You've got tofind the person who kept everything. Yeah,
and she literally had a box thatsaid like important stuff keep and we
went through it and it's like,yeah, that's all the great It's like
the sketch for the very first builda Bear and all this cool stuff.
Oh, that's so cool. Andthat was I had a phone call with

(20:02):
the CEO, which was stressful butwent well, and then all this research
and then we just started and westarted with the first thing we shot was
the interview with the woman who createdBildebearer, the original of the founder,
and she was the CEO, butshe's since sort of she has more of
like an honorary role. She's calledthe Chief Executive Bear. I think,

(20:25):
okay, but she mostly just goesaround like a figurehead and talks to people.
She's not the actual CEO anymore.But interview with her, and she
told all these amazing stories. Itwas like a three four hour interview,
and I use that to sort ofstructure out who else we're going to talk
to and what are the you know, what are the milestones of this story,
because it's basically her story. Yeah, so it was. And because

(20:51):
I knew nothing about build aebear,every step of the way, I was
learning all these crazy things that Ihad no idea. Like I just knew
bilde Bear was the place at themall, but we didn't have one here
in Eugene, Oregon until after Iwas in my late twenties. Like I
was never gonna go to build thekids. Yeah, so I really have

(21:11):
no context. I knew they werelike the expensive bears, and then lately
I knew like, oh, theyhave like Pokemon and Ninja turtles and stuff
licenses, which like I didn't evenknow that. I only knew it because
there's one in the mall now andthey walked by it and you're like,
oh, frozen princesses. I getit. There you go. That's one

(21:33):
of the things I love about documentaries. We talked about this a little bit
on the first conversation we had,but I love the fact that when I'm
as a viewer, I never knowwhere it's going to go. Even if
I know where it's going to go, like the way the story gets told,
it comes about in such unique perspectivesbecause of who they talked to,
you know where, Like the Firefestdocumentary for instance, I knew what happened

(21:56):
at Firefest, where there's two ofthem actually, but yeah, which one,
either of the dot Yeah, eitherof those documentaries. I had seen
one of them, and even watchingthe other one. I think I watched
the Netflix one and then went tothe Hulu one or whatever, whichever one.
But even though I had watched theNetflix one then watching the Hulu one,
I was still surprised, just becausedocumentaries have this way of like telling

(22:18):
just even if it's a slightly differentperspective, it feels like something incredibly different.
Yeah. Yeah, that's one ofmy favorite things too, is the
breadth of perspectives you can include towhere, And a lot of that comes
down to the editing, right,because you shoot all these interviews, you
shoot all this footage, you talkto all these people, and you end

(22:38):
up with conflicting stories sometimes and you'relike, I can pick a side or
I could not use any of this, or what do I do here?
Yeah, people will say like polaropposite things about like a fact like this
happened on a Wednesday, Well,it definitely happened on a Thursday. Yeah,

(23:00):
can't prove it. So I guesswe just cut after the word this
happened and then don't Yeah, don'tsay when that's so funny because I mean
it's so true having done. Imean like working for the news. For
instance, I worked for the newsfor a year during COVID, during George
Floyd murder in Minneapolis. I wasthere like filming all of that, and
there was this there's this super weirdlike trying to find what the perspective is

(23:25):
without saying, like trying to beobjective to the situation without showing. I
mean everyone will say fake news,fake news, fake news, whatever,
But like we weren't. We werea local news station. We didn't have
it. We weren't doing any ofthat kind of stuff. It was literally
just like showing what's happening with COVID, happening in the streets, you know,
with all this stuff, but youone shot can make a complete difference

(23:48):
to like the way people's perspective isgoing to be on what you're saying.
Yeah, yeah, the visuals too. Yeah, somebody's saying something. But
you show, you know, somethingcontradictory, or you show something that you
can easily like manipulate it and twisted. It's one of the reasons I've gotten
really into wrestling is like I wasshooting that wrestling short in the short film

(24:14):
Lo Lucha and the Big Deal,and I've always wanted to I was a
big into wrestling as a kid.But one of the things I found as
I watch wrestling is because it's notedited, it's live, it's happening,
you know, like, aw,that's what I watch. It's happening in
that moment. And these guys arewriting a lot of their own stories.
It's not like they have a giantscripted team. It's like, right,
pretty pretty small, and they getto make up their own characters and stuff

(24:37):
and seeing like the little things thatthey tweak in their character to make a
point. I love that. Tome, that's like on the fly performing
in a way that's so unique fromany other industry. Yeah. I never
really thought about wrestling as a asa storytelling medium where it's like live improvised
theater, but also like these incredibleyou know, feats of the strength and

(25:02):
agility and all this thing and likechoreography in a way where you're just like
like, I love I love thatit's fake, Like I love knowing the
cafe of it and just being likewhat is happening, because then you can
pick up on these little things whereyou're like, oh, they wrote that
right before they got on stage.They thought of this funny thing, and
you know, both of them areso proud of themselves were pulling it off.

(25:22):
It's just like, I don't know, it just brings me so much
joy. It's Yeah. I thinkone of the things with documentaries that really
impresses me is watching the edit andseeing how someone told a unique story that
you know, like, I knowhow edits work, I know how you

(25:45):
can fake it, I know howyou can manipulate stuff. But when a
documentary hits me and makes me likethink about something or makes me like I
when I can feel the edit likethat, I love it. That's like
one of the best feelings. Wellthat's good to know because some people are
like, that's manipulative and you're cheatingand why is that music doing that?
That's not real? And and Iagree when they do that poorly, I

(26:08):
don't. I hate it, butI love that I can watch it and
hate it, you know what Imean. Like there are a lot of
them when I'm just like, areyou you guys are kind of pulling the
leg here. I actually just watchedthis really good one. It was on
Netflix about vegan, like going vegetarianand your health and whatever, and my
father in law went he started likegoing vegan after he watched this documentary,

(26:33):
and I was like, I gottawatch this now because it's like I'm convinced
he's being manipulated by an edit.And I watched it and I was like,
I was like, no, thisis really good. And it led
me down a path of like readingbooks on the science of it and like
doing more analysis of that concept becauseit is And he had done the same
thing, like after I talked tohim later, he had like read through

(26:56):
all these books and stuff. Butit's just I'm such a skeptic because I
instantly am like bullshit, bullshit.Yeah, I mean, it's it's powerful.
The medium of documentary is like theones I make are not changing the
world. They're not nobody's changing theirdiet because the funny story I told about
Teddy Bears. But they're buying TeddyBears. And I know for a fact,

(27:21):
like hundreds and hundreds of people havevisited Blockbuster because of the other dock.
And so you think about, youknow, the impact that you can
have on the real world, Likewhen you set out to make a documentary.
When I started shooting the Dot,the Blockbuster one in twenty seventeen,
you know, I'm like, oh, what's going on here? Is an

(27:41):
interesting story, And then you cutto twenty twenty two and like, part
of the reason they're actually able tostay open is because of the tourism,
because of the movie that we madeabout it. It's you know, it's
not to overly inflate the silly popcorndock we made. So it's like if
you made one about starving children inAfrica and then because of it, they

(28:03):
stopped starving, you know, butto be clear, I think that there
is almost more value to the documentariesthat like the popcorny documentaries. Those are
the ones that I like. Ipersonally like more is stuff like yeah,
is American Movie like the most importanttopic in the history of documentaries. No,

(28:30):
But at the same time, it'sthe most important movie to me ever
made. Like I watch it ona I mean for a long time,
I was watching it every single Friday, Like I truly would put it on
every Friday because it just inspires methat much, and it's just so enjoyable
and like, I'm from the Midwest, like those are my friends, and
that's the kind of stuff we wouldhave been doing if I was I would
have been hanging out with Mark ifI had been born, like, you

(28:53):
know, ten years earlier, right, And so that kind of those kind
of documentaries are super important to me. And you think about the ripple effect
there too, like you know,it's different than your father in law going
vegan, except that you make youmake movies. Yeah, you might not
because of American Movie. I wouldnot, And there are probably you know,

(29:15):
hundreds of other filmmakers who have mademovies because of that one documentary,
and then those people's movies inspire otherpeople to make movies, So you know
there's some kind of trickle down effectfrom even a documentary like American Movie.
That's like, Wow, somebody else'sfavorite movie exists because of that movie inspiring

(29:36):
someone to go make a movie.Yeah, one percent. I would not
have made a movie if it wasn'tfor American Movie. Like I saw it
many years before, but it wasn'tAnd I was making short films and you
know, I always had a camerafilming my bands and whatever. But I
when I had my kids and itwas my thirtieth birthday, I watched American

(29:57):
Movie, like right around that time. It was just like Howka Mark can
do it and I can't. Andit literally like it clicked in my head
and I was like, we willbe making a movie by this time next
year. And then literally Greywood Plot, the Good Exer assist at All I
came together at the exact same time. I love it. So tell me
just let's talk a little bit aboutgetting lost before we Is it called getting

(30:19):
lost? Is that right? Yeah? Okay, tell me a little bit
about getting lost before we move onto Vampire. Yeah. I mean,
if you're familiar at all with thetelevision program Lost. This documentary is for
you, and if you're not,then I don't know how to explain it
to people. But it's about theTV show Lost. We're coming up in
September, it'll be the twentieth anniversaryof when that show premiered, and so

(30:44):
this is a documentary about the showa little bit, but it's mostly about
sort of the fan base and thereally weird and interesting and impactful internet community
that sprung up around the show.Because this was right before Facebook and Twitter
and all the things. So itwas like a message board based, you

(31:07):
know, fan community with email listsand just this weird thing that evolved because
the show ran from two thousand andfour to twenty ten, so it started
people were taping the show on VHSbecause it's a mystery show and you got
to rewatch it, and then chattingabout it on message boards, and at
the end, you know, peoplewere streaming it on Netflix and it was

(31:29):
trending on Twitter. So it perfectlyspanned that television revolution. And it was
also one of the last big networkappointment TV shows that people had to watch
at nine o'clock on a Thursday,or you'd miss it, and you wouldn't
be part of the conversation for thenext week. And that doesn't happen anymore,
except very rarely when they're like,we're only going to put out one

(31:52):
episode of Game of Thrones a week. We're not dropping it all like these
other shows. But it was becauseit was that network show that twenty million
people watched every week at the verytail end of you know, network television.
Basically because now they are funny becauseof your sports and you know,

(32:14):
American Idol. I guess people stillwatch I don't know, yeah, But
even with that being said, liketruly, I lost Like that era was
the last time that you wouldn't goif you went into work or you went
to school and you were talking tofriends, no one would be like no,
I didn't see it yet, likebecause you had to see it.
You had to see it. ThenNow, if you go in and the

(32:36):
show has come out the day before, it's like a quarter of the people
have seen it, a quarter ofthe people are watching it that night,
A quarter of the people don't carebecause there's five hundred other shows and you
can watch whatever you want whenever youwant, like like Disney plus puts out
all these Star Wars shows and Marvelshows, and they drop it like midnight
on a Wednesday or something. Yes, there's fifty die hard fans that I

(32:59):
know that are still up till midnightto watch it, and I watch them
usually the next morning, you know, with my coffee before I go on
the internet, because I want tobe part of the conversation. But most
people just watch it whenever and thengo see what people are saying about it
because you can avoid it. It'slike you're saying, it's not there's not
one thing that everybody's talking about.There's a thousand things. And then when

(33:21):
you and I talk about let's saywe both we're both watching Stranger Things,
but you're on season four, episodesix and I'm on season three, episode
nine, we literally just can't talkabout it because you don't remember where I'm
at and I don't know where you'reat. So you can't have these fan
communities. So that's why the docis mostly about this fan community, because
because everybody was watching it at thesame time and talking about it at the

(33:44):
same time, and the internet wasbrand new and we're just figuring out how
to, you know, incorporate TVinto internet culture. It was this very
unique time and people, the peoplewe talk to now who look back on
watching this TV show and feel likethey were watching a TV show, It
felt like they were part of it, like it was more like a hobby
or a lifestyle because you would watchit and go on the message boards and

(34:07):
then listen to the podcasts were brandnew. Yeah. Some of the very
first podcasts were Lost podcasts. Yeah, I remember that. They were huge,
Like you would go and to belike two other podcasts, and then
the Lost one was always on thetop list because Lost was one of the
very first, one of the firsttwo TV shows on iTunes. It was
Lost in Desperate Housewise, that's right, Yeah, had a partnership, So

(34:30):
people would go onto iTunes and typein Lost. So what would happen then
is there'd be one episode and likefive podcasts that would come right up underneath
it. Yep. So those podcastsbecame insanely popular, like numbers that current
podcasts can't even you know, hundredsof thousands of downloads every week because the

(34:51):
technology was so new, and likeonly these weird sci fi nerds who love
this nerdy TV show were like,we know how the internet works. We'll
show you guys podcast. Well,and it was funny because I remember Lost
being very much a It was likeyou could go deep, you could have
these big conversations about it, buteveryone was watching it. It was such

(35:13):
a like like my dad loved it, and you know, like everyone watched
Lost just because of the mystery ofit and the way that they did the
like the campaign for it, likethe commercials and everything. It always made
you want to watch it, likeyou felt like you were missing something,
versus now where it's like drop ashow, you watch it when everyone else
does or like you know, somewherearound the same like two week span,

(35:37):
and then you talk about it forfive minutes and then it's forgotten. Like
I mean, it's just like everything's come and go so quick in in
the like zeitgeist. Yeah, andthere's great, great shows on TV now.
Yeah, partly, I mean that'sanother part of the documentary. But
you can kind of trace it backto Lost was a pioneer and saying it

(36:00):
has to be it can be serialized. People have to see every episode to
know what's going on, and that'sokay, partly because now you can stream
every episode or whatever. Yeah,they were also one of the first shows
ever to negotiate an end date andyou say, we're gonna make forty more
episodes. That way we know wherethe ending is so the story can match.
And now you see all these showswhere they're like, oh no,

(36:22):
this is only going to be tenepisodes, and that's how we can structure
the story. That didn't used tohappen in TV. It used to be
like if a show was popular,it was going to run sixteen seasons or
until you know, somebody pulled theplug. You look at Gray's Anatomy premiered
the same year as Lost, andit's still running. Oh my god,
that's crazy. Yeah. I hadjust seen that that's still running and I'm

(36:45):
like, how what That's amazing.But it's just could you imagine when they
started the first season that they thinkit would last that long? Like,
no, of course not. Andbecause people like I said, they didn't
have end dates in mind that likeif a show is good, it goes
forever, or as long as it'sdoing numbers. Yeah, it's all about

(37:07):
if it's doing numbers or what Imean, how many shows have you watched
where you're like, man, theycould have stopped at season five and what
it most great? Yeah, exactly, that's awesome. So what is the
where's this one at? It's inproduction right now, it is. Yeah,
I mean we might have one ortwo more days of shooting ahead of

(37:28):
us, depending, but we're inposts. We're editing, and it's we're
trying to have it out because,like I said, September is the twentieth
anniversary. So I'm like reverse engineeredfrom there. Man, I got to
get this rough cut done by nextmonth and then yeah, finish it and
run up through the lawyers, andwe're we're like booking a theater to premiere

(37:51):
it in La September twenty second,twenty twenty four, because the Lost fans
want to celebrate that date anyway.We want to give them something to do.
The final edit. I have noidea, Yeah, I mean,
yeah, who knows. I meanuntil you see it and you watch it
with people like That's why I alwaysI love film festivals because I use film
festivals as my like test audience.Oh so like I will, I'll do

(38:15):
edits after, you know, afilm festival, and that too too.
To my detriment, I had amovie about Sky Music. It played a
bunch of festivals and awesome doc ThankYou, and there's this there's a joke
in it where Tony Hawk shows upand they're they're like, because his video
game had a lot of sky music, like I've changed our careers, thank

(38:37):
you, Tony Hawk. And he'sin the movie for two seconds and he
just says you're welcome, and thenhe's out and it was like a really
funny cameo and it got a hugelaugh, and so you couldn't hear the
next part. So I added spacefor laughs after the first screening and then
all the rest of the we werein theaters for a while and it was
great, and there was space forthe last and then it went to streaming,

(39:00):
and you know, people don't laughout loud, yeah, in a
group. So now it's this awkwardpause they added because of those test screetings,
and I kind of love it becauseit makes it's like, if you
don't laugh at the joke, somepeople laugh at the awkward put the beat.
Yeah, they're holding for applause.Here, they're holding for laughter.

(39:22):
That's what this movie is doing rightnow. That's so great, Okay,
So people can look forward to thatin the in the coming year, and
it will probably release after this stillon It's still on Indiegogo and the on
demand things. If you want tosee footage from it, see our first
look everything. It's at getting lostdoc dot com. Sweet. Okay,

(39:45):
So then, speaking of crowdfunding andnot documentaries, you are working on something
really unique right now? Who doyou want to tell me about it?
Well, to be fair, youare working on something really unique right now.
Let's tell each other about it.So there is my first my directorial

(40:08):
debut in a narrative feature. Isthis indie horror comedy, crazy half animated
mashup, public domain Bambi horror thingcalled vampire. And I think that was
the fewest words I could use todescribe it. Yeah, and kind of

(40:29):
nonsensical, but super super fun,super silly, super over the top.
Like the thing I really enjoy aboutit is we're living in the era of
like how do we make people comfortable? Like how do we get someone to
watch something when they don't know anythingabout it? So, you know,
finding something public domain, finding somethingthat people can connect to. I mean

(40:51):
I did it with Greywood's plot.I use public domain or I used songs
that are in the public domain andhave friends recreate those songs because I was
like, how can I it sothat the second that starts up they feel
comfortable, and then as we moveinto act two we make them comfortable again.
So using these songs that people kindof know was like away from me
at each point of the of theexstructor changed to be like, you guys

(41:15):
kind of know where this is.You kind of know this, like even
if it's just subliminal. And I'vebeen in the same boat where I've been
like, what what public domain characters, what kind of monsters, what kind
of what stories are out there thatwe could build something off of. You
took it and you're just you're havinglike a blast with it. From what
I've seen, I haven't seen likea ton of it, but I've seen

(41:37):
clips that I've been doing some animationover and we're sort of like, like
you said, it's going to bea hybrid sort of it's sort of a
Roger Rabbity thing happening, but ina very indie way. Yeah, it's
more of a cool world thing,but no one gets that reference. Yeah,
I try to do that out thereand people are like, what are
you? Oh, come on,But yeah, So we did a lot

(42:00):
of live action. That's some ofit has now animation in it, but
it's gonna have you know, animalsand monsters and some cool you know,
like stunts that on our budget wecould never pull off. But an animation,
you know, blowing up the EmpireState building costs the same amount as

(42:20):
somebody saying hello, because your imaginationis whatever, and we're not eve been
using real ink. It's just pixels. They cost I mean, they cost
money to be fair, and everyoneshould get paid to do great work,
hence the need for crowdfunding. Butyeah, So it was brought to me

(42:43):
my friend Zoe, who was thewriter. She brought me the script and
it wasn't called Vampire, but itwas about a deer monster. And that
was right around the time of thefirst the Winnie the Pooh, Blood and
Honey movie came out and I'm like, oh, okay, we're doing this
now, this is what the worldis doing. And then I found out
that they made two million dollars offof that, and I'm like, well,

(43:07):
I wonder if our deer monster couldbe a Bambie monster. And I
looked it up and it was likejust entering the public domain. Bambi was
so we did a few tweaks tothe script, but we already had,
you know, good characters and goodstructure and like fun gory craziness. We
just you know, we needed aflashback where Bamby's mom dies, that's all.

(43:28):
And then it's a Bambie thing.But so it's like, it's not
just Bambie but horror. It's it'sits own thing. But it's also like,
and we've noticed because we did apress release and we got some really
good traction, more people will talkabout it, even if all they want
to say is God, another oneof these dang public domain horror things.

(43:51):
It's like, yeah, but ifI made it not that you wouldn't be
talking about exactly right, So yeah, I mean, and that's totally makes
sense. It's that the tough gameof trying to figure out, like how
do you make people interested and tellyour own stories and be unique? And
I think I think the biggest thingabout this that is different and the reason

(44:13):
why I'm interested in this one overa lot of the other stuff is that
it is like more tongue in cheekfunny, like it knows what it is.
With the animation, it's referencing thingsin a way that is right,
just unique. It's not just youknow, slapping Winnie the Pooh into a

(44:34):
slasher movie. I haven't seen Winnythe Blue, I haven't died Thatton Honey,
but you know the way I feltwhen I when I looked at it,
I was like, Okay, thislooks like strangers, except they're wearing
Winni the Pooh stuff. They youknow, I think he is like a
Winnie the Pooh monster, But I'mstill like, I don't, I don't.
I wouldn't surprised if they did exactlywhat we did and they had a

(44:54):
slasher movie and they're like, oh, we can put a Winni the Poo
mask on to public domain and thenwe'll make two million dollars. And now,
you know, like right after wedid our press release and we've launched
our you know, our social mediaand our craft funding, and we told
people were making a Bamby horror movie, there were all these articles because Steamboat

(45:14):
Willie just hit public domains. Sopeople are like, we're doing Mickey Mouse
horror movies. Now, like threeof those were announced the same week.
So it's I get it that itit is a it's a gimmick, right,
and we're got Yeah, we havealso the animation Gimmick and it's a
horror comedy. You know, wegot Greg Cistero from the Room and it

(45:37):
like it's hats on, hats onhats Yeah, makes on gimmicks on gimmicks.
But again, you know, twelvethousand, sixteen thousand movies are submitted
to Sundance every year and most peoplewill never hear of fourteen thousand, nine
hundred oh ye, right ninety nineof them. So it's like, I

(45:58):
don't care, Like if all youcan say about me and my filmmaking is
that it's too gimmicky or like toolike too much nostalgia and pop culture working,
I'm like, yeah, but you'retalking about it, you know.
Yeah, No, I think that'sgreat. I don't see it as like
a negative per se it except forwhen it's done, Like I don't think

(46:22):
you're doing it in a way thatis not entertaining, Like a lot of
times it's just being thrown out thereand quickly done, like the Steamboat Willie
one. I'm just like when thatwas announced like the same day that it
went public domain, and I'm justlike, Okay, you guys are just
slapping something together, like you don'treally care, but you know, to

(46:45):
have a script that you know wasa fun idea. Plus, it's you
know, you've made stuff before.You're not You're It's not a matter of
just being like I want the twomillion dollars. It's like I could tell
that you have a love. Wedo want to make a million dollars of
course, yeah, of course,yeah, yeah, everybody does. But
it's not there's definitely like still anart to it, where you are interested

(47:06):
in telling stories you want to tell, which is why I think your documentaries
like work, even if it isn't. I mean, I haven't seen Unstuffed,
but I feel like, just hearingyou talk about it, I'm like
you you were, so it seemsso joyful about it that it makes me
want to see it, you knowwhat I mean? Right, And I'm
joyful about Vampire too. I'm verylike, first of all, like you,

(47:30):
like any filmmaker, I was likekind of had always wanted to do
a narrative feature. I've done awhole bunch of shorts, you know,
and I've done all these documentaries andit's great. It gets me meetings with
all the platforms, and it getsme a build a Bear job. But
no one wants to talk to thedocumentary guy about a scripted feature. Nobody's

(47:50):
like, oh, you did ahit documentary, would you like to do
an indie horror? We have moneyfor you. That is never going to
happen. So when I got thescript and it was like, mostly takes
place in the woods, and youknow, a handful of characters and controlled
spaces, and we live I livein Oregon where the woods are. Yeah,
it's very it's very doable. Andwe had this growing local film community

(48:15):
that I'm very tapped into them onthe board of a nonprofit here that's trying
to get you know, indie filmsto happen. It's trying to put resources
into people's hands. And so itwas like, we'll put up or shut
up, right, like either doa feature film, yeah, or stop
you know, stop touting that wecan do it. So we were like,

(48:37):
I guess, let's do it,and we kind of barreled into it
head first. We did a tonof pre production, We did what you're
supposed to do, except during thatwhole time, we're like, well,
at some point we're going to raisesome money, right, Like we're gonna
have money to do this, andwe're like, yeah, okay, we're
gonna and we reached out and tryingto get the Angel investors and try to

(49:00):
do this and just sort of nevercame together. So we went into production
just on you know, going intodebt, putting stuff on credit cards and
you know, Zoe our writer producer, like cashing in savings bonds or whatever.
You know, however you can doit because we had we had a

(49:22):
cast, and we had a lotof outdoor shoots and here in the Pacific
Northwest there's a very small window whereyou can film outdoors when it's not raining.
It's it's like two months and youcan shoot and you can be like
it's probably not going to rain.It did rain on our last day,
which is we shot the finale ofthe movie, and it actually in the
script said it was raining, andyou couldn't have like, We're like,

(49:46):
I guess garden hoses. I don'tknow how to do this, and then
it rained miraculously enough, so thatwas amazing. But basically we shot most
of this movie going into massive debt, and now you know, going into
post knowing we're going to need allthis animation and we're going to need to
pay for that and music and colorgrading and all the things that you know,

(50:08):
You're like, yeah, we'll getto that, we'll get to that.
And now we're there. I gotmost of a movie and we're we
turned to crowdfunding because that's literally tome, it seems like that's the only
way people at this level. AndI'll be honest, I had to hit
Netflix movie. I thought I wasat a different level. I'm not.

(50:30):
You know, We're all just strugglingto make stuff. You know. I'm
friends with a lot of filmmakers onFacebook, and I feel like I see
nine crowdfunding campaigns a week come throughwhere it's like, I guess this is
how we make movies now, youknow, like we use GoFundMe for healthcare,

(50:51):
and we use Indiegogo or Kickstarter orsteven Spark for art because there's no
for structure. I said it,right, I've said it on the show
before that I hate them. Imean, I'm pretty open. But I
had to do it. I hadto do it for Little Lucha in the
big Deal because we wanted to actuallywork in a way that wasn't the way

(51:13):
we had worked in the past.Because you know, Dan and I are
working on projects where we're asking fora lot of money from people, and
at this point, every every timethe conversation comes up and they ask about
budget, we have to just basicallysay, like, we made movies with
nothing, and so then they're like, well, why would we give you
money if you can make movies fornothing, go keep doing that, which

(51:35):
is obviously like not advantageous for usand not what we want to be doing.
So yeah, Little Luca was sortof an experiment in that, and
you have to I think, Idon't think there's anything wrong with the crowdfunding
besides the fact that it is miseryon my soul, Like I just are
really bad at it. It sucks, and you're not bad at it because

(51:55):
I saw your campaign. It wasvery successful and you get to make your
movie. So that's what being goodat it looks like spoiler, but it
is. It is painful and difficult, and you feel, I mean,
you feel like an asshole just askingpeople for money all the time, especially
because I ran one for the Lostdocumentary last September while we were filming Vampire.

(52:21):
So I'm out in the woods shootinga movie and trying to run a
crowdfunding campaign. Never do that ifyou can avoid it, because the crowdfunding
is like a full time job onits own. And then here I am,
like three months later being like,thank you for helping me fund this
documentary. Now I want to dothis weird art movie. Please help again,
and people, people get burned out. People do not like that.

(52:45):
And I swear if I could figureout another way to make movies, I
would do it. But yeah,there's just there's not there's not resources,
you know, and maybe there are, but not when you're like, we're
going to make a throwback sl yeahfor a hard R rated cartoon with yeah,
exactly. I don't know if wewant to support that, but I

(53:08):
know there's an audience for it becausethat's the kind of weird cool movie that
I want to watch. And I'mnot that weird of a person, you
know. I like what other peoplelike. I like Godzilla and Star Wars
and stuff. Well it's funny becausethis has been an ongoing conversation recently between
like me and all of my filmfriends, because I like, no one

(53:28):
would have ever given me actual moneyto make The Good ex or Sister Great
Woodsplot, Like I just that neverwas going to happen. And that's okay
because I went and did them onmy own. But now as we're doing
these other scripts and we're actually goingthrough the process with producers, getting you
know, actual budgets made, sowe like, like legit budgets done,
not just me writing down everything wecould borrow from friends, like an actual

(53:50):
like this script will cost you threepoint one million dollars like that sort of
like breakdown of days, all ofthat stuff. I'm realizing like the things
that you need to do to playin the system a little bit more.
And it's been an interesting thing,but it's made me very It's made me
happy that I did it the wayI did because I've got to just go
make mistakes and try stuff before.And I think, I think doing something

(54:15):
like Vampire that is fun. Noone is probably no one's ever going to
give you twenty million dollars to makeVampire like, it's just not going to
happen. And because it's too muchof a gamble, it's too you know,
it's just too different and unique,and I mean that would be awesome,
but yeah, I just it's justI don't see it happening, and

(54:36):
it's a great movie for you know, you to do stuff with like try
things be you know, like theanimation stuff in itself is like we're experimenting.
I'm sending you stuff. We're talkinglike not to give too much away
to people, but it's a funlike it's a unique situation from ninety Like
almost any movie you would make insideof the system at the you know,

(55:00):
or in the not lower but likethat kind of movie just doesn't get made
for three point one million dollars.No, I mean it wouldn't get made.
I don't think if you pitched theconcept, there is no budget range
where it would get made except ultraultra low, where you're where you're crowdfunding,

(55:21):
or where you find you know,the one like dear horror movie obsessed
billionaire who's like, here's here's themoney. Without finding those people, you're
just because it's weird, people don'twant to invest in it. And then
you're like, but then nothing weirdwill ever get made, Like yeah,

(55:44):
that's the world we live in.And that's why I think crowdfunding is a
unique Like I'm glad I'm a filmmakerat the time when that's a possibility,
because all it takes then is like, you don't need the billionaires, you
just need a few hundred people whoare willing to give you twenty bucks because
they want to see it. Sothat is weird, and I'm in and

(56:06):
I do it too, Like Ireally try to put my money where my
mouth is and back other people's CRADfunding campaigns. I don't remember if I
back years or not, but Imeant to, so I hope it did.
I think you did. I don'tlike it. It's so hard.
I don't like. That's when Isay I'm bad at that kind of stuff,
That's what I mean, Like,I'm really bad at like honing in
on details of it, Like Idon't want to hold it over people's heads

(56:29):
that they did or didn't or whatever. So it's like really hard for me
to actually play either that stuff.I don't either, and I try not
to pay attention to that stuff.But it's really fun, you know,
because it's a lot of people youdo know, who contribute, who are
like I want to support what you'redoing. I'll give you five bucks,
I'll give you ten bucks, youknow whatever, And it's all awesome and

(56:50):
feels great. The five bucks feelsjust as good as like a thousand dollars,
you know, because you know,to those people it probably meant about
the same. If you can affordto throw it down a thousand dollars,
it probably doesn't mean as much toyou as the person who gave you the
twenty. But sometimes you see thosepeople in real life and they're like,
oh, yeah, I back thatthing, and then it's like, oh
my god. And that's been thebest part. The best part to me

(57:13):
has been like, you know,because we're in this place where we're waiting
to get into festivals, we can'tshow the movie to anyone. It's been
like it sucks because I want to, because I really love the short,
and I just get the people whoare so excited that they you know,
they pledge to it and then they'rewaiting for it and they've seen pictures and
they're excited to actually see the movie, and you know, like I've shown

(57:37):
it to a few friends and familymembers that you know just as you do,
and like the response has just beenso good that I'm I'm just so
pumped to get it out there tothe people who did give the twenty dollars,
because they're the ones who truly madeit happen. Yeah, I'm excited
to see it. I think asI think about it, I don't know
if I've seen from what platform?Did you crowd phoned on Seed and Spark?

(58:01):
Yeah, and I think I didn'tback it because I don't like Seed
and Spark. Oh yeah, anduh contribute to your Patreon and that's where
I saw the behind the scenes stuffright on. So yeah, So that
it's funny because like Seed and Spark, everyone was using it and all,
like I just seen people were usingit like crazy. And then like three

(58:23):
people as soon as I announced,popped out and were like, oh,
yeah, I just used that.I would never use them again, and
I was like, what this is? I literally used it because of you,
like you used it. And buthonestly they weren't terrible. Seeden Spark
was fine. There was just therewere little things that I didn't like about
the way it all came together.And yeah, but all of them have

(58:47):
there yeah, yeah, yeah,all pluses and minuses. I like,
I'm liking Indiegogo these days mostly becausethey well, A, it doesn't have
the thing that Kickstarter has where ifyou don't hit your goal, you don't
get any of the money, Likeyou know, you get whatever you get,
So if you raise half of yourgoal, you still get half that

(59:07):
money, and you can make halfas good of a movie, I suppose,
or just pay everyone half as much. Yeah, but then they have
the thing that I don't know ifany of the other ones have where it
ends, and you can keep itlive and just take it back most of
your perks. So like on theLost One, we took off all the

(59:27):
like the cool perks, the limitededition things, but like, I'll pre
sell digital copies until the cows comehome. Because all you doing then is
you've got a store that people trust, the platform, and you're doing pre
sales. So if we presell anotherone hundred DVDs before we finish the movie,
that just gives us a little bitmore budget to put into it.

(59:49):
And we got to order all thoseDVDs anyway. Like it's literally just a
store. And my personal experience withindie Gogo is that it works see it
in Sparks. Biggest issue is thefact that it just doesn't work. Sometimes
I have struggle to get their moneythrough and I had multiple people be like,
hey, man, I tried tosend one hundred and fifty dollars and
it didn't go through, and I'dbe like, Okay, I'll help you,
I'll walk you through it or whatever, and then they just never went

(01:00:12):
back and did it. So like, you know, you got to get
people in that moment when they're ready, and if the website fails, if
the clickthrough doesn't happen, if itdoesn't charge them, like you just lose
that money. You never had togo back and do it again. Yeah,
yep, So which is I mean? And I seeden Spark if you're
listening, I've told you this solike I literally sent an email afterwards where

(01:00:34):
I was like, hey, guys, these are the things that I saw
that went wrong. But that's beenmyself with both Kickstarter and Inigogo is that
they their customer service is really good. Like when you're running a campaign and
you do have an issue, theyrespond pretty quickly. I don't know about
seeden Spark, but no, theynot really. They just seem like a

(01:00:57):
very small team from my experience,and that became kind of a struggle to
actually get in contact about stuff.Okay, so Vampire is it's mostly filmed,
we're working on animation. What areyou expecting for you know, the
release is something that you know,it's it's not really a realistic concept at

(01:01:19):
this point because you don't know whatit's going to end up being one hundred
percent. Like there's but yeah,we don't know if it's going to do
film festivals or if you know,if by some stroke of luck it gets
picked up for distribution. They tellyou when it comes out. You don't
get to see exact things out,so I like to not promise when it's
going to come out. If we'reself releasing it and if we're you know,

(01:01:42):
just doing screenings around the Pacific Northwest, then probably towards the end of
this year, this fall, maybeyou know, like I hope that we
have it done. It's a littlebit you know, up to you and
me now, because the animation isthe thing that's going to take the longest,
which is excuse for not getting theedit done as quickly as I could.
It's like, well, the animationis going to take a while,

(01:02:05):
but yeah, we got we've gotalong road ahead of us still and a
lot of hurdles too. That's whywe're still trying to raise money is because
there's things, you know, likemusic costs money. Although your public domain
idea is primo and I might stealthat. If you have some friends who
can make music, like it makesit super easy because smart like especially if

(01:02:29):
they're friends who don't have like musiccareers, like if they're just talented musician
friends, because they're down to makemusic, like they love doing it,
and if you can help them recordit, you can help them get it
done. Like that is huge,And so they're not looking they're not looking
for a ton of residuals and stuff. They just think it's cool that they
wrote a song one day, putit in a movie, and it lives

(01:02:52):
forever there. I am reaching outto a lot of because I've played in
bands for years and years and Iknow a lot of music people. But
the movie takes place in the nineties. I don't think we can afford any
hit nineties songs. Yeah, butI know a lot of weird indie nineties
songs that at least sound like they'reof that era, because they are,
for sure. But yeah, soI'm like looking up all my friends that

(01:03:14):
were in bands twenty years ago andbe like, who owns the rights to
your music from the nineties? Nice? I love that we get a song
for this weird horror movie and thenlike, I have kids, you can't
put that in there. Yeah,well, well I will say that a
big not inspiration. I haven't talkedabout this on the podcast or really publicly

(01:03:35):
much at all, but I ammoving to a new house, new studio
being put together and everything, andone of the really exciting things is having
a project like this that I canget in there and you know, as
I'm setting things up, start animatingmore, get comfortable with a big project
like this because it's a lot ofshots. Oh yeah, So I think
it's going to be really fun,and so far has been fun. I

(01:03:57):
mean, I wish I've had wasn'tin the midst of movie and living in
my in laws basement as I'm startingit, But I think as we get
moving on it, it's gonna bereally fun. And a lot of people
have been asking, even based onjust the small things I've posted about this
project, have been asking like what'sthe deal? Like what are you doing?
So that's exciting to hear that peopleare interested. So go to the

(01:04:19):
indiego go what's the website that theycan go to to actually mean, go
to indigogo dot com and search it. Yeah, we did the thing where
you buy a domain and just pointedat the indiegog, So vampiremovie dot com
will get you there, and thenwhen the indigo goes over vampiremovie dot com,
we'll get you someplace else that'll getyour information hopefully. So awesome.

(01:04:42):
All right, Well that about wrapsit up. Is there anything else you
want to promote anywhere you want tosend people besides the indiego go, which
is that's like obviously numero uno rightnow. Yeah, and there's footage up
there too, Like if you're dyingto find out what the heck this weird
thing is we've been talking about thevideo on Indiegogo is the best way to
get that information and then follow uson the social media's at Vampire movie on

(01:05:04):
Instagram and Facebook. Thanks so muchfor coming on the show. Thanks for
having me all right there. Itis another fantastic episode. I'm really hoping
that this helps Taylor and you guysgo out and hit up his indiego go
campaign. I believe you said indiegog, right, I know we had a

(01:05:26):
little conversation about the other ones,but because like you said, it's the
only way we know at this pointto actually properly fund these kinds of projects,
and I think it's going to bean absolute blast of a movie.
Like I said, I am headedinto the studio and I'm gonna be making
some big changes to the show.I have a few guests lined up.

(01:05:47):
I'm actually recording right now from myin law's basement. That's why it sounds
weird and nothing is actually set upproperly. But I really wanted to get
this episode out before the Indiego Gocampaign ends. But I am incredibly excited
about the potential of this show,the guests that are interested in coming on

(01:06:08):
right now, and I think thatthis next move for the podcast is going
to be a really good one.I'm very excited, especially with some of
the things that I can't announce yet. I'm really I'm pumped. I'm pumped
about what's happening, and I thinkthat the podcast is gonna be able to
shine thanks to some of the thingsthat are happening behind the scenes with Flush

(01:06:29):
Studios and my filmmaking. I'll havebig news very soon. I'm really excited.
But until then, thank you allfor listening. Thanks for tuning in
as always, and make sure tohead over to the Flush Studios Patreon if
you want to hear this show adfree. Patreon is the way that I
actually keep this podcast going, andit's there's gonna be some really cool things

(01:06:55):
on the Patreon very soon. Iknow. I say that all the time
and then sometimes cool thing and sometimesthey don't. But this time I'm pretty
I'm pretty secure in the idea thatthis is going to be a cool time
for Flush Studios. So thank youeveryone for listening, and until next time,
keep kicking ass, keep making art, keep making movies on your own

(01:07:16):
the way you want to, andyou know, stay Rebellion. Low Budget
Rebels is brought to you by theindie film Hustle Network, recorded at Flush
Studios headquarters in tropical Atlanta. Producedby the film daddy Josh Stifter. Bla
La La boo