director

POD 005: John Scholl – Story Producer

Posted on by Vitaly Bokser

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I Interview John Michael Scholl about his long career in the TV biz.

John got into the business in the classic Hollywood style we read about in stories. He made his way from a small town to LA with only his car – a 66 Mustang, some clothes, and $500 bucks in cash. After living in his car for a week and showering at Santa Monica beach he decided to get in touch with his Aunt. She got him on a set for a day where she worked and the rest as they say is history. A chance encounter with Kevin Spacey trying to kick him off the lot led to Kevin getting a job for John with Ian McKellen. Yes the Ian McKellen. Gandalf!

John has worked on a multitude of reality and TV documentaries, ranging from The Bachelorette to Nat Geo’s “Border Wars” to CNN’s “The Hunt with John Walsh”.

So check out the episode to hear more and below you can find some links to John’s work that we discuss.

1) CNN’s “The Hunt with John Walsh”

2) Nat Geo’s “Border Wars” (note: I couldnt find the promo but here is what an episode looks like)

3) Travel Channels “Hotel Impossible”

4) ABC’s “The Bachelorette”

POD 004: Evan Mathew Weinstein – Director

Posted on by Vitaly Bokser

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I chat with Evan Mathew Weinstein, Writer/Director of “Leaving Circadia”. A Feature film that has been making the rounds at festival circuits and garnering strong praise and recognition for its easily lovable story. The FIlm stars Evan Mathew Weinstein, Drew Seltzer, Reginald Huc, Zack Griffiths, Larisa Polonsky, Michael Cerveris (Fringe, Tony Winner), Ashley C. Williams (The Human Centipede), Christian Coulson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ), Joseph R. Gannascoli (The Sopranos), Stoya (Adult Film Star)

Evan and I go into detail on the process of making the movie, what lesson he’s learned from shooting his first film, the pitfalls of having a long post production process, and then hitting the festival circuit – to now finally being in discussions with distributors to sell the film.

Its hard making movies – and one thing is clear from my chat with Evan that he will make more films. And I for one want to work with Evan again as his Cinematographer as he is a talented writer/actor/director that clearly has a strong vision for his films.

Watch the Trailer below. And then head on over to the films facebook page to learn more about how you can support and watch the film.

POD 002: Joe Eckardt – Director – Part 01

Posted on by Vitaly Bokser

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I Interview Joe Eckardt about his long career in the film business. Starting out as a PA he worked his way up fairly quickly to working under some of hollywoods biggest actors, Nicolas Cage, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Val Kilmer. From that point on he went onto direct his own films and casting known talent basically at the onset of his directing career.

The films we cover here are and whats great is you can go buy them. Links included.

1. “Dreaming in Black and White” – One of his only shorts starring Malik Yoba

2. Champion, a doc about Danny Trejo.

champion. Trailer from Rock On! Films on Vimeo.

3. “High Hopes” which is a stoner type comedy with a long list of cast members we all know, Jason Mewes, Corin Nemec, David Faustino, Lacey Chabert, Edward Furlong, and the list goes on.

High Hopes Trailer from Rock On! Films on Vimeo.

4. “Yitzy” is short film he shot starring Jason Mewes and Alexis Suarez.

Yitzy from 3P’s Productions on Vimeo.

5. Lastly for this first part we touch upon “Pizza Man“, a superhero kids comedy, starring Frankie Muniz but really we delve into it in part 2 next week.

Pizza Man Exclusive NY Comic Con Trailer from Rock On! Films on Vimeo.

In each of these films Joe has managed to sell each film and bring an insight into the other-side of filmmaking that most indie filmmakers ignore – The Business side! Selling movies.

In Part 02 we continue our discussion with Joe and go further into how he got and made Pizza Man, a 2.5 million dollar film Joe Produced and Directed. We also discuss our latest film that we co-produced called “Other Plans” starring Jamie Kennedy.

“OTHER PLANS” – Trailer from Rock On! Films on Vimeo.

So for all those who care about such things have a listen and Im sure you’ll enjoy this POD.

Music for the podcast provided by www.bensound.com. Check him out.

POD 001: David Bokser Animator

Posted on by Vitaly Bokser

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I Interview David Bokser, Animator, Director all around good guy for our first episode. We discuss David’s foray into a five year project, an animated short film called “Love in the Time of Advertising”. He takes us through the process he went through to get it made, getting funded, hitting the festival circuit, and where he and his film are today. You can follow David on twitter @dbokser and check out his website with his work.

You can watch the Trailer for the film or go watch the actual film right below.

and check out David’s previous several films “The Old Man and the Fish” and Traffik. Although I would wish he posted higher quality versions of these! 240P come on man.

Music for the podcast provided by www.bensound.com. Check him out.

Another Filmmaker Podcast… Oh Boy

Posted on by Vitaly Bokser

So Ive decided after many moons to start my podcast finally. It has been a long journey to get to here. Years in fact. But now that Ive been doing this for a while (meaning being a working Cinematographer) I feel like maybe I do have something to share with folks that may be useful or interesting. Also I feel like I can just simply learn a lot from other filmmakers as I chat with them, about what they have done and what they have learned and what they are doing now. And hopefully we can share something useful with you.

The First Podcast (a video Podcast) has been recorded and will be uploaded soon to all the places I can get it. But to start you off my first guest will be none other than my own brother (I went straight to the well). He is a filmmaker and more specifically an amazing animator who has worked in commercials and narrative films, and now makes games in Austin. His name is David Bokser and you can read about him on his site. His twitter is @dbokser where you can follow him.

As usual you can follow me on @cinemaDP and hit me up on twitter if you have any suggestions for shows or just want to say hello.