Veteran Producer Ann Lewis Roberts breaks down how creators win today and More!

Ann Lewis Roberts explains how she climbed from intern to network leader and shares today’s creator playbook: get in the door any way you can, treat brands like studios, own and repurpose your content. YouTube, Verticles and MUCH MORE!!         #FilmHustlers #CreatorPlaybook #Filmmaking #ContentStrategy #Reels #YouTubeShorts #IndieFilm #MediaCareer

Transcript

Mark Roberts 0:00

Filmmakers, content creators, welcome to film hustlers.

Rod Rinks 0:05

There we go. That's a new one. That's a new intro. I didn't know where you were going with that. That was pretty good.

Mark Roberts 0:11

Nice to see you. Congratulations. Um David Dave's not here today, but uh it's okay. He's got he's busy, man. He's like a comedian, he's a producer, he's an actor.

Rod Rinks 0:21

Before he had all this free time. Now it's like he's doing it all.

Mark Roberts 0:24

I appreciate that. Like if he if he flies the coop, then he's a little peasant's assistant, which is even harder.

Ann Lewis Roberts 0:30

He's a hustler. He's a hustler. He's a hustler.

Mark Roberts 0:33

Well, today on Film Hustlers, we have a very special guest. Usually, usually uh the most listens to her episodes all the time. It's uh Ann Lewis Roberts. I'm so grateful to be here. I know. I gotta be I gotta stay on my toes. No, but I I uh appreciate you being here. I think it's really important uh to uh to talk about uh what's going on in the business. Uh a lot of people want to know what's happening. A lot of people don't know. I don't think we even know. But uh but we'll try to shed some light. I want to thank our sponsor and our partner uh Russ Emmanuel um over at extreme music.com for being the best platform in the business. Yeah, they're amazing, and uh I mean you can't say enough about their music. It's funny because I used a song on um Carlos Almaraz. This is very a long time ago, right? This is like 2019 or 18. But anyway, my point is that I used a song in the car crash version of that, and it might have been Richard Montoya who picked it, but it or or Rich Allerkan, not sure, but they picked it and it's this great song, and now we hear it on commercials all the time. Like they're like, oh, that's the song from Extreme Music. Yeah, so it's a great, it's a great song. It's like a violin song. Digga digga digga digga dig. You if you heard it, you'd be like, Oh, I know that song. But that's how much they they license it. So extreme music.com for all your music needs. I wanted to talk to about them uh at the top of the show now instead of at the end.

Rod Rinks 2:00

I love them.

Mark Roberts 2:01

Yeah, I love them.

Rod Rinks 2:01

Um it doesn't have to just be for films, it could be for like short form content. You know what I mean?

Mark Roberts 2:06

For your podcast.

Rod Rinks 2:07

Yeah, even like uh like mobisodes, verticals, anything that has that needs music, sound design, even you like to pull stems out.

Mark Roberts 2:16

Hey, you did you did your movie and you and Joel made a deal for you for extremesic.com, right? A lot of that yeah, yeah. So and it was a great deal. So that's one thing to consider. If you don't have a composer, don't have money for great, great music for your movie or your television show or whatever, go to extreme music.com, they'll make a good deal for you. But let's get to the nitty-gritty. Let's start talking about uh what people are doing in the business and how people are uh are trying to get their um get their gigs these days. Uh I want to give a little history on Ann. Uh and we did have her on an earlier show, way at the beginning, first season, I think. Yeah. Um, and if you want to hear about her entire career, just go back to that. But uh but right now I'll tell you, she started as an intern at Entertainment Tonight, spent nine years there, and uh became senior producer of that show, went on to launch Access Hollywood, went from there to be uh executive at e Entertainment Television. Um I think the Kardashians were knocking on doors uh around there when you were there, so that's interesting. And then she went and spent a decade at Disney um working at ABC and uh Soapnet and all those great networks. Um so she's had an amazing career. She's also produced amazing shows like uh decorating Disney, um uh Disney weddings all over the world. So uh, I mean this is this is an important episode because I think you've sort of done it all in terms of how you've gotten there. Um and do you think that anybody today could do it the way you did it?

Ann Lewis Roberts 3:52

The whole world uh of entertainment has changed absolutely since I started. I think all the platforms are different and the the way that we consume is different. But the the simple getting in the door is always gonna be the same. Like it my in my internship got me in the door, and I was able to look around and figure out what I wanted to do, and I think that's always gonna be the same. So I still say to this day, like get in the door by hook or by crook, however you need to get in, whether it's through an internship or through a friend or through even a volunteered situation, although there isn't a lot of volunteership situations anymore. I think even internships you're paying. Just get in the door and do something.

Mark Roberts 4:32

Is there other types of internships that people should be looking at?

Ann Lewis Roberts 4:36

Yes. And to and I think the entertainment tonights in Access Hollywoods are always going to stay around as really great opportunities for marketing and promotion for shows at that network. But they the staff is probably a fourth, an eighth of what they were back in the day. And they shoot differently, there's less packages, there's less talent going out, all that. So that just means there's less bodies there. Um so you so yeah, there's less opportunity there. But I think that there is more opportunity because there's more distribution platforms than ever. So you could get in at uh a YouTube, uh, you know, uh cutting shorts, you could be a predator, which is a producer editor, you can you can start on your own phone, which we couldn't do back in the day. You had to go in and learn everything when you walked in the door. Like I didn't know one thing because school doesn't necessarily prepare you for what's really going on in the world. And now I think people are kids are cutting everything on their phones. Like you already are a producer editor if you live in the year 2026 because you're presenting yourself, you're presenting your content, which is you, you know, you're pr you already know how to do it. So I think get if you can get skills where you're editing or you're coming up with content, you can get in the door. I th I think the other thing that's really interesting is that brands are now becoming places to make content. So I think if you could not just look at the YouTube's or the ABC or the Netflix, look at brands and what they have on their YouTube channels and what they have on their um Instagrams and look at those as jobs because you could go in and cut for a brand, you know. I think I told a story about Maybelline that Maybelline um did a deal with SNL and used their writers and they came up with ideas and then went back and Maybelline did it with their Instagramers and their influencers. So I mean brands are doing it at the highest level. I would look around at brands and I would look around at sports. Sports is bigger than ever. Uh I think we all saw what happened on the um with the ratings for the Olympics, the ratings for the Super Bowl, and sports is bigger than ever. Women's basketball, I mean there's uh there's coverage of of team sports at a local level. You know, I don't know. I would get into sports if I could.

Rod Rinks 7:09

Well, did you see Dix? I don't know if you guys saw this, Dick's Boarding Goods, which is a huge multi-million dollar company. They had uh a listing I think they were looking for maybe five hundred creators, and they had over ten thousand applicants, and that's all types of applicants. That's just not like you know, Instagram creators. It was it was it was everybody from television, film creators to and they only had five five hundred positions, I think. But they're doing everything. They're doing films, they're doing series, they're doing social, they're their own studio. And if you think about it, look at their reach, you know, and what they're worth. So it's it's pretty crazy how like brands now are becoming studios, or people for that matter. Iron Lung, you guys saw that movie or heard about it? That guy's a YouTuber. Um he made that movie for two or three million. It made twenty-one the opening weekend. He had the biggest distribution deal without using a distribution company. He just had his his subscribers reach out to various um uh theater chains and email them. And one of them said that they only got 30 emails saying you guys should use put Iron Lung in your theater, and so they did. And the guy is his own studio essentially, right? That's amazing. That's what it is.

Mark Roberts 8:28

I love that that happened because I think theaters, you're right. I think theaters are open to any business that's gonna get people in the door.

Rod Rinks 8:35

It's not even movies. Did you guys hear micro influencers are just as impactful as huge celebrities because a lot of times with celebrities, people know now that they might not, they don't probably use the product, they're they're being paid. So it's not like when they endorse something, their following sees it, but they're like, they're not there to buy their product, they're there to see that person, see their life, see whatever they do. They're not there for the product. So micro influencers are more likely to use the product, they say, you know, if you send me something and I have, you know, 5,000 followers, I'm gonna use that product, you know, and I'm gonna genuinely post about it and be excited about it. You can give me a little bit of money, which is gonna be helpful, you know, not a lot. You're not paying hundreds of thousands to a celebrity, you might give me, you know, 500, 1,000 bucks. I'll be excited, and I'll be excited about your product, you know. And my thousand, my five thousand followers aren't really my they're my followers, but they're not like looking at me for a certain thing, right? So they'll say, like, oh, you really like that product? Let's look into it. So micro influencers, they're saying are are just as important, if not more important now, than big influencers.

Mark Roberts 9:38

And you're doing some of that, aren't you?

Rod Rinks 9:39

I have, but it's with Caldera? With Caldera Lab, yeah. They they partnered with me and I was able to do some stuff with them and you know like those things. Yeah.

Ann Lewis Roberts 9:48

I've been following this gal for a couple years, probably pandemic-y, and her thing was she was super cute. She wore a ton of jewelry, and she would wake up every morning and she would just be wearing her all those chains. Like, you know how that's such a a deal where you layer all the chains in her underwear, and she would get up and she'd be like, I have to figure out how to survive the pandemic because I am so depressed. So I'm gonna get dressed in a cool outfit every single day, and you guys are gonna do it with me. And I started watching her back then, she was not hooked up with any brands at all. So her thing was just like, I'm getting up, I'm getting dressed, and she would get on her underwear, so it would catch her eye and her and her big chains. And then at some point she was like, I'm only gonna do Amazon. I'm gonna only shop from Amazon because we're all trying to save her money because nobody's at work. And I did not feel grossed out by her because I was like, you know what? She's probably trying to get dressed on Amazon. And she would put on a cute outfit and she'd be like, This is Amazon, $11, $30 for a month. And I was in, and now she's a huge talent. And I saw her literally on a morning show the other day. Yeah. And all I could think to myself is she's not my girl anymore.

Rod Rinks 10:56

Yeah.

Ann Lewis Roberts 10:56

You know, she's not gonna give me advice that a normal person would give me. And it made me sad because I like her and I'm really happy for what she did. But the next time I saw her doing an ad, she was doing an ad for those grummies, you know, those gummy bears that every celebrity is doing. And I'm like, oh, if everybody else is getting paid $10,000 to say grummies, then she cops. So it's interesting because I hear all the brands say to me, like, we need it to feel authentic, we need to feel native. We don't want, we want to be in the background because we don't want to be too overt. Um, again, all the stuff we're talking about, someone makes this stuff. They make the native stuff, they make the big things. And I think if you're making, if you're creating at a smaller level, whether you're uh doing it on your own site or you're doing it for somebody, if you're good at it, someone notices you and they bring you up to the big leagues just in the same way when I was an intern and I was cutting little teeny pieces, and somebody said, Oh, Joe called in sick. Do you want to come up to the big leagues? I did. I that's how I moved up the ranks is people would call in sick and I was there. So be there, you know, be already do your thing and be there, and and you will get noticed, and you'll push your way through the door and and you'll m go through it. Practice what you want to do in some way so that you could be noticed.

Rod Rinks 12:14

Yeah, and consistency, like you were saying, that girl, she just started filming herself every day. It was she was consistent, she had nothing else to do, right? That's usually how it goes. A lot of times we're fearful. Like I watch Steinhauer, who's Mario's um social guy. I watch him shoot Mario stuff. And it's it's it I'm it's to the point where like he's shooting real quick, you know what I mean? He's doing this, he's doing that, and then I see his his pieces and they're great. So I I train him boxing every Friday. So he's like kind of helped me. He does all those cuts on his phone on this app called Cap Cut. Yeah, and he he's like, Oh no, it's super easy. Just dropping these in and and he's showing me, and I go, and that's all you do? He's like, Yeah. And those get like, you know, he's he's gotten Lope. Lopez when he got him, I think had like 1.1 million. He's at three million now. Wow. I mean, Steinhauer knows he works for an agency. He he's a younger kid. Well, now he says he's an unk. They call him an unk, which is fine because he's over 25. I was like, if you're an unk, then I'm a granddad, then, right? He's like, Oh yeah, dude, you're a whale. But um, you just can't be fearful because I overthink it. I'm like, oh, I gotta do that. How do I do this? How do he says, you just do it. You know, there's no one, no just go and do it, try it, see if it works. If it works, great. Be consistent with it, you know. There's one there's one, not to deviate, but there's one. Have you guys seen it's so bad? It's so funny though. A guy goes around and he goes he goes poop in different places. And it and he talks about it, but it his voiceover is so funny. It's like, come with me while I go to uh Tiffany's and drop a big load. And he does like a graphic, and then he walks in, like it's all beautifully shot, looks like a Christmas movie because he's outside and he puts like the like the like the stars and stuff, and then he goes in and he goes, It's such a nice feel in here, and the tile is really nice. The marble, look at the fixtures are gold and they're really nice, and they have that soft tuply. This is gonna be amazing. The hand dryers are really nice, and it's it's so funny, and he's walking you through. Guess what? Got hundreds of thousands of followers. That's funny. Masa even sent it to me. I saw it and I started laughing because I was like, I was looking at different types of formats, right? And so that one popped up because of that type of format where he goes in, he sets it up, and he goes in and he executes. Uh because I have an idea for doing some hair products, and I wanted to kind of follow that lead. And so uh coincidentally, like I saw that and I laughed, but I was like, whatever. And Masa sent it to Mario and I was like, Mario, you gotta start doing these, these are hilarious. And I was like, There we go. That's funny, you know? Yeah, but he started out small, and now he has because I remember seeing him, maybe he had 25,000. Now he's like at 2007.

Mark Roberts 14:41

It's unique content, right?

Rod Rinks 14:43

Super unique content.

Ann Lewis Roberts 14:44

And not everybody can do that, not everybody is that clever.

Mark Roberts 14:48

Right.

Ann Lewis Roberts 14:49

Um, and I that's why I think like you gotta look at the dicks. Uh, 500 people, you gotta look at the regular ways to get in. And then if you are a sassy pants, you should do those things. Like, that's not the only way in, is poop guy. Yeah. Um, but it it's it's extraordinary to be the clever and and have the balls to put it out there.

Mark Roberts 15:10

Yeah, let's talk about Mr. Beast for a second. Like Mr. Beast, I just saw him. You actually, you and I both saw him on uh Dave Letterman's um show on Netflix. You know, he started off by just trying stuff.

Rod Rinks 15:21

You know, he didn't he didn't hit for like I forget how many videos he said he posted.

Ann Lewis Roberts 15:25

Four or five years, actually. Because he started when he was a little bit.

Mark Roberts 15:28

The one he hit most with at the beginning was one where he counted backwards from a hundred thousand or something like that, or to a hundred thousand. He just sat there for four days and counted to a hundred dollars.

Ann Lewis Roberts 15:37

I remember Cash watching that when Cash was little.

Mark Roberts 15:40

Yeah, and now and now he's a he's a he's uh you know multimillionaire.

Rod Rinks 15:44

But what's interesting about Have you watched any of his programs, his new programs, his shows?

Mark Roberts 15:48

Yeah, they're they're big, they're almost like game shows, big, huge game shows.

Rod Rinks 15:50

But they're quick.

Mark Roberts 15:51

And they're quick, yeah. But he um he built the Willy Wonka chocolate factory, apparently, on one of his YouTube programs he does. And um after it was over, he was like, Well, I guess I have a chocolate company. So he started selling chocolate, and apparently, like that is a big, huge, huge moneymaker for him. I mean, he's I think he said he sells 200,000 candy bars a year.

Rod Rinks 16:14

Wow.

Mark Roberts 16:15

And now he's in like all the CVSs and in all the targets, and that turned into a business. He's like, I didn't realize that was gonna be a business for me, but apparently it's a really big business for me.

Ann Lewis Roberts 16:23

So he has beef jerky too. I saw that in rouse. Yeah.

Mark Roberts 16:27

So I think that that's an interesting thing about our business. Beast jerky. Beef jerky. I don't think you would have said that 20 years ago, you know, that that was even possible that you create all these businesses out of your content that you're creating.

Ann Lewis Roberts 16:41

And a huge executive who oversaw all of the NBC Universal unscripted programming got poached by Mr. Beef, Corey Henson, and she now oversees his entire media company. Yeah, wow. She used to oversee all all unscripted here a year and a half ago.

Rod Rinks 17:00

So he went from like he started off at his doing his thing that we're and then you know, like you said, cash watching him. I go to Mario's house and I watch Sun Sonny's on his iPad, and I watch the stuff that he watches because I want to see, and it's the most ridiculous stuff. How old is Sonny? Sonny is four or five, but Dominic and then they all watch the same thing. But the programming is two guys like banging on a like a hammer hitting the phone. And they look at the camera, it won't break. And they keep, oh, it broke, and Sonny's cracking up. And I'm like, I'm watching him watch, I'm watching this, watching him, and he's like, Yeah, that broke the phone, you know. Then they'll they'll get something else, and they get like a sledgehammer and they hit it, oh, it broke, you know, and that's it. And the and I look at the numbers and it's millions, it's in the tens of millions. But Mr. Beast, he kept rising, and then he ends up getting big enough where he could have this big executive pay her well. Because his shows are well produced. I watched them on a plane, like that game show that he does, yeah, super quick. There's no buildup, it just goes straight in.

Ann Lewis Roberts 17:58

And he was smart enough to know, like, hey, I'm in another world now, and I want to do that the best that I can. I mean, I I just want to say one thing about getting in the door. I would I would say podcasts are now getting in the door for talk shows. Yeah. You know, influencers are getting in the door to be an actor or a comedian or uh or an on-camera person. I mean, those are all the ways that people used to do it. People used to be on reality shows, the Kelly Clarksons, the you know, the um Carrie Underwoods. By hook or by crook, if you're talented on camera, you're going to get there. You just have to be consistent, you just have to do it. And the same thing with creating. If you want to produce, if you want to make a film, if you want to make uh uh um some music, you just got to do it, and there's more platforms than ever to do it. Yeah. That's that is cool. Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Rod Rinks 18:49

I mean, we're getting cameras. Did you know that? We're getting cameras for that. I've been trying to get these guys for a year to do it, and they don't want to pull. It's ridiculous. It's like getting my kids to take showers at night.

Ann Lewis Roberts 18:59

I'm like, start a YouTube channel, but with video podcast. I told him for a year.

Mark Roberts 19:06

So Mr. Mr. Beast succeeded in his quest to get people to view him and for his shows to be popular, and then he unknowingly branched out with chocolate, and now it's a huge business for him. So it's interesting to look at if you're sitting there thinking, like, oh, why should I do this? Well, you know, a lot of things end up working out because uh you didn't know it was gonna work out. Um so I think that's I think that's super interesting about YouTube and about Mr. Beast and about all that. He's just in a he's in an area where I don't know, where you where it's not about film or selling to a festival or selling to a network or selling to a studio. It's he's creating something new, and I think I think all of us should think about that.

Ann Lewis Roberts 19:50

And I think his biggest seller is t-shirts and trucker hats. It's amazing, yeah. Really? See, I didn't even know that.

Rod Rinks 19:56

That's amazing.

Ann Lewis Roberts 19:56

Most influencers, their biggest thing is t-shirts.

Rod Rinks 19:59

Wow.

Ann Lewis Roberts 20:00

Yeah, it's really weird. Yeah. But it's easy to buy, and it and it's a little unique thing if you're a super fan or if you're part of the fandom. You wear the t-shirt and everybody's like, oh yeah, we're part of the club.

Rod Rinks 20:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Roberts 20:12

So Anne had on Cleopatra the other day, and it's a docuseries, a hybrid docuseries. So it's acting and then experts talking about the books that were written about Cleopatra and what they know of her, and then you have acting coming in, right? And it was fascinating. So then I found another one. It was um about Alexander the Great, and it was really big. It was so big that I was like, I want how did they do this? So I looked it up and they shot all of it in Morocco, all of it in Morocco on sets that looked like Egypt and it was beautiful, stunning. Yeah, but anyway, it's a new way of doing documentaries where you have acting at the uh very high level acting, yeah, and you have experts, writers who written books about Alexander the Great, and they're following that and telling the story while you're seeing him do the stuff.

Rod Rinks 21:04

Is this all AI or is it like live action?

Mark Roberts 21:07

It's not AI, it's not shot on a on a um on a screen. Anyway, so my point is is like I watched something like that, and I think someone had to come up with that hybrid way of doing it. Yeah, someone had to try it for the first time, and then now people are perfecting it to the point where it's like very difficult not to watch it. I mean, it was really good.

Ann Lewis Roberts 21:27

Yeah, because I think I told you AMC started doing them where it was like the making of the mob, and then the making, they just did the making of certain things, and it was half and half.

Rod Rinks 21:36

Yeah, it's like reenactment, but there's dialogue in it. It's just the production value is just not there.

Mark Roberts 21:40

Like, it has to start somewhere. Like I not only did I watch Alexander and Cleopatra, I watched the story of Moses shot in the very same way by the same company. Yeah. And it was uh it was the most entertaining thing I've seen in a long time.

Ann Lewis Roberts 21:54

He literally was like, I have to go upstairs and watch Moses.

Rod Rinks 21:57

So let me ask does it pull you in the story? Like it's a it's a film, so you get locked in for 10, 15 minutes, and then it segues into like a historian like uh sitting there talking about it, and then it and then you you keep going in the story.

Mark Roberts 22:12

Yeah, it's they've they've figured out how to shoot it in a way that they say, you know, and then Moses did this, and you see Moses looking over, you know, or the slaves or whatever, and it's a combination of the very compelling experts about Moses and the Bible. Yeah. And then you see and you have them voicing over it while he's doing what he's doing, and then he does some acting, and those actors are actually quite good. The directing's quite good, it's it's the music's amazing. And I was like, this is something I've never seen before.

Ann Lewis Roberts 22:45

The historians actually validate it because I think we've all heard the stories of Moses. It was really interesting because he tells you he was like, and Moses was did all these things, but he was still an angry man, and so Moses didn't get to go to the promised land. And I was like, I mean, I'm Catholic. I went to 12 years Catholic school, so did my kids. I was like, that's not what happened, and I looked it up, and then you know, the guy was explaining it. I was Wikipedia in it, and I was like, get the hell out of here. So I think the historians help you realize a different level of the story where and they believe it, whether you believe it or not. The historians are like, no, this is really Mount Sinai, this is what happened. So it's almost like somebody explaining aliens to you while you're watching like E.T.

Mark Roberts 23:27

Someone had to come up with that, and now they've made it into uh such an entertaining um medium. So I can't wait to see the next whatever they do, you know.

Rod Rinks 23:36

Well that's why documentaries are so great. That's why I love them because they're true stories. Same with same with live action films, they're all true stories, right? Those are the ones that we that are really compelled to. But a documentary, you watch it because it's real, and there's no like romanticizing or turning it into something. There's I don't want to say there's no vision, but there's no like creative liberty. It is what it is, and that's what happens, that's why you want to see it. But this is like a hybrid, which is kind of cool. So you get that live action, you get that production value with these actors performing, and you feel like you're there, and then you get the truth of what it really is like.

Mark Roberts 24:08

You know, it was it was amazing, but anyway, it made me think that there's still a lot of areas to create new and innovative ways of telling stories that share an audience, or you can or you can do it vertically. I mean, look, I don't I I think everything's on the table, and as people continue to succeed in this business, and you know, we were talking earlier about producer Patrick and all these guys that are telling you what's happening, and I think you should know, and all those kinds of like doomsday sort of things. It's it's the opposite. It's it's it's uh it's your it's and by the way, we proved it on the show. We're talking about Mr. Beast, we're talking about documentaries, we're talking about all of these things that are innovating right now, yeah, changing the way people play the game. Yeah, and a lot of people want you to think that the way it was being played and what's happening now is unfair to how things are, and it's not, it's the future.

Rod Rinks 25:02

But do you think with that said, like this I think social media in general plays on that? Because remember, like, I don't know, like if you think about like even politics, not to go there, but remember like the end of the world is coming, like next month the everything's gonna be broke. Like, there's always a black cloud on social media. Have you ever noticed that? And it's just in our business, too. But there's also a flip side of that. There's one guy who's always talking about like the golden age. This is it for creators. This is this is our moment. For the independent filmmaker, your budgets are gonna be small, under five million. You know what I mean? Where you wanted to make that movie for you had your budget set at 10 to 15, you're gonna do it for five. If you get it, you know what I mean? And that's a hard that's a lot of money, as we know. But my point being is like there's so much room for growth, like we're talking about, whether it be partnering with Dix or a brand or Maybelline or or doing uh just waking up every morning you're in your 20s and saying, I'm gonna get dressed on Amazon. And then next thing you know, you become something. Producer Patrick, he he was woe with me every day, and guess what? He's got a great job now in Dubai, where he's like this this uh film, like uh supervisor or whatever he's doing over there. So his little videos that he was just informing us about after a year got him a big job. You know what I mean?

Mark Roberts 26:20

So yeah, good for him. Do you have to have a plan for YouTube? Like, is there something that you can do to make what you're putting on there more valuable to sponsors and to people like that? Like, how do you do it?

Ann Lewis Roberts 26:31

Well, there's bootstrapping it where you go and think that what you have to offer, whether that's comedy or music, is valuable. And then that's back to that post every day, put something up every day. But there's also people who own content. Um, you know, a huge library of content if you own it, you know, whether it's 10 series of container wars, you know, you can put that up on YouTube for the people who watch YouTube, and then you can also do a fast channel with it for people who watch fast channels. You could do a video podcast on YouTube. Um, they're really getting into that more and more. And that's your talk show, so you could show off your talk show skills. So I think that 50% of the streaming viewing is on YouTube. It's undeniable. I just read before I came in here that somebody is um producing a film for YouTube. They used to have YouTube originals and that YouTube red, right? Yeah, that one uh that was um that really good Cobra Kai. Yeah. And they want to get more that you know, I've done some stuff with Google Leadership and YouTube leadership, and they do want to do more films, but you got to come up with the film. They're not gonna fund it for you, but it is an incredible platform. It's 50%. It's 50%.

Mark Roberts 27:51

And I would say, like, if you're a writer or you're a director or even a producer, I think you have to get young writers that are great, that are willing to write the script so that you can go in with a piece of property because pitches are very difficult to sell these days, you know.

Ann Lewis Roberts 28:06

And it's a different, it's different than somebody who used to write for an amazing show like you know, Frasier or you know, for back in the day, like it's a different beast, right? It's shorter. It it so it is worth going to somebody who's young and who grew up watching YouTube because it's a different cadence than what we grew up with, right? Yeah. Like traditional sitcoms and dramas. It's it is different. So I think people are looking for the young generation to break through and and and partner with them because they know that it's a different beast.

Mark Roberts 28:40

Yeah. And I think if you are a filmmaker that has some experience, you know, if like Anne was saying, if you if you're an editor, you're a director, um, you're a writer, if you kind of can't do it all, uh the cable networks are looking for lower budgeted films. You know, and if you can do a lot for a million bucks, 750,000, a million two, I think budgets are going to be coming down until cable disappears. So that you know, that real estate is going to be prime for filmmakers that can get stuff done within the box that like let's say a lifetime is or a you know great American is or you you know AE, whatever whatever network it is that's on cable, you could find a home there if you're able to make it for a price and make it easy for them because it fits what they're doing, it fits their audience. Yeah. But let's before we go, I want to talk about uh Tootie because he's you're you're kicking ass. And not only you you're getting acting jobs, uh you had Beautiful Darkness, which did extremely well, but now you have raised money for a new uh for a new uh series. And uh tell us about that.

Rod Rinks 29:48

So one of my favorite shows on Instagram and too, Brooklyn Coffee Shop. So well that show. Yeah, clever, well written, super, super quick, super easy, um, was kind of like my inspiration. And so I created this character called Pruno Perez. Pruno is prism wine. Um what? Yeah, and so um I'll give you the quick pitch. He gets out of prison, Pruno Perez, and he doesn't want to go back, and all he knows is how to make wine, but he knows how to make prism wine, which is just fermenting apple cores, and you know, and so he decides he's gonna be a small ye, gets his small ye certificate, nobody will hire him. He's a hood, you know, he's from, but he's knowledgeable. So then he decides he wants his own vineyard called Chateau des Gateaux. So he partners with this drug dealer, and they find this crack house that's on a big piece of land, a great soil, they burn it down, they build a vineyard.

Ann Lewis Roberts 30:43

Oh my god.

Rod Rinks 30:44

Chateau des Gateaux, and he starts making wine. No one will buy it because he's a hood. He doesn't fit, he doesn't fit the profile, right? Partners with this guy in the hood, Gus, who owns this liquor store, and the show that's where the that's where we find Pruno. He's in this hood liquor store, he gets one shelf, he's got three wines, a red, a rose, and a blanco. That he made. That he makes, at Chateau des Gateaux, and when people come in, he's there to sell them his wine. Because he also owes the drug dealer money, right? Because it's a partnership.

Mark Roberts 31:13

So when I go in to buy my six-pack of Modello, what does he say?

Rod Rinks 31:17

He comes over to you and he wants to know why you're buying that, and you say, Well, because it's hot and I'm thirsty. He goes, Have you tried this nice rose? And you say, No, he's it's very floral, it's a dry rose, it's not too uh, it's not too sweet. You're gonna like that, especially on this hot day. And if you pair it with these chicharones, that your palate becomes overwhelmed. And so he knows his stuff, but he just doesn't look the part. And so then you being in bicep with your six pack of modellos and your flames, you're gonna be like, wait a minute, in pruno, in Pruno's goal, he's gotta make his money because he's gotta pay the drug dealer back, right? It's a thing. So he has to sell wine, and of course he convinces you it's just different people who do it.

Mark Roberts 31:56

Would it pair good with these uh sour, spicy gummies?

Rod Rinks 31:59

It probably could. You could figure out a way that, you know, well, then you would probably want to go with the blanco or the weddle as he calls it.

Mark Roberts 32:05

Well, that's very fun. Uh, and that's gonna be like eight episodes. It's gonna be a vertical.

Rod Rinks 32:09

We got we got finance for eight. It's gonna be a vertical.

Ann Lewis Roberts 32:12

Um who's gonna darn it?

Rod Rinks 32:14

Talk to Concrete, my guy, pitched it to him. Great comedian, great actor, great comedian, yep, yep. And he loved the idea. So um, yep, and so uh it looks like it's a go. We're gonna get a lot of things.

Ann Lewis Roberts 32:27

That's what I love about this podcast is you two guys are always coming up with interesting ways in. And um You have to. You gotta that's I'm sure that is fueling all the people who listen to this podcast and download it.

Rod Rinks 32:38

Davey's playing Gus too. Yeah, he owns the liquor store and he's also producing.

Mark Roberts 32:42

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome.

Ann Lewis Roberts 32:44

Uh but I have one more suggestion is that uh that I learned from the Google folks is cut down everything. Do cut down, do YouTube shorts, do cut downs and put it on Instagram, on TikTok, whatever. So, whatever you're doing, just do the cut down 30-second version of it and put it on every other social platform to point back to your own thing. And so, because it's so weird, but some people only watch TikTok, some people only are the gram.

Rod Rinks 33:09

Yeah.

Ann Lewis Roberts 33:10

So every always do a cut down, try and get those to go viral. Put it on every single platform and get them wherever you can find them.

Mark Roberts 33:17

Smart. Yeah. Keep making your movies, put it on YouTube, put it on Instagram, put it wherever you can put it, and you know, maybe you'll make some contacts that'll get you to the next level. I mean, clearly, Anne being here today will prove to you that you can, you know, go from an intern to the top job in a business, you know, at a network. So it's pretty impressive. Um thanks for being here. Thank you.

Rod Rinks 33:41

We'll see you next time. We'll see you next keep showing you. Thank you, Anne. Always a pleasure.

Mark Roberts 33:45

And uh yeah, and uh we'll talk to you next time on film hustler.