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

This week Alrik and Liz welcome back previous 'Get Shorty' Filmmaker Felicia Pride on the show to talk about how she moved to LA at 35 and forged her filmmaking career through her own sheer will and hustle. Felicia talks about the steps she took in crucial points in her career, how she hit career milestones for herself and how she managed to sell a feature, land management and get staffed in a wri...

Alrik and Liz welcome writer, director and social media queen Jessica Ellis on the show to talk about making her first feature film, What Lies West! Jessica also talks about her life as a working writer, how she is staying motivated during the pandemic and the reality of what 50k twitter followers actually means when you are running a crowdfunding campaign. We also have producer and filmmaking sal...

On episode 278 of the show, Alrik and Liz welcome iconic horror director Darren Lynn Bousman (Spiral, Saw II-IV, Repo! The Genetic Opera) to talk about his latest film, Death of Me starring Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth, which was shot on a remote island off the coast of Thailand. Darren talks about the struggles of shooting a film on a remote island, working with actors who don’t speak english (and...

This week Liz and Alrik welcome return guests Hannah Black and Megan Petersen to talk about their first feature film Drought, which won Seed and Spark’s Hometown Heroes competition back in 2017. Megan and Hannah talk to us about what they have learned from working with Mark and Jay Duplass on their film and the long road they took to getting their film finished once they got their greenlight! We a...

This week we dive into the world of Shudder’s Cursed Films with director/editor of the show Jay Cheel! Jay talks to us about how he landed the job on Cursed Films, what attracted him to these stories, and how he approached making the series. We also have the short film Lace, from Australian filmmaker, and listener of the show, Charnstar Anderson! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.a...

This week on episode 275 of the show, we have director Matt Eskandari to discuss his latest film Hard Kill, starring Bruce Willis, Jesse Metcalfe, and Natalie Eva Marie! Matt talks to us about how he found his way to directing three action films back to back to back, his journey as a director, and how he gets through slow times as a filmmaker. We also have the superhero concept short film Kinetic...

On episode 274 of MMIH, Liz and Alrik are joined by filmmaker Eugene Kotlyarenko to talk about directing his latest film Spree, starring Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata, Mischa Barton and David Arquette. Eugene talks about his journey to getting the opportunity to make Spree, what it was like going from a micro budget indie to a production with an actual budget, and his approach working with Joe Keery o...

For this bonus episode, Alrik and Liz moderate a live Q&A for the film What We Found. They are joined by the writer and director Ben Hickernell, featuring a large amount of the cast of the film, including stars Jordan Hall, Julian Shatkin, Oona Laurence, Yetide Badaki and Brandon Laaracuente. We hear about how the film came about, what the casting process was like and we get a ton of on set storie...

On episode 273, Liz and Alrik welcome Christian Sesma! Christian is a former restaurateur turned producer...and writer....and director! Christian speaks about his feature, Pay Dirt, starring Val Kilmer, a thriller/mystery that was shot in 12 days in the Coachella Valley. They also touch on making movies in the time of COVID, which includes testing every 3 days, creating a quarantine pod on set, we...

On this special episode Alrik and Liz welcome Patrick James Lynch, director of Bombardier Blood ! Bombardier Blood is a documentary that captured Chris Bombardier on his historic quest to conquer the seven summits, including Mt. Everest, as the first person with severe Hemophilia. Patrick, who has Severe Hemophilia as well, speaks on directing a documentary without being on location, how he got in...

This week Liz and Alrik welcome back returning guest, professional script reader Reed Shusterman to talk about making his first feature film Blood Born which he shot back in November of 2019, before the world ended. Reed talks about how he came up with the story for the film and how he ‘wrote what he knew’ and his process of getting the film shot day to day. We also have a special interview with J...

On this episode, Liz and Alrik are joined by co-directors Lee Cummings and Mitch Altieri to talk about how they collaborated together and were able to take Star Light from script to getting in the can in about three months. We also hear about the duo’s process as co-directors and they both talk about what they took away from making this film.   We also have a short film by writer/director and frie...

WE HAVE A HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! . We are starting our own YouTube Channel and need your help! Please click the link in our bio and subscribe! We need 100 subscribers by September and you should definitely be one of them!  . We also welcome Terilyn Shropshire to the show! Teri is a superstar editor who recently worked on the Charlize Theron Netflix film, The Old Guard . She speaks about how she app...

On episode 269, Alrik and Liz are joined by Julia Swain who speaks about her prolific career as a director of cinematography. Julia shares her thoughts on budgeting, shot lists, and her personal heroes. Additionally, in this week's "Get Shorty" segment, Nate Ruegger joins to talk about the making of his short film Trust Me: A Witness Account of the Goat Man , and taking the short on the festival c...

 On episode 268, Liz and Alrik welcome Robin Kincade to the show! Robin is a producer, among many other titles, and is a part of the Bay Area film production community. She talks about her unorthodox career path, her passion for supporting people on set, and how she strives to help others climb the ladder to success. In fact, she is currently offering a course on how to move up as a production ass...

This week we speak with Australian writer and filmmaker Natalie Erika James about the making of her horror film, Relic , that had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival. Natalie also talks about the adventure of making a horror film as a woman, from proof of concept to getting Jake Gyllenhal on board as a producer and the Russo brothers as executive producers and if she suffered from any sor...

This week On episode #266, Liz and Alrik have writer, director and actor J. Lee on the show to talk about working with Seth McFarland, making a feature film in 12 days, and working his way from PA to writer, to actor, to director! We also have segments from our Players of the week, female filmmakers Felicity Tillack and Erika Longo, as well as our first ever edition of the new segment Get Shorty,...

This week Liz and Alrik have actor, producer, writer, and director Leah McKendrick on the show to talk about producing, writing, and starring in her first feature film, MFA. Additionally, Leah discusses writing on her first studio feature for Paramount, Summer Loving , the prequel to Grease ! We also have two stories of why filmmakers got into filmmaking from our Players of the week, Jessica Jacob...

This week Liz and Alrik have indie filmmaker and television director Rashaad Ernesto Green on the show to talk about what it's like to get into Sundance, making the leap to directing television, and how he got his second feature, Premature, made and what it was like going back to Sundance! We also have segments from our three Players of the week, filmmakers, Dineta Williams-Trigg, Mithra B. Alavi,...

This week Liz and Alrik have on indie filmmaker Bruce McDonald to talk about his latest film Dreamland (which hit VOD on Friday, June 5th), starring Stephen McHattie, Henry Rollins and Juliette Lewis!  Some of his other films include Pontypool, Hard Core Logo and the cult classic Roadkill, among many others! We also have three editors on the show as our The Players of the week, including Jill D'Ag...

This week Liz and Alrik have directing duo Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott on the show to talk about how they pitched, packaged and made their third feature film, Becky starring Lulu Wilson, Kevin James and Joel McHale. They talk about how they won the pitch for the film, got the film off the ground and worked with their management to get it packaged and finally get the film in the can. They also...

This week Liz and Alrik are joined by writer/director and actor Kestrin Pantera, whose film Mother's Little Helpers was just released on VOD in May. Kestrin talks to us about how she got the film produced, how she got the cast involved and gives us a step by step breakdown of what it's like to have your feature film premiere at SXSW (pre-pandemic). We also have the Player of the Week segments by F...

This week Liz and Alrik are joined by producer Bradley Gallo from Amasia Entertainment, known for films such as The Call, Mr. Right, Them That Follow, the upcoming Wild Mountain Thyme and Green Hornet and Kato which was recently announced! Bradley talks to us about how he got started in filmmaking, produced his first film and what he looks for in future projects and collaborators. We also hear fro...

This week Liz and Alrik are joined by part time co-host Samiat Salami and Indie Filmmaker Cameo Wood to talk about making her first film the Emmy Award winning Real Artists, how she approached her incredible 300 festival run with the film and how important inclusion is on set, not just on camera. We also have three stories of finding the perfect frame from cinematographers Sarah Phillips, Tracy Cr...

This week Liz and Alrik are joined by director Justin Kurzel to talk about the making of his most recent film, True History of The Kelly Gang, which hit VOD and select drive in theaters around the country on April 24th. The film stars Russell Crowe, George MacKay, Charlie Hunnam, Nicholas Hoult and Essie Davis and Justin talks with us about how he prepped for the film, why he decided to approach t...