How He Made A Movie With No Budget...

So when you make a movie for $10,000, is that all favors? So yeah, the first movie I ever made was called Threesome-thing. It was about two friends that try to have a threesome and then they both get way over-invested in the girl. And so they're like, they both feel kind of emasculated that they're left out in different ways. So then they're like trying to assert their masculinity and are having this crisis. And yeah, that's pretty much all favors. We made it for no money. And then how much time are you asking of somebody to come? Like is it a month? My buddy and I, we decided that we were gonna cut, we were gonna work on the story together and that I was gonna direct it and edit it and that we were gonna star in it together and we didn't really have a script. We just kind of would improvise, see scenarios with a vague structure of the story. And then when something happened that was interesting or that we wanted to follow, we would then adjust our whole schedule to just follow these random tangents. So we had a DP that had a really nice camera, our friend Ben, and then we bought sound equipment and I would just run labs to people. So you were sound? I was running sound and acting in it and directing it. And then we just would- Amazing, you can act and hold the boom at the same time. I don't know how you did it. Yeah, and then I would cut it together every night and then I would be like, all right, today we're gonna follow this. So it was just really a matter of my buddy Sam and I and our friend Isabel all being on board with just following the story wherever it went. Yeah, we did that with my first movie. I made a movie called Jason Nash is Married and it was like 10 webisodes that all had funny, each one had a funny joke in them. Then when we finished, the editor was like, I can cut this into a movie. And I was like, I don't know, dog. And he did it, it's 80 minutes. But it's like, I like it, it's pretty good. And we had a lot of great people in it. We had like Rob Corddry and Busy Phillips and Andy Richter and TJ Miller was in it, Matt Walsh. But I guess it can be done, huh? You can work backwards and craft something with anything. Yeah, I think if the crew is small enough- James, just go a little bit up, I just wanna make sure we get you. I think if the crew is small enough, it's very doable. I mean, and if everybody's on board, you can do it. Our second movie kind of fell apart because we were like- Tell us. We were like, this is easy, we can do this. You thought you were, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we were like, we can just make, I was like, we can just make another movie the same way. So we had a way larger cast and it was just way harder to explore and direct without a script, without people that were fully bought in. Some of us were, and then there were a couple people in the cast that were like, dude, what are we doing? Like this, I hate this. Well, yeah, because it's like, you're dealing with schedules, you're dealing with a bunch of different personalities and it's like, yeah, that kind of renegade style filmmaking, they're just like, wait, where's my, do I have a trailer? Do I, what do we have? Yeah, definitely not. But I think that's kind of cool, writing through editing. Yeah, totally. The whole thing coming together in editing. You almost kind of have a vague idea going into the film and then it kind of comes, and so is that how you did the second one as well? You did that kind of? So for the, in between Three Something and I Love My Dad, we made a movie called More and we tried to do it the same way, but there were so many more moving parts and it was actually like slightly bit, it was a bigger movie budgetarily. Like we had gone to everyone we know to put money together and it just, there was one actor that was like, I don't really want to do this anymore. And it was kind of in the middle of us figuring out how we were going to tell the story. And so then all of a sudden we didn't have an actor that was like a central part of the story available to us as we kind of like went in and continued to build scenes. So we were like, we then had to figure out like a way for that to make sense. So this person who's like one of the leads was like, it's like, they left. Right. You know, like, oh, that was so weirdo, they just left. And we're like, hey, can we get a scene of you leaving? And they're like, nah. How did you explain it in the movie? Well, we didn't really, it didn't work. It was terrible. I mean, we were then like, all right, this is a web series and then we cut it as a web series. And I remember watching it with my buddy, Sam and we're just sitting in my apartment and we're like, dude, this is terrible. This is not going to work. Yeah, that's the worst feeling as a filmmaker. When you're watching something that you put a bunch of time into and you're like, this is, there's no point in releasing this. I really admire that you went through that. I gave up on that. Someone once said that to me, they go, I was trying to make a movie. And he said, he goes, well, making a movie is summoning the devil. And you're asking for a million things to go wrong in a million different ways. And the fact that you hit lightning in the bottle with the first one and expected that it would, and then you ran into trouble in the second one. But then on the third one, it seems like you got. Then I like, you know, I had been editing that second one for like a year and a half. And then we decided we were just going to cut our losses. My friend left the business. He moved to New York because it was just, it was super disappointing. It was that bad. It was rough, dude. We had asked everyone we know for money on this. It wasn't a lot of money, but still like to fail in that way. For the second one? For the second one. What was the budget? It was like, it wasn't a ton. It was still like probably like 25 grand. Oh, okay. But it was like a lot of like 500 here, a thousand here, dude. Right, yeah. And then I spent the next few years like really just like spending tons of time screenwriting and getting better and better and better at that. And then I wrote I Love My Dad. Yeah. And got that. Because I realized like I want to have the story really, really locked in. Yep. And be excited to share the plan with everybody. Yeah. And so then I overprepared for I Love My Dad. I storyboarded the whole thing. It had gone through so many drafts. We rehearsed a ton. I was super on board with everyone in my crew. Like we were, we went in with a really solid plan. Talk to, Brandon has this thing where he's like he wants to make a movie so badly. And he feels like he's a failure because he hasn't done it yet. I know that feeling. Can you speak to him? You're a little bit older than Brandon. Yeah, I'm 29. Yeah, so go ahead. Because you're on the other side of this now. So you go ahead and tell me. Brandon's a great writer. I mean really good. He's written so many movies that no one's made or touched yet. Well that's the thing. That I've read. I've actually, I've actually curious your thoughts on this. When you're, so I Love My Dad was the first, was that the first screenplay that you wrote? I had written. Like the actual screenplay? Four or five others before that. That was the first one that I actually produced though. Right, okay. And so those four or five others, did you run into a problem where you're writing and you're like I'm gonna film this myself. This is gonna be independently made for no money. And then you're like, oh this part needs to be in there. And then you're like, that's a $50,000 scene or that requires this effect or this actor or whatever. And then you go, okay, you know what? This is gonna be something I'm gonna put to the side and then I'm gonna make something smaller, right? And to make something and then you start writing that and then you're like, oh I'm gonna do this. And then you run into the same problem. And then it's like, oh okay. And then you go, what can I write that's economic to film? Which kind of sounds like you did for the first two ones. And then for I Love My Dad, was that like you just knew that one was gonna get made or was that kind of like, was that like you just happened to meet Pat, Patent? Yeah. Patent? Yeah, for that one I just decided I believe in it enough that I'm gonna do everything in my power to get it made. Right. You gotta be a bit of a maniac. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you really do. I'm not gonna hedge anymore. I put my acting career to the side. I put everything to the side and I was just like, this is what's gonna happen. And it's a tricky thing. I mean, you have to get people to invest millions of their dollars into an account. It's crazy. So that you can then tell this story. Yeah, yeah. And it's this weird balancing act of talent knowing, like actors knowing that the project is real, but then people that have money knowing that there are actors attached. So it's this like trying to get people on board kind of at the same time. Yeah, it's like you can't, it's because I've heard this too. It's like, because I've tried to get features made too and they're like, well, who do you have attached? And I'm like, well, no one. And they're like, well, then how are you gonna get the money? And I'm like, I don't know. But then you go to an actor, you're like, hey, I wanna get this big actor. And they're like, well, where's the money? Yeah, exactly. And I go, well, I need you involved to get the money. And then they go. And then it's like, but so you can't, it's like such a weird alchemy to have it all get made. I know, it's this crazy catch 22. It hit a point where I was like, I'm gonna make this for 100 grand myself unless we can put the money together. And then when people realized that I was serious about that, then everyone started working way, like everyone really dove in to trying to make it happen. If you can get that one person too, the others follow in, right? Like if you get Patton, then Lil Rel goes, oh, okay, this is real. Exactly. Is that how it happens? The script won a screenwriting competition. Oh, great. Over like 2,300 others. Wow. This contest ScreenCraft. And so someone, I was friends with Patton's manager and he had seen that it won. And he's like, do you think it'd be right for Patton? And I had wanted Patton to do it. And so then he sent it to Patton. Patton and I met. Patton was like, cool, yeah, I really wanna do this. And then we were able to like put the production strategy together. And then we went out to a few investors and someone got really on board with it. Right, so I was gonna take notes really quick as you talk. Just give me a second, just keep talking. Yeah, that's the whole thing, man.