Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 I get it now, like I'm on the alumni board and um, but I didn't get it when I went into college, like the value of the alumni, uh, network. But freshman year a guy came and spoke named Mike Heard, and I remember everyone got up and filed out of this like, I don't know, 75 person, you know, lecture hall at the end. Mike was just standing on stage and Emily and I were like, Let's go talk to this guy. He was like, Vice president of production at 20th Century Fox. He's TCU alum. So I remember walking up to him and being like, Hey, uh, I want to, I'm coming to LA next week. I'm trying to get an internship for the summer. Can I grab lunch with you and here's my card. And he was like, Yeah, let's do it. And so was
Speaker 1 00:00:41 That easy?
Speaker 0 00:00:42 Yeah. So then I planned a trip to la um, <laugh>, right? He, but it again, with dad working for the airlines, it was like, yeah, I could go on his passes, especially in college. And it was like free. So a lot of times I'd fly out to LA for these meetings and people are like, Think I'm some rich, you know, kid from an oil and gas family in Texas. And I'm like, Don't believe what you want
Speaker 2 00:01:10 Game.
Speaker 1 00:01:15 I could say a lot about this next cat, but one thing I cannot say is that he followed the status quo. He managed to build a business, an entertainment business, even from the ground up in a place where he did not have any business doing. So it's a pretty remarkable story. Now he's taking care of others, inspiring them, and leading them in ways to allow for other people to succeed. As he did. It's Red Sanders owner of Red Productions, He's a producer and entertainment entrepreneur. And you're gonna love this story on the TCAs. So let's start there. We were talking just a second ago about, um, interesting places that people will move that you wouldn't expect and you, you see a mass exodus of people moving from Cali to Austin and different places. There's still centralized areas where a lot of this work happens. Yeah, you've always been an anomaly in my eyes because you're a movie producer, a commercial production company, and um, a collector of stories and uh, somewhat of a Phil, Phil philanthropist.
Speaker 1 00:02:24 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. I'll say that. I almost said Lander or, Well, I don't think so, but okay. Uh, but what's interesting is a lot of those people are, are now moving to different locations cuz they're actually able to accomplish the same kind of work without being in a centralized place just because of how media is and communication is. So you having been the beast that has weathered the storm the entire time, cuz when you started your career, you were, had a decision to make whether you were gonna stay in Fort Worth or go to LA and I know you have a base in LA right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but your primary base is in Fort
Speaker 0 00:02:58 Worth. Yeah. Home base is here and you know, but yeah, when I did graduate TCU now many years ago, it feels like, uh, all my friends moved to LA in New York with their film degrees and I had a great mentor here, David Minor, who wasn't in the industry but had run, you know, successful businesses. And he was like, You got a business going here. Like why would you move out there and like reset? Like what if you build it up here and then go there on your own terms? And we were able to effectively do that. You know, kind of grew here for the first seven years in business, then open an office out there about seven years ago. And uh, and yeah, now it's fun cuz it's like my friends I went to film school with that moved away are now moving back, um, <laugh> and uh, like I just heard the other day that a buddy went to TC with Ben Grayson just moved back to Austin and uh, he works with Chris Hemsworth and Chris is in Australia most of the time. So it's like, I'm sure it's the type thing where Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:03:52 And what's the point of living in LA when the guy you're working with is still across the world anyway. Yeah, right.
Speaker 0 00:03:57 Or someone the other day on then, uh, Taylor Sheridan's team said, uh, Gavin Newsom just got salesman of the year award from U-Haul. Cuz so many people are moving outta California
Speaker 1 00:04:06 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:04:07 And running U-Haul. Yes. Uh, but it is exciting to see, you know, this, this, uh, creative kind of, uh, a moment happening in the state where like people are paying attention to and respecting these stories here. And I I think there's always been an interest for like Western stories, right? Like it's one of the oldest genres. Um, but I do feel like there's a, a resurgence in that and um, and probably in large part things to Taylor Sheridan and what he's doing. So, and,
Speaker 1 00:04:35 And because of location, I mean there's always been Texas stories told mm-hmm <affirmative>, but they just rarely tell them in Texas.
Speaker 0 00:04:42 Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah. There's the, the, the problem is each time we come up on the legislative, you know, session, which is coming this coming spring, it's like we'll go and we'll talk to our legislators about like, we need strong incentives here because all of our states around us, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, all have really strong. And even Arkansas now have strong incentive programs attracting the talent out to their states and attracting the projects that are coming from all over the us. Uh, but they're gonna, if you're already leaving LA to go tell your story, you're, and you're between New Mexico and Texas, you're gonna go to the state that's got the best incentive and the best look for it creatively and the best crew. And so it's really like, you know, it's kind of a trifecta, those three things. So we always wanna make sure we're like keeping that message out there.
Speaker 0 00:05:31 But I guess like, I've veered away from what you kind of said there, which was, we'll, we'll talk about these stories with legislators where it's like, like Taylor Sheridan's, Heller High Water for instance, was a great one where amazing. I remember in, I think that was 20 17 18 session, like I went and testified on the Senate Appropriations Committee, um, because we had a film that had shot in Fort Worth and premiered at South by that year and won there. And our next film we were looking at having to shoot in Oklahoma. And I, I testified on the committee there, which was like, kind of like, it sounds like, I don't know, I guess you hear that in the news, like someone has to testify in front of a committee and it's a bad thing. It's ominous.
Speaker 1 00:06:09 It
Speaker 0 00:06:10 Was super easy. It's like you go in, you tell your story in three minutes or less and get out. And um, the head of that, the, the chair of that that year I remember he started talking and he's like kind of grabs the suspender. He's like, Now in my district is where the story for hell or High Water's based. And you know, I watched that movie and um, you know, I don't remember any mountains out in West Texas where I'm from. And I was like, Yeah, sir. Cause they went and shot that New Mexico <laugh>. Cause you know, that's where they got a better incentive there. So mm-hmm. <affirmative> we're, we are thrilled to dig in just to see like people really paying attention I think more than ever now. Um, both on like, and it's because I think so many people are moving here from outside, um, who are creatives and moving, How does it work
Speaker 1 00:06:54 With unions?
Speaker 0 00:06:55 Yeah. Yeah, good question. You know, Texas is like, most states are right to work state. Um, there are unions here, you know, we work with like SAG actors and um, there's the II union for like a lot of your crew members. Um, but in Texas you can do, there's a lot of stuff that you can do, you know, independently that's a low enough budget that it doesn't involve unions and, um, or at least some of the unions. So see I'd say it's like a really friendly state to Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:07:25 But I mean, working around unions even from afar is some, I mean, especially if you have people that are members. I mean, it's always kind of playing with fire in some way. Right.
Speaker 0 00:07:34 I don't know. I mean, I actually talked, I'm on a board with the head of ii, um, for, I'm on the Texas Media Production Alliance board and we were talking yesterday, cuz I know that there's a lot more work coming up here in our Texas. And I said, Hey, well let's do something to like get like a workforce development thing going here. Cuz you know, ev everyone was put to work on 1883 last year. Right. And they flew a lot of people in cause there just wasn't enough, you know, qualified people to fill all, I think they had like 800 roles they hired for. Um, and, and yeah, he even then said, he was like, you know, our unions are a little slow sometimes to move on, like a quick need of that many people. Um, so I, I do think it's that they, where it's like it takes a little bit of everyone in the community.
Speaker 0 00:08:20 I think it's like, it's a thing where it does come down to workforce development. How do we plan for the long game in that? How do we make sure that there's like students that are being provided opportunities and, and trained in schools like, you know, in early in like, like I, I went to a high school that had a film program or like a radio, TV film class, but that was kind of rarity then. But now I think you see that in most schools that they have something there. Yeah. The sad thing is sometimes they have like the technology but they don't have someone to, to teach the kids what to do with it. But,
Speaker 1 00:08:50 But even in high schools you're seeing some of those, some of those classes and business, business classes and different things like that, which I think is also necessary. But I was even surprised that that, uh, it's that TCU had much of an RTVs program. RTF program. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so backing it up then you went to tcu. Was this kind of your plan before you launched? Were you looking to go into this industry specifically or how did you end up making the decision to get into this industry in the first place preceding this creative question about building here and then expanding out?
Speaker 0 00:09:29 Yeah. Yeah. So growing up, you know, my mom was an artist and art teacher. My dad worked for American Airlines and so it, it was always fun. It was like either on the weekends we were like coming to Fort Worth to go to these great art museums we have here. Cause we grew up in Grapevine or we were gonna the airport and like working a trip with dad to, uh, I don't know, Hawaii or an island <laugh>. Yeah. And then come back on Monday. Poor
Speaker 1 00:09:50 Baby. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:09:51 Port for <laugh>. Um, but it was really fun cause I think just like the way it kind of helped open up my worldview to things. And then, you know, I stayed close for college because throughout kind of like, I guess starting as early as age 12, I started my first business, which was if a DJ company. And then quickly as we started doing weddings, uh, I was like, Oh, I see what I could video too with this. And a lot of this by the way, just came from kind of a throwback to Radio Shack. I would like ride my bike down the street to Radio Shack and be like, Look at this gear and I love a lot of stuff you got here in the studio. But I would look at it, I had no idea what it did and like this audio gear and I just like, I bought it <laugh> with a loan from my grandfather and figured it out.
Speaker 0 00:10:35 And then I figured out like, Oh, people will pay me to play music at gigs. Like, that's cool. And then, uh, then I started, you know, so it always kind of started first I think with like an interest in like the technology, but what I could do with that mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and then with that, you know, when I got into TCOs like, okay, well this has been working, let me stay here. This is how I was able to pay for school and um, and continue to do DJ gigs on the weekend and videos college weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:11:05 College has to be, Yeah. Gigs of plenty, right?
Speaker 0 00:11:09 Oh yeah. I remember. I, I like, I actually rushed freshman year and then like, and going through Rush, I was like, yeah, so like I had this DJ company and they're like, Oh yeah, no, that'd be great cuz then you can DJ our parties for free. And I was like, No, <laugh>, you see like it's how I'm paying for school so <laugh>, I need to be free on the weekends. And they're like, No, your ours on the weekends pledge. And I was like, Okay, I don't think this is gonna work. Yeah. But gimme a call if you needed a dj. Yeah. Ended up doing all the parties and it was still
Speaker 1 00:11:34 Fun and getting paid. Yeah. So how was the program overall? I mean, did you feel like you were set up at the time? Because again, me having come up in the music industry really was about getting to a point where you had your education behind you and then you either go to la Nashville, or New York. Yeah. And then that's where everything starts. And I, I mean, I know I'm older than you, but it seems like only recently has that dynamic changed,
Speaker 0 00:12:00 So Yeah. Yeah. Because you know, again, to date me is like, YouTube started the year I graduated. And so like that was just the beginning of when you could really actually, like we were shooting stuff on digital ever since I was young. But, uh, to distribute it on digital and through the internet, like that was a new thing then. Yeah. It's like we were having a compressed video at like all these different rates for people's different, someone still in Dialup modems Right. Sounds crazy now to talk about, but Yeah. Um, and so yeah. But like as far as like TCUs program goes then, like, it was, it was a really great program and I, I really liked it because just the smaller class sizes and like ability to really get to know my professors, like, like Chuck La Mandola and Greg Maner were like really great kind of mentors to me in the program there.
Speaker 0 00:12:49 And, and I built up a trust with them and got to be like the studio manager. And so like I kind of have access to the studio at other times to be able to go in and like, I don't know, just try stuff out, see what works. Good projects. Yeah. And um, and just like the student film kind of group that kind of became our own little, I guess again, I didn't do a fraternity, but we had our own little core group there mm-hmm. <affirmative> within that. And specifically like three really good friends like Emily Mos, Ben Grae I mentioned earlier who just moved back and then Anton Simon, like we, we would make, do these projects together, um, sometimes just for fun and goofing off and, and other times like for like actual pay and gigs and, and it really, really clicked. I think like the, I get it now.
Speaker 0 00:13:33 Like I'm, I'm on the alumni board and um, but I didn't get it when I went into college, like the value of the alumni, uh, network. But freshman year a guy came and spoke named Mike Heard. And I remember everyone got up and filed out of this like, I don't know, 75 person, you know, lecture hall at the end. And Mike was just standing on stage and Emily and I were like, Let's go talk to this guy. He was like, Vice president of production at 20th Century Fox. He's TCU alum. So I remember walking up to him and being like, Hey, uh, I wanna, I'm coming to LA next week, I'm trying to get an internship for the summer. Can I grab lunch with you and here's my card. And he was like, Yeah, let's do it. And so it
Speaker 1 00:14:14 Was that easy.
Speaker 0 00:14:15 Yeah. So then I planned a trip to LA um, <laugh>. Right. But again, with dad working for the airlines, it was like, yeah, I could go on his passes, especially in college and it was like free. So a lot of times I'd fly out to LA for these meetings and people are like, think I'm some rich, you know, kid from an oil and gas family in Texas. And I'm like, well, don't believe what you want, but yeah.
Speaker 1 00:14:35 Yeah. People are still gonna think what they think.
Speaker 0 00:14:37 Yeah. But Mike, you know, is still a good friend to this day and was a great mentor as I was starting this. And um, so yeah, I mean it's been, I'd say yeah, between like my core friends there and then David Minor Mike heard like that were people that really helped me early on in this. Um, and then also, like at tcu, outside of the film program was like the business school and David Minor had started the entrepreneurship program there under, it's under the business school and he got a, a professor to come in and teach this technology and entrepreneurship class. Hmm. Uh, named Joey King. And, uh, Joey and I hit off really well and I, I learned so much from him. He had, you know, started a tech company that grew really big in the.com era and then, you know, just started teaching then.
Speaker 0 00:15:25 Um, and through his class, like I put together this idea that was kind of like a, a a website marketplace for, uh, hiring people for events. So like if you needed a DJ for a wedding or whatever, it was like a marketplace for that whenever that was a new idea. And um, we took that to a business plan competition, a national on at Tula and we won. And then we ended up like through that getting this office at Tech Fort Worth here, which I had no idea about. But the city has this building down at Rosedale in 35 and uh, it's basically incubator space where they provide, you know, lower barriers to entry, ie. Cheaper rent, you know, for startup businesses, which is key. Cuz at that time I was still running it out my like, uh, college house Yeah. Course with my like roommate and, you know, he was kind of mess. Yeah, yeah. He's great. But it wasn't always clean when clients were coming over. And so, uh, yeah, like getting into Tech Fort Worth, there was like a really pivotal thing kind of that first year out. And that also came, was again from this doing that business playing competition with professors there and all that. So, So
Speaker 1 00:16:35 Is that now when you started your production company, obviously that was a new transition. So is that something you, you launched post graduation?
Speaker 0 00:16:44 Literally at graduation? I started like the new, what is now Red Productions. So yeah, up until that I'd been doing it all kind of like commingled and probably my personal checking account or whatever mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then I was like, Okay, if I'm staying here, I'm gonna do it right. I'm gonna form this llc. Um, of, you know, a friend at TCUs, dad was a lawyer, he helped file it with the state. It seemed really daunting at the time. Yes. Didn't know, it's like pretty easy like, you know, fill this stuff out. But it was great and um, to have like a, an actual lawyer do that <laugh>. And um, and then I went to the school and I was like, Hey, so for graduation, uh, everyone, you know, yeah. They get the option to get a picture, but like, what if we like video this and do like a stream up on the screens At that time, again, couldn't live stream it, but we um, we then sold DVDs of it. Oh yeah. And so like for, you know, grandparents that couldn't make it or whatever, people could buy a dvd. And so like I, I walked across the stage while like Emily and Anton had mentioned earlier, they were like doing the camera work and then we were like edited it together afterwards.
Speaker 1 00:17:50 That's awesome.
Speaker 0 00:17:51 Uh, I think, yeah, no, that's still our longest standing, uh, project. We still do it twice a year.
Speaker 1 00:17:57 You still do. Yeah. I bet it's a lot better than it was.
Speaker 0 00:18:01 It's the, Yeah. It's the only live event thing we do, but it's uh, it's a great, you know, it's fun then still to go back and do so.
Speaker 1 00:18:08 And did you leverage a lot of the relationships with these cats that you went to school with in order to make some of those connections out in la? Cuz again, at the time, I know you were starting, how do you source stories from the beginning mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know, cause I, I I have a question too that I want to get to and maybe maybe you wanna tackle these at the same time, but how do you, how did you in the beginning and how do you now source stories and in particular stories that are, that make a difference? Cuz I know you're an impact guy also and you, you have a lot of involvement in the community and stuff like that. So maybe compare and contrast how you used to do it when you started from the ground and where you're at now and the opportunities to pull stories that really fit your wheelhouse. Right.
Speaker 0 00:18:55 Yeah. So when we first started like getting, moving into, you know, so we have Red Productions, which is our commercial production company where we work with brands to tell their story, Right? But it's a commercial and we have red entertainment that's our like, original content arm. And that's what we started like a few years in, um, to be able to like create our own IP and like work with other filmmakers and writers to uh, like tell original stories, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> that aren't, that are not an ad. And um, when we started Red Entertainment Yeah. Like to get stories and scripts at that time it was like just asking around. And the funny thing is you can get a lot of stories if you're just like, whether you're like posting on the internet message boards, going to community, like industry meetups and stuff like that, but they're probably not the right stories. And Yeah. For, for the first few years there, it was kind of something where we had like, we cast a really wide net and we didn't have any mandate written out as far as like, this is the type of work we wanna do. Cuz we're, we were young and we didn't know <laugh> and
Speaker 1 00:19:57 You need work, I mean, needed to produce things, right? Yeah. You needed a library or something, right?
Speaker 0 00:20:01 Yeah. Yeah. And, and we just, we wanted, we didn't wanna rule out opportunities I guess before we knew whether or not it was something that made sense. Um, the first film we ended up doing, the first feature we did all the way through was, um, searching for Sunny with this filmmaker Andrew Disney, who grew up in Fort Worth, moved away to LA no New York, sorry, uh, for school at nyu. And while he was at NYU for his senior project, he had write a, a feature script and he wrote this story about like his high school in his hometown. So it was loosely based on his experience right. Growing up here and going to Trinity Valley. And um, he sent the, instead of just like doing the normal thing, which at that time would've been just like to send the script out, he got a DSLR camera had just come out.
Speaker 0 00:20:50 It was like the first DSLR camera you could shoot video on. And he shot this teaser trailer here with his friends in Fort Worth. And this thing, someone picked it up like Filmmaker Magazine or something and said the first ever feature film that's going to be shot on a DSLR camera is searching for Sunny. And they play, they put the teaser trailer out there and this thing went, you know, viral. And I remember seeing it and being like, this cat's in our town. Like we gotta meet this guy. Yeah. And um, Greg Beam at the time he was working with me and like, and everything we were building there and like he was the first guy by hired full time and um, was such a great, you know, teammate as I started this out, he uh, he read the script and he was like, Oh my gosh, this is really good.
Speaker 0 00:21:32 Like you gotta meet this guy. Um, and we met with Andrew, we hit it off, we did that film together, um, with a lot of great support from people in Fort Worth. Whether it was people that believed in us and invested in the film, uh, whether it's people that opened up their locations to us. There was even a location cuz you know, it is the first movie we were doing. So of course there's like a shootout on a tarmac at an airport with a private jet <laugh>. Uh, cuz like we didn't know what stuff cost <laugh> and luckily like one of the guys interning for us, his dad was like higher up in a fire department nearby here. And so they, we had like fire trucks and like a whole like police scene. Perfect. It was great.
Speaker 1 00:22:14 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:22:14 It cost us like the insurance for the private Jet
Speaker 1 00:22:17 <laugh>, which is probably still plenty Yeah. On that budget at the time. I'll bet.
Speaker 0 00:22:21 Yeah. But then we, you know, followed that up with like this other film with Andrew's second feature was called, uh, it was called Intermural. And then when it got released by MGM Orion they retitled it balls out cuz they thought that'd be more funny and they put a like fake girl's butt on the cover. So if you look it up, like we did not have anything to do with the artwork really. Yeah. We actually were quite against it cuz we're like, this makes this look like a film that we did not make. Right. And uh, cuz it's like fake Girls Butt and says this semester everyone scores and we're like, Guys, did y watch this movie? Like there's no nudity in this movie. Like
Speaker 1 00:22:59 Wow.
Speaker 0 00:23:01 It was just a fun buddy comedy. We ended up hitting this like really great cast with it with like Jake Lacey, Kate McKinnon, Beck Bennett, um, Jay Farrow. So those last year just said all were on, like, ended up on SNL by the time we premiered, um, three more of the actors ended up in the writer's room on snl. So we premiered it Tribeca and it was like marketed kind of as this like fun SNL comedy thing. But then Saturday Night Live was like, we didn't have anything to do with this. Like oh my gosh. They were a little worried. Yeah. But then they watched it and it was okay.
Speaker 1 00:23:36 But that says a lot about how you put things in your wheelhouse too, cuz you can, when you only have so much control and you know, me being a, you know, a far writer book mm-hmm. <affirmative> and then it takes off, then I'm even thru removed. I mean, there's all kinds of changes that I just, you know, unless I'm working with people who
Speaker 0 00:23:55 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:23:56 Uh, just in integrally want to work with me mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it's when you experienced that, that that changed the way you approached projects like that? Or do you often run into projects where you put it together, you have a vision, you do a lot of these parts, and then when a production company gets ahold of it, they still jack it up and, and in that case it's almost counterintuitive to your brand mm-hmm. <affirmative>, that's kind of what you're implying to me, right? I mean, that's brand wise, that's not the way you would've presented it at least.
Speaker 0 00:24:26 Right. And, but that's the difference. Ne like, we love doing co-productions. Like we think, you know, believe in collaboration over competition. Um, and we are not a distributor or marketer of films. So like we have to always partner with a distributor Right. In someone that's gonna market it. Just in that case, like the marketing department went, went wheels off <laugh>. Like it was like, um, and uh, you know, to kind of come back to the question you asked a moment ago, so it's like that was like early days, like our first two films and now it's like now what we look for in it. Um, and what shifted for us was like we started doing this thing both with like, with all the our companies where it's like called eos Entrepreneurial op, Entrepreneurial Operating System. And it was like this book this guy wrote, it was like all the things that a small business needs to do traction. Yeah. Yeah. But they never do. And you know, I'm like the add visionary guy after I read the book or I read like the first like quarter of the book and was like, Oh yeah, we totally need this. I'm not gonna be able to finish this. But
Speaker 1 00:25:28 <laugh>
Speaker 0 00:25:29 Hired a, a really great, you know, guy who's now VP of operations for us. Yeah. Stephen Nova Orlando. And I gave him the book I remember at the beginning and before I think he accepted the job. I'm like, just so you know, like this book, like we need this. And I think you have the, you're hardwired and have the talents to implement it here.
Speaker 1 00:25:45 Yeah. Organized mind. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> type.
Speaker 0 00:25:47 Yeah. Yeah. And that was so key was like, you know, seeing that like, all right, cuz as we had grown over the years in the first, you know, first few people that joined the team, it was like hiring other friends from film school like Sam Parnell who still are VP of Post now and just been such a tremendous, uh, you know, partner and principles. I've grown this. Um, but I also like, you know, there were a lot of other, like, we had hired a lot of people like us, like as we had a lot of the same skills and talents in one area and weaknesses in one area. So Right. Traction helped us really, I think round out the team well and one thing in traction that they, they they tell you to do. Um, plus at the same time, I'd gotten to know this guy Michael DeLuca, who was the, you know, head of MGM Films recently just moved over to be the head of a Warner Film group, but he splits his time in Fort Worth and he was speaking actually back at tcu, um, at like an alumni conference area.
Speaker 0 00:26:48 He's not, he's not an alumni, but he's gotten plugged in with the school. And so he was speaking and I went to his talk and you know, his whole talk was like on like the value of really picking Elaine. And I was like, Oh yeah, we have not picked Elaine on our, like on our original content side we had done seven films. They were like more, more so than not usually comedies, but they were kind of like all across the board. Yeah. Um, they weren't all comedies either. So some are like dark, some are bright, some are Yeah. Shot in Texas, some are shot in New York. And so I, I like taking Michael's advice and, and looking at traction with our team. We really, for red entertainment set out and set like, you know, what our big kind of like our mission or purpose was or is, is to do good work that matters and enable out of the box ideas.
Speaker 0 00:27:39 And we like to do that through quality original content that's inspired by the modern West. And so we, um, we've tweaked that just ever so slightly over the years, but like that's really been kind of our main focus, which is like, you know, just making sure that like the, anytime you do a film or TV show, I mean it's a big endeavor. It's a lot of time. It's different than a commercial Cuz commercial it's like they're, they're really great and creative as well, but there's like a shorter time window that you're doing it. So like if anything's, you know, not working on it or maybe the some, yeah. I don't know if you get bored with it, you don't get bored with it cause it's like boom, it's going right, the next one's coming in and then, but on a film it's like, you know, in the, we never do 'em alone either, so we're always teaming up with someone, either writer, director or other production company, all of that usually, um, the, you know, the, we wanna be doing like doing that work with like creatives that we wanna work with again because it is like such a long like, you know, can be 10, you gotta
Speaker 1 00:28:47 Five years people that align with the way you work and stuff too. So you can call a lot of the same cruise back and knock things out. Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I've seen a lot of, uh, scuffling Yeah. Going on when somebody's wanting something one other way.
Speaker 0 00:28:59 Yeah. Which is fine when it's done Right. And with respect. Yeah. When it's like you get that like I get it, you really have a creative vision and you wanna, you wanna see that through as producers. We're not here necessarily to like interrupt that creative vision, but to help support it, highlight it, remove obstacles for, for that director. And um, I remember, uh, Jason Hadley, who he did a film with called A Bad Idea Gone Wrong. He had said, uh, afterwards he said he went back home after doing the movie and he told his wife, he's like, Man, if this movie works or doesn't work, like it's really all gonna be on me. I'm not gonna be able to blame the producers cuz like, you know, like we were really collaborative, but ultimately we like let him realize his creative vision for that. That's awesome. And then, um, that was his first feature and now he just released his, he just wrote, uh, Light Year for Pixar, which just released a couple months ago. Yeah, absolutely. Um, it's been really cool to see his career grow. So, um, so yeah, I mean we have definitely picked a lane in that, in what it does now when we're looking for projects is it really helps especially add visionary guy over here to have blinders to be like, All right, this is what we're working on. Right. Does
Speaker 1 00:30:15 This either fits or doesn't and then you've got a smaller amount of things that you can actually look at. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:30:20 And we've gotta, I mean, with that footprint we expanded it. We used to say, uh, quality original content that honors our Texas roots because we really wanted to stay focused on Texas stories. I, I love like what Texas Monthly has built up over the years mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, and I love Texas stories like we're, that's why we're home base here and we'll we'll be, um, but we changed that for two reasons. One, we're called Red Productions, we hop on calls with people in LA and New York and we talk about things that honor our Texas roots and they think it's a political statement, which is not. Um, and with everything going on in our state and the politics that have sadly come out of it, like that wasn't what we represented what we represent it and
Speaker 1 00:31:02 Either state, either States's got Yeah. Own set of issues.
Speaker 0 00:31:05 Yeah, exactly. And um, and then like, so yeah, plus it was like, you know, we didn't necessarily wanna not do a story cuz it was maybe based in Oklahoma. Like there's great stories all around, but to still stay focused in kind of this the modern west we called it. So I think that also, you know, lends more towards like stories that have inclusiveness to it and, and just the, you know, explored what's going on in this day and age here. So Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:31:31 And
Speaker 0 00:31:31 Then you we're not gonna do, we're not gonna get in obviously Taylor Sheridan's Lane there with uh, we're not going back to the 18 hundreds here, but <laugh> I love that. I love that Just the West overall, like the way he is really amplified that. So
Speaker 1 00:31:42 Yeah. And he didn't start necessarily going back that far either, you know, when he launched just movies and stuff too. It was a lot of that stuff where hell, high water hell or high water is a, is a good example too. Yeah. Uh, so you are sort of sharing a little bit of that lane mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Right. Um, and you work with, now that you have come to grow this company and your influence around here, you and DeLuca work together on some projects too. You wanna talk about that?
Speaker 0 00:32:13 Yeah, we, well, we're in the early stages of starting something together. Uh, Marty Bowen, who's from Fort Worth called me earlier on in the pandemic and was like, I wanna do something to like give back here. Just strictly altruistic. We keep seeing these projects go to other states, they're Texas head stories, what could we do? And we put our heads together, um, and, and DeLuca joined in as that as well. And we, we were like, well, let's create this fund that's like on top of the state film incentives or sit somewhere in the gap in the middle of state film incentives and then like the private equity that typically makes, you know, a film mm-hmm. <affirmative> capital structure work. And we said, we'll, we'll raise this money as a non-profit that we can like in essence loan to these projects that need that to close that gap.
Speaker 0 00:33:00 And they're going, we could shoot this in the next state over, We don't want to, but we still need this much money. And we go, Okay, we'll loan that money to you and then in success if it works, pay pay the money back to this nonprofit that we're starting and then we'll pay it forward in the next project. And so we, we, uh, are calling it the Gone to Texas fund and uh, you know, hopefully we get more people coming to Texas and or stay in here with these projects. And so like the prereqs would be that, you know, that it's a Texas set story factor fiction and that it has like a certain amount of people above the line and like your, that means your key roles. Right. Like writer, director, producer, um, your cast, like he Castros
Speaker 1 00:33:42 You don't wanna end up with somebody's home movie.
Speaker 0 00:33:44 Right, Right. But yeah, well we want people, a certain amount of people in those key roles to be, you know, Texas natives maybe coming back or live here now. So,
Speaker 1 00:33:53 And it's to incentivize people that are up and coming but don't have the funds to make the movies that they wanna make or what is, what is the,
Speaker 0 00:34:01 It's actually more in the middle of someone's prior career where it's like they've made a few films, they've got, you know, industry financers involved who know that doesn't make sense to shoot a movie where they're not maximizing their, you know, expenses. But I mean they're, um, they're, uh, film incentives and um, and so if they're going, Well, we're gonna get a million dollars more out of our budget if we go to Georgia. Then we go, Well why don't we loan you that million dollars on really friendly terms and you keep it here and then, you know, again, if it works for you, pay that back and we're going to pay it forward to the next project. So
Speaker 1 00:34:44 Yeah. That's a, that's a ballsy move in this industry. Yeah. Things, there's so many things don't work.
Speaker 0 00:34:50 Yeah. But then we also are raising it as like a nonprofit, so mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we feel like there's probably enough people that have been like pitched or invested in movies and lost their money and, you know, we wanted to just kind of be like, let's do this all for the good of like the state and the people here and the people that wanna make a career here have like, raise families here and make movies and, and TV shows here and not have to always be maybe their families here, but then they're always flying outta state. Right. You know, like I got three young kids, like, I love being on to come home and see Jenny and the kids each night. It's like, couldn't imagine if I was out of town for three months on end. Yeah. Doing a project
Speaker 1 00:35:27 And by design for you to be as successful as, as successful as you are, that's probably what was supposed to happen. Which is why, again, I, I appreciate your path and it's, it's very interesting to see how how this has grown and refined and to see your success is really fascinating. Nice. So, um, I guess lastly, do you have any new projects or any, uh, impactful, uh, type of endeavors that you have going on now that you wanted to clue us into or?
Speaker 0 00:35:59 Yeah, I mean, a lot of my focus right now, uh, one I feel really fortunate and blessed to have such a great team at Red Productions and our leadership team there where they really, you know, like steer the ship day in and day out, keep us on path and um, and I've been able to be focused on like some of the other like, you know, projects we're working on and developing, um, whether it's in TV or documentary or film, but also like the stuff in the community, like gone to Texas Fund and then even being involved is be like, you know, heading to another legislative session on like how we can make sure this, like the Fort Worth story is known in Austin, like with legislators that they know how these jobs like are real up here and like folks like Sheridan are continuing to come here and, and tell stories here.
Speaker 0 00:36:50 And so we wanna make sure that we have the right sort of, you know, not just incentives but like workforce development and all that. So, so I love being able to be involved in the community in that way. Um, so there's always like a lot of things I guess I got I played spinning on. Yes. Um, but you know, in the near near term future, I'm thrilled. We have the 16th annual Lone Star Film Festival coming here in November. We're not coming here, It's always been here <laugh>. Um, we're doing it this year in the stock yards and uh, I'm the chair of the board for that and actually just came from the board meeting where we're planning that and mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, that's gonna be a really fun one cuz you know, we've got actually Taylor Sheridan's coming in to be honored, Ryan Bingham.
Speaker 0 00:37:32 Um, and, and some Mores folks will be announced soon, um, that are coming in for that. And then we, we have a film playing at the festival too that premieres this weekend in Nashville and then we play a few other film festivals and then it'll be fun to bring it home here. It's called, uh, Show Businesses My Life, but I can't Prove It. And it's a film about Gary Mule Deer who's like this lesser known comedian that was always kind of 20 feet from stardom, but we've got in it all of his friends that he's come up with over the years. So Steve Martin, Letterman, Leno, Conan, Carrot Top, like this huge cast of people who wow all signed up to be in it cuz they love Gary and, and they all would have him on their shows when, you know, over the years and it's like, it's a retrospective for Gary as he's older now and his career, looking back on like what is success and what, you know, made him happy back then versus what makes him happy now. And um, so that's been really fun. Sounds
Speaker 1 00:38:29 Fascinating. I'd love to see that. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:38:30 So it'll be playing, uh, Saturday, November 12th at the Lone Star Film Festival, which will be down in the stockyards. And then, um, you know, we've got, uh, some more stuff we're doing right now with my buddy Jonathan Morris. We were really thrilled last year to get to do this, uh, series called Self-Employed with Him. That's about entrepreneurship and it's on the Magnolia Network. You can see that right now if you have Discovery Plus mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, and it's these stories of entrepreneurship from all around the country. Um, and then we got to really bring it home in episode eight with, uh, a good friend of ours here, Carrie Crow and Melt Ice creams.
Speaker 1 00:39:06 Ah.
Speaker 0 00:39:06 So if you don't watch in all the way through, just skip to episode eight. That's really, that's a fun one. Don't let
Speaker 1 00:39:11 'em cheat. Watch 'em all. Oh yeah. Binge. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:39:15 Um, and then, you know, there's, we've, we always have, we did a documentary last year that's out on discovery as well. It's called Fruit Cake Fraud. And it's about this story that we were actually working on it before the pandemic as a feature film, the scripted. And we had Will Ferrell in it and Julianne Moore had just joined it a week prior. The pandemic and the pandemic hits and all fell apart. We're putting that back together now is a, is a scripted film and recasting it. But in the meantime we did this documentary about it cuz it is a true story of how the controller at the Con Street Bakery, in course of Can Texas World famous, you know, Fruit Kick Place. Um, their controller embezzled 18 million over the course of seven years from the bakery. And it's a really, I mean, crazy true crime story that is quite nutty and, uh, and yet has like a really cool like, you know, message of reconciliation and forgiveness in it. Um, so we hope Discovery just rolls that out every Christmas is kind of the, the diehard of fruit cake frauds.
Speaker 1 00:40:19 That would be awesome. Yeah. Roll it right after a Christmas story. Yeah. Go every time. This is classic. Well, I remember I talked to you about that Yeah. Uh, several years back and I didn't realize you'd even cast that thing and, and had it ready to roll. That's
Speaker 0 00:40:34 Oh yeah. It was like the most painful,
Speaker 1 00:40:37 There
Speaker 0 00:40:37 Was a lot of things Right. That were painful about Covid, but that one, like, it was gonna be our biggest film yet it was financed cast, we were ready to go and then Covid hit and we're like, Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 00:40:49 Of
Speaker 0 00:40:49 Course. And it will took the a role in like Shrink Next Door, which kind of tied him up for a while. And then it's also kind of a similar role to this. So,
Speaker 1 00:40:58 So that doesn't necessarily interfere with the opportunity to make a, a feature out of it
Speaker 0 00:41:04 Or No, cause we still have the, we still have the underlying rights on it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, so Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:41:08 Then those were two different beasts. The doc typically you put out a doc and then you put out a feature and they're usually different audiences or
Speaker 0 00:41:15 Different audiences, different distributors. Like, so Discovery has the unscripted rights in it. Okay. Um, that we, we had and we, you know, licensed that part off to them. And then the scripted side we still have, and we're doing that with a script written by Trace Selman who's just like one of my favorite Texas writers and fair writers all around. But he happens to live in Texas and Awesome. He's got a really cool project too about an old fort story in north Texas. Um, it's been recently announced. It's on, it's gonna be coming to HBO probably next year. I think it's called King Cobble. It's about Rex Cobble the, uh, infamous oil rancher banker cutting horse extraordinaire, who also became one of the biggest drug importers in the US in like the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 1 00:42:03 Those were the days, man. Yeah. And
Speaker 0 00:42:05 When he got, when he got busted, it was the largest seizure of private assets by the Fed to date at that time. Really? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:42:13 I, I <laugh>. Yeah. See I gotta you gotta get me a list and come me a watch list. Well, I appreciate what you do and I appreciate you burning your busy day to come over here and spend time with us, but I think the, the stories you have to share are important and I appreciate you taking the time to come share 'em with us, man.
Speaker 0 00:42:31 Thank you. Appreciate having me on.
Speaker 3 00:42:33 Keep on keeping on the Golden Age Cafe. It's some sideline you on another situation. See the road from the stripes with the lights coming on. Freedom came upon a catastrophic dream. Another dark page to turn another situation.
Speaker 2 00:43:00 Can't have your heart to.
Speaker 3 00:43:13 The song is the pass trees. And which way to see the road from the side, the way it's, it's cries what's never seen. Don't talk about it. What one can't, will never know
Speaker 2 00:44:33 What's.
