As promised, this week we watched the Koz Brothers 1988 no-budget gore fest, 555! Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcatching app. And don't forget to rate and review us!By Collection Resurrection

Hey Filmmaking Sucks fans! This week, we are giving you the first episode of our new podcast, Collection Resurrection on the feed! Filmmaking Sucks is mostly done for now, but we are keeping the feed open for whenever we do interviews, panels, or anything else we think you all may be interested in hearing. So, stay subscribed and we promise there w…

Being horror filmmakers, we like to have guests who can specifically help other horror filmmakers. Well here she is, the Events Manager and Assistant Director of the Horrorhound Film Festival, Dr. Michelle Conty! Michelle was recently in NYC to shoot interviews for her upcoming educational series, Professor Of Horror, where she will speak to numero…

This week, we sit down with Nassau County Film Commission, director of the Long Island International Film Expo, and writer/director in her own right, Debra Markowitz and John Marean. We talk with Debra about how she helped found the Naussau County Film Commission and the Long Island International Film Expo. Delving into the history of film on Long …

Here is part 2 of our interview with Alex Ferrari where he discusses his new book, Shooting For The Mob. Beyond just discussing hr book, we get into some of the difficult personal challenges we (and you) have to face as a filmmaker and artist; the amount of time, effort, and training that goes into your craft. We discuss how filmmakers and challeng…

This week, we talk with Filmmaker and Podcaster Alex Ferrari, again! After a self-described brutal film festival run with his latest feature, On The Corner Of Ego And Desire, Alex talks with us about the hardships he endured, staying focused, overcoming his own personal disappointments, and how to keep moving forward in the face of adversity. On Th…

This week, we are leaving all the description to the episode, as it speaks for itself: How to use SAG on a No Budget film! On Mannys newest short film, Matryoshka, we decided to go use SAG in order to work with two actors we have wanted to work with for a long time. In this episode, we will run down the entire process we went through, and walk you …

In October of 2017, we had the pleasure of screening our last feature film, Theta States, at the Shawna Shea Film Festival. While there, we met UK Writer/Producers Matthew Davies and Lee Wignall of Ash Mountain Films, who were there premiering their first feature, the incredible folk-horror film Dogged. Since then, we’ve become pretty close with th…

Well, we have returned, and we are calling this the first episode of season 3! This week, we start off a little slow, explain our sorta-new format and our new “Seasons” experiment. So, going back to our New Years episode from 2018, we review what our goals for the year were, how many of them we accomplished, and set our new goals for 2019. That’s m…

In a conversation that many of our listeners have heard bit and pieces of over the last few episodes, we discuss what it means to us to be our own style of filmmaker. As artists, we all struggle with the push and pull of being creative and following our instincts, and wanting to sell our art and be successful. These two things are not mutually excl…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, we discuss different ways how you can prepare your film for future marketing, while you are in pre and production. In the past, we have generally kept much of our production process quiet while in production; hiding fx, hiding sets and locations, etc. Making horror films, we don’t want to give anything much away. Now,…

This week, we talk to the host of the Indie Film Hustle Podcast, Alex Ferrari! Alex has created one of the most well known and helpful resources for indie filmmakers with his podcast and brand of Indie Film Hustle. Having over 20 years of experience in the industry, he has finally begun making his own feature films. Using his podcast and website to…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, we bring to you an interview that Lindsay & Manny did on the JT & Big O Podcast! This interview was originally aired on Facebook Live in June of this year, and we wanted to make sure all of our listeners had an opportunity to listen to it. We discuss our production methods, along with some of our favorite films, where…

Now that we are officially wrapped and in post-production, this week we discuss the making of Lindsays new short film, Miss Understood Monster! From Pre to Post, we account the whole process of developing the visuals, writing the script, casting, getting the locations, shooting with a mostly female crew, and prepping for post-production. Along the …

We're back! Our first episode in a few months, and we get right down to it. We discuss what they've been up to, all the festivals, the panels, the screenings and shoots we've had. From the Severed Film Night and Grindhouse at Roxy & Dukes, to Tampa, Florida and Prospect Park, we've had a busy few months, and are happy to be back. Let us catch you u…

This past weekend, we shot a new short film, and did so with an entirely new crew than we had worked with before. First time working with a pro DP (Philip Kral who you can hear on the Cinematography Panel from Macabre Faire episode) and the 2nd time with a pro sound mixer, Brian Neris. So, this week we discuss the shoot, how the entire day went, ho…

https://archive.org/download/Episode49CaseyTheDrummer/Episode%2049%20-%20Casey%20the%20Drummer.mp3 Download Making a special guest appearance in this episode is Casey the Drummer. This one was a blast.By Working Musicians

https://archive.org/download/Episode48HurricaneBluesMP3/Episode%2048%20-%20Hurricane%20Blues%20MP3.mp3 Download Weathering the storm Hurricane Harvey.By Working Musicians

This week, we bring you the Filmmaking On A Budget panel from the Macabre Faire Film Festival, featuring indie directors Patrick Devaney, Jeremiah Kipp, and Jerry Landi. Whether making films on the budget of a pizza dinner, two days of shooting for 10 months of post production, to working with Hollywood actors, at the end of the day the only thing …

Production management software is popping up all over, from the veterans like MovieMagic to newb's like Celtx, it's hard to decide which one is best for your needs. This week, we talk to Jim Miller & Ben Yennie, creators of ProductionNext, which is a Cloud-based all-in-one platform, working to meet all of your production management needs. Discussin…

Rejection is probably the toughest part of being an artist. Peers, audiences, film festivals, distributors, everyone has an opinion on your work, and a lot of the time, it's not very positive. But, that comes with the territory and, many times, the way you deal with your rejections defines the path you will take. This week, we have a very honest di…

This week, we bring you the Latino Filmmaker panel from the Macabre Faire Film Festival. Hosted by Manny Serrano, and featuring filmmakers Edwin Pagan and Christian Moran, horror super-fan and actress Ines Peek also joined us for the talk. UPDATE: there was a minute or two of overlapping audio on the original upload, it has been fixed, so if you wa…

Happy Valentines Day everyone! We all know that just because it's a holiday (sort of) that doesn't mean the hustle ends, so here we are with some updates! At the beginning of the year, we set some 6-week goals for ourselves, and today is our progress report! Meager they may have been, the tasks of writing a script and scheduling a shoot (respective…

Happy Women In Horror Month! January 12th, 2018 was the 2nd Annual Women In Horror Panel at the Macabre Faire Film Festival in Ronkonkoma, NY. Featuring Director/Producer Lindsay Serrano, Actress/Director Angie Hansen, Director/SFX Artist Shiva Rodriguez, Cinematographer/Director Jill Poisson, and Actress/Producer Lowry B. Fawley, and hosted by Man…

Producing a low-budget feature can easily be one of the most daunting undertakings you will ever experience, but also the most rewarding. The crash-course in filmmaking you receive will be unlike any other. This week on the show we talk with Writer/Producer/Director Joe Badon about his upcoming feature film "The God Inside My Ear." With a budget of…

Filmmaking is a visual medium, obviously. So it goes without saying that choosing the right cinematographer is essential in telling your story properly. At the Macabre Faire Film Festival, Manny was lucky enough to have hosted multiple panels, one of which was The Art Of Cinematography, with two extremely talented D.P's in Phil Kral and Jill Poisso…

At the Ax Wound film Festival, Lindsay sat in on a live Podcast recording for 4Mile Circus, who are not only an awesome podcast you should all check out, but they are also a production team based out of Brooklyn, NY! On this panel, hosted by Nicole Solomon and Sean Mannion, Lindsay, Monika Estrella Negra and Christina Raia discuss how to use ancill…

Social Media! That ever elusive combination lock that we all struggle to get right. How to get followers, how to get shares, how to get likes, how to get people to pay attention to you and your film! Well, this week, we sit down with Sean Mannion and Nicole Solomon at 4MileCircus and discuss exactly that. 4MileCircus is a media company who offer th…

Happy New Year everyone! Today marks the one-year anniversary of the first episode of Filmmaking Sucks AND the first episode of the new year, so we decided to do a bit of a year end wrap-up. A huge part of this struggle is keeping yourself motivated in the face of so much rejection and, plain and simple, a lack of time. Between working to pay the b…

The 3rd annual Ax Wound Film Festival is a celebration of Women in Horror, and Lindsay's new film Beneath was selected to be part of the festival. Hosted by Jay Kay of Horror Happens Radio, the panel includes Lindsay Serrano, Julia K. Berkey (Gemmas Monster), Aislinn Clarke (Childer), Stee McMorris (Strange Harvest), England Simpson (Prelude: A Lov…

We attended the Fear NYC Horror Film Festival in October, and filmed the "Masters of Horror" panel hosted by Jay Kay of Horror Happens Radio, featuring producer and journalist Heather Buckley, Horror Historian Tyler Hixson, director Colin Adams-Toomey, Director & Actress Adrienne Lovette, and actor Nicholas Tucci. The panel discussed the past and f…

Crowdfunding is becoming a huge part of independent film production. A few weeks back, we attended the Ax Wound Film Festival, and were able to attend a workshop hosted by Christina Raia discussing crowdfunding and specifically the platform Seed & Spark. She discussed methods of starting your campaign, perks you can offer, different ways of promoti…

We're back! After a lengthy hiatus, which we totally didn't intend, we're finally back. This week, we discuss a panel we sat in on at the New York Short Film Festival, about How To Get our Feature Made, and cover some of the talking points hit by the panelist Rob Margolies. Is it the right time to make the film? Do you have the right script? The ri…

Happy month of Halloween! We've spent the last couple of weeks at different film festivals, including the Shawna Shea Film Festival and Brooklyn Horror Film Festival. On top of winning two awards, we watched a lot of excellent films, and learned a lot about ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses and were able to realize what some of our near-futu…

https://archive.org/download/Episode43SingerSongwriterPreproduction/Episode%2043%20-%20Singer%20Songwriter%20Preproduction.mp3 Download In this episode Dris discusses some best practices for people to use when producing their own music. This approach blends art, science, and technology to help the songwriter complete their musical visions as best a…

https://archive.org/download/Episode42InterviewWithDrisOrganicaMP3/Episode%2042%20-%20Interview%20With%20Dris%20Organica%20MP3.mp3 Download In this Episode Channing Sall takes over the show and interviews Dris Organica.By Working Musicians

https://archive.org/download/Episode41BeingAWorkigMusician/Episode%2041%20-%20Being%20a%20Workig%20Musician.mp3 Download In this Episode Dris talks with working musician Channing Sall.By Working Musicians

To kick off the Halloween Season, we have decided to attempt to cover subjects that relate directly to horror films for this month, and we kick it off with a conversation relating to something we recently spoke about in our Production Apps episode: The Seven Basic Plots. In writing, generally all stories can fall into one of 7 basic plots, which ar…

When your movie is complete, and you've found distribution, there is a list of items that the distributor (or sales agent) will ask for so that they can properly package and sell your film. This is called your Deliverables. This list contains very specific requirements for your film including the final rendered version, M+E tracks, 5.1 audio, speci…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks we discuss some of the low-cost production apps and programs which will help to streamline your production, especially wen shooting with a small crew! We begin discussing CineSummit 7, which will go live next week, Sept 12&13. Cinesummit presents numerous video lectures and seminars over the course of two days, taught …

Film is a visual medium, and your Director Of Photography is the person who will bring your visual story to life. They help you craft the story through lenses, angles, lighting, movement and color. But, they are incapable of bringing your vision to life if they are ill-prepared. This week, we discuss a few of the basic elements of your film that ne…

https://archive.org/download/Episode40TheMightyDetail/Episode%2040%20-%20The%20Mighty%20Detail.mp3 Download There is great power in detail. Both the power to perfect and the power to distract. The difference between good and great is often a matter of how much attention and time on perfecting. There is a point though where what is important becomes…

Keeping things low-budget can be difficult, and there are many things indie filmmakers do to stretch their budgets as far as possible. This week, we discuss a few of the methods we have used in the past to achieve professional results on an amateur budget. From home-made (and safe!) squibs and blood pumps, how to create a gun muzzle blast with ANY …

On most Low and No-Budget films, the director is usually also the writer, and producer, sometimes camera operator and editor as well. With all of these hats to wear, there are a few key components to being a director that you need to know and have to consider before shooting your film. There's more to making a film that just writing it then grabbin…

Film Races are something we've always enjoyed doing, ever since we began making movies. Our first film race was in 2007 for the Alamo Drafthouse Bloodshots Competition. We have competed in three others since then, we hosted a panel discussion about them at Macabre Faire in 2014, and Manny recently was a judge for the Madison, WI wing of The 48 Hour…

Your first film set can be a big undertaking, and you need to be prepared or your filmmaking journey will be over before it begins. Where do I shoot? What do I need? What should I prepare for? How many people do I need on my crew? Who does what?? Do I seriously have to feed everyone?! Having started out with a 4 person crew years ago, and to this d…

This week Manny and Lindsay sit down with filmmaker, and long-time collaborator Louie Cortes. Together, the three of us as written, produced and directed our first feature film, Blood Slaughter Massacre, our web-series-turned-featurette, The Attack Of The Brain People, and a number of short films, including Louies' web series Holidays Of Terror. Wh…

We're back! Our computer unfortunately died on us (we did discuss it during the recording, but that turned into a 20+ minute discussion, so it was cut. we'll cover the issue we had on a future episode discussing hardware and software you can use!) so we've been away trying to sort that all out, install the new PC, and get everything up and running.…

Manny and Lindsay take on a subject that many independent filmmakers are unaware of this week, and that is Development Funds. This area of your budget is not always necessary, and it depends on what your film budget is actually going to be. What are development funds? Where does this money come from? When do you pay it back (if at all)? How does th…

This week on Filmmaking Sucks, Manny and Lindsay sit down with author Loren Molloy to discuss the differences between writing a book vs a script. Besides the obvious format differences, when writing a novel, the creator tends to be less restricted in their story writing, but there still must be some level of constraint. With a script, you must be s…