 So I don't I I want to open it up entirely. I have just one question. I have a whole bunch of questions, but You want to see my DGA card my director's guild card? No Actually I have two questions one is a technical question and the other is is not I'll tell you both first is the technical question Is how did you do the chicken in the in the chicken suit in the crossing the road in the car thing because I was I was concerned Oh, yeah, and the non-technical question is Was that a happy ending? All right, I'll go for the first one first that's easier I think That was kind of the biggest Production of the whole movie. It was pretty incredible the there are all these meetings that took place I was a part of some of them and we showed up and these guys had built it basically was a Truck with these two long things that came out that could control the The cart and we pretty much drove it down the hill and let it fly You know with a camera in there and we actually I actually use my own camera For that for fear of I didn't want to wreck the red cameras are very expensive The actual thing and we then toss it up in the air and so forth But there's yeah, there's sort of a cut hidden You know when he gets in there's a sort of a cut that gets hidden then it turns just to there's no people in there In terms of production of my own stuff the car that Arthur that dank was throwing rocks. That was also my car And I Think it is meant to be a version of the happy ending strangely. I think it's I think I mean, you know again If you like it better as a sad ending then it's a sad I think the idea is that somehow this This worked his plan somehow worked when that Pullman thing comes up I think that's what it's meant to be but at the same time It's the greatest executive producer punchline in movie history. Yeah, I'm safe and saying I'll tell you an interesting thing about that is it took Tremendous amount of phone calls and waivers from the director's guild because there's all these union regulations of what credits can come up Where so I had to explain to them that that wasn't a real he wasn't actually an executive producer He was a joke executive producer, which is why when the actual credits start We had to then put we made this movie to sort of separate it all of this But it was it was actually there was a moment in time where I just thought well the whole punchline of our movies Possible because of the DGA, but they in the end they let us do it. Well, I'm glad they did so You have the director co-writer producer The only actors that had done anything really LeBron the main guy he's He actually I think was on like a Disney series when he was younger I don't know which one it was and he had done some TV work. He had done some guest spots on shows Michael Roman who played Smitty What it has been a child actor and has been in a lot of commercials, but nothing Nothing that you know no no real series work In fact, we wanted to do the movie as a non-screen actors guild movie But once you get one sag member then the whole movie comes sag and I Believe only RJ LeBron was a member of sag He was the last one we cast and all the other ones had to get their sad cards to be in the movie And I think they're quite good. I Arthur Who played dank is now since become a writer on the Jimmy Fallon show and he appears occasionally doing sketches and stuff there I think he's Enormously talented and Michael Roman. I think it's a huge talent. Also Smitty as is RJ Sarah really a lot of them. I think will Have real careers. I Hope yes, sir So this movie cost a million dollars in the end that's a little bit To be clear it cost about a million three in production But the state of Connecticut gives you a $300,000 tax rebate because they so want production So if you it's actually very scary if you spend a million dollars over a million dollars They give you a 30 percent rebate and under a million dollars that give you a 15 percent rebate and literally When you're like 980 you like Because they come in and audit and for example the day with Pullman was shot in New York So that doesn't count for them. So you have to make sure you get over because it's not great It's literally like the next dollar everything becomes 30 percent so that's that's pretty much what the movie cost a million dollars out of pocket and You know revenue Right now we're on iTunes And a lot of other VOD formats Amazon I don't know Google Play. Oh, it's not a place on all many other things and then I think it moves to Hulu at some point and sort of more prescription prescription subscription prescription depending on subscription Stuff there and then you know who knows maybe maybe Television at some point down the road. It's really a work in progress You know how we make our money back on this, but the good thing is that it's a it's a relatively small Investment as movie going it goes out again. We spent nothing on marketing. There's no this is this is the marketing plan so So move this movie. Yes It's all up to you Actually, I think that's why those people left they went to start Now we didn't we know what we we submitted a very early cut of the movie to Sundance and I don't know how much you know about Sundance, but it's it's it's very difficult to get a movie in there Especially a movie a comedy is really hard and a movie like this is particularly hard So I never thought we had much of a chance and this is something I would do over again Actually, I think if I had to do it again, so we submitted a really rough early cut of the movie We were kind of told oh, that's okay they you know and the movies changed quite a bit since then and Amazingly when we submitted to Sundance, I kind of just wrote it off My agency is CAA creative artists agency and they have they represent I think that represents Sundance and they know all you know over there and suddenly we I got a call that it looked like we were going to get into Sundance and I just thought this was Amazing to me. There's three people there And the two of the guys love the movie the two young guys But then there's one guy who's the real guy John Cooper and I think he was just like have you lost your mind? We're not putting this in our festival. So we so we ended up not getting in there And that's right around when we decided to kind of go this other way with snag and so forth and really Festivals are fantastic the real reason to be in a festival ultimately is to get theatrical distribution and You can be really successful if that's I'm not poo-pooing them like my next movie I for sure would put in a festival if I can get in But that's really not after what you said about Cooper. You're not getting in But anyway, so that was our little history with festivals We kind of went another direction so we thought even if we got into a festival ultimately What it would end up being in the best case would be a small theatrical release and by then we kind of had decided Oh, let's try this differently, so Here we are everything Do it all or just buy a hundred thousand copies of the movie yourself on that's I'm fine with that too You can reach any of us So just for the for the webcast You're saying that people can reach Robbing you through Facebook and we made this movie comm That's pretty easy to remember Okay, there's a promise you may be sorry you made Yes Well, you know, it's funny is the DVD extras of this movie were shot by my daughter Sydney Lucy and Most of the back all the behind the screen behind the scenes footage from that press reel was shot by them So there literally was a point when I'm looking up and I see the freshman actors like this And then behind them I see my daughters like this and my head was gonna just explode Yeah, there might be actually I think that it's possible. You actually have this in front of him But there we go Yes, so We'll put information up on the website on Facebook when it when it's available But we hope to get an early version out or at least the pre-orders for Christmas and then the beginning of the year It should be generally available I'll tell you one little little behind-the-scenes story from this movie that is is touching It's apropos of nothing, but I just thought of it so Michael Roman who played Smitty originally auditioned for the part of LeBron and We loved him. He was hilarious in the audition He really cracked us up, but we didn't think he was quite right for the lead He kind of had a sort of sarcastic snarky attitude and he he left and John Beckerman I said, oh, you know what he'd be great for Smitty. He is Smitty. He's perfect for that so we called him up and Amazingly he lives in Albany and Buckstown is fictionally set in upstate New York So that was already a little weird and we called him up and we said I'm sorry. You didn't get the part for LeBron, but we'd like you to be Smitty and he And and we explained to him what the part is and you know He's kind of this sarcastic guy But you know then you find out that he you know He's taking care of his sick mother and there's just silence on the other end of the phone And I think is it possible that this kid who's never really acted anything is turning down the non-lead part for the movie I that can't be and finally he kind of comes out and says I'm sorry. I'm thrilled. Thank you so much But it's a little strange because I Have just I just returned home to take care of my sick mother Who passed away? I think three or four months before the movie Started and they were very close She was with him on all of his auditions when they were a kid they would go to New York City So it was this crazy parallel story so One of the strange things I think in in the marketing of this movie and in the making of this movie is you know There's very disparate tones. You know you have Chicken with a boner and then you've got you know a funeral scene and sometimes You know you were shooting that stuff on the same day and you really just thought as you were doing it This will this we may be making the worst movie ever because you're like How can you shoot this and that and put it in the same movie? We thought well if there's a way to make this work in it might be a nice little movie during the funeral scene Michael The little piece of paper that he reads from his speech was actually the Letter the last letter that his mother his actual mother wrote to him. So it was extremely Touching for us shooting this. It was really emotional to sort of see him Kind of get through this And one of my favorite extras in the movie my wife right over there Now to put it in perspective. She more or less can cry at anything. She's probably gonna cry now. It's possible She's tearing up, but I said to her before we shy said, you know if you could squeak out a tear that would be Be kind of good. Well my she knew, you know, we all became great friends with these actors They in order they lived with me for they lived with us for a week before the movie started We wanted them all to be friends So we had them all move into our house and we became very close with them and they're still, you know Very good friends of ours. So when Michael started doing this It was really tough for all of us and I look over and poor Eunice literally was crying to the point of Dehydration and in the shooting of the movie and at one point we then were done with that shooting this way now We're shooting this way and I look over she's not on camera anymore And she's just still bawling for for like an hour. I said honey, you could stop crying and she said no But anyway, it was it was really it was a very touching Part of it. I thought Michael did a he did an amazing job with that. I thought all things considered Yes, sir Steve Garfield He's a pioneering video blogger, I might say No, nothing, nothing, I'm not messing with you go ahead You're scary But only if we can get three people video eight and you videoing them doing them So what I'll do is I'll Can everyone just say they like it the movie the guy invented video blogging don't Everybody it's Steve Garfield from Steve Garfield calm and we're here at Harvard and we just saw a Movie it's called we made this movie and we happen to have one of the producers of the movie Rob Barnett here And if you could tell us about the movie real quick, that'd be great Well, interestingly, we actually shot the movie on an iPhone. So this is very a very comfortable The movie is available on iTunes that's we made this movie and I think well, you know, it asked the group they saw This performance right here, they're all in my next movie Great, thank you. Thanks everybody. Thank you Steve Thank you so much appreciate that Oh The web makes everything odd We don't have to have a rating actually do we have I mean it's a rate we call it we say it's rated R Just for language for language, but I don't know like the MPAA Doesn't turn on okay, it's not rated on iTunes But interestingly enough when snag films puts up clips if there's if there's any language in it Then they have to put an age qualifier What does a chicken boner qualify as? That's PG-13 or R No age requirement I'll tell you If you're shooting with chickens, you need a lot more chickens than you think that's why In the script, it's you know a sea of yellow Pouring out of the and I remember having this production meeting and so it's so rare in life when there's just a right and a wrong And even rarer when I'm right and we have the production meeting and they say We're gonna get a hundred chickens and I go I don't know chickens, but that just it doesn't feel like enough chickens to the hundred chickens I think we need more chickens. Well, they're expensive. We can't so I get talking to a hundred chickens I'll never forget we show up there and I am telling you If a hundred chickens can fit on a quarter. They'd like they just they bunch up and I'm like, where's the sea? But no chickens were hurt in this movie and my 16 year old daughter now doesn't eat chicken So they save chickens making the movie on top of it. So that's good Scott Great, I think YouTube has become a to a huge tool for for Stand-ups, you know now they they can send their set, you know that they did on the road Everyone it used to be a big deal for people to put together a reel You know to make a promotional run now everyone does it and they put it up on YouTube. I think SNL Cast someone off of YouTube. I could be wrong about that But I think they actually got a cast member from from a guy that was just doing impressions off of YouTube. So We don't we're not really cast at the late show. We're mostly looking for writers. So You know, we're not we don't really cast actors We don't really have a need for actors. So that process is that is pretty similar, you know It was always, you know, send us so it's email now instead of a letter, but it's that's pretty similar but We definitely In casting the movie before we settled on these actors we looked or we poked around YouTube a lot And I I do think I think there are people that are gaining prominence on YouTube that get real looks From people I think there's lots of examples of it that exist that I in television now I think there are people that that came up through YouTube. I think it's happening for sure another question Or two perhaps You know, I guess it ultimately depends on you know on how successful they are, you know, I mean in my television world What's happened is a very Nice pie that was cut in large pieces has been not only cut into smaller pieces But we're less put through a blender and is now being served in tiny little paper cups. So the these This is a whole other, you know You thought that remember the good old days in 2008 when you had this in 2012 when you had this much now Now it could be even less and you know, ultimately and I don't know anything about this stuff But I ultimately feel like where all of this heads and I know more about television that I do movies but Movies included ultimately it's got to all settle into some version of you have to pay for content somehow You know what I mean? And somehow it's going to be Everything will be on demand. You know what I mean? So these YouTube channels I guess my ultimate feeling is as an aggregator of content that is where they will rise or fall meaning if They have a show as good as breaking bad on their YouTube channel, then that'll be great. And if they don't Then it won't because I what I think is wearing off frankly is the novelty of all of this You know, it used to be like, oh my god, look what that 16 year old kid made well now It's like great But I only want to watch if it's better than what some guy that is a professional can make Sometimes it can be and if it is great, you know what I mean? And I think the distribution will ultimately somehow sort itself out in ways that I don't understand Yeah, well, I mean I think celebrities have never been more God kill me for saying this celebrities have never been more valuable than they are right now because You know, so much of things is is branding and getting recognition. I mean funny or die is Largely, I think where it is because of celebrity is participating in it. It's a great concept, right? Oh, we put up videos and people vote on them and the funny ones that but without the giant celebrities drawing you to those things I don't think that exists Right, right exactly And again, if you think of Adult swim you're talking about children's hospital. Yeah, so if you talk about adult swim there You what you have in my opinion all of this now comes down to curation, right? And what adult swim has done has managed to narrow cast and very specific to a very specific audience Which I am one of I know what I get when I go to adult swim And I like many of the things there some of the things are too Comedically hip even for me. I should be younger, but what's that? Have you seen robot chicken? But uh, no, I actually love robot chicken But you know, I mean, and I think ultimately that will be the task of YouTube channels and everything else You know what I mean is oh Here's the YouTube channel for this thing and you know what you're gonna get and if you can start going to places The way you used to go to say HBA or the way used to go to MTV for music videos You know, I mean these places are all struggling for right for identity And I think the net will have the same struggles as network television as cable is all every distribution out Yeah, definitely so I'm I Want to raise the possibility and I have no idea this will actually pan out But there's seems to me to be continuing in fact increasing say steam So there's an old metaphor increasing steam behind do it yourself entertainment mean culture that a lot of the net outside of funny or die and our Us entertaining ourselves and frequently doing so in a way that is purposefully Hand-drawn and amateur Xkcd, which is arguably You know dunes berry for the internet generation. It's certainly that quality It's stick figures and it's the stick figures. I think sort of on purpose because it's sort of a thumb in the eye the The use of meme you know photographs with the same same photograph different punch lines that seems to be actually Increasing and it's in the election the campaign that stuff seem to be increasing in importance It is a reaction against a professional A professional culture, but it it may have its own life So I don't know you would think that it would die that it would go away I think a version of it will well There's there's something interesting to me about this it has a version of its own life And it depends what it is and I one area that is particularly fascinating to me is What is so I work at the late show we have a writing staff of you know ten Very good comedy writers who are churning out material every day How do they compare with the 300 million? Comedy writers out in the country that can can write stuff, you know any one of them I don't think would survive in our writing room, but as a giant group if curated possible It's pretty tough. It's fine. You know I had this experience just just a little while a week ago The day before the election. I tweeted this stupid little thing I'm not citing this because this is a good joke this it was late at night And I just I just I tweeted this and I and it was something like if I owned a diner Tomorrow I would serve a bomblets and Another diner food that has a clever play on the word Romney The joke being that I'm kind of too lazy to finish my own joke, right? But the result of this was that then people started tweeting me Rom Neuroni Hundreds of these things and it really stuck with me because honestly, you know We do these top ten lists at the late show and I talked about this up at work It's not unusual for us to we could have done this as a topic, you know as a silly topic you know You know if Rom Neuroni diner or a few you know some version of that and and if I'm honest about it that mass of Tweets that I got was pretty much what our list would have been. Do you know what I mean? Sorry, that's it's you know what I mean It's it's there's certain short things that the internet is really meant for I think we're you know It's kind of like even when even before the internet where you know There's some big hot story and then some joke emerges from Wall Street that's like hilarious, you know I don't like the Wall Street people either. Don't worry. We're in this together, but occasionally they can come up with a funny joke Lehman Brothers, I'm kidding but But I interviewed so it is this strange Thing from it from an artistic standpoint. You're like well, what is it almost starts to approach the old You know if there's a thousand monkeys banging typewriter when they create Shakespeare in a way It's like what relationship does and a tour or someone that considers themselves a professional that does this Consistently does that mean anything versus the giant group that if they all kind of do it together But I don't think a group like that could ever make a movie really. I think that they can sounds like a challenge to me Stay back just write funny captions Yeah, it's it's interesting for sure One last question then we will wrap up Thank you Well, yeah, I don't have a lot of experience with documentaries and you may be able to speak better to that but I in general And everyone has their own sort of sensibility but for my sensibility and my writing partner John Beckerman sensibility is everything is driven by reality and and once you Things can get very extreme and things can get very silly But but once you veer from reality in a way I think that snaps something with you in the audience like once, you know For a certain kind of movie and if you're watching a Marx Brothers movie or you know, you're watching the hangover Then reality is not so important. You're just there to laugh and it all exists on a certain level But I don't think those movies would satisfy what you're looking for I think to me what's important is always Keeping things as close to reality as possible and constantly asking yourself Questions of would someone actually do this? You know they mean and not and I think this could probably apply to documentaries as well as that when you're creating a narrative be it in Fiction or documentaries You I think probably had sometimes haven't urged to kind of push your story in a certain way And I think you have to do that very artfully and I think if you do that too forcefully You're telling your story in a way that doesn't feel real. I think that's when the audience breaks from you and they will What you do they will not Feel what you want them to feel that that's just my own Theory on it, you know what I mean and and I think the more the other part of that I think is the more the more details you can you can have I mean that's really what people Respond to is I think specifics rather than generalizations That's the same question I mean I'm not sure what you're working on what the material is if it's if it's a promotional piece It's harder to get that humanity in reality because a lot of it is set up but I mean just from the work I'm inspired by the the work that is real and Has the elements that you know really pull at your heartstrings is the stuff that sort of happens when you think the camera should stop rolling So it's those it's those scenes where you're watching things play out and then someone says something and it's awkward But you hold that shot because they give the camera a look or you would look and then they say that something else That really makes that scene and so I think that as a Documentary filmmaker the biggest thing that I use to my advantage is awkwardness So that that horrible feeling where someone's like why do you still have the camera on me? But they do something that that is very tell it tells you a lot about their personality So that's the only thing I can say I told you her answer would be better than mine And the people want to know more about hollow. What's the URL? Follow the film calm Yep But when we launch it'll be project hollow.org. So it's hollow the films the temporary site So unfortunately, we need to bring it to a close but if you want to contact Rob or Genie Come up business cards or other ways of other you know ways that they can get in touch with it would be very welcome So thank thank you all. Thank you so much for watching By the way, we also want to really thank the Berkman Center you guys were amazing. Thank you so much. It's totally our pleasure