Rob Hollocks: From Film Studio Marketing to Indie Mayhem

Rob Hollocks is proof that storytelling instincts don’t disappear—they evolve. After 15 years leading global campaigns at Paramount for hits like “Indiana Jones,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Star Trek,” and “Saving Private Ryan,”  Rob stepped away from the studio system to write, direct, and produce original work. His indie company, Bloody Marvelous Pictures, is now home to bold, genre-bending films that explore the emotional and the eerie with equal intensity.

In this cinematic conversation, Rob shares how a childhood love of classic monster movies shaped his creative eye, how his theatre roots taught him to trust actors and take risks, and why building a “creative family” on set matters more than ever. From “Encounter” with Luke Hemsworth to the haunting new thriller “The Observance,” Rob brings both a marketer’s strategy and a filmmaker’s soul to every project he touches.

This episode is a ride through reinvention, legacy, and the power of horror to say something deeper. If you’ve ever dreamed of making a second act as meaningful as your first, don’t miss this one.

🎧 What You’ll Hear

• Lessons from launching movies across international markets
• The turning point that led Rob to leave the studio world
• Childhood influences and the roots of his love for horror
• How he builds ego-free, collaborative sets
• A look inside “The Observance” and his approach to unsettling storytelling

💬 Ask Us: Got a favorite horror film or a reinvention story of your own? We’d love to hear it. Message us @EnergisPodcast.

🌐 Thank you for listening! Stay inspired. Stay bold. Stay Energis’d.  Visit us at www.nrjmediagroup.com to learn more and connect with our growing community.

Transcript

Meet Rob Hollix: Studio Executive Turned Filmmaker

Norma 0:05

Energis Podcast is brought to you by NRJ Media Group . So today, I have the pleasure and the personal honor of welcoming our guest , Rob Hollocks , a former Paramount Pictures studio executive and now writer , producer and director of his own production company , which I'll let him explain . The name , the clever name . Join me in welcoming Rob to our show .

Rich 0:37

Thank you for coming . Lovely to have you on Thanks for having me . Yeah , it's exciting , lovely to meet you as well . Yeah , likewise .

Norma 0:43

Okay , so full transparency . Rob was my former boss at Paramount Pictures and great mentor of mine . Rob , you knew you were my mentor , didn't you ? That's very kind of you to say You're like . Did you know ? I've been so amazed at your career , not only as so have I , so have you .

Rob Hollocks 1:00

Yeah .

Norma 1:00

I mean everything that you've done , because when we work at Studio World , many of us a lot of us will not admit we all want to pursue a creative field as well . Right , getting involved on the business side introduces us to the creative and we get to work on different movies and TV shows and many of us wish we were writers and directors and producers . Right , and you actually did it .

Rob Hollocks 1:25

Eventually yes .

Norma 1:26

Yes , yes , but you did , and you were at Paramount Pictures for a good amount of time .

Rob Hollocks 1:30

Yeah , I think it was 14 years , something like that , 14 years .

Rich 1:33

And you worked both sides of the pond as well , so you were in London .

Rob Hollocks 1:36

Yeah , I started in the UK and worked in the UK At that time . Initially there were a joint venture with Universal , so I started working for the Paramount side back in I don't know whenever . It was in Hammersmith in London . And then , when they decided to move the international office back to the US I came for . Originally it was going to be I'll do it for a year and then I'll go back , and that was 20 years ago now .

Rich 1:55

So yeah , but it must have been a hell of a move . It was a big decision .

Rob Hollocks 1:59

I wasn't sure about it and I turned it down initially and didn't wasn't sure if I wanted to go out . I had a young family at the time and you know it was a lot of upheaval . But we came out and , you know , originally planned to say just do it for for a year and then , uh , you know , ended up staying for three and then five and then so on and so on . They were not to do other thing . Yeah , it was . It was a huge change , but it you know , my kids particularly spent more of their time here in the us and they were in England now so yeah , it's been an interesting life , that's for sure .

Rich 2:26

Can I ask where did you start ? How did a passion for film and television ? Where did it come from ?

Rob Hollocks 2:32

It's from a really early age , to be honest with you . I mean one of the earliest memories I have and it could explain why I make the films I do . But my you know , my mom used to love horror movies , the really old school with your mother , oh yeah , she loved Dracula Frank .

Rob Hollocks 2:48

But I wasn't allowed to stay up and see them . So I'd come down in the morning for breakfast , getting ready for school , and while I was having my , my breakfast or whatever , she'd be telling me all about these movies . And she was very she's a great storyteller and shit was back , the curtains open , the stagecoach is rushing , but through the mountains and you know , and she'd tell me the story of dracula or frankenstein or whatever , and I just love it and I'd sit there just eat my porridge and I think that's one of my earliest memories and because of her , I think she loved movies .

Norma 3:14

Her two favorite movies were the sound of music and psycho your mom was a bit one hell of a storyteller , though she was great . Your bedtime stories were really fun or scary .

Rob Hollocks 3:26

Yeah , yeah , they kept me up to a few times , but that's kind of how it started . And then , you know , I remember just enjoying movies at a really early age , loved films . One of the first movies that really struck me was the original King Kong , you know , the 1933 one . And just seeing that as a little kid and know , just grew up on those sorts of movies . I particularly love fantasy movies , like all the Harryhausen movies and stuff like that Grew up with those sort of things .

Speaker 1 3:48

And .

Rob Hollocks 3:48

I think it was about 18 or 20 when I first saw the first Indiana Jones movie and that changed my life really . I love Star Wars , but Indy was always my favourite and seeing that , I remember going to the movie centre in a place called Slough by myself . I'm watching it four times back to back and just couldn't get over how great it was . And that's kind of you know , I always love movies .

Rich 4:09

This is Raiders . Yes .

Rob Hollocks 4:10

Raiders yeah , the very first one . Just , you know , I've been passionate about them ever since and I guess I started out in traditional marketing . Really , my background was kind of brand marketing and all that kind of stuff . You know worked for a couple of big companies in the uk and then happened to see a job . Paramount were looking for a star trek brand manager and I applied for that the rest is history .

Norma 4:31

Really , that's kind of how it started I didn't know you started working on star trek , yeah yeah , they brought me in .

Rob Hollocks 4:35

I was going to be working on Paramount stuff , so the it was Star Trek and their feature films and the guy who interviewed me sort of said , um okay , we've got this movie coming out called Forest Gump , go see it . I want you to tell me what you think of it . So I went to see Forrest Gump singing the cinema by myself , watching this movie , and I was like , wow , this is incredible and you know , just very fortunate good time .

Rob Hollocks 4:55

It was the first movie I worked on and then I worked on all the star trek stuff and you know , deep space nine and but then you moved to the us , so this was in the uk so this was in the UK , right . Yeah , it was in the UK originally .

Norma 5:05

And how was the transition moving to the US ?

Rob Hollocks 5:08

Actually , surprisingly , it was much easier than I thought . I always liked America . You know I'd come over a lot for visits , business visits and stuff . I wasn't sure if I could live here . But you know , when they closed the office in London and brought it back to the US , I think they brought about four of us over . It was , you know , phil and his team , and we had to just recruit from scratch and bring in new people and everything , which is how I met Norma .

Rob Hollocks 5:28

I always thought she was amazing from your interview and just such a great part of the team .

Norma 5:32

I don't know what bullshit I said . You know , come on , you were great .

Rob Hollocks 5:35

You were amazing and you always were , and you had such great potential and , yeah , it was Got to build an international marketing team based out of the studio there . Yeah , you know , we had a good few years . We had some great results and a great team of people mostly you know who I mean . Oh , I know , I know . And yeah , we had a great time and we traveled all over the world going to territories , seeing how they would market movies in different territories and stuff .

Norma 6:01

Our annual meetings , because every year we had an annual meeting , and it would mostly be in London . It was in London , right .

Rob Hollocks 6:07

Yeah , it was in London , we had a couple , we did one in Mexico , in Cabo . Oh , the Mexico one .

Norma 6:11

So we would have all the top 12 territories , their MD , the head of finance , their marketing . I think those were the three representatives right from around the world and we would have them present their strategy plan and then we would also present our strategy plan .

Rob Hollocks 6:26

Yeah , we'd talk about what we had coming up .

Norma 6:27

Yeah , the upcoming slate , so they knew and they could prepare . But those meetings were one of my memorable events because when you're around the table it felt like we were like the United Nations right ?

Rob Hollocks 6:41

Yeah , it was a bit like that , wasn't it ? Way better organized as well , and more fun , and more fun .

Norma 6:47

And more fun , because it always happened where the French were always made fun of , right , the Brits , and then , excuse me , you got two Brits here .

Rich 6:55

I know , I know .

Norma 6:57

I was just saying culturally , everyone would just be , you know , pushing buttons . But , more importantly , it was almost a state of the union where we were all together and it was this camaraderie because we had to . We had a number to meet right and where maybe one territory didn't do so well , they put pressure on the other territory , but at the end of the day we were sharing ideas . And that was one thing , rob , that you did really , really well . You were really good at , you know , instilling collaboration amongst everybody and having us all work together , because that those are , those are a lot of countries that you were responsible , but it's so important .

Rob Hollocks 7:36

I think you know this . You know everybody's too often in companies , particularly to get siloed . They're in their little boxes and they work together and you know it's almost like always joke about it being like Flash Gordon . It's like Ming the Merciless he likes to set everybody against each other so he can rule it's tribalism .

Rob Hollocks 7:50

Yeah , exactly , but with these guys they're a great bunch and they had a lot of good ideas . The interesting thing for me coming over to the US , which is such a huge market , is that when you look at the international markets they're all so different so stuff that works here won't work in southern europe or northern europe or scandinavia , whatever , and you have to tweak and change everything to make it work in those markets . And in we really tried really hard to make sure those guys had a say in what they did . We were able to formulate plans that worked for them and stuff wasn't just imposed on them , you know , because very often you'd get something and be like this is how we're going to market it across the world . That's like that's not gonna work in Japan .

Rob Hollocks 8:27

You know , they don't like horror movies , they're like this , they like that . You know there's all these different nuances , so it was really fascinating as well , working with these different cultures and going to see these people and Understanding how their markets worked . Just right .

Rich 8:41

Yeah , it's like being in a bubble , you know . For that time you were there because you're're almost cut off from the outside world . You're living in your own world . It's selling stories , basically .

Rich 8:51

Selling films to other people .

Rob Hollocks 8:53

It must have been an amazing feeling . Oh , it was fun . We were in a great time , we had so many great movies . We had so many stories . Is this the one ?

Rich 8:58

where you told me someone was no , no , no , no . Oh my God , I shouldn't say it Wasn't Rob , was it ? No , no , it wasn't .

Norma 9:06

Rob it wasn't Rob , no , but it was fun because I mean outside of just a camaraderie , right and becoming because we were , we became friends and we were a family .

Rich 9:15

When you watch , say , Star Wars or a Star Trek film . If you're a fan , you're a fan , you can enjoy

International Marketing at Paramount Pictures

Rich 9:20

it , whatever . Why joy whatever ? Why do you think there is such a cultural difference in every country ? How you market ? Japan I could take , I understand , but France , germany , Spain might be different to the UK , to the US . Why do you think it is just so different or you have to market so differently ?

Rob Hollocks 9:37

I think it really comes down to the culture . I think because there's so many little nuances . I mean , good example is actually horror is a great example of that .

Rob Hollocks 9:44

You know horror films , Religious-based horror does really well in religious countries . So like Catholic-based countries like Italy , Spain , they do really well with that . You know South America doesn't work so well in other markets . Germany is huge for some reason , I don't know why , but they also love science fiction , you know , and things like Star Trek . There was another good example In certain markets it just resonates with them , like Germany , some of the European markets , the UK , Australia , that kind of thing , but it just didn't work in other markets .

Rob Hollocks 10:12

That didn't work in places like Spain and Italy . They didn't care , they didn't have the history behind it , that kind of stuff , and it's hard to explain . I think it really does come down to a lot of cultural nuances that we maybe don't realize sometimes . One of the great things about doing that job is I think I learned so much about how different we really are On the surface , even English and Americans . They seem so similar on the surface but when you get into it there's still a lot of nuances and differences that you don't realize until you start to dig into it . And that's kind of what made it fun for me . It's just learning from these really good marketers in territories how different do things differently , and sometimes you could take things from different markets and apply them to the US , which was another .

Norma 10:54

The creativity and I felt like their budgets were also more restricted .

Rob Hollocks 10:57

Yeah .

Norma 10:57

And so they had to get savvy , like really creatively savvy with , okay , what promotions they do , and also with some of the IP , the franchises , certain characters resonated more in countries right and that could be because of publishing the books .

Norma 11:12

It was also because of just merchandising , maybe certain toys of certain characters did really really well and , as a result , now that character is very dominant , and so they were very clever on leveraging what is it that's working that pre-awareness or that attachment and heightening it , and so what we were responsible for was making sure that they were being set up to succeed and being their voice in Home Office right .

Rich 11:36

Did you ever amend or edit a film to fit a market ?

Rob Hollocks 11:40

No , not direct , not for marketing purposes . There would be edits required for censorship , like certain things you can show in some countries and others . But from that point of view , we wouldn't edit the movie but we would work around it .

Rob Hollocks 11:50

You know , like Norm was saying , we'd change artwork , we'd change marketing campaigns we'd focus on different elements of the movie to try and make it work better in those markets . You touched on another really good point there about we didn't to the US . Our budgets were fairly small . I don't think that's a bad thing , though I mean you see , but even in filmmaking , it was Wes Craven who said that . You know , big budget is the enemy of creativity .

Rob Hollocks 12:11

You're forced to be creative you're forced to do things differently and that's really exciting . I mean , it's one of the things I love about independent film is that you don't have a lot of money , so you have to think outside of the box and try and figure out ways to do things when you don't have $100 million to spend on special effects .

Rich 12:26

That sounds like what's going on that anyone has at the moment .

Rob Hollocks 12:29

Yeah , exactly that's true , yeah .

Norma 12:31

But you know , you will see , though , in one of the bigger movies , because it is costly to make those adaptations theatrically . But you will see in the bigger movies where , for example , maybe there's a baseball game being played and maybe what they'll do is they'll superimpose and they'll put soccer right in certain countries . Or instead of eating I don't know hamburger , maybe they're eating noodles .

Rich 12:51

Sure .

Norma 12:51

Right , so little things like that , they'll do tweaks . Or maybe they're eating noodles , right ? So little things like that , they'll do tweaks .

Rich 12:55

But going back to what you just said about budget . So we were at the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival a couple months ago in April . Little bit about me . My background is not from the entertainment industry , not from your side , it's the other side . So we provide as a company , we provide home entertainment in terms of cinema rooms .

Rich 13:12

I look at this as an an audience member . I mean , I love film , I absolutely love film and the films that you love , you know , Star Trek , uh , science fiction my eyes light up when I see anything like that . But the point I was trying to make was we went to this film festival . We watched shorts , so they had four or five shorts and maybe some were five , 10 , 15 , 20 minutes long maximum , and they were so engrossing okay , and they would have been made on a small budget . Do you remember the one where the Chinese woman was living under the house and she'd escaped some human trafficking ring ? But it was so engrossing , it was like I was watching something on Netflix . It was believable . When you see something like that , you realise it's more the story and how it's actually gritty . These people have no other choice other than just to just to act it out themselves .

Norma 14:00

Because they don't have special effects .

Rich 14:01

I don't have you know , loads of extras . Yeah , I think it was three people in that , three or four people , but it was . It was so believable .

Rob Hollocks 14:07

It was really good . Yeah , for me , I think , storytelling it's taking a hit these days , you know , particularly in some of these bigger movies , I mean , it's all about the effects and spectacle and then they forget about characters and people . And to me you've got to have great characters , you've got to tell a good story If people aren't moved by the people , by the characters and the stories you're telling the rest of it nothing matters .

Rob Hollocks 14:28

You see that so often now with movies that fail because they're spectacular , throw everything at the wall , kind of things , but there's no art to them .

Norma 14:34

And then , unfortunately , sometimes then it becomes repetitive , because you know , xyz movie did really well for the special effects , then there's a copycat and then it just doesn't feel like where's the authentic , where's the creativity , where is really the innovation ? And it is on the story and it's the characters . So , rob , which brings me into what you're doing now , so you left Paramount . You were there for a total how many years ?

Rob Hollocks 14:57

Yeah , I think it was 14 years , 14 years Wow .

Norma 15:01

Wow , good 14 years , and then you decided to go off on your own .

Rob Hollocks 15:05

Yeah , I kind of I went off and I started a small digital agency and you know we were doing sort of viral videos and online content right back at the beginning of that sort of renaissance . So we did some really fun stuff with Fox , we worked on some stuff for the Die Hard movie and we did stuff for Avatar and some stuff for Star Wars and we would create these online viral videos and stuff .

Rob Hollocks 15:27

And that was fun for a while .

Rob Hollocks 15:29

But that's what sort of started gravitating more into production really . And then I did this web series the watcher , yeah , yeah , that was kind of first venture into original content . That did pretty well for us . Actually , it was on a streaming service , long gone now , called blip blip TV and it was one of their top dramas for a while . After that I moved into animation . I was working on a bunch of animated features . I worked for a company in Pasadena called Duncan Studios who do some great work . They worked on the .

Rob Hollocks 15:57

Iron Giant and Mary Poppins Returns and all that kind of stuff .

Norma 16:01

Were you writing directing no , no , with ?

Rob Hollocks 16:02

that I was kind of more producing . I was doing a finance role as well . I was seeing the budgets and all that kind of stuff .

Rich 16:07

Iron Giant was amazing . Is that the one with Vin Diesel was the voice ? Yes , yeah , it was amazing . It was a beautiful movie .

Rob Hollocks 16:12

I mean , they didn't work on the original , but they did a director's edition where Brad Bird wanted to do some of the scenes he Couldn't do originally . So , they reanimated a lot of those scenes and brought them to life and added them into the feature . So it's pretty , it's just a great movie .

Rich 16:23

But to go back to what you were just saying about story , I mean , I'm not that my kids love that . Yeah , we've watched it so many times and the story in it is so good . It's funny , yeah , and you know what . It's not real , yeah , but you're watching a cartoon , but the story is , it's got so much in it that you you really get drawn into it . Right , it was just your point before the stories got lost everything and it's one .

Rob Hollocks 16:42

I think it's one of the best animals , absolutely . I love that film , so yeah , so I did that for a while and then then I ended up working for riot games for a while , uh , on arcane , the animated series there , and all the while I was kind of working on my own projects and stuff . Then I met a woman out of Augusta , georgia , a lady called Amy Bailey , who had a production company called Beyond Casual Media , and so she was working on a movie , a science fiction movie , with Luke Hemsworth , and the director was a mutual friend and he asked me to come on board as a producer . And I'm like I don't know , at that point I was kind of getting disillusioned with the industry . I had to come down , come down .

Norma 17:14

Because you were predominantly producing at that point .

Rob Hollocks 17:20

Yeah , I was producing really at that point Usually finance or production , one of those two . I ended up going down there and it was just fantastic . It was a small independent movie , amazing group of people , great actors . The production crew were fantastic . It was one of the few sets I'd been on where people went screaming at each other and getting angry everybody had a great time and amy was fantastic .

Rob Hollocks 17:38

She just kind of ran this thing . She's , we were . I used to joke about her being like james garner in the great escape . She's the fixer . You know , you'd say things and things would just turn up I love people like that .

Rob Hollocks 17:47

Yeah , but it's so funny . I mean she was , she was great and you know , we we got on really well and became friends and her and her husband run a chain of restaurants down there called called Reinhardt's . But she's written script , she's been producing stuff and so we end up partnering and so we've just we're finishing our third movie right now and a few more to go as well , so that was very lucky . I mean , meeting her was just like you say you meet people that you connect with and you know what skills complemented each other . The three movies I've written and directed , uh , with her . We did in georgia with the same crew and it's just , it's a fantastic experience . It's working with a great group of people passionate about what they do , who care , who want to learn , and you know it's like just having a lot of fun while trying to do tell great stories to entertain people right .

Rich 18:33

what are the films about ? What was encounter was a science fiction film Encounter was a science fiction movie .

Rob Hollocks 18:36

Yeah , it was about a guy who they basically find this thing in a field and they bring it home . Luke's character was this guy who was paralysed in a car accident and so this thing latches onto him and allows him to walk again ,

Cultural Differences in Global Film Marketing

Rob Hollocks 18:49

and so it's a really interesting science fiction story . We also worked with a couple of other sort of science fiction genre stars as well on that as well , which is a lot of fun . And then the second one we did was called Applewood , which was a supernatural thriller about time travel as well . It had some science fiction elements to it . Then we did a horror movie called Mr Sleep , which is on streaming right now if you want to watch it , which is basically like Halloween those types of stories the mad killer on the loose kind of thing .

Rob Hollocks 19:14

And the one we're just on post on right now is called the Observance , which I really like . It's probably my favorite . It's a cult movie . It's about a woman who's in a car accident and she's in a coma . When she wakes up , her husband and daughter join this weird cult . They've taken over this little community that she's in and she's the only one who thinks something's wrong with it and she tries to get the bottom of it . All this kind of stuff and it's not murder , mystery and mayhem yeah , they're very diverse this time .

Norma 19:39

Now you have your own production company yes , yeah , we do , and so tell me how did you make that change in that leap to start your own company as opposed to working for others ? You know ?

Rob Hollocks 19:48

it was gonna say it was a gradual thing , but it really wasn't it was . You know , I'd been wanting to do it for a long time and , you know , just hadn't met the right people like in .

Norma 19:56

It really was .

Rob Hollocks 19:57

You know , I've partnered with some people in the past who things didn't work out or they're the usual thing , people who aren't maybe a little little dodgy and stuff and aren't quite what you know can't do what they say they're gonna do . And you know , that's where the point . I was getting disillusioned when I met Amy , you know she I liked about her . She's very straight-talking , she's very organised , very focused . You know we had a similar love of movies . So it was really just the minute we met it clicked and we took off from there , I guess , an interesting movie story . One of the things that kind of really made me take the jump from corporate to kind of do my own thing was the movie Chef , if you've seen that .

Rich 20:31

The Don .

Rob Hollocks 20:32

Favreau movie .

Rich 20:32

Fantastic film .

Rob Hollocks 20:39

I was working for this company , I was having a really tough time with them . They were for a whole bunch of reasons , and I remember one day I'm just like you know what , I'm not going to go in . I'm just I don't know what to do . I'm just going to , I just don't want to go in what were you fed up ?

Norma 20:44

you were just fed up with the struggling , with the corporate okay nonsense and the politics and all that .

Rob Hollocks 20:48

You know the rubbish , you know all the stuff that gets in the way of doing things . And so I was like , you know , I just so I ended up going to the movie theater and I went and watched chef and literally I was watching that and I was like , wow , this is my whole life up here , you know , when he's working for that pretty much he does .

Rich 21:00

It goes from being in a restaurant , yeah , and the guys always stop in his creativity no you can't do that , you've got to do this because everybody likes this .

Rob Hollocks 21:06

Don't try anything new , yeah and he gives up and I was like , okay , I have to do this . And that , literally , was the thing that kick-started me into making that change .

Norma 21:14

But you were always , you were feeling it right .

Rob Hollocks 21:16

I was feeling it , even in the corporate gig .

Norma 21:18

Do you feel it ?

Rob Hollocks 21:18

Yeah .

Norma 21:18

What did you feel ? Were you getting drawn to ? Wanting to write , to create your own ?

Rob Hollocks 21:23

Yeah , I mean they always say that you end up gravitating to an industry , that you get gravitating to something , that you want to do part of it . But you know , I didn't have a traditional . I never went to film school and all that kind of stuff . I studied marketing and business .

Rob Hollocks 21:37

I didn't study filmmaking and I thought you know I don't really have the skills to do this and the more I kind of got into it , the more I would write and produce these little viral videos or shoot my own stuff and everything . I kind of started to get more confidence with that and it was a combination of just like I . We talked about it earlier . You know sometimes , if not now , then when You've gotta make that leap , and I'd become so disillusioned with corporations , particularly big corporate entertainment companies , who don't care about story , they just care about money , they just care about bums on seats . They're not don't care about quality , they don't care about filmmaking , they care about it's a mass market .

Norma 22:11

Some don't even care about the people . It's become a mass market . Yeah , they care about the people . They produce what ?

Rob Hollocks 22:14

they want and that you know that's really important to me . It's like you know I'd be on sets and you'd see people treating people poorly and badly and you'd be in the office and see that and it's just like more and more frustration with that and it's like this isn't the way to do people properly and get the best out of them not . You empower people as opposed to berate them all the time .

Rich 22:35

Exactly , and it's funny , what you just said . How many times have people turned around and said , when we've interviewed them , that movies , something in a movie . They saw a film and it changed their life ? Yes , and like you just said , because it's something , you're telling a story about , something about someone , about someone's life , and when you recognize some of your life .

Norma 22:58

When you recognize yourself on the picture . Yeah , exactly Like . Hey , that's me you said that's my life .

Rich 23:03

It makes such a difference when you hear something , someone says something , you know what . That's right , yeah , because someone's written that . Someone's heard that somewhere .

Norma 23:12

Absolutely .

Speaker 1 23:18

And as a storyteller .

Norma 23:18

You want that , you want to move people , you want them to escape , whatever it is that you're trying , whatever you're trying to draw them in , and it is the power of film , a power cinema yeah , and we talk about a lot the stuff that we do .

Rob Hollocks 23:24

It's like you know , if we can make someone feel something in the work that we do , if they feel joy or happiness , or maybe they're afraid or apprehensive , or if they we can emotion in our audience , then we've done our job . If they connect with it in some way , whatever that is even if they hate it , it makes them feel something Right , right .

Norma 23:41

And if they go home and talk about it and are terrified , they can't sleep and then have to sleep with the lights on because of the horror film that they just watched . It's good , it's all good . Because we love the horror films . Oh yeah , no , I don't .

Rob Hollocks 23:57

It's quite the opposite .

Norma 23:58

It's quite the opposite .

Rob Hollocks 24:00

Well , my wife Trish . She hates horror movies , like Mr Sleep . She's like I can't even watch this . And then when she finally watched it , she was like this for half an hour .

Norma 24:09

Oh , no , really , but the name of your company . Tell us about about Bloody Marvelous .

Rob Hollocks 24:12

I have a project that I'm working on with a friend of mine trying to get off the ground for years actually which is called Mac One , and it's about the story of the land speed record .

Rich 24:20

OK , richard .

Rob Hollocks 24:21

Noble , no , richard Noble , oh , richard Noble , oh , of course , so back in 1997 .

Rich 24:27

Bluebird , blackbird , what was it called ? Thrust , thrust that ?

Rob Hollocks 24:30

was a trust . Sorry , I was thinking about that Very odd name .

Rich 24:33

Anyway , are you sure it's about ? Yeah ?

Rob Hollocks 24:39

That was clearly a long time ago but you know it was a really interesting story and Dan a friend of mine , he writes the story and everything . But basically it's a story about this group of English people crazy eccentric English people who built this car with no money . You know , kind of beg , borrow and steal this thing . They took it out to the desert here , black Rock , over in Nevada .

Norma 24:59

Yeah .

Rob Hollocks 24:59

Raced against an American team that was well funded , had millions of dollars and all the rest of it , and they ended up breaking the land speed record . They were the first car to go beyond the speed of sound . It's a fantastic story , I mean , it's such . To me it's like the Italian job meets Ocean's .

Norma 25:13

Eleven . That's what came to mind when you were describing it .

Rich 25:15

They did have a fighter pilot , andrew , someone or other . Yeah , that's right . Yeah , the guy who drove the car yeah , he was an ex-fighter pilot he took over .

Rob Hollocks 25:22

Richard was originally going to drive the car but his wife he'd already broken the record once , but he was in a really bad accident . He nearly died and she didn't want him doing it and he ended up giving it over to andy and andy drove this car . When you talk to them and you , you hear the real story . It's like I can't believe no one's made this into a movie yet , because it is like

Transition to Independent Filmmaking

Rob Hollocks 25:40

such a great story yeah , it's a bit like uh ford versus ferrari .

Rob Hollocks 25:43

Yeah , that type of story yeah the long of the short of it is richard noble , the guy who was behind the whole thing . Fantastic guy , he's like biggles , you know , he's like . I say jolly good show . Old chap , and his favorite saying was bloody marvelous , bloody marvelous , like oh , great name for a production company . It's a great name for a production company especially one of the genres that you're homing in on which is horror . So that's , that's kind of how we got stuck right , but yeah , so the Richard Noble .

Rich 26:10

Was he the guy that had the Noble sports car as well ? Was that a a different Noble , I think ?

Rob Hollocks 26:14

it's a different one . He was a tailor . He sold cloth .

Rich 26:16

He did all these weird things Same thing he wasn't an engineer by trade .

Rob Hollocks 26:20

He kind of got into it and then was so focused he built this team around him and they made this thing . He was able to kind of blag a couple of jet engines off the RAF that was about to be scrapped .

Rob Hollocks 26:29

Great story and he had these two guys , these two engineers work with him , who were just brilliantly eccentric and they were kind of almost . It's one of those things where if you filmed it , it would be Bill Nighy and Jim Broadbent those types of characters . And the steering was sort of a three-wheeler thing the rear wheel was the single wheel and the two wheels were in front , and so they got this Mini and they welded it together to see if it's just full of that stuff . It's such a great story .

Norma 27:02

You know what , rob ? Even just hearing you describe this part , because , knowing you from the corporate side , you were always so creative . We would have brainstorming meetings and he'd be like , well , what about this and what about that ? And we'd be sitting there like , yeah , what about this ? And he would allow everyone to build off ideas , but you would create the environment so those ideas could be birthed . Oh , you're very kind , thank you . And so , as we see you on this side , it's well .

Rob Hollocks 27:30

Of course , you would have been struggling with being in a box right , and the more the sort of corporate culture grabbed hold of movie making the sort of , the more difficult it became . Where you know , people were , it was a data and research groups , and it was never about creativity or art . You know that sounds pompous , I know , but it's true . You know , movie making is still an art form . It's hard . It's about telling stories , creative stories , not manufacturing something with the committee that oh well , this works , so we'll just copy this and template this story into something else . I love that , though , and the thing about working with other people for me is that you know there's no monopoly on good ideas .

Rob Hollocks 28:09

No , everyone has a great idea , right .

Rob Hollocks 28:15

I mean anyone can have it . I mean , you know when we're making our movies . I mean I like to think I'm very collaborative as a director and producer and it's like people come up to me and say I have an idea for this , and it's like no , no what do you say ?

Rob Hollocks 28:24

And ?

Rob Hollocks 28:25

you know , in the last movie we did the lead actress , kate . She had this idea for this scene . We were doing and , and I was like that's great , we should do that . You know , and I love working with actors . I've always enjoyed that . They , you know especially I find I work with what stage actors , so they tend to be very serious about it . They'll study and they'll spend time rehearsing and understanding the characters and stuff , which I love . You know , I I did a bit of stage work when I was back in the UK and here , and you know that that kind of time spent Figuring out who the characters are and what motivates them and stuff .

Rob Hollocks 28:55

Like there's one guy , alec , I've worked with in all of my movies . He's just this brilliantly underrated actor and he'll go away . He'll write me like a two-page sheet on who this character is . He'll send me his playlist of music oh wow , and I love that . He immerses himself in those roles . But the thing is it's like you know I was . My view with them is like you know , I've written the character on a page . When I hand it off to you , I want you to take it further . You're the one who's going to bring it to life . So tell me what you think . One of the characters we wrote he had this . I had this idea for a backstory for him and he came up with the complete opposite and I'm like you know what that actually works . Love that .

Rich 29:30

It's so exciting to to talk to with creative people , whatever they do and and they come up with an idea you suddenly think that's a great idea we should actually make that happen I think when you can work , when your ego is left at the door yeah , and you , you , you will then you can allow other people to be the creative that you need them to be . Because you're right , everyone can have a good idea . Why ? Why should you not champion that ? If someone's idea is better than yours , why would you not believe that ? Right , if it makes what you're doing better .

Rob Hollocks 29:59

That's the only important thing .

Norma 30:01

And you can work off , build off each other's ideas , absolutely Right .

Rich 30:05

We interviewed a while ago . We interviewed Michael Grillo Amazing guy .

Rob Hollocks 30:09

Oh yeah , he's a great actor . I like him a lot .

Rich 30:11

What did Michael say ? He said it's all about the project .

Norma 30:14

Oh , it's all about the project . Everyone who signs up working on a film . You have to be . It's about the film , yeah , Regardless where you are below the line , above the line , sideways , you know , wherever it is , it's the film . You have to do it for the film , yeah .

Rich 30:27

It really is , and that's what makes a . It's a great film .

Rob Hollocks 30:31

It really is and we've been lucky . I mean , we haven't worked . Most of our people we've worked with have been sort of TV actors . They're not huge stars or anything . But you know we worked with Luke Hemsworth on Encounter . He was a great , lovely guy . You know he's a trailer and he needs this and he never went to the trailer .

Norma 30:48

He would hang out with us and go drinking crew .

Rob Hollocks 30:50

Yeah , he wanted to be around with the crew and everybody else that makes a big difference and on this movie we just finished we worked with Ted Raimi Okay , who's just the nicest man ever , Just brilliant .

Rob Hollocks 31:00

And again he came on set and he was , like you know , I love it when he came on and introduced himself to everybody and he would say , look , I've got this idea for this line . Can I try this ? I and he had some great ad libs in the movie which we kept in . You want to create an environment for people , where people feel empowered to do their best work and they're not afraid to go . Hey , what about this ?

Rich 31:19

If you stifle those ideas , in effect you're stifling the project , aren't you ?

Rob Hollocks 31:24

Yeah , and you want people to have a good time . At the end of the day , what we're doing is we're not curing cancer , it's not rocket science , blah , blah , blah , cliche , cliche . But you know , we want to tell things , tell stories , entertain people .

Norma 31:35

but we want to have a good time doing it .

Rob Hollocks 31:36

So we're lucky and privileged to be in this industry that's important to do that ?

Norma 31:40

Yeah , because when you cultivate that culture and you're being very inclusive of everyone , regardless of their title and their ranking . That was one thing you taught me . That's one thing . I was always observing your management style and you would bring in the coordinator , the interns . I feel like interns wanted intern because you were leading the marketing team because you felt like everyone had a voice . They do .

Rob Hollocks 32:03

Everybody has something , and if they're not contributing , then maybe they're learning something .

Norma 32:08

Right , right , well , speaking of voices , I have a little gift for you . Gift , yes , yes , and that's because I have said this multiple times to people , and I said this , I think , to you when we were on our Zoom call , but I don't know if you realize how much your leadership affected me . So here's a little gift , because your collaboration , your inclusivity and your creative spirit is something that I've carried through all my times that . I've been working and I wanted to emulate you , Rob . You really , really , really did affect me .

Rich 32:47

I think that deserves a round of applause from everyone .

Rob Hollocks 32:50

I feel so . Michael Scott right now , I know I don't know what to say you have to give an acceptance speech . Yeah , exactly what's a ?

Norma 32:56

little plaque say for all of our listeners World's Greatest Boss Award .

Rob Hollocks 33:00

You're the best .

Norma 33:01

Thank you . Yes , you are the best . I just yeah , you're one of those people that you just affect . You affect everybody , you affected everybody that entered the room and so now to hear you venturing and doing all your films , it's like , yes , we need people like .

Rob Hollocks 33:17

We need more people like you creating I , I'm just out there , yeah there's a lot of good friends out there we do .

Norma 33:23

We already have this conversation that they're taking over hollywood .

Rob Hollocks 33:28

Yeah , no , thank you , rob yeah , I'm lost words , thank you . Thank you , that's really kind of you no , you are , you are .

Norma 33:33

I'm so excited for everything that you're doing . Thank you , that's really kind of you .

Rob Hollocks 33:38

No , you are , you are . I'm so excited for everything that you're doing Right there . Thank you , it's going to go on my mantelpiece at home . Yes , you can show everybody . Anyone does a Zoom call . That's going to be in the background .

Norma 33:46

That'll be in the background . Thank you so much .

Rob Hollocks 33:51

You know what I mean . It's really nice of you to say that And've always , always tried to be like that . You know , I think one thing corporate life is very good at is teaching you how not to treat people . Yes , it's always been really important to me to work with people who who enjoy what they do , who are passionate and they want to learn . One of the things Amy and I agree on and she's great , this as well is that whenever we do a production , you will have experienced crew , but we'll also bring new people on

Creating Horror Films with Character Depth

Rob Hollocks 34:17

and we'll get people from the local colleges to come and work on the film , or we'll bring people who , like on the last movie we did , we had this guy , eric I hope you won't mind me mentioning him , but he'd been an electrician for a long time and all that , and he was wanting to do something different and we got him to come on as one of the grips on the on the thing and he was absolutely fantastic . He took to it like a duck to water . So much so he's doing . He's now working with the grip company and doing projects with them afterwards , so he'd never done it before , but we wanted to give him a chance because he , he really was a nice guy , cared about it and he was so amazing . I mean , literally we're like this guy's he . A couple of examples on the last week we did this .

Rob Hollocks 34:53

There were two shots in this movie that I'm really excited about . I mean it's not the whole movie . One is a monologue that one of the characters gives and it's literally it's about four and a half minutes uncut of just him talking . And we just do this very slow . Push on him what he talks about when his wife was in the coma in the night , the car accident , what happened to him why he ended up joining this cult of the night , the car accident , what happened to him , why he ended up joining this , this cult , and it's a really I think it's a really powerful scene . But this guy , eric , he worked the the dolly , he was pushing the dolly and he did it perfectly . First take I mean it's incredible . And then the other scene which another one it's like the biggest thing I've ever done we , we did this time lapse of the , the main character in the coma , she's in the hospital bed and she's all bashed up and over the time the bandage disappeared .

Rob Hollocks 35:37

And it was a single take . It was a single 60-minute take without cut and it was like choreographing an orchestra . It was the most fun thing I've ever done like that , literally you know watch . Okay , doctors , come in , do this , take the cast off . And and it was . And we had again eric on a dolly with a light going , rolling it back and forth to make the days look like they're going past .

Rob Hollocks 36:00

So this thing , it's probably a three-minute segment when it runs at time . But it was just very cool and he was amazing , but it was just the fact you could stand there and actually .

Rob Hollocks 36:09

I'd say it was like directing an orchestra .

Rob Hollocks 36:11

I'm standing there going , ok , wheeling this . Ok , now you have a seizure . Ok , now , this isn't husband , come in , sit down , do this . And it was just brilliant . It was just so much fun to do stuff like that and and . But that's not just me , that's the crew , it's everybody knowing what they have to do , everybody trying their best . You know , it's a big achievement . I mean that I think I don't know , it was just a great shot and we couldn't do . I couldn't do that without a good team of people around me .

Rich 36:34

Well , you're pulling someone from obscurity and giving them a position of responsibility which is , you know , if you think about one of our pillars , you've paid it forward , you've given something back to someone , you've given someone else an opportunity to do something . You don't know where he's going to go with his career . And I think if more people could just spend a little bit of time just helping out the person behind them , or person two or three back , absolutely the world would be a better place .

Rich 36:58

We're not getting too deep but why is it wrong to be nice ?

Norma 37:03

Why would you not want to help someone else , give someone a break ? That's the other thing , because it's not only in this industry , but many industries . Oh , you have to check the box , you have to have a degree . It has to be this way you have to look this way , you have to look that way . But if you have talent , if you're passionate , you have passion .

Rob Hollocks 37:18

I take passion over a piece of paper any time . There you go , me too .

Norma 37:21

Same here . Same here Because you can teach the other things but passion , the willingness and wanting to stay late and work hard .

Rob Hollocks 37:29

You can't necessarily teach someone that that comes from within it is , and it's all about a team , teamwork and stuff . And you know , one of things that always bugs me about movies is when it's a film by whatever the director's name is , it's not , it's a film by everybody who was part of that , and it doesn't matter who , it is right .

Speaker 1 37:45

It could be the .

Rob Hollocks 37:46

You know craft services how important that is . You know having the right food and snacks around . It's the PA who's running up and down for 12 hours getting people and doing this and making sure people are . Without any of those people , it wouldn't work properly , right , right , well , it's a village . It's a village . It's a village that takes to pull something together those villagers , those villagers .

Norma 38:03

I know those villagers yeah .

Rob Hollocks 38:05

You can't stay hungry . You have to feed them Over the time and you've got to be careful because you've got to that team .

Rob Hollocks 38:11

You know like anything , you know they're great people in that team there are people who maybe aren't quite as strong that you have to figure out whether or not they're in the right place and if they're not , can you put someone else , and if they're not , do you have to leave them behind as you move on to the next one . So it's not easy and it's not all . You know , cuddly , cuddly . You do have to think about the good of the group .

Rob Hollocks 38:28

I think , saying the stuff we've been doing down in in Augusta , this was our third movie together and it was really interesting . I did an interview down there with the local press and the guy was talking to me and he said it's interesting , you use the same actors , you use the same crew . He said it's like you've built a modern day repertory company and I'd never thought of that and I thought you know what ? That's a really good analogy and I understand now why people like you know whether it's Spielberg or Nolan or whatever , why they like to use the same people , because they trust them and you have a shorthand together and if things are working well , it makes the whole thing so much more fulfilling .

Rich 39:02

But they know you as well , don't they ?

Norma 39:03

Yeah , and they have their soldiers there . They know when shit's a fan , they know they can rely on their superpowers to handle it and still keep everyone intact .

Rich 39:14

It's no different to what we do on a much smaller scale . We have the same team working with us and they're great and they know us , we know them and it's so much easier .

Norma 39:23

But , Rob , why horror ? I know you talked about it with your being introduced to it , but what's the draw with horror for you ?

Rob Hollocks 39:30

For me , for you , I think it's probably because I grew up with it .

Rob Hollocks 39:35

To be honest with you , it's going back to the Draxler , at least it's just exposure with your mom , you know , and the films that I remember from my childhood are things like you know , frankenstein , wolfman , creature from the Back Lagoon was a big one for me . I loved that movie . You know , the American Werewolf in London , those sorts of things . I like the genre and I think it's really interesting because I think good horror relies on great characters , because if you don't feel anything for the people in the horror movie , you don't care about them and it has no stakes . But you know , I think it's more than that , than anything else . But I'm really interested in characters . I like people and I like interesting characters and stories .

Rob Hollocks 40:10

And so you know the latest one , the Observance , the new one we're doing , does have some horrific moments in it . There's a couple of nasty things that the cult does , but it's really interesting to me about the characters and about how you take someone this woman in this example , who's been in a coma , who's really ? When she wakes up , everyone's against her , the town's turned against her , her husband's turned against her , her daughter hates her and she refuses to bow down to that and just become one of the sheep . She stands up and I think that to me is a really interesting story about finding that kind of courage . And also the bad guys , the two villains in this movie . Villains are always fascinating because nobody ever thinks they're a villain . The villains never think they're villains , they think they're doing the right thing , and so it becomes so fascinating . If you can create interesting characters that people connect with , then to me that's the most satisfying thing .

Norma 41:04

It's interesting that you said the villain never thinks he's a villain . I always think it's the opposite . But that's interesting .

Rob Hollocks 41:10

I mean that's why people regard them . But most villains they're not doing it , just to twirl their mustache and do they're doing it because you know they , they want to make the world a better place , or they're trying to do this , or you know , and you know , sometimes they're out for money and stuff as well , but they don't never regard themselves as villains . They've always got some reason to do it , unless they're justification yeah , exactly , and I think that's what makes that's what good villains really interesting .

Rob Hollocks 41:31

You know that they have this , this depth of them . For example , the cult thing , the guy who runs the church . He has this partner who's clearly a psychopath . He actually believes in what he's doing . He has this conviction that what he's doing is going to change the world for the better . That makes him much more compelling . You see that he's got conviction in what he does . He totally believes .

Norma 41:54

That's his truth , right ? Yeah , it's his truth . It's just like with any human person , right ? Any family members , Even though what you're thinking , what they're doing or what they're saying is completely opposite to your beliefs , but it comes across . If they come across feeling it , then you're like , wow , they really do believe it . Yeah , absolutely , and I think you know we're shifting perspectives a really interesting storytelling aspect anyway . Well , Rob , one of the things we like to do on our show is we have this box of cards of questions , Okay , and the questions vary from different themes dreams , achievements , likes , dislikes , but deep . So we'd like to ask our guests to choose a card , any card , I can just pick one for you .

Norma 42:34

Pick one . Read it out loud . So , choose a card , any card . I can just pick one . Yeah , pick one , read it out loud . We give you an opportunity to answer it first , and then we will take turns answering that card .

Rob Hollocks 42:42

Okay Question . So the question is when ?

Norma 42:48

do you feel most alive .

Rob Hollocks 42:49

Thanks Oof All right , do I have to answer first ? You do , yes , do you know ? Know what ? It's pretty easy for me to be honest with you I mean outside of

Building a Film Family and Creative Environment

Rob Hollocks 43:00

you know , family and stuff that when I'm on a set and when I'm making a movie , that's when I feel like I love every moment of that . Everything about it is just fantastic being with people , being around people , watching amazing stuff gets done , you know , and just feeling . And also you know , sometimes , when you're the writer as well , when you've written something , you see it come to life . And sometimes it comes to life in a very unexpected way that you didn't see , but it's better than what you saw . I love it . I love being on a set . I love being around the people I work with on set . The cast and the crew that I work with are just the most wonderful group of people . They're like an extended family to me .

Norma 43:34

And I'm sure they feel it as well . I hope so . Yeah , we'll send them the survey later .

Rich 43:42

We've got one here . Actually , We'd like us to read it out .

Norma 43:45

We asked earlier . It's when right . Is that the question ?

Rob Hollocks 43:48

Yeah , when do you feel most alive ?

Norma 43:52

When I am doing the things I love , and that translates to being my most authentic self .

Rob Hollocks 44:00

Yeah .

Norma 44:01

And that could be here interviewing folks and just asking my questions , right , and the things that I would really want other people to know Mentoring when I'm drawing , when I'm doing me .

Rob Hollocks 44:14

Yeah .

Norma 44:15

When I'm being me . I think that's when I feel like I'm alive , because it's I could feel the , the triggers and the emotions , and it's the excitement like I will excite myself right and so yeah , absolutely yeah , rich , rich , yeah . Can we take a cut ?

Rich 44:32

no , I , I , I go , similar to what you said . So , putting a family aside , obviously , I would say I love creating . So if I'm creating something and that's a very broad term okay , I love it . I feel like I'm doing something . If I'm arranging something , I've never , never , had done anything like this in 56 years . I would never , under normal , normal circumstances , be sitting opposite you . Okay , so to be in an environment where I'm surrounded by extremely talented individuals , where I get to interview someone that's had an illustrious career in an industry like this , is amazing . Is when I live . It's because I'm learning , I'm looking , I'm learning . I love it . Yeah , you know , if I'm learning and I love it , yeah , you know , if I'm in my day-to-day , you know I'm out there meeting people and I'm putting us forward , I love it . You know , if I'm on the edge , it's I'm excited , yeah , and that's when I feel alive . It's just doing .

Rob Hollocks 45:28

I think creating and doing it's definitely a theme there isn't it yeah absolutely yeah , I know that's , it's . It's when you're creating stuff , when you're making something happen , when you're birthing things , you're being true to yourself . Yes , you know you're living your best life really , and it's . You can't beat that . There's nothing more exhilarating , agreed .

Norma 45:58

And you're being honest and it's important , you know , to , yes , to read the role , but what's more important is bringing yourself in the role , mm-hmm , you know , being honoring who you are , your voice , and bringing that voice to the role and not pretending to be someone else Right Another doctor , not your voice and bringing that voice to the role and not pretending to be someone else right Another doctor , not censoring yourself , exactly exactly , or being what you think the producer or director wants from you . It's really what's your gift ? Right , and showcasing that Absolutely so . Rob , we would love to get your words of advice . So at the very end of our segment here it's almost an open mic of a lot of the themes that keep coming back over and over again with our guests is inspiring others . What lessons have you learned ? What are your words of wisdom that you could share to the folks that are listening ?

Rob Hollocks 46:48

I'm qualified for that . But the thing for me , the thing that I've learned more than anything and it's in the quote that I've mentioned before it's like it's just don't give up , never give up . There's a great line from Nolan's Batman . Batman begins with why do we fall ? So we can get up ? Yes , and that's the thing I've learned in this is this is a tough industry . You know it will beat you down . I'm starting to sound like Rocky now .

Norma 47:12

It will beat you down .

Rob Hollocks 47:17

Here like Rocky now he will beat you down . Here we go , and it will . I mean , there have been times in my life where I've been despairing because I can't get stuff done or I haven't been able to move forward , I haven't been able to do what I wanted to do . Some pretty bad times where you know things fall through or you can't get something done or it fails or whatever , and it's so hard sometimes to just pick yourself up and do it . And there's that great line about we only fail when we give up .

Rob Hollocks 47:36

And I'd say to anyone doing anything , not just in this industry if you believe in it and you're passionate about it and it means the world to you , it's what's in your heart . Do not give up . Don't let anyone say no to you , don't anyone put you down , don't let anyone knock you back . Get up , keep fighting , because if it means that much to you , keep pushing through . And that's probably the best piece of advice I could and I've learned that , and I learned that the hard way . It's been a tough ride , it's been a really hard ride , but I know that if I would have given up at any point and I came very close to it several times- you mean going back to the corporate job ?

Rob Hollocks 48:11

Yeah , yeah , yeah , absolutely . And even even in the world of indie filmmaking , it's very hard to get anything done . It's very hard to find finance , to find distribution . When you do find distribution , sometimes it's not as good as they . It's made out of it . Whatever the thing is you , there's always lots of people ready to knock you down and tell you why you can't do something . Just tell them to shut up and move on . If you believe in it , give it your best shot , and it may well be you get to a point where you can't do it or you change your mind . That should be your decision and no one else's . Don't let anyone else influence you there , because then you'll get it for the rest of your life , I think .

Rich 48:45

That's lovely . It's so true . I read a line in a book a couple of days ago and it said success is never final , failure is never fatal . It's Similar as what you're just saying basically , you know , just just don't fear failure .

Rob Hollocks 48:58

Don't fear , you learn from it .

Rich 48:59

You always learn something from it .

Rob Hollocks 49:01

Yeah , fail , yeah , and if sometimes you know , sometimes it was in hindsight , maybe it was all right you failed , but actually something better comes along exactly you know , and and I get an example for me , just showing her it was like when I worked on encounter .

Rob Hollocks 49:14

I was ready to walk away from the industry . I'm done with it . I was so sick of it , I was so depressed I couldn't get anything done . I really had enough . And you know , luckily Paul , the director , had asked me to be on this film encounter and if I hadn't said yes and if I hadn't met Amy , I've done what I'd be doing now . But I wouldn't be happy . I can tell you that much . And it's just .

Rob Hollocks 49:36

There are times in life when , whatever it is and again it's not just about filmmaking , I think it's life where you know you've thrown so many curveballs or Bad stuff happens to you that shouldn't and whatever . And it's so easy to give up , especially these days when everything's so negative , but just just if you can Find it in yourself to move on . Find people , put people around you who will support you and tell you the right thing to move on . Put people around you who will support you and tell you the right thing . People around you are so important . Find people who will help you and support you and encourage you and not let you give up . And that's the thing . Again . Another part of it is you're not on your own . You don't have to be on your own .

Norma 50:09

I think we forget . I think oftentimes , when things are hard , we think it's oh , we're not doing the right thing , but if we persevere , yeah the universe is a lot more creative it is sometimes I feel like the you know universe is benevolent . It does want us to be happy yeah and I think when you're in your happy space , you never know when you're getting you're going to be given a gift ?

Rich 50:28

yeah , exactly , absolutely . I mean , don't you find also that if you throw negative thoughts out , you get the same back ? Yeah , you know . So if you just change , change the channel , yeah you know . Look at things slightly differently . Ignore that , try and push it out of your mind , try and think about positive . It is going to happen .

Norma 50:45

I will be able to do this yeah , yeah , yeah , not I'm going to , or yeah , I will , yeah , I can do this , yeah absolutely so that's what it's worth .

Rob Hollocks 50:55

That's my advice . It's worth a lot .

Rich 50:57

Thank you very much . Yeah exactly we're going to conquer the world .

Norma 51:02

Aw , rob . Well , thank you so much for Well . This time flew by so quickly , oh wow . Yeah , it's quick , yeah , we're almost over with our time .

Rich 51:09

I can see why you're the world his boss . I had a good team .

Norma 51:12

I had a good day , yeah , yeah well , you surround yourself good people , good people want to be with good . Yeah , I was that there's another thing .

Rob Hollocks 51:21

You know it's like you put your , you try and sort of people are smarter than you . You know most people don't . They're insecure and they want to surround people that they can feel superior to . But if you put trying , some with the best people you can who will challenge you and push you , then everyone gets better .

Norma 51:36

There you go , ah , thank you .

Rich 51:39

Well , that ends our show it is , and it's been a pleasure Thank you very much for coming in , thank you very much indeed Thank

Norma 51:46

you for tuning in to Energis Podcast , where ambition meets achievement

Words of Wisdom: Never Give Up

Norma 51:50

for tuning in to Energis Podcast , where ambition meets achievement . If today's stories energized you , share this episode with someone who needs that spark . Stay connected . Subscribe to our newsletter at nrjmediagroupcom and follow us on social media for more powerful insights . Until next time , stay inspired , stay bold and keep striving for greatness .

Speaker 5 52:21

Energy's podcast Is produced and hosted by Norma Garcia and Rich Reid the incredible talent behind us . We are highly engineered and edited by Rich Evirs . Our seriously curated director Is none other than David H Tanaka . Our talented music composer is Steve Devaney . Our devotion to motion graphic designer is Mike Macklin . Our very spirited technical advisor is Tracy Williams . Our amazing marketing manager , Lauren Carter . Our man of many words publicist is Josh Gershman . And introducing our producer's assistant , Blake Miele . Energis Podcast is brought to you by NRJ Media Group .