The B Team Podcast
Talking all things Business, Bentonville, and Bourbon. Hosted by Josh Saffran, Matt Marrs, and Rob Nelson. New episodes every Thursday!
The B Team Podcast
Ep. 92 - Inside Bentonville's Film Scene
Bourbon on the table, big ideas in the air. We sit down with an award-winning filmmaker who left Southern California for Northwest Arkansas and break down, step by step, how a small, collaborative community can grow into a real film hub. Between a honey-finished Buffalo Trace taste test and a few jabs at our missing co-hosts, we dig into the practical levers that matter to creators and investors alike: Arkansas’s cash rebate incentive, easy access to locations, and a surprisingly deep bench of crew.
Scott shares the creative and business blueprint for his contained thriller, In Memoriam, a character-driven story about a daughter who uses memory tech to visit her comatose father and uncovers a painful truth. We talk budgets in the $500k–$600k range, how to stretch locations, and why pre-sales and smart casting can make or break indie projects. Then we lay out a realistic distribution ladder: streaming-first to control P&A, limited theatrical to build earned media, and a pathway to wider release once the data supports it. If you’re curious how films really get financed and sold in today’s market, this is a candid, usable playbook.
We also explore Scott’s second engine: construction site storytelling. Think solar time-lapse cameras snapping every ten minutes, drone passes with graphic overlays, and monthly and quarterly edits that double as investor updates and sales content. It’s a smarter alternative to one-and-done drone tours, giving builders live jobsite views and a narrative asset that wins the next RFP. Toss in a priceless Apple-era anecdote—yes, a “Hate it” email from Steve Jobs—and you’ve got a conversation that blends craft, commerce, and community.
Join us for a grounded look at filmmaking from Bentonville: incentives, crews, distribution strategy, and the creative grit it takes to ship. If you enjoy this kind of inside-the-industry breakdown, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves movies or bourbon, and leave a quick review to help others find us.
Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I am your host, Josh Saffron, with my co-host, at Mars, and our permanent guest, Rob Nelson. We're here every week to talk to you about all things Bettonville, bourbon, and business. The B Team Podcast. Be here. Welcome to the B Team Podcast. I'm your host, Josh Saffron, with our permanent alternate, Jim Corbett. And we are here every Thursday for All Things Business, Betonville, and Bourbon. And Jim, you're getting a lot of airtime the last couple weeks. The permanent guest and the co-host have been no shows. I feel like I've I've maybe offended them, and I feel like maybe you know they're like, you know, wanting to, you know, uh, I don't know, stay away. Certainly I'm very happy to fill in, but uh I I definitely miss the guys. Yeah, I see them. I saw them last night. I didn't I don't miss them as much. You don't miss them as much? No, because like it it's not that hard to show up. You just show up and like them. Very busy. Very busy, important people. Well, you were busy this morning and you gave me 10 seconds of your time when I called you. I will. I'll show I'll start with a story here. I I'm very transparent, and and my wife, who I've mentioned before, Corey, tells me. Shout out to Corey. Shout out to Corey. I answer the phone too much. Like if you call me on the phone, if I see the phone ringing, I will answer it. Scott, call him right now. See if he answers. Listen, I would. I would do it. Scott's doesn't have my number. But so this morning, Josh calls me and I'm in the middle of something. I'm on a deadline for work. I've got to get done. I've got about 20 minutes left, but I know we're doing the podcast later. Maybe Josh has called me about something important. So I answer the phone and I say, Josh, I got 10 seconds. And he goes, Hey, what's up? Hello, everybody. I'm like, like, Josh, I don't have time. He's like, you don't have to be a jerk about it. I'm like, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later. Well, but hold on, but it stirred up the pot. You said 10, if you would have said I have 10 minutes, I would be like, hey Jim. I was very tense. So then later I did the right thing. I I apologized. I called Josh back. I said, you know, I'm sorry I was a bitch this morning, but I just you caught me at a bad time and I shouldn't have answered the phone. That's the lesson learned here, Scott. I shouldn't have answered the phone. But the reality is next time you'll have to host at your house because you know you offended me and I just can't have you anymore. You you haven't been on our on our uh little get-together on this before. Josh hates hosting anything. Anytime he has an opportunity to put the hosting duties on anyone else, especially Rob or myself, Matt's kind of more in your candidate. Yeah, Matt doesn't like people. Matt doesn't like people at his house either, but but Rob is extraordinarily generous at hosting. Like no sports games, nothing, just nothing. If there's a game on, I'll say, hey Jim, why don't you host tonight? Like I'll volunteer Jim hosting. Yes, Josh invites us over if he needs furniture mood. That's pretty much it. That's true. And occasionally, shout out to my first divorce. Occasionally not to come over. That does happen. That does happen. Well, we're gonna try some interesting stuff today. Um we're our part of the bourbon community here. Uh, one of the guys on one of the local pages posted that he has Buffalo Trace bourbon. So we all like Buffalo Trace, and then he uh aged it with honey-aged oak brow for 33 days. So this is gonna be Buffalo Trace in a sweet finish and gym. I have bottle number 10 of 12. 10 of 12. I've gotta say, first of all, if we like this, are there any more available? Can we get or they're all gone? No. Second, regardless of how it tastes, it might be good, it might be terrible. The image on the bottle is outstanding. Uh oh. So a situation here. We might have to get to the gym. Oh. Well, all right, I'll work on this while you introduce our guest who's here today. That was it, Beth. We're gonna figure this out. You got it? Well, no, you're adding no value. Don't you don't need a key or something. Don't embarrass me in front of our guests. Well, while we're trying to do this, I'm interested, Scott Curtin Cronin. I'm pronouncing correctly. Yeah. So uh you you were our first guest that we got through, well, second guest, uh, for the through the Queenie B Hive networking. Shout out to Queenie B. And you reached out and you said, Hey, I want to be a part of the podcast. And I said, Well, what do you do? And then you said lots of things tied into filmmaking. Yes, sir. Moved out here from Southern California in 2022. And I thought, how cool! Like our little town is starting to become uh a film, a filmmaking mecca with obviously everything going on with HGTV and David Jenny Mars. I said, I'd love to have somebody in the film industry come in and talk about why they're here, what they're doing, and and and how you're growing that that ecosystem. So welcome. Thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Um, yeah, uh moved my family out here in 2022. Um, got two little girls, and you know, we were just seeking a a little slower paced life from Southern California and certainly um having more, yeah, thank you, sir. Having more uh like cows around is is always a plus. Cows are good. Yeah. Well, what made you pick here from Southern California? It honestly it was uh the uh the show, um the the Mars's show. Really? Um, you know, because I mean we looked at some other places, but the only reason we knew of this place was because of their show and uh kind of came out to check it out. Cheers, gentlemen. It was cheers, and um, it smells good. It's such a beautiful, beautiful place. Um if you like sweet, that is outstanding.
SPEAKER_01:So I'll I'll be honest, I anticipated that it would be sweeter and that I would not like it very much. It's actually really good. It's not overly sweet, it's just a nice little hint on it. They did not really do it with the honey at all. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah, it's fantastic. It's good, right? Yeah, it's delicious. Yeah. All right. So continue. West Coast coming here, talking to two East Coast gallop because of the show, which is coast of the show, which is fantastic.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so you know, once we saw, I mean, it just took one trip out here to know this was like kind of the right place to raise our kids, and um, everybody's so friendly, the schools are really good. You also have like, you know, a lot of culture stuff that maybe a lot of small towns don't have, right? Like with the museums and uh the all the parks and the mountain biking and all the stuff that you can you can do around here. Um you know, so it was a pretty easy choice for us to get out here.
SPEAKER_01:And then um now, do you feel if the show was based in Omaha and they like like do you feel like the show itself said, I want to come fly here and see it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I think so, yeah, for sure. Yeah, because the you know, the the um like the style of homes, the you know, the the quality of people and stuff like that that you see on the show consistently uh was one of the reasons. Yeah, we came out checking out. So Matt didn't show up today.
SPEAKER_01:Matt he probably wanted to meet Matt instead of stuck with you and I. He got stuck, yeah. This is today truly the B team.
SPEAKER_00:This is truly the B team of the B team. Yes, nice. Um, but yeah, man. So uh, you know, ultimately um coming out here, I started to sort of research once we were out here a little bit more about like what happens out here in the film world. You know, we sort of just made the move without really me putting too much thought into what I was gonna do with my career out here, right? And so um I knew that I could adapt. But uh seeing, you know, I guess there has been traditionally a lot of film production out here, like uh well over a hundred movies have been made in in Arkansas. Yeah. I didn't know now in Arkansas or Northwestern. Well, Arkansas in Arkansas total, yeah. I mean, there are a lot of different projects that have been filmed here over the years.
SPEAKER_01:Um more recently, I know recently with the Batonville Film Festival in the area, there's been a lot more attention around film.
SPEAKER_00:I did not realize that the level of production was that high. Yeah. And um, it's interesting, just driving around like some of the you know, canyons in the back, or you know, when you're like off the grid a little bit back there, you'll see like a film production sign and and all the all the trailers and stuff just randomly at some on some property. Um, so I know you know that it is happening. Uh, I also understand there's like a really good um uh uh collection of of crew and stuff out here, you know, people who who have worked on films and things, especially as more people I think are coming out from other areas like.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you have to work to find those people. It's like if you want to be in the supplier community or Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt, they're all over the place. They're here. You probably had to research a bit and go find it. It's it's a I'm sure it's a smaller population.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. Um I there is a website, I can't remember the name right now, but there's a there's like a crew website where you can kind of go on and a lot of the creatives are listed on there, you know, people who know how to operate cameras or who know the art department, you know, those kinds of things, sound guys, stuff like that. Um, so you know, I I know it it won't be that hard, I think, to put a crew together in the town. And the state has some really good uh production incentives, you know. So um, like you can spend a certain amount of money through pre-production and post within the community, right? They want you to hire local and you know, stay local and things like that. Um, so the money comes into the community, right, from the film production. Um, and then they give you a certain percentage of that back in like a cash rebate, um, which, you know, for your investor, obviously is a really great deal because it's like, you know, say you spend$500,000 in the state, um, you can get$150,000 back, you know, provided you meet all the requirements. But um, where, you know, you now you're only on the hook really for$350,000 to turn a profit on that film, right? Or or how's that how that would work?
SPEAKER_01:Arkansas does a good job of that, Jim, from my day job with plug and play. There's any time there's somebody investing in the region here, the state ends up taking money back because then we want we want business in in here. And this is not of the 50 states, Arkansas would not be in the top two or three where film is is is thought about. So being able to incentivize folks to come here and do movies, I think that's super cool. Yeah. How much of the 350,000 budget for this show do you get in per episode? I mean, I mean, I imagine we're not a hotbed of podcasts here in Arkansas. We probably have a little bit of a of an incentive. I mean, let's just say that this bottle came through the show today. Oh, fantastic. Look at that. That is a nice incentive. I'm at the water bottle.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, water bottle, good enough. Nice. Um, but yeah, ultimately, uh, you know, I I really want, you know, I'm an award-winning filmmaker, and so in the past, I've I've Hold on, hold on. Award-winning. You can't just throw out award-winning award.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, without the obvious question. What awards have you won?
SPEAKER_00:Well, so I've won uh a best editing award um at a film festival um back in California. I won um a best um short film award. Thank you. Um, at a uh international festival in London for an art film that I made is 35 minutes long, and um, but you know, ended up winning the the best short out of like hundreds of films from around the world. That was kind of a really cool experience.
SPEAKER_01:We have royalty here. Um question. So names of these films, is it something that we can access? Or could you know, could we tell our listeners, hey, go you know, rent this movie on Netflix?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. Well one of them, yeah. Uh the most recent one, which was in 2020, um, my friend Steve Elkins directed it. It's a documentary called Echoes of the Invisible. And um I highly recommend it. It's very uh very intellectual, but like beautiful, beautifully shot, beautiful movie. Um talks about kind of like it's a little over you. I uh you know, and you there's there's space there for everybody, you know. You can get something out of it. Yeah, that's right. The appreciation for art. Yes, and um, but it's it's a really beautiful film, and uh we ended up winning the um the best cinematography award for that at the uh South by Southwest Film Festival in 2020. That's incredible, which was right when the pandemic hit. So they ended up showing it to the jury. We didn't get to go to the festival because it was like four days before we were getting on an airplane. They're like the whole country shut down, you know. So, you know, it was what it was, but um still was a beautiful experience to be able to get that recognition and win that award for it and um, you know, uh continue to kind of move forward with things. So as I've come out here, I was like, well, hey, you know, I I I think that that Gina Davis is involved with the Bentonville Film Festival, right? And she, you know, she kind of is in this community. I know um some other people, maybe like Billy Bob Thornton are from around here, things like that. Um, and so I just thought, you know, why not make this more of a hotbed of film production? You know, so I've got a couple screenplays that I wrote that I'm trying to, you know, figure out where the investment can come from to get those things off the ground here in our local community. What are the screenplays? Can you share what's what's about? Sure. Um, one's in memoriam. Uh, it's a thriller. Um, and it's sort of uh, I guess the log line would be like uh, you know, a young girl's father, war hero father, falls into a coma. Um, and then years later, she comes upon this talk technology at school that allows her to go into his memories and visit him through his memories. And then she finds out that he's maybe not such a stand-up guy. Wow. That's after all, you know, and kind of comes through the realization of who she who her father really is, has to come to terms with that as an adult woman, right? Um, and then he ends up passing on he's like he's he's able to let go once they've had that interaction. Let's get this made. I would watch that. I know watch that to know. Very cool.
SPEAKER_01:Let's get that made. So what does it take to get something like that made? So they can all right, you got this cool screenplay, you wrote it. Yep. How do we then say, all right, what's the next steps to get it to where it would be on Netflix or Amazon or out in the theaters?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, really the barrier to entry is the is the investor, you know. You know, so yeah, exactly. So I mess, Jim. Yeah, right a chip. I gotta hear a little bit. You got a hundred, you got a couple hundred? No, I got maybe Zone at it. Well, yeah, so you know, it's it really just depends on like um each individual film, obviously, is gonna have a different requirement in terms of like what it's what it needs to get off the ground financially, right? A film like this, though, it's pretty small cast, there's not too many locations. Um a lot of locations can get dressed up, you know, twice, like in the same house for two different things and you know, one hospital for the two different locations.
SPEAKER_01:He sure does. I boy, if you haven't heard twice if you need it set, boy, I tell you what. And but the good thing is, most people have not seen it. Certainly the inside of it would be foreign to almost anybody. Out.
SPEAKER_00:This is when I say out. That's so funny. Um, but yeah, so it, you know, it just depends on for each individual film, like what his budget is. This film is certainly, you know, under a million dollars. I would say even around like the five to six hundred thousand dollar range, this film can get made, um, which is extremely low for films. I mean, you know, a five million dollar film is a low budget, you know, film for the most part. Um, but honestly, across my career, I've been, I've played so many different parts of you know production and post, and I I know so much about it. I've been an editor for 20 years. Um, I've produced stuff, I've you know, directed things, I've um, you know, worked on set with hundred million dollar movies when I was first first starting out, you know, that I really truly believe that, you know, with a with a small crew and the right, you know, the right team put together, um, I can make something happen for not a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01:I just ask you a question. Yeah. You say you've been in this for over 20 years. Yes, sir. Um I would imagine the landscape has changed. We mentioned COVID earlier. And you know, I would imagine now with all the streaming services and things like that, how is it different today versus when it was 10 or 20 years ago in terms of making a film? Yeah. Is there more avenues for you to have success, or is there that much more competition out there? So it's harder to get noticed. I don't know. I'm no, it's a good question. Um I have one per session. I feel like you wrote that one down beforehand. Yeah, I did. I had no idea it was coming. Yeah, you saw it. That was just off the top. That was a good one.
SPEAKER_00:I get one per session. Ultimately, you know, it's it's certainly easier. Like the barrier of entry used to be extremely high to get into film, right? Because you had to have these like massive cameras and all this money, and you know, the production itself was was huge. Um, over time, of course, with like digital and everything that that's that's transpired, you know, you said 10 to 20 years, but but even going back a little further than that, um, it's it's lowered the bar, the the bar, you know, and now pretty much anybody can go out. I mean, you could literally make a film on your phone, you know, these are are quality enough at least that you could you could shoot it on your phone. Um, I wouldn't recommend it, but you could.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Uh but for in terms of like distribution, which is sort of what you're talking about, like streaming and you know, and whatnot, um, I think it does open up more avenues for people, like independent filmmakers, to get their products out and to get their films seen. Um, it doesn't necessarily equate to like more profit for everyone because you know, it like I have a film on, you know, Amazon right now and iTunes and stuff like that. And that doesn't necessarily mean like we've made our money back from, you know, that I put into the film to begin with, right? Um, so it just depends on the project itself. And so I was actually just talking to a good friend of mine yesterday, a producer that I worked with a bunch named Bill Ostroff back in California. He's got a couple of films that he's he's producing right now, he's trying to get off the ground. He's got one that's being released right now from like he shot it three years ago and it's it's coming on to you know, streaming uh December 5th, I believe he said. Um, and we were talking about it, and he said, you know, he his perspective, which I thought was pretty correct, is that you know, it's like it's like that first film you're gonna put out, you it's gonna go straight to streaming. And like, you know, and that's okay. Like you don't want the the overhead of like a the optical release, because that's you know a lot of money, right, to to do the prints or even the digital release. A lot of pressure. It sure does, yeah. And then you have to advertise, right? So there's a lot of times if a if a film's budget is$2 million, you're spending another$2 million in advertising or, you know, in P and R essentially to get the word out about the film. Um and then you know, uh distribute it. Um so the initial piece would be like your film's gonna go straight to streaming. Then once you've sort of hit the streaming market with something, then you can like maybe the second film, it's like, well, let's do a theatric uh limited, excuse me, theatrical release, right? Where you can say, okay, it's gonna, we're gonna play in like 10 cities for two weeks or something, and um, and just try to, you know, try to build momentum there so that at least you're in the trades and and you're kind of, you know, that takes it to a new place in terms of the distribution. So um at that level, then you're getting more eyes on it and then more kind of mark uh like earned media, right, around the film. Sure. Um so people then, you know, would know it or go rent it on the streaming platforms and whatnot. And then when you hit that like third film, you're you're probably ready for like a bigger release, you know, where you can, I, you know, if you get the right, like if you can get them with like Buffalo 8 or with A24, or you know, there's a lot of these companies that that'll distribute into theaters. Um, you know, and then and once you're at that level, you're either that's make or break, right? Because if if the film doesn't do like, you know, if if you shot uh a$10 million movie and you go to theaters and you don't make back even, you know,$10 million, like it's that's probably it. No blemishing. Yeah, you're not gonna you're not gonna get to make that fourth film. Nope. So it for me, it's really about that, um bringing that artistic quality to it. You know, there's there's the business end, which is super important, of course, where um a lot of times independent producers won't do like development, like studio development on a project, which is you know, who are we gonna cast, who's gonna direct it, like, you know, where are we trying to sell the film, right? And then they they make all those sort of pre-sale deals before they ever start filming. So they know, like, okay, we're gonna make two times or 1.8 times our budget when we do this film XYZ, right? You know, we make it with this person, this, you know what I mean? Um, what a lot of times independent producers do is they're just like, I this really cool idea, or I got this really cool script, let's go make it. And then they just go and they, you know, without really doing that like pre-math of you know the business end of it. Um, and then you know, they're they're not making money back to their produ investors, and then they uh ultimately can't make any more movies.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like the screenplay with the the daughter and the what was it called again? In memoriam. Yeah, but in memorium. I could save a lot of money. I could be the coma guy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you want to play the dad? There you go. Fifty bucks of good food and a beautiful coaster. Yeah, we just need a young version of you too, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Let me ask you a question. We we have a a pretty limited audience here, but it's it's an audience. A couple hundred thousand people. A couple hundred thousand people. If I would imagine, being on the West Coast, you have uh an idea, you want to produce something, you'd have a lot of avenues to get that film made. You'd have an ample supply of actors, actresses. Here, what are the things that make Northwest Arkansas a good place for you to be? And what are the things that are kind of like a struggle? And you know, boy, I wish I had more of this around here. Sure. The pros and the cons. Yeah, what are the pros and the cons?
SPEAKER_00:Pros and the cons of the NWA. I throw my A game. Um well first I'll say the first thing I'll say about that question is um in areas like New York and California, you know, Southern California and things like that, it's so saturated that like I have some, you know, two decades of mastery in my in my career, right? And and like I know a lot about my industry and and how to get things made. But so does you know a hundred thousand other people where I'm at. Everybody's got a screenplay, everybody's trying to get a film made, you know what I mean? Sure. And so the I feel like the gatekeepers uh have that locked up pretty tight, much more so than than in like a smaller community, maybe here, right? Where um I was at an event down in um Cersei, Arkansas, uh back in April, and um uh I think like Hype Digital put it on or something, and the you know, um Governor Sanders came down, you know, Huckabee Sanders came down, and she just you know was there meet with the big joke and right? And yeah, California, you're never coming anytime. You're never gonna see the governor. You want a hundred thousand. Yeah, even the mayor. I mean, it you know, we're here, like the mayor gave me his cell phone number and he's like, call me anytime, you know, uh in Centerton. Wow. Um, and it's just it's just a different place, you know, it's just a different feel. So a pro to me is that you can you can access people and you can like sit down and break bread with people in in a much simpler way um without the pretense and without that sort of like, you know, uh guard guardianship or whatever, right? That that people would put up back in California.
SPEAKER_01:But then the con. I want to hear the con. We want to hear the cons, sure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, uh some other pros if if I can first. Before I get into the code, a lot of questions. Yeah, optimism. The the process. There's a lot of pros to me in this area, right? Um, one, I was talking about the production incentives, which are really good. A lot of states are are just tax rebates or um, you know, tax write-offs, which take a few years to really see. Um, and so this is a cash rebate, so you can actually get that for your investor when you st when you finish production, which is huge. As soon as you're done. Yeah. You send me the check. Yeah. I think it's within 90 days or something, 45 days or something. That's great. Um, and then also there are no permit fees here. Uh most locations don't need a permit. So, you know, back in California, I mean, the hoops you have to jump through just to film on a street or just to like, you know, I mean, you know, closing down a street is is a whole thing, but even just to like film inside of someone's house or in front of a.
SPEAKER_01:I feel like I may have led you down a bad path because Josh is going to charge a fee. I have no doubt. You're gonna need to be a few. For his house, yeah. No doubt about it. I mean, whatever fees you're used to in California, Josh is gonna double those fees.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, don't put a turnstile and it'll charge people for the crew every time everyone, every time they come in. Yeah, you gotta pay per entry. Yeah. Makes sense. Um, and then also, you know, I just think that the the sheer beauty and like uniqueness of the the locations here, like uh, you know, I mean, you have everything from like multi-million dollar mansions in some of these properties or like huge ranches with these beautiful homes. Snap marsh, you know, you you right. You got um, you know, the uh the hay bales, you know, that are just you know, as the as the sun's going down and just like you know, the beauty of it all. And then you have like these old barns that are falling down, you know, and from like you know, 150 years ago with that used to be, you know, um, you know, useful at the time, and now they're these properties are kind of turning into other things, right? Um, and so you know, for me, it's like uh you you have everything that you could need here. You have every single type of location except for the ocean that you could need in a film right here in Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01:That's a very glass have full approach.
SPEAKER_00:It is. I I like the outdoors. All right, let's hear the cons. Well, the cons, I guess, would be you know that a lot of times people are like, why, you know, why would we film there? We can just film, you know, somewhere closer to like uh where you can get rentals more easily, you know, gear, crew, things like that. Sure. Um, I that's that's a con, probably. Another con would maybe be for me at least, is that I don't have the contacts, you know, that I like I did back home in my career, right? So pre-COVID, of course, you know, I knew a ton of people that were were in this industry and doing stuff. And um coming out here, it's a little bit harder, you know, to sort of be like, well, where is that happening? You know, I'm not really sure where you know how to how to navigate that as much.
SPEAKER_01:Um have you started to kind of expand the network a bit? A little bit, yeah, for sure. This podcast is gonna blow off sure. There you go. Yeah. All right, so I'm gonna challenge you here. Okay, write a script for your perfect next 12 months. 12 months from now, you're back on the B Team podcast. What has happened for you in this region uh if you could, you know, write it your perfect synonym? Crystal ball 12 months ago. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, I mean, that's a great question, man. So great question. That's three, three for three. Yeah, he's knocking it out of the parking room. That's why they're the B team. Um okay, so I'm gonna back up anecdotally. I was having a conversation with a man who's uh his name's Kent Emmons. He's like a kind of big time like media company owner. And I was saying, hey, let's open a studio out here in Northwest Arkansas. Like let's build a facility that's like state of the art, you know, um, and and try to entice production. And he was saying that the studios that have been built recently, there's like a$450 million studio, I think, uh maybe in Dallas. There's one in Tulsa that got built, something in Nashville, you know, he was telling me the cities. Um, they're they're empty 90% of the time. Okay. And so those guys, those owners are looking for um shows like TV shows. They don't necessarily want to do films, they want to do TV shows, right? Because you have multi-episodes, you have advertisements in it and stuff, right? And you can you can make money through that. Um, those guys wanna want to co-own and sort of co-produce stuff like that, content like that. Okay. So for me, right, what I would like to see happen for my life over the next 12 months, if I was gonna say this is my perfect script, and yeah, you know, here I'm back, it's uh November of 2026, and we're sitting down for some whiskey, you know, or some bourbon. My bad. Either one. Yeah. Either one. Um that uh I I would say getting my thriller produced, right? So that thriller gets made in memoriam, right? And that could be that could be like we're you know, cameras up in the spring, like, you know, kind of a thing if if the if the wheels all all happen the way they should.
SPEAKER_01:Now, do you have it casted? Do you have people in mind for these roles? I'm the coma guy. We just decided, yeah. Outside of coma guy.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I have some some some people in mind. It's it's kind of open, but I have some people in mind. I actually truly think that uh somebody even like a Gina Davis could play the mom character, you know? Gina Davis. Shout out to Gina Davis.
SPEAKER_01:She's like, uh I I know some people through the Bentonville film that's uh you could get Gina. I don't know that I could get you could you could get Tech Gina.
SPEAKER_00:We could we could get her a minute. But somebody like that, I mean whether it's her or not, they only have to work for two or three days on the film, and then you know, they they're they have their role in it. There can be an ex-executive producer on the film, you know, their name gets attached, and then we it kind of goes from there. Matt Mars can have a starring role on the film. I mean, he's he's already a TV celebrity.
SPEAKER_01:I think I think Rob's more TV ready.
SPEAKER_00:Guys that are uh uh do TV, they might want to get into some film, you know.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Broadly, it's exciting. I think we should can I help with the audition for that? Okay, now I want you to roll over and play dead.
SPEAKER_00:Let's let's wrap them in honey and yeah, that's like you're 12 months, you're you've got your yeah, the film got produced, and then I would say the second piece would be um that uh that a a television show, a television series would get would be in development, right? So with one of these studios that that I was just talking about, like maybe in Dallas, uh trilogy studios in Dallas, for example.
SPEAKER_01:Can we do like a reality show of the Corbett's? I would watch, I would watch because I was thinking more like a like a Tim. Oh I was thinking more like a four guy buddy comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I think we could I think we could come up with some ideas. We're IG idea generators, Josh. I I can tell, I can tell.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but I can I'll write it, you know. If you guys got a good one, we'll write it up. Oh, this is gonna be well today, which is good. Can you imagine like a sitcom here in Rough Clest Arf? It'd be amazing. I won't be amazing. Um, part three on that would be the the the thing that I really want is I'm I'm actually just starting like a niche for my video business. So I do film, but that's not like a day-to-day paying the bills kind of a job, right, at the moment, you know. Um, and so um I have a video production business. We do uh, you know, marketing and you know, commercials, all that kind of stuff, right? Um I used to work for Apple for a number of years. We did product launch videos there and um when when Steve was still around and um, you know, so uh I have a lot of experience over the over the years working for some pretty big companies. Um and so I'm launching a uh construction site storytelling like niche uh department of my company. And so essentially what we do is use all the latest technology, um, you know, time-lapse cameras that are solar powered. We use uh drones to, you know, to fly over the property and then do graphic overlays to, you know, like for investor and stakeholder updates. That's cool, you know. Um uh and then we do like detail days where you're on the ground when there's like important things happening, such as uh concrete pours or when the walls are raised, or you know, there's different the right times where you want to be on the ground and get some like really beautiful footage of the machinery working and things like that. Um, we also do like interviews with the um the architect and the the business owners and sort of get, you know, why their brand is different than you know. I mean, there's so many. Literally, like uh over the last few months, I've been paying attention to the construction companies that are actively building right here in Northwest Arkansas. And I've found 215 different companies right now building on the ground. Why is it actually uncommercial?
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it's it's staggering growth, no doubt, in the area and in tons of buildings. Yeah, that makes sense. Are you contracted by the builder or are you contracted by the the homeowner or the or the other?
SPEAKER_00:It's the builder, yeah. The the construction company themselves are the ones, the developers and the and the builders, they're the ones who uh their their marketing teams usually use the footage, right? And so um it aids them in a few different ways. Like they're able to use that to try to get more work in the future, um, you know, and to show like, hey, this is what we do. Oh, we did this project down the road, and you know, look how we how great it came out. So haven't had work done in my house recently.
SPEAKER_01:I can tell you that the the places that I've worked with, they'll have like a drone flyover at the end of it or a walkthrough with a camera. Why is what you're gonna do so much better? Yeah. Sell yourself out here.
SPEAKER_00:Sure, absolutely. Um, well, first of all, it's coming from the marketing side with like Apple and whatnot and the award-winning storytelling. So, you know, bringing that like documentary style of of filmmaking to it so that it's like, you know, we're kind of raising the bar of like what we're seeing and and how that story is crafted. Number one. Um, number two is that, you know, a lot of times like these these businesses are doing some kind of time lapse or they're doing some kind of like image capture of their of their final building and and whatnot. Um, but you know, over the course of a project, it could be 12 months, 18 months, right? Uh as they you know go through the full build. Um, it's it's such a heavy lift like to be able to tell that amount of detail across that project. And so one of the things that we do is is, you know, really be able to um we I mean the time lapse camera takes a picture every 10 minutes. And so you're imagining, you know, the the sheer amount of data that that is. And so we we do we provide like um these monthly updates where they can see, you know, a sort of a monthly time lapse of where we're at in the project. Super cool. You've got the um the quarterly updates for the the stakeholders where you can really show like, you know, um this is where the project is, you know, this was phase one, we're moving into phase two, or this is where we're behind, we're you know, we're gonna be in this section of the property, you know, now, et cetera, et cetera. Um, the other thing that that's great about it is, you know, the live view that the that the um company gets. So when the camera's up on the poll, they can check anytime they want, you know, like what's going on in my job site right now.
SPEAKER_01:So while you're while you're taking the pictures and and videos that are gonna eventually compile into this great video, they can use it while that's happening. Yep. As an extra security measure or as an extra, hey, how's the progress going? Yeah, absolutely. That's great. So it's functional for them as well as, you know, artistic at the end of the day from a sales standpoint.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. And um, you know, it's it's about like m effective communication with their clients, their prospective clients, with their stakeholders, investors, right? Um, it's about showcasing like who they are and what they do and why they're any different than the other 200 businesses that are also building around them, right? Um, and then it's it's sort of the longevity of it too, because you know, a lot of times these projects, they spend a year on it and then they move on to something else and they have some pretty pictures of it, and maybe, maybe some, you know, a final drone fly through or something of the building, right? Um, but after that, it's like, well, what do you even, you know, say five years down the road, you have a potential, it's like you, oh, I built this museum, and then five years later they're trying to build another museum in another town nearby. And the guy's like, oh, I want to pitch on that. But uh, yeah, we did a we did that museum. Cool. Well, that's like that's a good story, but like I can show, you know, five years later, they can go back and say, this was the build we did, and this is how you know how it turned out, and this is you know, sort of how we approached it and and all that just through a video.
SPEAKER_01:I kind of read for me, and well, we we just did the build out for the gym's place. We have a barbershop for sure. And uh we always have to plug the barbershop on the show. Always uh the plugers. And so our general contractor was amazing, fantastic. And they'd say, all right, well, we have some pictures to upload. So they first of all can never log in, couldn't get to the thing. And then they'd send these pictures every couple of days, and like, like, what am I looking at? Like, so the intent was there, the technology wasn't where it needed to be. And then we were local, so we could go walk the site every day. But if we're building one in Boston and I'm here, like being able, it almost feels like I'm there watching it without having to be on site. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I think that's really cool. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and also well, we had a client back in California who um, you know, it's a little different because obviously there's a lot of traffic and you know, it's a little harder to get from place to place, right? But still, in that sense, like she had originally picked like a smaller package that doesn't have live view, it's just a little bit smaller cameras and stuff. And um, two months into that project, she was like, I'm tired of driving out there every single day. You know, I want to be able to see it with just I want to be get up in the morning and just see what's going on on the job site. Um, and so she switched over, she upgraded and switched over to the live view cameras, and and she was really happy about that. So, you know, because it saves a couple hours every day, like for round trip time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for the same reason we wouldn't hire you to build the house. Why are we trusting the people building the house to take the marketing videos if we have someone who's an expert in the field? Exactly. Yeah, yeah, let us handle that part, you know.
SPEAKER_00:So you worked for did you ever meet Steve Jobs? I have to ask. I did not ever meet him, but I I do have a funny story if you want to hear it. Yeah, funny story of the Steve Jobs experience. So, yeah, man. Um, so this is an exclusive. So uh exclusive. Hold on. Nice. Okay, so I was doing product launch videos and I was on the edit team, and um, and so there was like two of us editors, a couple producers, and then his right-hand man, Hiroki, uh, would come in and sit with us. Like, and this is like days before he's gonna get up on stage and introduce the new product. And so I think we were doing the, I want to say it was the iPhone 5 or something at the time. I can't remember exactly which product it was. Um, and um, we had been working on this video. It's usually like eight weeks of you know editing. They shoot for 21 days, they spend five million dollars, you know, to like make these like little three-minute videos or whatever that they're gonna show at the event, right? Of of how the product, you know, what's new in the product and all this stuff. And um anyway, so that the night before Steve goes up on stage, okay, to present this new product. We're working through the edit and he's at home. I think he'd already he wasn't feeling well already, you know, so he he wasn't coming into work. He was already he was at home and stuff. So we're sitting there in the office with um me, another editor, the two producers, and Hiroki, okay, his right hand man. And um, we send off an edit to him. It's probably 11 o'clock at night, and everyone's like nervous, sitting there, you know, like, oh man, okay. I hope he likes it, you know, that kind of thing. Um and now, granted, it's been scripted. We know, you know, there's like things have been shot all along the way, so we know what the video is, right? I mean, it's not like a surprise when he sees it. But um we get finally get the email back. And Hiroki pulls it up, he goes over and he checks his email. And it's like he hit return like 20 times, so and then it just said hate it. That was it, that was the whole email. And so we all yeah, from Steve Jobs. So we're all sitting there like I'm gonna assume he means the music. Because like everything else has been scripted, and you know what I mean? So we just like started throwing new music tracks on, and we were there till probably like five in the morning. Finally got that thing out the door, and wasn't the music. Well, yeah, I think ultimately he was he showed it, you know. He got 13 seconds for like a JK or something like that. Right, yeah, just kidding for those folks at home. Which never came. Yeah, that never came, but yeah. Um, but that was the the world of it, you know. It's just like he's very direct and very direct, very new.
SPEAKER_01:You know what Steve Jobs would be doing for real life today, right? What would he be doing? Scratch it at the inside of his cuff and he'd be dragging. Good lord, come on. He would be. Oh gosh. Cut off from burping up. That's true. It's a classic. Uh so going back, I don't even know how you recover from that one. Um, uh, the website, how do people find you? And um, if somebody wants to be involved in the movie, is there a certain way to connect with you there? If somebody wants to be involved in the in the real estate video venture, two separate ways or just one one contact?
SPEAKER_00:Um, yeah, I would make it simple, I guess, for people. The the website's vertex-video.com, company's vertex video, so vertex-video. Vertex V-E-R-T-E-X. Yep. Perfect. Yeah, vertex-video. Um, and then it's Scott at vertexvideo.com if someone wants to reach me that way. Okay. Um, and um, you know, contact information on the site as well. But uh, that's probably the best way just to you know reach out through email or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:If people are looking, uh I I know a few people, actually, somebody who used to work here for podcast videos just left a couple of weeks ago and she just wants to get into the film industry. Like if people are looking to connect and want jobs, I mean I assume you're hiring. This movie is gonna be fantastic. I'm sure you're gonna need people on on set to help make sure that Jim has his soda and his water for the big scenes that you're in. Lock lock your house down so no no uh no vagrants are getting in while we're filming.
SPEAKER_00:I can't wait to see Josh's house and film.
SPEAKER_01:Just what two two years from now, we could literally be seeing Josh Josh's house on the big scene. That's the one. We need we need the pin. We need the film. We'll go down to the cutting room and watch his house and fantastic. Josh could host the uh opening weekend.
SPEAKER_00:Oh god, opening weekend box office. Yeah, but but yes, absolutely. Um if you know if there are creatives in in town that that like would like to be involved and stuff like that, I would love to start getting uh, you know, compiling those those names and numbers and um you know, seeing what people have done uh and you know what they're what they're good at or what they want to do. Um I'm really big on like teaching people the industry. I think that, you know, uh for so long, like there were these gatekeepers that would just keep us, you know, and like, oh no, you don't get to learn any of that stuff. And um if you don't know the studio system, you can't do it, you know, kind of a thing. And sure, and it's just like I I don't know. I I actually experienced that myself when I was uh I was like um working in restaurants, you know, before I ever got into the industry. And I the a guy had come in who was like pretty, pretty well known um filmmaker, if I remember correctly. Um and I I approached him and I just said, Hey, listen, I'm I'm really excited about the industry, you know, because there anything you can you can you know say to me or teach me or anything, you know? And he just totally blew me off. Right. Wanted nothing to do with the conversation. And I guess I get it. You don't want people just walking up to you when you're eating your lunch, but there it just seems like there was there's always been sort of like, you know, people who are like, oh, I don't want, I don't want to give my knowledge up, right? Because I'm gonna hold on to it sacred. Um and on the other way around, like I I truly believe that, you know, I can I can um inspire others to, you know, to get out and make make their projects, right, that can make a difference to people's lives. I can um in you know uh increase the quality of their life and their family's lives through you know their knowledge in the film industry, for example. And so, you know, I mean, if we can start getting films made out here, like, you know, if I'm producing films here regularly and stuff, then I would love to have, you know, a great crew that I continually hire and you know, continually work with from the pre-production teams, right? Um, the actual production teams on the on the set uh on the ground and then the post teams, you know. I mean, there's there's so many people that that can touch a film.
SPEAKER_01:But that's how that this community is. I mean, you've been there a long time, and I've been here the stuff that you said that somebody would come up to you and say, Oh, I don't want to be bothered, I want to help. Everybody here, I was just explaining this, I was in California for a business meeting yesterday, and I was explaining to people how this community is. Let me introduce you to this person, let me introduce you to this person, and everybody pays it forward, and it's it's very authentic, it's very nice, it's very highly collaborative. And you're not asking for anything in return, but then down the road, that person say, Hey, let me introduce you to this one. And so everybody's really, really gracious here in this town, which is wonderful. Well, and what's fun about here at Utah a little bit about what you do is, you know, here we've had tremendous growth, and we've had guests on the on the podcast for the last two years, whether it be restaurants or small business owners, retail shops, uh, charities, all things kind of local. It's kind of cool to have something that's almost a new industry try and break in, as something that's completely fresh, completely out of the box. And I'm gonna look forward to you know seeing in memorium when it gets produced. It's gonna be exciting. Yeah, man. Hopefully your name will be in the credits somewhere, you know. Wow. Well, you definitely keep us posted. You may be an investor. I I might be. I told him I'm good for at least a C note. That's that's like crafty. That's crafty for an afternoon.
SPEAKER_02:That's 100k.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, oh, he just signed up for a home. Did you hear that, Corey? Forget the new addition to the home. We have no more additions, no more editions, no more additions. Thanks for coming in today, Scott. This was great to have you. We're definitely gonna have you back when we get closer to production of the movie. Awesome, man. Um great. And thanks for Queenly B for getting us introduced and the networking group. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, but cheers on the back. Cheers up, empty cheers. Thank you. Empty cheers, empty cheers. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, thank you.