Film Hustlers
Filmmaker Mark Roberts (Meet Me Next Christmas, Strangers with Candy) and aspiring filmmaker Rod "Tuddy” Rinks discuss in detail how to navigate the treacherous world of filmmaking from pitching, financing, casting, securing rights, post-production, distribution etc. We cover it all!
Film Hustlers
Let’s talk MOBISODES! AND much more!
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Dive in and unpack the shifting landscape of filmmaking, from tax incentives to the rise of short-form, mobile-friendly content like mobisodes and what the future holds for indie filmmakers in a rapidly evolving industry. Plus, the importance of smart content strategies, and how creators can adapt and thrive in a world where attention spans are shrinking. A must-listen for anyone passionate about the business of showbiz and the future of entertainment!
California Tax Credits for Studios
Speaker 1All right ready.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Film Hustlers. Hi and this time it's Film Hustlers, not Film Hustler.
Speaker 2Who says?
Speaker 1hustler, I say it when you guys aren't around. What a dick.
Speaker 2Welcome to Film.
Speaker 1Hustler. Welcome to my show.
Speaker 2There's a lot of shit going on right now.
Speaker 1There's a lot of stuff going on. I don't want to hear about Producer Patrick Until Producer Patrick comes on the show. We don't want to talk about Producer.
Speaker 2Patrick, but hey, so we were talking about this earlier. That $750 million, what does that mean for the state of California, robert?
Speaker 1If you are a studio like Universal and you're here, so I can go home at night Los.
Speaker 1Angeles. Yeah, they'll probably make a really big deal to a studio like Netflix, to Fox. They can benefit from that. But I have to look deeper into it because I don't know. Tax credits are tricky, like you can go with your hundred thousand dollars, the same million dollars, you go with a million dollars to a place that gives you a 20% track tax credit, but they don't allow actors from a different state. They don't allow you to tax credit your executive producer. They don't allow you to tax credit some above they don't allow you to tax credit some above-the-line people that takes like hundreds of thousands of dollars off of the tax credit. You don't receive it. But you go somewhere like Buffalo, new York, where they allow actors. Where they allow and I'm talking about actors that are not from Buffalo, they allow above the line, like your director, photography, your ad, your director your producers, I.
Speaker 1I received tax credits on all those lines, so that tax credit became way more than it would normally be in any other state. So the question is how much of your budget can you actually get a tax credit on in Los Angeles, and is it going to make a difference? I don't think to smaller movies it will, unless they have to shoot here, but otherwise studios are going to eat it up. They're going to be a difference. I don't think to smaller movies it will, unless they have to shoot here, but otherwise studios are gonna eat it up. They're gonna be like great, I mean, isn't that that movie, this?
Speaker 2there's a tv show called the studio yeah, yeah shoots in los angeles say apple or paramount or is it the same apple because apple they shoot on uh.
Speaker 1They shoot in los angeles and they were at the beverly wiltshire. They were all all over LA. But that's a big budget show with big actors yeah, that huge budget will benefit them because if they spend $100 million, they're going to get $20 million back. That's a tax credit.
Speaker 2That's a pretty good tax credit.
Speaker 1But you're making a million-dollar movie, then you also have to look. Let's not kid ourselves. La is very, very complicated. Look at the birds, look at Griffith Park.
Speaker 2The pigeons. I thought you meant the birds. Like the suburbs with the birds, no the pigeons from Beautiful Darkness.
Speaker 1They were more expensive than any of our actors.
Speaker 2That's true.
Speaker 1Not as expensive as a couple of them, but they were one of the most expensive things. Getting the permit was complicated. Great job, they did a great job things uh, getting the permit.
Speaker 2great job, they did a great job yeah, getting the permit was complicated.
Speaker 1Renting a place yeah for a reasonable amount of money. Then you have.
Speaker 2Then you need permits to park then you need those guys, the birds handlers. It's, you need the bird handlers.
Speaker 1There's animal insurance yeah yeah, you need animal insurance.
Speaker 2Dude it was yeah, they make it tough, they make, makes it difficult to shoot in LA.
Speaker 1Now do we want to? Yes, Does a studio, does a cable network that doesn't have a ton of money really want to come to LA and start shooting their stuff here? Probably not.
Speaker 2Yeah, but doesn't. If you look at the history of filmmaking or film or whatever Vaudeville, new york, the nick, the nickelodeon, like the, you know what I mean. It was almost like like remember, when you're a kid, you make to get the book, the paper and you draw the picture and you could see the thing go right in disneyland, yeah, like that's how it all kind of started.
Speaker 2And then the warner brothers you know those, the brothers. They came out here because there was more land and that was the beginning, the infancy of silent pictures, and they started making movies. But there was just land here. It wasn't anything other than they could buy a bunch of land and they had all this place right. So all these studios, so isn't it just kind of like an evolution? And the ship has sailed like, yes, you're right, hollywood la is going to be for big budgets studios. They're not going to go anywhere. They're going to, like the studio places like that, they're going to make stuff. Small indies, I would say. Anything under $10 million is gone, like that's it. They're going to go to Buffalo because you get better tax incentives, you get more money, you get bigger bang for your buck. That's already happening. New Mexico when have we shot?
Speaker 1New Mexico, tennessee, that's already happening. Uh, new mexico where have we shot? New mexico, tennessee, new mexico, atlanta, georgia. Georgia doesn't even have a cap. So if we took every single film made in the entire united states and moved it all to georgia, they'd never run out of money the 750 million you're talking about yeah, once that's gone. Yeah, there's no more tax credits until the next year yeah see that sucks. So yeah, that's it. It's an open bank, it's like the treasury department.
Speaker 2They just keep printing money.
Speaker 1They figure it out, it makes money for them so has the ship sailed?
Speaker 2then it has it hasn't sailed.
Speaker 1People want to shoot in LA, of course they want to shoot in LA but if you're Universal and this is your house and this is where you live and they're offering you money to make a movie in your neighborhood, then you're going to do it and there's a lot of actors that, just like shooting in New York is a necessity in Manhattan, people want to shoot in Los Angeles. There's stories that are really naturally, that naturally live in the city I want to shoot in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2There's stories that are really naturally that naturally live in the city of Los Angeles. I want to shoot in Los Angeles. It's beautiful, I do too. It's beautiful, but the reality of it is you got to go to Buffalo. Well, you got to go to, if you're going to make.
Speaker 1I don't know if you're going to make as many movies as some of these companies like Hallmark, JC, Lifetime, whatever, then making a deal with a single producer and going to a single state that's going to give you 40% tax credit and, in some cases, 50% tax credit, then you're going to do that. Of course. That's the business, right, and that's funny. Let's segue to the business of show business right, which is making movies. I know things are changing, I mean, and it's a very, very difficult place to live because no one's making any money and no one's making any movies or TV shows whatever.
Speaker 1I know that that's happening. I'm not trying to make light of it. I know that there's only four or five new pilots. There used to be 20, 30 pilots being made a year.
Speaker 2Is there only that many?
Speaker 1They used to make a lot.
Speaker 2No, I know, but what do they make now?
Speaker 1I was told that there's four or five. I was talking to a director in television the other day. They're all gone. They've all been canceled. They have the mainstays, which is like the CSIs.
Speaker 2And CIS, and CIS, those are happening.
Speaker 1Dick Wolf stuff, but there's nothing new. And you know, and when you think about it, this is actually the most important part you know that the Tool Time guy, tim Allen, he has a new show. Network Television, channel 7, abc used to give Tim Allen a show and then say we're going to make 24 episodes of this every year and maybe 25 because we're going to do a Christmas one. So then they would do 25 episodes a year. How many episodes do you think they greenlit for his new show?
Speaker 22025, 2026? I'm going to say 13, 12.
Speaker 1Yeah, 10.
Speaker 210? 10. Wow.
Changes in TV Production Industry
Speaker 1And in some cases they're doing eight and six now. So that's not you know, that's I don't know. You know, if you ask me, I think that the business of show business better get more businessy, because before, when there was, do 28 episodes, do 24 episodes, everyone's making millions. You're reselling all those, everyone's buying houses and second houses and cars.
Speaker 2So is there a pilot season anymore? They're not doing that anymore, no, there's no pilot season for years. Wow.
Speaker 1People don't come out and camp out and go audition for different pilots anymore.
Speaker 2They don't.
Speaker 1It's just not the business we're in anymore.
Speaker 2Auditioning is not like that, because my kids audition all the time. I have to shoot them at home. You audition, you send them, they do go. If they get a call back or they're unavailable or something, then they will get called in. And then there's still casting offices in LA that you go to, but they're far and few between and they're not like they used to be. They used to be packed, yeah, yeah, it's like the worst place to be.
Speaker 1It's a complicated business. But then you read stuff like Disney Hulu. No, Disney Hulu.
Speaker 1This was in the news yesterday, disney, hulu made a deal with Charter Cable. So now they're going to be taking up that real estate again on Charter Cable. So now they're going to be taking up that real estate again on Charter Cable. Charter Cable is going to pay Hulu, disney, for being on that network or on their cable box, and then people that have Charter Cable at their houses are now going to get Hulu and they're going to get Disney. I don't know how it works. I don't know what the business is of it.
Speaker 1But it's basically pumping new life back into cable, because you know what they figured out Is that people actually are not cutting the cord not everybody.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I know people that have a cable box and they have.
Speaker 2YouTube, you do don't you?
Speaker 1I don't have cable now.
Speaker 2Oh, what a dick I got rid of cable. How long ago.
Speaker 1Oh gosh, it's on my Instagram like 2020, 2019.
Speaker 2Oh, my mom still has cable. I remember Expensive though. That's why I quit it.
Speaker 1But so is all of it right.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know, ish, ish, it can be.
Speaker 1It can be if you get all the apps 82 bucks for YouTube TV 10 bucks 82 TV $10. $82? $19 for Max $20, $23 for Netflix. I'm already up over $100.
Speaker 2I got Paramount for $4.99. What the fuck? Paramount sucks.
Speaker 1I bought Peacock for a year because it was a good deal it was like $29. And I went in to watch it yesterday and I was like there's zero. I want to watch Like zero. There's nothing. There was not one thing that I said like, oh, I'm going to be curious about this. So I went back to Netflix and watched a documentary.
Speaker 2See, that's funny. I would go to Amazon Prime because their fucking library is like yeah, it's like you have Blockbuster and Hollywood Video rolled into one.
Speaker 1I like Max, I like Max, I like Max. I think they have some good stuff. I love Apple Actually.
Speaker 2I like Apple, but Apple, I think, is paramount, isn't?
Speaker 1it Apple's Apple.
Speaker 2Oh.
Speaker 1You sure Apple's Apple.
Speaker 2You can buy Apple.
Speaker 1I think you can actually buy Apple as an app on Paramount and on Prime. You can actually go there and while you have all your stuff, you can get apple on there and pay them.
Speaker 2To pay apple is mob land apple or is that paramount? You know that series with uh pierce brosnan and oh my god, no, I don't know, it's supposed to be really good I think I've heard about it yeah, it is good, um, but I don't know.
Speaker 1I don't know what the story is with all those. But you know, I heard they're gonna start packaging, like some of them are getting together. Uh, probably not Netflix, because they're the biggest in the world right now, but Paramount, peacock, some of the other ones are gonna actually offer a group of six of them. So they're gonna say you pay 70 bucks for these six and you can watch two or three at a time and you can switch between them, you can move from this one to that one and cancel this one, but you'll always have the six huh so if you decide, like I watched everything here, I'm going to go ahead and move to max or one of those, then they're gonna they're gonna figure out how to package it so that like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Speaker 2Yeah, you can go up and go. I want some steak. I'm gonna come get sure unfortunately there's there's less product.
Speaker 1Right, people are making less um, but it's hard.
Streaming Services and Cable Deals
Speaker 2It's it's hard because you know why they're making less. Figured it out. You know why they're making less?
Speaker 1Well, because the Moby-Sodes are hot, the Moby-Sodes, so tell everyone who's listening what a Moby-Sode is so the Moby-Sode like your favorite?
Speaker 2what's your favorite one?
Speaker 1It's millionaire werewolf CEO. That's a good one.
Speaker 2My favorite is vampire billionaire killers.
Speaker 1Yeah, see, I mean, does that pique your interest? It does mine.
Speaker 2So the Mobisode, which I first learned about, probably almost a year ago, now started in China and it's vertically shot. The episodes are on your phone and they are anywhere from 60 seconds to under four minutes, but normally like 60 to 90 seconds and they blend into each other, so and they're really bad. It's almost like a mash-up between a porn and a bad soap opera. Um, but, and we want to do this, but you asked me to explain what they are.
Speaker 2I'm not saying, I'm doing anything. I'm explaining fuck this guy. And so guess what? They took off people like them. They're making a lot of money. When I met with these dudes, google what he thinks. If anyone's making money, well, see your problem their problem is you went to google, you got to go to chappie chief.
Speaker 2See, your old man, right, why don't you go back on your um myspace too while you're at it? Um, but these things have been making a lot of money, dude, and so, um, I wasn't into it when I first met these guys about it. They, they pitched me it and I was like, no, I want to make a feature. And they said, well, just take your feature and let's cut it up into these, you know, under five minute films on these five minute episodes.
Speaker 1Can I tell you what, um, what, what, what gemini said about this?
Speaker 2what the fuck is gemini it's.
Speaker 1It's a. It's an ai app, so it says whether or not mobisodes mobisodes, sorry, mobisodes short form videos designed for mobile viewing are making money is a nuanced question. This is a computer. It doesn't care. If there was something out there on the internet that said that they're making money, it would be like yes okay. So while there are examples of platforms and content within this space generating revenue, it's not a guarantee of profitability for every mobisode, of course not creator or production company.
Speaker 1Here's the breakdown anyway. Growing popularity the format is popular in south korea and in china and gaining traction in the us, indicating a potential audience willing to engage with the content. There you go, there you go, willing to.
Speaker 2So it's growing in popularity, so something has to start somewhere. It just doesn't start like explode all over the place. But my point being is, yes, the ones that are currently out there are really bad. So when I met with these guys, they told me about real shorts. They're soapy. Uh, I, I got these, this app called real shorts. I went on there.
Speaker 2They, you know it's a hook. It's kind of like the podcast series where they give you. You know, you you get hooked in for like the first four or five, and then they want you to buy it. Then they want you to pay X amount of dollars for the series or for access to the site, and there was no way I was going to do it and the acting was horrible. They don't even set anything up. It's like people just walk in and they chyron their names above, like John, the boyfriend, lisa. And why is it succeeding? Because our attention spans are like fucking gnats. Okay, and I think I asked you, when I sit down to watch a movie, which isn't very often I'll put my phone on the couch next to me.
Speaker 2I find the movie, which takes me two hours to find anyways, which is ridiculous, and I probably watch something that I've already watched. Once I start watching it, I'm going, I'm watching. I get about 15 minutes into it and I look over at my phone, regardless if my phone lights up, I just by habit, I look over. And if it lights up, then I pick it up and I look oh, instagram, what did somebody say? What did they comment? What is this? I see some of the movie.
Speaker 1Is that real? Let me.
Speaker 2Google it. We're constantly on our phone right, constantly. So my point being is we don't have the attention spans that we used to. I find myself personally at night. I put the kids to sleep, I drink some water, I get a cup of tea, I have my phone, I put on the little stand and I start going through and I end up watching old 30-second to minute clips of Sopranos, because it's an algorithm and if I watch one, then they start popping up and I end up going through all these short form and they're not even converted vertically, they're shot in landscape, so Tony's face is half there, silvio's eye is there. You know what I mean, but I'm still watching it. Plus, I know the story. But my point being is, I have a big TV in the other room. Why don't I get out of the kitchen and go in there?
Speaker 2Because we're lazy and it's convenient, and so personally, I think it's the beginning of something big. Now I have a friend I told you this and Andrea, she's my manager, she she was talking about they're making an elon musk biopic shot vertically in a mobi sewed format. And a friend of mine who does these mobi soads, who's been in billionaire werewolf ceo you know, he's been in a few of those um, he said he got the breakdown for it and it's being directed by an oscar-winning documentarian and the guy has a series on netflix that I think he's directing or he created or something. Um, he wrote it and my buddy read the breakdown and he said it read just like a film great writing, it was quick.
Speaker 2it was quicker because you you know the sweet spot for something that's really good, not werewolf ceos, but like I like the werewolf ceo idea is under five minutes because that's about our attention span nowadays, right like you can get locked in on something on your phone for yeah, anywhere from like 30 seconds yeah, so, so that's all it is.
Mobisodes: The Next Big Thing?
Speaker 2It's a web series. That's all we used to. They had them a long time ago. It's just shot vertically on your phone so you could watch it and you just got to. It's all about blocking. You just got to put everybody in frame or whatever you put in frame, and it just needs to be quick. You need to go Right, or you need to cliffhanger every two to four pages and make sure that you, but it's going to feed in Right, so you feeds into the next episode until you get to episode three or four, and then, when you get to episodes, you stop and then you say if you want to continue the show, the series, you pay four, ninety, nine, and you get the rest of it. Right, so you're already committed, you're already hooked in. After you know two or three, which is which is, you're maybe 10 minutes in if not, and now you're hooked. That's what I'm thinking. That's how I feel like this is playing out after watching Billion Dollar, werewolf CEO and my Wife the Vampire and these other ones.
Speaker 1I like that my Wife the Vampire.
Speaker 2That was a good one. See, they're a little porny a little soap opera-y but listen, I don't know. But I do know that there's a lot of people doing these, talented actors who have to dumb down their acting because no one's working and they need to pay their rent.
Speaker 1They need to pay their bills. They're not going to pay their rent with a movie, sir.
Speaker 2No, they don't make a lot of money, but who's to say in six months that they?
Speaker 1can't. Who's to say in six months that our business won't come back?
Speaker 2You're right, you're absolutely right. But there has to be. People need to do shit other than sit on their ass and say let's hope that the business comes back.
Speaker 1Let's hope that Do they need to do shit?
Speaker 2Yes, they do. They do need to do shit, otherwise you're doing nothing, and then everything kind of starts to just fall apart.
Speaker 1I guess I'm cynical.
Speaker 2I'm very cynical about the whole, thing, I am.
Speaker 1I'm cynical about the whole thing.
Speaker 2I think that I don't like it either. I wish it was traditional too. I wish we can go back to the 90s, where we had Blockbuster.
Speaker 1Look, I think it's cyclical. I think it's really important that everything you do whether it's really important that everything you do whether it's a Moby-Sode or a movie, or you're pitching a movie or whatever it is needs to have the ability to entertain large amounts of people, or at least an audience that is definitely there and hungry Because saying like, oh, I'm going to do a Moby-Sode and you have no idea who your audience is and you have no idea who's going to click on it. You have no idea who's going to watch it. You have no idea who's going to watch it. Like, where is the ravenous audience? What are they watching? Are they watching my Wife the Vampire?
Speaker 2Yes, it's pre-teens, it's teenagers. And did you read the article I sent you from?
Speaker 1Rolling Stones over a year ago. No, okay, thank you. Thanks a lot, sophia. Do you know what a Moby Soda is?
Speaker 221. Pre-teens, teenagers, and the audience is mostly like you just read off of Genie or whatever. You looked at Gemini Gemini 2. They started in China and now they're moving more like Eastern European. That's where these guys I met these Armenian guys. They're filmmakers here in LA. That's why they were really pushing this. I like the Chinese ones, Do you? I met these Armenian guys.
Speaker 1They're filmmakers here in LA. That's why they were really pushing this. Okay, because?
Speaker 2that's where they're from. I like the Chinese ones, do you, yeah, or?
Speaker 1Korean ones? Yeah, chinese or Korean yeah.
Speaker 2So I don't know. Yeah, those are good. What I just told you guys about us having attention spans of a gnat and how we view content, I don't know if it pertains to us, you know, because people still tend to, like you know, watch Tulsa King and in Mobland and they want to sit down and watch the thing. I'm just speculating that this is something that has potential to go somewhere at a at a higher level, not these porn slash soap operas that they're making that are awful and the kind and they're billionaire werewolves and shit like that, because in those and I'm not trying to be racist or anything like that those countries, that's how they perceive the United States billionaires, twilight vampires, werewolves. That's why they're kind of made like that. That's great.
Speaker 2Yeah, but I don't want to make those types of films. So then I don't know if that's the direction, robert, where it's going. I'm just saying that's happening and I'm saying that there's people in our field you know actors, writers even, who are going over there and who are writing these and they're dumbing them down and the actors have to dumb them down too, because the acting's horrible Sounds creative. But I think that the format's there and I think that there will be an audience there in the future. I could be wrong.
Speaker 1Okay, I'm going to make a turn, turn it, I'm going to make a turn. So here's what I would say about all of that. I would say if you're listening and you're not where you want to be in show business as a director, actor, producer, writer, whatever you're doing then do everything right and do it cheap right and do it with good, talented people because even davey dave, I sent you this.
Speaker 2I saw, I heard about brooklyn coffee shop, right, right, and it's on instagram and they're funny, that's good and it's well produced, it's well acted. And what are they? Maybe a minute long, two minutes long a minute, a minute and a half a minute and a half, and it's on Instagram.
Speaker 1That's great that sounds like it sounds like fun.
Speaker 1But my, I think what I'm trying to not where you want to be. Then do mobisodes, then keep writing your features, then keep writing whatever it is you're doing, uh, so that you can break through. But look, at some point, what I you know, there's when I wasn't doing well, which is a the better part of my career I think I still had rules right. I still had like rules of what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in the business because I wanted to make commercial movies that entertained large amounts of people. I would did want to do something Latino, so I wanted to add like that flavor to the movies, but I didn't want to make them completely Latino. I just want to do something Latino. So I wanted to add like that flavor to the movies, but I didn't want to make them completely Latino. I just wanted to have like a taste of who I was and what my DNA was and kind of put that in there.
Making Movies That Actually Sell
Speaker 1But at the end of the day, you have to decide are you doing your business, regardless of whether it's a Moby Soda or what it is business, regardless of whether it's a Moby Soda or what it is, if your plan is to be in this business at the highest level, or at least at a level where you're earning a living enough to buy a house, buy a car, go on vacation with your family, then you're going to have to consider that there is a business connected to every piece of product you're putting out there. And if you're each piece of product you're putting out there and if each piece of product you're putting out there is not growing your business as a filmmaker and turning the page to what's next for you, then you're doing yourself a disservice. You can't just put out product. You can't just put out product. I'm sorry. You can't just put out product. You have to decide if it's going to help you and if there's an audience for it and what the audience is.
Speaker 2So, based off everything we've talked about on this show in the last I don't know two years, we've established that. Five years, well, yeah, but the last two years have been tough. We've established that. You know there's not a lot of stuff being made anymore. You know streamers took over Film. The budgets have gone down. You know it's tougher than it used to be. There's no blockbuster, there's no Hollywood video, there's nothing after the initial release and the distributors have even shrunk.
Speaker 2When we went and met with Millennium which we never talked about on the show we went and met them and the guy told us they used to have 50 staff members, now they have 10, right, they used to make. They used to have 30 films, now they have maybe 10. We pitched, he saw Beautiful Darkness, liked it. They don't. It's not just straight thriller anymore. They want it needs to be a mashup. So you need to do a action, sci-fi action, horror action. You know, because horrors in sci-fi and um, what's the other one? Uh, pork thriller, not even so much thriller. Yeah, thriller action, horror, sci-fi. Those four, okay, those four films, that four genre and I would even pull thriller out of there, because he wasn't hyped up on thriller unless it's a mashup. So you got horror, you got sci-fi and you got action.
Speaker 2If those three genres don't interest you, I would say don't get into filmmaking, because what are you doing? Where are you going to sell your movie? Because, going back to what you just said, commercially that's what's being bought and they're not being bought for a lot of money anymore. So you want to feed your family, you want to go on your vacation and stuff. Those are going to be your best options. Learn horror, learn sci-fi and learn action mashups, not even just straight action, because they do make other movies and other movies do come out and they do do well.
Speaker 2But for the most part, if you want to make money in this business, like we're saying, then stick to that. I have no interest in horror movies, I have no interest in sci-fi movies and I really don't have interest in action mashups. We can go right now and create a Film Hustler app and start streaming our own content. We should do that. But again, now we're in the race with thousands of other apps that do the same thing. You know there are still rom-coms. There are still thing. You know there's there. There are still rom-coms, there are still um, you know valentine's movies getting made uh, halloween movies made. There's still movies out there. Coming of age movies getting made uh, those movies are still getting made. It's not like everything is just you know, action mashup horror.
Speaker 2No, but what's, but what's just you know action mashup horror.
Speaker 1No, but what's your signature? You know, Like, for a little while I was like wow, you know, I'm an indie filmmaker, I'm really I raise money for my movies all the time, but I don't really work in the system. I make these movies. They get seen in a theater by a thousand people and then they make a couple hundred thousand dollars thousand people and then they make a couple hundred thousand dollars and then everyone loses their money and the movie goes on a shelf and no one else sees it right. So that that was sort of the business at the beginning for me. Um, so that needed to change. That needed to change because that's not a business, that's not a real business no right, that's a hobby that's not a business.
Speaker 1That's not a real business.
Speaker 2No Right, that's a hobby. That's a hobby, an expensive hobby.
Speaker 1It's an expensive hobby and you're making movies and yeah, you're doing it and yeah, you proved you can do it and all that kind of stuff. But at the end of it I did decide, look, I want people to look back at my resume when I die and say, oh, he loved music, he loved Latino stories, he loved high concept ideas and he liked working with his friends and I thought to myself that is gonna be the what people look back at what I did and say about my resume, because you're gonna be able to read that in the tea leaves, right, you're going to see what my career was about.
Speaker 1Um, so I so I needed to change what I was doing, otherwise my kids wouldn't have known what I did for a living you know, and I did, and I'm real happy about it.
Speaker 1You know a lot of it has to do with Mario Uh but uh. But then a lot of it has to do with my ability to sell as well. So the combination of teaming up with Mario and Jeff and all these things have led to much more product, much more sales, many more movies. But you have to make a decision. What are you doing? Why are you doing it?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1You're going to make a mobile suit. I like that. My wife the vampire.
Speaker 2My wife the vampire. Well, going back to the whole genesis of this podcast, what is it about? It's about not getting stopped right Moving forward, Regardless if you're doing a mobile episode, if you're doing Brooklyn Coffee Shop, which I love on IG, If you haven't checked it out, it's hilarious. It's not even a mobile episode it out.
Speaker 1It's hilarious. It's well not even a movie. So no, it's on ig.
Speaker 2It's just a short form content and it's well acted it's cool, it's really cool, it's well acted, it's it has a production value, it's fun, it's funny, um, there's just so many places to put stuff out there. I think, at the, at the end of the day, without me getting all frustrated like I did, um, the things that I said do sell the best. And if you're gonna go make something and like, use the analogy of going to the store, you're right, like you go to the store, but guess who? You're cooking for your kids?
Speaker 1you're not cooking for yourself, they like they got something.
Speaker 2Yeah, I wanted, I wanted to have this, but they like that. So I got to kind of figure out a way to mix it in. You know what I mean so we're already.
Speaker 1We're already in the business of pleasing people yeah and none and nothing you do is arbitrary.
Speaker 1You don't just get stuff and then leave it sitting sitting in a box in your house. No, you bought it for a reason. I bought shoes because I need to wear them, because I'm gonna go to a meeting, because I need To look good. I bought these jeans whatever it is that you buy about this car because I need to get from point A to point B for the next three years. Whatever it is, you are doing it for a reason and you're doing it for productivity. So if you're gonna make movies or mobysews or whatever you want to make, then have an endgame in in in mind and find out if you're going to turn heads and you know what you know.
Speaker 1Stop stop shaking your head, you know, at the radio or whatever you're listening to the radio, you know what's happening. You know if it's good or bad, you know if it's going to entertain people. Don't fool yourself. But on the other hand, you know, yeah, practice making stuff. If you've not done it, then you should be practicing. You should be editing things and putting music to it. Speaking of music, I want to shout out to ExtremeMusiccom.
Speaker 2The best. We haven't talked to Russ in a long time. Yeah, although you know what you did use Russ's partner's music in your movie and Lopez really liked it. He wanted you to get it. He wanted you to get it.
Final Thoughts on Filmmaking
Speaker 1I used it as temp music.
Speaker 2Don't get twisted, I didn't just steal it, I just used it as temp music and it was amazing. Who was?
Speaker 1it, it was.
Speaker 2Hans Zimmer, that's right. Russ's partner Bleeding fingers.
Speaker 1But yeah, it's an amazing platform with a bunch of composers and great system to make the size of the songs any size you want for your scenes, for your outros, for your intros. I mean, really, I use it so much. I use it so much. Is there an app? I want to see if there's. I've been thinking about it. I wonder if there's an app.
Speaker 2You know what's funny about that time when we watched your guys' movie at Lopez's house, when the movie ended and it was in this theater, so it's on a big. Everyone's all hyped up in Lopez. This is one of the first times I heard Robert say no, like this. It's great. Right, it's great. Oh, I loved everything. The music was incredible. Can we keep it?
Speaker 1No, that's.
Speaker 2Hans Zimmer. What do you mean, Robert? That was great.
Speaker 1The music was great. Hans Zimmer's great.
Speaker 2How much was it to get that music, you think there?
Speaker 1are songs in there. There are songs in there. That are similar that are from the Extreme Music Library that we're going to license?
Speaker 2Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1But how long Well, the music that was temp was from the Fire movie.
Speaker 2What is it?
Speaker 1Backdraft.
Speaker 2Oh, was it really? The music was from backdraft, oh was it really musical?
Speaker 1yeah, because I was doing a fireman movie so I figured I'd use a fireman score. Yes, but um, yeah, extreme music for all your music needs. They're incredible, they're great. Uh, partners to us. We're really grateful to have them on board from the beginning. And uh, we're gonna keep talking about independent film and Moby Soads, I guess, and stop it Patrick.
Speaker 2Those are just some of the things that are happening.
Speaker 1All we got to stay up to date, fool all the things that are going to change the industry. You know what? Nothing's going to change the industry. You gotta, you gotta, really sit down and look at yourself and search your heart, because the only thing that's going to change is you. You're going going to innovate, you're going to come onto the scene, you're going to show people your work and they're going to go like, holy shit, this guy or this girl needs to be making movies for us.
Speaker 1And when that happens, then you've done something In the meantime. Keep practicing, Fall down six times, get a baby. You know I'm serious baby, don't be stopped over the fence, it's not a matter of hard. You could hit all right. Hey, you're like my mom used to say the bigger they are, the fall more harder, the fall more harder make it intentional, make it intentional.
Speaker 1Do something that's uniquely you. That fits. That goes to large audiences all over the world. When netflix puts on a movie, they need to entertain the world. They're not entertaining east los angeles, you know they're not they're entertaining the world I don't know. All kinds of nationalities, all kinds of cultures. What does that mean? Think about it, sleep on it.
Speaker 2What does that mean? You, a fool Dude, your movie's going to show in China.
Speaker 1It's going to show in India. All right, see you next time on Film, possible Laters. Will we, though, are we, is it?
