Time Pals Interview w/Big Squid Production's Kyle Valle and Erin Aine (Zombie Con Vol.1 / Autonomous)

THE TIME PALS ARE BACK — AND WE’RE BRINGING SPOOKY SEASON EARLY. 🎃

This week, hosts Jon Powell and Mike Underscore welcome Kyle Valle and Erin Áine, co-founders of Big Squid Films and the talented minds behind the cult indie horror-comedy ZOMBIECON VOL. 1 and Screamify’s new Micro Horrors™ thriller AUTONOMOUS!

We get into EVERYTHING about making an Indie Horror Movie:

- How a night of drinking, a Captain America shield, anime and a room full of movie props helped inspire ZombieCon Vol. 1.

- Practical gore, cosplay, filmmaking tricks and the anime DNA running through the movie.

🧟 What they have planned for ZombieCon Vol. 2 — including a time jump, a more dystopian world and something much, MUCH bigger.

- We talk Screamify’s Micro Horrors™,AUTONOMOUS, a 16-part vertical horror story that traps you in the backseat of a driverless car while a bad night gets progressively worse.

And because this is the Time Pals, we somehow also find time for killer drones, Warhammer, zombie-apocalypse weapons, terrible movie ideas and the usual collection of completely unnecessary tangents.

Basically, we tried to conduct a professional filmmaker interview. . .

. . .and We failed beautifully.

🧟 ZombieCon Vol.1 is available on Apple TV, Prime Video, Tubi and many more streaming platforms.

 🚗 Autonomous is available exclusively on Screamify!

🎧 Find the Time Pals everywhere you get your podcasts!

#TimePalsPodcast #ZombieCon #ZombieConVol1 #Autonomous #Screamify #MicroHorrors #BigSquidFilms #IndieHorror #HorrorMovies #IndieFilm  #ZombieMovies #HorrorFans #SpookySeason

Transcript

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SPEAKER_03 0:13

The Time Pals are back from summer break, and we are bringing the spooky season early. With us tonight are two very special new pals. They're the co-founders of Big Squid Productions. They're the talented minds behind the cult indie horror comedy hit ZombieCon Volume 1 and are kicking off Screamify's micro horror series with Autonomous. The Time Pals, welcome Kyle Valle and Aaron Anya. Hello, this is an episode a year in the making from when you first sent us that creator of ZombieCon, and it just took us forever and we suck.

SPEAKER_04 0:48

It's I know ZombieCon took a while to get out, and so did we. So we understand each other now.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I think now we get to talk for two projects instead of one. So you know that double. Yeah, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna be a lot of fun because both of them are really fun projects. And both of them are really fun, and and they're both unique in in their own ways enough that it allowed us to ask two kind of very different question sets just given. For those who don't know, I am the host of the Time Pals, John Powell, and with me is Mike Underscore, my beautiful co-host. Thank you, Aaron and Kyle, for taking the time out of your busy schedule uh to talk to probably one person who actually enjoys horror and one who cries regularly at things like Widow's Bay and and White Noise. I am absolutely the biggest horror wuss on the planet. Um, I don't know if you guys have seen Widows Bay yet. No, no. It's just a tribute to horror shows. It's not that scary. I slept with my lights on for three days.

SPEAKER_00 1:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Like, I'm I'm such a wuss.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

No, I have to check it out.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Yeah. It really is a great show. It's uh um Apple TV. Oh nice. Oh, yeah. And as you like the two of you will absolutely go through it and be like, oh, I know, like I've seen them do this trope a bunch and this. It's truly a tribute to horror films, and I loved every second of that part of it.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

That's awesome. I saw the uh other one on Apple TV. What was it? Uh was with um Javier Bardem. Oh yeah. Um I think it's based off of that old uh Robert De Niro movie. Like the title kind of rifts off that. Anyway, analyze Cape Fear. Cape Fear. Analyze like that.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

Oh, Cape Fear. Cape Fear, yes. No way. I didn't know they I didn't know they even had that.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Oh, it's so solid. It's it's uh, I mean, Apple is kind of like, you know, I feel like you either love the shows or hate the shows, but something hats off to him. I mean, a lot of the shows are fire. Like Silo's fantastic, Ted Lasso, especially the first couple seasons, is fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 2:45

I did like Ted Lasso.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah, and they always have like a sleeper hit like Cape Fear that just kind of comes out of nowhere. I didn't hear anything about it, and it just was awesome. So I'd never heard of it at all. It's r it's really good. And yeah, and now the whole thing's out, so it's done, so you could just binge the whole thing in one sitting.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Oh, see, that's what I like to do. I like I haven't started the season of Silo yet or anything. I just like I'm gonna wait for the whole season of Silo to come out.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Oh yeah. Silo is uh see the thing with Silo, right? Cape Fear was kind of a almost like a I don't know, uh it was like an it was like a long form movie, right? So you kind of got the complete narrative, and I think there's a little bit at the tail end to kind of open it up for a sequel. And Silo is just your run-of-the-mill, like, this story will never end show. Like yeah. You know what they didn't make though?

SPEAKER_04 3:33

They didn't make ZombieCon Volume 1. That's right. That's right. See, I'm bringing it back. I know your time. I know your time. So congratulations on the on that film. Uh it was amazing to see the Instagram horror community come together and enjoy it as the drooling weird group that we are. But yeah, the the praise you guys received definitely deserved. And I I won't uh glaze you too much. I know we are pressed for time. However, ZombieCon Volume 1, when I did see it a year ago, thank you, um, did something I immediately appreciated. You expect the movie with that title and with excuse me, draw inspiration from all these past horror comedies and keeping most of the same recognizable aspects of zombie movies of that time. You know, your plucky heroes trying to survive while you throw corn syrup at the screen until the good guys win. Awesome, right? Been done. But instead of just creating that familiar sandbox to play and you guys added supernatural elements, um, hints at some real lore and basically a pretty unique spin on how the zombies deteriorate. So you don't overexplain any of it. You allow everything to breathe. And I think that's what made guys like me really appreciate the work you guys did. The mysteries that exist in the background are fantastic aspects of the movie. Um, at its core, and I I know, I know you guys have said this a million times. You don't have to give me the 30-page vanity interview version of this. But what was ZombieCon for you guys and what inspired it?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

So, what inspired it base, like long story short, I got drunk at my brother's house. His house is a shrine to movie props. Uh, literally, like, you know, some real movie props, a lot of just collectible stuff. He's got like, think about that scene from Ace Ventura when Nature Calls, and he's in that room with all like the dead animal heads. He's got like a he's got like a room like that, but it's like predator mass everywhere. Right. So like are you supposed to assume he also hunts predators? Yeah, right. Exactly. Of course, yeah. Yeah, well, our family affectionately calls him the apex, so I would have to think that, you know. Fairness. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

But uh that's an amazing name.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

But yeah, I was I was drinking, and uh, you know, we were talking and we were trying to figure out what we're gonna do for our next film, and one thing led to another, and I saw Captain America Shield and all this stuff, and I was like, man, I'd love to get all this stuff into a movie. These would be great, like kind of defense weapons to fight off a zombie apocalypse. There's like a Lord of the Ringsword over there. There's like all kinds of stuff. And then I quickly came to the realization that there's no way we're gonna be able to actually use this props in a movie, and buying all this stuff would cost a small fortune. So next down the list, I'm like, well, I make this stuff out of EVA foam. That's you know, when you dip it in plasti dip or when you spray it in plasti dip, right, it's actually got some durability to it. So I'm thinking this could actually be a solid zombie defense tool, and it's lightweight, allows movement, flexibility. Okay, and sure, like I'm a huge anime fan, so that's where the obviously katanos came into the mix and all the anime references because I was like, well, I gotta put my own spin on this. Yeah, I've always wanted to do like a live action remake of a number of anime, and because obviously I don't own the rights to any of them, and we didn't have a hundred like $20 million budget nor Netflix behind us. I was like, well, this is as close as I can get to doing that.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

Close as you can get right now. Give it time. You know, because believe me when I say that the uh the creativity is 100% there. I do like that the Captain America Shield prop thing because it reminds me of that old meme where the item to your right is the only weapon you have against a zombie apocalypse. And like right now, it's the it's a microphone stand and liquid death, doctor death, sparkling water with just a maybe a little bit of something else floating on top. And I think we'll be fine. We are going to kick some ass. I guarantee you that.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Oh yeah. Dude, a mic stand's a solid weapon. I mean, a film uh, you know, any kind of indie filmmaker has got a number of devastating weapons at their disposal. Light stands, C stands. I mean, sandbags can be thrown from like the house ramparts, right? You know, down onto the zombies' heads. Like all colours.

SPEAKER_04 7:24

Well, maybe by you, you got some size. I am not throwing a sandbag.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

You never know. You try to lob them over the edge instead of instead of tossing them into a trebuchet.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah, yeah, right. Well, if you've got a trebuchet, I mean, dude, you're you're living on cloud nine. Like you are you are prepped and ready to go. The the dream.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

The the the insane amount of Instagram, how to build a trebuchet videos that I have saved that I know I'm never gonna use because I live in highly dense suburbs.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

It's just that's the only reason you haven't used it, is because you live in the suburbs, not because you're a father of three with a job. No, it's because I fear the HOA.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Oh that's understandable. They have too much power. We were researching drone shots because I initially wanted to do a bunch of zombie chase scenes. And this is, you know, remember, 10 years ago, drones were just kind of gaining major footing, but I got my little drone license and everything. And my goal was to basically chase the actors with the drone, thinking, you know, we can't afford like an RA Trinity system or anything like that. So this will be a great way to keep it steady, but have really intense chase shots. And in we lived in Valley Village at the time, which is surrounded by three airports, and obviously you have to be, you know, two miles away from an airport or something to send this thing up in the air. So I'm like, I'm not gonna drive three hours out of the city to go test this drone. So I, you know, I was kind of an idiot in that regard, but I found a small like triangle up in the hills where like all the mega mansions are, and it was like you're just outside of a two-mile radius from all three airports in this small triangle. So we drove up there and we found a like abandoned road that was not abandoned. Like they were obviously building some sort of you know, huge celebrities house down this road. We drove down it. There were no signs saying not to, but like it was kind of implied. So we're on this dirt road. We send this thing up, everything's working great. It's fantastic. I look down around us and I'm like, looking at all these super expensive houses, and I'm just now seeing the drone flying into a window and getting a bill for like, you know, oh, that window cost $80,000 or something. I'm like, there goes the budget for the movie. So I call it back to land, but I wasn't sure how that works. So I flew it right in to my feet, basically, put it a foot off the ground, and I was like, okay, now how do I shut this thing off? And then you have to commence like the auto landing system on whatever that drone was. And so I pressed the button. Well, it now needs to geosynchronize, I guess. So it shoots up into the air. Right above it was a giant tree. It starts chewing up this tree, throwing limbs, like limbs everywhere. And I go up and I grab it and I just like pulled it out of the air and threw it on the ground. Like we pinned it down and turned it off. Like almost lost a finger doing that, and quickly was like, okay, you know, maybe no drones for this movie. We'll wait to hire someone who knows what they're doing with these things.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

No, no, no. You you flip it. You say you you defeated a machine, and then you call yourself the apex and you hang it in your brother's room.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. No, I felt very much like that.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

We don't shack up with when Skynet goes rogue.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

I I was literally about to say a Terminator reference. T23D, when he grabs that little flying, you know, when they used to have that in Universal Studios and Arnold Schwarzenegger grabs a little flying drone and it's moving around. It's like that was kind of my moment. Unfortunately, I'm not made out of metal. Yep. So it kind of chewed through my finger, but you know, it was a moment.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

If you lose enough limbs, though, you could be. They they there's some pretty impressive stuff that they make for you these days.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Truly. Yeah, no. Uh cybernetics have come.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

Just keep fighting drones, man. You'll get there.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

Yeah. I prefer to keep myself intact. We do have a good friend whose dream is to be the first cyborg, like, you know, fully implemented cyborg. So maybe I'll leave it to him to test drive the system and then I'll I'll follow in his footsteps as I start falling apart.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Yeah, you never want to be the pioneer of new technology. You just you wanna you wanna adopt it after after quality control.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

See, you say that, but then I'm thinking about like that uh neural chip that Elon Musk is putting out. I'm like, the first guy, it's either gonna go terribly wrong for, or it's gonna work incredibly well. He's gonna hack every computer in the entire world, like own every government, and become like, and he's gonna never let anyone else get the technology because he'll want to be one of one and he'll be like our overlord or something.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Someone's gonna hack him and then force him to pay a ransom, or they're just gonna give him like uncontrollable erections in public or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Oh my god. See, that's that is I was thinking mine sounded like a good movie idea. That sounds like a great movie idea. That's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

Let's do it.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Yeah, they still have to save the future somehow. Call it Cyberection.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Oh cyber erection. Oh man. Okay, back to back to zombie con because we're gonna learn. We're gonna be very good at going off on tangents. No, we're gonna, yeah. This is not the show I thought.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

We'll say so Do you want to host the time pals, Kyle? Because you can totally like we'll we'll talk, we'll talk.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

Like, like you know how that what's it called? They let they they have random people come and host for like like Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Foul and all those guys like we should we'll do that. We'll have guest hosts and we'll just we'll just go leave and have dinner. Um so your main characters for the film were your all of the main characters inspired by like actual cosplayers that you know, or is it kind of one of those things where you took a little bit from you know several different people that you know and that made this character and then so with with the main four, uh I think I was like the only genuine like cosplayer.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Aaron had done a little bit of cosplay, uh, and I was like the big kind of otaku, you know, nerd guy in that direction, right? Manny was a huge like video game guy, Nintendo, all that stuff. But in I kind of I feel like I I introduced him to anime a little bit. Now he I think he actually met his wife because of their shared love of One Piece, which I can now take directly for, which is awesome. Uh yeah, yeah. But they say love is dead. All the characters were, you know, especially with Punky, like she was very inspired by Punky. Uh there are parts of Claire that are very inspired by Aaron, parts of Manny. I think Manny was really the only one where it totally deviated from who he is in real life, because in real life he's like the sweetest, nicest guy, like uh such a nice guy, like he could never be that version of Rocket. And Christian, you know, there are shades of who he really is in Javier. But in regards to kind of merging them with other people, it was kind of my personality, split like a bunch of infinity stones and placing different parts of them in each of the characters, and then just trying to exaggerate those features, right? To make them full and complete versions of themselves and also tint them in an anime style where they each have a definitive kind of through line where, you know, with real people, there's a lot more gray, there's a lot more fluctuation. We all have, you know, we're we're more fluid. And these characters were meant specifically because of we're trying to kind of jam it into this uh shorter runtime, into these specific character arcs. Now, in the later volumes, they definitely go down different paths and you find out more about who they actually are. But for this movie, it was kind of trying to cater to obviously trying to get to know four people very well in a very short period of time. Usually, you know, you've got like one main character, you get to know that person, maybe two side characters or a love interest, and you get a little backstory there. But I really wanted the four to have as much flushed out time as possible and seemed easiest to do that by keeping them more or less streamlined.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

And you know, it's it's funny you mentioned Manny or Ezra Rocket, how this version of that character. It's it was definitely a it had to have been a difficult choice to make that character the main one because he does have this art and he is not the most lovable person throughout the whole movie. Purposely. You know, but and he you can reflect that. I'd like to say like Manny Real Life, very sweet guy, I'm sure. When you watch the movie, you don't really get the sweetness. You get uh what a lot of us would consider to be that that nerd writ nerd rage, the bullying, you know what I mean? The the I've now tried to protect myself with a layer of ego, with a layer of confidence that sometimes is real and sometimes is not. It's a much more complicated character for that style of movie than you would expect. So yeah, and then you saying that's part of you, um, that's terrifying. No, you saying that's part of you, that's that's that's I can I can see that because we all as as huge nerds who love these like uh offshooter things, right? We don't just love comics, we want to dress as one. We don't just love horror movies, we want to talk about horror movies. It's a little different for guys like us because we have something more inside of us, and not everybody's gonna understand that. And you get that with Manny as a character. And the only reason why I mentioned is that I I thought that was I I'm glad you said it. Kudos to you guys for creating that because it makes Rocket stand out. Um yeah, so great. I do want to talk a little bit about the practical effects and the gore and whatnot. I just it if you have any quick stories, I do like having to just like you're saying, we don't have 20 million dollars. How am I gonna make this shot in my head work? You know, how am I gonna do this? How do I am I gonna convey that? Any specific tricks you're proud of?

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Well, the very first zombie kill that we filmed was the first one you see in the movie. Spoiler alert, anyone not seeing fun yet. It's my character killing her ex-boyfriend. And I'm the only one, of course, that knows that he's a zombie. And we didn't have time, being indie filmmakers, to do, you know, rehearsals, to go through everything. And we didn't have time, if this went poorly, to do a reshoot because we were gonna be spraying our entire apartment. That scene took place and where we lived. Everything had to be perfect, everyone had to be on point. All of that colliding to make it the most adrenaline-pumping, awesome, you know, couple takes in the world, but also because I was a producer and somehow I either wasn't privy to or wasn't paying attention to Cloud's conversations with our awesome SFX makeup artist. I didn't know how much blood was actually gonna be coming at me. I'm glad that I didn't because it helped me as my character, like the shock that you see. There's not much acting. It was definitely like, holy shit, we're really going for the anime here. Um, yeah, so it was an exciting, you know, once in a lifetime. Didn't know what was coming, didn't know what to expect, and yet everything had to be perfect. Everyone was on point, and everyone did a noth take. So it was phenomenal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

No, and I would say in regards to, you know, addressing the smaller budget and trying to make sure the effects were good, it it's a lot of it's being flexible, right? You you can write like we had one scene where uh one of the zombies like breaks through a wall and grabs one of, you know, the actors and his head gets chopped off and it's still talking because of course the heart needs to be destroyed and it's that whole thing. Uh and obviously we came very quick, I came very quickly to the realization that this was not going to be uh doable given our time restraints and our budget. And so looking for creative solutions, we had that little pocket above the kitchen. And, you know, all the walls in these apartments are connected, and that, you know, basically connected to our neighbor's apartment. So it stood to reason that a zombie could easily make their way over very alien style, right, into the apartment through that way. So that was kind of our more or less creative solution for that. But it led to a very unique thing because I don't from what I've heard from what people told me, that's not something they necessarily expected was for him to kind of drop out of the ceiling like that. So and uh I'd say, in regards to everything else, it's just a lot of creativity. Like, you know, again, a little bit of spoilers here, but like that heart pull at the very end of the film. Uh, you know, that was that's a mannequin that was actually made out of fiberglass, didn't know it when we started hollowing it out and sticking our arms in it until we all got very itchy.

SPEAKER_07 19:10

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

But hollowed it out, taped it up.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

With asbestos.

SPEAKER_00 19:15

Yeah, hopefully not.

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Um if you have mesothelioma, you might be entitled to compensation.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

Yeah, right. Call call Amazon for the cheapest mannequin you could find at the time. Uh but you know, dressing it in the same costume as our, you know, character that was getting hit and then, you know, cutting everything tightly. You know, again, just creativity and watching your angles. And you can make a lot of cool stuff happen. If if you can merge those two things together and you don't get frustrated by the fact of what you can't do, there's still a whole lot you can do, especially with a group of dedicated people who just want to make a kick-ass movie. And that's like the that almost trumps, and I say almost just because now I've been through this enough to know that a couple million dollars will solve a lot of problems. But uh having a group of dedicated people are like Yeah, right. I know. I was speaking in movie sense, yes, a couple million dollars. They solve a lot of problems at all all aspects of life. Next best thing, uh, and potentially better in some instances, is just having a group of people who really want to make a great movie and are willing to go the extra mile and you know, spend the extra couple of hours doing something or coming back for reshoots or doing ADR, just being their own stunt doubles, which, you know, is kind of crazy. We didn't have money for that. So when you're seeing everyone get pushed around and knocked around, that's all them. Uh and I think Aaron, you know, spoke about like finding bruises like all over her body after one of these things, and they were all like comparing battle scars and stuff. And it was fun though. You know, just get drunk at the end of every night, have a little pizza party, get ready for the next day.

SPEAKER_04 20:48

Amazing living the dream for sure.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

That that convention, Mike, we're gonna make a movie.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

I wanna you say that every time we get somebody who makes anything. We're gonna do this now. Like, no, we're not.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

You should. You should. I'll tell you what, it'll be the most challenging thing.

SPEAKER_04 21:03

Did you hear his idea about the the friggin' Android dong? No, we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

I think it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 21:10

I think you know, you just it could be law enforcement, Robocock. Can you imagine the how we made him scene? No, no, it's not, we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Look, you just switch out the you just switch out, you know. We used a weed sprayer to spray spray the blood. You just switch it out with a milk with some milk, you're good to go. You've got all kinds of fun effects.

SPEAKER_04 21:30

Just like thousands of squibs on one dong just popping off.

SPEAKER_03 21:34

So speaking of that, that reminds me of one of those fun facts that comes up regularly, which is I see what you did there.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Comes up, comes up. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Don't even don't encourage them. But the censorship laws in China, they censor the blood out of the anime, and they were it's just white. So, like there's these scenes where like somebody's laying on the ground in a pool of mysterious white liquid that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

I feel like

SPEAKER_03 22:00

That is far worse.

SPEAKER_05 22:01

So much worse.

SPEAKER_03 22:03

But uh so earlier, so one of the things is I started watching Zombie Con last year when you sent it to us, and then I got immediately distracted by, you know, I've only been at this job for like a couple years, so you know, trying to pay attention and not get distracted. I no longer care about that job. So at work, I was watching ZombieCon this week. So I finally got through it first of all. And the aha moment that I had in that final scene, because in my head, I'm like, okay, zombie con. So zombies, the con, you know, convention, cosplay, that type of stuff. So okay, I get it. It's cosplayers fighting zombies. You know, you got cowboys and aliens, you got, you know, it's just we're we're combining things. The fact that it took me until that last scene to realize the anime influence on the entire film when Rocket's going through that entire like fucking 20-minute shonen anime monologue to like power himself up. I'm like, man, you still talk it. It's a lot like uh, and then I'm just like, and I just like it just clicked with me, and it just like it's it was so great because it's something you don't see. It's it's a pure anime way of doing things, and you never see it in Western media, and you never see it in live action. I mean, maybe like a Korean or Japanese drama or something, but you never see in anything, and it was so fun to see that done as a live action thing.

SPEAKER_00 23:25

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. I cannot tell you how many times people want to be to cut that down. They're like, it's making the runtime too long. I was like, I have to do it.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

I'm sorry, it has to be in there. Yeah, you know what it's for. You know what I mean? You gotta scratch that itch or you're gonna regret it forever. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 23:41

That makes my heart in particular anime that no, just that makes my heart. That makes my heart so happy to hear that that hit home for you, and especially like the anime influence. And yeah, that was a hundred percent Kyle. And I can't tell you how many edits I watched of and different iterations, completely different of that. And I think that what ended up in the film, it made it gave me chills. It made me feel a lot of something. It gave, you know, little hair raises on my arms. And I think that it fits the final film exactly the way it should.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

Yeah, that was my Kakarot, you know, Frieza fight, uh first time going Super Saiyan moment. So yeah, it's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

Yeah. Because I mean, I think we all like, you know, when we go to conventions and stuff like, oh, I know that character, oh, I know that character, and getting to do that in in the movie too, just like, oh, that's a sword from Bleach, oh, that's a super sense character, that's uh this, that's a that. And that like that was a super fun aspect of the movie too, because you got to do that and you know, realize that this kind of in a way was, you know, you're putting one over on big media by sneaking one of their characters in via a cosplayer.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Oh yeah. No, that was a whole that was a whole legal thing. I had to actually write like a basically I had to so when you're going to the when you're getting distribution, you have to do something that's called ENO insurance. Uh, and you got it basically errors and omissions on the film. In order to get errors and omissions insurance, we for this particular film, we had to get uh copyright clearance basically. Some we had to get lawyers to write off on the fact that we're not going to get sued for copyright infringement. So I've got to do a whole list, and you do this for most movies. This movie was different because every single scene had potentially copyright infringement material in the scene. But you have to list off the specific timestamp, what is in the film and why it is fair, it's basically fair use or why it's legally acceptable to be using this in this regard. And because these characters were cosplay, and because cosplay is impossible to represent truthfully without using IP to represent it. And because when we did have the characters in cosplay, we were always adjacent to, which is why our Guardians of the Galaxy were a little bit different from the Guardians of the Galaxy. Like everything had to be one step aside. Uh, and I wouldn't even call them Guardians of the Galaxy, the defenders of the Gala Galaxy, and never really use the actual names of any of the characters. Uh, but that document was, I don't know, dozens of pages long. And we just submit that and then you know pay a fortune to have lawyers be like, okay, yes, approved.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

Like Pongal side quests, you go on in indie filmmaking.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Yeah. Just to kind of put the bow in the zombie con. One thing I noticed when watching a lot of the uh the other content creators talk about zombie con, everybody seemed to say the same thing that you can really feel the sincerity come out of the film, basically. But let's say for the next one, because I know I I kind of vaguely read your the the the plans, but let's say for the next one you get a bigger check to make volume two. What can fans of the first one expect for the future?

SPEAKER_00 26:39

So the future is bigger, it's more dystopian, and it I don't know, how would you describe the next one?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

It's it's like it's like it feels in comparison. The first one feels raw and intimate and like you are right there at the very beginning of the journey. The second one takes place after like a 10-year time jump, which is actually you know how it goes in real life. It's been about 10 years since we found that, but in every way, it's bigger. Things have changed, like Kyle said, dystopian. The world is different, chaos has rained, things have transformed, our characters have transformed with it.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

I I'm trying not to get too long-winded with this, but ostensibly our characters find themselves in a you know a shanty town that's built up of survivors. They have ostensibly created a life for themselves. Uh, there are a number of plot elements like that show up in the first 10 pages. So I don't I don't think I'm spoiling anything here. But Mama Bear has basically been turned into a zombie right at the end of the first film, and our characters are searching for a way to revive her and fix her the same way Rocket fixed himself. And there are a number of narrative reasons why that's difficult for them that become apparent throughout the film. But our characters have all undergone sincere changes. So Claire's character is now more of a Sarah Connor. I need to rectify my mistake and kill all the zombies in order to undo the damage that I've caused the world. And uh, it's one of my favorite aspects of the next film. She's in command of something that's called like basically of her flyers, and they fly into battle hanging from aggro drones, uh, like giant the giant drones that they use to seed, you know, crops and stuff. And they basically drop Maltov cocktails and you know, all kinds of homemade bombs on the zombies as they're going through, and they're a whole bunch of improvised weapons. And we got a giant war bus, which is basically you could think the bus in Jurassic Park, uh the second Jurassic Park, you know. Uh but this one's fitted to like survive a zombie apocalypse and basically has every tool people need to survive a zombie apocalypse on it. So it's just it's bigger. But it makes sense why. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

It's not bigger to be bigger, it's bigger because it makes sense in the last 10 years they didn't start. I also remind me by.

SPEAKER_00 28:46

I also didn't write it with a budget in mind. The first one I wrote with a budget in mind. Uh, and I've I write a lot of stuff with budgets in mind because I am aware of how much this stuff costs. These I wrote just because I was like, this is what I want to see on screen. So I could I could promise, you know, if we've gotten a partial amount of the funding to be able to tell the story, uh, but we would have to scale it back. Uh the goal is to get basically the full yard and be able to tell the story the way we want. And if we're able to manage to pull off that magic trick, I could promise you it will be a cinematic event that marries all of the most badass moments that you've seen in like all the iconic action and anime like into one basically piece of media. And it's a it's a it's a roller coaster from start to finish.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

And that's yeah, and that's a fourth synopsis for Feaser.

unknown 29:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

Do you want to hit up the autonomous? It's it's fresh. We loved it. If anybody doesn't know, Autonomous is on Streamify, which is this independent streaming platform in a format called microhorror horrors. Hi, I almost said horrors. Vertically shot episodic horror designed specifically for mobile phones. Autonomous serves as the showcase for that concept. And it looks like it's built around the vertical installments. I think you have to. Um, however, for anyone who isn't familiar with uh micro horror or autonomous, um, can you give us a little bit of information where the idea came from and uh what it was like, you know, taking the experience you had in ZombieCon and applying it here?

SPEAKER_02 30:15

Right. So micro horrors, it's screamify as trademarked uh thing here, and it's vertically shot. They're cut into like one to two-minute episodes. Ours is 16 episodes, I think. So you're out in like 28 minutes. It's a quick watch. But yeah, you're basically for autonomous, you're following a couple in the backseat of a Waymo having a terrible night, and it just goes from bad to worse as the driverless vehicle takes them onto some completely unknown path. And then scarily enough, other forces come to bear and uh it just goes very, very south. But the vertical aspect is definitely meant to be, of course, watched on your phone, meant to be binge-watched, hopefully all in one sitting, but divided up into nice kind of bite-sized things that just keep you scrolling. And instead of taking your well-earned time that you're off to just mindlessly scroll on TikTok or Instagram or something, you're actually watching a whole piece, just a little bite-sized episode.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Yeah, and Sean uh Overbeek, actually, the founder of Scroomify, uh, wrote Autonomous. And he, after he had picked up ZombieCon for Scri the Scroomify platform, uh immediately started talking to us about doing it. And I was like, this is awesome because you know, autonomous cars obviously are fairly new, right? And they're only kind of now being more readily rolled out. Um, but now, and I mean that's a lot has changed in six months. But at the beginning of the year, they were barely available here in Atlanta. I know they're more common in like LA and uh I think uh a couple places in Texas and Phoenix, and you know, they're they're moving around. But it was a fantastic opportunity, I thought. Uh James Cameron is my favorite director. And so this like really married real life science fiction and horror in a way that I think only comes up probably once every 10 or 20 years. With AI, who knows how often this kind of stuff is happening. Maybe, you know, we're getting in flying cars and in the next 20 years we'll be living on Mars or something crazy. But for me in my lifetime growing up in the 90s, the fact that we have cars that drive themselves is insane. It's like actually insane. So the fact that we could actually document a piece of science fiction that's no longer science fiction, but still eerily is very similar to science fiction in the real world and tell a narrative story about it was I thought a fantastic opportunity. So we jumped at jumped at the chance to do it, and it turned out to be a challenging job, but also an extremely rewarding one.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

Yeah, it's it's definitely cemented my my goal to Molotov all the way most. Like I avoid them in San Francisco, but now I fear them. And and now they must be.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

Thank you for that. Now he's afraid of that too. He's already afraid of every horror-related thing, and now he's afraid of cars. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Well, that's right, because it doesn't matter if you're just not in them, you're on the road with them.

SPEAKER_03 33:01

So exactly. And my commute is awful. Um, so obviously there's a lot of like you said, autonomous was pitched to you, and it was it was given to you with the idea of being in this vertical format, in this this kind of bite-sized, you know, multi kind of mini episodic kind of format. When you filmed it, like did you have to kind of uh really sit down and change your mindset on how you were gonna film something that way? Or was it just, hey, let's just film this, you know, 25, 28, 30 minute thing, and then we'll just start. Okay, we'll cut it here, we'll cut it here. Or did it really just was it in an entirely new mindset for how to film this versus something longer like ZombieCon?

SPEAKER_00 33:46

So the script itself was broken up right into an episodic format. So we had the natural breakpoints for where things were starting, where things were stopping. So it had a good idea in that regard. In regards to filming it specifically, uh, because we take it all takes place ostensibly in one location, uh, it seemed like the best idea to kind of shoot giant chunks at a time, which isn't normally how you do something with like, you know, 15 pages, you'd usually break that up on like a feature film, and you're not usually in a singular location for that long to even decide to shoot it in one take. But because of how confined we were, limited time, and uh, we luckily had two fantastic actors, an Aaron and Dominic, uh, who could have both been, you know, stage performers as well as uh film performers. They were able to rip through 15 pages at a take. So in the edit, you know, obviously everything was cut apart, but on the filming part, on the filming part of it, we were able to shoot from angle to angle to angle through about 15 pages before we had interactive elements that were coming in from outside, where obviously you'd have to break the action, adjust eyelines, let people know where things were coming from and what to be paying attention to. Uh, and that was a little more stop and go uh with the process. But in order to keep us kind of on a deadline, uh the 15-page chunks really, really helped us. And luckily, our actors were fantastic and they held it together. Uh, you know, basically doing that for three days in a row, trapped in a car.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

Kyle designed the shoot really we were ready. Um No, it was just he he designed the shoot, so we were ready. We knew we should be completely off book. I, especially as a producer, like it was important for me to be definitely off book, but the way he designed the shoot, it was the most intimate kind of play and theater-esque uh type performance that you could ever have. Like going through the same argument over and over, and yet knowing that we're shooting vertically, so it's tight, it's in your face, and yet at the same time, with the length of it all, you feel like you run a marathon at the end of every single one. It was a very unique shoot.

SPEAKER_04 35:54

Well, actually, I'm I'm glad you mentioned that because one of the the best things about Autonomous was the um the ability for 14 episodes to maintain not only the claustrophobia, but the intensity. Like it's it's you're first watching this not to spoil it if anybody hasn't seen it, but it's you've sort of you're watching the setup of this relationship between Amy and Derek, and it's in full swing. When we meet them, there's no like meat cute, there's no like montage, you're already in it, right? You're already in that immediately fill uh lived in world where you're already uh feeling the anxiousness, you're feeling the cringiness because you're so close to these two characters, and there's nowhere for you, the audience member, to go either. So that's I mean, it's it was really well done. Um in fact, I actually not not to get sidetracked, but I actually thought your performance here was fantastic because um in ZombieCon, you could tell, like I I was talking to John the other day, but I'm almost like, what if Kristen Chenow was in a zombie movie? That's what I felt that performance was. Because it had that humor to it when it had this like great like dips and like seriousness and stuff. And then we get to this one, and I'm like, son of a bitch, Aaron's good. Because like this is not there's nothing, there's nothing funny, you know what I mean? But you're still able to show this actual like roller coaster of this couple as all these horror elements are starting to build up around it. It at least for me personally, I felt the early anxiety of wondering, because obviously it's a horror movie, which one of those characters was gonna quote unquote turn heel to use a reference uh wrestling term. Like, am I watching the guy lose his mind? Am I watching, you know, Amy lose her mind? And then when the turn happens, I don't want to spoil anything, but when it when you do get to the actual, you know, the the greater threat that's going to immediately affect our two characters, you don't really see it coming, but it doesn't feel unnatural for the movie. It feels like it belongs there, and it's it's yeah, great performance.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

I appreciate that so much. That means the world here. There were completely different characters, and the way that it was shot was completely different. The way it's viewed on your phone and vertical format, completely different. Um, and I that's what I love most about filmmaking. I didn't want to do repeat in the same character.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

So when this opportunity I tried to I tried to slip a zombie in there, you know, I tried to slip a zombie, but no. It wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 38:15

I took it out. You couldn't even do a sticker on the bumper.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

I am surprised you didn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

No, I I had to go, I was going for maximum realism with you know, we were we changed the name from Waymo to Gomo, and yeah, I did all the VFX for it. So I was I was really trying to stick to like as realistic one-to-one as possible to keep the world very Yeah. I think I I slipped in like there's one street name that says Valley. Like that's that's like my little Easter egg. And the license plate actually reads Screamify. So yeah, those are the two little knots in there.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

Now, if I have to quickly tie in a little bit of zombie con and autonomous as well, I really feel kindred spirit now with Manny, who played Rocket, in that in all the reviews, not all the reviews, but a lot of the reviews, people were saying, oh man, like he was such an asshole for so much of it. Like he was, you know, so angry or this and that. And I've definitely gotten that, you know, conversationally, but with my character autonomous. Oh man, like she was scary, like she was so mad. And I feel like very kindered with Manny. Like, well, you know, I I had my reasons as the character. I don't view her at all as being in the wrong, you know. She has her own internal monologue going on that is in no way scary. It's hurt, it's it's you know, worried, it's anxious, it's all these things. But um, yeah, that made me that made me really feel for Manny too.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

And it genuinely comes across very well. Oh, thank you. It was that was it was some quality horror like screaming and fear there.

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Like that was, yes, very really well and and one thing I'd say is we're never gonna have a lack of uh screams and a lack of victim. You know, if we can't do blood spray, we'll definitely bring in the creakiness and intensity.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

I think also the just the format of it, the vertical, the fo actually helped with the that idea feeling of like claustrophobia of being in the car. Because then it's just like you know, so many close shots, so many close angles to fit within the screen, because you know, vertical format, you go far out, then everybody's real tiny, way over there. So a lot of close-up and stuff. It it worked really good. The format versus the story was really solid. Um, now that you've filmed a micro horror movie, do you have you have you thought been thinking of ideas to take advantage of that format? Um, or uh, you know, any ideas that you'd like to see in the future utilizing that format?

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Yeah, actually, I mean, I could think of a number of different ideas utilizing that format, but uh, in regards to something that I've actually been pursuing, I I really want to tell the story of basically a cosplayer uh getting ready, you know, last minute before a con uh and getting their cos like cosplay all put together and like the glue not drying and all this stuff, and then going with their friends and just enjoying basically the con and having you know, more or less not a soap opera, but like nothing supernatural or like you know crazy happen. But it's just, you know, what is documenting that journey and the dramas that happen and the relationships that happen, you know, at an actual con. So that's something that we've been kind of looking at, you know, pursuing here.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

I had my period of being well, I I still do because I'm a cranky old man. Um, but my period of like uh cons are for for the youth. There's so many people, there's so many, so much noise, so much just like lack of hygiene, at least out here. Um but then recently I'm just like, okay, I I want to start going again. So so I've I've been enjoying them, but I think now I'm just more in tune with with my own like limits. So knowing that I just need to leave and go get some tacos or something like that. But it does make me think about all of the people that I met throughout the years at cons and the few people that I still maintain a relationship with. And I think people don't realize, like almost in the same idea of like uh like a lot of the friends you meet online gaming these days or some very tight-knit communities and people, like they're huge, tight, important relationships and not just like, you know, this passing thing, you know, person you see at a con necessarily. I think it'd be very cool to see something like that or about that. Thank you. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

And I I couldn't agree with you more. I think con culture, you know, I do agree on one hand, right? They are crowded. Sometimes they can be smelly. I know I've been very smelly at cons. I won't throw anyone else under the bus. Uh, you know, sometimes it's rough. Uh, we try to break up the con day always with like we find a really nice restaurant, you know, white tablecloth, something where we should definitely not be, you know, in con attire. Uh but, you know, try to find a nice place where we could chill out for like an hour and a half, two hours, have a nice long meal, refuel, get a couple of drinks in, you know, and then go back into the craziness.

SPEAKER_01 43:05

And I find that didn't have a table pump. Because we made a table pump. Yeah. No time for that.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

No, no.

SPEAKER_01 43:11

We had a booth and it was like nuts.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

Yeah, if it this is this is at Comic-Con. So we never had a booth at Comic-Con in San Diego. So we would, you know, that's right. Yeah, Gaslamps got a ton of really nice restaurants uh right in the area. So you can easily pop right across the street, you know, get some nice AC. Usually those restaurants are totally empty while the con is going because everyone's kind of you know doing the more fun eatery spots or they're they want to get back in there. Uh so that's kind of where we relaxed. At the LA based cons, where we were always basically running a booth. And when you run a booth, it is just think about the exhaustion level of regular con attendance and max it out to like a 10 level because you're just Oh gosh, it is there's no rest, you're doing a million different things, you got to set Up before the con starts, you got to tear down after the con is over. Couple cool perks. So you get in before everyone else. So like everyone else is waiting in line, you're already in there. But the trade-off for that perk is that you spent, you know, six hours the night before setting up your booth, then dragging, you know, hundreds of pounds of stuff in there to set it up and all the other stuff. I'm sure like the big companies have it the best, right? If you could just own a giant like multimedia company, hire 50 people to set up your booth and like your 50-foot Goku from the ceiling, like you're good to go. Uh unfortunately, we are a small company. So we are both the talent and the labor.

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Uh-huh. Right on. So the last couple things that we're going to do are going to be some kind of fun brain teaser, flex your which I like as we've been talking, I'm like, I should have made harder questions and games for you guys because you're you're gonna it's gonna be easy for you. Um we have two of them. So the first one, and I um I don't know if we should should we randomize the order? Should we have no, we're gonna have you two go first because you're you're the pros, so we need more time to take. So you get to go first. All right. So thinking about all of the horror movies you love, all of the genres, all of the the big characters, change something in an existing horror series or IP that you feel would improve it.

SPEAKER_00 45:23

Okay, so off the bat, Michael Myers, and I feel like I might be treading on old ground here because we were talking about it earlier. We change the knife with a giant dildo. No, I'm sorry. That's uh that's not gonna make it better. That's my bad. Uh no, I'll go back.

SPEAKER_04 45:36

You're talking to the right show for that kind of answer, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 45:41

What's the snoopy rating?

SPEAKER_00 45:42

No, I'm gonna no, no. All right, all right, let me think about this. Okay, so hmm. Hmm. Something that would change.

SPEAKER_03 45:53

Yeah, I don't know. Slaughter some sacred cows.

SPEAKER_00 45:55

Oh man, that is that is a tricky one. Because the thing is, every horror villain, right, lives the universe that's constructed around them is the thing that makes that horror villain kind of and I don't want to pick low-hanging fruit. I don't want to pick a bad movie and like be like, well, you could fix it like this, because that's that would be unfair. So I'm trying to switch something in my head with like a really, really classic movie that would make it better. That is okay. All right, just give me a real second. Like you, you think, you, you say something. I'll I need a second to think.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

John, John, give me yours then. Yeah, you money, I'll go first. Oh, okay. Every horror movie should just be Lord of the Rings so that I'm not scared. No, I'm kidding. Um, honestly, so a long time ago, I was watching a marathon of various Friday the 13th, but I think I was in high school, uh, but it was on TNT. So network television, certain things had to be cut out. And ever since I watched them, and you kind of know as things build in the slasher flicks, I'm gonna go take a shower, and then they're in there for a while washing, gotta show some side boob to you know make people happy, and then hear a fake noise here. No, because they had to cut all this stuff out, were just like, I'm gonna go take a shower. You see the soap and then bam! Just completely off pace to what you were expecting for the buildup. There's no bass drop effectively. And and I honestly think that a lot of those slasher flicks would do a lot better if they stopped necessarily doing that, that very like that lead up that you know is happening, and then you know, like a spear bust through the wall or a hand through the window, and it's just just three seconds in, head on the floor, and just completely surprises people.

SPEAKER_00 47:39

I think that would be great. I think switching up the momentum and tempo would be fantastic, especially if you then reverted back to the original tempo, right? You do your first kill as an abrupt, you know, quick one, like you were saying. But then the second one, you let it kind of stay there for you know the extended period of time, and then the audience is really freaking out because now they're like, it's coming any second, but it's not coming, it's coming any second. It's like you never know when to think it's coming. It's like totally throws people off. I think that's great.

SPEAKER_02 48:06

It's not a bland answer, but my first thought was well, there are so many horror films that honestly should not have gotten remakes or sequel, and then some like perfect, don't touch it, don't you dare. Then I'm like, Yeah, go ahead. Like, let's let's give that one a sequel. Let's see, you know, a remake of that one. So I think just switching up, um switching up which ones got sequels and which ones didn't. And I'm generally not a fan of sequels in general, but I think so.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

For me, there's something that's always it's not really perturbed me, but I like there to be, and maybe this makes them less scary, and that's the problem, uh, a way to dispatch, right, a horror villain. That's like, you know, maybe not in the first uh movie, but that's explained thoroughly, right? So for Michael Myers, for example, is the first one that comes to mind in this regard. Like, I know he's a guy, he's a crazy guy, but like bullets don't stop him. I don't know what stops him. Like, I I don't understand the mechanic that's you know driving him forward. And maybe that's because I'm not as well versed in the lore. I haven't seen I don't think I've seen like the newer movies, but obviously like well, I grew up on the initial movies, and it made him both terrifying. Uh but to see, to know that there was a way to stop him, but he continually overcame it, I think would almost make him even more terrifying. Because there was it gave, it would give some amount of like credibility to like psychiatrist with a gun. Like, okay, yeah, in the first one, right? You think, oh, this this he's gonna stop him with this thing, and it doesn't stop him. So if we explained that it really like worked that through, and then we saw Michael Myers having a way to like kind of avoid that issue and still be, right, a basically a non-stop killer, I think that would make him even more terrifying.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

I j I just I just thought of something inspired by inspired by your movie. No. We need a fucking we need a horror, like a slasher, fucking Michael Myers, somebody overcoming, constantly being beaten on with a shonen Super Saiyan power-up arc flashback to his childhood. No, I'm not gonna let my mom, I'm not gonna dishonor my mom, I'm gonna kill all these campers, and just him powering up to murder everybody.

SPEAKER_04 50:34

Honestly, you know what'd be neat if like all of those psychiatrists and stuff that they send these killer kids to, you get their story instead. Just like, oh my god, I gotta talk to Jason Borey's mom today. Just like shit, like just like every oh my god. I do like that Aaron's just like, I hate sequels and she's wearing a shirt. This is volume one.

SPEAKER_02 50:54

I know. Someone's just like, I I found I found vlogs. We're discussing volume two and volume three in our podcast.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

I think we're wearing the same shirt, too.

SPEAKER_02 51:09

He heard horror movies and he came running. This is Mr. Whipples.

SPEAKER_00 51:13

This is Mr. Whipples, yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:14

You can do it.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

It's a great odd. Is there gonna be a Mr. Whipples appearance in in volume two, three, or another project?

SPEAKER_00 51:21

No, he is uh I don't know if it's the Chihuahua or Poodle in him, but he is uh not the biggest fan of people he doesn't know. So there'd just be a lot of barking and stress for him, and we try to keep his life very stress-free. Yeah, he's got a he's got a bed under my desk, and that's basically where he lives. So nice.

SPEAKER_03 51:44

Uh as the owner of a Chihuahua mix myself, I understand.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

That's just always shaking, always just you're like, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

Although, although mine's been better recently. Well you're like, I'm sorry that they're a little bit barky, but also in five minutes they're gonna be all over you, like they're gonna love you. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Absolutely. No, f finally mine is just kind of like, oh, you're in the house, that means you're cool. That's that's fine. But whenever I go visit, because this where I live now, there's no law pets, um, immediate scarf just right here around my neck. So great. Oh. All right. Now, this this second question is one that this is the one that made me think like crap, I should have figured out something harder for you guys. And it is to elevator pitch a non-traditional horror movie. And the examples I kind of gave was like Christine, you know, Deathbed, the bed that eats people, monos the hands of fate, kind of something that's just not your stereotype your stereotypical horror movie. And I was like, wait, that's literally what they do for a living. You fucked up, John. Um how'd you get in my head just now? But yeah, yeah. Um, but you know what? By all means, if you have like a wacky idea for a horror movie, that we'd love to hear.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

Maybe because this sounds a little bit more up y'all's alley, so it kind of mixes both of ours. But I especially when I was a brand new mom and our newborn, like I constantly was holding her, and then fast forward a couple months and she's not sleeping well, and I'm just like up and down all night holding her back down, back forth, and like I felt like I was sleepwalking half the time. I always thought, what a crazy horror movie. If the mom was a like mommy streamer, you know, like that that sounded weird, like a gamer or something, but she's a mom, but anyway, and then she like keeps waking up and she's actually, when she's sleepwalking or like in this psychosis, been streaming, but it's this horror stuff that's nothing like her normal streaming, but it's making like a name for herself, and she doesn't know if she should disown it and distance herself from it or just kind of keep what's going on. She's also dealing with a baby and her feelings with all this. And I just thought that would be a really creepy, really creepy, unsettling kind of feeling, especially as a woman with a baby. Like that would be very that'd be creepy to watch. I would watch it.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

Yeah, and to go in line with what we've been talking about, just because now it's on my mind to say it. Being murdered with a dildo? Dude, you actually, yes, I was gonna say a cursed strap on. And someone straps it on at the beginning of the movie, and then they just like basically literally, you know, F people to death with it throughout the film.

SPEAKER_04 54:25

14 episodes on screaming about hell.

SPEAKER_00 54:28

The epic first kill is like someone on the on the like they grab the person's like the back of their head and they shove it right through the thing, and it like pops out the middle of their forehead, and then they keep going.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

I thought you were gonna go in a different direction. I thought you were gonna say killed by dildo. My mind pictured like it's actually like full of con three years.

SPEAKER_00 54:46

No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_07 54:47

No, no, then you subscribe.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

So, like, think this is like the reverse chastity belt. This is the reverse chastity belt, and it's gotta be fed blood to in order to take it off, you know. Wow, it's gotta be fed blood.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

Wow. I think you had the title right there with the reverse chastity belt.

SPEAKER_00 55:08

That's the tagline for it, right? Chastity never looks so good.

SPEAKER_05 55:12

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

So what do you think? The devil's we'll call it the devil's dildo.

SPEAKER_04 55:17

There you go. You know, I didn't really put a lot of things to it because I was hoping to come up with something, but how do you beat that? So the idea is honestly. One hand at a time. No. No, it it's it's I do like it's it's not my idea, unfortunately, but I always uh I always liked this uh this painter who she puts gummy versions of like dinosaurs and stuff like that in Jurassic Park paintings. So like, so it's like instead, all the characters are there, your Alan Grant's and stuff, and they're terrified of running away, but it's like this squiggly, half shiny mast of like a T-Rex that's like kind of wobbling around. And I'm like, that's incredible. I there's there's something there. Like I somebody wrote one time like, uh, what would you take? You know, if you could take one movie and change everybody into Muppets except for one actor, that's the mind I would do. It would be like everything has gotta be puppet world except for the one character who either is the big bad or has no idea they're in danger the entire time. Oh my god, I can see not a cool idea, but I would love it.

SPEAKER_00 56:13

See, and uh initially I was like, okay, well, the puppets killing the people, I love that. That's terrifying. But then I was like, yeah, but a person just ripping apart, you know, all these Muppets and stuff, like like all the stuffing flying everywhere. Like, do you still see the hand half coming to the skeleton? It's just all that's gonna be horrifying for the Muppets. They're gonna be running away screaming, you know.

SPEAKER_04 56:38

Flopping around with the eyes goggling and shit. Yeah, yeah. No, they have to still stay Muppet World. It's gotta be a like running screaming like this. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? All the fourth, all the fourth wall breaking, but serious horror movie.

SPEAKER_00 56:50

See, and that's like Gulliver Travels if he was a monster. Like if he like got there and he's like, Thank you, I won't be tied down. That's it. This place is done.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

You know, there's some section of the internet where we marry our two ideas together.

SPEAKER_00 57:03

I'm just telling you as long as we can get the devil's dildo in there, I'm totally down for it.

SPEAKER_04 57:08

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 57:09

Oh, or down, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:10

Done and done.

SPEAKER_01 57:11

The sinister scrap on.

SPEAKER_03 57:13

Well, that's those, those were our two kind of quick game questions to to round everything out. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:19

Uh um obviously with the uh the Screamify app, and then we're gonna be talking a lot about clipping, you know, all the zombie con stuff. But anything you guys want to talk about that's in the future, or anything you want to talk about project-wise and stuff like that now?

SPEAKER_02 57:32

We've got a couple different features that we're circling. Honestly, it just depends on which one the funding comes in first. They're wildly different, it's not all horror. So I I'm ecstatic to see honestly which one comes through first. But of course, Zombie Con Fon 2 is always in the wing, like Kyle said, if we can get the big funding for that one.

SPEAKER_00 57:51

I want to hold out until we get the big funding, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

Yeah, I am very familiar. I edited all the scripts, and it it is if you thought the first one was anime inspired and that comes through, these next ones are like straight up anime style.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

Like with with with a lot of Warhammer 40,000 like influence too. That's another one of my big passions. So Oh, no way. Yeah, oh yeah. Uh I've been playing since I was like nine. I think that's when I got my first army. So yeah, I've I've always been obsessed with that. You're talking to the right group of nerds.

SPEAKER_03 58:22

Literally, the entire I know I didn't give my answer to the last question, but the entirety of it was a 40k base, which was that idea of someone like me who is a complete wuss, and all of the stuff that he sees like out of the corner of his eye, it's his own fault that there's all of this horror stuff coming because just like the orcs, he believes it's real, so it's real. Oh, nice. You believe red makes something go faster, that shit goes faster.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 58:49

That's a hundred percent where the inspiration came from. I thought that's great.

SPEAKER_00 58:52

I love that. And see, I thought where you were going with that at first was like a guardsman in the warp or something, but I I love the orc influence on that. Are you are you uh is your army orcs?

SPEAKER_03 59:03

So the only army I have which has sat in my closet for probably a decade at this point, is just my uh warm or fantasy uh dwarf army. I have not uh jumped into spending money on 40k yet, and I feel like that might have to be a a post-kids out of the house investment.

SPEAKER_04 59:22

Fair enough. It's gonna happen though, because like the the other host that we rotate in, um Shadowspar, he's the one will occasionally wear the giant middle middle helmet as he talks. Um clearly inspired by a lot of 40k stuff, but he's going to be DMing us with us a uh Star Wars-based RPG, like what tomorrow or something like that. Like something, something crazy. Friday, yeah, Friday. So yeah, we were definitely all in on the tabletop. Um, and I think that we found your new co-host, John. So like you guys could talk about this for hours, and you don't have to mention dildos. It's just Warhammer all day.

SPEAKER_00 59:56

I mean, unless we bring up Slanesh, uh, then we're gonna be, you know, a lot of dildos.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:01

I mean, honestly, like like I I could spend more time diving into the lore than I even care about like playing the game. The lore is just so fascinating at all of the stuff, all of the effort that gets put into it.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

See, I'm I'm all about I I've my first army was Blood Angels, so Sanguinius is like my like number one prime mark. And it's obviously just my luck in life that you know he is the only one murdered by Horace in in the beginning of the books, but that's that's my guy. Um, but yeah, no, I've played I've played a ton of the armies. I've had uh I have Blood Angels, Orcs. I did Tao when it first came out just because it was new and I thought it was pretty dope. Eldar, not dark Eldar, regular Eldar. I think oh and Necrons, right. So those are all those are my five armies. Uh but I have it's been a long time since I've had time to like devote to paint and play because filmmaking takes up a ton of time. And ultimately, you know, when you're painting miniatures, it's like you know, one hour turns into 12 hours real quick.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:02

And that's only on like two of them. And then you're like, oh, I just have to do the other 47 to make up this unit.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:08

Oh, my pile of shame is ridiculous. Uh and it extends to my childhood. Like it's continues to grow as I've gotten older, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:16

Yeah. Oh no, but I didn't mention it before, but John was talking about like the maturity level and stuff. I stopped buying new clothes at like 26, and if you look behind me, it's all wrestling and Star Wars. I've no bullshit. I bought this Warhammer character encyclopedia so I could know what the fuck you guys were talking about. Like, not you specifically, Kyle, but like John and like the rest of the time pals. I don't know anything about anything with that. So I'm like, well, they're mentioning these names that you're mentioning, and I'm like, I can look at it right now and see what you're doing. Oh, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:50

Oh, I'm telling, dude, Warhammer, the lore is fantastic. The books are great. They're great audible books too. Like, especially when you're doing cardio or something at the gym, you're doing anything that requires like anything you don't want to be doing that requires a long time, where you don't really need to be focused, because they are laborious and they're detail heavy and there are a lot of different names and pieces of technology. But you get through like, you know, uh the first one you hear or read, you're gonna be like, what the hell the hell is happening? You'll be totally confused. But I like the third or fourth one. You'll get through it. And uh I would I would put you on uh just as a good icebreaker, uh, Kaiphus Cain, uh, who's a uh basically, he's like, think about him, he's a Kamazar, but he basically like a a really mean general. And he is also funny too. So he's got like there's a lot of like humor in it as well, and they explain the whole world element as well. So I don't know. That's that's one of my favorite series.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:48

We we tweaked our episode a little bit because I wanted to uh pay mind to your time. However, we had other questions, other things we want to talk about. You guys are more than welcome back, especially when you get your projects and stuff, because just watching the movies made us kind of honestly like love what you guys do almost immediately. Autonomous gave you guys, at least to me, and I think John 2, a different perspective what you can do. It's not just gonna be the zombie stuff, it can actually be psychological horror, more or less. It it's nice to be able to follow you guys and probably the rest of your group as you guys go. So we appreciate what you guys do. Um, I don't have any more questions because I know you guys won't need to get a heart out out of here. Um John, you got anything else?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:29

Yeah, just um for when you when you film volume two, if you need like an out-of-shape desert bandit and a gimp, we gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:39

No, you don't. No, you don't. Stop.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:41

I'll let you figure out who's which role.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:42

I'm just gonna, yeah.

unknown 1:03:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:46

Every episode I edit out so much of your shit. Yep. I didn't even say anything truly offensive this time. I know. Just we're gonna do it before, but we're ending it before he says a bunch of racial flurs with parts.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:56

No, don't keep making that sound like a thing I do. I could edit anything I want and make you say whatever.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:04

I have to know that. No, this is what Manny felt like. You know what? Fuck it. Um, thank you very much. Um uh Colin Aaron. We'll help see you next time. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:14

Thank you. All right, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:16

Thank you both so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:17

I we can't wait to come back on already. And uh hopefully we both worked on our Warhammer knowledge so that we'll know what it's like. Yeah, you gotta work on it. I still to this day don't know what he's talking about, and I've heard I've heard enough of the plots where I should by now.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:32

I will let you bomb the encyclopedia tomorrow. You can take this, and we'll just start, we'll just do research all. Me and Mr.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

Whipple's over here. We'll get to studying.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:41

Yeah. Oh, he'll probably know more than both of us combined.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:44

Probably. He's probably heard most of the audiobooks by this point, so thank you both so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:52

Thank you again for the time, you're all for having us on. It was awesome to finally meet you.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:55

Hey, vice versa.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:01

They had MG word. We gambled round just killing time. Tell the story takes now behind. We wrapped a hair on the good old case. When we had air and the body's been a case. Now we're the smallest guy for the first whole thing. Talking about the jokes with God no shade.