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I mentioned a couple times earlier today we're going to
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be talking about this movie that was actually shot right
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here in Toledo. It gets its premiere October 10th at
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the Maumee Indoor Theater. And James Aponte and Samantha Ryan
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are both in the studio with me this morning.
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Thanks a lot for coming in, guys. Appreciate it.
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Thank you for having us.
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You both know what rule number.
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Three is, right? B. Mick Jagger.
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A little bit closer, Samantha. I don't want to have
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to kick you out of the studio. Now, you're both
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in here, and the email that I got said Samantha
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is the producer and assistant director. James comes in. He
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starts adding a bunch of stuff to his last name.
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What rules did each of you do in this film?
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So I'm James Aponte, for those listening. I was the writer, director, producer,
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visual effects guy.
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So you're way over the top. You did everything.
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Oh, yeah.
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Why did you need her?
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Well, she handles all the emails and, you know, public relations.
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Oh, man.
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Do you hear what he's doing to you?
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No, she was quite vital. Without her, it would have
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been a very, very horrible time for me.
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Now, are you both from around this area, northwest Ohio?
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No.
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I am, yes. I was born in Toledo.
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I live in the greater Sylvania area, so I've been
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here for a while. Had a brief daily answer with Cleveland,
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but I moved back.
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Did you go to school here also? Is that where
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you got your, do you have a degree in film?
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Yeah, I went to the University of Toledo, class 2016.
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Oh, you're just a baby.
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I know.
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Tell me about it.
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And Samantha, how about you?
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I would consider myself a local to Toledo, yes.
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Okay. Bryan, Ohio, I think you said?
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Yep, about an hour away.
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So how did you get into this? Did you also
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go to a film school?
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Yes, I went to film school in Orlando, Florida, Full
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Sail University, class of 2014, the age of myself.
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And how did we get together on this then?
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So I reached out to Michael DeSanto. He's the head
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of Film Toledo. He's the president. And I said, hey,
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I got a movie here. Trying to get this thing
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off the ground. Do you know anybody who would be
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a good producer to help me out? And he was like, yeah,
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I think I know someone who would be perfect for that, actually.
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And he connected me with Sam. And she didn't think
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I was too much of a weirdo.
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And here we are.
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Not too much. Just enough, right?
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Just enough. Just the right amount of weirdo.
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So for people.
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Who haven't seen the Netflix or Hulu series, whatever it was,
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on the making of The Godfather, what exactly does the
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producer do?
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You wrote it.
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All right, you had the idea, you came up with
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the idea and everything. What does the producer do when
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you look for somebody?
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So I'm looking for somebody who can, you know, get
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me locations, handle some money, or budget out, help me
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budget out the movie. And if there's a studio involved,
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they're usually the liaison with the studio. They kind of
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get them off my back.
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Okay, all right.
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So as a producer then, and you've scouted out, and
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it's all Toledo shot, right?
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Yes, we shot completely in Toledo.
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And we utilized a lot of local businesses and sponsorships
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in order to get us off the ground too.
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Oh, excellent.
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All right. So I'll be seeing a lot of names
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and a lot of product placement.
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I would say a lot of names in our credits
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and then a lot.
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Of names in our social media.
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A little bit of product placement. So how did you
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raise funds then? Did you use the internet for that?
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Did you just knock on doors? Did you just use
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your baby eyes?
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It was five years of my own blood, sweat, and tears.
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I Out of my own pocket.
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It took you that long?
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Yep. From start to finish. So when you sat down
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to write it, how long did that take? Because obviously
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you've got to do the script and the storyboards and
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all that kind of stuff.
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I would say I had a concept about maybe this
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time in 2024.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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And then I started actually writing it in around November,
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December 24, and then into 25, it got finished. And
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then from there, production moved pretty quickly, actually.
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Now, this one is called Strange Shapes, right?
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Correct.
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Had you done one before this? Is this your first effort?
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This is my second feature.
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Okay.
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Sam's first feature.
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All right. And what was your first one?
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My first one was called Dream Runner, and that came
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out about eight years ago. Okay.
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So it's been a little bit of a break there.
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The pandemic was to blame for that. So that kind
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of slowed me down.
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A little bit.
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I hate that damn pandemic.
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Now, this one is about a blind woman who's looking
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for missing guide dogs. But while she's looking for a
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guide dog, I'm not sure I understand it. According to
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the website, if you want to follow along, go to jamesaponte.com
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slash strange shapes. She starts to see, no pun intended, entities.
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Yep. So in her head.
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No.
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That's part of what makes it so scary. Okay.
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She thinks she might be going crazy, but it becomes
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very apparent very quickly that these are not in her head.
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These are actually real things that she can see.
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Now, the young lady that stars in the film, what's
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her name again?
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Ansley Hendricks.
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And she's been blind since birth, according to the press release.
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Yes.
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How did you get her?
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Because that's got to be the hardest part. Because in
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my head, I'm thinking, okay, you see, You're blind and
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you're seeing these entities in your head, but you've never
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seen entities ever since she's blind since birth. Where did
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you find her from and how did you convince her
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to do this?
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That was a struggle, too.
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It was a real struggle.
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I can't even imagine, yeah.
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Because, yeah, we kind of reached out locally and there
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wasn't really much luck coming in there. So I had
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to pick up the phone. I called the Federation of
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the Blind, National Federation.
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Of the Blind.
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Okay.
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And I called them up and I said, hey, I
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got a movie here. Star is a blind actor. I
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need a blind actress. Can you guys help us out?
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And they said, sure. And they put out a newsletter.
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A national casting call.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Oh, okay.
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And we heard back from Ansley. She was living in
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Georgia at the time. She sent in an audition tape.
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We both loved it. And she got cast.
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Well, we had a.
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Couple more chemistry reads, but we pretty much were like, yeah,
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we want to cast her right now.
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So there's been a big thing in recent years. You know,
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you can't cast a... a heterosexual and a homosexual role,
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you can't cast this, you can't cast that. Were you
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specifically looking for a blind actress? Had you even considered
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using somebody who was sighted and then, you know, acting,
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since that's what it's about, acting blind?
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I was always very committed from the beginning, and Sam
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bought in on this too, that we needed a blind
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actor to play this blind character because representation matters, right?
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This stuff is important, you know, it's not, It's like
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how somebody might extrapolate it out and be like, well,
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why don't you hire a police officer to play police officer?
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My pushback to that argument is disability isn't something you
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can just take off. You can't just turn off being
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a disabled person. You can't take off a uniform like
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you can with being a police officer.
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So how does this play out? Because we have a
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big community here in town, the Northwest Ohio Site Center.
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works with folks who have problems with their sight. How
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will this play out for somebody who has that problem?
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Do you have a descriptive vocal script going along with
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it so that people know what's going on on screen
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if they're blind themselves and come to see this movie?
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Yeah, we're working on it. It's happening right now. An
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audio descriptive version of the film is being made right now.
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We actually communicated with the sight center quite a bit
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looking for an authentically.
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blind actress. And they were very helpful.
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But unfortunately, we had to look elsewhere, which is where
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the National Federation of the Blind came in.
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And essentially, the film was not going to happen unless
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we found her. And we found her.
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And we were incredibly blessed to have.
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Her because she was fantastic.
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Now, has she done other films?
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This is her first one.
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Oh, wow.
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How many first-time actors do you have in this movie?
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Um.
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I think a lot of first feature.
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First features, but not first time acting specifically. But this
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was her first big feature. But she had done plenty
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of big roles before. She was the lead in Sound
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of Music.
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Oh, okay. So she's done some acting before. On stage?
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Yes, on stage.
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On stage.
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Now, on October the 10th, it's going to premiere at
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the Maumee Indoor Theater. It's all Toledo shot. A lot
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of it downtown, or can you tell me some of
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the places you went?
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Most of it was actually filmed in the Sylvania area.
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God, Sylvania. Hollywood of Ohio.
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You'd think that'd be Perrysburg.
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Yeah, you would think, but no, there's a little bit
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more wine riding up there in Sylvania. So is this
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going to be a fundraiser? Or is this just the premiere?
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And then after that, where do you go from here?
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Are you able to get contacts with Hollywood and with
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a big film company and with a distributor?
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So currently it's just the premiere. There's no fundraiser or
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anything like that. And then after our premiere, there will
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be some additional screenings at the Mommy and Door on
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Friday nights at 7.30.
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Okay.
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And then I'm currently talking with distributors now. and a
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couple of other companies that help get your movie across
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the nation in theaters as well for theatrical release.
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So those discussions are ongoing.
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Well, I'm going to point, you see that on the
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wall right there? Abby's list. Okay.
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Dogumentary.
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You need to talk to that guy. Okay.
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All right.
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He's a former radio DJ. His dog was dying. So
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he took her on a cross country trip. And her
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name is Abby. So Abby's list is all the things
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that he thought his dog would have on her bucket list.
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Oh, that's fun.
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I mean, it's an amazing documentary, but the amount of
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coverage that he got, that's why I'm going to direct
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you to talk to him. He was in all the
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film festivals, won a number of them, has played in Columbus,
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got some distribution in the Cinemax theaters all around that
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area and everything.
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He'd be a really good resource for you.
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Awesome.
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And he'd be willing to help.
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His movie is just amazing because the dog gets to
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do all these things that the dog was going to
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die like in three months. And in the meantime, the
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dog got to do all these things like stay in
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a penthouse in Las Vegas and ride the rides at
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Disneyland and go in the swamp. And it took her
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to Sequoia National Park where the oldest trees in.
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The world are.
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Mm-hmm.
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Mm-hmm.
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And add her pee on a tree. Come on, Abby,
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you can do it. It's the oldest tree in the world.
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Go ahead, pee on it.
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Oh, my dog would mark like all of those trees.
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Oh, absolutely, mine too. So he's a really good guy.
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I'll give you his contact information. He'll be able to
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help you get some tips on distribution because this really
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sounds like a cool film to see. Now, when you
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shot it, did you kind of like, I'm thinking of...
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There was a movie with Audrey Hepburn where she was blind,
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waiting until dark or something like that.
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Sounds familiar.
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Many, many years ago. You guys are too young. It
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would have been in the 60s. Did you film it
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all dark or did you film it like you would
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a regular movie?
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We used a lot of just like run-and-gun natural light
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as best we could. We did have some lighting when
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we were more for indoor stuff. We would set up
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our lighting, but this was a real– Kind of gritty,
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run-and-gun independent movie. I mean, we shot it in 14 days.
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Really?
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Wow.
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We did.
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Jim wanted 21 days, and I was like, yeah, bet.
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Let's do 14.
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Did you come in under budget?
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Oh, we're right at budget, I think.
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I was going to say, we're pretty much right at,
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maybe just a little over.
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Okay.
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Well, that's not bad. Now, there'll be a chart. The premiere, obviously,
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there'll be a chart. This isn't a free premiere, right?
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Yeah, no free tickets in this town.
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Okay, no free tickets in this town.
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October 10th at the Mommy Indoor Theater. If you'd like
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to get a preview, and I have it running right
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now on one of my computer screens here that I'm
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looking at, it looks pretty interesting.
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You can actually go.
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To James Aponte, A-P-O-N-T-E, jamesaponte.com slash strange shapes, all right?
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And you can get the information there.
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If you go to the Mommy Indoor Theater page, you'll
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probably actually be able to, can they buy tickets ahead
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of time?
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Yep, absolutely.
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All right. How many does that theater hold? Do you
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know offhand?
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Main theater is about 500. Yeah, let's say.
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About four to 500. Yeah.
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Excellent. All right.
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And we want to fill every seat.
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Heck yeah.
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Bring a friend, bring an enemy. We don't care.
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And we will be having a Q & A afterward
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as well.
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All right. With Ansley?
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With Ansley.
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Ansley is coming up from Georgia. So we'll have her
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and the rest of the cast, myself and Jim, to
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be there for Q & A and an after party afterwards.
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Excellent. Sounds like a blast. October 10th, Maumee Indoor Theater.
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You can get all the information on the Maumee Indoor
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Theater website or jamesaponte.com. Now, what else is on your website?
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Because I went right to Strange Shapes. What can they
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find if they go to your page?
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I mean, if you go to my website, you'll find
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just a list of all the movies that I've made
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or the movies that I've highlighted.
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That I wanted to show you. I've made a lot
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of them. But yeah, you can check those out.
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There's links, like the Dream Runner page has a link
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to the Prime Video link, so you can rent it
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or buy it on Prime Video.
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Okay. Are you happy with how this one came out?
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I am happy with how this one turned out.
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Yeah?
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Yeah.
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Because I always get the impression that, you know, people
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that do what you do get done and then go.
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I could have done that better. If only I'd done this.
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I mean, there's a little bit of those sometimes when
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I watch it. But mostly I'm just like, okay, I'm happy.
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Very happy with what we got. Because creative people are
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like that.
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They get finished with something and then they go, oh, man,
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if I'd done that in blue, it would have been
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so good.
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Yeah, I'm mostly just tired. That's mostly how I feel.
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That's a good way to be. Guys, thanks a lot
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for coming in today. Appreciate it. Absolutely.
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Much success on the film, October 10th at the Maumee
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Indoor Theater.
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I mentioned a couple times earlier today we're going to
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be talking about this movie that was actually shot right
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here in Toledo. It gets its premiere October 10th at
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the Maumee Indoor Theater. And James Aponte and Samantha Ryan
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are both in the studio with me this morning.
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Thanks a lot for coming in, guys. Appreciate it.
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Thank you for having us.
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You both know what rule number.
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Three is, right? B. Mick Jagger.
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A little bit closer, Samantha. I don't want to have
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to kick you out of the studio. Now, you're both
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in here, and the email that I got said Samantha
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is the producer and assistant director. James comes in. He
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starts adding a bunch of stuff to his last name.
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What rules did each of you do in this film?
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So I'm James Aponte, for those listening. I was the writer, director, producer,
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visual effects guy.
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So you're way over the top. You did everything.
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Oh, yeah.
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Why did you need her?
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Well, she handles all the emails and, you know, public relations.
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Oh, man.
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Do you hear what he's doing to you?
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No, she was quite vital. Without her, it would have
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been a very, very horrible time for me.
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Now, are you both from around this area, northwest Ohio?
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No.
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I am, yes. I was born in Toledo.
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I live in the greater Sylvania area, so I've been
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here for a while. Had a brief daily answer with Cleveland,
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but I moved back.
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Did you go to school here also? Is that where
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you got your, do you have a degree in film?
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Yeah, I went to the University of Toledo, class 2016.
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Oh, you're just a baby.
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I know.
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Tell me about it.
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And Samantha, how about you?
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I would consider myself a local to Toledo, yes.
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Okay. Bryan, Ohio, I think you said?
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Yep, about an hour away.
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So how did you get into this? Did you also
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go to a film school?
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Yes, I went to film school in Orlando, Florida, Full
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Sail University, class of 2014, the age of myself.
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And how did we get together on this then?
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So I reached out to Michael DeSanto. He's the head
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of Film Toledo. He's the president. And I said, hey,
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I got a movie here. Trying to get this thing
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off the ground. Do you know anybody who would be
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a good producer to help me out? And he was like, yeah,
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I think I know someone who would be perfect for that, actually.
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And he connected me with Sam. And she didn't think
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I was too much of a weirdo.
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And here we are.
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Not too much. Just enough, right?
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Just enough. Just the right amount of weirdo.
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So for people.
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Who haven't seen the Netflix or Hulu series, whatever it was,
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on the making of The Godfather, what exactly does the
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producer do?
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You wrote it.
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All right, you had the idea, you came up with
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the idea and everything. What does the producer do when
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you look for somebody?
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So I'm looking for somebody who can, you know, get
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me locations, handle some money, or budget out, help me
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budget out the movie. And if there's a studio involved,
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they're usually the liaison with the studio. They kind of
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get them off my back.
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Okay, all right.
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So as a producer then, and you've scouted out, and
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it's all Toledo shot, right?
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Yes, we shot completely in Toledo.
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And we utilized a lot of local businesses and sponsorships
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in order to get us off the ground too.
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Oh, excellent.
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All right. So I'll be seeing a lot of names
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and a lot of product placement.
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I would say a lot of names in our credits
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and then a lot.
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Of names in our social media.
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A little bit of product placement. So how did you
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raise funds then? Did you use the internet for that?
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Did you just knock on doors? Did you just use
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your baby eyes?
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It was five years of my own blood, sweat, and tears.
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I Out of my own pocket.
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It took you that long?
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Yep. From start to finish. So when you sat down
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to write it, how long did that take? Because obviously
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you've got to do the script and the storyboards and
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all that kind of stuff.
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I would say I had a concept about maybe this
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time in 2024.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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And then I started actually writing it in around November,
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December 24, and then into 25, it got finished. And
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then from there, production moved pretty quickly, actually.
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Now, this one is called Strange Shapes, right?
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Correct.
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Had you done one before this? Is this your first effort?
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This is my second feature.
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Okay.
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Sam's first feature.
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All right. And what was your first one?
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My first one was called Dream Runner, and that came
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out about eight years ago. Okay.
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So it's been a little bit of a break there.
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The pandemic was to blame for that. So that kind
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of slowed me down.
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A little bit.
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I hate that damn pandemic.
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Now, this one is about a blind woman who's looking
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for missing guide dogs. But while she's looking for a
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guide dog, I'm not sure I understand it. According to
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the website, if you want to follow along, go to jamesaponte.com
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slash strange shapes. She starts to see, no pun intended, entities.
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Yep. So in her head.
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No.
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That's part of what makes it so scary. Okay.
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She thinks she might be going crazy, but it becomes
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very apparent very quickly that these are not in her head.
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These are actually real things that she can see.
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Now, the young lady that stars in the film, what's
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her name again?
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Ansley Hendricks.
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And she's been blind since birth, according to the press release.
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Yes.
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How did you get her?
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Because that's got to be the hardest part. Because in
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my head, I'm thinking, okay, you see, You're blind and
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you're seeing these entities in your head, but you've never
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seen entities ever since she's blind since birth. Where did
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you find her from and how did you convince her
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to do this?
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That was a struggle, too.
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It was a real struggle.
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I can't even imagine, yeah.
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Because, yeah, we kind of reached out locally and there
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wasn't really much luck coming in there. So I had
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to pick up the phone. I called the Federation of
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the Blind, National Federation.
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Of the Blind.
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Okay.
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And I called them up and I said, hey, I
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got a movie here. Star is a blind actor. I
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need a blind actress. Can you guys help us out?
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And they said, sure. And they put out a newsletter.
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A national casting call.
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Really?
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Yeah.
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Oh, okay.
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And we heard back from Ansley. She was living in
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Georgia at the time. She sent in an audition tape.
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We both loved it. And she got cast.
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Well, we had a.
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Couple more chemistry reads, but we pretty much were like, yeah,
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we want to cast her right now.
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So there's been a big thing in recent years. You know,
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you can't cast a... a heterosexual and a homosexual role,
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you can't cast this, you can't cast that. Were you
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specifically looking for a blind actress? Had you even considered
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using somebody who was sighted and then, you know, acting,
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since that's what it's about, acting blind?
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I was always very committed from the beginning, and Sam
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bought in on this too, that we needed a blind
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actor to play this blind character because representation matters, right?
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This stuff is important, you know, it's not, It's like
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how somebody might extrapolate it out and be like, well,
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why don't you hire a police officer to play police officer?
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My pushback to that argument is disability isn't something you
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can just take off. You can't just turn off being
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a disabled person. You can't take off a uniform like
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you can with being a police officer.
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So how does this play out? Because we have a
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big community here in town, the Northwest Ohio Site Center.
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works with folks who have problems with their sight. How
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will this play out for somebody who has that problem?
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Do you have a descriptive vocal script going along with
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it so that people know what's going on on screen
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if they're blind themselves and come to see this movie?
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Yeah, we're working on it. It's happening right now. An
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audio descriptive version of the film is being made right now.
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We actually communicated with the sight center quite a bit
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looking for an authentically.
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blind actress. And they were very helpful.
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But unfortunately, we had to look elsewhere, which is where
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the National Federation of the Blind came in.
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And essentially, the film was not going to happen unless
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we found her. And we found her.
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And we were incredibly blessed to have.
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Her because she was fantastic.
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Now, has she done other films?
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This is her first one.
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Oh, wow.
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How many first-time actors do you have in this movie?
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Um.
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I think a lot of first feature.
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First features, but not first time acting specifically. But this
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was her first big feature. But she had done plenty
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of big roles before. She was the lead in Sound
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of Music.
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Oh, okay. So she's done some acting before. On stage?
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Yes, on stage.
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On stage.
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Now, on October the 10th, it's going to premiere at
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the Maumee Indoor Theater. It's all Toledo shot. A lot
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of it downtown, or can you tell me some of
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the places you went?
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Most of it was actually filmed in the Sylvania area.
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God, Sylvania. Hollywood of Ohio.
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You'd think that'd be Perrysburg.
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Yeah, you would think, but no, there's a little bit
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more wine riding up there in Sylvania. So is this
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going to be a fundraiser? Or is this just the premiere?
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And then after that, where do you go from here?
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Are you able to get contacts with Hollywood and with
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a big film company and with a distributor?
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So currently it's just the premiere. There's no fundraiser or
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anything like that. And then after our premiere, there will
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be some additional screenings at the Mommy and Door on
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Friday nights at 7.30.
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Okay.
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And then I'm currently talking with distributors now. and a
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couple of other companies that help get your movie across
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the nation in theaters as well for theatrical release.
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So those discussions are ongoing.
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Well, I'm going to point, you see that on the
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wall right there? Abby's list. Okay.
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Dogumentary.
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You need to talk to that guy. Okay.
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All right.
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He's a former radio DJ. His dog was dying. So
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he took her on a cross country trip. And her
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name is Abby. So Abby's list is all the things
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that he thought his dog would have on her bucket list.
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Oh, that's fun.
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I mean, it's an amazing documentary, but the amount of
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coverage that he got, that's why I'm going to direct
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you to talk to him. He was in all the
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film festivals, won a number of them, has played in Columbus,
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got some distribution in the Cinemax theaters all around that
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area and everything.
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He'd be a really good resource for you.
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Awesome.
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And he'd be willing to help.
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His movie is just amazing because the dog gets to
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do all these things that the dog was going to
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die like in three months. And in the meantime, the
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dog got to do all these things like stay in
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a penthouse in Las Vegas and ride the rides at
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Disneyland and go in the swamp. And it took her
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to Sequoia National Park where the oldest trees in.
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The world are.
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Mm-hmm.
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Mm-hmm.
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And add her pee on a tree. Come on, Abby,
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you can do it. It's the oldest tree in the world.
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Go ahead, pee on it.
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Oh, my dog would mark like all of those trees.
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Oh, absolutely, mine too. So he's a really good guy.
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I'll give you his contact information. He'll be able to
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help you get some tips on distribution because this really
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sounds like a cool film to see. Now, when you
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shot it, did you kind of like, I'm thinking of...
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There was a movie with Audrey Hepburn where she was blind,
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waiting until dark or something like that.
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Sounds familiar.
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Many, many years ago. You guys are too young. It
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would have been in the 60s. Did you film it
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all dark or did you film it like you would
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a regular movie?
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We used a lot of just like run-and-gun natural light
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as best we could. We did have some lighting when
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we were more for indoor stuff. We would set up
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our lighting, but this was a real– Kind of gritty,
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run-and-gun independent movie. I mean, we shot it in 14 days.
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Really?
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Wow.
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We did.
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Jim wanted 21 days, and I was like, yeah, bet.
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Let's do 14.
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Did you come in under budget?
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Oh, we're right at budget, I think.
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I was going to say, we're pretty much right at,
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maybe just a little over.
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Okay.
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Well, that's not bad. Now, there'll be a chart. The premiere, obviously,
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there'll be a chart. This isn't a free premiere, right?
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Yeah, no free tickets in this town.
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Okay, no free tickets in this town.
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October 10th at the Mommy Indoor Theater. If you'd like
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to get a preview, and I have it running right
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now on one of my computer screens here that I'm
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looking at, it looks pretty interesting.
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You can actually go.
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To James Aponte, A-P-O-N-T-E, jamesaponte.com slash strange shapes, all right?
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And you can get the information there.
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If you go to the Mommy Indoor Theater page, you'll
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probably actually be able to, can they buy tickets ahead
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of time?
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Yep, absolutely.
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All right. How many does that theater hold? Do you
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know offhand?
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Main theater is about 500. Yeah, let's say.
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About four to 500. Yeah.
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Excellent. All right.
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And we want to fill every seat.
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Heck yeah.
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Bring a friend, bring an enemy. We don't care.
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And we will be having a Q & A afterward
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as well.
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All right. With Ansley?
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With Ansley.
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Ansley is coming up from Georgia. So we'll have her
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and the rest of the cast, myself and Jim, to
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be there for Q & A and an after party afterwards.
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Excellent. Sounds like a blast. October 10th, Maumee Indoor Theater.
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You can get all the information on the Maumee Indoor
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Theater website or jamesaponte.com. Now, what else is on your website?
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Because I went right to Strange Shapes. What can they
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find if they go to your page?
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I mean, if you go to my website, you'll find
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just a list of all the movies that I've made
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or the movies that I've highlighted.
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That I wanted to show you. I've made a lot
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of them. But yeah, you can check those out.
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There's links, like the Dream Runner page has a link
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to the Prime Video link, so you can rent it
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or buy it on Prime Video.
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Okay. Are you happy with how this one came out?
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I am happy with how this one turned out.
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Yeah?
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Yeah.
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Because I always get the impression that, you know, people
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that do what you do get done and then go.
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I could have done that better. If only I'd done this.
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I mean, there's a little bit of those sometimes when
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I watch it. But mostly I'm just like, okay, I'm happy.
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Very happy with what we got. Because creative people are
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like that.
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They get finished with something and then they go, oh, man,
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if I'd done that in blue, it would have been
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so good.
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Yeah, I'm mostly just tired. That's mostly how I feel.
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That's a good way to be. Guys, thanks a lot
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for coming in today. Appreciate it. Absolutely.
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Much success on the film, October 10th at the Maumee
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Indoor Theater.
