Jeff Van Gerwin: Indie Filmmaking

Live Intro And Guest Welcome

Welcome to Nola Film Scene with TJ Play-Doh. I'm TJ. And as always, I'm Play-Doh.

We are live, folks. Welcome back to NOLA Film Scene. I'm TJ. I'm Brian.

Or Play-Doh. I messed up. I mean, I am Brian Play-Doh, but in the show, I'm just Play-Do. Can we take two? Welcome back to Nova Film Scene. We are live. I'm TJ. I'm Play-Doh.

And this is our guest, Jeff Van Gerwin. Happy to be here, guys. Thank you for having me. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, no, really happy to be here.

Thank you. I'm I'm glad you're here. You're a director?

Kevin Smith As Creative Spark

Yes, yeah. Director, uh primarily cinematographer. Um, but uh I've I've directed and done a handful of uh writing, a little bit of producing here and there. And we met on uh we met recently uh for the second time. Uh I would I would calculate this as the official meeting, but uh on a uh political ad here about a year ago for Louisiana shrimp. No particular side, just uh, you know, fair prices on on shrimp, you know? That's uh something we can all get behind, I think. Um and then uh we met a couple years back, we're both big Kevin Smith fans, uh, and we met at the Joy Theater back in 2016 for a screening of yoga hosers.

Oh, oh I was shaking my head like you were in the reboot.

No, no, no, no. I was actually no, I was uh out of town while reboot was shooting, but no, uh screening at the Joy Theater for Yoga Hosers back 2016, which was uh that great screening, you know. Um fun, fun live performance there.

That was Kevin's second tour of a movie. He brought Red State before that, but it was no photo ops. It was a bit of a QA, yeah. And that was at the AMC. This one was at the Joy, and then they had the photo op. And I think you were right behind me in line and we started chatting.

Yes, yeah. I uh I met you, I met a guy named Matthew, and it was uh wonderful being in that space too, just because like everyone who's gonna pay to meet Kevin Smith, you know, you chances are you go way back with him, whether you discovered him in the 90s or for me it was the early 2000s, came up with his movies, right? So, um, but he was just always that guy that if you were a fan of his podcast, you listen to him and he's like, listen, man, there's people out there who make movies, and uh I wanted to be one of them. And I remember being in like my formative years, and that just really spoke to me. I was like, oh shit, yeah, like there are this this is a career, this is things that uh a thing that people choose to do with their life, and um the the world is wide open in terms of the possibilities and how you can get involved in this industry. So um I always kind of gravitated towards him for that very reason. He was just inspiring, you know, um, and uh kind of kept that uh that flow state during the Yoga Hosers premiere. I remember there was somebody who was kind of talking down on that movie. I don't know if you remember this from the the QA. It was like the first guy who asked, he's like, When are you gonna be inspired again? He's like, Listen, man, I've been doing this a long time and I got to make this movie with my kid, and I had an amazing time. And if you didn't like the movie, that's totally okay. That's your uh that's your opinion. How much did you pay for your ticket? 50 bucks, pulled 50 bucks out of his wallet, gave it back to him.

Yeah, yeah.

Not in a mean way, it was just like, I'm sorry you didn't like the movie. Man, refunded the guy, and and it was a great evening from there on out, and he continued to inspire people as he does, you know.

Yeah, he he shut down at Heckler, but in a nice way. Because the crowd turned on that guy quick.

Oh, so fast, so fast. Everyone booed him, and Kevin's like, no, no, no, no, calmed him down, you know, got the show back on track.

So see, that's I don't know, that was to me, that's gracious. For that very reason, I couldn't be, I've done a little bit, I've taken improv classes, I've done a little bit of improv. I couldn't be a stand-up comedian because the hecklers I think would just shut me down. I think I would fold at the I I could remember jokes, I could tell jokes, I could probably even get the timing down, but I don't think I could handle hecklers. And for him to handle that graciously, that just speaks to his character. Everybody that I've met that's met him has nothing but nice things to say about him in person. Brian's met him in person, and he's a great dude in person. I think it's really cool that both of y'all were inspired to get into filmmaking and acting, respectively, as a result of Kevin Smith and his work.

Yeah, absolutely. I I mean, I I think he's one of those people he's he's kind of got a bit of a chip on his shoulder just in terms of like mainstream Hollywood, right? Because he he kind of came up uh swinging and then and started to be a little bit more faithful to himself and what he wanted to do when uh you know the ratings and reviews started to go a little sideways in the early 2000s. But he's he's always had you know an audience for his movies. And he said in his podcasts like early on, it's like, listen, if you've got a thousand people out there that you can turn into a fan, like that's a sustainable career. If they're willing to come out, pay for your DVD, come to see your live QA's, come to see your screenings, buy merch and stuff. It's like that's that's an attainable career level, especially in the internet age, you know. It's like uh and we yeah, it's it's just inspiring listening to him talk about how you can kind of carve that path for yourself. Yeah.

So I'm kind of a I'm kind of a camera nerd. What what do you like to shoot on?

Kind of everybody owns a black magic these days. We've got a black magic 6 can that I own and operate a Komodo, uh red Komodo. Um, and so that's just my my go-to, you know. If I get hired for anything, I'll bring my own camera package. If there's budget to be able to rent something else, uh I'm I'm happy to do that as well. I'm always keen to shoot on different cameras, but I'm very happy with the image quality of the Komodo. I'm shooting on that with the the DZO Arless Prime lenses, um, which are nice clean lenses. Um you can kind of futz them up however you want in post-production, but I do typically lean towards liking a cleaner, sharper image. Um, but they they make all kinds of tools these days. There's lens detuners that you can get, you know, which sort of an attachment comes between the body of the camera and the lens. So you if you want to kind of futz it up and get something in camera and not worry about kicking that can down to post, you can do that. Um, but uh obviously with the way cameras have kind of improved gradually over the last couple of years, we are a little bit of a at a plateau point in camera technology where it's like once you hit 6k, it's it's like you're not gonna get a cleaner image, right? Like they're all starting to more or less Yeah, and it all it all starts to more or less look a little bit the same. Like if you're you know, if you are in the know and you're you know in the film industry, you're a camera person, you can probably pick out like, oh yeah, it's an Ari Alexa, you know, that's a Sony Venice. Um, but the average viewer doesn't know. And at the end of the day, we're not making these movies for other filmmakers. Obviously, you hope that you put something out there and other filmmakers will see it, like, oh man, this is really, you know, well put together and and thoughtfully shot. Um, but you're you're making it for, you know, to to extend far beyond uh your little local group of filmmakers, right? You want this to be made for an audience and for them to gravitate towards it. And uh, I mean, uh I've found most of that just comes down to how are you lighting your scenes, right? That's the big difference maker is it's story and and lighting, and everything else will kind of fall into place uh if you have those two elements, you know, in your tool belt. Um yeah, there's there's not a lot, personally, that you couldn't like everyone's got a 4K camera in their pocket right now. You know, it's your iPhone, you pull that out, you can shoot anything on that, and so uh it really shows that story is king. It it separates everything from, you know, if you've if you've got something that's not well thought out, if you haven't planned your story, if you haven't spent the time, you know, writing a script, going through it, finding the holes in it, and doing draft over draft over draft, and then finally saying, All right, this is something that's ready to shoot, um, you know, you can get lost.

Early Shoots Mistakes And Editing Lessons

Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. Brian and I both have done 48-hour film festivals and a seven and seven that were shot on Komodo. And then wonderful. We've done a lot of stuff shot on just regular Black Magic 6Ks, and you're you're right, the film quality, the image quality is incredible. I did a seven and seven with a friend, and I was doing the cinematography with very little experience. We kind of put it together short notice. We shot it on a black magic, and we made some mistakes with lighting. And there there was one scene that didn't turn out as good as we would have liked just because the lighting mistakes that we made, we we probably should have done a little bit a little bit brighter in that scene. It was mostly red, so it didn't turn out. So I I definitely understand what you're saying about the lighting on that part. Was that one of your first films that you'd shot? That was that's the one and only that's the one and only.

See that yeah. No, I mean that's that's great though, man, because especially if it's uh you said it was a 72-hour that one that was a seven, a seven and seven days.

Oh, a seven day, okay. Seven and seven is seven days to make a seven-minute film.

I see, okay. I've never done one of those to the 48-hour film project, but it's seven days instead.

Okay. No, I've never participated in one of those, but it seems like it would be a lot of fun, you know. Um, but I think that's like something, man. Like if it's if it's your first film you've shot, right? There's uh there there's so much you learn in those first few films that you you spend time on, right? Like you're you're gonna come away with that, you're gonna see the footage you got, you're gonna see the way you lit it, you're gonna see, you know, uh if you had it on sticks, if you had it on handheld, and you're gonna wish you did things differently. And uh all that kind of compounds, so it's you take all those lessons to the next one. Did you did you edit the film yourself or did you have an editor for it? Have you futzed with the footage at all?

Matt, so it was Matt Carroll that I worked with on that. It was his film. He sent it off to a guy that is an experienced editor to do the editing on it.

Okay.

And uh there was some there was one scene, the sound m was my fault. It was w we messed it up. We had fish tanks in the background and just came down to the wire, and just there were some things that we just couldn't didn't just didn't have time to clean up. If we had more time, it could have turned out differently. Going back and fixing it, I'm sure there were some things that could be cleaned up, but yeah. I I mean it was fun, it was definitely a learning experience. And overall, I'm proud of proud of the the story that we told. I I think we told a good story and it was a lot of fun to shoot. And I got to act in it as well. So I mean it was a fun project.

The Surprise Release Schedule Reality

Yeah. Yeah, I I just feel like there's so much you can learn about like when you see an edit to come come together, there's so much you can learn about cinematography, there's so much you can learn about directing through editing, right? Because you you you get in there with your little pile of footage and you start chopping it together and you can be like, oh man, especially on the your like early work, right? You can you can look at it, you're like, geez, you know, we didn't get the reverse coverage on this, or we didn't get a close-up insert on that. And you you really kick yourself in those early things, but it's like the further and further you get away from it, the more you realize how much like value those experiences have brought to you, you know. Yeah, um, yeah, it's it's invaluable. The the little things that like kind of break your heart in the moment were like, man, I just if I just put that light in a different spot, or if I didn't, if you know, I just wasn't like blasting them from the front with this, like all of that once it's in the rear view, you're just thankful for it, you know, because it's all gotten you to where you are now.

Yeah, yeah, it's uh kind of like if you're a stand-up, now that I've experienced it, but whole crowd is laughing, but that one person is just sullen and just in the front row, and that's all you're gonna remember. Yeah, I was trying to throw it in that TJ went for mood lighting and got moody teenager lighting. Oh, I see. And uh I had some other thoughts, but blah blah blah. Yeah. Taking that do your own movie spirit from Kevin and from our conversation, let's talk about the journey that you've been on to release your newest movie, which is called Amity Villnado. Amityville NAT. And it's already out on Tubi.

Uh no, it is not out on Tubi yet. Uh, we we've kind of kept it a little bit on on the DL just because we had a big grand plan, as you do, uh, with these types of independent films. But we got uh we were lucky enough to secure distribution and just the process through that, you know, those distributors, they get, you know, 50 movies on their slate, and unless it's got like a big named face in it, they're probably not treating it with the most care in terms of like release schedule or whatnot. So we anticipated being able to have a month or two to kind of prep marketing materials for the movie and you know, get podcast appearances and reach out to people about write-ups on stuff. Um, but yeah, so they they kind of messaged us last week and they're like, hey, by the way, the movie is out today on Fandango at home. It'll be out next week on Plex and then everywhere on March 24th. So we were like scratching our heads trying to figure out the best way uh to go about like promoting it in terms of you know what's the best date to set. So we've kind of circled March 24th on our calendars. We did like a social media promo just this past week, uh, kind of pushing the March 24th date because that's kind of the the day we want to start um really pushing people towards watching it because it's it's out on uh yeah, uh Fandango at home, but you have to pay for that. And I know that's like a big, you know, people don't want to spend money on stuff these days, especially if there's gonna be somewhere they can watch it for free in like a week and a half, right? Um, so it's also on Plex. The image quality on Plex is a little bit better. Um, so yeah, uh but all that to say, um, it's been a long road to get here. We started production on the movie in uh December of 2022. Wow. That's just independent film though, right? Because it it takes forever to get somewhere. You you know, you especially when like we didn't really have a timeline. Um the the film was very uh punk rock the way we put it together. It was just me and a couple of my friends. Um, we all play in local punk bands here in New Orleans. You know, it was um uh a total labor of love, and everyone we kind of pulled in to be involved in the movie. Uh, all of our main actors are members of local punk bands as well. Um, so that kind of really allowed us to keep the budget super low because we're like, look, everybody is kind of here because we're just friends hanging out. Uh and um yeah, that that really worked in our advantage because everyone was super comfortable around each other too. So it allowed for these people who hadn't really spent any time on camera other than for music videos or or you know, streaming concerts or whatever um to be comfortable and relaxed and actually deliver uh uh solid performances. Um but uh but yeah, I'm sorry, what was your what was your question again? I kind of got lost in that.

No, no, no, that's fine. Talking about the journey to get here, Kevin inspired you to be a director and do your own thing, and that's exactly what you did. And it's no absolutely Amityville NATO. It's kind of like the Shark NATO movies in Amityville. Well, you're inspired by that.

Using Amityville As Free IP

No, absolutely. Uh well, so um my my very good friend Paul uh Duck Tucker, he came up with the initial idea for the movie. And so Duck uh goes by Duck. Um, he plays in a local band called Joystick, and his wife is Jessie from from The Crew of Ass, uh, who you are familiar with, right? Uh Duck and I, we became friends um a couple of years ago. So this lots of band lore here, local New Orleans punk band lore, but um, I played uh in a band with Joystick's bassist, and we became quick, fast friends. Um, we both are no longer in that band anymore, but we remained friends, and he was like, hey man, you should come uh shoot one of our music videos. So I showed up and uh made as I tend to do, made a much bigger deal of the production than needed to be. I was like, all right, here's what we need, we're gonna do. They wanted one day shoot it. It was like, all right, we're gonna spend five days, a bunch of different locations. Very happy with how the video turned out. But that was the first time I met Duck, and he was kind of always over my shoulder, being like, Why you why are you doing this? Like, why are you putting the light right there? Like, why are we setting the camera up right over here? And so it was fun for me because I kind of you know got to teach him a little bit about filmmaking, the process, and everything. And through that, um, I was just like, Man, you're really interested in this stuff. And uh, Duck at the time, he I I was maybe in my late 20s, he was in his early 40s, so there's a little bit of an an age gap there, but I was like, man, you're really interested in this stuff. He's like, Oh, dude, I've always wanted to make a movie. And I was like, that fired me up because the only thing I want in this world is for all my friends to become filmmakers. You know, I I just love I love seeing people make that transition where they kind of get the itch, right? And they they become yes, one of us. Join us, join us. And so from there, like Duck and I, we realized we both had a love for uh for horror movies. And so we just both AMC A-list members, we'd start going to see uh every horror movie that came out in through 2021 and 2022. And uh in November he was of 2022, he was like, Hey man, I I want to make a movie. Oh, uh it's called Amity Vill Nado. And I was like, this is great, man, let's do it. And uh uh from there, you know, he kind of presented like what his idea of the script was, and we started shooting like a day or two of that because I I kind of realized like early on, I was like, all right, you know, there's a few things that I questions that I had asked him where I realized how big the gap was between like, oh, he's really never done this before, and we have to take maybe a couple of steps back to like reevaluate um the process if we're actually going to make this movie, you know. But this was a time where it was like I didn't have any narrative projects uh on the table at the moment. And so I was like, let's just go all in, man. Like if this never goes anywhere, let's just have fun. We're doing this with our friends. And it was just one of those situations where like kind of started off a little bit as a joke, like we weren't taking it super seriously, and then we would, you know, reevaluate and look at the footage we got from each weekend. Because again, this is something we're shooting where it's like, hey, let's who can meet Saturday, Sunday, let's get together. Uh next weekend, are you guys free? Great. And uh probably after about like three or four weeks of that, you know, you've got 10, 15 minutes of a movie and we watch it back, and we're like, man, this is this is better than we thought it was going to be. It's just more entertaining. Maybe we should put a little bit more effort into this. So from there, um, I took Duck's initial script and kind of went away for a bit and and rewrote it into like a full-length feature film. And um, we went back, we reshot a few things to make it fit with the new version of the script. But over the course of the next year, I think we shot for 40 days um and uh and came away with an hour and 51 minute long uh horror comedy that like again, we we spent next to no money on the movie. I think all of the money was spent on a handful of props, uh, a couple of costumes, mostly hard drives and food, right? Like that was that was the main thing. It's like, all right, uh, because all of the gear that we used on production I already owned. Um, I was like, I'm we're not, you know, nobody's making any money on this, like quite literally. It's just like this is just a passion project. Let's see where we can get it. And um, and yeah, it was the most unconventional production that I have ever been a part of. I learned a lot uh in that regard, just in terms of producing a movie. You know, this was not my first feature film that I've been a producer on, but it was the first one that I've kind of been like the main guy taking the reins in terms of making sure that like we got everything taken care of, got all our paperwork signed, got everybody fed, um, you know, made sure we were making our days, made sure we had all of the appropriate storage for the footage, made sure we had all our backups, and uh the list goes on and on and on in terms of the things that you have to learn. And it's one of those situations where like you you don't know what you don't know until you've done it, right? Um so for me as somebody who I I would like to do more producing in the future, just it's it's a lot of fun. You get to work with a lot of different people, but um yeah, it was it was a big learning curve as far as that goes. But at the end of the day, I think when we came away from production, we had spent just over five thousand dollars um for 40 days and uh you know an hour almost two hour long uh feature film. Um and uh yeah, I mean, like that's nothing, like that's like not even half of a crafty budget for most feature films for a day, right? Right. So it's like in that regard, you know, we're proud of it. Does it have you know lots of issues with it that come along with having no time, no crew, and no budget? Yes, it does for sure. But one thing that I am proud of with the film is if you watch it, like it is it is densely packed with stories. So I don't know how much you guys know about the the Amityville universe or or whatever. Um so the Amityville horror, that's a very real event that took place back in the 70s. This guy, Ronald DeFeo Jr., um, murdered his family in uh at his home in uh Amityville, New York, and claimed that the devil made him do it, claimed that demonic spirits possessed him to do it. And this spun off an entire franchise of Hollywood movies. Um the early ones with um uh Josh oh gosh, Josh Brolin's dad. What's his name? James Brolin.

Is it Josh Brolin? Josh Brolin, he was the dad.

Yeah, Josh Brolin. So Josh Brolin was in the original Amityville horror movie, and then there were a couple sequels after that. There was a reboot in the early 2000s with Ryan Reynolds, and uh, and then probably about five years ago, it became uh some independent filmmakers became aware that, like, okay, in this internet age of just trying to cut through the noise of trying to get your work seen for better or worse, um, you have to have some sort of way to cut through that, right? And so the Amityville name uh is not trademarkable while I trademarkable by any particular company, though it is synonymous with horror, right? So it's essentially. IP that's free to use.

Can I can I just is that because it's a the name of a town? Yes, it is. Yeah. It's the name of a town, so you can't trademark it. So I the reason I'm asking is I trademark the name of the show, but because NOLA is a common acronym for New Orleans, Louisiana, I I had some limitations on the trademark.

That's why I was asking. Oh, I see. Interesting. Yes. No, that that's exactly correct. So you can't trademark um the name of the town. Um and so this then birthed a uh a wave of I want to be careful how I talk about this because I do fully respect everybody who sets out to make a movie, right? But there are a few people who out there who will slap something together in a couple of days and try to throw it up on Tubi just to get a, you know, a couple of cents in their wallet, right? Um, that is not the way I could ever approach any film ever. Uh, I am a you know constant overthinker when it comes to like how are we putting this together, even if we're gonna make something that is ridiculous, how can we be thoughtful about it and thoughtful about the craft and um and make something that's actually worth people sitting down to watch? So it was funny because uh Duck and I, you know, we directed the movie together, we wrote the movie together, and there was kind of this constant push and pull between us where Duck came from this world where he wanted to make this movie called Amityville NATO because he loved those ridiculous slapstick movies that the the Amityville IP had become. And uh I had never seen a single one of those, right? So I was like, okay, this is the energy that Duck is bringing, but I want to try and make this a little bit more thoughtful. And that's so we found ourselves right in the middle where we have this like kind of ridiculous over-the-top horror comedy. But one thing that we both shared and just kind of bringing it back full circle to Kevin Smith here is like we're both massive Kevin Smith fans. And so one thing that was a very big priority for me, and whenever I talked to Duck about this, I was like, well, let's try to let's try to do something like you feel it all the time in in Kevin's movies, where like you'll sit through an hour and 20 minutes of your laughing your ass off, and you're like, oh my God, this is ridiculous, this is stupid. And then out of nowhere, you're like, why do I have a lump in my throat? And why are my eyes starting to get watery?

And that's not a reflection on his directing. That's that was meant in its emotional scene.

Post Sound Color And Premiere Night

Distribution Deal And Sequel Planning

It meant to do, oh yeah, exactly. He's a storyteller and he's a he's a good writer when he's really trying, you know. And uh, and I think that there's, you know, that is reflected in Amity Villnado, where it's it makes me laugh because if you had asked me five years ago, it's like, would you ever be promoting a movie called Amity Villnado that you've you've written and directed with your buddy? I was like, I don't I don't think so. You know, it's because I wanted to, I wanted to make horror movies like I Ariaster. I was like, I wanted to be Ariaster, I wanted to, you know, make movies like Hereditary, but we had so much fun on this, and it kind of opened up a side of me where I was like, I didn't know that this was there. You know, I'd never tried to write a comedy before. Um, and I, you know, I think the movie ended up decently funny. There's some good bits in there, and hats off to our actors for bringing it to life and making the words on the page actually jump out and and sing, and and uh they're very, very funny people to be around. Um, but that all said, you know, it was just a very close-knit group. We had myself, Duck, and our our buddy Clay, who is an actor in the film. We all produced the movie, um, and then five other main actors. But in terms of crew, um, again, this was this was Duck's first movie, this was Clay's first movie, and so I kind of got to be the film professor for them, where I was like, all right, guys, here's how you wrap a cable, here's how you set up a C stand, you know, here's how you position a light. Um, so you know, I I um yeah, just keeping all things very bare bones and and as scaled down as we possibly could, because like the one thing that I was cognizant of is uh, you know, not asking people to work for free if they weren't just already our friends hanging out. Like we didn't really treat it like we were making uh a big budget movie in any type of way. We were just like, this was our weekend hangout, right? And we came away with an art project, which I'm very proud of. Um but uh the goal being like, you know, we we had such a good time on it. And again, we kind of tried to reverse engineer a few things where it's like we had some ideas and the we started shooting before we had the fully written script, right? Which I would never do again. And I'm thankful, like when I watched the movie back now, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe it all works because there were a few things we got into a corner with where it was like, man, you know, we shot those first four days before the script was written, went away, wrote it, came back. And uh we kept a handful of things that we shot just because we're like, well, it'd be a major pain to go back. And we tried to write based around those scenes, but there were some, you know, elements missing. And so we wrote in one or two characters, and uh, you watch the movie back and you can't you cannot tell what was reverse engineered in there. I'm always eager to ask people like when they watched all the three, I was like, if you had to pick one person in that movie who was added halfway through production, who would you say? And most people have not been able to get it right. So um, so yeah, but uh all that to say, it's like just another learning lesson uh of challenge accepted. Challenge accepted, yeah. Challenge, please go watch. I would I'd love to hear who you think. It was honestly an awesome process. And then we got to um, you know, post-production and everything came together, and we were able to um put together like a little Indiegogo uh campaign to try and help fund uh post sound and post color. Um, and uh and we were able to raise a little bit of money uh privately and through the Indiegogo. Um and uh yeah, we we hired a local sound designer who's now become a very close friend, Aiden Dykes. Uh I couldn't recommend him more highly. He did an amazing job. He actually has the entire sound library for the movie Twisters, uh, Twister, the original Twister. So like all of the sound effects for the tornado in Amity Villnado is from Academy Award-winning sound designer for uh Twister. Um yeah, so uh, but no, coming away from that, like the movie sounds great, and we were we were happy with uh you know how it all came together. We did a premiere at the Broad about a year ago, sold out, um, and then we're like, okay, well, it's and we had a really positive reaction to it. It was funny, somebody came to go see Nosferatu uh the night that we were screening at the Broad, and they saw we it was just packed, right? And they're like, why are all these people here? And uh it turns out he was the local weatherman for, I don't know if it was WDSU or whatever, but we've got a meteorologist in our movie. And so he's like, Oh, I want to go see the movie that all these people are here for. So he came and sat through the movie and went and talked to our actor who played the meteorologist, um, uh Elizabeth McCoy, and uh let her know you know she did a great job or whatever. Um, but yeah, I just you know, so funny, just uh it organically kind of kind of spread like that. And so then we moved into the phase again where it's like, all right, well, now you've you've done this movie very low budget, about as low budget as you can get. We've screened it locally for friends and family and a couple of strangers who bought tickets and and you know, we've gotten decently positive feedback, but it's like, okay, well, we didn't make this just for the local, uh, you know, the local group here. How do we get this out to a bigger audience? And so we kind of started trying to look into distribution, and this was something that was was totally foreign to me in terms of uh coming at it as a producer, because I've I've had films that I've worked on uh distributed, but I've never been involved in that process. It's all been behind closed doors, more or less. And you just get an email from a producer, like, hey, it'll be on, you know, uh free flicks or it'll be on Tubi or it'll be on Prime Video on X State, and you're just like, cool, you you pump that. Um, but actually going into that process and and trying to work with uh distribution companies to like land on a deal that you feel like is fair, because you know, the even though you didn't spend that much money on the movie, the sweat equity is just like you're so reluctant to just let it go for pennies, you're like, man, we've we've really bled over this thing, right? So, um, but we landed with uh ITN Distribution, who I I think is actually a really good fit for us. They are now famous for a franchise called Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey. So they've kind of become famous for buying up IP, um, that is that kind of fairy tale land IP and turning them into horror movies. And so we've got this horror comedy. They had Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey, like blew up. It did really well. They've got two sequels now. They've done uh a Bambi movie that just came out that they made for a million dollars. It's like Bambi the horror movie, Pinocchio Unstrung, which is Pinocchio the horror movie. Um, and so they're they really have got this like niche category worked out, but they were looking for films that they could franchise if it hit. So they're kind of taking a little bit of a chance on us. They're like, okay, if the movie goes out there, does well, then they would pay for us to make a sequel. And that's ultimately the hope. You know, we learned so much on this one. We kind of approached things where it's like, you know, trying to keep things as slim as we possibly could. But I do think that we've got a movie now where it's like we've built a world that's funny and got, you know, um, these these fun characters to watch that I hope we get to do it again and actually take it, you know, a little more seriously this time and and uh actually bring on some crew members and maybe get a little brut to to make the thing. But um all in all, it it's been a really valuable experience. Just um, you know, any project I come on in the future, it's just uh you think about things differently, you're more cognizant of the issues that you encountered as a producer, so you can put yourself in the shoes of the producer on whatever movie you're working on and uh try to lighten their emotional burden as much as possible. Because you're like, oh, I I know what that's like now. Uh geez.

I understand that look in his eye now. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's the fear.

Wow. Yeah. Man, that's that's an incredible story. Yeah, yeah, it was a blast, man.

So you kind of combined Amityville and the Sharknado movies, or you know, that's what I saw in a way.

Yes. Well, I I would love to so the initial pitch that I would love to give here is uh it so basically the the uh Amityville horror house where all the murders took place, that is where our movie begins, right? Two girls have snuck into the Amityville horror house. And uh they're they're there just simply to take p pictures in a creepy old location. One of them is a photographer, and they stumble across a Ouija board in this location. And so they immediately assume, like, ah, you know, people have been breaking in here for years, some dumb kids left this behind. And so they decide, oh, you know, let's uh let's just mess with it, let's see what happens. Uh and it's a stormy night, and unbeknownst to them, there is a spirit trapped inside the walls of the house uh that they accidentally summon. When they summon it, uh the tornado that has been brewing in town swipes by the house, destroys the house, and the spirit latches on to the tornado. And uh that that's kind of the the opening sequence in the movie, right? We'll give it all away. And so from the Yeah, yeah. That's but so from there on out, uh the the local community members of Amityville must face off against this soul-sucking tornado.

I gotcha. I was trying to think for the sequel, what could you meld like that? You know what I mean?

Childhood Films And Nostalgia Engine

Like Yeah, yeah. Well, the sequel, so it's funny because it's one of those things where you know you look at the um the situation when we're in with the distributor, is like, okay, if the movie does well and we end up in a place where like, hey, we'll give you some money to make a sequel, kind of want to be ready to, you know, if that excuse me, if that opportunity comes, just kind of be ready to strike. So uh I'm already 85 pages through the sequel right now. And uh it's it's a movie where again, uh if you had asked me five years ago, would you be making this movie, let alone a sequel? I we would not be moving forward on a sequel if it didn't feel like, oh, this is actually a cool next step. Like it all feels very organic, like, yeah, this is absolutely what would happen next. So if that ever materializes, great. And then if not, like, you know, maybe we reach out to a comic book artist and and have them uh turn it into uh you know a six-part series or something like that. Um but yeah, it's it's fun to think about that kind of stuff, you know, and it it keeps you uh it keeps your brain sharp and your story brain sharp, and just in terms of like I again, I'm taking it very seriously. It's a it's a stupid, funny slapstick horror comedy with a lot of really ridiculous, you know, ridiculous jokes in it, but trying to like maintain uh, you know, uh a tried and true story structure and like, all right, how are we revealing information and how are we introducing new characters that make them feel significant? Um, so yeah, all of all of that is uh important uh to us because with this film, we started our production company, Mega Huge Pictures. And that's kind of with our core group, Me, Duck, and Clay, where we kind of want to continue making these horror comedy type films, right? Um, and just see what else is next. We got a couple of ideas between me and Duck where where we could take things. Um, so there's a sequel in line, there's a spin-off, and then there's uh a couple that are completely different, not even in the same universe.

So cool. I always like to ask people what inspired them to get into the biz. I know we kind of talked about Kevin. Yeah. Was that the was that the beginning or was there something before? Was there high school? Was there a play?

Yeah, no, early for me in high school, so well, I I guess even further back than that, I I knew I I became obsessed with movies when I was like five or six years old. My family moved to uh Pennsylvania, and my dad's new boss, you know, I was obviously like a little kid, kind of worried about living in a new place. And he was like, Oh, well, here, um we went over to their house, and I saw the box set for the original trilogy of Star Wars sitting on his his uh shelf. And I, you know, pulled it out and he was like, Do you want to borrow that? And so for about a year I got to borrow the original Star Wars trilogy and and just wear those tapes out, right? And so when I got into like elementary school age and started to, you know, get a group of friends who had also heard of Star Wars, we got my dad's video camera out and made just blatant Star Wars parody ripoffs. But that was my first time getting behind a camera, you know. It's like you you set it up, you put it on the stairs, and you and your friends run through the frame and everything. Uh, had like the old Star Wars uh like Revenge of the Sith video game. So you set that up on TV, you wait for the cutscene when the spaceship flies through, you cut the camera pointed at the TV for the spaceship, and then you cut to the garage and it's you and your friends and your dad's car pretending you're driving the spaceship. So it's high quality effects there. And then but that was that was the beginning trying to like figure out like how do you stitch stuff together. And then my um when I got to high school, my first job, I worked as a skating car hop at Sonic Drive-Thru. Um very prist prestigious gig. Yeah.

Uh my first job was on skates.

Advice For New Filmmakers

Yeah, hey, there you go. Where was it? Oh, excellent, yeah. Yeah. Oh, awesome, dude. That's great. So, yeah, that was my first first job. And I my goal was by the end of the summer, I was going to buy a flip video camera and a MacBook. And that was how I was gonna, you know, get my start. And uh, you know, put down the money on that, and basically all my first films that I made through, I guess this would have been junior, sophomore, junior, and senior year of high school, was just going around for six months at a time, filming my friends, then going you know, into my room and and cutting together something that was just like, here's the the memories of the year, totally with the idea in mind that like I want to elicit an emotional reaction out of my friends. So, you know, showing us going to the lake or whatever, set over music, you know, dialogue, uh like funny dialogue that somebody said, like intercut over top of something else. And then, you know, the moment when somebody went away for the summer and it's them hugging and like trying to tug at people's heartstrings very purposefully. You know, they're just my friends, but uh trying to get some sort of emotional reaction out of them. I got a lot of satisfaction of putting together these like little five to ten minute videos, sending them off for people, and then them having to be like, oh, you know, like seeing something, they're like, oh, I didn't, I didn't know you're filming that. Um, and so that I don't know, that just did something in my brain where I was like, I liked getting that reaction out of people. And so then I got more serious about that my senior year of of high school. And there was a uh there was actually a film club uh or a senior film club uh at our school, and I didn't find out about it until class like registration was already done. And so I tried to join it late and they had no availability for me. And so I was just like gutted by this. And so I was like, okay, well, I'm just gonna, you know, go twice as hard with my little flip video camera, which I don't know if you guys remember this thing, but it was it was awesome. This is before the time of when everyone had a cell phone that could shoot like usable footage, especially usable footage that you could like actually get onto your computer. Like, I remember that was such a big problem with like early flip video or like uh uh video cameras on flip phones, is like how do I get this onto my computer? Or how does this is the codec the same? Like, will my computer even be able to interpret this footage at all? So the the flip cam was like easily accessible and and very easy to cut together. That was kind of where it all started. And uh YouTube wasn't a big thing yet. You know, I I feel it's so cool. All the the kids nowadays who's like you could be like 14, 13, 14 years old and watching, you know, all these YouTubers who are creating these amazing videos and showing you how they're doing it and showing you their process. And at this time, uh, you know, when I was doing it, it was like it was Bo Burnham and Charlie bit my finger, you know, was all that was on YouTube. So um, not a lot of people out there like sort of demystifying the process. So you kind of still had to figure it out on your own to an extent. Um but yeah, I think I think that was like the big um building block was just um uh finding a way to tug at people's heartstrings. Cause I I'm a hyper nostalgic person. Like I I think back very fondly, uh, you know, on memories of of high school and college and stuff, and eager to talk about those things with my friends and reminisce, or you know, whenever you get together with the cousins, reminisce about the old days. And so I I like I like implementing that kind of structure into that kind of early work. You know, how do I uh how do I build something or or cut something together that I've shot with me, my friends, or my family that like lets them know, like, oh, you know, you you care, or uh, or this moment in time meant something, right? And I think that's a lot of what filmmaking is. A lot of it is so much of it is meant to be felt, you know, if you've done a really good job on what you're making, you know, you're you're not noticing the cinematography, you're you're feeling it, you're not listening to the music, you're you're feeling it, right? Right. Yeah, those those those were the building blocks for sure.

We are coming to the end, starting to wind down. Yeah. And before we go, what would you say to up-and-coming filmmakers or a person thinking about getting into any kind of arts, a nugget that you've learned that you can share with someone?

Oh man, that's a that is a tough-to-answer question. I I think you hear it all the time, but it's like the most true sentiment about this is like just just go out there and and start making stuff because you're gonna go out, find a camera, because that first thing you're gonna shoot, you're gonna go back, you're gonna watch it, you're gonna be like, oh man, I got some cool shots, but man, it it sounds really bad. Why does it sound really bad? It's because you're using the onboard mic, right? And then you're like, oh, okay, I go out and I buy a microphone, and or and and it just the it snowballs like that, right? But you don't ever learn any of those. It goes back to that, you don't know what you don't know until you've done it, right? So go out there, buy a camera, shoot something with your friends, come away, be proud with like one or two shots that are in it, and then put that down, cut that together and put it to the side and go on to the next thing. I think that so many people get stuck on their like, I want this one thing to be really good. And they've been working on the same video for six months. And it's like you're not, you're not gonna keep learning if you're just stuck on on one thing. So that's yeah, it it's uh that's the biggest piece of advice is just keep doing it. Like keep picking up your camera and going outside and calling up your friends and being like, hey, who wants to get together over at the park today, or who wants to get together over, you know, wherever at so-and-so's house, or who wants to go driving around. Let's just talk about something stupid and try and cut it together. Like, that's especially if you're like a teenager, like your life and your friends feel uh they're your whole world at that point in time, right? Right. And so it's it's so easy to imagine being able to build a story around you and your friends. Like, well, no one has a more interesting life than us, no one's no one's got better friendships than us. Like you can build something off of that if you want to just start, you know. I I think that's the way to do it. Nice.

Yeah, I would add someone reached out to me and they're about to start film school, and they were like, What do I do? I said, Well, I can tell you what I know. I don't know everything. And you're talking about making it make your own stuff. And we talked about the 48-hour film competition, which is a good way to crew. You wouldn't even have to be the leader. But also then, like you said, make your film. Oh, it looks bad. If you can't find a book, or if you can't find a person, then you look for a book. If you can't find a book, go to YouTube university. Just develop that topic and see what you can learn.

Yeah.

Make it, but there are ways to learn that won't cost you anything.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. YouTube has made it so accessible. Like uh again, I I'm so excited to see uh what the upcoming generation of filmmakers are gonna be able to make because it's it's the process is getting demystified every single day. You know, you used to go have to go out to Hollywood or up to New York and and work your way up to figure out how to how to light a scene, right? And now it's like you go onto YouTube and you can you can learn everything about uh basic to advanced lighting setups. Um as uh if you want to dive in, like the the rabbit hole is deep, you know? It is indeed. Yeah.

It is indeed. Very cool. Now we're at the end. We don't want to go. Could you think share your socials and where they can find the film? Yeah.

Uh yes, so uh I uh my socials you can find me just on Instagram at Jeff Van Gurwen. Um, and then you can find Amity Villnado at Amity Villnado um on Instagram. We've got a website as well where you can learn a little bit about the films, amityvillnado.com. Yeah, the the movie is currently available on Plex and Fossum. Um it will be available one week from today. I don't know when this is dropping, but on March 24th, Tubi, uh Fandango at home, uh Prime Video. Um there's a couple more I'm missing off the top of my head. I would suggest if you are listening to this right now, try and wait out for Tubi or Prime Video. I had it queued up on Fossum earlier, and the bit depth on that streaming service is not great. So it's, you know, some scenes look a little muddy and everything. Uh those of that's another thing, just as like the the filmmaker behind it and being part of the distributor process is like, oh man, like learning the pains of of people not taking care of your your film in post, you know, to make sure it has the best image quality possible. So yeah, wait for wait for Prime or uh Tubi. Gotcha. Awesome. Thank you guys so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Yeah, man, thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed the time. Always enjoy meeting filmmakers. I I almost said new filmmakers, not meaning that you're new to filmmaking, meaning new, new to me.

Yeah, no, it's great meeting you guys.

Gonna go look for your film. I actually use Plex. I I've got a Plex server at home that I built out. So I I watch a lot of stuff on Plex. There's a lot of really good free content on Plex, if you don't mind a few my it's funny, my kids my my kids call them ads because they you know they're of that age that they didn't watch a lot of TV with commercials like we did growing up. Yeah. So it's ads. We call them commercials. Yeah. But yeah, we'll go look for it tonight and we'll definitely drop your your socials and your stuff in the in the comment comment section.

Yep, yep. Awesome. Yeah. Thanks again. Good to see you. TJ, it's good to see you. Yeah, like what's