E61 • Prioritizing Audience Experience, Enjoying the Process • MERCEDES BRYCE MORGAN, dir. of ‘Bone Lake’ now In Theaters from Bleecker Street, following Fantastic Fest

Mercedes Bryce Morgan unpacks the whirlwind making of Bone Lake, an 18-day Atlanta shoot that battled storms, injuries, and lost gear before completing its night-boat climax on a Los Angeles soundstage. After a Fantastic Fest premiere and Deadline-breaking international sales, the erotic survival thriller heads to U.S. theaters with buzzy audience reactions and a proudly “fun, commercial, popcorn” spirit.

Mercedes traces her path from mini DV Star Wars shorts and USC to festival features, describing her taste as a mix of Oldboy’s devastation and Amélie’s heart. Other past influences include Barbarians, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The House of Yes, Funny Games, and The One I Love. Her TIFF-premiering Fixation (2022) sparked her love for erotic thrillers.

On craft, she argues the best twists are guessable seconds before they land, and test screenings help her fine-tune which parts of the mystery viewers might sense without solving it too soon. Her advice to young filmmakers: embrace constraints as boot camp, stick with collaborators who love the work, design for the audience experience, and make sure you enjoy the day-to-day… because the process is the life.

Tickets @ pastpresentfeature.eventive.org

12 films. 3 nights. 1 Collective. The Past Present Feature Film Festival is a curated, three-day showcase of cinematic storytelling across time, highlighting overlooked gems, current festival hits, and future feature films in the making. Sponsored by The Past Present Feature Podcast and Leica Camera, all screenings take place Nov. 19 – 21 in Hollywood, CA, at the Eastwood Performing Arts Center (1089 N OXFORD AVE, 90029)

The Past Present Feature Film Festival - Nov. 19-21, 2025 in Hollywood, CA - Tickets at pastpresentfeature.eventive.org

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Chapters

• 1:56 Past Present Feature, Hosted by Marcus Mizelle
• 2:15 The Past Present Feature Film Festival, presented by Leica Camera
• 2:46 Mercedes Bryce Morgan, dir. of ‘Bone Lake’ now In Theaters following Fantastic Fest + TIFF
• 44:58 Presented by Valerion Projectors

Transcript

Marcus Mizelle (00:51)
Mercedes-Brice Morgan unpacks the whirlwind making of her latest feature film Bone Lake, an 18-day Atlanta shoot that battled storms, injuries, and lost gear before completing its nightboat climax on a Los Angeles soundstage. After a fantastic fest premiere and deadline-breaking international sales, the erotic survival thriller heads to U.S. theaters this weekend with buzzy audience reactions and a proudly fun commercial popcorn spirit.

Mercedes traces her path from Wars shorts as a kid and USC film school to Festival Features, describing her taste as a mix of old boys' devastation and Amelie's heart.

Other past influences include Barbarians, Who's Afraid of Virginia The House of Funny Games, The One I Love. Her Tiff premiering Fixation back in 2022 sparked her love for erotic thrillers.

On craft, she argues the best twists are guessable seconds before they land, and test screenings help her fine-tune which parts of the mystery viewers might sense without solving it too soon.

her advice to young filmmakers, embrace constraints as bootcamp, stick with collaborators who love the work, design for the audience experience, and make sure you enjoy the day to day, because the process is the life.

Marcus Mizelle (02:02)
you had a big day today. looks like I just Googled Bone Lake deadline two hours ago. Is this correct? You've sold some territories.

MBM (02:10)
see, I didn't even

know we came out on deadline two hours ago, so an exciting place to find out. Then apparently yes.

Marcus Mizelle (02:15)
Well, there you go. Yeah.

Wonderful survival thriller Boneleg starring Marco Pagosi, Maddie has have gonna fuck these names all up Maddie Hassan. How do you say her name? Alex Rowe and Andrea Necheta. Andrea Necheta. Andrea Necheta. I'm gonna take that back again.

MBM (02:25)
Yes, Maddie has them. Yeah.

Andra Nachita, yes.

Marcus Mizelle (02:33)
Survival thriller Boneleg starring Marco Pagosi, Maddie Hasson, Alex Rowe, and Andra Nechida, sales to host of International Territories, deadline two hours ago. So congrats on that, that's great. I like that's, yeah, I like that's a moment that a lot of filmmakers don't reach sometimes, you know, to be able to, yeah.

MBM (02:46)
Thank you. Yeah, yeah.

No, mean, I'm

excited. This is gonna be my first movie in theaters. you know, it's hard to get there and it's exciting when you do.

Marcus Mizelle (03:01)
Yeah, is it a limited theatrical or what is the deep what are the details of the theatrical or do you not know?

MBM (03:06)
Yeah, so

currently we are going across the US ⁓ and it will expand for more depending.

Marcus Mizelle (03:14)
Amazing. Nice. I love that. Especially now because, you know, we're all concerned, I guess. all confused. all like, are theaters gonna be here 10 years from now? Is the sky falling or is it not? Yeah. So it's...

MBM (03:16)
Yeah.

I know. Yeah, no, exactly.

always, I mean, when I, when I kvetch with people, always say, you know what, things are great and awful at the same time. So we've had so many awesome movies come out in theaters recently. That's exciting. But then also it's harder to make movies and get people to go to theaters at the same time. So it's depending on how you look at it. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (03:48)
Yeah. So

your film Bone Lake, ⁓ was the premiere at TIFF? That's correct. This year's TIFF. That's right. Okay. Fantastic Fest. How was that? How was your premiere?

MBM (03:55)
The premieres at Fantastic Fest. Yes. Yeah.

It was awesome. I love Fantastic Fest. I've had two movies there. I also had another movie at TIFF, so that's maybe the confusion, but I've had two movies there. love it. And I'm going to be back on the jury this year. So, you know, I'm obviously a big Fantastic Fest fan. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (04:04)
Mm-hmm.

⁓ nice.

And then I think your previous film Fixation premiered at TIFF, 2022? Got it.

MBM (04:18)
Yes, that's correct. Yeah.

you know, erotic thriller of a babysitter who starts to dose the kid she's babysitting with LSD.

Things obviously go wrong. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (04:27)
Wow. Yeah. ⁓ wow.

How did that film go for you?

MBM (04:32)
⁓ I mean, that was great. It was funny because ⁓ my first and second movie switched places. That was supposed to be my first movie and then COVID hit. And so I ended up doing Fixation First, that movie Second. And so, you know, it was awesome to do. It's a very small movie, ⁓ which it should be because it's so unique in its subject matter. That's the kind of movie it is. ⁓ But it was great.

Marcus Mizelle (04:39)
Mm.

MBM (04:55)
I like I found my love for erotic thrillers through that. And so I've just been excited to continue it through Bo Lake.

Marcus Mizelle (05:01)
I think it's perfect time to just go right into the past even more as far as your films that aren't yours that inspired you, like past films. What for you? Why do you make the films you make and what are some kind of inspiring past films for you?

MBM (05:12)
Yeah,

no, totally. So I say that the two sides of my personality are kind of the original old boy and then also Amelie because I love things that are lifted and larger than life, but also kind of done in this genre way or surreal way. And that can either be something very dark, like my movie coming out, but it can also, you know, take the Amelie form as well. But I've also obviously I'm a big film lover. So I've had

hundreds of of movies influence me. basically try to watch a movie every meal time. So yeah. Yeah, now my partner and I will wake up in the morning, we go, what should we watch during breakfast? And then we'll continue watching it during lunch and then hopefully watch a movie in the evening as well. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (05:49)
wow, every meal time.

That's so good.

to be

conscious about that like okay it's meal time which means it's movie time.

Okay, so real quick, That's a great movie. That's one of those movies where the first time you watch it, you're like, it's like, it reminds me of Run Lola Run for some reason. I think maybe because it's, they're so unique and I had never seen certain things before seeing those films. It's just like a giant, beautiful, colorful montage, I guess, in a way.

MBM (06:15)
yeah, also a huge fan.

Yeah,

no, definitely. Yeah. I think what I love about it is, first of all, think akin to that when I first watched it, I'd never seen a movie quite like that before. And so it kind of opened a different world of cinema for me. But I also think that there's a lot of movies that are visual feasts, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're character based. And that's one of the movies I can attribute to my God, this movie made me cry within the first 15 minutes, which is also

Marcus Mizelle (06:27)
Talk about it if you don't mind. What do you love about it? What is it about it?

Hmm.

MBM (06:55)
super feat. It makes me cry when she has no friends and then she loses her fish. And I go, my god, it just gets me when someone only has one thing and they lose all of it. It's basically, I feel like they probably got inspired in the beginning montage of up and also searching because it's kind of the same thing. But they're all kind of the same formula of someone has almost nothing in their life except for this one thing and then that one thing is taken away and it's devastating.

Marcus Mizelle (07:15)
⁓ yeah.

And it's so simple,

isn't it? It's so simple, but solid. And Amelie is like such a likable character. Like you just love her immediately. Lovable, not likable.

MBM (07:25)
Yeah, yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (07:31)
was the other one that you liked boy damn ending that's the that's the okay that that movie messed me up where it's like this is not okay this is not okay what yeah and then the rewatch is even more brutal yeah we went and saw that a year ago back when it was back in the theater and I'm like here it comes here it comes ⁓

MBM (07:33)
old boy, the original old boy. Yes.

yeah, yeah, that's exactly. No, I love to be devastated. Yes.

no, exactly. I know it still hurts even when you could see it. ⁓ But also that movie, every single department is incredible in that movie. And I always say that good plot twists are something that you can probably guess maybe 30 seconds before it happens in the movie. Because if you guess it too soon, it's too predictable. And if you don't guess it at all, that means that they maybe didn't give you enough clues. So they're not treating their audience as smart enough and setting things up. So it's almost the perfect of you go,

Marcus Mizelle (07:52)
Yeah, yeah.

Interesting.

Yeah.

MBM (08:21)
⁓ no, and then it happens directly afterwards.

Marcus Mizelle (08:24)
So how do you then, how do you craft that kind of thing then? What's your process as far as trying to get the audience to that point?

MBM (08:29)
Yeah,

totally. So my process is I've kind of in all three of my movies, I've kind of had big extreme plot twists. And the way that we've kind of crafted that is a couple of things. First of all, we try to get many takes in scenes, whether you're supposed to trust a certain person or not to give it away. ⁓ And then we also do a huge fan of test screenings. And so we'll ask people, what did you guess or what did you not guess? And I don't think that

Marcus Mizelle (08:51)
Mm-hmm.

MBM (08:58)
A good plot twist means, you know, for example, I've had certain movies where we're okay with certain people guessing certain things, but the thing is, is that you don't want them to guess anything. It's the who, what, when, where, why, where you go, okay, maybe they know the who, but they don't know the why. And so it's kind of picking like what your tension is specifically with that, that's going to be your plot twist too. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (09:06)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Nice. Yeah, that makes sense.

Cool. So cool. I love this podcast so much because you just get all these different little perspectives and these tips and tricks and these different methods for people. that's, but I have, that's, that's good. I just see it that

okay, so Bone how did this project come about? And I just wanna say too, the trailer's so good and I just love when Bleecker Street pops on and you got the little chessboard moment and with the sound design hitting, I was in. I was like, okay, yeah, I'm in. That was a moment for me. like, okay, I'm in. Do know what I mean? He's like, ⁓ yeah.

MBM (09:40)
Thank you. ⁓

Fantastic. Yeah, no, love to hear that. Yeah, no, I mean, the way that the project

came around is I, I got sent it through my reps actually. And they said, Hey, you know, go ahead and here's the script. And sometimes I'll go to script and I go, okay, we don't know when it's shooting. Like, you know, I can take a couple of weeks to read this. And right after they sent it me, they said, actually, you need to read, they sent it to me on Friday and they said, you need to read it over the weekend because they're meeting with people on Monday. And I go, oh, okay.

Marcus Mizelle (10:16)
hell yes.

MBM (10:18)
And so

Marcus Mizelle (10:18)
That's what you want.

MBM (10:19)
yes, that's what you want. And so I read it right away and I just immediately fell in love with the team at LD. They are literally in figure to the family because there is a family business, but also I kind of developed that relationship with them. And so, you know, we met and we saw that we are aligned and then we started shooting. I think it was like two and a half months after that. So it was the quickest.

Marcus Mizelle (10:34)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

MBM (10:44)
fastest

process I've ever had on a movie. I know it wasn't like that for everyone else because they had it for a long time before I came on. But it was a great experience for me in that sense. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (10:53)
good for you. Yeah, I've heard a few times

where it's just like it goes so quick. Like sometimes where it's like boom, and you got to be ready, I guess, right? Like attachments are attached. The money is attached away. All the things are attached. And then it's time to go. That's, that's like a dream.

MBM (10:59)
Yes. Yeah, no, totally. Yes.

Yeah.

Or I mean, I've also had the opposite where I've had movies where it takes years because you attach, you know, your financing is cast dependent and you attach cast and then that person has to drop for a scheduling conflict or something else happens when you kind of have to start a square one and then you do it again and then actor schedules conflict or something else comes up and so it's just stretches out over this multi year process,

Marcus Mizelle (11:20)
my god.

Yeah.

nice to

hear because it does exist, I guess, still, as far as can, it doesn't have to always maybe be so devastatingly painful or whatever. ⁓ So, okay, so you got brought on and, well, you read the script, first of all, what was your thought of the script whenever you read it on that Friday or Saturday?

MBM (11:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, no exactly.

Yeah, totally.

So whenever, ⁓ whenever I read a script, I can only read it for the first time. So every single time I read it for the second time, I'm going to know what the plot twists are, I'm going to maybe not become bored or excited at the same points because I've become used to it. And so I make sure that when I read it for the first time, I'm in a place where I'm actively writing down what I'm thinking and feeling as I'm experiencing it. And so for this specific script, I, I

audibly gassed at the plot twists. And I sometimes I'll put a script down and I'll, you know, go make something to eat or take a break or like, you know, go work on something else. And for this one, I just read all straight away through because I had to know what happened. so for me, I go, okay, I'm having this, this or reaction. This is telling for me that we have something here.

Marcus Mizelle (12:19)
Nice.

And it's almost like it's reflective of how an audience would experience, or viewer would experience it, right? Because they're not gonna sit there and they're just gonna watch, they're gonna take it in for the first, that's kind of a question too, where it's like, I wonder how many people are first time viewers only of a film? I wonder what that percentage looks like. Do know what I mean? Because so many times people don't, it's not about a re-watch. I mean, the ultimate goal I think for me and for most of us is to make a film that has re-watchability, But most of the time you're,

MBM (12:43)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely.

Marcus Mizelle (13:06)
showing it to someone for the first and maybe only time. Or yeah, they watch it for the first time and they don't like it, they're damn sure not watching it a second time. ⁓ Anyways, that's an interesting method too, dang. Okay then. So okay, you read the script and then you had the call on Monday, what, by Monday or Tuesday or by the end of that week you feel like it was a go? And then you shifted your whole schedule in life probably? Or how did that work?

MBM (13:09)
Yeah, no exactly.

No, no.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, basically.

Yeah, shifted my entire schedule on life and kind of wipe the slate clean. I always joke because whenever a friend invites me to a wedding, go, oh my God, that's amazing. I'll totally RSVP, but also know that I can't let you know until a couple of days or a week of if I can actually go because that's the friend that you signed up for and I'm sorry. But that's kind of what our lives are like. Yeah, exactly.

Marcus Mizelle (13:53)
Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna film my girl. Yeah, yeah, wow.

So then was the cast already attached or did you come on and kind of build that out with the team?

MBM (14:03)
Yeah,

so ⁓ Alex Rowe was already attached and then the rest we brought on it was a combination of actors, know, Maddie Hassan is something that I've worked with in the past and Marco Pagosi is someone that the producers work with in the past and then ⁓ Andra was an actress who had been in a French short of mine and I remembered her from watching the short five years ago because we're like, we want a fresh voice in this and I thought of her and we had her audition.

Marcus Mizelle (14:31)
just the trailer, it gave me, ⁓ I thought about Ready or Not, that one with, what's her name? Samara Weaving, is that her name? And then it also reminded me of a little bit of, what the hell was that call with Jacob Elordi and Barry Cogan? Saltburn, I don't know, something about it. Maybe the class, it had a class dynamic.

MBM (14:40)
Mm-hmm.

Salt burn? Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (14:56)
I don't know or maybe it was like a relationship swapping dynamic possible possibility, but I don't give me those vibes Maybe because they're just recent and it's kind of like a nice big one location like fancy setting got a good feeling about this movie as far as Obviously you just stole some territories, but it does just scream commercial appeal. I feel it

MBM (15:16)
definitely. We definitely wanted to make a movie that is a fun popcorn movie for people to watch. I'll say that we haven't gotten that, but I think definitely I'll take the compliment in terms of, you know, it's erotic and has a young hot cast and, you know, things become genre. ⁓ And so definitely, but ⁓ definitely someone like the inspirations that I had for it was, you know, we've been called

barbarians, hornier sibling, which I'll totally take. Because we have a similar setup, but they go in very different directions. And for me, when I was watching it, or when I first read it, and I was kind of formulating my vision for it, I took a lot of influences from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, even though that's a very different genre, because it's couple against couple. ⁓ Or even Howse Yes was a big inspiration for me. ⁓ Yes.

Marcus Mizelle (15:44)
wow. Hell yeah.

House of Yes. Which one is this? House of Yes.

MBM (16:09)
⁓ House of Yes is starting Parker Posey and it's an older cult classic movie. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (16:15)
Oh, okay. House of Yes.

Performance field night. Wait, what is this? Oh, House of Yes 1997. Shout out to the construction workers next door. The House of Yes. Hold on.

MBM (16:25)
Thank

Marcus Mizelle (16:26)
The House of Yes, 1997, a mentally unbalanced young woman who is convinced she is Jackie Kennedy flies into a murderous rage when her brother returns home to reveal he is engaged. And this was like Parker was doing some just like high level indie stuff then, right? I it just like boom, boom, boom. That was the space she was Mm-hmm. Original Funny Games or Remake?

MBM (16:41)
Yeah, exactly. funny games and the one I love were definitely some other obvious influences.

Um, it's it's funny because they're both kind of very similar since the shot to shot remake. Yeah, he did. So if it was any other movie of you're asking me, oh, old boy original remake, it's a very different answer. But for funny games, it's shot per shot by the same director. So it's kind of the same thing. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (16:55)
Didn't he do both of them? Michael Haneke directed both of them, right? Yeah.

Uh huh. Okay. Well, oh that's, yeah that's right. Interesting enough,

like even just like remakes and Spike Lee remakes of classic films, I just saw Highest to Lowest. I might cut this out because I don't want to be negative, but why Spike? Why did you make it? I don't understand. Anyways, that was this weekend. I'm like...

⁓

So, okay, House of Yes, Parker Posey, nice. What about the, ⁓ so in between kind of getting it, just pre-production and production, let's talk about that space and how it started shaping up, what were some kind of highlights the process of that.

MBM (17:40)
production was

very crazy because we were originally an 18 day shoot. ⁓ And so it was very jam packed. so pre-production was kind of planning as much as insanely possible so that there was not a ⁓ gap, an ounce on the day that was not being used to get another set up or another take. ⁓ And so, yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (17:48)
You sh-

Were you accustomed to that kind of

shooting with your previous films?

MBM (18:08)
I am,

a movie that costs a certain amount ⁓ and we're gonna put even more jam-packed into it ⁓ than people estimate us for. And I think that just allows us to get the time we need for performances and everything else. And I think that the unplanned version of this movie is that it's just standard coverage. And we said, no, we wanna do some crazy shots. And so to be able to do that on a schedule that's this tight, it just kind of requires that.

And so a lot of it was coming up the shot list, finding the location, then rejiggering our shot list in tandem with the location. And something I like to do is I'll kind of act out the movie with my DP and whoever happens to be around us in the space so that we're kind of able to formulate our own blocking. And then I'm a huge fan of, know, obviously a lot of people reference stills, but I'm a huge fan of GIFs because we're doing some crazy camera movement.

Marcus Mizelle (18:55)
Nice.

MBM (19:04)
it's, I can hold up a storyboard for someone but for their brain to kind of put together seven frames, it's not as intuitive as just showing someone a moving image and then being able to say, oh, the camera trolls in this way or it comes through the doorway here. Or we match cuts like this because they're doing this specific thing.

Marcus Mizelle (19:23)
have some unique methods, I feel like. You have some cool kind of like fresh takes. That's really cool. So, yeah.

MBM (19:28)
Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like it's just kind of been

on set and learning just with different people where I go, if I hold it, hold this up to the operator, they just instantly know what we're doing next without me having to explain it. And it just allows everyone to go faster because everyone can just look and I'll even make stuff in the space where I go, okay, I acted out, you know, we acted out the shot and made it into a gift so they can see, the actor comes through this specific doorway and lands at this certain time and we're going to need this much track. And so we go great.

Marcus Mizelle (19:38)
Okay.

I'm sure they love that too, huh?

MBM (19:57)
Got it. Go for it.

Marcus Mizelle (19:59)
Nice, no, I love that. That's really great. I mean, would you say that, you know, having to shoot with limited ⁓ resources previously, you know, that helps. It's a silver lining, right? When you do get resources, when you do get more, you know, it's all, what do call it? Subjective, it's all relative. It's all what you think is a lot of resources, you know, because if you're comparing it to no resources, then any resource is a lot of resource.

MBM (20:20)
Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (20:24)
Talk about just the silver lining, please, of ⁓ going through it or not having much but still choosing to make a film. And then how later films, how that helps you out. And you're more prepared to not freak out in a tight situation, maybe.

MBM (20:36)
Yeah.

Totally. mean, I think I think it's all relative, you know, like I've I've never done like a micro micro budget feature, but still when you're working with a couple of stuff, but I've done a lot of sports. But when you're working with, you know, even a couple of million dollars, like it's it's not like the same as being given twenty million dollars or fifty million dollars. And when I always tell people I go if anything.

Marcus Mizelle (20:49)
do it. It's the worst.

MBM (21:04)
that just makes you better prepared because you're having to do the same things on all those other shoots but you're having to think about it more beforehand because you can't show up on set and go you know what we'd really like this kind of prop we didn't think of or how about we just take an hour to block the scene because we have the time to think about it it's no you had to just you have to do the same thing because you still want to make a good movie and plan it more

Marcus Mizelle (21:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

Well, and

I've seen I used to be a grip on my 20s when I was younger man and on big on big films and there was so many times where I'd be like 60 or 80 million dollar movies and you know, you would just watch this director who was like new sometimes, you know, and they were they were just kind of hired to be told what to do. It seemed but ⁓ and they were freaking out. They know what to do. They were so fucked up about so many things and us that were, you know.

You know, we thought we knew better because we you know, but it's like we had made our own. It's like, what's the big deal? Just put the camera right here, bro. You know, why you got to? It was just one of those, you know, it's like it's good to have a little bit of a boot camp experience, right, with anything and then to be able to know what to expect from there as opposed to, I don't know, being given too much too soon. But, you know, so I guess what I'm trying to do here is just is just. ⁓

MBM (22:01)
Hahaha!

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, no, definitely.

Marcus Mizelle (22:20)
know, console my younger filmmaking self and other people that are going through it right now where it's like, Hey, it's good to have nothing. There's value in that beyond, know, it sucks to need more and not have it, but also there's value in not, having to learn things because in having to learn how to be more creative because you don't have that easy thing you can reach for. So it's always nice.

MBM (22:39)
Yeah, definitely. Something

else to say about that too, though, is ⁓ funny enough, I sometimes feel like it's almost harder to make your own short than a movie in some ways because ⁓ it gets dragged out over a long course of time and you're having to ask people for lot of favors. Whereas on a movie, if everyone's on, that's all that they're doing with their day every single day for the entire amount of time. And if you need notes on something, you go, you know what?

Marcus Mizelle (23:01)
Sure, totally.

MBM (23:09)
We did the score, it's not working. We need to completely reconfigure the sound of the movie. If you're on a short and you're asking someone for a favor, that's a big favor to ask someone. Whereas on a feature, if you're not asking for favors, so I think it's relative amount Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (23:18)
It's true.

Well, there's transactions less solidified. because it all

comes down to people's time, I feel like, and time and energy and desire to want to do a good job. And yeah, when you're asking for favors, you're gonna get limited amounts of all of that. You have to be really strategic. But no, I think I agree with you, because it's all about the end result, I think. I mean, having a good process, but the end result.

that comes from like healthy collaborations.

MBM (23:49)
totally. But I've also been on projects that have a lot more money. And I'll ask for something where I go, hey, can we get the specific color of backpack or something? you know, people in our department might not care because they're not showing up because they care about the don't have even we'll have more money, but it's not money put in the specific right places. So you go, you know, we don't have money for the backpacks. And I go, what is a bigger budget than anything I've ever worked on? And yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (24:03)
Wow.

It's all situational, I guess then, because there's some

times where you'll take a job, my past self would take a job where it wasn't enough, but I'm like, let me get that just to have it. And then people would just bleed you dry because they think that they've given you a lot of money because it's all their money. And then you end up working harder and more and longer and it's a pain in the butt. And then you get these big jobs that pay wonderful money and it's like, they're so easy. But anyway, sometimes too, it's like,

MBM (24:26)
Totally. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (24:39)
Like as a producer, when I produced films that have a pretty decent budget, short films, whatever. And it's like the more you pay people, the more brats they can be sometimes too. So it's very ironic as far as the crew side of things.

MBM (24:52)
Yeah, I always tell people they should never take.

Yeah, they should never take a job thinking that it's a favor because everyone should be there because they want to be there and someone could think of a job with, you know, a $5,000 day rate as a favor or if someone can look at a job as to, you know, $300 is a fair. It should be what feels good to people because they should be coming on because they want to.

Marcus Mizelle (25:12)
Hey man, if you

agree to a rate, then come on and do a good job and don't be a bitch about it. That's what I think.

MBM (25:15)
Yeah. Yeah. No, I agree.

Marcus Mizelle (25:20)
It's like once you find the people too that you love, it's so nice to try to continue bringing those people on. And like if it ain't broke, don't fix it, you

MBM (25:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, my both my multiple people I've worked with, but like both one of my favorite producers to work with and production designer and editor. I've been working with them since I was a USC film student. And, you know, now it's more than a decade later, since I first started working with them. And we're still working together.

Marcus Mizelle (25:46)
Okay, cool. is a nice little segue thing. I was curious about a little bit more of your origin and where you went to school and

What is your first memory of being a filmmaker? Start there.

MBM (25:55)
I would take my camera that used many DV tapes and I would bike down the mountain to my friend's house and we would go shoot Star Wars action figures.

Marcus Mizelle (26:10)
Well, I have to show you

this. This is my, I still have this guy. This is my old Sharp. What is this? don't even, it's like, you know. This doesn't work anymore. I mean, it turns on barely, but I've ran this thing ragged. That's a Walmart sticker. When we used to film in Walmart. Anyways, Mini DV.

MBM (26:13)
amazing, yes.

Yeah. No, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But no, that's what we would do.

And I remember the first day I discovered, my God, this is what a tripod is. We can make all our shots still, you know, it's just like little baby steps of filmmaking. And so, yeah. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (26:37)
Whoa, my God. Yeah. Nice.

It's those moments, I remember the moment where I like literally where it's like, oh, this would be way better if I just thought about it first before I film. Oh.

MBM (26:51)
totally. Well,

some people never learn that concept, but hopefully they do.

Marcus Mizelle (26:55)
Whoa, yeah, yeah. Well, some

people think too much and don't ever push record too, so. Yes, USC, how was USC?

MBM (26:59)
Also that, that's true.

Yeah, so I mean, I I loved my experience there. I loved my class members ⁓ I felt like I learned more outside of class instead of in class though because I was motivated by the people around me because everyone was making things and I thought my god I have to I have to make things too ⁓ But then actually in class they kind of changed the curriculum when I was there so that people were actually making as much films and that you wouldn't Yeah more theory and just like you know, for example

Marcus Mizelle (27:12)
Okay.

Mm.

They were not, they were doing more theory at the time.

MBM (27:31)
There used to be a class where people would go through the whole semester and they would make five short films and they changed that to you make a documentary piece and then you make like a scene as an idea of something and I thought, my God, I'm gonna direct without having a director portfolio. And when I always tell people, go, you know what, you should just expect that like the first five to 10 shorts you make are gonna be bad. And maybe they're great and that's amazing, but.

Marcus Mizelle (27:49)
Yeah.

Maybe you'll get one that's good.

MBM (28:01)
Yeah, maybe make one that's good. And that's fantastic. But you never learn unless you do it. And you know, I look back at my work every single year or two years. And I go, man, I learned this on this one. And this one's better in this way. And you just have to keep making stuff. Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (28:13)
It's like 10,000 hours. It's not that complicated really for anything, right? You can't just like hop

on or metaphor time. You can't just roll under a car and expect to know how to fix it, right? You have to like learn how to do it. I mean, yeah, it's, it's yeah. I mean, back in Wilmington, North Carolina, where I'm from, ⁓ I was blessed to have actually De Laurentiis Studios. And then it was Carol Co. And then it was Screen Gems. We had the studio there.

MBM (28:20)
Yeah.

No, exactly. Yeah. Yes.

Marcus Mizelle (28:36)
And anyway, so I got lucky to that was our film school. I went to like a film program at community college and watched a bunch of old stuff, but getting on film set, you know, and seeing the physical reality of it and being and observing all these different directors. And as I was making twenty two dollars an hour, I always had this concept. I'm to get paid to learn. I'm not fucking paying to learn. I'm not doing that. And then also, it's like, let's always make a short film between any show or movie that we work on. That's like no matter what.

MBM (28:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (29:06)
Unless I can't no matter what try to always take a minute and make a short over the weekend and we did that constantly and it helps so much, know, and it was just like beginning middle and end one location or whatever it can be and We were trying we thought we were funny. So we were making funny stuff comedy and yeah, and it's like thank God and we and it was that kind of notion of It's that balance of thinking about it before you do it, but then also knowing when to push record, you know which I

MBM (29:14)
Yeah, so much.

Yeah, no, definitely.

Marcus Mizelle (29:36)
a lot of people would be stuck in those, those either or space. anyways, yeah, I think it's like, I'm not going to sit here and say film school is bad because it's not it's like everything is everybody, everything is situational, everybody has different thing. But I think the key thing is like, I think I wish I had more film theory, to be honest with you, you know, sitting around talking, I mean, I did, but I didn't have any educated guidance. You know, really, that would have been cool. So that's where a film school

MBM (29:48)
Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (30:01)
is invaluable in my opinion in networking. I'm sure USC was really good for networking, would you say? I'm assuming.

MBM (30:05)
Yeah, no, definitely.

I think anything in life is what people make of it. So I went to film school with people who didn't make anything. that's OK, because if they went to film school or didn't, they wouldn't. And then I know people who didn't go to film school and they made stuff all the time. It's the person, and it's whatever the person wants to make use of in the situation.

Marcus Mizelle (30:20)
I am. Yeah, totally.

It's so true and some people like to hate on people that were born into a certain situation, but it's like, man, we know people that have done nothing with that and we know people that have and vice versa. It really is just what do you make of it? Yeah. Also, you can't help how you're ⁓ So production highlights, challenges, anything you want to talk about, anything that's exciting, any little kind of sound bites on, you know, yeah, filming this movie.

MBM (30:35)
Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, our,

you know, we shot in Atlanta, Georgia, and we were actually not originally able to complete our last day of shooting because our last day of shooting was a fight scene on a lake at night in a boat, which anyone who's in production would hear all those things. They're like, Oh my God, what a, what a tough combo. Um, and so we went and we had an actual storm instead of just our fake storm going. And so, you know, we had.

Marcus Mizelle (31:08)
Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah.

MBM (31:19)
like our stunt man fell and slipped and broke his finger because the boat was wet and like he's, you know, they're such professionals. They're like, ⁓ I'm just walking around like, you okay, man? He's like, yeah, I broke my finger. I'm like, But you know, it's like another person slipped and fell and like a lens fell on the lake and we were like, nope, all right, shutting it down. And so we actually ended up shooting the ending of the movie on a soundstage and I like.

Marcus Mizelle (31:22)
⁓ no.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

⁓

MBM (31:46)
faking our boat being out on the water. ⁓ And so, you know, that's just something where you never expect it. But filmmaking, always think of filmmaking as it's a process that stays in your body because it's either very hot where you're filming or very cold and near in the elements and they are greatly affecting you at every turn of the way, unless you're in a soundstage. But I've even had sound stages get shut down from lightning storms.

Marcus Mizelle (31:47)
Okay. Okay.

I hate sounds. I

used to work on this show called One Tree Hill. It's my first kind of thing back in the day. Do you remember that show? Anyways, it was so boring to work on because we'd be on stage half the time. I mean, then we'd also shoot around town, but it was, I hate stage personally, as a crew person, I hated stage work because it was so boring. And on location was just like always something different and new, even if you were sweating through your shirt for the fifth time that day.

MBM (32:34)
Yeah,

totally.

Marcus Mizelle (32:37)
you know, but just personally, personal take. But I don't miss being a crew person at all, to be honest with you. That's that's my night. It's so ironic because it was wonderful the first three years and then, I know this isn't my interview, but I just feel like I need to say this. And then it just flipped where I'm like, oh my God, I hate this.

MBM (32:39)
Yeah, now I feel the same way.

Now go for it.

Marcus Mizelle (32:59)
But it was just like, I don't belong here anymore, you know? And just.

MBM (33:03)
Yeah, well, I

think we need crew people to do stuff like I think that everyone's job is really important. And I think that, you know, like I've done jobs of other people at set on set and I'm horrible at it. Like I, I second day seed for a while and I was not a great second day seed, even though I really, you know, was eager to learn and I also, I was a PA and I could not handle someone talking to me and having a walk in my ear at the same time. So I'm really grateful for everyone to do those jobs, because ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (33:09)
Yes.

Same. Yes.

Totally.

MBM (33:33)
Everyone is really good at a specific thing and that's why I really appreciate people who are good at their jobs.

Marcus Mizelle (33:36)
Well, I was almost envious of how people

could, like I love, and I was envious of almost my previous self in that way, where it's like I was content for like two or three years, where I was like, wow, but I was more mesmerized by everything. And then once the actual shine wore off, you know, being on film sets and seeing celebrities and seeing directors that I had, you know, looked up to, cinematographers, you know what I mean? Then it was like, ⁓ this isn't, it's just knowing where you, you know, knowing where you belong and don't belong as an individual.

You know, it's just, it also gives you more admiration for the work of a crew member and then the dedication and the long hours, man, the long hours. 12 hour day is a short day. It's ridiculous, actually. I think it's ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. My first day ever on any set as a PA was 18 hours long, first day ever for NBC. Damn, 24.

MBM (34:15)
Such long hours. Yes. I know.

yeah, the longest I've ever done is 24 hours. know?

Yes. Yeah, I was also a PA on that, which makes sense because PAs have longer days than everyone. Yep.

Marcus Mizelle (34:34)
What? That's

a whole, that's not a long day, that's a whole day. What? Wait, 24? That, wow, I've never heard that. That's cool.

MBM (34:39)
Yeah.

area.

Yeah,

I mean, all the crew was like, man, we just made double double on our rates. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (34:48)
That's what, that would be another thing. golden

time. It's like, I don't care about the money, bro. I need some sleep. I would like to have a life, please.

MBM (34:58)
Yeah, I like to play the game of like, how much would you pay for a good nap right now? Like how tired are you? But like how much money would you pay if someone would be like you could nap right now?

Marcus Mizelle (35:07)
There's also

such a camaraderie though about those situations that I miss. There's like the family aspect in a way. You're in the army together when you're on set like that, which I do miss that stuff. just like the, it's like you're scratching so many inches at once where it's like, it is a social situation. It's not like you need to be anywhere else. You are constantly interacting with other people and it is a fulfilling thing. But also you're getting...

MBM (35:16)
Yeah.

Mm Yeah.

Definitely.

Marcus Mizelle (35:35)
paid, but then you don't, then you go home and you don't have time to enjoy the things you're paying for. That's where it got really interesting. Where it's like, whoa, you know, especially as a crew person where you're always on set. It's like, wait a minute. I have no life here. Okay. Anyways, you had to shoot on soundstage in LA and how did that go? Did you feel good about what you got?

MBM (35:40)
it's real. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I felt great about it. It was nice because we got more time to do more stunts and more of the ending moments. And so it was actually a blessing in disguise. ⁓ And I would rather shoot a storm, you know, even though we say things about sounds, I would rather shoot a storm on a soundstage any day than a storm on a lake. Because shooting on the water is hard. Yes.

Marcus Mizelle (36:06)
More control, yeah.

That first day I was telling

you about Ever was a show called Surface and it was that. was like, ⁓ it was this like giant wave pool on stage four, screen jumps, and we're at the same place where Brandon Lee had his incident for the crow, same corner of the stage. Anyways, was all just like cue the waves, cue the lightning, cue the thunder, cue the dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, cue techno crane, dah, dah.

But was like crazy they were doing it on a soundstage and it looked so good even back then. But you have to control that when you're dealing with water. Jesus, you need to control it as much as possible. Truly.

MBM (36:50)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, totally.

Every element adds another thing. There you go. Okay, we have more time between setups to make sure this thing is going to this thing, this thing, and you should or else it's going to go wrong. But also as a director, you're like, Oh my God, I get less setups. My God. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (37:07)
But also of course, yeah. But also of

course your movie ends on a lake, I'm assuming, Maybe.

MBM (37:13)
Yeah,

we don't say what happens on the lake, but it is called Bone Lake. you know.

Marcus Mizelle (37:17)
⁓ boy.

what about post? How did it come together? How did the movie kind of, did it come together seamlessly and perfectly? It was so easy. Or how did it look?

MBM (37:28)
Yeah, I mean, was actually it was a longer post process because ⁓ we went through our movie, we, you know, we edit it. And like I said, I'm a huge fan of test screenings. So that was a normal part of the process because I always I like to make movies for people. Like I think that there's different type of directors and I appreciate different kinds of movies. But for this one, want okay, we want to make stuff that people enjoy going and watch. It's not just here's this really long scene that's very boring for the sake of

Marcus Mizelle (37:56)
Mm-hmm.

MBM (37:57)
something else, this is a popcorn movie. ⁓

Marcus Mizelle (37:59)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

MBM (38:00)
And so I think it was just a longer process because our producers were doing lots of movies at the same time and everyone was doing lots of things, but we wanted it to be good at the time that it was supposed to happen.

Marcus Mizelle (38:13)
And what's wrong with a good commercial film or good, what do you call it? Popcorn movie. know, don't have to, it doesn't mean it's gotta be insulting to an audience, right? I mean, we, and we grew up on great popcorn, genre films, didn't we? I mean, damn, we got blessed with that, where it's like this complete perfect convergence of like art and commerce, you know? Why not? Let's get more of that. Cause like, I don't want something to be too artsy fartsy. I mean, I like a good, you know, I like some sustenance, but sometimes I do want to.

MBM (38:17)
Yeah.

No.

Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (38:43)
I a donut with some cream in the middle.

MBM (38:43)
Yeah, mean, like,

yeah, exactly. I like all types of movies, but like, I want to treat each movie the way that they should be treated. And so this one specifically, like, that's what this movie is. So that's what it should be.

Marcus Mizelle (38:54)
So how do you feel it came out as far as if you're a viewer? mean, are you happy with it? I mean, it looks like it's doing well.

MBM (38:58)
I mean, I'm so

happy. The reviews that we've gotten have been awesome. We have a 95 % of Rotten Tomatoes and people have had great responses and it's especially been fun to see people's reaction to it in the theaters because people, like it feels the way when I've gone and watched cult movies, if you have an audience react very audibly, that's kind of the response that we've had. And so that's been my favorite thing about the process. Audibly. Yes. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (39:03)
Hell yeah, nice.

Mm-hmm.

You said oddly.

Oh, audibly. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

So people are just literally they're gasping, they're laughing, they're...

MBM (39:27)
Like people will gasp and be like, ⁓ no,

that didn't just happen. Yes.

Marcus Mizelle (39:32)
Do you have a lot of tension that's followed by ⁓ humor or any of that kind of thing? Yeah.

MBM (39:36)
Yeah, not exactly.

Our movie is definitely a humorous movie. It's meant for people to laugh at it. And so that's what we want people to get one experience.

Marcus Mizelle (39:46)
And it's so cathartic, guess is the word. It's such a wonderful experience, especially with an audience like in these types of movies. Do you see weapons yet?

MBM (39:53)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love weapons. That was so fun. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (39:56)
It was like that. And for me, we

saw it a few weeks ago. Yeah, it was like the crowd was great. It was like the best time I've had at the movies this year, for sure. I'm not sure if it's my favorite movie this year, but it was the best time at the movie theater. It was so fun. So everybody was on the same thing.

MBM (40:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, exactly.

Yeah, it was so fun. People were reacting

and being like, my god! It's the best. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Yeah.

Marcus Mizelle (40:15)
But then it was funny, but then it's like, was I supposed to laugh at that? Like, this movie's, but it's like, you're in it. Yeah.

What's better than forgetting about your problems in day, you know, and just completely wanting to be at the movies? ⁓ Nice. Okay, so Fantastic Fest, you premiered. ⁓ And then what was after that? Well, you've just been ⁓ pressed.

MBM (40:26)
You

I agree.

I mean, basically, I mean,

we've had like other other genre festivals, which has been amazing. Like we were just at Pride Fest in the UK. And so it's just kind of been at multiple festivals until we release it October 3rd in the US. Yes. Yep. Yep.

Marcus Mizelle (40:51)
May, ⁓ okay, it's coming, coming quick. October 3rd, okay, nice.

me ask you this. would you tell your,

younger filmmaking self if you could go back in time. Give some advice.

MBM (41:03)
man,

would tell my under filmmaking self so many things because I feel like every single movie I'm on I learn something where I go, note to past self, that's what happens when you do this or this is what this feels like. ⁓ But I think that one of the biggest things is just, you know, there's so many things with the movie where we get controlled congrats at the same time, but there's another step of congrats, this part got greenlit, but this part isn't yet so we have to keep waiting or, you know,

Marcus Mizelle (41:11)
Mm-hmm.

MBM (41:32)
Congrats, you got good audience reviews, but are you going to make it at the box office? ⁓ There's so many boxes you could check to think like, this is amazing or, you I made my movie, but then I have my next movie set up. And so I would tell myself like, it matters what your day to day experiences of, are you enjoying this? Like, you someone who goes on set and you're hating it the whole time you're on set, even if you love the end result, like that is the life that you're choosing to sign up for. So you probably shouldn't be doing that.

Marcus Mizelle (41:44)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

MBM (42:01)
⁓

Or, you know, if you're a writer and you don't like writing, like you should maybe examine that with yourself. Or even if you're an actor and you don't like auditioning, like that's a lot of part of the process. ⁓ And so I think it's really figuring out what you actually enjoy.

Marcus Mizelle (42:16)
Because we can forget to check in with ourselves, right? That's kind of what that is. Like you feel like you're like so determined sometimes, this is what I'm going to do because I just, my old self decided it. But then you find yourself not enjoying it, which I mean, there's also another flip side of the coin where it's like work. can become work, but, as long as I guess it's fulfilling work, right.

MBM (42:19)
Yeah, yeah, most definitely.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

And also, like, I think also sometimes, you know, we're very privileged to be in a position where we go work should be fun. Like work is also work. And it doesn't have to be fun all the time. But you should still like, you know, that is a it's a huge privilege to think like that. ⁓ Because most of the world does not is not able to think like that. But if if you have the option to influence that for yourself, you should try to put yourself in the best position.

Marcus Mizelle (42:44)
telling my five-year-old this. Really?

Totally.

love that so much. It's