Truly Independent: Demystifying the Indie Film Journey

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
this opportunity came up a few

weeks ago distributor reached out
and said, Hey, would you submit.

we're, we're, we'd like to fund some
short films and our budget is $10,000,

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_07-08-2025_101458:
Hello, Garrett.

How the heck are you?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Hey, good Daren.

How are you doing?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Good man.

It's good to be chatting with you.

We, we missed last week because
of the holiday, and that's okay.

We're allowed to take a week
off every once in a while.

Once a year we can take a week off.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, well good.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
you had a good holiday.

We, we did a little July
4th celebration here.

Kept it pretty low key
always grateful to celebrate.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, same.

Same.

We, um, we spent the day before,
4th of July in, in surgery.

My son broke his collarbone
and is healing now.

Surgery went great, but that was a
full day of just, we're not doing

anything else but this today.

So

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yikes.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
it's awesome.

He's doing good.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Oh, oh, I'm sorry to hear about that.

That's, that's probably
not been very fun for him.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: No, but
what's fun for us is our topic today.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Okay.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
How about that?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Uh, okay.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
So you texted me this morning.

Let's, let's set the,
let's set the stakes here.

'cause you texted me this morning
and said I'm gonna read it.

Hey, uh, it's let's see.

We shot a film for 10 K on iPhones.

Happy to talk about the dos and don'ts.

You did what now?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Well, it's a short film.

Did I say short film at all

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
You did not.

But that's okay.

I assumed short film because I,
I talked to you last week and you

had not mentioned that you went

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: that

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
short film,

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yes.

So we wanna talk about that.

This was, uh, yes.

Okay.

So hopefully you're in further ride
and, uh, our listener can can glean

from whatever this is, but sometimes
we just need to kind of stir the

creative a little bit, right?

I feel like we're doing the same
thing over and over and over.

Or we're pitching or fundraising
or meeting or doing things that

maybe seem to weigh down the.

You know, creative inspiration
or just inflow and, uh, sometimes

you just kind of need to, need to
do something that really right.

Kind of rekindles that flame a little bit.

And So this opportunity came up that
a few weeks ago distributor reached

out and said, Hey, would you submit.

we're, we're, we'd like to
fund some short films and our

budget is $10,000, 10 to 12,000.

And, uh, normally, I mean,

I think as an independent filmmaker,
you can decide whether or not you're

gonna take that or not, or, or
figure out what that means to you.

You know, 10,000 is certainly below
the, the rate, the going rate for a

short film of 15 pages, but it came
at a time where it was like, okay,

well I think that there, it would
be fun to experiment with that.

I don't know.

Daren, have you ever
said yes to a project?

Not necessarily for the, for the
money, but perhaps for the opportunity?

I.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Oh, a hundred percent.

I've done lots of, I shouldn't say lots.

I've done a handful of short
films for the same reason.

You know, it's like I haven't
been on set in a while.

I need to go and I want to.

Practice my craft, you know, and,
and it's maybe interesting to call

producing a craft, I think it is.

But definitely if you're an actor, a crew
person, a director, especially, you know,

the craft of filmmaking is being on set.

Directing shots, working with actors,
working with the crew, capturing the

scenes that were scheduled for that day.

That's the craft and everything
else that you were talking about,

the fundraising, the development,
the pitching, the meetings.

It's adjacent to it.

It may be as part of the craft if
you're also expanding into like.

Taking on those responsibilities,
but really they serve the purpose of

getting you on set so that you can go
and employ your craft as a filmmaker.

And so I, I totally get that sentiment
of like, ah, it's been a while.

I need to get on set.

I've had a few conversations
over the last month of I.

Same thing like short films or
little torches as they call 'em, for

the Angel angel Studios platform.

They, they do these things where
you can shoot a proof of concept and

put it in front of their audience
and they'll vote on it and, and

see if they will distribute it.

They won't fund it necessarily, but
they will distribute it for you.

So I've had a few conversations
with people like that.

I'm like, yeah, that, that sounds great.

I'd love to go.

Get on set for two or three days and shoot
some stuff and see the crew and, you know,

get out of my, my little office here where
a hundred percent of my time is in front

of a computer and making phone calls.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Right.

Yes.

I realized it had been, it's been
probably over a year since I've

been on some sort of narrative set.

I thought that's just, uh, yeah,
that craft is maybe getting a little

rusty and dusty, so I needed to
shake that off and dust it off.

And so, So when the opportunity came up
to direct this or to, I mean, create this

short film, uh, write, produce and direct.

Okay, well, let's, let's
try it, let's go back.

You know, if I were a student,
I would've jumped at the chance.

If somebody said, Hey, let's, you know for
$10,000, here's a, here's a 10,000 budget.

What can you create?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: And,
and, okay, so there's that mentality.

And then also I said, look, because
this isn't a, a bigger budget or a, a

budget that, that I'm typically making
films with what can I do to experiment?

What have I always wanted to do?

Or what can I do?

And so the thought was, let's make,
let's make, let's shoot on iPhones

and let's see if we can just do this
micro crew and, small, you know,

small cast, very talented individuals.

But let's get a group together that is
all kind of on the same mindset of let's

have this independent one day shoot.

We're gonna just, it's a 12 hour day.

We'll run it like a regular production,
but, you know, shoot on iPhones

and, and experiment, you know, and
just kind of have, have fun with it.

And so that's what resulted, so
we spent last week essentially.

Producing and, and, uh, directing
and shooting short film.

And we came in, I think our production,
total production spend is 7,000, and

then we've got 3000 for post right now.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Wow.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
which, which would be great.

So I thought for this episode we
could just talk about the process of

that or some of the do's and don'ts
some of the things we learn and the

takeaways and why I would do it again.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I love this.

So I wanna just shine a light for a second
on this mindset that you have of like.

The student mentality that you
talked about, because you're a, a

known entity, you're a very talented
writer, director, producer, you've got

heat features under your belt, plus
plenty of TV and, and other projects.

And a lot of people would seem to think
that like, oh, once you hit a point where

you're making features, you don't go,
you know, down a step or backward a step.

It, a lot of times we see it that way
of like, oh, it's, this is less than.

What you're talking about is, is the
mindset of being truly independent.

It's like, do you wanna make stuff?

Then go make stuff like, don't
wait for the next investor.

Don't wait for the next
project to call you.

Like, just go make stuff.

And the people that do that are
gonna be much farther, further ahead

in their careers because they made
stuff instead of waiting around.

So I just think that's such an
important takeaway for the audience

already to say, yeah, you should
always try be trying to make stuff.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I think you should.

Yes.

Another aspect of that is, you know, one
of the, some of the, the recent films,

uh, recent articles are about these.

know, well known or established
directors that are shooting features

on, iPhones or low budget cameras.

Really just kind of taking what
they want to, taking what they

know as far as directing their
skillset and then seeing where they

can change it, like experimenting.

I think that there's such
a, a great value in that.

And you take, um, what's the, uh,
is it 28 years later right now

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Is in theaters right now and, you

know, here's this established brand,
an ip, and are shooting on iPhones.

Or you take, uh, Steven Soderberg,
who's did Unsane on his iPhone

seven, and or Tangerine that was
shot on iPhone fives with Sean Baker,

who recently, who, who won Best
director last year, you know, year.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Everything last.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, I won everything last year.

So I, I love the idea of maybe
just throwing a wrench into your

regular process to cause the
creative juices to kind of flow.

And this wrench was budget on this
one, which is often the wrench, but

this one was like, Hey, here's the
budget and how do we get around that?

And, uh, so anyway, I, uh, so.

I started with a script.

I said, look, what, what is a script that
we could shoot in one location in one day?

And, uh, came up with some different
ideas that fit within the genre

that this distributor wanted.

They're, they're a, um, family
film, kind of faith-based genre.

So the, the default you know,
horror movie, low budget horror

certainly wasn't an option.

Or.

Whatever is it rom-com or something.

Uh, so we had to find a family
friendly f faith adjacent story.

uh, so we, it came up with a script.

Uh, it's a, it's a parable, uh,
you know, kind of a modern take

on one of Christ's parables.

I reached out to a local, individual
who, Jade Godfrey sin, who has.

Not produced much.

She's, you know, been on several
sets and been been around and has

been helpful in some of my previous
projects said, Jade, what do you

think about producing this with me?

Or at least coming on board as a
production coordinator, I mean,

I, I couldn't even afford Right.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah,

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
that's, that's why you're hearing

about this for the first time.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I'm not offended.

It's okay.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: good.

Yeah.

I, I didn't wanna offend people by saying,
Hey, you wanna do this for 10 grand?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: so

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: grand
for you, but 10 grand for everything.

Every cent is 10.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I did have to clarify that with

a couple of people on set or in
early discussions, like, I've got

10,000 to do this, uh, short film.

And they're like, yeah, that sounds great.

I said, wait.

So your rate would be X and they're
like, oh, we thought you had 10

grand for the department or for

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
like, no, uh, there is no department,

anyway, so, uh, between Jade and I,
Jade found a location, a, a house

up in Alpine that we could film for,
that somebody donated a family friend.

And it was, it was a, a combination
of pulling favors and, kind of

rounding up people that wanted
to go on this experiment with us.

So our, so that was building the crew.

We spent a day or two the crew.

Uh, you know, we had what was
it about 10 people on the crew?

Uh,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: a lot.

Ten's a lot for 10 grand I've seen,
I've seen $200,000 movies that

have a crew of 10 or 12 people, so

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: yes.

Now, and, and I'll say these are
people that I have worked with.

So I, you know, Carter Faucet

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
our dp Carter Faucet shot sizzle for

the Carpenter film, uh, years ago.

Flew him out to Texas and
he's just an incredible dp.

He's an owner operator.

And I called him and said, how do
you feel about shooting on iPhones?

He says, Hey, I've never done that.

Sounds fun.

Sounds like a fun experiment.

And we, we scheduled before
the day before July 4th.

So usually there aren't, there's
not a lot of work going on that day,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
so we kind of try to capitalize

on people sitting around.

People want to do something, and that,
that was something that I, that stood out

to me as I'm having these conversations
with people and I say, look, I, I've got

no budget and we're gonna get together
for a day and shoot this film and.

Creative people in this industry,
they want to work like they want to be

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: And if
you're fun to work with and maybe have a,

have, you know, a a group of people that
you enjoy hanging out with and working

with, typically the answer's gonna be yes.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Well, I think it's interesting that you
framed it a certain way, and that's really

important as a takeaway for me, is like
if you went out and said, look, we're

trying to do this big awesome thing.

The scope is crazy, but
we only have 10 grants.

We're asking everyone to do
favors, everybody to chip in.

If it ends up making money, no one's
gonna make extra money except me.

But you know, that's the subtext of a lot
of low budget projects that come through.

Where they're saying, look,
subsidize our project for us

with your day rate and your time.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
you came out and you said,

look, this is an experiment.

It's a, it's a, we're trying stuff out.

We're gonna play, we're gonna have fun.

It's a good group of people for a day.

We're gonna try to get you a good rate.

We know it's a day.

That's not typically you're working
because of holidays, so like.

Are you in?

And the people that are like,
yeah, that sounds awesome.

I'd love to try that, or, I'd
love to be a part of that.

Then you know you've got the right team.

As soon as you start meeting people that
are like, well, you know, my normal rate's

seven 50 a day, I can't do 300, you know?

Then you're like, well, this isn't it.

Then that's, I'm sorry, that's
not what this project is.

I'll call you on the next one.

No harm, no foul.

But the way that you framed
it when you went out to go and

crew up was really important.

And I think people that are
gonna take this episode and

go, oh, I want to try that.

That's an important thing to remember.

Don't go out and be like, I'm so
sorry we have such little money.

Can you please help us out?

You don't want to be begging.

You wanna say There's a cool opportunity
that we're doing, we're making something.

Do you wanna be a part of it?

Oh yeah, that sounds fun.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
A, a little bit of it was

that mentality, Daren.

I, I think you're right on that.

I, I early on to this production company
or to the, uh, distribution company.

I said, we'll, do, we'll do $10,000.

I mean, that's fine.

That's exciting.

To try that.

I was very upfront with them to meet
that we're gonna shoot on iPhones and

we're gonna do very low budget crew.

even, even whether it was my own standard
or I put it out there to them and said,

look, I'm not going to call in favors
them unless there's some ownership.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: in this
particular project, there is no ownership.

It is a work for hire.

Thing.

And so I was very transparent on that
with them saying, great, if this is

what you will get, we will deliver
your $10,000 plus a little bit worth

of material and content and story
and effort and energy and creativity

because there is no ownership.

You know, and if, if there is
some sort of equity exchange, then

yes, I'm gonna call in favors and
we'll put in some sweat equity.

And I think it's okay to do that.

I mean, we acknowledge that
this was an experiment.

It obviously needs to look good for them.

Nobody was allowed to
come on set begrudgingly.

And

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
what your point is.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yes.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
So yes, the call was, Hey, I

know you're worth a lot more.

And, uh, and when we get those projects,
would love to send 'em your way.

This project is one of these things.

I'm gonna go out and shoot with my iPhone.

I'd love for you to bring
yours and actually make sure

that this all looks good.

And so Carter was willing to do that.

Um, McKay Stevens came on and
production was kind of a, a, you

know, another camera operator and
coordinated things along with Jade.

And then I brought on some trainees,
some, you know, as a, as a director

or Daren as you know, as a producer,
we get plenty of people that are

saying, Hey, what are you doing next?

Can I, can I come in Lauren,
or can I work with you?

this was a great opportunity for that.

So, uh, I think we had two or three
people on set that were not paid.

I.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
but we're very, very helpful

in, in just moving lights and
coordinating and whatever, making

sure that, uh, things worked out.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Well,
and there is value there, so like, it,

it, people shouldn't feel bad, prevent pr
uh, providing that opportunity to people

who want it because there are plenty of
people, I would assume Jade included,

that want to work with Gar Batty.

And, and be on set with you
and learn from you and go, oh,

that's how he talks to actors.

That's how he runs his set.

That's how this, that's how he does it
at this high level, which they wouldn't

really have that opportunity on.

One of your features, right?

And so it's a big opportunity that
we shouldn't discount to say, well,

you know, it's not really fair
to ask people to work for free.

It's like, well, we're, we're not.

We're saying instead of being paid in
dollars, you're being paid in opportunity

and exposure and relationships and
time on set with these people like

that is also valuable as you're
coming up through this industry.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I
think you're the master of that, or you

know, you've really figured out how to.

Add value to what you're doing beyond
the, the paycheck or, you know, you've

created social media followings and,
blogs and things like that for our

movies that, that go beyond you know,
whatever you're being paid to do.

And I'm trying to learn from that and
say, look, yeah, I'll show up on set for,

for, for this day and, and deliver this
product, but I need to be able to, I.

Talk about it on my podcast, I'm gonna
be able to promote it on my social media

channels and, uh, the client's gonna
be okay with that so that it at least

counterbalances some of the, sweat equity,
I guess, that we are putting into it.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

And to con continue that thought a little
bit more, you can do that once, like you

can, you can ask people to come work for
free for once, like one time, I think.

And so that's why it was important
that you told the p the other side

of the, the equation, you know,
the financial side to say, look.

I'm not calling in favors for you.

Like, so if you want this to be me
and all of my buddies that work on

feature films that are millions of
dollars, I'm not doing that because

there's no upside for me to do that,
and I'm gonna burn that one opportunity.

I have to call in a
favor for some friends.

And so if you, you can do it once
if you're, if you're saying, I'm

gonna go make my first feature,
my first short film for $10,000.

Yeah, you can call in some favors,
but realize that's kind of it.

Like you can't keep doing that with
the same crew and expect them to

be happy about it, because at some
point your budgets are gonna go up.

You keep asking for favors.

They're gonna be like, dude,
you're taking advantage of me.

So keep that in mind as well.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Yeah.

And the mindset has to be
equal on their side as well.

I, we have to recognize as filmmakers
that they are the client and

they are taking a risk You know,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
we would like to try to do these

$10,000 short films for our streaming
channel, and hopefully it will work

and we can get to, you know, if, if
it works, we can increase our budgets.

So it's a, it's a partnership there.

It's a, or at least it's a.

They're mutually beneficial.

You know, efforts

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
work, if we deliver a poor product or,

or you know, they go, oh, okay, well
$10,000 doesn't get as what we want.

Or if we deliver a great product and it
doesn't their audience, they can say,

oh, okay, well that was an experiment.

Hopefully we deliver great product and it
reaches their audience and they say, cow.

Let's, let's do it again.

this time, bigger.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Uh, here's a question that's kind
of unrelated, but the context I

think is important for people.

So a lot of times filmmakers will
say, I, I think I can raise $10,000.

I could do a Kickstarter.

I have my own money, I have friends
and family money, whatever it is, I

can get $10,000 to go make something.

That's not necessarily
what you did here, right?

Because you had someone who said, I want
this content for this purpose, and I'm.

It's work for hire.

I'm going to essentially employ you for
$10,000 to create this content for me.

There's no upside, there's no
backend, there's none of that.

But then if it goes well, maybe there's
future projects, you know, down the line.

How did you kind of think
through that aspect?

Like, would you have done this same
project with 10,000 of your own dollars,

or would you have gone and raised
$10,000 for this without having those

other pieces as part of the puzzle?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
It short answer is no.

One of the things that was appealing
to me is that this was a client project

where I'm not responsible for recouping.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I'm
responsible for delivering a quality

story, and they have the channel and
the mechanism built to, you know, for

their customers to, ugh, I hate these
terms, but to consume the content.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
And so they are, their need is to

feed their audience, and my need
is to feed my creative, you know,

replenish my, my creative, uh, well.

So that's where it became
usually beneficial.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I
am not, I mean, from a business stand,

if I'm just a filmmaker starting out,
$10,000 into a short film and hoping

that that recoup based on the film
is a poor business decision, there's,

there's very, very little, little.

of, of success stories in that.

Daren, if you're Daren, then you
can say, okay, I'm gonna invest

$10,000, but it is a marketing
for my, my skillset or my career.

So I'm going to make a short film.

But the $10,000 is really, you know, me
broadcasting this work and the connections

and the people I'm making about building a
network, yeah, maybe that's a smart thing.

Maybe that's a smart investment.

Um.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah,
I just think that's an interesting

part of this conversation where you're
saying, look, how are people gonna

take this episode and go implement it?

Well, not everybody's gonna get a call
next week to say, Hey, can I give you

$10,000 to produce a short film for me?

Uh, and I already have distribution
and stuff lined up, so it's

gonna be online, blah, blah.

Unless you have a pretty decent like
YouTube channel, you could probably spend

10,000 on a short film and recoup that
from ad revenue and sponsor stuff, right?

If you've got a million, 2 million
people on a YouTube channel,

you could do that for sure.

But if you have 40 people subscribed
to your YouTube channel and you have

800 Facebook friends, you probably
don't have the distribution for that.

And so it's really thinking
about the whole picture and not

just how do I get people to give
me money to go make something?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yes.

Okay, so here's where, here's
where I think it does apply to our

listeners because the, the things
that we experimented with and

the model that we hopefully, that
we proved from last week's shoot

duplicatable on a feature film scale.

I.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
So you go, okay.

What is the biggest obstacle
for people to make their films?

Most of the time it's money.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: hear,
I don't have the money, but in their

pockets they've got an iPhone and at
home they've got their laptop, whatever,

and they have the drive and the passion.

So hopefully that obstacle we
can, we can lower that obstacle

or clear out that obstacle, which.

Which is what filmmaking is.

My son was with me on this set, you know,
he's 14 and, and was, he came on set as

a swing and was just kind of running.

He was marking the clips
and running the cameras and

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Just really, really, you know,

embedded himself into all of
these different, uh, departments.

then driving home, he just said,
dad, that's you're doing with film

is just solving problems all day.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yep.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
says, and I love that.

I love that.

It was kind of fun to see him,
to see that, but for me, that's,

that's kind of what the creative
takeaway was, is like, oh.

You know, if I want to do an angel torch
and I go, oh, well I don't have $150,000.

You know, what, can I come up
with 15 and use these production

models to deliver a 15,000 torch?

That looks as, you know, that
that serves the same purpose.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
So the technical side of it is, yeah,

we, we had onset, we had three iPhones
you know, two fifteens and a 16.

'Cause these were pro pros
or pro maxes and, we had hard

drives strapped to the iPhone.

So we're shooting the Black Magic App
direct into the hard drive recording log

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Oh wow.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, 4K Perez log footage

right into the hard drive.

We had a very small, uh, lean light kit,
but it, it did what we needed it to do.

We had our, our camera, we had, so our
camera man or excuse me, our DP is Carter.

And then two others that were kind
of a swing on lights and additional

cameras and, uh, making sure we
had a professional sound guy.

And here's one of the nice things
is that Joe Gerard did our sound

and he just recorded everything
to his regular sound files.

Uh, we paid him his rate plus his kit
fee, and then it, we just made sure

that because they're all iPhones,
everything's recording time of day.

So his kit was time of day as well.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
then in the edit, I'm able to just

sort clips by time of day and I've got
one audio and my three iPhone clips,

and I can make multi clips there.

So it's very kind of, that,
that process has been very, very

streamlined and, and exciting.

say, okay, well we could duplicate this.

We could do days of shooting, 10 days
of shooting for, you know, if it's

seven, seven grand a day for production,
Suddenly 10 days of shooting is 70 grand.

You're like, okay, well could we now
do a feature for a hundred thousand?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Well, and what's crazy, like just
the camera savings alone, you

know, you're talking about 500
minimum per day for the camera.

Another couple hundred per day for
the lenses, plus all the support

equipment, plus a two or three person
crew minimum to run and move it.

All right.

So easily 1500 a day is kind
of what you're looking at.

Like maybe more not including labor.

So now you got another
probably at 2,500 a day.

Like this is really quick
back of the napkin in my head.

Math as, as a line producer.

Right?

So 2,500 a day just for the camera.

You saved that because you basically
took what was in your phone.

You probably had some mounts or, and
maybe some lenses or something that

you were working with, but like.

Those are things you that are
one time purchases or you already

had the kit and you're just
like bringing it along with you.

I know you've got a, a gimbal, I'm sure
Carter had something, you know, a tripod

or something like his own kit that he's
like, I'm not gonna charge you 25 bucks

a day to rent my 15-year-old tripod.

You know, like

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
it, it gets better.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: shows up.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
It, it gets better than that.

During my 14-year-old son, 3D
printed a, a camera like mount thing.

So we had to,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: No way.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: yeah,
we just had this little 3D printed rig.

And we gaff taped the
hard drive to the rig.

I had an ND filter for
the front of the iPhone.

it, it was truly, it
was truly independent,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
That's amazing.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: to

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I hope you got lots of behind

the scenes photos of set.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: yes.

And that was one of the
things the client did too.

The client has gotta say, Hey, we've
gotta get our money's worth out of this.

So they provided a behind the scenes
photographer and, and video, they did

some interviews with our cast and.

You know, they're already kind of in that
mindset of how do we market a short film?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, super smart and that's fun.

And I, I think that is.

It's just speaks to
truly independent, right?

You're saying, I'm gonna go figure it out.

I'm going to work with what I
have, I'm gonna make something.

And ultimately it just comes down
to I, I think the production value

equation is like gone, right?

You can't say that.

Uh, what was the movie a few
years ago that was shot on

like a $3,000 Sony camera?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Uh, creator, creator.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
The creator.

Yeah.

I mean, you can't say that
that didn't look as good as

something with a $90,000 camera.

I just don't buy it anymore.

And now you've got black magic
cinema cameras that can shoot 12

K and they're like $5,000 cameras.

Like, we don't have to do that anymore.

Yes, you can.

Yes.

There's probably a 5% better difference
and it makes a world of difference when

you're screening it on an IMAX screen.

Sure.

But you could look at FF one this last
weekend I, or two weekends ago, I went

and saw that in IMAX and it looks amazing.

And a lot of the stuff that was filmed
on the track was iPhone sensors mounted

into the car, like the frame of the car
for those shots, they put it on Lewis

Hamilton's car and you're just like,
okay, iPhones are good enough now.

'cause it was on an IMEX
screen and I couldn't tell.

So, you know, at, at this point.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: it.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
We'll go see it together.

I would happily see that again.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: okay.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
like the idea that the whole, why

I'm saying all this stuff right now
is like the idea that you have to

raise more money in order to get this
camera and, and you have to have a.

More resources and more time
and more crew and more people.

It's like, I just don't
think that's real anymore.

Especially at this level of your first
short film, your 10th short film, your

hundredth short film, whatever it is.

Like just go make the thing and
make the best story you possibly can

because at the end of the day, people
aren't leaving that screening or

watching it on YouTube or whatever.

They're not recommending
it to their friends.

'cause like.

This thing was shot on iPhone.

It's so cool.

They're going, this was an amazing
story that really resonated with me and

I want other people to feel the same
way I feel having watched that story.

So there you go.

Soapbox moment.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I love it.

No, that makes sense.

Okay.

So a couple of things that we did
right and a couple of things we did

wrong, and I wanna be careful 'cause
I don't want to just make this sound

like we're taking a victory lap.

We haven't even made the movie yet.

But, uh, we, as far as things that we did
right, I feel like we took enough time.

I took enough time to prep.

Say, look, I didn't call in the, the,
the team and round everybody up until

it was, you know, gave 'em enough
time before the shoot to be like, oh

yeah, that sounds fun, let's do it.

But nobody was asked to like really
prep and do, do a, do a long thing.

And we kept it small.

We, we knew what we were and
we tried to keep it small.

Another thing I did.

I feel like was very, very helpful
is we did read throughs over,

you know, we did one readthrough
in person and one readthrough

over zoom with the cast and crew,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
everybody knew that, hey, this

was a pretty daunting task.

We're shooting 16 pages in one day.

Right.

I mean, you, you wouldn't typically
do that, you know, and one of our,

our lead actress was eight years old.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
it, it had built in challenges.

We said, okay, well how can we, how can
we identify some of these challenges

and then get in front of those so
that on the day, on, on set, we're

not faced with trying to solve that.

So I had a very willing to
say, yeah, hey, a week before,

let's get together in person.

Just do a read through.

The client wanted to see this and uh,
and so we did a great read through.

No, no notes or anything there.

Just kind of, this is what we're doing.

Everybody then went away for a week
and kind of processed, and then the

day or two before shooting, we got
on with the cast and crew, just as

you kind of would do a, a table read.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
But we did a full read through with

kind of production notes involved.

So, because it was just a small,
you know, only 10, 10, 12 people,

kind of knew what was going on.

Like, okay, here's our location.

I went to the location early, I took
some videos of it, so everybody had

a good idea of what we were looking
at, what we were dealing with.

and and that was helpful then on the day
to things running very, very smoothly.

Everybody kind of knew,
okay, this is coming up next.

And they could be ready for it.

Just standard production

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
That's what you

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
secret there.

But even for a short film, when
you're saying, how do we, do we keep

our budget low, and how do we make
sure we get our day of 16 pages?

All of those things need
to, need to be applied.

A couple of things that we could
have improved just the, the

workflow with the, with the iPhone.

Even though this was an experiment, it
would've been, I could have gotten my

workflow to my DP earlier because we
did lose some time trying to like, get

the hard drives going and format it.

And, you know, at some point, uh,
you know, if there was a glitch or a

flaw or something, it took some time
to kind of troubleshoot the cameras.

And so this big sell of like,
to the client, like, Hey, we're

gonna shoot on iPhones gonna be
great, we'll get everything done.

You know, and then to still have issues,
you know, I had to scratch my head

thinking, are, are these, these are
obviously just part of production, but

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
it'd be nice to be able to avoid

that, 'cause the client doesn't know.

They don't, they, they don't know.

Camera issues

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah,
one, one of the very standard parts of

a bigger production is you'll have a
whole prep date for the camera team.

You know, you'll reserve a bay
at the facility that you're

renting all the gear from.

They have.

Everything, like you can set up the
camera, all the hard drives, you can mount

everything that you wanna mount to it.

You can test all the lenses, make sure
everything's in focus the way it's

supposed to be, make sure everything's
working the way it's supposed to be.

You can even have your sound guy
there to connect the, you know, the

time code or whatever it is that
needs to be, you know, connect to

the camera, between camera and sound.

Like all of that can happen a day or two
before production to identify any issues.

And normally what you'll find is
that there's a cable that didn't.

Come with the rental or that isn't
working or you've got amount that

like is actually not a good place
for it, so we should probably put it

on the other side or on the back of
the camera or something like that.

And so maybe that's
something to think about.

I.

If there is a next time, or whenever
you do the next low budget thing,

it's like, yeah, don't skip the camera
prep day, even if it's two hours

at your house, uh, the night before
to be able to say, let's make sure

everything's working the way we want to.

Let's run through a quick,
like, setup, changeover action.

Cut.

Okay.

Everything's good.

Good?

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah,
it's an interesting challenge because.

The practices of production don't go
away because the budget is smaller,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: That
those still have to happen to some extent.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yep.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
If you ignore those, the, I

think they'll catch up to you.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yep.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
we were able to just, you know,

they were pretty quick solves.

If we camera went down, we had two
others, and so we could continue to

roll while that camera was being worked
on or figured out or re rebooted.

But that was something that would've
been nice and helpful as far as

understanding the workflow better.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Tell me how you got,
got 16 pages in one day.

What did you, what did you not do in order
to save time to get 16 pages in a day?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Well, we made sure that, I mean,

everybody knew what we had to
do, what we were up against.

From a director standpoint, I feel
like our read throughs we were

really able to address things.

I did have one-on-ones,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
with some of the key talent to say,

look, this is really kind of the.

What we're going for and what they,
you know, to make sure that we're on

the same page here, what they wanted
here, what they were coming to the

with, and making sure that there wasn't,
there, there, there wouldn't have

to be a lot of discovery of who this
character was or, or things like that.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
so that was very helpful.

You know, we tried, we, we
did, we afforded ourselves.

A couple of takes per shot,
but I wasn't precious with it.

And I trusted the actors.

One of the things that was there, there
does have to be this level of trust,

even with the, the actors and with the
dp, you know, we're shooting on iPhones.

I don't have a monitor.

The client doesn't have a monitor.

I.

So there is this level of trust.

I mean, I could take my phone and
set it and say, here's our shot.

This is what I'd like to do, and
you're gonna move it here and

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: And,
uh, then I turn it over to them, step

back and just kinda watch from a distance.

I'm watching the performance,
but I'm not on a monitor.

While that's risky, sure speeds things up.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Nice.

Were you limiting yourself mentally
as far as like how many takes and

how many setups and all that would
like, did you shot list the day out?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I
did show, I did shot list everything.

I think one of the biggest things
that people run into on film is

transitions in and outta scenes

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I
knew what the heart of each scene was.

So you know, I knew we'd be getting pretty
standard coverage on that, but I did

take some time in prep the week prior go
through and, and create a shot list of how

are we gonna get from the scene to scene
or what, what are we gonna do with the

other two cameras when first, you know,
when we're getting our primary coverage.

So that was very, very helpful.

And that even came up our,
our production coordinator.

He mentioned that.

He said that was like one of the
most efficient ways of working.

'cause we weren't discovering what,
you know, it wasn't putting our

heads together and discovering.

Now I did at the front of the day,
top of the day, you know, we had our

safety meeting and production meeting
and said, look, best idea wins.

We have a very good plan here.

We're gonna get through this.

If there's a better idea that, you
know, you say, Hey, this might work.

it, bring it up, run it by me.

'Cause you know, nothing's like, our
goal here is to get through the day.

That's what we have to do.

The way we do that is still up in the air.

It's never been done before.

And so here's a plan to make this work,
but if you have an idea, let's hear it.

and our, and it actually came to
fruition, but the last shot of the

day, the last shot, it happened to be
the last shot of the film, and we're.

of placing it and getting set up.

And one of the lead actors
says, well, what if we do this?

And it was a totally best,
best idea wins scenario.

And so we all acknowledged it
like, oh Morgan, it's wonderful.

You gotta speak up, we gotta hear
that, you know, and stuff like that.

So everybody laughed and have a good time.

And we did that throughout the day.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Awesome.

Here's a, here's outta left field question
that I'm, I'm not gonna force you to

answer, but I, I hope you do answer.

So this is more of a
commercial project, right?

It's not like we talked about, it's, it
wasn't you raising money or putting up

your own money to do this creative thing.

It's like you were hired by a
client to deliver this outcome

for this amount of money.

My, my guess is you personally
severely discounted your rate in

order to make this whole budget work.

And so.

it's not something that's sustainable.

Like some, someone shouldn't listen
to this episode and go, oh, I'm

gonna go make short films for
a living and get paid to do it.

But is it, is there any concern
about saying yes to a project at this

budget and delivering and establishing
that, yes, this can be done.

Does that hurt you or future
crews from this client?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
It's let's see.

The first part of your question is,
yes, I severely discounted my rate

to do this project, but I had to
ask, I had to say, okay, what, how

can I compensate for that value?

And it cleared it with the client.

Say they all, you know, they know
they're, if they're reaching out, it's

because they, they feel like that,
that I gotta say this without sounding

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Right.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
they're reaching out.

They feel like they're getting a value

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
involved with the project.

so I say, okay, well, you know, clearly.

No, you, you, you can't make a 15
minute short film for $10,000 on,

uh, using experienced cast and crew.

So can I get in return for that?

Well, I need to be able to
build my audience, right?

I need to, this client has an
audience that aligns with a lot of

my films, and so, by them promoting
this film with my name attached.

It will help build my audience.

And I, I, I think I, I'm hopeful that,
um, that the, that the fee, the reduced

rate is counterbalanced by other things
that are gonna come up from this.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Awesome.

And I appreciate you sharing that because
I think it's something people need to

think about if they're listening to this.

It, it wasn't just like Garrett was
desperate for work and cut his rate

and did it anyway and blah, blah, blah.

It's like, no, there has to be some
sort of upside to make up for the.

Lower budget and to have that
conversation go in and just be able

to say, well, this is what I need.

Since I'm not getting my full rate,
I'm gonna need this or this or this.

Which may not have been part of
their initial idea, but now you're

negotiating, you're partnering
on it instead of being a vendor.

I talk about that a lot with creators
that I work with of like, stop

being a vendor, because if you're a
vendor, it's a race to the bottom.

There's.

A hundred others that are in
competition with you at any moment,

and you could be swapped out for
a different vendor at any moment.

We've seen that with people
that work on TV shows.

We had McKay on the other the other day,
like they swapped out a vendor who was

producing their first two seasons of
a show and went to a different vendor.

If you're a vendor of someone,
that's very risky position to be in.

You wanna be partners, and
that means that you're aligned.

That means you're both getting
upside in some way, shape or form.

And everybody feels like all in
like, yes, this is a heck yes, I'm

going to be all in on this thing.

And there's no downside.

I don't feel like I'm discounting it
because I've made up for it over here.

Right.

So I just think that was an important
thing to bring up because I, if I

were listening to this, I'd be like,
well dude, why are you doing that?

That hurts other people.

It's like, well, no, I still made sure
that it was a fair deal in the end.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, help me understand

that it hurts other people.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Well,
you know, if you're in that commercial

space and you're going out to a event,
you know there's a client who wants

to work with you and they say, I have
$10,000, but it really should be.

$40,000, taking that at 10,000
establishes that that can be done for

$10,000 with this caliber of talent.

And so the next crew that comes in, or the
next company that wants to do something

similar is gonna come to you and say,
can I do the same thing for $10,000?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
And that establishes a new, a new.

Baseline for that sort of output.

And so it can potentially make it
hard if there's somebody out there,

not that you undercut the industry
'cause you weren't bidding on it.

They came to you and said, we
want you to do this for us.

Right.

So that's that's different.

You weren't going out to an RFP and
saying, oh, this is something that

should cost 50, but I'm gonna charge 10.

That can hurt an a commercial
industry in, in a local area.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
in this scenario they said we

are doing five short films.

We're, we're putting out a call.

Uh, we're doing five short
films for $10,000 each,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: a
call to anybody who wants to do this.

And so that, yeah.

So yeah, there are four other
teams right now that are, that are.

For their crews that they're doing,
you know, one a week or one every three

weeks or something like that, that are
making the remaining four short films.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Oh, gotcha.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
yeah, and I'm very aware that the,

the client, you know, distributor
for their next round, you know,

might say, Hey, we did it.

We established the a short film thing.

And thank you very much, uh, Garrett,
and we're gonna go in a different

direction and, and, uh, we're gonna
now stick with the $10,000 model.

You want to participate And at
that point, I, I I would pass.

so yeah.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
it's so important.

The, the relationships, I think
are what is the value to me.

I mean, I, I'll, I'll say this again
without trying to sound pretentious.

A lot of people said yes to this
project because of, because,

'cause of my involvement.

And

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
say, oh, I get a work.

I, I am now gonna take
this and put this on.

Hey, look at this.

I'm on this Garrett Betty
film, which is great, which is

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
if it helps them.

I, I got a, a, a skilled crew for
it and they're now promoting their,

their, uh, experience because of it,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: which
the client is doing with me, you know,

and I, I will get to do with the clients.

I, I helped start that short film series.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

And to be clear, I don't, I don't
think you did anything wrong.

Like I'm not sitting, I'm
not sitting here trying to.

Dude, you really messed
everything up here.

But I think all of that context
is so important because they

said they were very clear as a
client saying, we are doing this.

We have $10,000 for five different
short films, $10,000 each.

Who wants it?

And they got a lot of people
coming in and saying, yes.

Right?

And that's fine.

That's how capitalism works.

That's a marketplace working properly.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I will say this.

They got a lot of people also saying no

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I got lot of outside calls

saying, are you doing that?

Like, are you doing this 10,000?

Yeah.

Here's what I'm, here's why.

And they're like, I'm
not, like that's, they

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
they, they need to pay more.

I get it.

Everybody has that.

That right?

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah,
so it's just, I always want people to be

thinking bigger than just like, what does
it mean right now today, in this moment?

For me, it's like,
well, it's not just you.

There's a crew, there's a cast,
there's the client, there's the

audience, there's the industry.

And so I don't know the, that for
whatever reason, I think that way,

and so I wanted to highlight that.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, no, it's fair.

Great, great question.

So what's the takeaway?

What do we, what do we take away?

Or what, you know, why is
this how can we do this?

My, my thought is that, boy, if we
can do this for 10 grand, and we,

the experiment worked as far as

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Okay.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
getting together, a bunch of buddies

shooting, you know, everybody
was compensated a little bit.

So nobody, nobody's going away
starving those, that, those that

wanted compensation, compensation,
there's an acknowledgement.

Yes, their fee is, is worth more.

But here's the experiment.

The takeaway is this can be done like
one more way of removing an obstacle.

If budget is your obstacle.

It's a, you know, figure out what
you can do to lower that budget,

and the iPhone solution is a, is
a very, very workable solution.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, I, what I'm interested in is

what, what you do with this new found
skillset and, and experience, right?

Because you mentioned, you know,
does it, does it make sense to,

to 10 x the budget and spend.

Five to 10 days shooting something
that's a 85 page script that's still

small, still contains small casts,
small budget, small, um, need as far

as the reinforcements with crew and
location and equipment and all that

stuff that comes with bigger projects.

That gets really interesting.

I've never done, the lowest
budget I worked on was like 750 k.

And so I don't have that experience.

I've done short films, little two day
shoots, and those are just kind of

in my mind, very different things.

The idea of taking what you've learned
on a a one day $10,000 short film and

extrapolating that out over five to
10 days for a hundred thousand dollars

feature, that gets really interesting.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: It
does get, yeah, I'm very like, that's

really where my thoughts are going
right now as far as how to do that.

Yeah, I mean, it can be done.

My first feature was 125,000
you know, in a shoot for 14

days and even flew a crew to

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
In two different countries.

Yeah.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
So it's definitely doable.

The low budge stuff we shot on
red to, to red camera as well.

It, it's, it's definitely doable.

I, I think it does come down to
story making sure that the, the

story and the script that we're
doing that fits that model, right?

You take Gareth Edwards you know,
making what was his film Monster,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Mm-hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: right?

Where his script fit, the model of him
running around with a Sony X three.

And you know, coming up with these,
um, hidden monster stories, And,

and so if I were to do that, if
I were to say, Hey, we're gonna

find a hundred thousand dollars.

It might be easier than finding a million.

people have different mentality
say, Hey, if you're gonna find a

million, it's easier to find 10.

You know, and it's say, okay, I
don't know how to do that yet.

But if they add a hundred thousand
dollars and a story, say, okay,

let's find an outdoor story
with three or four cast members.

Go to Puerto Rico, go to, uh, a
cool location, you know, go to

Southern Utah, for, for two weeks
and come, come back with an outdoor,

adventure story you can cut.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Hmm.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: that.

a believer of that.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Interesting.

Well, we, we'll probably need to
talk on that more 'cause that's,

it's exciting to think about.

I do feel like if you're gonna do that,
there has to be subsidies somewhere, and

it's usually the cast and crew that are
cutting their rates and stuff like that.

I mean, you can always cut on support
as far as like how many people you

need and how much equipment you need
and what types of locations and stuff.

So yeah, it gets, you get really
scrappy and really resourceful

and you go, well, what can I
get for free and what can I get?

Donated and, and in kind and those
things, what tax credits are available,

what can I do to maximize this?

But yeah, it's really
interesting to think about.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: I, I
think so Daren, it probably comes into

some of that equity model of saying,
look, what are you getting out of that?

Is there value beyond the paycheck?

You know, if it's um, a student
filmmaker that's saying, Hey, I wanna

do this, is that different than from,
um, an established filmmaker saying,

I wanna do the exact same thing?

will will people say yes to that?

Because they get a little bit more value
out of their Involvement in that project.

I, I would imagine that, that we're,
that, uh, there are plenty of people

at that point say yes, that that would
be a fun project to be involved with.

And hopefully we can all
benefit beyond the low rate.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

Yeah.

Very, very cool.

No, I love I love having
you walk through all that.

'cause it, it's, it makes it
feel very doable, especially a

one day shoot with 10 people.

It's like most filmmakers should be
able to do that, not just could do that.

But if you're gonna be a filmmaker,
if your goal is to be a director

or a producer, like you should be
able to pull together 10 people

and $10,000 and go shoot something
in one or two days on a weekend.

And make something great.

And that's, that's kind of what this
is, that's how to make it in this

industry, in my opinion, is you go make
something great and then you go, you get

to make another thing and another thing
and another thing and another thing.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Well, I'd love to find out from

our listeners what, uh, what their
experience is and, um, you know,

what, what their process would be
for, for a short film or you know, I.

would they maximize that 10,000 budget?

Share your ideas.

Uh, you can send them in to our
email or put them in the comments.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I love it.

Awesome stuff, man.

I can't wait to see it.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Yeah, it'll be fun.

Uh, September, the

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
There you go.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
the movie in September,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Nice.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: so
we haven't decided on the title yet.

So, uh, that's, that's

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: gotcha.

Well that's good.

'cause now people can't go
and Google it and try to find,

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
find it somewhere.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458: Yeah.

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Awesome.

Awesome.

All right, man.

Well, let's go see some movies this week.

What do you say?

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
I'm gonna go see Juss Park

or Jurassic what is it?

Jurassic

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458:
The new Jurassic.

There you go.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
And I'm take my son today, so,

daren-smith_1_07-08-2025_101458: Awesome.

Awesome.

Okay, thanks man.

Take care.

garrett-batty_1_07-08-2025_101458:
Talk to you later.

Bye.

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