Interview with Brian Ward on Directing Short Films

Hi, this is Brian Ward from Shout Factory and

you are listening to the Geekcast Radio Network.

Hello and welcome to Geekcast Radio. I am TF

Joe and Mike and this is going to be another

special interview. We just interviewed the composer

of Mission Impossible Rogue Nation, Mr. Joe Kramer.

This is also going to be featured on Movie Week

in Review, our general overall movie podcast

that we have, which is separate from the Cinema

Geek Show. And this is the second interview on

MWIRE after the Joe Kramer interview. This is

the fourth time, I believe, fourth time this

guest has been here. And ladies and gentlemen,

earlier this year, two, right? For this year?

Or was one last year and then one was this year.

reroute was rerouting and They were both this

year, right? Mm -hmm. Okay, so I'll make sure

This person has had two short films come out

that he is Directed he is also on the writing

part of them as well And we all know and love

him as the greatest DVD producer at chef factory

of all time. Mr. Brian Ward Hello, sir. Thank

you very much. I appreciate Yeah So I didn't

even know you were like you've been at shout

for almost what 10 or 11 years at this point

12 years now 12 years now and you've also been

Directing short films for 11 of those 12 years

Something I never even knew yeah, no shorts go

back to I mean I was I was making short films

and Short videos or whatever back is far as seventh

grade. I got my first camera, so I'm certainly

no stranger. In fact, I was making shorts in

college with the very editor I use for my bonus

materials. Awesome. That's so cool. All right.

So we're mainly here in this interview on GeekCast

Radio and Movie Week interview. Did you talk

about Brian as a director or writer? someone

who does short films, but We can't just have

you here and not catch up on what's been going

on at Shell Factory Yeah What's been going on

this year you guys have had a whole bunch of

mstk3 stuff you guys have had? Was beast machines

this year right or was it last year? May it may

have even been a couple years ago. I see forever

in a day since I've worked on So what's going

on with shopsecker this year a lot of transformer

stuff though, you know, we I mean we've been

doing We've been doing the rescue bots, of course,

but then we've also been doing the new Robots

in Disguise series, which I'm actually enjoying

quite a bit. And then we're still doing a lot

of the popular and some of the B -rated Scream

Factory releases that have always been popular.

Some of the ones that I have been really excited

to work on in the past little bit that I know

have been announced. You know, if you're a comic

book fan, we've got the documentary about Image

Comics called The Image Revolution that I really

enjoyed working on. And that one is literally

the extraordinary rise and even fall and then

rise again of Image Comics. So people who are

fans of Jim Lee. which I'm a huge Jim Lee fan,

Todd McFarland, Rob Liefeld, Eric Larson, you

know, Wiltshire Portaccio, you know, folks like

that. Mark Silvestri, you know, these guys are

all in the film and it is a really great, I would

actually say, Poles No Punches look at, you know,

what was literally a revolution when the world's

biggest artists just left Marvel and started

their own company. And so that one's been a lot

of fun. I just recently finished up a Blu -ray

that I've loved working on. It's actually one

of my favorite Kevin Costner films called No

Way Out with Gene Hackman and Sean Young. Will

Patton That one if people haven't seen it before

is absolutely fantastic directed by Richard Roger

Donaldson who who also did HMS bounty or the

bounty and then a Number of a you know, he also

did 13 days with Kevin Costner later in his career

the world's fastest Indian Which I really love

with Anthony Hopkins This one is a political

thriller where Gene Hackman plays the Secretary

of Defense, who is having an affair with a woman

of the night. Not Catwoman. And without spoiling

anything, she is also in a love affair with Kevin

Costner. Someone ends up dead and suddenly Kevin

Costner has to find the killer without also suggesting

that he could be the killer. So, you know, it's

pretty great. So that one's awesome. I don't

know, it's just been a lot of really cool stuff.

And then unfortunately, because it's December,

I am working on and just wrapped up. a couple

of projects that haven't even been announced

that people are really going to be excited about.

So we don't get any exclusives, right? Not at

the moment. I think that I've been, you know,

but but right now, one of the things that I that

I'm really looking forward to gearing up on is

something that is very much in the in the public

right now. And that is the new Mystery Science

Theater. You know, we for people who don't know

Shot Factory. bought the rights to Mystery Science

Theater 3000, not just licensed, which we've

been doing for the past several years now, but

a deal many years in the making, we finally purchased

the rights and now co -own it with Joel Hodgson,

who fans would know, of course, as Joel Robinson,

the original man with the bots up in the Satellite

of Love. And together we are going to unite to

create brand new episodes of the series. Our

Kickstarter just ended two weeks ago, or not

even two weeks ago, a little over a week ago.

We funded enough we originally wanted 2 .2 million

dollars to fund three brand new feature -length

episodes of the series 5 .5 would have funded

an entire season of 12 by the end of our Kickstarter

campaign We had funded enough to do 14 brand

new episodes including a holiday special so So

that is going to be insane. And if you want information

on that, you can go hit up bringbackumst3k .com.

And there's lots of information on guest writers.

And we're going to have like Dan Harmon guest

writing for the series. We're going to have cameo

appearances by people like Jerry Seinfeld and

Bill Hader and Mark Hamill. It's going to be

insane. I can imagine. I think I missed the boat

on Mystery Science Theater 3001 at first. I think

I was too young at the time, so I've never actually

gotten into any of it. I'd love to. The thing

that I love about MST3K is that it has jokes

for literally every sense of humor. You can have

a really lowbrow joke immediately followed up

by some obscure reference to Shakespeare or Dostoevsky

and no matter where you are on the scale of humor,

these guys nail it and I'm really excited that

Joel is going to be back. But we're also going

to have the new host of MST3K is going to be

Jonah Ray, who a lot of people may know from

Comedy Central and the Nerdist podcast. And then

he is going to be joined by Crowe and Tom, of

course, and they'll be voiced by new people as

every incarnation of Tom and Crowe are voiced

by new people. And then the mad scientist characters

will be played by Felicia Day. Patton Oswalt

and these guys are all going to very much like

the original series these guys are all going

to be writers on the series so all the riffs

are going to be really top -notch you know when

Patton Oswalt is co -writing something the I

mean just his improv is top -notch just imagine

what happens when he gets an opportunity to watch

a movie and write it down so that on top of you

know, the various co -writers that or the various

guest writers that are coming in, celebrity guest

writers who grew up as fans and were inspired

by Mystery Science Theater 3000. Just imagine

what this series is going to be like when these

guys are writing for it. So I'm really excited.

And, you know, I got to tell you, even if you've

never been a fan before, if you know what it's

like to watch a movie and then just listen to

people riff on them. You are going to love the

series, so stay tuned for 2016. You and Dr. Andrea

let him in he just released episode 74 of the

Arkham sessions, which is the Batman returns

commentary So you guys are almost 75 episodes.

Yeah And yeah, we took a little bit of time off.

We you know with the holiday schedule Yeah, number

of other things. It's really difficult. You know,

you know how podcasts but But yeah the 75 episodes

we never thought we'd make it to five episodes

let alone 75 Just over two years now, right?

Yeah, we just in fact the 74th episode marks

our two -year anniversary That's why we decided

to do Batman returns that and the fact that it

is holiday time You know, we couldn't think of

a better bat centric holiday movie than Batman

returns And since you guys already covered Christmas

with the Joker earlier you can recover it All

right, so you said you've been directing shorts

since since you were a kid what what I mean Tell

us about how that came about did you always wanted

to do? film Movies and all that stuff or well

what's interesting is I always grew up assuming

that I would go into comic books and I grew up

constantly with a piece of paper and a pencil

in hand and if not a pencil a pen if not a pen

a marker or a crayon or whatever whatever could

put markings down on paper or any other surface

I was I had it in hand and I would be sketching

things and drawing things and I just always assumed

that I would try to get into comic books but

By the time I got into about seventh or eighth

grade, it got to a point where I realized that

I had no patience for things like backgrounds.

And if you wanted me to illustrate a cover for

you, no problem. I could do that. Everything

would be fine. You would not get any complaints

out of me. But the moment you needed 22 pages

of panels with backgrounds and characters doing

dynamic things, I would just lose patience. The

character was one thing, but constantly making

sure the backgrounds were all in the right perspective

and whatever. I just sort of lost it. But then

I was handed a camera where I was like, oh, I

can do everything that I ever did in comics.

I can still create compositions. I can still

put characters into the frame the way I want

them and the camera will move and then lo and

behold the background will already be there and

even if it's not I'm not the one who has to put

it there so you know it was that sort of thing

was fantastic for me and I had always grown up

an actor I'd grown up doing you know things as

a kid and and then as I got older It just got

to a point where that became my medium of choice.

And when I moved out to Los Angeles, it certainly

wasn't with delusions of grandeur, but I had

been doing shorts in college. I had done a couple

of things that people had seen and I had moved

out to L .A. to try to do something like directing.

And then Shout Factory found me. And after a

very short time in the mail room, I then graduated

to producing documentaries for DVDs and then

Blu -rays. And I've not really looked back since,

but every opportunity we get to do something

narrative is really exciting for me. We don't

always get to do them every year, but... But

then you come across things like the 48 -hour

film project, where it's just basically our excuse

to get off our butts and make something. And

it's really where I have my joy and my passions.

So with the four films that you had sent me were

for real the dawn and I will put these in the

post people The pattern the junket rerouting

and almost midnight almost midnight is the newest

one The first one I had seen, because the first

time I'd ever heard about this was when you posted

either on Twitter or Facebook, I forget where

it was, probably both, about rerouting. So I'm

like, oh, OK, cool. It's Brian Ward. I love his

DVD work. I'll check out and see what this is.

And I watched it and watched it. I'm like, oh,

wow. That is the most uncomfortable situation

to ever be in. And then it flips at the end.

And I'm like, oh, god, no, they didn't just do

that. That was just so awesome. So talk to us

about Slushpile. What's the goal with them as

far as shorts in the future and ideas and that

kind of stuff? Slushpile started out, it was

sort of an amalgam of when I was a kid, I had

always had like... little film companies and

things like that. And my best friend, Frank Moeller,

who people might recognize as the editor of my

bonus features, he and I have been best friends

for 20 years now. We've known each other since

the third grade, but after sixth grade, my father

was transferred to another state and we lost

contact. And then we met again on the second

day of freshman orientation in college. And just

by coincidence, just sitting down next to one

another. And we've been inseparable since. He

really took a liking to editing. And I was already

a big fan of directing at the time. So it got

to a point where we just started making as many

things as possible together. And we would take

classes that would allow us the opportunity to

make uh shorts whether they were three minutes

in length or 30 minutes in length and um and

uh you know he he was always up for the for the

project when it came to the 48 hour films he

had already done one in atlanta in 2002 i think

it was And when he came out about a month later

to move out to Los Angeles, I had already been

here for a year. He was like, you know, Brian,

we I had just done this thing in Atlanta. You've

got 48 hours to make a movie. Let's let's make

let's do it. And so we did. And within a couple

of years, we had we'd sort of merged our two

entities together and it became slush pile entertainment.

All because. I don't know how familiar you are

with the literary publishing field, but The Slush

Pile is the unsolicited work that writers send

in. And you're very lucky if you get noticed.

And so we were like, well, that's us. We had

no agents. We aren't solicited. We are The Slush

Pile. And so Slush Pile Entertainment was born.

And we've made four or five shorts out of the

10. that we've done total through the 48 Hour

Film Project. I think four or five of them have

been through Slushpile. We just started putting

together a website where people are going to

be able to see all of the shorts we've done,

whether it's through our original... homemade

films or forced perspective media, which was

the little company we had at the time when we

were doing corporate videos and things like that,

and then slush pile entertainment, which who

knows? We would like to take this company and

actually do something, whether it's creating

additional bonus content for other people or

making other short films. Basically, we just

wanted to have a hub where people could come

and check everything out. Absolutely. And as

I said, the latest one that you did was almost

midnight. It's kind of a New Year's kind of thing,

since this is the holiday season and all that.

After watching that one, I'm like, I need to

know what the heck happened. Like, obviously,

in that we know a certain character. And I don't

want to spoil it for people here in the interview,

but you know what I'm talking about. But it's

like, after I watched it, I'm like, well, wait

a minute. How did that happen? When did that

happen and how did that affect the breakup? Yeah.

Okay. All right. So you're you're totally on

board. Basically, the way that we do things for

people who don't know about the 48 hour film

project in general, it is a an annual project

where filmmakers from all over Los Angeles and

this is just one of the many, many cities where

the 48 hour film project hosts events. The filmmakers

all get together on a Friday night, and by 7

p .m., everyone has drawn a genre out of a hat.

And then you are given a character, a line of

dialogue, and a prop. And every filmmaker has

to make a short film. From 7 p .m. Friday to

730 p .m. They give you a half hour to travel

To turn it in 730 p .m. On Sunday you have to

conceive write shoot edit your entire short nothing

is supposed to be pre -produced and We have done

ten of them now and at this point we basically

use the festival as an opportunity to experiment

because the rules of the festival dictate that

no crew members can be paid. So it evens the

playing field for filmmakers who don't have a

ton of crew people who are paid crew or paid

actors. So you can use SAG actors, but you can't

pay them. You can use union crew members, but

you can't pay them. We will do all of that. And

I think it really helps the project because you're

basically relying on the writing, the acting,

and just the talent that you have rather than

the money that you have. And so we have taken

on this sort of mentality that we want to experiment.

If I'm going to pay a crew, say, $50 ,000 I'm

gonna get really nervous about the kinds of things

I'm willing to try because if I blow that 50

grand and The movie doesn't work. I'm in trouble

But if it's a free hour film and I I'm not really

paying anybody anything I mean, I'm paying for

food and I'm paying for props or costumes or

whatever but I'm not paying them for their time

and they're I can do whatever I want and And

I can feel okay at the end of it And and so for

the last maybe four or five, I think I sent you

four It's sort of in especially with Almost midnight.

That's the one that we just recently did where

it was also holiday themed and we drew New Year's

Eve slash day and and we also drew drama and

so It's heavy drama. Yeah It's nothing like rerouting,

because rerouting is almost a... It's a comedy,

but it's one of those ironic comedies. And that's

sort of what we're looking for, is the opportunity,

like in the case of Almost Midnight, we wanted

to make the film project regret drama having

ever been in the hat in the first place. And

so it might have worked. I think it did. But

in that one, I decided to get creative. When

people see it, they don't necessarily know this

going in. But eventually you're watching the

same party happen one year apart and the difference

a year can make between a couple, a young couple

that is just starting the relationship versus

a family. where the house that the party is in

is owned by a family with children. And then

the following year, some very dramatic things

have happened. And I had an amazing group of

writers. A lot of times I will end up sort of

spearheading the writing and we'll all sit down.

that night on Friday and we'll all sort of hash

out a story idea and who will play what characters

and then I will usually go off and write it and

you know once we knew what we were going to attempt

because the two films take place with a split

screen between them or the two time periods the

two parties take place with a split screen between

them. And I was like, that's going to be really

hard for me. So I gave up all of the writing

to four really talented writers, including Tom

Zoller, who a lot of. Folks know he's a comic

book writer. He currently does a lot of My Little

Pony comics, but then he's also popular for his

own comics, Long Distance, which just recently

came out, which is a fantastic. Oh, it's great.

And that thing's awesome. I actually interviewed

him this year. Such a great guy. Yeah, he's such

a humble guy and just. wealth of pop culture

knowledge and the two of us can't get through

a single conversation without instantly almost

speaking exclusively in Star Trek quotes. And

so he'd done that and he'd also done Love and

Capes which is sort of the mad about you of superheroes

where it's like all of the life that goes on

in the life of a superhero outside of the super

heroics. I've read the first two volumes so far.

I'm in the middle of the third one. I remember

when I got to issue eight, and I think it was

volume two, and the cover is Darkblade, and he's

holding up an animated cartoon version of Tom.

He's like, all right, cartoonist boy, I'm the

main character's best friend. Why don't I get

the cover? Absolutely awesome. Yeah, he's a trip

and and he is actually the one who came up with

the idea We had been leaning in another direction

and Tom lives in Ohio. The rest of us are in

LA Hey, I'm you know, I see that you do this

all the time I if you ever want we can I can

Skype in and you know I can help out and So we

had sort of been going in a different direction

and then we Skyped in with Tom and he was like

what if we do the same? the same party a year

apart, and we're like, okay, that other idea

we had, scrap that idea, we're gonna go with

this one. And so once we decided to do that,

Tom, and my friend Wally, and my other friend

John Monsonphoon, and then my colleague and friend

Antonio Lopez, they began hashing out this story.

And what's interesting is throughout the course

of the night, this is a really long -winded way

of answering your question. No one could figure

out what had happened to or with that character

and what had happened to or with a relationship

that you see. And ultimately, when I came back

from talking with my DP about how we were gonna

shoot this whole thing, they were like, okay,

well, we've nailed some things down. We know

who's playing what. Oh, and by the way, Brian,

you're playing this character. And I was like,

Oh, okay. And so I suddenly I realized I was

acting in it. And then they told me the story.

And it all came down to it didn't matter. You

know, like we wanted it to be open ended. Now,

what you can't see, unfortunately, is something

that was in the production design. And unfortunately

because of the way it was shot with the 235 Matt

you're missing a little bit of information There's

a moment where I am walking past this window

in the very beginning with this young lady and

you see There's a table of Alcohol bottles by

the window the next time we shot that they were

all replaced by Soda bottles and water and so

we were like, oh, maybe there's a little oh some

character was affected by maybe the alcohol Oh,

how did how did how was my character involved

with that? And you know things like that So we

let you know, the audience basically sort of

work out the story on their own, but we do have

Frank actually came up with I think the best

possible backstory scenario Where where my character

is not responsible, but takes responsibility.

And hence my reaction to things later. When I

watched it, and I mean, because I haven't watched

something split screen since... the days of Tony

Hawk Pro Skater 2, honestly. When I watched it,

I didn't have a problem keeping up. It was very

well done as far as between the two screens and

you didn't... You obviously know there's a split,

but it kind of flows together kind of like the

way it's supposed to at the end and what happens

at the end of the thing. But the one thing I

noticed throughout the entire thing is the only

thing that remains the same between the year

that's passed is the Drunkle. Yes. And I'm glad

that you noticed that too, because that was one

of those things. The required character for that

particular project was Bruce McClain. Comma outcast

so they always give you a name and they give

you a an occupation or some sort of characteristic

and You don't necessarily have to use the name

as long as we can See that that person is an

outcast or a teacher or a you know, whatever

Or you can just call them by their name and that

that's fine, too We just assume they're an outcast

or whatever and in this case My friend Brad,

who I have loved dearly for about 12 years, 12,

13 years now, he plays that character so well.

And you picked up on it. He's the only character

who hasn't even changed clothes. He has no real

character arc and he's literally wearing the

same costume So it's almost like not that he

wore that that set of clothes for an entire year

but that he's the guy who's like this is my outfit

to go out to parties. It just becomes a thing

where if you're going to take a snapshot of each

year, he was going to be wearing that same thing

because that's what he's always wearing at parties

or that's what he's always wearing at family

gatherings or whatever. In fact, there's a line

of dialogue that this girl says as she's walking

up and she crosses between the two years and

she says, like I said last year, Don't touch

me. And then, and as he crosses over, we see

that he's wearing the same outfit and she literally

says, oh, you never change. And that could be

seen as any number of things, but we were like,

tee hee. Yeah, no, it's it's simply awesome It

really really is everybody needs to go wash these

shorts because they're just so so good Some of

them like some of the the earlier ones like the

junket. I really like That one is just me doing

my day job That's a real inside joke. That one

was a lot of fun for us because I'm actually

using the same crew that I use for my bonus features,

the same cameraman and the same sound op. It

was like, Irving, I want you to set up two cameras

and I just want you to have them. I literally

want... the interview we would be shooting if

we were doing Transformers interviews or whatever.

And the whole premise of that one is for folks

who have not seen it. It's a press junket for

a movie where two people who are both in the

film, they're the stars of the movie, and one

of them has sort of become the writer, director

as well, and maybe a little pompous. They've

been in the chairs talking to press for too long.

And now they're just biting at one another. And

that one just became fun because it's like, look,

I've always I always loved the stories of I know

a bunch of PR people. I love the stories of like

press junkets gone bad. And and so again, Bradford

lays that character really well. And and then

I get to be the straight man slash angry ginger.

I actually if you go look at the if you go look

at the at the video I actually come it's not

like oh my god ginger age. You did not go there

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and in fact, I think that one

That one was the first one where we did that

sort of thing and then the second one was rerouting

earlier this year where I think Brad make some

comment, he calls me ginger minge or something.

And at some point, I think Dreya even was the

one who saw that one. And she's like, that's

hilarious. But maybe in your next one, you not

focus on the gender rage. So we did. Well, I

mean, like I said, between rerouting and almost

midnight, they're two totally different genres.

You really couldn't have. I don't think your

character would have been as emotionally connected

to the audience if you had referenced the ginger

rage in Almost Midnight compared to rerouting,

because rerouting the character that you play

in the film, actually, it turns out, and again,

I'm not gonna spoil it, but it basically turns

out that you're... Just there And I think my

favorite part and this is just something so little

that maybe only I picked up on was the as you're

backing out of the driveway Just shaking your

head You're definitely not the only one you speak,

okay In fact, I'm told a lot that that that I

mean granted my face is what's in the foreground,

but I can never stop looking at There's a group

of folks who might be brawling in the background

And I'm always watching that. To me, that's hilarious.

But then people are like, oh my god, that face

you are making. Yeah, that's just my real, I

got to get out of my face. Yeah, pretty much.

All right. So is there anything at all that you

can tease for us that's coming for Shout Factory

or for Slushpile? Nothing for slush power right

now, although we recently got, for our most recent

two films, we got quite a few accolades, and

that may have lit a fire a little bit. So I think

we're definitely going to start working on some

stuff coming up. If not another short, one that

we can do in longer than a 48 -hour period of

time, that would be fantastic. So we can actually

have a little time to plan things. You know,

I think we'll definitely do that, but then I'm

also talking to a couple of people about a long,

just gestating feature that I've wanted to do

now for about a dozen years. And I've got to

talk to the writer who is a known entity at this

point. So, you know, I got to talk to him and,

you know, see if he's... Still down to make it

and if so, I think maybe we'll ride this this

wave For as long as we can as far as shout goes.

I am constantly working on things that I'm in

love with Most of them MST 3k is really our bread

and butter right now and that's that's in in

A lot of different facets, not just in a TV episode

version, but just different things we can do.

I'm very excited about getting in on that. Awesome,

awesome. All right, why don't you inform the

people where they can get in contact with you

online if they would like to do so. You can absolutely

find me on Twitter. I am at bward028 and you

can find me with the Arkham Sessions podcast.

We are at Arkham Sessions. You can also email

me at any time. That's arkhamsessions at gmail

.com. I'm constantly checking that as well as

Dreah. And then yeah, Twitter's really the best

possible place to find me. Absolutely. All right,

folks, that's going to do it for this interview

here on GeekCast Radio Network's MWIRE movie

weekend review. Coming up, we've got episode,

hopefully episode 124, 125 and 126. Episode 124

will be the Terminator franchise. Episodes 125

and 126 will be content that we recorded almost

two and a half years ago, which would be the

Beverly Hills Cop franchise and Hustler. or the

hustler i should say uh so that's that's what's

going on with with m wire keep those film reels

rolling and we will catch you later rerouting

hi this is dr andrea letamendi and brian ward

from the arkham sessions and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network Hi, my name is

Dr. Andraela Namendi, clinical psychologist.

And I'm Brian Ward, nerd. And we want to invite

you to listen to our new podcast, The Arkham

Sessions. It's a podcast dedicated to the fun.

And geeky. Analysis of Batman the animated series,

episode by episode. We pay tribute to the writers

and the stories of the animated series. While

also exploring the very real psychology behind

Gotham's rogues. And maybe even its heroes. All

of this and more. Each week. On The Arkham Sessions.

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