Welcome and thank you for joining us for the first installment of our recurring segment. How I got it made. I am your host Candice block. Each month, I sit down with two different with members and chat with these filmmakers about one or two of their successfully completed projects. We discuss their journey and process as we delve into how they got it made On this episode, I have a conversation with Jane Barbara. And after that I talk with Sherry Radek Stroud.

let's get started.

Today I'm chatting with Jane Barbra, a DC-based screenwriter and producer. She has taken her background and passion for the arts into visual storytelling, writing features, shorts and television series.

In addition to creating works, she also offers her experience and expertise to fellow filmmakers, founding the scripts DC conference, serving on panels. And more today we're going to chat about a couple of her award-winning shorts as we get more. Specifics of how she got them made. So, hi, Jane, thanks so much for joining us and welcome to the podcast.

Well, I'm delighted to be here. This is my first podcast. 

Oh, well welcome. Happy to be your first. So we're going to delve into a couple of your shorts, but before we get into that, let's let listeners get to know you a little bit more because after all, any project is a collaboration and the journeys of those that came together to bring it to life is part of how it got made.

How did you get into filmmaking?

basically this is probably the fourth chapter of my life. I started out as a I'm an artist. I went to the high school of art and design.  I studied ballet for eight years.  I did theater. I ended up at Parsons school of design. So I had a life as a commercial.

Artist and art director. I started my own design studio with my sister. So I was always kind of like entrepreneurial. know, and fast forward to I get married.

My husband's a design director. We ended up in Washington DC and I've always made up stories. And as an illustrator, I was illustrating other people's stories. So, Now I had the chance to kind of illustrate my own stories, but with film,  there was a local TV station here and they would giving classes and how to become a field producer.

So two friends and I, we went for classes and we passed and we were doing stuff in, in in our area in silver Springs. Maryland. And at one of the meetings, this woman shows up and it's the president of women in film and video. So she said we're having an open house. And so I said to my partners, I said, we need to go do this.

We gotta go check this out. And I met Melissa. I saw her across a crowded room. And we like ran to each other in slow motion. 

A scene from a movie already. 

was from a movie. And absolutely Melissa has that effect on a lot of people. So they had a screenwriters round table and I figured what the heck I joined. From that the script DC kind of came into being you know, we've modified it over the years.



if it wasn't for women in film and video and meeting Melissa Houghton, I would not be able to say that I am now an award-winning filmmaker with provided me with basically everything I needed, and I had the opportunity because I became like the chair of script DC. To bring the people, the industry professionals to our film community from LA and New York, Europe. So we've had quite a, an array of wonderful. Industry professionals who in fact, right now we're doing a workshop with Joan darling, who is like a legend in the business in terms of direction she teaches at Sundance.

And I just been able to with whiffs help find my actors, find my crew. You know, people don't think of Washington DC as, as a narrative film Mecca, but we, we, we can do some crazy stuff here. 



It's all about problem solving. 

 and actually writing a story is also  

how do you think your graphic design background  has helped you in terms of storytelling in general, as well as storytelling visually more specifically.

well, it was my background. I mean, even at the high school level I went to the high school of art and design and you took a illustration and advertised. So even as a, I dunno, 17 year old I was learning how to storyboard. So I just, you know, applied what I learned there to my films, basically, because it helps, you know, when you're doing commercials, it's, you know, you're telling the story in like 20 seconds. 30 seconds.

And you can make people cry in 30.

seconds. So, so I just really applied what I learned at the high school of art and design and Parsons school of design in terms of storytelling, imagery you know, graphic novels, I've had a lifetime of looking at comic books, 

We're gonna dive a little bit into lobster, FRA  which is from 2015, it was also Cannes film festival, short film corner selection.

You were the writer and producer of that which I understand was only the second film that you ever wrote and produced. And it's, since it's been out, been screened at over 40 festivals, it's won several awards. And then we're also gonna talk about. Tell me about orange, which is one of your most recently completed shorts, which you executive produced.

That was also the recipient of the Jane. Cusumano and with narrative shorts, finishing fund grant. So for listeners who don't know anything about these can you give us a brief overview about what each is about?

So lobster fraud Diablo happened, sadly because my mom passed away and I'm Sicilian American. And we do at Christmas time, we do the feast of the seven fishes on Christmas Eve.

So for us, the big deal was lobster. Okay. So, but they will live lobster, so you have to kill the live lobster. But when I was a kid, I used to fall in love with the law. And I would play with the lobsters, but I would never eat the lobster. So, so here I am. It's it's my mom had passed away in may. It's now Christmas time.

It's like, now it's all on me. I'm driving down the street. I'm thinking, oh my God, I'm going to have to do the feast of the seven fishes. How am I going to kill these lobsters? Like I can't. And the whole like, story, like just flew into my head because the last year that my mom was alive and she was in the process, she was around 89 years old.

And she was in the process of killing this one lobster. And what happened was, you know, there's these pigs that, so they can't get you. 

Yeah. And they're on their 

Well, the peg, the peg came out. And as she was trying to kill it, it latched onto her boop 

Oh no. 

and she was wearing, she was wearing one of those. I fallen and I can't get up 

Oh, one of the like alert, life alert type things. 

and it went off 

Oh, 

and she's struggling with it. And some voice says, Mrs. Barbara, Mrs. Barbara, are you okay? It was just a hysterical, this. So as I was like, kind of mourning my mom, this funny story came into my head and I S and I saw it like a storyboard and basically rushed home, wrote it. And I sent it to Oriana OBJ, who is now my producing partner.

She could be my daughter and she happens to be Sicilian. So I sent it to her and I said, listen, tell me if you think this is funny and how do I know Orianna Orianna started in my first film, suspicious densities. So we had that connection from, and, you know, I thought she did a great job and I respect her, her craft and her opinion and her.

So I take it as if I don't hear for a week. It's not so funny. Well, about two hours later, she texts me and she says, I wish you had more than me about this. I was in Starbucks. Then my latte almost flew out of my nose. We make this. 

drawing from real life, sometimes that is the absolute best source material. 

So That was the easy part. Candace. The hard, the hard part was raising the money. 

Yeah.

Okay. 

Yeah. So, I mean, we could talk about that now. I mean, obviously you have, so it sounds like you have this idea, this this amazing story that you lived and it was hilarious and you wanted to share it. So you wrote it down and then yeah. When you decided that you wanted to bring it to life as a short and share it with the world, funding is one of the things you think of first.

So how did you go about doing that? Cause this is one of your earlier pieces.

Yeah. So I, I think we did, you know, I've done like five Fundraising campaigns. And I think I've used just about everybody, a Kickstarter, Indiegogo and seed and spark. So I think it was Kickstarter. We did too. And you really have to do a lot of work to do a campaign. You really have to think like two months out.

And what we realized, yes, it's a story about this lady and the cops come and, you know, the whole thing. But it really was what Ariana and I realized was that it was honoring the matriarchs in our family. 

Yeah, the heart of the story 

Right. That's the hardest story. So then it was an easy sale. Once we got that. So I was able to go to, I don't know if many people in your audience might know in New York city, there, there are two little literallys there's one in Manhattan and, but there's a big one up in the Bronx called Arthur avenue.

So we were able to go there and talk to them and the restaurants, the businesses, they were S they were so supportive of us. And I don't want to give too much away or, you know, but now there's interest in like a feature length version of 

Oh, 

because it's a Christmas, it's a Christmas movie. 

Yeah, well, that's, I mean, that's great. I'm glad we're talking about that one. Cause I know it's from 2015, but it's, you know, it's still got legs. It sounds like. you know, little, little lobster legs. Yeah. 

Yeah. 

You've mentioned the grandmother, the lobster some, some people that came to the rescue, but there's also, I believe there's a dog in it as well, right. 

No, 

Oh, okay. There was 

get rid of the dog. 

Okay. You didn't end up using.

No, but that, well, the I'm burying the lead, the granddaughter is the vegan. 

Okay,

So she's tasked with going to pick out the live log. So, of course you can't say no to grandma. If grandma, you, she doesn't care. You're a vegan. She doesn't even know what that means. right.

But if she tells you, you got to go to the fish store and go pick out the live lobsters, you, you know, so that's a, that, that was part of it.

We had to, you know, the thing was, yes, there was a dog originally, there was a couple of other, like funny scenes that we really kind of put aside and say for the feature because one of the things I learned from women in film and video was that it really needed to be less than 15 minutes and 20 minutes.

It would have been 20 minutes then. So we kind of the doggies going to be in the feature film. 

Okay. But you did get to a little bit of a lesson in working with animals, which is a 

Oh yes. 

that's a whole other saga. 

My, that was another film 

Was it your, was it your first and last or first of a few, maybe more in the future.

no, I love, I love working with animals, but but they're, you know, they're time consuming and, and we really just had like five days, it was winter, you know, on the piece of paper, it all looks like, oh, we can do this. And then you get to the location. And the it's like, w we don't have sun, like in 20 minutes, the sun's going down. You know, so you have to on set, you gotta start making decisions, you know, and, and one of what, one of the supporters of women in film and video DC is a line producer named Alison rose. And one of the things I've learned from, from Alison is that there's. And I think other people probably know this too.

It's what was on The page, what's on the page, what gets shot and how it gets edited. So that's true. That was true of all the films I've made. So. 

what were some of the similarities then in addition to that, like, or were there any specific similarities in the production process for lobster fraud, Diablo? And tell me about orange.

Okay. Yeah. if there's always that the crossover, I mean, you're going to need a location. There's a lot of work, you know, there's the, I keep telling people, the writing of it is the easiest. You know, it's like you, you have to make a miracle happen. You have to find the right people. You have to find the right locations.

You hope that, that the sun and the moon and the stars are all aligned. You hope that as a producer, my job is to make sure that everybody's safe on. That everybody like it's like being an Italian mama. Okay. It's like, everybody's safe on the set. Everybody gets fed everybody's needs are met, you know, and, and they have a safe place where people can play and collaborate and, and, you know, do their best.

And the time that you have. 

Yeah, it sounds like there's sort of a inherent natural pull towards being a producer for you with your background. Is that one of your favorite aspects? I know there's, you know, a lot of filmmakers, especially even getting started and, and in the indie world and, and just in general, throughout the course of their filmmaking career, where a lot of different hats, it seems like you lean towards writing and producing a lot more.

Is that, are those the lanes you want to stay within or do you see maybe directing more down the line?

I didn't know about directing cause my, my partner Orianna is a terrific director. In fact she's one, two best direction director awards. So, and we w we did another film. The last film that we did together was a go-go boy, and that's won all kinds of rules. You know, during COVID and also got into something like 43 film festivals. 

Yeah.

So, you know, w we're we've got a pretty good track record, you know, in terms of making a product that people enjoy learn from, you know, but, but really it's, it's kind of like assembling a family. You know, do you want to really, the question is, do I want to work with this person because you're going to experience something pretty profound, you know, and really in a very compressed period of time. 

Yeah. So you have to love and trust those that you're collaborating with 

We really 

respecting their talents as well as 

and, exactly. Yeah. 

yeah. The dynamic that you all have. So it sounds like you have a core team that you work with a lot. Were, were there any particularly exciting. different or new people that were specific to each EGR, either of these shorts that you remember 

well, I have, I'm very, I'm very, was thrilled that for lobster, I needed a Nona, I needed a little Italian Greek. Okay. So we, we auditioned, even though I'm in, in silver spring, Maryland, we were going to shoot this in New York. Okay. Cause we found it, we needed a place by the, by the water and there were all kinds of, and because of author  avenue and all of that.

 because Arianne is also an actress, she put it out there and she's directing. So she put it out there and look, I'm a filmmaker, but basically we're like little baby, you know, filmmakers. We've got 600 replies. 

Oh, wow.

Okay. So we spent a day or additioning all these grandmas. So we needed a grandma. We needed a, a S like a six year old kid. We needed a EMT, you know, but basically we need a grandma. If we didn't have grandma, we didn't have the story. Cause she, you had to love her. So, when Harry, Molly, GC walked in, I turned to Oriana and I said, we have grandma, we have.

So I'm so proud because she's gone on to kind of be the grandma in New York. 

Oh, wonderful.

 You had these, th this one in a lot of festivals and including Ken, was that something that, cause it was a short from a few years ago?

Was that something that opened a lot more doors for you? That name recognition to be able to do more pieces after that? Do you think that was a huge bump?

Well, I don't know necessarily you, you still, you know, you can't just like sit around and wait, About two years ago, without giving too much away, we did get a phone call out of the blue from somebody out in LA.

And they said, do you have a feature length version? And I said, of course we do. 

Yeah. You always say yes first, 

You always say yes. But then what happened was I went back to this and unfortunately this all happened right.

before COVID. I went back to the people that were so supportive at Arthur avenue, and I said, Hey, how would you like this, this and this to happen?

And they said, they, so basically there is a board of directors because there's something like 119 vendors. It's like an associate business association. So it needed, the script needed to be vetted before they would allow me to film on the streets of author on Arthur avenue. So w I had gotten the yes, but then COVID happened.

So we're, we're kind of like, you know, waiting. 

the major, the major reason for everyone to have to pivot, make it work in different ways. what advice would you give to someone about getting things into festivals? Speaking of festivals. So once you have a piece done, how you go about you just submit to as many as you can. I mean, I'm sure I, I know that this one has a focus.

And so how talk, talk a little bit about how you decide where you want to put it.

Okay. So, there's a little bit of a story about cam cause we were late. We, we filmed in the first week of December and I don't, I think you had to have something like late for can submission was like the end of February. And Oriana, my, my producing partner is, is like a maniac. Okay. I don't know how she got this thing with the holidays and everything.

She got that thing edited and you know, money is money. Okay. So she calls me up and she says, you have canned down. It's a hundred dollars. Right.

And I said, Arianna, look how many times in my life am I going to be able to even say I submitted something to can send it? Okay. So I don't know. I think so. We didn't even, we didn't even have a poster made yet.

So I dunno a month goes by. She calls me up at eight 30 in the morning being of course, Sicilian. I'm thinking somebody is done. And she says, I think we got into the can short corner. They want a poster. So sometimes, you know, but I have to say, you have to do your research. The thing with lobster was it was a feel-good moving it.

That fits a lot. It was the. The writer, producers, the cinematographer, the editor that was all women, so that we were able to get into a lot of festivals. Then there's food festivals, then there's Italian festival. I mean, we like you. Okay. 

Lean into what you 

So, so that was one of the reasons why, and then, but I have to say, because we got into Cannes, what happened was we got into a lot of international festivals because they saw it there and then they asked us, can

we put it in, in our festival? 

and I'll say, yeah, 

So that was really wonderful. So we didn't even have to pay, you know, it was like here, you.

know, 

So, if they ask you, you don't have to pay the entrance 

We didn't have to pay. They wanted it. it was different with, tell me about orange, because tell me about oranges is basically an LGBTQ audience. So we had to be very careful, like where we put that film, because, but so it could. Three categories made by women, LGBTQ and youngsters, because it's about a 13 year old boy. So the logline, it's a blind boy. Who's 13 years old and the tagline is what love looks like one love is blind. So, it also though is a feel good film.

So I think even with COVID. I think we've gotten into a 12 

each project is obviously its own adventure. What do you think is gets easier and easier as you gain more experience with these? Like what's something you've learned from past projects that you've applied to substance.

Well, you just have a better sense, you know, we're doing the script DC. And like I mentioned before we have Joan darling and she's giving a four week course on directing. And I think one of the most important things that I learned was to trust my intuition. And to you know, if you get a bad feeling about something, does it's like the universe is kind of like slapping you upside the head and saying, don't go there.

Even if it sounds good, 

Yeah.

you know? And you just have a better sense each time you do this, you'll say, okay, I, we need. We need so many hours, we need so many breaks. We need, we can get, we, we need X amount of grips. We need, you know, the, you just have a better sense of your equipment. And who do you trust?

I D I worked on a project one time. That was not one of my projects. Okay. It was somebody else's project and the sound person was hard. So the best advice is you better have a really good sound person. That's what, what I learned like upfront, but not for my project or somebody else's project. 

Yeah.

So look at people's reels, talk to them on the phone, take them out for a cup of coffee, you know, just be very observant.

And, and see what kind of vibe you get off and then do, you know, talk to other people who've worked with. 

talk to us about script DC a little bit more and some other things that, that you do to help out with helping others with story and whatnot.

Yeah.

So jeez, that women in film and video, I have been told by other industry professionals that we, we got it wrong. In DC because we're really very open to the spectrum from somebody who's never done this before to an established screenwriter or filmmaker, you know, so our community might be small, but we're, we're, we're we're open and we want to help people.

Because it's so hard. It's really hard, you know, before I said, why it's like, you're, you're creating this miracle, there's a magic that happens. You know, when S when you get a great take and people are crying, you know, when The crew is crying, you know, that's magic So we offer we offer screenwriting editing documentary round table. Script DC. Right now, we, we did writing, we're going to be doing pitching. We did composers. Like what w one of the things I needed to do for tell me about orange was it's about a young Jewish boy.

So we needed like, just touch. You know, of, of the music underneath I've learned so much about from composers about how music, you know, directs the emotion underneath. So we provide it all who's ever listening to this because we are now. You know, over zoom, we're giving all of our script DC workshops over zoom.

Just check us out because we've had, we had somebody who, who is taking the course. Who's in Brazil,

Yeah 

Canada, Chicago. 

accessible to the whole world now. 

 was there any advice that you wanted to impart that you hadn't already said about anything for people wanting to get into filmmaking and any aspect of it, whether they wanted to focus on, for example, writing? Cause I know that's one thing you, you focus a lot on.

Well, you know, the people that I've I've people send me this grips and. What happens is that they're trying to get it perfect. They think they're going to get it perfect. The first time Joan darling happens to be one of my mentors. I have a, I had another mentor a couple of years ago. Pamela Gray, who wrote the blouse man that became a walk on.

the moon. 

Hmm. 

And she, and she's done star Trek, she's done, she's done all kinds of stuff. Okay.

She's an amazing writer. And she said, you know, a walk on the blouse, man that became a walk on the moon that was rewritten 14 times. So people, the biggest advice I would give to people. Is, if you have an idea in your head, just put it on the piece of paper.



So when I'm reading, somebody's, you know, first, second draft, I'm not worried about the spelling. It's like, Hey, does this story work? But I think a lot of new writers feel, oh, I have to spell the words, right?

As long as it's close 

Yeah, 

then you share it. The other thing you need to do is find a community of writers.

And we're, we're putting one together actually right now it's, I think it's going to meet the, the third Thursday of the month. We're putting together a group of writers who like, if you want to share the first 20 pages, you know, one of the other things we do is the first five pages. 

Hmm.

So because the people at Sundance they'll only, and, and, and industry.

Professionals have told me readers, they read the first five pages.

So you got to grab them. 

they read the last five pages. 

Ooh. Okay.

I had one gal who, who wanted to do one of my screenplays as a feature, but then there was the writer's strike. She said, Jane, I give them 10 pages. If they're a new writer, I give them 10 pages. If I'm not hooked by 10. So. So it's really about story. It's not about spelling 

and find a group of writers who you also trust, so you can share stuff and who are going to give you honest, you know, it's not like, oh, this was so great. 

Yeah, honest advice is 

Honest advice. 

 before we wrap up, if someone wanted to see these shorts or learn more about them and about, about you, is there anywhere where they could go to.

 I have a website Testa, Dora media.com. If people want to go check me out there, they can see kind of what we're up to 

And that's T E S T a D U R a media. Yeah.

well, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

I know I had a great time. I learned a lot and wonderful. I'm looking forward to seeing these projects.

Okay. This has been mental. I get so much fun to talk about yourself. 

Today I'm chatting with Sherry Radek Strout, a multi-faceted artist and creator with over 40 years of experience in the entertainment world, spanning the arenas of theater, television, and film. She is the vice president and CFO of, and producer and actor with wonder pictures.

And you might recognize her as also the voice of this media and monuments podcast intro. Today, we're going to discuss a couple of her most recent comedic shorts as we get into a more about the specifics of how she got them made.   let's let listeners get to know you and your journey just a little bit more. How did you first get into this world?

Well, my mommy and daddy got together.

Hey, it's part of your

It is, it is. I have to say I was born in Brooklyn for all of my Brooklyn friends out there, but I was only there three months and then the family moved. I grew up in upstate New York, but I consider myself a Jersey girl because I went to high school in Jersey and When I got into college, I had to think of what's my passion.

And at that point, not to the joy of my parents, my passion was theater. So I, I majored in theater, minored in dance. And then when I graduated, I didn't know what to do as terrible as that sounds. All of my friends really thought I was going to go to New York and audition and do all of those things.

And I didn't, maybe I should have and I should say right off the bat, I'm a strong believer in You are where you are, where you are supposed to be. I'm at the age now where I'm looking back going, should I have gone, right? Should I have gone left? What would have happened? But you know, if you believe that you are where you're supposed to be at that time and place then going right or left in the past, didn't matter.

So I got the degree in theater. I stayed here in Washington did a lot of community theater and then I got married. I'm really synopsizing things. And my husband and I moved out to Omaha, Nebraska, so he could finish up his degree and I put my. Resume out to all of the theaters in Omaha, Nebraska.

And I mentioned that because eight months later, when we were leaving, I get a phone call from one of the dinner theaters, suddenly they need me. And we were two weeks from moving back to Washington and I, I was a newlywed and I didn't want to leave my husband go back by himself. And I got to tell you upfront he was the one who said, look, we'll make arrangements, go do it.

And I said to the guy on the phone, I really don't think we're leaving the area. He goes, but you'll be playing opposite. Troy Donahue. And I see, I see deer eyes in your face right now. You had no idea who Troy Datta, who is, but he was one of the biggest stars in the sixties. And this was this was the mid seventies and his star had kind of, but anyhow, so moving many years later I had to leave theater because of family health, my husband became very ill.

I could not commit to six weeks of rehearsals and then being on stage for you know, for four weeks a month, whatever the run was, because I never knew when I was going to have to run to the hospital. I mean, so, so there, we had a life change, so what do I do? What do I do to feed my soul? And, and, you know, be happy inwardly.

And I started looking at things that didn't require the six weeks and a month and a half rehearsal. I tried voiceovers that didn't work for me. Not that I didn't get jobs, it just didn't feed my soul. So a friend of mine who is a post-production person, I've known him for 40 some years. We were having lunch one day in 2010.

And he was, his business was mostly corporate. And he said to me, you know,  I want more creativity. I want to be able to do a film that. Requires creativity.  So I looked at him and I said, you know, you know, the production people, I know the actors let's go out to the barn and do a show, which again, that refers back to, for the younguns listening that refers back to the Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney movies, a whole slew of them where no matter what the, the, the topic was, they would go out to the barn and do a show.

So we formed in 2010 wonder pictures and the concept because I was working full time. He had his full-time post-production. So we were only going to do shorts because shorts didn't take as much time. And You know, we could, we could usually do it fairly quickly. So we did our first film. We filmed it, believe it or not in about five hours, it was called Spanish lesson.

It was an idea that had been running through Rich's head. I was very, very lucky in having some friends who were willing to donate four or five hours in one day for the filming.  half of it was in Spanish. Half of it was in English.

And when we went to film, I said to her. Do you know, Spanish. And he goes now and I said, I don't know Spanish. W yeah. W w we're not going to know if those actors are really speaking the lines or if they're cursing or, you know, playing jokes, what are we going to do? So I have a dear friend who is who is multilingual.

I mean, she speaks five or six languages. Spanish is her first law, first language. And Debbie Machado Santos. I will mention her name, dear Debbie. And she was so kind to give us her time. She was on set, listening to the actors, making sure they were saying the lines. And then when we finished and we had to edit it and we had to do the Sublines, you know, cause you can't send out to film festivals.

If you're not an English, you have to have the translations on the bottom. So rich said, you know what, let's do this. Let's do translate the English into Spanish, but then the Spanish let's translate into English. So we, we did all of that. She gave us her time. It was wonderful. And to go full circle, that's how we got started in doing films.

We were very lucky. We started sending it out to festivals. We won an award at the Mexico international film festival for that film. Years later, I submitted it to a Spanish film festival in Baltimore and it won audience favorite. So from that beginning where we saw that people liked what we were doing, we were encouraged.

 And film became my new passion.

 you do have that experience in theater. How do you think that's helped with your overall storytelling? And also maybe how has it been a bit of a challenge to translating and adjusting things to the smaller, more intimate screen

You're very right. It is a challenge. I known for being very broad in acting and that's mainly because of being a stage actor. You have to catch the audience's attention. So your gestures are usually broad. You have to project when when I was at the university of Maryland we performed in the, I think it was the Bard auditorium that had between 12 and 1500 seats.

There was balconies and the main orchestra and at the time I was going, and I'm sure it's different now because I attended Maryland BC. At my time there Dr. Mirror's men refused to Mike, the actors and his comment was if you cannot reach the last row of the balcony, you should not be in theater. So we actors at that time learned to hit that back row. So consequently,



I'm very loud. I rarely need microphones. And when I transferred to film, it was really a matter of having to lower my voice, having to pull my actions in. I should say that wonder pictures with the exception of Spanish lesson I'm in every single.

I do an Alfred Hitchcock, even if I'm just in the back or whatever, but it, it keeps, it, it keeps me trained, I guess, is the word there's better words. But so yeah, so there's a really big difference that I had to learn. You know, and, and rich who directs all of our films. He, you know, again, we've known each other 40 some years.

He's very good at saying Sherry, pull it back, Sherry, you know, better pull it back. And, and I appreciate that a lot.

 we're going to focus on a couple of a couple of, the more recent of shorts that you've done. We're going to talk about Julie leaves, the nest and hero's honeymoon. And as you said, you're in both of them as well. And, you know, you played a big part in, in creating those.

 I'd like to hear how you would describe like what, what each of those. The listeners. So like a little quick, what is Julie leaves? The nest and like a one or two sentence and same for heroes. Honeymoon.

You're pulling me back. I can tell Julie leaves, the nest is just about a an overbearing mother who really wants the best for her child, but doesn't take her child. Thoughts into consideration it's her daughter's wedding and it's the mother's overbearing newness. And the humor of it, all of what's going on for hero's honeymoon, it was actually the writer Bert Kepner.

It was actually an event that happened to his parents. His parents got married on the night that the war of the worlds was broadcast. And it w it's just a little vignette of what happened. I mean, he worked, took some dramatic license, you know, to

Yeah. It's

it thank you. That's that's much better. It is based on a true story.

And we had a lot of fun with that one

Yeah, because I've famously, a lot of people interpreted that war, the war, worlds broadcast as

as a real thing.

so a lot of people thought the world was truly being invaded by

Exactly. Yeah.

So that sounds great. I'm so it, it, it looks like, and stop me if I'm wrong here, almost everything you do is comedy or, or mostly comedy. It seems like you love leaning into that genre. Is there a particular reason that you like comedy over others? I know it's sometimes considered notoriously difficult to do comedy.

But yeah. What draws you to comedy?

 Comedy is usually easy for me. I grew up as a kid and people laughed and when I was younger, I'm getting serious here. When I was younger, I thought I took it as people laughing at me and it used to hurt my feelings and sometime.

In high school or college? I think it was maybe more college. I realized they're not laughing at me. I just, one of my gifts is to bring humor into the world and it was much better on my psyche when I realized that it was a gift I had. So, we do do a lot of comedies. We've started to do some scifi guys.

We've got one that's in post-production that I hope to have out in a few weeks. That's a Saifai 

Like a dramatic Saifai or still a comedy Saifai.

no dramatic dramatic Saifai We do have some dramas. There's a second. Film we did for a competition called the last paper boy. Rich called it a comedy. I didn't think it wasn't comedy. I thought it

Well, our artist's

oh yeah. You know, rich said it's a comedy.

I said, I don't think so. It's just about the last paper, boy. That papers have gone away because everybody's reading the news on the computer.

Yeah, it's all

Yeah. So, yeah. I guess we do lean toward comedy. But we do, we do all different kinds,

but I mean, that's, that's great. I know who doesn't love a comedy for one and we could definitely use more comedy in the world,

know? Yes, I was gonna, I was gonna say when the When the pandemics started rich called me and said, okay, we can't meet, but what if we got a group of people together, let's call them the isolation players, have them record on their phones and let's do some skits. Let's, let's put humor out in the world.

So we created the pandemic Playhouse that is on YouTube. And it was only going to be one or two, one or two episodes. But

Well, the pandemic was only going to

I know

of weeks back at the beginning. So

well that, you know, so we sent it out to some family and friends and people were clamoring for more they're they're like one and two. Episodes, blurbs, whatever. So we ended up I think we've got 15 episodes on the website that people are just loving, So, just so we can dive a little bit more into the process for people that are maybe curious about things how, how did you get we can take them one at a time or however you want, but how did you get hero's honeymoon started? Like when you decide that you're going to, how do you know for one, it sounds like you had this story from that personal experience, that the right or whatever.

But then how do you know you're turning it into a

Okay. Bert sent us the script five or six years ago, and we threw it in the drawer gently the main character from Rich's point of view and mine was a bus, a period bus from the 1930s. And in talking about the script, we kept saying, we can't do it unless we, we get a bus and then we try to figure it out.

Okay. If we can't find a bus, can we green screen it? Can we, you know, and there was discussion ahead of time. And then in, I think it was 2019 rich called me and said, I'd been talking to Bert and he wants the script done. And we're going to do a kickstart. No go fund me a GoFundMe campaign. Are you on?

And I said, yeah, if we can raise the funds to get a bus, and more importantly, if we can find the bus you know, I'm on. So that that's what happened. We took it out of the drawer, dusted it off tweaked, it, went through it, read it, you know, we, we do a lot of Pre-production and then we start.

Looking for where we could find a bus and rich found the museum of transportation in Hershey, PA. I drove up there one weekend talked with people and through a series of conversations,  I found the perfect bus. It even said Buffalo on it. And in the script, the, the people are going to Niagara falls.

So I said, oh, this is a sign. It's a perfect bus. It says Buffalo already. So they agree to rent us the bus.  We got all excited. They were saying, it'd be about $2,000 to rent the bus. Great. Then as time went on and we spoke with them, number one, they wouldn't let us drive the bus to Washington.

If we're going to take it to Washington, we have to flatbed it. Well, how many more thousands of dollars would that be? So then we decided, okay, this is going to be our first Our first location shop. So we went to Harrisburg and held auditions to get actors from that area. And as it turned out, we got a lot of DC actors willing to drive up there.  So when we get there, we then find out they won't let us drive the bus on the road, even around there because it's not road licensed.

We ended up having to green screen the whole bus and drop in the motion in post-production, which rich did an amazing job. They did let us drive the bus. Well, we couldn't drive the bus. We had to have one of their staff people the whole weekend. We were there for three days. We had to have one of their staff people on site.

He was a licensed bus driver. He took the bus for a spin on the grass. Around the property a little bit. They would allow that. 

that saved us. We were going to, we were on the verge of canceling Okay, so that that's hero's honeymoon.

As far as Julie leaves, the nest, this script was written by a women in film and video member. John Aaron sent it to me. I loved it. I thought it was hysterical, sent it to rich. I said, what do you think rich called me back. I love it. So we spoke with John, we optioned the script. It was during COVID. I was very nervous about doing it.

But when we auditioned the actors, I said, You know, we're going to do everything humanly possible. I'm very lucky. I have a fairly large condo, so it's got three bedrooms. I was able to put one actor in one bedroom, one actor in another bedroom. The master was large enough to have two actors in on either side.

I have a fairly large balcony, so actors or production people could go out in the air. But we were, we were cleaning everything. Food was all individually wrapped as it was supposed to be. There's a lot more with the thing, but we, we got it done. And in one afternoon, no, was it two? We did that in two days.

And it worked out great. So.

yeah. So you also got to learn how to be a COVID

Yeah,

protocol person as well,

well, you know, I wanted,

in this day and

wanted the actors to feel comfortable. And they, you know, we had, we had one little issue, but it was nothing major. And this actress went out on the balcony and stayed out except when she was needed. And it, it, it all, you know, it all worked out. It all worked out.

 it sounds like you work with a lot of people over and over again, you have kind of a core team. Is that, is that

That is very true. 

So what, what did the experience of having to go on location and work with new people? Did that inspire you to try to bring on new people for future projects as well, or.

yeah. We do have a core group of production people. I mean, rich is, is always the director and editor. That's his, that's his. His major, in my opinion, that's his major talents. We've got a screenwriter in Burt Kepner, but we do search out like John sent us a script. We do search out other scripts.

If we have a part that seems so right for somebody within our group that we've worked with before, we will usually offer that part to that person first  

I know a lot of people listening might be curious about if they wanted to start  getting into filmmaking Can you talk to us about some of the things you've done to secure funding and get these things done?

The first film was done on a zero budget because everybody donated their time. And that was amazing to me. I think, and I'm going to quote rich here, rich west, the most important thing in filmmaking is having a good story. That is the most important thing. Once you have the good story, then as far as budgeting goes, you have to sit down, you have to figure out what might it cost, what can you get in kind who do you know, willing to donate?

Our second film, which was the silent film called the last paper. Boy, our budget was $50 and that was because we had to rent the bicycle because we rented a 1950s Schwinn.  we didn't want a modern bike because the guy's been doing this for 40 years.

He, the last paper boy is like 60 years old. You know, when my father saw this movie, he goes, that's a paper, boy. But we rented a bike and it was 50 bucks. In today's world, there's a lot of crowdfunding opportunities, but I think what I didn't realize the first time I did crowdfunding is your success with crowdfunding.

Depends on your network. You can't put something up on Kickstarter or go fund me or Seton spark and expect strangers to come to your site and donate. bottom line is it's your network of people of friends willing to put in $50, $25, a hundred dollars. 

Which again, emphasizes the importance of growing

Absolutely. Absolutely. I can't, I can't stress enough. The importance of reaching out. And if you don't have much of a network, you've got to start joining organizations like women in film and video, like, TIVA, like I could go on, but, and you can't just join because being a member, doesn't get you to know those people.

You know, that's what some people do, but I'm a member. Well, what have you done for the organi? Well, I gave my membership. No, that's not gonna work. You meet people through working committees, through volunteering with that organization. People get to know you.

Yeah. And showing up to the

Showing up to the events. Absolutely. So it's your network.

So we've done a Kickstarter for suspicious densities, which was Jane Barbara's script and.

This was a story about what happens when you get the call about suspicious densities on your mammogram and having to go back that is also based on a true event, having to go back to the doctor's office and how you feel.

We raised I think eight, 8,000 something, but we raised that because people were willing to donate a thousand dollars toward our film who were part of the network That was an eye-opener for me. I show my naivety. I thought we'd put it out there and strangers would go, oh, that's a wonderful topic.

Let me send you a hundred dollars. No, no, no, no, no, no. If it wasn't for the people I knew rich knew Jane knew who were willing to support us. We wouldn't have raised that kind of money.  And if you don't have your own money, and if you can't find people willing to donate their time, then I don't know how you would do it. You would have to put things aside, create a network and, and go from there.

And then, you know, do something later. If somebody really loves film and wants to get into it, they need to start volunteering or working on other people's. Projects to start creating that network of people who would help them, you know

And, and also you could get advice from people by working with others about how they got funded as well. You know, there might even be like grants or things like that

exactly. The, the, the thing with grants though, Candice is, and this is my problem. If I've got a script and I really like it, I want to do it in the next couple of months with grants. You have to know a year ahead of time. This is what you want to do. Then you research the grants, which are fabulous, then you apply and then it could be six months before you find out whether or not you get that money.

So grants are wonderful, but they're not immediate. You're, you're not going to be able to do your film immediately. If you're waiting on a grant  Let me go back to networks for a minute. One of the actresses in the collection, which isn't out yet emailed me in November. And she said, Sherry, I'm doing a feature film. They're looking for an actress of a certain age and I laughed.

Haha. I know what that means. I like her to put my name out there. I said, absolutely. And within three days I got a phone call from the producer for this feature film told him, yes, I'd be interested. I'd like to see the script sent me the script. Got back to him on a Thursday. I said, I'd be very interested.

It's a horror movie, not my genre, but you know, I would love to audition for it. And he said, no, you don't have to audition. You've got the part, if you want to do it. I said, yes. So that was a Thursday. The next Monday I'm on set out in Annapolis doing the film. And it was because of my network. I would never have known about this film, but Jean got a role in it and she put my name out there and he seems to really like my work, you know?

What we've been talking about this whole time network, network network, you know, when I was in school, maybe they did talk about networking, but my ear didn't catch it. I, I often think, I wish I knew 40 years ago. What I know today, which is the importance of your friends. I had friends in the business.

I don't want to say I didn't, but you really have to join organizations. You really have to put yourself on sets. You really have to just put yourself out there I would say, if there's anything, the new bees take away from this it's you need your friends, you need your network.

And it's your networks that will help guide you. They'll answer your questions. Maybe they can even stand by your side. Maybe you can shadow them.  find your passion and go with it and, and develop those, those friendships that will take you. Take you places, take you along with them. It's a, it's a great thing.

So if anyone wants to see these, these shorts and learn about you and your work and what's coming up, where should they go?

Well, we don't have the shorts out yet for general viewing, mainly because we're, we still put them in in film festivals. But we do have a website for wonder pictures, which you can read up on me and rich and, and you can see our laurels and a little bit about each of the movies and it's www, which I'm told you don't use anymore, but www dot wonder pictures, one.

Dot net, N E T not calm. So wonder pictures.net, please. Take a look at us and don't hesitate to reach out if there's anyone listening that would like someone to help them, or you have a question I'm, I'm there to help the new ones, you know, move on up. You can consider me part of your network.

It'll be my pleasure. Just send me an email and you can email me at Sherry and that's spelled S H E R I one R and deny sherry@wonderpictures.net and I'll get it. And I'll be glad to assist you in any way.

Well, thank you so much. I'm sure listeners have enjoyed not only your personality, but your, you know, warm and inviting and open openness with, with collaboration and everything as well. So thank you so much for sitting down with

Thank you for having me. This has been a joy.

That's it for this installment of how I got it made. I hope you've gained some valuable insights from our wonderful guests until next month. Enjoy the continued weekly content from media and monuments.