Rolling Cameras and Red Dirt: Rebellium’s Oklahoma Vision with Randy Wayne & Talia Bella

Rebellium Films is proving you don’t need a Hollywood zip code to make great cinema. Randy Wayne and Talia Bella talk about what drew them to Oklahoma, how they’re creating opportunities for local artists, and why the state is becoming a go-to for indie filmmakers.

Behind the Scenes Oklahoma is hosted by Ana Berry and celebrates the people, productions, and places shaping Oklahoma’s film and television industry.
Subscribe and follow for new episodes featuring exclusive interviews with actors, directors, producers, and the voices behind the scenes. www.BehindTheScenesOK.com

Transcript

Unknown: 0:00

Woke your head on?

Speaker 01: 0:12

Welcome to Behind the Scenes Oklahoma. I am Tom Biolchini.

Speaker 03: 0:16

I'm

Speaker 01: 0:16

Anna

Speaker 03: 0:16

Berry.

Speaker 01: 0:17

And we'd like to thank our sponsors first, if we can start there, with Oklahoma Film and Music, number one in Oklahoma tourism and recreation. So thank you for your sponsorship. Thank you for believing in us as we spread the word of film in the state of Oklahoma. You look great. And Anna, would you like to introduce our guests?

Speaker 03: 0:38

I would. Thank you, yes, to Oklahoma Film and Music and all the creatives out there doing amazing work here in Oklahoma. And you two are truly an example, exemplary couple and powerhouse producers. And I know, Randy, you're an actor. So Rebellion Films, Talia and Randy, I have to go back to where we met, Randy. Do you remember?

Speaker 00: 1:01

Yeah, I think it was on a movie.

Speaker 03: 1:04

It was on My Terrorized Teen. They changed the name. I forget what it was originally called. And it was at this... fantastic catholic school historic catholic school in oklahoma city and you played a teacher yes

Speaker 00: 1:23

oh yeah it was um my my my professor obsession or something like that

Speaker 03: 1:29

oh yes yes and then they changed it to my terrorized teen so you were the teacher lead role I was a teacher small role and we had a little scene together it was so much fun and they cut me

Speaker 01: 1:44

she told me that earlier I

Speaker 03: 1:46

watched it online I streamed it online and I literally went back like three or four times I'm like where's the lady in the blue dress that's me the inappropriate teacher with the extra That would have been a great part

Speaker 00: 2:06

in that movie. And I called the producer. I was like, so what's the plans? Where are we going? And he was like, what do you mean? I said, I'm coming out, of course. This is Sundance. He was like, well, maybe, are you coming out to see yourself for the movie? I said, yeah, of course I am. This is exciting. I've been an actor for a long time, and this is my first movie at Sundance. He was like, well, you're in the movie, but you're barely in the movie now. You're an extra. I was like, oh. Because, yeah, we had to cut your scenes down because it's just the movie was too long and it wasn't about you. And so I canceled my tickets and didn't go. Oh, Randy, I'm sorry. That's better than that than like me showing up excited. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 03: 3:05

But fast forward, you have had movies in Sundance.

Speaker 00: 3:09

yeah as a producer actually not as a not as an actor ever still to this day but uh we i've had two movies in sundance we've had one as a company at rebellion um you know it's one of the it's the golden goose

Speaker 01: 3:23

wow well tell us about your company and tell us all the awesome things you guys are doing in oklahoma

Speaker 02: 3:27

Do you want to hear a little bit about our origination, like how we started and when we came here?

Speaker 01: 3:33

Heck yeah. Anything that would be interesting to the listeners to where all of a sudden it leads you to today where you guys are doing really cool things in the state of Oklahoma. I'd love to hear it.

Speaker 03: 3:42

Because I believe I met you when you had just moved to Oklahoma from Los Angeles.

Speaker 02: 3:48

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, Randy and I met in LA in like 2017. We started dating and he convinced me to move to Oklahoma, which was just very different at the time because I had lived in LA. I'm from Buenos Aires originally. I had not really spent much time in the middle of the country. So, it was a big pitch and he wanted me over and I was like, let's go. This sounds really cool. He had like, you know, he's originally from Moore and had been passing through and saw like there was the start of like, you know, like a film hub growing here and you felt like there was a lot of opportunity. And so you kind of sold me on that. And so in 2019, we moved here and we started out as a production services company. So our goal was to kind of like kind of catch people as they were coming in, you know, with like a producer was already packaged, already financed, wanted to utilize the tax incentive, didn't have boots on the ground, didn't know anybody in Oklahoma. So that was sort of like our business model was to kind of partner with like projects that were already kind of packaged and ready to go. And so we did a lot of that for the first couple of years. And we really built a lot of like great relationships with that and really proved our value. And, you know, I would say like actually our first film, the one that went to Sundance, you know, we ended up getting credited as a company, as co-producers, because the producers realized that like without us, they had no film. And so slowly with time, we started producing our own projects. And so that's sort of the trajectory that we've just naturally taken. And it's been great. You know, we still do production services. We're doing production services on a big show this summer. You know, we're kind of like really picky now. We kind of like they're far and few in between. But, you know, we still do them. It's still a great like way to diversify kind of our business model. But we're doing a lot more of our own shows.

Speaker 03: 5:36

Wonderful. Just for our viewers, in case they're not clear, what does production services mean, if you can explain that for our viewers?

Speaker 00: 5:44

Typically, when producers package projects, it takes a while. People aren't aware of how long it takes to actually package a movie, to get it funded, to get to even the start date or decide where you're going to film. Whenever a producer... is looking for a place to film, they typically want to hire a production services company, a company that's local in that area, that knows the crew, that knows the vendors, that knows the permit situation, that knows, you know, senators and mayors and whatnot to help the process become more smooth. And so, you know, we acted as that in Oklahoma as a production services company, they would come to us, we would get them the tax incentive, we'd help them find a location to film at, we would introduce them to our, you know, the best crew in Oklahoma, and get them settled, make them feel comfortable. And ultimately, you know, we manage the project. the moment it gets here until the very end, up until delivery, that's how we do it at least. A lot of production services companies may just do actual production, but we do pre-production and post-production until delivery.

Speaker 03: 6:47

Did I hear you say you help people get the tax incentive?

Speaker 00: 6:52

Yes, absolutely. So there's several cases where a company is hired, like a payroll company or entertainment partners, for example, has been hired to get Wow. And that's really amazing.

Speaker 03: 7:16

Because I've spoken to a lot of creatives out there, and that's a challenge. And that's a lot of paperwork. That's a lot of numbers. That's a lot of figuring it out. So what is the secret to getting this tax incentive? Maybe for more independent filmmakers, Talia? Yeah.

Speaker 02: 7:38

Well, you know, I'll clarify that, you know, there was a period where it was incredibly competitive in Oklahoma. It was incredibly competitive across the country. It was the booming stream and everyone was shooting. And, you know, there was not that long ago, the state was handing out rejection letters quite often. I think that that climate has since shifted just because it's a contraction in the market right now. So that's across the board all over the world. And so it is not as difficult anymore, but you know, in terms of like how to get approval when it was highly competitive, I look at it like this. I look at like, you know, what is, what is important to the film office, right? I like, you know, for me, it's a, it's a transaction situation of, you know, how, what can I bring, how can I present this project that this is good for Oklahoma? You know, what is important to the film office jobs, right? You know, union jobs, high paying jobs, longer running shows that are like more consistent work. Anything that has like some panache, you know, it's like this, this film is going to go to Sundance or it's going to go to wherever, you know, so things like that, that help kind of move the needle. It's all about presentation and kind of how you pitch it.

Speaker 01: 8:51

That's interesting. And that makes

Speaker 02: 8:52

sense. Knowing those things.

Speaker 01: 8:54

Do they care at all if you're highlighting Oklahoma or Tulsa or Oklahoma City? They do,

Speaker 02: 8:58

actually. That is one of the things that they look for. So if the script is scripted for Oklahoma, are you shooting major landmarks and featuring them in your show? Because that ties to tourism, right? So it's like these ancillary ways that these tax dollars can come back to the state.

Unknown: 9:19

Yeah.

Speaker 03: 9:19

With all the positive things that you said, what might be a deterrent? I've had some creatives say they've gotten rejection letters. So what advice would you give them if they've gotten a few rejection letters? Are they in the Senate, particularly?

Speaker 02: 9:35

I mean, I would encourage people to really kind of really look at the way that they're applying. I always tell people, like, the way you apply, this is like your... It's like your big pitch. They're not just looking at the numbers. They're also looking at the story. What is like, you know, who's part of the project that's exciting? You know, how is this, you know, what are like the, you know, what are the legs that this could take? You know, get them excited. So it's really about like tapping into that and making sure that your pitch is kind of foolproof, you know, strategizing.

Speaker 00: 10:08

Yeah. To piggyback off what Talia is saying, one of the issues we have is not that the state doesn't want to approve everyone. There's not enough money to approve everyone. So they have to be selective. We had a cap of $4 million-something. It went to $7 million, and now it's at $30 million. And although we greatly appreciate a rise in that cap, it's still very low considering comparing themselves to the rest of the country, the rest of the world. Every state has a different– piggy bank, if you will. So it's understandable. However, the reason with the streaming boom is that there's too many people applying, they couldn't approve everyone. And then now it's kind of taking a downturn with less productions right now. So if they submitted right now is a better chance they'll get approved. So it's just sometimes a numbers game. And it comes down to how much money is available. And how much, you know, how does your movie grade in the system that they've created? And how do you,

Speaker 01: 11:06

what's the timeline on that? So do you have to have the whole, all the actors in place, the director, a whole script? How does that work? Because if you put in all this time and effort and put everything together, and then you submit and you get rejected, that's not going to feel good. But what is that? Do you mind walking us through that?

Speaker 02: 11:25

Yeah, and I know of producers who have said they wanted to shoot in Oklahoma and have applied and then also submitted in a different state as a contingency, especially during this peak TV era where it was so competitive, just to have an option so that you're not left holding the buck. But yes, initially, obviously you should have all your elements in place. You're going to need to show proven funding, at least 50%. And obviously, if you're fully funded, that's better for the state, if you think about it like that. Tom, you're applying, you have half of your money. I'm applying. I have all my money. Uh, the odds are like, I have a better chance of actually filming. You know, there's a 50, 50 chance. You won't raise your money in time. So that is a very logical reasoning of why a hundred percent funding is better. Um, but, um, yeah, so you should have your script, you know, actors can be attached. So that's not critical. Obviously, if you have attachments, um, That helps sell the film office and get them excited. Because like, oh, so-and-so is going to be here. That's exciting to them. A lot of it is just

Speaker 01: 12:28

getting people into the project. And it sounds like presentation and who's going to get across the finish line. I don't want to waste my time saying yes to somebody if they can't really get it across the finish line. So that makes sense to me.

Speaker 02: 12:42

A hundred percent. And I will say that I will, I think part of why we also have a really great track record is because we've shot so much in the state. We've obviously have like every producer have had films fall apart, but the margin is really low compared to the amount that have gone. And I know, I think the film office sees that and knows that like, if we're bringing them a project, we've vetted it, we've done our due diligence. They know that, you know, more often than not, if we're applying, it means that we're serious about shooting. And so I think that helps.

Speaker 03: 13:13

Well, shifting focus, feel free to jump in with other money questions. But for actors out there, I know that you've sent out a lot of casting notices for the films. I personally have auditioned for some of them, you know, small roles, but small roles make a big role one day. Yeah. So what advice do you have for actors who want to be in one of your films?

Speaker 00: 13:34

Great question. Randy, let's see you. Where do I start? I'm a little sensitive to it because, you know, I did grow up in Moore, Oklahoma. I never wanted to be an actor. I wasn't a theater actor. I just went to L.A. kind of for swimming. I moved to Orange County as a swimmer. And so my mother encouraged me to try acting, even though I didn't want to. And I studied. You know, I really– in L.A., everyone really studies. They take it very serious. It's like they– It's almost half their income they spend on classes, and they put a lot of work into it because the competition is fierce. So a lot of people in Oklahoma, they are theater actors that are moving into TV film, and they still feel like they have what it takes to be on set right now. And a lot of times, we're not seeing it in the auditions. You know, they're not... they're not natural. A lot of times they kind of do a little big performance. So I would recommend taking classes like Chris Fryhoffer's class or Cody Mayo's class. People that have been to LA have gone through the process out there and they're bringing what they learned back to Oklahoma. It's very important to have these on-camera acting classes and keep doing them. Once a month is not going to cut it. I don't think we, in LA we take two, three classes a week a lot of times and for years and years so that's the first thing the second thing is like just be persistent and patient because you may not be right for this one you may have a great performance for this audition but you just don't look the role to us or you didn't have the feel for it so sometimes it's not about how you look or how good you are it's just about a vibe you bring to it a lot of times we can see someone immediately and go that's the guy and not even they won't even say anything yet we just know don't You're going to hear no a billion times. I've heard it a billion times. I've been fortunate to work. I have a long acting career for 20 years, you know. And so you just have to be focused on what you want. The opportunities are coming here. But the more you practice and stay ready for that opportunity when it comes, the better your chances are of getting it.

Speaker 03: 15:49

That's great advice. Do you do you both or one of you watch the auditions or is that just your casting director?

Speaker 00: 15:56

Typically, I watch as much as I, it depends how involved we are, you know, like, yeah, I try and watch all of them because I want to make sure that the director is seeing what I'm seeing. And I typically, if I know an actor's good locally, I'll recommend them ahead of time. I'll say, hey, these actors I know really good. We have a lot of great actors in Oklahoma. So it's just a matter of. them being right for that movie or the director not wanting to hire their friend in LA and give himself a chance. Yeah,

Speaker 03: 16:25

there's a lot of that.

Speaker 00: 16:26

We push Oklahoma talent as much as possible.

Speaker 03: 16:29

I see that. I love that. I struggle with virtual auditions. I really do. And a quick example, I remember when I was in New York, I got cast in a pretty big, a very small role in a pretty big production. And when I got to set, I had my own little trailer and I had my lines memorized. Like you said, Randy, when I got on set, I was froze. It was so terrifying. So terrifying. You? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the caliber of people. I mean, the set is an intense place. Everyone's focused. No one's nice. They're working. And it was such a terrifying experience. And I've been on set since then, but not at that caliber, not yet in Oklahoma. And going back to my original question, the virtual audition, first of all, The study is such an important thing. And yes, we've got some great acting coaches and teachers here. And I need to get into a class. But the virtual audition, what do you look for? Is it lighting? Is it sound? Do you forget about that? Focus on the moment? I really struggle with virtual auditions.

Speaker 00: 17:46

I mean, I was a really good auditioner in person in LA. And that's why I booked so much. I just knew how to Command the room. I know how to talk to them. I know how to respect them. Virtual auditions, I'm horrible at them. They're really hard to figure out, but I will say this. Lighting, sound quality really matters. So it just makes it fun to watch, and it's captivating right away. So instead of if you see someone not bad lighting or bad sound or they have it vertical instead of horizontal, you're just like, they don't care, right? They didn't put the work in, so you go up. It's hard to kind of watch those auditions. So the higher quality, the better, for sure. I recommend there's coaches that are good at auditions, right? Like Hannah Reese is an actress from LA who lives in Tulsa. She's coached me. Really? And she was great. I love Hannah. I'm so happy that she coached me because she made my audition so much better. So finding someone like that, is worth, I think, every dime to do that. It's almost better than classes sometimes because it's one-on-one. You're going, you're focusing on this material and this opportunity. You got to learn how to book the job first before you can do the job. 100%. 100%.

Speaker 03: 19:03

Tom, have you ever auditioned before?

Speaker 01: 19:06

No. Come on. Get him to audition. I'll audition for something. You got to try everything. Make him audition virtually. I'll try that too. Yeah. I think it would be fun, you know, when you have nothing to lose. Well, don't say that to actors out here. We're like, this is it. This is it. Do you mind if I ask them? I would love to hear the projects you guys are working on because you guys are doing big things that are coming up very quickly filmed in Oklahoma. Do you guys mind filling this in?

Speaker 02: 19:41

Yeah. Do you want to talk about it or do you want me to?

Speaker 00: 19:44

I'll mention a few and you can mention the big one. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, we've been working all year. It's a long process, as I mentioned earlier, to find the right projects. Hopefully some are packaged a little bit. If they're not, but we like the director or something, we'll develop it. And we've been moving more into development now. So we spent the first five months of this year just developing. calling everyone we know, seeing what they have available, what are they working on. We try and find a synergy between production companies sometimes or producers. We can say, cool, you just saved us five months of work by getting these actors attached or by raising half the money or something. So we can do more in a shorter amount of time. And it's starting to pay off. The next film we have coming up is called Horrified. It's a horror comedy based around the horror convention world. And it's really fun. The director is a TV writer. He wrote for Major Crimes for six years, Mike Zara. And he put the work in. He's never directed a feature, but he got Ron Perlman attached. He got Amy Teegarden, Friday Night Lights. He got Jim Rash, Academy Award winner, attached. And has all these other series regulars from TV shows. And they're doing it at scale because they want to work with them. So that one we're planning to shoot in mid-July. in the Tulsa area, which we love to shoot in Tulsa when we can. And we also shoot in Cherokee a lot. So we'll see. There's a battle between Cherokee and Tulsa. We always try and, you know, we do both. But that's our next one. We do have two more movies coming up. One is in Minnesota called The Chattering with Mila Jovovich and Cat McNamara. And one is called Death Diner 76, another horror comedy that we're shooting in Mississippi. And the reason we're shooting all over is because we know that we can only get so many movies approved in Oklahoma. There's been only

Speaker 02: 21:35

so much crew.

Speaker 00: 21:36

Right, right. And then we have one more I'll talk about before Talia goes into our next, our bigger one here in Oklahoma. We're doing a movie called Disinformation, and it's a true story about a Romanian general who defected to the U.S. in the 80s. And in real life, he defected to the U.S. He said, there's a disinformation campaign going on in the U.S., and this is created by me. Well, the CIA put him in witness protection program, and they shut him up. So we're shooting this movie. It's a $20 million budget. We're filming in Spain, Romania, and South Carolina. And we have the director from V for Vendetta on to direct it, and we're currently casting that one. That's going to shoot in September, October.

Speaker 03: 22:15

And that's what you were currently scouting, right, in Spain? You were there recently? We

Speaker 00: 22:20

were filming another movie there called UAP. So we shot that in October, November, and that's a couple months out from being finished.

Unknown: 22:28

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 02: 22:29

Yep. Yeah. And then lastly, we have one called God of the Rodeo that we'll be shooting here in the late summer. It's like September time and prep in July. And that one is, it's a true story about 1960s. What is the name of the prison, Randy?

Speaker 00: 22:50

Louisiana State Penitentiary.

Speaker 02: 22:52

Louisiana State Penitentiary. Yeah, it's in Angola, Louisiana. and it's a really interesting story about the, you know, they, they built this rodeo inside this prison and they kind of, you know, it was a chance for all these prisoners to kind of like feel human for once. So it like kind of really kind of like looks at like the humanity of, of, you know, these people who are like maybe for murder or something, but they're just killing each other in these like gladiator style arenas. Um, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of thematics in this about, you know, the, um, you know sort of like the judicial system and uh the prison military complex and you know a lot of different like thematics here so it's really interesting and it's being directed by a director named rosalind ross um she previously directed a movie called father stew with mark walberg and scott free productions is the production company behind it and so this is one that we're doing production services on

Speaker 00: 23:46

And that's Ridley Scott. And Ridley Scott produces all the gladiators. So this to me is a gladiator in a prison. And I said that before I knew he was attached. So it's a really great movie. It's going to be nationwide theatrical. And yeah, Shia LaBeouf is our lead actor.

Speaker 03: 24:02

Where is that going to be shot?

Speaker 02: 24:05

Bully, Oklahoma is our current pick for prison. And I'm trying to get some days in Cherokee Nation because I would love to have Cherokee Nation come in with their incentive as well, just to try and maximize, you know, soft money on the project. And so we're trying to figure out if we can maybe shoot the rodeo scenes in Fort Gibson. And, you know, there's that we've identified some marshlands on the north side of Lake Oolaga. So we're We're just still kind of piecing together, but it looks like Bully, Oklahoma, which I don't know if you know where that is, is it's kind of like an hour from your hour from low Casey, which is also interesting because it has like such a rich history of like being a historical black town. It was like home of the black rodeo. So I think there's a lot of synergy there, which I think is really interesting.

Speaker 03: 24:52

I love that. So question when it comes to bringing stars to Oklahoma, you mentioned Shia LaBeouf and Ron Perlman. I played golf with him when I lived in LA. He's a sweetheart. I said, to that picture. He's so funny. So tell me, do they get to see Oklahoma? Do they get to go out, enjoy a dinner, hang out with our culture, our people, our crew?

Speaker 00: 25:14

Yeah. Every movie we do, we always do a cast, director, producer dinner. And so we take them to one of our favorite restaurants wherever we're filming at, whether it's Oklahoma City or Tulsa. And they get to experience our great cuisines here in Oklahoma and cool restaurants. And I think you know, they don't expect that kind of stuff. So when they see these like higher class or very cool or funky restaurants, it's fun. It's fun for them. They're like, they always, they always leave here being impressed by Oklahoma. I know that Rosalyn Ross and Liz Chilenko, the producer of God of the Rodeo, we had them stay in South Tulsa and they were, they loved it. They were just amazed by how like beautiful and the trees and the houses. And they're like, we want to buy a house here. And I was like, we should. Yeah. Yeah. So typically yeah. Any days off, we find that most actors want to go out and see. So we actually give them a concierge book when they arrive, and it says all the restaurants, coffee shops, theaters, things to do, trails, things that they can go and do on their days off.

Speaker 03: 26:16

Well, give us some examples. Where do you take them? Where are some of your favorite places that you like

Speaker 00: 26:19

to show off? We shot five movies in Bartlesville, so we kind of talked to them about it. We have Meg... I'm sorry. Gould? Maria. Maria Gould. beautiful lodge out there and to see Buffalo in the wild is something really cool for people. And then other people have gone to Turner Falls and I don't know, the, the bombing site. And I think it all, I'm, you're putting me on the spot and I'm feeling nervous about it. Well, we've also

Speaker 02: 27:08

taken, we've also taken people to dinner, like at, um, bull in the alley. And, you know, um, what is the other one? Boston title abstract, just like super cool and very hip. And people, it was like, you know, we had a, one of our actors, um, was there's like a, I think it's called shuffles. It's like a board game bar. One of our actors was like obsessed with that place. Like he, was there every night, like, I don't know, playing board games, I guess. He just loved it. And so he loved Tulsa. He was like, I had a really great time in the city. It's like a really cool town. We were staying in Bartlesville. And he like, I think he got an Uber or drove all the way to Andalini's to get the garlic knots, which was like a 50 hour drive and 15 minute drive. And so I was just like, shocked. But I you know, someone must have told him, like, you got to try these garlic. So yeah, they definitely get out and get to explore on their days off and on the weekends. And so it's, you know, obviously it's our goal is for everyone to have a great time and have a great experience here. I love

Speaker 03: 28:08

that. That helps our community so

Speaker 01: 28:10

much. Yeah, of course. We want to sell the city. It's not just bringing film to the state of Oklahoma, but we want to sell the city. Tulsa's great, so is Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is really something, once you get here, it's different than you think, and that's the point. So let me ask you something. Can behind-the-scenes Oklahoma be on set for The Horrifier? Horrifying? Yeah, we can. Horrifying. Easy.

Speaker 02: 28:34

We can make that happen. All right. Easy.

Speaker 03: 28:36

Yay. And that's shooting in July.

Speaker 00: 28:38

Yeah, July and August. And

Speaker 03: 28:40

August. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 00: 28:41

And we can do our best to make it happen for God of the Rodeo, but that one's a little out of our hands, but we'll definitely... I know that is, but man,

Speaker 01: 28:47

we'd love to get on set there. And I understand there's only so much you can do, but man, anything you could do to get us on set.

Speaker 00: 28:53

Oh, I want to say one thing about... When cast come here, I always tell them about, you know, Greenwood, Black Wall Street. And there's a guy I met years ago when we were doing a documentary about Greenwood named Cody Ransom. And so anytime someone comes into town, I hook Cody Ransom up with them and Cody will give them a tour of Greenwood and give them all the history of everything. And he doesn't ask for money. He just says, I just need you to buy. I ask you to buy one thing from a local, you know, business. Yeah. Yeah, he's been fantastic. People really love him.

Speaker 03: 29:27

Yeah, I just went to the Greenwood Rising. I took my dad and my daughter, and it was such a powerful, beautiful, I mean, museum, but just so much more than that. So that's really great that you bring them there. I want to ask you a little bit about, I saw on your social media, Resurrection Road. You produced that, Talia, and it's a civil war. We both did. Okay, a civil war? Yeah. horror film

Speaker 02: 29:56

I won't be seeing it it's a Civil War movie with vampires oh my gosh so it's very much like in the vein of Sinners which is funny because we shot it like in 2023 and we're you know it's coming out right out on the heels of Sinners so but I mean it's good it means there's a market for that genre

Speaker 03: 30:12

yeah well if some of our viewers want to watch your movies please again putting on the spot what are some of the movies you've produced in Oklahoma of course you're global but and where can we watch them

Speaker 02: 30:25

well so model house is a movie it's like one of our very first movies that's out i think that's on stars right now and then um you know wild indian was shot in oklahoma city area that is on demand i believe you can still rent it um as well as um unexpected which was shot under the name i had so many names but it was called bob and amy and it was called what was it called it was a Yeah, and Slade by Ducks. It went through many name iterations. But then Resurrection Road is going to be available in select theaters and on demand June 6th. And then a movie that we shot last year, not last year, end of 2023 called The Book of Jobs is getting renamed as Everything to Me. And that's going to be in 100 theaters September 5th.

Speaker 00: 31:16

And then we have one more called The Line. The line we filmed at OU and we filmed in a neighborhood just north of Oklahoma, downtown Oklahoma City. And, you know, we turned a mansion in the Heritage Hills into a frat house. Nice. Incredible to do. Yeah. You know, that movie stars Alex Wolff and has John Malkovich, Denise Richards, Sherry Oteri, and a slew of other great actors as well. And that's currently available on streaming as well.

Speaker 03: 31:44

That's the line. It's on Hulu. Yeah, that's on Hulu. And then there's the Bedlam. I've seen a lot of some posts about that.

Speaker 02: 31:52

No release date yet. We're kind of locking that up. So info to come on that. There's just still a few that are like, I don't have, we don't have release info yet to share, but coming. Wow.

Speaker 03: 32:04

I mean, it's a process. You're doing so much for the state. I mean, it's so interesting to see how Hollywood is moving forward. You know, it's moving to New York. It moved to New York years ago, and then it's moving down south, and it's moving to Europe. I mean, it's moving all over here. So the state of, and I say Hollywood, right? I just say the state of making movies, old school, used to be at Warner Brothers and Lionsgate, but now, what is the state of filmmaking, Hollywood?

Speaker 00: 32:34

That's a great question. A challenging one at

Speaker 03: 32:38

that. What do you hope its future is?

Speaker 00: 32:42

Well, I'll say this much. It's tough right now. And the reason there's less productions is because the buyers are paying less. There's so many streaming platforms. They're just paying less and less than they used to. And so when you make a movie for, let's say, $5 million, it's very hard to make that money back unless you have very big names at a discounted rate or a hook. something that's just really fascinating to audiences. Or obviously, you make a really great movie and it can perform. But so with the poor buyer's market and inflation, you really have to lean on tax incentives as a way to keep making movies. And so that's why the country of, I think, was it Jordan today, Talia, came out with a 45% tax incentive. Cash rebate. Every country is in this game.

Unknown: 33:36

Huge.

Speaker 00: 33:37

Like every country, yeah. But they want the business because that's a lot of money that's being thrown into that economy right away, millions of dollars within weeks and months. And then it also showcases that place, whether it's Jordan or Saudi Arabia or Italy, you're putting it in movies that last forever. So it does affect tourism, and it gets to show a new light on Oklahoma and other places. Now, Hollywood and New York... Those two areas are no longer hubs, right? They are kind of, but they're all going elsewhere. Where can they get the best bang for the buck? It's expensive and taxes are high in New York and LA. So they're trying to go places where they can make it cheaper. And so they can actually make profit because without profit, these things will all go away. So it's a game of trying to figure out, and no one really has the answer at this time, and they're all working feverishly to figure out how to make profit. That's why you're seeing a lot of really bad movies with big stars, because they're spending millions of dollars on the actors and like $500,000 to make a movie.

Speaker 02: 34:39

Because the movie, like the financing is triggered behind the actor. Or

Speaker 03: 34:43

stars doing, remember when a famous actor, film, TV actor would never do a commercial, and then they started to do commercials, and you became normalized to that. Now you see them... on like social media ads. And hey, I don't hate it because I get it. It's do what you got to do. Dog

Speaker 00: 35:01

eats dog world. Actors are getting paid less too. Obviously their agents are trying to get them what they used to get paid, but they're not. We're saying... We'll go to the next person because we don't have, we can't do that.

Speaker 03: 35:14

Tom, how do we raise it from 30 million? How do we get it up in Oklahoma?

Speaker 01: 35:17

We've got to prove to our lawmakers that it is driving business in the state of Oklahoma, that it is driving the economy and we need more data. We need more, we've got good demand. We just need to showcase this and really show what it does for an economy. Jordan's a great example. They're not idiots. There's a reason why they're doing what they're doing. So yeah, it's making that case and continuing to knock on the door. And I hope it gets raised to 100 next time.

Speaker 02: 35:46

I absolutely agree. We have to continue, like as an industry, we have to continue lobbying together in a unified manner with like, you know, there's various organizations and groups inside the state that are doing this lobbying, but I think it's important that we all continue to kind of work together and, you know, try to work to increase the cap because it is, we really need to in order to remain competitive.

Speaker 00: 36:10

Georgia doesn't have a cap. Texas is going up to a billion dollars. You know, it's... There's a reason that every country and regionals and, and like city incentives that they're doing so many incentives all over the place because hotels, the, the, the impact on the economy as a whole, it, it, it benefits everyone in that area. So I, it would, it is data, right? That's all they care about. Show us the proof. More money. And so hopefully we, you know, they're paying attention because we do have enough data, I think to, to raise the cap.

Speaker 01: 36:45

Do we have, do you guys, can you recommend a document or a website to go to where you can actually, I don't care if it's from Texas or some other state or even Oklahoma, where they actually show the lawmakers every dollar we spend in this, the economy gets $7. I've seen that before.

Speaker 02: 37:04

There are, and we've done them, honestly, there are, um, there are like independent studies. There's companies that do this and Oklahoma film and music has engaged with one. I think they did it last year. Um, they came and they did a whole study and the same company is like, you know, they're like third party. They go and they evaluate programs all over the country and they give like a recommendation based on this, their analysis, whether to maintain the program or cut it. And so they did a study, you know, they do it, I think, I think for Oklahoma, we have to do it. We have to do it like every couple of years or something just to keep evaluating and, you know, turn over this data to the lawmakers. And it was recommended that they keep it. Um, but you know, it's still not necessarily, you know, it's always just, it's so challenging, you know, especially like right now there's like budget cuts happening kind of, you know, unilaterally across, you know, not just regionally, but on a federal level. So it's, you know, it's really challenging. Um, to keep fighting for, you know, the subsidies, people hear that and they think it's just like free money, but it is a return on money spent. So it's not like you're just getting a grant. So that's like, it's a lot of it is education. I think too, it's like, you know, keep having these conversations with lawmakers and the more that they understand the better equipped they'll be.

Speaker 03: 38:24

Wow. Well, guys, thank you so much. This is such an interesting conversation. And again, you guys are doing so much for our community, film and television. For our viewers to find out more, where can they go to find out more about what you're doing?

Speaker 02: 38:40

Our website is Rebellion.TV, TV like television, even though we don't do a lot

Speaker 00: 38:46

of television. I'm going to spell that. It's R-E-B-E-L-L-I-U-N.TV. Rebellion.

Speaker 03: 38:53

Rebellion.

Speaker 00: 38:54

It's a

Speaker 03: 38:54

Latin word. What does it mean? It means rebellion in

Speaker 05: 38:59

Latin.

Speaker 03: 39:03

It means to stay stationary and do as you're told.

Speaker 05: 39:09

Well, thank you both for your time.

Speaker 02: 39:11

Really appreciate what

Speaker 05: 39:12

you

Speaker 02: 39:12

do for the state of Oklahoma, what you do for the film industry.

Unknown: 39:15

Let us stay in touch. And I hope you guys continue to do awesome things.

Speaker 02: 39:20

Yeah. Thank you so much. We can't wait to go

Speaker 03: 39:22

behind the scenes. Yeah. We'll see you on set. We'll see you on set. All right. See you guys. Thank you. Sit

Speaker 04: 39:30

on steps and let the breeze blow through the yard.