The Honest Filmmaker
Are you about to leave Uni with a filmmaking degree? Or want to change careers and work in a creative industry? We want to give you the tools you need to enter the real world of production or freelancing. Honest and open career advice from people in the business.
We also talk to those in other creative industries to discuss their careers, the potential cross over with film production and practical tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
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The Honest Filmmaker
From The Black List to Fright Fest with Darren Geare
#filmmaking #theblacklist #screenwriting
This week on the podcast I'm talking to writer, producer Darren Geare. Darren and his brother Jeff (also known as the Geare Brothers) wrote their first screenplay that went onto the Black List, ended up on the top list and got optioned into a feature film called The Retaliators.
The brothers worked on the film, helped it through the pandemic and its release. It then went onto a very successful festival run. I talked to Darren about what it was like writing the film, tips for writing, how it got onto the Black List, what it was like negotiating for the screenplay to be optioned, what it was like being on set in production, solving all those problems while the film was being made. We also talked about the festival run and being able to publicise a film that he's really proud of, enjoy!
Check out The Retaliators here: https://www.retaliatorsmovie.com
More about The Black List: https://blcklst.com
Watch The Apocalypse Box now: https://amberpictures.co.uk/the-apocalypse-box/
Check out the re-release of Jim's first solo directing feature The Witches Hammer - out now on amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/B0F235F4T8/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
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HONEST, OPEN ADVICE ABOUT YOUR FILMMAKING CAREER
Are you about to leave Uni with a filmmaking degree? Or want to change careers and work in a creative industry? We want to give you the tools you need to enter the real world of production or freelancing. Honest and open career advice from people in the business.
We also talk to those in other creative industries to discuss their careers, the potential cross over with film production and practical tips for a successful and fulfilling career.
Join the community: http://www.thehonestfilmmaker.co.uk
hi Jim here just dropping in before this week's episode to tell you about my latest movie The Apocalypse box it's a horror film and I'd love for you to check it out if you go to apocalypse box.co.uk you can find all the links on where you can watch the movie right let's get on with this week's[Music] episode hi Jim here and you're listening to the honest filmmaker podcast career advice from people in the business this week I'm speaking to writer producer Darren gear Darren and his brother Jeff also known as the gear brother s wrote their first screenplay that went onto the Blacklist ended up on the top list and then got optioned into a feature film called the retaliators and the brothers worked on that feature film helping it through the covid pandemic onto its release that went onto a very successful Festival Ram I spoke to Darren about what it was like uh writing that film his tips for writing uh how it got onto the Black List what it was like when he was negotiating um for that film to be optioned then what it was like being on set and in production solving all those problems while the film was being made and then we talked about his uh Festival run and being able to publicize a film that he's really proud of enjoy tell me a little bit about how you got into writing my brother and I we made short films like as little kids I mean you know we we used to make film short films to make our friends laugh and and make ourselves laugh I mean we did that uh for years and years and years and again always sort of fantasized about writing movies and and we just said you want to do that he said yeah let's do it so we didn't tell anybody um we just got together and and started putting all our ideas together and we wrote uh the retaliators and so you you finish your script um and it how did you then get it made so we got so lucky um I called a a screenwriter friend of mine um uh who at the time uh had he had not uh sold anything or or uh uh gotten anything made but he was uh just struggling screenwriter very very good friend of mine and uh still is dear dear friend and his name's Jerry artukovich and so I called Jerry and I said uh you know hey I wrote this script uh what the heck do I do with it you know and he and he goes uh well you can put it on this thing called The Blacklist and he taught me about The Blacklist and he said uh you know and he was very funny funnily cynical about it and he just said look you're going to get torn to shreds you know you're you're going to learn everything you did wrong uh that's okay you know he goes it's very hard you know the goal with the Blacklist is you want to try to get on their top list because you get industry exposure and all this stuff he's like you're not gonna that's not going to happen he goes but that's okay you know you're going to get beat up but you'll find out what you did wrong and you learn and and you sort of it's a way to get some professional coverage you know then you pay some money and I said okay great well then yeah that's what we'll do so we sent it off to The Blacklist uh and truly just expecting I mean it was like oh gosh I mean like our eyes closed wincing waiting for the the beating and to our unbelievable shock uh our scores were just like incredible they were they were so good that we instantly made it to um their top list and within weeks um days weeks we started getting offers to option the film in our inbox uh I've been in and around the industry long enough to know how ridiculous and insane that is so I was just like what the hell this is so crazy so I I had an old relationship uh from back in the day uh he was a young attorney at the time when I was an actor and we just had a great relationship we parted ways a long time ago but we parted ways very on very friendly terms I hadn't talked to him in 20 years and I just called him and said hey I've got this script I've got all these we we've got these offers and I have no idea what to do and he very graciously and I just asked him for advice that was the other thing too that was um the the other advice I would I would I would say I would uh is that I I didn't ask him for anything I didn't call and say hey can you do something can you help me uh you know can you can you know can you represent us or anything like that so much of this was sort of a culmination of many not only the many years of the the the the ort of the um like I was saying all of the Cinematic education creatively but also going back to the relationship piece and treating people piece U because what ultimately led us to where we went Michael Lombardi was really the head producer um head creative producer um sort of leading the the ship because like I said we we had to go through again because of all the logistical issues we had to go through multiple directors the directors did a fantastic job but we had we had a few of them couple of them and so Michael had to sort of be that kind of constant creative uh so I mean it was it was just yeah it was crazy but uh but we uh yeah we were we we definitely earned our title that's for sure Yes sounds like it for sure um and something else I noticed is often with the film you'll like you say you'll get a writer on board um and then when the film's released you don't really hear about the writer at all obviously you guys are really connected to this film because there's a lot a lot out there about you two as brothers who wrote the film do you think that's because it started on The Black List and it gives you that extra kind of spin or do you think it's just cuz you were so entrenched in the production that when it came out cu I'm presuming you went to all the festivals and sort of enjoyed seeing the film on the big screen yeah oh my gosh you know we were so um we were so embra the festivals embraced us so much that was again another uh at every stage we thought the the surprises were over and and that we were sort of like okay we're you know the the uh this is we you know we we're sort of at the end of the rainbow here another thing would come because we really just wanted the movie to be good we wanted to really just wanted to finish the movie because the co was such a um uh besides the real world obviously the you know we're talking uh work and uh Fantasy Land World challenges here not real world challenges that everybody had with Co of course but um but all of the the the co the movie related challenges it was so daunting so it was just like can we get it finished we when we finally finished it then it was just okay can we please just have a good film that we're proud of and I took my uh my brother and I went out to lunch and I told him I said um all right let's remember we at the end of the day we made a horror movie so we're going to wake up tomorrow and these reviews are going to eat Us Alive and that's okay that's the our genre we we you know no respect it's all right that's you know that we're proud we're very proud we love we love horror and very proud we're not ashamed of horror at all I mean I I look at I hold horror up with any other classic genre and uh and um the next morning when we woke up and then the reviews came in really it kicked off with frightfest uh frightfest called us and said um um I think his name is Paul McAvoy he said uh you have the the um what did he say the popcorn uh the popcorn uh favorite of the festival or the you know the you know and and he sent us a clip of the oh because that that was a heartbreak Heartbreaker was we couldn't go to that Festival because that was the tail end of the covid stuff and so it was when traveling was still complicated so to go to that one it would have meant like you know quarantining in a hotel room for like you know 15 days before we could have gone to the F you know would have just been too complicated to go so he he was really sweet and he sent us a video from the from the night and it was the crowd just going nuts and and clapping and and the end at the end of the movie and we were just like whoa and he said yeah this was like the fan favorite at the at the festival or popcorn what whatever word use and we were just blown away uh and yeah so we we um then started going to festivals and a lot of the really big directors who are not writer directors right so not the you know not the Tarantino or the ptas because they obviously write their own their own films but it's interesting when you look at the greats that uh modern greats that aren't writ or directors so if you look at Spielberg you look at ridle Scott you look at Ron Howard right those guys are incredible to their writers and when you read about how they are with writers they are incredibly um generous and and do treat their writers very sacred you know they're on this set they they consult with them about everything they have very strict philosophies about how involved they are and and um you know Ron Howard has a cool a cool saying about you know the writer being you know the or the director being The Keeper of the story but his relationship with the writer is is the person who wrote the story so you know I I I do feel like it is a it's a it's a it's a pretty bad habit I think for um and kind of a lazy habit you know because it is kind of lazy to just sort of say well we'll take over this film let's get the writers out of the way because we just don't have to deal with them they're going to have their opinions um and we're gonna have to deal with it let's it's just going to be easier for us to just do our own thing over here there are so many logistical things that you can save by communicating with the writer because the writer knows why they made certain decisions you know so anyway yeah no that's cool it's cool that you were able to be that involved for that entire time it's amazing I hope you enjoyed that episode if you'd like to hear from more industry professionals how they got into the business and how you can do the same or you just want to listen to some cool stories from movie sets around the world then please do subscribe to the honest film podcast[Music]
