Full Transcript for Special Report: Spectacular Optical

00:02:20.710 --> 00:02:22.789 content because we were just like, they didn't have the money. 38 00:02:22.849 --> 00:02:27.020 They weren't certainly weren't paying me very well. And, you know, 39 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:29.580 there wasn't a lot of money to have like a proper, 40 00:02:30.300 --> 00:02:33.240 like actual web news website or anything like that, you know, 41 00:02:33.280 --> 00:02:37.219 so it was very just curated and stuff. But after 42 00:02:37.259 --> 00:02:41.020 it existed for two years, I think Pierre who runs 43 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:45.080 Fantasia decided that the purpose of it was not serving 44 00:02:45.139 --> 00:02:49.310 its purpose, it was basically reaching people. The people reading 45 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:52.030 the website were people from all over the world and 46 00:02:52.110 --> 00:02:54.729 not people in Quebec, which is what he really wanted. 47 00:02:54.770 --> 00:02:58.189 He wanted the local audience to be galvanized year round. 48 00:02:58.849 --> 00:03:01.750 And people from Quebec, even though we translated everything, we 49 00:03:01.770 --> 00:03:05.629 paid to have every article translated into French, people from 50 00:03:05.689 --> 00:03:08.289 Quebec just were engaging with the site. It was all 51 00:03:08.330 --> 00:03:11.990 just people who followed me or followed the other writers 52 00:03:12.110 --> 00:03:13.969 I hired and stuff, you know, so it was kind 53 00:03:14.009 --> 00:03:16.379 of like people from all over the place that were 54 00:03:16.400 --> 00:03:19.689 tuning into it. So Peter was, or Pierre was like, 55 00:03:19.750 --> 00:03:21.629 I don't want to keep paying for this because it's 56 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:26.169 not really getting Quebecers to keep talking about Fantasia all year. 57 00:03:26.710 --> 00:03:29.210 And so he just gave it to me. He was like, well, 58 00:03:29.270 --> 00:03:31.389 you built this website because I had been the one 59 00:03:31.430 --> 00:03:33.490 to work with the designers on it and everything. And 60 00:03:33.550 --> 00:03:36.210 he was just like, you can just have it, you know? 61 00:03:36.250 --> 00:03:38.610 So he gave me the URL, gave me the website. 62 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:40.449 And I just sat on it for a year because 63 00:03:40.490 --> 00:03:42.210 I didn't really know what to do with it because 64 00:03:42.289 --> 00:03:44.719 I didn't have money on my own to make it 65 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:49.150 into a news website or anything. And then I had 66 00:03:49.289 --> 00:03:51.870 thought of making a magazine. I was like, well, maybe 67 00:03:51.909 --> 00:03:54.830 I can just make a physical, because I was also 68 00:03:54.889 --> 00:03:58.449 more interested in physical media than website stuff. And so 69 00:03:58.509 --> 00:04:01.849 I was like, maybe I can make a physical magazine, right? 70 00:04:01.889 --> 00:04:03.750 Like once a month. And I started to look into 71 00:04:03.840 --> 00:04:07.340 Canadian grants to see what kind of grants existed for magazines. 72 00:04:07.719 --> 00:04:10.819 And it turned out it was actually way easier to 73 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:15.719 get grants for books than magazines. I've never gotten a 74 00:04:15.759 --> 00:04:18.899 grant for any of my books, but That was my 75 00:04:18.980 --> 00:04:23.240 thinking when I was like, oh, I'll publish books under 76 00:04:23.279 --> 00:04:25.899 the name Spectacular Apical. So I was thinking I'll apply 77 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.649 for a grant. It'll be great. Because technically, there were 78 00:04:30.670 --> 00:04:33.970 all these qualifications you needed to get funding as a magazine. 79 00:04:34.009 --> 00:04:35.930 But for a book, it was like it could literally 80 00:04:35.970 --> 00:04:38.649 be anything as long as it was 40 pages. And 81 00:04:38.689 --> 00:04:43.199 it would count as a book. Like the restrictions and 82 00:04:43.300 --> 00:04:45.819 eligibility requirements and all that stuff were way less. So 83 00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:48.879 I decided, oh, I'll just publish a book. And then 84 00:04:49.660 --> 00:04:52.100 once I publish X amount of books, I'll be eligible 85 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:55.759 to apply for grants and stuff. And so that was 86 00:04:55.810 --> 00:04:59.129 sort of how Spectacular Optical started as a book publisher. 87 00:04:59.149 --> 00:05:02.750 It was like in 2014, I published the book Kid Power. 88 00:05:02.829 --> 00:05:05.310 That was the first one. And it was an anthology. 89 00:05:05.329 --> 00:05:09.550 And anthologies, like I've done a lot of anthologies and 90 00:05:09.569 --> 00:05:14.490 the anthologies are just really good. They're so much easier 91 00:05:14.509 --> 00:05:19.699 to sell than... They're easier to sell than a single 92 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.240 author book, you know, because you basically have all these 93 00:05:22.259 --> 00:05:24.379 different writers and they all have their own fan bases 94 00:05:24.439 --> 00:05:27.939 and they all become ambassadors for the book. But they 95 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:31.480 also come together quicker than a single author book because 96 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:34.160 you basically just have all these people writing an essay. 97 00:05:34.180 --> 00:05:36.560 They're not writing a whole book, you know, so everybody 98 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:39.139 can actually write their essay in a few months. So 99 00:05:39.160 --> 00:05:42.720 it can actually come together fairly quickly. And so most 100 00:05:42.779 --> 00:05:45.519 of the books that we've, most of the anthologies we've published, 101 00:05:46.240 --> 00:05:51.329 the actual production time was relatively short. You know, it 102 00:05:51.350 --> 00:05:53.009 was kind of like, I would usually give people a 103 00:05:53.149 --> 00:05:56.329 year almost to write their essays or whatever. And then 104 00:05:56.370 --> 00:05:59.189 we would spend about four to six months doing the 105 00:05:59.250 --> 00:06:03.009 layout and editing

and stuff. Um, but you know, I 106 00:06:03.029 --> 00:06:05.370 would say every year and a half you, you could 107 00:06:05.410 --> 00:06:08.589 have a new book out. And so that, so that 108 00:06:08.629 --> 00:06:11.649 was something I kind of focused on at the time 109 00:06:11.689 --> 00:06:16.430 was doing anthologies, um, And, you know, but it's all 110 00:06:16.509 --> 00:06:19.439 based on my own taste and stuff, you know. So 111 00:06:19.459 --> 00:06:22.779 it was like Kid Power was very much like I 112 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:27.290 was into weird kids movies. Unfortunately, that book was maybe 113 00:06:27.399 --> 00:06:31.189 two or three years too early. Nobody like I couldn't 114 00:06:31.350 --> 00:06:35.110 give those things away. Nobody bought Kid Power. Nobody cared 115 00:06:35.149 --> 00:06:40.769 about it. And then all of a sudden, in like 2016, 2017, 116 00:06:40.769 --> 00:06:43.189 when all the books were locked away in frigging storage 117 00:06:43.230 --> 00:06:45.089 somewhere and I had no access to them, all of 118 00:06:45.129 --> 00:06:48.769 a sudden people became like, remember how weird kids movies 119 00:06:48.860 --> 00:06:51.839 used to be? And so this whole new realm of 120 00:06:51.899 --> 00:06:56.220 scholarship started with no knowledge that I had this background 121 00:06:56.259 --> 00:06:58.579 writing about these things. So it was like, I've been 122 00:06:58.779 --> 00:07:02.189 totally written out of that history of like this new 123 00:07:02.230 --> 00:07:06.329 scholarship about weird kids movies and stuff. So it's like, yeah, 124 00:07:06.389 --> 00:07:10.819 nobody bought that book. Nobody heard of it, whatever. But 125 00:07:10.860 --> 00:07:13.199 a lot of things that people were writing about, like 126 00:07:13.259 --> 00:07:15.740 the dark movies of Disney and stuff like I did 127 00:07:15.779 --> 00:07:19.399 all that shit in Kid Power, you know, like I 128 00:07:19.439 --> 00:07:22.089 interviewed John Huff about his movies and stuff. And I 129 00:07:22.129 --> 00:07:24.550 had a whole big thing on the on the after 130 00:07:24.569 --> 00:07:27.449 school specials. And I mean, there was lots of stuff 131 00:07:27.509 --> 00:07:30.889 in that Kid Power book. But anyway, so that was 132 00:07:30.930 --> 00:07:34.550 the first one. And what was this? Oh, yeah. The 133 00:07:34.589 --> 00:07:37.589 second one was Satanic Panic, which I think we may 134 00:07:37.629 --> 00:07:39.449 have talked about back when it came out. 135 00:07:40.339 --> 00:07:43.240 I definitely own all of these books. So I'm very 136 00:07:43.720 --> 00:07:44.399 familiar with them. 137 00:07:46.300 --> 00:07:49.019 Yeah. And Satanic Panic was interesting because that was the 138 00:07:49.079 --> 00:07:52.490 first time we had the challenge of dealing with things 139 00:07:52.589 --> 00:07:56.529 that were affecting people's real lives, you know, or like 140 00:07:56.569 --> 00:08:02.509 where things we wrote could be potentially painful to people 141 00:08:02.569 --> 00:08:04.439 in their real lives, you know, because it was like, 142 00:08:05.230 --> 00:08:06.889 We really tried to keep the focus on the pop 143 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:09.550 culture that was created around the satanic panic so that 144 00:08:09.569 --> 00:08:11.509 the book was not about the satanic panic. It was 145 00:08:11.550 --> 00:08:14.879 about the way that pop culture interpreted the satanic panic, 146 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:19.139 you know, because we were not historians of the satanic panic, 147 00:08:19.180 --> 00:08:21.660 you know, like there were other books that were more that. 148 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.089 And but it was still sketchy, you know, because you're writing, 149 00:08:26.350 --> 00:08:29.329 you're doing these essays and you're realizing all the like 150 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:31.800 We were thinking when we first had the idea to 151 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.120 do the book, like it'd be this really fun book 152 00:08:34.179 --> 00:08:37.299 about hair metal and Dungeons and Dragons and stuff like this. 153 00:08:37.360 --> 00:08:39.120 And it was like, oh, actually, no, the whole book 154 00:08:39.159 --> 00:08:43.059 is about child abuse. You know, it's like it actually 155 00:08:43.139 --> 00:08:46.240 is like all this stuff is so much more depressing 156 00:08:46.860 --> 00:08:51.299 than we were originally thinking. And so many of the 157 00:08:51.450 --> 00:08:55.539 essays were about protecting children and you know, you had 158 00:08:55.590 --> 00:08:58.269 people who were very divided on that. Obviously, you had 159 00:08:58.309 --> 00:09:01.409 like the Christian side of things where they really believed 160 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:03.990 all these little kids were being raped in daycare centers 161 00:09:04.049 --> 00:09:07.870 and stuff. And, you know, the first when all the 162 00:09:07.970 --> 00:09:10.809 essays came in, the first draft of every essay was 163 00:09:10.929 --> 00:09:13.590 mocking Christians and making fun of them and stuff. And 164 00:09:13.610 --> 00:09:15.529 I was just like, I sent everything back and I 165 00:09:15.529 --> 00:09:18.409 was like, no, don't do that. Like, just keep it 166 00:09:18.470 --> 00:09:22.490 neutral because Some of these people have issues that are 167 00:09:22.529 --> 00:09:25.049 really unresolved from this time, you know, so it's like, 168 00:09:25.090 --> 00:09:27.909 just keep it neutral, you know, because there's like nobody, 169 00:09:28.029 --> 00:09:31.750 nobody won out of this hysteria, you know, and you 170 00:09:31.789 --> 00:09:34.490 still have like the very first kid that set off 171 00:09:34.529 --> 00:09:40.879 the McMartin preschool trial and everything that base, literally the 172 00:09:40.919 --> 00:09:43.259 baby was thrown out with the bathwater, you know, because 173 00:09:43.299 --> 00:09:46.659 you had this kid who had something wrong with him. 174 00:09:47.509 -->

00:09:50.009 And then everybody blew it up into this big satanic 175 00:09:50.070 --> 00:09:52.980 thing or whatever. And then everybody by the 90s got 176 00:09:53.059 --> 00:09:56.340 so sick of it, they're just like, oh, well, acquitted, whatever, 177 00:09:56.419 --> 00:09:59.450 forget it. And it's like, well, something did happen to 178 00:09:59.490 --> 00:10:03.000 that one kid. and it just stopped being looked into 179 00:10:03.159 --> 00:10:07.080 because it was now tied into the satanic panic and 180 00:10:07.159 --> 00:10:10.230 not like a thing of like just a child being 181 00:10:10.279 --> 00:10:13.769 abused by somebody you know so there was a lot 182 00:10:13.850 --> 00:10:17.049 of stuff like because people got so exhausted with the 183 00:10:17.070 --> 00:10:22.279 satanic panic hysteria there actually were, you know, cases where 184 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.110 it's like things were not looked into properly, you know? 185 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:28.370 And then everything, it was like, yeah, all the evidence 186 00:10:28.450 --> 00:10:31.169 that was contaminated and, you know, and it was just like, 187 00:10:31.210 --> 00:10:33.250 so deal doing a book that actually dealt with all 188 00:10:33.289 --> 00:10:35.710 that stuff was kind of like, Oh, this is a 189 00:10:35.750 --> 00:10:39.809 much bigger responsibility than what we set out do initially, 190 00:10:39.870 --> 00:10:41.830 which was just going to be this fun, goofy book 191 00:10:41.909 --> 00:10:46.970 about crazy Christians, believing that age mute Ninja turtles are 192 00:10:47.029 --> 00:10:50.740 satanic or whatever, you know? Um, So, yeah, but that 193 00:10:50.779 --> 00:10:53.220 was an interesting challenge because it kind of set us 194 00:10:53.379 --> 00:10:56.919 up for, you know, how we approach things like that. 195 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.100 You know, like it's like when we're picking a topic 196 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:00.779 to do, that's the kind of thing you have to 197 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:03.120 think about, because if you have an opinion about a movie, 198 00:11:03.519 --> 00:11:06.879 it's not going to matter really to people, you know, 199 00:11:06.919 --> 00:11:09.919 like it doesn't affect their life if you don't like 200 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:13.529 their movie or whatever. But if you're saying something about 201 00:11:13.549 --> 00:11:16.950 their child being molested and you not believing it or something, 202 00:11:16.990 --> 00:11:20.370 that's a totally different thing, you know. So we just 203 00:11:20.409 --> 00:11:23.029 tried to be as respectful as possible. But the book 204 00:11:23.090 --> 00:11:26.940 is still full of amazing imagery from movies and stuff 205 00:11:26.980 --> 00:11:29.460 like that, you know. But yeah, so those were like 206 00:11:29.500 --> 00:11:32.659 our first two books. Satanic Panic did really well. It's 207 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.620 still in print now because Fab Press in the UK 208 00:11:35.980

--> 00:11:38.840 basically took it on. I didn't like doing reprints like 209 00:11:38.860 --> 00:11:41.779 because I found it too boring. Well, it's just not 210 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:45.220 it's hard to get excited again about reprinting books you 211 00:11:45.259 --> 00:11:49.669 already did and then having to store them somewhere. So 212 00:11:49.690 --> 00:11:53.049 I basically licensed it out to Fat Press. So all 213 00:11:53.090 --> 00:11:57.909 the subsequent editions have been published by them. And yeah. 214 00:11:58.190 --> 00:12:00.549 And then 2017, we did two books. We did the 215 00:12:00.610 --> 00:12:04.980 Yuletide Terror, Christmas Horror on film and television. Did the 216 00:12:05.049 --> 00:12:08.779 Lost Girls, which is the one that Sam Deegan curated 217 00:12:08.820 --> 00:12:13.240 about the films of Jean Rollin. And the Rollin one 218 00:12:13.299 --> 00:12:15.740 sold out super fast. We got so much press on that. 219 00:12:15.799 --> 00:12:19.580 That was like a... perfect timing kind of thing, where 220 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:23.250 it was like people were just starting to become re-interested, 221 00:12:23.389 --> 00:12:26.230 or in many cases, interested for the first time in 222 00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:29.429 Jean Rollin and his world and his films. And there 223 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:32.710 was a bunch of them being restored for Blu-ray and 224 00:12:32.769 --> 00:12:34.870 stuff at the same time. And the fact that it 225 00:12:34.909 --> 00:12:38.539 was all women that wrote for this book meant there 226 00:12:38.580 --> 00:12:41.100 was all kinds of press we got that we probably 227 00:12:41.159 --> 00:12:45.299 wouldn't have got if it was a mixed authorship, you know? 228 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:48.679 But because it was all women, writing about these weird, 229 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:53.759 poetic sexploitation films, a lot of writers really grasped onto 230 00:12:53.820 --> 00:12:57.320 that idea of like the feminist audience of genre length. 231 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:02.409 And so we really benefited from that. And that book, unfortunately, 232 00:13:02.549 --> 00:13:07.230 is not, it hasn't been in print since 2017. And 233 00:13:07.330 --> 00:13:09.769 I can't get it back in print because my license 234 00:13:09.830 --> 00:13:12.629 for the original, I get emailed about that book so 235 00:13:12.820 --> 00:13:14.740 often from people who are asking if I'm going to 236 00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:19.549 reprint it. But My license lasted five years. I had 237 00:13:19.590 --> 00:13:22.169 an agreement with Sam Deegan and she had all the 238 00:13:22.230 --> 00:13:25.990 individual contracts with the different writers. And part of that 239 00:13:26.110 --> 00:13:28.230 strategy was that I was trying to keep my Canadian 240 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:31.649 content quota because I was still thinking at that point 241 00:13:31.690 --> 00:13:33.570 I'll get a grant. So I didn't want to have 242 00:13:33.629 --> 00:13:37.490 all these like American authors and stuff like making my 243 00:13:37.570 --> 00:13:40.440 roster look like it was mostly American. So I basically 244 00:13:40.460 --> 00:13:43.059 made a deal with one American. It was Sam. And 245 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:46.419 then she made the agreements with the authors. But The 246 00:13:46.460 --> 00:13:50.210 problem is that some of those authors no longer speak 247 00:13:50.230 --> 00:13:55.730 to each other. So getting an anthology back together, you know, 248 00:13:55.769 --> 00:13:58.309 like I would have to relicense everything. And even if 249 00:13:58.409 --> 00:14:01.970 I licensed everything with the people individually, some of them 250 00:14:02.029 --> 00:14:04.669 don't want to be in the book anymore. You know, 251 00:14:04.789 --> 00:14:06.830 so I haven't been able to get that book in 252 00:14:06.889 --> 00:14:11.299 print again because of people not liking each other anymore 253 00:14:11.320 --> 00:14:13.539 and not wanting to be in the same book with 254 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:19.419 each other. It's unfortunate. I mean, it's it's kind of 255 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.399 sucks because it's just like like literally every other author 256 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:26.940 that did this work is now not being getting royalties 257 00:14:27.000 --> 00:14:29.580 that they could be getting because I get requested for 258 00:14:29.620 --> 00:14:32.500 this book all the time. And I've tried a few 259 00:14:32.559 --> 00:14:35.960 times to appeal for it to be done. But it's yeah, 260 00:14:36.000 --> 00:14:38.419 there's just some people who won't agree to it. And 261 00:14:39.259 --> 00:14:43.539 the idea of cutting out their chapter just feels like 262 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:48.039 it's not the book anymore. Like everybody has to be 263 00:14:48.139 --> 00:14:50.519 on board. And that was also a lesson I learned 264 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:55.009 about doing anthologies was like, my licenses were too short. 265 00:14:55.809 --> 00:14:58.129 You know, like I wasn't leaving enough time, you know, 266 00:14:58.190 --> 00:15:00.769 for the books to get an audience, like the way that, 267 00:15:01.450 --> 00:15:03.570 you know, they don't always get an audience right out 268 00:15:03.610 --> 00:15:06.149 of the gate. Sometimes they get an audience a few 269 00:15:06.169 --> 00:15:08.809 years down the road. And I didn't leave long enough 270 00:15:08.889 --> 00:15:12.039 licenses for that to happen, for the books to get 271 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:16.500 like a second wind or whatever. And yeah, and I learned, 272 00:15:17.190 --> 00:15:21.149 about changing wording in the contract so that I could 273 00:15:21.230 --> 00:15:25.450 extend licenses and stuff, you know, so that this kind 274 00:15:25.470 --> 00:15:28.309 of thing doesn't happen again. But yeah, so that was 275 00:15:28.350 --> 00:15:31.850 a learning experience, but it's still very, I do, you know, there's, 276 00:15:32.570 -->

00:15:35.830 there's various things happening at spectacular optical, but it's still 277 00:15:35.929 --> 00:15:39.529 just me doing it, you know? So it is very, 278 00:15:39.629 --> 00:15:43.250 it's got a very lackadaisical pace, you know, I don't 279 00:15:43.389 --> 00:15:46.940 put stuff out constantly. And because of that, it's been 280 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:51.370 hard to get proper distribution because they want clients that 281 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:56.529 are producing more regularly. So my books aren't even on 282 00:15:56.649 --> 00:15:59.429 Amazon because I cannot figure out how to get them there. 283 00:16:01.269 --> 00:16:05.710 And yeah, so they're basically like direct-to-consumer sales, and it's 284 00:16:05.769 --> 00:16:11.509 just me managing everything. So it's kind of like in 285 00:16:11.549 --> 00:16:13.970 between this place where it's kind of a hobby press, 286 00:16:14.590 --> 00:16:20.129 but not because it costs a lot of money. But 287 00:16:20.169 --> 00:16:22.210 I run it kind of like a hobby press in 288 00:16:22.269 --> 00:16:24.710 terms of the pace of everything. And, you know, I 289 00:16:24.750 --> 00:16:26.850 do it around my job, you know. 290 00:16:27.649 --> 00:16:32.389 Where did the idea for the Robert Downey compilation come from? 291 00:16:33.210 --> 00:16:36.059 That was a conversation I had with my friend Clint Enns, 292 00:16:36.120 --> 00:16:40.659 who is co-editor of the book, back in 2013 or 2014. 293 00:16:41.529 --> 00:16:44.690 It was like, I remember we were watching the Eclipse, 294 00:16:44.730 --> 00:16:47.250 Criterion had their Eclipse box set that they put out, 295 00:16:47.450 --> 00:16:51.429 a bunch of Downey's early films, and we were watching that, 296 00:16:51.490 --> 00:16:53.289 and we were like, how come there's, and the thing is, 297 00:16:53.330 --> 00:16:58.470 those Eclipse box sets have no extra. You know, so 298 00:16:58.509 --> 00:17:03.370 they're just, there's nothing. No context or anything. And So 299 00:17:03.389 --> 00:17:05.450 we were just like, why is there no book about 300 00:17:05.509 --> 00:17:08.210 Robert Downey Sr.? There should be a book about his films. 301 00:17:08.269 --> 00:17:10.589 And so it really came about because we were trying 302 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:12.829 to find a book about his films so that we 303 00:17:12.869 --> 00:17:17.680 could just find readings of his films because they had 304 00:17:17.740 --> 00:17:21.500 such a weird humor, you know, and a lot of 305 00:17:21.539 --> 00:17:24.799 people were we knew didn't really know how to read 306 00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:28.599 his humor, you know, and we were just really wishing 307 00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:31.359 there were some sort of critical book or something or 308 00:17:31.420 --> 00:17:33.950 some even just a history of his films or anything. 309 00:17:33.970 --> 00:17:36.680 And there was just nothing. And so we were not 310 00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:40.460 like experts in Robert Denny Sr. by any means. You know, 311 00:17:40.660 --> 00:17:43.759 when we started having conversations about doing the book, it 312 00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.160 was just because there was kind of like a hole 313 00:17:46.460 --> 00:17:49.609 that we were like, this book should exist. So we 314 00:17:49.809 --> 00:17:52.829 started trying to find people who knew a lot about 315 00:17:52.990 --> 00:17:56.930 his films to write chapters for this book. And originally 316 00:17:57.730 --> 00:18:01.279 first had the idea and it's first started reaching out 317 00:18:01.339 --> 00:18:05.990 to people. Lewis Black from the Austin Chronicle contacted me. 318 00:18:06.019 --> 00:18:08.660 He was like, oh, I'll totally write a chapter and 319 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:11.640 I'll get Jonathan Demme to write a chapter and I'll 320 00:18:11.660 --> 00:18:15.019 get Paul Thomas Anderson to write a chapter. And then, 321 00:18:15.859 --> 00:18:18.039 so at first I'm thinking, oh, this is amazing. I'm 322 00:18:18.059 --> 00:18:20.079 going to have this great lineup of people, you know, 323 00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:24.019 and it's just going to work like this domino effect 324 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:26.990 where they all get each other involved and stuff. But 325 00:18:27.029 --> 00:18:31.130 then literally within days of us even having this idea, 326 00:18:31.250 --> 00:18:34.250 like we had just started reaching out to people. And 327 00:18:34.269 --> 00:18:37.970 we contacted Andrew Lampert, who used to work at Anthology 328 00:18:37.990 --> 00:18:40.970 Film Archives. And we were like, you know, he had 329 00:18:41.130 --> 00:18:44.539 done some writing or interviews or something with Downey. And 330 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:46.079 so we were just sort of like, hey, do you 331 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:48.380 want to write something for this book? You know, and 332 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.240 we're like, keep everything confidential for now, because we're literally 333 00:18:51.279 --> 00:18:55.180 just starting to investigate if there's enough people to do 334 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.319 this and stuff like that. And The next day, I 335 00:18:58.359 --> 00:19:03.210 get an email from Rosemary Downey that Andrew Lampert has 336 00:19:03.289 --> 00:19:06.009 told her about this book happening and Bob does not 337 00:19:06.069 --> 00:19:09.970 want this book to exist. And so then there goes 338 00:19:10.049 --> 00:19:14.220 Jonathan Demme and Paul Thomas Anderson and Louis Black and 339 00:19:14.279 --> 00:19:18.680 Wheeler Winston Dixon, who actually handed his essay in really fast. 340 00:19:19.259 --> 00:19:21.619 He agreed to do it and wrote his essay really 341 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:25.849 fucking fast. And then he pulled his essay out because 342 00:19:25.930 --> 00:19:29.529 Bob didn't want this book to exist. And so I've 343 00:19:29.630 --> 00:19:31.630 sent her a whole bunch of my books, I sent 344 00:19:31.670 --> 00:19:34.980 her House of Psychotic

Women, like I tried made an appeal, 345 00:19:35.079 --> 00:19:38.579 never heard anything back. And so then for a while, 346 00:19:38.700 --> 00:19:41.740 we were just, we were gonna forget it, we were 347 00:19:41.779 --> 00:19:44.119 just like, Oh, well, I guess, you know, if he 348 00:19:44.140 --> 00:19:46.390 doesn't support the book, we can't do it, you know, 349 00:19:46.630 --> 00:19:49.869 and all these people dropped out of it. And then 350 00:19:50.250 --> 00:19:52.630 I found out that CineFamily was doing, this is such 351 00:19:52.670 --> 00:19:55.950 a saga, sorry. I found out CineFamily was going to 352 00:19:55.970 --> 00:20:00.200 be doing a retrospective of Robert Downey Sr. 's films. 353 00:20:01.339 --> 00:20:05.380 And Hadrian from CineFamily contacted me and was just like, hey, 354 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:08.000 let's do something together. We can do the book together 355 00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:11.049 and all. I'll, you know, I'll get Bob on board 356 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:13.970 and whatever. And he was just like, you know, he's like, 357 00:20:14.009 --> 00:20:16.589 just don't reach out to him or anything because like, 358 00:20:16.670 --> 00:20:19.150 I'll take care of it. And I know him and blah. 359 00:20:19.190 --> 00:20:21.650 So I was thinking again, like, oh, this is great. Like, 360 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.109 I'm going to have this partner to do the book with, 361 00:20:24.130 --> 00:20:27.710 but I'll have like so much more sources and promotion 362 00:20:27.730 --> 00:20:30.519 and all this kind of stuff. And then their retrospective 363 00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.039 was getting closer. It was like going to be happening 364 00:20:33.059 --> 00:20:36.359 in December. And I contacted Hadrian about, I was like, okay, 365 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:38.480 I'm going to buy my plane ticket to come down. 366 00:20:39.349 --> 00:20:41.869 For this thing. And he was like, oh, you can't 367 00:20:42.569 --> 00:20:44.930 come to it. And I was like, what do you 368 00:20:44.950 --> 00:20:46.650 mean I can't come to it? He's like, well, it's 369 00:20:46.710 --> 00:20:49.519 sold out. And I was like, well, yeah, but I mean, 370 00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:52.380 we're doing this thing together. And he's just like, yeah, 371 00:20:52.400 --> 00:20:55.019 we decided to just do our own book. And so 372 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:57.519 he just basically the whole thing was just him trying 373 00:20:57.539 --> 00:21:00.950 to keep me away from Downey for four months until 374 00:21:01.029 --> 00:21:04.390 his thing happened so that I would not kind of 375 00:21:04.430 --> 00:21:07.450 spook him from the idea of doing anything. So he 376 00:21:07.470 --> 00:21:10.160 just wanted me to stay away. from Downey. So then 377 00:21:10.200 --> 00:21:13.960 I wasted another four months thinking that I had people 378 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:17.119 on board. So then again, I gave up the idea 379 00:21:17.140 --> 00:21:18.980 of doing the book. I was

just like, oh my God, 380 00:21:19.019 --> 00:21:21.519 you know, all these obstacles. And that just kind of 381 00:21:21.559 --> 00:21:25.180 kept happening for like 10 years where I would be like, no, 382 00:21:25.240 --> 00:21:27.059 I got to do this. And I would start working 383 00:21:27.140 --> 00:21:30.220 on it again. And then we'd face obstacles from people 384 00:21:30.279 --> 00:21:33.640 I came to call the Downey bros, the Downey bros. 385 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:37.720 There was a lot of people, men who consider robert 386 00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:42.579 downey senior to be their property their intellectual property their 387 00:21:42.700 --> 00:21:48.349 cultural property don't like when other not. 388 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:53.390 That these people fucking do anything to share his legacy 389 00:21:53.630 --> 00:21:58.589 anywhere outside of their own immediate bubble but they did 390 00:21:58.750 --> 00:22:01.690 they just didn't you know just there was a lot 391 00:22:01.730 --> 00:22:06.390 of misdirection for 10 years a lot of misdirection and 392 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:10.009 By the end of it, me and Clint were just defiant. 393 00:22:10.069 --> 00:22:12.759 We were just like, we're just going to do this book. 394 00:22:13.460 --> 00:22:16.160 And people, a lot of people, I guess, won't be 395 00:22:16.220 --> 00:22:19.059 happy about it. But it's 10 years later and there 396 00:22:19.099 --> 00:22:21.440 still is no other book about him. I mean, the 397 00:22:21.480 --> 00:22:24.730 thing that CineFamily did was just reprinting some old articles 398 00:22:24.809 --> 00:22:27.490 and stuff like that. I mean, it was not a 399 00:22:27.950 --> 00:22:30.890 proper book or anything. So, well, we're just going to 400 00:22:30.950 --> 00:22:33.289 do this. It's going to have a bunch of Canadian writers. 401 00:22:33.309 --> 00:22:34.809 It's going to have a bunch of writers that are 402 00:22:34.829 --> 00:22:38.650 not known for their writing about Robert Downey senior, but 403 00:22:38.930 --> 00:22:41.299 there's going to be some critical writing about his films 404 00:22:41.380 --> 00:22:41.960 and it'll. 405 00:22:41.779 --> 00:22:45.319 Be, it'll exist. And it'll be maybe someday there'll be 406 00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:48.380 another book about Robert Downey senior that has more of 407 00:22:48.440 --> 00:22:53.930 his friends involved. But until then this book exists, you know, 408 00:22:54.849 --> 00:22:57.579 and it's like, it's basically a, It's like we go 409 00:22:57.660 --> 00:23:00.200 film by film of all the films he directed, and 410 00:23:00.240 --> 00:23:02.299 we just tried to have an angle on the film. 411 00:23:02.460 --> 00:23:04.180 So a lot of the films were not about, a 412 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:06.319 lot of the chapters are not about how the film 413 00:23:06.359 --> 00:23:10.410 was made. It's more about the reception of the film. 414 00:23:10.490 --> 00:23:13.710 So it's either a reading of the film or something 415 00:23:13.750 --> 00:23:16.069 about the release of the film. Like Stephen Bessette wrote 416 00:23:16.089 --> 00:23:18.950 an epic chapter about the release of Sticks and Bones. 417 00:23:20.109 --> 00:23:22.990 And then there's other pieces that are more theoretical and stuff. 418 00:23:23.029 --> 00:23:26.170 But in general, it's like the way that an academic 419 00:23:26.210 --> 00:23:29.569 would approach a topic. They don't go out and interview people. 420 00:23:29.609 --> 00:23:33.640 They're just kind of doing readings of the films. The 421 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.420 approach that we ended up taking when we realized that 422 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:41.259 a lot of the people in Downey's circle are not 423 00:23:41.299 --> 00:23:44.400 going to come on board for this book. And then 424 00:23:44.420 --> 00:23:48.809 the ironic thing, sadly, is that now Downey has passed away. 425 00:23:49.460 --> 00:23:52.680 We sent the finished book to his widow, Rosemary, and 426 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:54.670 she wrote me and said, oh, my God, I wish 427 00:23:54.710 --> 00:23:59.089 Bob could see this. He would love this book. Wow. Yeah, 428 00:23:59.150 --> 00:24:02.890 she was like this chapter about the chapter about Putney 429 00:24:02.970 --> 00:24:06.150 Swope and stuff. It's like this person lives or no, 430 00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:08.359 it was the chapter about chafed elbows. She said it's 431 00:24:08.400 --> 00:24:12.559 like this person lives inside Bob's brain. And I mean, 432 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:15.990 I was so happy about this. But also I was 433 00:24:16.029 --> 00:24:18.509 just like, oh, my God, so much time was wasted. 434 00:24:18.569 --> 00:24:20.910 And he could have seen this book. He could have 435 00:24:20.950 --> 00:24:23.789 seen this book. It could have come out earlier, you know. 436 00:24:24.839 --> 00:24:25.779 Oh, wow. 437 00:24:26.579 --> 00:24:30.420 So that was depressing, you know. And that's all. But 438 00:24:30.460 --> 00:24:33.039 that's also part of my life. That's what happens. Every 439 00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:36.220 book I do, the people die before the book comes out. 440 00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:38.700 So if I ever say I'm going to write a 441 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:41.420 book about you, start preparing your will. 442 00:24:46.769 --> 00:24:54.609 It's true. I mean, not all of his work is available. 443 00:24:54.670 --> 00:24:58.089 How did, like, you know, you mentioned Sticks and Bones. 444 00:24:58.130 --> 00:25:00.089 I think maybe you can see that at the New 445 00:25:00.109 --> 00:25:01.269 York Public Library. 446 00:25:01.289 --> 00:25:04.750 So that was how I saw it originally when we 447 00:25:04.789 --> 00:25:07.069 were doing the book was I had to fly to 448 00:25:07.109 --> 00:25:08.869 New York, go to the New York Public Library and 449 00:25:08.910 --> 00:25:12.500 see it in the reference library there. But Somebody leaked 450 00:25:12.539 --> 00:25:15.769 it on YouTube a couple

of years ago. And I 451 00:25:15.809 --> 00:25:18.569 don't know if it's still there, but it was there 452 00:25:18.630 --> 00:25:21.569 long enough for me to take a download of it. 453 00:25:22.289 --> 00:25:26.210 So yeah, somebody put it up on YouTube. And I mean, 454 00:25:26.430 --> 00:25:30.250 Anthology Film Archives restored it in 2019 and then just 455 00:25:30.289 --> 00:25:31.609 sat on it. Wow. 456 00:25:31.890 --> 00:25:32.329 For years. 457 00:25:32.710 --> 00:25:34.880 Anytime somebody went, because I knew they were working on 458 00:25:34.910 --> 00:25:37.519 a restoration and I kept asking them about it and 459 00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:40.220 they kept telling me it wasn't ready. And then I 460 00:25:40.279 --> 00:25:46.339 found out I have seen film evidence of them playing 461 00:25:46.420 --> 00:25:50.140 it for Robert Downey Sr. in 2019. So that restoration 462 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:51.740 has been ready for quite a while. 463 00:25:52.539 --> 00:25:54.980 And then Sweet Smell of Sex, isn't that another one? 464 00:25:55.799 --> 00:25:57.720 Yeah, that's another one. How did I get that? I 465 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.900 got a porridge of that somehow. I got a bootleg 466 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:03.430 of it from somewhere. I mean, I'm assuming because that's a, 467 00:26:03.920 --> 00:26:06.019 I mean, that was a work fighter, right? So, I mean, 468 00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:09.059 that I think just came out. It was like, I 469 00:26:09.079 --> 00:26:10.920 don't know if it was out on something weird, but 470 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.400 it was probably something like that, how it got out, 471 00:26:13.480 --> 00:26:17.759 you know, originally. Because he did it for, like, a 472 00:26:18.369 --> 00:26:23.650 sexploitation producer. Weirdly, how we found out any detail about 473 00:26:23.690 --> 00:26:28.789 how that movie was made was from... I cannot remember 474 00:26:28.990 --> 00:26:31.319 who it was now. It's in the footnotes, or it'll 475 00:26:31.339 --> 00:26:34.039 be in the footnotes or the bibliography for that essay. 476 00:26:34.319 --> 00:26:38.220 But Clint, my co-editor, found he was reading it book 477 00:26:38.259 --> 00:26:41.369 about like Eddie Lamar or somebody like that like some 478 00:26:41.509 --> 00:26:46.470 Hollywood star and it was mentioned in their autobiography that 479 00:26:46.569 --> 00:26:51.509 they knew the producer that Downey made this movie for 480 00:26:51.650 --> 00:26:54.960 and it was just the most roundabout weird coincidence that 481 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:58.839 this movie happened to be mentioned in this person's biography 482 00:27:00.140 --> 00:27:02.380 and that was how we got some information you know 483 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:06.559 to put into that essay or you know About how 484 00:27:06.599 --> 00:27:09.160 it was, you know, what the process was of how 485 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:13.799 it was commissioned or whatever. Yeah, but that one is, 486 00:27:14.640 --> 00:27:17.640 it's certainly not one that is considered part of the 487 00:27:17.700 --> 00:27:21.549 Downey canon. You know, whenever people do Downey retrospectives, you know, 488 00:27:21.609 --> 00:27:24.970 they don't really play that movie. I don't know where 489 00:27:24.990 --> 00:27:26.970 there's like a print of it or anything. I don't 490 00:27:26.990 --> 00:27:29.809 know where my torrent came from, but I got it on, 491 00:27:30.210 --> 00:27:31.250 I think, Caragarga. 492 00:27:32.049 --> 00:27:33.970 Wow. Yeah. 493 00:27:35.039 --> 00:27:37.200 And and then there's lots of other like a lot 494 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:42.019 of his 80s movies are not available. But also so 495 00:27:42.059 --> 00:27:44.849 many people hate those movies, you know, like Downey hated them. 496 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:46.789 A lot of the ones he made in the early 80s. 497 00:27:47.890 --> 00:27:50.569 You know, he was on drugs at that point and 498 00:27:50.950 --> 00:27:55.869 did not does not consider them to be his authorship, 499 00:27:56.150 --> 00:27:59.460 you know, because he was like, hey, there was interference 500 00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:02.779 from producers on them. And there was also just him 501 00:28:03.400 --> 00:28:08.190 being drugged out. I guess, unable to negotiate his position, 502 00:28:08.990 --> 00:28:13.630 you know, competently or whatever. Because his ideas were up 503 00:28:13.670 --> 00:28:17.309 the academy. I mean, his original idea was that it 504 00:28:17.329 --> 00:28:19.240 was supposed to be all little kids. They weren't supposed 505 00:28:19.259 --> 00:28:21.160 to be teenagers. They were supposed to be little kids. 506 00:28:21.240 --> 00:28:23.140 And he was just like, basically, he's like, the joke 507 00:28:23.180 --> 00:28:26.119 doesn't work if they're teenagers. He's like, this whole movie 508 00:28:26.140 --> 00:28:29.329 doesn't work because he's like, if they were children, it 509 00:28:29.349 --> 00:28:33.309 would be funny, you know? And I'm like, yeah, I 510 00:28:33.349 --> 00:28:35.809 could see that, you know, so he so already making 511 00:28:35.849 --> 00:28:39.430 the film when the producers insisted on casting teenagers because 512 00:28:39.450 --> 00:28:41.890 they wanted to cash in on the burgeoning sort of 513 00:28:41.910 --> 00:28:46.740 sex comedy movies that were happening then. It was like, well, 514 00:28:46.819 --> 00:28:50.819 already the film is fucked, you know. And then like Moonbeam, 515 00:28:50.880 --> 00:28:54.819 which became America, you know, was shot in like 82, 516 00:28:54.819 --> 00:28:59.009 not released till 86. That one definitely has Downey in it. 517 00:28:59.859 --> 00:29:02.259 you know, I've read the script for it that he wrote, 518 00:29:02.400 --> 00:29:06.690 and the only thing different really is, or the main 519 00:29:06.730 --> 00:29:11.269 thing different is Richard Belzer's character. Richard Belzer was pretty 520 00:29:11.309 --> 00:29:14.190 much able to

take control of that character, and he 521 00:29:14.230 --> 00:29:18.160 has a co-writing credit on the movie, which, I mean, 522 00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:21.819 the writing that he did for the movie is incredibly racist, Belzer, 523 00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:26.049 but Yeah, so so his character, I think like at 524 00:29:26.089 --> 00:29:28.880 the time, the producers really wanted Belzer to have like 525 00:29:28.910 --> 00:29:32.240 a bigger role, you know, so yeah, so I think 526 00:29:32.279 --> 00:29:36.150 that's basically all the parts with Richard Belzer suck. Lots 527 00:29:36.210 --> 00:29:38.829 of other stuff about that movie is really fun. There's 528 00:29:38.910 --> 00:29:42.339 lots of good stuff in that movie. But all the 529 00:29:42.380 --> 00:29:44.720 Richard Belzer stuff is no good. And part of that 530 00:29:44.779 --> 00:29:49.150 is because it's not down. It's basically Richard Belzer writing 531 00:29:49.190 --> 00:29:53.289 his own character. But that one, again, it's like you 532 00:29:53.309 --> 00:29:56.369 can find it on VHS. So you can find VHS 533 00:29:56.430 --> 00:29:59.119 rips of it. online and a lot of the 80s 534 00:29:59.180 --> 00:30:01.609 stuff same thing you know it's like they existed on 535 00:30:01.650 --> 00:30:05.289 vhs so if you can find a vhs rip that's 536 00:30:05.369 --> 00:30:07.650 the best you're gonna see and so many of them 537 00:30:07.710 --> 00:30:12.599 have problems that it's hard for like a reissue company 538 00:30:12.619 --> 00:30:17.700 to spend the money restoring something like too much sun 539 00:30:18.279 --> 00:30:23.119 which is so homophobic it's not even all this is 540 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:25.289 the hard thing about his humor because the thing is 541 00:30:25.799 --> 00:30:29.559 It's not homophobic and it's not coming from a homophobic 542 00:30:29.579 --> 00:30:33.299 place or a racist place, but it's coming from kind 543 00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:36.440 of this old liberal place where there's like this brand 544 00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:40.599 of satire that would have been considered very progressive in 545 00:30:40.599 --> 00:30:46.740 1970 and is no longer progressive in 1986, you know? 546 00:30:48.259 --> 00:30:50.890 By the time you get to the late 80s, a 547 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.990 lot of this humor doesn't feel satirical anymore. It just 548 00:30:54.029 --> 00:30:59.119 feels very out of touch. very um just like dad 549 00:30:59.180 --> 00:31:02.839 joke kind of thing you know and so a lot 550 00:31:02.859 --> 00:31:05.480 of it is just not funny like the late 80s 551 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:10.059 stuff and rented lips which is really i mean some 552 00:31:10.099 --> 00:31:13.920 of his late 80s movies are really just showcases for 553 00:31:13.980 --> 00:31:18.210 robert downey jr you know so robert downey jr did 554 00:31:18.250 --> 00:31:21.930 a lot of his early character work in those films 555 00:31:21.990 --> 00:31:24.269 you know like a lot of the elasticity of his 556 00:31:24.349 --> 00:31:29.119 performances in later films, he's trying all that out in 557 00:31:29.460 --> 00:31:31.700 his dad's films, you know, because his dad just let 558 00:31:31.740 --> 00:31:34.059 him go nuts. But it's also one of the things 559 00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:36.940 we learned doing the book was how big of a 560 00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:40.509 role Elsie Downey, his wife, and Robert Downey Jr. 's 561 00:31:40.569 --> 00:31:43.910 mom played in all of his movies that are good. 562 00:31:44.910 --> 00:31:48.930 And it's also where you can see Robert Downey Jr. 563 00:31:49.029 --> 00:31:52.309 gets his acting style from his mom. You know, like, 564 00:31:52.410 --> 00:31:55.309 he is basically... All of the character work he does 565 00:31:55.869 --> 00:31:58.789 is based on her character work because she does. She's 566 00:31:59.349 --> 00:32:04.150 an incredible character performer in the movie Moment to Moment, 567 00:32:04.809 --> 00:32:07.680 which was recut and edited as Two Tons of Turquoise 568 00:32:07.700 --> 00:32:12.079 to Taos Tonight. She plays like 20 different characters, you know, 569 00:32:12.220 --> 00:32:14.480 in all these different skits and stuff, you know, so 570 00:32:14.740 --> 00:32:19.000 she's like incredible comic performer. It was such a shame 571 00:32:19.039 --> 00:32:22.549 that basically after her and Downey Splitch just didn't really 572 00:32:22.660 --> 00:32:26.369 act anymore. Because, yeah, she was so good. But, yeah, 573 00:32:26.470 --> 00:32:29.319 I don't know. There was... A lot of his films 574 00:32:29.390 --> 00:32:31.900 are hard to get, but I feel like if a 575 00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:36.140 proper box set could be done, then all those other films, 576 00:32:36.220 --> 00:32:39.240 those kind of secondary films, the flawed films or whatever, 577 00:32:39.319 --> 00:32:42.519 could all be part of that and could be properly contextualized. 578 00:32:42.660 --> 00:32:45.759 I think that could work. But some of the more, 579 00:32:45.779 --> 00:32:50.119 you know, popular films or whatever... Yeah, you would have to... 580 00:32:50.690 --> 00:32:54.059 You'd have to license them, sub-license them from other distributors 581 00:32:54.119 --> 00:32:59.640 who currently have them. But also, you know, there's Pound, 582 00:33:00.299 --> 00:33:04.440 which is the one studio, big studio film, which they've 583 00:33:04.539 --> 00:33:09.359 never released. And I actually traced, I didn't, we paid 584 00:33:09.839 --> 00:33:13.740 somebody to trace the copyright chain, chain of title for 585 00:33:13.759 --> 00:33:17.890 that film. Because everybody, you know, they've played it at Anthology. 586 00:33:17.950 --> 00:33:20.529 They played it at CineFamily. But they always said, oh, 587 00:33:20.569 --> 00:33:24.589 it's abandoned. It's an abandoned film. And it's not an 588 00:33:24.650 --> 00:33:30.009 abandoned film. It is owned by Amazon. It's owned by MGM, 589

00:33:30.049 --> 00:33:33.359 which is now Amazon. So it's most certainly not abandoned. 590 00:33:33.839 --> 00:33:36.720 And it is now bookable. You can book it from, 591 00:33:36.759 --> 00:33:38.480 because we kept trying to book it when we were 592 00:33:38.500 --> 00:33:42.039 doing the book launch events and stuff like that. We 593 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:45.829 could not get an answer out of MGM. or Amazon. 594 00:33:46.549 --> 00:33:49.549 And then it showed up on the Park Circus website. 595 00:33:50.089 --> 00:33:54.670 So Park Circus does theatrical. So they don't have like 596 00:33:54.690 --> 00:33:57.210 home video rights or anything, but they have theatrical rights 597 00:33:57.269 --> 00:34:00.329 and they have it now listed on their website. So 598 00:34:00.430 --> 00:34:03.039 you can book that movie as of a few months ago. 599 00:34:03.819 --> 00:34:05.839 So I'd like to think that was something to do 600 00:34:05.880 --> 00:34:10.139 with my prodding for that movie. But Yeah, I think 601 00:34:10.179 --> 00:34:13.079 that basically it was restored when they did the documentary 602 00:34:13.159 --> 00:34:16.039 Senior because there are clips from Pound in that movie 603 00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:19.070 that were much better quality than anything I had seen before. 604 00:34:19.159 --> 00:34:21.550 So I was like, oh, they must have done a 605 00:34:21.610 --> 00:34:26.550 proper scan of this movie for the documentary. And so, yeah, 606 00:34:26.630 --> 00:34:31.590 so it's it's available. It's it's in HD. Wow. But 607 00:34:31.630 --> 00:34:33.949 Sticks and Bones, I'm trying to figure out who owns 608 00:34:34.030 --> 00:34:36.130 Sticks and Bones. I don't know whether it would be 609 00:34:36.190 --> 00:34:39.530 CBS or whether it would be Joe Papp. or Joe 610 00:34:39.550 --> 00:34:43.550 Papp's estate itself or something, and Anthology Film Archives, who 611 00:34:43.690 --> 00:34:48.869 restored the movie, will not share this information. They will 612 00:34:48.889 --> 00:34:53.579 not share where the materials were deposited from. So they 613 00:34:53.619 --> 00:34:56.760 restored it and they played it last year when they 614 00:34:56.780 --> 00:35:01.280 did a Downey retrospective, which they, yeah, I don't want 615 00:35:01.320 --> 00:35:04.719 to get into it. But anyway, they have a restoration 616 00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.829 of it and it would be great if other people 617 00:35:07.869 --> 00:35:11.119 could play it. That's all I would say about that. 618 00:35:11.139 --> 00:35:17.099 Tell me about the move to distributing videos and this 619 00:35:17.199 --> 00:35:19.699 new venture that you're involved in now. 620 00:35:20.489 --> 00:35:27.610 Yeah, so basically Spectacular Optical, so I started a distribution branch, 621 00:35:27.670 --> 00:35:30.630 but again, it's very small. I'm only going to do 622 00:35:30.670 --> 00:35:32.849 one or two movies a year. It's not going to 623 00:35:32.889 --> 00:35:35.199 be a lot

because I have to kind of fit 624 00:35:35.260 --> 00:35:38.369 it in around my other job you know like I 625 00:35:38.389 --> 00:35:41.900 work for Severin still like that's my main focus and 626 00:35:41.980 --> 00:35:45.179 so everything else I do for Spectacular Optical or my 627 00:35:45.219 --> 00:35:47.119 own writing or anything like that has to be kind 628 00:35:47.139 --> 00:35:51.940 of done around Severin and the only reason I am 629 00:35:52.039 --> 00:35:54.769 doing my own label because I have quite a bit 630 00:35:54.789 --> 00:35:57.690 of autonomy at Severin in terms of acquiring films I 631 00:35:57.730 --> 00:36:00.449 want stuff like that is that there were certain films 632 00:36:00.489 --> 00:36:04.809 that I kept thinking of acquiring for Severin that were 633 00:36:04.829 --> 00:36:10.019 I just couldn't get it to fit. There was movies 634 00:36:10.079 --> 00:36:12.699 I was thinking of getting for all the Hans B. R. 635 00:36:12.699 --> 00:36:16.739 's for core box sets. There's this movie, Win Stanley, 636 00:36:16.760 --> 00:36:21.500 that I was trying to get from the BFI, but 637 00:36:21.539 --> 00:36:23.340 I just couldn't. I was going to put it on 638 00:36:23.380 --> 00:36:25.300 a disc with the field in England, and I still 639 00:36:25.340 --> 00:36:27.989 wish I had done that because it was a very 640 00:36:28.239 --> 00:36:31.489 obvious touchstone for a field in England, but it's just 641 00:36:31.650 --> 00:36:34.639 not a horror movie at all. It's just kind of 642 00:36:34.719 --> 00:36:39.400 like an uprising movie, like a drama, you know, very 643 00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:44.929 low budget, dramatic reenactment type film. And I just could 644 00:36:44.969 --> 00:36:46.849 not get it to fit in the folk horror box 645 00:36:46.869 --> 00:36:48.530 set because I'm just like, people are just going to 646 00:36:48.570 --> 00:36:50.750 be like, why the fuck is this movie here? You know? 647 00:36:51.630 --> 00:36:54.369 And so I never released it. And then when it 648 00:36:54.409 --> 00:36:56.940 came to the second box set, I was really looking 649 00:36:57.039 --> 00:37:00.449 at A Year in a Field. and trying to shoehorn 650 00:37:00.550 --> 00:37:03.210 it into that box set and being like, well, it's 651 00:37:03.269 --> 00:37:05.489 about a standing stone. So maybe we can put it 652 00:37:05.570 --> 00:37:09.139 on the disc with psychomania, you know, because it's got 653 00:37:09.199 --> 00:37:12.300 standing stone. And but again, it was the same thing 654 00:37:12.340 --> 00:37:14.139 where I was just like, if I put this on here, 655 00:37:14.179 --> 00:37:15.500 people are just going to be like, what the fuck 656 00:37:15.539 --> 00:37:17.599 is this movie? Why is this here? Like, this is 657 00:37:17.639 --> 00:37:20.309 not horror, you know, like it's not even like some 658 00:37:20.329 --> 00:37:23.150 of the things in the box set people already argue 659 00:37:23.369 --> 00:37:26.590 are not horror, but it's at least close enough that 660 00:37:27.070 --> 00:37:30.300 you can understand why it's there. But this I was like, 661 00:37:31.059 --> 00:37:32.860 no one is going to understand why this is there. 662 00:37:32.900 --> 00:37:35.360 It's not going to make sense to them. But those 663 00:37:35.440 --> 00:37:38.380 movies still stuck with me and were kind of eating 664 00:37:38.519 --> 00:37:40.380 at me, you know, and I just was like a 665 00:37:40.420 --> 00:37:43.039 year in a field. Severin is not going to want 666 00:37:43.079 --> 00:37:45.619 that movie. It's like even if I convinced David to 667 00:37:45.679 --> 00:37:48.309 release it, which I could if I pushed for it, 668 00:37:49.139 --> 00:37:53.000 if it underperformed compared to what he wants, that's going 669 00:37:53.019 --> 00:37:56.360 to affect my ability to pitch other movie to Severin. 670 00:37:57.130 --> 00:37:59.889 So I was like, because I already know this is 671 00:37:59.949 --> 00:38:02.269 going to be such a niche audience for this movie, 672 00:38:02.489 --> 00:38:05.869 I don't want to like waste whatever pull I have 673 00:38:05.909 --> 00:38:10.050 at Severance on a movie that I already feel might 674 00:38:10.130 --> 00:38:12.769 be for a really limited audience, you know? So I 675 00:38:12.809 --> 00:38:15.030 was just like, you know what? So I asked my 676 00:38:15.070 --> 00:38:18.030 friend Andy Starr, who's a producer, he's done a bunch 677 00:38:18.070 --> 00:38:21.670 of Ben Wheatley movies and stuff. Um, but he was the, 678 00:38:22.059 --> 00:38:23.960 he was the person who first sent me the link 679 00:38:24.019 --> 00:38:25.739 to a year in a field because he was like, oh, 680 00:38:25.760 --> 00:38:28.420 I think you will like this movie. Right. Of course. 681 00:38:29.059 --> 00:38:31.059 And so I contacted him and I was just like, 682 00:38:31.079 --> 00:38:33.119 do you think they would go for like a really 683 00:38:33.239 --> 00:38:37.309 small deal for me if I start my own label 684 00:38:37.909 --> 00:38:40.969 to release this movie? And it turns out they did. 685 00:38:41.050 --> 00:38:46.090 So they accepted my very piddly offer. And the fact 686 00:38:46.110 --> 00:38:48.750 that I had no credibility as a distributor on my 687 00:38:48.869 --> 00:38:51.659 own or anything, they took a chance on me. And 688 00:38:51.699 --> 00:38:54.480 it's been so great working with that film because, like, 689 00:38:55.219 --> 00:38:57.679 I love the film. I loved doing the extras for 690 00:38:57.699 --> 00:39:00.900 the film. I edited all the extras myself. Well, one 691 00:39:00.920 --> 00:39:03.739 of them was partially one of them was co-edited, actually, 692 00:39:03.780 --> 00:39:08.639 with Will Sheff from Pocerville River. did a Q & 693 00:39:08.179 --> 00:39:11.329 A with the director in Los Angeles. And so he 694 00:39:11.349 --> 00:39:13.590 sort of did first pass at editing it. And then 695 00:39:13.769 --> 00:39:16.750 I went in and

cut in clips and titles and 696 00:39:16.789 --> 00:39:19.969 stuff like that. But anyway, I edited most of them 697 00:39:20.250 --> 00:39:23.030 and put that disc together myself and work with the 698 00:39:23.170 --> 00:39:26.010 artist and everything. And he did the cover and stuff. 699 00:39:26.070 --> 00:39:28.929 And I don't know, I was really happy with it. 700 00:39:29.130 --> 00:39:32.179 And I continue to work with the director now. And 701 00:39:32.519 --> 00:39:35.360 we're working on releasing the soundtrack. We're going to do 702 00:39:35.400 --> 00:39:37.179 an LP of the soundtrack. And we're also going to 703 00:39:37.239 --> 00:39:40.659 do a book of his photographs because he actually documented 704 00:39:40.719 --> 00:39:45.210 that standing stone for a decade just in still photographs 705 00:39:45.309 --> 00:39:48.570 before he started making the film. So it was like 706 00:39:48.710 --> 00:39:51.469 the film was like the culmination of a 10 year obsession. 707 00:39:51.530 --> 00:39:54.170 And he actually still goes to that stone all the time. 708 00:39:54.909 --> 00:39:57.429 So how did you even run across that movie the 709 00:39:57.449 --> 00:39:57.909 first time? 710 00:39:58.710 --> 00:40:00.849 Well, because my friend Andy Stark sent it to me. 711 00:40:01.369 --> 00:40:03.389 He just recommended it and said he thought I would 712 00:40:03.409 --> 00:40:06.389 like it. And it had played, you know, when it 713 00:40:06.429 --> 00:40:09.820 first came out in 2023, it did a bunch of festivals. 714 00:40:09.860 --> 00:40:12.300 It did like the but it didn't play like a 715 00:40:12.389 --> 00:40:14.260 lot of the types of festivals that I pay attention 716 00:40:14.300 --> 00:40:16.880 to other than some doc fest. So it played Sheffield 717 00:40:16.920 --> 00:40:19.570 Doc Fest. which I do pay attention to, but otherwise 718 00:40:19.610 --> 00:40:21.929 it played a lot of like environmental festivals and stuff. 719 00:40:22.599 --> 00:40:25.579 So it wasn't, wouldn't have been on my radar necessarily 720 00:40:25.619 --> 00:40:29.719 without Andy Stark recommending it. But Andy sends me movies 721 00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:32.139 like that occasionally. He'll just be like, I have the, 722 00:40:32.219 --> 00:40:33.969 you know, I saw this weird little movie and I 723 00:40:33.989 --> 00:40:36.730 think you might like it. And he's always right. He 724 00:40:36.789 --> 00:40:40.570 gets my taste pretty well. But yeah, that was how 725 00:40:40.630 --> 00:40:43.969 I found it. And it just stuck with me. You know, 726 00:40:44.030 --> 00:40:46.110 I watched it and I just was thinking about two 727 00:40:46.139 --> 00:40:47.880 years later, I was still thinking about it. And I 728 00:40:47.909 --> 00:40:52.860 was just like, nobody has released that movie. So, I mean, 729 00:40:52.880 --> 00:40:56.079 that's the only reason I started my own label was 730 00:40:56.239 --> 00:40:58.579 for movies that kind of ate at me like that,

731 00:40:59.280 --> 00:41:01.559 you know? So it's like, I'm not out there looking 732 00:41:01.619 --> 00:41:04.699 for movies to buy. I'm not, you know, wheeling and 733 00:41:04.739 --> 00:41:09.260 dealing or I'm trying to, you know, It's really just 734 00:41:09.320 --> 00:41:13.059 like this movie is just living with me somehow. And 735 00:41:13.500 --> 00:41:17.559 no one has put it out. And I just want 736 00:41:17.599 --> 00:41:21.050 it to be out there. And so I'll take a 737 00:41:21.090 --> 00:41:24.449 chance and see if the distributors are willing to or 738 00:41:24.489 --> 00:41:28.010 the licensors are willing to work with a small person 739 00:41:28.050 --> 00:41:31.090 like me, you know. So that was kind of how 740 00:41:31.170 --> 00:41:33.909 it started. But also because I worked through Severin, I 741 00:41:33.929 --> 00:41:35.969 made a deal with them that's very similar to the 742 00:41:36.110 --> 00:41:39.190 OCN deal. It's a bit, you know, it's a better 743 00:41:39.230 --> 00:41:43.170 deal than the OCN deal, but it's structured similarly, you know, 744 00:41:43.210 --> 00:41:46.260 where it's basically like, you know, OCN has all their 745 00:41:46.300 --> 00:41:49.920 partner labels and stuff, you know, and so I basically 746 00:41:50.019 --> 00:41:53.079 have to hand in a finished disc, like ready for 747 00:41:53.219 --> 00:41:58.500 authoring to Severin. but they replicate it at their replicators. 748 00:41:58.920 --> 00:42:01.519 I have to send them print-ready art for the packaging, 749 00:42:01.559 --> 00:42:05.019 but they pay for the manufacturing at their manufacturers. And 750 00:42:05.039 --> 00:42:08.119 then it goes into their distribution cycle. So it goes 751 00:42:08.280 --> 00:42:12.260 into their direct consumer sales, but it also goes to 752 00:42:12.280 --> 00:42:18.659 their wider distribution, which is MVD. So MVD, distribution outside of, 753 00:42:18.800 --> 00:42:23.960 or dissemination, I should say, because distribution is a term 754 00:42:24.030 --> 00:42:29.849 that people misuse a lot. But like they're like aggregators 755 00:42:29.909 --> 00:42:32.969 or disseminators, you know, so they basically take movies from 756 00:42:33.010 --> 00:42:35.820 all these distributors and they get them out onto streamers. 757 00:42:35.880 --> 00:42:38.780 They get them out into big box stores, you know, 758 00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:42.420 like more mainstream. You know, they do like more mainstream 759 00:42:42.480 --> 00:42:46.719 dissemination that we don't really have the contacts for. So 760 00:42:46.780 --> 00:42:49.159 we do a lot of our business direct to consumer, 761 00:42:49.800 --> 00:42:53.980 but it's supplemented by what MVD does, which reaches a 762 00:42:54.119 --> 00:43:00.369 wider audience. audience but like a less dedicated audience you 763 00:43:00.409 --> 00:43:04.409 know yeah so it basically my movie goes through that 764 00:43:04.489 --> 00:43:08.409 whole chain still so it's so anything I release has 765 00:43:08.469 --> 00:43:11.989 the same chances in the market as anything Severin releases 766 00:43:12.139 --> 00:43:15.300 even though Severin is a much bigger distributor so. 767 00:43:15.619 --> 00:43:18.699 Makes sense well what's on the docket for the next 768 00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:22.239 releases do you have that all planned out Yeah, I. 769 00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:24.480 Sent out a press release back when I, you know, 770 00:43:24.500 --> 00:43:25.940 like when I first announced I was going to be 771 00:43:25.980 --> 00:43:28.280 doing Blu-rays, I sent out a press release that had 772 00:43:28.320 --> 00:43:30.980 my first six titles on it. So I have right 773 00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:36.820 now in restoration, I have Pure Shit, the Australian film, 774 00:43:37.659 --> 00:43:40.639 which is a 1975 drug movie. It's like a day 775 00:43:40.679 --> 00:43:45.000 in the life, Melbourne junkies. And I, it was like 776 00:43:45.019 --> 00:43:47.539 when I lived in Australia, this was a favorite movie 777 00:43:47.639 --> 00:43:49.880 of many people that I knew. but it had never 778 00:43:49.940 --> 00:43:52.539 been released in North America. And again, it was one 779 00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:54.380 of those things that just kind of stuck with me, like, 780 00:43:54.420 --> 00:43:57.510 why isn't this movie out? And so then I contacted 781 00:43:57.570 --> 00:44:01.230 the daughter of the director who'd passed away and arranged, 782 00:44:01.650 --> 00:44:03.610 you know, to do a new restoration of it. So 783 00:44:03.650 --> 00:44:08.849 that's in restoration right now. And also Melody is in restoration. 784 00:44:08.909 --> 00:44:12.710 Melody is the movie directed by, it's written by Alan Parker, 785 00:44:12.730 --> 00:44:17.260 directed by Weres Hussein, came out in 1971. with Jack 786 00:44:17.340 --> 00:44:20.349 Wilde and Mark Lester from Oliver. So it's kind of like, 787 00:44:20.989 --> 00:44:23.809 it's a puppy love movie set in this, you know, 788 00:44:23.849 --> 00:44:28.110 British school. And, you know, it's like little kids, you know, 789 00:44:28.150 --> 00:44:30.679 they're supposed to be 12 or whatever, even though Jack 790 00:44:30.719 --> 00:44:34.840 Wilde is 19 or 20. I think he's 19 in 791 00:44:35.400 --> 00:44:38.900 the film. He's actually much older than the character he's playing. 792 00:44:39.679 --> 00:44:43.510 But yeah, it's an adorable movie. It's literally the most 793 00:44:43.530 --> 00:44:46.010 adorable movie ever made, if you've never seen this movie. 794 00:44:46.769 --> 00:44:48.949 You will agree with me when you see it, I promise. 795 00:44:49.630 --> 00:44:51.739 And all the music is by the early Bee Gees. 796 00:44:51.820 --> 00:44:54.500 So this is like the Baroque pop era of the 797 00:44:54.539 --> 00:44:58.059 Bee Gees. So it's like before disco and everything. It's like... Yeah, 798 00:44:58.860 --> 00:45:01.579 because they had this whole other career before that disco.

799 00:45:02.300 --> 00:45:06.369 Yeah, they were telling jokes. And no one's laughing at them. 800 00:45:07.269 --> 00:45:07.829 Exactly. 801 00:45:07.849 --> 00:45:10.829 Doomed or Doomed Love? 802 00:45:11.590 --> 00:45:14.989 Oh, Doomed Love, yeah. So that was another one where... 803 00:45:15.269 --> 00:45:18.130 I think I saw that movie. I was doing a 804 00:45:18.170 --> 00:45:21.429 commentary for the film Decoder, which is like the only 805 00:45:21.730 --> 00:45:25.230 vinegar syndrome commentary I've ever done. But it was about 806 00:45:25.250 --> 00:45:27.750 this movie that I used to play as a film programmer. 807 00:45:27.769 --> 00:45:33.349 It's basically about like corporate Muzak, you know, and like 808 00:45:33.389 --> 00:45:37.369 this Muzak being used to brainwash people and this resistance 809 00:45:37.469 --> 00:45:39.369 that comes up against the Muzak and stuff. 810 00:45:39.989 --> 00:45:45.730 And it's a German early 80s. And The main character 811 00:45:45.789 --> 00:45:48.920 in that movie is a sort of New York, Lower 812 00:45:49.000 --> 00:45:53.800 East Side, avant-garde underground movie guy named Bill Wright. So 813 00:45:53.840 --> 00:45:55.480 he was like an actor in a lot of New 814 00:45:55.519 --> 00:45:58.980 York movies of that time. And, you know, he's like 815 00:45:59.019 --> 00:46:02.809 an older actor, but he's just like a character face 816 00:46:02.909 --> 00:46:05.949 type of guy. And so he was cast as the 817 00:46:06.849 --> 00:46:10.250 in Decoder. And so I started looking. you know, when 818 00:46:10.269 --> 00:46:12.199 I was doing the commentary, I was researching all these 819 00:46:12.239 --> 00:46:14.599 other movies he was in. So in this movie, Doomed 820 00:46:14.659 --> 00:46:17.380 Love came up that had been directed by the same 821 00:46:17.559 --> 00:46:21.280 director who did the Nomi song documentary about Klaus Nomi, 822 00:46:21.340 --> 00:46:24.550 which I love. And it was an early movie that 823 00:46:24.670 --> 00:46:28.369 he made where all the sets are made out of cardboard, 824 00:46:28.429 --> 00:46:31.750 the same as like Forbidden Zone, you know, where everything 825 00:46:31.829 --> 00:46:35.239 is just like two dimensional painted cardboard set. And I 826 00:46:35.340 --> 00:46:38.429 love that style i was talking to a friend of 827 00:46:38.469 --> 00:46:41.070 mine just yesterday about some other movie he saw with 828 00:46:41.110 --> 00:46:42.869 that style and i was just like is there a 829 00:46:42.969 --> 00:46:45.269 name for that like there's like i don't know if 830 00:46:45.289 --> 00:46:48.349 there is a term for that like it's basically like 831 00:46:48.389 --> 00:46:52.090 a theatrical set kind of you know like a cheap 832 00:46:52.130 --> 00:46:56.380 theatrical set where it's like painted doorways and painted you 833 00:46:56.409 --> 00:47:00.599 know whatever everything's just painted on 2d cardboard or whatever 834 00:47:01.460 --> 00:47:05.400 or flats you know um and so it's just got 835 00:47:05.420 --> 00:47:08.690 this weird surreal aspect to it and it's just like 836 00:47:08.769 --> 00:47:11.789 a sad story of a guy who's trying to get 837 00:47:11.889 --> 00:47:15.590 over a lost love and you know speaking to a 838 00:47:15.610 --> 00:47:18.239 therapist and it's yeah it's like very it's like a 839 00:47:18.280 --> 00:47:21.880 melodrama you know but all set on these like cardboard 840 00:47:21.920 --> 00:47:25.820 sets and it's a really really unique film and it 841 00:47:25.900 --> 00:47:27.619 again was one of those things that had just not 842 00:47:27.639 --> 00:47:31.110 been released since the 80s I think it came out 843 00:47:31.179 --> 00:47:34.289 on VHS you know when it was first new but 844 00:47:34.349 --> 00:47:37.320 not like by any big company or anything like that 845 00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:40.159 you know and yeah and it just that all of 846 00:47:40.260 --> 00:47:43.199 the negatives and everything were at an archive in Germany 847 00:47:44.179 --> 00:47:47.679 and you know so I just felt I was able 848 00:47:47.719 --> 00:47:50.880 to connect with the family through spectacle because spectacle in 849 00:47:50.940 --> 00:47:53.039 New York would play this film a lot they were 850 00:47:53.079 --> 00:47:55.380 like the only people I knew who played this film 851 00:47:56.219 --> 00:47:59.090 and so I contacted them and they connected me with 852 00:47:59.119 --> 00:48:03.030 the family so that I could license it and again 853 00:48:03.130 --> 00:48:05.780 it was kind of like I was able to get 854 00:48:05.840 --> 00:48:09.329 the movie affordably because the rest, my, the money was 855 00:48:09.349 --> 00:48:11.809 going to go into the restoration basically, you know, like 856 00:48:12.510 --> 00:48:15.010 because the film is on AD rolls, which means it's 857 00:48:15.070 --> 00:48:18.409 basically like scanning the film twice. It's like, there's twice 858 00:48:18.489 --> 00:48:22.289 as much footage. Um, so it's like double the cost 859 00:48:22.369 --> 00:48:26.210 of scanning a regular movie. And so because of that, 860 00:48:26.679 --> 00:48:28.570 you know, again, they were willing to give me a 861 00:48:28.639 --> 00:48:30.559 good deal as long as they could get a copy 862 00:48:30.599 --> 00:48:32.480 of the restoration at the end of it, you know, 863 00:48:32.739 --> 00:48:34.599 plus they get royalties and stuff, you know, so that, 864 00:48:35.099 --> 00:48:37.409 Whatever advance I give them is not the only money 865 00:48:37.469 --> 00:48:40.250 that they'll get. But yeah, it's just like I've been 866 00:48:40.289 --> 00:48:45.710 trying to work out with the licensors to kind of 867 00:48:46.670 --> 00:48:48.929 take a chance on making the money on the back end, 868 00:48:49.380 --> 00:48:51.679 you know, which is not really a deal people like. 869 00:48:52.440 --> 00:48:54.699 But for some of these movies, if they haven't been 870 00:48:55.199 -->

00:48:59.610 restored in decades, it's sometimes the best offer they've got, 871 00:49:00.329 --> 00:49:04.309 you know. So they're like, well, it's only a short license, too. Right. 872 00:49:04.349 --> 00:49:06.679 So it's like seven years is like the standard license 873 00:49:06.719 --> 00:49:10.039 for Blu-ray. So they're like, all right. So basically, I 874 00:49:10.079 --> 00:49:12.860 take this money. I got to wait another seven years 875 00:49:12.940 --> 00:49:15.769 before I can do anything with it again. But I'll 876 00:49:15.809 --> 00:49:18.809 have a new restoration that I can then license out 877 00:49:18.829 --> 00:49:22.559 to somebody else. So ultimately, I think for some of 878 00:49:22.579 --> 00:49:25.380 these people, it's worth it just to get the film restored. 879 00:49:26.599 --> 00:49:28.280 Who are you working with on the restoration? 880 00:49:29.159 --> 00:49:34.019 It varies. So the melody is being restored through Severin 881 00:49:34.139 --> 00:49:38.449 because we co-licensed that movie together. So it's going to 882 00:49:38.469 --> 00:49:42.829 be released together. So Severin is doing restoration on that. 883 00:49:42.909 --> 00:49:46.280 The restoration of pure shit is actually being done by 884 00:49:46.300 --> 00:49:48.960 a guy. I'm trying to remember what the name of 885 00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:51.159 his company is. It's like a guy that I've known forever. 886 00:49:51.199 --> 00:49:53.340 This guy named Doug McCaffrey from when I used to 887 00:49:53.380 --> 00:49:57.159 do my first film festival in Vancouver, San Muerte. There 888 00:49:57.199 --> 00:50:00.440 was this guy that was a printer. He was like 889 00:50:00.480 --> 00:50:03.929 a professional printer. And yeah, he had like a drum scanner, 890 00:50:03.969 --> 00:50:06.710 you know, so he would scan the images for my 891 00:50:06.789 --> 00:50:09.789 programs for the festival. But I would always have to 892 00:50:09.829 --> 00:50:12.650 like rip pages under my books in order to give 893 00:50:12.710 --> 00:50:15.090 them because it wasn't like a flatbed scanner. It was 894 00:50:15.130 --> 00:50:17.070 basically you had to give them the thing and it 895 00:50:17.090 --> 00:50:19.750 would go on this drum scanner and it would be 896 00:50:19.769 --> 00:50:22.570 like super high res, you know. And a lot of times, 897 00:50:22.610 --> 00:50:26.050 even though I was such a budget festival, other festivals 898 00:50:26.090 --> 00:50:29.260 in town would be like, oh, nice res. They would 899 00:50:29.320 --> 00:50:32.340 always compliment me on the resolution of my images. I 900 00:50:32.360 --> 00:50:34.400 was like, well, thank you. I've destroyed half my book 901 00:50:34.559 --> 00:50:37.849 getting those images. But anyway, he was always kind of 902 00:50:37.909 --> 00:50:41.619 a techie, but like an analog techie and stuff, you know. 903 00:50:42.460 --> 00:50:45.380 And so when he retired from being a printer, he 904 00:50:46.420 --> 00:50:50.460 bought a scanner and just started this like scanning operation. 905 00:50:50.500 --> 00:50:53.780 Then he got into restoration and stuff. And he told 906 00:50:53.840 --> 00:50:56.119 me that he was doing this, but I still didn't know. 907 00:50:56.159 --> 00:50:57.570 I was like, well, I don't know what the quality 908 00:50:57.610 --> 00:51:01.570 is of what he does. But then I contacted Todd, 909 00:51:01.650 --> 00:51:05.690 who's the lab manager, the lab archive manager guy at Severance. 910 00:51:06.489 --> 00:51:08.809 And I got him to look into everything that Doug 911 00:51:08.849 --> 00:51:12.920 was doing to see, does this match like Severin's standards? 912 00:51:12.960 --> 00:51:15.260 And he's like, oh yeah, no, it's good. That guy's good. 913 00:51:16.019 --> 00:51:18.599 So I was like, okay, great. So I basically am 914 00:51:18.619 --> 00:51:22.000 getting him to do the restoration on shit. Also, he's 915 00:51:22.039 --> 00:51:24.610 Canadian and he lives in the Gulf Islands like me. 916 00:51:24.710 --> 00:51:26.949 So I live in this little island called Bender Island. 917 00:51:27.949 --> 00:51:31.030 And about two or three islands up from me is 918 00:51:31.090 --> 00:51:35.469 another island called Cortez Island. Um, If you ever saw 919 00:51:35.489 --> 00:51:39.139 Avalon Fast's movie Honeycomb, I don't know if you saw that, 920 00:51:39.159 --> 00:51:41.099 it came out a few years ago. It was filmed 921 00:51:41.159 --> 00:51:43.739 on Cortez Island. So this is the island that Doug 922 00:51:43.800 --> 00:51:46.500 lives on and he has a little business there where 923 00:51:46.579 --> 00:51:50.860 it's like half film scanning and restoration and half he 924 00:51:50.920 --> 00:51:58.389 makes coffee. Like he makes coffee and has a cafe 925 00:51:58.730 --> 00:52:02.010 with his own homemade coffee. So he's carved out this 926 00:52:02.130 --> 00:52:05.599 weird little life for himself on the island up there 927 00:52:06.260 --> 00:52:08.579 but I really liked the idea of working with somebody 928 00:52:08.880 --> 00:52:11.119 who lived in the islands like me you know and 929 00:52:11.159 --> 00:52:14.150 like hiring Canadians and stuff so that was a big 930 00:52:14.190 --> 00:52:16.610 part of why I wanted to work with Doug on 931 00:52:16.650 --> 00:52:20.710 that restoration so yeah so those are happening right now 932 00:52:20.889 --> 00:52:23.670 doomed love I haven't started on the restoration or scanning 933 00:52:23.710 --> 00:52:26.789 and stuff yet because I'm you know just waiting for 934 00:52:26.849 --> 00:52:28.690 one of these other ones to be done first so 935 00:52:28.710 --> 00:52:31.369 that it can move into the queue And then I 936 00:52:31.429 --> 00:52:33.849 have a couple films that were restored by the BFI 937 00:52:33.889 --> 00:52:37.590 that are already ready. I'm just working on extras for them. So, 938 00:52:37.630 --> 00:52:41.559 Herostratus by Don Levy was a late 60s movie that

939 00:52:41.679 --> 00:52:46.480 stars Michael Gothard, who played Father Barre in The Devils, 940 00:52:47.260 --> 00:52:53.429 like the exorcist with the John Lennon glasses. So, he's the... Yeah. Yeah. 941 00:52:53.820 --> 00:52:57.019 He's the lead in Herostratus. And so I'm working on 942 00:52:57.099 --> 00:52:59.800 extras right now for that. And then I'll be working 943 00:52:59.840 --> 00:53:03.300 on extras for Arcadia after that. And Arcadia is basically 944 00:53:03.360 --> 00:53:07.619 like a video essay type film that I saw right 945 00:53:07.639 --> 00:53:11.110 when I was finishing my folk horror documentary. I saw 946 00:53:11.130 --> 00:53:14.309 Arcadia and it had so much of the same footage 947 00:53:14.650 --> 00:53:18.889 of like anything British in my movie is also in 948 00:53:18.949 --> 00:53:22.449 this movie, Arcadia. And I started, I was just like, 949 00:53:22.530 --> 00:53:25.880 oh God, like, This movie came out three years before 950 00:53:25.940 --> 00:53:28.480 my movie, and I just heard about it right as 951 00:53:28.519 --> 00:53:31.239 I was finishing my film, and I started to feel like, oh, 952 00:53:31.300 --> 00:53:33.960 what's the point of my movie existing if this movie 953 00:53:34.000 --> 00:53:38.610 already exists? It's better. It's better than my movie. And ultimately, 954 00:53:38.650 --> 00:53:41.010 my movie's more international, so it covers tons of shit 955 00:53:41.030 --> 00:53:43.030 that's not in that movie, you know, because it's just 956 00:53:43.510 --> 00:53:47.070 about the British countryside, and it's using all archival footage, 957 00:53:47.110 --> 00:53:51.320 you know. But it is a great film, you know, 958 00:53:51.800 --> 00:53:54.550 and So, yeah. So I just was like, well, I'm 959 00:53:54.570 --> 00:53:57.190 going to license that movie for my label because it 960 00:53:57.590 --> 00:53:59.530 basically like a lot of the movies I like that 961 00:53:59.570 --> 00:54:03.469 are not strictly genre films. You know, I love drug movies. 962 00:54:03.690 --> 00:54:09.159 I love psychedelic movies. I love juvenile delinquent movies. And 963 00:54:09.219 --> 00:54:12.900 I love experimental genre films like films that are probably 964 00:54:13.000 --> 00:54:17.150 too slow for the average seven audience, you know, like 965 00:54:17.369 --> 00:54:21.300 just just like things that are slightly weird or, you know, 966 00:54:21.340 --> 00:54:24.559 like experimental science fiction and stuff that, you know, like, 967 00:54:24.599 --> 00:54:27.059 so I love sci-fi that doesn't look like a sci-fi film, 968 00:54:27.639 --> 00:54:30.659 you know, where it's just kind of like, Oh, I 969 00:54:30.699 --> 00:54:33.510 guess this is in the future or something, you know, 970 00:54:33.590 --> 00:54:36.409 but it's like, everything just looks the same as now, 971 00:54:36.610 --> 00:54:38.909 you know, like I like those kinds of science fiction 972 00:54:38.949 --> 00:54:42.130 movies that are just

more kind of existential and philosophical 973 00:54:42.230 --> 00:54:44.889 and stuff. Um, but that don't have all the like 974 00:54:44.949 --> 00:54:49.849 gadgets and everything of, big budget science fiction movies. So anyways, 975 00:54:51.800 --> 00:54:54.280 so those are kind of my guidelines in terms of 976 00:54:54.360 --> 00:55:01.079 like things I'm most likely to release on Spectacular Optical. Obviously, 977 00:55:01.099 --> 00:55:03.820 there will be some intersection with other labels that already exist. 978 00:55:04.659 --> 00:55:07.820 But the thing is, I'm not out scouting for movies 979 00:55:07.880 --> 00:55:09.980 or looking for movies the way that they are, you know? 980 00:55:10.610 --> 00:55:12.829 So ultimately, no other label is going to be threatened 981 00:55:12.909 --> 00:55:15.869 by me because I'm just doing a few movies, you know, 982 00:55:16.070 --> 00:55:16.429 at a time. 983 00:55:17.230 --> 00:55:21.929 So you are one of the busiest people I know. Yeah, 984 00:55:22.010 --> 00:55:25.210 I know you're down and celebrating Severance 20th. But what 985 00:55:25.269 --> 00:55:26.849 else are you working on right now? 986 00:55:27.710 --> 00:55:29.949 I mean, right now I'm working on I'm working on 987 00:55:30.010 --> 00:55:33.659 two big projects for Severance. One is a 20th anniversary book. 988 00:55:34.360 --> 00:55:37.059 So I'm doing this book called Sharp Edges. And it's 989 00:55:37.119 --> 00:55:39.639 going to be structurally, it'll be very similar to the 990 00:55:39.699 --> 00:55:42.300 book I did for the Weird Wednesday series at the 991 00:55:42.380 --> 00:55:44.400 Alamo Drafthouse. I don't know if you ever saw that book. 992 00:55:44.440 --> 00:55:47.250 That's called Warped and Faded. but it's like history of 993 00:55:47.409 --> 00:55:50.289 Weird Wednesday and how Weird Wednesday sort of morphed into 994 00:55:50.309 --> 00:55:53.769 the American genre film archive. And so the Severn book 995 00:55:53.829 --> 00:55:57.849 is kind of similar to that in that the last 996 00:55:57.889 --> 00:56:01.369 half of the book is all the copy, like all 997 00:56:01.429 --> 00:56:04.760 the write-ups of every movie, every feature film we released 998 00:56:04.800 --> 00:56:08.000 for the first 20 years of existing. And then the 999 00:56:08.039 --> 00:56:10.159 first half of the book is an oral history, you know, 1000 00:56:10.219 --> 00:56:14.309 so it's got interviews with people who, work at Severin 1001 00:56:14.369 --> 00:56:16.469 or used to work at Severin or have worked with 1002 00:56:16.550 --> 00:56:19.590 Severin as collaborators and stuff, you know, so I still 1003 00:56:19.889 --> 00:56:22.190 some of those interviews I'm still doing and some of 1004 00:56:22.230 --> 00:56:25.610 them like so I've already started editing the interviews and 1005 00:56:25.679 --> 00:56:27.460 putting them in the book and stuff like that. But 1006 00:56:27.500 --> 00:56:30.880 I'm also still interviewing a few stragglers that I haven't 1007 00:56:30.960 --> 00:56:34.559 interviewed yet. But yeah, so that's a really big project. 1008 00:56:36.480 --> 00:56:39.340 And then also I'm working on a documentary for them, 1009 00:56:39.380 --> 00:56:42.000 a feature documentary based on the book Killing for Culture. 1010 00:56:42.530 --> 00:56:46.500 Remember that book from the... Yeah. Yeah, it's so hard 1011 00:56:46.559 --> 00:56:48.900 to explain to people who haven't read it, like who 1012 00:56:48.920 --> 00:56:52.500 have never heard of it. It's just like, ugh. The 1013 00:56:52.539 --> 00:56:54.719 look on their face when I tell them what I'm 1014 00:56:54.800 --> 00:56:57.280 making a movie about. I feel like if people have 1015 00:56:57.320 --> 00:57:00.690 actually read the book or know the book already, they 1016 00:57:01.710 --> 00:57:05.110 get more why I would make an adaptation of that book. 1017 00:57:05.269 --> 00:57:07.530 But just like when you're telling the topic of it 1018 00:57:07.590 --> 00:57:10.489 to somebody cold, they're just like, ugh, why would you 1019 00:57:10.510 --> 00:57:13.829 want to spend two years looking at footage like that, 1020 00:57:13.929 --> 00:57:17.989 you know? Which is true, right? I have not gotten 1021 00:57:18.070 --> 00:57:19.719 to the part of the movie where I have to 1022 00:57:19.780 --> 00:57:25.420 watch all the worse stuff, which I'm dreading. So it's 1023 00:57:25.440 --> 00:57:27.460 like a lot of what I've focused on so far 1024 00:57:27.559 --> 00:57:29.800 in the interviews I've filmed and everything has been all 1025 00:57:29.860 --> 00:57:34.719 the like Mondo stuff and like the fake, not fake snuff, 1026 00:57:34.800 --> 00:57:40.079 but like the narrative films that involve somebody investigating snuff. 1027 00:57:39.840 --> 00:57:43.800 Or, you know, Did you ever see that movie, Sandman? 1028 00:57:44.639 --> 00:57:48.539 Yeah, so literally that's who I'm interviewing on Saturday is 1029 00:57:48.599 --> 00:57:53.150 the director of that movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm interviewing 1030 00:57:53.230 --> 00:57:57.409 him actually and his wife, Sarah Langan, because she's in 1031 00:57:57.469 --> 00:58:00.510 the movie. So she's like a horror author. She's like 1032 00:58:00.550 --> 00:58:03.389 a great horror author. I just finished this book that 1033 00:58:03.429 --> 00:58:08.070 she wrote called Good Neighbors, which was so good. But 1034 00:58:08.110 --> 00:58:10.449 she's also in the movie as one of the victims 1035 00:58:10.590 --> 00:58:13.389 and also... You know, so I'm going to actually interview 1036 00:58:13.429 --> 00:58:16.929 them together. But Sandman, it was kind of funny because 1037 00:58:17.730 --> 00:58:20.949 he kept getting mentioned in other people's interviews. When I 1038 00:58:21.190 --> 00:58:24.480 would interview other people, they would always bring up Sandman. 1039 00:58:24.619 --> 00:58:27.000 And I was just like, yes, I must remember to 1040 00:58:27.039 -->

00:58:30.840 interview J.T. Petty. And I kept forgetting. And every time 1041 00:58:30.940 --> 00:58:33.409 somebody would mention him again, I'd be like, oh, my God, 1042 00:58:33.469 --> 00:58:36.730 I keep forgetting to interview J.T. Petty. So finally, I'm 1043 00:58:36.789 --> 00:58:39.349 doing the interview with him on Saturday. 1044 00:58:40.170 --> 00:58:43.280 That's great. Yeah, I love his work. I don't know 1045 00:58:43.300 --> 00:58:45.239 if I've seen any of his stuff recently, but I 1046 00:58:45.440 --> 00:58:49.920 really remember liking the pro saying, I think Evan, didn't 1047 00:58:49.960 --> 00:58:52.440 he do like Mimic 3? I think I even watched that. 1048 00:58:52.659 --> 00:58:54.739 And the thing is, his Mimic, I remember when I 1049 00:58:54.800 --> 00:58:58.300 saw it, I actually liked his Mimic movie, and it 1050 00:58:58.460 --> 00:59:01.809 doesn't have very good reviews on IMDb. People are just like, 1051 00:59:01.849 --> 00:59:04.630 what the fuck is this, you know? But I mean, 1052 00:59:04.690 --> 00:59:07.489 he was also the first person I think I paid 1053 00:59:07.550 --> 00:59:10.409 attention to this pattern. I think he was the first 1054 00:59:10.449 --> 00:59:12.800 person where I started to notice that this was a 1055 00:59:12.840 --> 00:59:16.519 pattern where somebody would make an independent film, like a 1056 00:59:16.579 --> 00:59:19.679 very low budget independent film that would make waves on 1057 00:59:19.719 --> 00:59:22.420 the festival circuit, you know, because he made soft for digging. 1058 00:59:23.380 --> 00:59:27.840 And then a studio would come in and offer them 1059 00:59:27.860 --> 00:59:30.599 the opportunity to make either a remake or a sequel 1060 00:59:31.159 --> 00:59:34.460 from a franchise. They would then make, they would take 1061 00:59:34.510 --> 00:59:37.429 that opportunity and they would make that movie and it 1062 00:59:37.469 --> 00:59:41.469 would kind of make things difficult for them from then on. 1063 00:59:41.849 --> 00:59:44.789 Because A, it would get bad reviews because usually there 1064 00:59:44.809 --> 00:59:49.480 were some interesting director who was not going to be 1065 00:59:50.219 --> 00:59:53.519 satisfied making a run-of-the-mill version of that franchise they're going 1066 00:59:53.539 --> 00:59:55.639 to try to do something interesting right but then the 1067 00:59:55.699 --> 00:59:57.440 existing fan base is going to be like what the 1068 00:59:57.460 --> 01:00:00.199 fuck is this and not like it and so it's 1069 01:00:00.219 --> 01:00:02.079 going to get bad reviews the bad reviews will then 1070 01:00:02.099 --> 01:00:05.510 be blamed on that director and then that is the 1071 01:00:05.550 --> 01:00:08.670 last thing they directed which has bad reviews and everybody 1072 01:00:08.710 --> 01:00:11.250 says you're only as good as your last movie right 1073 01:00:11.670 --> 01:00:15.110 so it then then you have to like try to 1074 01:00:15.150 --> 01:00:18.670 rebuild your whole career after that experience. And I've seen 1075 01:00:18.710 --> 01:00:21.289 that over and over and over again. And every time 1076 01:00:21.369 --> 01:00:26.010 I see an independent director that gets the opportunity, like 1077 01:00:26.050 --> 01:00:28.469 their second, you know, they have some breakout movie and 1078 01:00:28.489 --> 01:00:31.730 then their second movie is some fucking children of the 1079 01:00:31.769 --> 01:00:34.349 corn part seven, you know? And I'm just like, don't 1080 01:00:34.489 --> 01:00:38.059 take that opportunity. Do not take that job, you know, 1081 01:00:38.119 --> 01:00:41.659 because it's, yeah, it's just gonna hurt you, you know? 1082 01:00:42.340 --> 01:00:44.420 But it's it happens over and over again. And the 1083 01:00:44.480 --> 01:00:50.119 money is hard to not accept. Right. If you're an 1084 01:00:50.159 --> 01:00:52.820 independent person and you want money to make movies and 1085 01:00:52.880 --> 01:00:54.840 all you got to do is direct this sequel and 1086 01:00:54.880 --> 01:00:58.210 you'll get a big schwack of money. It's hard to 1087 01:00:58.250 --> 01:01:01.210 turn that down, you know, so people take that opportunity 1088 01:01:01.329 --> 01:01:04.670 over and over again. But it never turns out well. 1089 01:01:05.489 --> 01:01:08.269 It always it always has like a bad result that 1090 01:01:08.530 --> 01:01:12.059 gets blamed on you, you know. And it can hurt 1091 01:01:12.079 --> 01:01:14.559 your career. And so I feel like even though I 1092 01:01:14.599 --> 01:01:17.880 liked his Mimic movie, the fans of Mimic did not 1093 01:01:17.920 --> 01:01:21.300 like his Mimic movie. And then, yeah, I think it 1094 01:01:21.400 --> 01:01:23.760 took a few years for him to get to, you know, 1095 01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:26.159 I don't know how long after that he did The Burrowers. 1096 01:01:26.940 --> 01:01:32.590 But The Burrowers was great. And Tony did Hellbenders. Hellbenders? 1097 01:01:32.630 --> 01:01:35.690 Is that what it was called? And, you know, but 1098 01:01:35.710 --> 01:01:38.530 he also, even before Soft for Digging, he was writing 1099 01:01:38.550 --> 01:01:43.340 video games. Mm-hmm. So he still writes video games a lot, 1100 01:01:43.619 --> 01:01:46.179 like writes the I don't play video games, so I 1101 01:01:46.179 --> 01:01:50.150 don't even know what that means. But he writes the 1102 01:01:50.190 --> 01:01:53.230 narrative of things that happen in video games. So that's 1103 01:01:53.269 --> 01:01:56.690 something he's always done as like a secondary career. 1104 01:01:58.510 --> 01:02:01.110 Yeah, which is good that he's got something else rather 1105 01:02:01.150 --> 01:02:03.599 than just films, because we know how difficult it is 1106 01:02:03.619 --> 01:02:05.820 to make a film. You can speak from experience on that. 1107 01:02:06.619 --> 01:02:10.880 Yeah. Yeah. Although I've been lucky. because I have Severin 1108 01:02:11.099 -->

01:02:14.110 and I always, every movie I've made is for Severin. 1109 01:02:14.139 --> 01:02:17.530 So it has an end. It has somewhere where it's 1110 01:02:17.590 --> 01:02:20.349 going to be at the end. Right. And where it's 1111 01:02:20.389 --> 01:02:22.969 going to be at the end does not require me 1112 01:02:24.010 --> 01:02:28.010 to change it. You know, like, like, so I'm really 1113 01:02:28.070 --> 01:02:30.090 lucky in that sense that like, I got to make 1114 01:02:30.130 --> 01:02:33.559 movies for David Gregory, who basically, like when I was 1115 01:02:33.579 --> 01:02:36.420 doing Woodlands Darkened Days Bewitched and it looks like it 1116 01:02:36.460 --> 01:02:38.679 was going to be over three hours long, he was like, 1117 01:02:38.840 --> 01:02:40.300 I don't care. It's going to be on a Blu-ray. 1118 01:02:41.059 --> 01:02:42.730 You know, he's like, make it as long as you want. 1119 01:02:42.789 --> 01:02:45.369 What do I care? And so there was no producer 1120 01:02:45.449 --> 01:02:50.429 making me cut it shorter or anything. And everything's kind 1121 01:02:50.469 --> 01:02:53.150 of been like that. You know, he's just like, if 1122 01:02:53.210 --> 01:02:55.539 we release it on a Blu-ray and we connect it 1123 01:02:55.579 --> 01:02:58.820 to some other movie we're releasing so that they promote 1124 01:02:58.860 --> 01:03:01.929 each other, he's like, it'll sell. you know? So it's like, 1125 01:03:01.949 --> 01:03:04.190 he's like, you have good taste, so it'll sell. So 1126 01:03:04.469 --> 01:03:08.150 there's no pressure on me from like a producer to 1127 01:03:08.230 --> 01:03:10.659 change the movie or make a different kind of movie 1128 01:03:10.719 --> 01:03:13.519 or anything like that. And so my experience has been 1129 01:03:13.619 --> 01:03:16.139 really different, I think, from a lot of people's. Also, 1130 01:03:16.440 --> 01:03:18.519 I mean, the budgets I'm working with are like nothing, 1131 01:03:18.659 --> 01:03:22.559 you know? I mean, they're not even at the level 1132 01:03:22.639 --> 01:03:26.349 of a micro budget according to what an actual industry 1133 01:03:26.389 --> 01:03:30.820 funder would consider a micro budget, you know? And You know, 1134 01:03:30.840 --> 01:03:33.429 there's so and I also never wanted to be a filmmaker. 1135 01:03:33.809 --> 01:03:36.289 So it's weird. I've now made a few films, even 1136 01:03:36.309 --> 01:03:37.969 though I never wanted to be a filmmaker. And I 1137 01:03:38.010 --> 01:03:40.969 know all these people who've been struggling their whole careers 1138 01:03:41.409 --> 01:03:44.150 just make films and have had, you know, and they're like, 1139 01:03:44.809 --> 01:03:46.750 what the fuck? How do you get to like you 1140 01:03:46.789 --> 01:03:48.829 just get to make films and you don't even want 1141 01:03:48.849 --> 01:03:51.409 to make films? And I'm just like, hey, I wanted 1142 01:03:51.429 --> 01:03:54.349 to be a film programmer and all the friggin filmmakers 1143 01:03:54.409 --> 01:03:57.570 took my job. pops as a film programmer like I 1144 01:03:57.610 --> 01:03:59.989 couldn't get work as a film programmer that's all I 1145 01:04:00.030 --> 01:04:03.510 wanted to do was program for a movie theater or 1146 01:04:03.570 --> 01:04:06.659 program for a festival but it was like all the 1147 01:04:06.719 --> 01:04:09.460 people who were getting the jobs as programmers were people 1148 01:04:09.500 --> 01:04:12.659 who just wanted to be filmmakers and were just taking 1149 01:04:12.699 --> 01:04:16.719 these programming jobs until they got to be filmmakers and 1150 01:04:16.739 --> 01:04:19.780 I was just like this is so backwards because I'm 1151 01:04:19.820 --> 01:04:22.349 making films because I can't get work as a film. 1152 01:04:22.190 --> 01:04:26.380 Programmer you know the best place for people to keep 1153 01:04:26.440 --> 01:04:27.380 up with you and all your. 1154 01:04:27.320 --> 01:04:35.670 Work i mean probably spectacular optical.com or kaylajanice.com and if 1155 01:04:35.690 --> 01:04:38.639 you spell my name wrong a couple different ways i 1156 01:04:38.679 --> 01:04:41.739 think i bought i bought like a redirect of a 1157 01:04:41.800 --> 01:04:45.880 couple of wrong spellings um just look forward to the 1158 01:04:46.019 --> 01:04:51.260 right website um but yeah it's kaylajanice.com you know, so 1159 01:04:51.300 --> 01:04:57.989 that's just me personally. And then spectacularoptical.com is where anything 1160 01:04:58.030 --> 01:05:01.510 I'm working on related to my releases or books a lot, 1161 01:05:01.550 --> 01:05:04.610 you know, anything that's published by Spectacular Optical, a lot 1162 01:05:04.630 --> 01:05:08.329 of that stuff will be uploaded, updated there way before 1163 01:05:08.760 --> 01:05:12.219 I get around to putting it on my web personal website. 1164 01:05:12.360 --> 01:05:15.280 So I would say personal website is good overall, but 1165 01:05:15.360 --> 01:05:17.860 I don't update it as much as I should. So 1166 01:05:17.900 --> 01:05:20.599 it's often a little bit behind, but yeah. 1167 01:05:21.559 --> 01:05:23.219 Well, Kayla, it is always great talking with you. I 1168 01:05:23.440 --> 01:05:24.360 really appreciate this. 1169 01:05:25.070 --> 01:05:27.110 Yeah, no problem. I'm so sorry. I feel like I 1170 01:05:27.130 --> 01:05:29.849 just blabbed and blabbed and blabbed and you hardly got 1171 01:05:29.889 --> 01:05:31.170 to ask me anything. 1172 01:05:31.829 --> 01:05:33.849 Do you know how much I enjoy that rather than 1173 01:05:33.889 --> 01:05:37.489 trying to pull answers out of people? So I appreciate that. 1174 01:05:38.250 --> 01:05:38.809 Thank you. 1175 01:05:38.849 --> 01:05:39.250 You too.