Truly Independent: Demystifying the Indie Film Journey

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
So I've got a series right now that's

called, uh, saints and Outlaws.

, it's a faith-based western

This is Truly Independent, a show that
demystifies the indie film journey by

documenting the process of releasing
independent films in theaters.

Each week, Garrett Batty and I,
Darren Smith, will update you

on our journey, bringing guests
to share their insights into the

process and answer your questions.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Garrett.

How's it going, man?

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Hey, good, good to see you.

You are not in your regular location.

What's

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
No, I planted some plants and

I put some bookshelves up.

No, I'm actually in Boise, Idaho.

Uh, I have a friend up here named Nathan
Berry, who runs a, uh, company called Kit.

They do email service.

They're an email service provider.

Uh, that's who I use.

That's who you use.

That's like how every, if I talk to
anybody about email, I say, you gotta

use kit for your email marketing and.

Nathan invited me up to be on his
podcast later today, so I'm doing

ours now at 11 and then at three
o'clock I'm gonna be on Nathan's show.

Obviously we'll talk about
our podcast a little bit, but

it's gonna be a fun episode.

So they have a cool, uh, kit
studios and they have like four or

five rooms here in downtown Boise
that they just let people use.

If you're a certain tier of
their platform, you can just

come in and rent it for free.

So I've been here for an hour
recording stuff and anyway, it's fun.

Yes, I'm in Boise at a different place.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Oh, well, it looks nice.

Uh, it looks

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
uh, yes, I'm a fan of Kit.

In fact, we just, I just sent
out an email blast yesterday.

Promoting our podcast.

So, um, it's a good service.

Well, good.

Uh, well, I'm glad it worked
out for you to tune in.

We're recording a little bit later.

I just got back from, uh, the
doctor, just the annual checkup.

Everything's good.

But, uh, it's gonna lead me into kind
of what our topic might be, uh, that we.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Nice.

Yeah.

We should get into it.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Okay,
so wanted to talk about just kind of

a, a, a status update on everything.

Um, we have been, so this season we, you
and I have been talking extensively about

like kind of the development process,
pre and, and pitching, raising money.

What do we do?

How this ties into the doctor's
appointment is in the casual, you

know, the bedside manner, small talk.

It's like, well, what do you
do or what, what's on the

rest of your docket for today?

And say, oh, just go back to work.

What do you do?

Oh, I'm a, you know, I'm, I'm a filmmaker.

And, uh, that, but of people that
I was speaking with there, um.

Just kind of were, were, um,
kindly curious about, oh,

well what does that mean?

Was that, you know, in their,
in their minds they're like, oh,

you're probably on set somewhere.

Where are you filming?

And it occurred to me that, uh, what
what we do on our day-to-day is probably

very not, uh, not the ideal, not the
picture what, not, what people immediately

picture when you say, I'm a filmmaker.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, yeah.

No, it's good.

We haven't done as much real time
documenting of the process as we did in

season one, so this is a good episode
to check in and see how's it going?

Like you're actively pitching and
putting, uh, projects in front of people.

I'm raising a film fund and so.

Uh, I, I know at least for myself, a lot
of, I often get, um, kind of taken aback

when people go, you've got it all figured
out and it must be easy for you, and

you're this certain level of producer.

I'm just like, I, I think
you, you're mistaken.

I don't think you understand.

It's hard for everybody.

It's not only hard when
you're starting out.

Um, just last week I read
a, an article about how.

Um, Michael Bay is doing a, you
know, indie documentary at South by,

because nobody would fund it, and
he's having a hard time and he was

commiserating with James Cameron about
the state of the industry and how

hard it is to get stuff green lit.

It's like, okay, if you're Michael Bay
and James Cameron and you're, you're

having the same conversation that you
and I are having right now, it means

that everybody has the same problem.

Okay.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, it's really a good, uh, yeah,

it's good to put that in perspective.

You know, we watched the Oscars last week
and the Academy Award-winning speech.

about independent filming, talking
about how, how they, uh, raised

$6 million to make their movie.

And, uh, I was listening to a, uh,
the, the Director's Cut, which is a

podcast where they interview, you know,
different directors and, um, this,

these were all the nominated directors.

Maybe this was the DGA podcast.

Anyway, all of the nominated
directors were being interviewed.

They were kind of a round table setting
and the interviewer said, what do you do?

Kind of your, uh, what do you
do the day before the shoot?

What do you like, you know,
every day you're in production,

what are you doing that night?

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
uh, the one director said, I'm

probably trying to close financing.

And, uh, and the others laugh
like, yes, that's so relatable.

We can all experience that.

And it's just kind of this
ne Yeah, the realization that

it is a never ending slog of.

Not directing.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, so it's, it's interesting

we're both kind of in that mode.

So I, I can share a little bit about
how things have maybe, um, evolved

over the last three, four months
that I have been actively raising.

Um, I started with where we
all start, which is my, I.

Personal network, like who do I
already know that has money, has

invested in films, is interested in
films, has had conversations with me

about financing movies in the past.

Like I start there and I think
that's where everybody starts.

And it quickly became apparent
how small a network I have when it

comes to financing big projects.

And so that really set me on a course
of, okay, simultaneous to pitching

every day and having conversations
where I'm talking about what I'm doing.

I also need to be building
and expanding that network.

And so a lot of my day to day has
become, how do I find another 25

people that might be interested?

' cause it's really hard to know.

They are definitely interested.

So I'm casting a wide net.

I.

And hoping I catch one
or two fish every day.

And if I reach out to 20 to 25,
I know that five to 10 will kind

of reply, whether it's a LinkedIn
connection request or an email or a,

or a recommendation from someone else.

I know that I can, if I put out,
uh, the effort of 20 to 25 outreach.

I'm gonna get back five to 10,
and maybe one of those in six

weeks will turn into an investor.

And so, a, it's impossible
to do that every day.

Like yesterday, I was driving
to Boise for five hours.

I didn't do my outreach yesterday.

Today I've been in the studio all day.

I'm not doing outreach today.

So it's not something
that happens every day.

And the, the real e evolution over
the three, four, uh, months has

been who I'm contacting because.

It was really easy to find angel
investors, people that can write

10 to $50,000 checks into things,
and I put an event together that

we talked about on the show.

I've done a lot of outreach.

I've done a lot of referrals
and people who should I talk to?

And I've had a lot of conversations
with people that could potentially

write 10 to $50,000 checks, and I have
half a dozen of them who have done

that and committed money into the fund.

Now, the realization about a month ago
was, okay, I could keep doing this.

If I raised 10 to $50,000 a week, it
would take like 200 to a thousand weeks or

whatever the math is to raise $10 million.

Like, I don't have that kind of time
because, you know, as everybody knows,

fundraising doesn't pay very well.

So the pivot or the, the choice that I
had to make was, okay, do I keep going or

do I, do I have to change the approach?

And the answer was, yeah, I absolutely,
obviously have to change the approach.

And the, the shift or the pivot was
I need to be exclusively talking to

people that could write 500,000 to $2.5

million checks.

That's it because I'm
raising a $10 million fund.

I, I need to raise it from
10 to 20 investors, not 200.

And so it's like, okay, well how
am I gonna find those people?

And then it became, all right, part
of my week needs to be finding who

are the people I should talk to?

Then part of the week is reaching
out to them, and then part of the

week is pitching them and being on
conversations and phone calls with them.

So it, the pace has
slowed quite a bit, but.

It's pretty amazing when you can
get on a call with someone who

could write a seven figure check.

It's a very different
conversation than someone who is

looking at putting in $10,000.

The $10,000 investor, $25,000
investor is very concerned about how

they're gonna get their money back.

From my experience, the, the two or
three conversations I've had with people

that have historically written seven
figure checks into, whether it's film

projects or other investments, they just
say, I really like what you're doing.

Um, I, if I could, I would right now, but
I'm tapped out or I'm very interested.

Let me talk to my guy.

And they just kind of make a decision in
the moment because a million dollars to

a sent a millionaire or a billionaire.

It's not that hard a decision to make.

And so the conversations are
easier, but the connecting with

them initially is way harder.

And the idea of a cold DM on
LinkedIn is not gonna fly.

They don't, they get a
billion of those every week.

So you're just another one of those.

So it's really about finding,
okay, here's an individual that I

want to have a conversation with.

Who do I know that knows them,
and how do I get them to say,

you should talk to Darren.

That's the whole play at this point,
and it's working a lot slower than

before, but because of the size of the
checks, I don't need it to be a, a,

a, a single investor every single day.

That's committing.

I need.

10 of them over the next month or two.

So a big shift in the
approach and the mindset.

And I've really had to step into this,
um, place of I can do this and I have

something valuable and I have results
already that speak for themselves.

I know the pitch works, I
know the structure is right.

It's just about doing the work every day.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Where, where are you?

Uh.

I would imagine that takes
a toll on you mentally.

You go like, yeah, is this gonna work?

Where are you on that?

Like, how do you, how do you
wake up and go, okay, we're

gonna climb this mountain again.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

Um, I tell myself if I have two good
days a week, then I'm succeeding.

Like that's a successful week and it's

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
day then?

What is it?

What do you

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
a good day is I woke up, I did my

morning routine, I ate healthy food.

I didn't get on social media.

First thing, I sat down.

I made a plan for the day.

I did the plan, like I blocked out
time for the different tasks and

activities that I want to be doing.

I did those things and by the end of the
day, whether or not calls or money came

in, I know that the output is exactly
what I wanted to be doing that day.

And so if I can get two of those
days in a week where I can put

like four hours into this work of.

Outreach and finding people and connecting
with people, that's a massive success.

If I get two in a week, two days in
a week now, that means the O2 of the

other three days are mediocre days
where I do a little bit of this,

but I'm also getting distracted and
having other things that I have to do.

I.

Whether it's taxes right now, or finances
or running kids to and from practices or

whatever it is, like a dentist appointment
that's in the middle of the day, which

is gonna interrupt my entire day.

Okay, well then I get to be in
dad mode instead of business mode.

That's fine.

If I have two of those kind of
middle days or okay days, great.

And I expect to have one kind of crappy
day every week, which is like, I feel

unmotivated, I feel sluggish and sloppy.

I feel like, why would
anyone want to talk to me?

This is insane.

Why am I doing that?

Like there's one of those days,
maybe two every week, every single

week, and so it means that you have
to, I shouldn't be prescriptive.

What it means for me is I
have to have a practice.

A ritual or a a morning routine
that gets me into the right mindset

so that I can take action that day
and get the results that I want.

If I skip the morning routine or I
fill it with, you know, social media,

LinkedIn, checking in, following up,
scrolling, then I'm off to a bad start

already and it's nine o'clock and
it's like really hard to be motivated

to do the hard work of the day.

So it's about having that routine.

That's the thing that makes
it possible to keep going.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

Well, uh, Darren, I mean this, we could
title this episode most vulnerable yet,

uh, which is, honestly, these are great.

I mean, the whole goal
of the podcast is to

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
the independent film experience.

that would include the struggles
and trials and like frustrations

and days as well as the good days.

If we only talked about the good things,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Right.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
wouldn't demystify anything, we'd probably

a lot of people saying, uh, it's not that,
that's not true, it doesn't work for me.

thank you for that.

And, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's
very relatable what you're saying.

And I'm sure Michael Bay, if he's
listening, he could relate as well.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Michael Bay, if you're listening.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, we want Darren has a,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Email is,

yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
uh, yeah, it's, it's an up

and down thing for sure.

And, um, if we're, if we're giving
updates on our thing, so, oh, I

what point do you, what point,

not at what point, but how do you, I guess
I'll just say at what point do you pivot?

Again, or I mean, you pivoted.

You said, okay, hey, for me,
for this to work at this pace,

I, I need 10 years to raise 10
million, and that's not gonna work.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna now pivot again.

You know, for me, I have those
questions of like, is this, is this

the point where I should just go
get a job at Arby's or, you know.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Please don't.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Right, right.

yeah, that's when my
wife gets really excited.

Like, wait, like a full-time job maybe.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
but no, I'm just kidding.

She's very, very supportive.

Uh, um,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
know for me it's, I mean,

everyone's different, right?

We all have different thresholds of
what we can, can do for, for how long?

Um, my threshold is very high and so.

You know, we'd saved up and my wife
and I talked about like, Hey, I'm

gonna go into fundraising mode and that
doesn't pay what anything, let alone.

Well, um, and I, I gave
myself three months.

I said, okay.

No, mid-November to mid-February, right?

December, January, February, it was
like, I'm gonna just do financing.

And I did.

And I didn't really make, I
think I made $600 in January.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: from
like selling a couple of, you know,

memberships to my website and doing
some consulting calls, like very random

'cause I wasn't pushing it at all.

And then came mid-February and that
was like, okay, that was about the

time where I pivoted and said I need
to different approach 'cause this

approach is gonna take too long.

And in that same breath I said I need to
go find a consulting gig, someone that

can be a 15, 20, 20 $5,000 consulting.

Gig, which would take care of two or
three months of my personal income.

And that's what I did.

And so luckily, like I'm in a position
where I have enough of an audience

and enough awareness around the
consulting that I have done and that

I do to say, Hey everybody, I've
got one slot, and then emails come

in and I can fill it pretty easily.

Um, not everybody has that, but I knew
that about myself and my business to where

I was like, I wasn't super worried about.

Where is money gonna come from?

I just turned back, turned the consulting
faucet back on, and now it's dripping.

So that's what, that's what our
conversation looked like and where

my threshold was, I gave myself three
months and I really had high hopes to

raise at least the first milestone so
I could start Greenlining projects and

paying myself as a manager of the fund.

We're not there yet, and so that's okay.

That just means I needed to pivot
and have a different approach and

extend my timeline to go, okay,
I'm okay with it taking longer.

I.

My bills are paid, my wife
works full-time, we're fine.

Like all of that is taken care of.

So now it's fitting the
fundraising into the time that

I now have instead of full-time.

It's four hours a day instead
of six or seven hours a day.

And that's fine.

Um, will it take longer?

I don't know.

I think the balance of, I'm now talking
to people who can write seven figure

checks, counterbalances the fact that
I'm spending half as much time on it.

I think it's gonna work out just fine.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

Um, I'm reminded when I first moved
to la uh, my wife and I, we, you know,

we had saved up and we had about three
months worth of savings and that was the

timeline we gave ourselves with 90 days.

And we were brand, I was brand new.

I had no contacts in LA and no And, uh,
you know, just fresh out of film school.

BYU, uh, film program.

uh, yeah, we just hit the, hit
the ground every single day.

it wasn't until day 89 that I got
my first call of like, will you

come edit this trailer for us?

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: and
yeah, it took every, every bit of energy

to just like continue to go and go and go.

And contacts that I made
in those 90 days are.

a great support, but, uh, it took
90 days of knocking doors and just

kind of humbly for work, uh, or
opportunities seeking opportunities,

to be able to, to get that one.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
I, I rely on that.

It sounds like your experience
is, is, uh, similar right now.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Um, but it does, it does

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
How about you, Garrett?

How are things with your, you've
got a whole, uh, pitch that you were

at NRB putting out in the world.

You've been pitching people individually
one-on-one over the last couple months.

Like, where are you at?

How are things going on your end?

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Oh, well, I'm not gonna

share positives right now.

That'd be, that'd be insensitive.

No.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
We do tell.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, that's right.

Uh, no, uh, things are going well.

Um, the, the pitching continues.

Um, I love what I'm doing.

So we had a discussion and, um, let's see.

I'm pitching several series and features,
and I've, I looked down because I've got

this thing that I took to NRB with me,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
been my, my guiding sheet of

like, okay, these are the things
if somebody walked in and said.

What do you wanna do?

Like, what's your project?

What can we, what can
we invest in or fund?

this is the list I give them.

So I've got a series right now that's
called, uh, saints and Outlaws.

It's sort of a, it's a
faith-based western, uh, but

it's, it's limited audience.

Um, but I'm very, very excited about it.

And this to me is one that I think that,
uh, you know, my goal with this one is

to get independent investors, uh, and.

And do the full independent release.

I mean, it's a series that I'd like to
release on its own app and really create

its own, Its own kind of ecosystem
of, of how we, how we make the movie

or make the series and release it.

Um, we start to build an audience
and maintain that audience and feed

that audience continually through
this series and other projects.

so that's obviously getting, uh, not
obviously that is going to take a, a, uh.

It's out of the regular pattern
which that I've normally raised,

raised money and and done films,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
there is a learning curve on that

one, It's getting an incredible
amount of attention and interest,

and so that's very encouraging.

Um, I've got a feature
film that I'm pitching.

Um, the title is, we're not, we're
not, not agreed on the title yet, but

it's a, it's a true story feature film,
uh, another for a faith-based abroad,

faith-based audience, um, which will raise
money for, raise about a million for it.

And that's going well.

The challenge with some
of these projects is.

I'm not the owner of them.

Um, and so that conversation with
potential investors is, is often difficult

because you say, here's what I've done in
the past, this is what I'm going to do.

Or, but, but for this particular project,
I can't say This is what I'm going to do.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Right.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
in the past.

I'm attached as a director and potential
screenwriter, but I'm not the decision

maker as far as the producers go.

So, um.

It's a tricky area to raise money
for if I don't, you know what I mean?

I ha You have to, as a filmmaker, you
have to have enough ownership to be able

to give a, a firm response as to how
they're going to recoup their money.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
if I'm not, maybe that's a control

issue that I have, but if I'm not
in control of that process, I have

a hard time selling that process.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

Now I've often thought that or seen, uh,
TV as harder to pitch than feature films.

Has that been your experience as well, or
what are the kind of differences between.

Pitching to networks who
can green light a project?

'cause I'm assuming you're trying
to go the network route rather than

independently produce the entire thing
and then try and sell it or distribute

it yourself like Mark Du Plast is
doing right now with his TV shows.

Um, what are the differences and what are,
what's harder or easier between the two?

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: So
I, so that is the assumption, right?

That I'm going to networks and
things like that, and that is

exactly what I don't want to do.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
yes, it is, it is harder.

But I think that there, there is a.

There's a window right now.

I really feel strongly that there's
a window right now for independent TV

to be produced, um, including, I mean,
let's look at the model of the chosen.

And I know that, that, that is looking
at, Hey, let's try to make lightning in

a bottle twice, and you can't do that.

But the model is very fascinating of
producing, um, a low budget short.

Building an audience around that,
both of investors and of crowdfunding.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
then releasing that on their own app.

Developing their own app to do that.

And because of that the interest that that
generated, were able to sell to CW and

then Amazon and Angel and all of this.

So they wrote their own ticket.

They, they took an
audience, a distributor.

I'm starting to learn and um,
as, as we talked to a bunch of

distributors, distributor just
wants their job to be easy, right?

And typically the distributor
doesn't have an audience.

It is the filmmaker, or the actor
or whomever has the audience.

So the distributor's, one job is to take
it to the audience that you already own.

Like, yeah, we'll, we'll put this in
theaters because Tom Cruise has an

audience, or this genre has an audience.

Nobody goes to see.

uh, we've talked about this before, very
few go because it's a Paramount movie,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Or wanna go because it's an IP that I

like, or an audience that I'm a part of.

And so, um, I'm getting off
track, but with the series, I

feel like I have an audience.

There is an audience for this
particular type of story,

and I've got access to them.

And if we tell it at the right scale.

There's not too much, but not too little.

Then I think that audience will come
and pay attention to the app that we're

releasing this on, and then that will
be easy to now take it to a network.

we have an audience already,
we'll continue to make this

movie or this series on our own.

like it, contribute.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Nice.

Well, that's exciting to hear.

Um, I don't know if you saw, but
Mark Duplex is doing a thing with the

Independence Project, which is Seed
and Spark and, um, seed and Spark

handles the crowdfunding side, and
Oma uh, handles the distribution side.

But Mark Duplex is releasing a TV show
called The Long, long Night that he

had at the Tribeca Film Festival in
2023 and still has not been picked up.

So he's it independently.

That is a model that's currently
being tested in the marketplace.

He's currently got a seed and spark
project that it's raising like a

hundred thousand dollars for p and
a and he already produced the thing.

He's willing to lose the production
cost in order to prove out the model

and every, I think every independent
filmmaker should be paying really close

attention to that because if he can crack.

Independent tv, which hasn't really
happened except for a couple of these

lightning in the bottle moments like
the chosen that opens a huge, that opens

up a huge new market for filmmakers.

So I'm paying close attention.

I hope you are paying
close attention, listener.

I hope you will go check it
out because it's very exciting.

Like for, for someone in Mark's
position and his experience in

clout in the industry to say.

Screw this, I'm just gonna do it myself.

I'm tired of waiting.

I'm tired of the mandates that
these different streamers and

platforms and networks have and
why they can't take my thing.

And I just, I'm just
gonna go do it myself.

And he has an audience and he has
hundreds of thousand people he can

reach for free with his platform.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, go do it.

And if he can do it, that
means others can do it.

So it's very exciting.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
the puzzles have to, the, the,

the pieces have to be there,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: I mean,
you do need, um, you do need experience.

Uh, you need a showrunner,
you need, A nice, certainly a

strong concept for TV series.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
then you do need the ability to release

it to an audience that wants it.

Um, otherwise you'll find yourself
the same way that, that, uh, a

lot of independent filmmakers find
themselves like, I made this, you

know, if I build it, they will come.

Doesn't exist.

So I made

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Now who wants it?

Um, that's a scary proposition
of big, especially for TV series.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Well,
and that's where he found himself, right?

He made something that nobody
wanted, which is unfortunate.

I think he has an audience that will want
it, and so he can bypass the networks

and the streamers who are the gatekeepers
and say, I'm just gonna take it directly

to my fan base and see what happens.

I think there's two pieces that filmmakers
often, myself included, often overlook.

One is that it takes a lot bigger
audience than we think in order

to make these things successful.

And two, the project has to be good.

I.

And that's a really, um, it's this weird
mix of subjective and objective, right?

Because you can get objective feedback
that your project is good by going

to a festival and winning an award
or two and having people in the

industry go, yes, this is really good.

It's the best of all the
things that were here.

If there were 150 projects this
year and yours was the best, whether

it's audience choice or the judges
award, or the festival award.

You know, like an Nora won the
palm door at can last year.

Like it is a good movie in the
context of the people that were

watching it and voting on it, right?

You are.

You and I might have different
opinions on it, but again, I.

It's this weird mix of
subjective and objective, right?

The

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Sure.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: film
festivals like Cannes and Sundance and

Toronto and South by like, if you're
winning awards, A, if you're getting

into those festivals, that's a good sign.

B, if you're winning awards at those
festivals, really good sign that

you made something that is good.

If you're struggling to get your
thing into festivals, then you

kind of have to take stock and
go, okay, I made this thing.

I'm proud of it, but it's not there yet.

So I need to try again or I need
to think about other festivals or

other opportunities for this project.

And it's really hard for us to do that as
creators 'cause we're sensitive creatures.

We want, we don't want our feelings hurt.

We don't want people to tell
us that our stuff isn't good.

And so it makes it really hard to keep
submitting to festivals when five of

them have already rejected our project.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Sure.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: We
don't like it, but that's what it takes.

And so hopefully that's helpful.

That's how I kind of look at it.

We have to be realistic and
and paying attention to the

realities that are at play.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
One of the things I think that, uh,

I mean, yeah, that's spot on Darren.

And, and, um, I think that it's
interesting in this process of developing

and what you're doing is pitching
or, or fundraising, and I'm pitching.

gonna be meeting and a
filmmaker is going to meet.

A variety of different people.

I look at my schedule yesterday,
I had, uh, three calls.

One with, uh, a filmmaker in LA that
had, that has a movie that he's getting

ready to take to theaters, right?

And so they, he reached out because he
wanted to get our, take, my, my take

on, you know, how to release this movie.

That may or may not be somebody that is
going to help me get this series done,

to be able to have that relationship
and establish that relationship.

This guy's made four movies and he's an
LA based filmmaker and has, you know, a

million followers or whatever, and he's
getting ready to release this movie.

Um, that'll be a good contact for
when we want to build something.

The next meeting I had was
with a company called pray.com,

which, um.

I, I was unfamiliar with, they had the,
the biggest fanciest, you know, most

decked out Glossiest booth at, uh, NRB.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
it was a follow up meeting with them.

You know, I talked about on a previous
episode, making those pitches turned

into kind of like just handshake
meetings and setting up a follow up.

So this was a follow up

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
meeting with pray.com.

Um, and they are doing
incredible work marketing.

Um.

know, they have a list of 5 million emails
that they send out daily emails to this.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
There you go.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
an opportunity there for

marketing that again, and these
will be certainly pray.com

is not looking to invest in a
movie or to be pitched a movie.

But boy, when the time comes and we
have our, our app for this new TV show

that we're gonna release, you can bet
that we're gonna be calling pray.com

and saying, Hey, how.

Run us through your
marketing options for this.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
And then the third meeting I had

yesterday was with a filmmaker named
Greg Whiteley, who's a documentary

filmmaker, which is incredible
award-winning documentary filmmaker.

He did, uh, shows right now or on
Netflix, um, with uh, what's the show?

He, the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Hmm.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
and, uh,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
a lot of the high school football.

Documentaries and things like that.

Just incredible filmmaker.

And we chatted at length about a project
that, uh, we're looking at doing together.

Um, that isn't one of these on this list,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: so I
think it's important like if we're saying,

oh, what does the day-to-day look like as
a filmmaker, uh, very, very unpredictable.

Um, but.

The day is going to happen.

And like you say, you have to get
up and get in your routine and, and

just face the day and attack the day
like something's going to happen.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: level
of, of optimism that, that you have to

have to kind of balance and counterbalance
everything that's not happening, um, so

that when the time does come and when
all those pieces come together, um.

You're ready to, to, to
make your next project.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Exactly the, the thing I always tell

myself is, no one's gonna do it for me.

There, there's no one else that's gonna go
and raise a fund and then give it to me.

There's no one else that's going
to raise money and call me and

say, Hey, I, I want to give you all
this money so you can produce this

movie That's your dream project.

Like that is not gonna happen.

And at least in my mind, and so
if I want the thing to exist,

I'm gonna have to go do it.

Um, what's your, you have a thing on
your, uh, your fridge, in your kitchen.

If it's meant to be, it's up
to me or something like that.

Right.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
it up to me.

Yeah.

10.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
10, two letter words.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Yeah, 10 words that are two letters.

If it is to be, it is up to me.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Wow.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
a little bit of a mantra of

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
saying Yeah, yeah.

I mean that, I mean, and that
can be applicable to any,

any situation or scenario.

And it's, it's an optimistic look.

It's not cynical.

Look, you say, look, in control.

Like, I get to be in control
if this is gonna happen.

Um, to be the one to make it happen.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah,

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
And that's great because I, trust

me, I trust me to make it happen.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: I know
what I'm capable of, so sometimes I.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
I made it happen.

Do it.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Awesome.

I think that's a good place to leave it.

Um, it's a good update.

I like these episodes where we
get to be a little vulnerable as

people say, and, and talk about
the realities of what we're doing.

Um, I think those are the most helpful
episodes where people go, oh, it is hard.

Okay.

That makes it easier for me to
then keep doing the hard thing.

So, yeah, keep going everybody.

Um, email us questions if you've got
'em, because we love answering them.

We haven't had a question in a while.

We, we should do a q and a episode
and put out a, a feeler for everybody.

Um, send in your question.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
questions?

Uh, I love that idea.

Where's, uh, put our email address in
the show notes, but it's, uh, what is it?

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Um,

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Uh, no, I think it's, uh,

yeah, it's podcast, right?

Go to our podcast and you.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
podcast@threecoinpro.com

or yeah, just go to three
coin pro.com/podcast.

You can put questions in right there.

It's awesome.

So let's do a QA up soon.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
I like it.

And, and we do have some guests lined up
for, uh, next week in the coming weeks,

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
incredible filmmakers, uh, who are

gonna give us some good insights on
their making their independent films.

Um, hey, real quick, shout out to the box
office rule breakers from Angel Studios.

Uh, released o

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
uh, March 7th and, uh, did 1.5

million at the box office.

So

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: cool.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: to.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Were they top 10?

Did they make top 10 with
that or was it a high.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
they, uh, they broken.

They were number nine, um, of the

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706:
So way, way to go.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706: Amazing.

All right, man, well it's a good convo.

I'm excited for this episode to go out.

Hopefully it helps a couple of filmmakers
that are listening to the show.

And thanks everybody.

See you in the next one.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: there.

You, you sure You're okay?

You'll be with us next week.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Oh yeah, I'm good.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: don't,
don't leave the industry yet, Darren.

It gets better.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
No problem.

No problem at all.

garrett-batty_1_03-11-2025_111706: Okay.

In.

daren-smith_1_03-11-2025_111706:
Alright man.

See you.