In this inaugural episode of the Clone Cops Podcast, filmmakers Philip Cordell (Co-writer/Actor), Danny Dones (Co-writer/Director), Charles Royce (VFX Supervisor/Producer), and Corey Allen (Cinematographer) take you back to the very beginning—how Clone Cops was born.
Available to rent or own now on all streaming platforms - https://linktr.ee/clonecops
🎬 Clone Cops: The Origins of Clone Cops 🎬
🔍 Episode Summary:
In this inaugural episode of the Clone Cops Podcast, filmmakers Philip Cordell (Co-writer/Actor), Danny Dones (Co-writer/Director), Charles Royce (VFX Supervisor/Producer), and Corey Allen (Cinematographer) take you back to the very beginning—how Clone Cops was born.
The team dives into:
• The early brainstorming sessions and how a casual pitch about “Clone Cops” turned into a full-fledged feature film.
• The influence of classic sci-fi and action movies like Robocop, Multiplicity, and Idiocracy on the film’s concept and tone.
• How they navigated budget constraints, pivoting from their original vision to a more achievable (yet still ambitious) indie production.
• The importance of a strong title in marketing, and how Clone Cops immediately resonated with audiences.
• The screenwriting process, including early script drafts, table reads, and hiring professionals for script coverage.
• The personal influences each creator brought to the project, from cinematography choices to VFX branding to character development.
• The challenges of indie filmmaking, including skepticism about whether the movie would ever get made—and the mindset that pushed them forward.
🎤 Notable Quotes:
• “We knew we had to make a feature. That was the next step.” – Philip Cordell
• “Every movie is a miracle. It’s crazy that 40-50 people can come together to make this happen.” – Philip Cordell
• “We wanted to make a movie that we loved, not just something that would impress people.” – Danny Dones
• “The cavalry isn’t coming. No one’s going to hand you your filmmaking career—you have to go out and make it happen.” – Danny Dones
📌 Key Takeaways for Filmmakers:
✅ Why micro-budget movies are a great starting point for indie filmmakers
✅ The power of a great title in generating excitement and audience curiosity
✅ How a table read can expose strengths and weaknesses in a script
✅ The reality of script coverage—and why it’s a worthwhile investment
✅ How visual and storytelling elements evolve from draft to final product
✅ The importance of persistence and self-belief in indie filmmaking
🛠 Next Episode Preview:
In the next episode, the team breaks down the making of Clone Cops—including pre-production, budgeting, and the realities of bringing an indie film to life.
📢 Today’s Episode Sponsor:
Brought to you by Nefaricorp Visit nefaricorp.com for more.
#CloneCops #IndieFilmmaking #SciFiComedy #FilmmakingPodcast #BehindTheScenes
0:02
Welcome to the clone cops podcast.
0:07
My name is Philip Cordell, co writer and actor in clone cops.
0:10
Hi. I'm Danny doans. I'm the co writer and director.
0:13
I'm Charles Royce, VFX supervisor and producer,
0:16
and I'm Corey Allen, cinematographer. Excited to have you here with us today. On today's episode, we're going to talk about the origins of clone cops in the story. So let's jump right into it with Phil and Danny. Would love to hear a little bit about where the story came from, where the idea originated from, and how we got started down this path. Yeah. So
Music.
0:39
this was probably what 2019 It was after pandemic we I was approached by a friend who had an in with some producers that were trying to figure out how to make movies for less than, like $20,000 and so they were looking for ideas, micro budget, micro budget movies. And I was spitballing some ideas with a friend of mine Dallas, and he threw out the name clone cops. And the movie really kind of started from there, because I thought like, well, maybe that's something we could do on super cheap. We definitely could not have done this movie for $20,000 but it was, it was kind of the impetus for everything, and it started the ball rolling. And then Phil and I got together. We had already been writing and working on stuff from a pilot called principals to the national dads club streaming series. We did two seasons of that, so we were looking for a project that we could jump into with that was a bigger scope the feature,
1:43
right? We were like, We got to make a feature, as every short filmmaker or episodic knows like that. Next goal is, like, we got to make a movie.
1:51
Yeah, yeah. And I think we had originally talked about making Charles's movie real, real, and decided that the budget on that was going to be out of reach for us, yeah. And so we kind of went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out something that we could do for a little bit cheaper. And
2:07
budget was out of reach because it takes place on water, it has kids, it has some, you know, some things where it's like, some stunts, right, where it's like, man, most of it takes place in a house. And as any low budget indie filmmakers know, we're looking to make that contained movie. But there were a few elements that were just like, oh, we just can't quite do this cheap and safely right. Reach
2:27
him. Yeah, yeah.
2:29
So from there, what we we each kind of came up with some ideas and made a list of, like, possible ideas, the three of us and we kind of pitched them to each other, and clone cops is the one that we landed on. And
2:43
I remember the first time I heard the name, was like, That's dumb. Oh
2:47
my god, I spent so much time going you guys,
2:49
no, we're not making a movie called clone cops. And it's just one of those things where, like, it sounds ridiculous, but when people hear it, they immediately know. So you're looking for, you know what some people call high concept, where it's just like, oh, yeah, I have an image of what that is, yeah, that sounds ridiculous. Into some sometimes people are like, Yeah, that sounds dumb. And some people think that sounds rad and exactly what I want to watch.
3:10
Yeah. Well, I remember when I was telling people about the movie, and I would tell them the title I you'd see their eyes light up. For me personally, it was a it was a bonus, because people would be like, Oh, I've watched that, like, just based off the title, just
3:21
title alone just rolls off the tongue too. And it's super memorable.
3:25
Yeah, I remember Chris, my husband, he first heard it, and he was like, Oh yeah, that's, that's perfect. That's amazing. It rolls right off the tongue. I love it a little
3:33
bit well. And this a great opportunity to talk about how important tight, like, the most simple things are, right? I mean, the marketing begins at naming the film, you know, and that's why you get wolf man and dog man and these things where it's like, oh yeah, I think I know what that is, and I automatically have an impression about it. I don't wonder what's going on. I'm like, Oh yeah, that sounds like something I'd be
3:54
into, yeah, any kind of man, any man movie, Spider, spider, Spider, spider, bat, all the Man movies, I'm
4:01
dead Wolf. I
4:03
mean, we're making a clone. Man, yeah. Man, clone. Man, that's great. So tell me a little about some of the early inspirations for the story itself. I know how we got to clone cops as a movie, in terms of an idea, but when you think about some of the different storylines that pull through. What were some early inspirations for kind of charting out what the story of the movie would be? Well,
4:27
I remember when Danny pitched it to me, it was like, it's just cops and they just keep on coming. That was the idea we were, like, cool. So how do we layer that and make that a bit more interesting? Like, we've got a rocking title that seems to be evocative for people. So now, how do we build a story out and a world out around that that is actually going to be interesting, not just to viewers, but to us, because at the end of the day, we got to love the movie that we're making. You know, it's really, it wasn't a, how do we make a thing that's going to impress people? Because that's a great way to make stuff that nobody wants to see when you're worried about making stuff for other people. Right? So we're like, what's the movie we want to make? And if we only get one crack at it, it's got to be a spectacle. So how are we going to work in a bunch of really eye popping, interesting things? And so from the story perspective, Danny, what were some of your influences?
5:12
Well, I mean, I think certainly, as the movie progressed, we leaned heavy into like Paul Verhoeven kind of stuff. And like Robocop and the SAT, the satire that Verhoeven brings to a lot of his films was heavily influential. But I think early, early on, one of my big things was multiplicity with Michael Key, Michael Keaton, and I just love the idea that they that the as they were replicating they were getting dumber, that that, that, to me, was a really important through line for the movie, and that was where a lot of the comedy was going to come from, is that the more of them they made, the dumber they got. And I feel like we kind of framed a lot of the plot elements to work within that framework. So that was, that was a big part of it early on. And then, yeah, I mean, just movies of the 80s and 90s. I mean, I remember we went round and round for the first couple drafts, because I opened the movie with the title was the future 1999 right?
6:18
And which is, is brilliant, but didn't land. For some people. They're like, I don't get it. 1999 it's passed. Yeah, yeah.
6:29
Really simple guys, yeah, it was. But, I mean, that was the, that was kind of the vibe that we wanted to set was like, this is the future as we imagined it in the 90s, you know? And like, this is what, this is what the future is going to be like, and it's going to be all this high tech stuff that you you know, the reality turned out to be so much further beyond we thought we'd all be walking around the vector graphics on everything and push button controls, and we've got these sleek, 6k screens with touch controls. It's much more Star Trek Next Generation than it is Robocop. Yeah.
6:59
And that brings up a good question I've heard a few times in screenings in other places, when is this movie based
7:07
the future 1999 right? No, I don't think there is, like, a necessarily, a year that we've set for it. I think we just kind of wanted this amorphous idea of, like, what's the future going to be like when the like dumbness wins? Whenever, when, when you keep like, making everything for the lowest common denominator? What does that turn into? What does that and so, I mean, in a lot of ways, like Idiocracy is kind of another inspiration for the movie, because we definitely play around with a lot of those themes as well. It's like, everything's kind of like automated, and you don't have to be a serious tech. You can learn everything you need to know about running a replication pod from a training video,
7:55
right? I would say, from a influence standpoint, I remember discussions about like, the Agent Smith battles and matrix, right? Or it's like, well, I mean, that's a bunch of clone cops, you know, are we doing that kind of but not exactly. Yeah. I've been watching a lot of Westworld, the TV show, which the first few seasons of that I thought were just stellar, great and, yeah, and there was a lot, you know, there's some, if you've seen our film, you'll see that there's some, some wrinkles in there that are similar to some things that happened in other films, which is, which is to be expected, and that's why we've got a line in there at the end where it's like, you want a Westworld situation. I don't think so. Juice them. Yeah.
8:32
So that's great from an origin standpoint. What about like, own personal experiences that influenced anything within the movie, did you pull some of that into those stories that exist with each of the characters?
8:45
Yeah. I mean, I think it's inevitable, right? I think as a writer, you always lend your own experiences and your own personality to all the characters, and that's certainly having a co writer certainly helps break that up and make it so that every character is not the same. But yeah, there's a little bit of us in every character. So certainly there's some of the more serious scenes in the movie are drawn from my personal life and things that were important to me to say. So I still get a little teary eyed in a couple of the scenes because of that. But, yeah, I definitely pulled What about you?
9:24
Yeah. I mean, as playing the clones, I got to pour so much of myself into the into the characters. And you know, I'm pretty goofy, silly dude. You know, there's certain things that really get me going in life. I love to dance. I like dancing, yeah? And so I knew that we needed an epic dance scene, because I like dancing. It's so clear. Yeah, man. So from again, from what do I want to say with this character? It's like that you can have fun, that there's a lot of different facets to every human. We've got some serious stuff. We've got some. Ridiculous stuff. And I do believe that that's in every one of us, even, like, the most hardened badass individual out there has this goofy side to them, typically. And if you get close enough to them, you'll get you'll get to see that. And so I was really looking to kind of bring that out through the clones and show everybody like, yeah, it's okay to have fun. It's okay to be silly. Yeah, no,
10:19
that's great. Well,
10:21
I would ask you guys too, like, because certainly within the script and within the you know, what we wrote, We injected our personal lives into it, but what about what you guys brought to it? Like, what about the visual aspects of it? How did y'all incorporate your personal lives into that? Yeah,
10:36
you know, for me at first, that's a great question. When we filmed in 2022 our set was still operating, operating under COVID restrictions, so anytime the camera was rolling, it was just me and the actors on set. So I felt super connected to them, both in the funny scenes that we were shooting, but also in the really intense emotional scenes, like there's a death scene that, like, really got me, because it was just me and those actors and like, they did an incredible job putting that on camera. But me being in that space, I felt like the my own emotions kind of translate through that, some of that camera movement too, just trying to be a fly on the wall and, like, reflecting on similar life experience I'd had, which was a unique experience at the time.
11:25
Those actors, being Laura Holloway Allen, I don't want to
11:29
give any death scenes away, but I know, but,
11:31
you know, I get that, but we'll just name all the way they were involved. You know, in Quinlan ash and they all just did such a phenomenal job. You know, that they deserve to be shouted out because they really brought their A game. I don't think I'd heard that from your perspective, and that makes perfect sense, because, yeah, I see, I still see that scene, and it just feels so real. And I'm like, Man, that's, yeah, that's some serious acting being done there. You know, absolutely,
11:54
let me ask you, I do want to hear, Charles, what you have to say about it, but also to follow up on that a lot of cinematographers don't do their own camera work. Did you feel like it was important to you to do the your own camera work so that you could put
12:08
that in there? Yeah, I think for me, obviously, especially being my first feature, and knowing some of the time restrictions we had, it just felt right to be on the camera from a let's figure it out and move through quickly, but also to be connected to what was going on. And knowing that we would be essentially a closed set anytime the camera's rolling, I didn't want to like influence the movie from video village. I felt it was really important at the time to be in the middle of everything, to keep it moving so
12:43
and keep it moving. There was a lot so as a visual effects supervisor, there was a lot of movement going on. We had so many screen replacements and that sort of thing. And working with Corey, amazing camera work was difficult and challenging at times, but, I mean, overall, it, it allowed me to learn a lot, because, again, this is my first time as well with the VFX, but I loved the final product of what we accomplished together on some of those scenes. But as far as injecting my personality into it, you know, I have a graphic design background of, like, almost 30 years, I guess 35 and so the branding part of everything was really fun, and to get in your guys' head and kind of bring that to life and play around and with the visual inspiration from the guy who did the t shirt design, who was that, what was his name? Chris
13:39
Butler, yes. Our concept artist? Yes,
13:41
the concept art was amazingly inspirational to kind of take that to the next level. And, you know, coming up with the nefari core name because we had something else at the Nile, that's right, yeah, we couldn't use that because it was taken, didn't, yeah, didn't pass clearance, yeah, we'd had a script clearance, yep, and, and so all of that work on the logos, I mean, the nefari Plus, and the pharmacy, and all the different things that we had, it was just so much fun. And the visual effects stuff is where I relied on a lot of other art and brought my own kind of thing into that art, and that's the only way that I could do all of the visual effects and the amount of time that we needed, but I'm really super happy about what I got to learn from it and what I got to bring to it my own voice. So I appreciate you guys for letting me do that and trusting me with it, because it's a lot, it's a lot of work, but I mean from everybody's perspective, and it was so much fun, and I'm not, not sure I want to do that again, but, man, I learned so much, and I had a blast doing it well.
14:49
And in a lot of ways, you were kind of the third writer on the movie, because all the little, all the little in jokes and stuff that appeared in the crime time, 360, From the scrolls at the bottom to the ad copy to, like, all the posters and graphic materials that are appearing in the background, and like, even little things, like we made little magazines and stuff that was all that was all you you wrote all of that stuff. Did you enjoy that? Or were you kind of frustrated that we gave that to you to do. Oh
15:21
no, I had that was my favorite part of everything, like just coming up with those ads in the middle of crime, time, 360 and all this stuff scrolling across the bottom that was all written by me, the chat was the chat, but it was, it was so much fun. And a lot of those, some of them that even get used or some of my favorite pieces, but it was all of that was a blast. I was like, You need something else. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it.
15:47
Yeah. That's my sister that she said that that's there. They're gonna go back and watch it and, like, go frame by frame so they can read all this stuff that's in the
15:55
bottom. That's great. Yeah, I've seen the movie at least 200 times, and every time I watch it, I catch something different in the chat or something more unique in the ads that scroll or some of the little easter eggs and stickers and things that exist on the walls. It's super fun. Very re watchable. Yeah. So
16:12
speaking of ads, probably a great time to mention that Today's episode is brought to you by nefari Corp. Dead air. Don't sell replicants. Nefari Corp does
16:21
visit us at nefari corp.com
16:22
nefari corp.com that's great. Let's pull back to the story a little bit, because, well, in a future episode, we'll spend a ton of time on the look and some of the design work that Chuck and I put into it. But how different is the final product that we can watch on screen today from the first draft that we wrote.
16:46
Pretty different, yeah, yeah. It's, I mean, the, I think the core elements are still there. We didn't change a lot about the actual theme of the movie. That's all pretty, pretty much locked in from the first draft. What is that theme? Danny, the theme is about the commodification of humanity, and how media conglomerates and mega corporations use fear and division to make money, and in separating us from our dollars, they're also separating us from each other.
17:20
Sounds fun and light hearted sounds a
17:24
little real. Yeah, yeah. It's, I think then, and that is kind of like, to go back to what I was saying about Verhoeven, like, that's what I like about satire, is that allows you to kind of slide in serious themes with a veneer of comedy. And maybe it's, you know, it's makes a bitter pill a little easier to swallow, and you can, kind of like, get some ideas past people's defenses, and maybe, maybe change a few minds and open a few hearts. But yeah, to go back to the question, let's see, I know Porter was originally a man, and then as we were auditioning, when we saw Laura Holloway's audition tape, we were blown away by that, and we definitely thought we should make a change. We should make a change there, and cast someone else for that. And we rewrote that part.
18:11
We'd been on a vision quest to Bonnaroo as well. We had spitballed some of these ideas about how cool it would be to have that mother daughter dynamic, you know, while also discovering some rad music that that initially was in the film and then ended up being too expensive for the final product. That's
18:27
right. But if you can we drop it, can we name drop it? Sure, because, because we didn't, we changed the song, but we didn't change the edit. So if you fire up Noga era's nails during farah's basement music video portion, then it matches perfectly, and it's a banger
18:46
and it's a banger, but, but again, on that indie filmmaking tip for anybody wondering about licensing music, her label here in the States is Warner, and they were happy to grant us a festival license for $1,000 but when We had, you know, when we landed our distribution deal, which we're, we'll get into the details of, into the nitty gritty of in future episodes, and went back to them, essentially saying, hey, so we didn't get anything up front. We don't really have any additional money. Can we just extend this? You know, for another, you know, 1000 bucks, a couple 1000 bucks up, then they're like, Oh no, that would be probably 20 to $30,000 typically, for this type of usage. So, so got together with with mahomey, Darren Johnston of the Cadillac three, and he and I put together a banger, and that's what's in the final version of the film, and who was singing on it, because she's, yeah, Denisha is singing on that under her pseudonym deo, which is what she does some of this stuff on. But yeah, her voice is just incredible. And you know, again, she's a rising star in the Nashville scene right now, and so we're real fortunate that she had the time to come over and hang with us and do the deal so
19:49
cool well, and it fits the edit better. What we ended up with after shooting is that song fits better. And that is probably another way that the. The movie changed from its initial inception is that we thought of it as like an action comedy first. And in the creation of it, I realized, like, I'm not super proficient at directing action and and we did have a stunt coordinator on set for some of the one big stunt day. And I really that's something I learned on this is that we really would have benefited from having our stunt coordinator, Julian Joyner, on with us more, because she was able to set things up in a way that, you know, just really brought all that action stuff to life. And you can definitely, I can definitely tell when I watched the movie between the days that we had her and the days that we didn't.
20:44
Oh, yeah. I mean, she did such a great job, not only with the coordination of the stunts, but also just general direction camera blocking expert and all things to make it look really good on camera, which was great, yeah.
20:57
But so that that the movie kind of changed from an action comedy to more of a sci fi comedy. And we decided in the Edit to play up those elements of the comedy elements and the Sci Fi stuff a lot more than the action stuff. Yeah,
21:10
yeah, yeah. Rick, yeah. Ted Welch, those ad libs
21:17
that's brick changed a lot. He changed now. His character didn't change. His character stayed exactly the same. He's probably the one character that we didn't change. I feel like everybody went through some kind of permutation, except for brick. He was always that guy,
21:32
but Ted gave him such an actual life and a voice, right? Yeah,
21:36
100% and, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's the one, yeah.
21:44
But he if we had a fourth writer, it would be Ted, because he ad libbed so many of his lines, and yeah,
21:50
and he's a writer on his own, right, and it's just a brilliant actor. And brought a lot to that character. He
21:55
brought a ton to it, yeah? And he really brought it to life.
21:57
That's awesome. So made it through several versions of the script, several different drafts, eventually made it to a table read. I would imagine we
22:07
did table read at chucky's beautiful high rise condominium. Yeah, up, up. I mean, it was probably one of the classiest table reads, And and we had brought in a bunch of great talent. And we ran through the whole script, and it was weird and wild and fun, but at the end of it, Danny and I had the same notes, you know, right on the on the front page of our script, which was, needs to be funnier, needs
22:31
to be funnier. It was definitely, I mean, I think in spitballing it to each other, we definitely made each other laugh a lot, but I think that was more just because we're fantastic performers. Yeah, right.
22:43
And you can't line read everybody be like you should say like this, trust me.
22:48
Can I stop you right there please? That's the third time you said spitball. And I think it's spiffball, isn't it? Spiff balling,
22:56
spitball. Spit ball.
23:00
Something I wish I knew at 25 that I didn't learn until, till 43 it's spiffball. I think, I think it is spitball. It's spitballing. Yeah, yeah, that's that makes it grosser, huh? Y'all
23:10
look it up
23:13
anyway. We'll do that
23:15
in the break. More, more later
23:16
on that. Sorry, we'll, we'll catch that in the fact that
23:19
I can't think about anything else, you have to tune in to episode two to discover it's, in fact, spiff balling. Spoiler alert, it's spitballing. Thanks, Chuck. Yeah. I mean, the in the the table read was great, it we? I think we ended up with like 50% of that first table read wound up in the movie. We we hadn't done our casting yet, and we reached out to some of our friends that we just knew would come out. And we're down to down to hang and to do the thing with us. And they were awesome, and we had a great time with them. But, yeah, it was definitely interesting to i That's as a writer, if you're looking for a tip, have a have a table read. That is, it was so valuable, and it really highlighted, like, the things that were working and the things that weren't. And, yeah, I came away with that with a totally different perception of the script and where we were at and how much more work we had to do, which was a lot,
24:23
right? Because the initial thing right, as a writer, and any writers out there, as you know, there's something so incredible about finishing a draft and you're like, Oh no, I want to send it to the world, you know, and it's like, it's probably not ready, right? It's never it's not right. I mean, that was a real learning experience for me and Chuck and I was writing, and Danny and I was writing where it's like, yeah, we got this thing. We think it's good. We send it for coverage, and all of these holes or weaknesses are exposed and and, you know, being in the position we're in now, people try to send us a lot of scripts now, all of a sudden, right? Because we made a movie, and we've made some some streaming stuff, and Lee. Really. Now we've been advised not to read people's scripts because we may be working on a similar idea. But I can tell you, I have seen that impulse that I know I had, which is, like, cool. I finished the thing. Now I need to send it out and let people, people read it. And frequently it's just not, you know, it's like, oh, okay, cool. And here's the other thing, man, you may only get one read from somebody. I can tell you, most people are not going to read this one and then wait, you know, and then read a second revision in six months or something. It's just like, yeah, man, I already gave two hours to that thing, right? You know. And life, life moves on. So make sure it's as polished as it can be before you send it out for coverage, for notes, you know, if you know you've got, man, I know, I know. I know a producer, and I think I can get him to read my thing. Have a get some coverage first, make sure you make sure it's as good as it can be before you send it out. We did get
25:45
coverage done before the table read. We did remember that. And I didn't know that you could pay somebody to read your script. That was totally new to me.
25:52
Yeah, and having that, that like unbiased third party, where it's like they they're not invested in anything except letting you know, their honest opinion, and sometimes and pitching
26:02
you their idea, what
26:03
does that cost? Just out of curiosity, it
26:06
fluctuates. I mean, you can get it. I've seen it as as reasonable as 50 bucks up to 250 you know. I mean, it's, there's a wide range
26:13
of, like, three people and some, some, yeah, there are some services you
26:17
can use. And then there are some, just script consultants. You know, most of them are based in LA and they're happy to read your thing and, and I do think that on the whole that's, that's money well spent, because it's pretty reasonable, and again, gives you that unbiased third party view, because I can send it to Danny and it's like, oh, yes, he was trying to do here. It's great. No,
26:36
rip all the shreds. No, I think that is, that is the key, right? Is that it's on by it's your friends are all gonna, if you can cajole a friend into reading your script, which that's a big ask, yeah, they're gonna be like, oh, yeah, it's great. They're not gonna give you notes. They might give you like, oh, maybe this part you could change. But they're when you send out for coverage, they tear it to pieces. And it can be discouraging, too. And that's another thing to be on guard for. Is like, Hey, these are professionals. Their job is to tear this to pieces there. So don't be discouraged when it comes back ripped to shreds, because it's like, Oh, great. Now I know what to work on. That's that's a good thing. Yeah, it's like, putting something
27:16
up on blacklist. You're like, cool, I got eights and nines. Here we can, like, four, five, structure and dialog. You know, characters are developed, yeah, all these things that just, you know, there's so much that's in our head that we take for granted, that the reader will know. It's like they don't know anything beyond what's on the page. And so if it's not clearly spelled out, hopefully in an artful way, then, no, it's not going to translate from your head to the average reader.
27:44
Yeah, yeah. And then what was that emotion like at that first table read? I'm sure, largely, that was the first time you had seen and or heard like the movie play through completely. Was that? Were you nervous? Were you excited? What was that like as a writer? I
28:03
mean, I think I was, I think the fact that they were mostly friends. I mean, all of them were friends. We didn't pay anybody for the table read, so they were all just friends that came out to help us, actors, actors, yeah, they were, I mean, they were pros and they were great. But the so I wasn't nervous necessarily, maybe a twinge, just because it was like, All right, we're putting our thing out here. And, you know, people are, people are going to hear these words for the first time. But I think for me, it was mostly just excitement, because I thought, I thought, Man, this thing is funny, like, this is going to be a laugh riot, and everybody's going to be having a great time today doing this read. And, yeah, and, and they did have a good time. Had a good time. And to their credit, they're, you know, they took the dramatic parts and made them dramatic. I mean, maybe that's something that Phil and I don't necessarily do when we read to each other. We're, we're playing up the laughs. And they were, they were definitely sinking their teeth into the more dramatic pieces of it. Yeah, I think that I was a little disappointed. I think that it didn't get more laughs, but again, that just while you do a table read, gave us the opportunity, like, okay, so we need to, we need to pump up the jokes. And I think that's part of the rewriting process. And we've talked a lot about writing comedy is there's, you know, there. The first joke you come up with is the one that everybody comes up with, right? That's the most obvious joke. And then the second one is the second most obvious one. And so by the time you you're so you need to keep working them, and by the time you get to the third or fourth iteration of that joke, that's you. That's your personality and your sense of humor, and what you can bring that's unique to the world. So yeah, joke writing is rewriting over and over and over again. Yeah,
29:45
and it's so subjective. I mean something that, I mean we're lucky to have each other, right? Because, like, we're kind of in tune in terms of what we think is funny and what we're proud to put out there. But like, I know that not everybody's going to think our movie is funny. Yeah. Know, and that's okay, like, it's not again. Back to that idea of, like, you can't make a movie for everybody. You got to make it for yourself, and hopefully for people like you, and trust that they'll find it and and that's been one of the most just rewarding aspects of this thing, is our movie already being out there for now a week, and it finding an audience and finding weirdos like us that think it's hilarious. I know well. And
30:22
I think the other thing that you don't realize as you're writing comedy is so much like comedy film is based on the strength of the performance, so stuff that might not be super funny on paper, a good performance, a good comedic actor, can take that and make it way better. Ravi is a great example of that Robbie Patel, because he, you know, that original monolog that we wrote from poor guy, like eight paragraphs of dialog. He, you know, that was kind of like more, a more serious thing, that he was able to bring his comedic energy to and really make better. And I know, because I was the original Robert nefari That that we shot, and I was not a 10th as good as Robbie is.
31:10
You were great, but there's something no
31:12
listen, I can hear it in your voice. You were good,
31:16
but you definitely were a Robert nefari, a version of Robert But, you're right. There's a Q or a version you
31:24
did the thing. You definitely put your image on film, but
31:28
you're absolutely right. There's something that great performers just bring, and Robbie's got it, like, whatever it is, you know, and you can see that. And, you know, I think we, I get callous to, you know, he's currently on animal control on Fox, you know, he's on a currently airing comedy show doing this every week. And you almost get callous to the fact, like, oh yeah. You just he's out there making making funny on TV. And then you get them in the room, you're like, oh, this dude's got it, yeah, right, right. You're like, oh, this is why he's doing that, right? Like, he's got the thing.
31:55
Oh, and then when we had Steve Byrne Come on, he was there for a day shooting his stuff. He had the whole crew cracking up, yes, Barrett especially, yeah. So, I mean, it's just, like some of those guys, they just, they come in and they turn it on, and it's just automatic for them. I mean, and I say that, like, it's, I know they work at it. I know it's not, you know, it is a skill set that they, they continue to hone,
32:19
but it's that point where talent meets skill, you know, where it's like, okay, they had it, and then they did whatever they needed to do to professionalize that. You know, they practiced and honed their craft and it and it really shows, yeah,
32:30
but there is one thing that they do that nobody else does, eat
32:36
ice cream non stop, and then take medication directly after that,
32:43
perfect, which, again, was an ad lib, make, take medication directly after that. That was all ad lib. I changed the whole video based on that. Yeah, that gets so many laughs too.
32:53
That's that part of the in that. I don't know if that's spoiler, that's not spoiler that that in that portion takes place towards the end of the movie, and it's always nice to know that we got a big laugh coming at the end of the movie.
33:05
So maybe last question about the story as we start to wrap up the episode. Was there ever a point once you had the script and you're like, all right, this is dumb. We feel really good about it that you thought this is never going to be a movie.
33:21
Only every single day,
33:26
and that's funny, and I'm on, I'm on the opposite end, and that's Danny, and I balance each other. I was like, we're doing this. We're going to do this thing, you know. So I was very dedicated to the idea of, like, we're going to just keep pushing until we get this thing made. And every, you know, every movie is a miracle. It's crazy that you get 40 to 50 people together in the same place at the same time, driving in the same direction, to pull something like this together. But yeah, I would say, for me, it was very much a stakes are high all in on getting this thing made and doing what we want to do. And as both you guys kind of kind of said, you know, you got to dp your first film, got to VFX, supervised his first thing and, and so being able to provide those opportunities for people, and, I mean, we're all living our own lives, and are the center of our own universe, and it's really cool. And same for me, I'd never gotten to kind of anchor a feature film, right? And for Danny as well, yeah, to direct, right? We're all so to any indie filmmaker out there that's like, oh, man, can you do the thing? It's like, yeah, just do the thing. And if you're waiting for somebody to come along and buy your script and and give you the money to make the thing, it might not ever happen. So, was there a did I have doubt that it was going to happen? No, because I was so committed to this idea of, like, it's not going to happen unless we do it. You know, nobody's going to come along and give you your career. You got to get it, go out there and make it happen and take it
34:41
and the great thing about what you guys pulled together was everyone on that set was you made them a part of that world, and they were all invested, and all gave everything they had every single day of those three weeks. And it was beautiful experience, and beautiful to see you guys. Bit into that anyway, yeah,
35:01
I think we the cavalry is not coming, right? That's the general wisdom class,
35:09
Martin class, yeah, yeah. Indie film icon, yep. And I
35:13
think that was something that we, we definitely took to heart and talked about a lot, was kind of taking control of our own destiny and getting, getting to do the thing that we wanted to do on our terms. And I think as as the moves been out, and reviews have come in, I do I feel like that has been kind of an overarching theme. Is, oh, these guys, this is what indie filmmaking can be like when you don't have a studio looming over you, pulling all the strings. When you get to have exercise your own creative vision in a totally free way, then you can make some really interesting, weird stuff. And our, you know, the movie certainly has some rough edges to it, because it is such a low budget indie feature. And we did try to do so much. I mean, we really swung for the fences with it, but I think creatively, it was a super fulfilling experience and and I love that we got to do all the weird ideas that we wanted to do. So yeah, I think it's, it is, that's the thing, right? You just have to go out and do it. And the bar for entry has been lowered to the point that that really anybody can do it. Now you can shoot a movie on your cell phone. The phone the camera you have in your pocket right now is better than the cameras that they shot the Star Wars prequels on. So you can, you can do it.
36:38
I'm sure you've heard the news the movie industry is dead, and yet here we are independent filmmakers all over the world. Never been easier to Danny's point, to get out there and make your thing and to get it out there, and all of a sudden, you are now part of the movie industry, which will rise from the ashes in some way. A lot of people are doom and gloom about where we're at as an industry, because they don't know what's coming. And I think we see a lot of opportunity, right? There's something, I mean, this art form resonates with millions of people every year, and so we're just so thrilled to get to finally be a part of that on a very personal level with our own project like this. Yeah,
37:16
that's great. All right, guys, well, I think dance pretty much covers off on the origins of our story. I think next episode, we'll spend some time talking about how we actually made the movie. We'll get into pre production. Maybe we'll talk finances, super exciting, great things. So appreciate everybody tuning in, looking forward to our next one, where we'll spend some time going a little deeper on the making of clone cops.
Every every time we come in
37:54
the movies, get hyped up. I'm running around some
37:59
love. I heard it. Y'all heard it down for the kid, though, got some love I can show I heard it from.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai