Hustlers talk about making a movie W/ Tony Danza & Mario Lopez! (Plus: AI Budgeting Hacks)

We’re BACK in the studio to break down what really goes on behind the scenes of an indie movie set.

From hanging out late-night with the legendary Tony Danza and Mario Lopez to navigating the chaos of production, flight layovers, and getting "on a sick one" (you'll see what we mean 🍻), we’re sharing all the real, unfiltered stories from location.

Plus, we dive into:

• 🎥 Why Buffalo, NY is a goldmine for indie filmmakers (and how to snag that 40% tax credit!).
• 🤖 How to use AI right now for quick script breakdowns, draft budgets, and scene prep.
• 📲 The massive shift toward YouTube & short-form storytelling (and details on our upcoming free series, Pruno Perez!).
• 🍷 Shoutouts to the unbelievable crew who made Christmas at the Starlight happen.

Grab a drink, light up a cigar, and hang out with us!

TIMESTAMPS:

• 00:00 - Late Start & Getting Back in the Studio
• 01:12 - We Made a Movie! Buffalo, NY Wrap Recap
• 04:08 - Late Night Hanging with Tony Danza & Mario Lopez
• 06:22 - Why Indie Filmmakers NEED to Shoot in Buffalo
• 07:15 - Crew Shoutouts & Making Movies with Friends
• 17:00 - Real Production Talk: Putting Out Fires as a Producer
• 19:15 - How to Use AI for Script Breakdowns & Drafting Budgets
• 24:42 - YouTube Empires & Our Upcoming Series Pruno Perez
• 30:25 - What's Hot in the L.A. Comedy Scene Right Now

Special Thanks to Our Partners: 📍 The Library Cigar Lounge 🎵 Extreme Music – The best music library for filmmakers & creators: extrememusic.com

🔔 Don't forget to Like, Subscribe, and hit the Notification Bell to stay tuned for our next episode! Drop a comment below: Have you ever used AI to help produce your videos or films?

#Filmmaking #IndieFilm #TonyDanza #MarioLopez #FilmProducer #AIFilmmaking #Podcast

Transcript

Mark Roberts 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Film Husters. If you're listening from around the world, which I know you are, this is one of those shows where we need to talk about how to get here on time, right? We're production people. Yes. And somehow I didn't, I was sitting there with my dog, Sadie. I was petting her. I was watching the WMBA on television, and these guys were here. Oh, these guys. And they sent me a picture of all of this all set up.

Rod Rinks 0:24

Okay, first of all, Robert, we do the show. It's the same time, otherwise, right? Unless we we we we it's four. They change it every time.

Mark Roberts 0:33

Hey, you want to go earlier, we'll go at two. You want to go later, we'll go at five.

Rod Rinks 0:36

If you're exactly right. Hey, do you the key word is right there on the text is hey, do you want to go early? Otherwise, are we podcasting today? Yes. Same spot. Don't be Lopez.

Mark Roberts 0:46

Don't be low. Hey, be there at four o'clock. You know what? That's not gonna work for me, Sam. How about 4 30?

Rod Rinks 0:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark Roberts 0:52

How about 4 30?

Rod Rinks 0:53

Let's see, Robert's got here an hour and 20 minutes later. Oh, yeah.

Mark Roberts 0:57

I'm sorry, but uh who else can you call at home and be like, hey, we're sitting down here and here I am in 30 minutes. Ready to go. Makeup ready. Makeup ready. The hair. I had to do the implants, it's all set. Hey, wait a minute.

Rod Rinks 1:11

But we're back.

Mark Roberts 1:12

Yeah, you know what? Welcome to the show. It's been a minute. We were making a movie. I'm so sorry. We were making a movie the way all film hustlers should be out there trying to make, making movies. We went to Buffalo, uh, New York, had a great time, right?

Rod Rinks 1:25

What other Buffalo would we go to?

Mark Roberts 1:26

I know what other Buffalo would we go to? Did we have a good time? We had an amazing time. Had a great time, right? Why didn't you do comedy there? I was curious. Like, what happened with that?

Davie Dave 1:35

You know what I should have?

Mark Roberts 1:36

You didn't even think about it, right? I didn't. Oh, that would have been funny.

Davie Dave 1:39

I did think about it before I left, and then when I got there, I forgot about it. Yeah, I'm a you know why? Because you were on a sick one every day.

Rod Rinks 1:44

That's right.

Mark Roberts 1:45

Hey, happy dads every night. Every night.

Rod Rinks 1:48

Davy and I went through six cases. Whoa. We should be sponsored by Happy Dad. Where's Happy Dad at?

Mark Roberts 1:53

Happy Dad, dude. The Happy Dad, the Happy Dad conversation was very, very prominent in Buffalo. You know what's funny? You know what's funny about that? Is it available in Buffalo? Yeah. Happy Dads?

Davie Dave 2:02

Shout out to uh my friend Eric and uh Steven Phillips.

Mark Roberts 2:05

That's what's Eric Steven Phillips. Send some cases of happy dads. We'll drink them right here on the show.

Rod Rinks 2:10

Well, my brother can provide those here. So we'll hydrate. We'll hydrate. Well, then I'll get on a sick one. That's dangerous. This is a this is work. I can't get it.

Mark Roberts 2:17

Hey, we were at the airport. You're taking, you're talking to our director, uh, our legendary director, Jody Margolin Hahn, and he's and and they're having a conversation, and I can't hear it. And I walk over and I get closer and I just start to hear Tootie saying, uh, you know, Jody, I was thinking about getting on a sick one, and I was almost on a sick one, but then I didn't get on one. But now I'm thinking I'm gonna get on a sick one.

Rod Rinks 2:41

Because that day we had all that time in the morning, so Davy and I went to have a walk.

Mark Roberts 2:45

What's a sick one, by the way?

Rod Rinks 2:46

A sick one is when you start when you start throwing them back, and you just get on a sick one. You're feeling good. Davey had me order some hot ass wings. He said, Oh, it's fine. That shit was burning my mouth, so I was pounding. They're not hot. Hey, they're not hot. No, what? That's what you were saying. They were hot. I got on a sick one there, though. I was already on a sick one because I was pounding beer because my mouth was on fire. So by the way, this was the conversation. Um we're on a sick one. And then good looking out, we were we're we're on FC, right? Right? Thank you. We got what happened? And then we got on the plane. So then we were in first class. Then we was the Davey and I were we were next to each other, we were roll dogs, we were drinking the champagne, so I got on a sick one again, right? The sick one went like this and it came down, then it went back like this. Oh my god. And then it started to come down because we had the layover. That's when I had the conversation with Jody. I was like, you know what? I was on, I've been on two sick ones already in 24 hours. Do I get on a third sick one? Oh my gosh. Well, it was a lot of fun. We definitely slept.

Mark Roberts 3:39

It was a lot of fun. But you know, look, if you're in production, uh, part of the issue getting people to and fro, you know, different parts of the country is uh you gotta you gotta travel with bags. And if first class is $540 and you get two free bags and all of your people have bags, and that's a terrific way to fly people. I mean, look, if you're flying coach, it's like what $400, $450, you're already there. Yeah. Now, mind you, if it's $2,500 to fly first class, I would even fly coach.

Rod Rinks 4:07

Hey, don't take out.

Mark Roberts 4:08

No, no, I can't do it. We did go make a movie, it was with Tony Danza. Tony D. She was amazing. Dude, we got to spend time with Tony. There was this one night, you know, when you're on location, you guys could relate to well, no, you can't, you're too young. But when I when I'm on location, I want to just go to my room and lay down and not not and watch TV and look through my you know paperwork. But I know. So I come down to get like waters or something, and there is Tootie on a sick one, and there's uh Tony Danza. And I'm thinking to myself, on a sick one, you're right. Yeah, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm not, I'm not gonna go to my room. This guy's a legend. I'm gonna go sit with Tony. He's hanging out. Tony D hanging out at the Hyatt of all places at the bar, which is barely a bar.

Speaker 1 4:52

Yeah.

Mark Roberts 4:52

Um, but no, shout out to Hyatt because they were amazing right there in Buffalo, Amherst, uh, New York.

Rod Rinks 4:57

I dropped all my plans because I was already on a sick one because Sam and I went and started drinking after work.

Mark Roberts 5:01

And then you stayed with Tony.

Rod Rinks 5:02

Yeah, then we were supposed to go to a house party in Buffalo, which I was gonna, yeah, exactly. But then when I walked in, I felt back because I told Sam and Gemma, yeah, let's go. I was gonna go change, and then we're gonna bounce. And I saw Tony D at the bar by himself chilling. And he didn't hang out. Like Tony went to his room every night, drank wine, and he kicked it.

Mark Roberts 5:19

Had his had a turkey sandwich with a little lettuce. That's right, with switching with Hellman's uh mayonnaise. I remember all that. That's part of his writer.

Rod Rinks 5:26

Don't forget your actor's writer. But then you came down, yeah. I remember because I sat I sat there for a minute talking to him, and I was like, I'm not going anywhere, I'm gonna sit right here.

Mark Roberts 5:34

I came down and I said I said the same thing in my head. I was almost sitting with these guys and I'm gonna listen to this story that I've heard three other times, and I'm gonna love it. Yeah, hey, you know what? When I was unboxing and I'm gonna tell you something, it was unbelievable. First year on taxi, let me tell you. Oh yeah, but it was so great. So good. It was it was time of our life. I was living, I was living.

Davie Dave 5:55

Oh David, let me tell you.

Mark Roberts 5:57

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable, unbelievable. Anyway, it was a lot of fun. Making movies is a blast, and I'm we're really honored and lucky to have lucky and honored to have worked with Tony Danza and Mario Lopez and you know the crew casting crew. I want to I want to shout out to uh Tim Clark at the film commission. Absolutely.

Rod Rinks 6:18

Tim's the best.

Mark Roberts 6:19

Took care of us, the best film commission in the world, as far as I'm concerned.

Rod Rinks 6:22

Look, if you want to make a movie, an indie movie, I wouldn't go anywhere but Buffalo now.

Mark Roberts 6:26

40% tax credit.

Rod Rinks 6:28

Above and below the line.

Mark Roberts 6:29

40% above and below. They take care of you. They take, I mean, I don't even want to tell you all the things that Tim Clark did for us, but it was a lot. It was a lot. So Tim Clark, Rich Wall, who works in the film commission too, took care of us. Rich is recommended a lot of people, got us badges, got us, uh, got um Esterman some um honorary, he was an honorary sheriff. Oh no, he had that all over the car. I mean, it was it was amazing what they did for us. They almost got me to meet Barry Manilow, which would have been cool. It didn't happen. Yeah, they were trying to set that up. But um, look, I want to we never get to do this, right? We're film hustlers, we make we talk about making movies all the time. I want to talk uh shout out to Gemma Jones, Gemma Jones, yeah. Line, our producer, co-producer, um, does the line too. Uh Jasmine Soto. Remember Jazzy? Oh, Jasmine, Jazzy Man took care of us out there. Erica Fraze, who did our allocation, she was amazing.

Davie Dave 7:23

Yeah, Erica's cool.

Mark Roberts 7:24

Very happy. Yeah, you guys, uh Jody Han, Jody Margolin Han. Don't forget the Margolin because she was like, don't forget the Margolin. Uh Samson Habeland, our AD, been with us for seven movies.

Rod Rinks 7:35

Yeah, we're trying to do some other stuff since you don't want to do shit with me.

Mark Roberts 7:38

No, I do want to do. He called me. He told me, hey, Toddy told me to call you. Can you hook me up? I said, yeah, and I put them in touch.

Rod Rinks 7:43

Yeah, I didn't pass the buck. I set them up.

Mark Roberts 7:46

I can't produce everything.

Rod Rinks 7:47

I'm not eating.

Mark Roberts 7:52

Cam Wood. Hey, Lillian Scano. Yeah. Amazing assistant director. She went from like being our a PA to now an assistant director. Oh, yeah, that's right. She's now a DGA uh union member. Yeah. Um who else we got? Anna Costner, our costumer. Danielle Galvan. Little mini itsie Bitsy Galvan. Daniel Galvan. Cool Galvan. Yeah, she showed up. Cool Galvan. Cool Galvan. She showed up, hadn't worked on a set before, was a little gun shy, nervous. By the end of it, she's ordering everyone around. It was terrific.

Rod Rinks 8:23

And Galvan. And Galvan Galvan, the main guy.

Mark Roberts 8:26

Ryan, we got Ryan Galvan, who does all of our DP legends.

Rod Rinks 8:29

Been on the show.

Mark Roberts 8:30

He worked a Ronin. You gotta, you gotta change, you gotta adapt and change and get better and use different cameras.

Rod Rinks 8:38

Who have we had from there?

Mark Roberts 8:38

Sam's been on. Ryan Galvan's been on the show. Jody's been on. You guys could actually go back listen to the shows with Ryan, our DP, uh, Sam, our assistant director, who's who, by the way, got co-producer credit on the movie. Congrats.

Speaker 1 8:51

Congrats, Sam.

Mark Roberts 8:52

Yeah, congrats, Sam. Well, you know what, Sam, you do a lot for us, uh, way beyond AD work. So I think uh that credit is warranted. So I'm hoping that he does more producing with Gemma. They're a great partnership, and I'm there to support that.

Rod Rinks 9:06

Yeah, or with me, don't take out.

Mark Roberts 9:08

Yeah, wouldn't and you as well. Uh, we had uh Mike Thompson, our first AC. We had uh our DIT, Travis Kanan, Sophia Roberts, camera.

Rod Rinks 9:18

Sophia kicked ass. I'm very proud of her.

Mark Roberts 9:20

Sophia Roberts killing it on at the with the camera. Melanie Morgan, our uh script supervisor. You know what? She was a little salty, I would say. Wouldn't you say? A little salty. Oh, yeah.

Rod Rinks 9:31

She was a little bit like a personality. She gave me right home from the casino one.

Mark Roberts 9:35

She was always throwing jokes like underneath her breath. You know, she was always saying a little sarcastic.

Rod Rinks 9:40

That was the night we got on the sick one. She gave me a ride home from the casino.

Mark Roberts 9:43

It was all love, though. All love. Really appreciate it. She was a great uh Melanie Morgan's a great script supervisor. And if you go to Buffalo, she's the only script supervisor that is a local.

Rod Rinks 9:53

Hey, what if oh really?

Mark Roberts 9:54

What are the chances of that? Well, there's a lot of work. Well, she's terrific, and she's a local. That's that's the that's the thing.

Rod Rinks 9:59

What about the hair and makeup crew? They hooked up the wigs.

Mark Roberts 10:02

That's true. Well, Ian Orlando, Mark Wilken, who worked in the sound department. Oh, yeah, Ian's the man. Yeah, right? He was great.

Davie Dave 10:10

Oh, at the driving range?

Mark Roberts 10:11

Yeah. Oh, was he there? Really? Just randomly? Yeah. Oh, cool.

Rod Rinks 10:13

That was Davy's escape right now.

Mark Roberts 10:15

Costume design, Maria Marillo.

Rod Rinks 10:17

Yeah, Maria's nice.

Mark Roberts 10:18

Maria, we had Julie Kozak out there. We had Leah and Gio. Oh, remember Gio? What's up, Gio? The first day I saw Gio, it was like one o'clock in the morning, and he was like carrying bags and coming from the airport.

Rod Rinks 10:29

I was like, Oh, yeah, busting his air.

Mark Roberts 10:30

I was like, who is this guy? And he was like all stylish.

Rod Rinks 10:32

He was like, yeah.

Mark Roberts 10:33

He was totally like, uh, yeah, he was he had the drip going. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Rod Rinks 10:38

Dominic was all impressed.

Mark Roberts 10:39

Yeah, he was very, very sharp, definitely had a vibe. Young kid. Yeah, but he was like, I said, what do you do? You gotta go get some sleep now. He's like, no, um, someone's coming in at 2 a.m. and he was gonna go pick them up at 2 a.m. I hope you made some overtime at 21. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. Young guy. Hey, Matt Quinn, remember Matt Quinn? Matt Quinn did uh you do, he was the best boy grip, Matt Quinn. Oh, yeah. He also ran camera. He also ran camera. Yeah, yeah, Jake. Remember Jake?

Speaker 1 11:05

Yep, yep.

Mark Roberts 11:06

Jake just had a baby. Congratulations. Sorry, I have to do this. We only make a movie a couple times a year. We gotta throw it out to all of the people that are out there making movies and hustling. And these guys are one of them. They're out there in Buffalo working their butts off and did a really good job for us. Cassandra Lyons.

Davie Dave 11:21

Yeah, I love Cassandra.

Mark Roberts 11:22

Okay, that's in the makeup department. Yeah, yeah. Why you why you act like you don't know her now? No, I do know her.

Rod Rinks 11:27

She hooked me up. She the my birthday was out the 52nd, and they surprised me.

Mark Roberts 11:31

She's great. Cassandra's awesome. She that's the second time we work with her. She was on Spark.

Rod Rinks 11:36

She looks like Selma Blair.

Mark Roberts 11:37

Uh Katie Ambrose did the hairbrush was cool. She cut our hair one night. We were there until like three o'clock in the morning. Rod Rinks was out there. Who is that? Rob Weiss, costume designer. I'm sorry. Rob Weiss is not a costume designer. Rob Weiss, who's been on the show, you can listen to his episode like a couple months ago. He is our production designer.

Rod Rinks 11:59

He also owned the Kung Pao Kitty. Remember? Yeah, he did lots of things.

Mark Roberts 12:03

And he worked with big restaurants. He worked with um Kanye. Kanye. Who else did he work with? Oh, he went to high school with um No Doubt.

Rod Rinks 12:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Mark Roberts 12:14

So he was friends with her and like was doing a movie.

Rod Rinks 12:17

Because there was so much production out there because he's from LA. He was doing so much production that he got a place. In where? In Buffalo. He was living living in Buffalo.

Mark Roberts 12:25

I don't know if he's still there, but he went there just to wait for our movie, believe it or not. And then he ended up starting to work on all those other movies. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rod Rinks 12:32

Uh and that's how much work is in Buffalo.

Mark Roberts 12:34

Yeah, we got Sec Decorator Emily Kim Lieber, very talented. Uh Ashley Baker, you know, Ashley, she's been with us like four or five times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jake Cody, Nicole Sebring, our production accountant. No one ever saw her, but she's paying everybody.

Rod Rinks 12:50

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Mark Roberts 12:51

All your paychecks, all your paycheck.

Rod Rinks 12:54

What was the other girl's name? There was Nicole and there was somebody else.

Mark Roberts 12:57

No one else working in accounting. Hold on.

Rod Rinks 12:59

I'll remember.

Mark Roberts 13:00

Craft Services, Daniela Kazer. She loved the man.

Rod Rinks 13:04

She killed it. Yeah, with the uh she'd hook up the uh espresso. Oh, that was the best.

Mark Roberts 13:08

She made the best sandwiches. She was always in a bad mood. I gained eight pounds though. That's what she wasn't.

Davie Dave 13:14

But she has one of the uh tastiest restaurants out there.

Mark Roberts 13:18

She has a great restaurant. What's the name of the restaurant?

Rod Rinks 13:19

Daniela's, right?

Mark Roberts 13:20

Daniela's, yeah, Daniela's. So Daniela in Buffalo, probably the best craft service in all of Buffalo. Probably all in New York. I hope she does. She won't do it again. She does big budgets. We were not that. But you know what? God bless her. She did it. And she did she did the entire show, and I and I really appreciate that. Um Dudley Catering Company. They took care of us every day. Oh, yeah, they were great. Right?

Rod Rinks 13:47

Oh, yeah. Every every is that what they were called? Dudley?

Mark Roberts 13:50

Yeah, Dudley. Every extra uh meal that they had left over. And then S Rem Pick It Alls up. We would eat it at the table late night. Hey, why'd you bring why'd you take it to the Rike art? Why didn't you bring it to the Hyatt? Remember that night?

Rod Rinks 14:01

Why would you take it there? We're not staying there. It's across the parking lot.

Mark Roberts 14:05

Set medic Janette.

Rod Rinks 14:07

Oh, she's remember she made all the cookies. Took care of us. She made cookies for us.

Mark Roberts 14:11

And then Frank Rossi, who did our extras. You know, Frank Rossi not only did our extras, but he did a part. He was he was a beat actor. He was a buyer. So thank you guys, everyone in Buffalo. Thank you for all of your help and for making uh it an amazing experience for us, for the crew, for great American family, for Tony Danz. Uh, Tony Danza ended up being very happy. You know, he showed up and he was like, What's happening here? Like, how come no one's answering the phone? And then uh, and then he just ended up being he ended up owning owning the place, right? He ended up like because we became a big family with him, you know.

Rod Rinks 14:45

It's just straightforward. He like says it at the time.

Davie Dave 14:47

What David, what the hell's going on here? I don't know anything is going on. No one's answering the phones. I'm taking pictures down here with every Tom Dick and Harry. What the hell's going on? Where's taking me to sleep? He said nine o'clock. Uh Tony, no, it's like 10 o'clock, man. Oh, I remember sheet's. I read the I read the call sheet wrong. Maybe you had to pick him up the first day.

Rod Rinks 15:05

That's right.

Davie Dave 15:05

I remember.

Mark Roberts 15:06

No, but after that he became family. He figured it out. Yeah, we were we were all good.

Rod Rinks 15:11

Well, you know what? I started texting him because Lope, because then we started driving him. Lopez did. Right. And I'd have to text him and say, Tony, meet in the lobby. I don't he'd say, well, the call sheet says 9:30. I said, No, we're not leaving until 11. Me, well, it's I said, Lopez, as per Lopez, we're leaving at 11. So be there at 11. Okay, thanks for the morning. He'd put thanks for the morning, and he'd be there.

Mark Roberts 15:31

And he'd and he'd take it and he would do what needed to be done so that he can be on set at the right time. Yeah. But I tell you, if you're a producer out there, if you're a production company and your actor can't seem to show up on time, the beauty of actors that are prepared is that you could totally let it go, right? You could you could say, like, okay, your call is 8 a.m. Oh, they showed up at nine. But if your camera's ready, if the crew's ready, if everyone's ready and they show up ready, and you don't and it doesn't cost you more time, then what's the big deal, you know? Yeah. Especially if they're the star of the show or the executive producer and the star, you know, you got you accommodate, and I think you make it work. So that's one thing to consider is that you know, not everyone has to be on the same timeline. You know, you could figure it out, make it work. I think you always have to be very accommodating in in movies. But we had a great time. We did what we talk about on the show, uh, go out and sell a movie and make a movie, and uh, and here we are back in L in LA doing the show, talking about the film we made. So, yeah, you know, I would say if you listen to shows that are about filmmakers and film hustlers and all that, um, we're out there actually making the movies. So we're gonna talk to you about what's happening today, tomorrow, and on our production. So that's important. Yeah, but anyway, shout out to everybody out there because it was a great experience. And I think it's gonna be a great movie. Lots of song and dance, lots of music. Yeah, great job producing, by the way. Oh, thank you. Appreciate that. I I I I I felt really comfy out there, you know.

Rod Rinks 17:00

The funny part about Roberts is he people he's just chilling during the production, right? So my job is done.

Davie Dave 17:05

I'd yeah, it's I set it all up, you knock him down.

Rod Rinks 17:08

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you do? You do problem solve if something comes up, then you're like, you go and you I've seen you have to do it a couple times, whether it be people freaking out about money, right? P cards. P cards.

Mark Roberts 17:20

Hey, it's hard, you know. I gotta I gotta what I think a lot of times as a producer You gotta put out fires. Well, you a lot of times as a producer, you gotta watch, you gotta watch the fire. Yeah, you know, like if it's a fire, it's a control, but it looks like it's not gonna like jump the curb and go to the other house. You're like, okay, well, that looks contained, yeah, and the fire burns out. Yeah, and you're like, okay, I didn't have to do anything, I just sat here. Yeah, so I try not to get involved uh because it just causes more issues, you know. For me, when I get involved, then people get upset, then people get like, Why is this guy talking to me? You know, that something goes so wrong that the producer has to now talk to me about it.

Rod Rinks 17:57

And you and you're like I had to have a conversation with Roberts, but Roberts is so straight. He comes over and it's funny because he comes over and he gets a chair and he sits in front of you and he and he like goes like this. Like he gets close to the thing, he's like, So this is what's gonna happen. Well, it's like all right.

Mark Roberts 18:11

Yeah, I think look, I think it is a dance and it's a collaboration, and everyone, you know, when you're in production, it's like hair on fire every day. I think some you know, people are uh everyone has an issue on every certain point.

Rod Rinks 18:25

That's when you're like when you're sitting, there's times where you're sitting there and you're just like still and quiet, and like I know you're there's something going on.

Mark Roberts 18:31

When you're like joy, it's a business where you feel a little crazy because you're like happy one second, and then you can just get any information, and then you're like, ooh, that's bad news, and then you're like down in the dumps about something. But I think overall filmmaking is a really beautiful thing, and um, and you know, and things are changing now. Like I think all of us, I mean, it's just so weird. This show's wild because I swear, every time we get together, we talk about Davies, you know, it just it wasn't too long ago where we were just talking about um social media and uh and influencers and how that all works and how you get paid doing that, yeah. And now that's sort of not a conversation anymore. True, you know? Now they're now now people are building empires on YouTube. Yeah, like you're right, yeah. Like if you ask AI, which now all of us are fighting it, but truth be told, we're all like we all have our AI buddy, right?

Rod Rinks 19:24

Yeah, no, we're we're going into that world, but in a different way. No choice. There's no choice, but it's also too like it's gotten so good that it's we were talking about it before the hour that we were sitting here waiting on you. Um we were talking about hey, I'm prepared, so we're gonna it's gonna go fast.

Mark Roberts 19:41

Take it easy, Lilka.

Rod Rinks 19:42

Take it easy. Came down and nailed it. Um it's just gonna be another form of entertainment. Yeah, like you're gonna know it's an AI film, you're gonna watch it, you're not gonna expect certain things out of it. It's gonna be cool, you're gonna like it for this or that. But you know, like I was telling David, you can't compare the Odyssey, which is gonna I haven't seen it yet, but I'm sure it's magnificent. Yeah, wait, you know, you can't compare that to an AI film. You know what I'm saying?

Mark Roberts 20:07

I'm well I I would say forget AI for a second and AI movies and all that. That's gonna be whatever it's gonna be. But like when I get when I'm sitting at home and I'm thinking, oh, I need to prepare like um a temporary budget, like a a preliminary, a draft budget. And I'm like, okay, so I don't have an AD, I haven't broken the script down, I don't know. So today I was like, I put a script in and I asked AI, I was like, hey, if you had to guess, I talk to it like a person, if you had to guess which of these characters work the most and put them in the order of who will work the most on the production if I'm doing a 15-day shoe. And it's like, you know what, Mark? This lady does all this stuff and probably will work the entire time. This guy, on the other hand, probably gonna work about one to two days. So I take all of that information, even though it's temporary, because it's a draft, right? It's a draft. So I take it and I'm like, okay, so this person's working three weeks, this work person's working a week. If it says it's gonna work he's gonna work three weeks or three days, I'll just put him in for a week. Yeah, and that way in the budget, there's some sort of some idea of the reality of what they're gonna work. Yeah, and you know, you could you I I'm wrong about it even when even when it's budgeted, you know, even when we're set and we know what they're gonna be working, yeah, things change. You move someone over here, next thing you know, they're working two weeks instead of just one week. So it happens, but you know, they once once those numbers start toggling, you're like, okay, so this person worked less, but this person worked more, yeah, or vice versa, you know. So I think uh AI, in terms of just sort of doing preliminary stuff, giving you an idea of what you got, yeah, what it's gonna cost, uh, how much people are gonna uh you know work. You know, I even asked what would it cost me if I wasn't paying minimum wages to these people? What if I wanted to get a DP that was you know high level, or if I wanted to get a costume designer high level, or any department. I ask, you know? And it'll tell me, like, you should you should expect to pay between $2,500 and $4,000 a week or something like that. And then you're able to sort of figure out, oh, can I afford the DP from Forrest Gump.

Rod Rinks 22:15

I feel like these last couple months it's totally changed.

Mark Roberts 22:18

Like it's changing. That's what I guess that's what that was my point.

Rod Rinks 22:20

You used to have to prompt. Now you could take your phone. I sent David this video. This guy made this um made this AI scene in his in his kitchen. And um he used his phone like wide and then he and he zoomed in. And he did all these angles, right, with his phone, and then he plugged it in, and he made himself a gangster at an Italian restaurant and the whole thing, and with those shots. You know what I mean? And and it was awesome. And then his friend came in to his kitchen and pretended to get something and um like sat down next to him, and it was all like just he set up his camera as like a two-shot, and it was a scene. Like and it turned out amazing. It's all in this guy's kitchen. He was wearing stuff like you and I, and it was like but he decorated himself, and he was act he wasn't acting in the in the in the original, he was just sitting there. But there's an app now that you can plug in and your the voice does it, so it it makes it seem like he's talking, right? It does it does everything for you. Pretty crazy, pretty amazing. It looked it looked AI, but it looked pretty damn clear.

Mark Roberts 23:27

I think a lot of things, I think a lot of things, you know. I want to explore stuff, even though even though we do lower budget, average budget movies.

Rod Rinks 23:37

Well, at this point they're gonna be that would be considered like a high budget movie going forward.

Mark Roberts 23:41

No, it's true because budgets are coming down, but I do want to look at, you know, there's apps now. You probably know about them, Davey. There's apps now that'll put people in your scene. Like if you didn't have enough extras, they'll put extras at the table. I want to do that for some of the I could do that now. Yeah. You can? Yeah. Oh man, I can't. Dude, you should see David. Okay, when the cameras are off, I'm gonna talk to you about it.

Rod Rinks 24:02

Davey made some videos today, pretty cool.

Mark Roberts 24:04

Oh, really? So, yeah, I want to take some of the danza scenes and fill up the room a little bit more because you know the first thing they're gonna say is like, oh, they didn't have enough money for extras. I hate that.

Rod Rinks 24:12

There's a well, there's a fee for that, you know what I mean? Yeah, well, they could there's there could be a fee. There you go. Let's negotiate it. Let's see how it's what you're permitted. Up the top, up the top. Yeah, you're permitted. You're permitted.

Mark Roberts 24:23

But yeah, it's been uh it's uh we've been gone for a minute, and you know, again, doing the things that we love and spending time with people that you care about and making movies that hopefully are gonna entertain people during the holidays, which is always uh important. Are we going in September again?

Rod Rinks 24:41

Couple months?

Mark Roberts 24:42

Yeah, we got another movie to make uh in September. It's not Christmas, you know. Oh wait, yeah. But we're doing some, we're doing some ver uh not verticals, we're doing some uh YouTube uh series as well. So there's a lot of that going on out there. Yeah, there's a lot. There's there's I can feel the shift, and I feel like it's gonna be positive, and I think we're all just gonna jump right into it. Yeah, I do too. We're gonna jump right in, it's just gonna start happening.

Rod Rinks 25:04

Yeah, well, we already are. We did before we left. Davey slept an hour and a half, I slept three hours the night before we got on the plane. But we shot we shot Pruno Perez with uh in two days. In two days.

Mark Roberts 25:16

Did you get on a sick one on the airplane to Buffalo and then went to work the next day? No, we did.

Rod Rinks 25:20

Oh no, we did, yeah, because we were out of it. And yeah, we came up with another series. Yes, okay, great. It was pretty we're not gonna tell you right now. No, don't bitch it now, but it was great, and so I think we were talking, you know, we were with Champagne having a good time. And it's what as we're landing, um, the guy in front, and we were an FC, good looking out because we had the Champagna. Um, as we're landing, the guy in front of us gets up and he he's he hands us his card and he goes, Hey, I'm an attorney. What you because it's about an attorney. He goes, uh, I heard I heard what you guys are saying. I if you guys need any help, let me know. And we're like, actually, we do, we will. That's funny. So it was cool. Being on a sick one paid dividends right there.

Davie Dave 26:01

We had plenty of time to come up with the entire premise and even the characters. It's great. Yeah, we did. We did.

Mark Roberts 26:07

See, you gotta be creative, see? See, see, see that's good. I mean, you think of things anywhere, and uh, but but I I do think uh, you know, I know that we're all worried and everyone's worried and things are changing, but I also think things are coming in faster than they did before. It's becoming more clear that there is gonna be a lot of work and in a lot of different places, and there will be money um for that work, you know. I know that people are doing verticals for like 200,000, 250,000, sometimes 25,000. Yeah, right. But um, but it's not the only game in town, you know. I think that's gonna fizzle out or become something that is like soap operas, you know, where you're like, hey, people like it. And I know I actually, well, Summer from from Access says she loves them, she loves the soap opera part of them. She watches right up until she has to pay, though.

Rod Rinks 26:54

Yeah, well, that's the thing. And then I met with Scott the other day. Um Scott who Scott Evans. Scott Evans, you know, he's he his story's great. I like like I think. What's the name of his show? He does a show, a YouTube show on uh called House Guests. Yeah, and he's done it for two years and he's grown in popularity. Some of his numbers are you know, he gets 700,000 views sometimes.

Mark Roberts 27:16

Well, he's he's uh he's what I like to call authentically himself, right?

Rod Rinks 27:22

Totally.

Mark Roberts 27:22

So the the part that people really like about watching someone interview people is them being who they are, yeah. Uh and doing and he's actually a very nice guy, he's a great actor, great producer. Yeah, he kind of he's a great host, he does it all.

Rod Rinks 27:37

He's taking one of the short form content that I create, or not content, but a short form story that I wrote, vertical, and he's taking it over to Issa Rae because he wants to make it. You know what I mean? He wants to be the leader. That's a great person to work with, and they're doing it, it's not a paywall. So she did it, she just did it and it was successful on TikTok. It was free. It was just like we're doing Pruno Perez. Prun of Perez is gonna be free. Yeah, you're not gonna pay anything, um, and it's gonna be on IG, TikTok, and YouTube.

Mark Roberts 28:04

But can you order the wine in Pruno Perez? Oh, yeah.

Rod Rinks 28:07

Oh, we met with we met with our wine guy last week. We had some wine, got in a sick one.

Mark Roberts 28:11

You got in a sick one with the wine.

Rod Rinks 28:12

You had the taste. We got a red, a white, and rose cutting. But um, but it was good. But it will be available, absolutely. The wine will be available. There's gonna be some fan, some shirts, some other stuff.

Mark Roberts 28:22

Yes, and you have a party here at the We actually probably will.

Rod Rinks 28:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So August 1st, we're gonna drop the first one. Um, and you saw the rough cut. I did, which is good, it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Davie Dave 28:34

We polished that. Yeah. A lot better now.

Rod Rinks 28:36

All right, good.

Mark Roberts 28:36

Yeah, it's it sounds uh it sounds and looks uh great, and um your your uh actors are amazing. David Dave's in there, yeah. Yeah, you did a good job.

Speaker 1 28:45

Thank you.

Mark Roberts 28:46

No, it's really good. It's really good. No, I'm looking forward to the release and to the party here at the library. Yep, because this is a terrific cigar place, and they let us do our show from this beautiful location. Look it up, bigger guy. Yeah, so yeah, shout out to the library. You guys need to smoke cigars in a place where you have to be a member. Uh, but they're accepting uh a couple of new people, and uh, you know, if you wanted if you want, you can you can text us about it or text. You can tweet.

Rod Rinks 29:15

You can you know, you can you can't go on you can't go on my space, okay? Um and you can go to the library, the library cigar lounge on IG.

Mark Roberts 29:24

Uh shout out to the library, it's a terrific place. And I also want to say uh extreme music.com, who is our partner for years, the best in the world, uh, the music library of the century. It has the best composers, the best music. I use it on all our all my movies. We're gonna use it on Pruno. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, and it's uh yeah, if you need music for now, anything you're doing in uh social media or verticals or whatever, yeah. It's a terrific place to uh to shop if you can't afford a composer or if your composer is busy on another movie, you know, go to extreme music.com and grab their library and get any kind of music you want. I'm telling you, they even you can even search scores and get things that sound like it was like it's a hundred-piece orchestra. It's really, really cool. Yeah, yeah. I love those guys over there. Um, extreme music.com for all your music needs. Uh what else? What else you got?

Rod Rinks 30:22

What else we got, Davy? I mean, we got a lot.

Mark Roberts 30:24

Davey, tell us what's happening in the comedy world.

Davie Dave 30:26

Oh, in the comedy world. So um the comedy for the Latinos right now is on fire in LA. It is, right? Yeah, yeah. It's it seems like it's picked up a lot of steam in the past year, and I don't see it stopping, uh, especially for the Latinos. I mean, there are some uh comedy uh houses that do cater to other crowds, but it it's not like um the Latino comics.

Mark Roberts 30:50

Latinos comedies are huge, and also female comic comics, like now, like I have like a list fine female comics.

Rod Rinks 30:58

Oh wait, hold on, take it easy. I'm just saying, I'm not hey, I'm a married man, I'm not messing with a funny hot girl is pretty fun.

Mark Roberts 31:05

No, that is that is fun, but uh but I was just saying, David, take it easy. I was just thinking of all of before I used to have a lot of male comedians that I really liked or followed, yeah. And now there's like tons of female comedians, and they're very funny. Yeah, you know, they're like they're like catering to both male and female, uh, you know, uh what do you call it? They're catering to male and female sensibilities, you know. Yeah, it's great. So you're really I'm really starting to enjoy it.

Davie Dave 31:34

They had to fill the gap because it was so polarizing before they were only talking about sex and only downplaying men's abilities to do everything. So now they're kind of just being more relatable, they're not just doing that one one-sided stuff anymore. So it's good to see. Yeah, it is good to see. It is good.

Rod Rinks 31:50

Yeah, we had a female in one of the episodes who stole the episode. Uh, and she was up against Con and Jerry, who are both super talented, super funny. And she, I would say, right, Davy, she pretty much Wait, Ronaldo McDonald was on your and it wasn't Wendy, it wasn't Wendy, he wasn't gonna give her a hey Wendy. I'm gonna give you a badass or what I'm gonna put it, I'm gonna put it on what you guys will see what I'm talking about, right?

Mark Roberts 32:16

He's so great.

Davie Dave 32:16

Wait till you see pruno. Oh, you saw the good great characters in this. What is it?

Mark Roberts 32:20

I can't wait to see Pruno. I uh I can't wait to see Pruno if it's anything like Ronaldo McDonald.

Rod Rinks 32:25

But those guys are too good at improvising, so I just said, fuck like just this, this, this, but make sure you turn here. This has to turn, you it has to come this way, and then you have to come, you know, you have to make this happen, right? And then those guys just went with it, dude. It was so good.

Mark Roberts 32:43

Well, I'm looking forward to that. Um, we've got a new movie coming out in December. Uh, you guys are doing another vertical. Actually, you didn't do a vertical, it's not a vertical, it's uh 16 by nine, right?

Rod Rinks 32:55

Well, it's gonna be both. It's gonna be both. Okay, so you did a vertical, vertical, yep.

Mark Roberts 32:59

And the next one, are you gonna shoot on vertical? We shoot this vertical, I guess. Yeah, we do.

Rod Rinks 33:03

Yeah, the problem was true vertical. True vertical. When we shoot Pruno, I need a monitor like that.

Mark Roberts 33:08

Take these, these cameras are available to you.

Rod Rinks 33:11

No, that's true. And we have good too.

Mark Roberts 33:12

Dude, you got three, you got three of them, though. You got three different angles, you know. It's not wrong.

Rod Rinks 33:17

You know what? Are you a producer?

Mark Roberts 33:20

I think so. I think so. I think so. But uh, but yeah, man, that sounds good. Congratulations on those shows. Uh are they gonna be uh film hustler productions? Absolutely. Yeah, what? What are you talking about? Or presented by presented by. It's not really not really a film hustler. If I do want to be involved, I would present them.

Rod Rinks 33:38

Yeah, well, you know what he'll be involved? Is when it takes off. He's like, hey. Well then hey, let me in. Let me in. Don't take out. Hey, you gotta get someone in.

Davie Dave 33:45

Hey, whatever the king wants, bro.

Rod Rinks 33:46

Whatever the king wants. Remember, I had the chair right here, and I don't want to sit there, I want to sit there. Oh, okay, fuck. That's my microphone. Oh, it has a different thing.

Mark Roberts 33:54

This is my microphone, though, just for the record. That's the same one they use at the White House, by the way. Exactly. That's the mic I like. That's the mic I like. Um, all right. Well, for everyone who worked on our movie Rewinding Christmas, which is now called Christmas at the Starlight, which will likely change, starring Tony Danza and Mario Lopez. Thank you. We appreciate you. You did a great job. We love you. Hopefully, we get to do it again together.

Rod Rinks 34:18

Well, we will. What do you mean? We've done like four movies. We're coming back.

Mark Roberts 34:20

Yeah, we're coming back.

Rod Rinks 34:21

How many movies have we done in Buffalo?

Mark Roberts 34:23

Uh, this was this was our third. Yeah. Yeah, this was our third. But we uh we expect to be back, and you guys did a great job. And if you're a filmmaker, check out Buffalo. Yeah, call Tim Clark, tell him Mark Roberts told you to that he to call it. Tell him Mark told you. No, really, call Tim Clark. Talk to him. Just like this. Say you want to scout it out, say you want to take a look. Ask AI if your film is is uh likely to be shot in Buffalo and your locations match, uh, and give it give it a look because it is a terrific town. And man, do they open their arms and give us hugs and just yeah, they're just really happy to see us.

Rod Rinks 35:03

You kind of get everything in Buffalo because remember we went to go downtown to get the haircuts, and it was like old school, you can have like old feelings. It's downtown anywhere. Yeah, and then we were yeah, but it had a lot of character. That that place that we were at, that hotel that the thing was at, that was really cool. But even um, then we shot that one area was a little sketchy, so you got and there's like rural areas, you get pretty much everything you want. And then which was awesome was the falls. I mean, the falls oh yeah, Niagara Falls.

Mark Roberts 35:28

You know, that's owned by the that's a state park, which means that it's easier to shoot there, easier to get permits to shoot there. So if you ever want to shoot Niagara Falls, I think that's also a really good option. I'm really glad to be back with y'all and to be talking about films again and to be talking about making them and finding out what's happening. I know we don't have a lot of information for you this time, but we will get back to interviews, we have stories, everything that's happening, but these are great stories about a film that was made, so yeah, and going on sick ones. And Jody Margolin Hahn listening to this guy talk about being on a sick one and going on a sick one and thinking about being on a sick one.

Rod Rinks 36:02

Three weeks. How did that happen?

Mark Roberts 36:04

How did that GLP work? That did it.

Rod Rinks 36:05

I went off and I need to go back on it. Um and we always say how we're gonna do the podcast. We always say we're gonna do it on location. I think we didn't.

Mark Roberts 36:13

Why'd you turn into Tony Danzer right now?

Rod Rinks 36:14

Hey, we're gonna do it on location. Where were you guys? I've been waiting down here.

Mark Roberts 36:21

Tony Danzer. He's a man. Well, uh, we'll be back uh next week, you guys. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next time on Film Hustlers.

Rod Rinks 36:29

Well, Roberts will be on time, hopefully.

Mark Roberts 36:31

I'll be on time.

Rod Rinks 36:32

Yeah, right.