IFH 272: How to Sell Ancillary Products for Your Indie Film (Pool Party Massacre) with Drew Marvick

Alex Ferrari 2:00
And today's guest, Writer Director, Drew Marvick, has done an amazing job of doing just that creating immense amounts of ancillary products, which he sells off his at style horror flick, Pool Party massacre. And when drew reached out to me to be on the show, I did some research on what his film was and what he was doing. And I was super impressed. Because he was evil even to make, you know, not only lunchboxes and T shirts and hats, but also created hats about just the genre that he was selling, and was able to make money off of that. But more impressively, he actually made VHS clam, clam case, copies of his film to sell to the public. And he knew his audience very well, because horror fans especially 80s, horror, fans, love, love, love those VHS copies of their movies. It's something that's so unique, and something that's not happening very much anymore, because there aren't if any, guys making VHS copies of movies out there for retail. And he also made a bunch of other products that really just target his audience. And he knew his audience very well, because he was part of his own audience. He knew that community very well. And he's gone to tour with his film, to different conventions, horror conventions, and he just sells out constantly. And it was a great inspirational story. And I wanted to get not only the broad strokes, but I wanted to get in there in detail and find out how much he's really making, how much money is generating, what he's doing, how he's doing it, how he was able to make his movie, which also took them over a year. That's a whole other story we're gonna get into. But it was a really great story about a filmmaker, understanding their audience, building product for that audience and selling it to that audience. And and it's been very, very successful so far. So without any further ado, please enjoy my eye opening interview with Drew Marvick. I'd like to welcome to the show, Drew Marvick. Man, thank you so much for being on the show, brother.

Drew Marvick 4:03
Thank you for having me.

Alex Ferrari 4:04
Yeah, man, I you reached out to me about your movie poolparty massacre, which, obviously, if the Oscars don't acknowledge it this year is it'll be a travesty.

Drew Marvick 4:16
Yeah, I'm assuming I'm assuming that well, I already bought a suit.

Alex Ferrari 4:22
When I saw what you were you were doing, man, I had to get you on because I wanted to talk to you. Not only about the movie, but about a lot of the other stuff going on behind the scenes of what you did and how you marketed it and sold things and stuff. So before we get into it, how did you get into the business in the first place?

Drew Marvick 4:39
I've always been fascinated by the business. I mean, I grew up watching movies and practically living in a video store not literally living in one like you did but so so it's always been a part of part of my life. So when I got to high school, I took photography classes, and I actually took night video television production. In night school and got a certificate when I was 17 that certified that I knew how to produce a video, I guess

Alex Ferrari 5:07
Turn on camera. Got it?

Drew Marvick 5:08
Yeah, exactly. That was really about it. I could put it on a tripod too.

Alex Ferrari 5:12
And what type of camera was that? By the way?

Drew Marvick 5:15
Yeah, I will I would bring my parents handycam camcorder. Yeah. And again, I would bring it

Alex Ferrari 5:21
Would that be high eight, or would that be?

Drew Marvick 5:24
No, it was VHS. Oh, wow. You've old school? Yeah, it was VHS. And they had one camera at the class at a neighboring High School, but everyone in the class would fight to check out the camera. So I would just like glad I don't have to fight to check out the camera and just bring this VHS camcorder with me and shoot everything on this.

Alex Ferrari 5:44
I've got my own gear, and it weighs 5000 pounds. And it shoots in standard definition port Linux. And I could edit at home too, because we had two VCRs obviously that was my first editing system. Yeah, that was my first Yeah, you hit record. you pause, hit record, pause it just keep going back and forth.

Drew Marvick 6:04
Exactly. Exactly. My my mom actually bought a like a dual deck VCR for dubbing.

Alex Ferrari 6:11
You guys you were living you like you like silver spoons, man. Yeah, totally. Yes. Did you have a drink? Did you have a train in your living room?

Drew Marvick 6:20
We did. We did. As you know. It was exactly i every keystroke you're working. But yeah, so I mean, I did all of that. Which really, you know, all that proved was that I had interest but it didn't really give me much many tools. And I and I had this weird. I think much like people all over the country do they've or at least back then felt like you couldn't make movies unless you're in LA. It wasn't even a viable option. And even though I was in Orange County, California, like an hour away from LA. I still felt Yeah, I was so still so far away from Los Angeles that it wasn't an option. Like I could never do it. So I kind of abandoned the idea. With it with some convincing from my dad telling me that it was Yes. even told me that it wasn't a very good career path. And that probably 99% of the people that graduated from film school are waiters. And but it's funny at the time, I think I hated him for that. Like I'm sure I sat in my room like cursing him doesn't know what he's talking about. You know, Steven

Alex Ferrari 7:29
Spielberg makes movies Why can I?

Drew Marvick 7:31
Yeah, I'm gonna do it, dad. But uh, but in hindsight, it was it turned out to be great advice. Because he told me he, I mean, he was a is a really smart man. And he said, Look, this is what I think. If you get a business degree, go to college, get a business degree. Even if you want to make movies, you have to have business sense, because you're gonna need to sell your movies, you're gonna need to market your movies. And your crew. He said, so no matter what I'm not telling you to give up, but just get a business degree. And then if you still want to go to film school, I'll pay for you to go to film school.

Alex Ferrari 8:04
See? That's that's very cool. Yeah, I still probably hated him for that. That wasn't the answer. I don't want to know anything about business. Yeah. And that's a good impression of you or not when you were that age. I'm doing the best. I'm doing the best right spot on.

Drew Marvick 8:20
But, uh, but yeah, so I, I took his advice. And I got a business degree. And, you know, I managed I moved to Vegas to go to college, I managed nightclubs and was worked on the strip for a while, and then kind of fell back into film. Okay, I just really I had employees that were in film school. And I think that's what started it all listening to them talk about going to film school, and PA on commercials. And so then I I went and piayed on a on a on a local Las Vegas commercial. And that was the end of it. Like I quit my job. I started pa I was only supposed to do it for a summer, right? I was like, I'm just going to take like three months off. I'll get a real job again. But let me just live this life that I missed out on and be a PA for a little while. And that summer turned into? Well, it's been like 15 years. I still don't have a real job.

Alex Ferrari 9:18
Yeah, and do you still have the wife?

Drew Marvick 9:20
I do.

Alex Ferrari 9:22
You're lucky dude.

Drew Marvick 9:23
Yeah, I am. I'm extremely lucky. And I am assuming that she'll be gone. And he Dana,

Alex Ferrari 9:30
And that's what keeps you on your toes? I think. Yes. She's gonna wake up and go, what what am I doing and that, yeah. keeps you on your toes all the time.

Drew Marvick 9:39
Yeah, luckily, we're just so busy that I don't think she's had enough time to realize how bad she has it.

Alex Ferrari 9:46
Exactly, exactly. As soon as my kids are out of the house. I think a second they're like you drop them off at college and she's just gonna turn you like this is enough odds you still that's it. Alright, so and you've been doing and what have you been doing in the business you've been? I'm assuming you haven't been paying for.

Drew Marvick 10:08
No, no. So I pa through that summer, and then actually had the intention of getting a real job again, because I actually made really good money managing nightclubs on the strip. And I didn't make really good money, pa Hang on. Whoa, whoa, commercials. Yeah. So I told the company, I was one production company that had kept me busy through the whole summer. And I told them, Look, look, I love working with you guys. You guys are great. But I have to go back to the real world and get a real job. And they said, Well, hey, what if we can offer you a salary? What if we can make you Our only our first ever salaried employee? It was a small production company here in Vegas, right? And so they did. They, I mean, they couldn't offer me anywhere near what I made. But it was enough that I could live and I could be doing something that I love. So I, so I took that leap and went to work with them as kind of I mean, my business card said, producer, I think right from the beginning. But

Alex Ferrari 11:04
The only business where you completely catapult in status and total over you're like, working 18 hour days as a PA but then the next day, I've got a card that says I'm a producer's Yeah, I'm gonna think I'm a producer, I might have I think the first year my card said production coordinator, actually, fair enough?

Drew Marvick 11:23
I'll tell I'll take it. And then yeah, which was still like this huge leap. And then after that, I started, you know, producing some of the campaigns there was, it was myself and the owner of the company that were producing spots. And often he would be, you know, shoot days with overlap. And so I would have to run, run a project. And so I think he was like, man, I should put producer on your business card, if I'm gonna leave you in charge of something. Least looks like I'm putting the right person in charge. So, so yeah, so then I did that for years. I worked. I worked for them. And I still, I'm freelance now. But I still work. Probably 80% of my jobs are through a frohman Productions.

Alex Ferrari 12:04
And you're still with the same company?

Drew Marvick 12:06
Yeah, because I'm freelance. So I work for lots of people, but they keep me busy. It's about 80% of my commercial work is still through them.

Alex Ferrari 12:15
That's awesome. So that's what that's your day job is

Drew Marvick 12:17
Yes, that's right, is Yeah, that's my day job. That's what pays my bills, certainly making a little budget in the Oregon This is not

Alex Ferrari 12:25
A catch. Cuz I mean, my my day job was post until I started directing more and more, but even when I wasn't directing all the time, I always had post to fall back on. So it's something for everyone listening, it's so important to find that day job, that thing that creates that revenue. And if you could do it with in the industry, all the better. Of course,

Drew Marvick 12:47
I mean, that's, that's a dream. Any? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, having a day job, having your bills paid is the most important thing. So whatever it is, but if it could be in the industry, and you can be meeting the people that you're going to eventually make a film with, like that's and learn from, I mean, I did a little bit of every being here in Vegas, it's a smaller market for sure that in Los Angeles, so I was able to transition into like post production, supervising for a little while, and then went over to the ad agency side for a little while as an agency producer. And I've kind of bounced around and been able to do, I'm not great at any of those things. But I learned to how to do all of them. And so I'm blessed. It's the Wild West out here. So sometimes you just get thrown into a position. You know, there, there aren't very many people. So sometimes the producer will call me and say, Hey, I need a teleprompter operator for tomorrow. Mine cancelled. I'm like, I don't know how to do that. So that's okay.

Alex Ferrari 13:45
That's the manual.

Drew Marvick 13:47
Yeah, like I like you. I know. You're not going to cause problems on set. You're easy to work with. I'd rather have you than someone that knows what they're doing. But that I hate to be around. Things that happen to me often. And that's how I've learned a lot of the things I've learned.

Alex Ferrari 13:59
Isn't it valuable to be a nice guy?

Drew Marvick 14:02
It completely. Yeah, it opens a lot of doors if you just don't completely suck to have around.

Alex Ferrari 14:09
That's absolutely true. And it's funny as you tell your story, that's kind of how I got my start. I started in commercials. I worked at a production house for a while and did the exact same thing. So it's a good it's a good training ground.

Drew Marvick 14:24
It totally is. And it's great. Yeah. I mean, I I learned a ton I think what made me I guess, more valuable as a PA and the reason why I maybe was able to jump up faster is just because I I had one thing that a lot of the other pa is coming out of film school didn't have which was customer service skills. I think as well I would call it like I came from a retail background and then customer service based industry being restaurants and bars and nightclubs so I could communicate with people and I know Do what not to say and how to say certain things so that the producers could trust me to pick up the director from the airport or the client even better from the airport and not ruin anything. And that actually was a big asset. And now that I now understand now the position that I'm in that there are certain people that might be great on set, and I wouldn't want to necessarily operate without them, but I could never trust them to go pick up the client.

Alex Ferrari 15:27
You can't sit them alone in a room with a client. There's something wrong.

Drew Marvick 15:30
Yeah, exactly. And so I think that's one thing that that helped. That helped propel me a lot also.

Alex Ferrari 15:37
So how did Pool Party massacre come to life? Pool Party massacre?

Drew Marvick 15:42
Jeez, What? That's a really good question. Why did I unleash this movie on the world? Yes. But like I said, I always wanted to make movies and I'm a big horror fan. I mean, I live I live for horror and have for a long time. And so I was a horror nerd anyways, going to conventions and wearing horror movie shirts every day. So it just seemed like natural progression for me to make a horror movie, if I'm going, if I'm going to make a movie. But the actual genesis of poolparty was born from two things, it was one being surrounded by all these really talented people on set that came from a film school background, who knew how to shoot and edit. They were a predator, they knew how to say they knew how to do everything. Sure, I'm here. And here I am, I'm, I have a good head on my shoulders, and I can manage the budget and I can manage the crew, but I don't necessarily shoot or edit. I don't have gear, I can't light the scene. You know. And I had people that could do all of those things and owned the gear and wanted to make movies. That's all they wanted out of life. But we're afraid to take the next step forward already so jaded that they're, they've given up. And it was I was always the person on set saying, No, no, no, let's make a movie this weekend. Who cares? Let's cruise. If it sucks, let's make a movie. And then, and they would all laugh at me. And so it was kind of it was half, I was already ready to make a movie just to spite all of my friends, my my crew member friends. But then the real match that lit the fire was my friend Brian Mills, who is one of those people, he has his own production company. And he shoots and edits does a lot of corporate stuff called me and said, Hey, I just got a new camera. I would, you know, I'd love to shoot some test footage. I'm really excited about it shoot for it was a Sony Fs seven. And he said, you know, shoots 4k, the images are beautiful. So I just want to let you know, in case you needed a camera package, and you said and also, I mean, if you happen to know anyone that has a script, I would totally shoot. I want to shoot a feature on it. I would shoot a feature for free. If somebody had a script that was ready to go right.

Alex Ferrari 17:56
Well, that's that's that's the magic word, isn't it?

Drew Marvick 17:58
Of course. And so the instantly I said that's so funny. I have a script that you chose me to call that I happen. It's sitting right in front of me. And which obviously I didn't have a script. I never even written a feature script ever at that point.

Alex Ferrari 18:16
I love it!

Drew Marvick 18:17
I'm like I have final draft on my laptop. I think I can make a script. So yeah, completely be asing. And he he got excited. He said oh, what's it called? And who honestly, poolparty masquerade? Just pop? No, you gotta be kidding me. It's just literally the day the day before there was a photoshoot in my backyard, the friend asked me to use my pool for for like a sexy, sexy photo shoot. And I jokingly said, Man, it would be cool if we made a movie like the capo party massacre, about the photoshoot that they were doing. And I think so it was just still in my head from that. That date earlier in the week or the day before. So I just blurted out Pool Party massacre. He said that sounds like a great title. Send over the script. And I said, Oh, yeah, let me just, you know, polish it up a little bit. Give me Give me a week, when they polish it up. I haven't haven't read it in a while. And we can and he knows all of this. Now I admitted it to him later. But I locked myself in my office for a week and wrote the first draft of the script and send it over. And we were he had a month he had a month until he was moving out of state so he had not taken any jobs. And then that move got pushed back another month. So he's like, I have a like 30 days. I could probably that's why he agreed to do this. He's like, Look, I have no work. And so I pitched it as a project that we can start that day. I mean, we have 30 days to go from me handing you the script to you know, being done with production. So I was like, we're gonna make it for $11 I don't know why I picked $11

Alex Ferrari 19:55
Did you make this movie for $11?

Drew Marvick 19:58
No, thank god like I didn't The people my budget The thing that I did, but I didn't. But I mean food alone food alone, of course, but but that was, I think it was just a gimmick. And I was like, Well, you know, we'll make it for $11. I'll play like, four rolls, my wife will play four rolls, I'll get my kids to play roles, like, let's just make a movie. I just want to make a movie. That's really all it was. And luckily, he read the script and said, hey, let's maybe like up at a little update a little bit and, you know, cast of actors this, there's some merit to the script. So I did some rewrites, and and we ended up moving forward from there and decided to spend a little more than $11. I think,

Alex Ferrari 20:39
What was the final? What was the final budget of the movie?

Drew Marvick 20:42
The shooting budget and be in 6000? No, right. Okay. Yeah. And then all said and done. It was about 10, after posting after post, and the artwork and some other costs an aggregator and things like that.

Alex Ferrari 20:57
Got it. Got it. And so alright, so you're starting production? How long? Did it take you to shoot the movie? Oh, six months? Six months? 30 days?

Drew Marvick 21:09
Yeah. So then that his house fell through, which bought us a little more time, he was moving to Orlando. And something happened with the house, it didn't pass an inspection. And suddenly he was going to be homeless for a couple months. And so that bought us a little extra time. But we never intended to shoot it over six months, that'd be ridiculous to actually make a six month shooting cetera.

Alex Ferrari 21:31
So then how about how many actual days did you shoot?

Drew Marvick 21:33
I would, there was I think there's 21 days if you look at the hard drive, sure. Look at the cards, I think it's 20. Some of them were probably two hour days. But okay, I think it boiled down to 21. Total shooting days, over the six month period. But it was just it was it was mostly because we were working around people's schedule. I still couldn't even with $6,000 I couldn't afford to pay all the actors. I all I could give them what I could, of course give them food. And the usual like IMDb credit and all those things. But so i but i also because I have acted in plenty of things with those same parameters. One thing that most people don't extend to me, at least in the past, was that I wanted to be as easy to work with as possible. Since I'm not paying them. They're doing I treated it like they're doing me a favor instead of I'm doing them a favor, which for some reason, some no budget, filmmakers still think that everyone on set is you know that they're doing them a favor by little

Alex Ferrari 22:35
Ive never seen. No, I didn't know this shocking news shot. Sure. You mean an egocentric independent filmmaker? Yeah, no, easy. It's crazy talk. That's crazy talk. But we'll continue.

Drew Marvick 22:46
Yeah, so fortunately, I've been on enough of those sets that that from day one was something that I wasn't gonna allow to happen. So I, I was as flexible as I could be in a workday on everyone's schedules. And, indeed, as working actors there, they've fluctuated a lot. And of course, when they called and said, Hey, I have a paying gig all the sudden, this weekend, can we reschedule? I would always say yes, you know, yeah, of course, you got to pay the bills, I get it. But, you know, let's do our best to find some time. So that's why it grew into this six month production, which then every day longer it goes you get more problems by deep. Brian who ended up shooting and editing the movie did move to Florida halfway through. So that created a new problem. I lead actress moved to LA, I created some more problems. Another one got a boob job halfway through the movie, like there's all these things that are that start happening, the longer that it takes to become like a comedy of errors, right via hair, hair starts growing and changing completely out. People lose weight. I mean, our my lead actress also lost a bunch of weight. She had a breakup. And so she went out and she watches the movie. She was like, Oh, it's so funny. You can see the point where we're like, I broke up with my boyfriend.

Alex Ferrari 24:01
How long is this movie take place? What's the time frame in the actual movie? He's

Drew Marvick 24:06
No, I'm comically it takes place. And it takes place in real time. So it's been less than

Alex Ferrari 24:10
So it's an hour and a half?

Drew Marvick 24:12
Yeah. So it's like it takes place in eight minutes. And people are losing weight. There's flowers blooming, like conversations. I mean,

Alex Ferrari 24:21
That is absolutely weather's changing.

Drew Marvick 24:24
Completely. We started. We started shooting on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, right? And shot until June. So here in Vegas, we went through freezing, like freezing temperatures up to 100 and over 100 degrees by June. So I mean it dramatic changes. And some of those because of how people scheduled work schedules work. We were shooting, you know conversations dialogue scenes for months apart. Oh, he's so brilliant. Luckily, if I was making a serious movie, this could have been extremely detrimental, but luckily I was making this no budget love letter to 80s slasher film. So I could embrace in a way, some continuity errors, and I wanted to even include some. And it just make it this what I kept saying that this is if I could take my 15 year old self, and bring to the present time and tell him he could make a movie, this is the movie that he would make based on what he was into what I was into when I was 15. That's pretty cool. So that was kind of what I was going for. So I was embracing some of the, you know, the continuity errors and the mistakes, and there's plenty of mistakes and errors that aren't supposed to be there too, but, but I was able to embrace it. Whereas if I was making a very serious drama having like trees change in during a conversation would probably ruin someone's life didn't matter. It didn't matter to me. I thought it was funny. And I just wait like I am still dying for people to to send me messages about continuity errors. I love it.

Alex Ferrari 26:05
So I because you said something. We were talking about egocentric directors. And I have to Can I tell you a story real quick shirt, please. This is this is one of my favorite stories of ever have an absolutely mad man director. We had just finished shooting a short film and in that short film, my partner and I had purchased a whole bunch of airsoft guns. So the you know, the airsoft guns that actually look like real guns, but they you know, the great prop guns. Yeah, and they're cheap. And they can add, you know, blowback because you have air canisters and everything. So this production heard about it, and they're like, Hey, can we rent the guns from you lecture? So we showed up one night, where they were shooting some action sequence inside of a, of a bar. And this was like low budget, you know, probably, you know, I don't know, 2030 grand, you know, for a full feature. This is back in Florida. And then we get into this RV. And they're like you just go to go to his trailer. The director will be with you in a minute to check the guns out. And I'm like, Okay, well, already, we're already starting off in an interesting situation. I swear to God, dude, this guy must have been 10 years old. walks in. I'm not kidding. You walks in with a director's find around his neck. I mean, the only thing he was missing was a fucking monocle. Yeah, it was in his pocket. I swear. So he takes I never will ever forget this. He takes a shotgun that we brought him right this this fake shotgun, pulls it up to his eye and busts open the director swine. It looks down the barrel of the gun. In this kind of pompous arrogant way goes this, this will do. And I'm like, Oh, my God, this guy is gone. And the movie I don't even know. Whatever happened to the movie. We rented it. I mean, we rented the gear to him. I don't care. But I just never forgot that guy. I wonder whatever happened. Yeah, I want to know to know, when you find out, let me know. I mean, seriously, I didn't mean to cut off. Stop the interviews flat like that. But I just had to put that out there into the universe. I needed that story to go out there. So whoever's listening and has a director's finder, which by the way, wasn't a proper directors Finder. It was like a 16 millimeter director's finder you would get in film school back in the 70s. So I had no relevance to any lenses you might be using on that set. It was just to show that you were I have one of those. I bought one because I like I think I bought one subconsciously because of this guy to put on my shelf. Anyway, back to the interview. That was that was that was just a quick interlude. So So you had the budget was about 10 grand. How did you handle post? Did you edit you edit yourself?

Drew Marvick 29:04
What did you cut on? So Brian, who shot the movie did the post as well? Okay. And of course, originally, we lived in Las Vegas together and, and work together and we would have sat together throughout it. But unfortunately, he moved to Orlando before we could finish the movie, so so he cut it in Orlando. And then I would just Skype in and phone in and we just had to have our work sessions that way. Yeah, exactly. Which was great. I mean, he knew we, you know, we were friends in real life and had known each other for a while. So he knew what I was getting at were was somewhat like minded. So so he knew what I was trying to do. And then I could, we could work off notes and everything. And we actually worked out really well. But I don't think in any other circumstance with two other people that it would necessarily work as well as it did, but it happened to we worked really well together. So, so it Ma'am, there are plenty of times where I had to, like, get him to trust me. I'm like, Brian, no, this is really like, I really want it to do that. And he's like, No, that doesn't make sense. That's stupid. I'm like, No, I know, it's trying to tell you that it's not stupid. I'm just trying to tell you, it's what I want.

Alex Ferrari 30:18
Now, when you finished the film, did you have a marketing strategy? Did you have one going before because you do have a business degree. So there's a lot of pressure

Drew Marvick 30:26
I to think that I would know what I was doing. But for some reason, I took the opposite approach and had no strategy at all. And I was aware of good strategies. And I have done research and I knew what I was supposed to do. And I think that's why I didn't do it, because I knew it was what I was supposed to do. So really, my only plan going into it from day one was that I was going to reject all distribution offers, if assuming that there was even one

Alex Ferrari 30:57
I was about to say you you very

Drew Marvick 30:59
Self distribute. Okay, that was my, I mean, and I live in this world of low budget, indie horror, so I did actually know that there were people that no matter what I made, I could give them I could hand the movie to and they would distribute, right. I mean, I was aware of people like, like Lloyd, oh, like, I could call you call the movie to him and say, This is yours for free. And, um, no matter what it is, and he would probably release it in some fashion. Absolutely. And so so I knew and then there's plenty of companies, you know, said that trauma that would do the same. So such a thing as sub trauma. Oh, god, yes. You just wait. One day, you're gonna go down a wormhole.

Alex Ferrari 31:41
I actually went to a couple of horror festivals. You know, where Robert Anglin and all those guys go on to sign and stuff like that. We were promoting our short film. And yeah, it's an interesting universe.

Drew Marvick 31:53
It's it is and that's where I live. I am running for mayor. Yes. Those are my ambitions. So if you want to put that into perspective, fair enough,

Alex Ferrari 32:05
fair enough.

Drew Marvick 32:06
That's where I'm at. But so going into the movie, I, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to self distribute, not because I thought it was a good business plan, or a smart idea. But because I wanted to learn as much as I could about the process of taking a film from, you know, shooting, to delivering and to market. Even if it's on the small scale of this micro budget, I wanted to know everything about it. And they all I figured the only way I could learn is if I did it myself. Even if it's through failure, I'm gonna I'm gonna learn it's great most that way. So that and it was like, treating it like my film school in a way too. And a $6,000 lesson, you know, as far as film goes, is pretty cheap. I'm good enough, pretty easy to my fail. cost me $6,000 to learn all this stuff. Yeah,

Alex Ferrari 32:52
Exactly. I mean, it's not in the budget, if you lose it, what you won't, you'll make something but it's it's not going to, you're not going to lose your house.

Drew Marvick 33:00
Exactly. And it was even in Brian became my producing partner, he not only shot and edited, so we actually split the costs. And, and so I mean, we reached that was easy to convince him of that as well, because we were each only in $3,000. So, so when I promised that I would make him his $3,000 back over the next 100 years. And he and he believed he believed me. So sorry, that was only thing I knew is that I wanted to self distribute. And, and, and I did, and I was lucky enough that because of the artwork.

Alex Ferrari 33:33
Yes. By the way, everybody listening the artwork on this is amazing. It's honestly one of the reasons why I asked him on the show, because that that artwork showed such a level of professionalism, even though the movie obviously doesn't. But no, but in all seriousness, though, like I saw that, and I said, Well, I know that he understands marketing, because you knew who your core audience was, and you design that poster, and that artwork for that audience, like it literally could sit up on a shelf with any other 80s horror movie without even thinking twice it will you think it would cost, you know, millions of dollars comparatively to some of those movies back then purely on the artwork. So it was a wonderful, wonderful piece. So I'll have a post. I'll have the poster in the show notes, guys.

Drew Marvick 34:24
Yeah, awesome. And that that was part of my plan, like embracing the self distribution, I made kind of a checklist of the things that I thought were important if I'm going to market and I'd also heard all these stories about how you know, if you give, sell your cell, your film, and then they you still have to market it because if you're on this level, they're not going to put any money into marketing. So you end up just marketing yourself anyway. So I thought if I'm asked to do all the work, then I might as well be, you know, in charge of its destiny and be able to pick the artwork instead of putting that in someone else's hands. So, so yeah, so I had this list of things. And one of them was to have amazing artwork. Because that is how I remember the movies from from my past and from my childhood is based on the VHS box art. And that was how I picked movies. I mean, that's I didn't know what they really were, but it was the title and the art. So I knew the art needed to stand out. And I wanted it to hit my target audience. So I found this guy, Mark Schoenbach, who had done a bunch of indie horror already, is working a working artist in the horror world. And I've tracked him down and begged him to let me hire him to do the art. And we've we've bonded right away, and you got what I wanted. And and this turned into what you see and what you were just talking about. So so

Alex Ferrari 35:44
So important, I can't express enough to everyone listening, how important that art is in the trailer, as well. But that art is the first thing that people will see. It's instant, you could put it up on a Facebook post, or Twitter or Instagram, and people will see that more than watch the trailer. Just like the poster will be the most thing everybody will watched in the trailer will be the next thing. And then finally, maybe the movie. But those two pieces of marketing are so important, and especially that that poster and that's what caught my eye.

Drew Marvick 36:14
Well, I think it's what I mean, it's the only reason I think anyone gave the movie a chance. really honestly, I mean that it's and that's and I knew that going into it. So that's why I treated it like this. I mean the movie itself. You know, some people seem to enjoy it. And so it's a wacky, little $6,000 slasher film. But I, in order to get I knew I needed people to give it a chance because it's in a sea of other no budget and low budget horror films. Most of them are slashers, too. So if it's going to stand out, it's going to have to be the first things first is there is the artwork. And so,

Alex Ferrari 36:56
And whether you know it or not, from my perspective, looking at it objectively, by creating that artwork you stood out because you actually went into a sub genre of a sub genre of horror. Because you're not just making a slasher flick, you're making an ad style slasher flick, because anyone who knows anything who sees that poster says, Oh, that's an ad slasher flick. And you were targeting that core audience, which, as I've been saying, for years, the riches are in the niches and you just kept kind of going. So you didn't just make a horror movie, you just make a slasher movie, you actually made an ad slasher movie. So you kind of really, you know, focused where, where your core audience was. And that's where you live where you are running for mayor. Yes, exactly. constituency, your consensus. So you But you knew who your audience was, because you are that audience.

Drew Marvick 37:47
I did. And that's, and I hoped that, that that was accurate. Like, I felt that these people that I was one of these people, if I was gonna lump my audience in that I'm one of them. And so I kind of just did what I thought I would want to see and what I would want to give a chance to, and so and luckily, it worked, I guess. I mean, that's one advantage of actually being a part of your target audience and not just trying to predict what a group of people might, might be into, like, I mean, I had that had that advantage.

Alex Ferrari 38:21
So you created I'm assuming when you say self distribute, you were all physical product.

Drew Marvick 38:26
Physical, no physical and digital. I went the aggregator route, okay. And I ended up working with a company out of Canada called juice. And you know, I'm assuming that they were much like most of the other aggregators about with other filmmakers, yeah, they got the movie. And we did Amazon or self because that was that was easy enough to do but they got the movie on to iTunes for us and it was great. It cost us you know, about $1,000 and we got the movie on and and then then fit but physical was what I was focusing on,

Alex Ferrari 39:01
Because that's what but that because your core audience wants physical.

Drew Marvick 39:04
Yes, there are people like me that want to have it in physical forms and even multiple like opposite ends of the spectrum. There's people like me that collect blu rays and want and want a real blu ray to they want it to be a replicated blu ray disc and not a blu ray, you know, a duplicated disc. And they care about the quality of the disc and the quality of the special features and all these things so I've put a lot of energy into that and making sure that it fit that niche but then also I put it out on VHS because that's the other end of the spectrum.

Alex Ferrari 39:37
So and we need to stop right there because I I saw the VHS is and you had it in p yellow if I remember correctly SP in the pool yellow pee in the pool yellow and algae green. Yes as colors. And these VHS and there and it wasn't like it was like a clam case. Yes. So basically the old Disney style movies, but with poolparty massacre in it instead, I have to know where in god's green earth and 2017 when you made this, did you get these made? Because I need one for every movie I ever make, regardless of genre, I just need one personally.

Drew Marvick 40:16
Yeah, no. And I agree that you do for sure you need a VHS for every movie that you make. And I was lucky enough that I had bought there are people out there that are still making VHS. I mean, in their in their homes or in their small studios, but, but they take the time to put put films on and make custom labels and custom inserts for the for the boxes, or even people that are making custom cardboard slip cases and everything. And so I had met several of those people at conventions and even bought bought VHS from them. A lot of them just make boxes for movies that have recently come out that they don't have the rights to or anything, but they're making them as art

Alex Ferrari 40:57
For themselves,

Drew Marvick 40:58
Either for themselves or in probably some of them sell them but they sell them at conventions and stuff like that. It's art. And so as art, a lot of them don't even have the movie in it. It's just the clamshell and some of them I'm sure have that movie as well. But that's how I found out a lot about a lot of these people. Sure, and just reached out to to a couple of them. And luckily, one of the first ones to get back to me is this this company magnetic magic rentals is what they're called. And, and they were great. And from from day one, they said, yeah, we would love you know,

Alex Ferrari 41:29
How much how much did it cost? Did I have to know these things?

Drew Marvick 41:32
So I just pay per tape. And with the clamshell and the art and everything, it ends up being around six bucks.

Alex Ferrari 41:41
No, but wait a minute, hold on a second. It's six bucks. If you buy one or if you buy 1000 Oh no if I'm by buying them in bulk, buy in bulk. Okay, so how much? Alright, so how much is any? I mean, yeah, cuz I remember I saw those pictures that were huge. A lot. A lot of them you had?

Drew Marvick 41:57
Yeah, well, I've gone. Originally I did, I want to say a run of 30 on black VHS, because that's what was readily available. And I thought I needed it on VHS. And I know there's at least three or four other people out there that are going to really want it on VHS. So I'll get some, it'll be great. And then, and I'll have them for years, and I'll be able to take them with me to conventions, and they ended up selling out in a day I think online when I think when I released them online, they sold out the first day. But this is before the movie had any traction or anything.

Alex Ferrari 42:30
Really from VHS. It's just

Drew Marvick 42:32
Yeah, yeah, exactly. And based on the art, that art looks so good and a clamshell that there are people I mean, I think there were people that were buying that thought it was an old movie that genuinely thought it was a movie from the 80s that I'd never heard of before. Sure. Or there's people that got it and then went, Oh my god, there's actually a movie in here. I thought it was just art. So I'm sure it was all of those things. So then I had to make more. But I had made the mistake of saying that it was a limited edition of 30. So that I needed it.

Alex Ferrari 43:01
And you can't go back on that.

Drew Marvick 43:02
No, I would never do that. So I had to find another color of VHS cassette and track those down and get them to the guy that was duplicating the tapes for me. And then suddenly, we had a second color. I think the second one was red. And so now we've gone through, like nine waves of different colors. Because every time I do when I assume no one's gonna buy them. I'm like, Okay, now everyone that would want it has one. So then they sell out again, almost, like in a day. And then I so we're now on to the LG green, which has been our largest addition so far. It's that made 79 of them one for every minute of the movie. And so many of these have you made dude? How many of the VHS? Yeah, total? Oh, I haven't totaled it. But I mean, it's definitely in the hundreds. And you've sold all What do you sell them for? selling for 20 bucks, same as the blu ray.

Alex Ferrari 44:00
That's insane. And it's a little bit more expensive to make the VHS and the blu rays, right?

Drew Marvick 44:05
Yes. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, it costs a little bit more to make. And there's a little bit of time and effort that goes into them to on my end, I actually go to thrift stores and buy all Disney movies on the clamshells and look for good clam shells that don't have cracks in them. And but have a little bit of wear because and then I have to bring them home I have to scrape you know the gum off from from this goodwill sticker and prep them and getting ready. And so so I have like, if I

Alex Ferrari 44:32
Then you don't have the cases you actually go out and find the cases for

Drew Marvick 44:36
Yeah, I don't think that anyone makes cases like that. So I go and so does a mad magnetic magic. The guy that runs that he sends them with cases to and he does the same thing on his end. But sometimes they get damaged or some or maybe some of the cases that he sends. His standards are a little different because we want him to have aware but I don't want him to have holes in them or anything. Sure So I go out and I do the same thing. Whenever, you know, once a month at least I go to a goodwill and buy every Disney movie they have, that's an even decent clamshell 99 cents each. And then take them home and go through them and clean them up a little I throw up, I throw an Air Bud in the trash, because seems like most of them are here, but for some reason.

Alex Ferrari 45:22
You're not getting the classics, you're getting your bud.

Drew Marvick 45:25
No, I don't Unfortunately, the classics are the ones that are usually damaged anyways, but the air buds are pristine. I mean, they're still, they're still intact. So so you know, so then I have to transfer them over and I put my insert in them and I and I put the cassette in and I lovingly put a sticker inside each one and write a little handwritten note and pack them up.

Alex Ferrari 45:47
We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor. And now back to the show. So So this works because it's it's it's a cottage industry, if you will. It is and it's, but it's it's a big industry right now. It's a huge industry. No, no, but when I say but for you specifically. It's like It's like a mom and pop operation because all of a sudden you had 2000 I have I need to buy 2000 claim cases, you'd be like, I can't.

Drew Marvick 46:20
Yeah, it would I would have to have a team of people to go to every Goodwill store

Alex Ferrari 46:25
between Las Vegas and LA. Yeah, exactly.

Drew Marvick 46:27
So no, no. And even finding the VHS now has gotten really hard. Like I have people reach out to me regularly because they see me releasing the colored editions. And they want to do that with their films. Sure they want to out How did you find these yellow tapes or now it's orange. I've had a couple multiple people because I did an edition on orange because that's with all with Halloween coming up. A bunch of people want to find orange cassettes, I said, Look, I was lucky enough about a year ago, I found a place out of out of La like in the valley that was that had some that they had about 50 of every color that they'd ever stopped and I just bought all of them because I knew that I might not find them ever again. So now I'm dwindling down. But I originally just bought their entire stock of it was like 380 blank VHS tapes and various colors.

Alex Ferrari 47:16
That's amazing. So so that but there are obviously there's still duplication houses, there's people that still can duplicate VHS is and stuff like that. And you're just finding you just finding the colors and it makes pretty it you can sell there's a lot of love here.

Drew Marvick 47:32
There is no maybe that. I mean, I hope that that translates to me because that's a big deal. For me. I mean, self distributing. Some people don't realize it, but it's really me like I'm the one if anyone goes to Full Body Mass Comm and buys anything. It's I'm the ones either me or my 11 year old son that are going to pack that order. And like I said, I hand write a little note on every sticker in every single order. And I seal it up and I drive it to the post office. So it gets really me I mean, I love the illusion that it's not sometimes like people like to think like I like to create that. Like I treat the movie like at Star Wars. I say that when I'm at which which I've heard you say which was funny, because that's what I was always said in the beginning. I'm like, Look, it's my this is my Star Wars. It's not as good as Star Wars. It's nothing like Star Wars. But for me, this is my this is my Star Wars. So I'm going to treat it like that. And I'm going to, you know, do the best present in the best light that I can which is why I have all the different merchandise and I go to a convention and I have this giant beautifully printed sublimated banner and movie props and I bring my own tablecloth and because I remembered going to conventions and seeing the indie filmmaker who didn't even bring a tablecloth and would have a stack of 10 DVDs itself sitting in a chair hoping that you would walk over and buy their movie. And I thought man, this guy knows nothing about marketing.

Alex Ferrari 49:01
So then you are you are going to festivals and conventions and stuff like that and selling just literally hustling it.

Drew Marvick 49:08
Definitely Yes, completely. I mean, I did, like a proper festival run when the when the movie was done. And that was great. And that's got us some exposure. And you know, I got to beat a lot of people. And I recommend that to everyone if they can do a festival run and to go to every festival that you can because that that was great. But then yeah, I continue because it's horror. And it's luckily enough. It's this genre where people are obsessed with and we have functions and we have conventions. Unlike romantic comedy. They don't have romantic comedy conventions. But in order we have no shortage of conventions and events around the world. So yeah, so I I go to as many as I can and I set up a pool party massacre booth and I bring blu rays, DVDs, VHS shirts, hats, stickers, beer koozies action figures. I mean, I have the ridiculous amount of merchandise.

Alex Ferrari 50:01
So you got all this merchandise made from? I'm assuming multiple different places? Yes. And you sell it. And so I'm assuming you've made probably more money from selling ancillary products than you did from selling the movie, or is it even?

Drew Marvick 50:17
No, I think at this point, it would probably be more in the beginning. It was the movie. For sure. And now that I've now I think it's the ancillary project products have caught up and even past the movie, because it's, once somebody buys the movie, if they are a fan of it, they're not going to buy a second copy of the blu ray,

Alex Ferrari 50:37
Right, but they will buy a poster

Drew Marvick 50:38
But they will buy a poster. And the next thing when I release a shirt, they'll get a shirt. And if they like, you know, then I might really just release a lunchboxes for back to school. So, so yeah, of course. So

Alex Ferrari 50:51
That's it. That's the lunchbox I'm sending with my daughters to first grade.

Drew Marvick 50:56
I assume that's why there's one. There's three in the mail right now. But yeah, so and a lot of it is like tongue in cheek in a sense. Like, I get that it's ridiculous. Like, I know that he doesn't deserve to have any of this. And that's why I do it. Because I wish the movies that I loved, that fit into this world had all of these things. So that's when I say it's like my Star Wars. I'm gonna I'm gonna give it all of the if I could afford to, I would make, you know, bedsheets and pillowcases, and I would do everything. Because I think it's hilarious. And if people want it, that's great.

Alex Ferrari 51:34
Yeah, I mean, you're talking to a guy who published an art book of his first short film. Yes. So you get it. I Dude, this is honestly, like what you've done with your film is what I've always wanted to do with my films. I always wanted to, like create multiple product lines. I wanted to Star Wars. I wanted a little Star Wars basic. Yeah, we all do anyone who's ever seen like, I want a lunchbox, I want action figures. I want to go to comic conventions and have my stuff up there with all the other guys stuff. You know, it was always a dream of mine. But the products the movies that I made, just didn't call for it. They were just too generic as far as action or something like that. And it didn't have the following, but you tapped into an exact genre that the audience wants this stuff and buys this stuff on a regular that's just their that's what they want. So it's a it's fascinating to see you do it and and continue to make money on this probably from years to come.

Drew Marvick 52:34
I mean, I would hope so. I don't know. And I don't I certainly there isn't a ton of money rolling in. And part of it is because I am a part of this the world I am a horror fan that I end up not. I don't end up pricing things properly. Like I get crap from the guy that makes my action figures for me, because they're all handmade, the hand painted hand cast, and he does. And in this there's this whole world of custom action figures and a lot of them sell for 60 $75 a piece. And, you know, my cost on them is close to $30 a piece and then I was selling them for $30 just because I didn't think anyone would

Alex Ferrari 53:14
So what so what business school do you go to?

Drew Marvick 53:17
I know I don't even want to tell you what college I went to because I get shut down. But it was part of it was because I didn't think anyone would want it. I thought Look, I've made this like crappy little low budget slash, who's gonna want to buy an action figure from it. And part of it the other side was just like I should be thanking people for even wanting this so so I I'm aware that it's ridiculous and that I should be charging for more charging more like I'm famous for like, I hate to say this, because now people are gonna want me to do it every time they come. But I like I give when people don't want the movie or conventions I give it to I make them take one. Like, they'll walk up and be like, Oh, do you like a little bit of slashers? Like, no, that's not my thing. I'm like, oh, let's see if I can change your mind have a blu ray. And then if they still don't look at it, I'm like, well, your ticket had to just in case you like it. If you don't like it, then throw it away. Like

Alex Ferrari 54:09
We need to we need to have a car talk off off air. This is no way to make a living as a joke.

Drew Marvick 54:17
It's work but I also joke that I'm maybe I'm not even really trying to make I'm just trying to have fun. I just want to make movies.

Alex Ferrari 54:23
Right, right. And you know what? Look, I mean, I had a friend of mine who did a movie called thanks, killing. Yeah, and he that was a joke. It was a joke. The whole movie was like a spoof like no one will ever care about this. And he made 10s of hundreds of 1000s of dollars off that movie. Yeah. And and then made the sequel. Thanks. killing three in search of Thanksgiving. Yes. And it was fascinating how he did it because he was so he told me he literally told me that I don't want to be the thanks killing guy. Like I don't want that. I don't want that on my on my gravestone. But then afterwards, he actually called me He's like, I don't know what I'm gonna do next. I'm like, dude, do a sequel defense, killing What's wrong with you? You're leaving money on the table, just go and have some fun and make the movie. And he did. And I think you know, what, it's, it's the definition of success is so different for everybody, man. You know, some people want to make just millions and millions of dollars. And other people just want to have a good time, make some money, make some movies, and move forward, you know, and do what they love doing. And, and you are a definitely a testament to, to the love of what you're doing. You know, you're doing this absolutely for the love. You are a business man, for the most part. Sort of, sort of, and you're selling products, and you're doing your stuff and you're connecting with your audience. And my next question then is when's the sequel to pool party massacre?

Drew Marvick 55:52
It's coming. I'm imagining soon. It's it's definitely coming. I had no intention of making a sequel. Of course, when making the first one. I mean, I didn't know if I'd ever even make another movie. Again. You know, when you get a chance to make a movie, you certainly don't know if you're ever gonna get another chance.

Alex Ferrari 56:11
So but when you're paying for a $6,000 movie, chances are you might be able to get it done yourself again.

Drew Marvick 56:16
That's true. That's true. But I guess if it was just a complete disaster, then maybe I would have shot, of course decided to be a barista or something.

Alex Ferrari 56:24
But wearing your I love 80s horror.

Drew Marvick 56:27
Of course, every day. Fortunately, it wasn't a complete disaster. So and people accepted, it has a fan base, you know, it's all relative, but there is a fan base for the movie and people, people like the movie and I have asked for a sequel. And so if, if anyone's going to ask me for one I, then I'm going to give them one. So it's, it's the scripts almost done. It's been done for a year. But you did the other one in a week, sir. But, but I've spent so much time like I running this business, this pool, you know, the online business and, and it's, it is a lot of work. And even though I joke about not, you know, not caring, how bad how bad at business I am, I also I see everything as a marketing expense, I'm building a building a brand. So when I you know, when I forced someone at a convention to take the movie, then that's me, hoping to win someone over and build, you know, I'm building this fan base of this brand one step at a time or one person at a time. So I'm okay not making money from it. If If I can win someone over, because I'm hoping in the long run, that will be a career someday and that my wife won't actually leave me because I can't make any money. And I'm a failure. But I see it as a long term, a much bigger long term thing than making a movie and trying to survive off of it. So So right now I'm building this brand, and I'm building this world. I'm running for mayor,

Alex Ferrari 58:06
Obviously.

Drew Marvick 58:07
Yeah. And so that's that's how I'm treating. And that's why I'm putting all these things out there.

Alex Ferrari 58:12
Well, you saw I don't know if you heard the podcast with faith Granger that I just released a little while ago about her making her Hot Rod movie. Yeah, definitely did wasn't isn't an amazing story. Oh, God. Yes, it and that's kind of what you are doing as well within your genre. And she goes around literally, she's gone all in like she bought an RV and all she does travel. Just travel the country to every Hot Hot Rod festival and sells her movie and shows screenings. And it's insane. And it's I mean, and she is a testament to how successful it can be because hearing her talk about how many units she's sold. Oh, it's like, oh my god. She's amazing. I mean, and she's, I literally just had a conversation with her the other day. I'm like, you've got to have it up on digital too. She's like, I know, she has not put this movie up digital yet. It's strictly DVD, just DVD not even blu ray. Not even blu ray strictly DVD. And that's it. Yeah. And it's insane. It's I'm like you please, please, and she's like, I know I'm gonna I'm going to I'm going to if you get a chance to buy her DVD, by the way on the making of it, it's like three and a half hours. Oh my god. I'm dying to see that. So I'll definitely buy the DVD just I mean, I want to watch the movie as well. But I'm honestly more excited about the making. Oh, amazing what she did. But so I mean and listen, I think what you've been able to do man is pretty frickin remarkable dude. And, and I think you have a golden opportunity to actually start building out a business or real business around this genre of horror movies where you can pop these out for five or six grand once you get a system in place. And and start knocking these out and start building up the catalog and Start doing stuff, you can knock out a couple of these a year if you start popping them out properly in a market like Vegas, where you have all the connections and all the resources, man, I think you can and then when you could start, and then every time you go to those conventions, you have more and more product to sell. And then of course online.

Drew Marvick 1:00:17
Sure, of course, and that's kind of, you know, if I, if I was gonna take the time to make a business plan, then, then that's what it would be. I mean, that's what I want. I want to keep making movies, I might, I might up the budget a little bit. Who knows, someday, maybe someday I'll make a 25,000. Maybe Stop it. Stop it. It's crazy, crazy talk. But yeah, so but that's what I want to do. You know, I want to make I want to make the kind of movies that I that I like to watch. And, you know, make them and my friends like to watch. And somehow if I can survive, if I can pay my bills, and my kids can can still eat, and I can continue to do this. That would be amazing. It's that's what I'm trying to do.

Alex Ferrari 1:00:57
Isn't it amazing? I'm assuming we're similar vintages as far as our age is concerned. Well, you just turned 29 again, right, obviously, obviously, yes. Well, I turned 41 two weeks ago. Okay, so we're similar vintages? So I think isn't it interesting though, how our definition of success changes over the years, like your 18 year old self success versus now. Because my definition of success has changed dramatically, so dramatically, even in the last five to 10 years. It's changed dramatically. And I think you're in a place where you're happy. And I'm in a place where I'm happy. And we're not making millions. But we're happy. And in similar ways, you're providing a service, you're providing joy, to your audience through your work and what you do. And I do the same thing. And all you can really hope for in life is to be happy, really. And if you could do something that makes you happy, and you could also help other people and entertain other people, and and have other people enjoy what you do. As an artist. I think that's pretty much the goal. Am I right?

Drew Marvick 1:02:06
Yeah, I mean, one spot on, like, if I just want to, you know, I want to I want to have fun. And I want to other people, I want other people to enjoy what I'm doing. Like that's, that's it. That was my goal with this movie. And it's my my long term goal.

Alex Ferrari 1:02:22
That's awesome. Dude, that's awesome. Well, I'm going to ask you those questions that you're scared of, Oh, I was gonna prepare for him to be in that. But of course, you didn't sell here now? Of course. What advice would you give a filmmaker wanting to break into the business today?

Drew Marvick 1:02:40
I mean, I think I'm more in a position of seeking advice and giving advice. I mean, we've already established that I'm missing businessman

Alex Ferrari 1:02:47
You have made a movie, you are selling a movie. And as of right now, I'm assuming it's in the black. It is. So my friend, you are in the top 1% of 1% of filmmakers who ever have an idea to become a filmmaker. So you have some advice to give? I guess, like Tony Robbins, I'm trying to be. I'm Tony Robbins. You know what, Alex, you're right. I do. I'm good enough. I'm betting battery life.

Drew Marvick 1:03:23
I mean, I think what works for me, and maybe this wouldn't work for everyone else. But a big thing for me was just like not was not being afraid to fail, was not being afraid to suck, like the people that I work with that are much more talented than I am, and probably have better ideas than I do RF, but they're afraid to do it because they're afraid they're going to fail. And they're not going to make Pulp Fiction, like they were their first movie is not going to be amazing. And here I am. I'm like, Who? Maybe I'm too lean too far in this direction. But I say Who cares? I don't care if no one likes the movie, but me. I can say that I made a movie and to me that's like such a huge achievement that that's my first goal is just making a movie and saying that I completed a movie and it's actually done. Like that's, that's my goal. So if it sucks, it sucks. I'll embrace it. Like I'm, that's I'm good at sucking. Like I suck at a lot of things. So that's okay. If I can make a movie that doesn't suck. That's even better, but I'm not afraid. If somebody doesn't like it. I'm not afraid of a bad review. I agree. I love bad reviews. I try to communicate with the people I even actually said there was I was upset that I hadn't had a really bad review right when the movie came out. And probably because not enough people had seen the movie yet but I started looking for people that gave scathing reviews to similar movies to pool party massacre and I reached out to them and asked if I could send them a screener copy and and did and then got Some bad reviews and I felt it made me It made me happy. Because like, I can check that off like, okay, I just read, I just read a review that said that I should never make another movie again and I should be killed and oh, that's really bad. I could check that off my box because we all need that. But if I get it out of the way now early, like that's even better. So you actually saw that I might this guy's gonna hate this movie, I have to get him a copy. Did it I got that out of the way. So I think that's a big thing is not being afraid to do that.

Alex Ferrari 1:05:31
But that's, that's an amazing advice because that's exactly the what I did. When my first movie, I just finally gave up wanting to make Pulp Fiction. I just like, you know what, I'm just gonna go make a movie. And and it was and it opened up every single door that's open to me right now because of that. So great, great advice. Can you tell me what book had the biggest impact on your life or career?

Drew Marvick 1:05:53
Man, um, every time we ask this question, I'm like, geez, how does people read a lot of books? I mean, there's been books that I've loved over the years and, and I and I have read a book, lots of them. And I think, like, rebel, that accrues definitely had an impact and a lot of people have used it. And it looks like if if Chin's could kill Bruce Campbell's autobiography that the whole section on how they made Evil Dead wood was, you know, an inspiration and was a big thing for me. But I think if I had to pick one movie that summed up me better I mean, sorry, book. Yeah. Well, I think this one is also a movie. It would be make your own damn movie, Lloyd Kaufman's book. Yes, Lloyd Lloyd turned the movie and a radio play and whatever else he could turn it into probably. Yeah, exactly. Shane, there's also like producer on a movie director and they have movie Kane or your own damn movie. Like, I think he's got them all. But the main, the make your own damn movie. The first one. It was a big inspiration to me, as was Lloyd and everything that that trauma does.

Alex Ferrari 1:07:07
It's true. You want to talk about someone who doesn't care what other people think? Yes. Yeah. Good point. I mean, yeah. Lloyds. Lloyds. Amazing. And when I had Lloyd on the show, I mean, I was so taken back at how eloquent how educated how well read that man? Is he is an he's an enigma wrapped in a riddle.

Drew Marvick 1:07:31
Yes. Oh, completely. And I've had the pleasure of meeting him several times and working with them. I've been in a trauma movie. And so

Alex Ferrari 1:07:40
He's a wonderful, he's a wonderful human being he

Drew Marvick 1:07:41
He really is, is an amazing person. And I'm sure he's not the person that my parents would want me to call a role model, but is definitely a role model. And so his book, I'm going to pick his book.

Alex Ferrari 1:07:56
Yeah, it's a great book. I actually, it's an excellent book. And if anyone who's listening, that is a great inspirational book to read, as well. Now, what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn whether in the film industry or life?

Drew Marvick 1:08:08
Now this one, I did actually think about, okay, and I don't learn lessons very well. I'm a fool in that sense. But there's one thing that I think I'm still learning and it applies to like my life and to filmmaking. And it's kind of just to let other people help to accept help from other people. It's something that I am not very good at. And not because I think that I could do it better. And I don't, it's not the if you want something done, right, do it yourself mentality. It's kind of the opposite. It's like, I don't want to burden people with my wacky ideas. And so even if that's their job, even if I'm on set, and they're paid to be the set designer, I still am like, Well, you know, I think this idea could work, but I don't want to bother him. He looks busy. I'll just try it myself tonight, in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, and see if it works. Like those kinds of things I end up doing every most everything myself, you know, and it's and it's not, it's something that you do out of necessity as an indie filmmaker, of course, but when you do it not out of necessity, it's it's just silly, because you're already doing so much that if you have someone there that is willing to set up the craft service table, why not let them set up the craft service table, but I will still be that person over there. setting it up. Got it. Wait, I was supposed to be what I'm supposed to doing. 23 other things. So I think a big thing for me is, you know, just letting letting people help me. And someday I'll get it. I'm still learning it right now.

Alex Ferrari 1:09:44
Now, what are three of your favorite films of all time?

Drew Marvick 1:09:49
I'm going to pick because there's a poster right in front of my face Return of the Living Dead, okay. is definitely one of my favorite movies ever made. And I found it When I was in high school and I had punk rock and it had zombies, I just had everything that I wanted and it's just a cool classic 80s horror movie I mean also pick the greasy strangler

Alex Ferrari 1:10:13
First time ever on the show, so

Drew Marvick 1:10:16
That's good. I was like, you know, try not to pick jaws reason I picked the greasy strangler because I've, you know, in the short time that it's been out, I've watched it probably 10 to 15 times since it's been out and I just am fascinated I don't know if you've seen it yet.

Alex Ferrari 1:10:35
No, I have not. I have not it's sounds well just the title alone.

Drew Marvick 1:10:40
You need to see the greasy strangler. Even just watch the trailer. It's not it's nothing like it's not it's a newer movie. And it's just completely bonkers. Yeah, I don't I don't know how to describe it. But it's not even it's not what you're thinking right now. Whatever you're thinking. It's not that it's a million times better. So yeah, the greasy strangler and The Princess Bride.

Alex Ferrari 1:11:05
Ah, The Princess Bride. Yes. I love the Princess Bride. It's an excellent excellent film.

Drew Marvick 1:11:11
I don't know if the greasy strangler and Princess Bride have ever been brought up in the same conversation.

Alex Ferrari 1:11:16
Yeah, in the same sentence, let alone the same list of best Yes.

Drew Marvick 1:11:20
I feel like Rob Reiner might be mad. If you knew that. But still, The Princess Bride is another it's a movie that's not you know, it's not even horror, but it's one of my my favorite movies ever made and it's so quotable.

Alex Ferrari 1:11:33
Yell god, it's amazing. It's amazing. Whoever is listening who has not seen Princess Bride, you need to stop the recording that and go watch The Princess Bride. It's an amazing, amazing film. Now where can people find you online?

Drew Marvick 1:11:46
I myself on any social media under Drew Marvick I mean, I'm on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and that's the only ones I know about I'm sure there's other ones I'm not but so you can find me there social media I try to be entertaining and not political or serious in any way. So feel free to come Come follow my wacky adventures and then also Pool Party massacre their social media for Pool Party massacre everywhere to and poolpartymassacre.com as a hub where you can find all of our merchandise and see what silly product I'm going to unveil next with our on it. I just just released a koozie with a my wife isn't in the movie, of course, because you have to, like drag your family into everything you do when you're an indie filmmaker. And spoiler alert, it's in the she gets killed with a hammer. And so I just put the image of her getting killed with a hammer on a koozie that says let's get hammered. And she's just brilliant. People seem to like it. People like getting hammered. They like puns.

Alex Ferrari 1:12:56
Of course, of course you're hitting your demographics. Yes. I just keep making things that I would like and you can sit your constituents. Thank God, I have a lot of friends. Man, it has been an absolute pleasure talking to you, man. Thank you so much for sharing your adventures in indie film, and I hope it inspires a few people out there to go out and make something on their own man. So thanks again.

Drew Marvick 1:13:21
Yeah, thank you. I'm certainly Sorry, I had to dumb down your podcast a little bit for a week. But but that's all right.

Alex Ferrari 1:13:28
I'll fix it in post, don't worry.

Drew Marvick 1:13:30
I just have like a really good guest. On the next one.

Alex Ferrari 1:13:36
I want to thank Drew for being on the show. It was an absolute pleasure talking to him. He is a part of the indie film hustle tribe. And anytime I can get anybody from the tribe on the show, to help the rest of the tribe learn all about us. So Drew, thank you for being so honest with your numbers and your story about how you put up a party massacre. And if you guys want to get links to anything we talked about in this episode, please head over to the show notes at indiefilmhustle.com/272. And for all you horror fans out there, ifH. TV is gonna have an entire horror filmmaking section for you guys. And the first thing up is going to be I think it's 18 episode series, the masters of terror with interviews from some of the most amazing filmmakers in the horror genre, as well as behind the scenes, horror filmmaking, one on one different genres of horror filmmaking, and it's just all broken down really, really well. So that's one of the many series that are going to be available on IFH TV. So if you want to be first in line, to get access to indie film hustle TV, just head over to ifhtv.com. and sign up. It is launching November 1 which is next week. And this week, you guys are going to get a lot of stuff coming at you about ifH TV and we're going to get some I know last week, I only did one podcast. I'm sorry, I'm going crazy with IFH TV right now, among the other things that I'm doing and getting ready for you guys, but it's going to be very, very exciting guys, so I can't wait for you guys to see it. Oh, and by the way, if you guys are going to be at AFM this year in Santa Monica, I will be there for at least three or four days during the whole convention. So hit me up, email me [email protected] let me know if you guys gonna be there. If I'm gonna be there. We'll hook up we'll we'll get a coffee. If I got time we'll sit down and we'll chat for a bit love to talk to the tribe as much as humanly possible when I get out there. So please just hit me up and let me know if you guys want to hook up. And as always, keep that also going keep that dream alive and I'll talk to you soon.