We're Making a Movie

Fresh off a film festival, we’re back—and production is coming up FAST. We’re slated to begin filming our feature, Turns Out It’s the Apocalypse… We Think, at the end of February, and it’s officially all systems go.

To get ourselves ready (and keep everything from falling through the cracks), our incredible Executive Producer, Allison Moy Hayhurst, put together a pre-production checklist so good we had to share it. From deal memos to creative logistics, we’re pulling back the curtain and giving you a behind-the-scenes look at how we’re preparing to make our very...

Next year… We’re Making a Movie!!! The end of 2025 is almost here, and we can’t believe we’re filming Turns Out It’s the Apocalypse… We Think to kick off 2026. Before we close out this year, we want to sum up our favorite filmmaker advice, give you a behind-the-scenes look at where we are with pre-production, and, most importantly… What's our plan to get this sucker in the can before the spring?

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Turns Out It’s the Apocalypes… We Think...

Marketing your movie starts long before the cameras start rolling — and now that we’ve been greenlit, we are actively working to get the word out about our first feature film. But how? Lucky for us, the perfect people to ask fell into our laps! Filmmaking duo Kerry Carlock and Nick Lund-Ulrich, who are in the middle of premiering their second feature film, SUFFER, are joining the show today. We are excited to pick their brains because if someone else has already survived the chaos twice, we’d be fools not to take notes.

Turns Out It’s t...

The less glamorous side of filmmaking is definitely paperwork. We are crossing “t”s in pre-production for Turns Out It’s the Apocalypse… We Think, and as 2025 winds down, our team has checked off some pretty important boxes. We finally have our LLC set up, we’ve brought on a lawyer (a real one!), and we’re diving into the exciting world of clearances, product placement, and all the fun paperwork that comes with making your first feature film.

Come hang out with us and our Executive Producer, Allison Moy-Hayhurst, ask questions, learn from our heavy lifting, and...

“Hurry up and wait” is one of those classic filmmaking phrases that is feeling a little too real right now. We’ve officially been greenlit to make our feature film… and yet our personal to-do list is pretty small. The holidays are creeping in, other departments are handling their stuff, and we’re sitting here with nothing but anxious energy and spinning brains. So, what can we be doing at this stage to actually move the needle on our future indie film? Let’s talk about it.

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We are excited to have budding filmmaker Patrick Curran join us to discuss his recent adventures in filmmaking! He is currently in pre-production to direct his first feature film, and we have a ton of questions for him, especially about collaborating with his cinematographer. What to look for in a director of photography (DP) and how to find the ideal creative partner for your film? Drawing from his experiences as a director, writer, and actor, Patrick shares insights on the collaboration that makes great movie-making possible. If you’re an indie filmmaker preparing for your first feature, this is a...

Now that we’ve talked to a few Cinematographers about the importance of a DP on your project, we want to talk to the people who hire the DP… the Director. What are they looking for? How do they collaborate? How do you know the person you're interviewing is “the one?”

For an inside look into the brain of a Director on his DP, we’re bringing in friend and colleague, Jason C. Brown. Not only has Jason been the Director for a number of OUR projects, but he also worked on a TON of sets ranging in...

Cinematography is one of the most important elements of your film, which is why the role of the DP is so gosh darn important.

Today, we’re bringing on Cinematographer Brandon Cox to pick his brain about the best time to bring on your Director of Photography, what he’s usually working on in the early stages of making a movie, and what advice he’s got for us fledgling filmmakers. Although we’ve never worked with Brandon before, he was such a strong interview at the Julien Dubuque Film Festival that we’ve been eager to get him...

Are you a filmmaker wondering what a good DP actually does, or when is the right time to bring them onto your project? This is the episode for you!

We are embarking on our own search for a Director of Photography to make our first feature film, but we have a lot of questions. The best way to find answers is to ask trusted sources, and for us, that is Wey Wang. We’ve known Wey for years and have worked with him on several projects. He also has the heart of a teacher, and we’ve lear...

We are grinding away in Development… inching ever closer to Pre Production. So what's the next step in making our first feature film? Research and conventional wisdom suggest that the next move is filling out our Core Crew, specifically, finding our Director of Photography. But why?!?? Why now??! What will they be working on while we’re still locking in investors and securing locations? Great questions! We are just as eager to find out.

Promised link

https://www.onassemble.com/blog/the-definitive-film-crew-hierarchy-chart

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We are back! Fresh off the heels of some film festival adventures, with some inside baseball for all you filmmakers. After years of going to, working for, and living our best festival life, we realize there’s plenty of insider info we want to share. There are many ways you can help the festival help you. Getting the word out about your film screenings, the social media push, the chances to do interviews… it’s all about creating opportunities. From a festival’s point of view, there are many small things you can do to help your film pack the hous...

There are a lot of side quest adventures that pop up while you're making a feature film… and when you’re making a podcast about making a feature film. We’re taking a Wild Card episode to cover some odds and ends we just gotta talk about. Script competitions, early marketing, branding, acting in a feature, and yes… It’s never too soon to start talking about THE NEXT project. It’s crazy pants, and we’re gonna dive in with all of you in real time as we sort through these topics.

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Casting your first feature film? Thinking about casting yourself in it? You’re in the right place. We just wrapped up a series of interviews with filmmakers who’ve been there, done that—whether it was landing name talent or stepping into the lead role themselves—and we learned a ton. Now we’re pulling together the best insights into one big wrap-up episode. Tune in for our takeaways as we gear up to star in our own feature film.

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Starring in the feature film you wrote and are co-producing?!?! Are we insane to do this??? There's no better person to ask than someone who just got back from where you wanna go, so we’re gonna chat with the multi-hyphenate talent behind the dark-comedy-musical Peeping Todd, Chris Alan Evans, about doing just that. What is it like to carry a film as its lead actor while also balancing the demands of writing and producing, and the unpredictable challenges (and rewards) of bringing such a wild, genre-blending project to life? If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to w...

Ever wondered how indie filmmakers land name talent for their small-budget films? We're hoping our friend Chen Drachman can shine some light on that nagging question. In her short The Book of Ruth, she cast Broadway legend and Walking Dead alum Tovah Feldshuh, and for her live-action animation short, But I’m a Shoe, she brought in Janet Varney, the voice of Korra from The Legend of Korra. We’re gonna sit down and ask her, “HOW the heck did you get these two incredible talents on board?” … and we can’t promise this episode won't go off the rails a litt...

If you’re a Walking Dead fan and a filmmaker, you might find this episode extra interesting! We’re diving into what we have decided to call “Marquee Casting.” Not to be confused with stunt casting, Marquee Casting is when you find the right name talent for your indie film and are able to leverage their star power to push your project forward. Today, we’re talking to H. Nelson Tracey about his recent feature film, Breakup Season, which has a crazy talented ensemble of actors, including their lead, Chandler Riggs. How the heck did you make that happen, Nelson!? W...

So exactly how much money do you need for your feature film!?! Well, that’s a great question. No matter what size project you’re working on, two of the bigger components will be LOCATION and NUMBER of SHOOTING DAYS. Currently, we are attempting to nail down our locations and all costs associated with that. BUT how many days will we need to shoot? How many locations? How many days will each actor be needed? And how can we streamline all of that? That's where STRIPBOARDS come in. Don’t know what stripboards are or how they apply to your p...

We’re not done figuring out how we’re going to pull together the scratch to make our first feature film but we are wrapping up this section so we can dive into the other aspects of developing a movie. Before we go, let’s recap some of the highlights and key takeaways. Plus we're gonna show a few of our cards and break down what our plan might be. Things can (and will) change as we start to knock on doors and put things in motion but we’re feeling pretty good about where we’re headed on this filmm...

There are as many ways to fund a feature film as there are filmmakers. This week we’re going to take a look at how Writer and Director Lauren Musgrove put together the backing she needed to make her directorial debut with “Ugly Sweater.” She’s fresh off the film festival circuit where they racked up eight film festival laurels along with three wins, a major feat for any feature. Now that she’s got this first feature under her belt, we’ve got a million questions, and Lauren is gracious enough to share her experiences with us.

Lauren...

Another amazing interview ahead! Today, we’re talking to Ryan McDonough about how he funded his proof of concept short and then feature film, “Last Night in Rozzie.” We’ve known Ryan for years, and he is a riot, so we know this is going to be a good interview. Now that we’re diving into making our first feature, we gotta ask him a million questions. How did you secure your funding? What were the struggles? HOW THE HECK DID YOU GET JEREMY SISTO!?!?!?! (Be still, our “Clueless” obsessed hearts.) But mostly, Ryan is just a fun guy to chat with...

Getting funding for your indie feature film…. the monumental task continues. While we all dream of a phone call from the big studios, you’ll probably have to find investors elsewhere. And sometimes magic strikes. We’re sitting down with Writer / Producer Hudson Phillips, who has two features under his belt. We will discuss how he obtained the money, managed those funds, and what he learned from his two projects that we can put to our own uses.

Hudson Phillips is a writer, producer, and founder of Mirror Box Films. He grew up in sma...

Is crowdfunding for your indie feature film giving you minor heart palpitations? We get it! We’ve done a few ourselves, and we still think raising funds via Kickstarter sounds daunting. So we’re bringing in a pro to walk us through all the ins and outs of the successful campaigns she’s been a part of over the years. We are pleased to introduce you to Paul Rhodes. Actor, Director, Producer, Paula is the ultimate go-getter. You may have seen her in any number of commercials or heard her voice in some of your favorite video games and cartoo...

Money makes the world go round. And it sure makes producing a feature film a whole lot easier. We are still deep in the development phase of our feature film, and we’re at a critical juncture… MONEY and BUDGETING. “Where's the money gonna come from?” Sets. Camera. Crew. Post Production. It’s all gotta be paid for, and the last time we checked our personal bank accounts, we were a few million short of the typical movie budget. So, how do we do this?!?! How much is this really going to cost? How do we get the money we need...

Many independent feature films are led by a director who has also penned their screenplay. So, what should you do if you have a script but aren't a director yourself? The answer is to find a director and do so early in the process. For us, a key part of building our core team was finding a director who was a good fit for “Turns Out” and our specific brand of comedy. Fortunately, we connected with the team from Evening Squire Productions while showcasing our short films at various festivals, and one half of the Evening Squire team is the...

The team! The core crew. Your closest production homies. Your filmmaking ride or dies. This week, we’re talking all about the very core team of people you bring on to walk the long trudge of making a feature film together. Making a movie is no small feat, and bringing on your Director, Producer, and Cinematographer in the development phase of the production can be crucial. But who do you need this early on in the process, and what exactly are they doing?! Well, let's talk about that.

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How do you make your first indie feature film? H O W !?! If our years of making short films have taught us anything, it's to ask questions of those who have been where we want to go. Better yet, ask those questions of creators who are a few steps ahead of you on the journey, rather than those who are years down the road. We are thrilled to sit down with filmmaker Jenny Waldo and ask her: How did you develop your first feature? With her successful debut feature under her belt and her second one in the works...

We are very lucky that our feature film has an amazing producer already on board. Filmmaker friends, we are thrilled to introduce you to Allison Moy Hayhurst, producer with Evening Squire Productions. In this week’s episode, we’re going to open up the can of worms that is producing. What is a Producer? What do Producers do? And when does your project need a Producer? We hope to answer all of these questions, and luckily, we have Allison here to help us make sense of it all.

Allison Moy Hayhurst is a southern-raised Chinese American NY-b...

So you gotta make a deck for your movie, and you're asking yourself, what's a deck even supposed to look like?!? Us too, friend, us too. We’ve been focused on creating a pitch deck for our feature film “Turns Out,” and after A LOT of back and forth, we’re starting to wrap our heads around what a deck really is. Never the gatekeepers, we’re excited to share everything we’ve learned and continue our research along the way.

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Development!? What the F is development??? Sure, we grasp the general concept of filmmaking development, but if you asked us to create a to-do list or outline a plan for it, we would be completely lost. So, we’re gonna dive in and teach ourselves all about what happens before you even start thinking about pre-production, and we want to take you on the ride with us. Let’s do this!

Watch on YouTube- https://youtube.com/live/9UdeSnN_2Bk

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You got your film into a film festival… Now what?!?

Well, since we're coming to you LIVE from the Filmmakers Lounge at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, we have some scoop in that department- with our very first Wild Card Episode. We're thrilled to return for another year at one of our favorite festivals, where we first discovered a key strength: marketing our short films. After years of hustling at festivals all over the country, we’ve often joked that we could give a TED Talk on this subject. But since we haven’t received that invita...

It may seem like writing and rewriting a script is never finished, but we are definitely done with the writing section of this podcast. As we wrap up our screenwriting learning adventure, we’re highlighting what comes after you’ve put your brilliant ideas in Final Draft and hit “save” that last time.

Log lines… treatments… screen competitions. A few things we’re touching on this episode, and we’ll even give you guys some of our hard-earned research. Research… that seems to be another element you’re never finished with in the filmmaking process.

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Rewriting. There is nothing you will do more in the writing process than RE-writing. Between notes from your peers, pre-casting table reads, and your own "Eurekas!" along the way, every writer will open that Final Draft file at least 100 times. For us personally? Two billion five hundred and six rewrites. Now, after our research and interviews over the past few weeks- surprise, surprise- we’ve got more rewrites in mind. So let's talk about it, cause seriously it’s so important.

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Animator turned writer, Brian Newlin, joins us for another informative interview episode. Brian is an absolutely hilarious human and a pure idea machine. Because of his quirky humor and amazing ability to weave a story, we’ve long wanted to work with Brian on ANYTHING. We’re pretty excited to sit him down and pick his brain on his writing process. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that there are a million different ways to get your story from your brain to the page.

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After 20 years as a layou...

Our exploration of screenwriting continues with a special interview! Who better to talk to about the process than someone who has achieved what we’re setting out to do? Welcome, Tom Vaughan, to our little corner of the internet. Not only is Tom a professional screenwriter whose feature films have hit the big screen, but he also teaches screenwriting at the University of Houston and offers an online course called Story & Plot. We’re betting we are going to learn a lot and have a hunch you will too.

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Tom Vaughan has been a prof...

Screenwriting! It’s a big step in the filmmaking process and a massive topic in its own right. Entire podcasts have been dedicated to just this topic alone. To us, writing our first feature felt like a colossal task, but after chipping away at it for years, we got there. Even though we already have our “completed” script, we want to explore the topic of screenwriting and dedicate a few episodes to it. There is ALWAYS more to learn.

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Welcome to our show!

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Get ready for our first interview! Filmmakers Mitch Yapko and Allen Rueckert, who wear many hats, join us for a look into their creative process. Both Mitch and Allen are relentless idea machines, constantly coming up with great concepts in very diverse genres. Although we’ve known them for a long time, we’ve never directly asked them…. Where do you get your ideas from??? Join us as we delve into the topic with two of our favorite cohorts.

Mitch Yapko - Director/Writer/Producer

Mitch Yapko is an award-winning director/writer...

Okay, let’s start from the top. 

The first step (most of the time) in the movie making process is coming up with THE IDEA! Personally, we’re idea machines and this has always been the easier part. We’ve got notebooks loaded with ideas that will probably never see the light of day. So, let’s talk about how we come up with our ideas and how we got the idea for “Turns Out.” We also did some research on how some of our favorite movies came into being. 

Let’s Make A Movie!

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Welcome to "We're Making a Movie," a weekly live-cast following our journey as we attempt to make our first feature film. We are in the very early stages of getting our film, "Turns Out," off the page and on the screen-- but before we dive into that-- who ARE we?!?!?!

Great question, let's talk about that.

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