Selling Your Film & Staying Positive with Director, Producer Zain Ayub

From recruiting his cousins for DIY films in high school to producing acclaimed short films, music videos, and feature work like Sahelah, Zain Ayub has carved out his own path in the screen industry.

In this episode of The Producer and the Publicist, Zain shares his journey from indie beginnings to professional success—along with the real talk every filmmaker needs about resilience, pitching, and networking.

What You’ll Learn:
✨ How to sell your film and get it seen
✨ The power of networking & creating lasting industry connections
✨ Managing your own (and your crew’s) mental health on set
✨ Why adaptability is the secret to success
✨ The best way to get started—just start shooting!
Zain’s all about making filmmaking accessible and is happy to connect with listeners looking for
advice or mentorship. Reach out to him directly at zain@chipmedia.com.au.

Instagram: @zainxayub

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zain-ayub/

Follow us for more industry interviews and insights:

📲 Instagram: [@theproducerandthepublicist]

📲 LInkedIn: [@The Producer and The Publicist Podcast]

Transcript

0:00

The producer and the publicist acknowledged the lands of the Gadigal people on which this podcast was recorded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. Welcome to the producer and the publicist. My name is Kyle. I am the producer and I'm Louise the publicist. We have a fantastic show for you guys. We have the legendary, awesome, iconic, amazing. Zane Aab on the show today. Uh, he was the associate producer on the Fantastic zr, a beautiful Western Sydney film, which is screened at so many festivals, including South by Southwest Sydney and, uh, Mardi Gras film Festival. Um, he has some really fantastic advice for young and upcoming filmmakers. I actually ran into Zane, uh, so by Southwest Sydney, which was great at a party. That's awesome, Kyle, and thank you for approaching him. It's kind of following some of the advice that Zane gives. Our up and coming filmmakers. Um, he's an amazing self-taught filmmaker and he really was so generous with his advice. And I think what's so great in this episode is he's got some really practical advice that people can just up and run with. Um, we cover amazing topics like mental health, um, networking, how to pitch and sell your stories. I mean, Zane is really like the ultimate hype man and. If you need a confidence boost, then this is the episode for you. So please enjoy our chat with the wonderful Zane Ayo. Thank you so much for talking to the producer and the publicist. You are a fantastic, as your producer, you worked on so many fantastic things and we're just really excited to get a chance to talk to you so much for having me, guys, really appreciate it. Can you tell us about how you work in the industry, about what you do in the industry? So I am a self-taught filmmaker. I started out about 10 years ago and I jumped straight into music videos. So I produced and directed about a dozen music videos, and then I also moved to short films. And along the way I met a few individuals who had ties to a PR company. I then started to work with this production company, and I then worked on larger short format pieces, primarily as an ad. And when you are being resourceful in the industry, you gotta. Wear a couple of hats in the early days, and this production company took me under their wings and I worked my way up to become an associate producer on a feature film, which took about three years of my life, which was a big ride, big journey. And after that, I'm now back into freelancing as well. I'm just going back into short form at the moment. And you are a self-taught filmmaker. What was it about this industry that made you want to be a part of it? I've always been a visual storyteller at heart. When I was young, I would just write in my spare time as a hobby. I wouldn't even know if it was a good or not. We're always learning and we're always evolving, right? But it would always come from a visual point of view in my mind and I, that would be the way that I would express myself. Filmmaking itself, I got really interested in it in high school and I thought to myself, what are all these roles? What's a director? What's a producer? What's a cinematographer? I was really gravitated towards cinematography at first, given my visual eye. But along the way I started to learn a bit more about how things work. I didn't take the conventional route. I actually studied marketing because it was really interesting how a piece of branded storytelling, whether it's corporate or creative, could impact. An audience or a viewer, it can make them cry. It can make them angry. That's what fascinated me the most about it, and so that's why I studied marketing. In saying that, I decided to go the self-taught route with my friends. It's the cliche story. I, I made films with my friends straight outta high school. We bought a Canon Six City, and we just literally just shot a film and we didn't realize how hard it was. We did everything. My friend and I, we shot it. Sometimes acted in it. We got our friends in it, our cousins. We colored it, we edited it, we graded it, we re-shot it, we did everything. It was very arduous, but it taught me a lot about the actual process. And I taught to myself, ah, I really need to go to film school. Like can just incrementally learn each field over time and find where my heart lies and where I can land. Beyond just the visual side of things and through that process, I found that I actually liked a lot more than just the visual component. I actually really liked sound. I really found sound and its impact to be quite interesting. And I found the actual process of working with different people and putting it together, being quite a fulfilling experience as well. So I learned that El early on. I know, I feel like never, you asked this question, it's asking about who's your favorite child, but is there any kind of thing that you prefer? Do you prefer the writing, directing, or producing? Which one do you more gravitate towards? I know that you are producing now. Yeah, it's a tricky one. I personally do gravitate towards producing'cause in my heart, I do enjoy helping people. I trust them and support their projects. I think, uh, I find it really fulfilling being hands-on and actually helping others. That's a really big value of mine, personally, with writing and directing, I, they're completely different. That's more about me being selfish and just saying, Hey, I have something to say, which is, no one's gonna help me with that, except for myself. In terms of producing, you've produced a halo, which has gone internationally, so congratulations on that. Thanks so much. What is the most important for thing for you when you are looking at producing a project? The most important thing is twofold. The people slash person whose idea is and what they're saying. During, during my time at the production company, we had different projects come to the table and great from great people. The biggest question we'd ask is, what is the creator trying to say? Filmmaking is this kind of really arduous process. It sometimes takes a long time. Can you talk a little bit about creating Zaha, but then also how you stay inspired? Through the whole process of making films. Yeah, absolutely. I think my time during Sahil, I was employed full-time as a contractor and you've just gotta live your life. Oftentimes we get quite caught up in the hype, but I think living your life and not holding onto a lot of stresses and the day-to-day is a really big component. Like not forgetting to go for those walks, listen to podcasts, push yourself out of your comfort zone if you don't watch anime. Grow at anime, and it can be quite stressful, the industry, especially when you're making a feature. I know I found that there was a lot of challenges, but there were a lot of joys throughout the whole thing. And I think, yeah, keeping grounded, staying stress free and living your life without holding onto things so tightly is really important. I think that's great advice.'cause we're talking to so many people in different roles in the industry. You're working with really big budgets. The responsibility is huge. Yeah. And something Kyle and I have found really interesting, it's really hard to even find time for people to talk.'cause you could be working like for 16 hours a day. It's a big job. Yeah. Whatever role you're in. So I love that. Yeah. Looking for those things that keep you grounded. Absolutely. And further to that, I think the mental health of anyone in the industry. Is extremely important. And after having now, let's say five years tenured into the industry, I'm a huge advocate for looking into that, taking time and actually talking to colleagues about how they're doing, if they need anything. There's a company out there, a production company. They have a four day work weeks, I believe, for all their productions, which I think is phenomenal. That's inspiring, and I think that's something that everyone has a responsibility. To pay attention to the mental health, especially of Crew.'cause without crew you can't get anything done and they're the ones who work around the clock. I love that you're self taught. Looking back at that, thinking from when you started, are there any real make or break moment? You might not have even realized it at the time, but there was a particular moment that helped you get to where you are. Yeah, that's a phenomenal question. I think the whole self-taught process itself, I think it's definitely a breaking time for any individual. I consider myself quite passionate and intense with my aspirations, and I had thought many times, why am I doing this? Why am I even shooting things? What's the point? I would be filming things with my friends. And then I would subconsciously compare it to not only like Hollywood films, but also films from Australia, and also films from people that are actually going to the actors and comparing. And I think comparing is such a devastating thing that could tie into breaking it because you, you're trying so hard to actually do it. I think resilience and adaptability are two massive qualities that anyone needs because. Especially if you take my path, which is the non-conventional route, which is literally picking up a camera, whatever you have, and just shooting. Yeah. I think that can be a journey in itself, and there can be many moments where you feel like you're gonna be broken and the content's not gonna be good. Don't expect your content to be good when you're actually doing it yourself. You've gotta consider it a learning process, and it takes years. I think what's really interesting about resilience and adaptability, like you don't have to be born with it. You can develop that. I think maybe some people are afraid that they need to have this extraordinary talent or they can never make it. I, I like that idea of giving it a go. Yeah. I have to give it a go. I think if, if you wanna give it a try, if you're curious, it depends on what your intrinsic motivation is. Right. And I think even during my time when I was. Screening projects that were being pitched, part of assessing the why and who the person is. What's the intrinsic reason you want to be in the industry? Do you just wanna be Brad Pitt, or do you want to actually shift the paradigm within your genre because you have something powerful to say? Those are two separate reasons that you need to be so self-aware about before you even try to pick up the camera and actually shoot something. I would highly suggest being self-aware about it, and then, because mental health is a real thing, you don't want to do that for three years and then just literally. Be mad about it and then you realize, oh wow, I just wanted to be Brad Pitt the whole time. Yeah. I think that's such good advice for anyone who's listening is what a, what do you wanna say? Yeah. And why do you want to do this? And obviously what you want to say can change. Yeah. Of what I love that idea of how much do you want this, especially if you go that self talk route. It's hard. There's a lot of effort you put in the other thing, because we want for listeners to help them with advice, and what we ask people is, was there a piece of advice that you were given maybe when you were starting out on your journey or through your journey that you Yeah, I had a good think about this over the last year and it was, I would say learn sales. So your marketing hacker comes in handy. It does come in handy, and I guess I, I didn't really listen. To any of that in the heyday, but ultimately it's really true. Making something is half of it. The other half of it is really being confident again with your why. Yeah, the intrinsic reason and why you've made this content and why you believe that it is the best thing. And anyone that you come across in the industry, you are able to tell them in literally 10 to 15 seconds, this is who I am, this is what I've done, and this is what I have to say. You wanna check it out. With absolute conviction and that you gotta be able to sell yourself. And that is definitely, that definitely holds true. Even until today for myself too and a lot of my colleagues, it's easier said than done, right? Everyone can just say, yep, sales or, that's, for me, that was a critical piece of advice that I got and still holds true. But I was, and I still am sometimes quite introvert and shy and it comes out in the most. Inconvenient ways at, at times, and not everyone has the confidence to really do that. And I think seeking counsel from close friends and family, even resources that Screen New South Wales may put out as well, just to practice your elevator pitch and your elevator pitch doesn't need to be so structured. AI is coming, the demand of being a human is higher than ever. So I think that as we go on. People will want to talk to a human as as long as you're able to adequately convey yourself. Yeah, it's okay to be introvert, but there's heaps of resources to just build that confidence over time. That's really good because I think, again, it's important for people listening in who mightn't be the chief sales person. Yeah. Feel that comfortable at the top of a room. You have some really good advice for listeners. Is there someone you can go to for advice? I tap into. A few different people in my personal family who have businesses. And I think for me, when you make a feature like I have, it's ultimately a product. Mm-hmm. Right? And what does that mean? Where is it going? How can we improve next time? How can we maximize these conversations over a, in this territory versus this territory? I'm always learning, and I think I listen to others right now specifically. People that are in different industries because they can give me different perspectives. Why not? Maybe they're incorrect or maybe it's not the right one, but it gives me different insight. I think I just would love to know, given that a halo has screened on a whole bunch of festivals, and given that that's my wheelhouse as well as marketing and filmmaking is I would love a piece of advice from you for emerging filmmakers about how to get their films out there within the festival market. What's your biggest piece of advice? First one would be to really know your project and your audience. And not every festival is the right festival, ela. Twofold. Really, it's about the audience. Simply put, the first audience is Southeast Asians really living in the diaspora who speak English. They're of immigrant families. Maybe they're born here or they came to Australia at a young age. And then the other component is the LGBT community as well, and bridging them together and I think. Being very clear in that regard. On your audience profile, you are able to target the right festivals, then festivals aren't necessarily the best route, in my view for every project. I think it's really important for a feature, but it's not necessarily the end all and be all really depends on your goal. It depends on what your distribution strategy is ultimately. And with regards to film festivals and putting yourself out there too, it goes back to the selling component, right? Mm-hmm. Yes. Submit it, but go on LinkedIn and just harass the programmer. Find their email. Spend a whole day for six hours, 12 hours, whatever your day is on just one festival, whatever it is, and just literally just call. Email and spam every single person have your strong elevator pitch. You gotta be relentless. You have to be absolutely relentless because you are the one who believes in your vision. If you don't believe in your vision, why are you making it? And it's not going to sell itself. That's what I was doing for the film, gently, politely, and I think as well, attending as many events as possible. And showing your face to people and just saying, Hey, this is who I am. This is what I do. It is a relationship industry, and it's a relationship business. That's what it is. And jumping into as many events, as many webinars, wedding seminars, call Screen New South Wales and say, Hey, I have this feature film script, which I've just option to this production company. Can we chat for 15 minutes for best strategy? Connect me with the right person. Yeah, sure. We'll get back to you. Call 'em again the next week. Hey, I called you last week. We'd love to connect with you. I still haven't heard back. I've reached out to this person. It's create your own spider web of positivity and just keep following up and don't stop. Be relentless. I'm happy to speak to anyone as well regarding any tips 1 0 1 that fell amazing. If you are happy for people to reach out, if you don't mind sharing an email that we could pop in the show notes, I think people would really appreciate that. Yeah, and to your point. Lots of people are very visionary, but might not necessarily have the knowledge or the confidence or the know-how sure to put themselves out. Look, it's easier than than done. The industry can be really intimidating and it's, you go to a festival and you see someone who starred in some film five years ago and they're right next to you and you're like, whoa, what do I do? They're human. Who cares? Just go say hi. Hey, my name's Kyle. I do this thing. How's it going? I wanna say, Hey. What are they gonna do? Bite your head off. No, they're not gonna do that. That's the thing. I think we need to be really kind to each other, and I think everyone needs to be okay with just saying, Hey, I believe in my project. I want to champion it, and I really wanna push it forward and I wanna talk to you about it. And hey, what's the worst thing that could happen? They're gonna say thank you. This looks like something really exciting, but we're not really looking for anything like this right now. And you probably made a connection outta that person because remember, it's a relationship based business as well. I've improved some of my own personal projects by being rejected because A, there's multiple reasons the slates fall or they're not looking for that. But what's come outta that was just relationships. And so sometimes I see 'em at events. Hey, hello, and I meet somebody else, and that's just the nature of the, the industry. I think jumping in, putting yourself out there, go to as many seminars, web webinars, events as possible. Obviously confidence is a big thing. There's a few people that I know that are very talented, yet they do struggle with putting themselves out there and being vocal. Yeah, again, I'd be happy to chat to anyone just to give them some tips and tricks.'cause I'm, I can be quite introvert too, like I'm definitely not the loudest in the room for sure. That's amazing. Thank you. That's really generous. Of course. And I often think it'd be lovely if the industry, and maybe people do informally, but have a bit of a buddy system. Or people who were just starting out get assigned to Buddy. Yeah. And been around for a while I think. I think there is a media mentor. There's a media mentorship that was started by a couple of ex commissioners. It's out there somewhere. Okay. And it's a membership based, it's extremely affordable. Media Mentors Australia. That's right. I think that is a great initiative. Mm-hmm. And I think there needs to be more things like that, way more things like that across the board, especially championing mental health for crew members. Because I think that is an area that's a bit left unchecked right now. Mm-hmm. The mental health of, uh, crew and even producers as well. I think that's so good. Denise and Esther who run Media Mentors Australia are like really fantastic. I feel like almost like the industry needs to have this kind of idea of dating itself. The idea that like when you go to a bar, you have a wing person. In the same way that you network, you have this idea of a wingman or a wing woman or a wing person to take you through and have that kind of extroverted friend that kind of helps you through the people and then be like, Hey, this is Louise. This is Zane. Zane's really good at this. Zane's really great. You should totally meet him. That's a great idea. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It makes such a difference. That was Kyle. Kyle side by side way was introducing me to everybody. It was fantastic. I love that idea. And if you are that little bit introverted, but you still have something so important to say, it's just harder for it to come out sometimes. Absolutely. And I think my way was to just make things. I was very shy in my early twenties and I was like. I can't do. I can't talk. I'm just gonna make things. And then I just kept making things. Yeah. And then I ended up making a film. Then I had that happened. It just happened. I love your story. I love how you decided that this was for you and you got started with made, and it just sounds like you've had a lot of fun. Absolutely. I've gone back to my roots currently as well. I just produced and directed a short, and I'm consulting a couple on a couple of projects at the moment, just short form, just to help out. Some younger filmmakers too, with their first projects. It's much more fulfilling. Yeah. For me. Amazing. Is there anything we haven't covered that you'd like to chat? I think for young filmmakers, just do it. That's probably the biggest thing. The technology these days is so great. Everyone has an iPhone. Even if you don't have an iPhone, let's say you're not in the best circumstances, or your friends say, Hey, let's make a film. Just make a film with me for two minutes and just make it, and you'll be surprised at what you could learn. But be sure that you want to do that because the journey is intense. Lots of ups and downs, lots of ups and downs, but very rewarding. Yeah. Zin Ayo, thank you so much for talking to us. I feel really inspired, but thank you so much. This has just been a brilliant conversation. We'll pop your detail in the show notes if anybody wants to get in touch and I'm excited. I'm excited for free young filmmakers that are being supported by you. By the industry. Absolutely. Thank you so much, guys. Really appreciate the chart. Hey everyone, this is the screening room, you guys, this is where me and Louise talk about what we've been watching this week. I'll kick it off. I actually got to see Wicked, our people born Wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them. Of course, everyone knows the story of The Wizard of Oz, the idea of what happens if the story of Dorothy and the evil, the wicked witch of the West. This is the story told through the perspective of Glenda, played by Aria Grande, Ariana Grande, and Alpha Bar, played by the incredible Cynthia Revo, and this is just one of the most. Phenomenally produced pieces of work that I've seen this year. I absolutely love it. The music is great. I don't know if you were a fan of the, uh, musical Louise. I'm not a musical fan. Are you gonna break up with me? That's just homophobic, isn't it? No, I'm kidding. I, this is just such, even so much in this film and everyone in it is so good. Jonathan Bailey, Michelle Yo, Jeff Gold, bloom. Just so many people who are in that, and there's this gorgeous moment, which I am not gonna spoil that I think everyone. Was just, it was a very exciting film to see, and there's a couple of cameos that that pop up halfway through and you're just like, oh my God, it's so good. But yeah, please do check out Wicked. Oh, cool. I'll have to do a shout out to my goddaughter Ededie, who's a huge Ariana Grande fan, so I might even just see it just for her. But yes, Carl, you can go to musicals with my wife too, because she loves them and it's just one thing we can't meet together on. Oh, she'll love it. She'll love it. So I have been watching, I'm actually in the middle of season two of Bad Sister. They found a dead body so we could revenge comedy on Apple TV the first season. Pretty epic. It's based on a Belgian story, but the one I'm referring to was written then by Sharon Horgan, who has written Catastrophe. She's an absolute legend. Just legend. So she's taken this and adapted it to be an Irish story. So it's basically five sisters and one of the sisters has a husband. They call him the prick. And again, I don't wanna give any spoilers, but the things he does are. Horrific. And basically during that, each of the four sisters is trying to kill him in a different way, and it's fantastic and it's crazy and it's fun. It's a little bit dark. Irish humor was dark, but it's really fun. So season two has just come mad and it's missing the fun element, I would say. It's gone a little bit darker now. Am I right in thinking that Ling B is also in this? She's not. Absolute. One of my favorites is the show where Ashley B and Sharon GaN were sister. Yes. I remember this show and it, I remember seeing a cliff on it and went, oh my God, that looks amazing. This way up. Yes. I remember Ashley talking about it on Jimmy Kimmo. She's so shambolic and it's brilliant, and the relationship's amazing and they're both. Fabulous writer, an actor. Oh, they're amazing. There's so many great people in that comedy staple, Sharon Horgan. People like Catherine Tate. There's so many great people that have just been able to do something really interesting, especially female comedian or female actress comedians in the uk. Thank you everyone for tuning in to another episode of the producer and the publicist. Have a great week. The producer from the Publicist is hosted, written, and produced, both by Kyle Goldfinch and Louise Newland with the music video. Film role by Ossa with music from Epidemic Sound.