Latest / Cinema Yūgen / When Reservoir Dogs Met Resident Evil — The Story of Red Night at Skye's
Transcript
- 0:00G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for... CINEMA! YOOGEEEAAAAAAA!
- 1:07Yes, welcome back, Ugin, I'd sit in my Ugin, no film school,
- 1:11no roadmap, just grit, loss and the fire that refused to burn out.
- 1:16From the underground comes Chris Greger, founder of 88mm Films,
- 1:21a filmmaker who turned tragedy into a two-decade legacy of raw,
- 1:24uncompromising storytelling.
- 1:27Now, he's unleashing something vicious, red night at skies,
- 1:32a desperate heist, a pawn shop with secrets and
- 1:35a night that spirals straight into hell what begins as
- 1:38a quick score explodes into a brutal siege bullets
- 1:42tearing through the walls alliances crumbling the
- 1:45survival slipping further out of
- 1:48reach with every passing second but
- 1:51behind those doors something darker is waiting
- 1:55something twisted think reservoir dogs meets resident
- 1:58evil grimy explosive and
- 2:01completely unhinged this isn't just a
- 2:04movie it's a pressure cooker of violence tension and
- 2:07pure adrenaline it keeps hitting harder the longer
- 2:10it goes on chris gregor drops in to talk about the madness mayhem and the creation
- 2:15of the film that doesn't pull a single punch so buckle up because the red knight
- 2:20falls all hell breaks loose ladies and gentlemen please welcome the writer director
- 2:26of Red Night at Skies, the amazing Chris Greger.
- 2:29Chris, welcome to Cinema Yugen, mate. Hey, thanks for having me, Kat.
- 2:33Mate, fantastic to have you. Really, really enjoyed Red Night at Skies. What a flick, mate.
- 2:39Like I said, I came into it, and I saw it going one way, and it's partly because
- 2:45I reviewed a film that began similarly. Similarly.
- 2:50I guess it didn't turn out the same. No, not at all. I thought,
- 2:55you know, honestly, when –,
- 2:58This is not, this is not to disparage you anyway, but when it started,
- 3:03when the movie started and it was like, his wife's dying and I'm like,
- 3:07oh no, it's, it's going to be another one of those ones. Right.
- 3:12Um, but as soon as it got into, like I said, the whole reservoir dogs meets
- 3:16resident evil of like, okay, all right now. Okay. That's good.
- 3:21I was, I was happy because the, the, the film that I'd sort of reviewed prior
- 3:25that was going down that the guy has a dying wife and he's got a yeah the less said the better but with,
- 3:33but with your film the more said the
- 3:36better and like i said the longer it keeps going the better
- 3:39it becomes so tell us where did
- 3:42where did where in the
- 3:45ether your cinematic influences how did it all
- 3:48come together and concoct in the blender to make red knight
- 3:51at skies did you dream it did you see it did you how did it come about well
- 3:56it it's kind of a convoluted story like most filmmaking stories are so we were
- 4:05working on this boxing film and we had been working on that,
- 4:10probably since like 2017 right because we yeah it definitely since probably
- 4:16since 2016 so man It's like 10 years ago.
- 4:18Right. We, we shot this investor teaser for it.
- 4:22We spent like 15,000 on that and we were raising money for it.
- 4:27And that was like the next film we were going to make was this boxing film called cruiser.
- 4:31Right. And it was, and it was more like an underground fighting,
- 4:35very bloody, violent, you know, two different timelines, all this crazy stuff going on.
- 4:41And we were raising a pretty big chunk of money.
- 4:44And then guess what happened?
- 4:47COVID. Oh, gee whiz.
- 4:51Didn't that throw a stone in everyone's shoes, didn't it?
- 4:54Yes. Yes. That, that shut everything down. It derailed all of our progress.
- 5:01And, you know, we had to give, you know, a bunch of money back and everything
- 5:05was like just doom and gloom.
- 5:07Like, well, this, this project's dead. Right.
- 5:10So I kind of, I kind of took a month to just kind of wrap my head around,
- 5:15you know, what we were going to do and what we could do, what we even should do.
- 5:21And I thought, okay, the other film, the cruiser film was a,
- 5:25was a really big story and lots of locations and lots of elements and,
- 5:30you know, all this blah, blah, blah.
- 5:32So I thought, all right, if we could drastically reduce the budget and,
- 5:38and essentially set it all in one location, we could tell a very different story.
- 5:45So then I started thinking about what type of story I'd want to tell.
- 5:51And I had probably maybe a year or two before seen this movie called Green Room,
- 5:56which was, I don't know if you're familiar with that.
- 6:00I know of it. I have not seen it yet.
- 6:04I know of it. It's this punk band. They play at this remote.
- 6:11Music venue, this club, which is essentially run by neo-Nazis and they see something
- 6:17they shouldn't see and they get, they get trapped there.
- 6:20So that, that was a really well done version of people are trapped in one location.
- 6:27So I kind of, kind of took a little, little page from that.
- 6:31And, and that's when I started working out the concept of, of Red Knight.
- 6:36And I wanted to do something where a small group of people are,
- 6:41are stuck in this situation, but it's a situation of their own making essentially,
- 6:46you know, because no one's really innocent in the movie.
- 6:51I mean, Cole has, you know, a pretty good reason for doing what he's doing,
- 6:55but they're still, they're still robbing people. Yeah. Yeah.
- 6:59It is heist. Yeah. Yeah. This is a sticker people. Yeah.
- 7:04So I, I, I wanted to do something where we had, you know, meth and cannibals
- 7:10and, and weird experiments.
- 7:12And, you know, I think by and large, it, it, it turned out how I wanted it to.
- 7:18That's, that's good. One, one always hopes for, for such things,
- 7:24but, uh, no, look, man, it turned out, it turned out very well.
- 7:28Like I said in my review. So when the, when the turn happens and it,
- 7:33and it doesn't take long to happen, it, it just goes up.
- 7:37Like, I feel like it's, it's, it's a, you know, a sports car that,
- 7:40you know, you're driving along on the side and then all of a sudden he's got
- 7:43like two more gears than you do.
- 7:45And the next minute away it goes and when the uh when the nazis and uh zombies and experiments and,
- 7:55you know essentially the resident evil portion of
- 7:58the basement you know i thought wow this is like you know this is like a deeper
- 8:04darker version of the the porn shop that frederick forest had in like falling
- 8:08down you know when when michael dougley takes michael douglas back to show him
- 8:14his like secret stash in the back. Yeah. This was used.
- 8:18This was actually used, but yeah, but no great stuff.
- 8:24And like I said, your script is brilliant genius.
- 8:29I love that. I wrote it. I loved it so much. I wrote it in a review where he
- 8:32says, we can't just butch and Sunday and say, we're out of here. Yeah.
- 8:36That's brilliant because you know exactly what that means. Yes.
- 8:39At least people who love movies knows exactly what it means,
- 8:42but it's a good line either way, but lyrical.
- 8:45But when you, when you, you know, we're not just going to butch and sundown,
- 8:48so we're out of here, but no, great, incredible stuff.
- 8:52So, I mean, was, okay. So the, the big derailment, slowly rebuilding.
- 8:57So did any people from the production that get derailed, did they all come aboard this?
- 9:03Did you did you manage to just to bring people
- 9:06over from that to work on this or was it
- 9:08a completely new structured production uh it
- 9:12was a lot a lot of the same that
- 9:15the production company people and then there there were a handful
- 9:18of new people we brought in and there
- 9:22were some people from out of state crew that we brought in so i ultimately i
- 9:29think covid worked in our favor in order for this film to happen right right
- 9:35so you know in the in the sense that he gave you more time to.
- 9:40Reconstitute and better plan of attack
- 9:43or yeah and it was or it was
- 9:46an all-around better idea than the the other one oh i
- 9:50don't know if that's the case i mean i i still like the other
- 9:52script quite a bit it just
- 9:55that would have been so much more difficult to pull off because we needed so
- 10:01much more money and it was it was just a harder screenplay to turn into a film
- 10:08yes and and And even with changing things up,
- 10:13we still had to push this film. We had to push Red Knight back a year, too.
- 10:16Right, right. Because we were going to start in 2020, and then with all the
- 10:21COVID restrictions still going on and just the added cost of all that,
- 10:27it's like we're adding all this cost, but we're gaining no production value for it.
- 10:33We're just, cause we had to pay all the COVID stuff and like,
- 10:36you know, why are we spending an extra 10, $20,000, which gives us nothing.
- 10:41It gives the film absolutely nothing other than, Hey, we can shoot it now.
- 10:46So we push it off for another year until that kind of relaxed. Right. Yeah.
- 10:50And, and was your shoot relatively contained? Like a lot of indie shoots,
- 10:54like within a couple of weeks or a week or 10 or all that sort of thing.
- 10:58Yeah. It was a, it was a 16 day shoot and, and we did it like in.
- 11:03In three separate blocks. Right.
- 11:06It's like everything that was outside of the pawn shop was one block.
- 11:11Right. And then upstairs was the second block. And then downstairs was a third block.
- 11:16Right. Although we, we, we shot the upstairs last. Ah, okay.
- 11:20No no i just i just i just wondered i figured because
- 11:24i mean it makes sense to like film all the stuff you
- 11:27know you've got one you like you said a block of stuff get all
- 11:30that done that done all your coverage for the different areas so i mean what
- 11:36was what was probably the the what was the the most intense part of the production
- 11:42was it the downstairs stuff or
- 11:44was the the the highest stuff in the in the the top of the store or was it,
- 11:50I would say the upstairs stuff because, so there are two locations,
- 11:55obviously, you know, we didn't, we didn't actually have this massive lab underneath
- 11:58the pawn shop. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
- 12:00No, I figured you wouldn't have found an actual pawn shop with a,
- 12:04with an experimental laboratory underneath it. Yeah.
- 12:08I mean, I'm sure they exist somewhere, but you know, no one was going to let
- 12:12us shoot there. That's true. Getting a permit could have been difficult.
- 12:16Yeah. So the, the, the basement of the pawn shop was a, it was,
- 12:23it was the basement of a defunct event space. Oh, okay.
- 12:27Like a wedding venue place. Right. And, and I had shot a friend's wedding there,
- 12:33like, man, like 15 years or so before.
- 12:36Awesome. And I, I saw the building was for sale. So I went and talked to the
- 12:40realtor like, Hey, can we, you know, shoot here for a few days?
- 12:44And what's it, what's it going to cost? And they're like, yeah,
- 12:46whatever, just here's the keys. And I was like, awesome.
- 12:50Don't burn the place down. Okay. Yeah, basically.
- 12:54So they just left us alone, but it was a, it was a huge place.
- 12:58Like the basement was very big and the upstairs is very big.
- 13:02So there's room to spread out and room to do all the stuff you got to do.
- 13:06Yeah. The, uh, the upstairs of the pawn shop was actually a, a body shop.
- 13:12It's Washington Dent, Dent Company where they, you know. Right.
- 13:16Repair cars so so we have some scratches yes and and dents and everything else yeah,
- 13:24Luckily, they, they happen to have in their back room, a trap door to their basement. Sweet ass.
- 13:32Oh, why didn't we? Exactly.
- 13:35Because we, and we just happened to be talking to the owner who was a producer
- 13:39on the film that, yeah, we need a, we need a trap door and a floor of a place,
- 13:42but you know, where are we going to find that at?
- 13:45We're probably gonna have to build a set for that. And that's going to be a pain in the ass.
- 13:48Right. And he goes, he says, oh, there's a trap door in the back here. Like, oh, no shit.
- 13:54And like you open the trap door and through the magic of cinema next minute,
- 13:57they're down into the, the basement, which is, which is great because the bigger
- 14:01the basement, I thought, man, the shop's like the TARDIS, you know,
- 14:04the TARDIS is just thing and you go inside and it's fucking huge.
- 14:07Um, and I was just like, great. The shop's like the TARDIS.
- 14:11It's got this massive underground, you know, kind of like the cabin in the woods kind of deal.
- 14:18But, but I would say in answer to your earlier question, it was harder shooting
- 14:22at the upstairs of the pawn shop because it was so constricted.
- 14:28Right. Yeah. Yeah.
- 14:30I mean, I think people often assume when they see,
- 14:35you know, action sequences and stuff in films.
- 14:38That must've been the most difficult part, but sometimes it's the more confined
- 14:42elements, like where you have, as you say, a set space.
- 14:46Cause unlike bigger movies, you don't have flyaway walls or flyaway props that
- 14:52you can just push out the road so the camera can go work and do whatever.
- 14:56You have to use what's there or bring your own dressing as you probably had to in some moments.
- 15:04Yeah, the production. Production designer, he did a, did a great job.
- 15:08Yeah. I mean, I, yeah, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have questioned either the
- 15:13pawn shop or the, the Nazi laboratory below.
- 15:16Yeah. No, completely authentic. I've been in many.
- 15:20And yeah, from the swash stickers to the, uh, the chemicals,
- 15:24uh, you know, I, I can't fault your authenticity.
- 15:29Um, thank you. but uh no look i mean it's just the there's such a great wave at the moment of of of,
- 15:39i hate to use the term funny scary because it's that's that's kind of surface
- 15:44but horror movies always have this great.
- 15:51You seem to be able to mix genres easier in a horror film framework than some other genre, you know?
- 16:01It's not easy to pull off a comedy Western as opposed to a comedy horror. You know what I mean?
- 16:10And striking the blend between funny, scary, gory, and actually adding some
- 16:16element of dread in there too is a really difficult balance, wouldn't you say?
- 16:20Oh yeah to juggle anyway in
- 16:23hope that you hit those notes yeah and and
- 16:26i don't think so the original cut
- 16:29had some more elements
- 16:32with the the tom character the
- 16:35the best friend like at his job where he's
- 16:38going through all this bullshit and they were just little short vignettes
- 16:42but they were very very funny yes but
- 16:45but they also slowed the pace down so we we
- 16:48cut those there was a lot of little things like that that we
- 16:51we ended up cutting out which i personally really
- 16:54like but it's like ah it's kind of slowing the
- 16:57pace down and maybe the tone is veering a little bit
- 17:00too much into absurd but i
- 17:04i do think the best horror has a
- 17:08humorous element to it yes you know
- 17:11because i mean you look at some of the classics like american
- 17:15werewolf in london is one of the best examples and and
- 17:19even the thing yeah evil dead and evil there too yeah more so and evil army
- 17:27dark yeah yeah but it's uh it's it's such a great.
- 17:36Just a joyous mix. And this is like the second really good indie horror film this year.
- 17:43I just watched, have you seen Mr. Boyd's film?
- 17:46Scared to death. Have you seen Scared to death? No. Yeah. I think it's just open.
- 17:51If you, if you, I think you two guys should, should bump heads.
- 17:56You got a similar, you got us and, and your films both have Bill Moseley.
- 18:01Hey. Yeah, there you go. So you got the Bill Moseley connection already.
- 18:06Cause he's, he's a great stalwart.
- 18:09What was it like to hang with, with Bill, the, the horror on Bill Moseley?
- 18:14Just, just the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. Yeah.
- 18:18You know, not, not pretentious at all and easy to work with.
- 18:23You know, he, he wasn't like, I've done this. I've done that.
- 18:26He's like, yeah, what do you want boss?
- 18:28You know? Yeah. Show me where to stand.
- 18:31Yeah. Tell me where you want me.
- 18:34Just, just a great dude. Really better side.
- 18:39And, and that's, that's what I had hoped. Like, you know, he seems like a cool
- 18:42guy. I hope he really is. And he really was. And that was, that was a great experience.
- 18:47No, he's, he's, he's good. Very solid. He's, he plays a, an above average medium. Yeah.
- 18:54A spirit, a spirit guide in this scared to death.
- 18:58And I just launched really good stuff, but he's got like an agenda.
- 19:03I'll say that I won't give the, I won't give the game away for you.
- 19:06Cause I want you to see it, but, but yeah, he's got a, he's a dude with a secret,
- 19:12but it's good. It's funny. I, like I tell you, you and Mr.
- 19:15Boyd need to like have a beer or something because you two guys have got like,
- 19:19uh, similar sensibilities that to guarantee you watched his movie, you'll see, uh.
- 19:25You'll see similarities with Red Knight at Skies because he's got that exactly
- 19:30like Red Knight at Skies, that great blend between it's, it's,
- 19:33it's funny, it's scary, it's crazy.
- 19:36And I love the, I love the fact that there's a bit of a question mark there at the end.
- 19:41Yeah. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone, but there's a question mark at the end.
- 19:44I'm not going to say what the question mark is, but, uh, I love that question
- 19:48mark at the end and how sort of Bill Moseley, the dad sort of comes back,
- 19:53his character comes back around and bookends the movie that way.
- 19:58So, so, I mean, does that mean that there's, there's, there's,
- 20:02there's, there's bigger things are fought, Chris, with the.
- 20:08With what was going on underneath sky's porn
- 20:12shop but you mean as far as deeper story
- 20:15or yeah where the story could go just oh
- 20:19i'm yeah there's a whole there's a whole other concept that i would love to
- 20:24love to do but right you know unfortunately that is that is directly tied or
- 20:29partially directly directly tied to it okay like uh absolutely directly tied
- 20:35to it okay right And, and that,
- 20:39if I could do that, and again, unfortunately,
- 20:41everything with any film involves money.
- 20:45Right. Yeah, sure. Sure. Like everything else in life. But if I could do that,
- 20:49it would be more like army of darkness.
- 20:52Right. Okay. You know, that, that, that is the vibe. It would just go up a level.
- 20:58The sanity, the insanity would just, you know. Yes.
- 21:01Yeah. Let's just dial it up to 11. Yes. This one goes up to 11.
- 21:05Yeah. 12 even 12 13
- 21:09shit yeah it's friday the 13th there isn't it yeah yeah
- 21:12all the way up why not i mean no
- 21:16i just figured because you put that in there the question mark at
- 21:19the end i figured well he's got he's obviously got plans you know or ideas you
- 21:26know yeah whether or not they could be executed well that's true but it was
- 21:30but like look i don't i don't think like people people say whenever you end a film that way.
- 21:37That, oh, there must be a sequel. But look, how many really good films,
- 21:43and I'm sure you can remember plenty, that were standalone films that did have
- 21:48a question mark kind of ending.
- 21:50More particular, sort of around the end of the 90s, there was a bit of a trend
- 21:53of it. Do you remember that movie, The Cave?
- 21:56There was this movie called The Cave, and Wings Houser's son is in it. Cole Houser is in it.
- 22:02And it's about a bunch of these people. they're they're
- 22:05like those cave divers they go
- 22:08into like deep caves and and they go into
- 22:11this cave system and in the cave are these these people who
- 22:14got trapped in there and they mutated and the bad people
- 22:17creatures yeah yeah and anyway that movie ended with with a like a question
- 22:22mark where the the chick that gets out because you think that because cole house's
- 22:25character is mutating as the end of the film happens and he saves his brother
- 22:31and the chick and they get out And you think that he was the only one infected with the,
- 22:35the creature virus that made him change into the creatures that lived in the cave.
- 22:40But at the end she winks and you see that her eyes change and it leaves it in with a question.
- 22:44Now, of course, there's never going to be a sequel to the cave unless Cole Hauser really wants to do it.
- 22:50But there was a trend of that. And, but, but I mean, just because,
- 22:54okay, the story is obviously going to keep going somehow, but it was satisfying enough.
- 22:58An ending like an open ending doesn't have
- 23:01to mean there's going to be more i mean
- 23:04obviously they would want to be more because you said yeah i would
- 23:07like there to be more if there was the potential to
- 23:09make more but it's a satisfying enough film stand alone yeah i think so and
- 23:16and i don't think everything needs a sequel like the goonies does not need a
- 23:21sequel right i i don't need to see the adult Goonies and their kids.
- 23:26Like, I don't want to see that.
- 23:27Yeah. You know, cause that's the way that they would have to go.
- 23:31I mean, cause it can't be the old dudes go on the same.
- 23:35Adventure together no i mean big
- 23:38trouble a little china does not need a sequel oh yes
- 23:41please never do or a
- 23:44remake for that fact remember the rock remember the rock was circling that talking
- 23:50about trying to the rock was going to remake it and the rock was going to be
- 23:53jack burton and i mean got jackie chan to be sidekick or whatever and yeah it's
- 23:59like man just just leave it well enough alone. Yeah. Yeah.
- 24:04It's like disturbing people's graves. I think, you know, like it was,
- 24:09it, it's, it's, it lives well and has lived well on its own.
- 24:12It doesn't really need the reanimator treatment. I mean, as much as they want
- 24:17to cash in on some of this stuff, which is the trend of course. Yeah. Yeah.
- 24:23But it's great to see creators and filmmakers like yourself completely dodging
- 24:30all the algorithms and making films that try to fit into what's the flavor of
- 24:35the month category and making original stuff.
- 24:39And I mean, it's, it's so it's, it, that's why I like to hang out in indie cinema
- 24:46because it's so refreshing because it's not based on anything.
- 24:50No. It's something that, that.
- 24:53You know, a current, like you said, the kernels of the idea came from different places.
- 24:57And then all of a sudden you put it together and the elements of course of indie
- 25:01cinema collide and the movie got smiled down and bingo.
- 25:04We're talking about the movie here and now because it's, it's,
- 25:07would you agree? It's of course very easy for it to go the opposite way too.
- 25:11I mean, regardless of world pandemics and stuff getting in the way.
- 25:14In opposite way, in what sense?
- 25:17Well, in terms of the film not getting made as opposed to
- 25:19all the elements going the opposite way you know like getting uh lost
- 25:22in the marcher you know like terry gilliam oh yeah
- 25:26it's it it's very difficult to finish in an independent film under any circumstances
- 25:36you know pandemic or not but as as i like to say as hard as that is and it's
- 25:43hard it's hard making movies it's hard raising
- 25:45money it's hard making movies that is
- 25:48all easy compared to the back end right
- 25:52the back end when you're trying to recoup what
- 25:55you spent that is man i
- 25:58wish i had an answer for that right right because that that is the real struggle
- 26:03yeah it's like yeah it's it's very hard making the thing but it's that's pretty
- 26:10fun you know there's there's lots of good moments in that yes but But the back end stuff is,
- 26:17by and large, miserable.
- 26:20It really is. It's, it's, it's what people, it's what filmmakers never get interviewed about.
- 26:25Like, so what was it like selling that? Like all the stories come from the set
- 26:28and you had such a great time and stuff.
- 26:31What was it like taking it out and trying to make money?
- 26:34Well, you know, we took it around here and no one wanted it.
- 26:38And yeah, it's a, it's, it's a never ending story of trying to find a distributor or distribution.
- 26:44That's not going to, you know, throw all the baby out with the bathwater, you know?
- 26:49And, and, and even if you do, because I think, because we were not going to
- 26:54go with the traditional distributor for red night because we've had like every
- 26:58filmmaker horror stories in the past where, you know,
- 27:02the movie made a bunch of money. We didn't make hardly anything.
- 27:06That's, that's very, very typical.
- 27:08The distributors drive in Ferrari and I've still got a Volkswagen.
- 27:12Volkswagen, man. I got a skateboard.
- 27:16That's where that's at. Yeah, he shot past in an Audi and I've got my little e-scooter.
- 27:22Yeah. So we, we were not going to go with the traditional distributor,
- 27:27but we ran into this guy at a couple of festivals and everything he was saying made pretty good sense.
- 27:35So we ended up signing with him, Jerome Kershaw of Lionheart,
- 27:39Lionheart Entertainment, Lionheart Films out of LA.
- 27:44And, you know, I, I think he's a, out of every distributor I've worked with,
- 27:49and this would be probably the, the fourth that I've, I've dealt with,
- 27:54he's a, he's, he's a good dude. And I think he's doing a good job.
- 27:59And I think he's honest. That being said, it's still incredibly difficult to
- 28:04make any damn money with, with, with the film in today's market.
- 28:11It's insanely difficult because, you know, there's, there's so much competition
- 28:17out there, you know, good, bad, better, worse.
- 28:21Right. It's just, it's just a lot of films fighting for eyeballs. Yeah.
- 28:27Yeah. Or attention. attention yes from everybody from and and,
- 28:32And, and that's, that's the real trick is how do you get people to pay attention
- 28:36to your stuff? Yeah. Yeah.
- 28:38I mean, and you think it would be easier today since we're all connected constantly
- 28:43to the internet, but do you think that still word of mouth is,
- 28:48is like the best advertising for a film?
- 28:51Like enough people see it and have a good experience. They tell friends and
- 28:54they tell their friends and, and because of social media, that conversation spreads a lot quicker.
- 29:00And you, you hear about films because of how people are reacting to them as
- 29:04opposed to the marketing, you know, hitting all the right notes.
- 29:09Man, I, I mean, maybe I like to think so, but, and I've been doing this for
- 29:15a long time. You know, this is, this red night was my seventh feature. Yes.
- 29:21And I started in 99.
- 29:24So I've been at it for a minute. And the one thing that I have absolute certainty
- 29:31of is there is no such thing as certainty.
- 29:36I love that. That should be a t-shirt. It should be. There's no such certainty.
- 29:43Yeah. Yeah. Because. There's no such thing as a sure thing. No, no.
- 29:49What works for one film is probably not going to work for another film.
- 29:54And what worked last time might not work next time.
- 29:58Yeah. I mean, it seems like the best thing to do, well, it's like that Markiplier
- 30:06dude, the guy who made Iron Long. Yes. Was that, yeah.
- 30:10Yeah, Iron Long, yeah. Yeah, he started as an influencer and he built up a huge
- 30:16audience of like 38 million subscribers. It's like, that's the move.
- 30:22It's like, don't start making movies. Start making, make an audience and then
- 30:26your audience pays for the film and then they show up and make it. Yes. Yes. That, that,
- 30:33But, you know, who's got time to do that? Exactly. It's like,
- 30:35why didn't we all wake up and say, oh, all I need is 30 million subscribers and I can make anything.
- 30:41I mean, yeah. Put it this way. If they all donate a dollar, you've got a $30 million budget. Yes.
- 30:47I mean, we also have our, our, our podcast, the Indie Film Sucks podcast,
- 30:51where we talk about the highs, lows, and in-betweens of true independent filmmaking. Yes.
- 30:57And, you know, I think we have, I don't know, under 200 subscribers.
- 31:03So, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's tough, man. It's hard because you have to be constantly at it.
- 31:11Yes. You know, that's, I think that's what, I think like people talk about the,
- 31:15the, I mean, we famous, we famously in Australia now have banned social media for children under 16.
- 31:24Because I think, I don't think it's the actual media that is damaging.
- 31:29I think it's the constant need to fulfill the media, you know,
- 31:35because once you, once you open a platform,
- 31:38whether it be a podcast like this, a YouTube channel,
- 31:42a blog, a blog, you know, whatever you, however
- 31:45you want to project your ideas thoughts you know
- 31:48people just put their short films on youtube you have
- 31:53to stick at it because if you're going to gather those 30 million
- 31:56subscribers or that audience if you
- 31:59start well and you're putting out a clip or
- 32:02an episode a week or however long you have to stick with
- 32:05that because if you go away for a month they're going to think you're dead
- 32:08or retired or yeah yeah or something i mean that's the that's the problem is
- 32:12is this added consistency to the to all of the other things that we have to
- 32:19do to get the alchemy to work is now also try and sell it constantly on every platform possible.
- 32:27I mean, you turn on your phone, you see nothing but people and they're selling
- 32:30themselves or their vodka or look at my clothes or like, share,
- 32:37subscribe for notifications. Hit that bell and merch.
- 32:42Yeah, it's...
- 32:44Yeah. You just got to push, push, push. We all need to, we all need that to
- 32:50read the, what's his name?
- 32:52The Wolf of Wallstraight's book have had a sell better and, uh.
- 32:57You know? Yeah. I mean, I, I personally believe if I would have made Red Knight
- 33:04the exact same film as my first film.
- 33:08Yes. Which would have been 2001.
- 33:11Wow. I, I, I think it would have been a career launching film.
- 33:14I think it was good enough to do that yeah my first my first film was a career sinking film so,
- 33:21well actually you're in it's still in
- 33:24the fight mate you can't i mean as much as
- 33:27you as much as you may be dismayed you're the
- 33:30the people that succeed are the people that that stick with
- 33:34it and it's uh it's very difficult to
- 33:36stick with yeah because you
- 33:39know there's there's the valleys are deep and
- 33:42the peaks are high and yeah it's a
- 33:45sisyphean task to keep pushing that rock up
- 33:48yes i need to keep slipping down and having
- 33:51to push over ground that you've already come
- 33:54yes i applaud you sir it's a
- 33:57wonderful was was such a great movie i really enjoyed it and thank you i really
- 34:02hope that you continue as you have with your excellence and perseverance and
- 34:08i can't wait to see what you do next and even though even though there's a question
- 34:12mark at the end if you if you do eventually realize,
- 34:16that story that continues the story, then I'll be very, very keen to see that
- 34:21too. Well, that makes two of us.
- 34:24Well, there's an audience of two. Two subscribers. We only need 28 million more.
- 34:31So get to the phones, ladies and gentlemen.
- 34:35Like, subscribe, you know, all that sort of stuff. And help my good buddy here,
- 34:41Chris Greger, keep making magic. Chris, where can our audience see Red Night at Skies at the moment?
- 34:48It is on Amazon Prime. It is on Tubi. It is on Fossum.
- 34:55It is on a bunch of other platforms I can't even remember. You can buy the physical media. It's out there.
- 35:02Physical media, Fossum. Physical media is available on our website,
- 35:08which is 88millimeterfilms.com.
- 35:11You can buy the Blu-ray. Awesome.
- 35:14Yeah, probably, like I said, a couple other places I can't even think of.
- 35:18That's okay. All the links will be in the description. Ladies and gentlemen,
- 35:22my guest, Chris Greger, the film, Red Night at Skies.
- 35:26Check out my review, filmthreat.com. It was a fantastic ride.
- 35:30Reservoir Dogs meets Resident Evil.
- 35:33And the movie only gets better the longer it keeps going. Chris Greger,
- 35:37thank you for being my guest on Cinema Yugen.
- 35:39Wow. Kent, thanks for having me. Yes, Red Night at Skies. Now,
- 35:43excuse, get down to the links in the description and find out all of the goodness.
- 35:49My review at filmthreat.com.
- 35:53Red Knight at Skies.
- 35:55Fantastic movie. Contained excellence. Chris Greger. Get down to the links in the description now.
- 36:01And as always, my little Eugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify,
- 36:05iHeartRadio, or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
- 36:09I'm Kent Hill, and until next time, you've been listening to us on Cinema, Yuge!