The Big Damn Podcast | Episode 027 - Premiere Nights, Roadshows, & Sequel Pitches

In Episode 27 of The Big Damn Podcast, we are talking all about our recent movie premiere and the fun things coming up on our summer roadshow! It has barely been a year since we launched this trajectory to the big screen, and the premiere went as well as we could have hoped. We had an incredible time bringing together family, friends, and crew at a beautiful location while getting the VIP treatment. We also reflect on screening at Kevin Smith's theater and the inspiring shared vision of making a living playing movies with friends. Plus, we share some hilarious sequel ideas from a 12-year-old who is already writing parts two and three!

• The Roadshow Begins: Our first stop is in Hanover, Maryland at the Cinemark Egyptian 24 on June 6th.
• Upcoming Content: We are planning future interviews with our directors, actors, and crew members.
• Support the Show: Join us at Patreon.com for exclusive early access to live recordings, bonus content, and full unedited versions of the podcast.

Learn more about Big Damn Films by visiting: https://bigdamnentertainment.com.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:03

Fucking broken leg. Yeah, broken leg. Yeah. Because uh you know what what what's not like you know running 17 more miles after you break a leg. Right? Well when that's 17 gets you to 200. Yeah, because the belt buckle for the belt buckle that I get for getting to 200 for the belt that I don't have was worth everything. Yeah. Yeah, I really need to go on Amazon and and search for belts where you can put a belt buckle on because at this point it's like, why am I getting loose if I'm not wearing them?

SPEAKER_01 0:49

And with that, welcome to the Big Damn Podcast. And we hit that button. Uh welcome to season three, episode 27 as a big damn podcast. Uh we missed last month because, well, we you know premiered a movie and shit. Yeah, a premiere. A good reason to miss it. Uh so yeah, this episode we're gonna talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Yeah, we're gonna talk about the premiere and uh all of the roadshow and all the fun things we have to come into the summer.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

The sad thing is we have like two really good things we can talk about, yeah. So probably more than that, but yes. Well, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh so as of today, it's it's May 27th. Uh Patreon people will hear this on the 28th. I will make sure that this goes live on June 1st. Perfect. Uh and then, you know, as a prelude prelude to the the end of the conversation, uh, we'll be heading down to Maryland to show the movie for our first time outside of Jersey. Yep. Looking forward to that. Um, so I know the amount of uh I went back and listened to the last episode because I could hear how naive we were in what the premiere was gonna be like. Um but yeah, we we had about a hundred and fifteen people show up. Yeah. Uh we had 120 buy tickets. Uh and then we did something Big Damn Films has never done, which is had a one-week theatrical run of the movie. Yeah, that was really pretty cool. Yeah. Um, so I have the last receipt. Yeah. Will that focus?

SPEAKER_02 3:05

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Uh the last receipt of the last showing of our movie at Spodcast.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

Um, and that was really cool because it was me and uh Nicole and her cousin. Uh Nicole was Haley, our effects person's mom. Um, and her cousin that couldn't make the premiere. And then two random people that just happened to be there because on Thursday, Smod Castle partners with a local restaurant for like dinner and a movie.

unknown 3:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

And they were like, we we love horror, and this was the only horror thing. So, of course, I turn around, I'm like, oh hi, I'm the director.

SPEAKER_02 3:44

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Um, and they're like, I'm like, and at the end, I want to hear what you thought. Good. Uh so yeah. Uh your thoughts leading up to the premiere date, the premiere and since.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Um I think the premiere went went very well. Uh, it was really fun to be there, you know, with an audience. Um I won't say finally, because when you think about it, like we've we've it's barely been a year since we even, you know, got launched on this trajectory. So we certainly can't say it took too long to get to the big screen. But it was uh, you know, is it's really it's always an interesting feeling and experience when you have people from so many different worlds and walks of life all kind of colliding at the same time at the same event. You know, you have the people you worked with on the movie, and you have family, and you have friends, and you have people you went to high school with who didn't even know you, you know, did movie stuff, or or who knows what. Like there's always these this wide range of of people in different worlds colliding, and it's always uh always fun to kind of just see how that uh how that goes. So I uh I mean it went it went as good as I could have hoped it could have gone. You know, it was a nice crowd, it was uh a beautiful location. Um I think everything uh everything went well.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

So uh we have some bragging rights, but I'll save that for the Patreon part. Uh well, I don't want to put that out in the ether. Um but I think the cool part for me wasn't just the amalgamation of all the different people because yeah, your friends from high school and college, and you know, uh my friend from like middle school threw on Mark Iman was there and took photos for us. And Jen made fun of me afterwards because she's like, You turn into Kevin Smith on stage because you just kept talking. It's like, but if you think about it, like from Brown Coats to that. And we had people there from like that moment only exists because of Browncoat's redemption. Right. You know, uh, you and Katie, Bill and Marissa, and then uh Lou and a couple people from, you know, Paul from Z Con, uh, which is where we got broke and Haley. And then Scott, our composer, flew all the way out from LA.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

So awesome to see him.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Like I saw him in the lobby, and I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? It was so great. Um and he I love him. He's wonderful. Yeah. Um, and it was just really cool to sit in the back of the room. And I've seen this movie probably way more than anybody else. Oh, sure. Uh, you would be second to that. And watching all of the moments that went off the way I ex I hoped they would.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

Um, especially the one scene in Joe Rafa's at the end. Uh where all through editing, Jen's like, it's going too long. It's going too long. I'm like, no, I I feel it. And you could just hear the ripple of laughter, and then everybody just gets the joke and starts laughing.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

That was a really fun one because yeah, you had the first couple, you know, 10, 12 seconds, and then you had the next stage, and then the next stage, and it was just so fun to watch the audience go through everything. It still may have been a hair long, but yeah, that was that was really fun to see work.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

I won't deny that it might have been a hair long, you know. I think maybe 15 seconds longer. Um, but it was also it was good. I had to extend it, so we actually had a good runtime. Yeah, I know, I know. Um, so we had at least one oh shit moment, like audibly heard oh shit. Uh Jen's friend Kate Sandman, who was in our wedding, uh, came up at the end and she's like, a little fucking warning would be nice. And we're like, nope. Nope, we're not talking about it. We're not telling you the ending. Um I explicitly ask anybody that's reviewing the film, don't talk about the ending. Um and uh because that moment, like the whole room was like, oh um, that was great. I do want to give uh flowers to Ernie and Connor and Steven and the crew over at Smod Castle. Like they were amazing to work with. They let us come in and film some stuff that we didn't get to use because the mic wasn't working. Um we, you know, we were on the marquee, our poster was outside.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Yeah. We got the VIP treatment for sure.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

We got the VIP treatment, but we also got the, you know, we're not sure about you guys yet. Yeah. And now that we've shown that we could, you know, pack half of a 250 theater. Um we're already gonna come back for Rifters. We're already gonna come back for the anniversary of Arbor Day. Um, yeah, I I'm super happy. Uh like I talked to Ernie and I know he's got people that have had not had great experiences.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

My complaints are small in comparison.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Yeah, no, it was it was wonderful. And again, I may not I may not be the biggest Kevin Smith fan out of the box, but what I loved most, I think, seeing about seeing the theater and kind of being in that atmosphere was the the shared vision of you know, he built a film collective around his friends, and he gets to basically make a living playing movies with his friends. And like, what better life I can't imagine much better of a life than than getting to do that. So I uh I appreciated our our steps towards being able to do that in uh in his theater where he does that for a whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

What was really cool is uh they showed Mando and Grogu recently. And somebody got a picture of Kevin and Ernie sitting off on the side, like in the theater that they watched Star Wars in when they were little little kids.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:00

Oh, that's so yeah. I mean, knowing that that's the theater that they went to when they grew up and knowing it's like uh where they're gonna keep it for a while. I mean, it's it's a besides being a Kevin Smith fan, it's just a really cool like it reminds me of the theaters I grew up in. Oh, absolutely. Um, but yeah, that was really cool. Uh our axe will now be hanging above Kevin's hockey stick at Smod Castle.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Um for those of you that didn't go to the premiere, we gifted every person uh who is a VIP an actual, the same axe we used in the movie. And it was engraved with Arbor Day of the Root of Evil, the World Premier Date, and Smod Castle Cinemas. And we gave an extra one to Smodcastle. So if you ever go into Smod Castle Cinemas, look behind the up on the wall, you're gonna see the Arborists axe. Uh yeah. I I think now that we've done this once we do uh with Smod Castle, I know what we we need to do different next time. Okay. So since this is a behind-the-scenes thing, like I'm gonna just share like what we need is like we need an event planner, not necessarily an event planner, but we need somebody who uh day of coordinator. Day of coordinator. That's exactly it. Yep. Um, you know, because me trying to to meet everybody and you trying to meet everybody and keep everything organized, like there's too many jobs going on. Um and even Jen said she's like, you guys were running around like you ran the place, which is great. But like it should have been our day to celebrate. Um, so that would be like one of the main things that I would want to do different. Uh so many people asked if Kevin was gonna be there.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

While that would be lovely, personally, I wanted to do this to see if we could do it without Kevin packing the place. Um it's fun. So now we're uh we're out of the premiere. 123 trees planet. We can officially say we've had a theatrical run.

SPEAKER_03 13:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Um we're doing a roadshow. Now we're doing a roadshow.

unknown 13:50

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Dots on that. Uh we've already got our first uh first up. First up planned uh in where is that? Hanover, Maryland, at uh Cinemark Egyptian 24 on June 6th at 8 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

At 8 p.m. So uh a little bit smaller theater than we had. Uh because I I got confused on theater sizes. Um and I booked us in theater one at Smodcastle, but theater one sits 250 people. Uh so we're now in 136th theater seat theater, which is a little bit more than what we had.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

Uh and it'll be the same thing. It'll be oh, excuse me. It'll be a meet and greet, or a little bit of a half-hour meet and greet of let everybody in. We're gonna show the movie. You and I are gonna talk for a little bit, and then we're gonna send everybody home happy. Um, and then we'll rinse and repeat, and we'll go to uh Fairfax, Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina, Fanville, Georgia, Orlando for people watching this on YouTube. I'm looking at the dates. Uh Orlando, Florida, Dallas, Texas, Houston, Texas, Mesa, Arizona, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Um if they go well, we may add another city or two along the way where we get a lot of interest. Everything will be done through uh, unless we change theaters, everything will be done through Cinemark, and we will be using Eventbrite for our tickets. Uh, which means the only way that you can get tickets is through our Eventbrite link, which you can find on the ArborDemovie.com. Uh, and you could buy like I just embedded the code so you could buy tickets right on that landing page uh without having to go through. Uh which is crazy because now we're taking it around. And this is kind of like our brown coat's invention days. Like, yeah, you have well, we went to convention to convention, convention. Um I will say this time around, uh it's it's we don't have the luxury of having Firefly branding so people don't automatically know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Sure. Um we had a lot of bonus name recognition when we went through a phone first.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Oh, we we had a shit ton.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Uh and now we don't. So um now it's it's kind of like picking up the phone and and saying, hey, this is what we're doing. And it makes it harder because we're not in a theater doing a theatrical run. Not everybody knows about it yet. Uh but we have uh Flagstaff CreepyCon, which is looking forward to that. That's down in Arizona in Flagstaff, and that'll be in October. Um talk to the great people at Fan Expo, and we're probably going to be on their nighttime panels for 2027.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Um still waiting for a couple more locations to figure out if we're going to. Like, I will say I am definitely working harder this time around to get our butts in places. Because people are like, I I've never heard of this thing. I will also say getting people to watch this damn thing to review it um is not fun. But once they watch it, we have yet to have a bad review.

SPEAKER_02 17:39

Yeah, the reviews have been they get what we're trying to do. Which is as much as you could ever ask for.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah. Um and that's uh Lance, who was with Indy Harajunkie, I only met him because I watched Megacom. Um for Jen. And uh now that he's watched it, he's like, Yeah, I don't know why people wouldn't want to watch this.

SPEAKER_02 18:11

Well, it's what it takes sometimes. It's like, you know, even when you're just, you know, you're bored and you're looking on Tubi or you're looking on, you know, Disney or Netflix or whatever, it's like if you don't have a name recognition, it's like, all right, what is gonna make you you do it? Is it a friend recommendation? Is it the the image? Is it a trailer? You know, but sometimes it's like all of those things suck and you watch it anyway, and you're left with, you know, the Majesty that is velocipastor or something. Like you just never quite know what you're gonna come up with one day. Um it's like nothing about this should be good, but you know what? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

That's honestly like the the so I've gotten to know a couple of the people that have reviewed it.

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Um, you know, very publicly, they're very honest and kind, and not kind, but that they like the movie. Yeah. Quietly, they'll be like, I saw the title Arbor Day, and I was expecting my expectations were super low. And you guys like blew it out of the water. Yeah. Edwin cinematography, the fact that like we had the forethought to keep it consistent all the way through. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, our production value was high, even though our gore wasn't high. And the consistent theme of each one so far is that we've left so much open for sequels. Like, we don't have to worry about uh topping our gore, like going like we went over the top, and how are we gonna beat our gore level? Like, we could slowly ratchet up the gore and and still have room to grow. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and I know we have something good because after the premiere, every single person there in one way or another reached out to me and was like, in the sequel, you should do this. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Like, even even my my 12-year-old on the way home was just like, so for the second one that I'm gonna be in, we should do this. It's just like, all right.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Well, we can we can talk about that when we get there, but um, yeah, the the 12-year-old who wanted nothing to do with it before, but now I was like, Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Now he's writing the second and third and totally wants to be in it, and it's just like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

This is how it's oh I've been I have been pitched everything from uh bride of arborist to child of arborist to uh arborist versus insert, like indie slasher person, uh arborist versus the Punaverse. Like Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

Like, okay. Um yeah, we'll uh we'll we'll have to we'll have to go a uh definitely have to put through some of those ideas through the writer's room, I think, because uh I'm uh I'm probably gonna go very Neil McDonnell with my uh acting stories. Uh just for reference, but um I uh I think there's a lot a lot that's left open. It's a very wide world uh that could get even wider. And um hell, if this goes on long enough, our our April Fools, our Burist in space might not be so much upper April Fools one day.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Um the it if we get to Arbor Day 20. We'll do space.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

There you go. Um Yep. There's a passing asteroid with a forest on it, and the Arborist shows up. Done. See? The stuff right to sell.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

At some point you need to watch Night of the Comet because you literally just.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

It's uh an 80s, 80s movie where like comet goes by and everybody turns into zombies. Alright, perfect. Wow. We could do Arborist versus Spade. Crossing the John Watson's pearls.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

Yep. And then have Art come in and take them bolt out. So we could just do a triple crossover.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

There we go. Um I do think I honestly the one thing I'm most proud of is everybody on the production crew wants to come back and is asking when we're doing it.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Yep. We we could not start filming soon enough again for everybody who worked on it, which is an awesome feeling.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Right. They thought we were crazy before. They're like, okay, uh, Mike has a stroke. Five months later, we're filming. Five months after that, we're premiering the movie. Yep. Like, well, uh welcome to Big Damn Films. That's how we do. And I will say, uh finishing a film and having it out in ten months uh shows it can happen. For those that are listening.

SPEAKER_02 23:42

Yep. Shows it can happen and nothing is uh nothing is beyond the possible.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

No, um and look, the calling theaters and renting, like if you're willing to do the work to rent the theater, like uh no discredit to Smodcastle, like, but you could call them tomorrow and rent the theater. You know goes to show like with Cinemark, same thing. AMC. Like if you're willing to do the work, uh there's no reason your movie can't go be into a movie theater, right? There's no reason that you can't you don't have to wait for a distributor like us to uh get your movie out there. But that being said, we are have a uh we are a distribution company, so if you do have an indie film that you're looking to get out there, we are proving that we get our shit done. Um with that, we have Rifters coming up. Yep. Excited about that one. Um that is actually done. Uh we will I'm trying to figure out I feel like we need to let Arbor Day run its course before we have a theatrical run for rifters. I don't know how we do both. And this is kind of like the the thing we can't talk about until we talk about it. Um but if the thing that we can't talk about happens, then we definitely can't do rifters before that.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Well, yeah, I mean we can see. It depends, I think, on you know, are we?

SPEAKER_01 25:34

This is the perfect segue into perfect segue into if you're a Patreon member, you're gonna hear this conversation. And if you're not a Patreon member, uh you're gonna hear jingle, and then you're gonna hear us come back to it. So this is your your bid to like listen to behind the scenes shift for three dollars.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Hey podcast listener, if you're hearing this, you're only getting part of the story. Our Patreon members get exclusive early access to live recordings, bonus content, and the full unedited version of this podcast. Join us at patreon.com slash big damn films and be part of the big damn story. Now back to the chat.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Right on now, uh, you have just wrapped up hearing the Patreon jingle. So also means it's close to the end of the podcast. Yep. Anything else you want to do? We have some work to do. We we've got some work to do. We got to get better on recording these. Um I'll talk. Well, you brought up last time we talked, not on the last episode, but last time we and I had our big day on Wednesday, that uh asking casting crew to come on. So maybe we'll do.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah, I mean, I I think it's always good, you know, to to kind of break it up with some some interviews and some other energy and stuff kind of around. Um, whether it's, you know, the directors, whether it's actors in it, whether it's, you know, any of the crew, whoever, like there are there are lots of of behind the scenes and lots of perspectives that uh yeah, I think it'd be fun to fuck through.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

Yeah. Um, I also think it would be a really good opportunity to just let them have the show, you know. Yeah. Like I know Jennifer MK, who is in John's. Uh she is like a beast. She's producing verticals and shorts and stuff like that. So talking to her, she and I had a great conversation on set. Um Nicole and like all the like every single person there, the 33 people we had involved, or won't be 31 without us. Might even be fun to have Kara get on once. After after we've gotten through, you know, October. Yes. Uh but yeah, I mean, I'm fascinated that everybody is ready to jump back into the next production. Edwin just texted me. How are things? When are we filming again?

SPEAKER_02 28:09

He's so funny. Um anything else for the good of the tea people? No, no. It's just uh exciting. It's it's one one one step after another. Let's just keep on moving forward.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Uh as I'm looking at 50 next month, and uh one week ago was my anniversary of surviving a stroke. I went back down memory lane some of our past episodes. And just hearing the like, oh, would we have this? Wouldn't we have and like now the fact that we have like we're on the other side of that?

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

It's a very different but good feeling.

SPEAKER_03 29:03

Yeah.

unknown 29:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

I mean it it certainly it shows how far it's always good to do that and see just how far we've we've come in such a short time.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Yeah. But on top of that, just us listening back to us talk about oh like the stop and start and stop and start in 2023, and then the you know, the same thing in in 2024, releasing like fright one and two and gester and all of that other stuff. Um speaking of which, through the magic of editing, yeah. Uh Fright One and Two and Rifters is still out there performing well. Just uh yeah, sorry, Jeffter. Um what what's great for me is watching those being, you know, whenever there's a holiday, fright one and two does really well.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Throwing Arbor Day into the mix, which is something people can watch any time of the year. I I'm fascinated to what those numbers will be. Yeah. So that's that's kind of where I'm excited to go. Uh but yeah. So I think that's about it for episode 27 of the Big Damn Podcast. Um, as always, huge shout out to DJ Zafer for supplying our intro and outro music.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

And as always, before we wrap things up, huge big damn thank you to our uh amazing supporters over on Patreon. Um, shout out as always to Amy Rainajasa and Bill Firo at the Big Damn Hoodie Tier, and those two other random guys who are those fuckers.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Mysteriously.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Uh Ashley, Heather, John, Lauren, Nicole, Samuel, Steven Stewart, Steven Woods at the Big Damn High Five Tier. And last but never least, our free tier supporters, Heather, Katherine Robin, Scott, Sean Taylor, and Victor.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Uh, and if you want to see Arbaday the Root of Evil anytime soon, go over to uh Arbor Day the or the Arbor Day Movie.com. Yeah, it's the Arbor Day Movie.com, and you'll be able to get uh tickets and dates there. Or you can head over to bigdataentertainment.com forward slash shop and get some new Arbor Day merch uh like the hoodie I'm wearing. Did your shirt show up? Yep, just arrived. Okay. Uh so we have them in men's sizes, ladies' sizes, and comfy hoodie sizes. Um incredibly soft t-shirt cotton. Like that.

SPEAKER_02 31:49

I opened that up and I was like, whoa.

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Yeah, I I'm hitting Jed's like you're in your old man phase, like everything has to be comfy. I'm like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Why would you waste time wearing something you don't like wearing?

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Like too short.

unknown 32:05

Right.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Uh but yeah, so pick up some big damn merch over at uh bigdam entertainment.com forward slash shop. Uh grab your tickets for the Arbor Day at the Arbor Daymovie.com. And then what else do we do?

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Uh well, you can subscribe to the podcast, follow us on social media, and um you know what? See you see you in the theaters. Good catch.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

As always, thanks for listening and keep telling your big damn story.