NICKSAV Film & Music SHOW

The fifth Louisiana International Film Festival happened on April 20-23, 2017. It was the first full year after the death of Dan Ireland, the festival's Artistic Director. It also came after the floods in 2016 that devastated much of southeast Louisiana. Both were directly acknowledged in the festival's programming selections, which gave LIFF 2017 a certain […] The post Louisiana International Fil...

One of the highlights of Bree Noble's career as a musician was getting to sing at Dodger Stadium in front of 60,000 people. At one point she was also the Director of Finance for one the top 15 opera companies in the US. These days she is focused on helping other musicians find success and build […] The post How to Succeed as a Musician with Bree Noble appeared first on The nsavides Podcast | filmm...

Alex Ferrari is an accomplished filmmaker, post-production supervisor, colorist, and editor. He is also the creator of Indie Film Hustle, a popular film podcast and blog. A few years ago his short film Broken received an endorsement from Roger Ebert, which helped Alex gain traction on the film festival circuit. More recently Alex has worked as the […] The post Post Production & Audience Building w...

Xan Aranda has collaborated with the Duplass brothers on a number of projects including Blue Jay, a film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with critical acclaim. It is now available for streaming on Netflix. Xan also helped the Duplass brothers produce Room 104, their upcoming series for HBO. Xan has also produced and/or directed a […] The post Xan Aranda – Duplass Brothers...

This is Part II of my SXSW 2017 podcast coverage. Part I includes the film-related interviews I did while attending the festival. On this episode I share my interactive and music-related interviews. Then I share my takeaways from the music, interactive, and film aspects of the festival that I experienced. The episode concludes with my own personal SXSW […] The post SXSW 2017 Podcast Coverage Part...

The SXSW Conference and Festivals that happens each year in Austin has three components: film, music, and interactive. Essentially it is three distinct festivals combined into one massive event that happens each March. This year I was able to get a press pass to do coverage for the podcast. Even with a few days of prep, it was […] The post SXSW 2017 Podcast Coverage Part I – Film Interviews appear...

Blayne Weaver has acted alongside of actors like Tommy Lee Jones and Don Cheadle. He's also the current voice of Walt Disney's Peter Pan in the various films, shows, and theme park segments that feature the animated character. Recently he teamed up with Mindy Bledsoe, Chris Lyon, Rob Senska, some of his colleagues in Shreveport, Louisiana to put […] The post Filming Car Chases & Fight Scenes for F...

Evan Kidd, a filmmaker in Baton Rouge, recently concluded the festival run for his first feature film, Son of Clowns, a story about a TV star who loses his show and returns home to figure out his life and help his family run their floundering backyard circus. The film was shot for less than $3000 and had a shooting […] The post How to Make a Micro-Budget Film for $3000 & Sell It on Amazon: Evan Ki...

A few months ago I interviewed writer-director John Lee Hancock about his work on The Rookie, The Alamo, The Blind Side, and Saving Mr. Banks. We also spoke about his latest film The Founder, which stars Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the business man who turned McDonald's into a world-wide brand. The film was about to come out when I first did the […] The post The Founder with Director John Lee Hanc...

Martin Atkins's book, Tour Smart: And Break the Band, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. It addresses all the aspects that go into planning a successful tour and features interviews with prominent musicians, club owners, tour managers, and other music industry professionals. Some of the people interviewed in it include Chris Connelly, Henry Rollins, and representatives from the House of Blues...

The TV show Dukes of Hazzard turned John Schneider into a household name, and many still think of him as Bo Duke, the iconic character he played on it. To a younger generation, John Schneider is probably better known as Jonathan Kent, Superman's dad, on Smallville. John has also played recurring roles on shows like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Diagnosis Murder, […] The post John Schneider of Dukes o...

Steve Kaplan teaches comedy workshops around the world. Companies like Dreamworks, Disney, HBO, Paramount, and Touchstone regularly hire him as a consultant and script doctor. His comedy book, The Hidden Tools of Comedy: The Serious Business of Being Funny, includes many of the techniques he teaches. Steve also created the HBO Workspace and the HBO New Writers Program to develop new comedic voices...

Mystery Loves Company is a chamber rock band from Houston. The band formed when Carlos Machado met Maddy Herdeman by chance or serendipity at an open mic night held at Houston's Mucky Duck. Carlos approached Maddy because she was a cellist. He had just written a song specifically for a cello and was surprised to spot one at […] The post Mystery Loves Company Band on Keeping the Wonder Alive appear...

David and Kristin Bousquet are this episode's guests. They are the husband and wife filmmaking team behind RedGate Films in San Francisco, a company that has produced commercials for clients that include Nike, BMW, Samsung, Levi's, Cisco, and Lucasfilms. They recently produced Lookouts, their first short film. Lookouts is a fantasy film based on a […] The post From Advertising to Epic Fantasy: Loo...

Hunter Via has been the editor on films and TV shows like The Shield, The Mist, Sons of Anarchy, Mob City, The 100, and Preacher, but he is probably best known as the editor for The Walking Dead, for which he edited the pilot and a number of iconic episodes. His work on the "Days Gone Bye" episode of The […] The post Walking Dead Editor Hunter Via on Editing Stories with Shades of Gray appeared fi...

Craig Renaud is one half of the Renaud Brothers, a team of documentary filmmakers that shoot, edit, and produce films for HBO, NBC, Discovery, PBS, The New York Times, and VICE News. Their Last Chance High series for VICE News won a Peabody Award and was nominated for an Emmy, as was their HBO doc, Dope Sick Love. Rather than doing surface-level coverage, the brothers prefer […] The post Peabody-W...

Tom Snyder has written for and produced a variety of comedy shows, but he is best known for being the co-creator of Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist on Comedy Central. During its run, the show brought on acclaimed comedians like Joy Behar, Mitch Hedburg, Louis C. K., Ray Romano, & Jon Stewart, and it went on to win an Emmy, […] The post On Comedy with Dr. Katz Creator Tom Snyder appeared first on...

This is Part III of my coverage of the Louisiana Film Prize 2016. It features some of the more thought-provoking interviews or ones that really connected with me for one reason or another. It also includes an interview with the winner of LA Film Prize 2016. A couple of people in the episode say nice things about podcasting. […] The post LA Film Prize 2016 All Access Coverage Part III: Hooray for P...

This is Part II of my coverage of the Louisiana Film Prize 2016. This episode is focused on craftsmanship. We hear from some effects artists, a director of photography, a costumer, a production sound mixer, and more filmmakers. Plus we hear from the actors who won best actor and best actress for LA Film Prize 2016. Now in […] The post LA Film Prize 2016 All Access Coverage Part II appeared first o...

The Louisiana Film Prize, now in its fifth year, is a short-film festival in Shreveport, Louisiana that awards $50,000 to the festival's top film as determined by audience votes and a panelist of judges. Taken as a whole the films this year represent a drastic leap forward in technical achievement and ambition, compared to the […] The post LA Film Prize 2016 All Access Coverage Part I appeared fir...

The first feature film Jenna Edwards produced was April Showers, a film that explores a Columbine-like school shooting from the perspective of the survivors. The film lacked the resources of a big Hollywood production, but Jenna and her colleagues were able to bring in a full SWAT team and some notable names like Tom Arnold. […] The post Producer Jenna Edwards on Budgeting, Landing Celebrities, an...

The 2nd edition of The Coffee Break Screenwriter just came out recently. Pilar Alessandra is the author and a script consultant who began her career as a script reader for Amblin Entertainment. She went on to provide story analysis for DreamWorks and Robert Zemeckis's company ImageMovers. Today she has her own screenwriting consulting company called […] The post Script Consultant Pilar Alessandra...

The Louisiana Film Prize, a short-film festival that awards $50,000 to one short selected by the audience and judges, happens this year in Shreveport on Sept. 29 – Oct. 1. The festival coincides with the Louisiana Music Prize, which is put on by the same people and allows musicians in competition to receive various prizes and […] The post LA Film Prize 2016 Preview with Chris Lyon appeared first o...

New Deal Studios is an effects house in California that has been worked on high-profile projects for over 20 years. Some of the films they've worked on include Interstellar, The Aviator, Dark Knight Rises, Hugo, The Avengers, Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Watchmen, I Am Legend, Night At The Museum 2, Alice in Wonderland, and […] The post New Deal's VFX Supervisor Jeff Jasper on Dark Knight, Hugo, & I...

The Videoblogs is Michael DiBiasio's first feature film. It is a character-driven story that is set in motion when Margaret's private video blog gets discovered by another girl in her neighborhood who faces similar struggles. Margaret is played by Rebecca De Ornelas, a New York actress who has worked with Michael on other projects. Like their prior collaborations, The […] The post Director Michael...