What makes a horror film genuinely unsettling? Sometimes, it’s not the monster or the jump scare, but the fear of what might happen next.
On this episode of The Physical Cut, I’m joined by filmmaker Joe Bandelli, director of the upcoming horror short The Sequence, to talk about creating tension, psychological horror, and the filmmaking choices that make a story stick with you. We get into the film’s unnerving atmosphere, its use of sound design, color, camera movement, and pacing, and how a short film can pack so much emotion into just 14 minutes.
We also talk about Joe’s journey through independent filmmaking, from producing and stepping into the clown suit for Hell House LLC to directing his own stories, collaborating with writers, and learning when less is more. Plus, we discuss the enduring cult following of Hell House LLC, its upcoming theatrical release, and why experiencing horror on the big screen still matters.
In this episode:
- The origins of The Sequence and bringing a vivid nightmare to life
- Psychological horror, family, grief, and the importance of communication
- Building tension through sound design, cinematography, color, and editing
- The challenges of directing a tightly paced independent short film
- Joe Bandelli’s work on Hell House LLC and the franchise’s lasting legacy
- The future of The Sequence and its potential feature-length expansion
- Advice for independent filmmakers: trust your instincts and tell the stories you want to see
Connect with Joe Bandelli: Instagram: @thechosenjoey
Watch The Sequence: The short film is scheduled for release on YouTube through Red End Productions on October 22.
Follow us on Instagram at @thephysicalcutpod
And visit krpodlab.com for more from the show, including ways to support the podcast through the TPC Support subscription.
If you enjoy this episode, follow and share The Physical Cut, leave a review, and send the show to a fellow horror fan or physical media collector.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 We had a limited theatrical release set up for
00:00:02 --> 00:00:04 the fourth movie, but then Taylor Swift announced
00:00:04 --> 00:00:26 her heiress tour, and so we got canceled. Welcome
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 back to the Physical Cut, where films will be
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 on the stream. My name is Carlos, and today I
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 am joined by the gentleman that makes Pennywise
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 look like Mary fucking Poppins, with Joe Bandelli.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 Joe, welcome to the podcast today. Thanks for
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 having me, Carlos, and thank you for the kind
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 words. Appreciate it. I told you just now that
00:00:44 --> 00:00:47 that was my first time watching Hell House LLC
00:00:47 --> 00:00:50 yesterday. And I was like, I don't know what
00:00:50 --> 00:00:53 I'm getting into. Again, I got to keep repeating.
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 Everybody here is probably tired of me saying
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 this. I hate found footage films. It's the most
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 stressful thing ever to sit down and watch. But
00:01:01 --> 00:01:04 I had to say I got through that. But Joe, today
00:01:04 --> 00:01:06 we are going to be talking about a few things.
00:01:06 --> 00:01:10 And like I said, including Hell House LLC. I
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 want to begin with the reason we are here and
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 the reason we linked up. And that is because
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 you have a new upcoming film coming out called
00:01:18 --> 00:01:22 The Sequence, a short film written by Brian Loposino.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:25 And I got a chance to see it yesterday, but I
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 got a chance to see the film yesterday. And I
00:01:27 --> 00:01:31 got to say, those 14 minutes were completely
00:01:31 --> 00:01:36 unnerving. I was on the edge the entire time.
00:01:36 --> 00:01:38 I have so many questions about it. And we're
00:01:38 --> 00:01:39 going to get into that. I'm going to try not
00:01:39 --> 00:01:41 to spoil it, but I don't promise anything, but
00:01:41 --> 00:01:44 I'm going to try not to spoil it. But how did
00:01:44 --> 00:01:47 the sequence come together? So I was living in
00:01:47 --> 00:01:50 L .A. and I had a friend who's a cinematographer
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 named Jonathan Williams. And he mentioned to
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 me that he has a friend who has been trying to
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 find the right director. His friend wrote a script,
00:01:58 --> 00:02:00 a short film, and he was trying to find the right
00:02:00 --> 00:02:02 person to direct it. And he thought I'd be a
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 good fit. So that was Brian Lopresino. And so
00:02:05 --> 00:02:08 what was supposed to be like a 30 or 45 minute
00:02:08 --> 00:02:10 coffee of him and I meeting turned into like
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 a six hour, like us two, like becoming like buddies.
00:02:13 --> 00:02:18 And he hired me on the spot and I saw a lot of
00:02:18 --> 00:02:20 what he was trying to do and a lot of what the
00:02:20 --> 00:02:23 idea for the sequence was originally something
00:02:23 --> 00:02:26 that he dreamt of. So he has a very, very vivid
00:02:26 --> 00:02:28 dreams that he remembers that he writes down.
00:02:28 --> 00:02:32 So a lot of the actual screenplay was very, very
00:02:32 --> 00:02:34 cinematic already. There are a lot of things
00:02:34 --> 00:02:36 in the script that I really like. There are some
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 things that I kind of wanted to adjust or make
00:02:38 --> 00:02:40 changes on. Him and I got along really well.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:44 And I told him from the start, I'm like, I'm
00:02:44 --> 00:02:45 not the type of director who's going to come
00:02:45 --> 00:02:48 in and be like, my vision, fuck off. I'm going
00:02:48 --> 00:02:51 to do this the way I want to do it. I wanted
00:02:51 --> 00:02:54 to know. I wanted to know, like, imagery, things
00:02:54 --> 00:02:58 that he, like, kind of was, like, either was
00:02:58 --> 00:03:01 in his dream or was inspired by. And then I tried
00:03:01 --> 00:03:02 to incorporate some of the stuff that he was
00:03:02 --> 00:03:04 seeing into the way I designed the movie and
00:03:04 --> 00:03:07 the way I saw it when I put the whole thing together.
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 Well, what was the original spark? I know Brian
00:03:11 --> 00:03:14 wrote the story, but was there anything you had
00:03:14 --> 00:03:15 to do with the story itself? Was there anything
00:03:15 --> 00:03:18 that you kind of, like, sparked the story to
00:03:18 --> 00:03:20 come together? I mean, listen, any time a director...
00:03:20 --> 00:03:23 takes on a project they always do rewrites on
00:03:23 --> 00:03:25 the script so there's always that element like
00:03:25 --> 00:03:29 hey like whether it's budget limitations or cast
00:03:29 --> 00:03:32 crew whatever the limitations are you're always
00:03:32 --> 00:03:33 going to adjust things and even on set you're
00:03:33 --> 00:03:35 cutting things you're adding things and so on
00:03:35 --> 00:03:37 and so forth one of the big things that like
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 because like i said brian had a very visual representation
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 of what he wanted the movie to be and it was
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 very to me transparent in the script the one
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 thing that i really added from the script phase
00:03:47 --> 00:03:51 uh was brian had one or two things that had like
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 a repetitive sound, like maybe the clock ticking
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 or something. And I really thought that that
00:03:56 --> 00:03:59 would be really unnerving to kind of use sound
00:03:59 --> 00:04:01 design and use sound to drive us through the
00:04:01 --> 00:04:04 opening sequence of the movie. And so my suggestion
00:04:04 --> 00:04:06 to him was to do another rewrite on it. I kind
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 of gave him an idea of what I think should go
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 where. And that's kind of how you saw the opening
00:04:11 --> 00:04:13 like minute and a half of the movie, the opening
00:04:13 --> 00:04:15 dream sequence. That was kind of like a big inspiration
00:04:15 --> 00:04:19 for me in terms of giving that to Brian. But
00:04:19 --> 00:04:20 it was honestly, it was a true collaboration
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 with him as well as for the rest of the crew
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 because no one really got like their feelings
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 hurt or got shut down. It was like, hey, that's
00:04:27 --> 00:04:29 a cool idea. This doesn't work. Let's try this
00:04:29 --> 00:04:32 and so on and so forth. So I'd say that's probably
00:04:32 --> 00:04:34 the biggest one. And then the second is there's
00:04:34 --> 00:04:36 a shot in the movie. That's kind of like the
00:04:36 --> 00:04:38 culmination shot. We call it the lazy Susan shot.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:41 And in the script, it was written in there twice.
00:04:41 --> 00:04:43 It was in the dream sequence and it was in the
00:04:43 --> 00:04:46 reality sequence. And I, when we started like
00:04:46 --> 00:04:50 testing and started to like put together how
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 we're going to shoot that, I felt very strongly
00:04:52 --> 00:04:54 that we shouldn't do it twice in the movie and
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 that we should do it once. And, and I think Brian
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 initially had reservations about that, but when
00:05:00 --> 00:05:01 I sort of explained to him and got through to
00:05:01 --> 00:05:03 him, like, Hey, listen, if we see a sequence
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 like that play out. And I'm being vague purposely
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 because I want people to go watch the movie.
00:05:08 --> 00:05:12 But if we see a sequence play out like that in
00:05:12 --> 00:05:14 the dream sequence, when we get to reality, if
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 the camera starts moving in the exact same way,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:19 which is a very unique way of how we move the
00:05:19 --> 00:05:21 camera. Everyone is going to know what's going
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 to happen within two seconds of that shot starting.
00:05:23 --> 00:05:26 And so I wanted to kind of get rid of the original
00:05:26 --> 00:05:29 one and sort of create a different shot of how
00:05:29 --> 00:05:31 I would do kind of the play out of the dream
00:05:31 --> 00:05:33 sequence or how the dream ends. That way we can
00:05:33 --> 00:05:35 kind of save and hold on to this kind of really
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 cool shot that sort of was the culmination of
00:05:38 --> 00:05:41 what happens in reality. When you started the
00:05:41 --> 00:05:43 script and when you started reading the script
00:05:43 --> 00:05:46 itself, was the nightmare concept? there the
00:05:46 --> 00:05:47 entire time which has something when you guys
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 yeah yeah yeah i mean the basic concept of the
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 movie is a woman has a dream or is a nightmare
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 that she poisons and murders her entire family
00:05:55 --> 00:05:57 and kills herself and then as she wakes up from
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 her dream and as she starts to go about her day
00:05:59 --> 00:06:03 moments from her dream start creeping in reality
00:06:03 --> 00:06:06 and she does everything she possibly can to try
00:06:06 --> 00:06:07 to make sure that this nightmare does not become
00:06:07 --> 00:06:11 reality but why did you choose to at least like
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 shoot that or explore that fear throughout horror
00:06:14 --> 00:06:16 it could have been any other genre but why horror
00:06:16 --> 00:06:19 necessarily i mean i mean yeah i mean well for
00:06:19 --> 00:06:21 starters i mean that's kind of like the sub -genre
00:06:21 --> 00:06:22 that i've been working in for a genre that i've
00:06:22 --> 00:06:25 been working in for years and and honestly like
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 i saw it more like the themes that i really were
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 was attracted to in the story was stuff that
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 wasn't literally written in the text it was more
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 of the subtext and so one big thing for me is
00:06:35 --> 00:06:39 i think when you The mother has a, the main character,
00:06:39 --> 00:06:42 Taylor, she has a husband and she has two kids,
00:06:42 --> 00:06:46 a teenage son and a younger daughter. And so
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 when you introduce horror elements with kids,
00:06:49 --> 00:06:51 number one, it's always creepy. And number two,
00:06:51 --> 00:06:53 there's a lot of things that people will say.
00:06:53 --> 00:06:55 They say it with a dog, like don't kill a dog
00:06:55 --> 00:06:56 in the movie, you'll lose your audience. But
00:06:56 --> 00:06:59 with kids, it's also kind of similar. It's like,
00:06:59 --> 00:07:00 how far are you willing to push that? Where are
00:07:00 --> 00:07:03 you willing to go? And Brian had a very clear,
00:07:03 --> 00:07:07 like, I want to do this. I've been finding problems
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 and having trouble with people who also want
00:07:10 --> 00:07:13 to do this. And when him and I had that conversation,
00:07:13 --> 00:07:15 I was like, yeah, for me, there's no limits.
00:07:16 --> 00:07:18 If it supports the story and it actually makes
00:07:18 --> 00:07:20 for a better story, I'm down to do whatever,
00:07:20 --> 00:07:24 no matter how terrifying it is. And to me, I
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 think one, the biggest thing that I pulled away
00:07:26 --> 00:07:28 from the whole thing, the biggest thing that
00:07:28 --> 00:07:31 I wanted to convey to people is. There's so much
00:07:31 --> 00:07:33 going on in this woman's head. There's so much
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 backstory. There's so many things that we barely
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 even touched on in the short. But the biggest
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 thing is, as she's dealing with her own problems
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 and as she's dealing with things, she's in a
00:07:42 --> 00:07:44 way neglecting her family and she's neglecting
00:07:44 --> 00:07:46 her children. And communication, I've always
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 been, in every relationship I'm in, I mean, every
00:07:49 --> 00:07:51 girl I've ever dated, as well as my wife, if
00:07:51 --> 00:07:52 they heard this, they'd probably be like, yeah,
00:07:52 --> 00:07:54 Justin, shut up about his feelings. Communication
00:07:54 --> 00:07:57 is key. And I think... in a world that kind of
00:07:57 --> 00:07:59 has a lot of chaos going on there's a lot of
00:07:59 --> 00:08:03 polarizing opinions politics are insane if you
00:08:03 --> 00:08:05 can't dislike or like something you have to hate
00:08:05 --> 00:08:07 it and love it like there's all these like things
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 that happen we try to protect our kids and we
00:08:10 --> 00:08:13 try to protect the youth and i think that's not
00:08:13 --> 00:08:16 the right way about going to raise the next generation
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 of people. It's you need to communicate with
00:08:19 --> 00:08:21 them and you need to treat them like they're
00:08:21 --> 00:08:23 adults, even though they're kids at times. And
00:08:23 --> 00:08:25 so communication was a big thing for me. And
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 I really wanted to kind of talk about, in essence,
00:08:27 --> 00:08:31 what's the worst possible case scenario of what
00:08:31 --> 00:08:33 happens when a mom does not communicate with
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 her kids? Well, like we said, the film does deal
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 with a lot of emotional elements. You have the
00:08:38 --> 00:08:42 grief, the isolation, you have emotional. This
00:08:42 --> 00:08:45 connection that you kind of see in the relationship.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:47 I'm not going to say which one, because I feel
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 like there's two key relationships there that
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 kind of, I would say, move the story forward.
00:08:53 --> 00:08:56 Even with some of the twists, you still see how
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 a relationship affects. Right. And you have the
00:08:59 --> 00:09:03 inability or unwillingness to communicate. Like
00:09:03 --> 00:09:06 you said, communication is a big part of why
00:09:06 --> 00:09:09 this is happening. But were you interested in
00:09:09 --> 00:09:11 the idea that sometimes the things that happen,
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 inside someone's head can be more frightening
00:09:14 --> 00:09:16 than anything that's happening supernatural.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:19 Yeah, absolutely. And I think at the end of the
00:09:19 --> 00:09:24 day, I think if you, any person, I have a one
00:09:24 --> 00:09:26 -year -old now, so I kind of know what it's like,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 but any person who's a parent will tell you like
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 before they had kids, they might've been scared
00:09:32 --> 00:09:35 of clowns or spiders or whatever. And now that
00:09:35 --> 00:09:37 they have kids, they might still be scared of
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 those things. But if you ask most of them, what's
00:09:39 --> 00:09:40 the worst thing that could possibly happen to
00:09:40 --> 00:09:43 you? It's something happening to them. kids yeah
00:09:43 --> 00:09:46 i i again i think beautifully written by brian
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 and the way we kind of put it together i think
00:09:49 --> 00:09:53 the movie talks a lot about things that parents
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 go through or couples go through when they have
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 kids a lot of those struggles so to me it always
00:09:58 --> 00:10:01 felt very relatable and i made this movie before
00:10:01 --> 00:10:04 i had kids but then obviously had a kid and my
00:10:04 --> 00:10:06 wife and i she got pregnant and so on and so
00:10:06 --> 00:10:08 forth so i got to live through a lot of this
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 experience of being like oh my god my life is
00:10:10 --> 00:10:14 no longer mine it's for my son or it's for whatever
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 person has what kids or not i think that the
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 there are a lot of really interesting themes
00:10:19 --> 00:10:22 and like themes like isolation and grief every
00:10:22 --> 00:10:24 person goes through that so i think one of the
00:10:24 --> 00:10:26 best parts about horror and why i usually love
00:10:26 --> 00:10:30 horror so much is because Horror is a genre that
00:10:30 --> 00:10:32 usually gets to tackle all emotions, whereas
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 certain genres only tackle one or two emotions.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 And I think usually the best horror are things
00:10:38 --> 00:10:41 that touch on things that almost every single
00:10:41 --> 00:10:44 person can experience or has experienced. And
00:10:44 --> 00:10:45 so that was something that I saw in the script
00:10:45 --> 00:10:48 and I really wanted to kind of make sure it came
00:10:48 --> 00:10:50 through to fruition as we were filming the movie
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 and as it was put together in post -production.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:58 How easy was it to balance the psychological
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 and the emotional side with the horror because
00:11:01 --> 00:11:03 it was well balanced again for something that
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 happens so much in such a short time it's pretty
00:11:06 --> 00:11:08 well balanced yeah i mean that with some with
00:11:08 --> 00:11:11 a short film specifically like you don't have
00:11:11 --> 00:11:13 a lot of time to like really create like a full
00:11:13 --> 00:11:15 -on beginning middle and end you don't have a
00:11:15 --> 00:11:17 good you don't have enough time to really pull
00:11:17 --> 00:11:21 on the strings and kind of get to all the characters
00:11:21 --> 00:11:23 arcs like you might get to one or two of them
00:11:23 --> 00:11:25 and usually in horror it's usually you have one
00:11:25 --> 00:11:28 or two really good scare sequences and that's
00:11:28 --> 00:11:29 kind of how you would get a short film across
00:11:29 --> 00:11:34 so i mean listen it's it's the thing that i love
00:11:34 --> 00:11:36 doing i've been doing it for 15 years so this
00:11:36 --> 00:11:38 is home to me so it wasn't i'm not going to say
00:11:38 --> 00:11:40 it wasn't hard because it absolutely was hard
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 every every time you make a movie it's hard but
00:11:42 --> 00:11:46 it was it was pretty easy in terms of trying
00:11:46 --> 00:11:49 to find that balance of what should be tense,
00:11:49 --> 00:11:51 what shouldn't be tense, what should be unnerving.
00:11:51 --> 00:11:53 And like you said earlier, this is one of those
00:11:53 --> 00:11:56 movies that we really wanted to make it unnerving
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 throughout the entire movie. There's really only
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 one part in the movie that has a little bit of
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 a laugh, and that happens almost exactly in the
00:12:03 --> 00:12:05 middle of the movie, purposely to kind of break
00:12:05 --> 00:12:07 the tension of you being like, oh my God, I'm
00:12:07 --> 00:12:09 so tense. You catch my breath, and then immediately
00:12:09 --> 00:12:12 it goes right back into the unnerving. Yeah,
00:12:12 --> 00:12:14 but how important was it to at least keep the
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 audience questioning what was actually happening?
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 Yeah, listen, in essence, we're creating a whodunit
00:12:20 --> 00:12:24 in a very, very unique way. And so I think that
00:12:24 --> 00:12:26 was always something that was really important.
00:12:26 --> 00:12:32 There were a lot of shots that we did not use
00:12:32 --> 00:12:36 in the final cut of the movie because those shots...
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 had certain characters coming across even more
00:12:39 --> 00:12:41 menacing or less menacing than we actually wanted
00:12:41 --> 00:12:43 the audience to kind of perceive them at that
00:12:43 --> 00:12:45 given moment that was definitely like something
00:12:45 --> 00:12:49 that i think we we were very cautious of and
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 i i wanted to make sure that at no point in time
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 we were like tipping our hat going this is going
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 to happen or this is going to happen like we
00:12:55 --> 00:12:57 really wanted the audience to be on their toes
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 throughout this entire film let's get a little
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 bit into the directing because again it does
00:13:02 --> 00:13:05 have some pretty amazing shots. And like you
00:13:05 --> 00:13:09 said, we didn't want to use one twice. And I
00:13:09 --> 00:13:12 wouldn't say it's so much of a spoiler, but it's
00:13:12 --> 00:13:14 a very interesting shot. But I want to start
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 from the beginning of the directing process.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:19 What was the biggest challenge in directing this
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 particular story? Yeah, so the biggest challenge,
00:13:21 --> 00:13:23 truthfully, was there was two of them. Number
00:13:23 --> 00:13:25 one, that lazy Susan shot that culminates at
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 the end of the movie. That was such a difficult
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 shot because Not only is this an independent
00:13:30 --> 00:13:33 film, a low budget film, a short film, you don't
00:13:33 --> 00:13:35 have a lot of time. And especially when you get
00:13:35 --> 00:13:37 really good caliber actors like we got in this,
00:13:37 --> 00:13:41 like Katie Parker was incredible. Braxton, who
00:13:41 --> 00:13:43 played her teenage son, is awesome in it. Our
00:13:43 --> 00:13:45 little girl Sloane is great. Every person we
00:13:45 --> 00:13:48 had in this was phenomenal. And so when you get
00:13:48 --> 00:13:50 a higher caliber cast or people who can like
00:13:50 --> 00:13:53 bring their A game from moment one. you usually
00:13:53 --> 00:13:55 don't have a ton of time with them. You have
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 your shoot days with them. And we didn't have
00:13:57 --> 00:13:59 any prep days with them. So we didn't have any
00:13:59 --> 00:14:00 rehearsal time or anything like that. And I'm
00:14:00 --> 00:14:04 big on rehearsing. So that sequence for that
00:14:04 --> 00:14:08 technical shot, we did, like I had my cinematographer
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 and his team build that setup multiple times
00:14:10 --> 00:14:13 over multiple days and really work on getting
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 it down. And my whole mantra when I was talking
00:14:15 --> 00:14:18 with Jonathan about it was, listen, on the day
00:14:18 --> 00:14:22 of when we do that shot, you need to be as the
00:14:22 --> 00:14:24 most consistent person in terms of how you're
00:14:24 --> 00:14:25 operating the camera and how you're moving it
00:14:25 --> 00:14:29 around the table. Because I am going to be dealing
00:14:29 --> 00:14:31 with a child actor. I'm going to be dealing with
00:14:31 --> 00:14:34 three other actors who have their own opinions
00:14:34 --> 00:14:36 on how they want to do things and how they want
00:14:36 --> 00:14:38 their characters to come across. And we don't
00:14:38 --> 00:14:39 have a ton of time in the day. We're dealing
00:14:39 --> 00:14:42 with special effects. We're dealing with blood
00:14:42 --> 00:14:44 and vomit, dealing with a bunch of things there.
00:14:44 --> 00:14:46 So the camera movements needed to be perfect
00:14:46 --> 00:14:49 and needed to be down because... everything else
00:14:49 --> 00:14:51 was going to happen and you never know exactly
00:14:51 --> 00:14:53 what how things are going to play out when you're
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 on set so for me it was like rehearse the out
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 of the thing that you you need to nail because
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 the other variables are kind of like you don't
00:15:01 --> 00:15:02 know what's going to happen with those things
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 that was probably the biggest challenge i would
00:15:04 --> 00:15:08 say the second biggest challenge is brian his
00:15:08 --> 00:15:11 original script for this was about 30 35 pages
00:15:11 --> 00:15:14 long and when i read the script i was like this
00:15:14 --> 00:15:17 is great but We need to lose some of this stuff
00:15:17 --> 00:15:20 because we can't have a 35 minute short film.
00:15:20 --> 00:15:22 You're not getting into festivals. No one's going
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 to watch this. You need as short of a possible
00:15:25 --> 00:15:27 as a film. And I realized we were tackling a
00:15:27 --> 00:15:28 lot of themes and a lot of stuff. So I knew it
00:15:28 --> 00:15:30 wasn't going to be like a two minute film. So
00:15:30 --> 00:15:32 I was able to kind of work with him to get the
00:15:32 --> 00:15:36 script cut down to roughly 22 pages. And even
00:15:36 --> 00:15:38 the 22 pages that we shot, we cut a lot of it.
00:15:38 --> 00:15:41 And I think the biggest thing from script to
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 reality that changed was the dream sequence.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:46 The dream sequence itself was written linearly.
00:15:47 --> 00:15:49 So each one of those sequences that you see in
00:15:49 --> 00:15:51 the opening of the movie was played out from
00:15:51 --> 00:15:54 like point A to point B to point C. Next segment,
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 point A, point B, point C. And I always felt
00:15:57 --> 00:16:00 off. Something felt off about that. Not in the
00:16:00 --> 00:16:02 right way, but I couldn't really put my finger
00:16:02 --> 00:16:04 on it. And when we shot it and we put it together,
00:16:04 --> 00:16:07 I wanted to give Brian and our other producer,
00:16:07 --> 00:16:10 Chris, I wanted to give them a rough cut of what
00:16:10 --> 00:16:13 the movie looked like. based on how the script
00:16:13 --> 00:16:16 is written. And so I gave them this rough cut
00:16:16 --> 00:16:18 and both of them were like, something is off
00:16:18 --> 00:16:20 about the opening. And I was like, great, let
00:16:20 --> 00:16:24 me and my editor, Nick, work on it. And so the
00:16:24 --> 00:16:27 whole thing for Nick and I was, you know, I'm
00:16:27 --> 00:16:29 not a big fan of experimental films. For me,
00:16:29 --> 00:16:31 if you don't like found footage films, that's
00:16:31 --> 00:16:32 where I would say experimental films are for
00:16:32 --> 00:16:34 me. I just don't like when people, I feel like
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 experiment on their own time, not on other people's
00:16:37 --> 00:16:39 time. And by all means, it's just my opinion.
00:16:39 --> 00:16:41 If anyone does films, they could tell me to go
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 fuck myself. But for me, I don't usually have
00:16:44 --> 00:16:46 a great experience or response to an experimental
00:16:46 --> 00:16:49 film. But one of the things that I kept saying
00:16:49 --> 00:16:53 to Nick in post -production was, let's cut the
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 dream sequence as if the audience is going to
00:16:56 --> 00:16:58 think they're about to watch an experimental
00:16:58 --> 00:17:02 film. Like there you see a very like weird imagery,
00:17:02 --> 00:17:05 imagery driven, like all over the place, jump
00:17:05 --> 00:17:09 cuts, like weird, strange thing so that it culminates
00:17:09 --> 00:17:12 in this moment, this horrific moment. And then
00:17:12 --> 00:17:14 boom, we're back. We're in real life and everything
00:17:14 --> 00:17:16 is linear moving forward. And that was really
00:17:16 --> 00:17:18 important for me. Number one, because I think
00:17:18 --> 00:17:20 when you think you're watching something and
00:17:20 --> 00:17:22 then you realize you're watching something else,
00:17:22 --> 00:17:23 I think that's always a jarring moment. And that's
00:17:23 --> 00:17:25 how I wanted the audience to feel. And number
00:17:25 --> 00:17:28 two. When I dream, I don't dream linearly. I
00:17:28 --> 00:17:30 don't dream from point A to point B to point
00:17:30 --> 00:17:33 C. Like it's all over the place. It's like, you'll
00:17:33 --> 00:17:34 be walking down the street and then all of a
00:17:34 --> 00:17:35 sudden you're in the water. And then all of a
00:17:35 --> 00:17:38 sudden you're on a plane. That for me was really
00:17:38 --> 00:17:39 important with the dream sequence. And so when
00:17:39 --> 00:17:41 we recut it together and I showed it to Brian
00:17:41 --> 00:17:44 and Chris, they were like, this is it. The dream
00:17:44 --> 00:17:47 sequence really sets off the movie. It really
00:17:47 --> 00:17:49 puts you already in a headspace where you're
00:17:49 --> 00:17:51 like, okay, anything can happen from this point
00:17:51 --> 00:17:53 on. Given the fact that, again, it's 14 minutes
00:17:53 --> 00:17:56 and you have so much information and so much
00:17:56 --> 00:18:00 emotion packed into that, when you decided what
00:18:00 --> 00:18:03 wasn't going to make the cut, what did you want
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 to leave out or what did you want the audience
00:18:06 --> 00:18:09 to figure out as they went along? Well, so because
00:18:09 --> 00:18:13 Brian wrote things cinematically, a lot of the
00:18:13 --> 00:18:16 shots that I chose to use were Dali -inspired.
00:18:16 --> 00:18:18 So we used a lot of Dali throughout this entire
00:18:18 --> 00:18:21 movie. and anyone who knows dollies or you could
00:18:21 --> 00:18:24 do a fast dolly dolly but for the most part dolly
00:18:24 --> 00:18:27 shots take a long time if you have like one section
00:18:27 --> 00:18:30 where you're going through something and you
00:18:30 --> 00:18:32 just need to convey we're moving up to the front
00:18:32 --> 00:18:34 door and you see an image in the window like
00:18:34 --> 00:18:37 in your head and on script that's two sentences
00:18:37 --> 00:18:39 so that's a sentence but when you're actually
00:18:39 --> 00:18:43 playing that out that's 45 seconds 60 seconds
00:18:43 --> 00:18:46 and like having the whole dream sequence i think
00:18:46 --> 00:18:49 is a minute and 20 seconds long so if one shot
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 of like the 45 shots that we have in the dream
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 sequence was 45 seconds long the dream sequence
00:18:54 --> 00:18:56 is going to be like a whole short film in itself
00:18:56 --> 00:18:58 and so that that was kind of one of the things
00:18:58 --> 00:19:00 where i was like yeah this doesn't make sense
00:19:00 --> 00:19:03 i want to kind of like rework this and see it
00:19:03 --> 00:19:05 the way my brain has saw it which is like all
00:19:05 --> 00:19:07 over the place yeah yesterday when i was watching
00:19:07 --> 00:19:10 it i also realized and it's probably one of the
00:19:10 --> 00:19:14 most unnerving horror that I see is when everything
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 in the surface looks so clean. So you have just
00:19:17 --> 00:19:20 a clean house, a perfect family, like the American
00:19:20 --> 00:19:22 beauty situation. And then all of a sudden you
00:19:22 --> 00:19:26 have all this, I wouldn't say gore, but grotesque
00:19:26 --> 00:19:29 moments within the same film. And it's like,
00:19:29 --> 00:19:31 yeah, over on the surface is everything is shiny.
00:19:32 --> 00:19:34 And then right under that is so there's a belly
00:19:34 --> 00:19:37 under that. And it's so odd. But one point I
00:19:37 --> 00:19:39 thought this was going to be. an apocalyptic
00:19:39 --> 00:19:41 film because it felt like you're being watched
00:19:41 --> 00:19:44 at one point. And I was like, oh, come on, where's
00:19:44 --> 00:19:48 this going? And one thing that we did with my
00:19:48 --> 00:19:50 production designer, John, different John, we
00:19:50 --> 00:19:52 had two Johns, a production designer. John one,
00:19:52 --> 00:19:56 John two. So John two, one of the things that
00:19:56 --> 00:19:59 I did with him and I did with our wardrobe team
00:19:59 --> 00:20:03 and so on and so forth was I really wanted to
00:20:03 --> 00:20:05 mess with the color palette so that basically
00:20:06 --> 00:20:08 any time, the whole dream sequence is really
00:20:08 --> 00:20:11 cool. You're not getting any warm tones. You're
00:20:11 --> 00:20:13 not getting any like feelings of hope throughout
00:20:13 --> 00:20:15 the dream. So basically the way I set it up was
00:20:15 --> 00:20:18 the whole dream sequence, except for one shot
00:20:18 --> 00:20:23 is all cool. And so once we get in reality, basically
00:20:23 --> 00:20:25 the way I kind of designed it with everyone was
00:20:25 --> 00:20:29 where the final sequence of the movie takes place
00:20:29 --> 00:20:32 is the coolest place in terms of coloring in
00:20:32 --> 00:20:35 the movie. But as you get further and further
00:20:35 --> 00:20:39 and further away from that area, it gets warmer
00:20:39 --> 00:20:41 and warmer and warmer, almost in essence being
00:20:41 --> 00:20:44 like there's more hope for this family surviving
00:20:44 --> 00:20:47 the further they get away from this room. But
00:20:47 --> 00:20:49 the further they get to it, the cooler it gets
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 and starts to match what happens in the nightmare.
00:20:52 --> 00:20:56 And I have to say, for a short film, you mentioned
00:20:56 --> 00:20:58 that Brian wrote this very cinematic, and it
00:20:58 --> 00:21:01 does feel like that. It does feel very cinematic.
00:21:01 --> 00:21:05 It does feel like an actual feature film because,
00:21:05 --> 00:21:07 again, there's so much that you are exploring
00:21:07 --> 00:21:10 within those 14 minutes. But one thing that I
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 wanted to ask was, how did you approach creating
00:21:13 --> 00:21:17 the atmosphere for the film without relying on
00:21:17 --> 00:21:20 conventional horror shortcuts? Yeah, color was
00:21:20 --> 00:21:23 number one. So color was probably the biggest
00:21:23 --> 00:21:26 thing that we did. Number two was the dolly shots
00:21:26 --> 00:21:29 and controlling the pacing. of how things work
00:21:29 --> 00:21:31 like certain things need to be fast like the
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 dream sequence and i think the dream sequence
00:21:32 --> 00:21:34 works because the final shot in the dream sequence
00:21:34 --> 00:21:38 is not a fast shot it's a very very slow shot
00:21:38 --> 00:21:41 but you're watching all the chaos happen you're
00:21:41 --> 00:21:43 why and then you end on this tight close -up
00:21:43 --> 00:21:46 of this mom right before she does what she does
00:21:46 --> 00:21:49 and so it's really it's about finding peace the
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 thing is a lot of times people always say like
00:21:51 --> 00:21:54 comedy is so difficult comedy and horror are
00:21:54 --> 00:21:57 the exact same thing the setup and punchline
00:21:57 --> 00:21:58 is the same thing as you set up in your scare
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 you basically have to offset how you're doing
00:22:01 --> 00:22:03 things so if you have a lot of really slow things
00:22:03 --> 00:22:06 playing out the the scare comes with the fast
00:22:06 --> 00:22:09 thing or if you're doing things really fast the
00:22:09 --> 00:22:12 unnerving comes with the really slow thing so
00:22:12 --> 00:22:14 It's really about balancing the pacing throughout
00:22:14 --> 00:22:16 this whole thing. And that was probably one of
00:22:16 --> 00:22:19 the things that I really enjoyed doing and enjoyed
00:22:19 --> 00:22:21 working with our cast was figuring out how fast
00:22:21 --> 00:22:23 a scene needs to be or how slow a scene needs
00:22:23 --> 00:22:26 to be. Like Willie, who plays our exterminator
00:22:26 --> 00:22:27 in the movie, like those scenes had to be fast.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:31 he was brought in purposely for comedic relief.
00:22:31 --> 00:22:33 So him coming in was supposed to kind of offset
00:22:33 --> 00:22:35 the kind of unnerving feeling that you're feeling
00:22:35 --> 00:22:38 throughout the movie with this mom, Taylor. And
00:22:38 --> 00:22:40 then he's out. And as soon as he's out, it gets
00:22:40 --> 00:22:42 back to these long shots and these slow shots
00:22:42 --> 00:22:44 or whatever. And you're sort of building the
00:22:44 --> 00:22:47 tension of the day with that pacing. And yeah,
00:22:47 --> 00:22:48 it was a lot of fun to do. It was, and again.
00:22:49 --> 00:22:52 As great as the writing was, it's all things.
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 It's the cinematography. It's the camera department.
00:22:54 --> 00:22:57 It's the lighting team. It's how the production
00:22:57 --> 00:22:59 design and the art director are bringing things
00:22:59 --> 00:23:00 together to kind of make things pop here and
00:23:00 --> 00:23:03 there. And then, yeah, one of my favorite collaborators
00:23:03 --> 00:23:06 is my editor, Nick Landa. And he really helped
00:23:06 --> 00:23:08 customize some of the pacing to kind of really
00:23:08 --> 00:23:11 make this stuff feel really uneasy. Because like
00:23:11 --> 00:23:14 you said, the goal was to make people feel uneasy
00:23:14 --> 00:23:18 the entire time. And it's funny because you also
00:23:18 --> 00:23:22 have a lot of, you know, using cinematic wording,
00:23:22 --> 00:23:24 to put it that way. You do have Chekhov's gun,
00:23:25 --> 00:23:27 but you have Chekhov's gun, you have Chekhov's
00:23:27 --> 00:23:29 knife, you have Chekhov's, you literally just
00:23:29 --> 00:23:32 took out Chekhov's entire house and you threw
00:23:32 --> 00:23:34 it out the window. And I was like, because at
00:23:34 --> 00:23:35 one point you're like, oh, it's going to happen
00:23:35 --> 00:23:37 with this. Oh, no, it's going to happen with
00:23:37 --> 00:23:39 that. And it's going to, so all the elements
00:23:39 --> 00:23:42 are there. And then they just become, it just
00:23:42 --> 00:23:45 all becomes one whole circle. And you're like,
00:23:45 --> 00:23:49 yeah, no, like. Everything was meant to be and
00:23:49 --> 00:23:51 be used at the same time. It was actually pretty
00:23:51 --> 00:23:53 interesting how it all came together. Well, thank
00:23:53 --> 00:23:56 you. But how was the thought behind the sequence
00:23:56 --> 00:24:00 itself, the movie? Was it always intended to
00:24:00 --> 00:24:03 be a standalone short or was it a larger idea
00:24:03 --> 00:24:06 behind the film? So there's always been a larger
00:24:06 --> 00:24:09 idea behind the film. After we finished the short,
00:24:09 --> 00:24:11 Brian and I started kind of taking stabs at what
00:24:11 --> 00:24:13 the feature should look like. He's writing it
00:24:13 --> 00:24:15 right now. He's writing the feature length version.
00:24:15 --> 00:24:18 So we do have intentions of potentially making
00:24:18 --> 00:24:22 this into a feature. And there are a lot of those
00:24:22 --> 00:24:24 themes that we're talking about are things that
00:24:24 --> 00:24:26 I wanted. I'm talking with him about putting
00:24:26 --> 00:24:28 into the feature or whatnot. But obviously with
00:24:28 --> 00:24:30 like Taylor, for instance, this is Taylor's story.
00:24:30 --> 00:24:33 You see a picture. There's a backstory there.
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 You see tension with her husband. There's a backstory
00:24:35 --> 00:24:37 there. You see tension with her son. There's
00:24:37 --> 00:24:39 a backstory there. In the feature -length version,
00:24:39 --> 00:24:42 you would get that. But I think one of the most
00:24:42 --> 00:24:45 interesting things is when you make a short film
00:24:45 --> 00:24:48 that does the job that you intend for it, you
00:24:48 --> 00:24:52 really want to make sure that you're really careful
00:24:52 --> 00:24:54 with how you write it and how you perform the
00:24:54 --> 00:24:56 feature because ultimately, you don't want your
00:24:56 --> 00:25:00 feature to just be... an extended version of
00:25:00 --> 00:25:02 what the short is you want to be able to extend
00:25:02 --> 00:25:05 the short but you want to expand on other elements
00:25:05 --> 00:25:07 of the short and make those become bigger parts
00:25:07 --> 00:25:09 of the story and it's definitely challenging
00:25:09 --> 00:25:12 because do you have multiple dream sequences
00:25:12 --> 00:25:14 does everyone have a nightmare does you you can
00:25:14 --> 00:25:17 go to like 100 different places so we've been
00:25:17 --> 00:25:18 pitching ideas back and forth for a while now
00:25:18 --> 00:25:20 and we kind of have somewhat of an idea where
00:25:20 --> 00:25:22 i think we're going and brian's working on that
00:25:22 --> 00:25:26 now i want to move a little bit from The sequence,
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 but not entirely because you can see a lot of
00:25:28 --> 00:25:31 yourself. Here in the film, it's one of the things
00:25:31 --> 00:25:34 I find interesting about your career is how you've
00:25:34 --> 00:25:38 experienced from both sides. Like you said, you've
00:25:38 --> 00:25:41 done indie filmmaking in the past and you've
00:25:41 --> 00:25:43 experienced both sides of indie filmmaking. You've
00:25:43 --> 00:25:46 produced, you've acted, and now you're directing
00:25:46 --> 00:25:49 your own stories. And I believe it was, is it
00:25:49 --> 00:25:52 a series also that you're also directing? It's
00:25:52 --> 00:25:55 a short series? Which one? I know Daphne Rubin
00:25:55 --> 00:25:57 -Begas. Oh, no, no, no. That's actually a drama.
00:25:57 --> 00:26:00 It's called Tuesday Nights. I directed that series
00:26:00 --> 00:26:03 like five years ago. That was a web series that
00:26:03 --> 00:26:07 I got hired to direct. And yeah, it was so different
00:26:07 --> 00:26:10 than anything I had ever done before. And I remember
00:26:10 --> 00:26:13 I actually got hired to produce it. And as I
00:26:13 --> 00:26:15 was working with the creator Shiva on it and
00:26:15 --> 00:26:18 her partner on it, Jolene, as the three of us
00:26:18 --> 00:26:20 were working together, they told me that they
00:26:20 --> 00:26:22 already had a director for it. and then like
00:26:22 --> 00:26:24 after working with them on it for like maybe
00:26:24 --> 00:26:26 like three or four weeks they like invited me
00:26:26 --> 00:26:29 out to to grab a drink and we sat down and they're
00:26:29 --> 00:26:32 like hey listen they're like we haven't introduced
00:26:32 --> 00:26:34 you to the director yet because things have kind
00:26:34 --> 00:26:36 of fallen apart with him so we're gonna move
00:26:36 --> 00:26:37 in a different direction and ultimately we'd
00:26:37 --> 00:26:40 love for that direction to be you and we'd love
00:26:40 --> 00:26:43 you to do it and my first like words out of my
00:26:43 --> 00:26:45 mouth was are you sure you don't want to hire
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 a woman to tell this story because this is a
00:26:47 --> 00:26:51 very female -centric story and what deals with
00:26:51 --> 00:26:53 a lot of things that I think it might be a good
00:26:53 --> 00:26:56 idea to at least explore that idea. And they
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 both were like, we love the care and attention
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 that you put into these characters and what you've
00:27:00 --> 00:27:01 been working on. So we really think you would
00:27:01 --> 00:27:03 be the best to tell it. And I was like, I'm going
00:27:03 --> 00:27:05 to say like, I'm not going to say no twice. So,
00:27:05 --> 00:27:10 so, um, yeah, so no, I, I honestly, the, that
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12 was such a great experience working with a lot
00:27:12 --> 00:27:15 of people in Daffy Rubin Vegas, fucking. She
00:27:15 --> 00:27:17 was awesome. But yeah, no, I've done a bunch
00:27:17 --> 00:27:19 of different things, but primarily most of the
00:27:19 --> 00:27:21 stuff I've done in my career has been in horror.
00:27:21 --> 00:27:24 Yeah, she's a fucking icon. She's my number one
00:27:24 --> 00:27:26 meme. She will always be my number one meme.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:28 I'm pretty sure a lot of people are not going
00:27:28 --> 00:27:30 to get that reference, but I don't give a shit.
00:27:30 --> 00:27:34 I don't have to explain it. But all the experiences
00:27:34 --> 00:27:39 from putting on a clown suit to producing, how
00:27:39 --> 00:27:43 all that has shaped the way that you... have
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 become, basically the filmmaker you are today.
00:27:45 --> 00:27:48 How has that, all of those experiences come together
00:27:48 --> 00:27:50 to shape who you are? Well, I think at the end
00:27:50 --> 00:27:53 of the day, like the thing, there's so many different
00:27:53 --> 00:27:55 words that you can use or so many different titles
00:27:55 --> 00:27:57 that you can use to describe all the things that
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 you've done in your career. The biggest thing
00:27:59 --> 00:28:01 that I would say is I'm a storyteller. Like the
00:28:01 --> 00:28:03 thing that I like to do is I like to tell stories.
00:28:04 --> 00:28:07 Now, whether I'm producing or writing or directing
00:28:07 --> 00:28:10 or acting or wearing a clown costume, you're
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 still telling a story. As an actor, which I would
00:28:13 --> 00:28:15 never call myself an actor, but I know I have
00:28:15 --> 00:28:17 acted in things, but I always say act out of
00:28:17 --> 00:28:20 necessity, not out of like, I'm the best person
00:28:20 --> 00:28:23 for the role. Whenever I've acted in things,
00:28:23 --> 00:28:26 it was all about, okay, cool. I'm this character.
00:28:26 --> 00:28:28 I'm this clown or I'm this. What's my motivation?
00:28:28 --> 00:28:30 What's my goal? To scare the shit out of someone
00:28:30 --> 00:28:33 or to terrify someone or whatever. So you always
00:28:33 --> 00:28:35 want to tell a story, whether it's a small piece
00:28:35 --> 00:28:37 of the story or the entire story that you're
00:28:37 --> 00:28:39 kind of the technician putting the whole thing
00:28:39 --> 00:28:41 together. I've always been a storyteller and
00:28:41 --> 00:28:46 I'm stereotypical type A person. I like... being
00:28:46 --> 00:28:48 organized and structure and having a lot of things
00:28:48 --> 00:28:50 figured out. And I'm really big on rehearsing
00:28:50 --> 00:28:52 and planning and all of that kind of stuff. So
00:28:52 --> 00:28:54 all of those things kind of go into the storytelling
00:28:54 --> 00:28:57 aspect. And even a lot of people, when they meet
00:28:57 --> 00:28:59 me, will tell me they love the way I tell stories.
00:28:59 --> 00:29:01 Some people will tell me to shut up because when
00:29:01 --> 00:29:03 I'm telling a story, I want the person who I'm
00:29:03 --> 00:29:06 telling the story to, to experience whatever
00:29:06 --> 00:29:08 I'm telling them the same way I felt when I first
00:29:08 --> 00:29:10 heard that or witnessed it or experienced it.
00:29:10 --> 00:29:14 So that kind of element is important for me.
00:29:15 --> 00:29:18 doing little things as an actor helped me working
00:29:18 --> 00:29:20 with actors. Producing things helped me figure
00:29:20 --> 00:29:22 out the business side of things, the finance
00:29:22 --> 00:29:25 side of things, the structure, the hiring people,
00:29:25 --> 00:29:27 the figuring out how to bring a team together.
00:29:27 --> 00:29:29 That helped me figure that kind of stuff out.
00:29:29 --> 00:29:32 I think where I excel and what I love to do more
00:29:32 --> 00:29:35 than anything, like I think if you were to look
00:29:35 --> 00:29:38 at my career, I probably have more success as
00:29:38 --> 00:29:41 a producer, but my love and my care is really
00:29:41 --> 00:29:43 in the writing and directing component of things.
00:29:43 --> 00:29:47 But that being said, I do all of them because
00:29:47 --> 00:29:50 I don't want to limit myself. I know a lot of
00:29:50 --> 00:29:52 people that are only writer -directors, and usually
00:29:52 --> 00:29:53 if you're only a writer -director, you might
00:29:53 --> 00:29:56 make a movie once every three years. five years
00:29:56 --> 00:29:59 i realized really early on that i love being
00:29:59 --> 00:30:01 on set i love being around people and there have
00:30:01 --> 00:30:03 been times with steven cognetti when i met him
00:30:03 --> 00:30:07 in 2013 and he pitched me hell house i was like
00:30:07 --> 00:30:09 hey i love this i want to help you figure out
00:30:09 --> 00:30:11 a way to make this movie and a couple years ago
00:30:11 --> 00:30:15 i did that with two producers tom bond and sarah
00:30:15 --> 00:30:17 seligman and director caleb phillips they brought
00:30:17 --> 00:30:20 me the movie imposters and i was like this is
00:30:20 --> 00:30:22 great um shirt and then six months later we're
00:30:22 --> 00:30:24 on set in Massachusetts shooting it with Jessica
00:30:24 --> 00:30:28 Roth as our lead and so it's I just really like
00:30:28 --> 00:30:31 being parts of collaboration and telling stories
00:30:31 --> 00:30:34 and so any way i can do that i'm always gonna
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 be up for i knew you didn't ask me this but if
00:30:36 --> 00:30:38 i had a choice directing is always going to be
00:30:38 --> 00:30:40 the number one thing because i really love working
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 with actors and i really love pulling performances
00:30:42 --> 00:30:45 out of people or like shooting a sequence with
00:30:45 --> 00:30:47 someone where you're going from a to b but in
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 your head you know you're editing it not in anything
00:30:49 --> 00:30:51 like that you just need the sequence to play
00:30:51 --> 00:30:53 out that way just for editing purposes and then
00:30:53 --> 00:30:55 you're going to chop it up or whatnot so i love
00:30:55 --> 00:30:58 that component of it no and the thing is like
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00 also if you you mentioned something very important
00:31:00 --> 00:31:05 in that is that Not just the writing. You can
00:31:05 --> 00:31:07 wear a lot of hats, but sometimes wearing those
00:31:07 --> 00:31:09 hats also help you. Because for example, you
00:31:09 --> 00:31:12 were a producer and now you're a director and
00:31:12 --> 00:31:14 now you know how, okay, I remember when you were
00:31:14 --> 00:31:17 milking me. Now I have to have some consideration
00:31:17 --> 00:31:18 when I'm milking you. You know what's funny?
00:31:18 --> 00:31:21 You could ask Brian this when you talk with him,
00:31:21 --> 00:31:23 but I remember like every day, like at the midpoint
00:31:23 --> 00:31:25 of the day, towards the end, when we're running
00:31:25 --> 00:31:27 behind time, I would go to Brian and be like,
00:31:28 --> 00:31:30 This is what I need. This is what I need. This
00:31:30 --> 00:31:32 is what I need. Because I've been that person
00:31:32 --> 00:31:34 to do that for directors. I'm like, this would
00:31:34 --> 00:31:37 help me the best right now. This is what I'm
00:31:37 --> 00:31:40 cutting. And I was, I always say this. I'm very
00:31:40 --> 00:31:42 I like to consider myself very collaborative
00:31:42 --> 00:31:44 when I work with other people especially if it's
00:31:44 --> 00:31:46 stuff that they've written and I'm not writing
00:31:46 --> 00:31:48 it because I want to try to encompass what gave
00:31:48 --> 00:31:51 them joy and I want when the movie comes out
00:31:51 --> 00:31:53 and when people see it I want them to feel the
00:31:53 --> 00:31:54 same way that I feel when I watch it and not
00:31:54 --> 00:31:57 that this was this thing that they came up with
00:31:57 --> 00:31:58 and someone took it away from them but there's
00:31:58 --> 00:32:00 this thing that they came up with and someone
00:32:00 --> 00:32:02 came and like enhanced it and made it shine that
00:32:02 --> 00:32:04 has been whenever i collaborate with people like
00:32:04 --> 00:32:06 i did with shiva on tuesday nights as well as
00:32:06 --> 00:32:08 with brian those things have always been important
00:32:08 --> 00:32:11 to me because no matter who gets the recognition
00:32:11 --> 00:32:13 a lot of times it is the director who gets the
00:32:13 --> 00:32:15 recognition or the writer director gets recognition
00:32:15 --> 00:32:17 but none of these things get made without an
00:32:17 --> 00:32:21 amazing team of cast crew people that put this
00:32:21 --> 00:32:23 whole thing together so that's very important
00:32:23 --> 00:32:26 to me is to make sure that learning growing and
00:32:26 --> 00:32:28 consistently supporting people the way i would
00:32:28 --> 00:32:31 want to be supported what's the one thing that
00:32:32 --> 00:32:36 as a filmmaker or as a storyteller like you said
00:32:36 --> 00:32:39 on the process of that that you understand now
00:32:39 --> 00:32:41 that you didn't understand when you first started
00:32:41 --> 00:32:45 i think one of the things that you get better
00:32:45 --> 00:32:47 at the more experience you have is cutting out
00:32:47 --> 00:32:49 the fat and realizing there's a lot of people
00:32:49 --> 00:32:51 that say audiences are stupid and you have to
00:32:51 --> 00:32:53 spoon feed them i'm not one of those people i
00:32:53 --> 00:32:55 think audiences are smart and don't need to spoon
00:32:55 --> 00:32:57 feed them but there's certain things that you
00:32:57 --> 00:32:58 do need to give a little bit more information
00:32:58 --> 00:33:00 there's things that you can kind of be vague
00:33:00 --> 00:33:03 on i think the more you shoot and the more you're
00:33:03 --> 00:33:04 on set and the more you're a part of this process
00:33:04 --> 00:33:08 the easier it is is to look at a script and go
00:33:08 --> 00:33:11 yeah you don't need this scene you don't need
00:33:11 --> 00:33:13 this scene you don't need this scene We're wasting
00:33:13 --> 00:33:15 time if we're going to shoot all of these pages
00:33:15 --> 00:33:17 because these things can be told with just this
00:33:17 --> 00:33:19 thing. And I think the more experience you get,
00:33:20 --> 00:33:22 the more you can look at like a hundred page
00:33:22 --> 00:33:23 script and be like, we can cut 10 pages out of
00:33:23 --> 00:33:26 that and shoot a 90 page, go on set and shoot
00:33:26 --> 00:33:28 90 pages versus going on set, trying to shoot
00:33:28 --> 00:33:31 a hundred pages and being behind the clock, always
00:33:31 --> 00:33:33 trying to figure that I think is one of the things
00:33:33 --> 00:33:36 that I've really enjoyed about. filmmaking. And
00:33:36 --> 00:33:38 I think I've gotten better the more experience
00:33:38 --> 00:33:40 I have. And I think most people who do this for
00:33:40 --> 00:33:44 a long time get better at that same thing. Before
00:33:44 --> 00:33:46 we wrap up, Joe, I want to touch a little bit
00:33:46 --> 00:33:49 because I know Hell House LLC is coming up on
00:33:49 --> 00:33:51 its 10 year anniversary this year, this month.
00:33:52 --> 00:33:56 It's weird. We're labeling it as a 10 -year anniversary.
00:33:56 --> 00:33:58 Technically, it's an 11 -year anniversary, but
00:33:58 --> 00:34:01 whatever. You're not kind of the honeymoon phase.
00:34:02 --> 00:34:05 Yeah, yeah, yeah. And forget my anniversaries,
00:34:05 --> 00:34:06 too. It's going to be showing back in theaters,
00:34:07 --> 00:34:08 so it's going to be now out in theaters. This
00:34:08 --> 00:34:09 is the first time it's being shown in theaters.
00:34:10 --> 00:34:12 Oh, it's the first time? Yeah, yeah. It was released
00:34:12 --> 00:34:15 on Amazon Prime and Shudder in 2015, and so this
00:34:15 --> 00:34:18 is actually the first time. that that actual
00:34:18 --> 00:34:20 movie that we made in 2014 is being released
00:34:20 --> 00:34:22 in theaters. It's being released for four days
00:34:22 --> 00:34:25 from October 29th to November 1st. Oh, that's
00:34:25 --> 00:34:27 epic because I know it's become a cult classic
00:34:27 --> 00:34:29 at this point. I know some people don't like
00:34:29 --> 00:34:31 the cult classic. Those are some of the best
00:34:31 --> 00:34:36 films. And I saw the umbrella box set. It looks
00:34:36 --> 00:34:38 amazing. And I know some collectors that have
00:34:38 --> 00:34:42 it. But when you were part of the original as
00:34:42 --> 00:34:44 a producer, because you were a part of the original
00:34:44 --> 00:34:47 film as a producer. And as a clown, like you
00:34:47 --> 00:34:50 said, you basically stepped in to play the clown.
00:34:50 --> 00:34:53 When you look back at the movie now, what stands
00:34:53 --> 00:34:57 out to you the most? I think it was so interesting
00:34:57 --> 00:35:02 because I think creatively, like Stephen Cognetti
00:35:02 --> 00:35:05 wrote and directed it, I produced it. To see
00:35:05 --> 00:35:08 this little movie that we had next to no money
00:35:08 --> 00:35:11 and brought a bunch of people together to see
00:35:11 --> 00:35:13 everyone's hard work and dedication go into it.
00:35:13 --> 00:35:16 and to actually see it turn out really good.
00:35:16 --> 00:35:19 And then for it to be released and almost nothing
00:35:19 --> 00:35:22 happened and like no positive response, no anything,
00:35:22 --> 00:35:24 but us being like, yeah, let's make another,
00:35:24 --> 00:35:26 let's make another and just keep going down that
00:35:26 --> 00:35:29 path. I'm really proud of the cult status and
00:35:29 --> 00:35:30 I'm really proud that it's grown because a lot
00:35:30 --> 00:35:33 of times there, if I meet 10 people in a day
00:35:33 --> 00:35:35 and ask them if they've seen Hell House, seven
00:35:35 --> 00:35:38 out of 10 of them have not seen it. And so it's
00:35:38 --> 00:35:40 a movie that just grows by word of mouth and
00:35:40 --> 00:35:42 like. Most of the people I know who have seen
00:35:42 --> 00:35:44 it, they didn't see it until 2019 or 2020 during
00:35:44 --> 00:35:46 the pandemic. So it's one of those movies that
00:35:46 --> 00:35:49 I think grows on you. And I think similar to
00:35:49 --> 00:35:51 the sequence, it has a lot of unnerving things
00:35:51 --> 00:35:53 in it. And I think I'm really proud of that.
00:35:53 --> 00:35:56 I'm also really proud that it's rare that you
00:35:56 --> 00:36:00 see a franchise where both the producer and the
00:36:00 --> 00:36:02 writer -director stay consistent through the
00:36:02 --> 00:36:06 entire run of the franchise. So for it to be
00:36:06 --> 00:36:09 Steve and me kind of handling things from movie
00:36:09 --> 00:36:11 one to movie five, over 10 years like i'm really
00:36:11 --> 00:36:13 proud of that and i'm really excited for it to
00:36:13 --> 00:36:16 come out in theaters too because i think we got
00:36:16 --> 00:36:19 the we had a limited theatrical release set up
00:36:19 --> 00:36:21 for the fourth movie but then taylor swift announced
00:36:21 --> 00:36:25 her heirs tour and so we got canceled which i
00:36:25 --> 00:36:27 don't blame her for that like i get it to make
00:36:27 --> 00:36:29 money and her stuff was going to sell out but
00:36:29 --> 00:36:31 then we made the fifth movie and the fifth movie
00:36:31 --> 00:36:34 got a theatrical release and the fifth movie
00:36:34 --> 00:36:37 it's just not as good as the fourth movie and
00:36:37 --> 00:36:38 it's definitely not as good as the first movie
00:36:38 --> 00:36:41 and so I always think, and I think Steve felt
00:36:41 --> 00:36:43 the same way, like we always wish the first movie,
00:36:44 --> 00:36:45 especially the way it's been received over the
00:36:45 --> 00:36:48 last 10 years, we wish it could be out to like
00:36:48 --> 00:36:49 a mass appeal so that people could see it in
00:36:49 --> 00:36:51 theaters. Because I think seeing horror movies
00:36:51 --> 00:36:53 in theaters is always the best experience, especially
00:36:53 --> 00:36:56 found footage movies. So I'm really excited for
00:36:56 --> 00:36:58 fans to see it. I know fans who love our movies
00:36:58 --> 00:37:00 and we have the best, literally the best fucking
00:37:00 --> 00:37:02 fans in the world. I think they're going to enjoy
00:37:02 --> 00:37:04 it. And hopefully it brings a newer audience
00:37:04 --> 00:37:06 to hopefully someone's like, hey, have you ever
00:37:06 --> 00:37:08 seen this movie? Come watch it with me and we
00:37:08 --> 00:37:10 can grow our audience. people can kind of get
00:37:10 --> 00:37:12 to experience the thing that we put together
00:37:12 --> 00:37:16 with just like 10 of us 11 years ago how has
00:37:16 --> 00:37:19 that experience like at least from the beginning
00:37:19 --> 00:37:22 of of hell house llc you were bringing someone
00:37:22 --> 00:37:25 else's vision to life to be honest and now this
00:37:25 --> 00:37:27 is again someone else's vision that you're bringing
00:37:27 --> 00:37:31 to life but as a director yeah how that time
00:37:31 --> 00:37:35 between hell house and the sequence How has that
00:37:35 --> 00:37:38 prepared you to put yourself in the director's
00:37:38 --> 00:37:40 chair and approach horror that way? Yeah, I mean,
00:37:40 --> 00:37:42 I've always been a director. It's not as much
00:37:42 --> 00:37:45 as it's it's more experience. That's really the
00:37:45 --> 00:37:47 thing. It's the experience. It's seeing what
00:37:47 --> 00:37:49 works and seeing what doesn't work. A lot of
00:37:49 --> 00:37:52 times when you're producing like. creative differences
00:37:52 --> 00:37:54 and creative things happen all the time there
00:37:54 --> 00:37:56 are a lot of times that you agree with people
00:37:56 --> 00:37:57 there are a lot of times you disagree with people
00:37:57 --> 00:37:58 there are a lot of times that you have to shoot
00:37:58 --> 00:38:00 something one way because the person paying for
00:38:00 --> 00:38:02 it is making you do it that way even though you
00:38:02 --> 00:38:04 don't think you should do it that way a lot of
00:38:04 --> 00:38:07 those things happen and play out and i think
00:38:07 --> 00:38:10 a lot of times the more when you're a director
00:38:10 --> 00:38:12 it's all on your shoulders so if something plays
00:38:12 --> 00:38:16 out and like it's good people look at you as
00:38:16 --> 00:38:17 a good director something plays out it's not
00:38:17 --> 00:38:19 good people look at you as a terrible director
00:38:19 --> 00:38:21 and like people are really quick to say like
00:38:21 --> 00:38:24 i was saying before not i like this or i don't
00:38:24 --> 00:38:26 like this i love this and i hate this or i can
00:38:26 --> 00:38:28 tell you like if you go on reddit threads right
00:38:28 --> 00:38:31 now there are people who call hell house the
00:38:31 --> 00:38:33 original Hell House, the best found footage movie
00:38:33 --> 00:38:35 they've ever seen in their entire life. And there
00:38:35 --> 00:38:37 are people who think it's the worst movie they've
00:38:37 --> 00:38:39 ever seen in their entire life. That's what's
00:38:39 --> 00:38:41 interesting about this medium is it's so subjective
00:38:41 --> 00:38:45 and people try their hardest to make it so objective,
00:38:45 --> 00:38:49 but it's not. And so I think one of the things
00:38:49 --> 00:38:52 that is really interesting about getting experience
00:38:52 --> 00:38:55 is when you are a producer, you obviously have
00:38:55 --> 00:38:58 a lot of stake. in what happens and how successful
00:38:58 --> 00:39:01 the the film is but you can also you utilize
00:39:01 --> 00:39:04 things that you learn positive as well as things
00:39:04 --> 00:39:05 that you learn negative so that when you're in
00:39:05 --> 00:39:07 the director's seat you can be like i'm not going
00:39:07 --> 00:39:09 to make that mistake or i'm going to learn from
00:39:09 --> 00:39:11 that mistake or i'm going to try to do this or
00:39:11 --> 00:39:14 that scare that we did was really effective why
00:39:14 --> 00:39:16 was it effective let me deconstruct that scene
00:39:16 --> 00:39:19 cool i'm making this movie now i have something
00:39:19 --> 00:39:21 that has a similar sort of setup let me see if
00:39:21 --> 00:39:24 i can learn from what I did in the past or learn
00:39:24 --> 00:39:26 from what I watched or what I collaborated on
00:39:26 --> 00:39:28 in the past and see if I can utilize that to
00:39:28 --> 00:39:29 get that same experience or that same feeling
00:39:29 --> 00:39:32 from an audience in the future. I feel like this
00:39:32 --> 00:39:35 is a good place to bring it back quickly to the
00:39:35 --> 00:39:38 sequence because I do want to, this is one of
00:39:38 --> 00:39:40 the major reasons we're here, but I did ask you
00:39:40 --> 00:39:42 if we can touch a little bit on South House LLC,
00:39:43 --> 00:39:45 because I come from the physical media community
00:39:45 --> 00:39:49 and this is mostly what this podcast is about.
00:39:49 --> 00:39:53 I'm so happy and so glad. that I've had the chance
00:39:53 --> 00:39:56 to speak to filmmakers, indie filmmakers, because
00:39:56 --> 00:40:00 again, I want to document the people behind the
00:40:00 --> 00:40:04 films. And Hell House, I know, is a big thing
00:40:04 --> 00:40:07 in the community. And you mentioned that, oh,
00:40:07 --> 00:40:09 you can go on Reddit. Fuck fucking Reddit. Reddit.
00:40:09 --> 00:40:14 I posted a reel of the 80s horror still book
00:40:14 --> 00:40:16 that I got. And somebody was like, oh, I just
00:40:16 --> 00:40:17 wanted to see who was a stupid person who was
00:40:17 --> 00:40:19 going to buy. And I guess I found one. I was
00:40:19 --> 00:40:20 like, shut the fuck up, dude. Just because you
00:40:20 --> 00:40:22 don't have it, it doesn't mean it sucks. It's
00:40:22 --> 00:40:25 a great retro box set. I feel like a kid with
00:40:25 --> 00:40:29 this box set. So let me be. But I also understand
00:40:29 --> 00:40:32 that there's a lot of people that could, like
00:40:32 --> 00:40:34 I said, I'm not the biggest fan of found footage.
00:40:34 --> 00:40:36 And it's not because I don't like the genre.
00:40:36 --> 00:40:38 It's because the genre gets the shit out of me.
00:40:38 --> 00:40:41 Right. So it's a little different, especially
00:40:41 --> 00:40:43 now with all the found footage of cell phones.
00:40:43 --> 00:40:45 But I loved the Blair Witch Project. That was
00:40:45 --> 00:40:48 an experience in theaters that it was amazing.
00:40:49 --> 00:40:51 And I didn't know this had to come out in theaters
00:40:51 --> 00:40:53 because I would have preferred to go see it in
00:40:53 --> 00:40:55 theaters than at home. You know, I'm going to
00:40:55 --> 00:40:58 do a shameless plug here. I directed, I wrote
00:40:58 --> 00:41:00 and directed a movie. It's called Unknown Dimension,
00:41:00 --> 00:41:03 the story of paranormal activity. It's a tell
00:41:03 --> 00:41:05 -all documentary about how they made the paranormal
00:41:05 --> 00:41:08 activity franchise. And I did a section of the
00:41:08 --> 00:41:10 movie on the history of found footage and why
00:41:10 --> 00:41:12 found footage is effective. I think you would
00:41:12 --> 00:41:14 really enjoy that. And I say this because my
00:41:14 --> 00:41:16 wife always pitches this movie for people because
00:41:16 --> 00:41:18 people are like, oh, I don't watch horror movies.
00:41:18 --> 00:41:20 I'm scared of horror movies. This isn't really
00:41:20 --> 00:41:23 a horror movie. It's sort of a documentary explaining
00:41:23 --> 00:41:26 how someone took an idea and it became this worldwide
00:41:26 --> 00:41:29 phenomenon. But if you have Paramount +, you
00:41:29 --> 00:41:31 should check it out because it was a lot of fun
00:41:31 --> 00:41:34 to make. And it was a lot of fun to make. I think
00:41:34 --> 00:41:37 it's good. And yeah, I mean, if you like the
00:41:37 --> 00:41:39 stuff that I'm doing, that'll be another thing.
00:41:39 --> 00:41:41 I'm in. I don't think there's a shameless plug,
00:41:41 --> 00:41:44 and I didn't have this sitting next to me because
00:41:44 --> 00:41:48 I knew you were going to plug that. I've had
00:41:48 --> 00:41:49 this, and for people who are probably watching
00:41:49 --> 00:41:54 the YouTube video, this is the second site Blu
00:41:54 --> 00:41:55 -ray, and then this is the Playbill from the
00:41:55 --> 00:41:58 Broadway show. I still have this on my desk,
00:41:58 --> 00:42:00 like right next to where I record. So again,
00:42:00 --> 00:42:02 that was not part of your shameless plug, and
00:42:02 --> 00:42:05 there's no shame in plugging. What do you think
00:42:05 --> 00:42:08 of the play? And it was fucking amazing. Well,
00:42:08 --> 00:42:09 the thing is, we're theater people. Like, you
00:42:09 --> 00:42:11 know, me and my partner, we're theater people.
00:42:11 --> 00:42:13 We see a lot of theater now less because it's
00:42:13 --> 00:42:16 more expensive. But I wanted to see it in London
00:42:16 --> 00:42:18 because that's where it started. Well, at least
00:42:18 --> 00:42:22 the major one besides the Broadway one. And mostly
00:42:22 --> 00:42:24 because of the merch. I went to see it and I
00:42:24 --> 00:42:25 was like, let me get all the merch because like
00:42:25 --> 00:42:29 the poster looks amazing. And it was such a good.
00:42:30 --> 00:42:32 drama like obviously it was a it was unnerving
00:42:32 --> 00:42:34 you had some scenes that were kind of like how
00:42:34 --> 00:42:36 the fuck they pulled this off but when you know
00:42:36 --> 00:42:37 theater you know how they pulled it off yeah
00:42:37 --> 00:42:40 i i love the crowd reaction yeah as a matter
00:42:40 --> 00:42:44 of fact i i when i was taking seminars for producing
00:42:44 --> 00:42:46 you would have directors that will come in and
00:42:46 --> 00:42:49 they were broadway producing and they will come
00:42:49 --> 00:42:51 in and they're like oh that they like to watch
00:42:51 --> 00:42:53 the audience reaction yeah So they're like, we
00:42:53 --> 00:42:56 sit in the audience and we like to watch the
00:42:56 --> 00:42:58 audience reaction. And I wanted to do that. With
00:42:58 --> 00:43:00 this play, I wanted to do that because people
00:43:00 --> 00:43:03 next to me were on edge. And I'm like, this is
00:43:03 --> 00:43:04 what's going to happen. This is what's going
00:43:04 --> 00:43:06 to happen. Like, you go in and you already know
00:43:06 --> 00:43:09 horror. But the way they pulled it off and the
00:43:09 --> 00:43:12 setting inside, the sound design. Yeah. Oh, God,
00:43:12 --> 00:43:14 I'm a sucker for a good sound design, which is
00:43:14 --> 00:43:16 something this film, and I'm not plugging it
00:43:16 --> 00:43:17 shamelessly because that's what we're here for,
00:43:17 --> 00:43:20 the sequence. It has such good sound design.
00:43:21 --> 00:43:24 If you could do that, and I'm not hating on feature
00:43:24 --> 00:43:27 films, but if you could do that in a short film,
00:43:27 --> 00:43:29 and if you could do that in a Broadway play,
00:43:29 --> 00:43:32 why can't we get in a fucking Academy Award nominated
00:43:32 --> 00:43:35 movie? I'm just, I'm just, I'm a sucker for the
00:43:35 --> 00:43:38 Oscars. Like there's, but the play itself, I
00:43:38 --> 00:43:39 didn't want to sit down and talk about it on
00:43:39 --> 00:43:42 the podcast because it's an extended run right
00:43:42 --> 00:43:45 now. So it's a limited run itself. But if it
00:43:45 --> 00:43:48 goes on tour, it was in San Francisco. And if
00:43:48 --> 00:43:50 it goes on tour and you're a horror lover, like
00:43:50 --> 00:43:54 you have to go see the play. Yeah, I moved back
00:43:54 --> 00:43:56 to New York right when they premiered it in L
00:43:56 --> 00:43:59 .A. So I got invited to go watch it with like
00:43:59 --> 00:44:02 the people from Paranormal Activity. And I'm
00:44:02 --> 00:44:04 so mad that I didn't get a chance to see it.
00:44:04 --> 00:44:05 And I still haven't seen it. But it's like literally
00:44:05 --> 00:44:09 the number one on my list of things. You're a
00:44:09 --> 00:44:12 train away. You're a train away. You can literally
00:44:12 --> 00:44:14 come watch that play in a day. If you want to
00:44:14 --> 00:44:16 sit towards the middle, if you're in the mezzanine,
00:44:17 --> 00:44:19 again, this is just because we know Broadway
00:44:19 --> 00:44:22 and the best shot for that play is the mezzanine.
00:44:22 --> 00:44:24 If you're too close to the stage, there's a scene
00:44:24 --> 00:44:26 that you're not going to appreciate that happens
00:44:26 --> 00:44:29 in the upstairs. And people were freaking the
00:44:29 --> 00:44:32 fuck out when that happened. And I was like,
00:44:32 --> 00:44:33 yeah, I'm watching it. My partner was like, why
00:44:33 --> 00:44:35 was everybody yelling? What happened upstairs?
00:44:35 --> 00:44:37 I'm like, I'm not, I told them what happened,
00:44:37 --> 00:44:39 but I'm like, I couldn't, I'm not telling the
00:44:39 --> 00:44:41 audience. You would recommend sitting in the
00:44:41 --> 00:44:43 mezzanine, not in the orchestra. The orchestra,
00:44:43 --> 00:44:45 if you sit in the orchestra, sit at least like
00:44:45 --> 00:44:47 after role -y. Because if you sit before that,
00:44:47 --> 00:44:50 it's going to be kind of hard to see the top.
00:44:50 --> 00:44:52 Because what happens, it happens in the bed and
00:44:52 --> 00:44:55 is behind her. So you really can't appreciate
00:44:55 --> 00:44:58 it if you're too close. And the Demesanine has
00:44:58 --> 00:45:01 a perfect view because you have, obviously, you're
00:45:01 --> 00:45:03 at stage level. But yeah, if you could come to
00:45:03 --> 00:45:05 New York, watch that play. And again, I should
00:45:05 --> 00:45:07 just probably tag them at this point and just
00:45:07 --> 00:45:09 be like, hey, we shamelessly plugged you as well.
00:45:11 --> 00:45:14 But what is next for you? And where do you see
00:45:14 --> 00:45:17 the sequence taking you? Or at least you and
00:45:17 --> 00:45:20 Brian as well. Yeah, so next for me is a couple
00:45:20 --> 00:45:23 things. Here comes my plugs. So Hell House is
00:45:23 --> 00:45:25 doing its four -day theatrical run from October
00:45:25 --> 00:45:28 29th to November 1st. You can get tickets at,
00:45:28 --> 00:45:31 I believe it's iconicevents .com. Tickets are
00:45:31 --> 00:45:34 on sale now. So that's the first thing. Second,
00:45:34 --> 00:45:37 I believe October 22nd on YouTube, we're releasing
00:45:37 --> 00:45:40 the short film, The Sequence. And I know we're
00:45:40 --> 00:45:41 going to be able to release that in a couple
00:45:41 --> 00:45:43 different places over the next couple months.
00:45:43 --> 00:45:45 So we're excited for people to actually see that
00:45:45 --> 00:45:47 because we just finished the festival run from
00:45:47 --> 00:45:50 it. In early next year, there's going to be a
00:45:50 --> 00:45:52 limited theatrical run of a movie I did called
00:45:52 --> 00:45:54 Imposters, which I was mentioning a little while
00:45:54 --> 00:45:57 ago. I produced it with two partners. And it's
00:45:57 --> 00:45:59 directed by Caleb Phillips and it stars Jessica
00:45:59 --> 00:46:01 Roth from the Happy Death Day franchise and Charlie
00:46:01 --> 00:46:04 Barnett. That one's a nice little horror sci
00:46:04 --> 00:46:06 -fi movie that I think indie fans are going to
00:46:06 --> 00:46:07 love. And it did really well in the festival
00:46:07 --> 00:46:10 circuit. And then I'm working on the next feature
00:46:10 --> 00:46:12 right now that I'm going to direct. Brian's writing
00:46:12 --> 00:46:14 the sequence and I'm working on a different film.
00:46:14 --> 00:46:16 So depending on who gets done faster, whichever
00:46:16 --> 00:46:19 one is done faster is going to be the next movie
00:46:19 --> 00:46:23 that gets made by me. If you could go back a
00:46:23 --> 00:46:26 few years and give yourself a piece of advice,
00:46:26 --> 00:46:29 what would that advice be? Don't listen to what
00:46:29 --> 00:46:33 other people say or think. And obviously experience
00:46:33 --> 00:46:36 and mentorship and all of that stuff is very
00:46:36 --> 00:46:40 important. I think what happens is when you start
00:46:40 --> 00:46:43 to get success, you start to chase something.
00:46:43 --> 00:46:46 You start to chase trends and you start to chase
00:46:46 --> 00:46:49 things where you begin writing and directing
00:46:49 --> 00:46:52 and producing whatever. You try to make things
00:46:52 --> 00:46:55 that you think people will like. And I think
00:46:55 --> 00:46:58 the only way movies are successful. are when
00:46:58 --> 00:47:00 you make movies that you would like, and you
00:47:00 --> 00:47:02 make things that you want to see, and you make
00:47:02 --> 00:47:05 things like, I'm a horror guy, so I love horror
00:47:05 --> 00:47:07 movies. So if I'm going to make a horror movie,
00:47:07 --> 00:47:10 I want to make something that the fan wants to
00:47:10 --> 00:47:13 see. And again, I think when you start bringing
00:47:13 --> 00:47:15 objectivity into things that aren't really objective
00:47:15 --> 00:47:17 and they're really subjective, and you start
00:47:17 --> 00:47:20 saying good, bad, worse, better, that kind of
00:47:20 --> 00:47:22 stuff, it makes you start questioning if you
00:47:22 --> 00:47:24 should do this or if you should do this for your
00:47:24 --> 00:47:26 career. And I think... sticking to your guns
00:47:26 --> 00:47:30 and believing in yourself and kind of, you have
00:47:30 --> 00:47:32 to put in the work, but believing in yourself
00:47:32 --> 00:47:35 is the only way to be successful. And it is very,
00:47:35 --> 00:47:38 very tough because the industry measures success
00:47:38 --> 00:47:40 with awards and with money and with a lot of
00:47:40 --> 00:47:42 other things. And truthfully, that is not the
00:47:42 --> 00:47:44 thing that it becomes the most fulfilling thing.
00:47:45 --> 00:47:48 So that's the piece of advice that I would give
00:47:48 --> 00:47:50 to younger me. And that's the piece of advice
00:47:50 --> 00:47:51 that I would give to any young filmmaker out
00:47:51 --> 00:47:54 there is trust your instincts and trust your
00:47:54 --> 00:47:57 gut. You have a unique way of telling a story.
00:47:57 --> 00:47:59 So tell that story the way you would want to
00:47:59 --> 00:48:00 tell it and the way you would want to see it.
00:48:00 --> 00:48:03 Thank you so much, Joe, for being with me here
00:48:03 --> 00:48:05 today. I do appreciate your time. But before
00:48:05 --> 00:48:07 we go, just please tell the listeners where they
00:48:07 --> 00:48:10 can find you and where they can also find the
00:48:10 --> 00:48:12 sequence. Yeah, so the sequence will be on YouTube.
00:48:12 --> 00:48:16 It's on Red End Productions. That's Brian Lepresino's
00:48:16 --> 00:48:18 company, Red End Productions. It should be available
00:48:18 --> 00:48:22 on YouTube on October 22nd. And you can find
00:48:22 --> 00:48:24 me. I'm not the biggest social media person,
00:48:24 --> 00:48:27 but Instagram, you can find me. I'm the Chosen
00:48:27 --> 00:48:35 Joey. That's a good name. If you enjoyed this
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00:48:37 --> 00:48:41 Cut is simply to follow, share. And if you know
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00:49:07 --> 00:49:09 has been The Physical Cut, where films will be
00:49:09 --> 00:49:11 on the stream. And I will see you guys next time.