There is a peculiar illusion that haunts the creative mind—the belief that someday, conditions will be perfect. That someday, the right gear will arrive, the right connections will appear, the right moment will unfold like a carefully written script. But what if that moment never comes? What if the only thing that ever truly exists… is now?
On today’s episode, we welcome Rob Dimension, a filmmaker, creator, and storyteller who has built his journey not on permission, but on action. His path is not polished or romanticized—it is grounded in trial, error, frustration, and relentless forward motion. And perhaps that is what makes it so valuable.
There’s a moment in every creative life where ideas begin to pile up. Scripts unwritten. Projects unstarted. Conversations about “what could be” that never quite cross into reality. Rob cuts through this with a kind of blunt clarity that feels almost uncomfortable. He reminds us that the barrier isn’t access—it’s execution. “If you’re not doing it,” he says, “you don’t want to.”
It’s a statement that strips away every excuse.
Because today, the tools are everywhere. Cameras in our pockets. Editing software at our fingertips. Distribution platforms open to anyone willing to press upload. The gatekeepers have changed, but the hesitation remains. And so the question becomes less about opportunity—and more about willingness.
What Rob illuminates so clearly is that creativity is not a grand event. It is not a lightning strike of genius followed by immediate success. It is repetition. It is showing up again and again, often without recognition, often without reward. It is three hours of work for seventy seconds of finished content. It is releasing something into the void… and hearing nothing back.
And yet, this is the work.
There is also a deeper lesson here about integrity. Not the kind we speak about in abstract terms, but the kind that reveals itself in small decisions. Do you settle for “good enough”? Or do you redo the shot? Do you rush the project? Or do you take the time to make it right?
Rob is unwavering on this point—“good enough” is a trap. It is the quiet compromise that slowly erodes the quality of the work and, more importantly, the standard you hold for yourself. And once that standard drops, everything else follows.
But perhaps the most sobering reality comes in his discussion of crowdfunding and audience-building. There is a romantic notion that if the idea is good enough, people will come. That support will appear, that funding will follow. But the truth is far more grounded. Trust must be built. Value must be demonstrated. Effort must be visible.
No one invests in potential alone.
This is where many creators falter. They want the outcome without the process. The recognition without the repetition. The success without the structure. And when it doesn’t come, they blame the system, the market, or the audience—anything but the work itself.
And yet, there is something profoundly liberating in Rob’s perspective. Because if the barrier is internal, then it is also within our control. You don’t need permission to begin. You don’t need a perfect plan. You don’t even need certainty.
You just need to start.
There is a quiet power in taking that first step. In making something small, imperfect, and real. Because from that, momentum begins. Skills develop. Confidence grows. And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the gap between where you are and where you want to be begins to close.
And perhaps that is the deeper truth of creativity—not that it leads somewhere extraordinary, but that it transforms the one who commits to it.
So the question is not whether you have the resources, the time, or the connections.
The question is simple.
Will you begin?
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Alex Ferrari 0:47
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
Dave Bullis 1:07
You know Robin, you're a person I've always wanted to talk to. You know, you and I actually met a couple years ago, even before I started the podcast, even before I started, you know, my journey in filmmaking, because we actually meant, when I believe you were a manager, I think was, what is it PWA, ?
Rob Dimension 1:07
TWA, yeah. TWA in Voorhees New Jersey, right?
Dave Bullis 1:07
What was the one in Pottstown Pa?
Rob Dimension 1:07
Oh, PWF,
Dave Bullis 1:07
PWF that was it. Yes, that was the one we actually met there first, and we all those years ago,
Rob Dimension 1:07
That was myself and Steve Carino that owned that company.
Dave Bullis 1:07
Yeah, well, that was a great you know, I remember the first show I ever met you at was, it was Masato Tanaka and Shinji Otani versus, I think Carino and CW Anderson, that was an amazing show, by the way. Okay, great. Yeah, vast energy, yeah. And, you know, I we actually met briefly after the show, and I doubt you remember me all the way back then, but then, you know, now here, fast forward. What? 10, 12-14, years, here we are.
Rob Dimension 1:07
Yeah, it's been a long time, for sure, it's been, I think it's been 14 years, to be honest, because I'm 16 years now in being involved with pro wrestling. So that was probably 2003 I'm gonna guess ish somewhere in that area. I'd have to look back at it, but it's probably been around that time. So yeah, it's been, for myself in wrestling. It's been a crazy long time. You know, I've seen and done lots of stuff, so it's been very, very crazy.
Dave Bullis 1:08
Yeah, and, you know, I wanted to just bring that up, because I very rarely do. I actually have ever met anybody who's on the podcast. Usually it's, you know, people from all over the world. And it's just funny though that because now you're like, the you're, you know, I'm 116 117 episodes deep, and you're like, the third or fourth person I've had on who I've actually met in real life.
Rob Dimension 3:51
That's great though you're actually, you know, you're, you're, I mean, podcasting is really, I don't know. I feel like it's, it's a flooded market, but it's a very lost art, because so many people go on, and I don't know if they really put together the best show, but I feel like you're trying to create. You're trying to bring positivity to a lot of filmmaking and stuff too, which is great, because, you know now, with everyone having cameras, anybody can really make anything. You know what I mean, and and I think that there needs to be some sort of motive for people to want to go out and actually make movies and put forth positive effort. You know what? I mean? There's so much that can be done out there. It's insane.
Dave Bullis 4:29
Yeah, and one thing I always tell people is, you know, there, there's a, I think it's a half a million or something, that they're of podcasts on YouTube, I don't know, YouTube, iTunes, and out of all of them, the number they usually stop at, like, I think, seven episodes or five episodes, and they usually stop so there's a ton of podcasts. Some are just, you know, they're artifacts now, legacy, you know. And they, there's nowhere you know, they're they just sort of given up. And other podcasts, you know, have just, you know, kept, kept going on. Yeah, and you know, that's I've always wanted to dig deeper into why, you know, and one of the reasons why, I mean, I've done podcasts in the past that we've had to quit, and you know, Reason is time, time and logistics. So whenever I'm telling people about podcasting and putting them together with, especially friends, you know, to make sure that everyone's into it, because, you know, you don't want to be sitting there, right? You know, everyone in the same room, you've driven, like, half an hour to an hour, and then you're like, Man, where the hell is Dave at he was supposed to be here, you know, half an hour ago. And it's a lot like filmmaking, you know, Rob, it's, it's, you want to have people that you can depend on, if you're, if you're going to take it seriously,
Rob Dimension 5:36
Yeah, you know, I've had several ventures in podcasting, myself and Steve Carino, who we've talked about, we did the extreme odd couple podcasts, and that was really successful. But what happened was, is that Steve moved to North Carolina, so I was more of a fan of being able to podcast with someone in the same room, more than just via telephone, you know, or via Skype or whatever. And they just kind of fell apart, you know, where he I don't know, like, I feel like the what made the extreme, odd couple podcasts successful was that we both were kind of grumpy, you know, and, and he had gotten married and had a new a new son, and he just wasn't, wasn't miserable. And to be honest, I wasn't miserable, you know. So it just kind of like lost some magic. We kind of like lost things to talk about, because our interests really aren't the same. I mean, while we both were involved with pro wrestling, and that's kind of where it stops, you know, he likes baseball, I really don't, you know, I like horror movies, he has no interest in that whatsoever. With the comedies I like, he really doesn't like we both, you know, has interest in stand up comedy, but that's kind of where it stops. And then other ventures that I had, I was involved with Monster mania radio, and that became a time issue, just like you had said. And then I've had other opportunities with people, and they just kind of flake out, you know. And I know that I try to do one on my own, and I really, I really tried to make it more of of a 45 minute sketch show with characters and stuff. It was really a bizarre kind of thing. That was my last venture. And I was like, you know, why am I doing this the podcast? And why am I not doing this on video? Instead, that kind of brought me to where I am at now, where I'm kind of trying to do that, but podcasting, it really is very proper dedication, you know. And I do agree that, I think that they said originally that the average podcast gets like seven listeners. So if you're doing more than seven listeners, you're doing great, and it's very It hurts, your bruises, your ego, you know, you know, you put together, put forth this effort to make this great podcast, you get like, six listeners and just like, What am I doing wrong? And not that you're doing anything wrong, just that there's an array of, you know, material that's out there, and everyone because of the fact that you can actually podcast in your phone now, there's, there's so much variety that's out there, and everybody's doing it. It's crazy.
Dave Bullis 8:01
Yeah, very, very true. You know, that was something a couple episodes ago I had on Paul petito. And Paul is a college professor, and he was saying, he was saying the same thing. He goes, you know, all my students always ask me, How the hell do you stand out? You know, how do you go on iTunes? How do you get that and and I said, you know, I've had so many people on the show, and they each have their own method of how they have how they went about doing it. And some use aggregators, you know, some, some basically just use the concept to sell it, because it was so outlandish. And they knew going in that this was an outlandish concept and that people were just going to talk about it. And you know, to doing podcasting now where you know, I mean, I didn't even know how many podcasts were out there. And you know now that, you know, people sort of come to me and they asked me about, you know, starting a podcast. I've been doing this for about two years now, and they say, you know, what? What mic should we get? What board should we get? And that's why I'm writing this whole because there's all these articles I'm writing, and they're all free, and I just go into the basics, like, you know, because I don't want to, I think if anyone's out there, you know, who's thinking about starting a podcast, I don't want them to rush out and buy all the really expensive microphones. And, you know what I mean, like, I think that there should be a sort of a litmus test where you test it out for, like, you know, 1010, or so episodes, and if you like it, and you have the funds go out and buy all the expensive stuff. But if you, I mean, if you're just going to start, you know, you might as well just use the basic stuff and just see if you like it. If you know what I mean, Rob
Rob Dimension 9:28
Yeah, I do know you mean. I feel that what happens a lot of times is we live in an immediate society where we need to have results immediately. We need to know things immediately. No one really wants to work for it. So, you know, I actually also have done the same thing where I wrote notes on Facebook that here's how you party podcasts, and it's very, very simple. You get yourself a microphone, you get yourself audacity, and you sign up for a hosting site, whether it you know, blog talk or whoever. You know, there's it's really simple, and you just learn how to edit your podcast. Go from there. But I also feel that people need to do their homework, and I think that that's what when you have when you're successful. I feel like you're an example of someone that's done their homework and didn't rush into it. When you're not successful, most times it's because you didn't do your homework, you asked a lot of questions to the wrong people, or you maybe just took the cheap way out. And sometimes you just can't do that. Sometimes you have to put forth effort. I know that, like, I just started on YouTube for for example, we've always had stuff on YouTube, but I started dedicating time to that. And so I've done homework about how to make, you know, thumbnail cards and just every little possible thing about what the duration has to be to get the most views and stuff like that. And I, I put forth a lot of effort. You also have to put forth money, you know, I put forth, you know, 30 to $50 a week of just Facebook advertising to try and get people to get subscribers. And I'm not really looking to be, you know, YouTube famous or anything else I actually, you know, went on like a mini rant on Twitter about this, is that I just want people to be aware that, you know, there's so many people that want to create, and everyone just sits there, and no one really moves. It's like, Oh, I really want to do this. I really want to do that. Well, what's stopping you? Like, I'm creating content on YouTube for free, like I'm not, I'm not monetizing it, because I really don't have much of an audience yet. So what's the purpose of monetizing it? And some people say, Well, you know, it's gotta be worth something. But in the in the beginning, I feel like I just want to share, I just want to create, you know? And so that's kind of the concept of trying to learn what you want to do, and then kind of starting out from scratch and going forward. And I'm not young, you know, I'm 45 so I don't know. I definitely think I'm the the right demographic for a creator on YouTube. You know, most of the creatives creators are, you know, late teens, early 20s. That seems to be the demographic of viewers also. So I'm, I would say maybe, you know, looking at an older fan base. But I feel like the material that I'm creating is stuff that you might see on Adult Swim, or maybe geared towards, like, you know, I don't want to say a Saturday live, but maybe, you know, just it's a different type of of material that's out there. It's not simple vlogging or anything like that. And that's to say that that's simple, but I'm trying to actually put forth, you know, write scripts, have content, and I'm doing it 234, times a week. So it's a lot different,
Dave Bullis 12:42
Yeah, you know, yeah. And that's great too, because you hit on something, which is you just wanted to put out, you know, great material, you know, you wanted to do what you wanted to do. And I think that's how a lot of YouTubers got started, you know, I actually know the person who represents some of these YouTube personalities now, because they all have lawyers now, because, years ago, a friend of mine, his name is, is Chris Peter Minko. And Chris actually used to represent Numa Numa. Do you remember the Numa Numa guy?
Rob Dimension 13:13
I don't know. Okay, I never, I never watched YouTube like and I think I had the same perception that I feel like a lot of people has, and I what I found is that not not to change the subject, but what I found is that most people associate YouTube with young audiences, music videos and just people complaining on on YouTube or doing dumb things. And there's really a whole wide, I mean, for every one minute, from what I understand, every one minute, there's 48 hours of new content added every minute to YouTube. And it's, it's mind blowing, how much stuff is out there. And if I mean not to say that, you know, like they have the deep dark web, but there's actually a deep dark YouTube, we know when you start to chase that rabbit down the rabbit hole, and you're, you know, clicking for this and clicking through that, and all of a sudden, you're just like, What did I just watch? There's so much variety that's out there. It's crazy. And I feel like, for me, I'm excited about it, because I've seen so much creativity that, I mean, of course, there is the stuff that I just described, like the people complaining and doing dumb stuff, but it gets views. And I'm not just particularly looking for views for hahas. I'm looking for views to build a brand so that when I do turn around and make my next film, that there is a built in audience there that I can capitalize on.
Dave Bullis 14:39
Yeah, you know. And that's a very good point too. Because, excuse me, I, you know, I thought about that too, even with this podcast. You know, at least there is a, you know, a fan base. If you ever did want to turn around and crowdfund something, there is at least a fan base. Who knows who you are. Because, again, you know, I always tell people this, you know, crowdfunding is, is, is sales and. Sales are all about relationships. And then, you know, I on my, I don't know if you get this, Rob, but on my Twitter, constantly, I'm getting people saying, hey, check out this. And I'm like, Who the hell are you? These people like some, some random person from like Norway is telling me to check out their project about mirrors. Or some company from Japan is telling me to check out their new robot toy. I'm like, what? How did they even find me? Are they just going through Twitter and going, you know, mass per, you know, going, copy paste, copy paste. Well, yeah, that's exactly what they're doing. They're just, you know, pasting tweet, send that out, you know, and that, you know. And I, honestly, I think they're the same people who their crowdfunding fails, and then they go, Oh, gee, crowdfunding doesn't work. And, you know, that's because they didn't. They didn't focus on their pre launch. They didn't, which is, you know, building that fan base up.
Rob Dimension 15:47
Yeah, you know, crowdfunding has changed. I crowdfunded three times, four short films, and was successful every time. Our last film rabbit hole, we literally met our budget within, I think, like, 30 hours, which was crazy. And I was, you know, I'm really grateful for that, but for me, I feel like there's a couple different layers of it. Is that one of not doing really horror right now, and I'm focused more on comedy, which is weird so, and I'm not trying to abandon that fan base, but now I kind of have to kind of start over from scratch a little bit and build on to new people, because you're going to get like, let's say my audience is is split now, because 50% of people say, Well, if he's not doing four films, then I don't really, really care. And the other 50% are like, okay, cool. So let's say now that I started with a pool of 100 people, just as a number. Now I'm only at 50. Now I have to build another new 50 of people that actually care about comedy, that I might be able to catch some of that new 50 that actually care about or also that actually can, can kind of depending on where I go in the future, it might benefit, might benefit me also. So there's a ton of pride, and I do feel like I know that I get more of people messaging me on on Facebook for like, Oh, check out my check out my thing and stuff. And I do feel like a lot of people crowd fund the wrong way. The days of of you know, people donating $100 for a DVD are completely over, completely you. You don't have your your base perk, she you should have $1 perk, a $5 perk, a $25 perk, or either 25 it's usually the average for a DVD. And you know, you can do 10 for a digital download, and then you can work your way up and stuff, but people have to be. The big problem with with crowdfunding now, since we were talking about it, is that people don't finish, people don't come through at the end. So there's so much, so many crowdfunding projects that are out there that Who do you trust? And that's the hard thing is like, I feel like I have a proven track record. So it's a little bit easier. If I was to say, like, hey, I want a crowdfund for 10,000 for this movie. I think I can probably get 10,000 for it, because you need, first of all, you need to have a slick if you're filming, if you're making movie, you need to have a really slick trailer. And I've said this for years, the trailer that you're going to put together for your for your pitch, your pitch trailer is going to be an example of what the finished product is going to look like. So if you don't have something that looks good, if you shot it, it looks shoddy, but it's not lit well, if the sound doesn't sound well, if there's no thought put into it, if you're just putting the camera on you and you're talking, it's not going to work. You have to literally spice it up, which means, you know, if someone put, if you watched, if you watch TV, and made a commercial McDonald's, and McDonald's showed just one of their normal hamburgers that you get when you actually go to the store, you go there, you would say, I don't want that. But then, you know, when they have it artistically done with all the lighting and all the bleached colors and everything else, the dyed lettuce knowledge, and you're like, oh, man, that's what I want. It's the same theory you're just creating, you know, a look, and you're trying to show people, this is what I can do. So you can invest in me and know that I get it. And it does help that you have a brand like we're discussing, it does help if you have that and people, and you built trust with people, because if you build a trust with people, then they know in the end that you're not going to screw them. And that was the one thing that I was really curious about, was like, Look, if I'm taking anyone's money, I'm a very honest person in real life. I just am. I have then I, you know, I went to a Catholic school and saw the ninth grade and, you know, I did everything. I'm an adult. I'm a parent. You know, my kids are good. The whole thing, like I'm just not a scumbag. And sadly, that there's a lot of people that do off of the crowdfunding that just take the money and then never complete the project. And that makes me crazy, because I'm like, you're, you know, you're mucking up the water. You know, crowdfunding water, at one point was was crystal clear, and now it's just muddy and murky, and I see it so many times, especially within the horror community, but it's everywhere. It's just because I'm more involved in that community that I see people on the way at the year later, I'm still waiting. Oh, this guy just banners. You know what I mean? Like you just see it all the time, and it makes me crazy. You have to fulfill the promises that you make. And it's, it's really not about, I mean, you think anybody could crowd fund anybody, but if it looks slick and you're and it's not always a guarantee. If you hire, you know, a B actor that and you know your favorite horror movie, if you hire that person, it's not a guarantee that you're still going to make your budget. You have to really collaborate with other people and put together a solid project to make sure that you're going to get what you asked for from me. I worked with artists to make sure that I had artwork available. I, you know, posters. I worked with sound design guys I had, you know, and a lot of times the art, the the actors that we dealt with, our last one that we did, we did a dark comedy called Mortimer Trump played, you can actually see on our YouTube channel, I'll plug it real quick and go to youtube.com, backslash Rob mentioned she go to that, and you see, like, what had happened was I had, I just, I didn't crowdfund for that at all, but we use The sag actor in that, and I really like it, but because it wasn't, or it didn't do well, and I said to my wife, I was like, you know, I don't think I'm going to bother crowdfunding, because I really didn't have any special effects. The amount of money that we do affects was like 1000 bucks. And I was like, we'll just cover that. And then I tried to do something different, and I see a lot of other people doing it now, where I pre sold copies ahead of time. I had shot some stuff. I had some stuff in a can, so I was able to put together, like a little trailer, and I pre sold copies of the DVD, not for anything higher than what they would be. I think it was like 10 bucks. So, because it's short film, so I was like, am I pre film for 10 bucks? I'll make it. I was able to pre sell. I had a limited edition DVD cover that I was able to offer, and I think I offered an extra disc at the same time of whatever I had on it. I don't remember it was last year. And so, you know, I tried to put forth the effort, and we were successful in the with that. And I feel like that's another avenue that you could take with crowdfunding, is that you can pre sell. It's not always trying to get all the money up front. You could work on the project, and then, you know, on the back end, try to recoup some of the money that you may be invested. Just go in knowing that there's a really good chance you're not going to make it. But in order to create sometimes you have to, you have to invest in yourself, and I'm a big advocate of that. If you don't, if you don't invest in yourself, why would anyone else? That's probably the best saying that I think I've heard in in quite a while,
Dave Bullis 23:13
And I agree wholeheartedly. Rob, you know, if you people ask me about crowdfunding, you know, I started crowdfunding when Indiegogo was in its infancy stages, and I used it to crowdfund two projects. And every other question was, what, what's crowdfunding? And the next question was, what's, what's Indiegogo? So now, you know, when everyone has their own project, you know, it's like, it's, it's maddening, because now I'm like, you know, when I remember when I started doing it, everyone was like, Oh, that'll never work. You know, the crowdfunding is never gonna become big. And now look at it. You know, the word Kickstarter has entered the lexicon. And you know, it is, you know, and so. But what I'm trying to say is, whenever somebody comes to me to ask me about crowdfunding, I always tell them, how much money are you going to invest yourself into this project? And they usually say, well, well, well, nothing. Because they don't want to invest. They don't they don't want to pay to for anybody, like an experienced cinematographer, to come help shoot the pitch video. They don't want to have anybody come to help to graphic design. They don't want to have a crowdfunding consultant come in and tell them, you know, this is how you have to do this. They want to just, basically, you know, pre planned for like a week, launch the thing, and then someone in just money, drops $50,000 into their lap, and then they go, Okay, now we have the money to make what we are promised. And I say, you need, you have to figure out a way to get that seed money. Because even with like veg, even with like startups, whether they don't go to VCs right away, venture capitalists, they go to the first people that they always go to are themselves, and if they don't have any money, they go to their friends families. And if they don't have any money, they go to angel investors and grants and stuff like that. So I always tell them, though, if you think of a crowdfunding campaign now, like you were like, like you were starting a actual. Startup, a lot of the same tactics are the same across the board. There's parallels, because you have to figure out, you know, where are we going to get this seed money? How are we going to do this? And you and basically, it's the same thing as even auditing, you know, you have to, you know, some startups, they order, or most startups audit themselves monthly with a crowdfunding campaign. That's the same thing. Because you're, you know, you're, you're, you have a movie in mind, let's say, and we have to have, we have to raise the funds, and then we have to start the shooting dates. We have to set this, you know, and then when we end this, okay, now, when are we going to distribute it to every, everybody? So you got to have, you know, a pretty detailed plan in place. And I think that's where a lot of people go wrong. And, you know, you mentioned when, you know, people don't come through with their crowdfunding perks. You know, I've seen that too. And where I've seen that most is in when they crowdfund for, like, video games, or they crowdfund for like, some kind of odd, maybe like an oddity, because there was a, there was a guy who crowdfunded for some book, and the book was a huge success, and he didn't know how to deal with it, like he literally did not. He couldn't, like, figure out how to, how to deal with it. And he actually told people, you're never getting your books. I, you know, I can't deal with how to get all these, these orders, you know, made. I mean, it was just, you know, it's a shame, because some of that stuff is, you know, bloggers pick that up. Journalists pick that up and it makes, it does. It makes, you know, like you said, it muddies the waters of crowdfunding for everybody.
Rob Dimension 26:26
Yeah, and I feel like, if you're gonna crowdfund for a film, you need to think about pre the filming and then the posts. So after you're movie, what are you gonna do? And what makes me crazy? It makes me crazy when someone crowd funds and to finish the movie, and then they crowdfund again to complete the film. That makes me crazy like you that just prove that you are a core planner. Proves that you are a poor planner. You have to if you're going to crowdfund, crowdfund for the total in the beginning. Just make it simple. This is what I need. And if you're going to lay out a game plan, this is what, this is what I need. Let's say you're gonna make a short film, and you need 5000 bucks, okay, to create this film. Now you also have to play and say, Okay, well, I need X amount of dollars for the DVD. I need X amount of dollars for the person that's creating the DVD. I need X amount of dollars for the artist that's creating a cover for the DVD and the supply I need X amount of dollars and a distilment to film festivals. I need X amount of dollars for to make the t shirt for that promise. You need to make sure that you completely write out a detailed list of everything that you need so you don't have to go back to that well, because nothing is worse than saying, Hey guys, I know that I asked for this amount, but now I need to ask for a little bit more, because it makes you look incompetent. And it's the truth. It really does. It does. It's very unprofessional. And no one wants to give money to someone that's unprofessional. They just don't, you know, it's very, very it's a flooded market for for crowdfunding, you really have to have your shit together to be honest. And if you don't, you're not going to succeed. And I see so many people try and fail, and they'll they'll complain about how no one supports anybody, and blah, blah, blah, and it's like, Look, man, you're missing the points. Look at what you've done compared to what other people do. And I'll talk about another thing is that people get really mad when someone like Rob Zombie crowd funds. And the bottom line is this, the same person that's going to crowdfund to mine is probably not going to crowdfund to Rob Zombie Rob Zombie crowdfunding. He has this built in audience. He's smart. He's using that money. And if the fans want to invest that money, who are we to tell people how to spend their money? That makes me crazy. If Rob Zombie wants to crowdfund, let him crowd fund. Let him. Let him use that. Let him use that platform to make the movie that he wants for the people that want to see it. Because he's not making that movie if those people don't want to see it. That's what he's doing. It for the same reason that you are sure is it was crowdfunding designed for the little guy, absolutely. But if he has the capability to reach out to his fans, and his fans want to pay for it, then let him do it if, if anything, it's only going to draw more attention to crowdfunding. There's a positive to that. It's going to draw more attention to crowdfunding and successful crowd punch. Oh, did you hear about Rob Zombie? Oh yeah, his new movie, 31 I didn't hear about that. Oh yeah, you raised money through the fans. Oh, really. How did he do that? You know? I mean, like, that's kind of how communication starts. If the people on the lower level get so mad when he when someone like him uses that instead of saying like, Hey, let me see what he's doing. So I can capitalize on that, and I can duplicate what he's doing on a smaller level and generate the money, the money that I need. I can make a flip trailer. I can talk to artists. There's comic book artists everywhere your local comic book shop. Hey, is there any local artists around here? Yeah, well, and then talk to them. Chances are they're starving, just like you are. And if you say, hey, look, I want to do, like, some some art for this, for this thing. Okay, cool. You know, might cost you 100 bucks. So now it's $100 out of your pocket to invest to make it look a little bit cleaner, you know, I mean, like, there's so much, so many things you can do to add to your project that can make it look as fancy as Rob zombies. It's not like, you know, sure he has money in his pocket to be able to put it forth. But if you're trying to raise $10,000 for a film, you can make. You can raise $10,000 for a film by making a solid effort and making it look good and making it work look like it's worth 1000 It's just that when you when you want to raise 10,000 bucks, and you gather your friends and have no lighting and have shitty sound, and you film it on your phone, your crowdfunding video. No one's going to donate because it sucks. It's the God's honest truth. And I feel all the time, you know. People say, Well, hey, share my project, and I'll just go look terrible man, like you didn't put forward in any effort. And they go, Yeah, you know. But we just need money to get started, you know. Well, then maybe you need to make smaller projects to build a portfolio so that you can then go on to the next project. You know, you can. You could use YouTube to capitalize on that, where you could make a three minute short film with something with some of your friends, and have lighting and learn about that, and you could put that online, and maybe that gets 3000 views, then you could be like, Oh, that worked out pretty good. Let's do another let's do another one, and really not invest much. And then all of a sudden, you can turn around, in a year's time, and you can say, hey, look, this is what I've done now, this is what I want to do. And people be like, oh, yeah, I saw that. That was really good. It's just baby steps. It's not like instant gratification. You're just not going to be able to not be a filmmaker, and then say, oh, I want to make a movie now that doesn't happen that way. You have it's a gradual process. If you are a filmmaker and you're taking the cheap way out, don't always be mad when when you don't meet your goals, because you're not always going to meet your goals. Sometimes you have to say, Well, I wanted 5000 that gave me three. So now what can I do for 3000 instead of being like, Oh, well, you know, I blame Rob Zombie? Well, you can't just blame Rob Zombie. There's a million factors that are going to fall into it. So, you know, you kind of have to take some responsibility on your stuff. A lot of people don't want to do that. So I know I went off on a rant, but it's just.
Dave Bullis 32:33
Rob it's okay. I actually it happens on this podcast. I bring out the rants and people. So the other body as like, I bring it.
Rob Dimension 32:42
I'm very passionate about, you know, about maintaining integrity in any, in any kind of genre that we're in. And you know, for me, the horror genre is very, very it's important to me, because I love I've grown up on horror films my entire life, entire life. And when I started, you know, I've spoken about a lot of times that I was depressed, and when I was really depressed, my life was falling apart. I wrote a movie, and I made that movie, and I was fortunate where I had enough of an audience already built in, because I had done things within the horror community where it wasn't really difficult to raise. I think I raised, like, 2000 bucks for no planning around which is also available on YouTube for free. And, you know, I just wanted to make this movie that was kind of my life, you know, like, in essence, like it's, it's all the the images and stuff that are on there is, like, in some warped way, it's part of me. And then when I had success with that, I was like, oh, okay, well, let me try this other movie. I did baggage and but I was fortunate where I had a guy that, you know, had 25 years of cinematography experience, you know, help me. I had a director that Jeremiah KIPP, who was fantastic. He was there to help me. I was able to be the actor. And we really didn't need a lot of actors as part of it, because it's really a one story. We, you know, we had a good special effects guy, we had lots of health we were able to get a house, you know, for free, you know, like everything that we were able to get, we just kind of fell into place. So a movie that would have cost me 20 5000s because of the cinematography and all the bills and stuff that we would have had cost me like 4000 so I was able to put forth this great movie. And sometimes you're going to fall into opportunities like that. And then with rabbit hole, I worked with another guy named Michael Mahoney, and that was another film where it just, it did really, really well, because it's so bizarre and so weird. And again, we just kind of fell into the right people. So, you know, you kind of got a, you have to have some sort of of pride. And I do take a lot of pride in it. Now that I think that I'm kind of venturing towards comedy, I feel like I have a lot of pride in that too. That's why I won't put I'll never, ever say, like, if you're shooting with me, you'll never, you're never hear me say that's good enough, because that's just not the. Mentality that you want to have, oh, that's good enough. That's that's pretty good. It's good enough for what I'm doing. That should never be the case. It should be Is it is it good, or is it not? If it was not good, then redo it. If it's good, then run with it. So, you know, a lot of times I'll jump to YouTube, because that's, I know that. I know how much time that we really have left. But so I started YouTube, and this has been, like a year coming where I just kept saying, like, I want to do it. I want to do it. Aren't really what do. And finally I just was like, You know what? I was home by myself. I had the camera. I have all the sound equipment, I have everything else. I was like, let me just start filming stuff. So I started filming stuff on my own, and put putting together, like, 2 3 4, minute short shorts, like, you know, not really short films, but really weird things. And I'm kind, I can draw, okay, so I was able to do some special effects stuff. Like, because I'm, I'm influenced by a guy named Rob Schwab who did, like, Scud. He did the Sarah Silverman program. He's the director of the New Lego movie that's coming out, Lego Movie two, and a lot of people don't know who he is. And he did this rawless animation stuff back in like, the early 2000s which I just I flipped out or still, and I was like, I just want to do stuff like that. I, you know, like, like, Kim and Eric did their awesome show, like, very, very bizarre stuff. I want to do stuff like that. So that's kind of like where I started out at and now, you know, it's kind of warped into more stuff where I do some stuff, you know, like with which you would typically see on YouTube, but like taste tests or food challenges. But at the same time, I'm making shorts, you know, and different things, and I'm really happy the way that it's going, you know, but, but I'm just the one guy army most times, you know, it's, most of the time, it's just me with, you know, maybe my son will be here, and he'll be able to, he's 16, maybe he'll be able to help run the camera, or my wife, she can help run the camera. She can be in it, or whatever. So there's only, like, two or three people that are involved, and then often I'll edit it, and I'll do all the sign, sound design and stuff. But what it's really doing is being a filmmaker. I never was one person. You know, I was, I started out as a writer, and I was like, I'll write these movies. And I was an actor, and because of my wrestling background, I could act in front of a camera at least decent. So I was like, okay, cool. And writing, I got, I started out as a writer, like I worked for the Warner Brothers network, like when they first started lighting commercials, and I never really talked about that, but that's actually how I got my start. And then, you know, for directing, I just bought myself a camera and started messing around with the camera. And for lighting, I'm still learning your lighting, you know, lighting is really hard. And then for editing, I was like, Well, I can learn how to edit a little bit, you know. And then for sound design, I was like, Oh, I can kind of mess with this or mess with that, and it's just building pieces. So now what happens is, let's say that next year I want to make, I have like, three scripts for actual short films that I want to make. One could be a web series. And it's like, well, next year, I don't really need anybody, besides some actors, to film what I want to film, because I'm learning how to do it all on my own. You know, that's learning every aspect. And of course, I need other people, because I really would need, like, a sound design guy, and I would need other people involved, but then I feel like confident enough in my in my filmmaking experience and and everything else that I'm creating enough content, I feel like the editing, the editing style, is much different on YouTube than it is in in film editing on YouTube is much faster paced, and it can be way more abrupt, and it's acceptable there. Then compared to editing on film, because editing on film, people don't want to see like jump cuts and stuff constantly, but on YouTube, that's acceptable because you have a limited timeframe. You know you only really are going to get they say it's like two minutes and 40 seconds is like average, like view time for one video, and sometimes it's a lot less. I know that on some of mine, I get like, 33 seconds, like, sometimes it's a hit or a miss. So, you know, it's just a matter of trying to fit that. But I'm trying to learn as much as possible so that it makes me a more well rounded filmmaker, and plus, it's allowing me to be creative and do whatever I want, and with really, no real cost. I mean, we did a Ghostbusters episode where we did, like a short Ghostbusters thing and and all of the special effects. I drew all of this. Instead of having CGI, I drew Slimer. I drew the safe off car spell a man, you know, like and painted them and stuff. And then for the Ghostbusters outfit, I took a $5 painters outfit and spray painted it tan, and then in marker and cardboard, I wrote my name on the lapel and the Ghostbuster symbol and everything else then it should. I think all that's acceptable on YouTube, but it would not be acceptable on film. Obviously, I would have to take a different route, unless people knew ahead of time. Hey, this is what his style is. You know, I want to see more of that. So it's kind of like just kind of testing the waters. But I I just, on Friday yesterday, I released birthing an idea, and if no one thought it's the true creative process, and I've done some stuff on there, I did a Pokemon episode, because I find Pokemon is so bizarre. And now everyone's playing Pokemon Go. And I do a new thing called acting with Andy, which is, you know, basically like the Saturday Night Live skit with a guy that believed he is the world's best actor, and he's teaching acting, and he's terrible, but he's he doesn't understand that he's terrible. Everyone else gets it. He done. And again, that's just me in front of a camera, you know, with fake teeth and, you know, parted hair and in a Hawaiian shirt and the sweat pants that are up to my chest and, you know, and Croc, thinking that I'm, like, this amazing actor. Of course, I'm not, you know, at all. It really is this just taking bits from people that I've worked with in the past that drive me crazy, because they think they know what they're talking about. I'm just handling them, you know what I mean. So hopefully people will check out the channel, because I'm trying to look for subscribers so I can keep creating. Because I expressed this today. It sucks, and it's just like, you know, it's just like the podcast. That's why they stop, because you're just like, ah, you know, I like birthing idea was 74 seconds long. Okay? It took me an hour to just film, and then it took me another two hours to juice sound design and edit. So there's three hours worth of time in there for 74 seconds, like yesterday, like at the end of the day, I had like 30 views, and I was like, What the hell you know? Like, it's, it's, it's crazy to try and get people to watch. So if people go to rob dimension.com, the link is there. If they go to youtube.com, back black, Rob dimension, they can check out the stuff on there. And if you like it, give it a like, subscribe, give it a comment, you know, like all that stuff has a YouTube has a built in algorithm, just like Facebook and just like you know Instagram has now, where you know that stuff, the stuff that's seen more and that's that has more interaction, floats the top, so the likes and the subscribe and the comments and the shares and all that stuff. All that stuff helps, and I do put it on Facebook also, but Facebook has a very weird algorithm where they don't like you sharing videos, especially on your fan page. Like, if you notice now, on your fan page, you can't even share videos from there that you have to upload them direct to that otherwise they won't let you submit through YouTube on Facebook fan pages anymore. So it's, it's, you know, and I spent money. I've spent, you know, 50, $60 a week to try to get people to click on it. But it's tough, man, it's tough, tough, tough stuff to to get people to to watch. So all I can do is stay, you know, like, and I'm always, I'm always on deadline, always, you know, against the deadline where I'm, you know, for I think I new content goes up every Wednesday and Friday. So on Wednesday this week will be a new acting with Andy. With Friday will be a new dimension chat. So I'm already planning what I'm going to do, because I'm going to put up extra content on Monday and Tuesday, probably, and then I have Wednesday for acting with Andy, which I'll shoot on Monday next Friday, I'll shoot on Wednesday. So I'm always trying to be ahead of time, like today I'm going to shoot something for Monday and tomorrow and shoot something for Sunday. I'm trying to stay ahead of time. So it's tough. You know what I mean? Like, if anyone's ever done film work and you're always on on deadline, it's tough. It's tough to make sure you can't be lazy, you can't sit around feel like it's doing it today not gonna work, you know. So it's tough. And podcasting suck, man. I just decided that it's just not for me anymore, you know, like it's tough to constantly come up with guests, or to always have, you know, something to talk about, you know. And I do feel like it's just it's flooded, but everything's flooded, you know, every, everybody's making something because everything's accessible and easy to make now, just quality is the heart is the hard thing.
Dave Bullis 44:30
Yeah, very true. And, you know, with the whole Facebook thing, I remember that whole, you know, Facebook, actually, I think they said something in their announcements where, you know, because they're taking on YouTube head to head now, so they don't want anybody sharing any links from YouTube anymore. They've completely blacklisted YouTube. So that's what Jack they want to do, is they want you to upload it, and with everyone making stuff, you know, it reminds me of a talk between Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, and it was a panel interview, and somebody said, you know, how do I make something now, if the marketplace is just too crowded. And Robert Rodriguez, you know, said, just keep plugging away. And he said, You know this? And Tarantino said, Well, he goes, if you have something of quality, he goes, it doesn't matter how many people are in the pool, you will stand out. He said, trust me. He goes, I have seen it before, and it will always be that way where something of quality will end up becoming, you know, the top, you know, it will rise to the top. And I And honestly, I've seen that too in viral videos. I've seen people who've made one viral video, and they try to do it again, and they can't do it. They still have a lot of subscribers. You know, they have, like, a couple 100,000 subscribers, but their views, though, always, aren't the same as that one viral video. And, you know, even the number one youtuber in the world, you know, I've noticed a trend with his videos as well, which is Pewdiepie. I noticed a trend with his videos how, whenever he does an anthology of playing a game and commenting over it every, you know, the first episode always has the most and then the second episode. And literally, it goes in order. And you can actually look at the views as a as the as it goes down and down and down and down. So it's just, you know, it's sort of this things that I'm trying to pull out. You know what I mean, like of analytics and truisms and stuff that seem to be true across the board. And, you know, Rob, I know we're running out of time, but, you know, just in closing, I wanted to ask one final question to you, Rob, and that is, you know, if there was any advice you could give to anybody who's about to who's who wants to make films. Let's just say, you know, there's somebody out there right now who's listening, who has, who wants to make a movie. They don't have, you know, contacts, you know, and they don't have an idea yet, but they want to make a movie. They just don't know what to do. What? What advice would you give that person?
Rob Dimension 46:39
My advice would be to just do it. If, if you sit and you're always coming up with an excuse, you'll never do it. You have, there has to be a moment where you just snap out of it and you go, today's the day I'm going to do it. And you write down an idea, and you film something, and you do it. And if you're looking for connections, I tell people this all the time, because people will say, like, Oh, I really want to break in the movie. Well, you're on Facebook. Everybody's on Facebook. Facebook is people are always looking for zombie extras. As an example, looking for zombie extras this weekend. Why are you not there? So you should be there. You should be there talking to people, making contacts, starting out small, saying, don't expect to get paid. Just go because you want to go. You know, not everything has to be about money. Sure, it would be great if you could get paid, but you're not going to, because you have no experience. You just have to start doing it. I don't like procrastinators. I don't like lazy. Laziness bothers me so bad because I've worked, I've worked, you know, and collaborate with people that are just, they're just not go getters. They just have a million ideas, and all they do is sit and talk about it. And I'm not that guy. I've always been someone that I don't need anyone else. And it sucks to say that, because I've just been burnt so many times where you're just like, you know, oh, what? Well, what's going on? Oh, I can't make it today, you know, I got something else to do. And people just are committed. And then they want, then once you're doing it again, then they want back in it. And you're just, like, nobody, you had your chance, you know, like, I really, I don't need you. I'm good. So that's you have to learn to, first of all, be around positive people. That's number one, if you're around people that are always going to find an excuse for you not to make it. You're not going to make it. You have to be positive, and in turn, have to have positive people around you. And sadly, your inner circle is going to be very small, because the amount of people that are positive are very small because you live in a negative society. And that's just, that's the truth, it is. And I encourage people all the time, you everyone has a cell phone, everybody, and if you have, like, I have the iPhone six. The iPhone six camera is super, super good. You know, make a make some sort. And iMovie is this free. I think if you download on your phone, it's like five bucks. So there's no reason why you can't make an edit a movie, a short, two minute movie on your phone. No reason. The only reason that you can't is because you don't want to. That's it. You can say you want to, but if you're not doing it, you don't want to. You can have lighting, lighting. You can go get lighting. I think that those those aluminum lights that they have, like for construction sites or whatever, to like, $8 so if you can't invest, like, $20 to make a project, I don't tell you, then you really you're not cut out for it, you know. I can't tell you how much I lose on a weekly basis just trying to make little stuff. You have to invest, you know. And now for me, you know, I try to to involve other people, and it's hair, miss, you're going to get some people that are going to be like, yeah, man, I really want to help. And then you realize they really don't. You get other people that genuinely do want to help but you have to drop off the people that are that are the Yeah, the Yes, man, you know where they're the like, yeah, I really they're the Yeah. But people, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but if you're a Yeah, but person, you're never gonna make it. You have to be the Yes. I'm gonna make it kind of person. That's the kind of people that I want to hang out with, and I want to do projects with. And there's a lot of people out there you can collaborate with. Lots people are always looking for people that are genuine and that want to make movies for no other reason but to just create. For me, it took me a long time to realize that I want to create like, like I said, I'm 45 I really didn't get started, so I was, like, 37 years old. So it just hits you out of out of nowhere, you know. And I'm super, I'm super happy with, you know, I look back at my work, I'm proud. You know, like you have, there has to be a level of pride, and you can't just, like I said, Never, ever, never say it's good enough. Never say that. Just say, you know, if it's good, stick with it. If it's not good, then go back and redo it. You know, no one knows you're gonna go back and redo it, except for you. You know, when people are watching that movie, you're watching whatever. Let's say that me and you are doing this podcast right now, and you just say, You know what, I really didn't like it, and we have to redo it again. No one's gonna know it unless we say it. No one, yeah, except for us. So you have, you have to be aggressive and and, you know, upholding your standards and and pressing on and doing what you want to do. You know, like the too short man, we get one light, and it's not long, you know. And we never know when it stop. So I would like to see everybody you know be able to fulfill what they want to do. And that's it for me. But if you want to follow me, I'm at at Rob Dimension on Twitter, like I said, you can go to robdimension.com. You can go to youtube.com/robdimension and follow me on there. I am on Facebook. I'm on Snapchat at Rob Dimension. I'm on Instagram at Rob Dimension, everywhere is pretty much the same thing,
Dave Bullis 51:58
And I'll link to all that in the show notes to everybody. So you can stalk, you can stalk Rob online, and you know, it's just you, but, but, yeah, I'm gonna link to all that in the show notes. And you know, Rob, I want to say, you know, thank you so much for coming on. Like I said, I've always wanted to talk to you, and I'm so glad we got we finally got to, we finally were able to connect. It's been great talking to you. And I will talk to you soon, my friend.
Rob Dimension 52:22
Yeah, I appreciate that. I really I had great time, so I appreciate it.
Dave Bullis 52:26
Oh, my pleasure Rob. And yeah, I'll talk to you soon, buddy.
Rob Dimension 52:29
Okay, thanks.
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