EAST TEXAS UNFILTERED w/J. Chad Parker: Featuring Parker Clark

Parker Clark joins East Texas UNFILTERED with J. Chad Parker for a behind the scenes look at how an independent movie gets made. Parker explains how a conversation in Tyler turned into the feature film 3.  He talks about how he went from helping on the sidelines to becoming one of the film’s executive producers. Parker tells us how the project came together through local connections, hard work, and a belief that people in East Texas can make anything they put their mind to.

This episode gets into the real process behind the film. Parker talks about how the script came together, how the team found actors, and how the movie was funded and shot. He explains what it took to move from a short film to a full length feature and how 3 finally made it onto major streaming platforms this May. 

Parker also talks about the bigger idea behind the movie and what he learned from the experience. He shares why supporting creative people in Tyler matters and why East Texas should back projects like this. This is a fun East Texas conversation about filmmaking, persistence, and what can happen when local people decide to go make a movie.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

How did y'all find Michael Ward? Or how did the script find Peter? Chris Abraham knew Michael Ward. He gave him this idea. Find out you only have three days to live. What would you do? I think he just threw that out there to Michael and he turned that into a fool-length script.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

Somehow he his friendship with Peter probably said, Hey, you got any ideas? Yeah, actually I got an idea.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, me and Peter and Chris have been talking for several months after that.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

About a guy who only has three days to live and he's been given some advice or some help.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

And and so those guys were talking, and Peter got the script, and then so we all kind of got together.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

How did you become part of the full-length movie as an executive producer?

SPEAKER_01 0:46

I was just kind of the guy in the background trying to see if I could help these two guys make a movie. We kicked it around and we said, let's try to make a movie, and so we did.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Welcome to another episode of East Texas Unfiltered. I'm your host, Jay Chad Parker. Today's guest has somehow found a way to make a movie. It's now out on streaming resources, and he's hoping to expand people's knowledge of the movie. We want people to go and watch it. We want people to support people who try these things uh in Tyler in East Texas that people think are are not achievable. Uh maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But uh today someone's gonna give us insight into how this all happened. Parker, thank you for being here. It's a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

I'm glad to be uh available to chat with you today.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Well, you know, it's interesting for me because, you know, I've known you uh since we were on the swim team uh in the early, you know, years of our life, and this was the late 70s, right? Right, long time ago. Um lot of water under the bridge. But we find ourselves here today to talk about a movie named Three, as in the number that you were the executive producer on. Is that right? That is correct. Um, you know, um before you got into this, uh, you I know you went to Baylor because that was required learning for a Charles Clark kid.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yes, you had to go to Baylor no matter what. Yeah. I tried to go to AM and he was like, no. He said you either go to Baylor or you pay for it yourself.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

So Parker, uh, your brother Colin and Melinda, everybody has gone to Baylor. Everybody. All right.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Aunts and uncles, name them, they've all been to Baylor.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Well, if one thing Charles is not a dedicated supporter, or he was. I don't know if he stayed dedicated to Baylor at in the later years.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Well, he uh had a problem when they got rid of the coach down there, uh Chuck Reedy, and uh that was his good friend, and so they fired him, so dad then became a Texas Longhorn fan.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

That's what I thought. I thought he joined my Longhorns. Yeah, he did. You know, Charles Clark, obviously, I know him just from being a lawyer, and uh um I don't know if he's still practicing or today, but uh he's getting on up there in years.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

He uh literally just retired uh last year in December. He's 90 years old, and uh he uh is uh he's a machine, he works out three days a week. Uh he does walks.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

I can't keep up with the man. Well, he knows the secret to longevity is to keep moving, right? That is right. But stop moving. But you know, Charles uh, you know, had a very impressive legal career just over a span of, you know, I mean, I don't know how many years that would be, almost 70, 60 something years. At least. Right. Yeah. Um, in uh, you know, uh you came up, you know, in in a time where we touched upon this a little bit, and I'm not gonna go into this, but I remember the JB interview that we had, the Smith County stuff. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

I mean, I think you were a pasture party member back then. I was in the pasture party back in those days, and uh JB came in and raided the pasture with somebody, called in everybody the cops, and so yes, I was there that night.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

Because we heard that story, but not the details of the people that were there, but I had to bring that up because I thought you were there. I was there.

SPEAKER_01 4:22

Yeah, I was there, and dad was uh the uh sheriff's attorney at that time.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Yeah, and uh he was involved in some of the other stuff, but anyway, um you eventually would come back and not choose to be a lawyer like him. Is that right? That is correct.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

I mean I I just couldn't be honest with you, Chad. I couldn't pass the LSAT, man. I tried it twice, I just couldn't do it. So I decided to be a landman instead.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Well, you know, that LSAT is a tough and it's you know, it's a you gotta think a certain way. It's kind of a weird test, right? It is a weird test. I mean, and if you don't practice a lot or have these skills, it's just tough to make a good score. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

It is. It's uh hard to get a good score on. You gotta have uh certain critical thinking skills. It's not everybody has, so uh decided to do the landman work, and so I still get to hang out at the courthouses and stuff, and so it works great.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

You know, uh you did you go into landman work, I mean, just right out of college? Is that was that your real first career? No. You've done a lot of things, I believe, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

I have done several things. I did the uh out of college I went to work at the uh a uh car wash. It's on South Broadway, the big large car wash. Uh Did uh what, Jimmy Wheeler, somebody used to own it? He bought it from the gentleman that started it who hired me straight out of college to uh help run it. I was a assistant manager, helped build it from the ground up, and so uh I worked there for two years until it went bankrupt. And so after that I went to work for dad for a couple of years in his law office and helped him get his cases ready for trial, and I went to trial with him all the time. Uh, really enjoyed picking juries and things and a void iron and all that. And then uh, after a couple of years of that, I thought I need to m get out and do something else, and so I reached out to some guys like Tom Ridley here and Tyler that I knew and uh about being a landman, and so he called me up one day and said, You want to be a landman? So I showed up and been doing it now for about thirty-five years.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

I'm sure you worked for people at some point, but was there a point when you kind of either had your own company or you developed clients and worked for yourself, or did you always work for someone else?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

I've always I've always worked for other brokers and I've oh I've all also had times where I've worked for myself with just me and uh just the oil company. And uh I've had a women's dress store in my life and uh for three or four years. Was that out there at where was that? Out there in the shopping center behind Brooklyn's which I can't recall right now, but uh we had that for four or five years while I was doing land work. So uh yes, I've done several things. I went to Colorado when the land business went down about seven or eight years ago, and uh went up there to culinary school and uh got to went through that, and then while I was in culinary school, I worked in uh in a kitchen up there, and then I finally started working at a chocolate factory up there that made THC chocolates.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

And before I left, I was like the head chocolatier. So it is that was one of my coolest jobs I've ever had. So then I You had free access to the products. It was really fun. It was really fun. Met a lot of interesting people up there in Colorado, but then I realized that it was I need to get back to land work, so I came back in uh Tyler and got back into landwork and uh back at it again.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

I mean, you're living proof once again that the Tyler people somehow all they they try to leave, but they always find themselves back in Tyler, don't they? It is. It's really weird. I mean I tried to. I thought I'm all right. I made Colorado, but no. I mean, you know, people that came up like we did, uh, you know, went to high school in the 80s and said, Hey, you know, man, if I get out of here, I'm not coming back. Right. And uh we know a lot of those people that are here and we see them today, don't we? All the time.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

I see you all the time.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Yeah, I mean, you know, look, I mean, everybody knows I've had Nick Pencis on the show. Everybody knows that, you know, I love Stanleys. I know you love Stanley's. Yes, I do. A lot of people do. And I think it's the vibe and the people that hang out there.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

Don't you think? Oh, it's a great place. It's like the it's like an Austin vibe thing where to it's one of the only places like that in East Texas. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Nothing like it. I can't think we can't really name another place that's even close to that. No. Not up here. That may not be everybody's thing, but that's our thing, isn't it? That's great. I love it. But there's a lot of creative people um, you know, that that migrate and collect up there at Stanley's, right? I mean I don't know if your idea for the movies uh may have started there, started somewhere else. You know, tell us the first time that something crossed your mind that you would try to be an executive producer and make a movie.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Well, uh the way this came about was basically I was in my office one day doing my man landman work, and uh Chris Abraham called me up and said, Would you like to go with me to lunch? There's a guy that we're gonna shoot a short film with in Tyler. We're gonna go meet him. And I said, sure. And so we're going to Rick's on the square. That's where we're gonna shoot the short film. I said, Oh sure. So I go over there and I have dinner with Peter Nay, our director, and Chris, and uh and I basically sat there like uh I know what I was doing, and then uh at some point we left and to uh go scout locations.

SPEAKER_02 10:50

I mean, but when you came to this, did you know you were meeting uh as a potential investor or were you just there because somebody asked you to come?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

I was there just uh ask to join and eat lunch.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

And as the conversation went on, I guess did you get more interested in what you were hearing about what was possible and what they were trying to do?

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Oh yes, and I got real I just dialed in on all this whole thing and know how they were gonna shoot down in at Rick's and how they were gonna film it behind the bar and oh, this sounds pretty neat. And so excuse me. Uh yeah, at some point after we finished dinner, uh Peter is from Austin, he said, We need to go uh scout the other locations, Chris, and and Chris uh said, Okay, and so you want to come on that too, Parker? And I said, Sure. And so we go to scout a bank. Uh he's looking for a bank. And Chr Chris took him to some bank out on Copeland Road. No, it doesn't matter. But it was a real modernized looking bank, and Peter walks up to me and goes, Parker, there has to be an old bank somewhere around this town. I need an old bank. I don't need some new bank that looks like we're in a strip mall. So I said, Well, there's an old bank in Troop. Right. Troop savings and loan. Yes. And so it's been sitting out there empty for years, decades. Since the eighties. That's another story. But I mean some people you were gonna say that guy went to prison or whatever, right? Right, yeah. He was g he went to jail and it just sat there empty for all these years. And so uh I said, You want to drive the troop? He said, Let's go to troop. So we drive the troop and we get out there and uh he loves the the bank and then he says, We need uh some cop cars. I said, Well, I have a friend, Brent Spinks, who has a uh security company. I can get you all the cop cars you need.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Brent Spinks, the lawyer. Yeah. Okay, so Brent has a security company, or he did at the time. Oh, he does. Okay, so he could get some cars that kind of they look like cop cars. They're old cop cars that they buy for their security company for his people to drive around in. So Pete this is Peter Nay, like Peter Nay. Anyway, he's going to be ultimately the director of this film. That's correct. And so it seems like you are proving useful to this endeavor early on with multiple things. Location, the cars, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:30

The cars, he needed a truck. I got my brother's truck for him, I needed uh he needed tools, I got all that. Everything he needed, I basically turned into the producer of that show. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Is that how you cause this was going to be the short film that they shot, which I believe was 13 minutes, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

I've seen it on the internet, right? And I was confused at first when I said, huh. It says three, thirteen minutes, then it says three, an hour and something like that. Right. And I go, what is that? So I'm assuming that the short film kind of it seemed like it could be successful, maybe, and they decided to then make a full-length movie. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So we shot uh they shot the that film and we shot another one, but uh that called uh Cowboy Billy or Little Happy at the time, but we shot that film and then we uh entered it in film festivals. For short films, just you know. And so we got selected to be in the film festival in uh Lake Plaza, New York. And so we all go up there and uh we go to the film festival and we were in the top ten short films, and I think we finished like number two in that film festival. And so it kinda morphed from there.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

All right. That's that's that's good. I want to unpack a little bit of this, but it does give us some some range here. Peter Nay, he I guess he's maybe he was a he he's living in Austin. I don't know if he went to, you know, UT, you know, radio television physic uh film school or not. Or he was just living there to pursue directing.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

No, he's uh uh originally from Buffalo, New York, and uh wound up in uh out in California in Hollywood, and his main background was uh TV uh unscripted shows such as uh Beat Bobby Flay, uh any of the cooking shows. He did a show on uh the sci-fi network called Face Off. Would he would he be filming um when you said face off, you're talking about the John Travolta uh No, it was uh it was uh a show, 12 year 12 season show about uh people who do uh the uh prosthetics works and stuff on your face. Uh so this guy had the ability, he knew how to make a a show.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

He knows how to direct, yes. And uh I don't know if he was actually a guy who would film, but he knew how to He had the he would get the people to do the filming, but he knew how to shoot it and then edit it and then put it on a w did he ever say what his interest was in this you know short film three and Tyler, Texas as a location. What drew him here?

SPEAKER_01 16:36

Well, uh Chris Abraham again, who has recently passed away. Uh those guys met in uh Hollywood, California in the early 90s. Chris was uh a bartender or and trying to be an actor, and somehow Peter and Chris worked on some kind of commercial or something together, and they kind of sparked up a friendship, and so they kept in touch for a while, then I think they lost touch, and then the next thing you know, Peter and his wife, who is head uh NBC programming of some sort, and so they moved to Austin about four or five years ago, and so that's when Peter and Chris Chris had an idea about doing this movie three, and they got uh Michael Ward from Tyler to write the script.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

Now the idea for a uh and I don't know this about the industry. Uh a short film is the idea behind that to make a short film to see if it has any traction with the audience in order to kind of say, yes, this is a good idea to extend the project and make a full-length movie.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Uh yes. I mean I would say that is a good way to start. Now there's some people that's all they do is make short films. I mean, you can watch the Academy Awards and they get awards for short films. So that a lot of them just do those, but yes, it's a good vehicle to turn it into a full-length feature film.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Did you have any type of producing, executive producing credit on the short film three? No, I was just in it. Okay. And so you had a small part uh and and who did you play in the short film?

SPEAKER_01 18:27

Uh Chris and I played uh well, no, I was not in three, my bad. No, I I sat in the I was in the bar and the background person. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

So you were a what they call an extra? I was an extra. You know, because we know you played uh the coach, which we'll, you know, we'll talk about in in the uh in the movie that would be made. But at that point in time when you were extra, was that your first time ever in a film or around a film being made? Uh yes. And I'm sure you're kind of you're kind of getting the bug now after you've kind of helped them get this going, and then it actually starts being shot, you're actually in the background, right, and then it it it gets put out, right, after it's completed.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

We like I say, we took it to a lot of uh film festivals and we actually won two or three.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

Can that make any money? Can a short film 13 minutes long ever make any money? No. What's the uh what what have you learned would be the reason? Is this practice, you know, for these guys that are directors to make these short films? Are they practicing their their craft, their trade, you know, but just doing it on a much shorter and easier scale?

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, uh I think in Peter's uh situation, he had always done television, uh basically what he calls its unscripted because it's all live television type deal where Nobody's memorized any lines. No, it's an unscripted deal, and he wanted to branch out and start making uh full-length scripted movies, and so that's when he and Chris talked got to talking to one another, decided to make the short, and so did Chris invest?

SPEAKER_02 20:06

Was he an investor, or was it just that Peter niggers knew each each other. Was he looking for a place to film that was inexpensive, cheap, or free, and and maybe Chris was the intersection for that? I think it was yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Chris could he knew the people up here, he knew he could help get us in Ricks. Right. It wouldn't cost a lot of money to, you know, um to to uh film there. So they've shot the whole thing for probably less than five to ten thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

All right. And so this gets done, it gets put out. Do you actually watch it uh on the internet somewhere at some point? I think he might have put it on the internet for a while. Peter, that is, but not long. All right. So really, you know, the short film seems to be for Peter just kind of a way to walk before you run in making the film. Mm-hmm. You know, just kind of get your because I mean, I I'm thinking as a director, you'd have to get, you know, lights, location, uh camera. You know, you'd have to get all the coordinate all this, but there'd be much fewer scenes, so it'd be easier to pull it off.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Right. So for example, when we shot the short for three, uh, we did it at Rick's, so we only scene we shot was the bar scene with uh in our movie is Eric Roberts shot that that scene there. We're talking about the full length feature. Right. 'Cause Eric was not in the short. No, but we shot that at Rick's, which was our that one scene, and then we shot the other scene uh when the teacher gets fired. So you shoot him at once play we shot that at John Tyler and he gets fired and Chris actually played the guy in the short. He gets fired. No, he's the one that does the firing. Then the guy goes to the bar and meets the oracle who Now we're talking about the full length feature. But that's what's in the short. So that's the only part you ever see. And when it the only thing those two scenes are it. Okay, for the short. For the short.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

But do they use those same scenes when they make the full length or did they reshoot those scenes? We shot. Re-reshot all of them. Okay. All right. So that uh that gets us up to you're kind of getting involved. That's over with. And then when do you first hear that that Peter, uh, the director wants to make a full-length feature out of this?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Uh well, me and Peter and Chris have been talking for several months after that, and I was just kind of the guy in the background trying to see if I could help these two guys make a movie. And so uh Michael Ward, who's a teacher in Tyler, wrote the full-length script for the movie, and uh uh we kicked it around and we said let's try to make a movie, and so we we did.

SPEAKER_02 23:08

How did how did y'all find Michael Ward or how did the script find Peter? Uh I mean I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Chris Abraham knew Michael Ward through the theater, I believe, and so he gave him his idea. If you you find out you only have three days to live, what would you do? I think he just threw that out there to Michael and he turned that into the that full-in script.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

And then somehow he his friendship with Peter probably said, Hey, you got any ideas? Yeah, actually, I got an idea. A guy wrote a script in Tyler about a guy who only has three days to live, and he's been given some advice or some help.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And and so those guys were talking, and Peter got the script, and then so we all kind of got together, but uh it was mainly Peter and myself and uh my better half Sandik uh Deerman who we formed the company and decided to try to make the movie.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

All right. Were they looking to you guys to finance the movie at this point or be an investor? Or how did you become part of the the full-length movie as an executive producer?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yes. They wanted me to be the investor. Did they say, hey, can you go can you go ground up some money and make this movie? And you know, and it's always, well, how much money do you need to make a movie? And of course, I always think millions of dollars, and I can't do that. And so uh Yes, that was my main role at that time was to go try to find people to give money to make the movie. Did they give you a budget like, hey, could you get us X dollars? Well, we started out real like $150, we can shoot it for $150. Then we get more and more into it, and it was like maybe more like $200,000 or $300,000. So it keeps going up all the time. Did it ever stop? Where did it stop? Yeah, it finally stopped. Well, I'll say this.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

It stopped less than a million dollars. All right. So we know that, you know, to make a film of any real quality, it's gonna cost, you know, uh between a quarter and a half a million dollars, right? Yeah. I mean because what we'll see is, I mean, there are different actors, you know, some have smaller parts, some are are the lead, you know. I'm assuming they have to be paid and don't do it for free.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Um I mean, I guess who would negotiate, you know, to get or who would get the actors that ultimately end up in in three, who whose job was that?

SPEAKER_01 25:46

That was uh Peter Nay. We hired a uh a uh company in in California, uh the talent company that places talent, and they look for we send them a copy of the script or we send them a piece of it to look at, and then they can reach out to people they know to get them in the see if they would interest in to be in our movie. And so I remember Peter, we had I remember looking at four or five different guys and gals that would read to each other on the internet and try to see if they would, you know, gel and match and everything. And so Would y'all look at that over Zoom? Mm-hmm. And so Dean Frank, that was the guy who did that, and then uh John Geary, who's our producer, one of our producers, he got Eric Roberts and Michael Parray and uh Anna Grace Barlow. So it kind of was a combination of uh the guy, the talent guy and John, who had been doing this in the business for thirty years.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

What's the difference between a producer that you mentioned this John Aguirre who went and got some of the talent and executive producer, which is what you're credited on?

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Well, executive producer is uh usually the guy who rounds up the money. So if you watch our movie, there'll be people on there and there'll be several executive producers, and so those are the people when you go to the show movies, you see executive producers, they put the money up. When you see a producer, that is the uh person who brings it all together. Uh you make sure you have uh everything, your uh sets, your uh all the equipment, everything you need to produce the movie. That's actors, get uh paperwork done, you gotta go through SAG, you gotta do DGA paperwork, which is the Director's Guild of America. So you have to do all this stuff with uh to get most of those actors, and yes, they have to get paid, and you have to pay other fees for for SAG and those types of things.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

Even if the film is being shot or made in Texas? We shot this in New Mexico. Okay. All right. That was my assumption there. That's wrong, but I did see that y'all won a lot of awards that seem to be connected with the state of New Mexico, right? True. So I'm assuming New Mexico may be uh more heavily unionized than uh, say, Texas as far as you know, shooting these films?

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Oh no, no, no. Just the opposite. Okay. No, no. The main thing about at that time in New Mexico, you could get a uh up to 40% tax break. Texas was like 22 and a half percent. So you can get a better tax break. So for every dollar you spend over there, you get 40 cents back. So that's why y'all chose that location? Yes. I mean, uh New Mexico is very good, Louisiana's very Georgia it shoots all types of stuff over there now. That's because they get really good tax break incentives for people to come shoot movies over there.

SPEAKER_02 29:08

You know, I I I'd I thought I'd read or heard it, it was suggested that Texas was kind of aggressive in trying to get the movie industry to build up. Is that true?

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Yes, it is. Uh Woody Harrelson and uh the man that does uh Matthew McConnell. Matthew McConnell, yes. They've been pushing real hard to get Texas to put money in the uh the uh to build the movie. And they've done that this past legislative section. Legislative session, thank you. That uh they have actually put forth a lot of they've put a big deal out there where you can get some good tax incentives in Texas now. All right. Well that's a good thing. I think people would be excited to see more films made in Texas. Uh my ne yes, I would like to do the next one and should shoot it in Tyler because it happened in Tyler. So I would love to do one in Texas. That's my next I would love to do that.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Wait, do you have a script or something that you're thinking about when you say it happened in Tyler? Is there something is this a true story? Is this uh Fiction true story? I mean, do you want to give us any insight, any breaking news on potentially the next executive produced Parker Clark film?

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Well, it's a it's a it's a movie about uh Peggy Joe Tallus is her name, and she was a lady who robbed banks in Dallas in the eighties, early nineties. She robbed eight or nine banks by herself. By herself, and she dressed up like a cowboy. She wore a cowboy hat, fringe jacket, uh, sunglasses, a beard, uh, cowboy boots and everything, and walk in a bank, hand them a little deal, give me all your money. And they would. And she'd go get in her car and she'd get she did that for a while and got away with it. Well, that's still they put all the cameras at every intersection now. You you couldn't get very far nowadays. No. And so basically what happened is she finally gets caught in Dallas at uh she decided to rob she decided to rob two banks in one day. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. Yeah, and she forgot to change the license plate back uh and had her real license plate on it on the second robbery, and somebody got it, and next thing you know, she's in jail. She gets out of jail after three or four years because she didn't have any weapons on her. And so then she goes somewhere in East Texas and just uh like leg t walking or somewhere and sells fish bait for a living until one day she gets in this little minivan and drives the Tyler, robs a bank out on Broadway, and goes down toward south, and they surround her car, and uh, they end up shooting her. But she pulls a water gun on them. And so that's police.

SPEAKER_02 32:16

That's that ends the movie with her death. Yeah, it's kind of sad. Yeah, uh it is. Uh, but have you guys made any progress towards, you know, funding for that film to get it made? Not yet. All right. So it's we're looking for people to it's really in the uh it's in the it's in the concept phase.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

We have a script. We just need uh we need some funding.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

What about what about the uh uh the script? Was the script w written locally uh for that story or did it come from someplace else?

SPEAKER_01 32:46

This came from uh a girl in California, Peter Knight, knew but uh three came from a local teacher in Tyler, Michael Ward.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

Uh so you've got some other projects, other potentials that you're thinking about? There's a couple more. Um you know, uh I guess a lot rides on on the success of three in a way, because if if it's successful, if it makes money, then it will seem to be an avenue uh maybe to make some other movies.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

Yes. It's kind of like your calling card. Say, hey, look, I made a movie, and guess what? We got our money back, and we actually made a little bit of money. So if I had that in my back pocket going around looking for people to invest, it might help. So hopefully three will do well and uh we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

You got the money together. We've talked about that. You the producer got the uh, you know, the actors. I mean, Anna Grace, of course, people may know her from the Jesus Revolution. Um I don't know the other male lead actor that I don't know recognize him. Um but of course everybody knows Julia Roberts' brother, Eric Roberts. He's been in a lot of stuff and he plays a small role, right? He's the oracle. Yes, he's the oracle, I guess, with the information or or the uh and here's one of the uh movie posters, and we can see Eric Roberts on the uh far left and Michael uh Per Re. If everybody remembers him from Eddie and the Cruisers. Absolutely. That was a great movie.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Absolutely I love that movie. It was a great movie.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

I love that movie. I totally agree. I love all rock and roll and films.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

The soundtrack was fantastic. It was.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

You know, it's funny. I watched the Buddy Holly story just two nights ago. Oh, wow. I love watching that stuff, you know. A Lubbock Texas guy, how they made it, New York, and tragically killed with the big bopper and Richie Vallins, um, you know, which was a sad ending. But didn't Whalen Jennings give up his seat on the plane? Uh you know, I don't know if it was Whalen Jennings, but somebody somebody did give up their seat uh on that plane. And and you know, you can see the number three is the name of the m movie, people. So if you search for it or look for it, don't look for T R T H R E E, look for the number three. That's correct. And um you can see the bottom, it kind of introduces the curiosity to the show. What if you only had three days to live? Which is, you know, probably a question that many people have asked themselves in one way or another, like, what if you only had 24 hours? What if what if you knew you were gonna die in a year? You know, what would you do? Right. What would be important to you? Right. You know, would it be uh, you know, kindness resolving beefs, or would it be total, you know, hedonistic, you know, blowout.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

You could have sit here and have a complete round table discussion on what what what would you do in your last only had three days to live.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

And and the film is is a film that, you know, uh the lead character, um, I guess his name would be Caleb. Caleb Ruminer. Right. He he chooses the path of um, you know, reconciliation, uh, it seems, you know, to make sense of what his life was and for it to end, you know, on a high note. Right.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

You know, he he was uh a great uh artist and uh decided he couldn't do art anymore, uh do his father's death, and so he decided to go be a teacher in elementary school, and so uh that didn't work out. That didn't work out, and so he meets the the oracle, and so he basically says, you know, you got three days to live. So he's trying to reconcile with a brother he lost to uh drug addiction and his dad dying and uh and he meets somebody, so it's kinda it hits on a lot of different things that people have happen to them in society all the time.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Well death in the family or drugs and you know or just disappointment that, you know, you finally found something and it's not gonna be there, or something along those lines.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

It's not yes, he couldn't his passion was art, and that was his main thing, and he felt like he'd failed at that.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

Well, we're gonna leave the rest for people to watch this thing because um, you know, uh you also uh now have the designation of actor, uh right? Right. You did have a role in this in i as a coach in the classroom, right? Correct. Um I'm coach, uh my question would be have you ever had any acting classes, ever acted at all in anything before this role?

SPEAKER_01 37:44

Uh w two other times uh when we started doing the after the short film, Chris Abraham was big involved in the Tyler Civic Theater, so on a whim. You took a role. I went down there and auditioned for this role and and got it, and uh yes, and so I was on a little two or three-day run at the Tyler Civic the Theater, and uh after that I thought that's kind of fun. So we did a a dinner theater one time where I played a gangster, and uh that was fun, and so Michael Ward was asked me, he's like, Would you like to play the coach? And I said, Absolutely. Yeah, why not? I would love to. I enjoy it. So I'm not great, but it's fun to do.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

The Tyler Civic Theater production, uh, what what was it and who did you play in that your really your first you know entrance into acting?

SPEAKER_01 38:46

I was uh it had to do with these five guys that would meet once a year to play poker, and we'd all sit around the table and just talk. Tell them about and just talk. Most of us a lot of them were talking about all their ailments with their prostate or their eyes and they can't see, and then all kinds of were they older guys? Oh yeah. I was the youngest one. Most of them were 60 and over. And then uh their wives would meet there. So that was like the first act we played, cards. And mine I was Stan, the man from uh Maine. If you can imagine me having a Maine accent, I tried to do, which was pretty funny. And uh that was the first act, and the second act was the wives of all these men would come and play Mahjong in the second act, and they would talk about their husbands and stuff like that. And so it was just a conversational yeah, but it was very funny. It was uh very funny and poignant and yeah, it was it's very good.

SPEAKER_02 39:51

But the Tyler Civic Theater, I mean, that's a very nice facility that has a lot of talent out there that people in Tyler, if they've never been to a show or never seen it, they they don't know what they're missing, right?

SPEAKER_01 40:03

I I will tell you this, they have got some fantastic talent in Tyler Civic Theater. I've been to a lot of their plays since I've started involved in that, and they've got I don't want to go back and try out for a party today because the talent's so good. Yeah, I mean, and they're really good.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

There's a there's a skill to acting, you know. Um, I mean, everybody thinks they could kind of do it, but when when they said, you know, action and you were the coach and you had to come into the classroom and start talking, I mean, were you nervous? Did had you practiced your lines, you felt like you could pull it off? How'd you feel?

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Oh, I'd read my lines over and over and over. I had Sandy going over them with me constantly, but you know, I was very nervous because uh, you know, Caleb and he he's been on T T V before and Professional actor. Professional actor, and so yeah, I was a little intimidated by it, but uh uh luckily I think Peter edited me down pretty good, so I didn't look like I was completely lost.

SPEAKER_02 41:09

But I mean, that's what a director's for, right? Did he give you any direction? So because there was some body language, you know, you were kind of a goofy coach in a way. Right. Right. So I mean, there was a bit of body acting along with the lines.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Oh, yes, I'm supposed to be the uh the asshole coach that likes to mess with the dead gum uh the teacher, the art teacher for the third graders. So I'm in there just I'm always teasing the guy.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Right. It's kind of you're playing the stereotypical, you know, jock coach who doesn't have an appreciation for a less physical activity like art. Art, correct.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Right. It's kind of that just uh think of John Goodman in uh Revenge of the Nerds is kind of my role.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Well, um you pulled it off. I mean, it it's uh it's a decent size part. I mean, you have one scene, right? I got two. Oh, two little small ones.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

I'm teasing him both times, so you know.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Well, it had to be fun because you know on a bucket list, Parker, uh, most people cannot say that they acted in a movie. No, you're right. Most people can't say the executive produced in a movie. No. That's correct. Most people can't say that that movie ended up on the streaming services that people could watch, right? That is true. Because we know that it's on Prime right now. Right. And I'm not sure do you do you know specifically the others or some of the others that it's on?

SPEAKER_01 42:35

It is on uh every streaming service out there just about, except Netflix.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

Is there something difficult or is there a a bar of some kind that you have to hurdle in order to get your your show on Netflix?

SPEAKER_01 42:50

You need a name actor, helps, and that helps a lot. Okay. And yeah, that's kind of the biggest bar you gotta hurdle. And so we have actors that have not just made it big yet, but uh Caleb is about to be in a uh M. Night Shyamalan movie in November. It's gotta be scary and a horror. Right. So he's gonna be in that, and uh he was also in the Ed Gean story on HBO. I don't know if anybody's seen that, but he was in an episode of that, so I think he's making a name for himself, and uh Anna Grace is doing work in uh Broadway right now.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

Do you think that those actors work after the making of three, if they're successful, could pull the film up? Absolutely. You know, it's almost like Robin Hood Bryan's when he was here talking to me. He was like, Chad, whenever we made um that third Z Z Top album that had Lagrange on it, he goes, Everybody went back and bought the two the other two before. Right. And I'm just wondering if that concept of success might not, if they get successful or if Caleb turned out to be the next that they started looking at that movie. Let's go elevate these movies and then maybe Netflix bumped it up, right? That's true. That could very well happen. Well, let's keep our fingers crossed. Let's pull for Anna Grace and Caleb from this point forward. Absolutely. But in the interim, when you go to uh Prime, which I've seen it, I've I've gone to Prime to make sure that it was there. And it's there. It's there. And it's there to rent. You can rent it, right? Yes. I don't think the movie's out anywhere for free.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

I see it uh No, it's uh rental uh video on demand is what they call that. Right. Or uh We'd love you to buy it. But uh yes, rent it uh if it's $399 or $4.99 on each platform. It's Apple TV, uh Google and Prime. Uh there's uh they're on all uh YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Well, um I've seen the movie, um, and I think you're right, it's about $399 or $4.99 for the rental. And uh I mean, my own personal opinion, it's certainly better than uh a lot of things that are out there. Uh and so it's worth watching, and we're gonna encourage everybody who's watching this show to go watch the movie, to tell other people about it, because it supports, you know, obviously you and somebody local who put the money behind the movie with others, right? And got it made. Yes. Um all about the arts. I love that stuff. And you know, the we we saw some of the awards um that were uh indicated on the top of that movie poster, but here they are a little easier to see. And so the the response to the movie thus far has been pretty positive, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:49

Yes, yes. We uh actually had a first showing here in uh Tyler at the Liberty Theater when we first got it out and we started putting it in film festivals. So we had a big showing at the Liberty, which was literally sold out. And uh uh I had a lot of people coming out of there saying they love the movie because there's no cussing, there's no violence, there's no bad language, there's no sex, and they kind of thought it was a very wholesome, uplifting movie, so they really liked it.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

Well, you know, uh it's got a good message, it does. That's what I said earlier. It's like the character chose the path of reconciliation, not revenge, not violence, not you know, sex, not going wild. And and the movie reflects that, right? The people in there seem pretty wholesome. The stories are real, um, and you're right. Um there's not just this, you know, unnecessary profanity that's just laced in the movie for no reason, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:57

Yeah, there's no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:58

And and and it's it is refreshing, and I and I'm glad you brought that out because I don't, you know, that's a category that we don't see that much of nowadays.

SPEAKER_01 47:06

No, you really don't. I had several women come out of there crying. They were like, I just really loved it and have a bank. Really? But they would say they love the wholesomeness of it, and it was something they could show their family and not be embarrassed to sit there with their mom or something or dad and watch a movie.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

Yeah, and you think about watching it with your kids if your kids are are younger, early teens, whatever, you know, you're always kinda like, I don't know if this You never know what's gonna pop up. Right. And uh my comment was gonna be, you know, who would ever thought that, you know, uh Parker Clark would have brought us the movie of modesty, uh, you know, chastity, and the lack of profanity. Absolutely. I mean you took a you you you had faked them right on this movie. But it was good. I mean, it was good. Now, when I say it's good, not only does New Mexico film festivals recognize it, but I think it's worth mentioning that the World Fest in Houston, International Film Festival, recognized the film as being good. Absolutely. And that's not just you know, a thank you from New Mexico for shooting it there.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

Uh no, not at all. Uh we away won the best grand jury award and best uh picture in uh Las Cruces International Film Festival, and there was a hundred or so films in that festival. Uh the one in Houston had over 300 films in it. So for us to get recognized there also is uh a really big deal.

SPEAKER_02 48:39

Well, I mean, most of these are best in show, you know, people's choice, audience choice, and then the Houston is gold. So there's something about this that's that's better than all the others or most of the others being submitted. Yes. And if you think about it, you know, Netflix and the other streaming services are all starving for content. So there's a huge need for films, right? Yes, very much so. Um that's probably what opened this avenue, at least in Peter Nye's mind. And then, you know, you kind of got the bug, and here we go, right? Correct. Um, you just gotta find a pipeline to uh success and then to financing.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 49:16

Uh that's it, right? Right. But in all this success and the fun of making this movie and you participating in it, you got to go to some things. And we've got another slide, I think, here. Uh at some of the different festivals. Oh, yeah. Um, you know, we can see uh we can see you in the first one on the far right here. Uh yes. You're in some of these. I don't know if you're in all of them, but down here at the very bottom we see uh you. It's Peter Nay.

SPEAKER_01 49:45

And uh yes. He was one of our uh helped with the editing and everything on the uh post-production. Guy on the far right.

SPEAKER_02 49:56

Yeah, you know, uh I don't give those guys enough credit on this show in the post-production. That's for you, Chris and uh Slayton. Um but no, it's a very important because you know, it's one thing, you know, to the talent gets on screen, right? Somebody's got to film, somebody's gotta edit, somebody's gotta package it together, right? I mean, it's a process. There's a lot of people involved. Um and it's you know, and quality work, uh, you know, video, audio, uh it's not as it's not as easy as people think. No.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

I've learned a lot, especially about the the audio and how that works and the whole thing. I enjoy going out to the sets all the time and watching them shoot everything.

SPEAKER_02 50:39

Um I don't know if there's anything, you know, out here at TJC or UT Tyler that, you know, can further educate you. I mean, I don't even know if they have any type of film-related support schools at either college.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Do you Michael Michael Ward, uh, the writer does he teaches a film class out at UT Tyler. Or he has or still does, but yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:03

I wonder what that class entails. I mean, wonder what's in that class that you could learn as a student, you know?

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Is it tries to get you, I think, uh teach you how to make films and I don't know how to write.

SPEAKER_02 51:17

Since he's a writer, I wonder if he was trying to write. But anyway, it looks like you know, it had to be fun for you. It's a it's a great experience, and it's certainly a a huge diversion from going to the courthouse and running title. Right.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

It was fantastic. Yeah, it's fun. It was a blast.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

Even though running title now uh so much is online, it makes it easier, doesn't it? All right. And I don't know if there are software tools like AI or otherwise that are come about where they could run it and and and check it and I think it's coming.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

Right.

SPEAKER_02 51:52

I mean, if you've read an article about that. And I mean, I hadn't even heard that, but I'm just speculating that I could see how an AI tool could scour a courthouse record book. Put a run sheet together real fast. And say, okay, we need to go find this air right here, you know, or something like that. Well, you know, that is, I mean, I think that's the anxiety and fear of a lot of people that so many jobs could be connected to something computer very fast, quick, and and accurate, right? Yeah. Um real quick. The next couple of years is gonna be interesting, right? Very much so. But like a plumber, like an electrician, you're gonna still need people to make a movie unless unless they just make it out of completely AI characters.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

No, you don't want to do that. Right? I mean, everybody loves movies and everybody has a story to tell, and uh I enjoy stories and synuscripts all the time that I read and I it's a little horror movie I'd like to make. There's yes, I get I love stories.

SPEAKER_02 52:58

Why do you think that there's so many of these films that are made by independent people that are horror slashers, you know, scary? Why does that thing really just blow up in with people trying to make a film?

SPEAKER_01 53:10

That's the the new genre right now. We uh we got asked to help produce a movie after we finished three last year uh in New Mexico, and they made a little horror movie, and so we helped them scout the locations and help. Some woods out in the woods somewhere. We got a oh yeah, actually it is kind of out in the woods somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 53:35

Hey, what's that? A can of uh Vienna sausage over there.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

Somebody been here? What's going on? And then all of a sudden somebody But we had an old jail there in the Mexican in Las Cruces that been deserted and we use the basement and it's got all the jail. It's pretty creepy. That reminds me of that TV commercial.

SPEAKER_02 53:52

Have you seen it? It goes, they were like, Where should we go hide? It goes, let's go get behind the chainsaws over there. Oh, yeah, I think I have seen it. The other guy goes, Why not get in the running car? Right? Why hide over there? You know, but uh yeah, I don't know. Uh, you know, I don't like I don't like extreme violence. I don't like to see the crazy things that they you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 54:17

Like, oh yeah, I totally agree.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

I mean people and it's just like everything.

SPEAKER_01 54:21

Weird deal. It's just yeah, I think they go in cycles and uh because uh even uh people would say we're trying to get it distributed and they're like, well, love stories and rom coms aren't that popular right now.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

But you know, and that's so true of the industry, like you know, musicians have faced that their whole life. It's like right now, you know, we're looking for we're looking for Motley Crue look-alikes right now. We're not looking for uh Messina and logins. Right. Right? Remember when the 70s to the early 80s? Um I mean you probably were a heavy metaler. I don't know if you were or not. Of course. Uh did you ever go to the start club in Dallas? I think I did in college. Yeah, no, that's the craziest place ever. Yeah, it was nuts. Uh, and that was during the you know, the new wave punk. Oh, yeah. Remember right when it kind of came in? Yes. All right, Chris, what do we got next after the excitement of the festivals? Let's go to the show a little bit, okay? Now, one way to get people's attention in a movie is to have uh an actor that everybody knows. Right. Usually it's the lead, but leads cost money. Right. So the next best thing is oh, John Aguirre and the moves that he made to get two guys that we know. Right. Right. Uh Eric Roberts and Michael Parrett. Are we gonna play this clip? Okay, yeah. See, look, there he is. Is this this is at Rick's? That's it. No, this is it in New Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

I think the short is at Rick's. But yes, they're shooting the this is the scene where he tells him he's gonna you know you're gonna die in three days.

SPEAKER_02 55:57

And there's your logo. Uh when we picked this up, it was gonna be streaming in seven days. Let's go to the next one, Chris, and see Michael Paret, Eddie and the Cruisers, remember? He was great.

SPEAKER_01 56:09

He's been in a lot of TV shows. Uh the other night we were watching something saying he goes, That's Michael Parray right there. He's a cop on this show. So he's been in a lot of stuff. But yeah, I mean, they were kind of like I hate to say B movies.

SPEAKER_02 56:22

Character, actor, stuff just below some of the major stuff. He's been in a whole lot.

SPEAKER_04 56:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

And uh do you know what it would cost or what it did cost to have a guy like that Michael Paret in your movie? I mean, that's the one question I'm sure everybody wants me to ask.

SPEAKER_01 56:38

Uh yes, I know exactly what it costs because I had to go take him the money.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

Is it uh proprietary or confidential? Or is it something you don't want to disclose because other actors might say, well, I'm worth more than him if you try to make another movie? Uh I better not say. Okay. Eric Roberts. He's cool. You liked Eric. I loved him. Was uh Eric uh more expensive or less expensive than Michael?

SPEAKER_01 57:04

Is that a question that uh Eric and they were about the same.

SPEAKER_02 57:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

About the same.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Because they have both the kind of the same careers in a way.

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Eric, if you look Eric Roberts up, he's been in more movies than any human being on the planet. He's been in over seven hundred movies. And when he left our movie, he went straight to another movie in North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02 57:25

Now, when you shot the footage uh that included, let's say, Michael, we'll start with Michael. Uh-huh. Um, when you shot this, this is in actually and he comes to New Mexico to do the shoot. Yes. We fly him in, put him up. And uh that's part of the deal. You have to pay for his transportation, get him there. Right. How is he committed to a one, two day, how many shoot? How many days?

SPEAKER_01 57:48

Well, we shout him out in the day, either the one-day shoot. Usually gets in there the night before and spends a night, and we get up and shoot that scene or at the church uh most of that day, and uh once it's over, he's he's through.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

Yeah, and that that that kind of you know that kind of signals part of what we talked about. He's talking to a priest about, you know, how should he live his life, right?

SPEAKER_01 58:14

Well you're saying what happens when I die. Yeah. If I die, and the preacher, the priest, you know, he's like tells him you may who knows where you're gonna go. But the main thing is you Are you sure that was a Catholic priest? No, it's a uh Episcopan. I'll t it was Episcopale. We were gonna shoot that scene in a Catholic church, and we had to get permission from the Diocese. Whoever yes, down there at the Catholic Church. They read our little spat whatever he was languaging that was a rejection. They told us no. Okay. You needed to be a little bit more specific.

SPEAKER_02 58:55

Right. You need to get on the uh the Nicene Creed.

SPEAKER_01 58:59

Correct. I did not like that. So we went to an Episcopal church, and there was a gorgeous little church they let us use, and they did not have a problem with it.

SPEAKER_02 59:07

There you go, Parker. I mean, you now you're part of Hollywood, you're watering down the good book and and the faith. I mean, there you I mean you're part of the problem, Parker. What can I say? I mean, this is what happens to everybody, good people when they get away from here. I know. Um, but all right, so uh the three is iconic, you know, black, red on there. It hopefully this catches people's attention and is a marketing tool in and of itself. Yes, I hope so. Was it intended that way to kind of you've got the hat on? Right.

SPEAKER_01 59:36

Well, it was uh it was just I don't know. Peter and uh Michael Ward came up with that three. Uh I I weren't I at times I thought we ought to call it three days or three days. I don't know. I thought it needed a little something else, but uh yeah, our distri distributor uh Indican pictures, I think they liked it, and so the fact they picked it up and they Yes, I I think they like just the three.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:06

Well, you know, I don't know this, but I mean anytime somebody says three days death, whatever, I mean somebody might think resurrection, Jesus, you know, died three days, right? I mean, if you're getting really artistic and you're trying to connect the dots, you know, did you ever talk to the writer? Was there any kind of um, you know, connection there, kind of in an opposite way on this story of a guy who knew he was gonna die and then three days later he do because arguably Jesus knew that as well, right? Good point. Um I don't know. You know, you I mean, I'm I'm kind of a I was never good in math. I was always a history and English type major. And so immediately I thought that when I watched this, I thought, huh, he knew he was gonna die, and he purposefully did things the last three days before his death. Both characters, right? Right. Jesus and your man Caleb Rumner. Right. I don't know if that uh I don't know if I'd have factored in there or not. If I had talked to the diocese, I would have got us in the Catholic Church, I think. Right? I'd have pointed out that's what we were trying to do. Be in our next movie. And uh if we have a church scene, I'll get us in there. The film gets made, and how long does it take to make the entire film with all that stuff going on?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

Well, we get the money raised, uh, we go out and scout the area around New Mexico where that's where Sandy's from, is in Las Cruces. So we used the scenes in the movie. Uh in the house, that's Sandy's Deerman's, my better half. She's the one of the producers. That's her mother's house. Okay, that's good. That's easy. That's free. That was free. We're looking for free and cheap. So we uh shot four days there, or two or three days there, and we shot uh Chope's bar. Uh that was a day and a half, and then we it took us about 13 days total. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:09

So let's break this down. Thirteen days to shoot it. The scenes are broken up, and there's probably I don't know how many scenes in this movie, seven, eight, ten. Probably something like that. Okay. And then I'm not a director, but if but I am a critical thinker, at least I think I am. And so I'd say, okay, to be the most efficient to get it done in 13 days, whichever scene or however many number of scenes are at one place, that's how you do it. We're probably going to shoot them all, even if it's not in order of the I didn't quite understand that at first.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:43

We shot at m her mother's house first. So we shot scenes that were at the beginning of the movie, the middle of the movie, and the end of the movie. All right, out of order in everything. So we'd shoot at a art gallery. We shot scenes out of order there. All of them are out of order, but you're right. They shoot everything at one location.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:06

I mean, that just saves sense. Right. You don't have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:09

Instead of moving around all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:11

Right, because moving in movies is money. Moving in movies is money. Yes. So then it's the job of the editor, right? Right. To edit and put this stuff together and decide because not all of the footage that you even shot of yourself when in the movie did it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

No. No, no, no. There's a lot. Um Peter and I can't think of Peter and the editor and uh his people on the on the post production side. Yes, and they cut the cut it down to make sure we wanted to keep it under about an hour and forty minutes. So yeah, you cut it, then you cut it and then you put the music in there. That's called the score. The score, and you gotta get the uh what they call the foley. That's when you uh hear somebody running down the street and then their feet are clopping on the ground, or you hear a c screen door going in the background, or a cup slamming down on the case.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:15

You amplify sounds that you can see things happening in the movie. Right. Right? So they actually you see yeah, they add that to that. So j it just kind of uh it's I did not know that. So it gives flavor and experience to the movie, right? I mean the audio, the senses, everything are kind of tweaked. That's how they make a movie. That's correct. Um and then but you know, uh it's not surprising you don't know everybody because like you said, it I mean it was shot in thirteen days.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:44

Right. Uh it's uh you got the assist all the assistant uh d uh the directors, I mean yeah, there's like a D and the the sound guys and the guy that actually is doing the filming, uh who I've kept in touch with these guys since we stopped. And uh it's uh you meet some cool people and you really develop some relationships with them, and it's kind of bittersweet at the end because you have a rap party and all of a sudden everybody just goes away and goes back to their own separate next project.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

And you know that you know you may never see any of them again. Uh good point. I may not. Right. I mean you hope to, yeah. Yeah. But I mean that's kind of the bittersweet part, is that you might not see these people and you made something, y'all together y'all produce something that's living on as a film.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

Right. Because everybody comes in as strangers, most of them. You know, I mean, Peter knew the our our uh photographer Zach Boggs and and our sound guy, and they'd work together on a couple of things, but everybody else was you know from the local. We used a lot of local sound. And uh's and the extras, and everybody in there was extras from Was Chris's. So you meet all these people and you you really develop a relationship with them after a while, and it's uh very cool, but kind of sad when everybody leaves.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:15

When the movie's over and edited, um, I'm assuming that the money that was needed to it stops. That is, there's no more bills to pay at some point, right? Or or do bills keep coming in?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:27

Let me see. Chad? Yes, there are still bills coming in. Okay. And uh I am still paying those bills.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:35

Well, I was just curious if it cut off when when it was finished, and then you found a distributor or somebody that would distribute the movie for you. Right. It's not like um it's not like YouTube. Uh I can't just I can load this show onto YouTube, right, and have a podcast. Um I don't know if I could load a movie on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:58

Uh and and is that something that do y'all I don't I don't know if you could either, but but we found a distribution company that liked our movie and we signed a contract with them, and so they've been really, really good at putting our they put out a lot of great uh promos and stuff for the last week or so since it's before it came out.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:25

Part of the contract is that they agree to promote it with assets that might get people to watch it. Yes, because they, when you sign that contract, got a percentage of the movie's gross.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:37

We will, yes. When it starts coming in, yes, we'll get a percentage we split with them. That's what I'm saying. They're the time, yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

They, the distributor, the reason they're motivated the industry is that to make money.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:47

Correct. And I don't think they would have picked this movie up if they did not think it would make some money. It wouldn't reach a good an audience.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:54

Well, you know, it's a good point uh because we've talked about it a little bit, all these films that are submitted at these film festivals, there's a ton of them. Never make it. And the distributors are going to put some of their own money into a case, right? I mean by promoting They have to put yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:11

They put their own money into it to promote it. So it's a uh you're correct. It's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:18

I mean that's a that's an optimistic thing to happen when they pick you up. Now, I don't know this distributor. Is this a distributor that has other films that are, you know, have done well, well known, or or is this uh, you know, a very small distributor that, you know, that's trying to make it?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

Uh it's Indocan pictures. They've been in b business uh twenty years and they put out a lot of in independent films mainly. And uh I think they've put enough out there to make them some money. And uh at the end of the day, to make an independent film for less than a million dollars to actually get it distributed is almost really hard to do. Well and the fact that they took a chance with us is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:05

The good thing about it is it if it only costs, you know, less than half a million to make, that if it's successful to get to the black, making money is a much shorter road. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:18

And so that that's I'm hopeful for that idea, that that model. I'd like to go make a couple more movies where they're not so expensive, and you can get your money back and build it up and make more movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:32

But I mean, like, I don't know if you want to tell us or not, but I mean I'm sure people are interested. Like a distributor, they don't make the movie, they don't do anything, all they do is like a record company, they say, Hey, I'm going to promote you and you're signing with me, and I get this percentage. Right. Is there a recognized industry percentage when distributors take on a film and agree to promote it? I think they're all different depending on each distributor. I mean, like because I'm trying to figure out how the pie is divvied up with Parker Clark and the investors, executive producers, um anybody else other than the distributor are part of that money ratio?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:13

Well, the way it works is uh any monies that come in, all the investors get paid back first. Okay, so you're gonna beat the distributor getting a dime. No, no. That's we split it. They get their money, we get our money, and then uh when our money comes in, we have uh a better deal or a less a lesson. No, or if we split it, say fifty-fifty. Let's pretend that that's the deal. Let's pretend if we gay say that's uh three hundred thousand dollars. Say they get say we make three hundred thousand dollars, they get a hundred and fifty thousand, we get a hundred and fifty thousand. All right, and you still hadn't got about a hundred thousand, uh hundred and fifty thousand that you still hadn't got back. So So we still so at $150,000 we start paying back to investors based on their proportional investment against the whole thing. Say then we got six or seven hundred thousand or another three hundred thousand, and then we split it another different way. Right. Is it stay fifty-fifty or do you or the distributor get more once the investors are paying off? No, it goes, it's it's more of a fifty-fifty, uh, and then if they sell an another uh level of movies, then the percentage goes more to us and less to the distribution company. And then it goes up another level where it's down to ninety-ten, where we get ninety and they get ten.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:43

And that's is that a a time frame like over a year or what seven years. Okay, so yeah. I was going to say locked in for a long time. Right. I'm saying, like, you know, w before it gets to 9010, we need seven years to pass and this movie to be so old that there couldn't be too many.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:00

We want this thing to get out there now. And get hot. And get hot, and then we get to that 90 ten in about six months. Really?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:10

Okay, but that's what I didn't quite understand is how do you get to the 9010 the fastest?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:18

You gotta say, uh, you gotta rent the movie. I need I need uh, you know, a million people to rent the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:24

I mean, but is there a dollar figure that you know of that if rented to that dollar amount would get y'all to the 90% for y'all, ten percent for the distributor?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:33

Well, I think no, I don't know a dollar amount, I just know as a percentage if we got do the math, we get a million people to watch it. That's four dollars a pot. Oh, that's four million dollars. Four million dollars, and if they got even fifty percent of that, that would get us all the way to the ninety ten. You understand?

SPEAKER_02 1:12:57

From that point forward, it would just continue as ninety ten, right? Yeah. All right, so if we went over there, yes. Not knowing the uh exact math and not needing to, but knowing that uh, you know, a fast start is important in this but yes, you j yes, you want as many people to watch it as you can get to watch it.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

Um that's why I'm pushing the advertising and promotion we've been uh promoting on Facebook, Instagram, uh all those platforms and how are you promoting it?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:31

How are you promoting this movie on Facebook and Instagram?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:34

Yourself like Parker Clark or No, we I got uh a gal that works for us and she uh we got I give her and say, go out and you can boost these things. You may know this, you can boost them nationwide. Oh yeah, you can X amount of dollars. So I go go boost Facebook for the next three weeks, and so if she's gonna continue to do that, I just did the deal with High Times magazine because it reaches over two million people. So I'm as many times that I can get it boosted out there for people to see. Uh I would love to be interviewed or have a uh in the New York Times go see these movies this month type article or something. So we're still trying to do that. Where millions of people live. Right. And they get to go home. But but I read the, you know, I read the newspaper and it goes, these are the top twenty-five movies you should go watch this month. How do I I'm trying to figure out a way to get us on some list like that, which would be kind of cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

Usually I would think that would come from a distributor or an industry insider. Right. So I'm you know, people that are like, hey, I got this film because the distributor, whoever those guys were, they're like, put me on there because they're gonna make money if it does well. Absolutely. So the incentives are all in the right direction here. The distributors they benefit. Yeah, they benefit every time we get, they get some too. So that's good. That means that you you know they're gonna be working hard to make this work now that because it's barely out. We're not even out but a couple of few days. Two days, yeah. All right, we're two days out. May the fifth. Is there any dashboard or any way for it's my brother's birthday. Today?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:16

Happy birthday, brother.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:18

What's today?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:19

The seventh? April the seventh.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:21

May the seventh. Oh god, I'm off. May the seventh. Happy birthday, Colin Clark. Absolutely. Right, fellow lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

That's him.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:30

I've known him my whole life, just about. He was on the swim team. Yeah. Uh he got burned with a chemistry set. He has a little scar on his on his chest. Not that many people know that. No. Um long time ago. And uh he's been a lawyer a long time. He's done good. Yeah. Um, and so I guess I'm glad we we got if Colin ever watches this show, then we I hope he will. We acknowledged him and uh make him watch it. Uh you know, we'll give Callie uh a shout out as well. Absolutely. They're probably on the couch watching this or something at some point. Yeah, we do. Maybe renting it just to give us an extra renter.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:03

Well, you know, first thing I did on uh uh Tuesday morning when it came out is I got up at seven o'clock and went and bought the thing and made a pot of coffee and sat there and watched the movie before I went to work. So Yeah, I mean somebody's bought it.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:19

They're gonna be saying, hey, there's this guy who lives out in Flint, he's watched this thing fifty-two times. I know, right? Keep watching that thing. Keep renting that thing. The rent. I mean, that I don't I don't people get used to paying their subscription on Netflix, uh, you know, and then watching them for free in a way. Right. But other platforms, they're used to renting them.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:38

And hopefully this price point, you know, did y'all have any say in what it's uh no, I think that's just set by uh Apple, Google, Amazon, Prime, all they're all set their own price points. So they range from $399 to $499? I don't think I've seen one higher than that, but there could be.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:02

All right. Well, I'm assuming if I saw yours at $4.99 and this distributor took you on and has promoted this and shows y'all that maybe y'all have a chance for this to be a successful endeavor.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:13

Right. You gotta yeah. Just got into numbers game. Just hope they get a lot of people to go watch it. And so uh I uh say it's a great movie to go watch and rent.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:25

Well, you know, I'm not generally a trusting person in general. Uh I'm you know, I'm kind of more of a hey, uh, you know, verify. Right. And when it comes to numbers that translate into money for you guys, how are you guys able to verify or to know that the numbers are real for what you might get paid?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:45

Uh we have to trust them, but we can also audit them at any time. Okay. Uh yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:52

I mean, that's a lot of contracts in business where they reserve the right to audit the books.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:56

Absolutely. But I didn't know if there was a chance. We can't audit that. I doubt that's a question that we've been asking ourselves today. Is there a way to uh follow how many people watched the movies and get an idea of you know who's seen what and how many times it's been watched?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:14

So Well, that was my question. I was getting to it and I used the word a minute ago, dashboard, and what I meant is there a dashboard available that you can go to online and see kind of what the numbers have done the first two days and either being bought, rented, right, where in the country it's doing better than others. I mean, is that capability out there that you know of?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:37

No, but that is something I would like to get into and figure out. Well, why don't you pass those questions along, you know, to the Trevor Burrus We don't ask that to uh our distribution company.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:48

Trevor Burrus Are there any reporting requirements from the distribution company like well, we contractually have to give you guys the numbers after the first week, first month, first quarter, anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:00

Uh what I can only remember is they have to I think they have to give us some numbers after the first uh six months.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:10

Okay. Uh and then as far as payment, if there are, you know, a lot of rentals and things are going well, when are they obligated to make the first payment for whatever percentage you you are over?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:20

I believe it's after the first six months and then the next six months, and then it's quarterly. Okay. So I mean, you know, look it's perpetuity.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:33

It's uh you know, I mean, it's obviously you they have to do all the accounting, they have to keep up with the stuff, right? I mean, it's something that you've kind of you've gotten in good in a way, like you kind of you put some money in, I'm presuming, but I know you put some other, you know, help in that probably helped you get a a uh executive producer credit. Right. I mean, I don't know what your percentage is, and I'm not asking.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:00

I'm just I don't know, I just get my percentage of what the total movie costs. You know, it's just a you put in a hundred grand and a movie cost five hundred grand, you get one hundred over five hundred or that what is that? Yeah twenty percent or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:16

So um just you know, you and me uh are you personally optimistic that this film, you know, getting started here, that this this do you think this how do you think this is gonna work, right? Do you have a gut feeling?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:30

I think it's gonna work great. I really do. I really do. I think it's uh we did a lot of homework. Peter did a lot of homework, and Sandy did a lot of work. We all have done a lot of homework and we came up with this distribution company. I feel good about these guys. I think they like our movie. I don't think they would put it out there if it was not a good movie. I can't imagine why you put a movie out there that sucked. So yeah, I'm I'm very optimistic. I just want to get the word out there more than anything, and that's why I thank you for letting me allowing me to even talk to you about this.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:08

I'm happy to do it, man. This this podcast has always been about highlighting people in East Texas and at the same time trying to help them, whether it be, you know, somebody who owns a restaurant or or whatever, you know, or a philanthropy that's helping people. You know, I enjoy this, you probably can tell. I enjoy podcasting. Yeah, I can understand that. Because you know what I enjoy most, I'm a very curious person. And you know, I've learned so much today just from talking to you about something I would never have a way to know about.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:37

And, you know, so you learned it and I learned it in in an hour or so, all of it from you. See? I mean, I'm increasing my knowledge about everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:45

And it's it's a it's a really fun Yes. If I told somebody the other day if I could do anything, I'd quit being a landman and go make movies all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:56

Well, have you is there any That'd be great. Is there any industry tool or people uh that have given y'all feedback before it was released on the streaming services to tell y'all, hey, we think this is good, or hey, uh this will probably be average, or this might not hit. Is there anything y'all have gotten back? Feedback.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:13

We've gotten no negative feedback whatsoever. And uh no, it's everybody's liked it. Um we yes, we we yes, it's been great.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:25

Now we're coming to the end here, and and so I think this is an appropriate question because we know from listening to you, you've been through the entire process from uh funding, you know, to the location, uh, to the filming, to the people involved, to the uh the percentages, to the distribution, to everything, right? Right. After all of that, having learned whatever it is you've learned, right. Is there anything you would do differently if you shot this same kind of movie and you did it the next time?

SPEAKER_01 1:22:58

Oh, I would uh well of course I wouldn't uh uh be better prepared. Let's put it that way. Uh, I felt like we weren't near as prepared as we should be, should have been when we first got to shooting the movie. You're talking about when you got to Las Cruces. When we got out there, we were kinda all, you know, like I said, you got a whole bunch of people rolling in at one time, and they all have different roles as far as camera operators, sound people, gaffers who do all the electrical and the lighting, and so you got all these people coming in, you have paperwork to fill out. You gotta do the paperwork for 1099s, you got to fill out the paperwork if you're a SAG actor.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:41

Before they can do any work.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:42

Before any of that. So you've got all that going on like the first day, and it is really uh it's very hectic. And it's uh yes, you gotta be prepared and have your ducks in a row. And uh learned we need to have our ducks in a row before I go down that path again.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:03

Because uh it probably uh increases the days those people are on location and getting paid?

SPEAKER_01 1:24:09

Well, no, you just wanna have everything ready to go, and we walks in, here's you sign Chad right here, and this is your day rate, or whatever you're gonna get be paid, and you gotta get all that into an accountant, and then they have to keep up with that stuff. Whose job is that on a movie set? Well, that's the producer's job. So Sandy wound up with that job. John Aguirre? John was supposed to have done a lot of that, and he did do a ton of it, but our accountant that we had hired, mother died the day before we were supposed to shoot, and she was supposed to be down there to take care of all this stuff. Okay. So y'all had a little bit of a little glitch right off the bat in between uh Sandy and I'm not gonna blame John, but it was just one of those things that she got and dumped a lot of this paperwork in her lap, and John wouldn't have a lot of that, and so yes, I've learned you need to have all those things kind of squared up, taken care of, so you don't have slowdowns or glitches. Uh we had a school we were using where I'm the coach and we got out there to start to shoot the the the film that morning, and the uh board member shows up out there and says, You can't shoot here because you didn't get permission from the board. We got permission from a teacher. But luckily our uh uh scouting location guy had another uh element a school in his back pocket, so we had to leave there, move to another school, and we hadn't to finish shooting that whole day out at that second location, which took time, but it's one of those things that just happens. You gotta be prepared and have all that kind of stuff ready to roll.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:09

Yeah, I mean the old creative artsy kind of guy um can't be the guy in charge of the administrative stuff to make a movie, is what you're saying. No. You've gotta be we need the the OCD super prepared. Right. Think about every contingency kind of person to reduce the number of problems that might happen.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:31

Wait, we were supposed to go shoot in uh Riodoso and uh it caught on fire. We were gonna do a zip line with the kids, we're gonna zip line across at a lake in Riodoso, and it caught on fire, so we could not go up there, so we had to pivot, and they're climbing up a mountain to attend the movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:51

So you gotta be prepared for everything, man. It's crazy. Sounds like you should have had Michael Powray as the actual Catholic priest in this movie, and things might have gone better. You may be right. Absolutely. Well, Parker, this has been great and interesting, and I wish you uh and everybody involved uh all the success in the world. I'll rent it, I'll be watching, and thank you for being on the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:14

Thank you so much, Chad. I appreciate it, man.