Gregory Pellerito: The Indie Filmmaker Playbook

One night.  A scavenger hunt that’s supposed to feel like freedom, until the past forces its way into the open. Filmmaker Gregory Pellerito joins us to talk about ‘Moments Of Youth’ and what it really takes to finish an independent feature film when plan meets reality. If you love indie movies, coming-of-age stories, or the nuts and bolts of movie production, you’ll get a candid look at how a film goes from page to screen without a studio safety net.

Then we go deep on craft: how you shoot a story set over one night across multiple years, how he trims within scenes to protect pacing, and what happens when locations change or access disappears at the last minute. Gregory also explains his directing approach to improv, including getting a clean script take first and then letting great performers find extra laughs and texture. 

Listen now, then subscribe, share this with a filmmaker friend, and leave a review so more indie film fans can find the show. What’s the hardest production problem you’ve ever had to solve?

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Hello, welcome to Entertain This, a podcast about movies, TV shows, and video games. My name is Hayden. With me I have Mitch and Tom. Hello, Hayden. And our guest, Gregory Pellarito. How are you doing? I'm doing great, guys.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Well, uh, we're excited to talk to you. Uh mostly we want to know how you got into the business, uh, where your passions lie, what your favorite movies are, all these kind of things, and uh obviously what you're working on right now. So let's start let's start with the uh lowball, the softball question. Uh how did you get into the business?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yeah, uh so I was uh I was an athlete growing up and um I was uh I was uh recruited for uh colleges for baseball and I was kind of picking schools based on who I was who was recruiting me. And then when it came kind of time to pick a major, I've always loved movies and I always loved to write, writing something that just kind of always came natural to me growing up. So when it kinda when I when I was deciding where I wanted to go and and I I mostly was basing it around uh you know the recruiting front. But obviously, you know, when I um was you know deciding

From Athlete To Film Major

SPEAKER_01 1:40

on a major, it was it was pretty simple. It wasn't like some big you know cataclysmic moment for me. It was like I love movies. I always I I have always watched them in a what I noticed I think in high school is I watched them from a different standpoint than most people do. Uh like the casual moviegoer. You know, I was always very I was very I was very interested in the behind the scenes uh kind of workings and everything. And and like I said, I always loved to write. And I and so I was like, yeah, I think I'll major in film. And so uh I majored in film in college and then graduated and started up the company uh at Jack our company Jackpot Pictures about a month after I graduated, and we're literally right at our 20-year anniversary right now. So it was like uh June of 06th, I started the company, and we are at June of 2026. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

What uh what college did you go to?

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Winnipeg University in here in Connecticut.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Oh, okay, cool. Is it a pretty substantial film program?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, it's gotten a lot better too, and I know you guys were just talking a little about hockey. We won the hockey national championship three years ago. It's the running really great. Really great, yeah. Really great uh That's what you gotta do when you love a sports team. Really great um uh uh hockey program. Um yeah, it's uh film the film school has has really um really taken off uh over the last decade or so and and really um exploded. Uh and and uh they offer you know kind of an F MFA now and everything. When I was there we didn't have that. Um but yeah, we had a we had a it was a great program when I was there too. Um but they've really kind of uh enhanced it since I since I graduated.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

Do you uh keep close ties to the school and get some free labor out of some students?

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Yeah, so we should be um yes. Yeah. Well we're making uh when we're making moments of youth, which I'll talk about in a second here. Uh we did uh we uh every production that we do, um, we offer uh internship for college students and we coordinate it with the school where they get class credit for working on the production. Right now we're doing a whole we're doing a whole marketing uh push for the film. So we have about 40 or 50 interns across the country. Wow. But we filmed the movie in Connecticut, so we had, I think, seven or eight interns from Quinnipiac who worked on it and got class credit. And uh, you know, some got promoted to full-time crew positions uh um um later on

Building Jackpot Pictures And Intern Teams

SPEAKER_01 4:15

in the production. And uh yeah, and then we have some working other ones, not the ones that worked uh on the production of film, but we have some working on the from uh Quinnipiac working on the marketing side now too.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Okay, and uh this company uh it because right now I'm looking at your IMDB and I see five films. It looks like a short uh TV and moments of youth.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

So is there anything else that you guys have done at Yeah, we we've done TV hitting camera game show, which is is gonna be uh coming out soon called Everyone Has Their Price. Okay. Uh I've I've I've written Yeah, pretty much. Like it's like uh it's like um you know Punked but with like a money component to it. Oh no. Uh so yeah, a lot of fun. Uh you know, one guy uh one guy had to go into a uh a crowded restaurant and only water only order water for two hours straight, no matter what happened. Uh another guy had to go into a pet shop and go fishing in the fish tank.

SPEAKER_03 5:19

Um how much money to to to do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

The one who did the uh the only guy who was successful was the was the

A Prank Show With Reverse Auctions

SPEAKER_01 5:30

was the diner, the the water guy. The water one. Yeah, you got a hundred bucks.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

I was waiting for it. It was like, yeah, twenty bucks is twenty bucks.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

It was so it was actually the point of the show is actually who will do it for the cheapest amount of money, not like who will do it for the most. So we we we would do like like who would like who would offer to do it for the cheapest and in what's called a Dodge auction, which I learned is the like a reverse auction instead of going and ascending or you start at a price and you go all the way down. So we did it like that, and then we picked the contestants a bunch of different ways. But yeah, uh yeah, we we we we did that um a while before Moments of Youth, and then uh yeah, just actually recently found. Okay, so it's gonna be out in there, out in the world, yeah. And then um and then I've written a bunch uh of screenplays and I've been hired to write a lot of uh screenplays uh as well as adapt novels. So there's a lot of stuff on my IMDB or a lot of things that are not on my IMDB yet, but will be soon.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Oh, sweet. What position did you play? In baseball.

SPEAKER_01 6:32

Hockey? Baseball? I was uh I was a shortstop and a pitcher. And I played outfield too. What about hockey? Center.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

Ah. So my question is with all your talents as a writer, productor, etc., are you gonna do a spiritual successor to Major League that's actually good?

SPEAKER_01 6:49

I would love to. I love Major League. So good. Uh but

The Hockey Drama Script He Lives

SPEAKER_01 6:55

actually my next film, most likely, uh it looks like it's gonna be uh it's gonna be a hockey film. Uh huh. Called The Final Score. Uh and it's about a a a kid, he has he's a star hockey player, gets hurt in his last game before uh uh last game of his senior year, and he has a full ride to Boston College and hurts his has a spinal cord injury. Um but he was always secretly without you know, he didn't tell anyone, but he was always a really great musician as well. Uh so he gets back to school, he starts rehabbing, he's able to um gets cleared to play again, he gets hurt a second time. Um and a professor at the university hears him playing one day and basically um suggests that he pursue music. Uh and basically it's all his his transformation from athlete to musician. And uh there's a a love triangle in there too. It's called the final score. So not like Slapshot. No, very different from Slapshot. There's there's there's comedy in it though. You need a break from from it. Especially with this, we're dealing with a fairly uh you know difficult uh subject matter with the injury and everything.

SPEAKER_03 8:12

Is the uh final score a little autobiography, you know, hockey player that decides to be a film student?

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Absolutely it it absolutely is. You know, I got hurt my baseball, I got hurt my sophomore year. And you know, my my progression to film is very of everything I've ever written, anything I'll probably ever um you know direct as well, I think that this is the one that's the closest to my story or autobiographical.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Yeah, I can sense the passion in it.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I got hurt my first year in college playing football. That's this is where I am now. Yep, I could position defensive end.

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Nice. Where'd you go?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Uh just Lagrange College now, South Georgia.

SPEAKER_03 8:57

I did cross country. My sport was other sports punishment.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

I wrote dirty words on the in the bathroom walls.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Uh well, cool. Uh I have a lot of questions about your company and stuff, but we shouldn't go ahead and jump into your movie. Uh so Moments of Youth, right? Yep. When does it come out?

SPEAKER_01 9:22

So we uh we released on January 23rd. Okay. Um in the US and UK on Amazon. Okay. Um the premiere was in was was last August, uh uh the the United States premiere at uh Festival of Cinema NYC. Um prior to that, we had we we were we we had well we had been in a bunch of festivals already internationally. That was our first one in the US, which was great because it's it it was in New York in the sit in New York City, which is about an hour from me. So I was able to go and my whole family was able to go, all my friends

Moments Of Youth Story And Release

SPEAKER_01 9:55

were able to go. That's awesome our whole cast and a lot of our crew was able to go. So that was really special, you know, that day. Um Festival of Cinema NYC. It's in Queens, Queens, yep. Um and uh we've been in thirty-five festivals now and we've won 39 awards worldwide so far.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

More more awards than festivals, that's a good sign.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um so yeah, so then we we released uh on Amazon on uh on January 23rd, and then world worldwide in March on a bunch of other platforms, uh and then um also on Tubi uh in March as well. And uh the success of of the streaming, we actually uh really exciting. We actually really uh recently um got a uh theatrical release. So we've we've we we've been in uh a a theater in in Oregon. We did a a QA there afterwards, virtual. Um and then uh we have a c bunch more lined up. Uh so uh really excited about that.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

How did you crow did you crowdfund for this movie? Was this uh self self-investment?

SPEAKER_01 11:08

No, all in all investment.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Wow. Is it like just partners? Like you are you the you're the owner of the company, but is there other Yeah. Okay, so you just have other people that throw some money from the company into it?

SPEAKER_01 11:22

All started with uh people we knew and know, and then people of people we know. So it was all funded through people yeah, directly through people we know. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 11:34

I wish I had some I wish I had some friends to just give me money to go do stuff. I know I know Mitch does.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

I don't have any money at all. I just want my money for this.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Well, tell us about the movie. I'm excited to hear about it.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

Sure. So Moments of Youth takes place the night before a senior class in high school graduates. Uh and this this school always has an enormous scavenger hunt the night before graduation. Uh so out throughout the course of the night they do a bunch of really funny and fun and adventurous tasks on the scavenger hunt. Uh, and they're all racing against the clock to to win this enormous prize. Um you know, so they do all kinds of crazy stuff and funny stuff. You know, we follow a group of friends that are basically split between two teams. We follow them throughout the night. It's it's basically one group of friends, but four to a team is the limit for the for the hunt. Uh throughout the throughout the course of the film and pretty early on, we're hinting at something much more serious um that has happened to this group of friends. And about two-thirds into the film reveal what that was. Basically, there was a traumatic event that occurred their sophomore year. Okay. And there's a a big reveal scene, and in that moment uh it sort of serves as their way of moving forward that they finally talked about it as a group of friends. They have, you know, they still have this really great emotional journey, I guess I would say, as far as you know, the emotion of the scene, um, but also the journey over the last several years has been very emotional. Yeah. But the night is probably the best night of their lives. They just ultimately used this as a way of finally talking about it as a group of friends, and they realized this night was about anything but winning this amount of money.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

Where's it located? Uh where does the story take place?

SPEAKER_01 13:31

The story takes place here in Connecticut. It was originally set in it was really originally set in Myrtle Beach, but we shot uh right after everything opened up with COVID. Yeah. And and basically we were preparing it during COVID, and I had no idea what was going to happen with the world uh and where we would be able to film and what the regulations would be, so I figured let me rewrite it to be set in our state, so because I know everything that's gonna be happening here, so I rewrote it to be here and then we shot it here, which was great.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

That's awesome. Yeah, y how long of a production window did you you have?

SPEAKER_01 14:09

We shot the bulk of the film uh fall of 2021 and uh was about eighteen days. Then but then Omicron hit, so we got kind of delayed. And then uh there's a scene on a private jet that took us a year and a half to book, so we didn't have it yet booked in the fall, kept we did and then kind of fell through. So uh we filmed some more in 2022 and then some more in 23 and then wrapped up filming in 2024, early 2024. So but during that whole period we were we were editing.

Shooting One Night Over Years

SPEAKER_01 14:50

It's what wasn't like a constant you know, production straight through. It was like a couple days each each year after 21. Yeah. Finally finished finally finished the edit like at the end of 2024.

SPEAKER_04 15:03

I mean, is it probably more difficult shooting a movie that the premise is it takes place over one night, but like having to line up shots, you know, as the years go by where it's like, okay, in the sky would look like this when we filmed it, we kind of need to be like this. Kind of like I guess like what like American graffiti went through. Because it's all in one night.

SPEAKER_01 15:19

Yeah. Yeah, you know, we've been compared to American graffiti, we've been kind of compared to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sort of similar, similar in tone. Yeah, I I guess in terms of they're all high school aged, you know, so if it had gone much longer, they might have looked older than they they do in the in the first w call the first wave of production. So the the main cast, they were all finished uh fall of 2022, so it wasn't that far after we f filmed the first parts of that. That was easy. As far as far as like shots and and matching things, I think that you know making it all feel like one night isn't a huge challenge because we we were able to do so much over a long period of time, so I was able to be editing while we were still filming. So I always knew what would work in terms of shots and what wouldn't work because it wouldn't match. And and also I I was also able to know what I still needed to get based on what we already had that we filmed prior, right? So it was it was a luxury in that in that sense that we were able to edit a lot of the film before we finished.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

You must have had a very solid shot list you know to keep it.

SPEAKER_01 16:37

Yeah, we started uh we started about six months before we started filming uh Corey our DP uh and I shot by shot literally every every shot the movie we we we shot listed. Yeah. And then and then I change things a lot when we get on set. Oh yeah. Uh both both both improv and camera wise, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:57

Did you ever have a hang up where, you know, uh a year or however long after you started some uh some of those initial shots, you really wanted to do something, but it would just be too hard to go back and redo some stuff?

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah, there was some stuff that I realized uh after um like editing a lot that I realized wasn't really necessary, and some things that I didn't necessarily write into the script that we worked into the first part of the production that I then wanted to do more of. Yeah. Uh as we did the the second and third phase. I keep calling them phases, but there's really nothing else to refer to. Uh you know, like one of one of the actors actually said when we went and filmed the private jet, which was like nine months later, he's like, I feel like we're filming season two of my guess. That is exactly what it feels like. Um But yeah, I wouldn't say there was anything that I wanted to get that we didn't. I think I got I I got way more I actually the original cut of the film was way longer than what it is. It's it's two hours and five minutes, but the original cut was even longer. Yeah. So I got way more than you know, I even what you bargain for. Yeah. Yeah, could could I trim it, I had to trim it down even.

SPEAKER_03 18:13

That's good. It's a good problem to have for for sure. But then you know, you gotta kill your darlings and all that stuff. So what what did you decide to cut? What was what was some of the hard decisions that you had to make with that?

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah, so I I I didn't I didn't cut any full scenes. I trimmed a lot inside of scenes. So a lot of scenes were way shorter than what they than what we sh than what they shot and what the script was. Right. There was a lot of situations of stuff that was probably if if it w if it all stayed in the film, it would have been four or five minutes and it ended up being like thirty seconds of screen time. Okay. Things like things like that. Um and then there was then there was things that I cut that I just realized I could get there much quicker without showing it. There was a lot like there was a uh again, that was the benefit of of filming it over a long period of time. We could film something else that would have that was much shorter and got there much snappier and quicker than the full scene. So I there were some scenes that got cut that really weren't uh a hundred percent necessary, and there was a another way to to get to it.

unknown 19:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

When it came to some of your characters for the film, uh especially for like the uh the teachers and the principals and stuff, is there did you pull off of like experiences with your your teachers and principals growing up, or is it just kind of people you wrote in there?

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Uh like did I base the characters on on teachers and stuff? Is that what you mean?

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:42

Uh yeah, so there's a football coach who's was really funny. Uh I I he's kind of an amalgam of a lot of coaches uh that that I had or that I just that I know. Uh the principal played by John

Editing Choices And Cutting For Pace

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Farley, who's Chris Farley's brother. Wow. Um John John plays the print. He's like so funny and really goofy, but also really like charming, and everybody all the all the students love him, but he says really funny stuff too. Yeah, all throughout the whole movie. Um Sherry O'Toole. I think Yeah, Sherry. Yeah, Sherry is Sherry's kind of like the the mom to all the kids. She's she's one of the main characters moms, but their house is uh she's married to the football coach, Coach Papadopoulos, who's paid played by Gary Pastor. And they both have they both have very thick Greek accents. So and uh their house is kind of the house. You guys remember like growing up, there was always the house that all the friends hugged out of that, right? So which was my house. Um and uh that's uh that's the house. So they're kind of like the the parents to all like I mean they all have um parents of their own, obviously, but in as far as the film and the and the and from a character standpoint, they're kind of the Sherry's kind of the mom to all the all the friends. Uh and and their house is the one that everybody shows up at. So yeah, I I think a lot um not no one's really like a hundred percent based on anybody particular. I think a lot of these characters are based on on people I know in some capacity. I I've never really come across a principal quite like Principal Crenshaw, the way John plays the role. You know, so I think it's it's probably why everyone really like loves that character so much because he's he he's so quirky and so funny, but also so just likeable. Um and John just you know he hit it out of the park with the way he played the role.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

I I uh I love Sherry O'Terry, she's like one of my favorite SNL cast members. Yeah. I'm sure she regaled you with amazing stories of her time and oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah. She told me about how her and when when I first met with her sh I didn't know this, but her and Will Farrell actually created the the Spartan cheerleader characters and they wrote up. I had no idea. And she was telling me all about it, how they how they did it, which is probably my all-time favorite like r running sketch on SNL. Yes. It was just so funny. And she was she was telling me all about that and yeah we we we talked and she came with so many just hilarious ideas that we worked in. Like I said I love improv so so I told everybody to come with ideas and you know she's obviously a master at that so that's she would just tack these little lines on to the end of her dialogue and they're just so they're so funny.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Are you do you give them room to breathe with it?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

Do you demand the one honest take and then let them let them go crazy after that so typically I I do like I I try to do as much work beforehand as I possibly can where I'll where I'll where I'll talk about it with them after afterwards and and get all their ideas and then say talk about what I like and and flesh it out from there. And then on the day of yeah they'll they'll come with more ideas and usually usually I'll go with the first take is is the script version. And then I'll I'll often come up with something else that I want to do in the moment and then we'll go from there and then they'll mention something to me. But I I take ideas from it's not just the actors I'll take an idea from literally anyone even PAs or or anybody.

Characters Inspired By Real People

SPEAKER_01 23:25

And the whole point is to get you know the best film you possibly can and and you never know where a good idea is going to come from. Yeah. So so I I I I'm happy to take any you know there's thousands thrown at you and you might use a handful but like I think when I'm in the moment there's so many more things that you could just come up with like on the spot. So yeah the first take usually is is based on the script or anything that somebody has suggested beforehand.

SPEAKER_03 23:52

Yeah I kind of subscribe to that camp too. You need at least for reference the first take to be as honest as it can be and if people want to go crazy they can't depending on time as well. I'm sure you had to push a lot of hearts because you're running low on time.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Yeah well so small film um small you know independent film you're always like filming way more in a day than you would otherwise so we were often moving three or four times in a day moving locations and stuff and this you know this film has so much that happens in it because it's basically like every scene is another task that they're doing on the scavenger hunt so you're going to a whole different place every every five minutes. And on top of that we're not just following the story of one team we're following we're follow following two. So it's supposed to be told like simultaneous that this is happening. So we're constantly switching back and forth between the two. And in order to do that you have to shoot very long hours and you have to you have to shoot a lot a day.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

Probably some night shoots too because it's all over one night.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Oh yeah not only night but overnight you know straight through until it got until it got until the sun came out yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:13

Were you single unit and did you have multiple what's that? Did did you have more than one unit no just one you were the busiest guy there.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Yeah yeah but I I honestly I don't know that I would ever want to use a second unit. I guess I guess maybe like crowds crowd stuff or like overhead like drone stuff sure.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Yeah I could see it exposition shots and things like that. Yeah you know you don't need to be there when they're shooting the outside of the jet or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

So yeah I I just I I probably still want to be there. Yeah we'll we'll we'll see when we'll see you when when I when uh on the next film if we can do a second unit. Well at least tell me you had more than one camera for a lot of your shots two cameras always for everything.

SPEAKER_03 26:24

Two cameras is good. I I've I've when I was in film I only did one camera because I couldn't afford to get you know extra cameras per shot and man I see people that have like four or five cameras they want to get like the the 5050 and then like the double you know like the side by sides and all these profiles and that's just way too much you know calculus to figure out your shot lists and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

But I think two is the perfect 22 I like because you get the reaction of the other person. If it's a conversation you get the reaction of the other person which I think is more natural than than just doing coverage of both. Right. I I've I've gathered also saves a lot of time it it cuts the time in half. For us that was a big that was a big deal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

So with your hockey movie that you're wanting to do as we shoot one track mine as we go to the shift. How are you planning on shooting the actual hockey like skating scenes because from everything I've read about hockey films like it is notoriously hard to get it and make it look like they're really playing hockey.

SPEAKER_01 27:26

Yeah so from what I so I watched a lot of how they did it on Miracle which was a wonderful movie. And they actually

Improv On Set And Two Cameras

SPEAKER_01 27:40

had cameras like on the guys you know that were skating around so you would you would be like in the moment like inside it like like they'd be attached I think like almost to their legs and they would you'd get the angle on the s from from like the the the ice up and and skating around and supposedly so the fact that that's out there now we have to kind of we'll have to go a step further because that's the last big one that was made. Yeah I'll probably I'll probably do something because of the fact that cameras are much more compact now. I'll probably figure out some way to attach them to people's helmets would be my would be my guess. Yeah. Little little ones that are really great quality to people's helmets. I think uh I think the other component that wasn't around then is I I'll probably use a drone on the ice and weave in and out of people. I'll do that. And then everything else that's been done before.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

I've seen a lot of crane behind the scenes for like gun movies where they'll put these like little easy rigs on their hands so they can when they when they like point their gun at different peoples the cameras will will shift with it and it's just like a little bipod kind of thing that that can kind of float the camera and keep it hockey with how fast you skate.

SPEAKER_04 29:08

I mean they're whipping pretty it's a lot of movement.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

So I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Uh you probably you could probably figure it out and you would probably need to rig it inside of maybe their pads on like their elbow pads. You could probably make it work. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

Or some kind of attachment yeah do you go through like an R and D process in some of your more complicated shots? Like how do you plan all these like the jet stuff? How do you how do you figure all these things out? How do you block for that?

SPEAKER_01 29:34

Jet stuff I yeah I had the schematics for the jet itself and then the jet took off the day before. So we ended up using it a different one. But which was much with this jet was nicer than the one we were going to use. So it worked out I think yeah inside of a jet was kind of easy because there's only so much you could do there's not a lot of room it was it was fairly compact. The cameras had to be kind of locked down on tripods and it was just sort of like getting mid shots and close ups of everyone. It wasn't it wasn't too complex. Uh we do have a scene where it took us about seven days to film over the course of the several years which which which was uh there's a moment where um the kids are trying to get into the school to I won't I won't uh I'll let the viewers watch what they have to get. But uh the but uh we used a drone inside the school flying around and John Farley's first day was he kind of shows up at the at the school to try to stop what's happening. And I had a 16 hour day scheduled to do all of the exterior stuff. He he rides up on a on a scooter with like a with like a helmet light like a light on his helmet and and uh one kid's trying to like climbing a ladder outside the school to try to get in because it's obviously locked. And I had yeah 16 hour day scheduled showed up and was told that we could only be there for four. So I got only the shots I absolutely needed with John because we only had him for a couple days and and then went and shot the rest

Complex Shots Drones Jets And Schools

SPEAKER_01 31:25

of it in a parking lot um the parts that he wasn't in and then we had to do a different school for the inside because that school wouldn't allow us to shoot inside of the school they only allowed us to shoot outside. Okay. So then we had to do that then we had to yeah so it's it ended up being seven days over the course of several years. Megan five different locations five different locations and three different schools but I did know basically the schematics of the school that we did shoot the interior of and then we used the second school which I did use the interior of I obviously went there and walked around we had already shot inside of one of the schools for some other scenes so I knew it pretty well of what the layout was and the hallways and everything. And uh and then the second one we went and yeah basically I got a layout and then I went and walked around also same thing though when I got there I changed stuff up like crazy too so but uh yeah yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

That was one of the questions I was going to ask is like you know when it came to the locations what kind of problems did you run into anything because uh I'd done some location stuff for Hayden once and I was talking to different churches and they were fine with filming outside but they didn't want to use any of the inside shots of the church.

SPEAKER_03 32:44

They were like oh no no no no it's the hang ups with uh inside locations is you know you bring people in there for hours at a time that historically places have been trash before so you gotta be kind of like the set Nazi and make sure the all the spikes are the the tape on the ground's picked up everything's just as you left it as you saw it. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yeah that like I thought we would get a lot of uh it would be very easy to film like interior houses of people we knew and that ended up not happening. We ended up having to rent Airbnbs just to film like the interior stuff so that was stuff that we definitely didn't budget for or schedule for so like so that was a little challenging because I thought that would be the easiest thing. We didn't even like assume it would be a problem. We would just have people oh yeah sure come and fill no house didn't happen. Well we did there was a c there was a couple people who did but like it was nowhere near as many as we needed. What do you suppose the the the the the hurdle is like do you tell them how many people are going to be there and they're like ooh right now showed up and someone's like I thought it was going to be like you and like one person with a video camera and you were going to like walk around I was like no this is a movie. Yeah like a film.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

If you had to do it again would you budget some set design and try and make your own interiors say that again? If you had to do it again would you try and like find a way to rebudget for some set design for your own interiors?

SPEAKER_01 34:19

I think that unless it's absolutely necessary you can't find it I would always I'd probably always prefer a practical location. Okay. Uh because it just looks more real I think and feels more real. But anything that's like specific like I think you know I think building an interior or private jet is probably a lot simpler than than booking one. Probably for example it sounds like it you know yeah yeah uh and and yeah I think everything else that we did in this film practical locations probably were the where the were the were the best and and I think you know the best option is definitely the private jet because it it looks and feels obviously like a real jet and and but I think yeah I think building that kind of set uh which by the way apparently there are no even regular um airplane sets like anywhere on the east coast I found out afterwards. Really I think it is something that you would have to you would have to build. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:22

I mean there might be now but when we filmed I heard that there weren't like actual sets no huh yeah I I I I know of a couple in Georgia but we're we're obviously a bigger film you know area. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:35

So yeah yeah that's the I think that was the closest one I was told Atlanta so I guess what I should I East Coast is probably not what I should say. Northeast I guess is what I said. There was nothing in man there was nothing in Manhattan.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

That's also going to be a huge hurdle for you because you're probably like the big film scene in the area you know sh short of New York which is an hour away you said so you know you're kind of on your own little island having to make things work out for yourself. And but you know credits to your creativity and making it happen.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

So yeah everyone was pretty much uh yeah except for Sherry and John a couple others everyone was cast out of New York it's like a 45 minute train ride so that's pretty easy to get everybody back and forth. The crew uh somewhere from Connecticut and everybody yeah same thing. Everybody was pretty much from New York. It wasn't uh it wasn't difficult on that front it it because we specifically we made a point to cast locally and it like I said it's a it's a pretty easy uh it's a pretty easy train ride and then not an depending on traffic it's a little over an hour to to get in and out well we're uh we're kind of winding down but I wanted to ask you one question kind of off topic. You said that you've been writing since you were a kid have you ever read some of your old scripts and uh been like oh this is going to be a great movie one day or you're like ooh yeah so I I I've rewritten everything so much but yeah every time I go back every time I go back to one I'm like yeah it's changing I'm changing that I'm

Location Problems And Practical Sets

SPEAKER_01 37:20

changing that I'm changing that they're so different from what they were like when I first wrote them and then I look at like the first draft I was like this is like not even the same movie anymore. Like like so many different things are are happening and at least you have the patience to go back and work it. I I some of the stuff that I've done I'm like nah I'm just scrapping I'm not even something new let's just start over so yeah yeah I I think um I think when the I think when the general premise is there you can always kind of work around that it's it's it's it if if if if if um if the if the the general storyline like the final score was the first script I ever wrote uh and it was like it was my senior thesis. But obviously if I went back and read those pages now compared to what the story is I mean it's like the the way that I laid it out for you guys is what the plot is was always the plot but everything else probably I would say it's probably entirely different. Probably not like it there's probably like five same lines of dialogue from what it from what it was. That's wild gone through so many different yeah gone through so many different iterations but the general premise is the same. It was it was a hockey player got hurt was always a great musician and it's kind of his his progression to musician.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Why have you been waiting so long to to pull a trigger on this on making that one?

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Mm-hmm I I I always wanted to make it first I it's just a little more expensive than than say what moments the youth was going to be it's it's everything else is not difficult to shoot but you can't like well and I would definitely not want to because I love hockey. I would definitely not want the hockey to look cheap like it was cheaply done like it was cheaply done. I want it to look very yeah that would drive me nuts you know so put dudes on a conveyor belt make the motion like they're actually or like the uh the like zoom in really close on the little stick figure like uh like the almost like um uh foos ball table with the hockey guy oh like the little magnum one oh that would be that would be funny though if you did it huge main short that's fun yeah are you looking for actors to know how to ice skate or are you looking for hockey players who can act uh for the main actor the main actor is probably gonna be like uh probably gonna have to do like a national search for it for an unknown because I want him to be able to do everything I want him to be able to skate so I don't have to fake it and be really good. And I want him to be able to play the piano and be really good and sing. So for him I think he's got to be kind of like a one in a million actor.

SPEAKER_03 40:02

It sounds as far as everyone else it sounds Connecticut might be a good spot for that.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

Well yeah hockey's a prevalent sport in the Northeast yes it is as far as like everyone else yeah I think I think I think that the bulk of the hockey can probably be actual hockey players because it's college and their helmets probably won't a hundred percent show their faces because you got the cage or you got the the glass in front of them. Except for the main characters those guys hopefully the main character himself and then maybe two other ones ideally be the same position are are actors who are also good at hockey. So I guess that would be the goal I guess that would be the goal. And then everyone else like you like you asked I think they could probably be hockey players like essentially extras extras in a way you know because they're not going to be really it can't be too obvious like the main character's got this pretty you know flawless face and everybody else is missing teeth noses are going in three different directions.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

One guy's been hit so many times in the face his face just looks blurry like uh like Adam Graves from the Rangers.

SPEAKER_03 41:22

Just perpetually out of focus so wow um uh we're winding down it before we uh kind of wrap things up uh you got your uh your movie which Moments of youth on tubi and you said Amazon as well yeah tubi uh in the US Canada and Australia and Amazon is it's uh the US and the UK and then worldwide on Plex.

SPEAKER_01 41:58

Plex and is there

Where To Watch And What’s Next

SPEAKER_01 42:00

any other movies or anything that you want to plug that's coming out yeah everyone has their price uh I can't really announce it just yet because we're still finalizing the terms and everything but it will be out pretty soon so uh follow me on Instagram and I'll I'll be making the announcement everyone yeah we'll we'll have you back and we'll talk about that too and you can play a prank on us or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 42:23

So you can come we'll we'll have you back for the Stanley Cup finals next year.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

I was gonna say Hayden found out that uh just a little bit of inebriation and 20 bucks I'll yell out at people all the time. Yeah I'm I'm pretty easy so I'm pretty easy so yeah you guys when we film season two you guys come up and be contestants.

SPEAKER_04 42:44

You got it I just want to be the guy who's like yelling into the mic for like what Hayden has to do. Alright sure. And it's I want Hayden to show up at like an ice skating rink in like Connecticut and he has to go out there and try to play against kids who are playing hockey.

SPEAKER_03 42:59

You gotta pay for my hospital bills though just insurance just insurance well Gregory thanks so much I love talking to people like you especially somebody that's kind of as far and as successful as you have 20 years in the in the industry and it you know I hear a lot of people that have like their kind of one hit wonder and then we never see them again. And I have a feeling that you're gonna be around and hopefully you you come back with uh some even better uh more Oscar worthy kind of stuff and we can kind of get this relationship going.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Absolutely I'll come back uh each time I got something new I'll I'll come back and share with you guys. And I I I I intend to be I I intend to be um you know making a lot of films and also we're gonna get into to scripted TV next too as well. So yeah I'll come back and I'll come back and uh tell you guys all about it.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

All right. Thank you sir.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Thanks for having me.