Should you skip film school?
This week Nick Richey, indie writer & director, shares how he went from an economics major in college to making feature films. In this episode, Nick tells how he skipped film school, making his latest project 1-800-Hot-Nite, and paying himself as a director.
Watch to learn if film school is right for you.
Key points:
1:24 – How he got started in the industry
6:45 – First feature film
Skip to: 09:25 No formal education11:34 – Something going wrong
15:14 – Investing in your career
Skip to: 18:54 Latest film 1-800-Hot-Nite23:30 – Favorite day on set
25:23 – What went wrong on set
32:50 – Screening went wrong
Skip to: 34:24 Creating coming-of-age films36:32 – Next project
38:28 – Making a distribution deal
Skip to: 48:34 Paying yourself54:06 – Favorite gear
57:29 – How to trust your guy on casting
Links
Links:
Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00:00):
Oh, here we go, fellas.
Speaker 2 (00:00:02):
All right. It’s 1-800-Hot-Nite.
Speaker 1 (00:00:06):
It’s ringing.
Speaker 3 (00:00:08):
You’ve called 1-800-Hot-Nite. What took you so long?
Speaker 2 (00:00:14):
I want to ask you for some advice, because I think they’re going to take me to a foster family, but I don’t want to.
Speaker 3 (00:00:20):
I got to go.
Speaker 2 (00:00:21):
No, no, no, no. Just wait. Don’t hang up, please.
Speaker 4 (00:00:24):
They [inaudible 00:00:24] take you, I won’t let him.
Speaker 1 (00:00:26):
They know I’m going to meet you. [inaudible 00:00:29].
Speaker 3 (00:00:31):
So you want to go back there or what?
Speaker 2 (00:00:31):
I can’t.
Speaker 3 (00:00:36):
[inaudible 00:00:36] breathe. Okay.
Speaker 2 (00:00:38):
They took him.
Speaker 3 (00:00:39):
Took who, Tommy?
Speaker 5 (00:00:41):
Make your own decisions, kid. Be a man. That’s what men do.
Tanya Musgrave (00:00:47):
On today’s show, engineer turned, indie writer director Nick Richey talks about his freshly released feature, 1-800-Hot-Nite and delves into finances, distribution, and what it takes to bring art to life. Find the full transcripts and more at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. I’m your host, Tanya Musgrave. And today we’re talking indie features with Nick Richey, who just recently finished 1-800-Hot-Nite based on his life as a 13 year old who embarks on an urban odyssey to escape foster care with the help of a phone sex operator. Welcome to the show.
Nick Richey (00:01:17):
Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
Tanya Musgrave (00:01:19):
So that’s quite a deep well to dive directly into, so let’s get to know you a bit better first.
Nick Richey (00:01:25):
Sure.
Tanya Musgrave (00:01:26):
This might also be a loaded question, but how did you get to this point in your life?
Nick Richey (00:01:32):
Well, I grew up in Vancouver, Washington, so I was just right across the street from Portland, Oregon. Grew up in a small kind of poor community, a section 8 based apartment building. It was sort of a dead end street with just nothing but apartment buildings. I had a really diverse eclectic friend group and diverse set of experiences. My older brother and I were the first two in our family to go to college, and I stayed in Portland, went to Lewis & Clark College and actually got a degree in economics. I always loved storytelling, always loved performing. Needed money to pay for school, I was working two jobs, still wasn’t covering everything. And so I saw an audition to host the Kids’ WB up in Portland, and I went down to the Aquatic Centre, auditioned, got the part of the host-
Tanya Musgrave (00:01:32):
Get out.
Nick Richey (00:02:22):
… to the Kids’ WB. Yes, [inaudible 00:02:23]. So I was in between Pokemon being like, next up is this, and then A paper contest is this week, send in your [inaudible 00:02:32] A papers and you can win tickets to Disney on ice or something. So it was a hilarious job. Hilarious because I also sort have a deeper, I think more intimidating voice and my co-host was a 14 year old girl, and so it was just clearly I knew I was going to get fired. I was like, they are going to keep her, they are going to get rid of me. And they did, but before that happened, there was an agent that had reached out to me, seeing me on television, asked if I’d be interested in taking acting class and having an agent. And I was in my senior year of college at that point, had just done an internship for Boeing in the Integrated Defense Systems, wanting to become a parametric estimator for the Defense Department, essentially.
Tanya Musgrave (00:03:11):
Okay.
Nick Richey (00:03:11):
Yeah, that was my track. I’ve obviously veered way of course. I started taking an acting class in Portland and what happened was I started getting introduced to casting directors and one casting director in particular said, “Hey look, I know you’ve got this job offer from Boeing, you graduate in a couple months, but I think you should come down to Los Angeles for a couple months and audition.” From the day I graduated Lewis & Clark, May 8th, 2005, I’m aging myself now, until August. I basically had this three month period to go down to Los Angeles, sleep on a friend’s floor, which I did. I was in the sleeping bag on the floor of his place and went and just auditioned. And one of my first auditions in Los Angeles, I booked the lead role in this horror film by Gale Anne Hurd, who’s a very legendary producer. She produced the Terminator franchise, she produces the Walking Dead.
(00:04:02):
And next thing I know, I’m on a plane to Fiji to shoot this film and not going to be going back to Boeing. And so that’s what really got me to Los Angeles. It was sort of a series of fortunate events that brought me here. And then through the process of acting, I really started to find that I wanted to be behind the camera. I wanted to tell stories in that way. And so I started writing and teaching myself how to write and low-key directing really bad little short things with my friends that never saw the light of day but you start to cut your teeth and back then it was like a bad flip phone. You couldn’t make movies on your phone. It was the Motorola Razr, you know what I mean? That’s what it was. It was very pixelated, though, like a Nintendo video game.
(00:04:50):
But I went and acted in another indie feature and I came back and said, I want to kind of write and co-direct, produce this TV show idea. And it was a funny old thing and I got Dick Van Dyke to come act in it. And we-
Tanya Musgrave (00:05:04):
Dang, what?
Nick Richey (00:05:04):
… shot this thing. Yeah, it was super cool. And I just met him kind of dinking around in Malibu, and he’s such a sweetheart of a guy [inaudible 00:05:12] and I said, “Would you come do this spec pilot with me?” Through a friend of mine who knew him also, and he came and he filmed a show with us. In the show we rob his house and he plays himself and so he catches us and ties us up and-
Tanya Musgrave (00:05:25):
Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.
Nick Richey (00:05:27):
It was a comedy. And so I was trying to steal stuff so I could get money for a nose job. And he ends up giving this lecture about how he was told during, and this is a true story actually, he overheard the producer of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang talking to the director in the next room while he was getting his makeup done, that why have we hired this guy? His nose is way too big. No one’s going to like him on TV.
Tanya Musgrave (00:05:48):
Oh no.
Nick Richey (00:05:49):
And so he tells my character in this pilot, “Don’t do it. Just be to yourself.” So anyway, this was kind of me dipping my toes in the water there on the writing directing side. And then over time, I continued to just practice and practice and practice and writing kind of came faster. I had gotten a script optioned with a great producer, Sony, and ended up getting a couple TV shows picked up for development at CBS Studios and ABC Studios respectively, which was really great.
(00:06:19):
And then in between that, again, directing little commercial stuff, I have a producing partner and then finally kind of deciding, hey look, the TV development side is a rough road. And basically the way it works in TV is you can develop this thing for two years. If the network decides or the studio decides not to move forward, you’re kind of back to square one and no one gets to see it. It just doesn’t get to live. And I thought, well, I have to make a feature film.
(00:06:46):
So about three years ago, I wrote and directed my first feature film called Low Low that was released theatrically in a couple of cities, New York, Los Angeles. And we did a road show up the west coast and Las Vegas and a few other places. Right now it’s streaming on Paramount Plus. And then-
Tanya Musgrave (00:07:03):
Nice.
Nick Richey (00:07:03):
… the pandemic hits. My wife and I were looking to buy a place, buy our first home in LA, which is sort of its own fresh hell. For anyone listening to this, try to be a millionaire before you try buying a house in Los Angeles otherwise, it’s a real bummer. Otherwise-
Tanya Musgrave (00:07:23):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Richey (00:07:24):
… you’re like, so you’re saying I could live in this 400 square foot condo for $800,000? Wow.
Tanya Musgrave (00:07:30):
Really? You shouldn’t have.
Nick Richey (00:07:33):
Really bleak. So we were getting ready to buy this place and we actually lost out on this house that we wanted and we kind of said… I want to buy a house, but movies. So we took what we had saved for a down payment on the house, and that was half of our financing for this new film, 1-800-Hot-Nite that I wrote and directed. We went and kind of nickel and dime the budget together and got some amazing actors and we shot the film. And now we have a great distributor in Quiver distribution. The movie comes out November 4th, had a spectacular festival run, which I’m really grateful for. And in our final festival screening, we’re a marquee film at the Austin Film Festival this week. So we close off the festival on November 3rd.
Tanya Musgrave (00:08:19):
Oh, what, nice.
Nick Richey (00:08:20):
Yeah, it’s really fun.
Tanya Musgrave (00:08:21):
Congratulations.
Nick Richey (00:08:23):
Thanks so much. So we’re just really excited and it’s been a bit of a byzantine road to get to this. I almost became a parametric estimator for the Boeing Company, was a host for the Kids’ WB, shortly. Acted in a few films, got tied up with rope by Dick Van Dyke, and then eventually ended up writing and directing my own features.
Tanya Musgrave (00:08:41):
The [inaudible 00:08:45] rag tag.
Nick Richey (00:08:47):
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (00:08:47):
So you didn’t go to school for this, you really kind of learned how to knit your parachute while you were falling.
Nick Richey (00:08:54):
Yeah, or I think I really just kind of belly flopped into a swamp or something. I don’t really know if I even had a parachute. I’ve definitely been kicked in the stomach a few times. And while I’ve been here, this is my, I guess it’s… so if I moved here in 2005, I don’t want to say it out loud, it’s sort of 17 years of-
Tanya Musgrave (00:09:15):
You want me to say it? Okay. All right. It’s 17 years.
Nick Richey (00:09:18):
17 years of Los Angeles. But I love the city, it’s just, yes, I did not have any prior education on the side of things. I basically read books, tested out, wrote and wrote, and wrote every single day, read about directing, found the resources, talked to directors, talked to DPs, and have tried to yes, stitch together a toolbox that would allow me the opportunity to tell the stories I want to tell.
Tanya Musgrave (00:09:46):
When you say you talked to producers, talk to directors and that kind of a thing, was it the connections through your acting jobs that you did? Or did you just track them down somehow?
Nick Richey (00:09:55):
Sometimes through connections from acting jobs. Yes, acting class, because a lot of people are multihyphenate, so someone could be an actor and they’re also a special effects coordinator and they also direct.
Tanya Musgrave (00:10:05):
I got you.
Nick Richey (00:10:06):
So there’s a lot of that. I worked at a restaurant in Malibu called the Marmalade Cafe, there I met producers, I met a writer, and who’s someone who’s become a long time friend, a man named Randall Wallace who wrote the movie Braveheart and became a mentor to me in a lot of ways. And people like that… being in the town, it’s the benefit of living in Los Angeles. Yes, you can write and direct from anywhere, but here you might just be having breakfast next to Christopher Nolan and strike up conversation because you happen to be wearing some obscure comic book t-shirt that he loves. And now Christopher Nolan’s your buddy and you’re talking-.
(00:10:44):
So these kind of things happened and there was never like a here, well, let me give this opportunity to you, but it was a chance to bounce ideas. There’s times that you fall down really hard trying to get something created and I’ve had those experiences multiple times where you’re just pretty heartbroken. And sometimes those people, the veterans that you get to meet, are able to put it into perspective for you and help pick you back up. Because when you’re looking up to this person, you think, well, they must have just flown in on their private jet and everything went well. They’re like, oh no, let me tell you all the ways I fell getting to this position. And it makes you realize you’re definitely trotting a well worn path.
Tanya Musgrave (00:11:27):
Yeah. That sounds like you have a very specific story in mind when you’re talking about this. Do you mind if I ask?
Nick Richey (00:11:37):
No. Yeah, absolutely. So one great example, once I realized with my producing partners act that we really wanted to make this transition and we had option a script. We had raised some money, put some money together and option a script from a writer that we thought was really great, and we got some spectacular people involved. And I kind of saw a path to getting the movie made and we were trying to make it for 5 million, which is a lot of money. We didn’t have $5 million, we had a couple $100,000 dollars of seed money to try to make this happen. And without getting into crazy detail, we just weren’t able to attract the cast we needed to justify the budget and the project fell apart and we really ran out of real estate. When you’re optioning scripts, you have a runway, and when that runway runs out, they can decide not to let you continue with it.
(00:12:35):
And at that point, we’d spent all this money, really put our hearts into this thing and it didn’t go. And we’re sitting there just going, oh my God, what have we done? Would’ve been better off spending $250,000 on some lenses and just rented those out. Then it’s a real investment, now this is just flush down the drain. And I remember going to Randy and telling him about it as I’m serving him eggs at the Marmalade Cafe and being like, hey man, this just happened. I’m really sad. And he just basically opened up [inaudible 00:13:09], look, you know how many movies I’ve had green lit, quote unquote, put my whole life on hold. I’m in the location, floats and it falls apart. You have to understand that every one of those things is essentially a new part of graduate school. Think of it as film school.
(00:13:26):
And you just got this really, really valuable knowledge. And yes, maybe it costs a quarter million dollars, but that’s what people have to pay so you’re not special. You paid what everyone has to pay in this industry to go through the fire. It was tough to hear, but it was also correct. He’s not saying that everyone’s got to go lose a quarter million dollars. He’s saying that your experience is not unique in that, but what matters is how you take the information and the knowledge you just gained and then do it better the next time because there will be a next time if you want there to be a next time. That was a specific experience where I think he really picked me up and helped me refocus and say yeah, okay, that movie didn’t work out. It’s over, next. And that put me back in the writing chair.
Tanya Musgrave (00:14:17):
Yeah. That would be extremely encouraging coming from a writer who came from Braveheart and Pearl Harbor and We Were Soldiers and [inaudible 00:14:27].
Nick Richey (00:14:28):
Yeah, exactly. I know, it really was because I grew up a Braveheart fanatic. I loved We Were Soldiers. I didn’t love Pearl Harbor, but what are you going to do?
Tanya Musgrave (00:14:41):
What if I like Pearl Harbor?
Nick Richey (00:14:44):
Yeah, you love Pearl Harbor. You can love Pearl Harbor. It’s not on my top.
Tanya Musgrave (00:14:51):
We’ll leave it there on the floor. It can seem a little bit like a badge of honor sometimes having those failures and people are just like, oh yeah, you’re going to fail. Congratulations, kind of a thing. But it actually is quite helpful. I think one of the things that we try to accomplish, even just talking one on one with these filmmakers, is knowing that it’s okay to do whatever it takes to invest in your career, and if that includes Uber Eats, if that includes a full-time job or a part-time job on the side, do what you need to do kind of a thing. And I think the more that people can have a realistic view of what to expect as in like, oh, hey, he was actually delivering food too so I’m not doing that bad.
Nick Richey (00:15:42):
No. And to speak to that, I still work… I have a job. It’s a unique job where I restore ancient arms and armor for private collectors and for objects that are historically significant, that pays my bills. And I would say this to anyone, whether you’re acting, directing, writing, there’s not a lot of middle class, and this is sort of a theme for the country in general, the middle class is disappearing in a lot of ways. And the unions are either being vilified by people that don’t want to pay union rates and thus, are put in a tough position where they’re not necessarily negotiating hard enough with streaming services who aren’t paying residuals, so finding that steady gig is becoming increasingly difficult. There’s people like Ava DuVernay who is a marketing executive and then made the transition. There’s people like Bukowski who were handymen or plumbers.
(00:16:40):
If you love what you’re doing, you’re going to find ways to do it. And I’m not putting myself in their company by any means, but in the sense of sacrifice, when I went to the bank, it was the most money I’d ever had in my bank account in my life to put a down payment on a house. And when I transferred it instead into a new bank account to finance a movie, I felt nothing. I felt truly nothing. My heart didn’t beat faster. I didn’t feel nervous. I felt like I was buying a tootsie roll at a 7/11. It was the most mundane and it’s because I don’t want to do anything else with my life. There’s not a better scenario I could be putting myself in than getting back behind the camera and making that next film.
(00:17:30):
Yeah, you’re right. Whatever you have to do to do it, do it. Because if you are not willing to do that, you are on the wrong path, I hate to say it that cut and dry. I don’t think someone should give up because they don’t feel like, would I sacrifice everything right now? No. But I like writing, keep writing or keep directing or keep acting. Sometimes you find that, but you have to understand that there are people out there… right now, there’s some kid being born into a situation that’s so difficult, we can’t even fathom it. Poverty that’s beyond our wildest dreams. And that young girl, young boy is shot listing at the age of 10, and they’re going to become a director and they’re going to… and that’s your competition or that’s who’s coming for the spot. They want it really bad. And hopefully you get to collaborate with them and not compete with them.
Tanya Musgrave (00:18:30):
Yeah, we like that here.
Nick Richey (00:18:32):
Yeah. But it’s a reminder though, that some people will die for their art, will sacrifice everything, and they don’t mind working that side job. They don’t mind doing whatever it takes to give themselves another opportunity to direct a film or put a script out or act in an episode of The Walking Dead.
Tanya Musgrave (00:18:53):
So let’s talk about that film that you would sacrifice everything for. So tell us about 1-800-Hot-Nite.
Nick Richey (00:19:02):
I guess it was a couple years ago, I was writing a series of essays just about myself growing up. It was just kind of creative exercise, wasn’t doing it for anyone else, just for myself. But when I was 13, 12, 13, 14, in that age range, me and my friends would cram into phone booths and call these phone sex operators. And there was one number in particular that was called 1-800-Hot-F-U-C-K. And so I would call this number and then after a couple minutes we would abruptly be hung up on. But I was writing an essay about this, and I thought [inaudible 00:19:41] make a really fun intro to a movie. And I knew I wanted to explore some of my childhood, some of my youth, and not a biographical way in a film. And again, pandemic’s raging, sort of realizing I wanted to kick this script into high gear.
(00:20:00):
So I really only having that first scene in my head just kind of jumped in and started writing the script. And all three of the lead characters, Tommy, O’Neill, and Steve, are in some ways all little different versions of me. And then in some ways also representing some benchmark friends or foes in my life. I always felt like there’s some things that I saw or went through when I was young that really thrust me into adulthood too early. I was very interested in exploring that creatively that point, or that nexus point where youth and adulthood sort of cross paths and adulthood is really that rip tide. You don’t really have a choice at some point. And it can happen from trauma, it can happen from joy, it can happen from many things. I don’t think it’s all just traumatic stuff.
(00:20:53):
So when I went into this film, my approach was to do it with a sense of urgency, to think, could I write this film that all takes place in one night, that explores some of these themes of crossing that threshold into adulthood, what it means to take responsibility for yourself, for your family, friendship, breaking friendship, continuing brotherhood, these were some of those things I wanted to explore. The first draft really was close to what ended up being shot. It just was one of those scripts that really poured out of me and had a lot of truth in it right out of the gate. I have a writer’s group that I was hosting that met weekly, and so I workshop some stuff with them. That was really the genesis. And I had my wife, who’s also my producing partner, playing Ava, the phone sex operator. So it’s easy to workshop the character with her. She’s there, we work well together. And then right away I start going into shot listing.
(00:21:48):
I’m just like, okay, I got to start building out the directorial side. And all these things kind of go hand in hand, you’re almost doing them a bit simultaneously. But again, really knowing no matter what, we’re going to make this film, whether we made it for just our own dollars or we were able to get other funds, which we were able to get matching funds basically. So this film was shot for under a quarter million dollars, which is a lot of money, but it’s nothing. It’s just a very little money to make a film, especially to make a SAG film, so you have to-
Tanya Musgrave (00:21:48):
With children and at night.
Nick Richey (00:22:29):
Yeah, exactly. With children and only shooting at night and in the height of summer, so it doesn’t get dark until 9:00 PM and they have to be off set by midnight, so you only have three hours a night to shoot on an 18-day shoot.
Tanya Musgrave (00:22:41):
Dang.
Nick Richey (00:22:42):
So it’s just a lot of obstacles there. But Jeremy Gordon and Shayna Sherwood, Nickole Doro were our casting directors. They brought spectacular cast to the table. I had some people in my back pocket that I worked with before. Sean Carrigan, who [inaudible 00:22:56] on Low Low came in and acted. Like I said, Ali, Trevor Georgeson, who’s a producer on the film also but plays a character. These people, I was able to just pop in and know that they were going to crush it. We followed the COVID protocols and luckily just no one got sick and no matter what you’re rolling those dice.
Tanya Musgrave (00:23:12):
Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:23:13):
But we were fortunate and we didn’t get crushed by something.
Tanya Musgrave (00:23:17):
Okay. I know that it can be hit and miss with child actors. I would love to know your best day, your best day on set. Can you remember? Like ah, we’ve got it.
Nick Richey (00:23:31):
Maybe my favorite day was shooting the phone booth, the opening scene.
Tanya Musgrave (00:23:37):
Okay.
Nick Richey (00:23:40):
We had time, so every day felt so crammed, but that day was just so constricted to this phone booth that I didn’t feel like I was in a rush. Being in that phone booth just threw me right back to childhood. Our friends delivered a bunch of [inaudible 00:23:56] in the cooler, so I had my favorite caffeinated beverage ready to go. The smoke machine was flowing, everything just worked. It was one of those days where it was just… it just felt so good and it looked so good. That day and being on a miniature golf course was so fun. Those are kind of my favorite days. And I’ll say that these kids never dropped a line. They were so professional, so dialed into their characters that they made my job so easy.
(00:24:27):
Dallas, Gerrison and Mylen, who play the three male leads, they have such a well that they’re pulling from that I really felt like I was in good hands with them. Orli Gottesman and Jayla Walton, Chalet Brannan and Maddie Adams play the four girls that are sort of in their life, so spectacular, so sweet, just great actors. They made it, again, just so easy for me. Even back… all of these actors in their Zooms, you just knew. I said this person, yes, yes, yes, yes. It just all felt so good. And this happened across the board, there just wasn’t a single person that created an issue.
Tanya Musgrave (00:25:11):
Awesome.
Nick Richey (00:25:12):
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (00:25:12):
Oh, that’s so nice.
Nick Richey (00:25:14):
Yeah, really fortunate. Really, really fortunate on that side of things.
Tanya Musgrave (00:25:18):
There are plenty of things that go right and there are also plenty of things that go wrong. One of my favorite things is ask about the things that go wrong.
Nick Richey (00:25:29):
Everything, everything goes wrong. Whoever’s listening out there, you’re a director, understand that literally everything will go wrong. So plan and plan and plan and then have a B plan and have a C plan. Because if you don’t, you are hanging upside down, being dipped into the ocean by some torture device. I’ll throw a couple examples at you. We had a location, a friend said, yes, you can shoot here. Great, can’t wait. Paperwork signed, whatever. 7:00 AM, the day of the shoot…
Tanya Musgrave (00:25:29):
Oh, shoot.
Nick Richey (00:26:02):
7:00 AM, the porta potty gets delivered. Well, apparently that caused a bunch of noise because the truck makes a beeping sound when it backs up and the porta potty comes down. The renter had signed the agreement, but the owner didn’t. The land owner-
Tanya Musgrave (00:26:14):
Oh shoot. Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:26:15):
… kicks us out. And so we got to be on set in a few hours to start rehearsing and we’re losing our location that day. We’re so tight budgetarily, there’s no such thing as losing a day. We can’t lose a day. I don’t have the money. I would have to sell my car to get cash to make up the money or take out a new credit card or something. I don’t know. It’s not an option. I didn’t have a backup. And again, this is what it comes down to, why you want to make sure the director, know your producers have their stuff lined up. We didn’t have the proper paperwork and had we had the proper paperwork, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Had I wrapped my brain around the fact that we didn’t have it, then I should have had a backup plan and I didn’t.
(00:27:00):
And then this is how the sort of movie God shine on you in moments. The guy dropping off the porta potty is getting yelled at by the neighbors. And then we got to call him and we’re put the porta potty back on the truck, back on the truck. We don’t know what to do. I’m so sorry. And he’s like, “Well, how much are you paying him for this? Were you going to pay him for this location?” We tell him, he goes, “You can shoot at my house.” And so the porta potty delivery guy takes us to his place out in Chatsworth, and it’s an even better location.
Tanya Musgrave (00:27:31):
Stop this. What?
Nick Richey (00:27:31):
It was perfect. And in fact-
Tanya Musgrave (00:27:32):
It’s amazing.
Nick Richey (00:27:33):
… half of the opening kind of montage of the film during the credit sequence was shot in this amazingly cool alleyway behind his house that was not in the script, but then ended up becoming a place where I could shoot this fun B roll. So it just turned out to be 10 times the location the other one did.
Tanya Musgrave (00:27:51):
That’s amazing.
Nick Richey (00:27:51):
So something that went terribly wrong that swung. Now things don’t always swing. So for example, on the last day of filming, it’s your day [inaudible 00:28:01], you want it to be this wonderful night, you’re going to have a martini shot and toast and you think it’s going to be this beautiful… hugs. Instead it’s just… again, everything goes wrong. Dallas pulls his hamstring, he can barely run and it’s a scene where he is running to the power lines and he gets kind of tackled. So the actor’s injured, we’re waiting for the sun to go down because we can’t shoot in the daylight. Because we had to go rig up this light over on this other property, there’s this giant pit bull just barking, barking, barking, so that’s going to ruin every shot.
(00:28:32):
Then we have to have a police car drive in because the police are coming to find Tommy. So now it’s dark and it’s dark, and it’s time to shoot because once the sun drops, is the ultimate ticking clock, you only have three hours to shoot, which is impossible. So shoot six pages in three hours. Steven Spielberg shoots two pages in two days. It’s a joke. It’s like, wait, you got six pages in three hours? The production van, I’m like, we got to move this out of the way. Oh, the PAs lost the keys to the production van. There’s only one way into the location. So now the cop car can’t get in, so we can’t start shooting because we can’t find the keys.
Tanya Musgrave (00:29:09):
Oh my stars.
Nick Richey (00:29:11):
So just losing losing time. By the time we find the keys, get the van moved, now there’s the dog barking and this homeless man sitting on the other side of the fence and Ali’s character, Ava, the phone sex operator is on top of Dallas’s character yelling at him. Well this guy is yelling everything back, mimicking it all back, ruining every take. And when he’s not ruining a take, the dog is ruining the take.
Tanya Musgrave (00:29:40):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Richey (00:29:42):
So luckily the neighbors on the other side of this fence, because this man was yelling and screaming and it was late, the cops came and escorted him to somewhere else because he was probably a mental health crisis, I don’t know.
(00:29:57):
And we were able to go and asked for the love of God, give this dog a bone or something so it’ll stop barking. And it was just a total catastrophe of a night, to the point where I was almost in tears, it’s the end of the film and we’ve gotten all the way to this point, which is already almost impossible in any way. So it was just a really rough final night. And because of it, I had to schedule a pickup shoot. We had to go back there another day because we just didn’t get it. I was lucky that my actors had the time and that is the tip of the iceberg of the things that went wrong. There’s this tennis court that we were shooting at that’s like a basketball court, tennis court where the boys were walking past it and we wanted this smoke machine.
(00:30:40):
Essentially what it did, it melts these mineral oils and creates a fog and it dripped all over this tennis court and ruined it so we had to pay to resurface this, just problem. Yeah, things that you just couldn’t imagine. We have this major prop that… everyone listening, always have duplicates of your props. I don’t care, have duplicates. We’re getting toward the end of the shoot and this prop is a centerpiece of the film.
Tanya Musgrave (00:30:40):
Oh no.
Nick Richey (00:31:10):
And we lose it. It’s gone. Our production designer can’t find it. He goes home and whittles one out of wood to match the plastic one. Paint it. I’s a perfect replica. Shockingly good.
Tanya Musgrave (00:31:22):
Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:31:23):
But luckily, again, one of our other castmates, just to go to show you how random this world is. We lose it. We’re up till three in the morning driving down streets looking for it, trying to find it. One of our actresses, Kimleigh, if Kimleigh ever listens to this, you’re an angel, was going for her regular Sunday walk and she found the hammer in a gutter. I know.
Tanya Musgrave (00:31:23):
What?
Nick Richey (00:31:49):
I know. Well I don’t know what the odds are. We were shooting in her neighborhood. She just happened to be a few blocks and so it clearly got put on the roof of the car.
Tanya Musgrave (00:31:58):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Richey (00:32:00):
The car, it fell off, ends up in this gutter. She’s walking, picks up, and finds it.
Tanya Musgrave (00:32:04):
Mercy. Production brain is a thing because I have completely put my production binder on top of my car and I would see pages fly off in my rear view mirror. And I’m just like, those looked important. Sure enough, they were. You’re like chasing papers down the highway. It’s the most ridiculous thing. How movies get made is beyond me. Just random stuff like the porta potty guy. That’s fantastic. But you’re just like, okay, you could have never seen that coming, obviously.
Nick Richey (00:32:36):
No, it’s impossible. It’s just an impossible thing that happens but you’re just like, how did that work out? But yeah, a lot of things went wrong and then things went wrong in the screening. We were in Deauville, one of the most spectacular film festivals in the world and we’re screening to 1500 people in a sold out theater in the-
Tanya Musgrave (00:33:00):
Dang.
Nick Richey (00:33:01):
… coast of France. And you’re like, this is my dream come true. The movie starts playing and it’s too dark. The DCP got messed up. Imagine a DC film. Yeah, you see it? Okay, great. Just like that. Yeah, like a DC. It was so… the long night, the Game of Thrones episode where everyone said they couldn’t see-
Tanya Musgrave (00:33:18):
Oh yeah, yeah. Everything was turning up the brightness.
Nick Richey (00:33:24):
Yeah, I’m hoping this is going to be that big glorious moment and I’m just sitting there wanting to rip my hair out because the footage is too dark. I got to call our DCP place, get a new one sent over because something got messed up in the settings.
Tanya Musgrave (00:33:41):
Dang.
Nick Richey (00:33:41):
And it was because we didn’t have time to test it before we got to the theater because I was gone on other festivals, then had to go straight to France. So it was just like-
Tanya Musgrave (00:33:53):
Did you stop the screening?
Nick Richey (00:33:54):
No, you had to let it go because I didn’t have anything to substitute it for. I had to just sit there and-
Tanya Musgrave (00:34:01):
Cringe.
Nick Richey (00:34:01):
Painfully be tortured by this moment. And again, just heartbreaking stuff, just never stops.
Tanya Musgrave (00:34:10):
Those are the moments that your blood just runs cold too, because you can’t do a thing about it. Ugh, it’s rough.
Nick Richey (00:34:16):
Can’t do a single thing about it.
Tanya Musgrave (00:34:18):
Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:34:19):
You just have to watch it happen.
Tanya Musgrave (00:34:22):
Yeah. You mentioned Low Low and that is also kind of a similar coming of age flavor when it comes to confronting sex, violence, and uncertain future. Would you say that this is a direction that your passion is compelling you towards? Kind of like artistic purpose? Or is this just like, no, I think I just wanted to explore it, that kind of a thing?
Nick Richey (00:34:42):
Yeah, I think sometimes it feels like a little bit of both. This particularly was… both of these were exercises and exploration and from a writing perspective, wanting to dig in on some of the… I guess, psychological elements that I’ve thought about. And also dig into some of the milieu that I grew up in and show that on screen. I don’t think it’s really truthfully shown very often and I was hoping to bring some truth to that world. I think most of the time when we see young boys and young girls on screen, their parents are always doctors and commercial real estate agents and they’re all doing really well and they live in houses. And that’s just not the world that I grew up in. And similarly, even with a project like Low Low, thinking about the young women that I grew up with were very powerful young women, very strong.
(00:35:34):
They commanded their worlds. And I think most high school girls are portrayed as kind of weaker and sort of subservient to the boys. And my experience growing up was the exact opposite, which was that the girls were very powerful. They determined who was cool, they determined what was cool and they fought and they had sex and they did drugs and they were intimidating and you wanted to be in their company, you wanted to be in their circle and things like that. And I compare them against Euphoria where everyone’s just sexy and crazy and it’s like [inaudible 00:36:10] and everyone’s- It’s obviously a very- That’s a very elevated sort of fantasy world of-
Tanya Musgrave (00:36:17):
The gritty part of what actually happens.
Nick Richey (00:36:18):
Yeah, whereas I was hoping to more get mired in the smaller reality. It’s not easy to do obviously and I hope that audiences are able to connect with both and it’s similarly with 1-800-Hot-Nite. Look, my next project that I’m shot listing now and getting ready to direct hopefully kind of late spring next year, is what I’m eyeing, is about a lesbian couple in Oklahoma that kidnaps a boy from a meth house and takes him on a run and they kind of become a family on their way to Corpus Christi, Texas. And it’s kind a film on Louise like adventure thriller while the dad of this boy chases them. The script I wrote after that is the historical fiction about the overthrowing of the Honduras government in 1911 and it’s like monster in the jungle, starts killing people. So it’s very different-
Tanya Musgrave (00:36:18):
Very, very-
Nick Richey (00:37:03):
Very different but I was interested in exploring some of the foundations of corporate colonialism in Central America and this was a fun way to do it. So I think sometimes kind of following my inspiration, so if something really speaks to me, whether it’s through a book I read or an essay I wrote or something and I’m wanting to go further, then I’ll get down to it and start hitting the pages and then that’ll sort of guide me. And so the why for me is really, I love collaboration. I love being in a team. I don’t even have to be the leader of the team in these cases directing, you are the leader of the team. But I really enjoy being a part of a collaborative creative process.
(00:37:48):
For me, when a story starts to form in my head, I have to tell the story. It feels like it has to come out of me or I’m going to explode. That is what keeps me going. I get inspired by art, by books, by music, and I want to be a part of that community and I want to contribute maybe to somebody else’s life. And if it’s one or two people that see Low Low or see 1-800-Hot-Nite and it helps them want to be a filmmaker, then I feel like that’s a huge win, a big positive.
Tanya Musgrave (00:38:25):
We’re going to talk a little bit about the nuts and bolts of things now. So I know several people who have now finished their first and even second feature films and they’re kind of along the spectrum. You talked a little bit about this, about how you self-funded, done in conjunction with an educational entity that funds it or even a studio that might green light it. There’s like a whole spectrum. So I’m curious where 1-800-Hot-Nite and Low Low fell even when it came to distribution and how you came to make a distribution deal.
Nick Richey (00:38:55):
So both Low Low and 1-800-Hot-Nite were made for the same budget range, a quarter million dollars, very cheap movies. They’re independent dramas. So if you’re not making a genre film, it is really difficult to sell an independent drama today with no celebrities in it. It’s obviously different if Kate Winslet is in your movie or something, or Ryan Gosling, you’re going to have a much different outcome than with no name actors. There’s movies out there that have been made like Beast of the Southern Wild that did really well with no known actors in it, but there were very powerful people that start pushing behind these movies and all of a sudden, you see Plan B Entertainment or Barry Jenkins, you start to look at something independent, you’re like, these are really major producers that are pushing these through. It’s a little bit of a like… which is great by the way, it’s a little cheat code they get to have for their indie film where other indie films that don’t have that contact, don’t have that person championing them.
(00:39:54):
It is really, really hard right now in the current environment because streamers have the most money and they’re not really buying their licensing for cheap, but they’re not really buying anymore. They’re making their content, in-house companies like A24 and Neon. They’re not really buying indie films out of festivals, it’s all kind of a lie in a way. A lot of these deals that get announced at Sundance, the deal was already made before Sundance. They’re just announcing it at Sundance. So it looks like it was made at Sundance. So I think in a practical sense, know this going into it, know that basically nobody wants your independent film. And if you can go into it knowing that and you still want to make it great, then you’re making it because you love this film and you have to get it out.
(00:40:39):
Now, can you still get a distribution deal and have it go out and do something great? Yes, of course. And then there’s where it comes out but I think you should be prepared to do a lot of the legwork yourself. So I’ll give you this example, with Low Low, we did not get a cash offer for the movie. It was strictly a revenue share deal. And so revenue share deal typically looks like, hey, we’ll take 20%, you’ll take 80% of every dollar that comes in. But we have marketing expenses by the way, so we got to [inaudible 00:41:09] those first. So when you’re negotiating those contracts, you need to put a marketing cap on there and you need to audit them. I think a lot of people mean well and then they just start taking your money and they justify it.
(00:41:25):
I’m being honest with you, I don’t think they’re actually… I don’t think people look at themselves as evil or doing bad. I think they’re looking at their business and going, well, I did do all this work and da da da, and next thing you know, you’re not getting the money you’re supposed to get for your movie. So those are things I think you have to be responsible for following up on those things. So in a situation like with Low Low, it’s a straight TVOD streaming type deal with an 80-20 split, and we retained our own theatrical rights. So we put a little budget together, put a budget aside to release theatrically in Los Angeles and New York and to go do a road show, like a publicity show. That helped us get reviews and get kind of Rotten Tomato certified reviews. We did these event screenings in cities that we knew we could pack the house.
(00:42:15):
So Seattle, Portland, I’m going to the northwest where I’ve got friends and family. In Phoenix, Arizona where one of my producers is from. So you’re hitting these kind benchmark cities that are also good film cities. You’ve got to kind start to look at distribution as a hybrid. I was calling news stations saying, I’m going to be in Portland next day. Our movies showing there, can I come on Good Morning America there? Sure. All of a sudden, I’m on the news in Portland, in Seattle, in Arizona, in Las Vegas and these are really great things. These are great opportunities. So anyway, these are the kinds of things that I think you should be prepared to do and to have your movie achieve some success. And Low Low had this really great critical success where NPR Film Week and Variety and LA Times, some of these very respected reviewers that I always was excited about, really responded well to the film.
(00:43:07):
And it could go the other way, by the way. They could have hated it and I would’ve cried. It’s not up to me. But then following up with 1-800-Hot-Nite, you’re just back to square one and going, okay, well let’s go. And so I took what I learned from Low Low and made a new film and Hot Nite got into some bigger festivals, so that’s where that film festival circuit can be really helpful. We had a world premier at Santa Barbara International and then played at deadCENTER and Dances With Films and Woods Hole in Massachusetts and Deauville in France obviously, and now Twin Cities Film Festival and Hell’s Half Mile, just kind of kept going and Portland and Vashon Island, and now we’re playing at the Austin Film Festival. And so then people started to pay attention.
(00:43:56):
For this deal with Quiver, we similarly did a revenue share deal that we were happy with because there were certain stipulations in there that made us feel like Quiver was really going to back this film. They really believed in it and they wanted to take it out and do what’s best for it. And on top of that, playing in Deauville, playing in France and getting French press and reviews has created a second scenario where now we’re getting foreign distribution offers and those are becoming lucrative. So the movie has this chance to make all its money back just on foreign sales. You can kind of nickel and dime that out where you can go to a film market like AFM, which will be this weekend and going into next week and there’s a lot of buyers there, so you can go and host a screening of your film and have a one sheet ready. They’re looking at it.
(00:44:46):
Not that different than the US market. They’re going, oh, this is an indie drama, no stars, maybe we’ll just do a revenue split, Or we’ll give you $10,000 for Italy and $20,000 for South Korea and $40,000 for Latin America. So you can kind of carve it up and sell these chunks out or you can work with a foreign sales agent who takes 20%, but then they have a little bit bigger Rolodex and they’re the ones out there negotiating for you. They’re of course incentivized to some degree to get you the best deal possible.
Tanya Musgrave (00:45:18):
Got you.
Nick Richey (00:45:18):
But I truly think as an independent filmmaker, assume you have to do it all yourself. And as long as you keep that mentality, and even when someone comes aboard, you are still going to be responsible for getting the word out. You’re still going to be responsible for the follow up. Nobody’s ever going to care about your film more than you. So protect it, protect your art. Because even that financial success of it is the opportunity to make another film and another film. [inaudible 00:45:50] and done, because the expectation is so ludicrous. Hey, oh, you want to be a director? If you’re a prolific director, one of the most prolific directors in the world, maybe you get to make eight films in your lifetime. Eight? That’s not enough times to practice. Eight? You know what I’m saying? What are we doing here? This is insanity.
Tanya Musgrave (00:46:14):
Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:46:15):
Why a lot of people say you want to break into the business, make a horror film. There’s a reason they say that and it’s because there’s a built in audience there that doesn’t need a celebrity. They’re just stoked to support the new horror film. So if you can make one for cheap and make your money back, well then you’ve signaled to the world, the filmmaking world that like, hey, legitimate filmmaker, if you give me money to make another film, I have a track record. I’m one of one for getting you your money back. And now you get to make another film where there’s… do I think if Christopher Nolan made The Following today, would people care? If Robert Rodriguez made El Mariachi today and put it out, do I think it would move the needle? I don’t know.
(00:46:59):
Now first time filmmakers are making $40 million movies with special effects. I don’t know. I think it’s changed a lot. I think there was a time where people said yeah, we get it. You did this with nothing, you made a movie for 10 grand. Well here, let’s support you now, let’s build you up. I don’t know if that’s existing as much anymore. So I say that to say it’s on you as the director, it’s on you as the writer and the producer, director, whatever your position is, to see it all the way through. And don’t assume anyone’s going to come with a magic wand and go, well, now that you made your movie, let me take it over from here-
Tanya Musgrave (00:47:38):
I’ll take your money now that you’ve already done all the hard work.
Nick Richey (00:47:42):
That’s more realistic, is that here, now you’ve done all this hard work, you spent your life savings, I’m going to bleed you now. I’m going to vampire you. I’m going to Dracula your ass. Bow your neck for me, please.
Tanya Musgrave (00:47:56):
Get easier for me.
Nick Richey (00:47:58):
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (00:47:59):
Oh my gosh.
Nick Richey (00:47:59):
And so those are some of the realities. I think there’s just a ton of beautiful, wonderful filmmakers out there. Coming back from Deauville was this magical experience where I met just some really spectacular writers and directors, I really loved spending time with and was able to commiserate with and feel supported by and support. And so I think too, as you go out there making projects, starts to attract other filmmakers and friends, so there’s a really beautiful side to it also.
Tanya Musgrave (00:48:30):
So you were talking a little bit about finances, and we’re just going to dip into this. For somebody who is wanting to create their own film, what could they expect to budget for themselves? You’ve kind of alluded to the fact of hey, whatever it takes, but at the end of the day, do you reserve some of that for seed money for your next one or do you pay yourself for all that time? Yes, you have your full-time job, but is there a trade off in there and what’s the pivot point for that for you?
Nick Richey (00:49:00):
So full disclosure on both films, I didn’t pay myself. I paid other people. I was investing in both of them.
Tanya Musgrave (00:49:10):
And that’s good. Like when you invest in the smarter people in the room kind of a thing, you get the good people.
Nick Richey (00:49:17):
And I think this next film, I am raising money and not investing myself but I feel like I’ve invested in these last two films to prove I can do it. This next film, we have some investment backing that I will pay myself from that. And I think there are some standards, 5% of the total budget for a director, 5% for a writer. So if you’re the writer director, but you’re not going to want to give yourself 10% of a low budget because you want the money to go to the screen, so you’ll probably take 5% overall. So if you’re doing a $5 million movie, paying yourself a quarter million dollars, you could look at that and go, that’s a lot of money. That might be a bit much, but it’s not, it’s nothing. You’re going to work on this thing for two years, after taxes, living in Los Angeles. You just rented yourself a one bedroom apartment. That’s it. You’re not doing anything special here. You’re just living.
(00:50:14):
So I would say don’t undervalue yourself in that sense. And I will be working that in more on a standard rate. And there’s things out there like [inaudible 00:50:26] rates that exist out there that you can use as a benchmark too, so you can lean on those things and say, well look, I know I’m making this independent film. You go out and you fundraise a million dollars to make your indie first feature, and maybe you don’t have a job that’s flexible, so you actually have to quit your job to take this job so you do need money. That’s where I think it’s a good idea to start leaning on those DGA minimums and say, well look, if it’s $60,000 that gives me some time to make this movie and not driving Uber every hour I’m not on set because that’s hard.
(00:50:58):
It’s just hard or whatever. Whatever the side hustle is. And on the writing side, if you’re out there, the TV shows scenario. If you’re out there trying to sell a show, my last two negotiations were about a $100,000 for the pilot script. And then my follow up show was co-written and we negotiated a quarter million for the script split. So it’s about 125 [inaudible 00:51:31], so I think if you’re out there writing and trying to sell something to a network, I think you can… despite what they tell you, you can pretty much get yourself to a six figure for the pilot salary. Nothing below 75,000 and-
Tanya Musgrave (00:51:47):
Dang, we should have you back to talk about writing, just writing.
Nick Richey (00:51:49):
Yeah. Well, it’s a really nerve-wracking process because when you’re a writer or director and you’re kind of getting those first jobs in the studios, sort of legal department can feel like a bully and feel like… without fail, happens where the producer that you’re working with at that studio starts calling you going, “Hey, why are you going to blow this deal up asking for more money? You know what? You want more points. You want a better credit fight for your credit, fight for your points, fight for your salary.” They’re lying. It’s a negotiation technique. Don’t buy it, man. And if they want to walk away, fucking walk away. Bye. I’ll sell it to someone else. Tell them to walk away. Value yourself. And if you value yourself, other people will value you. And it took me quite a bit longer than it should have to realize that.
(00:52:40):
I have no problem investing in myself. I’ll spend every dollar making the projects. But when you’re out there on the sales side and you’ve got a script or you’re going to get hired as a director, push the boundary, push them as high as you can get them to go. When I saw how Netflix was paying these executives that had not a creative bone in their body and they’re like throwing half million dollars at them like it’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and then they’re paying their writing staff and their actors like nothing. I understood why their stock price plummeted.
(00:53:16):
And you go, oh, right, you guys aren’t getting it. You guys aren’t really getting how this works. The talent’s over here, they’ll leave you because Jeff Bezos has more money. Eventually Amazon will just pay you more. Pay these artists more, or Disney will, you’ll get poached. The executives are fungible, man, these guys, they lose their job every year. Try to track one down. You’ll pitch to one person, it’s like a development executive at one studio, and then they’re at another place next year and another place next year. They’re all over the place. And I don’t know if they’re getting fired or promoted, whatever. Be all kinds of things but your ally is not there typically so fight for yourself.
Tanya Musgrave (00:53:59):
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so we’re going to ask about the tools of your trade and gear and gadgets, your favorite, old, reliable, or resource or app or software, all that fun, whichever.
Nick Richey (00:54:15):
I really love Studio Binder, actually. I use it for shot listing. I use it for scheduling. I think it’s a great one stop shop. I love their YouTube channel. I kind of use Studio Binder for everything. I get inspired by it. They’ll do [inaudible 00:54:29] YouTube breakdown for 30 minutes on his shot selections in his films and how he uses these angles and it makes you want to go out and be a better filmmaker. So Studio Binder for me is a big one.
(00:54:41):
There is a website out there called ShotDeck. Not too many people have heard about it, still in beta phase. But I would suggest going, if you’re a director, going and making an account because it’s beautiful still images of all your favorite movies, a lot of your favorite films. It tells you when you click on one, it’s got all this metadata that tells you what it was shot on, exterior, interior, what lenses it was shot on, what camera it was shot on. So as you start the storyboard and you’re looking for… I’ve never had a storyboard artist, can’t afford it. So everything I’ve done has been using still images that already exist to kind of try to embody the shot that I’m thinking about and then just verbally explaining it.
(00:55:27):
ShotDeck has really changed that for me, where now I really can pull out these spectacular images that have the right texture and then have the right data. So I’m able to say to my DP or to my crew, well they used this type of light to create this orange glow. So maybe we don’t use a sodium vapor this time, maybe we use this with a gel or something, whatever it might be. So those are kind of two favorites on that.
Tanya Musgrave (00:55:53):
And your favorite new gadget that revolutionizes how you work? That might be the one, ShotDeck might be that, but-
Nick Richey (00:56:00):
Yeah.
Tanya Musgrave (00:56:01):
Or your favorite industry related new purchase. I don’t know, anything.
Nick Richey (00:56:05):
A company called Atlas put out some very affordable lenses, and we got a set of anamorphic lenses for very cheap compared to what anamorphic lenses would cost anywhere else. And I think they’re a beautiful set of lenses. We shot Low Low on those lenses.
Tanya Musgrave (00:56:21):
What’s their price range, if you don’t mind?
Nick Richey (00:56:24):
So the 42 millimeter Mercury series anamorphic, $5,000. A three lens set, $15,000 for a 36 or 42 and a 72. But just saying that’s very cheap.
Tanya Musgrave (00:56:38):
Yeah.
Nick Richey (00:56:39):
We bought a three lens package.
Tanya Musgrave (00:56:40):
Nice.
Nick Richey (00:56:41):
And used money that we got from commercial directing gigs to finance that. So it wasn’t like coming out of pocket. We kind of got a gig and took the money and-
Tanya Musgrave (00:56:50):
Yeah, absolutely.
Nick Richey (00:56:51):
… bought them. Having good glass ready to go, you can kind of go shoot anything. And I will say too, we shot another… for gadgetry, the Sony A7S Mark III is just such an accessible camera, price wise. The sensor’s amazing. You can shoot in the lowest light imaginable. So I would highly, highly recommend if you can get your hands on one, you’re looking to shoot your first feature. I think it’s a great camera and then just get yourself some decent glass.
Tanya Musgrave (00:57:25):
And the question that I like to wrap up every interview with, what questions should I have asked you?
Nick Richey (00:57:31):
How do you know where to trust your instincts on casting? I think that’s a situation where you can hire really great cast director and have really great casting directors, but follow your instincts… and I will say this, I have friends, I won’t name names, they’re amazing people, some of my best friends, and they just get wrapped up in beauty. So some beautiful man or beautiful woman gets in front of the camera and they’re like, got to cast that person. Were you watching the same thing I watched?
Tanya Musgrave (00:58:00):
Still your beating hard and pay attention next time. Okay, take two.
Nick Richey (00:58:06):
Casting from the directorial standpoint is so critical. And I think being a great director starts with being great at casting and knowing who’s going to bring truth to your roles, because those are the people that are… they are the conduit for the story once you call action. And you can set up the most beautiful shot in the world, but if someone’s sitting there like a robot, you are dead in the water, there’s no victory there. So I would say that one of the most critical aspects is finding a cast director that you trust and then totally distrust them in the casting room so that you are really redlining everything they say to make sure that you are truly getting the best person for you also, someone that you feel like you can dip into their well and draw performance out of. That would probably be that last thing, casting.
Tanya Musgrave (00:58:59):
Nice.
Nick Richey (00:59:00):
Casting.
Tanya Musgrave (00:59:02):
Nice. Well, we really appreciate you being on the show. How do people find you or follow your work?
Nick Richey (00:59:09):
Kind of easiest place is Twitter or Instagram. Twitter is just at @Nick_Richey. Instagram is Nick Richey, the number eight, on those social media platforms. I have a website, it’s www.halfwaycrooksent.com. And yeah, the film has their own webpage, 1-800-Hot-Nite film, so a couple ways.
Tanya Musgrave (00:59:32):
Well, extremely fantastic advice and tangible practicalities that we love here for our upcoming directors. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and for your time.
Nick Richey (00:59:42):
Thanks so much. Pleasure.
Tanya Musgrave (00:59:43):
1-800-Hot-Nite is now available on iTunes and Amazon or anywhere else you can buy or rent. And Low Low is streaming on Paramount Plus. If you enjoyed this interview, follow us right here and on Instagram, ask us questions and check out more episodes at thepracticalfilmmaker.com. Be well and God bless, we’ll see you next time on the Practical Filmmaker.