Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

Today on the show we have director, producer, screenwriter, actor and YouTube sensation Darious Britt I had the pleasure of meeting Darious at the Mammoth Film Festival. At the festival, we were snowed in and pretty much stuck in our hotel. We sat down and talked for hours about indie film, his journey, my journey, the state of indie film, fear, setting goals and so much more. I knew I had to have...

Today on the show we have director and entrepreneur Jakob Owens. Jakob is a visual director based in Los Angeles California. He began directing music videos while still in film school at ASU. He began traveling to California so much for shoots that after graduation he made the leap to LA and has been directing music videos, commercials, and short films ever since. He is also the creator and owner...

I can't believe we are here. Episode #300. It is truly remarkable that the show has landed at this point. When I started the Indie Film Hustle Podcast over 3 1/2 years ago I never dreamed the show would be so well received by the filmmaking community. I am truly humbled. I plan to continue creating amazing content for the IFH Tribe for the years to come. Thank you all for all your support and well...

Today on the show we have the legendary and Emmy Winning cinematographer Michael Goi A.S.C. Michael Goi has compiled over 70 narrative credits, including films for cinema and television screens such as "American Horror Story," "Glee," "Salem" and "The Town That Dreaded Sundown." He has received Emmy nominations for "Glee", "My Name Is Earl" and "American Horror Story." He was nominated for the Ame...

Noam Kroll Today on the show we have the writer, director, post guru, and podcaster Noam Kroll. Noam has directed a killer micro-budget feature film called Shadows on the Road. In this episode, we discuss how he shot this extreme micro-budget film and still made it look gorgeous. Noam also runs a great podcast and blog that helps indie filmmakers. You can find links to his sites below in the show...

Today we will tackle the toxic filmmaker mindset. That screenwriting mindset. That artist mindset. We discuss the mindset. How the beliefs we have stop and derail our dreams and life. So many of us have belief systems that limit us. Today we are going to break this down and give you some tools to reprogram yourself into the person and filmmaker you want to be.  "To have results that very few peopl...

Today on the show we have writer​/director Jen McGowan on the show. We discuss the state of women directors in Indie FIlm, her new film Rust Creek and what it is really like to be a female director, from her perspective in today's world. Jen McGowan is a director based in Los Angeles. Her first feature KELLY & CAL (Juliette Lewis & Cybill Shepherd) premiered at SXSW where she won the Gamec...

What are you willing to sacrifice to make your dreams come true? How bad do you want it? These are the questions I'll be discussing in today's episode. If you are looking for something to get you revved up look no further. This is my "tough love" episode. I keep running into filmmakers and people in the business who just like to talk or hide behind excuses. I have two things to say about that. Lif...

Today I'm talking about marketing! Yup, marketing. If you, as indie filmmakers, do not understand branding, marketing, and social media YOU WILL NOT MAKE IT IN THE BUSINESS. I really want to get through to you guys. I've been consulting more and more filmmakers lately and I see there is a MAJOR disconnect between filmmakers and understanding the basics of branding (whether personal, company or pro...

We have all wanted to have a killer song we love in one of our films or projects, that perfect song that makes the scene pop off the screen. When you begin to investigate how to get permission for the song you soon discover the maze of red tape and crap you need to deal with in order to have the song in your film. From getting film festival rights to broadcast rights to VOD rights, Music Licensing...

Today on the show we have writer, director, author, actor, and all-around indie film pioneer Mark Polish. His new film Headlock (aka Against the Clock, more on that later in the interview)  is out in theaters and VOD. Also, do yourself a favor and read his amazing filmmaking book The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking which is easily one of my favorite filmmaking books of all time.  Mark and I...

You must be saying, Wait? What? You want to give me $30,000 to make a web series? Yup, that is exactly what I want to do. I've partnered with Filmaka.com to launch an amazing Web Series Filmmaking Competition. We are launching cross-platform Web Series filmmaking competition, sourcing diverse ideas & pitches. Filmaka & Indie Film Hustle will select and award the Web Series competition winner with...

The teasing is over. Here it is, I've written a book and not just any book but a book about the craziest and darkest time in my life. Read below to get the skinny on what I'm talking about. A bipolar gangster, a naive, young film director, and Batman. What could go wrong? Alex Ferrari is a first-time film director who just got hired to direct a $20 million feature film, the only problem is the fil...

Have you ever had writer's block? We all have at one point or another and it sucks! Today's guest, Matthew Kalil, has the cure. He has written a new book called The [easyazon_link identifier="1615932860" locale="US" tag="whatisbroke-20"]Three Wells of Screenwriting[/easyazon_link]. Working from a writer’s perspective, the book explores these Three Wells and helps you consciously draw from them to...

Welcome to 2019 IFH Tribe! Last year was one hell of a ride for IFH. I shot a feature, On the Corner of Ego and Desire, which is coming out in the next few months. I launched the world's first streaming service dedicated to filmmakers and screenwriters Indie Film Hustle TV and I also wrote a book called Shooting for the Mob, more on that on the next episode. Needless to say, 2018 was a crazy year...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone in the IFH Tribe and beyond. I wanted to do an episode on this subject for a long time. "You are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with." - Jim Rohn I wish I had someone to tell me this early on my filmmaking journey. In this episode, I go over what happened to me when I was starting out, how my friends affected me and my abil...

If you ever wanted to learn how to get your local town, group or community behind your indie film this is the show for you. Today's guest did just that, writer/director Josh Doke got his entire town of Goodland, Kansas to support his film through crowdfunding, production resources and finally distribution. Goodland was filmed in his hometown of about 4,000 people in Western Kansas and he included...

Today on the show I have iPhone filmmaking master and TEDTalk Speaker Jason Van Genderen. I've wanted to have Jason on the podcast for a long time. He is a true inspiration to anyone who wants to pick up a camera and tell a story. He has made an industry out of professional shooting with iPhones for corporate clients, on commercials, music videos, and short films. Here's some more info on our gues...

Today's guests are Oscar® Nominated writer/director Paola di Florio & and producer Peter Rader. They worked on one of my favorite documentaries in recent years called AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda. The film is an unconventional biography about the Hindu Swami who brought yoga and meditation to the West in the 1920s. Paramahansa Yogananda authored the spiritual classic “Autobiography of a Yogi” whic...

First off thank you for all the support that the IFH Tribe has given to IFHTV. It has been overwelling and that's why I'm so busy acquiring​ and producing amazing new content for you every month. I'll be doing these posts one a month to tell you all about the new releases I have in store for you on Indie Film Hustle TV. I've been a busy beaver and December will have over 20 hours of new content fo...

Well, it's that time of year again when filmmakers around the world get that dreaded rejection letter from the Sundance Film Festival. Below is my rejection email: RE:  On the Corner of Ego and Desire Dear Alex, On behalf of the entire Programming team for the Sundance Film Festival, thank you for allowing us to consider your film for the 2019 edition of the Festival. Unfortunately, we were unable...

Today's guest is returning champion writer/director Diane Bell. Diane and I go way back. I had the pleasure of working on her first feature film OBSELIDIA, which won two awards at Sundance. The film makes it's IFHTV Premiere this week. Here's a bit about Diane. Diane Bell is a screenwriter and director. Made for less than $150k, her first feature film, OBSELIDIA, premiered in Dramatic Competition...

Today's guest is actor/writer/director James Morosini. His film Threesomething is a micro-budget film that he jumped off a cliff to make. With this being his first feature film as a director he definitely had some misadventures. In this interview,​ we go into the details of his journey making and distributing his film. We also discuss how he made a clip from the film go viral on YouTube.  Zoe, Cha...

Today's guest is returning champion Brad Olsen, director of the documentary Off the Tracks. This time we discuss his misadventure in distribution. After meeting over 40 traditional distributors Brad decided the best path for his film was self-distribution​. I've always said that self-distribution​ is not for everyone but with Off the Tracks it makes perfect sense.  We discuss how he got the word o...

Black Friday week is finally here. I wanted to do something special for the IFH Tribe this week so I decided to create a special sale for you guys. Between Today and Cyber Monday, if you sign up for Indie Film Hustle TV receive another FREE MONTH to give to someone else at no additional charge. All you need to do is sign up for IFHTV and we'll email you a nice e-gift card you can give to your frie...