Brandon Ransbottom Talks Brooker: Florida’s Indie Film Breakthrough

We talk with filmmaker and writer-producer Brandon Random about making Brooker, a Florida-set adventure with a classic pulse, built through resource-driven writing, local crews, and full creative control. We explore the trade-offs of skipping Hollywood’s machine, and why human performance may be cinema’s last line of defence against AI.

• Indiana-Jones-in-Florida premise and moral twist around a powerful relic
• Writing from available resources to design plot, settings and MacGuffins
• Gains of independence: final cut, creative control, tonal purity
• Drawbacks: no star names, limited marketing, harder discovery
• Building a high-performing local crew and respectful set culture
• Choosing not to direct while producing, writing and wearing many hats
• Production design wins: practical cave set and the relic mask
• Festivals, distribution realities, and marketing without a studio
• Financing via self-funding, favours, trades and modest day rates
• Strategy for the next project: big if financed, small if not
• Florida as a dynamic, underused film canvas and practical base
• Decentralised filmmaking, tech tailwinds and a clear view on AI
• Career advice: be serious, test yourself, keep what survives

The best way to find out more and contact us is at brookermovie.com

Transcript

Welcome & Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Two reachable decades.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

Needs to be destroyed before the devil finds it. Where did you get this? You're having trouble processing what yourself. Now, um, if you've been a regular listener or indeed viewer of our um podcast, and including the video podcast before, you'll notice that we've interviewed a lot of people from Hollywood or people that have worked in and around Hollywood. But today we're going to change things up a little bit and interview someone who works outside of Hollywood, uh, still based in the United States of America, but very much feeling to work out of the state in which they were they were born and raised. So I'm delighted to be joined today by Brandon Random, uh, who's a filmmaker, writer, and producer who has worked on a number of projects since graduating from Florida State University Film School a few years ago. And Brandon's latest project is called Brooker, um, a feature film that he made independently outside of the Hollywood system and is due to Premier this year in 2025. So welcome Brandon to the final card podcast.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Thank you for having me.

What Brooker Is About

SPEAKER_03 2:18

Great. Well lovely to see you and to meet you. Um so first question, really um Brooker, tell us about Brooker. What is it about, and um how did you go about making it?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Sure. The easiest way to describe it, and we've said this many times, is that it's it's uh Indiana Jones set in the state of Florida. Yeah, what that means for us is that there's a relic hunter, Marshall Brooker, and he is sent on a mission to find an ancient relic. Said relic has supernatural uh properties, and where maybe the movie takes a little bit of a twist uh compared to other movies in the same genre, instead of you know turning it over or uh somehow that leading into the you know kind of the second act of the film, he determines that he's gonna hold the relic ransom from the buyers, and you know, assuming that he can kind of you know cheat the system, so to speak. And so the movie really becomes about the juxtaposition between those in power and those in not, between the ancient side of Florida and the more neon Disney-esque side of Florida, and you know, these kind of very disparate uh ideas of reality are kind of crashing in around this uh ancient relic.

unknown 3:42

Okay.

Writing From Available Resources

SPEAKER_01 3:43

So can I ask then? So uh Brooker's describes a relic hunter adventure, and you said you had inspiration for Indiana Unes, etc. And there's some supernatural elements, I believe. What was the seed of the where did you get the idea to start to write the film or create the film?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Sure. Well, and to be honest, you know, when we were working on the film, the real impetus for making the film was okay, we have all these passionate filmmakers, people that primarily have worked in the commercial industry, you know, working on uh, you know, big projects for national brands or small businesses, you know, the con run the whole gamut of things. And we knew we wanted to do something narratively based. And what we did, you know, me being the writer, what I did was I took a sheet of paper and I wrote down what do we have access to? And we wrote down all the resources between, you know, who do we know that owns a bar, who do we know that works at a school, who do we know that has, you know, a cool car, right? And we wrote down all these things, and then I kind of drew a line out from each of those and I said, like, okay, is this a setting or is this a MacGuffin? Is this a plot device? And then from there, almost kind of in a in a uh very logical progression, the story kind of evolved from that. So uh, you know, I would love to say that I was, you know, I had some muse that inspired me, but in in reality, this project was, you know, we really wanted to demonstrate the skill sets of all the filmmakers involved, and I was able to kind of uh bring the apparatus around the movie by you know pulling from resources I knew we had at our disposal.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

Yes, and what I find interesting about it is that you know you hear a lot about people maybe work making art films independently of Hollywood, but this is really a mainstream feature um with commercial potential that nevertheless is being made entirely outside of the Hollywood system. Um what what are both the gains and the drawbacks of that? Could you maybe take us through the gains first of all and then discuss a little bit about the drawbacks?

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Sure. I think in any independent project, the the biggest gain or the biggest uh really uh draw for a creative person is that you have creative control. Uh, you know, in this particular case, we were able to raise all the financing independently. You know, we don't we didn't even really have uh uh traditional investors involved. So, you know, final cut uh rested with uh myself and the director of the film, Gary Miller. And between, you know, between the two of us, we we had freedom to you know make the decisions that we felt were appropriate for the film. We weren't you know beholden to any studio. Um, I think the drawbacks of it, uh the the biggest one I think that I that I've heard from people that have seen the movie, uh and you know gotten a lot of great feedback. The but if there is a you know a hey, next time think about this, that that is I think that our actors did a fantastic job in the film, but there's not a lot of known uh names and known faces in the film. And uh, you know, a lot of feedback from people that are in the industry is that hey, that's how you're gonna sell the movie, right? Is like you need to have these names attached. Now, certainly, time will tell if they are correct in that assumption. Um my my personal feeling is that you know, we're at a very interesting crossroads between the streamers and people's uh willingness in the American um uh you know audience to consume media that you know is either it could be captioned, you know, it could be dubbed, you know, between uh successes on Netflix with like money heist and all these shows that you know aren't even you know that they're not faces that they know, right? And sometimes they're not even being in a language that they can speak. And there's still a willingness from the audience to just take on a great story. So, you know, our our film is in English, it's produced in America. Um, and so I'm I'm I'm interested to see if we can kind of tap into that same willingness, especially with a genre type film, uh, which a lot of these you know successful movies from overseas, you know, from an American audience perspective, often our genre, you know, whether it's uh uh Squid Game or something like that, there's there is this willingness, I think, to accept uh storylines that don't feature you know famous Hollywood actors. Uh, but time will tell if that theory holds up or if you know on our next project we we need to pursue uh you know a more mainstream actor.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Yeah, you mentioned then that you did hire a local crew. So however then there must also have been benefits to keep, you know, I can just imagine the few benefits to having local crew or and what and also, yeah. I mean you could talk about the challenges as well, but there must have been benefits as well or have you.

Why Not Directing This Feature

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Yeah, I mean, you know, the local yeah, the the local crew is it was kind of imperative to getting the film made, to be honest, because and and again, this is my perspective, and this is what I've told many outlets around here. You know, all the famous people that uh work on films come from somewhere, right? It's not like there's some magical place that we get all of our talent from. Like people come from all over the world that are great at things. So there's really no reason why people in Florida can't be fantastic at what they do. Uh, you know, realistically, yes, like it can make sense to source somebody, you know, to like seek out a particular talent to fill a role. And, you know, as I said just a minute ago, we may do that next time for some, you know, filling in some talent, but uh a lot of that is really a lot of that is more of the the the business side of things, so to speak, not to be too crass, but uh you know, I think from our crew's point of view, or my my point of view about the crew is that they were all fantastic. There wasn't really like we found everyone that we needed. Um, the only two crew members that came that weren't local were the director, Gary Miller, and he brought on a DP, Andrew Robinson, uh, that he works with in Kentucky. And I knew Gary from Kentucky when I used to be his producer up there. So, you know, that was a long-standing relationship over a decade of uh work together. And when he brought Andrew on, he was like, Look, this is this is kind of my partner in crime now. You know, I had I work with him almost exclusively, and and I said, Yeah, I mean, I don't know Andrew, but let's give him a shot. And, you know, it it was great, it it was such a benefit to the movie, and you know, those two guys technically weren't from the area, but I would say by the end, we had really, you know, formed this very cohesive bond with the 90% of other people that I, you know, I can drive to their house from here. And uh, you know, that's I think as Hollywood decentralizes, uh, as it as it is kind of in the mode of doing right now, I do think that you know it makes sense for crews to kind of kind of coagulate in other places in the world and form together, and we can really do some amazing things by yeah, using the resources that are right in your backyard.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

Well, certainly we can attest to Florida and and the fantastic locations. For those of you who are watching um our video version on YouTube, you'll see that our background um this episode is um I think it's Clearwater Beach, isn't it, Brandon? Um near where you filmed. So clearly Florida has got it in terms of of location. Um I was quite interested in the fact that um well I think you have directed in the past, you chose in this case to write the screenplay and produce, but not direct, and you and as you say, you got Ed and Gary to to do that. Is there a specific reason um why you you you sort of tend to stay away from directing?

Production Design Breakthroughs

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Oh yeah, there's a myriad of reasons. Uh I would say, you know, the the first and foremost is I don't know that I'm that great at it. And I think there's um, you know, I'm not trying to pat my back by saying that I figured that out or anything, but I I do think that there is a certain wisdom as you go along in your career to realize where your strengths are and where they are not. And I've I've done plenty of directing for commercials, you know, but most of those shoots are you know three to four days max. And a lot of times it's more kind of directing motions, uh, you know, like pose here, do this, hold this thing, open the door like this, than it is directing kind of emotional moments. And what I was finding on set, even I mean, you know, for Brooker, the decision to bring Gary on as the director was really kind of a again, a logical decision because I knew, you know, I'm basically being the production designer, the producer, the line producer. Uh, you know, I'm working, I'm the script supervisor, I'm also the writer onset. So I'm wearing a lot of hats, and you know, sometimes I'm driving and picking up props like while they're shooting, and I just, you know, I just kind of could see early on, there's no way I can also direct actors and be present in the moment, right? In my mind. And so I talked to Gary very early on, you know, months before we started uh principal photography, and I just told him, I, you know, I need you, I need you to come and you know, bring your expertise of being a director. And I knew that was his passion, you know, as a friend. I think that's kind of, you know, this is maybe the touchy-feely side of things. But as much as Brooker was kind of a uh very calculated decision to make, for me, something we really wanted to uh uh to accomplish with it was to run a great set that you know was full of compassion, that was full of respect for the actors and the crew. I really wanted to set because I've worked on sets that aren't like that, and I really wanted to set that precedent of hey, not only are people talented around here, but we also don't have to be maniacs to do this, you know. Maybe maybe you're a maniac for like thinking that you can, but I don't think you have to be a maniac in in practice, you know, of like at the end of the day, everybody, these are all people with families, and you know, some of them have children, some of them have, you know, uh people that they're taking care of that are depending on them, and so running them into the ground for 30 days straight or whatever it might be is is really pretty vicious, you know, in the name of art, quote unquote. And uh, you know, that's just like something I've never really believed in. Uh I I've always believed, you know, there's no reason to torture anybody for these things. Like, you know, we can be artists and we can we can do great work, but we can do it in a very functional workplace. And so Gary was a huge part of making the set a functional workplace.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

And am I right to saying that uh I don't know if you're a researcher correct, but you had your brother in it, is that right?

Festivals, Distribution, And Marketing Gaps

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Yeah, I mean, uh my brother Kyle Randsbottom, he's I've told many people he was the X Factor uh in all of this because he used to work at Universal Creative, which is uh, you know, if you've been to the Universal Theme Parks in Orlando, Florida, you've probably seen some of his work. He's worked for Disney. Uh he's he's done incredible, incredible work, uh uh theatrical stage design. And I think that the work that he was able to accomplish at the budget in the time that he accomplished it in is just phenomenal. It it, I mean, I think if you you know, if you look at the cave set in the film, which is kind of the primary thing that he worked on, or the mask that's also featured heavily in the film, that's the ancient relic. You know, he designed those things basically on his own. I had so many other things I was focused on that I just kind of turned it over to him and said, Hey, you take care of this, I'll, you know, I'm just gonna trust you. And is that was the best decision. I mean, it's always been the best decision, honestly, with Gary, with Andrew, with my brother, Kyle, with the actors, just place, you know, finding the best people and trusting them to do what they need to do. Yes, you need to give them the vision, but if the vision is clear and they and they believe in you and they respect you, then having the trust of a respected person is, I mean, there's nothing better, right? And uh, and that's what Kyle achieved. He just he just went for it, and I I couldn't believe it. Uh, the results. Like when we walked onto the cave set, it was you know, it was better than I could have imagined.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

Well, certainly it um it helps when you're you've got a brother who's who's worked at Universal Creative and uh and the theme part, so it's so well done. Um so the film has been shot. I think it was shot in about 21 days. Um, is that right? Yeah. Um so how's it doing? How are you get trying to get it out there? Because obviously, one of the big issues that you have working outside of Hollywood is not having the distribution system of Hollywood. So, how are you managing to distribute it and get it seen?

Financing Without Incentives

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Right. And and you know, you were talking about benefits and drawbacks earlier. Certainly, I and I think most independent uh filmmakers would, and then maybe some people have different views on this, but I think one of the biggest drawbacks is you don't have the apparatus for distribution and marketing, right? I mean, really at this day and age, like there are distribution models that don't need to function within the studio system. But if you don't, if people don't know your movie exists, they're never going to watch it. Uh and you know, that's that's the battle that every independent filmmaker is fighting is trying to find, you know, how can I tell people that this exists? You know, every movie, even Hollywood movies, are trying to convince you to spend your five, ten, fifteen, twenty dollars on the movie, right? But you know, that that's the battle they're fighting. They know that he can put it in the theater. We're kind of fighting that battle and the battle of do you even know what this is? Like, can I can I yell at you with a microphone and tell you that this movie has been made? Um, you know, the quality of it obviously is always decided by the viewer, but um I think right now we're even in the stage where we're waiting on um film festival submission status to see which uh festival we've gotten into. And I, you know, I'm hopeful that I'm pretty sure that we will do well as far as being accepted into a lot of festivals. I mean, I think the movie is was made with a lot of quality and care, and I think it shows on you know on screen. You know, it looks great, the sound is great, uh, interesting characters, a great setting. So, you know, just on a base level, I think that we have we we kind of met all those markers that are kind of your baseline things. Um, but you know, I've talked to a lot of filmmakers and been uh chatting up, uh, you know, alumni from uh FSU and you know, saying like, hey, what did you guys do? What's been your experience? And and a lot of the experience that I've heard from independent filmmakers is you know, and you I mean you see this. I there there are there are such a large number of movies that are featuring great actors. I mean, you know, very big name actors that are coming directly to streamers or are directly to rental. And so for you know, it it's pretty it's a hard market right now, especially if you don't have those big names, you know, and people are scrolling through and they, you know, if they see Tom Hardy or something and they say, Oh, I know who that is, I'll watch that movie. You know, Brooker doesn't have that, and and we don't even necessarily have the hook of like a horror film. You know, a lot of horror films can be done without uh, you know, as large of stars because the you know, the hook or the the you know, the the push of the movie is something that you can say in a sentence that is very provocative, right? Um, you know, like there's this movie coming out coming out called Good Boy that's like it's a horror movie from the POV of a dog, and you know, that's a really catchy elevator pitch, right? Brooker is to your point earlier, John, it's I mean, it's you know, it's kind of a throwback-y movie that has, you know, Spielbergian tendencies, and it's done in a classical Hollywood style. It doesn't really have an elegant pitch, you know. Saying it's Indiana Jones and Florida is kind of a little bit um, you know, it's it's a simplification of what it is, and I can't claim that we have any of nearly as big of set pieces as you would have in that type of a film. Um so you know, at the end of the day, with these distribution deals, you know, that that is something that would definitely help if we could find champions that could support that. But you know, on the other hand, we we do have final cut of something, and and I think maybe in the long run that could be more valuable than even having the distribution, you know, right off the bat.

The Real Goal: Fund The Next Film

SPEAKER_01 21:30

In terms of incentive, uh so Florida, I guess, doesn't have any sort of statewide incentive, but so how did you go about financing then? Was it sort of local companies? Did you can't say no? How did you get the financial? How did you finance it?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, as far as financing for the film, yeah, there's not a lot of um incentives in the state. There's there's a little bit of um local, like county incentives, but and city incentives, but realistically, uh, you know, there was a lot of self-funding. I put a lot of my own money into the film. It was a lot of asking favors, it was uh doing some trade, you know, like, hey, we'll we'll film an advertisement for your business while you know after we're done shooting or whatever. Um, and even just like calling people out on social media, you know, supporting in that way. Um, and then just with the crew and the cast, just asking them to kind of believe in the process. And you know, we we did pay, um, I'm I don't want to be misquoted here. I believe we paid just about everybody um, you know, like a rate, daily rate, but we certainly didn't meet most people's um the rate that they would normally ask for um for their work. And and I recognized that, and you know, that was that was part of the give and take was you know, read the script. Do you like the part? Do you understand how this could be beneficial to you? And then we've really tried our best to like be good about like turning over footage to people for their reels and um you know working with um uh talent agencies, like, hey, you know, like let's let let's promote this, let's find a way to like raise we want the you know the rising tide to raise all the ships, and I think that's important to me uh in the process of this. Like that I don't want to just steal everybody's talent and then run away, you know. I want to you know bring everybody up with us as we find success.

SPEAKER_03 23:31

Yeah. So um following on from that, what it would be your ultimate ambition for the film? Would it be sort of being bought by Netflix or um playing the film festivals? I mean, film festivals tend to be more of the art films, don't they? Rather than although I think there are a few genre film festivals, aren't there?

Bigger Or Smaller For Project Two

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, I I think we have a we have some great positioning in some of the film festivals. We were we were trying to be very strategic about which ones we applied to, you know, both of that we would be successful, but also I think that we're reaching the audiences that will appreciate the film. Um, so you know, I think it starts with the film festivals, but the ultimate goal I would say for the film is, and I I I've said this from day one when I was writing the movie, this is a movie for an audience of one, uh, one person. And that person is who's going to uh finance our next film. And and I and I, you know, I say that not as some kind of you know smooth business talk or something, but it really just to me, you know, there's gonna be people out there like, you know, filmmakers need financiers. And you know, financiers are a a hugely important part of the process because you know, maybe, you know, maybe some of them want to be filmmakers, maybe some of them fancy themselves directors or DPs or whatever. But I kind of think a lot of people that you know want to invest in films are doing it because they they want to see that movie, you know, and or they believe in those people. Like I'm certain, certainly, maybe there's an expectation that there's some return on investment, but you know, I I think you could ask a lot of uh investors hey, is there a safer way to make money than investing in films? Yeah, absolutely, right? There are some pretty surefire ways that you can invest money and you'll definitely get a return on investment. A film is like a total, you know, shot in the dark, right? Is this going to be successful? I mean, as I noted earlier, there are tons of movies that feature huge names that are not successful, or they're bombs, or that you know they get released and nobody and they're not even bad movies a lot of times. It's just, you know, like it there, there's a thousand factors that go into whether or not it's a success. And so early on, I said, I told everyone, I'm like, you know, no matter what happens with the movie, maybe we maybe we sell it to a streamer, maybe we do um, you know, self-release where we you know do rentals online and and do it that way. Whatever it is, we're looking for that one person that sees what we've done and says, you know what, I want to take a chance on you guys for the next one. And and it and truly it's it's us as a team. Like I really would like to bring back as many people as possible for the next movie. Uh you know, make the team a little bigger, maybe, you know, add in a few, maybe so I'm not doing production design or you know, being the script supervisor. But you know, I think I I want this to it was a great experience. We had a lot of fun, and I think it it warrants doing it again at least one more time, you know, to make sure it wasn't a fluke on our end.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Yeah, I just wonder about that because uh are you what are you developing stories to your mind, or do you a similar kind of theme, or do you is there anything yeah, definitely.

Staying In Florida, Practically

SPEAKER_00 26:52

I mean, I've been working on a script, you know, since we kind of wrapped um photography last year. And actually just recently we were discussing, you know, I we once the movie was brooker was finished, you know, and we had uh premiere locally, which was great. Um we had about 500 people come out to that, which was awesome. And you know, people were like, What's next? Right. And well, one thing they asked, they're like, When are you gonna do Brooker 2? And I was like, Oh, that wasn't really on my radar. I really wasn't thinking about that. So that was that was encouraging. You know, that's a pathway forward, is you know, if if someone like likes the movie and they want to see another one, we could do another one. Um, you know, there's kind of so, but the main way I see it, the next project is like you can go bigger or smaller. And originally I was kind of going bigger, right? And maybe that was a little bit of me being naive, thinking, yeah, we'll do this movie, it'll be well received, and then we'll get more money for the next one. Now, you know, it's only been a month since we kind of have really finished it. So I I I also need to probably cool my jets a little bit and and hold the horses. But, you know, I started having these thoughts of like, you know, maybe what makes sense is to go smaller, to do something that, you know, does have a real strong hook that has like a shtick, you know, it's like like as Brooker doesn't necessarily have that, there's not like a one-line pitch for it. We've been really working on can we develop a one-line pitch for something that would be, you know, very small number of actors in one location or two locations max. And, you know, maybe your traditional, more traditional art house film, you know, kind of showing that we have some range and what we can produce with our team. So, you know, I think if we find some connections with people and they want to go a little bigger, we've got a script ready for that. But if we're not finding that by middle of next year, we kind of we're working on a uh, you know, an idea now that we could just kind of jump right into with a little bit of funding help that I think we can find fairly easily.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

Well, good luck with that. I mean, I do get a strong sense that you and your team very much want to stay within the state that you were born and raised. That there I there doesn't seem to be an ambition uh to go to Hollywood, for example, and to use this as a stepping stone to Hollywood. Would you be right in that uh uh assumption? And and and why? Why is it you want to stay in in Florida?

Decentralised Filmmaking And AI

SPEAKER_00 29:24

Sure. Well, you know, to be true, I I'd love to shoot anywhere, right? That's that is uh that's for sure. And and actually I was at I was born in Ohio uh initially, not initially, I was born in Ohio. Um but I I've lived here, I was just telling someone, I've almost lived in Florida the same amount of time that I lived in Ohio. So I'm I'm drink I'm right on that cusp of like half and half. Uh and so yeah, in a very real way, Florida is my home now. And you know, I think the reason that we, you know, keep writing ideas around uh you know, a Florida location is because this is where the team is. And, you know, I I definitely think the team could leave the state and we could go somewhere else, but that completely depends on on funding, right? And, you know, I've written, you know, I I probably I I probably have 10 or so scripts in the hopper that are different levels of completion, probably like three or four that are completed. And none of them take place in in Florida. So you know I've always had I do have ambition to you know make films that are outside of Florida. But I also think if you want to you know if you want to do something it's silly to try and do the version of it that's like 30 years from now. Like if you want to be a basketball player right you don't like show up to uh like like an MBA uh tryout you know your your first time picking up a basketball like that doesn't make any sense you know you need to get out on the pavement and practice practice practice and shoot hoops and you know play in middle school and high school and college and you know you you've got to put in the work and I I think that for us for me especially like that's where we're at right now like we've got to prove we've got a lot to prove and you know I think that there's plenty like Florida as a as a setting works really well. There's a lot of dynamic looks and feels here. And so you know instead instead of spending money trying to go somewhere else to meet a story that's set somewhere else let's just set it here. And that takes out a whole layer of complication and stress um and we can still do great work you know right here. And I mean to be frank there's not a lot of people making Florida films you know so I and it's not like it's a completely crowded uh you know market where we kind of have the run of it a little bit right now.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

That's a good idea. I I I I must have short film in St. Andrews and I was living in St. Andrews was a way I also showcase St. Andrews. However if I can make you dream a bit so if you did have unlimited funding what kind of film would you want to made make scale genre location what would you what would you like to make sure well if if I could do anything what I would do is adapt Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.

SPEAKER_00 32:22

That is by far my favorite book series of all time and uh there were there was a film uh that was produced you know now it's almost been 10 years ago with uh Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and I was not a fan of it at all and mostly because uh knowing the book series I just was like this this isn't meeting my level of uh you know expectation for this story and it's just a story that I love and and if someone's not familiar with it it has it has some horror but it has it's a western and it's sci-fi and it's fantasy it's all these things kind of wrapped up into one and uh you know I I've told many people over the years like if I you know if I was ever in the position to just you know generate something anything of any size that's absolutely what I would you know I think you could spend the rest of your life adapting uh that world because there's you know numerous novels and short stories and uh it's just a playground that you could just continually go back to and I think would be endlessly satisfying for a a a filmmaker or a creator of some kind. So uh I I think that that yeah without even thinking about it that's what I would do.

SPEAKER_03 33:38

Well you never know uh there's always the chance that Stephen King might be listening. Uh who knows can I take you now to the sort of wider industry picture um because what's interesting about you is is you're a living example of kind of decentralized filmmaking the way in which you know traditionally you had your centers of of film power in in the UK that was we're from illustry studios in London um obviously in the United States um Hollywood but here we are in the age of big tech and disruption I mean um it's making headlines for example that we we might have our first AI actor um signed up by a talent agency if you saw that yeah Kelly Norwood yeah Kelly Norwood in cut glass English accent apparently um so what's your own take about the about the wider industry um do you and your colleagues in some way represent the future of filmmaking i that the the future will be everywhere rather than just in a few centres of power I I think that that aspect of it is very true.

Advice To A Younger Self

SPEAKER_00 34:49

I think you know it makes sense just in the world that we live in I think it's hard with the really the biggest thing is the the means of of production coming down you know with cameras and you know the the newer cameras need less light to to expose a good image so the lighting is getting smaller and it's getting more powerful and smaller um you know housings and so with all these things it's just easier for more people to make uh great content in that way um so I do think it it just it was it was always going to become decentralized. I I I just don't think there was any way to like gatekeep that for very long right and certainly you know there there is a certain nostalgia and maybe I even have a little bit of sadness for seeing you know what may or may not be happening in Hollywood as far as you know it it being this kind of mecca for these you know so many creative awesome people including some people that I know uh that I've gone to school with and I have relationships with and I certainly don't want to see them not succeed. However I do think that you know you know I I think there are some wheels turning in the world that are just way bigger than any of us and I don't think it's going back. I don't think you can like put the cat back in the bag right this you know and you mentioned AI. When it comes to that you know I'm very curious and I'm a little cautious in you know how is this going to be utilized right I in a way and maybe this is uh you know pontificating a little bit or puffing myself up but I do think you know we could be as filmmakers we could be kind of one of the last lines of defense of protecting the integrity of of you know human art right because it's very easy for a computer to generate an image right so like a painting a photograph or whatever it's very easy for a computer to generate uh music probably not good music but you know I I've heard the simulations of things that computers have generated right and so you know there's just so much it you know it's it's kind of in the system already right and so it's easy for computers to do that. It's still fairly hard for a computer to generate an emotional uh performance from uh you know something that looks like a human being and you know I'm not gonna sit here on a soapbox and tell and say that that's never going to be possible but I my hope is that humans always do it better. And you know time will tell maybe I'll just be you know some relic from another time you know shouting out to the darkness and the computers are making movies for each other or something. I don't I don't know I don't know what they're gonna do. But my hope is that you know we as a society that you know that does value you know looking into a human face right like I think that's kind of the that's really to me what movies are about is like yeah I love genre movies and I love like creatures and monsters and interesting things happening but all of those things matter because at the end of the day there's a human being that you cut to and you see what their response is to that thing right and if we get to a place where you know it's indistinguishable between a human doing that and a computer doing that then I don't know then I guess then I guess I'm wrong and I guess we need to just like reevaluate what movies are. But I do think that there is you know and you know I'm not I don't not on social media so like I don't even I don't even really get into like the kind of short form content that exists. Like I think that world is going to be heavily influenced by AI things because it just is faster and cheaper. But I don't know I again working on a movie and seeing the power of a good actor doing something I just I guess I you know maybe I'm naive but I just believe that that still has power and then that is better than something that a computer can generate but uh we'll see.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

That's that's very well said no and that's interesting but I guess we all have to wait to see what the future would be like yeah maybe not too long.

SPEAKER_00 39:05

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Can I ask you the question so we always ask is if you could have gone back and speak to your 291 yourself yourself, what kind of advice what sort of do you think it would have said to him?

SPEAKER_00 39:20

Yeah if I was talking to myself yeah I'm leaving high school or maybe even college. You know I think the biggest thing I would tell myself is you know I register I had a mini revelation the other day I was talking to someone and kind of I felt like I was almost begging them for like you know like please help me with this movie like please watch it or please you know uh whatever right I I was kind of in this position where like I was I didn't have the power in the in the conversation right and and that's fine like I you know it life's not all about power uh but what I did realize was like I know that I'm serious right and I think each of us like whatever it is that we're serious about that we're passionate about we know that about ourselves and and I know that I I'm serious about this and about making movies and if someone talks to me and they don't realize that I'm serious then I kind of almost like I almost have to view them as well then you're not a serious person to me. Now that doesn't mean like I don't treat them with respect or whatever but what it means is like in the context of of my career I kind of you know I mean I guess you could put it simply like you just don't mess around you know like if if you want to be a writer then you better be writing some books or some stories or some plays or whatever it is right if you want to be making movies you better be talking to every single person you can think of that's going to help you make a movie because no no if you want to make a movie nobody's gonna make it for you you know if you want to be that basketball player no one's gonna shoot those shots for you you got it you're the one that has to be doing the work and and you know the great thing about that too is you know if you put yourself through the ringer a little bit and through the fire and and you throw yourself to the wolves a little bit you you see what survives and what survives is the thing that you should probably be focusing on. And uh you know you asked me earlier like why I didn't direct. I was like well I've thrown that to the fire and that didn't survive right like that that desire that has you know it ebbs and flows sometimes I think I want to direct and but when push came to shove and I was in the situation I was like oh I don't want to do this you know but I I had no problem you know people asking questions about the script and about writing and like can we change this aspect of it that really excited me. So that's what I would tell myself you know when I'm younger is like just you know say yes to a lot more stuff just get out there don't be so you know and don't worry so much about the the comforts of you're gonna have your whole life to like figure out how to be comfortable right if you're if you're younger just be doing the thing you know be serious and and to me seriousness does it has nothing to do with fun you know like to me you know seriousness is kind of unlocks the uh the ability to be fun because to me it's not very fun to be bad at something you know like the if you go out and you like if you like I said if you want to be good at something and you're terrible at it then that's not very fun. But if you can go and get serious and practice and and grow your skill set all of a sudden things that weren't fun all are very fun. Um and I and I want my career and the career of all of you know our teammates to be like that. Like I want them to have fun and what they're doing because they're doing it at such a high level.

How To Get In Touch

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Well that that is great advice for uh up and coming uh filmmakers and and I loved your idea of film as almost the last defense of the human so thanks very much indeed for uh this interview and bringing the the human touch to uh life in Florida uh vis-a-vis filmmaking so thanks ever so much Brandon thank you yeah yeah thank you and and also if people want to reach out to you and also the film is being released hopefully soon now and how can they get in touch with you should someone want to get in touch with you.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

The the best way to uh find out more about the movie to talk to me to talk to any of the filmmakers involved would be to go to brookermovie.com uh you know we have an Instagram uh but to be honest uh if you if you message us from the website uh you will get a response so brookermovie.com is we're we'll keep everything up to date there thank you very much for coming on the show thanks of course thank you this is the final cut