Inside Indiana's Vibrant Film Scene

the Mr Rogers film we were the US premiere of that with Tom Hanks and so we were literally the second crowd in the world Second City to have that film we would set everything up and we'd film until 5 6 in the morning overnight we can have some pride in this too and we can be really proud of the fact that we have this incredible Film Festival here from South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between this is get in the show focused on the whoo your state and the incredible stories happening here today I'm Nate spangle founder of git Indiana and I will be your host for today's convers who says movies only belong in Hollywood our guests today are rewriting that narrative by filming and amplifying Motion Pictures in Indiana on the show today I'm joined by Greg sorvig you got it yes who leads the artistic vision and film programming departments for Heartland Film Festival which is an 11-day film festival in October as well as just Heartland film and their year-long uh programming and campaigns yeah most film festivals are nonprofit based so we have an Oscar bath to qualify film festival in July uh we call the big daddy feature Festival Heartland in October and year round evance an educational program so glad to do it yeah and last year Heartland film hosted 230 film screenings in theaters across Indianapolis and gave away over $60,000 in cash prizes to filmmakers from around the world that's what we like to say you know incentives kind of come and go around this state but we've given over three and a half million dollars since '92 so we've kind of injected filmmakers locally in inter and you know what's better than one film Guru is two film gurus I'm also joined by Rocky walls co-founder of 12 star media production company Rocky is also the writer and director of dirty laundry an awesome new film that was shot at an iconic spot on Keystone Avenue here in Indianapolis we're going to get into that a little bit later in the show today we're talking about the film ecosystem in Indiana and the role that Heartland film plays in that the business behind independent film making and woer should support it and then we're going to close out by diving into Rocky's latest film Dirty Laundry and the journey to the world premiere coming up at Heartland film festival in October gentlemen welcome to the show hey thank you I am pumped about this uh longtime Watcher first time listener talker subscriber like I I have watched I obviously a ton of movies um and I'm just now getting into a little bit like maybe with some research into this of what independent filmmaking and indie films and like with the rise of streaming and all this stuff where it's never been easier to support indie filmmakers and I didn't even realize that this was happening in our backyard here in Indiana so I am super pumped to talk about this today and just learn about uh the movers and shakers and and what's going on in um in the film ecosystem in Indiana I think what's going to be helpful is just a brief dive into uh to Heartland and the work that you all are doing and how you've been involved in that over the years as more of the uh as the filmmaker Rocky yeah I will say I think Rocky is going to be the expert here in actually film making you've had an amazing documentary background your transitioning to uh a dramatic feature which we're going to be talking about more too um but that's the the thing that I think the first I love the term demystifying so that's what we're going to be doing a lot today but so at Heartland film we're nonprofit We essentially help showcase and exhibit films after they're completed so we might have uh people who call the office hey I have the script or so and so is on your board can you get them a script like we don't necessarily deal with um in production or in development stuff but we've had so many amazing alumni like like Rocky and people alumni I like that anyone who comes through and like presents their what youur their film if You' gone to school you're alumni that school if you've had a film whether it's a short film or a feature you're in alumni so with that you get uh free submission fees for life and referral codes for friends and other filmmakers it's all about word of mouth is really what it comes down to when I think of film festival my direct comparison is music festival and that's like 48 hours you're up from 9:00 a.

m. to 9:00 p. m. raging watching a thousand different concerts is that how a film festival goes and and where do I tailgate at well I would say yeah I think a lot of people might think about a music festival or you think of like one of the huge film festivals like a Sundance or con and you think of this I think of like like you said maybe people not in their uh music festival gear but it could be anywhere from like suits and ties or ball gowns and there's this gigantic two block wide red carpet or something like that too um but really it's film festivals are a plays where you can debut big projects from the studios so right now we're in kind of like early award season so it's Venice and then tell you ride in Colorado uh Toronto New York and then there are Regional film festivals where maybe things aren't like the first premiere for those top top crazy Studio films but we still have an amazing slate of of premieres and other films that have been favorites other festivals as well so we really do more so serve our community and our region as opposed to tons of people coming in and wheeling and dealing and things being bought and sold even though we have sold projects but yeah I think I think it's important so from the filmmaker side um I think it's important to note as you're talking about Heartland specifically in Indiana the film festival like spectrum is as wide as you can imagine right there are festivals that only happen you know in one day and they only screen three or four films and that's like the whole thing right there are festivals like Greg mentioned that are you know weeks long Heartland is an exceptional Festival that we're really fortunate to have here in Indiana in Indianapolis specifically because it's a like it's a global sensation in a lot of ways I mean from around the world to Heartland yeah it's an International Film Festival and so I think one of the things to demystify like right out of the gate because I've been to a lot of festivals um we had a dock our very first feature dock was a was a an international Dock and we did a lot of festivals and um I think one of the things that we learned is not all festivals are created equal um and some of them are great because they're small some of them are just different you know and so what makes a film festival great like what how are you ranking that and it's like well I I want Greg to talk about the accolades that Heartland Film Festival has gotten um well and really Heartland International Film Festival and Indie schs both have have really won a lot of awards and and and really been recognized internationally as exceptional film festivals and so I'm curious how how you describe and because Greg also goes to a ton of film festivals how and how many people just put in perspective how many people come to Heartland it's in the like tens of thousands I don't know the exact number my marketing like if you had to say how many people travel to Indianapolis for a piece of this Festival yeah I would say a lot of the international fil like people who come are the filmmakers and the teams for these films as well too um a great example of just I mean having amazing people from around the world but it's not just like knee-jerk reaction like hey what are you doing for me now a lot of people come and they meet and they do amazing things down the road or you become friends with people so this example really quick I'll give you the anecdote my first year is 2012 and our grand prize winning film was called Cairo 678 directed by a guy named Muhammad diab who was part of the Egyptian revolution um back in that time with they changed this film was about three different women who experienced sexual harassment different in Egypt he went on won the grand prize and he put that money towards his next film which premiered at can and he was one of the main uh creators and directors of moonnight M on uh Disney plus which was pretty crazy too and then the same year and I know Disney plus okay I know that and then the same year the director um I mean the film that won our doc grand prize um was Rising for matches and that producer was gray quedar who just directed Sing Sing which got picked up by a24 um who we're going to have back and actually honor at Heartland this year so it'll be neat other years later too but in terms of like having you know just a rager and being up all the time you can you can find your tribe you will find people they be filmmakers who literally have this Caravan and they're out until like 5:00 a.

m. I don't even know um my earlier years I used to stay out a little bit more but uh with kids and other stuff too um but really it just depends on your expectations and I think that's what we try to do for filmmakers especially like if you we have a lot of first-time filmmakers this is my first screening they might expect this huge poping circumstance you know Paparazzi follow I did I just went to a Red Carpet World premiere and that was like my first dip it and I was like hey film making is pretty cool like like people are traveling from all over the country to come to Red Carpet Premiere in downtown Indianapolis like this is this is pretty slick it's all like that right I would say so I we have a lot of yeah exactly all the time but I think really the film festivals to me I think people are like well are you scared in this world of streaming this world of choice where I think curation it sounds like a very fancy term but that's what we do we have hundreds of thousands of films that come in and we handpick these films okay let's go into that process like who you you sitting down to like watch you know like a thousand films to pick what comes in yeah I watch thousands of films every year yes I can't watch everything but we have volunteer pre-sc screeners who we trust to go through some initial testing oh my God and they'll go through and it's not a perfect science I mean film is very subjective and uh you know talk about a full Roy G Biv rainbow scale of themes people you want you know we've been around for 33 years so there's people who have been coming since year 1 and they might expect a certain FL of a certain type of film or something um so we tried to have something for everybody and I've kind of been known as that guy hey Greg I didn't well that really didn't really dig that but I kind of like this and I point to like three films and it's pretty amazing to see how that goes forward so this Festival has been around for 33 years 33 years okay so talk to me obviously you weren't there for year one yeah I was eight when I started this right it makes sensey Hower of film festival guys yeah but but like obviously you're you're well versed in it like talk to me about the evolution right like what does a film festival 33 years ago look like and what is a film festival like how is this the industry and the festival itself change I think I think we started out there's only 20 or 30 some films over a few days I think we did only like you're saying only 20 or 30 some like that seems like a ton of movies to watch you know like I'm like I'm overwhelmed thinking of like how am I ever going like cuz you think like three stages 10 again I'm putting it in music festival terms and maybe that's not the right thing but like 20 or 30 Films doesn't seem small to me it seems like a lot so like putting that in perspective like how many films do you have now I think feature films we have over um I think 12 and then short films um we have en course from our Indie shorts Festival as well too so I mean it's it's 200 plus films just at this Festival too 200 films nobody just just let's be clear though expecting to watch logistically watch them all anyway with mul stages are kind of going right like multiple screens are going at the same time I mean you again there is the ease of not everything's available via virtual but that is an option especially you have like a pass that you can do everything we have people that do that they're like I saw these three films I really wanted to see I know XYZ people were actually going to be here I can go home and watch that oh I met somebody uh I'm going to check out their film I didn't expect to do that too it's it's a really a Choose Your Own Adventure type thing and that's what's fun um but that's what's that's what's great versus just streaming I I said this at at Indie shorts back in July but I think a lot of people put together film making and like you said Hollywood all in one one bowl and just think it's all mixed together but there's so much um it's such a variety a lot of people think about oh this the box office for this or this film got a 15minute standing ofation at Venice like that's not where we are that's not what it's all about I think the thing that people love about Heartland people love about Indiana is that I mean we really are no we have we we really connect to the stories we make and the stories that we show and exhibit and I think people can really see that they can see when you're faking it and I think you go to big Fest oh that has a certain name I've had to get calluses as a programmer over the years too because oh this is an Alum film this has so and so maybe in their final performance like I can't show this to a crowd and have the reaction I mean I just I just know um and there might be some films um that's thing we don't shy away from some edgy stuff we have some really cool stuff this year as well too boy but there's some yeah but there's just certain things I'm like I just know that's not gonna gonna play here compared to a New York or something else to in in good and bad ways I think that's that's the really important thing to take away from all of this conversation about like what is a film festival and what makes Heartland unique and and so you know if if you've got listeners or Watchers who are unfamiliar with it you know I think what what's really special about it is the ability to discover something new and probably something that you wouldn't find otherwise like that's the thing that I hear them most if somebody is coming to a film festival for the first time or they you know they go per recommendation like if I say you should really go catch this you know this film that was like locally made or even one of the films that were not locally made but are screening at Heartland they're surprised they walk away from it thinking like there are movies like that and I think what's happened is um not to like I don't want to get know a soap box or anything but I think we're so used to nowadays um just expecting our streaming service or expecting whatever screen we're turning on to tell us what we probably want to watch and the fact is you're not going to get these films most of these films you're not going to catch if all you're doing is you know watching Netflix recommended this and maybe we do need a nutshell expositional description so a film festival yes there are hundreds of film screenings but there's also um there also parties places you can actually engage with the filmmakers some festivals you might catch a of somebody here you can actually duck pin bowl and eat pizza and hang out um and buy a beer have a conversation with people as well too um which is really really phenomenal so I mean that's what it is you can buy a pass to see a lot of films you can buy a 10 pack or you can just come to a film you can you can go ahead and do that I mean that's what we invite you to do like okay so it's like a lowri entry right it's like it's not like if if you think of going to again I'm going to keep comparing it to music festivals because I think that's just like an easy sort of analog but it's like you can just get like a pass to go see one film at one time on Tuesday it's like you could go support your buddy you could go support our our friend Rocky here right and see the world premiere of it what we're going to talk about later but it's not this like huge I think when I think of 11 day uh International Film Festival I'm like ho that's very very expensive and a lot a lot of time and like that's only for the like the like really really people people that are into it when I think of film and I think of movies and I think of film and I they're kind of two different things to me a little bit um which I don't know if that's right thinking or wrong thinking it's just how my kind of brain works when I think about it we could have a whole hour long podcast dissecting that what's a film versus the movie versus if you really want to get pretentious what's a picture oh boy I I mean we have to do a part two for that one C dead it's like well how many fast and furious car explosions are we going to see at Arville M none this year who who's going to how much was the budget to launch a car out of a plane and then parachute It To The Ground that's what I'd like to see and that's kind of that's a neat segue too though because we do since this is Oscar and award season there are a lot of films that do Premiere at Big Fest and maybe the word of mouth or the critical reception or winning an audience Choice Award here um with like a legit audience who actually will give honest feedback can help buoy a film or it might deflate a film there's been other films that had big you know uh big pundit um recommendations or hopes and they just fizzle out after a couple Fest too but i' say about 20% of our lineup we have big event films like opening closing centerpiece those are all big Studio films this year too and then we have 80% are still true Independent films means meaning that somehow people found the time energy and financial resources to make this film The hope is to get it in front of a wider audience through distribution hopefully a big distributor puts their name on it so it's that film that you saw but then adds hey ligate presents dirty laundry or something like that too you never that's the hope and dream that hopefully you can bu station that was really nice yeah Lionsgate if you're out there we know a guy but we've seen that too films that are true Independence that literally no one has heard of prior to us announcing our lineup and they're like holy crap like I am I'm I'm in this release this press release up with like these huge contenders from Netflix search like Netflix Netflix puts films in the Heartland Film Festival our closing night film this year um is Amelia Perez uh h huge Oscar Contender it was um one of some big accolades at at con but it has um yeah it has huge legs huge Awards um potential behind it and it's just just really daring audacious film and then when you talk about something that hey this is cinema this is something that isn't just a you know Pain by numbers type story that's going to be in my algorithm on like what what you should watch like that's pretty cool yeah so that's the thing so we will work and that's the thing too I in my job I've had to get attention of a lot of these these Distributors and say hey we really do want to share this like your film will really resonate and people will be excited here so okay so so I I kind of asked a question and I think we I like got off on a tangent but like it started 33 years ago 20 to 30 Films what were where was it being screened at like where was it host I think it was one or two venues um I know we were at The Madam walker uh theater down Indiana Avenue um and I think we played like Julie Dash's of the Dust which was an amazing film on a Sundance so that was truly like uh an indie Festival film that ended up having like the best opening for a black female director of all time and then we had like a restoration of the OG Snow White from Disney and then we had some other stuff too so I think the early flavor is about the leadership um we've had five different leaders since I've started in 2012 we've really found our groove again I think you have to even as a filmmaker too as a creative you have to redefine yourself and and pay attention to what's the story that people are telling about you that's either true or that you can fix and I think that's been my mission in 12 years we've done a great job to get Heartland up thing so I think the early days would be more like kind of safer Feelgood type movies and we still have films like that for people but we still have some pretty uh wide ranging I can't wait I'm I have a few fun questions at the end we're going to get into that so so we now we're 200 plus films how many different locations that give me the whole like scope of where we are with Heartland today oh oh yeah so I think it's five or six different locations so we will be at um The Landmark Glendale 12 we will be at new fields in the Tobias Theater which is you know a lot of um theaters that you go to now have the luxury seating so we saw a lot of our capacities cut a lot so the Tobias at Newfield still has 530 seats that's where we've had big Oscar contenders in recent years like the holdovers like that's crazy to me that Oscar contenders are being shown in Indianapolis that's so cool yeah so I mean we are often for some of these big films we could be I mean the Mr Rogers film that came out uh years ago we were the US premiere of that with Tom Hanks and so we were literally the second crowd in the world Second City to have that film so I think what like yeah where was this at like I didn't I didn't see this like what I mean that's but that's the thing too I think everyone's like oh well we haven't heard of it but here's here's the thing that I tell if people say that whether it's board members supporters that's great we still have that room for growth and if you you know I'm also involved with like Tribeca out of New York and if there's a gazillion festivals in La it's a lot of it is just noise out there you really have so the fact that we are here we have the spotlight on us yet we're still growing um is phenomenal too but it is about these independent films if the studio stopped making stuff down the road if the film industry as we know it like maybe in your head just collapse the studios you know everyone eats themselves up monopolizes each other there's two Studios left and then there's no box office anymore we would still be doing this festival with these stories and these films from these independent filmmakers as well okay we would be their theatrical run so you said Glendale 12 yeah so so Glendale uh 12 will be at imagine entertainment up in Noblesville M which is really cool as well um living room can Cinema Living Room Theaters thank you very much this is really a test back to you well then I obviously new fields and then there may be one more I don't know what the one more would be I think that's all of them I think that's it I think I got so five I focus on the movies you know yeah exactly the logistics we we'll have to have a logistics episode but okay so this is good to know it's a bunch of different locations hundreds of films uh but but what we were getting into there and this is going to kind of segue us into like the business of independent film making but you're talking about Indiana like having the spotlight like that is super important like I feel like being a um a big fish in a relatively like small versus being a small fish in the big pond of La film like like what are those key differences between like a you know let's just use La we'll just pick on Los Angeles right like a Hollywood film uh ecosystem and an Indiana film ecosystem what makes us you know better what are some of like the the keys of why you'd want to be in a film festival like this versus going out to one of those uh out there where it is like a little noisier I mean if we were being candid it's easier for someone to jump in their car and be at their premiere we're here it it takes a little bit more time and effort um with flights and other things like that too but I've Liv lived in 10 different states Indianapolis is a big little city in in in the best ways possible it's not hard to get here and once people do get here they're really impressed I think people just you know whether they discount us as a flyover state city um once folks get here we've had amazing Partnerships with like a lot of people from New York and La um and people are just wildly impressed but it's yeah people really just just appreciate it here I think they really do people get excited um and the thing that I think we continue to work on is to is to have an ongoing narrative storyline here and get people excited about it so it's not like oh like when the fer Stars didn't film here and it was more um advantageous John it's not John I don't think it was John's fault John would have L for it to no they they John actually John is like a huge Indianapolis St like I love it so if John ever wanted to come on get love that it's just cheaper to literally go somewhere else build a replica of Indiana rather than just to put a camera here because of incentives things like and so that's a different thing before we get into before we get into the business of filmmaker the industry part of it um because you can feel that's where we're starting to to segue to um just just to to reiterate I think why this is why it's such a great fit for your show and for your audience because a lot of the same things that you hear so often about Indiana the positives I mean we and we've got areas that we can grow do better and for sure but like the positives that you hear about Indiana whether it's people coming here for conventions or people coming here for sporting events or concerts or whatever it is we we you see those things all the time when people talk about like what I you know the people were so nice or it was so hospitable or so easy to get around or whatever all those different positive things all of that same stuff applies with with Heartland film too and like it's an opportunity for both people to come from maybe outside of Indiana or outside of Central Indiana to come and check it out and experience that but it's also an opportunity for hoers have a little bit more that you know we have who's your humility who your you know who your niess and all of that but sometimes we need to give give ourselves a little bit of a boost and say like we can have some pride in this too and we can be really proud of the fact that we have this incredible Film Festival here who people come from around the world and talk about how exceptional it is and like you said you're surprised there's Oscar qualifying films there's Oscar award-winning films screening at Heartland every year and so I think often times the reason that hoer might not know that is because they see Heartland and and maybe they're intimidated by it maybe they think 11 days 200 and something films like there's no way I just can't do that and what we're saying here is like you can you can just do a tiny just literally go to one film just come to one film and now you're a part of Heartland and you're going to walk away from it enjoying it oh yeah I'm going to build like the beginner's guide to a film festival and it's like hey like if you want like I'll come out and like find I have one that I'm specifically going to be at but it's like I come out and be like I'm doing a film festival for the first time ever I've never gone to a film festival and I'm going to come check it out and like I'll report back to the crew of like hey this is how you do it like if you want the minimum barrier to entry to go check out a film festival and like participate like you just show up at can can and watch a VHS recording of a movie and I'm bumed about it right but but here's my question right and I want to get us all the way into the business and the economics because I think I mean it's the same thing like I post videos on Instagram people are like how do you how do you make money on that how is that a business you know like what is is the business of independent film making and like how does it work like how do you get the money to go hire actors and talent and Buy cameras and all the stuff to then like get it on a a big screen somewhere and then like make money with it on the other end that is a huge huge question so I I'm just the asterisk at the beginning of anything I say is that there are probably a million in one ways to answer that question um and so I ask you like how do you make a business business that makes money that's exactly what you said just the only the only qualifier the only guard rails you put on it was with film um and so I'll speak as much as you want about my experience or experience of other people that I know or that I've worked with but yeah well say when you were getting your start like you're getting your first start and you're trying to put together your first uh film cuz I know like obviously with 12 Stars me like you're doing some other like more agency style work like that and like helping out customers but I'm saying like you have a vision and a script and end up you write a script you write your own script and you're like I want to make a movie out of this where do you start what do you do yeah I mean and again our model is is unique um not that it's Unique alone but it's one of a lot of different variety of models and some people will will fundraise they'll they'll raise money they'll go on you know Kickstarter and they'll raise money and and sometimes get a lot of money to make a film sometimes people go on Kickstarter and they won't get a lot of money and they'll either try and make it anyway or they just won't make the film so because to your point 12 Stars media is now almost 20 years old we self-fund the majority of our work the Robin Hood method where we do a lot of work for like you said we do a lot of of of work that's that's hired contracted work where people will pay corporate videos corporate work that people will see the skills that we have they'll see a movie that we made I mean this is this is this happened you know in the beginning we called them you know these are kind of like expensive business cards that we're making because you put you lead with your your best foot forward and you and you go out there and you say hey we made this documentary or we made this film and then people say like in a corporate environment or in some other environment or we've had even people reach out to us and say well I had an idea for a documentary film and I I got halfway done and I I tried to finish it and I couldn't could you help us with that and so you know you you put your best foot forward and then you know kind of self fulfills after that and so our our films are self-funded so you just asked and describe literally what happened with dirty laundry we wrote the script and we sort of had a moment of you know deciding is this going to be something we actually do or did I just write a script for fun and we're not going to make the movie um and ultimately to fund it we had to figure out how to pay for it out of 12 Stars media's you know kind of professional and and do you do that because you like film and you're like you know what this is a good place to park a large lump some of our profits for the year or do you do it with the sense of like hey this and if you think of like Business and Entrepreneurship right it's like we're investing even numbers we're investing 100 Grand M with the hope that we're going to make a million dollars or we're investing 100 Grand because this was really fun and it's like a good body of work yeah so thank you for asking that because I can parlay it um out of our little sphere of of influence in decision- making into the bigger film industry or bigger picture world and even for listeners out there who are like I'm not in the film industry I'm never going to be in the film industry but you're a part of it believe it or not and I'll I'll be able to explain that um and so for us um it is a business decision in the sense that we're investing the money essentially the way a marketing department would and we're saying we're going to do really exceptional work and that's going to come back in some way down the road with new leads for new businesses New Opportunities whatever that is that is the the business side of it the other business side of is is um when we made our first documentary our first feature length film um I got some great advice right out of the gate somebody said you need to make sure that you have your sort of north star or your purpose why are you making this film like you need to make sure you have that set as early as possible and it can change but as long as you have that you can kind of filter everything down and we said believe it or not that what we wanted to do with that first documentary film in 201617 was create an experience for our team that would change the way we do our work from that moment forward and it did it absolutely did it affected every decision that we made from a business perspective it affected everybody's um capability ities and what they were able to do and how they deliver on future projects whether they're documentary films or narrative films or a corporate project or whatever it was an investment that we made as a business in our team and our in our people and that's I think what I can then balloon out to the rest of Indiana you know is that what we're doing is investing in our creative economy right creative people especially storytellers in whatever and you can kind of use that as Loosely as broadly as you want but creative storytellers Make the World Go Round right we were talking before we started recording that you know politicians don't get elected without somebody telling a story big businesses don't decide to move their headquarters to Indiana because I just for no reason like somebody is there telling a story right like even entrepreneurship right it's like funding like you have to like build a story of like why you should invest $10 million into my company to fund this like everything it all goes back there needs to be almost like a campaign like support local storytellers there is there's the yeah there's the creative uh creative economy uh Summit and movement um that's a whole thing um you can look at pattern magazine and Palina OV um and and her initiatives and and her organization's initiatives into um looking at the creative economy in Indiana in Indianapolis and thinking about how do we keep these people here because also you know I grew up and most young people uh grew up um or when they were young I should say I'm not a young people any anymore but when they were young they grew up um potentially being told often being told if you want to act or if you want to be a filmmaker or if you want to be in theater or if you want to whatever and really make that a profession if you want it to be more than a hobby you're going to have to leave Indiana unfortunately and um not that it's easy to do here but I'm evidenced that it is possible right I'm I'm almost 20 years into a successful career in a creative industry um making movies uh doing any number of other things it might look a little different but it's also you like you don't meet at least I don't meet that many filmmakers and like it's easier to stick out it's like it's going to be memorable like oh yeah Rocky he makes films and like that's like a it's good to stand out like if you want to be known for what you do versus like you throw a stone in LA and it's like oh I'm aspiring filmmaker yes like any local coffee Shop's going to have a dozen of those right for sure and that's what every college professor in media and film that I talk to um says the exact same thing like if you want to go to La as a creative or if you want to move to New York be you know to to pursue theater whatever that's totally fine there's nothing wrong with that at all but if you want to stay here there are ways to do it and like you said you may be able to shine even brighter potentially but I think that's what I would want hooers to understand is when we collectively invest in Creative storytelling when you go to Heartland film and you participate you you become a member or you go see the films at the film festival or you um whatever even just share the links that they are posting on social media like you're participating in the creative economy that is helping to make Indiana a better place for all of us in some way shape or form because creative storytellers are the ones who are shaping the culture The Narrative here in Indiana I I love that and I think that's a great way to think about it and and it's like you think of all the things go into like a quality of place like culture is so important but it's like you can't just like like iedc or whoever the government entity is like can't just like throw here's a million dollar and now we have culture it's like no it doesn't work like that you have to like nurture and grow like a little garden you know and it's like from film festivals and all sorts of these like you know artists and creators like that is important even if it's not like hitting you know 10 billion do to the bottom GDP line right um so so I think that's a really great way to word that uh when it comes to particular of like the economics behind independent film Mak right so so now we have the funding right it's like you either go out and like raise funding uh and like you know you get $400,000 $1,000 whatever it is to produce this film or you self-fund it through through other avenues and things like that so you have the you have the funding now like what does it look like to actually put it together where does the payday come right cuz I don't know I don't think it comes from like ticket sales at uh I don't know at the Living Room Theater in downtown Indianapolis right maybe it does it's a reverse payday it's a it's a tax write off right yeah I think so I think so um I well so I'll I'll answer briefly and then I I want to I want to see what Greg thinks about um maybe the part of this that is um that I'm less familiar with because for for me as I've mentioned if you kind of play back why I said we make the films my payday is um the the recognition that we get for the quality of the film which is a credibility in en M for our business which just then the flywheel just spins and we get to keep doing it right whether it's because some fill more corporate kind of work things like documentary series stuff like that from the films that you guys make for yourselves yeah for sure so that's the pay off for me like you're right we're not going to make the money back that we invested in the film through ticket sales we are not necessarily aiming for although we not like we would turn down the conversation but we're not aiming for a distributor to come to us and say we we want to sign a deal with you and we want to distribute your film um lots of filmmakers are and that's where I I want to hear from Greg about like um the the experiences that you know of whether it's at Heartland or other film festivals where that is what filmmakers are very purposely trying to do they're trying to make connections to gain distribution to make a profitable film to sell the film to someone um or to enter into an agreement where the the profitability is there and it is exponential because of the the distribution that can come from that and so um yeah I don't know Greg if you have stories or experiences or just we've seen this a lot too I mean we we've made this concerted effort to bring people together because really in any aspect of life or business whatever trade that you're into it's about being around people that you trust getting real feedback from experienced professionals and then following that as well too just because I think there's a lot of people um like yeah I have the script I want to make it or something to it's it's not as simple as that and I think the idea even is like here the term of an aour like someone who is just like this um amazing Visionary like no filmmaker does everything themselves they really don't and I think that's the neat thing too I think a lot of people in the same in the same vein it's a miracle that you have a script written you're able to make a film and hopefully get distribution but a lot of people don't know what to do with their film after that or if I mean getting distribution even getting into a film festival like for our shorts Festival less than 4% of the films got in so I mean you need to have a plan but like any plan that you have your plan should not be I'm buying this Mega Millions ticket I'm going to win that's my plan um that's just that's not leg so you should have yeah Plan B plan C that kind of stuff and and temper your expectations not to not to step on anyone's dreams but at the same point people do need to think about that cuz if you make a film you do want to usually have a good Festival Premiere you want honest feedback at different festivals people might change their film based on feedback they get they might meet somebody oh I got an offer from this distributor but just I mean there are people who will will jump for joy and click their heels because they got a distribution offer but it's not good it might be true a streamer who's buying hundreds of films you might get a check literally for 73 cents every every few months and you hope that maybe you know with the down the road it goes back to um what you want what's the purpose of the film and I do think that's really important for filmmakers to understand because you should have that purpose you should have multiple purposes Financial story that kind of stuff too but I think people really need to have that plan and it's surprising how many people don't have expectations or goals in their own head like we built this film it's going to get picked up and it's going to be in every movie theater across the world and it just doesn't work well well here's what I to ask do you have a story of someone like maybe from Indiana who got a script got funding did the whole thing and like and and like found that like success in the terms that I think about success right where like from filming I think like oh be available on DVD everywhere and on streaming services and out in theaters like is there like a story that came through Heartland where you're like we've seen this happen and got picked up and it became a multi-million dollar film we had a filmmaker who was an Alum and he ended up having this was during Co and everything too but he did um a film where he got footage while he was not doing at home as a spec spec edit so essentially like a spec script is like hey I I have this script I'm going to I'm going to make it it doesn't mean it's optioned or picked up to actually get made by a studio this guy got footage of the of people in Wuhan in the first hospital where Co broke out like you're literally there it's the first story of of Co and the reaction to What eventually would Ripple across the entire world so we got one of the anonymous filmmakers who Still Remains Anonymous U because of the government stuff and everything too had this amazing footage and he edited this film and it ended up World premiering at Toronto we had it second or third and it sold MTV documentary films out of our Festival because one of the jury members um was on our our our jury and didn't realize the film didn't have distribution yet that film went on to short list for the Oscars like but like what do you think the financial implications of being the short and like getting picked up yeah if you get shortlisted or nominated for an Oscar I'd say like in before used to be like video sales or rentals now it's like VOD and other stuff too I don't know the exact terms you can easily look this up probably online but I mean you're talking probably uh profitable multiplier of like 20 to to 40% easy just to getting that stamp and that's why a lot of these big studios do put literally tens of millions of dollars behind certain stars and people because if you do get that nomination that's tough but even the documentary world I mean we might talk about that later as well too but I mean it's a lot tougher in the world of documentaries um we you know we're in a golden age so you know right now with so many great documentaries and uh filmmakers but it's it's just harder than ever to to kind of sell that stuff too but I think I mean the other thing too we just have to you know give credit so I mean the pigasus always comes up um and because they have found a great model to get um private and some Public Funding as well too for projects they do like to film here in Indiana they've had projects that appear at South by Southwest Toronto they just had the big uh Premier here of the duel like they they get it and they've had those success stories and we've had multiple projects Heartland and two over the years too but it is nice to have a big Festival Premiere where you can say hey I played along this film that eventually did get nominated or win an Oscar um and have that as opposed to making a film and not having a plan and you just essentially I call it like the birthday party rental you rented out the party room at the local theater and just had your own party you had your own party you might I do I do want I do want because I think it's important and Greg you mentioned it's like it's not this is not to like squash anybody's dreams or rain on anybody's parade but the flip side of that is the landscape of this whole industry has changed so much and every single Film Festival you know we're in you know Film Festival mode right now with with dirty laundry and every single Film Festival reply whether it's positive or negative says the same thing and Greg probably knows he's not going to be surprised it they all say we received a record number of submissions this year and the number of people making films is you know skyrocketing and and I think that's a good thing in a lot of ways it also means that the landscape of what we consider success is going to have to broaden as well right because like you were just asking and you sort of showed like you know and you kind of admited I think like well you know what I think of as success is and it's a very limited number of things that in reality sure that's a measure of success but in some ways those are measures of success you know getting the big distribution deal and getting your your film on Netflix or getting your film go back even further getting your film a big wide theatrical run or getting your film you know on the Oscar short list or or even you know nominator winning for winning an Oscar those are fantastic measures of success but the the reality is that as the industry continues to get bigger and more and more people continue making films the spectrum of what success looks like is also going to broaden and I think that um that's what's so special about the opportunities that a film festival like present or the opportunities that filmmakers have with just self-distribution and being able to look at it and go like like like us like like a lot of our films being able to look at it and say well you know can you find any of our documentaries on Netflix no but can you find almost all of our documentaries on hudocks where you know Indiana filmmakers or hooers in general can go and watch films that are relevant to them stories that are just in their own backyard and you know they they probably are going to impact them even more than watching a documentary on HUD do or on on Netflix excuse me um I I think that's really special and important too this idea that unfortunately as the world gets smaller and smaller and smaller and simultaneously somehow a loneliness econic EP epidemic continues to increase we've got to figure out what's the what's really going on here and I think one of the things that is most important is that we understand how to redefine success how to redefine what winning really looks like and one of the things that we can do is we can say well if my purpose is for people to see my film and be moved by my film then it doesn't have to be on Netflix it doesn't have to have a wide theatrical run it could Premiere at Heartland and hundreds of people in Indiana could see it and it could change the perspective of hundreds or thousands of people in Indiana and make where I live a much better place in a lot of ways and that is in my mind more successful than a wide theatrical release in a lot of ways I I think of the same thing I'm so silly for but like podcast right it's like we get thousands and tens of thousands of listeners and Views and stuff like that and it's like but it's like am I Joe Rogan like no I do not have the hundred million Spotify deal would I still say it's successful yes absolutely like I get to interview cool people and learn about like and I say that that's a success so like if you're saying 4% of films submitted get into Heartland right is that what you said yeah for a shorts Fest for the shorts like to already be in the top four like that's that's a success like you know hundreds and hundreds of people like put their films up to get nominated like that's a success so I think that's a good perspective what I do want to talk to um before we get into like some of my more rapid fire questions is take me through like you you start with the intention right like you have the intention to make dirty laundry and take us through the like the life cycle of this film and where we are now and like and how people can get uh jazzed up for a local film that's going to be pre World premiering at Heartland Film Festival yeah oh man this is going to be like shout out city name drop City too um because there's so much Indiana connection I think that's kind of the magic of a film like dirty laundry is so special because hoers can come see it at Heartland film festival and they can know that we filmed it here with actors that are from here with a whole crew that's from here uh it's just it's just such a celebration of Indiana who's your creativity where does the idea come from yeah I never so so as Greg mentioned um I've only done documentaries our team 12 Stars media has only done documentaries up till this point I founded with with my co-founder a nonprofit organization called hudo that streams documentaries across Indiana for Indiana filmmakers like I am the documentary guy right and I just everyone knows Dirty Laundry not a documentary not a documentary yeah exactly um yeah so how did it how did it happen uh candidly um it was an it was kind of an accident and and a and a whirlwind of of unfortunate events that put me in a place where I needed a creative Outlet I just started writing and I never intended for it to be a script for a narrative film and it just ended up becoming one um we were victims of a smash and grab looting in San Francisco we were there on a on a corporate project for a very large client and I uh was 15 ft away from our van where all of our equipment was and saw somebody smash the windows out and start pulling it all out and took about half of it 20,000 San Francisco filming for a client and you're 15 ft from your van yeah and IT smash and grab loot yeah and in daylight yeah and so what do you wait Can we just like what do you you just like stand there I shouted well yeah you get out of here yeah you know you want to be careful in those kinds of situations because you don't know you don't know you know and so I I kind of stay where I was and I shouted I said yeah that's you know get out of there that's our stuff you know and they and they stopped about halfway through you know grabbing our equipment they got a they got a away with about 20,000 worth you know $20,000 worth of you know 50 to $100,000 worth of equipment so the most important stuff uh went with them in a you know a camera with all the footage we had already filmed and basically fast forward 24 miserable hours later um I'm sitting in the San Francisco Airport um completely despondent because not only do we not have that equipment anymore um but we don't have the footage and we don't have the ability to film any more footage for the project so we know we're going to have to come back back in a month and redo this whole thing and you know how like if you ever accidentally deleted an important file on your computer or whatever like it's that feeling of like you know and so I just got out my phone and started doing a little bit of like writing exploration you know like what would happen if this what would happen if that um there was this inside joke with my team um about launder Mets I always wanted to film in AER mat I think a lot of filmmakers have these like weird little like bucket list type things I've alwaysed to film aat and IED with every time we would drive by aat I would say maybe that's theat where we can film Dirty Laundry and this concept of dirty laundry wasn't the film that it is today it was this idea that we would do this like runchy reality web series where we would uh invite people in and they would sit behind a curtain back lit and they would tell their secrets they would spill beans on like all their like dirty I kind like that too well right and that's like you know maybe that has some Merit to it that's not the kind of thing that I would ever make so it was a joke because like 12 star media is not going to make anything like that not that there's anything inherently wrong with that but that's just not the kind of thing we do I mean it's just different it's different the documentary guy is not going into reality like that I feel like that would actually you could sell that to like love Island whoever creates that that's like a that's like a modern thing that like my generation of like you know 25y Old 27 year olds like love to watch probably yeah and and that's that's a Model A business model and a proposition that I'm gladly give to somebody else you can do your Anonymous uh movie reviews this way after people see dirty lunder you can like oh dirty you step behind step behind the screen and tell us what you really thought tell us what you really think um so what happened is those ideas kind of swirled together somehow in my like um like very post-traumatic stress dealing brain you know what I mean like what just happened but also I need a distraction and so I wrote the script in about a week which is really probably unusual um and probably not recommended um but then I revised it over the course of about two months um with feedback from various people and sources and then once the script was pretty much done I'm trying to get into like your actual question was how do you make this thing um once the script was done it was sort of um the decision time for okay well now is that something that was a very welcoming distraction from some of the stress of like is it more like artist therapy or is this like a real thing we want to do yeah or or both or both right you know because it can be both and so um I had two like deal breakers for progressing the film past the the script stage um and that was one that we find alrum at that would be perfect for filming in right because the setting is so incredibly important especially since we decided that it would be in the 90s and then two is that we would have to find two leads for this film that were really incredible um the leads for the film are 90% of the film um you know if if there's if there's any criticism of the film it's that really you're just watching these two kids hash out some crap for like n well 70 minutes and so um yes runtime 70 minutes really important for people to ultimately fall in love with and root for these two characters as they're pushing through all these struggles um I wanted people to like like them and want them to win whatever that is um from the beginning and so really important that we find good talented actors um fortunately through um just Googling and then wandering into Tony Ray laundry one day and talking to the owner there and pitching the idea and him being amable to it this is the kind of thing you talk about Indiana and talk about like who's your hospitality and film making in Indiana you know going back to that earlier conversation like I walked into the laundry mat I asked can we make a film here this is a laundry mat I don't even know if the name like it just says laundry man I think it just says laundry on and it's like or yeah it just says laundry it's right on Keystone across from the old ksr I now look at it every time I go by I'm like there it is that's dir that's dirty laundry yep absolutely and so um he was like yeah sure I think yeah I think we can arrange that um and then did the same thing at Calvin Fletcher coffee because we needed a short scene to be filmed in a in a coffee shop and you know same thing Jeff there the the owner was like oh yeah yeah sure I think we can I mean you guys mind if we film a movie here today yeah all all fell into place um had absolutely no trouble whatsoever finding locations um in Indiana well but that was only 10% tell me about the 90% of finding two leads yeah how that and and obviously with your massive massive budget to go out yeah um so I just started with uh Facebook friends that that I had right and um Sunday um at Talent Fusion is a Facebook friend of mine um Scott I hadn't met yet Scott at Talent fusion um we have talent we have talent agencies yeah so probably what's Talent Fusion yeah so talent agencies are middlemen right or middle people right for like a somebody like me who's going to say okay I want to make a film I need you know I can either hire a casting director who's still probably going to work with an agency or I can act as the casting director for a small film like ours and I can reach out to an agency like Talent Fusion who has a whole bunch of actors on their roster and can reach out to them and say Hey you know Rocky walls just came to us with this script and you know here are the here's a couple of sides side is a a little selection of maybe a page or or less of of the script and you know here why don't you uh why don't you read this for them and do a an audition and then I can sit and look through all the auditions and so this is all happening I mean like a lot something that happens in in Indiana yes 100% absolutely I did see that coming I thought it was like I put it on Facebook or whatever and then that you like like someone's like my grandson would be really good at this you know phot shoots to like corporate commercials to movies like this too and that's that's what too I mean it's fun listening to right now Rocky because it's still and not a a naive way but it still is a novelty and something special here um in Indiana when these things do happen and I think postco I know a lot of people who were in the business who moved back to Indiana to raise a family but still work on their craft and everything too so I think before I mean where everything was so funnel like oh people were shooting in these like five stereotypical locations I mean even the big studios like the Marvel movies hey we have to shoot in China we got to shoot here because we want to try to get those audiences we need uh that kind of Kickback with with funding or whatever from uh these different agencies and that kind of stuff too but I think that's what's special here I think people can really do amazing things we have infrastructure we have people that have lighting and grip we have um like these Talent managers at Talent fusion and and a lot of amazing things but I think it sounds weird to say even in the time I've been a Heartland that this feels normal now to an extent and I think that's the storytelling so I think there is this generic label of like liberal Hollywood or something too coming here but if you see the films come to the Heartland Film Festival see the films that are being made here even the films that aren't being made here but people that come here and share their stories too it's not it's not a definitive hey this is the only kind of movies that you're going to see and do and I think that's what people are very excited about cuz anytime you talk about funding and government funding I think people like well who's this going to and that kind of stuff too but there's infrastructure here I think it would only bring in like we're doing a Heartland Film Festival we bring in big names but we also 80% is still huge super Indie talent that we're really trying to highlight and put on the same level of the pedestal and I think we're getting there and once incentives work themselves out a little bit here uh possibly get you know to a transferable stage I think we will it'll it'll be truly a golden era to bring that back I love it well well talk to me right you end up on with with two t Talent Fusion represented Mitchell one of the stars of the film um when he was younger and I saw that on the website and so I reached out to Scott and I said hey you know do you still have a relationship with Mitchell I also at the same time like you know I'm waiting on his email back and I go on my Facebook and I find out that I've got two or three Facebook friends in common with Mitchell's mom and so like I'm just I'm like no screw it I'm just going to reach out to Mitchell's mom and so um I had a phone call with Mitchell um I think that night I knew that he was Kyle I just I just knew um he was a perfect hit he's the age that Kyle is in the movie um which is one of my like beefs with a lot of movies like that you know you have like a 35-year-old playing like an 18-year-old and like I I'm not trying to knock any specific films or any specific actors but like you know I really wanted like people that were believable at at the age that they that they were um and so Kyle or Mitchell um was was cast uh right pretty much right away um he did do an audition we went through the whole process but but I pretty much knew and then um we were trying to find his uh his co-star um Eric Hernandez who um has a a Latino background his family he's he's he's a mixed race kid um who who goes to school with with Kyle he's you know they're best friends and and they're going to start this business together and I was we were having a little bit of trouble um finding an Eric here in in Indie and uh Mitchell goes to College um scad they're down at uh scad they're down at um Savannah College of Art and Design in um it's August of last year I guess um yeah August of 2023 202 yeah 2023 what year is it now yeah yeah no kidding and um and then he texts me not a week after being at school and he says Rocky I think I um I think I found somebody that could audition for Eric he said there's this kid um that I I met and and we've hit it off really well um we've already become you know Fast Friends and uh and he's um he's half I think half or quarter Mexican um and I was like that's cool um and and then he said and you're never going to believe this but he's been acting uh since he was a kid like me and he's from Westfield Indiana he lives 10 minutes away from me when we both go home and it was like I could not believe it he couldn't believe it either um but it was like the stars aligned and um these two they're best friends now now they're roommates um the the two of them are roomates in college where did Mitchell go to school so he went Mitchell went to University High School and then and then Charlie went to um Westfield High School so Char Charlie Schultz I don't think I've said his real name yet Charlie Schultz is our other co-star and so both of them um yeah best friends um at scad um they're coming back for the for the world premiere um but that was huge and then you know are are the rest of our cast does an amazing job as well um most of them were were on set for a day right um so it was you know 10 days of production um most of the production at the laundromat overnight because that's one thing that Rick uh Rick the the owner said you know he was he was amazing to work with just incredibly gracious um let us do pretty much whatever we wanted as long as the laundry was closed and there were no customers and so um he's a businessman come on yes absolutely 100% And so um sometimes you can you know pay somebody to like shut their business down for a week or whatever um and in this case we just came in we had you know crew crew call was around 9:30 cast call was around.

p. m. and we would kind of just wait patiently for the last customers to pull their you know freshly to pull their clean laundry out their clean laundry their their freshly folded laundry out the door and then we would set everything up and we'd film until 56 in the morning oh what overnight yeah overnight 56 in the oh my gosh so 10 I think it was 10 days working the night shift okay well give us like a 60c like a teaser of like what we should expect uh when we come and check it out yeah so it's a story about truth and friendship said in the 9s um I I call it a Coming of Age story um but it's got a little bit of magical realism in it if you're familiar with that term um think magic but um completely set in the real world and so that's not a huge Focus there's you know this uh spell that the guys fall under Kyle and Eric are best friends getting ready to start a business together they've decided to skip College U much to uh Eric's parents shagrin um they their their going at it they're they're going to figure out their business plan and they're going to they're going to be successful in in their own way and um they meet this stranger uh on one of their one of their like routine laundry nights and she gives them some advice and does this fancy coin trick and then when she leaves the boys suddenly discover that they are incapable of lying they have to tell the truth think like Jim Carrey Liar Liar which came out in 97 the year that our film is set um except just not quite as slapsticky right well it kind of gave me a big vibe from the trailer machine yeah it's like you're all of a sudden like what you wish for like yeah crazy and so they um you know for the rest of the night kind of dealing with how to get out of this spell um you know Eric doesn't really want to go to work with his dad the next morning having to tell the truth nobody would want to do that and so um they're just kind of exploring the limits of the spell like what can it do what can we what can it can't what can it not do and and how do we break it how do we get out of it and through the course of that exploration they start to reveal and find some things out about themselves um that are really important when you're you know going to start a business together with your best friend and so I tell people it's got magic and shenanigans but it has a whole lot of heart and um some of the early reviews that we've been getting um people have really appreciated how we went from Comedy and like very like 90s like like you said you know uh big or maybe you know John Hughes or Richard linkl or whatever like some of these films where you think about like those classic 90s like couple people stuck in a space together and trying to work it out but it it becomes very very um I think profound in its exploration of friendship and what it really means to be friends with someone and for me the heart of it comes back to I mentioned this earlier you know we're in a loneliness epidemic you know and and there's all kinds of ways to be friends with people or connect with people online or in person and in a lot of ways we're still struggling a lot of us to figure out how do I really have good friends how do I really have good healthy relationships and I think this film presents um some of the ways that that you can go about doing that and and it and it ends on a on a note that I think will leave people very very satisfied I love that well tell us about how we can can support and we can check it out and when you're going to be or where you're going to be and all those fun things yeah so the world premiere we are super excited and and very very grateful to have our world premiere at Heartland Film Festival this year um I honestly could not be happier with that um there there are lots of places that we can show the film um but that is the place that I wanted to show up most and so on Sunday October 13th at 5:00 pm at newfields the Tobias theater at newfields we are having our world premiere um as Greg mentioned earlier a 530 capacity 530 seat theater um and we want to pack the house so um people can uh buy their tickets online right on heartland's website um once the the tickets are available say the date again so October 13th Sun October Sunday October 13th 530 people at new Fields were packing the house uh for the world premiere of dirty laundry featuring two local are they what grade are they in so they're going to be they're actually they're now they're college sophomores um two local Indiana sophomores got to star in this film Rocky put it together like that's awesome and every so I think with maybe one or two exceptions everybody else in the film are also hooer actors and actresses and so it's it's you know Mitchell and Charlie do an incredible job and so proud of them so incredibly proud of them but the whole cast the whole crew Everybody that worked on this I think I counted at one point that we were getting up into like the 50s as far as number of people that have contributed to this you know the the score was composed written and performed um by think about that wait I'm going to blow your mind right so there's the score there's the performers that perform the score at Round Table recording right here in Broad Ribble right just like I don't to Stone store from where we are right now um and then there's the art Direction you know a local a local friend of mine an artist um did all of the art that's in the props Kyle is an artist and he's got this Sketchbook and he's going through and so all of that turned into The Branding for the film you know when you look at the film poster when you look at all of the key art and all the ways that we're promoting the film um the animated uh intro the credits are all animated they're all handdrawn when you watch the film and you see you know Mitchell's name or Charlie's name or my name in the film you'll see it's it's animated um and each one of those is a handdrawn image four different handdrawn images that come together to make this handdrawn effect that Eric Eric and Andrews our our art director Drew every one of those by hand and so it's like when you think about the number of people that are involved and the number of people that will be there at the world premiere celebrating um it's it is going to be quite a party it's it's a huge huge you too could be in attendance at the world premiere of dirty laundry at Heartland Film Festival man that's awesome I love that uh if it I mean I'm hoping to to uh make it to my second second world premiere of a of a film and I'm super pumped and I love it this one has even more ties to Indiana which I obviously as the Indiana guy I love that um and I'm and just from watching the trailer we're going to link it in the show notes but like it just seems like a movie um when I think of independent films and like that kind of it's like uh this seems like a good entry point for me from like from my perspective with the trailer right where it's like oh this is something that you could see easily on like a Netflix or like in the theater or anything like that like it's it's got like a good story arc and and all that cat yeah but the other thing that we want people to walk away from it realizing is that um I mean it wasn't easy to make necessarily but it's approachable like I would hope I hope that there are College film students who were there or high schoolers or middle schoolers who want to be filmmakers who can watch that and go okay like actually like I can pick this apart and I can understand like they only had you know five locations they only had like you know 20 actors total really two main actors that shared the screen the majority of the time like they they chot it in 10 days like this can be done it can be done really really well in Indiana um and so I hope that it inspires people in that way too yeah one the best pieces of advice I ever got was don't compete create and I think it's so easy again whether you're feel isolated through social Doom scrolling being a creative I I don't know how many people stories like this where you rock the script we said seven days or 10 days what was the oh the first draft Yeah 10 10 days that's crazy I mean there's there's there are projects that people have in their head that they want to do and they just there's a lot of personal hurdles and that kind of stuff too so this is a testament to that too but um I love my job as a programmer as well too but most of my I love it when I can make dreams come true I'm a Dream Maker but most of my job is being a dream killer honestly it is go back to the 4% of people got it and and it is so tough and again year after year there's more alumni than ever people submitting stuff to and I've had instances where people might move from the dock space into dramatic stuff and it's just not something that maybe they're not ready and I try to give some people some feedback and that kind of stuff too so yeah we had early discussions with Rocky and I think the thing that's phenomenal about you as well is that you were so excited to share your story even from pre-production like hey you and that's the thing I think that fits the vibe with Heartland like we are very transparent and open about all this stuff too and you have been very open about how people can make these things how do you do this how do you do pre-production how do you get people on a comparatively shoestring budget to make something phenomenal and that kind of stuff too so yeah I was pleasantly surprised not saying I never doubted Rocky in any way for but no but I mean I've I've seen it before and again it's like I'm not trying to compartmentalize hey we're just here in Indiana and that's the focus and we're you know and our little sandbox or whatever and that kind of stuff too because I think truly it's just a word and this these man-made boundaries we have in our head and borders and that kind of stuff too but yeah um really pulled it off with with the team and everything too so yeah we're really excited to show it and that's the other thing I failed to mention too is that usually these people are here to do you know to talk about their film experience it with an audience and so if you go on our website to see the whole schedule we actually people who have RSVP you can tell hey so and so from the film will be here MH so we have big names we're going to have a big um sci-fi Premiere with Emily deel she's going to be here in person for the premere if you're a bones fan or something too so yeah and so that's what we try to do we you know not everyone can come cuz they're budgets or schedules but we have hundreds of filmmakers that come in but that's what special and that's what we'll have after Dirty Laundry you'll have you know this experience with the crowd I think they're going to love your film and then you can go up on stage and we'll just talk about it and it'll be just a fun celebration and people can ask their off the cuff questions I love it which are usually good for for the most part too we get we get good questions well this I mean this has been an awesome dive into everything from independent film the business model behind it Indiana's film ecos system we are at the end of the show and so I get to do some fun segments and and some uh some interesting rapid fire questions for you so we're going to start with our younger year segment this question is brought to you by our friends or Fellowship uh they're a great organization here in Indianapolis developing young Business Leaders across the state and what we're going to ask each of you I'll start with Rocky is Rocky what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self keep trying new stuff as often as you can I love that new stuff say yes new stuff I love that uh Greg what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self the the ladder you think is in front of you is not really there it's not all about your titles and uh making more money and everything too I think yeah I I turned 40 early this year at Sundance actually too so it's been very reflective hey potentially at the middle of my life but no but really it is to think long term the people meet the possibilities that are given to you the the less that you plan but the more you still keep motivated amazing things will happen to you I love that that's that's really good advice now we have some fun ones a little lightning round just first question that comes around I'm going to start with Greg what TV show you watching right now oh wow um it's been a lot of movies I it just one a bunch of emies I've not finished Shogun yet on Hulu I need to finish it but the first part that I saw was just phenomenal so uh Rocky what are you watching uh my wife and I have like the guilty pleasure of watching through old shows that we've seen a million times and so we are just about finished with new girl for like the second or third yes okay now we're gonna ask going back to Rocky uh Rocky what's your go-to movie theater snack I get gummies like the g whatever gummy is available and I open them up and I pour them all over the top of the popcorn and I eat it together it's Indiana so it's not not questionable gummies oh yeah right um load them up what what's your what's your go-to movie theater snack I've always I love the sweet and salty so I I like doing classic butter popcorn with plain M&M's you know you can't sprinkle them in cuz you need the the equal distribution too so I usually have a handful of M&M's and the double hand method uh now we're g to go right back here the last question that's kind of like movie theater fun related uh what's your guilty pleasure movie that you never admit to loving until now I bring up Dumb and Dumber and Big Top PE to everybody all the time but I don't I don't not share that so I'm trying to Rack my brain for something I just never talked to people about we were like I I really hate to say it but I love that movie uh Rocky do you have one to top here I might have to come back yeah I mean my my wife and my kids know but but probably other people would be surprised I I could watch 13 Going on 30 like any time espec it just cheers me right up love that movie fromom from the late 90s or early 2000s I think yeah okay I guess probably for nostalgic purposes I guess a beaches the mler movie CU I remember 1989 talking about the ' 80s and 90s like the two soundtracks on tape my mom had were dirty dancing in beaches so I think we go back and I think that's actually our prisman hard one of his favorite movies and stuff too so yeah I guess yeah no those are great uh Rocky what's something the world needs to know about Indiana it's really nice here I mean it's justce what's nice about it uh it's it's just got the right mix of everything right it's not too busy it's not like total flyover like a lot of people think that it is um you know we have all four seasons we have I just think like Indiana is a beautifully balanced place it it really is it's about balance it is yes uh Greg what is something the world needs to know about Indiana that you need to actually come here and experience it I think the biggest term mean you lived in 10 states right yeah if if you don't go you don't know that's the adage I use if you don't go you don't know exactly you don't again you go like we didn't go to festivals I go to festivals I told people where in front like oh wow like if we make those relationships you didn't tell your story and you didn't invite people to come here and host them and have a good time I mean we have an amazing industry for hosting people with conventions visit Indies phenomenal um we know how to do it right but if you don't you don't come here if you're not open-minded you're missing out yeah don't be be open-minded come to Indiana you're going to love it you're going to move yeah uh we got two questions left this is my tried and true the one that gets everybody uh you got to have something real good here okay Greg what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana I like the Riverwalk for the Janette records over in Richmond Indiana huge history I don't know I'm not familiar we opened with Louis Armstrong's black and blues an apple documentary about Louis Armstrong the great jazz musician wait his name was lwis you can call him Louis or Louie anytime they say Lou like you mean Louis you know so it's it's potato potato but yeah heard but everyone who has been anybody whether it be blues rock gospel Jazz has recorded So the star Janette piano company was on the river in Richmond Indiana on the Ohio border and they had this small room in this Piano Company where they recorded so um Louis or Lewis Armstrong recorded with King Oliver back in the 20s his first sides his 78s and then hogi carmichel recorded his first failed version St called it's uh star Janette star Janette records but now there's a river walk where there's just like a small exoskeleton of what the building used to be but they've done these beautiful murals that look like um almost like yeah they're like pieces of different colored glass or material I'm just I'm not doing it justice but they've done murals of all these amazing people that have recorded there so you can just walk up and down I think they have some different festivals and other kind of stuff too going on there too but that is a Hidden Gem holy smokes yeah I love going there and you just you're just I mean you just places that you just feel the history of stuff too and I think living in different states I I love kind of finding that stuff uh Rocky what is a Hidden Gem in Indiana that's that's going to be a tough one we're like um at the time of recording we're we're right over lunch and all I'm thinking about is food and so um right in downtown Noblesville where I'm where I live and where I work um there is a fantastic restaurant um last year I believe James Beard nominee Chef um here in IND in Indiana um Samir Chef smear um the the restaurant is called Ninth Street beastro and it's one of those books out like couple months in advance usually um I think they have 30 seats in the place um but it's like you know if you're if you're a fan of like going to New York or Toronto or some of these other big cities where you you know you find these little places that are just you know only only like 10 tables maybe um and you just know it's exceptional and you know you're never going to get in because it books two or three months in advance you're in Indiana and there's one of those all right so if you're looking date night you got a date night a couple months out from now book your reservation at 9th Street beastro if you don't get me a table uh this weekend you were pulling your film so oh no I I could call in a couple favors gentlemen we've come to the final question of the day this is your chance to share the love right talk about somebody else you see that's just absolutely crushing it out there we start with Rocky who's a hooer that we need to keep on our radar so our our composer Eric Salazar um I mentioned a composer earlier and then I I kicked myself because I didn't say his name so I can fit it in now Eric Salazar is an incredible musician um he's a clarinetist among other things uh and he is just fantastic and he um the the the score for dirty laundry is his first featurelength film score that he's done um but he he does amazing things he's uh he teaches kids um he he's a I know he was a um recipient of one of the um creative arts renewal grants um last year um and so he's just fantastic and so body in the in the music going back to your you know you kept using the music festival analogy so we'll swing it back all the way full full full circle and talk about music again really quick but Eric Salazar is incredible um I would encourage people to check him out and uh yeah that's Eric come on all right Greg who's a hoer that we need to keep on our radar Dr naati Lawrence um he's the head of the black Film Center archive at IU so I mean it's like a world-renowned archive for just black Cinema filmmakers everything and it's at you Indiana University too so I think he's been here now full year plus but um I've just known so many amazing people down there and yeah so definitely check that out again another hidden gym as well you can go down there they have a a screening room they have a great archive so I'll shout out to Dr Lawrence and their whole team at the DFC yeah I love that gentlemen thank you so much for sharing your expertise and educating me on on the film industry in Indiana and and what's going on here and and why it's so important to support your local creator I love that as a local Creator I also agree you should support them um I'm excited for Heartland I'm excited for dirty laundry I can't wait one last time give us the details and everything how we can get plugged in at Heartland and then more specifically how we can get plugged in to fill the theater uh at newfields on October 13th right you got it boom yeah October 10th through 20th um Heartland film festival.

org again you can buy a ticket just to one thing you can buy a pass for everything you can become a member but just come and hang out we have a lot of um evening events too where you can like I said hang out and do some duck pin balling with filmmakers and really have meaningful conversations um even if you didn't get into the festival everyone aspires everyone had has a daydream about winning an Oscar or getting into the movies come and hang out with folks you never know what will happen honestly yep absolutely and yes please uh come check out the world premiere of dirty laundry again that's October 13th Sunday October 13th 5:00 p. m. is H the screening time we'll have a Q&A after words the Stars will be there most of our cast and crew will be there it'll be really fantastic and after that sold out you might be able to see it a timer two after that too but well everyone needs to go to the premiere yeah and sold it out sold out World premiere I love it no doubt uh it's going to be so much fun y'all thank you for the time today and we'll talk soon thank you thank you this episode was brought to you by our friends at hard truth they are an amazing Indiana Distillery that is absolutely crushing it I just went down to Nashville to check out their operation and it did not disappoint point we went on an ATV tour followed by a tiki cruise and then rounded out the visit with a full tour of their Distillery I learned so much about whiskey Bourbon and some history of Brown County then we ate dinner at their restaurant and it did not disappoint mark your calendar for harvestfest on September 28th they're releasing their third collaboration with melon Camp whiskey company and will have live music as well as a meet and greet and bottle signing festivities run from 12:00 to 9:00 p.

m. with the whiskey T opening it too get your tickets at hard truth. com thank you for listening to this episode of get in if you liked what you heard make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcast this show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater whether you're trying to start your own podcast or looking to take your show to the next level make sure you check out sweetwater. com for all your creator needs if you want exclusive behind the-scenes content on all things Indiana make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ Nate spangle thank you for being part of what makes the hooer state so amazing we'll see you next week here on get in