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Christy Crandall: From the Military to the Movies · Cinema Yūgen

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  G'day. That's right, it's that time again. Time for Cinema Yugen!
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  Music.
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  Welcome back, Cinema Yugen. Christy Crandall possesses extensive experience
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  in both her distinguished military career and her foray into the film industry,
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  hailing from Santa Rosa.
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  California she devoted two decades of her
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  life to the army as a human resources officer after
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  retiring she in 2012 she embarked on a new career path entering into the realm
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  of film and entertainment and not only has she made a name for herself as an
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  actor she's also served as an executive producer we're here to talk about Christy's
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  marvelous life and career and also Into the Gravel Pit,
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  in which she serves as executive producer and also stars in an incredible film.
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  Please welcome Christy Crandall.
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  Welcome to Cinema Yugen, Christy. Hello, how are you? Thank you for being with us.
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  Sure. Just watched your film, Into the Gravel Pit, last night.
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  Incredible stuff. But before we get into that, you are a very talented lady,
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  a very cultivated lady. You've done a lot lot of things.
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  You were in the military for a long time. I was.
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  Well, I'm from California and I joined when I was 17 in 1990.
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  And I spent 22 years active duty. I was everything from my avionics mechanic
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  to an X-ray tech to change my career once again and became a human resource
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  officer and spent 22 years. I retired in 2012.
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  So I got to travel quite a bit, which was great. Yeah.
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  So it does say in your bio that you've done a lot of traveling.
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  Have you been to Australia?
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  I haven't. I wanted to go forever. Right, right.
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  Never took you everywhere else but down under, hey? Not yet, but soon.
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  Well, look forward to it. Don't look forward to it.
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  Don't believe what all the TikToking terrorists tell you about the trappings
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  and the terrors of Australia.
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  It's not true There's not a deadly snake or a deadly spider Living under everyone's
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  shoe That's good to know That's a load of doohickey That's not the case,
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  But do yourself a favour And come and check us out when you get the chance But so what.
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  So was it prior to this or after this that your love of film developed or did
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  you always have it? Oh, goodness.
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  No. So, you know, my parents were photographers and I spent my entire childhood
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  years growing up around photography and the arts.
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  Okay. And they had such a great passion for it and they taught me quite a bit.
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  I used to take cameras apart bit by bit by bit as a child and line up all the
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  little screws and then put them back together and make a working camera.
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  And I just, I loved it. When I went in the army, the army didn't see fit to
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  make me into anything creative other than, you know, like human resource management.
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  But I, I started to, I launched as a background actress in 2012.
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  And I thought, you know, that might be fun. I was just kind of goofing around
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  when I was living in Savannah, Georgia.
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  And after a while I got tired of being in
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  front of the camera and I wanted to be behind the camera and be part of the whole
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  magic making process so I did and my very first film was called My Brother's
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  Keeper that I produced along with Simone Norsworthy and a couple other folks
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  and it went to Cannes Film Festival in France I was so excited and I got a telly
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  award a couple other awards it did really well.
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  And then I went on, I moved and I, I ended up in San Antonio, Texas.
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  And I just one by one had been knocking them out.
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  Everything from trying to produce my own short films to, you know,
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  working as a production coordinator on a, on a feature film.
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  Divorce party was one that I worked on. It went to theaters,
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  you know, just whatever I can get my hands on.
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  And I, is there a certain criteria for
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  you personally the the film's not just you as an as a an actor or a director
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  or producer that you look for or are you are you i it's kind of funny you know
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  the the whole process especially with this film was finding the right atmosphere
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  folks that i can work with.
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  People that inspired me to do better and in the beginning i had met colin and
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  that was one of those individuals and we wanted to elevate him and watch him soar.
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  And, and I also love long range planning.
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  So a lot of production requires a lot of planning.
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  It's kind of like planning a major event, a funeral, a wedding, something like that.
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  It takes a lot of time and spirit to get involved and to keep it going. And, um,
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  This, I just got to, I was given a leeway to do it as I chose and I did,
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  and it just was wonderful.
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  It was so much fun. Your military training would certainly come in completely
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  handy for that, you know, because.
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  The strategic nature of putting the schedule together, which best benefits the
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  budget and also the resources that you have. True.
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  Absolutely. Yeah. But, yeah, we're going to have Colin on the show also to talk about the movie.
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  Yeah. I still can't stop thinking about it.
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  I don't know what I expected going in, but my expectations were completely blown away.
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  I still can't stop thinking about the ending, which I'm not going to give away
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  in any of these interviews because I want people to see the film.
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  But have you seen Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream?
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  I have not, no Okay This film, Into the Gravel Pit, very, very much reminded me Really?
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  Of Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream Which is also, one would say,
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  a cautionary tale about the perils of using illegal substances,
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  Yeah and and the darkness
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  and foreboding which that surrounds that
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  you know because just like they say
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  success amplifies who who you are they say that when you when you go on a trip
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  and if it's a bad trip it amplifies all of the that the other side the dark
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  side the dark side yeah What did you say? Yep. I agree.
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  Yep. I didn't have a piece in writing it.
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  It was co-written by Ronald Mercado and Colin Bressler.
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  But as I read it, it kind of unfolded. And there was pieces in there I was shocked over.
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  And I'm like, oh, my gosh. How can we? Okay. We can do that.
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  But, you know, in the end, it was just such a huge contribution from all of
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  us. Just putting our minds together. and our work together and working so hard
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  to keep the budget as low as it was.
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  It meant that we didn't hire a lot of the crew that we typically would hire.
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  We did a lot of the work ourselves. Wow.
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  And it just came out so well.
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  Yes. And I was so inspired by it. And now I get up in the morning and I'm inspired
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  to get up because I'm like, wow, this is going to be coming out soon.
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  And how exciting is that?
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  And it's my first feature to actually be going through distribution. Yeah.
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  And so you have a distributor now?
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  We do. Buffalo is a great team.
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  Yeah. We've been working with them for the past six months or so.
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  And they're handling all the distribution for us so
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  okay and is it and is it a distributor
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  for just stateside or is that for worldwide
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  or uh it's got some worldwide elements to
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  it um i got a look on the list to see
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  which one it was but it's got it'll be on
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  like it's fandango at home it was just
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  posted out for pre-release um
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  to rent it the other day on the 28th we're looking
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  at amazon prime and netflix and toby and
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  hulu and i'm not sure what elements what what platforms
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  y'all have over there in australia but it
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  hopefully it's one of those so yes yes
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  the film is called into the gravel pit we'll put links in
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  the description for everyone to check out as you
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  heard from my guest herself that distribution
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  is is in the works it's really really a
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  great film there's part of it that almost feels like do you remember those films
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  they used to play for uh for for kids in school like the the perils of drinking
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  and driving and yes it feels like a very overzealous you know psa in some yeah i can see that.
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  Uh well one one that drives it one that without a doubt drives its point home
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  so to speak especially by by the end which i'm not going to give away
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  but I will say it's got an ending that I didn't see coming, and that's the best
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  kind of ending because you think when you see a film that is classified as a
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  horror movie, sometimes there are the preconceptions,
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  that it could be, oh, okay, it's a horror movie.
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  So at some point you're waiting for the horror to kick in until you realise.
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  The nature of the horror that is being portrayed on screen, wouldn't you say?
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  This is a different kind of horror movie, wouldn't you say? This isn't a slasher movie.
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  No, more like a psychological thriller.
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  Yeah, psychological thriller. It's not teens being chased by a psychopath.
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  It's not the scary dark house horror movie. This is a dark dive into the depths of...
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  Of where illicit substances can
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  can lead you if you uh fold them down that rabbit hole
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  so to speak is it something that that members
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  of of the cast and crew have had any sort
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  of life experience in or or is it was it inspired by uh anything in particular
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  that you know of or any that's more a question for colin you know because of
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  the writing process i don't think that anyone was directly related or relate
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  was able to directly relate to it but they had to take on those roles,
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  and you know handle them and they did a brilliant job yeah so um yeah no that's
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  that's yeah like you said it's probably a better better question for for colin
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  i just wondered because there is a,
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  let's face it there's a there's a point we all go through in life that you you
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  sort of try everything you've got that devil may care tomorrow may never come
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  attitude or i mean you know so so you you you're quite happy to take a turn
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  juggling grenades and pulling the pins out while you do it.
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  But it's it's an incredible movie
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  and and the the the cast what
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  what often thrills me about these independent movies
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  is most times they are actors that
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  no one has ever seen or heard of yet you
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  see their work and wonder why you know
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  because they're so good they're so good and lisa lisa wilcox is is cast in it
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  we met prior just over the phone you know but what a wonderful woman and so
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  talented and so skilled and she really brought it.
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  And then Paul Taylor, who was in Hellraiser, one of the pinheads, um.
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  Just took on his role and just became that character.
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  And he was so good. Yet on the side, when you meet him, he's such a great fella.
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  I mean, he's such a nice, good to know, kind man that you would never think
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  could be in that kind of role. But he did. Yeah, yeah.
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  And then, you know, some of the other people like Riley Rodriguez.
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  She's Demi. She plays Demi Moore's daughter in Landslide, Landman. Right.
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  She was she was the best to work with yeah
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  he just she knew and she's still
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  she's she's getting her legs under her and she's
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  developing her skills but she has come so far in
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  such a short period of time and she has done miraculous things
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  with their film i just loved it it was one take
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  and we had it you know because she did so well yeah
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  so i also thought the young the young gentleman uh
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  who played isaiah i can't think of his name just mikhail dawkins yeah
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  yeah tremendous performance like what
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  a tremendous what what a tremendous i should say tremendous performance and
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  physical performance yes i won't give i won't give away what the physical side
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  but that sort of latter half of his journey towards the end was an incredible
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  physical performance It was a godsend.
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  And I say that because we originally had someone else cast. And the day of filming...
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  That individual, it just didn't work out. So we had to stop filming and recast.
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  And I found him and I talked to him and I looked at his demo reel.
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  And I'm like, yes, I think this will be a great option. And,
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  oh, my gosh, he blew me away.
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  He blew me away. Did he have a background in dance? It seems like he had.
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  No. Did he ever talk to you about that? Because it seems like he has just,
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  I'm trying to talk about where I can't explain. A lot of dexterity can be followed
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  by places everywhere it was.
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  It seems like he has some background in movement because that was just incredible to watch. Yeah.
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  Particularly that one of my favorite sequences is when he's walking through
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  that. I don't know what the building is, whether it's a museum or.
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  Oh, right. Yeah. And the camera is just following him through and he has that
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  vision where he thinks he sees someone watching him.
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  Yeah. You know who that someone was? that
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  the man in there that was in the church it's
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  chip white oh really vanna white's
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  brother yes he's a dear friend of mine and such
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  a phenomenal actor yeah and you know he's done a lot of work on his own he's
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  produced he's directed and he's acted and just so happens he's in san antonio
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  as well yeah so and he was willing to work with us on that which was you know
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  like wow that was that That was a very humbling experience as well.
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  So the two of them did really well. Yeah.
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  As the story takes that sort of, for people who know,
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  Requiem for a Dream, as it takes the ultimate dark turn into the third act, there is something.
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  From the two girls, there are shocking moments. but Isaiah's journey is probably
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  the most interesting one because he has that completely different trip.
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  Yeah. And there's a scene with garbage bags, which I won't go into, but –.
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  Let me just say I didn't know whether to laugh or, yeah.
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  It takes a lot for an actor to do something like that. Yeah,
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  yeah. Willingly and so well.
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  I wasn't on set when that whole thing happened, because I was kind of giving him some privacy.
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  But when I saw it, I saw the film, I was very happy. So, yeah, it came out really well.
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  Incredible stuff. I mean, as much as you can pull all of the elements together
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  on the technical side of filmmaking,
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  it is these wonderful people like yourself that appear in front of the camera,
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  which give all of it resonance, life.
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  They make words on paper so much better. Yeah. Wouldn't you say?
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  Absolutely. And it's an incredible, incredible cast all around.
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  Film is into the gravel pit links will be
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  in the description for the trailer and such
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  it it's a very very
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  great time for independent cinema i
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  write for film threat as well as doing this and i
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  have to say that the your film as well as nearly all of the films that i have
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  have seen this year The quality of what independent producers and actors and
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  directors and writers are doing is absolutely incredible.
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  What are your thoughts on the status of the independent cinema movement as it stands?
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  I just lost you for a moment and then you frozen and sped up.
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  So I'm not sure I didn't catch that last piece. Sorry, I said,
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  how do you feel about the state of independent filmmaking as it stands?
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  You know, I actually embrace it.
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  And I love the fact that there's so many creative people out there able to bring their visions to life.
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  It doesn't take millions of dollars to make a film, unless you have a lot of
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  special effects. It depends on the film, I would say.
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  But independent filmmaking is just something that I love to do,
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  and it's been very rewarding, and I support it 100%.
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  And for yourself, do you have a lot of projects in the future coming up?
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  Both as not right now i am i do have some students that i mentor at caft high
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  school um that are 18 years old and 116 and we're making a little short film and he wrote and.
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  We're doing all the cinematography the sound everything so
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  it's going to be called dead link and it's
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  going to be really cute but i i love it because these
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  kids are passionate about filmmaking and you
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  can see it in their eyes and it's kind of like the next generation coming
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  up and there's what they can
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  accomplish on their own with their own hands without having to like hire out
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  to you know big corporations or anything like that so that's very rewarding
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  we're having a good time with that yes and i think important too because i think
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  that certainly people of of of
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  our generation getting into Hollywood
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  used to be like a lottery ticket because there was a
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  process and unless you
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  were really really good or you knew some
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  really really good people that could get you up into
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  that that stratosphere now with
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  the technology and now with people like
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  yourself supporting independent film I
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  think that the one of the key factors that will keep get
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  going and growing stronger is that
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  if you show young people not just how easy it can be but how much fun it can
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  be that gets rid of the stigma oh you you have to raise x amount of money you
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  have to take it to hollywood because if you don't no one's going to pay any attention.
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  But what they don't realize is if you tell a good story, no matter how you tell
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  it or with what resources, that will also resonate. True?
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  Yes. True. Absolutely. Absolutely.
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  I've seen some skilled actors that just haven't been found yet. They're going to be.
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  I know it. I've seen people that are so talented in all the states that I've
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  lived in through the military and through post-military that are able,
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  capable of making films for a fraction of the cost that Hollywood would charge.
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  And they're so talented and they have such an artistic eye.
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  I know one guy does editing out of Georgia. He's amazing.
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  I send a lot of work to him and he doesn't have a background, like college degree.
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  He's just self-taught and he's been doing it for years. Just phenomenal work.
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  So I think there's a lot of talent out there that's undiscovered.
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  And I think just over time, the more that we do this, the more people will come
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  out of the woodwork and show their talents.
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  Totally. You have done incredible work.
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  I thank you for lending all of your talents as a producer and actor and certainly
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  to this movie into the gravel pit, which really deserves to be seen.
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  It's an incredible dramatic piece. I think it's a little bit mis-marketed as
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  a horror film, even though it is, I think, more a psychological thriller, as you said.
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  But certainly horrific in its finalities.
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  But incredible, nonetheless. We'll put a link to the description for Into the Gravel Pit.
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  Check out all of the places where you
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  watch your independent films because it is coming and
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  we'll also put a link to all the wonderful work
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  of my wonderful guests guest sorry christy crandall it's been fantastic christy
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  to have you on the cinema you can this has been a great film i wish you all
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  the very best with all of your future projects whatever they may be and in whatever
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  capacity you serve under them,
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  you have a great passion and a great eye for talent.
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  So I look forward to see not only what you do next, but who you unearth next.
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  Thank you, sir. Yes, Christy Crandall, wonderful lady, immensely talented, wonderful film.
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  Check out all the links in the description and check out Into the Gravel Pit.
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  Fantastic independent film. Check it out now.
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  And as always, my little Eugenites, Thank you for listening to us on Spotify
• 22:54
  or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
• 22:58
  I'm Ken Hill. And until next time, you've been listening to Cinema Yoga.
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  Music.