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IFH 457

IFH 457: Will Netflix Destroy the Last Blockbuster

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The Last Blockbuster with Taylor Morden

Many of the tribe know that I spent thousands of hours working in a mom and pop video store throughout my high school years. This is why I’m so excited to bring you today’s show. We have Taylor Morden, director, and producer of the nostalgia documentary, The Last Blockbuster (2020). And if you want to know how to sell a movie to Netflix, just make a documentary about the company Netflix helped destroy. 

The Last Blockbuster is a fun, nostalgic feature length documentary film about the rise and fall of Blockbuster video and how one small town store managed to outlast a corporate giant.

In 2017, when Morden started filming the Blockbuster documentary, there were only 13 blockbusters around the United States. You need to listen to him recount the moment he got the idea to produce The Last Blockbuster and all the ways the universe aligned for this project. We talked a great deal about his distribution plan, the challenges indie filmmakers face, and his company PopMotion Pictures.

Enjoy my nostalgic conversation with Taylor Morden.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Alex Ferrari 0:01
I'd like to welcome to the show Taylor Morden. Man. How you doing Taylor?

Taylor Morden 0:17
Doing great, Alex. Thanks for having me. Thank you, man,

Alex Ferrari 0:20
you by far have the coolest backdrop of anybody I've ever recorded with Ben very nice. Art directed sir.

Taylor Morden 0:27
It was my my COVID art project was just keep upping the zoom call background over and over again. I mean, I look back at old interviews of me and there's different backgrounds every time it's it's come a long way.

Alex Ferrari 0:39
I have that. That is the video from Hollywood video right in the background.

Taylor Morden 0:42
Yeah, yeah, I had the old neon sign

Alex Ferrari 0:45
how'd you get the app?

Taylor Morden 0:47
There was a couple selling it on Craigslist or Facebook marketplace or something. And I saw and they had the whole the Hollywood video sign but the word Hollywood is like 50 feet long. And I'm 12 feet tall. So I asked him you know, can I buy just the word video and it was an old neon sign so I had to like take it apart had been sitting in the dirt and clean it and do all this and then converted it to LED and hung it on my wall.

Alex Ferrari 1:13
man that's that's a different level of cool sir.

Taylor Morden 1:17
different level of nerdy I think he's saying nerdy

Alex Ferrari 1:19
nerdy Look, man, I got a Yoda behind me. So you know, not too far behind you, sir. So before we get started, man and go down the nostalgia road that is video stores and blockbuster in your amazing documentary. How did you become a filmmaker? Why did you want to become a filmmaker?

Taylor Morden 1:37
Yeah, I so I in the 90s I'm aging myself a little bit. I was when I was a kid in high school. The school had a VHS camcorder, like the big you know, put it up on your shoulder uses full size VHS tapes. And that was my first introduction to video. We never, you know, could afford a video camera at home or anything like that. So I would check it out from the school is very small school. So they would know like have the video cameras out, Taylor's got it. And I would do all my projects, you know, school projects. If I if I could get out of writing a five page report by doing a five minute video. I did that all through high school. And I loved it and you know kind of got the bug in my senior year the school invested in Premiere 1.0. We had a soap some kind of video capture card we had to plug the VCR into the computer,

Alex Ferrari 2:29
an RCA RCA capture card and RCA

Taylor Morden 2:31
RCA and it would capture at like 320 resolution 320 by one. Whatever that ratio is for four by three, you know. It was bad. And then it kind of got out of it after high school but I loved it. I did a ton of like little goofy videos with my friends kind of got out of it after high school because I was more into music. I was playing in bands. I wanted to be like a rock star and tour the world. Put out albums and do all that. And I did. And I was always a little involved in our music videos. You know that was like, Oh yeah, that's right. I do love video. And then after college, I got my, my job was flash animator. I got a digital arts degree. And I was doing those flash intros on websites that you couldn't skip that everybody hated.

Alex Ferrari 3:18
So for people listening, I just need to stop for a second. Because Yeah, a Macromedia Flash. If it was

Taylor Morden 3:26
Yeah. Before

Alex Ferrari 3:27
before, Adobe. So it was Macromedia Flash. You got a degree in, in Flash?

Taylor Morden 3:35
Yeah.

Alex Ferrari 3:36
So you got a degree in in multimedia production slash flash? money well spent. I think for a long term. It was definitely a long tail. It's essentially it's essentially me getting a degree in VHS repair.

Taylor Morden 3:48
Yes. Which was a degree at the time.

Alex Ferrari 3:52
Sure. Yeah. I'm sorry. I had to I just had to point that out. Continue.

No, no, no, you're very much correct. And then you know, around 2010 2011 Apple killed flash basically, they just said we're not going to support it on our iPhones and iPads and then the whole internet went, Oh, okay, well, we're not going to use it anymore. And it was gone. And so also at that time, video was taking the place of that, you know, broadband was everywhere, you could put a video on a website instead of a flash animation. So and DSLRs were getting to the point where even a struggling musician like me could afford one that could do a decent job I had the Canon T two I did okay looking video within you know, the 50 millimeter 1.8 lens that everybody had. And I started just doing video work with that like commercials and weddings and just anything you could point a camera at Real Estate shot real estate for a while. And I did that for a while and I made a decent living as a videographer in Washington, DC and then I moved back here to order Again, six years ago, and all that work dried up, because it's a small town and there aren't enough weddings and car commercials to keep me afloat. And that's sort of when I decided I wanted to try making documentary movies, I figured I have the skill set, I had a slightly better camera at that time. And I thought, maybe I can make a documentary and basically ask my wife, is it okay? If I spend a year trying to make a movie, because I'm not going to earn money. And she gave me one year, she said, you know, try it, figure out how to do it. And, you know, in a year, if it looks like it's gonna make any money, you can keep doing this. Otherwise, go get a job at Best Buy. And it's almost six years later, and I haven't had to get that job yet.

But but but the thread is always they're

Taylor Morden 5:53
always they're always hanging

Alex Ferrari 5:54
over your head, like, I believe in you. But the clock is ticking.

Taylor Morden 6:00
Go make your movies, but you know, eventually you'll have to get a real job. Yeah. And

Alex Ferrari 6:05
I've been I've been trying to get a real job now for 20 odd years. So I feel you, oh, no, you can imagine if I tell I tell my dad now or my parents now. They're like, so what do you do now? I'm like, Oh, I talk on the internet. I've got a podcast like what's a? What's a podcast? I'm like, man, I also do movies. And she's like, What? What? And they're like, Okay, do you live in Los Angeles? You have a house? Apparently you doing something. Okay. So go with God.

Taylor Morden 6:34
Right? Well, people think you're telling me make movies and they either think you're a millionaire right? Oh, you make movie your film director

Alex Ferrari 6:41
like guarantee?

Taylor Morden 6:43
Like Spielberg? Like guarantee now Can I borrow $200,000? Not sure. Or if they've ever met a filmmaker, they know. You have no money. And they're like, Oh, I'm sorry.

Alex Ferrari 6:52
Oh you're a filmmaker. That's a shame. Yeah. So that's essentially that's essentially what we get. No, it's always fascinating to to meet people outside of the the carny world that is filmmaking because we are carnies. I mean, it's just, we're corny, folks. You know, we smell of cabbage. We have small hands. Sorry. That's a reference from from Austin Powers. But no, but we are. But we are carnies in many ways that the film industry is such a small business. And it's kind of very misunderstood by people outside of the business. So they automatically think that you're super wealthy or super rich, or you're famous, or this or that. And it's it's it's really interesting, especially from the older generation, who has no idea, get a real job. I was talking Africa, I was talking to somebody who's a very accomplished screenwriter. His father was just like, when are you going to stop with this writing stuff? He could actually make get a real job. Like, but that I've won an Oscar. Yeah, play a real job, something you could do honest work with. It's just, it's hilarious. Now, I wanted to bring you on the show, man. Because you you directed this. This this, this wonderful documentary called the last blockbuster. And many people listening on the show know that I, too, worked at a video store, not the corporate, horrible corporate juggernaut that was blockbuster that just crushed the mom and pops, I worked in one of those mom and pops, and only went to blockbuster when I couldn't find a copy of something. And every time I'd walk in, I'd be like, this is amazing. They got 400 copies of something. But yet I still hated them because they took business away from us. But now I look back at blockbuster and Hollywood video. I'm just like, oh, like I kind of miss it. But you wrote this, you did this amazing documentary. I got to know. First of all, how did it get started? What did you like? Why did you say hey, blockbuster, let's do this.

Taylor Morden 8:54
Well, I loved renting videos, since I can remember since I was a kid, and it was always like, a big part of my life. And I loved it. And I would like you know, save up my allowance. So I could walk down to Hollywood video or blockbuster or the local store, read my bike and rent a VHS and take it home for the weekend and watch it four or five times that kind of thing. So you know, I'm of that generation where that was a big deal. And I've watched it kind of disappear. And then like I said, I moved here to Oregon, six years ago now. And the first week I moved here, right by my house, there was a blockbuster video that was going out of business. This was 2015. So you know they had recently corporate had gone away and I knew of blockbuster videos going away. There's not really video stores anymore. Netflix is huge. But before even our furniture arrived, you know we had like shipped it via pods. And I went to this Blockbuster Video that was closing and I bought all the DVDs. is an Xbox games and things that were 90% off and, you know $1 and bought all the things and tried to buy the, you know the blockbuster sign on the wall, but they wouldn't sell it to me. So I was excited. I was like, Oh, that's cool that this time and I just moved to had a blockbuster still Too bad it closed. And then flash forward about a year I had been driving around town and I would see another big blockbuster sign the Big Blue ticket that we all know the shape of and I thought look at that they couldn't afford to take the sign down. They just had to leave it because it's so expensive. You see him all over the country people send me pictures of them now. Once a week somebody is like did you know there's still a blockbuster? I'm like, yeah, go inside. See what you find.

Alex Ferrari 10:45
I gotta I gotta mines is a Petco. It's but they wouldn't take the damn thing down. So it's a movie ticket with Petco. I'd have to like, yep, I'm not taking that down. That's gonna cost ,

Taylor Morden 10:56
Yeah. I didn't want in Washington, DC.

Alex Ferrari 10:58
It has a cost to take that down. It must have cost a lot. It's huge. They're huge, right? They're

Taylor Morden 11:04
huge. You got to get a crane in there. It's a whole thing. If you've ever had to have a hot tub moved, you know,

Alex Ferrari 11:10
the way you said it in Washington, what?

Taylor Morden 11:12
In Washington, the one near me was a liquor store, but it was the ticket shape. And it was you know, liquor store, liquor store video

Alex Ferrari 11:20
Right?

Taylor Morden 11:20
But for some reason, one day I just did my curiosity got the better me I wanted to take a picture of the abandoned store for Instagram or something. And I stopped, and I went in. And it was like going through a time warp. It was like no one told them blockbuster had gone out of business. Like they didn't get the memo. I went in and it looked the same, it felt the same. And it smelled the same. As I remembered. It was like, Oh, it's 1999. And I'm going to rent The Phantom Menace. And it's awesome. And the only difference was this was 2017 by this point. And so it was the new Star Wars movie. And it was the new Marvel movie, where were the 200 copies up on the new release wall. So it was very nostalgic, but at the same time, exciting of like, wow, what the heck is going on here? Who is still renting movies? Because that was the other thing. It was packed with people renting DVDs.

Alex Ferrari 12:18
It's like this weird Back to the Future scene. Yeah, yeah.

Taylor Morden 12:21
I couldn't understand what was going on. And so that day, I talked to the owner and the manager and said, Hey, I'm, I'm a filmmaker. I'm doing air quotes for those listening. I'm a filmmaker. Would it be okay? If I started bringing cameras around? And just like interviewing some customers if they're okay with it, you know, I'll I won't get in your way. I'm just fascinated. And they said, Okay, that's weird. No one's really ever tried to dinner. Nobody cared at that point. And that was that was the beginning of it. I've been it's now four years later. And the movies just now out. So.

Alex Ferrari 12:59
And when you started, there was still but 13 blockbuster 12. So 12 blockbusters around the country. And then yeah,

Taylor Morden 13:08
the 13th. One was the one by my house that closed.

Alex Ferrari 13:10
Right. So it just so happened, that you you befriended the one blockbuster that's still in existence. So it just was happenstance that you move or you move to Oregon and you were close to that one. You could have moved to Alaska. All right, because that one held up for a little while. And in that whole John Oliver thing and remember John Oliver sent the jockstrap from Cinderella man or something like that. Russell Crowe to get get people to come in the store. And you know, hear like, oh, in Alaska, they've got blockbusters like that. That makes sense. There's this very bad, bad internet there. And you know, it's still a thing and it's smaller towns I okay, out. I'll buy, I'll buy

Taylor Morden 13:53
Yeah, when we started, we for sure thought the Alaska stores would outlast the Oregon store mix. We had no, we had no delusions that this was going to be the last blockbuster in the whole world. But we still thought it was an interesting story. And we're just like, well, we'll follow this store and see what happens. And we could there's like, nothing we could have done to make it happen the way it did. It was all you know, documentary filmmaking magic of being in the right place at the right time and making friends with the store before everybody was beating their door down and trying to get the exclusive.

Alex Ferrari 14:29
Right so that you were in already and well, I forgot the name of the manager and the lady who owns it. What's

Taylor Morden 14:34
Sandy

Alex Ferrari 14:34
Sandy so Sandy, Sandy. By the way, when you watch the movie, Sandy's to star, she is she is the star of the show. She She is the heart and soul of that place. She doesn't own it. She just manages it. But the whole thing is, is run because of her and she's like, ride or die like she will not know. She's not like she told her husband like I'm not retiring. I am here as long long as the store is open, and I will continue to keep. It's just amazing. So while so while your mate you you got in early in 2015, then I'm sure there was other filmmakers or other news organizations or other that wanted to come in to have that kind of same access. And Sandy's like, Oh yeah, we're good. We got somebody, we've got this filmmaker who's, who's already doing a documentary on us, and we love him. We'd love Taylor, is that basically the way it goes?

Taylor Morden 15:24
That's a little bit how it went. After I was making another movie at the same time, which ProTip Don't do that. But I was making two documentaries at once. And I brought on a partner for the blockbuster doc who had a little bit more Hollywood experience than me. He was a writer for years on Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, bunch of kids shows in the 90s and stuff. And he was very smart. He early on was like, hey, let's just get a little contract in place for the life rights for the story, just in case it blows up. And I think we would have been fine with that. But it was, in hindsight, it was a great idea.

Alex Ferrari 16:06
What a great,

Taylor Morden 16:08
great suggestion. Yeah. So if you're starting the documentary, and something that you think might blow up, that's a great tip is just get something in writing that says, You're the only one who can make a movie about this.

Alex Ferrari 16:20
Yeah, that doesn't use news stories and all that stuff.

Taylor Morden 16:23
Yeah, they did a ton of news stuff. But anything that was longer, even short form stuff, they they would run it by us. So Sandy would call and say, I don't know, this kid wants to do a short documentary for their college thing. Is that okay? And then we would talk to the kid and be like, What's this for? You know, you're not going to turn it into a feature or,

Alex Ferrari 16:43
you know, we don't want to have to sue. Right. That's, that's awesome. That's an amazing, that's amazing. I don't know if I might have mentioned this to you once. I know I mentioned it on this on the show once. But my when the video stores were all going out of business, hollywood video was the big one that kept going out of business around me. And I figured out to go in and buy some old videos, DVDs, and then I would sell them on Amazon. And I did a little bit here a little bit there. I made a little, little extra cash. And it was when you could still sell DVDs and stuff. But then right before we moved to LA when I had no very little savings, we were moving to LA my wife and I didn't know anybody. The videos, the Hollywood video around the corner, finally put up the going out of business line. And I walked in and said, Can I speak to the manager? What can I do for you, sir? I'm like, I need everybody to leave the store, please. Why? Because I'm going to buy everything you have. And I bought the entire they're like, fantastic. We can close up early. And go do you take discover? And they go yes. And I bought God I don't even I it was just too many, I think 1000 10,000 DVDs and video games. And I spent about 12 grand or something like that on my credit card. And then I told my wife well, even when we get to LA I can't get a job or you can't get a job at least we can sell DVDs to keep the lights on. And and that's what we did. I mean, we fortunately both of us got jobs right away and I was off and running. She was off and running. But we must have made 30 40 grand selling DVDs for the next year for the next year. That was just a slow drip of like DVD sales and video game sales. I had GameCube like those old GameCube Oh, yeah. The little disc I sold everything. And that was the Hollywood video that that was the one that went down on but I never I never did a blockbuster because I think blockbusters were still too solid when I left because I left in a way. Mm hmm. And oh wait.

Taylor Morden 18:44
Yeah, they were so

Alex Ferrari 18:45
blockbuster was the Hollywood video was having issues. So that's when that's when they went down so I'd never did a blockbuster they would start going out of business. And I wouldn't be here in LA when I got here. There were still blockbusters I got here in 2008. So the blockbusters everywhere. Then, as the years go by, I would keep driving by this block like how are they still alive? How are still going and that one turned into a Sherman Williams paint store. And then the other one turned into the Petco and and then slowly but surely, there was a couple of video stores left in my area in the valley and one of them is still there, but they're like a VHS, they only do VHS. They're still alive. And I think it's just like anytime you see a documentary about nostalgic VHS or they just go there and rent it out for the day. It's so it's amazing. Now, the one thing I noticed with with the last blockbuster, you've been able to tap into something afraid kind of filmmaking I kind of coined which is nostalgia filmmaking. You are You are attaching your your your film to your to an existing audience. That's really all about nostalgia. So all those VHS documentaries, all the documentaries on, you know, like, Oh, that was that one that HBO about the the water theme park that killed people that was that tapped into an 80s nostalgia. I mean, Stranger Things obviously touches it big time. But you're able to do it, can you? Can you discuss what you were thinking about? Because I mean, obviously you understand what I'm saying? I mean, it is definitely a stylish thing to watch this documentary.

Taylor Morden 20:27
Yeah, no, nostalgia is kind of my brand. If I, if I had one, because I've done this is my third feature documentary. And all three of them are pretty much rooted in the 90s. And I, as a human, I'm also pretty much rooted in the 90s that I still love. I collect action figures and, and VHS tapes and vinyl records. And I'm, you know, I am my target audience, which is a really important thing. I think, as a filmmaker, for anybody, it makes stuff. If you need to figure out how to get to get through to an audience, just figure out what you like. And if there's enough other people like you in the world, then you have an audience. And I've done it with all three movies. And the thing that I kind of figured out really early on my first one, when we did Kickstarter to raise the money is, you know, with Kickstarter, you can raise some money, but you also build a community that is invested in this thing. And he found through the internet now like minded people, you know, my first movie was way more niche, it was about a single one hit wonder band called The refreshments. And there's not a ton of refreshments fans. But I found them all. And I sent them to the Kickstarter. And then my second movie was little bit bigger was about the music genre ska, right so no doubt real big fish, the mighty mighty bosstones a lot more fans. And I found them and that Kickstarter went bananas. And I still, you know, have the email list. And I'm still pushing those DVDs and trying to get those people but I'm engaged in that community because I'm also a fan of that thing from that era. And then with blockbuster, it was the same thing. You know, I grew up loving it. And when I walked into that blockbuster, for the first time, I had that wave of nostalgia that like I said that first day was when I asked if we could film there, because if I figured if I could capture any of that feeling that I felt going there, and then try to sell it to people who are my similar age and have my similar life experiences of those Friday nights, a Blockbuster Video, and maybe you get a pizza and you know, hanging out with your friends and you rent the matrix and oh my god, and then you watch all the special features. And then you watch it again, because it's not due back till Monday. Like that feeling. It's gone in the world now. So being able to tap into that, you know, just from like you're getting at the marketing standpoint of like, how do you you know, capture this, this vibe or this nostalgia and then try to sell it to people? I don't think it's that hard. It's people want it. People long for the good times the good old days that we all remember. I mean, you see it in every like you said Stranger Things in every facet of pop culture, it comes in waves, you know, there's a reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles every six years, because New Kids don't know what it is. But also because the parents are still going to go back and watch it because I remember Leonardo that was my favorite, you know?

Alex Ferrari 23:39
Yeah, it's I mean, well, I mean, Disney is doing very well with that with the Marvel in the in the Marvel in the Star Wars franchise

Taylor Morden 23:48
and just reboots in general reboots and remakes it's it's the world I'm thankful to be doing you know documentaries are different. I'm not just rebooting short circuit to but you're reminding people why they liked the original one

Alex Ferrari 24:04
right so like it you know you're tapping into those those that time so like that that documentary series on Netflix the movies that made us which is the toys that made us which they like break up like you know to transform an hour about how the Transformers game or E man game or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game or like the making of Die Hard or and they just do it in a very so strategic Mr. Logic way. They got me because I watched all of them. Me do every season. All of it. I just like, Yeah, sure. I'll watch the Barbie one too. I don't care. I want to just it's fine as part of the series I got to watch. But so you were you were figuring you figured out at the beginning of your of your journey as a filmmaker, that you need to find your audience and make product for that audience. So you were using the film entrepreneur method in many ways before you even knew What an entrepreneurial filmmaker was because you're selling, you're still selling DVDs, you're still selling other products and things that you're seeing, you're still making money off of these old.

Taylor Morden 25:10
What's the same, same kind of thing where I said, if you make stuff for yourself and find other people, right, I love physical media. I am the person who if I find an indie movie that I like, I'm going to buy the VHS version because that's cool to me. Or, you know, if a band I like puts out an album, I'm going to buy the vinyl record it whether I listened to it on the turntable or not, because that's cool to me. You know, I'm, I like movie posters. I like things like that. So it was easy then to think, well, if I like that, maybe the people who like my movie would also like a poster or a hat or a T shirt, or, you know, if I could make action figures I would, but it's weird with documentaries. Yeah, I

Alex Ferrari 25:54
got Tiger King would obviously have them.

Taylor Morden 25:57
Right? No, I listened to your your book, the entrepreneur book. And I, as it was going through, I'm like, Oh, yeah, I do that I do that. I do that. I do that. Oh, that's a good idea. I haven't tried. But I do that one. And I do that. And it all kind of works in different levels, depending on the project, too. And I've done three of these. And, you know, I blockbuster sells a lot more VHS copies, obviously, than the other ones.

Alex Ferrari 26:27
Right? Exactly. And you mean being strategic like that to tap into that nostalgia, and it's something that just keeps going. It does. Like I I accidentally made an astrology film with on the corner, desire, which was about you know, filmmakers at Sundance

Taylor Morden 26:45
Sure, now that we can't go to film festivals, like a relic,

Alex Ferrari 26:49
I don't think there's going to be a time like it was even a year or two ago. at Sundance the same way when there's 50,000 people jammed into Park City, I don't. I don't know if that's ever going to happen again. Or if it's going to be completely I don't think what I was able to capture will be there again. And it wasn't it wasn't strategic. I can't say like, yeah, there's a pandemic coming. So I'm no people. But in many ways, I've made like a Christmas movie, because every year now around Sundance time, people are like, Well, I didn't get into Sundance, but at least I could. I could watch Sundance. Yeah. You know, watch and be there kind of feel like it be there. So it was kind of like a weird nostalgia,

Taylor Morden 27:31
as well. unintended, unintended nostalgia. Yeah, we we didn't get into Sundance as well. But we turned our lemons into lemonade. And we put the rejection letter, quote, the nice. The one nice thing they said, We put that in our trailer. And our distributor was like, are you sure you can put that in there? We had to prove that Sundance had said it.

Alex Ferrari 27:55
Hey, look, I mean, when I i've been rejected so many times from Sundance, I can't I've lost count. But early on, I would just say I would put the laurels on my website for some of my short films, and I would say officially rejected really late on at Sundance Film Festival.

Taylor Morden 28:09
Okay, you paid for it.

Alex Ferrari 28:10
Can

Taylor Morden 28:11
You know? Yeah, so it's $100 graphic. It's

Alex Ferrari 28:17
well, I just I tried to get in the earliest it was only 50.

Taylor Morden 28:20
Okay,

Alex Ferrari 28:20
I wasn't. I wasn't the guy that just showed up last minute. That's $125 That's ridiculous. But now one thing I did notice about your you're filming the music you guys had like you had a couple of songs there that? I'm like, that can't be cheap. How did you get the rights to Smash Mouth? was a very it was it all star? It was an all star?

Taylor Morden 28:44
All Star? Yeah, sir.

Alex Ferrari 28:45
So all star is like, probably one of the more licensed Smash Mouth songs. That's been in a million big movies. And I can't believe that was cheap. So can you tell us how you got those rights? Because I'm assuming you're not rolling deep enough to to drop 150 or $200,000 for that? That needle, right?

Taylor Morden 29:04
Yeah, no, we did not. We did not spend what we were supposed to spend. Now that came from, like I said, My other movie I was working on two at a time is about ska music and Smash Mouth was part of that scene. So I had approached their guitar player who is their primary songwriter to be in that documentary. And he was a cool guy, and we were hanging out. And my producer for blockbuster was there with me because to save money, you know, I'm flying to LA I'm going to shoot both, you know, interviews for both movies at the same time because it's my 500 bucks in plane tickets, right? So we probably I think we came from I can't remember the maybe the Adam Brody shoot or something and went straight to the Smash Mouth shoot. And so he was there with me. So after we were done talking about ska music, we started talking about home video rentals and Blockbuster Video and had some fun takes that actually made it into the movie. So that's pro tip number one is if you want to hit song, find the person who wrote it and put them in your movie. So we reached out when we were doing the music, we thought, wouldn't it be fun if we put a couple needle drops in here that were songs from the 90s, early 2000s that were big in movies that people associate with blockbuster videos, subconsciously, right? Like, Smash Mouth all star was in Shrek. And Shrek was a huge home video hit because kids you know, every week, can I get it? You know, before you could stream anything. So it was an obvious choice. And we knew the guy. So we reached out and said, Hey, can we get this song? You know, is there any way we can get it for free, you know, and music dogs, you can get a lot of music for free if you know the right people. And he was like, well, we do own all the rights, but we can't do free, but I can get you the really good friends and family discount. And that, that knocked down a ton. I mean, I'm talking like 90% off. And so it was only a couple $1,000. But we didn't have enough money. And we have no real budget, we're self funding everything after the Kickstarter money dried up. And so the way music licensing works is you got to pay for two licenses, you have the publishing, and then the master. So the publishing is the songwriter whoever wrote it, they get paid, and the Masters whoever recorded it. So a lot of times it's the same people write the Beatles wrote and recorded their own songs. But a lot of times somebody else wrote it, so you got to pay two different people. In this case, they own size, a doubled the price. So me being a musician is another pro tip for indie filmmakers out there, I just recorded it myself, we did a sound like that played all the instruments except the drums, I had my my buddy do the drums. And I sang it, I figured I could do a pretty good Smash Mouth impression, I got a gravelly voice. And that's the version in our movie is just me doing a cover of Smash Mouth because it was half the price did the same thing. There's another hit song in there. And it was my producers wife is also a professional singer and she sang the other song so that it wouldn't give away our secret. But it's in the credit. So it's not really a secret. But so that's all star written by Smash Mouth performed by Taylor Morrison.

Alex Ferrari 32:26
So So that's, that's a really great typical, it's even for for not even for dogs, but for features as well. You can use if you can get the songwriter to give you the rights at an affordable price, which a lot of times the songwriter will give it to you for an affordable, right? It's generally the master whoever owns the master, which is that the original recording, that's where the money is

Taylor Morden 32:49
the big record labels, yeah, and they're not. And then a lot of times, they'll do a most favored nations deal where you have to pay the same for both. So even if you can get the publishing, you know, for 1000 bucks, which is cheap, the master holder might want 10 grand, and then you have to pay 10 grand for both. So now it's 20 because of the way they work those deals. So it's it's a slippery slope. But yeah, if you even if you just know somebody, you know, find a local band you like and say I'll pay for your studio time. Go record me a version of the song. That's also why you hear so many covers now in movies and in trailers especially, like it's always like a cool modern cover of an 80 song. Well, a lot of times it's way cheaper to do that than to get the real song.

Alex Ferrari 33:34
And that's another great, great tip. Like, again, you could just find cover bands on YouTube, or on Soundcloud or on Spotify or something like that. I'm like, hey,

Taylor Morden 33:42
yeah, in my first movie I did. I just found a cover I liked on YouTube, emailed the artists and said, hey, I've got you know, the songwriter signed off on this, can I use your cover, and she was so happy to be in a movie shouldn't charge me anything. She's just like, great, put my name in the credits and send me a DVD when it's done. And that's pretty common.

Alex Ferrari 34:03
Pro tip for everyone listening. Now, the other the other thing that I saw in your movies, and I've always wanted to know about this and documentaries, video clip rights, you you can weigh two clips that are not specific to, you know, to what I mean, it is kind of specific to what you're talking about. But it's kind of like a reactionary thing. But it's not like part of a blockbuster documentary. So it's not like a clip from a blockbuster commercial, which we could talk about as well. I know there's limits to that. But like you would kind of wait to a shot of a film. I forgot which one was that Tom Hanks or somebody like that that are

Taylor Morden 34:41
at Apollo 13 in there,

Alex Ferrari 34:42
right. You had an Apollo 13 through so you're like how does that work? Because I'm assuming you didn't call universal up before that those rights.

Taylor Morden 34:50
We did not. And I would appreciate if nobody calls them now. But

Alex Ferrari 34:56
they don't know about it. Quiet.

Taylor Morden 34:58
Yeah, that that stuff is a little bit over. My head, as far as the legalese of it, but what what you have to do when you're making a documentaries is you need a lawyer, unfortunately, and that's on this one, I think it was our biggest budget item really was legal fees. Because somebody had to write up those contracts to clear those songs, and all those movie clips, and even the things you pay to license, you need all the paperwork done correctly, and contracts and all that. And then you also need somebody for if you're doing this kind of documentary, something called fair use, which is not like a hard and fast rule. It's, it's an argument. And you need a real lawyer and entertainment lawyer to provide you a fair use argument that they stand behind that says, Here's why this is considered fair use for this movie. Right. So like with Apollo 13, it was because we were telling the story of the Netflix founder, who had claimed in an interview that he founded Netflix, because of too many late fees from renting Apollo 13. So it's kind of the, the punchline to that story. We tagged it on Houston, we have a problem, right? It all fits. And there's a couple of arguments there. One is the fair use for context. And then you have to, for the lawyers, you have to tell them, we used seven seconds of the movie, but total movie is two hours long. So this is 0.3% of the movie. And we used it, you know, to illustrate this point in this context, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they put all that together to come up with a fair use argument, a fair use argument. For our movie, I think it was like a 50 page document that covers everything. And you take that, and that's what you give to your insurance company and get your E and O insurance, which is what you then take to your distributor. So it's this whole chain of like, the lawyer says it's okay. You know, for whatever legal reasons, a lot of times I don't understand the argument, but they're like, Well, in this case of, you know, the NFL versus John's, if it was proven that you can, whatever, and it's either. I think there's satire, there's educational, and another one. But there's a few different things that you can claim because it's it's okay to make fun of someone. And then those clips, yeah, and use those and use their picture or something like that. commentary,

Alex Ferrari 37:27
Commentary yeah, materia is another thing like if as long as you are actively talking about it, unless the entire, like, I can't just take a movie, like Apollo 13. And just do an audio commentary and sell it. That's not doable, like there has to be dressed like that, like, right,

Taylor Morden 37:44
but if you were doing an essay about movies about space, and what they got, right, and what they didn't, you could show a clip that says, Oh, they got this right. Here's the 10 seconds where they got it, right. So it's all about context. And, you know, like I said, there's a reason these lawyers make more money than I do on this project.

Alex Ferrari 38:03
Like if you're making a document about Ron Howard, I mean, you you can show clips of his filmography, as people are talking about his stuff. So there is it but it's not

Taylor Morden 38:12
a hard and fast rate, we can still get sued. It's just in these lawyers opinion based on other cases, in similar situations, we would win. And that's what the insurance company uses to say, Okay, we'll give you insurance. Because that's who pays the legal fees in the event that whoever universal sues us for five seconds of Tom Hanks in our documentary about Blockbuster Video, which I would argue that all movies are fair game. They were all in blockbuster.

Alex Ferrari 38:40
To be that's an argument to be had. But there was that room. That movie called room two, not two to seven, the 237

Taylor Morden 38:49
Oh 237 to

Alex Ferrari 38:51
379, which was the the documentary on Kubrick and the shining. And my God, the entire movies, just wall to wall clips from shining eyes. Why

Taylor Morden 39:03
they may have had to get him, they may have had to get permission.

Alex Ferrari 39:07
I doubt that.

Taylor Morden 39:08
There's a limit.

Alex Ferrari 39:09
I mean, no, but I don't know. I don't know how they did it. And I might have him on the show soon. So we'll find out. But I want to find out like what, how did they get away because it's like, and but at the very beginning, they say Warner Brothers does not. This is not this is not approved by them or anything. So there was a big disclaimer. First things that come up, so there has to be I don't know what they did. But I want that lawyer anyway.

Taylor Morden 39:36
Yeah,

Alex Ferrari 39:37
That's pretty much the thing you had to do with seven seconds. I can imagine having to deal with the whole movie like that. That's

Taylor Morden 39:43
Yeah, in my in my music, Dr. Scott one, we had a few news clips and music, video clips and music is way more dangerous. You know, you're not supposed to use any seconds of any hit songs. But you know if it's attached to a music video in the context of talking about music videos being on it, TV. It's like borderline okay, but my lawyer on that one, she kept sending me back things in me like you got to shave two seconds off of that clip, you got to make sure the audio doesn't go You can't do any j cuts or l cuts with Fair Use clips. That's a fun tip.

Alex Ferrari 40:16
Yeah, you get it has to be just the clip.

Taylor Morden 40:20
Yeah, the audio has to be contained within the video. You can't

Alex Ferrari 40:23
You can't have someone that you can't have that music kind of fade into another color. Exactly. Clip because it's like, oh, it's smoother. It's nicer, yeah no

Taylor Morden 40:31
So we would record sound like music that's like, in the same vibe, but it's nowhere near the right song so that it wouldn't have a hard stop. Right? So it could keep going. And it would just be like our little lounge music version of.

Alex Ferrari 40:46
So um, so what's your What was your? What's your distribution plan? And what did you did you I don't think you self distributed, right? You actually have a distributor.

Taylor Morden 40:56
Right? So I self distributed my first two movies and using film for printer methods and selling DVDs out of my garage still to this day. And it's great. And I love it. I love the relationship you get with your audience and the control you have over everything. But with this one, Blockbuster Video is such a well known thing. It's It's nice, but it's not, right. Like if you go into a room of 10 people and you say, Hey, I got a story about Blockbuster Video, nine of them are going to be interested. Because unless they're under 20 years old, they grew up with it. And it's been a part of their lives. So we kind of knew early on with this one. And I also have a partner on it, who has done more of the traditional route where we wanted some kind of a traditional, you know, we want a good publicist, we want to get reviewed in the New York Times and we want to be on all the platforms, you know, because self releasing, you can only really get on Amazon unless you go through an aggregator.

Alex Ferrari 42:00
And like I was always, by the way not Yeah, not anymore.. Yeah. They started accepting documentaries, which was that's a whole other

Taylor Morden 42:06
Yeah, I had one of mine pulled off of it was up for Prime in the UK, I was testing out prime to see like, everybody says you can make some money on prime because I've always only done t VOD on Amazon, which has been great because I can drive the traffic. But I was testing out prime and they just pulled it yesterday. I got the and they didn't even tell me. I just logged on and it said your prime minutes have gone to zero. My checking it says platforms restricted or something. So I'm hoping they don't pull me off TVOD because you know, those. My first two movies, they're doing pretty well on T VOD. on Amazon. My thought is as long as because they take 50% as long as they're making money. They have no reason to take my movies down. But no one thought they were going to turn off documentaries for a reason

Alex Ferrari 42:56
they turned it to they've turned into the evil empire at this point. They like you know, they have man they have they, they their whole prime was built on the back of independent filmmakers. Like all when that's launched, it was crap. And all the only thing that people would you know, that's why they opened up amazon video direct cuz they needed content. And now that they're all cloudy and tidy, and they're like, oh, we're good now. And now they're like kicking everybody off without any. It's just anyway, that's scary.

Taylor Morden 43:25
It's scary, because it is a big percentage of my income.

Alex Ferrari 43:29
Right. And I know, I know, filmmakers who have lost like, yeah, like that. That whole business model was wrapped around prime and all of a sudden now it's the on hand Scott film to printer method, multiple revenue streams, as many of them that you can control. You selling a DVD, you control that?

Taylor Morden 43:46
Yeah

Alex Ferrari 43:46
that's right. Yeah.

Taylor Morden 43:47
And the same with this. So we did do it as a traditional distributor, we went with a company called 1091, who used to be part of a company called the orchard and they've done a lot of really cool indie releases, like the early Tyco, ytt movies and stuff like that. And they're, we kind of like their vibe, we talked to a bunch of distributors. And we did get a little bit of a bidding war of, you know, bouncing deals back and forth. And they beat everybody else's offers. So we went with them, because they also sounded like they kind of understood what we were trying to do and how we wanted to market the movie and all that. But we did keep our physical rights and our theatrical rights, which at the time, we thought there might be theaters, there aren't but we were able to do some drive ins and stuff, which was cool. But physical has been doing well. For us as a self release. You know, we happen to have a retail store, right? We have big racks at Blockbuster Video, which not many filmmakers get when you make an indie film

Alex Ferrari 44:26
No you have exclusive blockbuster

Taylor Morden 44:57
for me Did we actually I looked it up. We have The first blockbuster exclusive DVD since 2011. And we gave them we gave them a four month window. Before it's on, you know, you can buy the DVD on Amazon now. But for four months, you could only get it through their website or in their store. It was a blockbuster exclusive.

Alex Ferrari 45:17
And then helps them keep keep them alive, too. I'm assuming that's like a great souvenir.

Taylor Morden 45:23
When people go to visit, it's a great souvenir. And they, yeah, we're helping a huge chunk of the revenue, we basically split the profit on the DVD with the store. So it's, it's great for them to have something like that, that they can sell, because a lot of their customers are tourists and they're not going to rent something. But they will buy this movies about this store. And I can buy it at this store that I've been to Wow.

Alex Ferrari 45:48
That's cool. It's actually kind of cool that they could do that. And I'm assuming those VHS sales are slamming.

Taylor Morden 45:57
So we did partner with like an indie VHS company called lunchmeat VHS, and they did a limited run of 100 units, and it's sold out in 30 minutes. So we're doing another one. You got to keep an eye on our website to know when that's gonna launch because I'd probably sell out in 30 minutes.

Alex Ferrari 46:16
So but the thing is when you're making VHS, there is no new VHS is being made right now. Right? There's no it's, it's there.

Taylor Morden 46:22
Yeah

Alex Ferrari 46:23
There's no company in the world, or at least not in the states who actually manufacture brand new VHS now, there's still a lot of VHS out there still a ton.

Taylor Morden 46:32
And now like, I don't think that's true. I think that's the case,

Alex Ferrari 46:36
are they old schooling a piece of tape on it and recording it.

Taylor Morden 46:39
So I had to we did a Kickstarter reward of just like limited to 20 units, because I knew I'd have to make them myself of like the first run of VHS made by the director. And I literally put the tape over the old VHS and recorded it in real time. You know, it takes two hours to make a VHS Not to mention the time to print the cover cut the cover Stephen in the thing, brutal. And I don't know where you get new clamshell cases. So I went to thrift stores and bought, you know, old movies that were in rental cases. Some of them have like the cool, you know, three day rental or, you know, new really stick on the case still, then I figured those are cool, limited variants. But for the new ones. They're getting, like new VHS from somewhere like it's it's not being taped over something. It's a fresh tape and they even do them. Ours are in yellow and blue plastic tapes to be the blockbuster colors, which is really cool.

Alex Ferrari 47:41
That's Yeah, that's just pure nostalgia. All that is just 100% pure nostalgia. And do you The other thing, when was there's this great Twitter account? called the last blockbuster? I thought it was connected to you? It is not apparently. And what happened? Have you you? Have you reached out to them? Have you worked with them at all? What's what because it's it's a genius account. I mean, the stuff that comes out of that Twitter feed is hilarious.

Taylor Morden 48:10
Even one of the funniest Twitter feeds out there. We don't know who runs it, we reached out to them a few times to be in the movie, too. You know, after it came out to tweet about the movie no avail. They didn't seem that interested. My theory? And is probably not true. But my theory is that it's somebody you've heard of some comedian or somebody who you would know who doesn't want people to know it to them. Because there's you never see an interview with the person who runs that Twitter account. But it did help us out a lot when we were reaching out to some of the celebrities to be interviewed in our movie, because people thought we were them. And we didn't correct them right away, you know, as you should, as you should, you know we'd go we'd show up like Ron Funches house and we'd say, All right, let's you know, get set up and talk about blockbuster. You'd be like, I love your Twitter. We'd be like, thanks. Our Twitter meanwhile, has 50 followers,

Alex Ferrari 49:07
right? So let's, let's just let's just record. We'll talk about that later.

Taylor Morden 49:11
Yeah.

Alex Ferrari 49:12
Sign on, sign this release. Thanks.

Taylor Morden 49:17
you got to do what you got to do

Alex Ferrari 49:19
now. And now just was just released a little bit ago that you guys got a big Netflix deal, which is the most ironic thing ever.

Taylor Morden 49:31
Yes.

Alex Ferrari 49:31
So how did that come about? Man?

Taylor Morden 49:34
Yeah, that was, you know, Netflix is a character in our movie. There. You know, as much as blockbuster was a villain big corporation. When they were on their way down. Netflix was on the way up. So they became sort of the villain in the blockbuster story, and we always thought making the movie we're like, wouldn't it be hilarious? If one day or a little movie about blockbuster could end up on Netflix? That would be the icing On the cake. And before we had a distributor, we actually, I had a direct contact at Netflix and we tried to get them, you know, onboard earlier and sell it directly and not go through distributor, do it the real DIY way, and we were turned down twice, by them, and by everybody else, Hulu, Amazon, all the, you know, they don't really like direct submissions, it's very difficult to get beekeepers and all that. So that is part of the reason I went with a traditional distributor. Because a, we get a second chance, you know, be resubmitted by somebody they know. And B, they have a track record, they have movies on netflix, they've had that relationship. And so once we signed with 1091, back last summer, and we were working out all these, you know, license deals, they got offers from all the big platforms for us. And we were astonished, we were like, well, that just goes to show you, there's a limit to what you can do in a DIY way, because people just won't listen to you or they don't want to deal with you, they don't want to put a new vendor in their payment system to cut you a check. It's just as simple as it's annoying to work with somebody new. So going through the distributor, they got us these offers and Netflix was I don't even know if it was the best financially, but it was the funniest, funniest place for it to end up and we figured maybe that would get us, you know, on a BuzzFeed article or something.

Alex Ferrari 51:31
So that was kind of, you know, a lot of people gonna see it now.

Taylor Morden 51:36
Right? We'll never know how many people because Netflix, you know, guards their data, like it's a pile of gold, but, and it is. But it's, it's hilarious to me. And, you know, as an indie filmmaker, trying to make some kind of career, I feel like, I have a movie on Netflix is a good opening line for a future conversation.

Alex Ferrari 51:57
There can be no, there can be no harm from it. I don't think from people I've interviewed and spoken to over the years who would like if their film gets on Netflix. A lot of people see it. A lot of people will see it for the most part. I mean, it depends on the movie and things like that. But something called the last blockbuster on Netflix, I have to believe is going to be a huge hit. And

Taylor Morden 52:18
I hope so we'll see. It's hilarious either way. So

Alex Ferrari 52:23
he's gonna be well, she's already famous. She's already famous because of you.

Taylor Morden 52:28
Just famous around here, for sure.

Alex Ferrari 52:31
Everybody knows her. Now, I want to ask you a few questions asked all my guests. What advice would you give a filmmaker trying to break into the business today?

Taylor Morden 52:42
Today is weird. Like little because it's hard weird, literally today, with COVID. And all that. What I've been doing is just writing stuff and planning for future shoots. Because I'm one of those people who's not out there filming. But if it weren't COVID times, I think the advice is just is do do the thing. Everybody who's starting out now is so much luckier than we were starting out with the VHS cameras and the two VCRs hooked together to try to figure out editing all that stuff. And now our phones are, you know, 10 10 times better than anything we ever had. So the advice is just make stuff and and don't ask anyone for permission. You know, you'd be surprised what you can already do. I think that's that's kind of the thing, just go for it. And

Alex Ferrari 53:40
now what is the lesson that took you the longest to learn whether in the film business or in life?

Taylor Morden 53:46
So I just recently did my taxes. It started doing what people would call real bookkeeping for my business. I'm doing air quotes again. I would I would say how to deal with the the money side of all of it. I'm still bad at it. So it's still something I'm trying to learn. But you know, I just want to make movies and make art and make music and do all these things. And I've always hated the money side of it. I wish I had started to pay attention to it earlier.

Alex Ferrari 54:24
You hammer.

Taylor Morden 54:26
Yeah, me an MC Hammer. Yeah. That That one's taken me quite a while and my wife doesn't love my inability to keep proper books.

Alex Ferrari 54:36
Oh, my wife stopped. Stop worrying about that years ago because now she doesn't. So that's the that's I because they just have a look. I can't I can't hunt and cook. I'm sorry. I didn't go hunt. But I can't cook as well. So I and I'm okay, she could be the hunter. I could be the cook it doesn't matter whichever way it is. I want to rent all that but i You know, there's certain skill sets that you have as an artist. And I know what my I know what my sweet spots are. You want me to start doing accounting and math, you're going to run into trouble. It's just so you can afford it. I mean, look, a lot of times if you're out there listening, a bookkeeper is not that expensive. You know, you know, if you're if you're making some money that you need to keep track of your books. Right, you know, it's not that expensive to hire a bookkeeper to come in every quarter. And and look things over, hopefully. But yes, taxes, or

Taylor Morden 55:35
maybe I'll try that.

Alex Ferrari 55:36
Yeah.

Taylor Morden 55:38
The worst part about being indie filmmakers, you have to do all of the jobs, right? You don't just get to be a director, producer and editor, a colorist, a sound mixer. You do get to do those things, but you have to, but you're also, you know, market driver and logistics coordinator tax. Yeah, accountant, chef,

Alex Ferrari 55:59
Chef. And that's why I tell that's why I keep telling people so many times on the show is put as many tools into your toolbox as you possibly can, because you're going to need them even once you start rolling in the money. Once you you know, you're you're living the high life. Hopefully one day, you're going to, I promise you that you're going to really fall back on those tools that you've used that experience without question. And three of your favorite films of all time.

Taylor Morden 56:33
Well, I limited to one per trilogy to make it fair. Because otherwise, you know, all three of them would be so similar. So I'll start with the Empire Strikes Back. I'm a huge Star Wars fan and it's the best one. So. But most of those movies I really enjoy. I'm one of those. I'll even tolerate the prequels kind of people. But Empire Strikes Back has always been

Alex Ferrari 57:02
we can have a conversation about the prequels. If you look, look okay, let's just stop for a second because I have a Yoda in the back. So let's talk about this for a second. I went back and watch The Phantom Menace with my daughter the other day. And I you know, I am a huge Star Wars fan. It was not particularly good. buttoned. Some of the stuff inside of it is legendary. The Darth Maul sequences. Oh, yeah. The the pod race. Great man could have done without Georgia. I'm sorry. You didn't need Georgia. The sin? Awesome. They're elements. Ewan McGregor. Your McGregor's Obi Wan? Just no question. And I can't wait for the new series. And it's gonna be great. Yeah. But they there was sections of the prequels that had there was moments, but looked at people who were that was their trilogy, there was a generation that was their trilogy. Like our generation, our trilogy was the original trilogy. That other people's was that trilogy. And then there's another generation that is the new trilogy, like my daughters and my younger sons, who think that that's like the greatest. And for another generation, it's the Clone Wars and the animated stuff, because there was that long period between

Taylor Morden 58:18
Oh, yeah, that that was Oh, and then I'm the luckiest. the luckiest generation are the youngest kids now get introduced through the Mandalorian

Alex Ferrari 58:26
Oh, my God.

Taylor Morden 58:28
It's they that's their first thing. It's like the best. Can you imagine being that lucky

Alex Ferrari 58:33
to be the intro? Look, I was in the theater. And I saw Empire. When I was a kid. And I didn't. I was too young for Star Wars. But I did see Empire and I remember watching Star Wars for the first time on a black and white, seven inch TV in my room. And it was the greatest thing. It was the first time it was broadcast. It was like the craziest thing anyway, sorry, everybody I just did to touch on Empire and

Taylor Morden 58:59
nostalgia.

Alex Ferrari 59:00
Hence, the whole theme of the show. Not all nostalgia. nostalgia is very powerful. If you want to make a living in this business, if you could tap into any nostalgia, which is just another word for niche, but niche mixed with nostalgia is very powerful fair, because I think and I think you will agree with me on this. It connects to you emotionally. And you connect emotionally to something you will it'll cut through any marketing budget. What ever you could be throwing $100 million worth of ads to watch the next Aqua man. And and don't get me wrong, like the first couple of men but like, I'll put up a man too. Because I want to watch the last blockbuster. Because I want to go back to that emotion again. And that's so powerful.

Taylor Morden 59:48
Yeah, but if you were one of those kids who growing up, aka man was your favorite comic book. The trailer could be one second, have a picture of a fish and you will be there day one. You know that a special moment. Extra expensive ticket, whatever it is because of that nostalgia, so, and we see that all the time, like they know when they make an Avengers movie, that it's weird that they spend so much on marketing because they really really don't have to. Because of the built in nostalgia, because I grew up reading Spider Man comics, I'm gonna watch whatever movie you make with Spider Man and I'm not gonna like some of them. But I'm still gonna be there day one, and you're gonna get my ticket money.

Alex Ferrari 1:00:27
And now I think also that with the Avengers, specifically, they've built in a decade plus of nostalgia, like so, Robert. Downey's Iron Man writes in the stars now, like Captain, Chris Evans is Captain America because they're not quote unquote, doing anymore. I think I just heard that Chris Evans might come back for a little bit. I read somewhere that Chris haven't signed to come back to do a few and I think even even Robert said, Ah, right. Give me another 7 million. I'll come back. Yeah, yeah, he might, he might come back. But there's nostalgia now for those like those early movies as well. And we're living in because we've never had has there been a series that was a decade old, and you just so nostalgic with those characters. And we've seen like, we've seen a lot of Robert Downey design. Yeah. Over the last 10 years.

Taylor Morden 1:01:20
I think james bond is the only other one. And then Star Wars when it came back. Right. You know, like when, you know, no, Mandalorian spoilers, but the last scene of the thing when that happens. I mean, that's

Alex Ferrari 1:01:34
all that's that that is that's, that was such a blatant. Oh my god. So and I swear, I said, you see the reaction videos online of grown ass, like us, just sat there. And the daughters, and they're young, like teenage daughters are filming their dad losing their collective shit, crying at that scene in Mandalorian. I was I was there. I was here like this, like, it has to be. No, it has to be that. Like, it was just the weirdest, weirdest thing I've ever experienced. Because I was thank God alone when I was watching it. And I was just acting like a child again. It was just such a amazing thing that they've done with that show. Oh, guys, I'm sorry. We have gone off the tracks back to the show. to other films, you look

Taylor Morden 1:02:20
Great. The other one is Back to the Future Part Two from a trilogy. And it's not everybody's favorite of the trilogy. But it's mine. I love it. I think you can't have Back to the Future without hoverboards. So it's the first one that has that.

Alex Ferrari 1:02:35
And it's and it's obviously almost as accurate of predictions as the Simpsons for the future. There are so many things are right. They got so many things right about the future again, back to the future to was pretty amazing. And I don't know if you saw that you probably have but the fake documentary or the fake news story about the hoverboards with Robert Zemeckis, talking about like, yeah, they've been hiding this technology. And it was like, and they're just letting us use it. Now. It's really real. That whole thing was pretty amazing.

Taylor Morden 1:03:03
Viral Marketing at the time when I was. So I was a little kid when that came out. And an older brother 10 years older. And we lived in a small town in Oregon. And there's about an hour to get into town. We drive into town once a week, right for shopping. And we're going to Toys R Us. And we had seen that on TV. And my brother had me convinced that when we got to Toys R Us they were going to be hoverboards and the whole thing i thought you know that it's going to be the real they're going to be they just released them. They're in the store and I'm like nine years old and he's totally got me convinced. We got there. And you know, keep pulled the switcheroo of like, oh, no government says they're too dangerous. We can't have them. They're real. But the government says, and I probably cried all the way home. But then I went back to elementary school, like convinced that they were real and told all the other kids that they were real. And it was years before anybody corrected me and was like, you know, that was just marketing.

Alex Ferrari 1:04:02
Marketing. So marketing. Yes. Yeah. Well,

Taylor Morden 1:04:05
good. Mark works. It works.

Alex Ferrari 1:04:06
It works. And third movie.

Taylor Morden 1:04:09
The third movie is as an often overlooked gem. We talked a bit about Tom Hanks earlier, but my all time favorite movie that's not part of the trilogy. Is that thing you do? The Tom Hanks classic from 1996 about the one hit wonder band The wonders.

Alex Ferrari 1:04:27
Love Toriel check view if I'm not mistaken, wasn't it

Taylor Morden 1:04:30
It might be I know he directed accident and wrote some of the songs.

Alex Ferrari 1:04:34
I think that was that the first time that he kind of jumped into the director's seat. He wanted to do something cool. I remember that. Yeah, that's a great film. A great sound. It's great. Great.

Taylor Morden 1:04:43
It's great. always makes me smile. It's one of those if it's on TV. I'll watch it even though I have it on VHS, DVD and blu ray. Watch it on youtube

Alex Ferrari 1:04:52
of course and beta SB Of course, beta backs. Wish and where can people find More about you your work, where to get VHS is and things like that.

Taylor Morden 1:05:05
Yeah, so my company is called That's my production company and pop motion pictures.com links to all the movies but if you want to go straight to the last blockbuster, you can find it on Netflix over the last blockbuster movie.com to find, you know, the DVDs and VHS IS and the T shirts and all that stuff they have at the store.

Alex Ferrari 1:05:24
Yeah, is the lab blockbuster.com that's for the store or is it just for the movie?

Taylor Morden 1:05:29
No, we link to the store for March the stores bendblockbustercom. And we It's weird. It's you know, we're both on all the social media platforms. So you got to one we try to put the word movie in all our accounts. So you know ones, the documentary ones the store. They do a pretty good job with social media considering they're an outdated video rental store, but but they're on the tick tock just like we are. And yeah, you know, if you google the last blockbuster, you'll find both the movie and the store.

Alex Ferrari 1:06:00
tillerman Thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you for making this movie. Because it took me down memory. I wish you could give me the smellivision I wish you could like when we watch it, I could smell it. And it Ah, look at

Taylor Morden 1:06:14
Listen, listen for that for the people.

Alex Ferrari 1:06:18
Ah, stop

Taylor Morden 1:06:18
that sound, right.

Alex Ferrari 1:06:20
Stop the click Oh, like VHS

Taylor Morden 1:06:24
tape. And that's the closest I can do for smell for you. But I do tell people if you order a DVD from the store, it's shipped from the store. So you know, if you're not worried about COVID when you open that package, you take a deep breath and it smells like blockbuster. And that's amazing.

Alex Ferrari 1:06:40
It's amazing. Gentlemen, thanks again for being on the show, man. I appreciate it, brother.

Taylor Morden 1:06:45
Thanks for having me.


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