Today we get into how a film can land theatrical distribution without festival circuit buzz; how to leverage existing relationships into building a crew, cast, and distributors on your team; and how a cold email landed a distributor for two of his feature films.

TICKETS FOR “THE WILDERNESS”: https://www.fandango.com/the-wilderness-2025-242791/movie-overview

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IG: @spencereking / @thewildernessmovie

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Today we are getting into how to avoid stagnance when waiting for feature films to go, how to find representation that aligns with who you are as an artist and the most surprising things from directing three horror thriller features.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

1:35 - Getting brought on to Bone Lake from an open directing assignment

3:00 - LD Entertainment

4:20 - Shooting in LA vs. Georgia vs. Canada

6:35 - Viral chess board shot

7:30 - Projects Mercedes’ agents sent her when they first signed her vs. now - elevated, surrealist, erotic horrors

9:10 - Upcoming features & how to play the movie stock market during the long process of getting projects off the ground

11:15 - Working on commercials

12:30 - Making previous features Fixation and Spoonful of Sugar with covid impact

15:15 - the unexpected positive outcomes of a storm preventing shooting the final scene of Bone Lake

17:00 - Art department chopping shrubbery down from the hotel as set dec

20:20 - Meeting long-term collaborators at USC (and cutting class to work on projects)

21:45 - Should you go to film school?

25:46 - Signing with a manager & an agent (UTA)

31:45 - How to finance a feature

35:30 - Advice for younger filmmakers + background in producing

37:30 - Working director vs. “selling out”

39:40 - Mercedes’ interest in filmmaking as a kid

42:49 - How living situations impact creativity

43:44 - How to persevere when you want to give up

48:59 - Thoughts on social media

51:55 - TIME CAPSULE

KEEP UP WITH MERCEDES:

Buy tickets for "Bone Lake": www.bleeckerstreetmedia.com/bone-lake

Follow Mercedes on IG: @mercedesbrycemorgan

Follow Bone Lake on IG: @bonelakefilm

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KEEP UP WITH BECCA:

TikTok: @beccawmann

IG: @becca__mann

Becca's Books: https://www.becca-mann.com/books

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Evan B. Matthews is an LA-based director whose feature directorial debut “Motherland” comes out this month, we’re recording in September 2025, in both theaters and VOD.

Evan got his start under Mark Burnett, working on shows including Survivor, The Apprentice, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Hollow, among others; going on to produce the MTV Movie Awards.

Today we get into how Evan went from meeting with an executive to landing his first feature film directing job in just one week, what he focused on during his pitch for this open directing assignment, and how to pivot out of reality-focused projects when pigeonholed and be taken seriously as a narrative director.

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IG: @evanbmatthews

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Michael Orion Downing is an LA-based, Alaskan-raised producer and Director of Development at A/Vantage Pictures, with credits spanning Netflix, Mandalay, A24, and Apple projects alongside independent films on Tubi. His work includes Ben Affleck’s AIR, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, and Sundance award-winning Under Darkness, as well as producing Maika Monroe’s directorial debut short at TIFF.

Today we dive into how he went from a Paramount lot clerk to producing and developing major films, while constantly creating independent projects and seeking out new filmmaking collaborators.

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IG: @mike_orion

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Karl Stelter is a filmmaker whose commercial director / producer work has been recognized by the Clio’s, Tribeca, Tribeca X, the ADDY’s, Telly’s, Webby’s, 1.4, ADCC, DUST, and over 15 Oscar Qualifying film festivals. His recent Jury Award win at Sebastopol qualified him for the 2025 Oscars. His clients include Invisalign, Amazon, NFL, Telus, Western University of Health Sciences, and GHA Autism Supports among others.

Today we get into how Karl convinced brands like Telus and Invisalign to buy documentary projects he was already making as passion projects and turn them into commercials and branded entertainment, how to make the most of a festival experience like Tribeca and how to pivot into a new type of work that’s different from what you’ve already built a portfolio in.

BREAKDOWN:

2:43 – two(!) projects at Tribeca, both scripted and branded doc spot

3:03 – Swimming with Butterflies feat. Brand partner, Invisalign and TribecaX

3:53 – Balancing authentic story x branded, paying the bills x passionate

5:23 – Karl’s journey with the subject of the doc, Paralympic swimmer

9:03 – Gaining trust with documentary subjects

11:43 – Shooting underwater feat. DP Joe Simon

12:33 – Pitching a short doc to a brand (Invisalign)

16:33 – How much would a brand give as a budget?

19:13 – did Invisalign care about where the spot would live?

20:13 – Submitting to Tribeca documentary vs. TribecaX (branded counterpart)

21:38 – The Tribeca experience

22:53 – The Lord of All Future Space and Time: a maximalist cheesecake short film (rich & dense)

24:38 – repeat collaborators

27:23 – running his own production company, Journeyman Studios, since 2012

29:48 – Pivoting from weddings to corporate videos; how to pivot to new types of work

32:23 – don’t lose sight of your artistic side

34:08 – success in the industry is a game of time

37:05 – getting into a top tier festival while simultaneously being rejected from much less prestigious festivals

38:23 – realistic acceptance rate for festivals

39:08 – Pitching: collaborators and clients

42:53 – don’t lose your collaborators to be right

44:28 – how to enjoy Tribeca

47:28 – different financing models: Karl’s other shorts!

57:38 – how to have a family as a filmmaker

1:07:13 – TIME CAPSULE

Today independent producer and union production coordinator Sofia Snyder gets into the specific resources she utilized to help land her short films at festivals, including Tribeca; what a psychic told her that prevented her from quitting her job on Rebel Moon; and how she took what she learned from working on movies like Licorice Pizza and Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and applied it to the films she’s produced.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN:

2:00 - Playing at Tribeca without a premiere

4:00 - How to strategize with film festivals to optimize odds of getting in - Festival Formula (HollyShorts, Poppy Jasper, Kino Presents the People’ Film Festival London, Montclair Film Festival)

12:30 - Getting into Tribeca after rejections from SXSW (and other random festivals)

14:08 - How runtime impacts your festival odds

17:30 - Making a short for $10,000

19:30 - Funding models for shorts - self-funding vs. crowd funding

20:30 - 6 years is an overnight success

22:30 - Sofia’s early journey as a producer: a doc about the ghost of a dead cat

25:20 - Developing projects on nights & weekends after 60-80 hours a week in a production office

28:15 - Why she didn’t quit her job on Rebel Moon to focus on producing

33:20 - Why Sofia wouldn’t recommend production office gigs for aspiring writers

35:55 - Sofia’s other shorts (In Old Ranchos directed by Matt Lucas, We Meet Again directed by Matt Lucas, One of These Days concept directed by Joe Blank, Don’t Leave Me Now directed by Monisha Dadlani)

37:20 - Shooting with UNREAL technology

35:50 - Shooting in phases before raising the entire budget

42:20 - Cranberry Heaven in 1997

44:30 - Things take time!

45:40 - Being a union production coordinator on $30million+ projects (Licorice Pizza, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar)

51:50 - Attending American University + moving to LA post-college with $10,000

1:02:30 - Development assistant vs. freelance/production office pipeline

1:05:30 - Pay for union coordinators + insider information about how coordinators discuss rates with each other

1:10:05 - TIME CAPSULE

KEEP UP WITH SOFIA:

IG: @sofiasny

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