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Talking Shttt sits down with Jason Horton
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Talking Shttt LIVE with Jason Horton | Filmmaker, Paranormal Investigator & More | Florida or Not Florida Challenge
Welcome back to another episode of Talking Shttt — No Filters. No Scripts. Just Talking Shttt.
Tonight we sit down LIVE with Jason Horton for a conversation that covers his incredible journey through filmmaking, storytelling, paranormal investigations, true crime, and the many creative projects that have made him a name in the entertainment world.
Jason joins us to talk about his career, behind-the-scenes stories, the experiences that shaped him, and what it takes to create content that keeps audiences entertained and coming back for more.
But that's not all...
It's time for another round of Florida or Not Florida! Jason will go head-to-head with actor Jack Berner as they try to figure out which crazy headlines actually happened in Florida and which ones are completely made up. Who will come out on top? Tune in and find out!
Join Mark Bensette Jr. and Brian Elam for another night of laughs, stories, and real conversations with amazing guests from the worlds of entertainment, wrestling, music, movies, comedy, and more.
Make sure to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and FOLLOW Talking Shttt so you never miss a live episode!
Watch Talking Shttt LIVE every Thursday at 8 PM EST on Facebook and YouTube.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:32
Speaker
and gentleman Welcome to the show, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Brian. With me always, I'm Mark. Guys, welcome to another fun-filled evening right here on Talking Shit.
00:00:46
Speaker
um Mark, what do what do we got going on tonight?
00:00:51
Speaker
We got something going on? I mean, typically. I mean, that's why we show up on Thursdays. and ain't here I'm not here to look at you, and I'm sure as shit. No, no. I'd rather look at my wife than you.
00:01:05
Speaker
um I reached out to a gentleman. ah You use this term so loosely. Well, I had to take a breath for a second. I paused at the wrong second. I'm sorry. But I reached out to a gentleman and asked him to if he wanted to come on because we've had a lot of people suggest him.
00:01:25
Speaker
So I'm like, okay, well, why not? So I reached out and he he said yes right away. I gave him the date. He was not a problem with it.
00:01:36
Speaker
all you know So I figure, why not? So do you remember his name?
Jason Horton's Filmmaking Career Overview
00:01:44
Speaker
Jason Horton. Good job.
00:01:50
Speaker
Jason, what's happening, man? How are you? Good, man. Good. And I'm geared up. I'm ready to talk about people. That's what we do, right? We're talking. Oh, yeah. We thought we should talk about everybody. Yeah, mean I'm ready. I'm ready. We'll start with Mark. Mark is 4'10". Hey, hey, hey. I'm Shut up. In high heels.
00:02:06
Speaker
no your name eight i'm five three shut up in high heels No, five, six in high heels. Get it right. Jason, um welcome to Talking Shit. I think this is your first appearance right here on this this fabulous podcast, right?
00:02:24
Speaker
As far as I know. Okay, very good. Can you tell everybody a little bit about yourself? And I mean, you come highly recommended to be a part of the show. So you guys tell us what you do, who you are and all that stuff.
00:02:38
Speaker
Sure, sure. So I'm a filmmaker. um I've been making movies for about 20 years. um I did a lot of horror movies. I used to be hired to direct a bunch of ah African-American Christian films. I've done comedies. I've done talking dog movies. I've done about 100 documentaries. I run a YouTube channel that's kind of focused on distribution and marketing for independent filmmakers, which a lot of people know me from. um that's probably where i got a lot of the recommendations from your show for and uh i did that done that for about five years um you know decent sized channel about uh 40 000 subscribers and you know i i put documentaries up there now but i was doing filmmaking content for a long time um anybody you work with uh recently on any of the filmmaking stuff or or given ideas to helped out or anything yeah yeah a lot of them um you know i've uh
00:03:37
Speaker
I've worked with, that you've had on the show, um Chase Dudley a few times.
Advice on Crowdfunding for Filmmakers
00:03:42
Speaker
I believe he first discovered me through my YouTube channel. Like, he was a big fan of it. um more of Gosh, what's his name? The dude that we're having the game with later.
00:03:55
Speaker
Jim. The lawyer. Jack. Jack. There you go. i Jack Berger. He's acted in a couple of my movies, my last two horror films. I'm also pretty well known, at least on these last three movies, for crowdfunding. So like I did a horror movie called Cravings about four years ago and i raised close to a hundred thousand for it I did another follow-up to that called the hard place which was retitled backwoods blood feud by the distributor I raised about 150 for that and then i just did one called apex predators club which hasn't come out yet but we raised oh gosh like 230,000 for that one so like I've I give advice and stuff on crowdfunding and you know people know me from that too
00:04:49
Speaker
Well, let's go back and talk a little bit about the the films that you were that you created. Let's talk sure about that. So the genre that you that you specifically mentioned, is it horror? Is that is that your genre?
00:05:03
Speaker
So i like a film as a filmmaker, I'm pretty much as I am as a viewer. i like different things. you know I have a pretty wide you know taste palette. But over the last like five years, it's mostly been horror.
00:05:16
Speaker
My last three movies were all monster movies. And then some documentaries in between. But yeah. And you you said documentaries. What ah what kind of documents documentaries have you done?
00:05:29
Speaker
so i've uh produced up close to 100 uh feature documentaries and i've done pretty much you need um i do really well with uh like bigfoot and like normal stuff i do some ufo stuff bigfoot stuff dog man but i've also done diet documentaries i've done cannabis documentaries just a huge variety we just had someone on the show mark not too long ago who is actually doing a documentary series.
00:06:04
Speaker
um And maybe you heard of the guy. His name is Bo Bice. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. buy He's a musician. Yeah, he's a musician. He was on of the very first American Idols.
00:06:17
Speaker
Oh, OK. And now he's doing, cleaning board what is it? What is it? from Four or five. What is he doing? What's the name of the show? Oh, now? He's got a few albums coming out. He's got, they call it Inverness Idol or something like that.
00:06:38
Speaker
He's helping out doing stuff. What was the name of the show is what I was asking you. Because they're going to talk a lot about Bigfoot. And that was this like the biggest thing that his partner kept saying. All he wants to talk about is Bigfoot. So you'd probably be a great candidate to interview for the you know, help them out with the show kind of thing. You know what mean? Well, you know, I don't. The thing is, I've done about probably a dozen Bigfoot documentaries, yeah but I honestly couldn't tell you anything about them you know at this point. the way So like i always wanted to be a narrative filmmaker, you know, making regular movies. And that's pretty much what I did for the first half of my career.
00:07:18
Speaker
you know I directed like I don't know 15 or 16 features before I started doing docs um I started doing docs because uh I had just uh developed and produced a feature called the campus which didn't do so well financially and some friends were saying telling me you should really try documentaries because of my background in editing so I you know i I knocked a couple out pretty quick and they made some pretty good money so I kept making them because I could make them pretty quick And then, you know, before I knew it, I had, you know, 50 or 60 of them. And that's pretty much become my day job.
00:07:51
Speaker
Like I make bulk of my income from the documentaries. And then I take like a horror movie and I do one every like year, year and a half. And I spend more time on it, you know, because I have bit more money on it.
00:08:05
Speaker
Exactly. And I have more regular income coming in from the docs. So even if the horror movies don't do so well, you know, i've it doesn't hurt my my bottom line so much.
00:08:16
Speaker
So that's kind of the best both. So your full-time job is in the is in the
Filmmaking Challenges and Crowdfunding Psychology
00:08:20
Speaker
industry then? That's your full-time job? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 100%. Like for about the last 15 years um and, you know, before I started like really hardcore producing my own stuff, I was, you know, being hired to direct a lot of like low budget, like $50,000 to $75,000 budget movies, you know, in different genres, you know, just because I was pretty much known for being able to get the stuff done. and you know done on the schedule. And you know so it made me attractive for low budget producers. And I did quite a few.
00:08:55
Speaker
was going to say, so every once in a while we crowdfunding going on for indie films and stuff like that. And then we have some folks come on the show and they start talking about, we were trying to raise $75,000, we raised $18,000. Right, yeah, yeah. Or $18.
00:09:12
Speaker
right yeah yeah or or a even bug exactly so what's the whale Jason, and what's the advice? so So for me, it's like twofold. um ah One is you have to have an exciting sounding project, you know, not just exciting to you, but something that other people are going to find exciting and that other people are going to want to be involved in.
00:09:33
Speaker
Because like crowdfunding isn't like, hey, I'm making a movie, come give me money to make my movie. It's like ah community building. It's like, let's like do this together and you know people are buying producer credits or you know maybe they pay $1,000 to act in a scene with one of the actors or you know whatever it is. But it's like,
00:09:52
Speaker
the I think where most people go wrong with crowdfunding is they look at it as like like an underdog mentality, but like that doesn't work. like you know so Just sales psychology, people want to be a part of a winning team.
00:10:06
Speaker
And if you're doing a project that looks like it's going to go, that looks like it's going to raise money, people want to be a part of it. That's what I found. And then also, in you know I did my YouTube channel for about four years prior to doing the crowdfunding. And it really like taught me yeah like how to be on camera, how to present on camera, how to sound confident, you know? And if you sound confident and like, you know what you're doing, you know what you're talking about and you're not going to rip people off and use people, you know, integrity is a big thing. You know, if if people believe that, if you project that people want to be a part of it, you know? And, and yeah.
00:10:43
Speaker
So, so I got to ask, and so what you're saying is, is, There has been some times where people have gotten ripped off, movies haven't been made. Is there a way to squash that? Is there a way to stop that from happening?
00:10:59
Speaker
You know, is I mean, people are always going to I think a lot of people's initial reaction is that's where they think most crowdfunders are coming from. in my particular case, I have a lot. yeah You know, if IMDb is where they list movies, and you go to IMDb and you you can see that I've made and released over 100 films, you know, so like I'm I'm a known finisher.
00:11:22
Speaker
So right there, it kind of takes that away. um If you're somebody that hasn't made a lot, that's the hardest. that That's probably the biggest hurdle into raising like or a real amount of money is is that.
00:11:34
Speaker
you know What do you think about people doing more than one project? Is that is that something that you you typically see? like if if i'm crowdfunding for a movie that i've started filming but i've already got this other idea and i start crowdfunding for that one am i just do you think that i would in your own my eyes and i would see it this way so but do you think that i'm going to take this funding from that film to put into this movie that i'm currently making and then i think yeah yeah I think people think that. um and Me personally, but again, I have the documentary thing, so I don't need to knock out two or three movies a year.
00:12:14
Speaker
So when i when I do one, I'm usually, it's all the way complete and it's being released before I start crowdfunding the next or very close to it. Like, ah you know, I did Craving and I think that came out in February 23. And I launched the crowdfunder for a hard place, I believe that same month, you know, so it was like, you know, just there were back to back, but one one was complete now, you know.
00:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. um And I think some people do it out of necessity. Like you had Chase Dudley on here, and he's a totally legitimate crowd funder filmmaker. But, you know, he also but because of, you know, he's doing several projects a year. So they have to overlap a little bit. So he's going to be running a crowd funder before that movie, the the last one comes out. And he's legit, you know, but there are other people.
00:13:05
Speaker
that it seems like they're doing a new crowd funder every month and you know you look at these guys on imdb and they have like no movies out and they're still trying to raise money for movies i mean it's yeah that's what gives it a bad name i think so for anybody that wants to get into helping uh crowdfund a movie i think a one big thing that you i think you hit it go on imbd see what other projects they've been a part of see what else they've done see you know i i think you can get a little more information from mbd like how how did these films rate that kind of thing is it going to be something where they're going to something yeah yeah you even want to be a part of yeah
00:13:49
Speaker
Yeah, totally. Yeah, you don't want to look at IMBD 3.2, 3.2, 3.1, 3. You know, you want to see like, man, this 9.7, a 3.2. Okay, somebody gave it a 3.2 on this one, so maybe that's not the one for me.
Film Title Changes and Audience Reception
00:14:03
Speaker
so ah Amanda said, i love the hard place, by the way. Oh, thank you, Amanda. is that actually Is that actually out now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been out for about seven months. um It's had kind of a... it's good Production went really well. The movie turned out really well. But for whatever reason, this movie didn't perform very well financially.
00:14:26
Speaker
um So, i you know, I had a distributor for it. The distributor gave me $20,000 upfront, what they call a minimum guarantee, you know, against future sales because they were that confident in it. And it made, I think, $7,000 in its first two quarters, which, you know, that that movie, the budget for that movie was $150,000. Now, you now you know, 120 of that was crowdfunding. So it's not that big a deal. We were able to pay back most of the equity investors, but it just didn't perform.
00:14:59
Speaker
So the the distributor came to me about, i don't know, two or three months ago and said, you know, it's not performing. We don't know what's going on. um yeah And they asked me if I would be open to them basically pulling it from distribution and then redistributing it under a different title.
00:15:15
Speaker
Like, you know, maybe it was the title. I, So there, it's now been released, has ah Backwoods Blood Feud. And, you know, we'll we'll see if, I normally wouldn't do something like this, but, you know, I do, I still owe about, I don't know, $10,000 to equity investors. And, you know, you want to pay that back. And, you know, you want people to see the movie. I'm proud of the movie. And it just, for whatever reason, wasn't getting eyeballs. So, you know, we're trying it. And it's just now starting to trickle out under the new title. So, you know, we'll see how it does.
00:15:48
Speaker
Maybe that's why I couldn't find it. Yeah. Yeah. If you're looking now if you're looking for it now, it's Backwoods Blood Feud. It's just no longer a hard place. You wouldn't even it as ah as an FKA, like normally known as a hard place. So like if you like if you look it up on IMDb, it'll say Backwoods Blood Feud, original title, a hard place. But in most places, they won't. It'll just be called Backwoods Blood Feud.
00:16:15
Speaker
Got it. yeah because I seen that a lot being advertised all over. And then all of sudden it just went. It's just gone. Yeah. I mean, i was I was flummoxed. I mean, I didn't expect it to do like you know, millions, but, you know, I expected it to at least earn as well as my last horror movie, which made almost a hundred grand in its first year. And, you know, the hard place was more marketable.
00:16:40
Speaker
We actually, we spent money on marketing. So, you know, the distributor, besides of the money they gave me, they put another $10,000 into marketing and i spent about, i don't know, $8,000 personally on marketing. And it just, it didn't help. the And this particular title, just didn't go.
00:16:58
Speaker
Give us a little bit of a rundown about the film and and why we should watch it Yeah, so a Hard Place is about a group of criminals. They're kind of on the lam. They end up in this small town um that's actually like run by two warring factions of monsters.
00:17:16
Speaker
like So these criminals end up you know stuck in the middle of this ancient feud between these like night creatures and day creatures. They are like these tree-like monsters, and the other ones are reptiles. It's fast-paced. It's action-packed. There's a big task.
00:17:33
Speaker
um felissa rose is in it um and she's it's like a really good performance for her you know it's like um it's a it's a fun movie you know it's so just ah it's monster movie you know gonzo mayhem okay so there we go you got a reason ladies and gentlemen to go and find it a hard place and now it's called what now backwoods blood feud backwoods blood feud yeah So let's talk about how did you do come up with the original name for it?
00:18:04
Speaker
So the original title, again, it was about these criminals who were on the run and they end up, you know, in this other bad situation. Like they're stuck between a rock and a hard place, you know, the the old saying. So I i just thought it was a clever title. um I still like that title better, but it also it doesn't quite ring, you know, say horror.
00:18:25
Speaker
I could see why that they, you know, yeah Well, actually, if you would think about it, he figured that they'd get more of a hit off of that, you know, being hard place.
00:18:36
Speaker
I would think so. and And who's to say that it is the title that was responsible? i mean, it could just very well be for however much I like the movie or certain people do. It just wasn't resonating with larger audiences, perhaps. I mean, you know, there's there's really no way to tell for sure.
00:18:54
Speaker
Amanda said, I'd love to get a copy with a hard place on it. Yeah, there's still, like, i still have, like, probably 100 DVDs. And yeah if you hit me up on social media, I can i can work something out. um There might still be some for sale on Amazon, but I don't think so.
00:19:16
Speaker
What's in the box, Jay? That comes from a Liberty Cruise. What box? Do I a box?
00:19:24
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. it It was, it was, um what's her name? Fuck, what's that actress's name? ah It was her head.
00:19:38
Speaker
Well, there you go. yeah know the the The chick from Seven. It was her head. The Goop woman. What's happening in April, May, June? How are you? All right. Let's see. So we talked a little bit about crowdfunding stuff.
00:19:53
Speaker
and is there a number of films that's too many films to be before you start crowdfunding for the next one like first what i mean by that is if i'm if i'm doing two films should i just focus on those two or should i go ahead and get my third project in there and start crowdfunding for that one as well i mean you know it depends on the person um i personally like to do one finish one then do another one But there are people like, you know, we mentioned Chase a couple of times and, you know, he's, he's doing it. He might, think he has two that are in production now and yeah and he's crowdfunding a third, you know, it's easier to keep track of too. And and yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm not there. I'm like,
00:20:36
Speaker
I'm getting all this all of them, but I need the one for the best film. Yeah, yeah. Well, the other thing that a positive about, you know, having several in the works is like you're building all kinds of momentum. So like when you, a movie is never more exciting to people than when it has just been shot.
00:20:53
Speaker
You know, like when you're just starting to show stills from the set and, you know, and all the actors, because it doesn't matter what the movie is. Almost every single time I've ever finished a movie, you know, before it's like edited and released, everybody's like, well, this is going to be the best thing ever. You know, a movie is never as good as it is on that last day of production, you know, because like everybody thinks it's going to be great because, you know, we've seen these really cool images, but we haven't seen them put together yet.
00:21:18
Speaker
So like, you know, but so if you're doing several, you kind of have that momentum always going. Like you just finished shooting one. You just have another one. You're starting to crowdfund, you know, and people are excited about the other one. And then people see people excited about the other one and want to be involved in the next one.
Crowdfunding Campaign Strategies and Film Festivals
00:21:34
Speaker
You know, so like it builds, you know, and and like, you know, not to keep ah bringing Chase up, but like he's doing really well. He's raised like more and more money with his projects, you know, because like people are excited about him.
00:21:46
Speaker
Yeah. thing i liked about the thing i liked about chase was uh i was watching i was watching one of his crowdfunding when he was alive on air and i went inside i i was i can't remember what the the budget was that he or he was trying to go for that day but i went inside a store for maybe 20 minutes and when i came out he already got yeah blue blue light that's that I was like, wow, that's really cool.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah, and that's what that's what excites people. Like the the couple I did, so you know like you go in in the first day, and like within the first few hours, you have like $6,000 $7,000. And like that like if you go on Facebook or you know Instagram or wherever and be like, we just launched our campaign two hours ago, and we've already raised $5,000, people are like, oh, what I better get involved in this. you know it's just happening Yeah, it's sales psychology, and it does work.
00:22:42
Speaker
You know, it's like, like success breeds more success, you know, and if you have one, you know, on the other hand, that is not meeting its goal, and there is raising a couple hundred dollars, people are like, well, do I really want to put movie money into this? Because they're they're probably not even going to get the money to make the movie.
00:23:02
Speaker
Um, Did you go to any of the cons and stuff with any of your, any of your films that you take? Yeah. Yeah. So I did, ah i did a few, i think I did two with craving um a couple of years ago. And then last year I did half a dozen with a hard place. um I liked them. um It,
00:23:23
Speaker
ah to To be 100% honest, it's not my scene. as a you know Just as a person, i don't i don't like paying people for autographs. and like so i just don't I don't like the whole system, personally. As a filmmaker, it's okay. I'm i'm not a i'm not a big fan. they We ended up making a little of money with it, but i I probably won't do any with this next movie I'm doing.
00:23:52
Speaker
you won You don't think you'll go to the con or anything? Probably not. Okay. No. And I also, because like I said, on a Hard Place, we hit several of them. And we did well at the cons. But at the end of the day, it didn't mean anything for my sales for the movie. So, you know, and for me, and not to sound overly pragmatic, but, you know, it's all about I have only so much time. And, you have to do things that are going to help, know, move the project ahead.
00:24:19
Speaker
and but And then for somebody that wants to do crowdfunding for a film, is there a length
Film Production Logistics and Cons
00:24:24
Speaker
of time that you need to put on it? Is there a, cause you talk about the psychology of sales, which is absolutely phenomenal because guess what? I do it on a daily basis.
00:24:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I believe that like so I spend about 90 days prep on a new campaign. And look when I say 90 days, I don't mean like 90 like eight hour days. But I mean, 90 days, like a few hours here, a few hours there, putting together all my materials.
00:24:53
Speaker
you know I usually prepackage like, you know, because one thing, another thing with crowdfunding, you'll see failing campaigns and they're always they have like they have one poster.
00:25:04
Speaker
and they have you know maybe one pitch video and they keep posting that same pitch video and that same poster over and over and over again for their 30 day campaign. You have to have multiple things. I'm not saying they have to be like fully done, realized posters every day, but you need to have something, you know, like it's still images or even or memes or you need to create materials, different materials to post every day of that campaign.
00:25:29
Speaker
Even if it's like one thing I used to do, you know, we have all these like bullshit holidays in the US like hey today is National Stamp Day or you know like crap like that so whatever month I'm running it in I go to the calendar and I figure out what each day of the month what a special holiday is and I do like a little joke post for them and I pre-write all those so like every day I have you know probably four or five posts that are already written that I can just pull from you know so if I'm not feeling particularly clever that day i have something to post yeah
00:26:02
Speaker
Okay. Besides the organic stuff. well Well, that's getting you more views too, right? Because if you're doing something every single day, other people are going to see it and they're going wait a minute. Yeah.
00:26:13
Speaker
Let me go check and see what this, what this is about. Or let me go see what else they've posted because it happens. Like people get stuck in that, in that loop sometimes where, oh, that's funny.
00:26:24
Speaker
Let me go see if there's anything else that this person did that's that funny. Oh my God, that's hysterical. Yeah. I did a, I did ah a perk, like a special perk on my last couple where I sold pieces of my soul as a crowdfunding perk.
00:26:39
Speaker
Yeah, know I'd be like, yeah but so for like 10 bucks, on a piece of my soul. And then I would send them a little like certificate, you know, with like the percent of my soul. yeah although Although, so i pretty much sold like three hundred percent of my soul and so you're a lot of fault now buddy Yeah, I'm out now. Now I'm like, what I got, I got nothing left. That's why I'm not doing crowd funders anymore.
00:27:07
Speaker
um Will you continue to crowd fund for help other people crowd fund? um I will, if if people reach out to me and ask for advice, I give them advice. you know I have an old masterclass that I did um where that like basically taught crowdfunding. It's like a three-hour masterclass. I used to sell it as a perk. Now it's like four years old, so I pretty much just give it away. um And and that that I will do. i But I personally, i don't i i don't i won't get involved in it.
00:27:39
Speaker
And I don't I probably won't run anymore myself. you You make enough money on doing the dock that you don't if you were going to do it, you're just going utilize that.
00:27:51
Speaker
yeah well so the kind of double-edged sword with crowdfunding at least the way i was doing it i had to sell a lot of parts you know like i had to and it it wasn't so much about getting like bad actors in those parts but it's it's a matter of maybe maybe adding too many parts into the movies which ends up affecting the quality of the movies and i just don't want to make movies like that anymore And really, you know, if you're trying to do the hundred, $200,000 raises, you you pretty much have to do that unless you're somebody famous, you know, you're just not going to that kind of pull to raise that money without selling those perks. And i just, I don't have a moral problem with it, but I just, I just don't want to do it anymore. You know, I've done, I did it three times in a row and I'm like, these are, these are the problems with it. And I just don't want to have those problems again. Okay.
00:28:42
Speaker
All right. All right. Well, listen, Jason, let's take a quick break. Let's go refill our waters. Okay.
00:28:50
Speaker
Water. Yeah. Mark, go get you a water. Mark, you got some music on deck for us? Yes. right. And then when we come back, we are going to play a little game called Florida or not Florida.
00:29:06
Speaker
Let me explain it to you real quick. If you win Florida or not Florida, you're going get some really, really cool things. These decals right here. Oops, excuse me. I got them upside down. Those decals right there that Mark's holding.
00:29:18
Speaker
And we'll get those sent out to you. I think Mark said he already sent you some, right? Yeah. Yeah. yeah or But anybody in the comments, if you want some, just message us and we'll send you some.
00:29:29
Speaker
Mark's very generous. I don't know why. Mark, what a song you got keyed up for us. Well, I'll play it. while I go drink. How bout
00:30:07
Speaker
I got a call from a friend who don't call very often
00:30:13
Speaker
Broke it to me and couldn't believe that we lost him Really felt like it came out of nowhere But it never really comes out of nowhere It's crazy the pain that we carry when nobody's watching
00:30:33
Speaker
Will the defendant please rise?
00:30:59
Speaker
the defendant please rise
00:31:04
Speaker
Mr. Mooney, you are charged with vandalism and the defacement of public property. How do you plead? Guilty, Your Honor. Counselor.
00:31:17
Speaker
Sometimes the words you don't know how to say are the loudest
00:31:23
Speaker
No one can shoulder the weight if they don't know about it
00:31:30
Speaker
Don't be scared, you can pull back the curtain Love ain't afraid sharing the burden If there was a room full of people who cared, it'd be crowded I'll be there every time you call, pick you up every time you fall.
Game Segment: Florida or Not Florida
00:32:34
Speaker
Please rise.
00:32:40
Speaker
Young man, you are free to go. Case dismissed.
00:32:45
Speaker
Hold on tight The sun is gonna rise So open up your eyes Tomorrow is a brand new day
00:33:00
Speaker
The sun is gonna rise So open up your eyes Tomorrow is a brand new day If your light burns out and you're in the dark If you can't pick up the pieces If the world you trust, it falls apart If your heart's for an hour reasons I'll be there every time you call Pick you up every time you fall
00:33:36
Speaker
And
00:33:39
Speaker
we are back. That was Dan and Shay three-time Grammy winner.
00:33:58
Speaker
um back that was dan and shay threetime grammy award-winning country duo with Say So. Good saw, Mark. Yeah, we'll get dinged for it, but it's okay.
00:34:11
Speaker
I don't care. By the way, it was Gwyneth Paltrow's head that was in the box. oh no I remember. Damn it. moving Damn it. All right.
00:34:23
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, we're back with Mr. Jason Horton. Jason, you want to remind everybody who you are and what you do? Yeah, I'm Jay Horton. I do movie making, low budget stuff, high budget stuff, documentaries.
00:34:39
Speaker
Do i have a YouTube channel? All kinds of fun stuff. He just said he's not for hire right now. I am not for hire, yeah. No, I do all my own stuff. Yeah, I haven't done freelance work in about five years.
00:34:53
Speaker
He does have a advice. I will give advice. I will give advice, yep. all right uh ladies and gentlemen we're at the point of the show now where we're gonna play a game with jason called florida or not florida but guys we can't do it alone we're gonna need a little help uh how about we welcome to the stage mr jack burner oh this is your opponent for the evening sir hey jason and yeah you look like a bond villain man Cast me as that. yeah and you're like so He's looking sharp. Look at that. man
00:35:27
Speaker
I thought I was good wearing my dress sweats, but nope. Jack, ah you want to tell everybody who you are and what you do? Absolutely. Well, my day job is a trial attorney, but I also have a secret life as a feature film actor. And I've been i've had the pleasure of being in two of Jason's films.
00:35:50
Speaker
I'm waiting for the next one to come out anxiously. It's going to be amazing. It's called the Apex Predators Club. was actually filmed on a military base and in Louisiana. So very exciting stuff. And been on your show. Loved you guys and love Jason. So happy happy to appear, happy to be abused with trivia.
00:36:12
Speaker
Now, I don't believe when you were on here, I don't know if we had Florida or not Florida then. No, because for whatever reason, it wasn't filmed live or so or something like that wasn't shown live.
00:36:25
Speaker
So I don't have issues or something, Mark. i No, I'll tell you about that later. OK, well, ladies and gentlemen, like I said, we're at the point of the game where we're going to play a little game called Florida or not Florida. Guys, I'm going to read and I'm going to actually post them on the screen and so you can also read them.
00:36:43
Speaker
There will be five stories. And all you got to do is tell me if that is so crazy that it happened right here in the great state of Florida where Mark and i ah live in frequent places, um or if it happened somewhere else. Hey, and if you want to say, Hey, I think that happened right here in the great state of, and you can do that.
00:37:06
Speaker
um Listen, the points are useless. We're to send you guys decals anyway. We love you. So Jack, make sure we have, did we get you some decals? Do we need to get you some decals?
00:37:18
Speaker
We gave him a shirt. Yeah, I have a shirt. I'll take decals. But he never sent us a picture with him in the shirt. Oh. Okay, I will have that. But that's okay. If he wants some decals, we'll send him some decals too. All right, here is your first question.
00:37:35
Speaker
Headline, first story. Dwayne Halverson, 63, was arrested after reporting his own boat stolen by himself. He insisted it was a civil matter. Ladies and gentlemen, did this happen in Florida or not Florida?
00:37:51
Speaker
Florida or not Florida? We're going to say Florida. Who said that? Jason says great state of Florida. Jack, what do you think? You think it's Florida or not Florida, this guy?
00:38:03
Speaker
You know, i was I was trying to come up with a strategy with you guys, ah reverse psychology, whatever, but I'm going to go with Florida because you mentioned the boat. I'll just give you a straightforward answer. Florida.
00:38:16
Speaker
Fantastic. I love it. um We're going to go to the comments real quick, guys. We've got Amanda saying, Florida, anybody else want to jump in here? We'll give you a second or two. You think that's a Florida guy? Come on, Lexi, play.
00:38:29
Speaker
Come on, Lexi, play. Ornishman.
00:38:34
Speaker
I don't know if Lexi's going to play or not. All right. Here's the answer. It was, in fact, Florida. You got it. You caught that when You caught me. Hands up. You caught me.
00:38:44
Speaker
red
00:38:48
Speaker
ah He said all Florida. No, they're not going to be Florida. I don't know. We'll see. no that was last week. Congratulations on that first one. Here's your second one. pickleball mom arrested after challenging a 70 year old one 70 year god 71 year old to a rematch and refusing to leave the court arrested after escalating a pickleball beef into a police matter is this a story or not this was a big headline when it hit well i'm gonna say not florida's i don't think is pickleball a big thing in florida it's certain areas we got you know i
00:39:30
Speaker
My guys try to tell me about pickleball, I don't know. I'm not a pickleballer.
00:39:37
Speaker
um So, Jason, you're saying what? did would i'm saying not Florida. All right. Jason's going to go not Florida.
00:39:45
Speaker
I will say... I hate to go against Jason. He's anud but ah a I'm going to say Florida because, just to rationalize it, there is a large senior population in Florida, the biggest, I think, in the country. And pickleball is huge with seniors who can't play tennis anymore.
00:40:06
Speaker
<unk> I know there's a lot of tennis going on in the villages, or pickleball. So I'll say Florida. Jack's going to go Florida. ah At Liberty Cruise.
00:40:19
Speaker
Still Florida. Still Florida. it's Okay. And then here here you go. Amanda says not Florida. And if you said not Florida, you're correct. oh Arizona.
00:40:36
Speaker
Why Arizona? What are you doing to me here? like You got 71-year-old ladies out here. No, I think that's the first time we've ever had an Arizona one. That's an Arizona one.
00:40:47
Speaker
All right, here's third one. Man charged after posing as a driver's ed instructor and passing four students. Larry Osgood worked nine days at a driving school with zero certification.
00:41:01
Speaker
Four people now legally have their driver's license. Is this Florida or not Florida? I love this story. I found it. I was like, oh. It's a great story. I'm going to say not Florida.
00:41:14
Speaker
Jason says not Florida on it.
00:41:19
Speaker
I love that Jack is rationalizing this. He is like, okay, do they have driving schools in Florida? What are their driving instructors like?
00:41:30
Speaker
So here's the thing. I will tell you guys like this. Everybody moves to Florida from another state. So even if this happened in Florida, I'm always going to tell you it's not Florida.
00:41:41
Speaker
Does that make any sense? All right. I'm going against my best instincts. I'm going to say Florida. Jack's going to say Florida. ah Not Florida from Amanda, a Floridian in a California DMV.
00:41:59
Speaker
ah love that. That's funny. And then Alexi, not Florida. And guys, it was Ohio.
00:42:10
Speaker
Ohio. How you doing? We're trying. We're trying. all right, here we go. Listen, it's a game.
00:42:21
Speaker
Yeah. It's a game. it's We're here to have fun. Here's your here's your fourth one. Woman arrested at a birthday party after yanking a pony's tail, causing a child to fall off.
00:42:32
Speaker
A bizarre child engagement case involving a princess pony ride gone wrong. Is this Florida or not Florida? Florida or not Florida?
00:42:44
Speaker
You think that a mom... snatch the pony's tail to make the pony move faster. I can see it. I'm torn. I'm going to say Florida, but Jason's going to go Florida, but here's what I want you guys to remember too. Just remember this. It is a million and five degrees here in Florida.
00:43:04
Speaker
Yeah. But you didn't say what time of the year it was. So well, period. I'm just letting you know, it's a million. Yeah. don't how many i don't know how many parties there in Florida.
00:43:16
Speaker
Jack has to question this and say, you know, everything I've done so far up to this point has been ill-fated. You know what? It hasn't worked.
00:43:28
Speaker
I'm just here to make Jason look good. He's the man of the hour. i am but but a humble humble humble servant. um So it worked out for me when I was going along with him. So Jason, I'm coming back into the fold. I'll say.
00:43:45
Speaker
He's going to go Florida. What do we got in the comments here? Ladies and gentlemen, I've got. right, let's look at what the audience says and I'll let you guys decide whether or not you want to change your minds or not.
00:43:55
Speaker
Alexi says it's not Florida. Amanda says not Florida. Statistically, best answer is Florida. So you want to stick with Florida or do you want to go the opposite direction?
00:44:08
Speaker
I'm going to stick with Florida, but I kind of think it's not Florida. Are these people using AI? We don't have the benefit of AI. Look i look at my hands. I'm not typing. All right, ladies and gentlemen, if you said Florida, I am terribly sorry. You're wrong. man It was close though. It was Florida's big brother, California.
00:44:29
Speaker
that made That does make more sense. All right, guys, here is your fifth and final Fifth and final clue. Fifth and final story.
00:44:40
Speaker
Fifth and final Florida. Here we go. Man arrested after driving a stolen forklift into a bank. Because why not rob a bank? why Because why rob a bank with a gun when you can use heavy machinery?
00:44:52
Speaker
Jesus. And that's got to be Florida.
00:44:58
Speaker
Can we find out what the other people in the peanut gallery think? Yeah, absolutely. Let's see what they say. We're going to poll the audience. We're going to poll the audience. We're going to phone a friend. I'm calling a lifeline. You're calling a lifeline here.
00:45:11
Speaker
And Jack, if you go if if you say Florida this time, it'll be every answer you've said Florida. but He's on a roll, dude. He's like butter. He's on a roll. Leave him alone. here to be Jason's foil, and I think I'm successful.
00:45:27
Speaker
Trouble says, that is Florida.
00:45:34
Speaker
don't know. Alexi says, not Florida. I remember this. Where do you remember it from, Alexi? All right, Liberty, where are at?
00:45:51
Speaker
He's going to say Florida anyway. we You know he's going to say Florida. He said Florida for all of them. You know what? i'm going to go out really strong. I'm going to say not Florida. Not Florida.
00:46:03
Speaker
All right. And ladies and gentlemen. Hold on. oh Hold on. hold on Dedicated to Florida. You sticking with it? All right. Here we go. Jason, what do you say? Florida.
00:46:16
Speaker
Okay. I'm just making sure. And if you picked Florida, you're 100% correct. It was right here in the great state of Florida.
00:46:25
Speaker
Jack, that was terrible. That was terrible. anyone ever done worse? That's what I want to know. Yes. Yes. Oh, yeah. People on the show that absolutely just said Florida for everything. And there was a time that I actually had zero Florida answers.
00:46:42
Speaker
And I think around Canada or something like that. Didn't I, Mark? Yeah. And people were like, you should be ashamed of yourself. That's not even part of it.
00:46:54
Speaker
You should be a part of yourself.
00:46:57
Speaker
So we already know that, you know, that Jason won. He only got one wrong. Jack got two right. Amanda was the big winner because, well, she got them all right.
00:47:12
Speaker
Oh, job. um Liberty, you only got two. And Lexi, well, she came into the game a little bit later, so she got two right.
00:47:26
Speaker
what no joy she only got three of them she didn't do the first two the odds are with you jack
00:47:37
Speaker
Jack, um before we let you go, thank you for coming on and playing Florida or not, Florida. But we've got to know, what do you got coming up? Sure. The next film is going to be, um it's a really cool vampire film called The Empire Penance, The Atonement of John Wolfe. And this has been in pre-production for years because the director is a and producer is ah is a perfectionist and lining up the right team and and the right cast. And I was cast as a the lead baddie, so Jason's comment is funny, ah I'm gonna be the lead vampire. Actually, I spoke about this film, I believe, when I was last on your show.
00:48:17
Speaker
And so that film is tentatively scheduled to start shooting on the East Coast in early October.
Jack Berner's Acting Career and Legal Work
00:48:25
Speaker
Very cool. On the East Coast where?
00:48:28
Speaker
Pennsylvania, I believe, currently. Okay. it'll be nice It should be nice and cool there for you guys. Yeah. Yeah. So really cool film. It's got, ah there's a lot of historical, there's It's based on a lot of historically true things. So it kind of mixes fiction with nonfiction just to make it that much more interesting. goes back to you know the time of Jesus Christ. And and i don't I don't want to spoil anything, but it's it's pretty it's a pretty ambitious project. It's not your typical slasher film. a highly, highly intelligent film.
00:49:01
Speaker
something Something a little to the left of of being a horror genre kind of thing, huh? Horror, thriller.
00:49:09
Speaker
um
00:49:12
Speaker
ah it's going to be a trilogy. So yeah again, the the director, John Rainn, is super, super ambitious about it. Perfect. And where can, where can people find you for bookings or just to follow and stalk you?
00:49:24
Speaker
Sure. Well, my local, my local manager actually is Alexi who steered me wrong in today's games. She was on there. So I'm a fan of AKA talent management. And I can also be found on Facebook under Jack Berner, Instagram under at ah the Jack burner and where finer products are sold.
00:49:49
Speaker
And you you are an attorney, a lawyer. am. If somebody needs a good lawyer, what do you study? what What kind of law is it that you can help them with? So we do primarily civil litigation. We do a lot of family law, like all the messy, nasty stuff, that the divorce, the child custody stuff. But we also do some serious injury cases.
00:50:08
Speaker
And he will only take 70 percent. That's it. That's any. Well, we can go we can negotiate that. Jack, thank thank you. and Thank you for coming on. Thank you for letting me focus. Jason, Good seeing you, man. Good seeing you too, brother. I like the new look, man. It looks great.
00:50:27
Speaker
Oh, thank you. haven't left the house in six months. it works for it Listen, that I have have a family attorney over here and then I have a movie attorney over here. I'm just saying.
00:50:40
Speaker
we go all right guys thank you so much thank you all right bye all right ladies
00:50:48
Speaker
hi ladies and gentlemen I just want to take you another quick second to say thank you to Jack burner if you guys are looking for a I think he's a good actor man yeah yeah what AJ uh so yeah they're looking for somebody to be um it's hell he played a fucking soldier in ah and a space movie dude yeah yeah yeah i'll tell a quick story about jack he's super dedicated so we were shooting this apex predators club yeah and you know you know we're doing you know 12 hour days you know all day long and um one of the other actors uh was like getting up you know because they get up real early they got at like 5 a.m And they go down there and he's in the gym working out, like with the script laid out in front of him and reading his lines like, where you know, 5 a.m., you know. and And he said he was there doing that the night before, you know, like the same position. I'm not saying he was there all night, but he was there, you know, did it at night, did it in the morning, just like totally.
00:51:48
Speaker
And like he had a he had a monologue in Apex Predators Club. And it's one of the few times I've worked with somebody where you could stop him pretty much anywhere in it and then like pick right back up where he was. And like he had it memorized like like that well, like he could pick it up at any point, you know, it's like a part where and then he's like, yeah, OK, no problem. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that's that's pretty cool because you I don't think you see that very often anymore. It's like, OK, let me grab the script.
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, totally. much My recollection kind of thing. So, I mean, he's, you think about it. He's an attorney, so he has to, he doesn't get to read straight from documents all the time while he's in there and doing a court case. I'm sure that he has to have that case already ready to be presented and he has to go and ramble everything that he knows, you know, and I'm sure he has like something with bullet points on it just so he knows like, Hey, I got to touch on that.
00:52:43
Speaker
Yeah. so yeah i i can see i can see where he would be very successful in in the film for sure and he takes it really serious and you know yeah there's a lot of people that don't a lot of people that just wake up one day and say they they want to be actors and they don't really study their craft they don't really come in like for real and it shows you know yes jack burner is a star and that is from alexi Uh, yeah. Um, I think you see that you can see that a lot in the indie stuff too. Oh yeah, for sure.
00:53:16
Speaker
I think that you'll see like, Oh, we cast this particular person, what you watch the film and you're like, I don't think that you should have cast that person because me like you watch certain things like that. And it's like, I feel like you were just looking at a cue card, like a giant cue card. And that's,
00:53:36
Speaker
i yeah I like watching, Some of these indie actors in one movie and then you watch them different movie and it is, you see night and day for them on the way that they're acting.
00:53:50
Speaker
Some of them are acting, they're really still, on other ones they act like they're, you know, they're more into it. Yeah, well, you know yeah know, one thing, you know, actors get a lot of flack sometimes, you know, like for bad performances and whatnot. But, you know, sometimes it's just a bad script, you know, like it's just, you know, like the lines just weren't written well. If you have ah if you have a you know, a chunk of words that just don't sound natural coming out of anyone's mouth, you're going to look like a bad actor.
00:54:19
Speaker
And I'd say probably the number one thing that kills most indie films is just it's just bad writing. There's people that just, you know, hey, I'm going to be a screenwriter. And then they they're a screenwriter, you know, but they don't really study the craft. Same thing, know, on the acting side. But, you know, a bad script will make everybody look bad.
00:54:39
Speaker
Yeah. so let's talk about scripts and stuff like that. How did you come across to do the scripts for your films? did Was this something that you just... came up with off the the top or did you have somebody help you or? Yeah, no, I came up with them. So like a quick quick story. When I first started, i was one of these guys. I you know i had just i had just finished college. I wanted to make movies. I wasn't really a writer, but I was like, i wanted to make something. We you know we cobbled together about $5,000 and then I just wrote a script with a friend. you know Just, okay, well, we can just do it. and i'll tell you what that movie's not good you know like my first movie is not a great movie and i remember you know sitting there about a year later after it came out i was like you know what went wrong you know we had this and we had that and i'm like you know what i never took the writing seriously so like i didn't make another movie for a couple of years and i really i started buying all the screenwriting books i started reading like other screenplays like i got i got into it really serious and then i wrote like
00:55:43
Speaker
I don't know, like a dozen screenplays, you know,
Insights on Indie Filmmaking and Persistence
00:55:47
Speaker
before I felt like they were starting to get good, you know, and then i just, you know, that's pretty much what I did as my own writer from then on.
00:55:55
Speaker
But, yeah know, I took it very seriously and studied the craft before I started producing those scripts. But, you know, it's something like ah like a a hard place or a Backwoods Blood Feud. I wrote that original script. It was one of those one of those first batches of scripts I wrote after the first one where I started taking it serious.
00:56:15
Speaker
And it was initially about vampires and werewolves. And i wrote it prior to Underworld, the first one. That's how old this was. And then Underworld came out and I kind of threw the script away, you know, put it on a shelf. But then, like, years later, i just decided I was going to do another Crowdfunder after Craving. And I kind of brushed it off and I'm reading it again. I'm like, that's a pretty good script. But, you know, I don't want to do Werewolves and Vampires again. So I just I changed the monsters. And, know, that that became a hard place.
00:56:45
Speaker
Yeah. Or, you know, like, yeah. I mean, so like me Subtle changes, right? Yeah, totally, totally. And, you know, it's the original version of that, you know, almost 20 years old, you know, and I just rewrote it, updated it and kind of, and then with Apex was more,
00:57:02
Speaker
You know, i was going to work with the Mahals, where the initial Mahal brothers were the initial producers on that. And I had pitched them a couple of different ideas that, you know, they just like, don't like that, don't like that. And then I just came up with the idea for Apex. And I told them it was a finished script, but I just had the idea.
00:57:20
Speaker
So then, you know, I wrote the script really fast and sent it to them. And then they approved it. And then luckily, there was about a year between them improving it and us shooting it. So I had a bunch of time to rewrite it.
00:57:31
Speaker
But yeah, and but then, you know, Michael Mall died. You know, they they continued on as producers in name, but i I pretty much took over the project from that point.
00:57:42
Speaker
Gotcha. One of the coolest places you shot, and talk talk to me. um Honestly, was probably this last one, Apex Writers Club. We shot in Shreveport, Louisiana, right outside of it. But it was this 15,000-acre military base. it's like it's It's active, but kind of not. like So most of it, like it's just abandoned buildings and stuff.
00:58:06
Speaker
But it says it's like these huge like like shopping mall-sized buildings that are just completely abandoned. And, you know, and and look at, you know, like, you know, the cobwebs and like ceilings falling apart and shit. It just, is it's so cool looking.
00:58:21
Speaker
It's almost like its own little city. There's all these like back roads and it it was really neat. It was really neat. Yeah. As a former military member, it's probably one of those situations where it was, you know, old barracks and old PXs, that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah. They did stuff and then.
00:58:39
Speaker
they used to They used to manufacture a bunch of munitions there, like i all kinds of different stuff. So they have these you know giant factories you know with all the conveyors and all that, but they've been out of you know commission for like 20 years.
00:58:53
Speaker
Right. Yeah, it was really cool. <unk> got a friend Mark's got a friend coming to visit him. Oh, look, it's Cat Butt.
00:59:06
Speaker
Cat Butt. They do have buttholes. I knew it. yeah oh Oh, do you hear this? My wife is yelling at the back that you can buy a gem that goes over their tail and hides their booty hole.
00:59:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not thinking that. Disgusting, babe. That's the National Guard Training Center. Is that the name of the Camp Minden? Oh, yeah, Camp Minden. Yeah, that's it.
00:59:34
Speaker
Okay, cool. Yeah, I'll have to have to look that one up and Yeah, it's really cool. And then I know you said that you're not really doing anything currently, right? You're not...
00:59:46
Speaker
You're not really like the i'm to be i did these I did these last three and like they were all you know they all cost a lot of money and they all took a lot of time. and I'm a little burned out right now, honestly. i'll do break Yeah, i like the documentaries are really easy so like and they make a lot of money. So I'm gonna do a few of those for right now. and if i I'll do more narrative features, but ah ah my next one will probably be smaller.
01:00:13
Speaker
you know like my last Teach Mark how to do documentaries. We can totally make some money. Yeah. they're They're not that hard. Yeah. Especially if you can edit. it Look, when he first started doing movies, he you know he looked like he was 20 years old.
01:00:29
Speaker
Now look at him. Yeah. And I just started last year. and I'm
01:00:40
Speaker
I got to ask this question too. How do you feel about AI? One of people using AI to help write scripts to AI and movies. How do you feel about it?
01:00:52
Speaker
um So i I am not a big like, you know, anti AI guy. I personally would not use AI to write a script. And I like I've messed around with a little bit just to see what it would do. And it just it writes very, very generically. um So you know like I admit it. I you know like i use AI to you know like ask, hey, my dog just ate this thing. What should I do? like That's how i use AI. um i don't really and i've i When it first came out, i was using it. like I was doing like poster elements for it. I wouldn't do the whole poster with AI, but I would use elements and then put them together in Photoshop or whatnot. um but
01:01:35
Speaker
like I don't have a big moral problem with it. i think the And I think a lot of the, not to get political, but I think a lot of the the negative talk around it is exaggerated, you know, like as far as the impact on you know, the environment. one I'm not saying it doesn't, but i I don't think it's as extreme as what is being said, you know, especially in comparison to regular things we do. But that said, I don't really, i I'm not really using it. i wouldn't, i wouldn't,
01:02:08
Speaker
deride another filmmaker for doing it, but, you know, okay, that's kind of And wo one last question and then I'm gonna let you go. What advice, actually two questions.
01:02:20
Speaker
What advice do you have for anyone that wants to get into the industry, whether they are becoming an actor, a writer, a producer, a filmmaker in general, what advice do you give these people?
01:02:33
Speaker
Okay. So I have, I have kind of a two pieces, one piece, First thing is, if you if you're talking about doing it for a living, if you if you can do anything else for a living, do that.
01:02:45
Speaker
Because filmmaking, acting, it's it's all it's hard. And it's even harder to make a living at it. like it like It's hard. ah you know I've been doing it for you know almost 30 years now. And it didn't get until like maybe the last decade to where I was like comfortable living off of it financially. You know, there's a lot of lean years, you know, it's tough. um But if you absolutely have to do it, like, you know, like this, this is your passion, you love it, you have to do it.
01:03:15
Speaker
you You just got to be persistent and keep doing it. Like, don't give up. Don't let things stop you. Don't set up roadblocks. I'm, I'm not, I'm not Steven Spielberg. I'm not Quentin Tarantino. I'm not ultra like talented. I'm just somebody that just kept doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it and doing it.
01:03:34
Speaker
You know, like that's, that's, that's why I make a pretty good living making movies.
01:03:47
Speaker
you catch that? Signed one of your crowd. Who is that?
01:03:54
Speaker
don't recognize him. Oh, I think I, I think I do know who that is. No, you weren't. youre you were You
Challenges and Advice for Crowdfunding
01:04:01
Speaker
were good. and And when when i when I talk bad about, you know, like crowdfunding or good, it's never, like I've had pretty good luck with like quality of actors that have paid for roles.
01:04:15
Speaker
It's just when you have a just sheer numbers, you know, and you just, you have like too many people in a script, you know, that's the, right I know Joe, i I figured it out. It wasn't you. i liked you and your and your wife.
01:04:33
Speaker
I just kind of have a, na I have kind of an overall negative thing about crowdfunding right now, but that's just me, you know, that, but but you're willing to, you're willing to help guide somebody in the direction to yeah no totally totally needed do it like this. Yeah.
01:04:50
Speaker
Yeah. hundred percent. Okay. Yeah. and My thing with the crowdfunding is, is I felt like, you know, just certain people that we, had seen before making a film, I was like, okay, cool. So they got this movie out already? No, it's not out yet. Oh, then what? Okay, so they're crowdfunding for that one? Yeah.
01:05:09
Speaker
Then why are they crowdfunding for that one and that one too? You know what i mean? Like, that's my biggest thing. and And that's why I asked that question earlier about how many is too many to start crowdfunding for?
01:05:21
Speaker
Two, I think pretty fair because if you're finishing up or or in the middle of a project, but you've already this other one ready to roll, then I think that's pretty smart. yeah Yeah, I can see like like two or three in those situations. But, you know, you see the – like, I mean, i I see him on Facebook all the time. There's this one dude. He's like, he's doing a new one like every two months.
01:05:42
Speaker
And i like I think he got to like seven or eight of them before the first one came out. And, you know, I'm like, oh, my God. Or if it did. If it did, you know. We know someone like that.
01:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, nah, I don't know. I would i just could i could i could not do that. Lexi wanted to know, what was your favorite movie project you've produced so far?
01:06:07
Speaker
um that The one that has been released, probably Craving. um That's my favorite that's out. um i Apex Predators Club, which is not out yet, is is the best thing I've ever made.
01:06:21
Speaker
like i'm I'm really excited to get that one out. When do you think that one will be out? It'll be out around November. um Like we're going to do a couple of film festivals first, which, you know, we're still, you know, notifications and whatnot go out next month. But those are all like between like late September and ah November. So like right after the whatever the last film festival is will be the release. Okay. Probably November.
01:06:50
Speaker
So you'll let us know. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, shoot Mark a message, be like, it's it's ready. It's here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So maybe yeah it's like we can play it. Filmmakers always come on and talk about you know the movie they got coming out and how great it is. But like like this one, like I'm not saying it's you know the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it it doesn't look like an indie movie. you know like It looks like a slick, you know bigger budget, it looks really good. you and it it just yeah i just I think it's better paced than a lot of stuff I've done before. The performances are good. It's got really good effects. like it's It's just cool.
01:07:32
Speaker
You took your time with it. It wasn't a two-day shoot. yeah yeah i mean i mean It's still kind of a short one. wait How many days was it? We shot 12 days initially, and then we did reshoots for another five days. like We ended up reshooting almost, I want to say, 40% of it.
01:07:49
Speaker
okay Wow. Yeah. Yeah. At, at, at great cost to myself. Yeah. That's, that's pretty significant. Yeah, it is. It is. But you know, it was just one of them things like why we went so far with it. I just couldn't not put the extra money and time in.
01:08:08
Speaker
And you know, I just, and I'm, I mean, my pocketbook right now isn't so happy I did it, but I feel creatively, I feel a lot better about it. And I'll get a lot of that money back from the tax credit when we get that.
01:08:21
Speaker
There you go. Yeah. all right. So do you want people to reach out to you, contact you if they have questions or ah want to bend your ear about certain things? Yeah.
Closing Remarks and Viewer Engagement
01:08:36
Speaker
Yeah. mean people in ever yeah Yeah, people can always hit me up. You can find me pretty much on all the social medias at DJ Horton.
01:08:45
Speaker
um You can find me on Facebook as Jason Horton. My YouTube channel is youtube.com backslash Jay Horton. My email is in that.
01:08:56
Speaker
um So, you know, i'm I'm pretty, sometimes it takes me a minute to get back to people. And, you know, sometimes I might not, i might not tell you what you want to hear. but I'm pretty, I'm a pretty pragmatic filmmaker and you know, I'll like, this is my opinion of the market right now. this is, you know, my advice. At the end of the day though, if somebody reaches out and asks for your opinion and they don't like what you have to say,
01:09:23
Speaker
it was your oh yeah totally totally they're asking for it you want my opinion here it is yeah yeah the the only thing i don't do and i ask people not to i don't want to look at people's shorts or i don't want to watch someone's movie and tell them what i think of the movie i i got a lot of stuff that i have to do i don't want to spend another 90 minutes looking at it somebody else's movie to give them an opinion on it that's just going to be subjective anyway If you have general business advice, I got you. But if you want creative guidance, I'm i'm not your guy.
01:09:57
Speaker
Okay, Brian, you cannot send him your movie. yeahmen
01:10:03
Speaker
I was going to send him my shorts because he said, I don't want to see your shorts, but listen, wast let me grab him real quick. No, I'm just kidding.
01:10:14
Speaker
I know what you were talking about. I was just saying. Yeah, yeah. All right, so... if you guys don't have anything else to talk about, I think this is a pretty decent spot to where we can end the show.
01:10:26
Speaker
What do you guys think? We can do that. Well, ladies and gentlemen, i wanted to thank you all for joining us from us here at talking shit. Oh, shut up. Oh, did I do it wrong again? Yeah.
01:10:38
Speaker
You've only done it right one time in the past. What year? Okay. Hey, what do we got coming up next week? Mark? We have a wrestler. His name is Doug masters.
01:10:50
Speaker
He's a current wrestler or a. heat wrestler He's a retired wrestler. Retired wrestler. Okay. Fantastic. Doug masters from the master lock provisions division. mean No, no, no, no.
01:11:03
Speaker
Okay. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, tune in next week. We'll be right here with a Doug master. Same time, same channel. Oh, wait a minute. hold up yeah for One, one last thing.
01:11:15
Speaker
What are we looking for for next week? Guys, ah go to our Facebook and ask you if you are interested in playing Florida or not Florida live right here on Talking Shit.
01:11:26
Speaker
We'll let you come on, be on camera, be on audio with us for a couple of minutes and be able to play against Mr. Masters. Just like Jay had Jack as his opponent.
01:11:41
Speaker
who doesn't want a great Who doesn't want to play and be a part of that? sign up Go to our Facebook page. Put your name on the list if you want to do it. We're going to select one lucky person, and then and then and then you'll get some decals.
01:11:56
Speaker
But only then. All right. Okay, now we're done. Ladies and gentlemen, from us here at Talking Shit, my name is Brian. I'm Mark. And this is Jay Horton. Have a good night.
01:12:12
Speaker
Come on.
01:12:21
Speaker
I created that entire group.
01:12:46
Speaker
i'm in
01:12:49
Speaker
i created that entire