We're getting a sneak peek at the 2025 International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival and discussing how visual effects have evolved over the festival's history.

On this episode of VFX for Indies, a podcast about the intersection of visual effects and independent filmmaking, I'm your host, paul DeNegres, vfx artist, filmmaker and CEO of boutique visual effects shop Foxtrot X-Ray.

With me today is the executive staff of the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival Festival Director Amante Yazzie, horror Program Directors Brandon Kinchin and Danny Marianino, and Sci-Fi Program Director Michael Stackpole.

Welcome to the podcast.

Gents, glad to be here On this show.

Our goal is to explore the crossover between visual effects and indie film production without going too deep into the weeds of tech talk.

If you like what we're doing here, please like and subscribe to stay updated as we release new episodes, and you can find our back catalog at vfxforindiescom.

As I mentioned, these gentlemen are the executive staff of the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival.

The Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival is a program of the 501c3 nonprofit Phoenix Film Foundation.

It's a sibling of the Phoenix Film Festival, the Phoenix Film Society, ifp Phoenix, the Peoria Film Fest, the Arizona Student Film Festival and the Phoenix Critics Circle.

Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival has been running since 2005,.

And this year runs alongside the Phoenix Film Festival's 25th anniversary edition, from March 27th through April 6th 2025.

Before we talk about the festival and the films, I want to ask each of my guests to introduce themselves.

Guys, tell the audience who you are, what you do and how you came to be involved with the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival.

Well, I can start.

I think Stackpole is probably the oldest veteran in the mix here, me and Brandon actually.

Yeah, our stories are going to be the same.

It's going to be the same story.

So we had a website here in town years ago called it Blows my Mind.

What was it called?

I Can Smell your Brains, I your, I can smell your brainscom and we were.

This was back when, um 20 years ago yeah, brian palito actually was the festival director and we, uh, we were kind of pre-screening guys, uh, for the short films and the feature films at the time and and then that was like maybe 2007.

That was the first year, I think we came on like the second year, as like sponsors yeah.

And then the third year we actually came in because Brian Pulido left and our friend Andrea came in and she was the horror director and we started doing the.

I started doing the shorts.

One year Brandon started doing the full feature films it was after we had a fire in his house.

We did them together for a couple years and then you had the fire and you had a lot of shit going on.

So I'm like I'll take the features, you do the shorts, and we just kept it that way from there on out.

Yeah well, and then Andrea left and Monty came in.

So I'm like I'll take the features you do the shorts, and we just kept it that way from there on out.

Yeah, and then Andrea left and Monty came in and we've been I guess we've been doing it almost 20 years now from.

I think it's the 15th year of the horse sci-fi.

I feel like it's longer, but it feels like longer.

I'll tell you that it feels like forever.

On the website it said it goes back to 2005, but that didn't seem right to me and I'm not sure if maybe it ran sporadically during the first few years.

It was there since 2005.

It's been there every year.

I think it was for the first six years.

It was independent and done in October, and then we jumped over and became part of the Phoenix Film Festival, co-located and everything like that.

I started with Brian back when it was proposed.

Brian and I were doing scripts together and one day he said hey, we're doing this film festival, I want you to be the science fiction guy and knowing no better, I said sure.

So you know I've been the.

I've been programming both the sci fi shorts and the sci fi features for the for the life of the of the festival background.

Brian Polito is an Arizona guy as well comic book creator most famously known for Lady Death Is that correct, yeah?

And also a filmmaker, who I think some of my back when I was teaching, I think some of my students worked on a couple of films that he shot here in Arizona that some of our mutual friends produced.

Michael, you've also got a lot of serious sci-fi bona fides which I want to hear about.

But before we do, let's hear from Monty.

How did you get involved with this organization?

You know I was watching all of these programmers' films from the audience, because I've been going since 2005.

So I've been.

I started as an attendee for man almost 10 years, nine, almost 11 years and then in 2016 or I think 2015, somewhere around there, andrea left and she had, you know, I had been going so much by that time that she kind of came through and said, you know, hey, is this something that you think you might want to do?

And you know I was like I'd love to do it.

It'd be a dream to do it.

I love this festival and you know Jason and everybody else kind of got on board and you know I was asked to kind of come on board and help out.

And you know I often tell people they'll say why has it lasted so long?

And I said it lasts so long not because of leadership, but because of the great people that program the films we have here, everything Very, very.

You know, 100 percent, there's no, I'm always excited to see what they program and you know, sometimes I like to be surprised as well, to show up and sit in the audience and watch what they program.

So, but it is that it is that balance I think of.

You know, understanding, like you know, there's a reason why we've lasted so long and why we have been so successful, and you know, and you can attribute that to the people that are have been with the program for as long as they have.

Absolutely.

I mean every every year.

The festival is a celebration of these genres and it's obvious that the folks that pick the films program the, the, the blocks, that it's obvious you guys love these genres, right, which is the secret ingredient, right?

The Phoenix Film Festival has lasted as long as it has because those folks love film.

International horror, sci-fi has lasted this long because you guys love horror and sci-fi.

Michael, I think you gave yourself short shrift in your intro.

Just tell the audience a little bit about your history with the sci-fi genre and why you were the obvious choice when Brian Pulido tapped you to join the festival.

Yeah, my day job is writing science fiction and fantasy.

I started out as a game designer and computer game designer and then in the 80s moved into doing novels and I was very fortunate in 96 97 got to write in the Star Wars franchise and so I've done nine novels there.

All of those hit the New York Times bestseller list and you know, that kind of puts me in a position of um it makes it look like I know what I'm doing.

Which is which is really kind of important appearance is everything in this business, right?

Yeah, no, michael does actually, really, really genuinely know what he's doing and and again, loves sci-fi and uh and uh and I enjoy.

You know when I see him at the festival every year uh, getting to nerd out on stuff and uh and chatting about things.

Know, when I see him at the festival every year uh, getting to nerd out on stuff and uh and chatting about things like the mandalorian, and you know the different directions of the star wars franchise.

I don't know if I should put you on the spot on the uh, on the podcast, michael, but we'll see if we have time, time no problem uh, danny brandon monty.

What do you guys do as your, as your day jobs, when you're not programming film festivals?

Well, I myself I work for my wife currently, but I used to be in bands owned a music venue in Flagstaff and sold that during the pandemic, came back to Phoenix and been working for my wife in real estate, honestly and on the side, but mostly stay-at-home dog debt.

I work at a bank.

I manage a portfolio of customers, but I also write books.

I'm not on New York Times, I'm not at a stackpole level, but I've got about seven different books out kids' books to adult, humor, kind of comedy stuff, and I used to play in kind of a popular band back in the day.

So once on a blue moon we'll do something in music here and there, but you know, mostly these days working on children's books, nice.

Nice Monty, how about you?

Working on children's books, nice, nice Monty, how about you?

So my day job is I don't have as storied of a background as these fellows with what they've done.

My day job is.

I'm a public health officer for a tribal community here in Arizona, so I do a lot of work with health standards, injury prevention, emergency management and planning for a tribal community's you know kind of increased health components as they move forward.

And on top of all that, I have been heavily involved in film in Arizona for a very, very long time.

So I'm the president of the Phoenix Critics Circle right now, which is our local film critics society here in Arizona right now, which is our local film critics society here in Arizona, and you know we have a wide range of members who are all local, who write consistently or do podcasts consistently, and you know we hold a pretty high standard for our group of esteemed writers.

I've been part of that organization since it was founded about I think like nine years ago now and on top of that, I have dabbled in filmmaking for a very, very long time, and only recently have I had the opportunity to produce my first feature film.

It's called the Dead Thing.

It's on Shudder AMC Networks right now.

You can stream it right now if you'd like to, but that was a labor of love.

I shot it in 2022, right at the end of the pandemic Well, right when we were coming out of the pandemic.

But we were doing a lot of work back then and it took two years to finish up and get it out to the masses.

But it's been pretty amazing to see the success that it's had and the word of mouth that it's achieved.

I've been a Shudder subscriber since day one, so the fact that you know I have a movie that has my name on it my participation in some way shape or form on it is pretty amazing, so I tell people this I don't want to pinch myself because I'm worried I'm going to wake up a college kid wondering how I'm going to make my first short film.

I actually finally watched it last night.

Oh hey nice.

Me and Jay Photos caught it over some cigars in the backyard.

It was awesome.

Did you see my cameo?

Did you see my cameo?

I didn't catch a cameo by you, did I?

I'm playing pool in the background of one of the scenes.

I'm going to have to go back and look at it.

Very cool.

Congrats, monty.

I'll have to catch up with that as well.

I don't think I I have every streaming service known to man, but I don't think I have shutter, yeah, so I'll have to check that out.

Uh, and you know, this is one of the things I love about about film festivals in general, and the phoenix film festival in particular is, um, there's a community that's built around this organization that is unified by this love for film, and you've got people from all different walks of life, all different experiences, there.

You know people who, like myself, work in the industry all the time, and then people who have jobs that are not related to the, to film.

Uh, but they, they dedicate their time as volunteers because, you know, none of us, nobody's getting paid to to run a film festival.

Really, um, you're doing because you love it right.

You're doing it because you love it right.

You're doing it because this is my community, this is my genre, this is what I want to do, to celebrate my love of these things and join with the community, and that's what makes it awesome and that's why I look so forward to the Phoenix Film Festival and Horror Sci-Fi Film Festival every year.

It's like homecoming, it's like a family reunion.

You get to hang out with people.

I don't see Michael Stackpole regularly we don't run in the same social circles but I see him.

We share a drink, we chat about sci-fi.

I see Monty and we chat about pizza and all sorts of things.

It's because of our mutual love of film that brings us together.

It's pretty magical.

If you haven't been to a film festival my listeners out there if you haven't been to a film festival, find one near you and go and you will realize these are my people.

This is who I'm supposed to hang out with.

So obviously this is a visual effects podcast, so I want to talk about what you guys have seen in terms of VFX, visual effects, special effects, any sort of effects work, over your years of watching movies for the festivals, both the films that you've accepted and the ones that you didn't.

Both horror and sci-fi genres can really heavily rely on effects work, both in camera, special effects and post-production visual effects, and obviously there's always exceptions.

I can think of primer as a good example of a sci-fi movie that just didn't rely on effects work at all.

So tell me, what have you seen over the years, what's worked and what didn't work well, I'm going to say, first off, everything's improved greatly in the last few years.

You know people were a little more practical effects on a short film at least you know, for horror stuff.

But you know, I've seen it get better and better and better through the years and sometimes you sit back and you say to yourself, wow, this is short film and this guy was able to pull this off visually with probably a budget to feed his crew at Denny's, you know.

So it's been.

It's really been pretty amazing to see such a change, pretty amazing to see such a change.

Honestly, I think Stackpole's really got the biggest change in things, because I mean sci-fi, it really heavily relies on effects and I've seen, I saw his run last year and I was like wow, holy shit, can I say shit?

uh, I guess I said it already all right cool yeah, I was like I was like wow, man, like like people are really they're getting.

Technology is either getting easier to use or people are just getting better at it yeah, I mean that's very, very true.

I, down through the years the effects have gotten so much better and it seems that people are a lot more comfortable working with effects.

And it makes it really, really important, because years ago you would have people that had perfected an effect and then would try and build a story around it and and it wouldn't.

It just wouldn't be there.

I mean, they'd have a, they'd have a 10 minute short and five minutes of it was the effect, and then they didn't really do anything with the other, with the other five minutes, and so it didn't really hold together as a story.

But now, because that world of possibilities is so opened up, they're able to have their really good story and go and then I put this effect in here and I put this effect in here and it really feels kind of organic to the stories, whereas before it was just tacked on.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen it, it's run the gamut over the years.

I could say I mean anything from more like trauma-esque effects, you know where.

It's just kind of just splattery all over the place to stuff that looks like it may have been done with an iPhone as like just as a standard push-in effect.

But for a lot of stuff, when we get some of these films early and they could be pre-effects that I'll have to watch and, yeah, they'll have stand-in effects.

So you have to, you have to kind of go with what feels like oh, it's going to go along with it, because you know you may have incomplete stuff that you just have to kind of rely on how the story is going, how everything is working and well, is it going to come together when they do have that effects put in?

And?

But the thing is, a lot of films don't have to worry about when submitting if the effects is done, because a lot of people can get around it, watch, watch and really feel how it is while they're still trying to perfect it.

Yeah, you know, the program that I do is showcases, so a lot of what we see and showcase are films that have distributors and they have funding or they have you know something that is giving them a little bit more of a advantage over competition films.

Um, and it's interesting to hear how filmmakers are using visual effects to add production value to their, to their films.

And you know, I remember there remember a few years ago, there was this zombie apocalypse film that came out.

And the landscapes.

I was like, where did?

you shoot this at?

Did you shoot this in the desert?

Or where did you find that background house?

And he goes oh, it's all VFX.

He goes, it's all stuff that we added.

And after it was over, we knew we wanted to have this landscape that looked like a real big dense desert over.

We knew we wanted to have this landscape that looked like a real big, like dense desert because we didn't.

We couldn't find it, we couldn't shoot off of some place, so we just masked it off and shot green screen and built it in, built in the backgrounds, and you would have never have noticed it like it was.

It was so seamless and how they were able to do it, and you know listening to some of these filmmakers now that are coming through who are using VFX to really adds like a, a, a value that they, that they can't purchase and the value that you know that gives their film more depth and more drama.

It's pretty amazing and you know that even comes with like you know what I call, like what you know I will always be a practical effect guy for horror films.

That is what I love.

But you'll see, sometimes people are using blood splatters or they're using, you know, wounds and stuff to like add this drama to the scene and make it a little bit bigger.

And you know, for the longest time when that was coming out, you know your, your eye, kind of the uncanny valley of it all, like kind of sees, you know all that didn't look like that's not how blood moves or that's not how fluid moves.

And now, like it, people are getting better and better and better if the color is getting better, the, the, the look is getting better and it's just, it's pretty amazing.

Like you, you start to see it now and now, now I think in the last probably five years I will watch a film, go through the credits and see, like who is their vfx coordinator, who's the guy that's doing it, just to see.

Oh, I wonder if they even put some in here, if they even thought about that.

I think about like even for the dead thing as well too.

Like our mobile app that we have in the film is actually not shot on the.

On our app it's actually green screened out and we built it in over top of it and we were so worried about how that would look because we were like that you know it, it it might not track right.

You know, we weren't even sure if we were shooting with the right color green at the time and before you knew it, like you see it on screen and it's so seamless.

And the guy who did our VFX was like, oh yeah, it wasn't that hard.

Like he was so calm about it.

Like we were like, oh, this is why these people get these jobs, because they don't make it stressful at all.

And we were stressed, I remember on set we were stressed.

We were like, oh, we aren't doing it right, we're not sure what's going on.

And then he just looks and he goes oh, you guys got it all, we're good, don't worry about it.

And like maybe the thumb, because the girl had to swipe on the on the screen, so maybe the thumb's gonna get into it.

It's gonna be an issue?

No, no problem at all.

It looked perfect.

I freshly saw it last night, so it's funny.

You know, you're right, you said something that really makes a lot of sense there.

I think we've all gotten a little bit more used to it as well, because I remember when spartacus came out, the showtime show, and my dad was all about it he was, you got to watch his show, spartacus and I put on the first episode and I'm like this is all like digital bullshit.

Blood like this is there's nothing practical about.

How could you like you like this.

It's like a cartoon fucking show.

And you know, then I continued watching it a little bit and I got into season.

Episode three was awesome and then I'm like I'm hooked.

But now I don't think twice about that.

I mean, you know we mentioned the Mandalorian earlier.

I forgot that Mandalorian III came out and I never went back and watched it.

So I literally started watching it like the last couple days and I was thinking about it last night like how incredible this like dinosaur or bird thing that flew in that grabbed the little training kid from you know, the Mandalorians and took them off.

This thing looked incredible.

I mean it looked like it was real the days of things looking a little shoddy in the background.

You know, it's really gotten absolutely incredible and some of our independent filmmakers have kind of tapped into this market and it's it's.

I'm seeing stuff that I'm just like.

You know, even sometimes the story may not be that good, but he pulled off something and I'm like do I put this in there because it deserves for this effect, deserves it for an independent guy, or do I?

Eh, the story's not that good.

Sometimes I got to flip that coin around you know.

But I think you point out something which is really, really important.

Yeah, the tools are getting better, but also what people are willing to accept when they use those tools and the fact that they've got a lot of experience watching what other people have done and they're able to go okay, I didn't like how they did it, so I'm going to do it just this way, just a little bit more.

And everybody keeps refining the, their techniques and, and you know, the other filmmakers see that they learn from it, and so it there's just sort of an exhalation of of competence, as, as you get this feedback built into the system.

Yeah, and, like I was, a few years ago the Void was submitted.

I don't know if you've seen the Void, it was probably about a decade ago.

It actually got picked up for distribution before it could be in the festival, so it actually got pushed out.

But I was blown away by the use of both practical and digital effects in it.

They did such a good job of marrying the two together.

I was so stoked.

I'm like how how they were able to do that on such a small, shoestring budget was was incredible, and that one was one that really stood out.

It was unfortunate that we couldn't actually show it at the end, but it was.

There's several examples like that.

Yeah, I mean anytime that you can marry practical and digital together, that's married.

Practical and digital together.

That's that's the sweet spot, right?

You know, I always look at, uh, peter jackson's lord of the rings versus his hobbit movies.

Right, hobbit leaned way too heavily on digital, whereas lord of the rings trilogy it was practical, it was digital.

It was.

It was you know, small people in wigs.

It was digital compositing to make elijah wood small.

It was a, you know a, a CG creature in a miniature environment that was sculpted.

It was all of these different effects combined together to create this illusion of reality.

Do you guys think that the increase and improvement in effects that you've seen over the years, do you think it's driven by technology?

Is it driven by what I call YouTube film school, where there's a tutorial for everything?

Or is it just driven by filmmaker passion?

Probably a little bit of both.

It's the accessibility to it, you know, just be able to have access to the tools and know how to use them in a way that you know you can look up on youtube how to do basically anything anymore.

So if you want to do something, you can get an idea on how to do it.

So there is some of that I.

I think that has helped drastically, and especially for people that were maybe afraid to get their feet wet to begin with.

They know okay, maybe I can give this a try and do it instead of just going.

You know what.

Throw other hands over the head like this is something we can't even attempt to do.

So I think it gives people more creative leeway to try and get to the places they're trying to go, and they may have more of a more of a pathway to do so everything is going to evolve, even like playing in a band and going into a recording studio with an engineer and a guy and he's doing the recording for you and he's an expert, he knows what he's doing.

You're going to find that kid that figures out how to do that technology at home.

He's going to record his own album at home.

He he's gonna record his own guitar parts right into his computer and do it all like that and do it on his own.

And I'm one of those guys that still feels the need to find the expert to do things.

I like to try to figure some things out, but I really believe that somebody that is a master in their craft and does what they do for a living is gonna do it better than me trying to do it.

But you know, with technology today you can learn how to do shit on your own.

You can figure it out If you find the right tools.

As my father would say, it's the tools that make the man.

If you find the right tools and you learn how to do those tools, you could do a lot of it at home.

I personally am a bigger you know, phil Tippett guy.

You know I like the practical effects, the Ray Harryhausen moving the Medusa or the Cyclops a little bit.

I still love when I watch RoboCop and I see Ed 209 come on stage and it's that wonky, you know claymation thing versus versus seeing something today that maybe is not.

But I listen, I appreciate the the work that goes into digitally making you know some of that stuff as well.

I mean, it's, it's pretty incredible.

I think.

I think one other aspect involving the technology.

Um, yeah, you can go to youtube and see how to do stuff, but then on the back end of pretty much any youtube program, you know, there's always an invitation to go to their discord.

You know where you're meeting other filmmakers that are doing the same sort of thing.

I mean, I see it with with writers groups all over the place, so that you know there's there's this ability to reach out to people on a very informal, one-on-one basis, where they're all being treated as, hey, we're all the same and, yeah, this is how I did this.

You want to look for this.

This is the filter you want to use, and I think that that ability to share that information back and forth democratizes everything and ends up raising the level of quality, just because now everybody's starting from the same foundation.

You know it's not that.

You know, back in the olden days, you know you'd have to go to Hollywood and you'd have to apprentice out there for 10 years before you'd have access to some of this stuff.

But now it's hey, yeah, you're having fun doing this, so am I.

You ought to try this.

It'll blow your mind of the idea that filmmakers' visions are just getting more and more passionate.

Right, they want to see things that they haven't seen before, which is making the developers, the programmers, the people that are doing the work, have to learn more and more aggressively and think bigger.

And you know, you think back to, like you know, what James Cameron was doing on Terminator 2, you know with you know fluid liquid effects and like how, like even that looked amazing.

I still go back and watch that movie and I'm like that's really good, that's really really good.

And then I just watched the abyss like a month ago I haven't seen that in years.

Talk about incredible, yeah, and you know like.

You know that.

That's that's where I think you also get that piece as well too.

It's just the demand from filmmakers who are trying to make something more grand.

You know, you think about some of these novels now that people are like we don't know how to make it, because we just don't know how to envision it.

And now, like with technology, you know doing leaps and bounds from when I started on a terrible videotape camera that I was shooting stuff on, and now you, my cell phone has a better camera setup than anything I had just five years ago.

So you know, that's that's amazing, that how far, how fast it's come in just that time.

You know to where it was before and I think you know it comes from a thing of necessity, and passion, I feel like, is where it comes from.

Yeah for sure, technology has always been a driver of art and vice versa.

You know, if you think about it like every, when we had I also started with the you know crappy VHS cameras and stuff like that, every button on that camera existed because some artists was like, hey, I want to do this, hey, I need to control this aspect, and so then the engineers would figure out how to do it Right.

So technology and art have always been in this dance throughout human history.

Uh, and we're seeing it accelerate because of the internet.

You know, uh, like you guys are talking about the, the accessibility of information, the uh, accessibility of.

Here's how I did it, and then I'm happy to share my, my secrets and show you behind the curtain and all of that uh, which is which is great, and I, I imagine, uh, I don't I don't look at tutorials for practical effects as much.

You know squibs and and gore effects and things like that, but I imagine it's the same as, as sort of uh, what I see in the digital effects realm, where there's a dozen new tutorials every day on YouTube by reputable folks who've done serious, you know, excellent work.

Um, so, you know, for any filmmakers starting out to me film.

The YouTube film school is.

The is the place to start.

You're going to find you want to do an effect.

You saw an effect in a Sam Raimi movie, or you know a Robert Eggers movie or a you know an A24 horror movie.

You want to do that effect.

Hit YouTube first.

How do I do this effect?

You're going to find a tutorial for it.

If you want to do anything, hit YouTube first.

I had a hard wire, a garbage disposal, in my sink because it doesn't come with a plug.

And I'm reading instructions like I've got no idea how to do this and I watch the YouTube video and the guy goes you take the kit, you buy the wire kit, you do this, you plug it in.

I did it yeah.

Same thing applies to and I'm not handy.

I promise you.

At all.

He's not.

Well, you're brave're brave.

Plumbing and electrical is where I draw the line I can.

I can swing a hammer, but don't ask me to fix anything that.

Uh, that doesn't just automatically come with a plug and I don't want to touch water at all.

No, forget it.

So question for uh, for brandon and danny what do you guys look for in selecting films for the horror portion of the festival?

Are there specific themes or stories that appeal to you, or specific sub genres Like?

Horror can be pretty broad.

There's supernatural horror, there's slasher horror.

You know what are the things that grab you when you're looking at these films that are submitted.

Well, myself, I mean, I love the whole genre and I have a soft spot for slasher horror from from the 80s.

That's kind of where I ground my teeth.

You might say, uh, but I mean, as far as for these it's.

I mean, I particularly myself do not like found footage films, but even this year there's a found footage film.

If it works, it works.

You know, I try to take my, some of my personal preferences and maybe some of my things that I don't like and put them aside when I watch it and go.

What is going to work for an audience, for one, and sometimes there'll be.

You know, some years there's six found footage films, some years there's nine zombie films and nobody wants all.

You know, I get three films.

You don't want all three of them to be a zombie film, so you go.

All right, this is the best zombie film, this is the best one of this genre and these will all kind of fit together to be an interesting spectrum.

You know, you don't want all horror comedies, you don't want all vampire films, but you, so you go.

You want to kind of what I when I'm doing it, I want to kind of run a variety and not just be too pigeonholed in like one different area.

Yeah, you know, every year it seems to be there's a certain theme going on and maybe it's just a theme of society or whatever it is.

But, like this year was a lot of ghost stuff that I got, last year was a lot of women empowerment things that I had.

The pandemic years.

You really saw that the pandemic year it was a lot of COVID short films.

You know, when I watch the short films, I watch them over and over and over and I start to grade them in A, b, c and then I go back and watch the A's and the B's, and I go back and watch the A's and I make notes and I literally try to put together.

It's like listening to a mixtape.

So you know you got the song that comes in the first song of the album has got to be nuts, and then you got a good, solid song and then the next song could be a little slower, and I and I watch once I put the list together what I like, I start to watch them in order.

Now, I don't watch the whole thing over and over from start to finish, but I get the feel and to try to put it together in a, in a way where that mixtape flows well.

Um, one thing I, I, I, I, I'm.

We get a lot of zombie stuff and I try not to do too much zombie stuff.

It's not that I don't like zombie stuff.

I mean, you can see over that shoulder that's a Dawn of the Dead poster signed by Ken Foray back there.

I'm a big zombie fan, it's just, I feel, like some of those zombie short films.

It's just like they.

It's like they called it in and just did it.

We made a short film.

It's a zombie, unless there's something a little bit more extraordinary, unique about the story that may grab me I really like.

I'm a humor horror guy, from the Evil Dead to Slither to even you know Frank Henlotter's stuff like Basket Case and Frankenhooker.

So I like to mix a little bit of that into it as well, because I think if you've got too much horrific gore and blood and guts, the average person isn't going to want to sit there and just watch that over and over.

So I try to mix some of the comedy stuff in the middle of it just to kind of bring you up and down, up and down.

A little bit of a roller coaster.

You know, with the short films I got more leeway to kind of play than Brandon does, because Brandon if you got three movies.

You got three movies, that's it, that's the end of the story.

I have, you know, maybe eight, fifteen short films between two horror segments to put together a horror A and a horror B, to really kind of get a good feel and that flow.

And I have only had one or two movies.

The short films have to come out of the festival, for maybe they got picked up to make a feature film or something happened.

Brandon, I know you've lost a few here and there.

Yeah, but I think almost every year at least the winner usually gets picked up.

I think we have a very good track rate of our films getting distribution that have been in the festival.

It's been great.

Yeah, like that death metal horror movie.

That was a selection one year.

I think they made a second one finally that one.

A lot of the ones he picks ends up getting picked up for sure.

Yeah, we've had really good luck with it.

It's been really cool and meeting filmmakers that were very small, that are now and have blown up, you know it's crazy, you know.

Yeah, that's also one of the exciting things about film festivals is you never know.

You never know when the director whose hand you shake after the q a is going to blow up and be the next, the next big thing.

And it's kind of neat to uh to see them at sort of that ground floor of their career.

It sounds to me like you guys put a lot of thought into how you program your films, which is great, and it's one thing that I don't think enough independent filmmakers realize.

A lot of filmmakers, when they submit to festivals, when they get rejected, they think it's a statement about the quality of their film, or they think it's a statement about you know the politics of the film festival, or or that they didn't have an inside connection or anything.

But it's a lot more it's.

It's a lot more nuanced than that, right it's as you say yeah, you're trying to program an experience.

Um, you know, when I was making films before I shifted fully into vfx, one time one and only time I got a, a letter, a handwritten letter, from a festival programming committee that said we loved your movie, we just couldn't fit it that's happened too, yeah oh yeah, yeah.

There's plenty of times where I'm sure you guys love a movie, but it's like uh, like you said, I can't program three zombie horror movies, so I gotta pick the best one, even though I love these other two yeah, like when I, when I submit, I have my three and for each of those films there's an alternate.

So if this film doesn't make it, then this film needs to be the next one in line whether but it not.

If but it goes by.

If this film doesn't make it, then this film needs to be the next one in line whether but it not.

If but it goes by.

If this film, then this film, not.

You know a list that, if what, any one of these, this is the next one, but a very particular but if this film can't make it, then this is the next film.

If this one can't, then this one.

So you know, you have to really think about what's, because I mean all films get picked up.

I mean it happens almost every year.

One of mine is going to get picked up and it can't be shown.

So you gotta, you gotta expect that, you have to anticipate it yeah no that's great, michael.

Let's let's turn to you on the sci-fi side of the festival.

You know what guides you in selecting films.

What, uh, what's your process?

Uh, you know what are the things that get you fired up when you're putting together a program.

So what I look for, especially in the features, because you're going to have a long time commitment First thing I look for is are there characters that are interesting?

Are these characters I want to spend time with?

Because if they're not, you know, then really the the SFX budget and what they do really doesn't matter.

And the second thing is is this really science fiction?

You know, does the technology you're representing does?

Does whatever the story is has something to do with science and and how science is going to help resolve the problem?

And the classic sort of science fiction.

What separates classic science fiction from just the stories that would appear in Saturday Evening Post?

You know, it's got to have that unreal element that works into it.

And then after that, if you've got good characters, if the acting's good, I mean all of us are going to be looking for good acting, and that's part of it.

If the acting's good, I mean all of us are going to be looking for good acting, and that's part of it.

But if the story is good and the characters are good, then it comes down to the quality of that filmmaking.

And so those are the main things that I look at when it comes to the short films, exactly what Danny was saying.

You know you're looking for these films and it's, to my mind, it's like curating an anthology of fiction.

You know you're looking for all of these stories and you're going to put them in a way that when the people go in, that first film is going to hit them and sit there and go.

They're going to go wow.

And then you take them through that roller coaster and hopefully that last film going out leaves them with another wow, uh.

So you know they're looking at this whole package and saying that was very cool.

And because I have an A program and a B program, uh, my A program is is generally my, uh, science fiction, you know, catch all basket I sort of want.

You know, if I can, if there's a cartoon, great, I want that to be in there.

If there's a, you know, a Star Trek II kind of you know organized exploring picture, that's great.

If there's, you know, a nerd out on the web, that's great.

Anything that would fit science fiction, that will go into that.

And then in the other program, as they were saying, there tend to be themes, and so you're watching these films and there will be just a theme that absolutely lines itself up, and so you try and put all of those in there.

You know, this year for me the B program was my international program, because there were tons of films that came in from out of the United States and they were really really good and they all just lined up really really nicely.

And, going to a point that was made earlier, one of the films that made it into that international program this year had been submitted two years previous and I hadn't been able to use it, and it wasn't because it was a bad film, it just didn't fit into any program.

But you know, this year it was like oh okay, you know, now we've got something where we can accommodate this and so yeah, absolutely.

You know it's again.

As a writer, I've gotten my share of rejection slips and you always do think, you know horrible things of, oh my God, they hated it, I'm an awful person, and it's like no, no, you know, loved your film, you did great things.

You just weren't quite there.

Yet you know the competition was fierce this year, know, so, sorry, try again.

You know there was a short film a few years ago that I really wanted and, uh, it just it was a little long and it just didn't fit.

I couldn't get it in either programs and I hit up jason the next year, asked them to resubmit because I really wanted to show this movie, this, this is the movie.

I don't know whatever happened with that, but maybe they just were like, yeah, I'm not resubmitting to this guy again, but I really wanted to show it.

It just was a little long that year and it stuck with me.

It was like it was like a black and white.

It looked like King diamonds video for sleepless nights in the graveyard and it was all black and white and dark and it was just it was awesome.

But sometimes you know you get a short film that's 35 minutes or 40 minutes.

I mean you're, I'm gonna.

Yeah, if you're gonna make a short film.

Make a short film, yeah, I'm gonna have to cut a lot of other people out that maybe make some really good films, out that maybe make some really good films to fit that.

And I think this year I got a.

I think I got one that's 24, 25 minutes.

I liked it.

It was really done well, but it definitely takes down the fact that I, you know, I could have fit maybe three or four more five to seven minute short films that were really good, but this guy's 25 minute one was just.

It was worth putting it into the mix, you know, for at least 25 yeah, if you're doing a short film in in my mind every second over 12 minutes, that film better be getting better and better and better, because otherwise you know, you're, you're, you're really hard to fit into a I.

I mean, we'd like what?

8 films in a short program if you can do that.

Our program is supposed to be 80-90 minutes, so you know as many films as you can get in.

It would be great yeah, you're going to lose people on that drum solo just sitting there.

This guy's still playing the fucking drums already.

Come on that's a great analogy, monty.

Anything you want to add as a, as a, you know, an overarching, uh thought about programming or or selecting movies, or or any of the stuff that these guys have talked about so, first and foremost, um, I work with a lot of other festivals and my film toured a bunch of festivals this year.

I love what just happened this last 10 minutes of conversation because this is why we have programmers who've been here for 20 years, because they think about the films the way they do and not saying that other film programmers don't do this.

But there's a reason why these guys are doing it.

It's because they put so much thought into it, they put so much attention into it and you know you can feel how all three of them have kind of different feelings and ideas about what their program's going to be.

But that's what makes them so great and that's why you know when we do come to the festival going to be.

But that's what makes them so great and that's why you know when we do come to the festival.

I'm oftentimes telling people I say oh, you got an open spot here in your schedule.

Here's Horror Shorts A.

Here's Sci-Fi B.

Here's a horror feature.

Go watch them because I guarantee you you're going to get something that you haven't seen before, something that is unique because that's what our programmers do.

You know, for showcase films it's a little different.

We're kind of at the beck and call of the distributor.

So a lot of times these films have found distribution already or they're on the festival circuit already looking for distribution, so working with them.

Sometimes there's big asks.

We have films that we really, really want, that they aren't doing anybody that isn't South by Southwest or sundance or one of the big, big, major horror, horror uh festivals out there.

So you know, we're constantly competing against those places and, um, you know, this year we are.

We have some crazy films that we were able to get.

You know, freaky tales with the mandalorian, we got the surfer with nick cage.

Um, you know, these big, big movies that are coming already have major distribution.

We have them in our program this year.

That's usually how it goes.

We have these very big, well-known films and then you'll get something smaller.

You'll get something like Dead Lover, which is a small little indie and it's completely different than every other film.

I think that's where I that's why I love, you know, horror, sci-fi programming and the stuff that we do is because you can get everything.

You can get comedy, you can get something really dark, you can get something really unique.

You know there's the, the, the themes and genres are so flexible that you can get everything out of these programs and, yeah, it's pretty amazing to see these all come together Every year that I do this.

I'm very, very just blown away by how much better it feels like we're getting right.

I think to an extent there's going to be a time when I'm like, I don't know, maybe this is the year that it doesn't all work out, or something like that, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Every year just continues to blow me away, and that's the credit of these programmers.

Well, that's a perfect segue to my next question, Monty.

Let's talk about this year's festival.

What films and filmmakers are you guys most excited about?

Well, I'm excited about my three films that I've got in the Curty Point, the Crucifix, blood of the Exorcist and Black Theta.

They're all three very small independent features.

As far as Monty's picks, there's two Texas Chainsaw story films that I'm really interested in.

Like you mentioned, the Surfer.

I'm really stoked to see that.

Let's see.

There's Pedro Pascal horror film that was on that list.

I'm really looking forward to seeing him.

That looked really interesting.

Basically, I'll go down there and I'll just look at the schedule and try and see as much as I can while I'm there, because usually if you have time, look to see what you got.

I pick a film and you go.

I love it.

It's great to do it like that.

So it's always fun and there's so much to do down at the festival.

Whether it's down and you're going around looking at the all the booths or with a silent auction, or going to the party pavilion or going to the panels, you know you could walk around and you go.

Oh shit, I need to get to a film in three minutes and run off.

There's so much to do.

You feel like you're being pulled in 90 directions.

That's awesome.

I think that's a great aspect of the festival.

I'm stoked for it.

I'm stoked for it every year.

Yeah, I've got a lot of good shorts in the mix.

One of them actually is C Thomas Howell, penelope Ann Miller and the little scrawny guy from the show Bookie.

He's the guy that owns the funeral parlor.

He's in a lot of other stuff.

I think he was in Road Trip.

He hooked up with the girl who was totally different sizes between the two of them.

It's that guy.

That's a pretty good story.

There's stuff that's everything from witches to uh uh, a guy that works for like a UPS company who has got to deliver body parts.

Um, there's one that I really liked called porcelain.

That was, uh, almost like Guillermo del Toro made the movie and then uh said I'm going to give it to another guy and put his name on it.

It really had a really cool feel with this guy that lives in this gothic castle and this kid shows up and jumps over the wall and he's got all these robots working for him that he's created it.

Really, you know, it's just a good mix of stuff.

Me and Brandon are also hosting Jesse James meets Frankenstein's daughter.

Yes, as like a Mystery of Science, theater riff commentary thing.

So this is the first time we've done this.

We're looking forward to it April 5th.

We're doing that.

And it's not his daughter, by the way, it's his fucking granddaughter who makes a title like that.

First two minutes into it it says his grandfather did it.

I'm like grandfather what the fuck I'm looking at the title what?

I guess it just didn't ring.

Well, you know, paul, I want you to know that there's one film that I put at the top of my list for this, and it's these two.

Riffing on that, I know just by being in a room with them, and I've been in a room with them where I have done nothing but listen and laugh for like three hours straight so the only thing I asked was can we curse?

because if we couldn't curse I don't think we could do it yeah it's gonna be amazing, I can't wait.

It's gonna be amazing, I bet well on my schedule Now.

I have something I want to do there, Michael.

How about you?

What are you most excited about in terms of films and filmmakers?

Well, again, listening to those two guys I think is going to that's really a lot of fun.

You know I'm really happy with the films that I've got.

Silent Planet is just a really cool science fiction film.

Two prisoners are on a planet serving out life sentences, and just how they end up relating to each other and discovering things about themselves.

You know, it's just two really good actors, you know, in one place and it's just a brilliant film and I enjoyed that.

And then there's another one called the Strange Dark, which is a film about a family.

The father's made a discovery and other people want that discovery and the funny thing about that was apparently they got picked up for another set of programs in the same festival, so there'll be plenty of opportunities to actually go ahead and see that.

And again, the international program on the shorts.

We've got films from Malaysia, canada, korea, germany, sweden, mexico and Great Britain, mexico and Great Britain.

It just, it was just amazing watching these films come in from everywhere and just seeing you know how much science fiction means to to folks.

I mean, you think of science fiction as being largely, you know, american and sure it's popular in Germany and a little bit in England, but to see, you know, people coming in from all over the place is just unbelievably cool.

And I think you know, at the festival, the other thing which I really, really enjoy and we've talked about this a little bit is getting to meet and talk with the filmmakers, getting to find out what their goals were.

You know here, you've chosen their films, they're in the thing, and now you get to find out you goals were.

You know here, you've chosen their films, they're in the thing, and now you get to find out.

You know, what were you thinking?

You know, or, or you know, in the conversation having them, you know, say look, I wasn't sure if this worked, what did you think?

You know, and you just sort of watch this, this creative, uh, uh creative dialogue going on where everybody is suddenly getting better or getting some insights, and it really becomes kind of a magical experience.

You know, even if you're just a fly on the wall, listening to filmmakers talk to other filmmakers, it's just really, really cool.

I'm excited to see too.

It's not a horror, sci-fi or anything like that, but there's a documentary on George Siegel.

I'm a real big fan of George Siegel's stuff, from St Valentine's Day Massacre to that movie he did with Burt Reynolds Anytime you see him in a movie the movie he did with he found that his son was black.

It was what's the guy's name From the Equalizer.

Oh, I met him in Italy.

We're with you.

We can't help.

Yeah whatever.

You never take us to Italy.

Yeah, no, come on.

The guy's hang on, but anyways, I got to look him up.

I can't remember.

I can't believe I can't remember his name.

I won him days today, but yeah, he's just, he was a great actor.

I thought he was Denzel Washington, come on.

Denzel Washington there we go.

He told the story he ran into him.

Well, I mean to of the Equalizer.

I'm not talking about that guy with the rapper girl.

It really only narrows it down to two Queen Latifah from Equalizer.

But yeah, I know I was a huge fan of the Goldbergs when he was on that.

He was like one of those guys that seemed like he was like your old uncle, that you had all really love, and I guess they filmed a lot of stuff about him because he had all these crazy stories.

During the Goldbergs they were filming interviews with him.

I can't wait to see it.

Yeah, I couldn't think of the name earlier.

Mike Flanagan is who I was thinking of, as the director that got his start at the Phoenix Film Festival.

His first film in Satia was the first festival he ever submitted to.

First festival he got picked up was F&I.

I watched it.

It was awesome and he's blown up huge since then.

I can't wait to see what he does with the Dark Tower, you know.

So it's awesome to be able to see these progressions of careers.

He was such an awesome, cool guy and very, very humble then, so it was super awesome to do something like that.

Yeah, I love his stuff.

I'm, by and large, not a horror fan, but anything that Mike Flanagan does I'm there for and I actually I was lucky enough to go to the Toronto film festival last year and I stepped off the train from the airport, stepped off the train and ran into him and his wife on the street and talked to them for a bit and they were such lovely people.

Yeah, yeah, they're fantastic.

And the Life of Chuck, which is his film that comes out in a couple of months, incredible movie, and it's got horror elements.

It's an adaptation of another Stephen King adaptation, which he's done several of.

It's not a straight horror movie.

It's really wonderful.

Cool.

Monty, what are you excited about this year's festival?

I love the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I often will tell people say, monty, what's the best horror film ever made?

I say it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre and I often will tell people, say what's the best horror film ever made.

I say it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre because there is everything that was before Texas Chainsaw Massacre and there's everything after Texas Chainsaw Massacre because of how much impact that had for independent films.

So we have two Texas Chainsaw Massacre themed films playing a documentary called Dinner with Leatherface, which is a really heartfelt kind of story about Gunner Hansen and his upbringing within the Leatherface franchise, being known as this pretty intimidating character but being just a big softie behind the scenes, which I think if you get to know anybody who's a horror movie fan or horror movie lover, we might look a little rough on the outside, but I promise you we're all you know.

A lot of us are doing pretty amazing things.

I always look at these two guys, not that they look rough or anything like that, but uh, yeah, I am actually for for, uh, the audience members who are on audio.

Only Danny was just doing his best, monstrous impression.

My tour Johnson.

You got a good one.

So we got Dinner with Leatherface, and then we have another movie called Chain Reactions, which is a breakdown of five artists who've been influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

A breakdown of five artists who've been influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre Patton Oswalt's one of them, takashi Miike's in it, karen Kusama's in it as well too.

Just people have been influenced by that movie, which I just found like really adorable.

And how?

Because I'm very influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Freaky Tales, like we mentioned earlier with Pedro Pascal, is a wild mixtape of like five different genres molded into one, all set in 1987, Oakland.

There's another movie.

We have the surfer with Nicholas Cage, which just go watch the trailer.

There's no other reason for me to explain it, because once you see the trailer, you're going to be sold.

Nicholas Cage, I love.

Nicholas Cage we got a really cool dystopian future film called 40 acres which is all about a post-pandemic, post-plague United States in Canada where a family is kind of living off the land but they end up being hunted by cannibals.

Pretty great film has like tones of Jordan Peele and social commentary about kind of where our world's at moving into the future and let me see.

I'll give you a couple more.

There's a movie called A Desert, which is a neo-noir horror film about a photographer who befriends two people on a road trip and it just turns out to be just awful for him.

Really great group of filmmakers, really passionate filmmakers as well too.

They just have done a really good job with this film.

And then, this one hasn't been seen a whole lot.

I think we're like maybe it's maybe fourth or fifth time it's being seen, but it's called Jimmy and Stiggs.

Jimmy and Stiggs is a story about two best buddies who have a pretty wild night, and one of them believes that they've been kidnapped by aliens and believes that an alien invasion's coming in.

So he gets his buddy to come and help him defend the world.

But it's directed by Joe Bigos, who has done some pretty wild out there horror films and really believes in practical effect groupiness.

Jimmy and Stiggs is is gonna blow people away because it's it's funny it's a little different than what he's done before.

Um, and it's uh, it's very, uh hard-edged in terms of its uh, its, its content as well too.

So it's a it's really good.

I believe joe is trying to be here for that screening um, for our major showcase films.

You know, we're pretty, we're pretty excited about who might show up to the film festival.

So just keep looking at that program, keep looking at social media.

We start doing announcements.

As we get a little bit closer, we'll tell you some pretty cool things that are coming up in terms of some guests that we'll be having, as well as some cool events that will be coming up as well too Fantastic.

Can you guys think of any standout effects work If there's an effects fan listening or watching what's one or two movies that they definitely need to see?

The Thing.

Just watch the Thing.

No, no, no, I mean in your festival.

Oh, in the festival, sorry, sorry, I should be more specific.

Overall In mine, black Theta it's got some really cool very budget.

You can tell they're all done on a budget.

It was, uh, it was it's written directed and starring uh, tim conley, you know he's did the whole thing.

You could do the visual effects.

It was done on a shoestring budget but they did them very well on for very.

So the particular effects there's a lot of good blood but it's a lot of digital blood and it works.

So I would definitely check that out as far as how to do some homespun effects on a budget, well, I don't know if I would say anything that like specifically really jumps out effects-wise, but I really like the makeup on the witches and lifeboat.

Um, they got these like kind of sea hag looking witches and they're on this boat with this guy and there's a little twist behind it.

But uh, uh, I, I, they got like a creature that we could see in the water that looks like a kraken, you know, like you could kind of see like the pentacle.

It was pretty cool.

I mean, listen, it's short films.

They got stuff that kind of comes in and comes out and it comes out quick and you're on to the next film.

It's even hard for me to remember right now which ones that had something that really jumped out.

I would say that one I really liked, the Porcelain Robots I thought I mean for a short film that was pretty nuts out there and the Flying Dick in the Parcel.

I'll throw in the Flying Dick.

Gotta, throw in the flying dick.

There's a flying dick.

When there's a flying dick, you gotta look out for it.

Yeah, it's not my first dick in the short films.

There was one a couple years ago and I remember I hit up Jason.

I'm like there's a dick in this and he's like, well, if it's good, use it.

And I was like, eh, okay, now I let the doors open on on dicks.

I'm like put a flying dick in this one, michael, any, uh, any standout effects that you recommend?

I think, just silent planet.

The way that they put together this, this prison world, I mean this just world where people were in pods and and showed the effects of them having been there for a long time, that was very, very cool.

And then in the shorts program, um, there's a film called while some must sleep and the.

There the effects were used just really sparingly, but you know little things here and there that just let you know that.

You know it's the future, this is different.

Um, you know.

So it's like oh yeah, we're not.

You know that.

You know it's the future.

This is different.

Um, you know.

So it's like oh yeah, we're not.

You know, we're not just in somebody's apartment anymore.

Uh, it made it very, uh, very alive and very, very real monty, anything come to mind for you yeah, I got one called the demon, the daemon.

Um, uh, it's a lovecraftian cosmic horror film.

Uh, really great special effects, really great practical effects, really great VFX Good combination of all those little pieces in there.

It's basically a slow burn horror film about a man who goes to a lake to resolve some trauma and something's in the lake.

You take the Lovecraftian piece of it and take that wherever you want to take it and it's going to take you there.

So it's a.

It's a pretty great one, a really good combination of kind of everything effects driven Freaky Tales does some beautiful background effect works and really great like kind of built-in designs that are really just kind of put there to kind of give a little bit more depth and drama to the atmosphere.

There's some great stuff in that as well too.

Fantastic.

Where can people find out more about the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival?

You can go to phoenixfilmfestivalcom.

The full schedule's up there.

We have what we have in our printed physical schedule, which is always something that everybody wants in a few probably a week or so, but right now you can look at your entire schedule.

You can build your entire schedule for every day of the festival.

I always tell people when they come to the film festival go to that website.

There's so much more than just movies as well too.

You know, while we're there for movies, there's all these great interactive pieces.

There's a lot of great parties.

There's a lot of great educational elements as well too.

So you know too, you don't just have to be a film lover to enjoy the film festival.

You could be a film maker.

You could be just a film fan.

You could just like going to a cool party.

There's a lot going on.

We have a film prom.

We have a lot of cool events during the week.

Look at the schedule and you'll find something that you'll love.

The silent auction is always awesome too.

There's some good stuff.

I got a Texas Chainsaw Massacre picture signed by Leatherface from Part 2 last year.

I think we have one of our posters this year that is signed by all the Leatherfaces.

Oh wow.

Every Leatherface.

Only if Daniel and I bid it against each other on that.

All of the Leatherfaces have signed it, so that might be cool to see very nice and if listeners, viewers, if you've never been to the phoenix film festival, um, you should know.

It's all happening in one place, at the scottsdale harkin, scottsdale 101 location.

The festival basically takes over half of the the multiplex and, uh opening weekend there's a big party tent out behind the theater where the silent auction will be.

Industry night on, uh on friday night, kids day on saturday during the day, uh, film prom, saturday night, uh, panel discussions, all that sort of stuff.

Everything's central.

It's all happening in one place.

Um, it's a great shopping center.

There's a ton of good restaurants in there tons of good restaurants is in there I mean the pizza the cigar you don't first order a piece to have a cigar and the cigar bar and trevor's.

You know that's what we'll be it's a good time.

Yeah, I'll see you guys over at trevor's, for sure trevor's is there Seven times, by the way, trevor's got good pizza over there.

Dave Fortnoy called rates it the best pizza in Arizona.

You know what I would say?

It's definitely $35, $40 for the pizza I think we got.

It wasn't cheap.

You can smoke a cigar and have a great old-fashioned there.

I mean, what was it?

$35, $40 for the pizza, I think we got.

It wasn't cheap.

It wasn't cheap, but you can smoke a cigar and have a great old-fashioned there.

Yeah, yeah.

We've done that several times so in case if you haven't gotten the picture already, the film festival is just a great time all around.

I put everything else in my life on hold for the 11 days of the festival.

I'm there as much as I possibly can be and uh and I help out where I can.

I'll be helping out at uh at kids day on Saturday in the tent uh, myself and Chris Lamont, uh longtime friend and colleague.

He and I run the VFX booth in the uh in kids day.

So we have the big green screen and kids can come and do their their skits, uh, with costumes from Valley youth theater and um, and we put them in whatever background, whatever environment they want and it's uh, it's a lot of fun.

So if you've got kiddos who are thinking about film or just uh or super creative, bring them out to that.

And that brings this episode of Vx for indies to a close.

Don't forget, the international horror sci-fi film festival runs parallel to the phoenix film festival, march 27th through april, april 6th.

Like I said, at the harkin scottsdale 101 you can also see some vfx that were done by my team at foxtrot x-ray in two feature films at this year's festival, dark side of night, march 29th, march 31st and april 5th.

That's a?

Uh, an arizona made crime thriller.

And the other film is love danielle.

That's april 4th, 5th and 6th.

That's a?

Uh, a comedy drama about uh two sisters battling uh hereditary breast cancer.

I know it doesn't sound funny but it actually is, and we did a bunch of really good invisible effects for that film.

Showtime's ticket links found, as Monty said, at phoenixfilmfestivalcom, and I will also have the links to those particular screenings on my website at foxtrotxraycom.

Thanks so much to my guests, monty Yazzie, brandon Kinchin, danny Marianino and Michael Stackpole for being here with me today and thank you, viewers, for tuning into our discussion.

If you enjoyed this episode, please like, follow, subscribe, leave a comment or review.

All of those helpful things help us get the word out about our show For Foxtrot X-Ray.

I'm Paul DeLingris.

Thanks so much for being part of the VFX for Indies community and I hope to see you at the Film Festival.