SPEAKER_00 0:03

Gil, thank you so much for joining us today. Um, I had a chance to see Weekend at the End of the World, and I thought this is a film that is full of heart and full of humor. I think I said to my wife who watched it with me, uh, and she is a horror comedy connoisseur and a and a high bar to clear, and she loved it. I said, this is a buddy comedy with the spine of a horror film. Um and I think it really drives home the point of what male friendship means in a way that I don't think a lot of buddy comedies in the first place do, but certainly not horror films, exploring male friendship in such an honest way. I love the film, and I'm so grateful that you're here with us to talk about it today.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

I'm so grateful you're having us on, and thank you so much for your wonderful words. It's uh it's wild to go and make something with an intention and then hear that echoed back to you without feeding the line. So thank you. That means a lot.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah, no, we were we we were talking, completely talking shop prior to this, not talking about the film. Uh so that is that is my unfiltered sentiment about how I felt about it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Right. It means a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Uh for folks who haven't seen the film yet, can you give us the log line? Tell us what weekend at the end of the world is about.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

So weekend at the end of the world is a uh sort of sci-fi comedy horror about two well-meaning idiot friends. Uh one of them inherits a cabin and they hope to flip the cabin and turn their lives around, but then the only thing standing in their way is the end of the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Just the end of the world, nothing too big.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Aaron Powell Just one of those, you know, just annoying weekends when the apocalypse happens.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

And I I mean, it's it's so many different films in one. I know that asking you to give me a log line is challenging, but it starts off as a silly buddy comedy uh and uh a very, very funny buddy comedy with some scathing comments about social media and scathing comments about the real estate market as it stands. Uh at least in the United States, I can relate to it. Um and then it moves into a sort of adventure piece in the middle. And I was like, in my notes, I'm like Joseph Campbell's hero's journey. And then I'm like, scratch that out. No, it's so much more than this. It's we're onto a different thing. Like there are iterations and cycles within this film. I was never bored. And I think that was a uh credit to the writing team. Um, but before we get into the writing team and the team in general, I want to hear a little bit about you, how you got started in filmmaking.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

So I I I'm I'm uh either very lucky or very unlucky in that I was drawn to this, I mean, just right out the gate. I I think you know, before I was 10, I took my dad's home video camera and I would make little stop-motion movies with my toys. And um I think by the time I was 11, I was dead set on um, you know, playing with pixels for they weren't pixels back then, I guess they were kind of. But I I wanted to tell stories. I loved telling stories, I loved performing, I loved I loved, you know, making up stories in school. And so um I uh knowing that that pursuit, I was, you know, going through school. I I I grew up from the age of 10 to 25 in England, and uh so around that time I was just always playing with cameras and shooting stuff on the weekends, just at home with toys, with my siblings, with friends. And um I then got started in making low to no budget music videos for unsigned bands in London or friends of mine that were in bands. And I just loved that, and I just kept chiseling away at that craft while working on film sets in uh I mean damn near every role. Um and working my way up until I I made uh a short documentary that got on TV and a couple of commercials and music videos for assigned artists who actually had a following and and a budget, I mean, relatively speaking, a budget to put behind stuff. And uh then eventually I moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of 2010 and just sort of kept chipping away at that uh until I guess m my work just got sort of uh bigger and bolder and people started noticing and I started getting more uh slightly more high-profile work. And then eventually um a dear friend of mine who was a writer-producer, he saw one of my music videos and he saw basically what I could do for nothing because I'd come up in a sort of culture of if you don't know how to come up with the concept, shoot it, direct it, edit and learn visual effects and stuff, essentially he pretty quickly became a dinosaur. So um and not in a cool way, in sort of, you know, just like a relic, just just oil. And uh so so he wrote the the film The Wave for me, which I um attacked with all my pent-up creativity and and that that landed pretty well. Um and I really kind of discovered the genre circuit more. Because I I don't have like a genre or anything. I'm drawn to everything. I love I just love anything good and stylish. Like I'm just a sucker for something with style. And um and yeah, that sort of led led to me then, you know, continuing to work, doing some commercial music video work, a lot of editing and VFX work, and uh eventually uh while trying to get a larger machine going, you know, these films they can take up to five years of your life. I I had this this uh friend of mine, Clay, who we were doing short form stuff together. And I told him I was like, look, these shorts are cool, but if you want to really like make something of it, I think we should try and make a feature and we should exploit the fact that you know I have no self-preservation skills and I will just break myself making a movie and shoot it myself and edit and do everything. And we started writing this movie and and instead of rushing to make it by ourselves, we started sending it around to friends, started getting really good feedback, and we made a sort of very pointed decision to to not rush to make uh a version of this when we could take our time and make a very good version of it, always with the intention of making it for very cheap. And then slowly a bunch of more people got involved, and it was still made for what's considered an ultra low budget, but um substantially more than what we were we set out to do, at least.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Well you mentioned being drawn to things that are stylish, and I think this film has a unique stylistic voice. Now there are some scenes in the in the portal realm that are lush and green and a little uh, as my toddler would say, wobby, uh it's her version of wobbly. Um but the purples, if you can't tell, I'm very much so drawn to that sort of lighting as well. The purples are so dominating. Did you have any visual influences when you approach this script? It's so distinct.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

So I I'm a sucker for just in nature, like when you see something that's bright and saturated with color, it just it feels uh unnatural. It feels like there's a there's a purple flower on the corner of my street. For the life of me, I don't know the name, but some sort of succulent. But when it blooms, you know, my VFX pixel analysis eye, I'm just literally looking at it. I'm like, somebody hit the saturation dial. Like they should not be this purple. And um so we always intended it to be this uh unnaturally bold, neon feeling color. Because like I'm like light and color is like splitting our reality. There's nothing muted and subtle about it. But uh genuinely, uh uh we were initially going to do green because green had um, to me at least a bit more of like kind of malicious vibe to it. Was purple, I feel, is more like nebulous and mysterious, which I love. And but then I realized how much green screen stuff I was going to be doing. And I was like, okay, well, there's just no world where I can light anything with green. So me and my cinematographer, Aaron Grasso, we just sat there and like played with the color wheel on one of these sky panels, these RGB controlled LED lights. And we landed on the purple because um it's it just while it didn't have as much sort of a sense of of dread to it, like there's nothing as menacing it was, it still felt very unnatural, very otherworldly, and um but also like mysterious. And more importantly, there just wasn't a lot of neon purple happening naturally in any of the scenes.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

I think you're onto something with the green, and it's a shame that we use green screen so frequently. When I was coming up as a director, and by the way, related to you very hard on learning how to do it yourself with zero self-preservation, because that's how we built our company. Yeah. I pride myself on having done every job for my company at some point because I can commiserate with my design team a lot more whenever I know what what I'm asking them to do.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

It's just shorthand as well. You know, you can communicate ideas very quickly with a with a holistic understanding of what that entails. And it just makes your team feel respected because they are, because you understand them, and also just gets shit done quicker.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah. And you understand the meaning of the word no whenever they're like, that's not possible. You're like, yeah, I wouldn't be able to do it either. Um but one of the early lessons I got from a lighting designer is listen, you don't want to use green here. It's it's unnatural, it's uncanny, and you it makes people look sick. And when I started to direct more horror for the stage, I was like, let's throw some green up there. My lighting designer shivered, and I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I I I it's intentional. Um so your impulse is right, but that purple was almost Lovecraftian color out of space. Uh, it really, it really worked for me. Um if you haven't seen the film yet, first of all, go pause, go watch the film. But also take note of these exterior shots where the purple is just seeping from the windows of the cabin. It is it's stunning. It's it's so well done.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Uh yeah, and it seems like your team has the ability to come together, wear many hats. Uh I may be mistaken, but I noticed a fart consultant, fart sound consultant in the credits.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

He is gonna be so happy that that was noticed.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

My my wife we we celebrated. Like we celebrated.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

So uh, you know, we we have this purposely very infantile sequence uh where the two lead characters have this game they used to play from childhood, and and it this was by design to show that these they've been like little dumbass best friends since childhood. And um and they were they have to do these fart sounds as they pretend to be cops. They're called fart cops. And uh one of my best friends and incredible director and editor in his own rights, Tom Cole, he um he it's just like doesn't matter how old we get, a f a good fart joke just destroys him. So he uh he would come to the edit and pitch like dip using different takes of the different farts to make sure that we were really maximizing.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I I said to my wife, uh 50% of my parenting strategy with a toddler is just fart sounds, well-timed fart sounds. Uh and so you you had me with that. It was amazing. Um and this team seemed really tight-knit. Uh, you know, I took a look at the press kit that that maybe our audience won't have access to. And it seems like you were all heavily involved in development, heavily involved in in execution. Um how how did that how was the vibe on set with that? Was it was it like, I mean, everyone's taking some load off of you and and and working together to create this thing? What what was the onset like?

SPEAKER_02 11:28

So it was it was really fantastic because basically uh I I had my sort of trench fellows I'd been doing the most ambitious low-budget stuff with, and some of the better paid commercial work with. And Cameron Fife, who is our producer and plays Miles, he had his lot as well. These are people where he's you know managed to get everybody really well paying work and people who have come out on weekends to shoot a movie for zero dollars. So we both brought our little our little gangs. And one of the most important things for me on sets is because you know, I I've I've worked on films where even if the subject matter was good, I've been treated so needlessly like a piece of shit that it makes me just sad to go to work. And then I've worked on stuff where, you know, the product I didn't particularly care for, but I was treated like a human being and everybody was appreciated, and it just makes me happy to go to work. And my ethos always is I'll be damned if somebody regrets working with me or even thinks back to a shoot of mine with negative memories. I am living out my childhood dreams. That that reality is never lost on me, no matter how many days I spend on set, and I make sure everybody else around me knows as well. And so it it was a really it was a very easy but very pointed effort right out the gate where everybody could feel the love. And there was a lot of people who knew each other very well who had gone into very difficult situations together many a time. And everybody was just there was no doubt in anybody's mind that they were appreciated and listened to. Also because our entire crew, all in, was like 27 people, at its most bloated. And um, you know, we also planned the hell out of this movie. So, you know, when you show up on set and it it feels like the director shows up and they're the least prepared person there, there was there was just there was no question I couldn't answer because not because I'm some sort of, you know, neat freak OCD person, but just because I was absolutely terrified and it was a low-budget movie. So I wanted to make sure I had everything figured out to the pixel as best as possible, so that when the inevitable compromise presented itself, I could adapt fluidly rather than sort of panic and be like, oh my God, I just put this together in my head and now I have to shift it up. It's like, no, it was never the case. And for your team to get clear guidance, clear direction, you know, what I refer to often as like a unified vision. There was just a unified vision that we were all marching down. You know, like I had animatics and storyboards of the entire movie. Um, I even like scanned the sets and put them into Blender, the 3D software, and animated shots in the actual locations we were filming in. So there was just like there was just clarity and respect and that kind of that the technical machinery being put in place cohesively allowed us to do what really you should be doing this situation like this, which is enjoying making a very funny, ridiculous movie. Like, you know, it's it's if you're stressed out, you don't get a chance to enjoy somebody's improv because you're just sitting there like, you know, scratching your head and pulling out your hair. Whereas on this, everything was figured out to as best a degree as possible, and then everybody got to enjoy the fact that we were making something so outlandish, so silly. And uh, yeah, man. I mean, it was a family show. Like everybody was just so happy, so in love. And it's gratifying the as you know, the person, you know, quasi-employing everybody to know that nobody resents you or hates you, and everybody's happy after the fact, and everybody would happily work with you again. That to me is is just the most important accomplishment I could I could achieve.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

We used to say uh it's called a play. Let's have a little fun, you know. And pre-production work uh leads to that. It's a solid basis. Although I will say you're so much more eloquent than I am in saying that when the inevitable compromise arises, you can respond to it. I would be like, I can only handle one crisis at a time. That's why we have to plan. There's gonna be a crisis, let's just keep one at a time, folks.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

So that's when you just disassociate and you go, well, I'm just gonna go on autopilot for a minute here and be like, yeah, everything's on fire. I have to start somewhere, so I want to start putting out these fires until it's less smoky in here.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

Yeah, 100%. And low budget theater, and I assume that low budget filmmaking, I've only been in front of the camera for uh indie films and low budget films and a couple of large-scale television shows. Uh, but I will say that I feel like there are there are related art forms. There is a similar ethos, and there are many ways to compensate your team. And I think one of them that gets overlooked is respect and billing and how you build a team. And one thing that I I wish that I could have done, I ran a nonprofit, so we didn't have a lot of the availability to do this, but something that I see large Broadway shows starting to, just barely starting to do, is a revenue share on the back end with every team member. And if I'm not mistaken, I read in your press kit that you've employed a revenue share on this, which is all the more reason for you, the listener or you, the viewer, to go out and support this, buy it, rent it, uh, because it that directly affects the artist. Can can you tell me a little bit about what the revenue share what the revenue share is like and how that came to be?

SPEAKER_02 16:48

So my my first film, The Wave, which came out in 2020, we sold to a distributor, and I just I found myself at first shocked when the movie started making money. Uh I was, I didn't understand why that money was not hitting the waterfall, you know, the bit where it splits and everybody gets their piece relative to their equity stake in the movie. And what I discovered is that the model is by and large, like what I initially attributed it to malice. I was like, wow, what a bunch of predator vampires. This is so terrible. And I realized, like, no, this is just how it's been going. These distributor companies, they pony up a bunch of money on the front end, known as the MG, the minimum guarantee. And that's largely the last money your film will see. And you kind of hand over control for marketing and PR and sales, which is, you know, it's also delivering to the platforms, which is just such a technical pain in the balls. So one of my many day jobs where I pay my bills is I cut uh trailers and promos, I do motion graphics and visual effects for social media and stuff. And so I had I had an experience, particularly with my first film. You know, it was the end of the first year it was out, and some new strain of COVID had just hit, everybody was back in their house, and I was like, okay, I don't think my distributors have the bandwidth to promote the movie like I do. I have the abilities to make all the marketing assets I need. I'm just going to run my own marketing campaign and see if I can get results. And it turns out it, you know, if if it's something you really apply yourself to, you it really is quite accessible. It's quite easy. You know, you can get on Meta and Google platforms and you can target an audience to a truly troubling degree, and um and find the people who want to watch your movie. Because the reality is, is like, you know, this we haven't made a particularly broad movie. Certainly, my first film was even less broad. Um so you really want to target your audience directly. And it dawned on me, I was like, all right, you know, we are an increasingly flooded market. Uh everybody's saturated with choice, everybody's got subscription fatigue. Um the chances of making a bang and having your movie come out and not disappear in the noise are harder than ever. So I thought, okay, if I if I want to make a movie that the filmmakers actually get to make the money back, right? So I don't need to sell to a distributor to have the marketing punch, then I need to make it cheap enough that I don't have to relinquish control. So I'm not really beholden to anybody because I've asked for a ton of money and they want certain things. And like, you know, like with my first film, there was there was so much money invested in it that I didn't I didn't have the balls to say, okay, look, I'm just gonna do this. I think I've got it, you know, I'm a nerd, I'll figure it out. Uh with this second one, I had the experience for my first one. I was like, okay, I I I know I personally made six figures for my last film. If I can make a film that that barely costs more than 100K as much as possible, I'm pretty confident that if I'm in charge of how it's released, particularly when it's fresh, I can get my investors their money back and then some. And if I make the film cheap enough that raising money from these people is not going to have them be like, okay, look, I just sunk a million dollars in here, so you're doing what I'm saying, then I can realistically give ownership in the movie to everybody who helps make the movie. And essentially, really, what it boils down to is bet on us. I I everybody on the movie worked for the same amount of money. From the the biggest star to the PA, everybody got the exact same amount of money. And then different people got slightly different percentages of the producer's portion, which is 50% of the equity of the movie. And it was all basically done on a simple idea of I'm not going to stop when the movie's done. I'm going to stop when people are done pressing rent and buy. And with that promise, investors were willing to sort of roll the dice. And also because the price point was quite low, investors are willing to roll the dice. And I was able to retain enough of a say that I could ensure that everybody who contributed meaningfully to the movie got a percentage. Now bear in mind, like, you know, we're we're also talking like 0.1% for some people. Um and I would love to be able to give more, but uh I really only had 50% of the movie to Divi up. And uh and you know, there was you know, I've I've I've got like a small chunk and I've given this film five years of my life. But also I'm getting to make a movie that I wrote with clay and you know, that I got to do everything, and my name's all over it, so that's also another reward. But in in a very sorry, like constant segue way of answering your question. I mean, it is really about creating creating a situation where exposure for my investors was small enough, where the nut itself was small enough that I could afford to take what I would consider informed gambles. Like, yes, it's all risk, yes, it's art. At the end of the day, but this is a commercial leaning movie. Now, granted, it's weird because I'm weird and my voice is all over it, but it's certainly commercial enough that like the people aren't going to watch it and be like, I didn't understand a single joke in this movie. Or like, I didn't care about these characters, there was no heart. Like, no, those things are surgically placed in there in the exact pursuit of making a story that could appeal to a lot of people. And the reality in the landscape we're navigating now is like you really just need to appeal to a certain uh demographic that sort of gels with your project. It's not that hard to make back your money. I mean, like all in right now, we're at $296,000. And um that's like after post, after everything. And then, you know, we're going to be melting our credit cards somewhat to um to buy some media space and to do, you know, we did some deliverables and legal fees and whatnot. But all said and done, this film doesn't have to compete with a Marvel movie or a big studio movie. Like, you know, we we ran a pre-order campaign just to get visibility because I'd done some research about the power of pre-order sales helps you land higher on the carousel. And we are currently number eight on the charts of the of Apple's pre-orders on iTunes. And it's just like Universal, Warner Bros. A24, Focus Features, Universal again, Us. And it's hilarious. But it's also like it's a it's a plan diligently focused with with and informed by data. It's not like I'm not a smart man. You know, it's not like I've just I don't have a graph on a wall with a bunch of things connecting each other where I figured out something with a Rosetta Stone. No, I just literally just went online. I was like, oh, right. So this is what you have to do to see a return. This is these are genres that that have a a more sort of hungry fan base who want more stuff. Like the reality is dramas are not doing very well. A lot of people the world is already terrible. You don't really want to sit down with a movie that often at least, with a movie that um, you know, is about somebody's torturous experience of the human condition. And also we, you know, we made this movie as as a fun piece of escapism that hopefully people will want to watch again and again because it's wild and it's fun, but it's got heart, and I hope we achieve to make something that will surprise people. You know, you you really, as as you so generously put, like you really don't know what you're watching sometimes. And just when you think you've got your footing, something extremely strange happens, but it still feels like the same movie, but it is very much a different movie. It's it's a fun ride.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

And I think that horror is a wonderful way for us to explore some of the fears that we're experiencing. And I think that's why horror comedy is having such a moment right now as well. We can remove some of the burden of elevated horror, so to speak, uh, the emotional toll that that takes while still externalizing the things that make us uncomfortable, like the real estate market or a lack of true connection, or family uh inherited trauma and inherited identity. All of that can be externalized and dealt with in a safe way, but still we can come away with a fart consultant and a bunch of laughs. And I think that's brilliant uh and brilliantly done here. You mentioned that everyone got paid the same, and you had a couple of really recognizable names in this uh cast, one of which I was absolutely thrilled when I saw the trailer for this. I knew we had to talk, I knew I had to see this movie, and that's Thomas Lennon, who I have been a fan of since his days on the state. I was uh a teenager watching his sketch comedy on MTV. Now, for those of you who don't know what the state is, I'm showing my age here. Track it down to some of the funniest sketch comedy you're ever gonna see. It's just completely absurd. And I don't know how you manage to be on set with him and not make uh jokes about the monkey torture and Dr. Tr Dr. Crank the whole time, uh, which is uh one of my favorite of his sketches. But how how did he get involved in this project? I was so excited to see him pop up.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

I mean, like, so so Cam Cameron Fife, who plays Miles and is our is our lead producer, he he's a prolific filmmaker. He's written and directed a bunch of movies, he's acted in a bunch, and he's produced countless movies. And he had uh on on like a he was hired to write a specific script, and then he was gonna direct it. And they had they had the money and they hired a a bunch of actors, and he met Thomas, who had worked on it for a couple of days. And Thomas had told him, he was like, hey, anything you've got, I'm always down. Like, I like, I like working, I like doing things. So over the years, Cameron had had sort of solidified a sort of a friendship with him, and he'd had him over for some table reads, and he was attached to some project that never actually took off. But Cameron pitched him to Clay and I early on. And and this was around the time we thought our budget was going to be around 120,000, something like that. And I was like, Yeah, look, Cameron, that's really cute and all, but like we need to have serious conversations right now. Like, you don't, yeah, you don't just don't just pitch us this guy we've all grown up watching. Like, we need to talk about serious people we can bring to the table. And he insisted, and sure enough, when he sent Thomas the script, I'll never forget this. There's a screen grab of Cameron's emails that he sent to Clay and I afterwards. And it's literally like a big chunky email from Cameron being like, Hey, Tom, this is a project, this is the director. Let me know if you're interested, I'll send you the script. And then it says, two minutes later, I'm in. And like he'd sent him the shooting window of just we're gonna shoot this at the end of September. And Tom has just looked at his calendar, was like, I'm not doing anything. I like Cameron as a person, I like his sensibilities, so I'm in. And then he read the script. And that's luckily he read the script and liked it. Um but he the he's just such a purist. Like he he's somebody, and you see the opposite of this all too often, but he's somebody who's never forgotten what we're doing, which is the most fun in the world. Like this is it's so fun, it's so silly. And you know, Tom is as a successful screenwriter and novelist about screenwriting as he is an actor, and he came with such incredible suggestions. He sat down for the table read, and it was his idea to make uh his characters stay in this sort of in-between possessed and normal state when he when his character basically becomes this possessed guide for our two heroes to navigate this realm called the allness. And it was Thomas' idea. And it robbed him, it took away from him maybe 60% of his dialogue and truly some of my favorite lines we'd ever written. But he was like, look, I just think it would be more interesting and more fun for me as an actor. And I was just like, hey man, I don't even know why you're here. So whatever you want to keep you here, consider it done. And hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

He was hilarious there. I mean, that's some of my favorite stuff.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

And I said to my wife, I have to Oh, go on. I'm just gonna say, like, we're you look at him in some scenes, like in the subtle scenes, even when he's not making noises, she'll just like flick an eye or or compress his eyelids together and it will speak volumes. And you're like, how you must just stand there look in the mirror and be like, okay, how do I get across a tortured childhood with just my left eyelid? And he just must practice.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

It was perfect. Though I said to my wife, I'm like, okay, they they go to the ominous, I'm like, uh, I guess, I guess we ran out of shooting days with Thomas Lennon. He's probably not going to be around too much. And like, I was shocked that he was there for uh 80% of the movie. He's just there. And I it just speaks to your producer, like the quality of human being it is, because I knew those guys when I was casting. I knew who I could call and it'd be like, yeah, I'm in, send over the script. Like that, those were my true blue people. And I would move mountains to pick work for them. Uh it just speaks to the quality of relationship that they've built, and I'm sure the quality of relationship you now have with Thomas.

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Yeah, I mean, like, you know, and and Thomas came to me halfway through the shoot, and and uh, you know, I was still like, I mean, to be fair, like pretty, pretty starstruck. Um and but also just like humbled and overwhelmed with gratitude that he was there. And he came up to me halfway through the shoot and he just said, like, I just want you to know I'm having such a wonderful time, and these are the kind of projects I love doing. And because like uh truthfully, we are my team and I and Cameron and his team, we are bouncing off the walls like excitable children getting to live out our dreams because that is to the letter what's happening. And and this happened on my first film, it happened on this one. It's like, you know, these actors who who have been here for decades, it serves as a fun reminder to them, to those who may have forgotten. I don't think Thomas has forgotten, but it serves as a fun reminder of like, yeah, we're doing the really fun thing that we thought wasn't possible or wasn't a real career, and and here we are doing it. And uh and he's just great. And also, like, look, we shot this entire movie in 12 days, and those were 12-hour days. We never once went into overtime, and we actually rapped early, five of those days, and that was due to several aspects, you know, obviously the diligent planning that went into it. But additionally, we never really had to do more than two takes. And, you know, with with when Tom was on set, I would really just roll and get him to do a series. He would always nail it immediately, but then I'd be like, Well, if you're opening up the treasure chest that is your mind, I will s I will happily pilfer from it. So let's do one for you now, Tom. You know, and then he would just do a different angle on it. It's like, I don't know if you know that shot towards the end, you know, when they go into the room and and Mimo's holding the blade. It starts off with Hank is pushing a couch out the way with his head. And, you know, blink and you'll miss it. And in it, he's just meant to be like a golem, just sort of pushing it. And we're going up for a take, and and it's late at night, and it was shooting in the middle of a heat wave. It's like 96 degrees at night. And Thomas stops me. He's like, hey, Gil, so I think I should be pushing this couch with my head. Which, if you think about that, that's that's you walking forward at a at a 90-degree angle and just pushing a couch with your head. And I was like, I mean, if you're willing, that sounds absolutely hilarious. He's like, Yeah, I think, you know, Hank is coming undone, and I I it just feels like the right choice. And I was like, fucking hey, man, yeah. Yeah, of course. Like, of course. I would never ask you because I'd already feel guilty that you're here at all. But, you know, he just he's playing, he's having fun.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

I know that you mentioned that, you know, we get to live out our dreams, and I I always ended rehearsals, specifically technical rehearsals where we're doing 12-hour days or production meetings, with the fact that I would say this is what I wanted to be. This is the only place I want to be. And I'm so grateful that you're all on this journey with me. I always say that a director's as good as the team they assemble around them. What I never said to the team, and perhaps maybe selfishly so, is that I work very hard to maintain that team and to maintain the spirits of the team. And I I can I see that in you. And I can, I just, I have such respect for what you were able to accomplish. And I I just my gut tells me, having not been on set, having having just met you, my gut tells me that that those people would walk over hot coals for you and with you because of the the the vibe that you were able to create.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

I mean, because I would be running first. I I would be running on the hot coals, being like, they're not that hot, guys. It's fine. It's fine. It's lunch soon. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Right. But exactly.

SPEAKER_02 34:19

I mean, look, it's we're having fun. Like we're we're we're having fun. And anybody who's willing to facilitate my idiot whims, um you know, and look, it it ultimately boils down to one very simple reality as well. It's like I'm really trying to make stuff that I would enjoy watching. I'm you know, I have sold out as such an extreme expression, but like, you know, I've made commercials and music videos and stuff for songs I don't particularly care for, products I don't particularly care for. And some of my coolest shots and ideas ever are all the are on the edit room floor because you know, client didn't like how their hair looked or whatever. With a movie, I answer to the gods of cool. I answered, I answered solely to like, what makes this better? And that is so refreshing for most people. Like we we have this incredible steady cam operator, Zach Stanke. And he's this young dude. I mean, he reminds me of Dash from The Incredibles, like the little kid who runs fast. He even had this like Elvis style hair. We we could afford him for for two days. I've also never seen a steady cam move so fast. We had a running shot, and I literally had to come up and get on the radio and say, like, Zach, run like you're a normal person. Like, I don't know what you're trying to prove. But like this is I can't even you're moving too fast. Anyway, he came up to us on one of the production days and he said, Hey man, I just want you to know, like, I'm down to to come again on Monday. And I was like, Oh, Zach, I I thought it was made clear, like, we don't have the money. He's like, No, no, no, I want to donate my day. I was like, I uh I don't I'm not in a position to turn that down, but that makes me incredibly uncomfortable. And he said, Look, man, I've had I've had a good month, I've had some good commercials, but I'm really having fun here. I love what you guys are doing, and I don't get to do cool stuff I believe in, so I give you a day of our time. And uh so I tried not to mouthkiss him because we can't afford lawyers. But um, that was that that was like my that was like a little Oscar. And that was like, I was just like, oh, I'm doing it. If somebody just came and volunteered their time, let alone to somebody, somebody who's carrying a spine-crippling amount of weight for extended periods of time, is volunteering his time, then we're it we are at the very least, what we've accomplished with this movie was a really, really wonderful vibe.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

That's beautiful. And and you uh you'd never want to take advantage of an artist. And uh it just speaks to the work, though, that you're doing. Um That's that's so cool.

SPEAKER_02 36:57

I just want to not just me. I I don't want to take all the credit. Like every this is it's it's top-down, but it's bottom-up is like the this everybody's attitude was good. Like I I played my role and I worked diligently at it, but you know, everybody was coming in with a lot of love and a lot of respect for their colleagues, and and it makes makes a sizable difference.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

As a director, it's noteworthy that you say that as well, because that's just directly reflective of everything we've been talking about with the with the culture that was created. And I want to bracket the fact that you were able to do this for 296, um, anything really uh under 500k. This is true independent cinema. And this is why we do this podcast, this is why we do reviews on TikTok and YouTube and Instagram. This is why we're here. It's because folks like Gil are out here making work that is relevant to them and relevant to you and keeping the genre fresh. This is unlike anything you've seen before. This is unlike anything that I don't have a comp for this movie. Uh, any comp I have would be two movies mashed up or three movies mashed up because it's a truly unique thing. This isn't what's going to attract big studio dollars because it's art as much as it is entertainment, as much as it is horror, as much as it is comedy. It's it's it's brilliant. And the fact that it was able to be accomplished at this budget, with you wearing as many hats as you have, I just I just want to take a minute here to respect what went into this. Uh, and and and you did the visual effects as well, correct? I did. I did, yeah. I mean, that's just that's wild. And I I I've spoken to directors who've accomplished some practical effects and some who have maybe bitten off more than they could chew with the visual effects. But it's a rare feat to take a movie from writing and conception all the way through shooting it in 12 days under schedule. I'm wild, to actually like successfully landing these visual effects which look well integrated, which look visually stunning, which further the plot and aren't compromising. I'm sure you made compromises that I couldn't see, but to me, the viewer, weren't compromising the story. I just, I mean, even some of the effects that you think would be like standard, disoriented, I'm in another dimension effects were realized in a way that was non-unexpected, non-traditional. So I just I wanted to just get on my platform here about why we all come to work as dread alert media and how it's is directly the kind of project that we want to champion because uh I just see the movie. You'll get it. Just see the movie.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

I'm beginning to suspect that my wife secretly uh asked you to say a lot of these things so that I wouldn't cry myself to sleep. And I'm uh very grateful that she did. Because uh obviously this is I mean, look, man, you know, this is this is everything everything you you hope for with a project like it really is. I'm I'm an uh aggressive, uh foolhardy idealist. Um I'm very fortunate that I I've I'm fortunate to be born in a time where there's access to this technology that I can do this stuff, that such a thing as YouTube exists, so that when when I'm struggling to figure out something in 3D, I can type in the junction I'm at, and then somebody, some 13-year-old in Sri Lanka has made a tutorial that is exactly what I need to do in Blender. You know, like I'm very fortunate and I'm unfortunate in the sense that like um, you know, this is not a particularly lucrative uh pursuit, uh certainly not the ladders to get to the lucrative step of it. But I I very much do what I love and and have been uh diligent about doing it in a way that I consider uh moral and and pure. And, you know, so everything you're saying obviously means the world to me. And it's life-affirming to meet somebody who's like-minded about this thing because I feel like um, you know, one of the big downsides of the internet is we are so I I think of the internet as this, God, this is a bit of a segue. I'll try and fly through this. You know, when you're in high school and you have that one dumb friend who's like kind of an obligatory friend who always takes a joke too far, hurts somebody, or says something that's just not on, just like that one idiot friend. And it used to be just that one idiot friend, but unfortunately the internet, because it's basically outrage porn to sell advertising, is everybody's fuckwit friend aggregated together, and then all their voices are boosted to the top. And so I feel like I feel like you forget that the world is largely made up of people who have this the central commodity that's gotten us this far, which is hope. We hope for a better, we want to make more, and that's what you know, art in all its forms is a mirror up to the human condition. And we reflect on this is, but it could be. You know, these these are all these and even if something is as frivolous as this, you know, crazy interdimensional buddy comedy we've made, there's still that fundamental uh story of self-actualization, of taking responsibility for the person you have allowed yourself to become or choose to be. Or you know, there's there's human hope there. And it's it's just very inspiring speaking to you about this and and uh being reminded that by and large, discourse on the internet is everybody's fucking idiot friend getting getting just boosted to the top so that everybody gets angry and writes more comments and gets sold more advertising.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Yeah. And I'm probably killing my engagement by saying this or challenging those people to come out of the woodwork, but I every time I see a comment like that, we're like, it's this movie sucked, and I'm gonna do a video essay on this at some point where this movie sucked or totally overrated or whatever. I'm like, hey, listen, I just gave you point by point why I think this movie is good. What didn't you like about it? And I I will say 50% of the time somebody will come back and say, I didn't like this, I didn't like this, I didn't understand this. And that can lead to a discourse where maybe we come to a shared understanding about, hey, this didn't work for you, but it has merit, or hey, you didn't understand these plot points, but now you do and you like the movie more. Whatever it is. And and half the time I get just no as a response. But there is room on the internet. The internet totally kills my hope and totally gives me hope every day. And uh I don't know. It's like our collective id.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

Yeah. I mean, look, I also look at it like this. Like my my rule on the internet is you don't know what people are going through. We have we have more access to one another and a voice to to you know, somebody who could just be in a dark life in a dark part of the world suddenly wants to get online, he sees people making something, he just wants to say a little fuck you, just because it makes him feel like he's affecting the world when when their life is largely an inability to affect a world that feels unjust and painful. All those I don't I don't feel. Fight back. I mean, honestly, it's like it's like it comments on the YouTube. I find hateful comments very, very funny. The fact that the the thought is either somebody just being bitter and resentful that they c spent their time to say something hateful is funny, or I just assume I'm like, chances are that person's going through something, so I'm not going to poke back. I'm going to wear it as a badge of like, you know, any press is good press. The like literally where I draw a line, and this has happened several times with this movie, and I really don't know whether to take this as a compliment or as an insult. We've had several people call our movie AI slop. And as the man who probably shaved a year off his life, hand arranging every fucking pixel to pull off this stuff in a certain style, for you just for people to say groundlessly, with just without any basis to be like, I'm sick of seeing this AI slot. Like, motherfucker. Yeah. I will share my project files with you. Also, who what do you all the time getting irate?

SPEAKER_00 45:07

It's clearly this. It's clearly everything. I'm glad we're getting into this because I've seen it on multiple films that I've reviewed where I've seen behind the scenes footage of practical things that were CGI'd over to enhance or uh just completely a review will baselessly claim it from a large outlet that I won't name here, but I almost sent an email saying you have a responsibility to fact check this. We've called a product team.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

I called one out and I was like, I was like, cool, man. So look, uh first things first, you're journalists. You should be embarrassed. Second of all, what you're doing is called libel. It's there's a legal term for it. And third of all, that's like me going online saying, your entire website is written by ChatGPT. I don't have any proof, but I owe it to the public to speak my mind. Suck dicks in hell. Like you, I totally agree. It is so absurd. It is in the world so much in so many times we're navigating where people are like, I'm gonna spew some hateful conspiracy, and the onus to disprove me is on you. Be like, no. That's like me saying, look, I've heard a lot about all these religions, but did you know that God is actually a penguin called Steve who orbits Mars? And unless you can prove to me that Steve isn't there, then bow down to Steve the penguin. It's obscene. It's it's arguing like a child.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Yeah. I totally agree with you. And at the end of the day, I think it's a fear of looking foolish. I think it's a fear of I say I like this film and it comes out that it's AI and I'm anti-AI. So anything CG or anything made in that's it's 3D animated, I'm oh I'm I'm just gonna call it AI so I don't look foolish. I wasn't got. You didn't get me.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

And to a point I just want to tell you. Yeah, like and look, don't get me wrong. I is not the greatest VFX work I've ever done. I mean, I we definitely leaned into an aesthetic that felt a little bit kitschy, a little bit suspended, you know, reality, a heightened reality that played into the language of the movie, which is like, you know, the stakes are high, but the silly is pretty aggressive. And so I wanted the VFX. Like I had a much more photorealistic portal like version four, where I was like, oh wow, okay, that actually looks like it's there. And I was like, too real. I need to go a bit more cartoony, a bit more weird, goopy. So, you know, saying it's AI is kind of flattering because AI is scraping from every piece of art ever made, but while also saying it kind of looks uncanny and shitty. And I'm just like, the only thing that offends me is like, that took a really long time, man. I'm super tired. My eyes hurt. Like, what do you mean, AI?

SPEAKER_00 47:44

Yeah. And for for outlets, uh, you you nailed it when you said they they're journalists. And while my degree is in theater and my master's is in business, I am here with trying my best to uphold the journalistic code of ethics and and do my due diligence as a small little platform with visions of grandeur. You know what I mean? Like I if I can do it, named publications can certainly hold themselves to at least half of that standard and just reach out to the production team. They'll be they'll be thrilled to talk to you. I've never met a production team that isn't thrilled when a journalist calls, especially from those kind of publications.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

It's like, can we really afford as a planet right now to to resign more value of truth? Like what's real is is becoming fleeting. So just just just a touch. Oh, so goddamn, it takes so long to make a movie, and it takes you 20 goddamn seconds to print lies so you can sell ad space. It's outrageous.

SPEAKER_00 48:46

And the recourse I've seen was an edit at the top of an of a review that said, Edit, we messed up, our bad. I'm like, you should be forced to email your entire subscription list and be like, we were bad journalists. It's uh we are terrible. Like I feel like there's no I'm not gonna name names, even though, oh, I want to. I know.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

We we hadn't uh we got a review. He didn't talk about any part of the movie. He just called it AI Slop, and he pointed to different moments of this is definitely AI. And I'm like, my dude. So I uh reached out to them, explained everything, and then so they printed an editor's note, and they were like, since publishing this article, uh the production has come to uh has notified us that it is in fact not AI, but we owe it to our readers to uh you know to point to these things when we think they're they're AI. Not when we think sorry, to point to to be straightforward with our readers. So I wrote to them again. I was like, hey, cool. Um your article still states that it's AI, but there's an editor's note at the top. So that's still libel. You're still spreading lies. And we saw a review on our letterbox with somebody who's like, I just read that this whole movie was AI, so I cannot, in good conscience, give it any good rating. I was like, okay, so you're now tarnishing our reputation with erroneous lies, and your edit maintains uh that our film is uh AI. So then they had to reprint it again, and then this guy just attacked the film as violently as he could. And I was like, if you had started just by saying, I hate this film, it's made by the dumbest idiots on the planet, I would not have batted an eyelid.

SPEAKER_00 50:25

Yeah. I honestly I I feel like I may have I feel like I may have seen this uh that that that editor's note when I was uh researching for my review. Um and I yeah. Anyway, my wife and I have had a long conversation about this. And I should say that while your wife didn't pay me to say kind things about this film, my wife asked me specifically to not only send her regards to you and to the production team, but to tell you how much she echoes all of the things that I said. We we we have debriefed on this, and she's my typical co-host. Um, maybe not for interviews, but for our regularly standing podcast and uh just just fantastic stuff. And I think this film tackles some interesting themes from self-actualization, which was the first note I jotted before I looked at your press kit. But as I mentioned at the start of the interview, it explores male friendship in a way that I really related to and don't typically see represented on screen so much. It's this pulling away from family and finding your own path. And and sometimes these dudes have been with you for years, sometimes they come into your life later, but this friendship that sort of allows you to discover who you really are and shed the family identity that you may have been given or may have been assigned to you. And I think that's a really powerful message, especially when when truth is fleeting and finding out who you truly are is uh it takes work and work that I'm not sure a lot of us know how to start doing or want to even uh attempt to do. And and I should note work that I'm very interested in doing for myself and have been for the better part of two decades. So, and it's a work that is never done.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

So it hit me very close to home. And that's what I left this film with. I wonder, is there something specific that you hope the audience leaves with after they've sat through uh this little Armageddon of yours?

SPEAKER_02 52:23

I think, you know, something that I'm fundamentally drawn to and I I've explored in both in both my movies so far and and everything I've written moving forward and everything I'm currently writing is to broken people encountering idealism in in myriad forms. I think, you know, we are we are in flux. We are in process. We are the nature of reality is still being explored, our ideas of what everything is and what it means and what and from what we derive purpose, all of it is on the negotiating table. And I I feel like, you know, in this movie Miles doesn't give you many reasons to like him out the gate, but but by the end of the movie, you can't help but care about the guy. And uh, you know, and there's a lot of things that Carl does that's very endearing, and that's largely due to Clay Elliott just being an incredible performer. And he's so inherently likable, and also I've often said like my favorite victim. He's just such a funny person to victimize. Um but you know, there there's you know, they're doofuses, but they're also heroes, and they and you know, there's there's reasons they stand for themselves, and there's reasons they go about stuff. And you know, we started the movie, Miles is really trying to sort of change his idea of how he's perceived in the family dynamic and sort of uh you know, get a win by any means. And Carl is very much trying to live out the the idea that's been sold to him about what is happily ever after, what does it look like? And you know, he's trying to hit those junctions. And I think to in in one way or another, we're all guilty of that. You know, I'm like I'm a 40-year-old man who grew up in the 80s and 90s, and and there were so many ideas sold to me about what it was to be a man and what it was to be successful. And I have spent my life deprogramming the ones that were bad, and some of them, you know, have elements that are good, but there's a lot of it's fucked. And um, you know, and I I think uh I I didn't want to stop the train of the movie to, you know, to get on a soapbox and lecture about these things. And I didn't want to sort of languish in these ideas and stew in them so much so that you feel like you're being lectured. I think really if there's ever an idea you want to get across in a movie, you are you have this fickle commodity called attention that you are seducing your movie. And if you if you neglect that to get some ideas across and it stops being a two-way conversation and becomes a lecture, you're gonna lose your audience and you're you're gonna lose your pace, and pace is such a hard thing to build, and attention is such a hard thing to build. So, you know, I feel like this film allowed a slice of the pie of ideology and messages about our humanity and and you know its capacity to hold up a mirror was finite. And I I Clay and I worked very, very hard to make sure that those messages were accessible and earnest while still being entertaining, because that's the main thing, man. Like you gotta entertain your audience. You can't resent your audience for wanting to be entertained, for wanting to escape, and also for wanting things that move fast. Like people complain that movies are, you know, in the 30s, they used to move so much slower. It's like, yeah, in the 30s, we we not many people had seen movies. You know what I mean? Like we are you can scream into the void and complain all day long, or you can adapt to the world we're in. The reality is most of us have seen more movies than we could ever dream of counting. We are familiar with the language, we are familiar with editing, with effects, with all of it. So it's it's language changes. And I think the language of cinema changes in just in the same way this terminology I see on Reddit, where I have to look it up and be like, the hell is Riz.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

Yeah, absolutely. I I always my my ethos as a director when I when I was directing frequently was you have to start by hitting your audience here before you can even approach here. And uh but but I think that you you really if you are thinking of a directing a short or directing a feature or directing for stage, I think that's really good advice that you just laid out. Give me a reason.

SPEAKER_02 56:52

Like I'm a human being. You don't actually have to explain that much. You just have to give me a reason to care. Like it you can see somebody, you know, seeing an opportunity and being hopeful about it, and the opportunity goes, and you get you see that failure in their eyes, and that is so relatable. Every single one of us has done that. You know, every even the most beautiful people you've ever seen have probably farted in public and embarrassed themselves. You know what I mean? Like we're we are all connected by the fact that we're in these horrific sentient meat sacks called humans, and there's a lot of commonality of of the human experience that is so accessible, and you just have to remember to make your audience care.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

Yeah, that's that's brilliant, brilliant advice. I have a few questions that I ask everyone who comes on the show. The first one is sort of tailored for you. The second one is going to be a very challenging question for most horror fans, and then uh just some of the cleanup business of where can we find you? But let's start with the question that's tailored for you, and that is, and you can give me multiple answers to this question, but do you have a favorite horror comedy?

SPEAKER_02 58:01

Shawn of the Dead. Yeah, that's a solid choice. I I grew up in England. It was so much heart, so much heart. You care about these guys so much. It had it was dripping in style, and the laughs were real, the scares were real, and it surprised you, and it was human, and it was silly, and it just fucking went. And it was, you know, two very broken protagonists just trying to trying to grow up.

SPEAKER_00 58:37

Yeah. A gut punch of an ending with also a heartwarming tag at the end, too. No, I'm no spoilers, that movie's super old, so go see it and see how it's like. I think we yeah, it's 20 years, guys.

SPEAKER_02 58:48

Everybody relax. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:49

It's it's but it's a it's a fantastic film. I think that's uh I think that is if there was ever a genre, subgenre question that I ask, I think that has a right answer. This was probably the one with the right answer, and that was the right answer. Um, and this question is challenging for directors who who enter the genre of horror and they uh you know, and I ask them what their favorite horror movie is. A lot of times people want to give me a list. You can give me a list, I'm cool with that. But what is your favorite horror movie? How like horror, horror does it have to be? Can there Oh, that's a broad so that that that is a I'll bring you back on the podcast and we can dissect that question. Whatever you feel like answering here, if it has any sort of dread or any sort of monster or any sort of I mean, I just covered the stra Albert Albert Camus the stranger on my channel. I covered Hamlet on my channel. So horror is a broad term here at Dread Alert.

SPEAKER_02 59:46

Okay. I hmm So I I I I have I have a weird one for this, right? Because the the one the first one that pops into my mind is not a horror movie, it is a very long music video, and it's John Landis's Michael Jackson thriller.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:02

That counts. I was at the Living Dead weekend today, and they had a mannequin of Michael Jackson's uh uh in his zombie makeup, to which my daughter Oh yeah, yeah. She totally uh My daughter loves this museum. She loves Flyboy from Dawn of the Dead. She's not seen the movie, she's two and a half, but we went to the museum with her as a baby and she like got attached to it. And as we were leaving today, she said, bye-bye, Mike Moll. That's how she says Michael at this age. So yeah, totally counts. We'll we'll we'll write that one down. Yeah. That that movie or that that music video, the long form of it with the Vincent Price. And I mean, I must have been four or five when I saw that. And I begged my mom.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

Yeah. And I watched it first time, fucked me up, showed my friends a second time. And while I'm watching it, the werewolf transformation, first and only time in my life, I ran out of the room. Yeah, I had seen it. I had seen it, but I still I was like, this is too scary. I'm I'm out.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:00

I begged for the VHS tape. I don't know where we found it, like a Kmart or something, which is like, I don't know, I totally dating me. But uh, I think it's still in my basement right now. And like the things I took from her house when she downsized, uh, that was so pivotal to me and so frightening. And the eyes at the end, and you're you think you're safe. You think you made it out. Yeah. Totally. Oh my God, that's genius stuff. I that is probably one of my favorite answers I've ever gotten in the 25 episodes of this podcast. That's right on. Very cool. Very cool. Well, all right. So uh what are you working on next? Can you give us a sample? Is there anything in the boiler that you want to even allude to?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Yeah, uh there's nothing that has that is moving. Clay and I uh Clay and I have two films we're writing together. One of them is much one of them is like we've completed the first draft and we're doing revisions. The other one is like the beats are being worked out. But now having written a film together, you know, him acting, me directing, going through the edit, like we're just moving so much faster. We're such a refined machine. It's really, really wonderful. So we have two more films, but neither of them are in any position where, you know, sharing info about them will be utilitarian at all. Um and then Yeah, I mean, I I have several several of my own projects as well. Um it's in in two or three months, it might be worth saying, but as it stands right now, it would like be throwing a title out into the world that could disappear into the cosmos or could change soon. But suffice to say, uh there's a lot of noise in my head. The only outlet is filmmaking, and the noise is incessant, and I happen to love it. So Yeah, there there will be more furiously so. Um but because I'm doing all I'm running the marketing and distribution for this movie, um, because self-distribution is like, you know, the key to making sure everybody actually gets their money. Um I'm just all in right now. And you know, the the movie comes out from the day we're recording this, the movie comes out in eight days. And um there's a lot to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:06

Yeah, I'm sure there is. Well, where can people stay up to date on not only this film, but uh those ones that are bouncing around in your head? How can people follow you?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

Uh I think the the only social media I uh because I have accounts for advertising, so uh weekend at the end of the world as the username. I know it's a lot. Uh on Instagram, that one is is kept up to date pretty well. And then my name, Gil Clabeen, so G-I-L-L-E-K-L-A-B-I-N on Instagram as well. Um that's really the only social media I sort of check. Um And yeah, that's the you know I'm I'm I'm basically running running both those accounts most of the time, so I cross-post between the two. Um but that's that's where everything will be happening with the movie, and the movie will be available in the U.S. on all digital platforms. I mean, truly just all of them. And uh I think we're having a discussion now about doing DVD and Blu-ray sales as well, because physical media is making a comeback, and I know that I love that. Yeah. And um and the rest of the world is being negotiated right now as we speak, and I think you know, our showing in the U.S. is gonna dictate the hunger for it in foreign markets. But um, I'm I'm quietly confident, you know, like we we made something fun. We made something people seem to be really be enjoying, and um Lord knows we're doing everything possible to spread the word.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:32

That's fantastic. I appreciate you taking so much time with me today. This was a fantastic conversation.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:37

And I feel indebted to you for you know shining your light on us.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:42

I feel indebted to you for making a film that made me feel seen and made me laugh and made me uh genuinely fear for these characters and genuinely uh I don't want to say too much. I don't want the the end, I had feelings at the end, and I don't want to say anything else about it uh than that because it comes out on April 20th, which was probably before this podcast reaches your eyes and ears. But if you haven't seen it at this point, I highly encourage you to take the time to let it' cathartic in so many ways. It's a true horror comedy. I always say, and I I'm gonna tangent here for just a second, I always say horror comedies need to pick a lane. You're either leading with horror or you're leading with comedy. And make no mistake, this leads with buddy comedy vibes. But yeah, yeah, and uh it does, but there is still enough to keep our genre lovers entertained. It's it's apocalyptic in the truest sense of the word. There, there may or may not be some witches. I mean, it it's got a little bit of everything. There's some zombie-esque characters. I mean, it there it has a lot to love, and I really I had a blast with it. If there is a physical release, you better believe it's gonna wind up on my shelf. I would shave my beard for a an audio commentary on this one, uh, no matter who's involved, because there's I I would love to hear from anyone involved in this. Um, yeah, really, really good stuff. Again, I can't thank you enough for joining us. It's been an absolute pleasure.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:09

The the gratitude is all ours. I thank you so much for for having us on. It really uh really means a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:15

And as always, stay spooky, my friends.