Making Movies is HARD!!!: The Struggles of Indie Filmmaking

This week Liz and Alrik sit down with writer, director, producer, author, Slamdance film festival co-founder and all around indie film expert, Dan Mirvish, to talk about how he has managed to direct six features over his career. Dan also talks about his process of raising funds, how he reverse engineers his films to attract the best actors possible and what he thinks are the most important aspects of indie filmmaking. Dan drops a ton of knowledge in this hour plus interview so if you want to learn more about indie film, hit play! We also have another "Get Shorty" with filmmaker Shane Anderson featuring his short, His Guy Thursday and Liz gives us an update on her next feature film!

This week Alrik and Liz sit down with 1091 Senior Sales Manager Sana Soni who talks to us about the task of selling movies to Advertising-Based Video on Demand or AVOD companies and how the changing market has been effecting distributors as well as filmmakers. Sana also talks about the opportunity she saw after the pandemic and her own filmmaking work on her web series, The Myth of Control! We also have writer, actor and producer Julia Manis on the show to talk about her film Mel and Ruby which was just released on film shortage! 

This week Liz and Alrik chat with writer/director Anthony Scott Burns to talk about making his second feature, Come True, which was released by IFC Midnight on March 12th! Anthony talks about how/why he fought to shoot the film in sixty days, what inspired him to make the film and how he had to quit his first feature in the editing room! There are a lot of great bits in this shorter interview but stick around because we also have returning guest Naomi McDougall Jones on our Soap Dish segment to talk about Constellation Incubator that she and Liz launched this week. Do you want to help create a new way of funding/making/selling and distributing films? Then you should apply to be part of the incubator now and Naomi tells us all about how the incubator works. Lastly, we have listener and filmmaker John Beckham on our Get Shorty segment to talk about Pizza People and Liz and Alrik talk about what worked and didn’t work for them in the short!

This week we have filmmakers and actors Stephen Colletti and James Lafferty from the Hulu Series Everyone is Doing Great to talk about from meeting together as actors on One Tree Hill and how they raised over $250k through crowdfunding to make the show. We get to hear about how they made the transition from actors to filmmakers and what it is like to go back to a show as an actor after working behind the camera. We also have filmmaker and listener of the show Derek Viveiros on Get Shorty to talk about his short film Pimples and Nipples, which is a wild ride of a short, be sure to check it out!

What does an indie film finance agent actually do? This week Liz and Alrik sit down with Ross Putman, Fiance and Sales Executive at Verve Talent and Literary Agency to talk about his switch from producing indie films to being an agent, what he does day to day and how he helps bring a project from script to the screen. We also talk about a lot of misconceptions regarding agents and how filmmakers can best work with agents to get their films made. On top of that we have filmmaker Aimee Morgan on the show to talk about her short film Shelter and how she went and made the film on a low budget with a truly indie crew. 

 On our big 300th episode, Liz and Alrik are very excited to welcome Sev Ohanian to the show - producer of films such as Fruitvale Station, Searching, Run, Judas and the Black Messiah and the upcoming Space Jam: A New Legacy! Sev talks to us about how he got started as a producer and what he learned producing a dozen features that lead to him writing/producing Searching which premiered at Sundance. This was a very deep and enlightening conversation that really goes to show what you can pull off with dedication and a lot of hard work! We also have filmmakers Larry Lavarety and Isaac Pingree on the show to talk about their latest film, Where Buffalo Roam, a short documentary about the endangered Yellowstone Buffalo. Lastly, Alrik and Liz finally answer the final five questions for themselves and talk about why they are filmmakers!

This week on the show Liz and Alrik talk to writer/producer/director Camille Brown about how she did just about everything you could do to go from being an assistant, to a producer and to directing her first feature film, which indirectly lead to the opportunity of directing her second feature for Lifetime. Camille talks about how she thought there would be a clear path to directing and when she got into the industry, she saw you have to just do it yourself. We also have old editor and long time listener of the show Cameron Caves on to talk about his film Hyperthermia which Liz and Alrik thoroughly dissect! 

This week Liz and Alrik invite director Kevin Lewis on the show to talk about directing his latest feature Willy’s Wonderland, starring the legendary Nicolas Cage fighting a fun house filled of demonic animatronic creatures! Kevin talks about how the movie came about, how they got Nic Cage on board and his road of directing seven features which lead to his eighth feature with an over 12 year gap in between features. It’s a very engaging conversation about the highs and lows of filmmaking plus we get to hear what it’s like to work with Nicolas Cage, which is awesome. We also have another installment of You’ve Got Mail and we have filmmaker Nicole de Meneses on the show to talk about the first episode of her web series, Dating in the Zombie Apocalypse!

This week Liz and Alrik have an EPIC conversation with writer/directing duo Ian and Eshom Nelms about their rise from shooting their first feature for $1500 all the way to writing and directing Fatman, a high concept action/christmas movie starring Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins. This conversation is one of our longests but Ian and Eshom drop a ton of amazing knowledge and teachable experiences into the episode. We hear about working with reps, securing feature jobs and the intense grind it takes to write and direct six feature films across a span of over fifteen years. After the main interview is done stick around for a wonderful Get Shorty with writer/Director Kyle Kenyon about his short film Dad Pals and another installment of You’ve Got Mail!

This week Liz and Alrik welcome Writer/Director Anna Biller on the show to talk about making and releasing her feature The Love Witch and what her life has been like since the release of the film. Anna talks about the struggles of raising money for her next film, the crazy amount of time and energy that went into The Love Witch and how she brought the very vintage look and feeling to the film. We also read two new listener emails and Alrik gives an update on his film The Alternate!