This is a transcript of SYS Podcast Episode 318: Brandon Rhiness Writer/Director of the Comedy Hot Box.
Ashley: Welcome to Episode #318 of the Selling Your Screenplay podcast. I’m Ashley Scott Meyers, screenwriter and blogger over at www.sellingyourscreenplay.com. Today I’m interviewing writer-director Cal Barnes. Canadian writer, director Brandon wryness, who just completed a comedy feature called hotbox. We dig into the writing of the script and also the actual production and how he was able to put this project together and get it produced. Brandon was on the podcast before in Episode #225 so definitely check that out if you haven’t already listened to it, so stay tuned for that interview with Brandon. If you find this episode valuable, please help me out by giving me a review in iTunes or leaving a comment on YouTube or between the podcast on Twitter or liking or sharing it on Facebook. These social media shares really do help spread word about the podcast, so they’re very much appreciated. Any websites or links that I mentioned, the podcast can be found on my blog.
In the show notes, I also publish a transcript with every episode in case you’d rather read the show or look at something later on. You can find all the podcast show notes at www.sellingyourscreenby.com/podcast and then just look for Episode Number #318 if you want my free guide, how to sell a screenplay in five weeks, you can pick that up by going to selling your screenplay.com/guide. It’s completely free. You just put in your email address and I’ll send you a new lesson once per week for five weeks. Along with a bunch of bonus lessons. I’ll teach the whole process of how to sell your screenplay in that guide. Specifically, I’ll teach you how to write a professional logline and crew letter and how to find agents, managers and producers who are looking for material really is everything you need to know to sell your screenplay. Just go to selling your screenplay.com/guide. So now let’s get into the main segment. Today I’m interviewing Canadian writer, director Brandon wryness. Here is the interview [inaudible] welcome Brandon to the selling your screenplay podcast. A real appreciate you coming on the show with me again.
Speaker 2:
Thanks. Actually, I’m glad to be back on.
Speaker 1:
So you were on the podcast almost two years ago, if you can believe it. Episode number 225. I will direct people to that if they want to know a little bit more about your backstory. But just to give a quick introduction, you are a Canadian filmmaker, Canadian screenwriter who’s living and working in Canada. And you have a new movie out called hotbox and that’s going to be kind of the focus of the interview today. But I definitely would encourage people to check out episode number two 25 cause in that episode we really dug into sort of your origin story and really how you got your kind of career going all while living far from Los Angeles. So maybe to start out, you can give us a quick pitch maybe to start out and give us a quick pitch or a logline. What is your new film hotbox about?
Speaker 2:
It’s basically takes place over one night. There’s multiple intersecting storylines that take place in this big house party and a good chunk of the movie takes place in a car in the garage where people could go, go to smoke weed, hotbox the car and kind of everything at some interconnects in this car. But it basically takes place one giant house and there’s got to, I don’t know how many different storylines we know there’s every different people. There’s some people, there’s some, you know, young teenagers or some older guys and kind of everything kind of mixed. It mixes up and it’s a, it’s, it’s hilarious if you asked me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Good. So where did this idea come from? What was sort of the the, the kernel of an idea? Like what, why this story?
Speaker 2:
Well, basically I was looking for something that would be relatively simple to do. I had done one feature pre obviously called cold comfort, which was like 95% one person locked in a room. So I wanted to keep it along the same lines to keep a budget down. So the original plan was 100% of the story. It was going to be in this car. So all I need for location was a car. And then actors, as I started writing it, I was, that was kind of, you know, it wasn’t a lot to work with and my career was kind of building and I knew a lot more people and had more resources. So I was like, you know what, I know that I have to be all in the car. We could have something in the house a little bit. And by the time it was done and ended up being kind of like, you know, 70 80% in the high house and 20% in the car.
Speaker 2:
But it all just came from wanting to do something simple that I could do. And it just, just kind of as the script as I wrote it, it kind of ballooned and to a bigger and bigger project. And by the end, I think we had a like 58 speaking roles there’s over a hundred people involved in the production and it kind of just took on a life of its own. It became bigger than I was expecting. And you know, even to this day, I’m surprised that, you know, we actually pulled it off cause it’s like, man, so many things could have gone wrong, but we actually, we even finished a day early. Huh. I think we had 12 shooting days planned and ended up, we ended up finishing in 11, which even my back, it’s like, how did, how do we ever do that? It was just kind of everything came together and it’s such a perfect shoot. But yeah, that’s how it kind of all came about is just wanting to do a simple story and building from there.
Speaker 1:
[Inaudible] So why, why a stoner comedy as opposed to, you know, a thriller or a horror or something along those lines. What was your thinking with that?
Speaker 2:
Well, pretty much everything I’d done up to that point, I was known as that horror thriller guy. Even my dad, when you to hotbox premier, he’s like, he’s like, Oh, I’m surprised. You’re funny. I thought you only did horror. I was like, well, I could do a lot of different stuff, but I do have a knack for comedy, I think, or so people tell me, and I’ve just still doing one before or after another. And I was like, well, I kinda want to show people I can be funny too. And as far as I know, there’s not a lot of like stoner comedies out these days, you know, all of these Cheech and Chong, but that was decades ago and know you get the odd one that pops up, but it’s not really a popular thing. So it seems, but it seems like there’s a lot of people that would like that kind of thing. So I was like, you know what? Like, especially up here in Canada, like I don’t even know if there’s another one. The old country, as far as I know, I was like, well, let’s do one. Let’s just eat this hilarious thing and you’ll make it ridiculous and see what people think. And and then as far as I know, it seems to have worked.
Speaker 1:
Good. Good. So let’s talk about your writing process a little bit. You started out with sort of an idea to be super, super contained and then it eventually, you know, branched out a little bit. From there just some quick questions. What was your writing schedule like with this? Was this something that you just sat down and wrote quickly? Did you spend a lot of time outlining it? Maybe just walk us through sort of the process of, of getting the script developed?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, this one is actually a little bit different than I usually do it. I remember he kind of the, I had the idea kind of, you know, in my hand a little bit and I went to a, there was a meeting was there an industry meeting about how to kind of raise money through crowd funding. So I went to this meeting and it was a couple hours long and it was kinda boring. So everyone’s sitting there paying attention and I was sitting there and also an idea started coming to me. So I’m sitting there scribbling notes, sitting, you know, everyone’s probably like, man, this guy is really paying attention. And I was like, no man, I’m just a brainstorming ideas for hotbox. So sitting there and you know, by the time I had like six, seven pages, eight pages of just like, you know, just funny ideas, I just find the dialogue, things that different storylines.
Speaker 2:
I took those home and, and I finally nailed it down to like, these are the story, ongoing storylines that are going to happen and these are the kind of things that will happen. And I kind of built up, it was like a little bit of an outline around that. And I pounded out the script like pretty damn quick. Like it could have been more than a few weeks at most. And for this one I kind of wanted, cause I mean, comedy is such a subjective thing and you know, last thing I want is to make a movie and I’m the only one that finds it funny. So I got together some people that I knew that were funny and who was, you know, writing and creative skills. I respected they all came over to my place and he was maybe seven or eight of us and we read through the whole script.
Speaker 2:
They kind of gave me feedback and you know, just kind of, you know, it’s kind of like a punch up meeting and they were like, well, what if we threw this joke in here or you know, this part, it’s not as funny. What if we did this instead? And and some of the stuff that ended up in the movie came from that meeting. So I use the kind of notes we got from that group. And I rewrote the script and yeah, that was basically it. We were kind of changing the script up until, you know, basically even while we were shooting. But we pretty much had something solid for like, you know, well before we got into that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Yeah. Was, was your intention always to shoot it? Was this something you show to any producers? Like did you try and just get it out there and maybe potentially just sell it as a writer?
Speaker 2:
No, this was I do that with a lot of other scripts. This one, I don’t think anyone outside the cast or crew has ever read it. It’s, I wrote this knowing I’m going to do this myself and yeah, no one else. I’d never tried it anywhere else. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
So you mentioned that this was a you mentioned this was an ensemble piece. Maybe you can talk a little bit about how you approach screenplay structure with an ensemble piece. It seems like, you know, the act, the, the sort of more structured, you know, act break on 25 act break on 70 becomes a little dicier when you’ve got multiple storylines. Maybe talk a little bit about that, how you were able to weave in all these different storylines and just how did you approach the structure? What was sort of your idea going into it about structure?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, this one was very, very different considering my previous script had been kind of one onscreen character. So this one, I basically, I threw the rules out the window. And I even said, I think I’ve said, you know, just kind of the interviews I was doing before the premier, that it’s probably gonna piss a lot of up, you know, creative writing teachers and you know, screenwriting people off just because it doesn’t follow the rules like that and it really couldn’t. There’s a few scenes that kind of just pop up and then there’s like a hilarious scene and then it goes nowhere. You just never, you know, you see those characters around a bit. But it kind of, it was just that one part that they were in. There’s a few parts like that, but I did kind of have an outline cause I didn’t, you know, we had to worry about sticking, like forgetting about the one storyline for too long and that people would kind of like forget about it.
Speaker 2:
And even when we had our kind of punch up meeting, people are like, yeah, there’s been like, wait, it’s been 40 minutes since we’ve seen these guys. We gotta put that scene earlier, add something in. And so it was kind of juggling around like that. And, and a lot of it comes down to the comedy pacing too. It’s like, well, if we, if we cut away from the story for too long, it gets less funny. So we have to stick to it, but that means we’re putting this another thing off so maybe we have to move that to before. And so there’s a lot of juggling it around trying to to figure it out. A lot of the times I do the, you know, the index card thing for this one I did. People were telling me like, you should get colored index cards, the different colors for each storyline.
Speaker 2:
And I was like, no, I think that would confuse me more. And there was, during the writing process, there was a lot of, I’m just like, man, this is not working. Like it’s, there’s too much going on. It’s like, it’s just too convoluted. And when I finally just started trimming it down and it got shortened the length and I was like, okay, now it’s working. And even while I was editing, I was like, you know what? We got, I’m looking at it for me, we got to move these scenes around. We’ve got to cut this part. And I was even kind of arguing with my co-producers cause there’s parts that they liked and, but I’m like, you know what, it’s, it’s kind of, it’s not that funny and it gets in the way. And so I was kinda juggling things around and I think the final order we got it all in really worked.
Speaker 2:
But usually my, my writing is much more concise. Like it’s very, very tight. This one, given the nature of the film itself, I think I can get away with a lot more. I mean no, you know, stoner person that likes like kind of thing is going to watch and, and criticize the pacing because I didn’t have the first act break on page 25, you know. I think as long as it’s funny and it is fast paced and I, I cut out any second, he was 90% funny. I was like, you know what, I’m just gonna cut it just to make sure everything is as funny as it could actually be. And it just like the, the pace is really quickly, but it was, it was a different exercise and writing for sure.
Speaker 1:
[Inaudible] So the final movie was about 85 minutes. And it sounds like you, you did a lot of cutting in in the editing room. How long was the script? How many pages was the script?
Speaker 1:
100 pages and I’m just curious. Yeah, a hundred. It might have been 110. It was, it was longer than I knew it was. If people, if it was fast enough, he would, the final film would be shorter than the, the page length length. But I think the original, like the first cut of the movie was like a hundred. It was like a it was like 95. It was, it was quite big. It was way too long. So we ended up having to cut a bunch of scenes and scenes and cut a bunch of stuff and it started getting down to like a more reasonable length. I finally got it down to 90 minutes and I think it was the, it was like the day or the tear the day before the premier I was watching and I was like, it’s still not good enough. So I remember I called up one of my co-producers, Julie Waylon, and that was, I was like, what do you think about cutting the scene with the assignment and loose and Lacey in the car and this other part, she’s like, do it, do it.
Speaker 1:
She’s like, I was even thinking the same thing as parts aren’t that funny. So we cut those, gutted out 85 minutes and then all of a sudden I was like, okay, now I’m satisfied with it because I didn’t want any parts in the theater where I kind of cringe because it wasn’t what I wanted. It was a few parts like that and that, anyway, that just didn’t work out as well as I wanted, but I wanted it to be like just absolutely as most excellent as it could be. And I find that having anything that’s like shorter and tighter, I find mind works better. I mean, that’s kind of stuff I’m a fan of and that’s, my work got a lot better once I started really editing myself in both, you know, video editing and in script editing. [inaudible] Yeah. Yeah. So what about John requirements? You know, there’s certainly a hist history of stoner films about people in their twenties. Did you go back and watch some of those, you mentioned Cheech and Chong, but you know, half-baked there’s a good number of these films that have come out over the years where there’s some tropes that you wanted to subvert, where the sub tropes you wanted to sort of play into. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that, sort of where this fits in and the Pantheon of stoner comedies.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I didn’t I didn’t rewatch those movies when it came time to do hotbox. I have seen most of those before. Half-Baked. You know, I like them all. It’s a lot of it that I found was like, they’re still fairly big budget movies. There’s still, it’s still Hollywood’s take on the kind of thing that I don’t think they really understand. Whereas this, it’s kind of like, even though the movie is ridiculous, it’s not, I wouldn’t say it’s realistic by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s more, I’m like, this is going to be more along the lines of my experience and just the kind of things that I know. So I tried to avoid any any tropes or anything like that that you’ve seen a thousand times. I kind of wanted to do things differently and I wish I could think of some of the top of my head, but I kind of, I just went off beat on anything.
Speaker 2:
It’s like, this is what other people would do. I’m going to do this. And I even caught myself a few times when I was writing and I was like, no, this is way too obvious of a joke. I’m going to go the other way and, and and basically have fun with it. I also want it to be a lighthearted thing. I mean, there’s a little bit of sex and a lot of swearing, but it’s still the lighthearted story. I didn’t want to get to crude. You know, you know, I like American pie and all those kinds of movies, but a lot of the newer comedies I just find they’re a bit too yeah, like crew food I guess would be the word. I’m just not such a big fan of it. So for this, it was like, I’m going to make this the kind of comedy that I would want to watch.
Speaker 2:
And it was a big GAM gamble because maybe no one agrees with me and you know, I’m the only fan of the movie. So there was a little going into it, but I was kind of like, is this funny? Is this funny? And, and basically you’ll onset Gabe or laughing, you know, we kept ruining takes because people were laughing at the jokes knew we were onto something, but it wasn’t till we were going out to a theater and people were just, you know, laughing through the whole thing that I was like, okay, I did my job and it kind of proves that I was right. That this is a deal lease. Some people are gonna find this hilarious.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah. For sure. Okay, so you went through this development process. You wrote this script you knew you were going to shoot it. What was that next step? Did you all, were you already in touch with these producers? How did you guys go about raising the money? How did you get the producers involved and then ultimately how did you guys go about raising the money to shoot this
Speaker 2:
For a while? I think for awhile we had something like six or seven kind of co-producers. They were all people I’ve done previous project projects with or people that I had met. And we were working on it and it’s, you know, it’s been a while now. I can’t exact remember what happened, but you know, things kind of held us up. I remember we had a plan to shoot it in September, which is kind of the last warm month before winter hits up here and it just, you’ll things stalled. And I was super busy with other stuff and a bunch of the producers kind of backed out cause they were busy and a couple of them were like, you know what, like when we postponed it, they kind of took it as, I don’t have the means, the ability to pull it off. So I was kinda like, all right.
Speaker 2:
So it was pretty much left on my own, just meters. Me and Lindsey Christopher was the only one that was left, but I had recently been hired to direct a short film by Julie Wayland. And she was the writer producer on it. I was surprised she was super organized and like just like awesome and every way you could imagine. So I was like, Hey Julia, you want to come on board and help produce this? And she was like, well, I might be able to help out a little bit. And of course she ended up just like, you know, practically running the show. Like I could not have done it with odor. So it ended up being just the three of us and I was like, okay, what we’re going to do is, and remember it might be freezing fricking cold, but it’s a, some we’re gonna have to deal with.
Speaker 2:
We ended up moving like a whole bunch of outside scenes indoors just cause you know, our first ads like Brandon lately that gets too damn cold. Actors aren’t gonna want to stand outside. So we ended up, there’s a whole bunch of scenes that were supposed to be outside and we moved inside. And from there we just basically hit the streets doing everything we could. We did some crowd funding, raised a bit of money that way. And a few people kind of donate money. Lindsey, Christopher and I put in, you know, a few thousand of her own and we basically just had to use all our resources and I’d met a lot of people filmmaking up here and we just had to bore or whatever we want, like the, the car and it, we found this kind of cool 1970s station wagon. It kind of looks like this.
Speaker 2:
Buster’s car. There’s a guy up here, we know I’m Steve saying who he’s like, he’s like a car enthusiast. And he had that and he basically gave it to us for a month. He’s like, yeah, sure, I’ll park the car out there, you know, didn’t charge us anything. The city of Edmonton where I live, they had the, basically this kind of mansion house that was on city property. No one lived there. There’s no, not even any running water, but they were like basically gave it to us. So as long as you have insurance and we have to rent port-a-potties but they’re like, yeah, yeah, go ahead and use the house. So we had this insanely big nice house to use at no cost. People just kind of started shipping in everything. Like we need it to, like, there’s no furniture in this house.
Speaker 2:
And this is like, like, you know, an eight bedroom house. There was no piece of furniture. So a bunch of, you know, the casting crew don’t eat our own furniture. We put ads out on Facebook, you know, like if anyone has any couches that they don’t want, like you want to get rid of them, we’ll come borrow them and then, you know, take them to the dump later. So we spent this whole day driving around in like a big, you’ll like kinda, you haul truck picking up furniture. People are getting rid of stuff brought into this house and the next thing you know it’s like, Hey, we got this fully furnished house. And of course when it was done we had to go and he’ll take them to Goodwill or take them to the dump or whatever. And then of course by the time we finished shooting, we fill up such a reputation.
Speaker 2:
Like everyone does a pretty big project for the city and annual word was out about it. And next thing you know, people are kind of just, Hey, I’ll put in 500 bucks, I’ll put him this. And you know, other people were putting in larger songs just to help us get it finished. And people were bringing in food to help feed the crews. We could save on food budget and like, it was definitely like, you know, everyone helped out in every way they could. People bought, brought donuts, bought McDonald’s you know, just we needed empty beer cans and stuff. So people brought those in and you know, some companies donated pizza and that kind of stuff. And so we ended up like, it was a lot of work, but like we just saw home made it happen and put, that was my commitment cause I originally postponed it.
Speaker 2:
It was like a little bit of self doubt, you know, like can I really do this? And it’s coming up too soon. But when we set the second date, I was like, I cannot, I can’t postpone it again. So I’m like, I’m going to do this, like come hell or high water and if we have the money or not, like we’re doing it I’m just going to basically, you know, dive in and just make it happen. And luckily everyone was on board and everyone was supportive. I mean, we were dealing with, you know, terrible road conditions and some days are like blizzards that people that drive through and, you know, people went into the ditch and we had to go drag their vehicles out and just, but it’s like, no matter what came up, we just bought our way through it and got it finished. You know, it was, it was amazing.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So take me back to this house. How did you, how did you even hear about this house? Like just, I’m just always curious, just how did something like that come up? How did you even know to even
Speaker 2:
Ask about it? Well it was we kind of have a my another filmmaker here in our city, Michael Chardonnay, we got him to thank for it. We were shooting another project where we needed a, a particular house and we found out it was like a, a historical house in the city so you can call the city to ask like if we want to film in there, like when we talk to, so they gave us a contact of, you know, this person and they came and showed us this house and, and the guy showed us these other properties. He’s like, well, if you want to shoot, you know, when you showed us a few different places, one of them being the hotbox house and hotbox house is actually where we shot cold comfort, which was my, you know, one act or one location thing.
Speaker 2:
We, it has this one really, this room that’s like 35 feet long and like seven feet wide. It just has this kind of weird looking room and we fill an entire movie in there. So I, by that point we already knew of this location. So when it came time, we need a big house and it’s like, well they let us shoot there before. Like, they’ll probably let us use the whole house instead of just that one room. So we made that connection there. But yeah, the city was great for letting us do that. And is there any stipulations on this? You just have to have insurance, but do they, you know, want you to promote them? Do they want you to make a donation to some charity? I don’t know. There’s nothing like that. Oh, it’s, I mean it’s, I mean like Edmonton’s a fairly big city, but it’s not, we’re not Vancouver, we’re not LA.
Speaker 2:
So like there are filmmakers here, but it’s not like a booming place. And maybe my buddies in Vancouver, like, you know, we want to shoot in a park and the city wants like 1500 bucks an hour, whereas here, like they’re very open for that kind of stuff. And, and I was kind of really late. It’s like, what’s the catch? Like we don’t got to pay for it. And they’re like, no, as long as like as long as you have the insurance and you want, you got the, you know, don’t wreck anything. Basic gave us the key and you know, they were super helpful and we even like they let us shoot in a cemetery for nothing and you’ll find to the project within the city is great. And you know, people always ask me like, why did you move to LA? Move to Vancouver?
Speaker 2:
And I was like, man, hotbox would have cost me like fricking million bucks if I did it in LA. You might could do it here for, you know, like such a small amount. Like, so people are, it’s just like a different atmosphere I think. I mean, I’ve never honestly made a film anywhere else. Yeah. Just from what I hear, like we have breaks here because I mean in LA it’s like you probably hear about it all the time. It’s the ones when you’re known for, whereas here, if you’re shooting a movie, such a, a cool and unique thing that not a lot of people do. So people are willing to kind of help out a lot. And I’m really grateful. So so what does your crew look like on this project? Maybe you can just run through what crew positions you had, just for our own, yeah, we had a lot, obviously we had a really, we had grace Kinley it really awesome.
Speaker 2:
First aid. We had DP Sam Reed. We had we had a few kind of like camera operators and assistance. Not all of them could work the whole time and some of them were, were kind of volunteers so they couldn’t commit to, you know, every day, but they’d be like, you want, I could put in three days or you know, a little bit. So we kind of juggle them around. We had a lot of people that ended up just kind of helping us out as grips and stuff and, and some of them like, like Sam out who is actually now kind of a main fixture and filmmaking in the city at the time I met him cause he was dropping off his stepdaughter for a project. And he ended up coming to hotbox just to be extended the background.
Speaker 2:
And next thing you know, we ended up helping carry stuff around. Next thing you know, he was doing the slate and next year and then he also needs there everyday and he’s driving to pick people up and help him move furniture. And next thing you know, he’s like on the team. So people kinda just helped out. And some days we didn’t have a lot of crew. Sometimes we had a bigger crew, you know. But we had obviously like sound, we had all the main parts. We had. We had a couple of people doing the catering and all the food. And as you a lot of cross jobs, you know, people were just, you know, kind of doing one thing but doing another too. Sometimes we, they’d act and the acting a little bit, but they also be, you know, need a grip on, on the side. So everyone just kind of helped out. But we had, we had like the main jobs, we had no script supervisor. But yeah, basically we’ll DP sound first aid, D, E camera assistant second. Aidy. Sound first aid, D E M camera assistant second. Ady. We had a third 80 on a few days with the busier days. So it was a very tight crew, but everyone kind of pitched into a certain degree. We had some set decorating, like art people dealing with the props and the, the furniture and all that.
Speaker 2:
[Inaudible] What what did you guys use for a camera? What did you shoot this on?
Speaker 1:
Oh God, I can’t even remember. I’m not a tech guy. I honestly, people ask me that all the time, but I should learn.
Speaker 2:
Where did you and did the DP, did he bring his equipment? So your DP had a camera and lighting and grip and that sort of stuff?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, his his company that he ones with some other people, a gorilla films, they have all their, their own gears. So basically we state him and then rented the gear from his company. So yeah, he brought all that stuff and it was, it was like a really nice camera. I just like, I’m not a, that doesn’t interest me to like, so I never know what camera we’re using for a shoe even though I should, but it’s kind of embarrassed. But if someone told me the name I’d probably remember, remember it, but it wasn’t like the red whatever it’s called. It wasn’t like that high level, but it was, it was still like, Oh, like a really nice camera.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Yeah. So perfect. I was very impressed with the acting in your film. Maybe you can talk a little bit about that. How did you go about casting this and especially you know, you just mentioned that was like 58 speaking roles and just somewhat coincidentally this morning I literally put out a podcast episode about my own film, the rideshare killer. And one of the things I was talking about was the cast is that if you’re in LA, finding a lot of good actors is very easy. But if you’re outside of LA, you might want to reconsider and kind of keep your cast illimited cause you’re gonna you’re going to have a hard time finding quality actors. But I was impressed. You have a lot of speaking roles and I thought the acting was very good. Maybe you can talk about that process. How did you find these people and what was that process like?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it wasn’t, it wasn’t easy. I mean there’s, there are a lot of actors here but I mean nowhere near compared to LA obviously. But a lot, a lot of people I had worked with work with before, like some of the main cast, but a lot of them I had we did extensive like auditioning. We did like video auditions and we kind of narrowed it down from there to like kind of the, our top picks. And then we had them come in for actual in person auditions. And I had a Julian and Lindsey, my co-producers were helping aloud on them, helping out in that, cause, you know, I don’t mind making the final decision on things. I have input, I just find the whole thing, the whole audition process. Like I’ve never been an actor and both of them were. And a lot of the times I, it’s like after I hear the same lines of dialogue read like 70 times that I can’t even remember who was who.
Speaker 1:
And so I was like, I need you guys to kind of, you know, run the show and when I’ll kind of have some feedback. But it’s such a hard decision cause a lot of times it comes, it comes down to we got three people and we absolutely like love them all. So who are we going to pick? And it’s like, well, and a lot of it was juggling. Okay, why don’t we go with her this role, but then we’ll move her to this role. And then it’s like, Oh, but that one was so capable, put her back in this role. And then, so there’s a lot of juggling around and there’s so many people that were originally gonna play one role and ended up changing. And, and a lot of it too was the way I had it in my head and the person we hired, it did not look like that. So some of them I was like, nah, man, I don’t want that guy. Like he doesn’t, it doesn’t look like how I imagined it in my head and, but they’re like, no, he’s, he’s the best actor. You also, we ended up, you’ll go with some people that I originally didn’t think would work but absolutely did work and now I can’t even imagine it being any, any way different.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. So one of the things that comes across as I, as I listened to you is that, you know, it seems like you kind of have a real good support system up there in Edmonton, which is just simply not here. It’s just, it’s a little more doggy dog down here in LA, I would say. Because just sort of the things you’re running into, a guy that shows up, you know, and just starts pitching in and stuff. That’s, you know, that’s sort of just friendly, you know, let’s get involved. How do P, how do you recommend somebody gets involved in sort of a group like you or just a filmmaking community? Like black being up in Edmonton? If they’re a screenwriter, they’re looking for a director, they’re looking for a producer, they want to get involved in the local community. Maybe you can give some tips on kind of how you got broke into it and how you got to know everybody in Edmonton.
Speaker 1:
Well, it kind of started, I joined a screenwriting group and I went to a few of the meetings there and then I joined a filmmakers group and I met a few people there and I worked, you know, to tell them why I came out as like a grip or something on one short film set. So I’m going to few people that way, but basically it came down to making my own stuff. And it kind of depends where you’re at. Like if you want to be a filmmaker, dream director, I’d recommend going my route, which is just, you know, write a script. You know, you could put an ads ads on Facebook, like, Hey, we’re shooting this this movie. It’s a one or two day shoot. We’re looking for cast and looking for crew people or, you know, save up a little bit of money.
Speaker 1:
And then obviously people are gonna come to you and like, hi, I’m a, I’m a DP, I’m a, I’m an actor, I’m a sound guy. And then you can hire them from there. And basically that’s how I got to know people. And you’re the next projects I’m saying wouldn’t be available. So there’d be someone else that would come. And so you kind of get to know several different DPS. And then some were different crew positions. And then once you’re kind of established a little bit, you just start to like, you have contacts. So you could ask your DP, he like, Hey, do you know any other people that you know, I get like any of the grips or I’m looking for this sir I’m looking for a first Ady. And of course they’ve worked in other film sets so they can recommend these other people.
Speaker 1:
And then it kind of grows and grows from there. And then, I mean, and I participate in Facebook groups, groups in whatever city you’re in, just kind of see who’s doing stuff. And a lot of the times people, like a lot of people I know start off as a, an extra, you know, we’re shooting at a bar and we just need like 50 people to sit in the background and someone is just sitting there and next thing you, they start chatting with people. So they get to know people, they chat with me and next thing you know it’s like, Hey they know a few people and as soon as you do that then people are like, Oh Hey, the next weekend there’s another shoot going on. You know, down wherever you want to come along. So they kind of go to that and the next thing you know, you kind of meet more people and just kind of grows from there.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It’s, I didn’t find it that hard. It’s actually kind of fun too, but if you just throw yourself into the mix and get known, even as people on Facebook that I just meet, cause you’ll, they like my post or something, I’d say see their name. So I’m aware of them. And then when our paths cross somewhere, I was like, Oh Hey, yeah, we know each other from film, from Facebook and the next thing you know, it’s like, Oh, they’re working on something. Next thing you know, they’re on your set and next thing you know you’re teaming up on a project together. And it just comes through the basic as putting yourself out there and meeting people and this, you know, constant hustle. Like I’d be like hustling nonstop every day that someone to meet, I’ll shoot him a message and you know, just make sure they know who I am and you know, talk to people and, and, and I, I do and do a ton of projects.
Speaker 1:
I mean, like I’ve done three features just in the last like year and a half and a whole bunch of shorts and just, just meeting people through that. And you can really do it. Like, I’m like, it must be kind of daunting if you don’t know anyone, you’ve never started, but just what, whatever city you’re in, just type the name of your city and filmmaking group. And if you’re in a reasonably big city, it’s probably at least a few other people that are doing that kind of thing. So go to the meetings and meet up with them and just see what’s going on and you’ll, you can just be, Hey, you, Hey, you want to get together and shooting something. You’ll, it just that it just starts with if you’ve got to use your phone, just go out and film a little thing and then just, you know, replicate the process and do it over and over and kind of get better at it. And the next thing you know, you’re kind of, you can make money at it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Yeah. So I’m curious I just was looking at your IMDV page as I was preparing for this interview. And I think at this point you have over 50 writing credits number of features, a number of shorts. And I mean, that’s very impressive and I think people should really take note of that. And that goes to a lot of what you’re saying is, I, you know, you just said, Oh, I work a lot. I do a lot of this and people need to look at your MDB and really understand what that actually means. But D do you think that there was a turning point? Like all of these projects you’ve done, is there any one project you look back at and say, yeah, that was the turning point where things started to click and really take off?
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah, that’s a hard question. It’s the kind of the first big turning point was when I just, I learned how to edit the script properly and really tighten them up and make them good. Cause basically it was like the day or after I kind of learned that skill or I considered that my script started selling. It was like right away I was just like, Oh my God. And I just learned how to type things up. And I went through every script that I had, did that. And next thing you know, I started selling shorts like pretty quickly and I started getting hired and I started selling features. So that was kind of a big turning point. I’m in love with a dead girl. My short film, which is still to this day, my most popular short film. That was another big one because that was the first time I’d ever worked with a director of photography was the first time I’d ever worked on something where I hired and paid a cast and crew before that it was kind of like a bunch of friends get together and you know, make something.
Speaker 1:
And you know, we all volunteer. That was the first one where we’re doing this for serious. That opened up a lot of doors and I think yeah hotbox would be the next one. Cause cold comfort I did before that. Even though it’s released late, it’s still not Finland completely finished. But that proved a little bit, but hotbox proved that I could do a full length movie that’s actually pretty damn hard. And with all of that on my shoulder I can pull it off. So after that, that’s when kind of people started, you know, investing in my projects before that’d be crowd funding. Whereas now people are going to give you a larger sums cause they see what I can do and you know, and it just gets you more attention planning off a bigger project like that. So you kind of always need to be doing bigger, bigger things, I guess.
Speaker 1:
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So what’s next for you? What are you working on now? I’m still like writing a ton, like a, I make my living knows as a screenwriter, which is not easy. Being up here and you know, they’re all kind of micro budget, low budget things, but I’m always just, you know, every, you know, constantly jobs come up, I finish them, I get paid, do the next one. And some of them are bigger, some of them are smaller. And you know, I write some comic books too. So I got all that going on. I got, I’m haunted, which was my kind of found footage series. It’s it was 62 kind of short episodes of a few minutes each. And I released one kind of daily over a few months throughout my YouTube channel. I’m trying to really sat as a feature so I could kind of combine them all into one long movie.
Speaker 1:
And I’m getting that down now. I just finished writing. My first novel is based on, I’m haunted and and basically I’m kind of juggling and trying to decide what the next project is. I got some interest and part of my reason for doing I’m haunted was that I had these bigger projects we’re trying to raise huge sums of money for and it just takes a while and I was like, you know what, I don’t want to sit around waiting another year. It’s like I want to do another project, then I could just fund myself if I have to. So I came up with, I’m haunted because we didn’t even really need a crew. It was all done on a phone and a laptop. So basically it was me and the cast. So I raise it a little bit of money for that from crowd funding and stuff and paid for it, you know, basically myself and some other people put money in. But it was another way to get my name out there. And even that, like anytime I do a project, it gets some sort of attention that someone ends up hiring me to write something, you know, someone to watch it on YouTube and they’ll be like, Oh, Hey, I like that. Can you also write a thriller? Sure. And then, you know, then they have hiring me. Yeah. I’m sorry. You know, you mentioned a minute ago as you were preparing for, for production
Speaker 2:
With with hotbox you move the date back and you, you made the comment that was a little bit of maybe self doubt and you know, I just want to get your thoughts on that. I just completed my feature film, the ride share killer and you know, I don’t know if people fully realize how much self doubt is involved in that process. And you know, it’s very, very stressful. And it’s not like those, especially the, the weeks leading up those two, three weeks leading up to production, there’s a million things to do. You know, you’re forgetting some of that stuff. And so self doubt is sort of a part of the process. And at least for myself, it’s just a matter of trying to ignore it. It’s not necessarily an easy thing, but I know that’s what, that’s what holds back a lot of people. It’s just that self doubt, you know? I don’t know how to hire a crew. I don’t know anything about making a short film. I don’t know anything. Sex. How do you make that leap? How can you, how do you feel like you could help people get across that? That bridge
Speaker 1:
It really, yeah, you’re exactly right. It just comes, it comes down to practice. I have somewhat become numb to it and it still affects you, but like you said, he’s, you just ignore it. It’s like, yeah, you’re full of self doubt. You’re nervous, you don’t have what’s going to work, but what are you gonna do with this? Not do it. And you know, it’s like you gotta do it anyway. So it’s kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. Or I’m nervous, go in and do it. And you know, I got a new project, I’m shooting a pilot coming up in a few weeks and I’m just like, I’m worried about things and it, but it’s like, you know what, you can’t show, you can’t show the cracks of the cast and crew. We got to go into it being like, yeah, this is going to work, it’s going to work.
Speaker 1:
I know what I’m doing. And, and you’ll, for the most part you do, right, is that you’ve done stuff before. You can do this and you’ll, everyone’s been through hard times. You can get through it, but it’s like, yeah, it’s always in the back of my mind and I think a lot of people, I mean it’s easy just to sit in the theater and I’ll sit at home and watch the film and be like, yeah, I liked that or I didn’t like it or, or why did they do this? And you’ll kind of criticize it. But it’s like, man, the shit I had to go through just to get this done. Like it’s a miracle even got finished. So it was the fact that you’re seeing something is like, you know, it is absolutely incredible. Like whether or not it’s any good, it’s beside the point.
Speaker 1:
But I know a lot of people are like that and I was like that too. Like I hesitated for years before pursuing this. I’m just kinda like, you know what, if it doesn’t work and all this, and it’s like it just comes down to like get the courage and just do it. Just start doing something, write a one page script to go out and film it. It’s probably going to suck. And you know, your third, fourth, fifth one are probably going to suck too. But eventually you’ll start learning and then they’ll start being kind of good. And then just if you hire good people, you, you’ll maybe, maybe acting’s not so good, but you know it’s going to look beautiful because they hired a DP, but then you meet some better actors and then the acting gets better. Then you become a better writer.
Speaker 1:
And next thing you know, like you are starting to make some competence stuff that people are watching and they kind of just, and that every one, it kind of, it builds like the faith in yourself. You know? It’s kind of like, if I could do hotbox like I can, I can do the next one. I’m probably still going to be nervous about it, but it’s like, I know I can finish it and it’ll slowly go from there. Like I couldn’t imagine doing like a hundred million million dollar movie now, you know? That’s just seemed like it’s on my capabilities. Like I’d be so fricking nervous to do that, but I can do the next step and I can do the next step. And eventually maybe one day I’ll be, you know, 10 years from now it’ll be like a hundred million dollar movie. I, I can do that. But it just, it, it takes doing it and it takes doing it.
Speaker 1:
Even though you’re nervous. And I know a lot of people, they ask me all the time like, how do I get started? Like how do I do this? How do I do that? And it’s like, honestly, anything, you don’t know, just Google. I do it all the time. Like I’m going to write a book and it’s just like I Google a few things and I start writing it and then I just figure it out. The next thing you know, my book is on its way in the mail because I’ve just built that, that skill up and myself where it’s like, I’m going to do this and that I pound away at it and I don’t stop until it’s done. And next thing you know, yeah, I got 50 writing credits on INDB because I just write something and then I don’t stop pitching until someone pays me and it gets me.
Speaker 1:
So if you just have that, it builds courage in yourself a lot. Right? Like if you make a short film and then just get done. But on YouTube, even if people trash it, it’s still like, man, I freaking made that. And all, some people kind of treat you different because everyone wants to make a movie. Everyone, you know, everyone says they’re writing a script and you know, it’s like, yeah, sure, three years from now you’re still going to be writing the same script. If you can actually get something finished and put it out there, people take you seriously and then be like, Hey, I heard you’re a filmmaker, I want to be a part of your movie. And if you start doing it consistently, all of a sudden everyone wants to get on board because you can get stuff done and they can be part of something of making something, you know, no one wants to find, although someone who’s too scared to get started or you know, finish something, they started.
Speaker 1:
So so yeah, just like, it’s like, yeah, it’s going to be nerve wracking. And even probably the biggest Hollywood directors probably still have a self doubt and they make things that they’re not happy with and you know, people trash their work and it’s just something you just deal with and move on to the next project to keep doing it, then you’re just going to get better with each one and hopefully it’ll be a fulfilling career. Yeah. Yeah. So, so good advice for sure. How can people see hotbox? What’s the release schedule like before it, where it’s, we signed a deal with a company, it’s supposed to be out on like Amazon prime and a bunch of video on demand and things. They don’t have a date set. We’re just waiting on, I wanted some last minute art changes apparently the poster that to this point everyone knows and loves.
Speaker 1:
They thought it looked too much like a horror movie. So they’re like, can you make it look more like a comedy? So we’re just having that done, which will hopefully be finished this week, like the next few days. Then we send that off to them. And then, I dunno how long it is from that point to the point where it’s on Amazon prime. I think you said it’s like between 10 and 20 days or something like that. So I’m hoping sometime early March. So keep your eye out on it. But you know, follow us on Facebook. We have a Facebook page for hotbox or follow me cause we’ll be announcing it absolutely everywhere. So you really won’t be able to miss it, but yeah, check it out. Let me know what you think. I’ve got a good reactions so far, but it was, you know, we had two screenings, but it’s still not a huge sample of people, so I kind of want to know just what the general public thinks about it’s very interested. [inaudible].
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. So that’s good. I’ll round that link up. The Facebook page for hotbox. How else can people keep in touch with what you’re doing? Do you have a blog, a Twitter account, Facebook, anything you’re comfortable sharing? I will also round that up for the show notes just so they can follow along with your career.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I have a Facebook page. It’s just under my name and my Twitter is at Brandon Ryan. Instagram is the same. I have a blog, although I rarely use it. I used it in a few years. I just, just a couple days ago wrote a new blog post about another film that I wrote a script for that just got released. So I wrote a blog post about that and you can look up if you want. But yeah, Facebook and Twitter are the best places to get in touch with me. And I have different Facebook pages for various projects too. But if you just start following me and, and keep in touch and then you know, I like hearing from people and hear what they think about my projects.
Speaker 2:
Perfect. Perfect. Well Brandon, again, I really appreciate you coming on the show. I’m good luck with this film and I’m sure you’ll be back on soon enough with another project to tell us about. So you’re having me on. This is great. So thank you Brandon. We’ll talk to you later.
Speaker 3:
I just want to talk quickly about sys select. It’s a service for screenwriters to help them sell their screenplays and get writing assignments. The first part of the service is the sys select screenplay database. Screenwriters upload their screenplays along with the log lines synopsis and other pertinent information like budget and John WRA and then producers search for and hopefully find screenplays they want to produce. Does as a producers are in the system looking for screenplays right now. There have been a number of success stories come out of the service. You can find out about all the sys act successes by going to selling your screenplay.com/success also on sys podcast podcast, episode 222 I talk with Steve Dearing, who was the first official success story to come out of the sys select database. When you join sys select, you get access to the screenplay database along with all the other services that we’re providing to sys as select members.
Speaker 3:
These services include the newsletter. This monthly newsletter goes out to a list of over 400 producers who are actively seeking writers and screenplays. Each sys select member can pitch one screenplay in this monthly newsletter. We also provide screenwriting leads. We have partnered with one of the premier paid screenwriting leads services so I can syndicate their leads to sys select members. There are lots of great paid leads coming in each week from our partner. Recently we’ve been getting five to 10 high quality paid leads per week. These leads run the gamut. There’s producers looking for a specific type of spec script to producers looking to hire a screenwriter to write up one of their ideas or properties they’re looking for shorts, features, TV and web series pilots, all types of projects. If you sign up for sys select, you’ll get these leads emailed directly to you several times per week.
Speaker 3:
Also, you get access to the select forum where we will help you with your log line inquiry letter and answer any screenwriting related questions that you might have. We also have a number of screenwriting classes that are recorded and available in the sys select forum. These classes, these are all the classes that I’ve done over the years, so you’ll have access to those whenever you want. Once you join the classes cover every part of writing your screenplay from concept to outlining to the first act, second act, third act as well as other topics like writing short films and pitching your projects in person. Once again, if this sounds like something you’d like to learn more about, please go to selling your screenplay [inaudible] dot com again, that is selling your screenplay, select.com to wrap things up, I just want to touch on a few things from today’s interview with Brandon.
Speaker 3:
I literally recorded the interview with Brandon right after I put out that special podcast episode on my own film, the rideshare killer, the one where I talked about the locations. I think it’s so interesting what Brandon said about getting the locations and just being involved in film outside of the Los Angeles area. Just really listen to what Brandon is saying in the interview. He was able to get a lot of stuff for free because he wasn’t in a city that was used to film production. And that’s so important, not just getting this stuff for free, but leaning into the advantages that you have and making the most of them. I’ve mentioned this before in the podcast. You know, it’s just, it’s so important to try and get everything you can into the film. All these sorts of things add production value. It just adds just another level.
Speaker 3:
On a more general level. I think Brandon is a shining example of how to go about getting your career started from anywhere in the world. He happens to be up in Canada. Definitely go back and check out episode number 225 cause again, we really dig into sort of his origin story, how he got started, how he made some of his first sales as a screenwriter. You know, he networked locally. He just, all the stuff that we talk about this, this, the stuff that people should be doing, he did it and eventually paid off. I love what he said too. He was at this recently he was at a, you know, an event where he where he was able to outline OD box. It was on Kickstarter or something or in crowdfunding and and it was boring. But, but again, just that attitude, even as he’s, you know, successful and, and having some traction, he’s still trying to learn.
Speaker 3:
He’s still trying to, you know, go to seminars, network or new stuff. And that’s just, you know, that’s the spirit that I’m, that we all need. We all need to do that. You know, myself included. I mean, there’s still so much that I have to learn. And sometimes you just get caught up and, and you kinda just get to a point where you feel like you know it or, or you’ve been there and you’d done that. But we can always all learn. We can all learn at whatever level we’re at. He’s always doing stuff. I really liked that. The shorts, even the shorts that don’t pay anything or don’t pay very much, he’s out there doing stuff. And again, listen to what he said. A lot of these no paid or low paid shorts that he’s worked on that he’s written, that he’s directed, he’s produced, a lot of them led to paid work.
Speaker 3:
Just getting yourself out there. I get so many emails from frustrated screenwriters asking for help. You know, when the help that they need is literally staring back at them in the mirror. You know, the difference between Brandon and everyone else who’s not getting films produced. It’s not the self doubt. He has it. You know, I have it. We all have that self doubt. It’s just that he pushes through it. He just keeps pushing ahead, keeps trying to move that ball down the field. And again, listen to what he said. You don’t have to start with a feature film. He didn’t start with a feature film. This is his first feature film as a writer, director and a producer. But he’s done a bunch of shorts. He’s done a bunch of web series, one step at a time. You can’t run before you walk, but don’t get caught up on that.
Speaker 3:
Maybe it’s just about making a one minute short with your iPhone or less, maybe just some cool 15 second videos on your phone to start. But just start doing something, getting content made, see how people react to your stuff. Getting it in front of an audience. Again, just a 15 second, a 32nd video. Maybe you have a kid that you know can, can do a little act and you can do a cute little video with that. Maybe you can do something yourself. Maybe you have a friend that’s an actor and want some stuff for the real just doing stuff and then you showing it to your friends. Seeing how the react. That sort of feedback is just so important to understanding how writing translate to to the actual video or film and how that, how that is actually interpreted by the audience. I, that’s such an important skill and it’s Sutton is such an important experience that we all need, but for screenwriters is a difficult, difficult experience to have.
Speaker 3:
The other thing that’s so apparent in talking to Brandon is that he’s at, and again, this is just so key, is that he genuinely seems to enjoy doing the work at whatever level, whatever level he can get it made, and that’s why we’re all here, right? We’re all here because we want to do cool projects. We want to be creative, we want to be artists. We want to just work on cool stuff. It’s hopefully, anyways, it’s not just about the money. It’s not just about making, you know, tons of money winning Oscars, hanging out at, at swanky, you know, Hollywood Hills parties. Hopefully it’s about being creative and just doing the work and enjoying the work. That’s the whole point of this. Hopefully. Anyways. If you’ve ever read the Syd field book called screenplay, if you haven’t read it, you definitely should check it out.
Speaker 3:
He is a quote in that book and it goes something like this. The longest journey starts with the first step. And you know, it’s a quote. It’s probably the single biggest thing I took away from that book. But I just, I often remember that, you know, as I have two young kids and I raised them and I see them, their frustration of just, you know, there’s a big project and they just, they get lost in the details and they just don’t know how to start. And I’ve quoted that to them so often. That longest journey starts with the first step, you know, just get moving, just get started. And good things can happen if you enjoy the work. Those first steps, they won’t be painful. They’ll be fun, they’ll be creative. And again, that’s sort of the whole reason, hopefully, that we all got into this business anyways. I really enjoy talking to Brandon. He’s just really a shining example of you know, a hardworking, talented, creative, hardworking guy, just making things happen for himself. So I just applaud what he’s doing and I hope everybody really listens to this. And yeah.