IFH 806: Shooting Sharks in Your Living Room: The Art of DIY Filmmaking with Ron Bonk

Alex Ferrari 1:49
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Dave Bullis 1:54
My next guest is a filmmaker and founder and the head of the distributor, SRS cinema, his latest film, house shark is an Amazon prom prime right now, yes, I said house shark with guest, Ron Bonk.

Ron Bonk 2:10
You know, I grew up liking making up stories and I come out with friends. Didn't have a, you know, a film camera or a video cameras before, you know, video before camcorders really came along, and had always thought, you know, like that'd be the dream to direct movies, but didn't really take it serious. You don't think it was feasible, basically. So, you know, went off to school for a variety of other things, but after doing it for a while, long story short, decided that, hey, you know, I took the wrong route. The thing I wanted to do was to make movies. Meanwhile, though I had already, you know, had a bunch of years in college, you know, didn't want to continue in college, wanted to, you know, didn't want to accumulate any more debt. And so started looking into what, you know, how I could do this. And in the process of being self trained, you know, learning about film and how expensive was to make a movie, and looking at a minimum of, like, $100,000 to, you know, to shoot anything on film according to, like, the best, you know, sources, which, obviously it's been done for cheaper, but that's what I was, you know, hearing, you know, pretty much caught across the board at the time. And then eventually came across the idea of shooting on, you know, camcorders, which would become more prevalent, and they're still pretty expensive, and, you know, not as user friendly, you know, as they would, they would come to be but they, you know, I think of the first one I got was 2500 $3,500 this as VHS camcorder. It was really, it was solid machine. Did a good job, but, but it, you know, created an option for me. Maybe it wasn't that much, he just been so long. Maybe it was like 1000 1500 but anyways, I got that and started making movies on video. And, you know, proceeded from there. I've only shot a little bit of stuff on film. Never anything that was released. Was a little bit in my college, you know, into my college years, when I decided to become a filmmaker, I took a few film classes, but for the most part, you know, went from the analog video to digital nowadays, shooting on HD, for, she kills in 4k for house shark.

Dave Bullis 4:26
So, when you were in college, Ron, you know, did you actually try to film on campus at all? Like, did you try to, like, grab any, any of the equipment from, like, the AV studio or anything, just try to film anything there?

Ron Bonk 4:37
No, what did happen is, I had, I mean, I guess a little bit what I had shot or I'd been to school for four years, and even had associates in accounting. I was working on a criminal justice degree when I decided to switch over to film. So I for I went to a fifth year of school, but it was just a community college. They had a TV and, well, basically a TV classes. There. So, you know, we were, I was using their camcorders and their VCRs, you know, they like high end decks. We've been shooting at some beta cam for the TV stuff, you know, like the studio stuff. But, you know, was able to borrow their camcorder to shoot on VHS off campus. But I also took, there was an that was a Monroe Community College in Rochester, but at Brockport nearby, I took a single film class each semester, and we're shooting on film for that. So they had Bolex 60 millimeter camera that we can borrow. But the two things I shot on film, they both, I think I shot them almost exclusive within the apartments I was renting at the time. So and then the stuff I shot with video, I remember doing some exterior stuff of like, the apartments, you know, I was renting, you know, run it, I think, a different one each, each semester. No, maybe it was one over both semesters. But now I didn't really get down into the school unless, you know, there was stuff we were doing for the TV classes around the school. So it was a very short period. Didn't they really do a lot there? I mean, I really didn't get out there with a camcorder until I was out of school, you know, working full time in the antique business and invested in the camcorder and I shot a like an instructional video, first rose down in Florida for half the year, and then once I got back and shot my first feature, and that's when I really, for the first time, got out and was being artistic with a camera, you know, on a regular basis.

Dave Bullis 6:37
So Ron, when you were made the change from accounting and it with a Criminal Justice background to, you know, wanting to do, wanting to just go into film, you know, where people like say, what do they say today? Ron, you're nuts. Or like Iran, what the hell you thinking?

Ron Bonk 6:52
More so back then, but, uh, nowadays, not so much. I mean, there's still, you know, for this area, there's still people be surprised, but Syracuse has grown that the film community has grown. And there's a there's, you know, it's not that uncommon for there to be a sizable production in the area, you know, a few times a year. So if I say, you know, I make movies, you know, I produce and distribute features, I don't get like, back when I started off, I'd always get like, oh, pornos, you know, like, now they're, they're low budget, you know, horror movies. And a lot of people weren't educated, or still aren't even educated, to the fact that you could shoot on a similar brand, you know, VHS cameras, and distribute those movies. You know, during the 80s, you know, late 80s and 90s, but nowadays, like I said, if I mention it, you know, it's still true with surprise, you know, maybe a little bit of skepticism, but most part it's, it's more like, oh yeah, cool. And then I'll usually get a follow up, but like, Are you part of this production that they might have read about recently? You know, an area or something like that,

Dave Bullis 8:00
That's where you should say the Hell yeah, I am. Because, like, what I used to fill in parks and stuff like that, like people would, you know, they see you with a camera whenever you and I'm not talking about like a DSLR, but I'm talking about, like, anything that looks like a camcorder, you know, like a bigger variety of the camcorders, whether it be mini TV or digital. People associate that with, like, professional grade cameras. As soon as they see that, it's like, oh my god, this, this guy must know what he's doing. But you know when they're talking to me a little bit, do they know that I'm a complete lunatic? So what happens? So when I, you know, when I'm out filming stuff, we don't matter what it was, people would stop and they'd say, Oh my God, you got Are you filming some kind of movie? And I would just say, Oh, hell yeah, man. You know, no matter what I know what I just think, yeah, man. Why not?

Ron Bonk 8:46
Yeah! We just, I just to the Yeah, you gotta almost be like a chameleon, you know, he serves. So I'll adjust to whatever the setting is. So if I'm just, you know, say I'm meeting someone in a casual setting, I'll be more clear about what I do. But if I'm out of the park and someone seems interested, I might be like, Yeah, I'm shooting a movie, you know. Or I'm shooting a documentary, or, Yes, I am part of this group, or, or, for years, I can get away with, like, Oh, it's a, it's a college film, you know, if cops are interested, you know, anything. So, so, yeah, you kind of, it's kind of like, you know, he's equated to the Ed Wood movie when he was trying to get the church to, you know, fund his production, and he would tell him whatever they needed to hear in order to get that money. It was basically tell people whatever you think they need to hear in order be able to keep shooting, you know,

Dave Bullis 9:39
Yeah, that's so true. And you know, that's one of the benefits of being in college or just out of college. You can always say, Hey, I'm just shooting a student film, and usually everyone's kind of cool with that, like, Oh no, you're a student. All right, we'll be a little more lenient on you or if you call a location up, you're like, hey, you know, I'm a senior in college. I need some help with this. You know, people are, you know, a little more willing to help. You know, you try to get it. You have to do. You should want to get away with that and use that card as much as you can.

Ron Bonk 10:20
Sure, yeah. I told my nephews, getting ready to, he's a finishing up his senior year, and, yeah, he's getting ready to, you know, he wants to gear up and do his first feature. It's called Blind cop two. And there's no blind cop one. This is called playing cop too. And I told him to use that as much as possible. And he was like, really want people like, you know, nephew, there's being professional and stuff. And I told them the same thing. Said, you know, you you tell people you doing a college, you know, your college student making a college, you know, project or working on a college, the assignment. And you know they're going to be more forgiving, more willing to work with you, more you know, willing let you get away with more, as opposed to being like, No, this is a professional feature. Then suddenly, you know, it could change anything. Like, okay, well, how much you gonna pay me to use my location or or whatever?

Dave Bullis 11:10
And he also has the built in excuse to of, I don't know. So somebody goes, Hey, you can't, you can't be filming blind cop to out here, and he can go, Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm just a student. It's such a great Get Out of Jail Free card.

Ron Bonk 11:24
Oh, yeah, definitely it works with the, you know, everywhere from like said building businesses to the police, you know, like, Hey, you got a permit, you know, do you have permission to go into there? Oh, I thought it was public area. I'm just a college student. Yeah. And then most time, you know, you can get away with it. So you can, you can take that risk and hope you know, hey, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna give it a try, get in out there as quick as I can, and get some cool production values.

Dave Bullis 11:53
Yeah, exactly right. And then you can always say you're shooting a documentary. So it's kind of like I'm just shooting this documentary. But you know, when you were in college and you were, you know, filming things in your apartment and just using the locations you had, you know, what point did you, you know, start to sex? I know you mentioned you were in the antiquing business, and you kind of, you know, bought the camera. So what point did you start really taking this seriously?

Ron Bonk 12:16
I mean, I was taking this seriously when I was, you know, in college, I hadn't yet determined that, you know, that last year college, I hadn't yet determined that I was going to start making movies at camcorders. I remember even talking to someone in college about shooting on camcorders, and they immediately, you know, like a fellow student, but they'd been taking it for a few more years. You know, they're actually in film class, and they're Oh, no, no, can't shoot on camcorders. So it pretty much dismissed it. But, I mean, I was, you know, looking at it. It's like, okay, how can I go out there and turn this into a living and also, you know, make the movies that I wanted to make, you know, because I could easily gone down the route of, you know, shooting pornos or shooting wedding videos every weekend, you know, and both potentially, have a lot of, you know, like, a good income in them. But they weren't, you know, something was true to my heart. So I wanted, I was like, How can I turn still living? And, you know, initially it was, I'm going to make some so amazing that, you know, Hollywood be paying me to sit down Syracuse, New York and make indie films that I wanted to, you know, with the stories I wanted to tell to, you know, reaching the point after the first one was done, being like, there's not really, you know, any distributor I want to give my movie to that I would trust, that I'd ever see another penny out. So I need to become a distributor too and release my own stuff and and that's how it's gone ever since, you know, I might license out parts of the movies or or certain media rights, or do my own initial release and then a wider release of someone else. But you know, I still will make my movies and then do the initial launch on my own. And lately, with the last couple of you know, pictures, the initial launch is at least paid for the production, you know, if not more.

Dave Bullis 14:12
You mentioned, you know, people who like shoot wedding videos every weekend. You know, I had a friend who used to do that where he he would do it part time. He called it, you know, he would just go shoot a couple things on the weekend, and he would always be like, hey, look, I'm gonna make a movie, this and that. And he never ended he ended up where the wedding video gave ended up becoming his full time job. And he was just every weekend he was shooting a new wedding, and he never actually made a movie. So it's very easy. It's good. You probably avoided that trap, because it's very easy to kind of get to kind of get, you know, sucked into that. You know what I mean?

Ron Bonk 14:44
Yeah, you can go right down that rabbit hole, and it's hard to turn away from that kind of money. And the, you know, the weddings are weekends. You know, that's usually ideal time to shoot if you're doing low budget, you know, features is, you know, people you have the, you know, usually you have weekends off, people you want. Work on the movies. Have weekends off, you know, so, you know, unless you're going to take, you know, you know, three or four weeks stretch off from weddings and just shoot a feature, and it seems like it's doable. It seems like it's something should be possible if you really want to make a feature. But it's like, you know, having a job, you know, and paying, you know, regular job, paying your bills every day. It's, it's easy to be like, well, I won't work on movies today because I need to, you know, all my bills aren't paid this month, or I want to be able to go on vacation, or my kids need new clothes, or whatever, you know. So it's, it's, it's easier said than done,

Dave Bullis 15:36
Yeah, yeah. Very true. And you know that, that's why, you know, and I'm glad you didn't go that route. And I also, you know, I had an option to go that route, and I was like hell with that. I made many, many mistakes in my life, Ron, but that's not one of them. So, you know, just to start with, you know, with your career, you know, just starting back, like your city of vampires, even to now, you know, making, you know, she kills and house shark, you know, what are some of the strategies that you've used, you know, when you're approaching about, you know, not about, you know, writing and producing these films,

Ron Bonk 16:09
Strategy let me think I mean most of the movies that I've made, I mean pretty much all of them, you know, start off with an idea that I liked for some reason, you know, within the story and said, Okay, I'm going to write this out. And is, you know, and there's been scripts that I've written that I've never made, and some I've always dreamed of, maybe didn't have the money. Some, you know, I wrote and just said, you know, you know, I wasn't into, or later, you know, I plan to come back to and decide I was no longer into, or want to tell that story. But if I finish the script and I really was happy with it, then I was like, Okay, this is the next thing I want to make. And then you would go through the process of making so there wasn't necessarily, I mean, nowadays, sometimes I look for the strategy as far as, like, the stuff I produce, where I go, okay, if I'm going to put money into this, I want it to sell, you know. So if it's a movie I'm producing from afar, then, you know, there has to, there has to be more of a financial basis behind it. If it's a movie I make for myself, then it's more of like, Hey, this is story I want to tell. And I don't care if it fits financially into anything. And you know, you're lucky when that stuff cross over. It doesn't always, but you know, sometimes you just rely on a movie to, you know, hopefully come out extra cool, and it builds its own fan base and does reasonably well, generates, you know, at least a modest profit. And I've been lucky with, you know, the last two she kills in house shark that they both were able to do that, you know, she kills with a Grindhouse movie. You know, when there had already been a lot of grind house type movies out there, so the market was pretty saturated. I'd made it a few years earlier. It would have had a lot more potential. Would have, you know, it would have been a bigger release than it was, but it's still, you know, people responded to it. Well, I had people who had fans of my work for years, but this was something vastly different than I'd done before. But they, you know, you know, the fans spread. You know, good words about it. And, you know, continues selling, continues to build and and was able to, you know, recoup before I went even into the wide release and how shark people loved the idea, and they happened to be the most marketable idea that I had come up with. But I'd always want to do a Jaws movie. So I wasn't doing it because I was like, oh, you know, this is gonna be a big money maker. I was doing it because it was a, you know, it was a story I wanted to tell, and it was definitely, you know, the most expensive movie that I directed myself. And I was lucky that the campaign basically made enough money back to cover the cost of making it. And then, thanks to some outside sales, I was able to cover the cost of running all the media. Because people don't realize when you do like an Indiegogo campaign, yeah, you might make say you got 20 I like 21,000 how sure can we do like 22,000 so, you know, with all their fees and stuff, yeah, the production was paid for, but then it was like another 10 grand. I think it was actually 12 grand. And all the stuff that had been made for the campaign, we end up doing, you know, full printed blu rays and DVDs, you know, fully replicated VHS, and all these extras that I kept adding a stretch goals, like stickers and pins and patches and stuff like that. And, you know, once I got all that done, stuff done that, the extra sales I had were like, Okay, I'm pretty much back to even so whatever didn't sell from the campaign, I keep selling this bonus money, and that was lucky enough to get it, like, into Walmart and stuff, and have it do well in wide release. But I mean, it came out in August of last year. And just a few weeks ago, I actually got my first check from the wide release. So I had like, this modest profit from, but then I finally got the first check from, like the Walmart deal and all the other sales around there, because all the money it cost to release it, and all the money to get into Walmart and stuff like that, basically ate up all my profits, you know, for like, half a year that I had come in distribution, so living off, you know, all the limited release I do, and all the stuff I do direct with fans, and any additional house shark sales and the other movies that I made and stuff like that. And then to finally see in so much it was eaten up, it was still worth it overall. But it's, it's just kind of diverged from your strategy question quite a bit. But that's kind of where it starts. You start with that initial strategy of, you know, the two fold approach is a movie I'm making for myself. Then I'm not worried about making something that sells as much, but I still try to make sure it'll sell. You know, I don't want to lose, you know, like, if how sure it cost me 21,000 I want to lose 21,000 on it. I was, matter of fact, I was sweating. So it's great to get all that money back and have a successful Indiegogo campaign pretty quick there. But if it's a movie that I'm producing, strictly as a producer to put money into it, letting the filmmaker reach his own vision, bring his own vision to life with some financial from me, then I go, Okay, this has to be something that sells for me if I'm going, you know, is almost guaranteed to be a good seller if I'm gonna put money into it.

Dave Bullis 21:48
Yeah, you know, I've actually done a few Indiegogo campaigns myself. And, you know, I did it, you know, before it became like a thing, like it became like the word Kickstarter, crowdfunding became, you know, part of the lexicon. And basically, I always told people like, you know, once you start, you know, making the perks, you know, that are part of your campaign, you know, you're starting to, you realizing this is a big you have to kind of add that in beforehand. You know, you have to actually start to calculate up all those numbers and add them into the budget, and then what you have, you know, what you need, what you really need all that, all that good stuff. And you know that that's something that you know. I'm glad you brought that up, because it's always a good reminder. You know about that, that that stuff, because it's so easy to forget. You know, you're, you're focused on making a movie, and you're like, oh shit. Now I gotta, you know, but see, Ron, that's where your accounting degree comes in handy.

Ron Bonk 22:37
Sure it does. It does help a little bit. It's been, it's been a long time since you have taken accounting classes, but you know, coming out of, you know, coming out of those and going almost right into business. You know, for myself, immediately, it helped. It made it easier for me to do at least my own bookkeeping. I won't do my own taxes. Professional Accountant handle that, because they're, they're up to date on the tax laws and all that sort of stuff. But it does help, you know, with the with the bookkeeping going, okay, is this something I can apply to the business? And how should it be applied?

Dave Bullis 23:11
That's true. Ron and I thought, they can get Al Capone. They can get anybody.

Speaker 1 23:15
Sure exactly.

Dave Bullis 23:17
So you mentioned, you know, some of the Grindhouse movies, and he mentioned the, you know, some of the over saturation of the market. And, you know, sometimes, you know, maybe the markets a little over saturated. What have you, you know, what are some of the Grindhouse moves that you saw, maybe, when you were releasing, you know, she kills, that you were kind of like, you know, maybe there's too many out there. Because, I mean, I remember when hobo with a shotgun came out. I was, you know, maybe machete, you know, I'm really glad to see movies like that. By the way, get, like, a wider release. I don't know how many, like, you know, kind of clones of those were came out, but did you start to see, like, a lot of movies, sort of, you know, in the space of where you were, like, or we're going, you know, in the Walmart space.

Ron Bonk 23:59
Well, I didn't expect she kills again to Walmart, and I didn't necessarily see too many of the Grindhouse movies in the Walmart stores, but I think when I was really saying she kills, Machete Kills had come out around the same time and hadn't done really well at the box office. But I mean, I'd seen so many low budget movies, at least using that look, even if they didn't really have the, you know, the they didn't, they weren't really trying to be grand house movies, but they liked that look, so they'd all the grain and scratch and stuff like that. But we're really capturing the spirit of those movies. And then I had also noticed a lot of movies that were trying to be grand house movies were really more like 80s, you know, horror movies or action movies using, like a 70s Grindhouse look by adding, again, like scratches and grains and stuff. And that's not really what did the Grindhouse movies look like. They were very unpolished. But I mean, what movies? I mean, you mentioned hobo with shotgun. That was a good example. You know. That was movie that was it done really well. Father's Day was another one that had that Grindhouse look, or at least esthetic that people were associating with it. But outside of those, and trying to think, what other ones I saw before that, I don't remember the low budget title to just remember seeing that book so much. So I don't know if that really helped that really answered your question.

Dave Bullis 25:21
Well, you know, you brought up some of the the what I've seen a lot of recently is they're kind of like the throwback to the 80s. Now, I love the 80s, you know, I love the 80s horror and, you know, I love all that stuff. But now, I think there's so many attempts by filmmakers nowadays to make something look like the 80s. You're starting to get this kind of over saturation of the market, you know, I mean, and I think we kind of capped out at Stranger Things. And I think, you know what I mean, I kind of think now it's starting to get a little, I want to say, repetitious.

Ron Bonk 25:54
It could be on its way out, for sure. I mean, I've noticed that, I think I saw, like, my first article on, like, 90s horror, you know, we're gaining, you know, in popularity. The thing with 80s horror, though, is it's one of the most, I think, iconic decades for horror. So if you make a cool horror movie that has, you know, awesome, you know, horror practical effects in a, you know, cool monster carries that just sort of vibe. You don't have to necessarily be like, Hey, let me throw, you know, like nods to video games or, you know, a video arcades, or the clothing, or whatever, you know, into that. But you could still, there's a lot of great horror movies that capture the 80s vibe without, you know, looking like they were made in the 80s. So, I mean, I think that's something that could never, you know, get old if it's if it's done right, but, but over doing the nostalgia can certainly, you know, burn itself out on any you know, before the 80s, the 70s, you know, movies, not just the grind house, but, you know, 70s horror in general was, you know, was the hot topic, you know. And then I see it was a little more prevalent a year or so ago, but it still comes up. People were shooting movies on camcorders, old camcorders to kind of capture that 90s, you know, shot him video. Feel for their movies. And as amazing you could shoot on a, you know, an old camcorder and come pretty close with just that alone, tick capture and that sort of vibe. But, uh, it's all revolving, you know, there'll be another, you know, 510, years. We people, you know, in low budget, and then eventually moving at the big budget, doing nods to 2000 horror movies. And then, you know, the 2010 horror movies. And then it'll come back to the 70s again. Or, you know, it's just these fads and rages hit. And sometimes it's, you know, based on the current status of of the world or the country. It could be politically motivated. It could be, could be anything, you know, if we're facing war, you know, we're facing climate change, you might see more and more horror movies about that, you know. But they're got a 70s or 80s or 90s, you know, setting to them?

Dave Bullis 28:24
Yeah, very. And I think you're gonna start seeing a lot of horror movies come out just about the political climate. And I'm not saying that like any particular party. I'm not saying but I'm saying is the kind of diverse of how diverse of diverse? No wait, how divisive the nation is right now. You know how that, that's what I'm trying to say. You know what I mean, just trying, you know that that I think is going to be, which is why I think when the first purge came out, I think that was, you want to talk about, you know, wish fulfillment. I think a lot of people, you know, not that they would, but maybe they kind of wish they could, you know, one night we just kill anybody. You know what I mean?

Ron Bonk 29:03
It's an extension. It's possible, you know? I mean, when you're when you're a director, actor, or you're working in the creative field, I think you had to be a little bit crazy, but, uh, but, I think a lot of horror filmmakers are more closer to activists, you know, than anything there lot of times are trying to make a statement against, you know, these things that anger them. You know, lack of gun control and mass shootings. You know the Trump government, the worries over climate control. You know the the abandonment of the arms treaty with Russia, you know, raising the risk of, you know, potential war again. And, you know, we used to have the nuclear war used to hang over. I grew up in the 70s, you know, and into the 80s, and the threat of nuclear war was always there, you know. And that's. You know, people, lot of young people, they don't realize, like, how heavily that hung over society. So yeah, and you're seeing it in this, you know, like the Jordan Peele horror movies you know, you know, addressing social issues, you know, back to the forefront. So, yeah, it does. It does reflect the time the movie apostle, I thought was really good movie. Hope I'm saying that right. I've heard other people pronounce it different. Looks like apostle to me, the one on Netflix, you know, addressed climate change, you know. So, so you have people again, I think, like said, the horror horror filmmakers are are very much trying to make a statement, as much as they're trying to tell you a story that you know is entertaining, it scares you or makes you laugh, whatever. But in the end, you know, a lot of them make you think you know.

Dave Bullis 31:00
And I mean, and you did one that's a very good, you know, horror movie genre that to kind of put, you know, political or cultural, you know, protest or examination. And that's the, you know, the knowledge is horror in general, but, but also the the zombie genre, the sub genre, sub genre of horror. And, I mean, you know, if you look at Romero's, you know, film first three zombie films are all brilliant. You did Empire State Of The Dead and, and, by the way, I want to say, you know, this is a great idea, because I, you know, I one of those guys right now, Ron, I had an ideal, an idea years ago, similar, where you take a bunch of different directors and you put them together. You know what? I mean, each one makes a segment. Yeah, but I think that's a brilliant idea, man, that you know, just

Ron Bonk 31:46
Yeah, we should have done a little better, because I would have done, you know, like a United States of the dead sort of movie, and then world of the dead or something, where, you know, and encourage more shorts from other filmmakers. And maybe one day I will, but I was, you know, I was seeing so many people taking shorts and putting together, and the shorts didn't really have a common theme among them, and just turning them into anthologies. And I thought, what a, you know, we need, you know, someone needs to do this with a with a wrap around. And I wasn't first movie, you know, producer, director ever to do that, by any means. I'm saying, you know, it was being done, you know, VHS, I think for the most part, was trying to tie all the stories together. But I want these to have a very direct theme. So when you put them all together, it felt like you're watching one movie, not a movie by a bunch of different filmmakers with a bunch of storylines. When each direction and felt, I want each story to kind of propel this, the reach, yeah, each individual short kind of propelled us to propel the story forward. So, and then, and then I saw what I had to work with. And from there, I was like, Okay, what's the wraparound story I can make? So, game set rules, which basically, for most part, followed the Romero zombie rules set up, but, you know, basically what's happened the timeline, what they couldn't, you know, go on to explore like it was early on in the zombie apocalypse. That couldn't make it seem like it was like, you know, deep into it, or far end of it, or whatever. And from there I was like, and I had the base idea I would do something like soldiers, you know, trying to keep order, and using those as cutaways. And it was a harder one to think of a, you know, a theme for because, I mean, all my movies do have like a subtext to them, almost, you know, straight across the board. But this was a harder one, because I wasn't he was only contributing us, you know, a small portion of the, you know, the full project, but just the idea of the, you know, the Battle of the classes that would kind of emerge between, you know, those, you know, basically the government, and the individual factions that would rise up. And, you know, we pretty much address one, but, but they're one of the other shorts kind of had, you know, its own, like roving gang in it. And you know, where this battle power might, you know, might lead to, or, or evolve into

Dave Bullis 34:04
Yeah and yeah. And that's great idea too, because you do see some of the shorts, I really don't have anything you know, that that kind of ties everything together.

Ron Bonk 34:15
Yeah. I mean, what the one sure, the girl in the apartment, you know, faced with the the you uh, the the monument decision what to do with her sister, who's died, and, you know, is turning into a zombie, was very isolated, even the one, you know, when they were taking refuge, you know, basically in the in the room, and find that the dead body in There, you know, very, very isolated, very, you know, small, you know, centered stories. You know, many ways those actually were a little easier to plot out, as opposed to the wider, you know, expansive type of plots. You know, some of the shorts, but it gave. A wide the guy gave a wide range of, basically, you know, situations that the populace was facing in the in the face will face as repeat facing in the threat of this emerging zombie virus in society falling apart.

Dave Bullis 35:21
And you know, when you released it, you know, did have the type of reception that you were hoping for,

Ron Bonk 35:27
Yeah. I mean, the reviews, for the most part, seem to be positive. You know, the fall, you know, everyone who worked on it, you know, from the directors down on, you know, the actors and so forth. You know, all seemed to enjoy it. I was overall, pretty happy with it. Some of the stuff with the shorts, you know, with they were the wrap around stuff I was shooting, it doesn't always come out the way you wanted to. You're, you know, tight on money, tight on time. I think that's the biggest one. Usually you're, you're stuck at you're tight on time. So you shoot one weekend and something's not quite working right, you don't have the option to go back and fix it. You kind of pretty much make the decision to fix it on set and hope it comes out. Okay. So it was, it was, it was a fun project to do. I enjoyed it wasn't, you know, one of the ones that was, as you know, close to my heart as the others, but I was pretty happy with it. And I'll usually start with that, because I you know, sometimes, you know, the audience might not like it as much as you did, but if you felt like you told the story you wanted to tell, you know that I'm still pretty satisfied with that, you know, so, but yeah, I mean, what I've people like you who have told me that they they really enjoy it, and I'm always glad to hear, you know, any movie that I've made resonates with the fans. You know, my first movie, city of vampires, I still think it came out horrible. And isn't that just because it's not the movie that I wanted to do, you know, because it's because I was falling apart along the way. My first movie, first feature, didn't try to take on way too much, and lack the skill to to shoot that movie, right? But I'll, I'll still get people who will tell me that they they love it, and I'll just look at it and be like, I don't, I don't know what you love about it, but I'm glad that you do. Because you know, I would feel bad that you went out there and bought this movie and watched it and were like, Oh, it's a piece of shit. I'm happy here that you went out bought it, hopefully you bought it and watched it and got enjoyment out of and continue to enjoyment out of it.

Dave Bullis 37:31
Well, yeah, I mean, and you're, you know, you're very welcome and for the you know, everything, and it's just, you know, I have a friend of mine who made a zombie film, and it did not hit with a zombie genre. And to him, I was like, Dude, I was like, that's, that's your key demographic, right there, man, if you fail to get that, yeah, forget it. You're done. Yeah.

Ron Bonk 37:49
I think if you're gonna go something specific as a zombie movie, then you do have to cater to the fans. Now you could, you could try to set them off balance and go in a different direction they've seen before, and usually most fans will appreciate that, but sometimes, you know, you got to be careful. Yeah, there's there's limits and but anyone who goes out there and really tries to do something different with a genre or sub genre, I applaud them, even if the fans didn't get it, even if I didn't like it. Personally, I always appreciate that they at least tried it, because at least it because at least it gets you thinking about your own work, you know.

Dave Bullis 38:24
Yeah, right, exactly. And, I mean, you know, especially making something like, specifically a zombie film, you know, you have to, there is a specific expectation of our audiences and you know, and that's, you know, and that's why I think they may be missed, but, but, you know, it is what it is. But if you

Ron Bonk 38:42
Go out and make a zombie movie, would say, No zombies or no, you know, brutal zombie killings. And yeah, you probably run the risk of like, there's certain things you gotta, you gotta put in there, you know. So if you don't do that, then yeah, you run the big risk of your audience just being like, oh, that sucked. I love zombie movies, and you didn't have, you know, one good zombie gutting or something, you know. So, yeah, I agree with you there.

Dave Bullis 39:08
I had a friend. This is a true story. I had a friend who pitched a zombie film that had no zombies in it, and I said,

Ron Bonk 39:17
What's the idea when? What's the zombie angle of it? Then if there's no zombies in it.

Dave Bullis 39:21
You hear them. So they're outside. You kind of hear them. They allude to them, but you never see one. And I said, is there at least as a kill anywhere he goes? No. There's no killing by the zombies. And I'm like, I don't think anyone's gonna, you know what I want to buy, but I don't think any producer is gonna be like, Yeah, that's great. I mean, maybe they'll save money on makeup, but, I mean, would they really want to invest in something like that? I mean, so it was, it was like a one location movie with zombies, like surrounding the place, so you're hearing them scratch,

Ron Bonk 39:51
Maybe as a short or something. I mean, I could see it being real spooky, like a bird box, you know, type of thing or something. But you. But, but, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's definitely a fine line. I'm not sure if it would work. but, but, but, I love the idea of, you know, audience, you know, filling in the blanks. And they've certainly seen of zombie movies that they could, you know, they could picture it, but, yeah, that's a, that's a fine line. You got to really be skilled if you're gonna pull that off and make it effective.

Dave Bullis 40:31
Yeah, it's, needless to say, he never made it. I think, I think it was going to be such a fine line to walk. I don't really the only person I think that could have pulled that off would have probably been somebody like George Romero, because, you know, he went, you know, full tilt the first three. Maybe he made Land of the Dead. Maybe he, you know, and the rest of those. Maybe that was the next evolution. I don't know. But, you know, I think

Ron Bonk 40:55
I was gonna say, take, like, a Hitchcock or something. I think because he, you know, it's you need. You definitely need a master of you need someone who's a master of not showing the monsters, someone playing with everything else, the sounds and and having the audience fill in the fill in the blank, building up the suspense and tension.

Dave Bullis 41:18
Yeah, yeah. I'd or maybe even somebody like Christopher Nolan, or something that somebody like that, just somebody to kind of, yeah, so, but, but, you know what? I just, you know, I know we're running out of time, but, you know, the one movie I wanted to talk about, which actually got us talking is, is house shark. You know, I saw the trailer was up to, like, what is it? Almost a million views now.

Ron Bonk 41:42
Yeah, past a million views, I think, like a week or so ago. It was right around the time I announced that it was getting close, and then suddenly it was over, like, really quick. So, yeah, that was, I mean, it was in part due the fact that movie web covered, it hosted and everything. But it was cool to have a trailer reach that milestone.

Dave Bullis 42:02
So and by congrats, by the way, that is huge. Thank you. So Ron like, Where was the impetus for how shark in writing it? You know, because I know you wrote, you wrote it, you produce and directed it. So you know, where was the impetus, or sort of that idea, to come up with this?

Ron Bonk 42:19
Well, I'd always, as I mentioned earlier, I think, as part of this conversation, I was saying how I'd always wanted to do a shark movie. I always says, like, I want to come up with the jaws sequel. That's a, you know, that is the awesome sequel, you know. I mean, I loved, I love all the jaws movies in cheesy ways. For three and four, I wouldn't put in my movies, but two definitely is one of, you know, I think is a underrated movie, but, but I was trying to come up with a plot like, how could I do, you know, bring, bring Jaws back, and make it very cool and, and even, you know, like, a year or so before I start working on how shark had thought, like, you know, we have a Lake Ontario near Me, which you can't see across. I was like, Man, I could shoot on Lake Ontario and make it look like an ocean. Try to come up with a simple idea, you know, that was still effective, that would could be done within a budget, you know, within my budget levels, and make, you know, a cool shark movie. And then it was actually during the winter time. And I tell this story all the time. It's not like a great story, but this is really how it came across. Is we had this had been freezing temperatures for like, a week or two straight, and all this ice had built up on the roof of the houses and and my house particularly, get these loud booming noises. So when I looked up, I found out it was like the ice actually cracking, you know, on the roof. And I made a comment online about it, and and some, you know, some of my fan friends on Facebook were making comments back, and we're joking back and forth. And eventually I made this joke of zombies on a nice zombies on a roof movie that was basically like there's a zombie invasion, but all the zombies, basically, I'll just live on, live on the roofs of your houses, so they weren't really much of a threat. But as soon as I said that, I came with that, I that popped in my head. Was house Shark. Shark in a house, you know? And, and it hit me right there. I remember, I texted my producer. I said I got the title for my next movie. It's Kyle's house, sure, in a house, but it's done like, you know, like a shark out in the water, you know, except it's within a house. I was like, holy cow, I could do my shark movie that I've wanted to do, and I can control the location, you know, which is a big it was a big deal, you know. You know, when we work this low budget and you lack funds to have places unlimited stretch at a time, or even necessary very long periods of time to be able to shoot it, look at it, cut it together real quick, okay, what's wrong and go back and fix it. You know, so and then, you know, in Syracuse. Every time I forget how crazy the weather can be here, because, you know, we'll have days that are super hot and no clouds, and so you're getting these heavy shadows. And it's so hard to shoot outside, you know, especially it comes around midday out here, you know, without fill lights and bounce lights. So you can't really just go on location shoot, you know, running gun, it quick. It takes a little bit more effort than that. You can't necessarily shoot in shadows. Everything's blown out and then, and then you'll have tons of rain for days, and then you'll have, you know, be super cold and snowy and heavy snow. And then when you want the snow, you know, we'll get, like, a crazy early thaw or series of warm days just all over the place. It's, you know, the weather is just a nightmare. So to be able to shoot inside a house and control it, you know, it was just so much was appealing about it, but I thought it was a fun idea. I completely ran originally was gonna be more like a kids movie. My son had always given me a hard time about not being able to watch any of my movies. And I was going to make a movie that was safe for him to watch, and it was going to be done very much in this, in the style of that, that Super Eight shore, like a Super Eight shore, but like the Super Eight short at the end of Super Eight that they showed, you know, very cheesy, you know, going for a lot of humor, completely playing off the idea of what it is. It's a shark in a house. I wasn't going to take it that serious, but I didn't shoot that first summer I was intending to and over the course of the next year of revisiting it, I made it more and more grown up, but it still maintained very much that sort of kid sense. I wanted it to feel like a movie I was making if I had had a film camera or camcorder back in the late 70s, early 80s and got all my friends around the neighborhood to come and help me make a shark movie, you know. So it started as that, and then just rolled from there.

Dave Bullis 46:52
So what did you actually, you know, decide that you, you know, to everything with all the production dates together and stuff like that. I mean, I imagine you kind of had to say, alright, I'm shooting this in my house. I can control location, but you know, I'm sorry, Ronnie, are you married? No, I'm not okay. So that actually that okay. That actually helps out. Then I was like, no, just thinking. I was like, I don't know if you are or not. And I was like, okay, because I can imagine that would have to that's a whole other conversation, you know, of being like, Well, I had to tell my wife that she couldn't come home.

Ron Bonk 47:24
Yeah, hopefully you're with someone who doesn't mind you doing that. And I mean, when I have, you know, been shooting and was dating someone or with somebody, I never really ran into many issues with that. For the most part, it was pretty clear early on, like, I love making movies and this is what I'm going to be doing. And, you know, most cases, they would actually be on set or trying to help out and that sort of stuff. So that hasn't been a big issue. But, and originally, I wasn't going to shoot it, you know, in my house, I was trying to find a house to shoot at, and eventually it just made sense. I was like, you know, if I shoot in my house, I don't have to pay for a location. We're all there. We literally get up, go downstairs, start shooting it, you know. So all that sort of stuff just kind of came together throughout the throughout the process. But I don't remember what year, you know, I don't remember a year I shot off on time I had I'd have to go, go and look. But I know, like said, the summer before, I was going to start shooting it, and things weren't coming together fast enough for me to feel like, okay, I'm comfortable shooting right now, so let me take a year off and just develop it some more and take some more time to get the things I need. And like I said, a lot just changed in that process. But once you do set a date, and eventually, somewhere along the way, I settled on doing like the three separate chunks of shooting. We shot in August, then we shot in March, and then we shot in August again. So shooting over the course of a year, which was fairly stressful, because you always worry about losing an actor or something along the way, the people I work with, you know, they are always trying to get their acting gigs, or there's a chance they can move so far away he can't get them, or whatever, you know. But if it allowed me to also make the movie a little more leisurely, it was a bigger project, as much bigger project than originally 10am I was gonna do it for a few $1,000 and that's always the plan, with every move I'm gonna make this cheap and quick for a few $1,000 and then as you play around with and work with and expand on it, you know, the budget keeps growing and growing, and the ideas grow and grow. And suddenly I went from having, you know, basically a very simple shark to a more elaborate shark, and more scenes added to the movie, and, and, and it was very much like almost being back on city. The Vampir is going, like, Okay, I have to do too much stuff on this, you know, I'm lighting it, and I had people help with the lighting, but I was still in charge of lighting, and when they weren't there, which, you know, people weren't always there, I still had to go out and move the light. So when you're. Setting up, the camera sent the shot, and you're like, Oh, these lights aren't perfect, and we're putting all the lights outside and shining them in, I'd have to go outside, go around, adjust them if I didn't have someone to check them on the inside for me, then I have come back in and recheck them. Or if someone I was sending outside was supposed to, you know, adjust and wasn't getting it right, you know, I'd be looking through the camera. I'm trying to, you know, tell them, you know where to adjust it to, and sometimes just not getting it you know, between that, it's just physically exhausting. Focus so much on the shots. You're not always focused on the acting. It just, yeah, I mean, you know, it's when you're doing these low budget movies, it's you wear a lot of different hats, and it's exhausting, but it's still fun. I mean, we had a great time in that set. And that's not the big reason to enjoy doing it.

Dave Bullis 47:33
Definitely, Ron. And then you finally get to that spot where you're like, What the hell? Why the hell did I start doing this?

Ron Bonk 49:56
It's always those first couple days I'm like, Oh, I made a horrible mistake. And you're like, I'm in way over my head. Let me just cancel this production regroup, and I'll, you know, restart. And, you know, another week or two. And then you just like, now I gotta push forward. And then you hit your, you know, you start hitting your stride, you know, three, four days in. And then suddenly, you know, everything is going smooth. And you write only stuff off quick, and you're going back and fixing some of the stuff you know you did wrong early on. And you and next, you know, it's all done, and then you fall into depression because you're not in a movie set anymore, you know,

Dave Bullis 51:47
Yeah, right. And you know, because when you're on the movie set, you're like, you're actually doing it. There's no thinking like, am I actually making something? No, because you are. You can feel it, you know what I mean?

Ron Bonk 51:56
Yeah, you're really kind of like living the dream at that point. You know, you you don't have to. I mean, most cases, I still do, like, a little work every morning, keep things going, but in most part, you're able to get away from your regular job being sad. You're laughing, you with your friends. You know, you're eating, you know, a good food all day. And it's, you know, it's just, it's like being on vacation, you know, except here with a van, you know, with a camcorder, and you tell people what to do, and then it gets all done, and then you're like, oh, shoot, I got to go back to sitting in front of my computer every day.

Dave Bullis 52:32
Exactly right? You're like, I need this high again. How the hell do I get there

Ron Bonk 52:36
again? And I need to make back all that money I just spent making more money to pay bills. So, yeah, just, it'd be great, you know, someone paid for the production and paid for you to then take the rest of your what are the chances,

Dave Bullis 52:54
right? Yeah, that's, that's when you're really living the dream, man, that's what you know. You've made it. You know, Rod, I know where we've we're almost at a time, you know, we've been talking for about an hour now, you know, so run just to, sort of, you know, just sort of put a period to end of this conversation. Do you have anything you'd like to just to say to kind of finalize everything,

Ron Bonk 53:17
if you're looking for, like, a last minute advice or something, I guess, just, I've done that so many times. You could definitely look up old interviews and stuff. But if you wanted to track me down and stuff, look, you know, SRS cinema calm is the website, you can definitely follow me on Facebook. It's probably where I'm most active, Instagram, too, and and if you, if you, if you, my personal profiles max out. It's tougher for me to, you know, friend quest everyone but the SRS cinema Facebook page is, you know, great spot to stay up to date on what I'm doing. There's also, like a house shark, and she kills individual pages and trying to what else a little bit on Twitter, but any of the social media places work and looks up see I release a lot of other movies from filmmakers all around the world. And so not only you supporting my little distribution company by picking up these movies and checking them out, you are also supporting these filmmakers, because, you know, the more stuff, if I do well with them, I can license more works from them. In some case, I can pay him to make movies. And you're helping other filmmakers, you know, sometimes hundreds of filmmakers, you know, live, live their little part of the dream too.

Dave Bullis 54:41
And, you know, and that's a very good point. Ron and everybody. I'm gonna link to everything Ron and I talked about in the show notes. I know how shark, hey, my pleasure, Ron. I know how shark is actually on Amazon Prime right now. I'm gonna make sure to link to that in the show notes as well. By the way, Ron, I don't know. Do your poster, but that's exactly what the poster should have been. That is on the money, because you know why it's intriguing. It explains the movie, and it stops people in their tracks. It goes, What the hell is that?

Ron Bonk 55:11
It does. Yeah, catch a lot of attention. I had to, I actually paid a lot of money for that work to get done, but I knew there was a chance of getting into Walmart, and it really needed killer to make it happen. So, yeah, so sometimes you just, you got to put it out there. But I try to apply it to the project. I think the project is, I always try to do the illustrated artwork for the limited edition release that we do. And I do a lot of those, you know, where it's only 50, 100 or 200 units, you know, sold directly from the site, pretty much exclusively. Sometimes I'll list them the leftovers on Amazon, and might move, you know, 510, more copies there, or something like that. But for the most part, you know, you get them from my site with Illustrator, because that's what the fans that are close to SRS like the best. But then we'll do the, what's called, like the real are, you know, with the actors, or, in case, I'll shark with the shark and the real house and stuff for the wide releases, because that's what the retailers like to have on their story, on their shelves and stuff. So, you know, you just, like I said, you apply a strategy to teach release, you know, depending on what you're doing with each release at the time,

Dave Bullis 56:17
Right! Yeah, you're always trying to, you know, get as much eyeballs as possible. And I think, whatever. Yeah. And again, this poster is, does exactly that. Because I remember, remember, years ago, I actually had a friend of mine who, when he went to, he went to, like, AFM, and all those different places, and he was talking about pitching, and he goes, Dave, there's one thing I learned. He's like, if you don't have a killer poster, that sums up the movie. And just one image, he's like, you're sunk, no matter what it is.

Ron Bonk 56:43
Yeah, you gotta start there, the title and the image. And then they, they want a good, you know, short synopsis, having a killer trailer, like a one minute like trailer just shows the, you know, the money shots from the movie. And then they might not even ever look at the movie. If they love your artwork, they love your trailer. You can be a red box you know. You could be potentially in Walmart or family video or Best Buy or whatever, based off of just that stuff you know. And also help if you know you have a genre that they like, like Walmart does real well with these sorts of movies where our red box, how shark hasn't got into red box probably never will, because red box like more serious horror, you know. So if you have a serious like a paranormal horror movie with killer artwork and a gray trailer, then you increase your chances of, you know, getting it out on red box.

Dave Bullis 57:38
Yeah, right. And again, you talk about all those different streaming platforms and what they're all going what they're all looking for and you know, but I guess, you know, we don't run, let's say that for the next conversation. When you know, whenever your next film comes out, you let me know we come back on and we'll, sounds good. We'll keep this conversation going Ron.

Ron Bonk 57:55
Sounds good. Thank you.

Dave Bullis 57:56
Ron Bonk, thank you so much, buddy.

Ron Bonk 58:28
Thank you.