study film in school and in from there i got hired at full time in the production place but then it wasn't a great outlet for artistic endeavors so the best way to do it is pursue it on your own so independent filmmaking so that's where i started doing different music videos and two different contests and join other people's production and the goal was just to create independent film with diverse content so things that you don't normally see in like hollywood so there and a lot of them are comedies and they're set up on the set of like a joke so you set it up and then there's a punch line set in the and so short but then it's a really fun story to do because it shows the character create jason walking through the creative process when you decide to take on a project yes looking at a script right you start thinking about you know how to tackle the project how does that work out in real time w it takes a month time wise just because you really want to be prepared when you take on a project because it's going to be a lot of other people's time which is our production so when you have the script you just want to make sure you have  because in the bay area it's not a big film plays like you know when you talk about i was told by a way most likely but i don't think you have to be in l a to make film you could be almost anywhere and i think what it really takes is the motivation to do it and  do we have maybe over here can you tell us your name my name is grant green can you tell us a little bit about some of the work you've done with jason's collective jason we kind leave up to the filmmaker a part of it he's got a lot of great ideas a lot of projects they're turning a really great film i kind of handle a lot of the i don't know promotional marketing social media type stuff yeah tell us a little bit about your work with jason so i guess i've actually known chase and from college so we are both still majors together and so one of the first things and we kind of graduated was kind of a seventy two hour shoot out competition and so i kind of that we all really enjoyed it and that kind of really spawned i think at the beginning of our video group that's terrific any questions or comments from anyone else in our audience who has me thought we do have a question hang on and you hold on let me let me just get the mike over here can you speak to what some of the popular trends are in independent filmmaking popular trends yeah a lot of people who like technology a lot of the red just cameras like regular shooting cameras but they do video now and h d so a lot of people are utilizing doe's because they're more mobile and interchangeable lenses up the feel visual stories and things like that not what i expected there's a lot of ideas that you get but how to tie them into being mind idea and making a concise story about you know with it because there's a lot of ideas but you know how can you tell a story for two hours  and i mean here's somebody who can do features with huge budgets but he shot his news feature in his house and he he talked about doing the micro budget and i just want to know your feeling about that and does does working with a smaller budget large space or the lighting or the for the props you know you come up with some alternatives that can really you know open up something and you know give your talent some parameters in which to explore other options i think that's very interesting yeah and just for both of the filmmakers on our panel just i was just curious too with you know so much of the advent of people creating their own content putting it on you tube putting out their reality t v and even scripted television that that's really reflecting more of you know kind of a real america i think of breaking bad and shows like that that's you know less of the glamorous hollywood type of trend how do you feel like that that kind of fits into the independent filmmaker scene or does it even  a glamorous actress you make them look glamorous you pay a lot of money you if it's the people watching you don't look like them they don't they're not reflective of people so in experimental the theory is you you can make the films you want it can be the way you want it you may not have the same audience you may not have the same budget but you know what you call are now like you said it's something you craft is it something you have to be judged on and i think it's something you express something that you feel and you want to express that way i feel that artists are never going to be satisfied with a regular day job that's why even as me i have a day job but i can't survive doing independent film so i do need to detail how but i won't be satisfied with just the day job so i need that outlet so even if i don't go that far with that at least i have that outlet to create something and go somewhere and yeah and i think you tube is a great source for people to do that or at least learn from it about a show like the walking dead which is basically for the past you know year two has been the no one show in terms of readings you know i think people are just getting to a point where they want to watch different things and i think i even things like netflix and the amount of exactly i think the content getting darker things like breaking bad i think this is just a reflection of maybe the audience changing and you know the tastes just kind of change with time so the market following the audience  he said if you have a good one i would love to see if our audience here in the studio has any questions or comments for either of our filmmakers any thoughts i know some of you guys work in film and might have some reflections on some of the comments filmmakers like i kind of kind of dabbled in doing like moment of shorts here and there you know the stuff on youtube and i notice that the community is really about sharing techniques and sharing you know ideas and collaboration it's not like  there's a lot to like many resources and skills different people have like for me i'm not really a strong audio person i can you know create shortly and i could tell a story but you know as far as the frequencies that i want to get as far as like you know ranges and things like that other people have experience in that and i can learn it probably but i feel like it's not the best thing to do so if someone's really interested in doing something like that then it be great to have them part of the scene and in even them  say i would really say just like i don't wait you know i mean like have a something that you want to do just just try to do it even if you have the use an i phone you know i mean whatever just try to tell the story maybe don't worry so much initially about the technology just just where everyone is kind of looking to you so you don't always have that that you know assistant or that that person to share the responsibilities with so sometimes it can be really intimidating so i would just say you know one of those things you can go to school you can read those books it's something you really have to do and you have to do it consistently because a lot of you you learn you you'd be so surprised like how much you learn just looking at your own dailies and looking at things that you shot and do they fit in whatever you're trying and it that and i think yeah i think he was just really ahead of his time for the time period that he was writing in and just you know watching some of the all just crazy some of the things that he was a known in terms of racism in  exactly what he wanted so the end didn't have any options so he really just crafted it exactly the way you wanted it i'm not sure that's the best way to do film but it may be this is a really a collaborative process you know you're working with a lot of people and if you just want your way all the time you know like no flexibility you know it's going to lot of strain on the crew and everything but i bet he's just he was just able to get away with it he was really good but then i like john will a lot too he's a great action director and i think i think people might think it's easy just actually like oh you know know you're running or you're explosion but the it is a certain tempo is a certain set up to dance yeah exactly and then you have and so when it's done right you feel it you're in the moment if you just see if you just see an action scene happen it may not it could be done different ways but i think he does it very very visual yeah he hits all the marks are so well but we're also joined here by another gues aspiration for this particular book silicon valley hookup goes back a long way when i was a much younger man i want to possess much younger i had a real penchant for which is sports cars triumphs and g s cars like that the only problem is in those month and a half ago so silicon valley is about what i call the other silicon valley is silicon valley comprised of people who are here with people who are not necessarily in the technology business now this character les murray who is the least character in a book he's like first yeah actually i have a question for you sonny first i want to say congratulations on completing this book you very much and you know you've you've touched a little bit about this writing process which is really difficult and takes a lot of discipline  myself have in the past tried to write something and i i'm one of those people who put it aside and it's like you know it's half done and you kind of stall and stall and so what advice do you have for people who are in that position where they want to get their thing out and even if it's you know like for our filmmakers whether you want to get that film made or write that musical score or write that book how did you find that discipline in that place to finally get the push to make i think one word comes to mind persistence you know you have to want to actually be self publishing and so distributing as well how that got the sheen for sure and distribution how is it going it's going great what it's going right what i've done is that i did a lot of things beforehand and other ways people knew i was trying to do t trying to do this so i talked to various people over the last year or so i've done some research online in terms of avenues working to promote the book like what i'm doing here for example and i always have some social networking all that kind of stuff happens but creating a i thought that occurred to me when i was listening to your story is kind of like the sort of a little bit of a social commentary on you know as we go about our daily lives and we meet you know people who work in stores and you know people in service industry and you think you know here's a person they're wearing a name tag job at starbucks whatever exactly you know behind that person is somebody with a story and often a very interesting person that's so the point do you think like maybe a takeaway for readers for your book that's a good point and i think it's a life long lesson actually you should do absolutely and you to thoughts are questions from our audience today ok for the lady in front who i believe  who was also a priestess california fifty years later she start to practice the same rituals here in the bay area and she got a reputation as being someone who can solve problems for you that no one else can example some politician who went to her and he wanted to be mayor of san francisco and the guy he was running against a very powerful he was very connected and the guy who want to be mayor had no experience but he was just well liked by the community he went to mother m she told him to bring her sex drive black roses deal cup of coffee and fish scales when he went to see her she had made some type of concoction for him to drink and this is a week before he was supposed to go on specifically what you're looking for you may browse little bit but you're probably not going to get nothing else but doing what you want with the amazon platform literally millions of people can see your book exposed to your book with the right situation so that's the way things are going business wise mom and pop stores are just dying all over the country because they can't compete when we had a bookstore it was and i can't think of the name of it i wanted to change in the last few years when the big book store chain borders borders right all that type of thing now if someone has a candle and they can they find your content online yes you can go to amazon dot com you can download this or you can do the tonight and i'm very reasonably priced so you know all you can buy or you can buy this for ten dollars know ok i have another book i'm about thirty percent this book is called kissed by the sun it takes place in one thousand thirty eight the deep south it's about a family of five girls one of the christmas time in southern california in l a and she overhears a conversation about her sister who she was told by a typhoid but had really been murdered by a man in their town so the story is but basically trying to find out how did it happen and why find the money to be able to do it and not sacrifice you know what the idea really is i guess that would be you know i think i would be the real measure of if if if you made it or not as a filmmaker is it you have the resources around you in these access to resources to be able to get whatever your project is made i i had an arbitrary goal as a independent filmmaker if i made enough shorts to out of thirty minutes i would work on skills in different projects and then you move on to a bigger projects or a future and then i think that gives you a little bit more you could market in different ways i sure would be maybe or you know you show it to people but it would be a movie so people would say i just want to say to sonny and jason and she was great to meet you and thanks for coming to talk with us and definitely thanks to our studio audience and thanks for your contributions and questions all right it's been a great first episode