Indie Film Hustle® Podcast: Filmmaking | Screenwriting | Cinematography | Film School | Film Production | Independent Film

I've spoken to many people in the film business over the years but today's guest is one of the hardest working craftsman I've had the pleasure of sitting down with. Today on the show we have screenwriter, producer and director, Mark L. Smith. If you look at his IMDB you'll see a list of 15 projects at various stages of development. He's come a long way from entering the Hollywood scene some 15 years ago with his fear-striking horror screenwriting and directorial debut, Séance in 2006.Read Mark L. Smith's ScreenplaysMark stumbled onto writing as a hobby during off-seasons at his family’s ranch where he worked after college. Self-taught, some workshops and an inventory of specs later, his path crossed Mel Gibson’s - who bought Smith’s first-ever script written in 2001.From then onwards, he’s been credited for successful writing and producing for hits like The Revenant (2015) and Overlord (2018) and The Midnight Sky which was just released in 2020, starring the incomparable, George Clooney.In Overload, a small g

Monday Motivation! We all need a kick in the butt sometimes on our screenwriting journey. These episodes will do just that. Never stop chasing that dream and keep on hustling.

After over 20 years of achieving what he thought were his dreams of being a headlining touring comedian and actor, Kyle Cease suddenly discovered that the belief “When something happens, I will be happy” is a complete lie. Following the calling of his heart, he decided to quit his stand-up career at its peak, and now—as a transformational comedian and New York Times bestselling author of I Hope I Screw This Up—he brings his one-of-a-kind wisdom to sold-out audiences around the world and reaches millions online.Kyle Cease has made more than 100 different TV and movie appearances, including 10 Things I Hate About You, Not Another Teen Movie, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, Chelsea Lately, The Martin Short Show, Comics Unleashed, and numerous VH1 shows. He has two #1 Comedy Central specials to his credit and, in 2009, Kyle earned the #1 ranking on Comedy Central’s Stand-up Showdown.

Today on the show we have Oscar® nominee Jeff Cronenweth A.S.C. Cronenweth worked as a loader and 2nd assistant before graduating high school, and then enrolled in film school at USC where he studied cinematography. Among his classmates were John Schwartzman and Robert Brinkmann, as well as [director] Philip Joanou.After graduation, Cronenweth resumed working with his father, joining a core camera team that included operators John Toll and Dan Lerner, and 1st assistants Bing Sokolsky and Art Schwab.Jeff worked with father Jordan Cronenweth (cinematographer most notable for Blade Runner) as a camera loader and second assistant camera during high school, working his way up to first assistant camera and then camera operator until the mid-1990s.Moving up to first assistant, Cronenweth began working with Toll, who was just beginning his work as a cameraman, and veteran Sven Nykvist."I couldn't have learned from better people than John, Sven and my father,"Cronenweth relates."They were all soft-spoken, but very ten

Christine Chen is an Academy qualified film producer, director and co-author of Get Reelisms. She fell in love with capturing images and telling stories through film the first time she got her hands on an early addition VHS camcorder in 1993. Christine’s love of film turned into a life-long passion for writing and directing.Christine has a B.A. from Rice University as well as a MBA from the University of Texas McCombs. Christine's films have been showcased at festivals such as Hollyshorts, New Orleans Film Festival, and Fantasia Film Festival. Christine’s recent feature, Erzulie had a limited theatrical run in May 2022 and is now available on VOD starting June 14, 2022 through Kamikaze Dogfight Films and Gravitas Ventures.Enjoy my conversation with Christine Chen.

Monday Motivation! We all need a kick in the butt sometimes on our screenwriting journey. These episodes will do just that. Never stop chasing that dream and keep on hustling.

Terrence Martin is known for his films Holes (2003), Get Away If You Can (2022) and The Donner Party (2009).His new film "Get Away If You Can" starring Dominique Braun, Terrence Martin and Ed Harris is about a troubled married couple hope that sailing across the open ocean might bring back the spark that's been lost between them. But, their relationship is brought to the breaking point when one refuses to explore a mysterious deserted island.Enjoy my conversation with Terrence Martin.

I'm excited to talk to a fellow low-budget independent filmmaker today. Granted, he does low-budget films on a completely different level than I or most people do at this point. But if we are going to talk about budget filmmaking, it is only fitting to have expert horror film and television producer, Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions. Our chat sort out knowledge gems on Jason’s mentality behind his filmmaking and the budget strategy. Especially the ‘freedom’, he’s expressed in many other interviews, he gets from a low budget --- in the essence of the chances it allows him to take.Jason has over 200 production credits for numerous horror television and films franchises. The likes of BlacKkKlansman, Jordan Peele’s Get Out, The Normal Heart, Paranormal Activity, Elizabeth Moss’s Invisible Man, The Purge, etc. Black As Night, the Amazon original film, is one of the twenty-five projects he’s produced that have been released this year and streaming on various top streaming platforms.The story is about a  teenage

Sean S. Cunningham had a successful career of starting films cheap and fast. Originally from New York, Cunningham had a vast knowledge of directing films and came to Hollywood. He started about the same time Wes Craven did. Cunningham meets Craven and decided to make a comedy-romance film called Together (1971).Then they both shocked the world with the rape and ultra-violence of The Last House on the Left (1972). Craven directed the flick and Cunningham financed and produced. However Cunningham wanted to get a mix of comedy and horror and made Case of the Full Moon Murders (1973) and then started other comedy films like Manny's Orphans (1978) and Here Come the Tigers (1978) .Struggling in Hollywood Cunningham saw John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and wanted to make a follow up type film but would possibly regret it. Cunningham brought Friday the 13th (1980) into the cinema in 1980, a year of many other horror films. Friday the 13th (1980) was a shocking, gory and violent film about camp counselors being slash

Monday Motivation! We all need a kick in the butt sometimes on our screenwriting journey. These episodes will do just that. Never stop chasing that dream and keep on hustling.

IFH - American Film Market 2022 Badge Giveaway Contest!! AFM Badge giveaway - Two Executive Plus Badges. It's a full 5-day badge with access to all the panels. https://americanfilmmarket.com/badges-prices/ that sell for $995 each. Below are rules: M

I am extremely excited to have on the show today a fellow podcaster, established producer, director, and writer, Mick Garris. Mick’s podcast, Post Mortem with Mick Garris, dives deep into the devious minds of the greatest filmmakers and creators of your worst nightmares to bring their distinctive visions to life in fascinating one-on-one conversations. He’s renowned for his classic screen adaptation of Stephen King’s books like Sleepwalkers (1992), The Shinning and The Stand. and creator of 2005, Masters of Horror series.The California native began his passion for storytelling as early as 12 years old - writing short stories. He launched his passion onto the journalism path at just 16 years old. Driven by curiosity, he freelanced as a film and music critic and landed interviews with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Rod Serling, and Ray Bradbury in the 70s. It’s remarkable what Mick accomplished in a time where everyone needed to know someone to get a foot in the door, let alone that early in life and without the he

Blair Witch Project: Directing an Indie Film Phenomenon w/ Eduardo SanchezWho hasn't heard of the now legendary indie film rags to riches tale of  The Blair Witch Project? Every film student from Los Angeles to Mumbai heard the story of how two young film students spent $27,000 (mostly from friends, family and credit cards) to make a little indie horror film that ended up grossing $250 million worldwide.Directors Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick shot The Blair Witch Project in a new way which would later be called "found footage." Without The Blair Witch Project, there is no [easyazon_link identifier="B00304LF0W" locale="US" tag="whatisbroke-20"]Paranormal Activity[/easyazon_link], No [easyazon_link identifier="B00AEFXNGE" locale="US" tag="whatisbroke-20"]Cloverfield[/easyazon_link], No [easyazon_link identifier="B003L20IEW" locale="US" tag="whatisbroke-20"]The Last Exorcism[/easyazon_link].Today's guest Eduardo Sanchez goes back to the late 90's and shares his experience on what it was like to be in the cen

Matthew Gentile is an award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles.He most recently wrote and directed his first feature, AMERICAN MURDERER: a true-crime drama about a charismatic conman who became the FBI’s most unlikely and elusive top ten fugitive. Photographed in Utah during the height of the pandemic, AMERICAN MURDERER stars Tom Pelphrey, Ryan Phillippe, Idina Menzel, Jacki Weaver, Shantel Vansanten, Paul Schneider, Moises Arias, and Kevin Corrigan. Traveling Picture Show Company produced the film with Gigi Films, Productivity Media Inc, and Radiant Films International.  A graduate of the directing program at the AFI Conservatory, Matthew’s thesis films FRONTMAN (which won 12 awards including the Student Emmy for Best Directing), and LAWMAN played over 100 festivals worldwide.A Brooklyn native, Matthew holds a BA in English & Film Studies from Connecticut College and an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute.Please enjoy my conversation with Matthew Gentile.

Monday Motivation! We all need a kick in the butt sometimes on our screenwriting journey. These episodes will do just that. Never stop chasing that dream and keep on hustling.

In 1980, Stephen Simon produced the film Somewhere in Time with Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer. In 1998, he produced What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.Stephen Simon graduated from UCLA and Loyola Law School, entered the movie business in 1976, ran the film companies of legendary producers Ray Stark and Dino de Laurentiis, produced such films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle in 2004, and wrote the books The Force is With You and Bringing Back the Old Hollywood.Please enjoy my conversation with Stephen Simon.

Today on the show we have returning champion Stephen Follows. In this Halloween themed episode, we dive into Stephen's opus, The Horror Report. The report was created by using data on every horror film ever made, a data-driven dive into everything from development, production, and distribution to recoupment and profitability.Stephen Follows is an established data researcher in the film industry whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, The Mirror, The Evening Standard, Newsweek, The News Statesman, AV Club, and Indiewire.He acted as an industry consultant and guest on the BBC Radio 4 series The Business of Film, which was topped the iTunes podcast chart, and has consulted for a wide variety of clients, including the Smithsonian in Washington. He has been commissioned to write reports for key film industry bodies and his most recent study, looking at gender inequity in the UK film industry and was launched on the BBC Radio 4 ‘Today’ program.Step

With a deft ability to balance both half-hour single camera comedies and one-hour dramas, Pete Chatmon has directed over 50 episodes of television including HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant, Insecure, Silicon Valley, and Love Life, Netflix’s You, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and Black-ish, Starz’ Blindspotting, FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and the Apple TV+ series Mythic Quest. He is in development on The Education of Matt Barnes with Showtime, for which he will direct the pilot and serve as executive producer and is currently co-executive producer and producing director on Reasonable Doubt, the first project to be produced via Hulu’s Onyx Collective.His debut feature as writer/director, Premium, starred Dorian Missick, Zoe Saldana, and Hill Harper, and premiered on Showtime after a limited theatrical run. Chatmon also wrote, produced, and directed 761st, a documentary on the first Black tank battalion in WWII, narrated by Andre Braugher. Through TheDirector, his Digital Studio, he has directed, shot, and ed

Monday Motivation! We all need a kick in the butt sometimes on our screenwriting journey. These episodes will do just that. Never stop chasing that dream and keep on hustling.

Alrik Bursell is a filmmaker, producer, cinematographer, editor and director. His been working in video production for over 10 years and worked on everything from feature films, to broadcast commercials to DVD instructional videos, if those even exist any more.Alrik's first feature film The Alternate was shot in the winter of 2019, did it’s film festival run playing over 20 film festivals and winning 15 awards worldwide, and have secured worldwide distribution for the film, which is coming out in the USA/Canada in September 2022.His new film The Alternate follows Jake, a videographer who discovers a portal to another dimension in which he has everything he has always wanted: the perfect version of his wife Kris, the filmmaking career of his dreams, and the daughter he never had.Jake quickly starts traveling back and forth between these two worlds - spying on his other self, falling in love with the alternate Kris, and getting to know his daughter. Jake soon sees that his alternate is not as perfect as he seem