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Hilarie Burton: Hi guys! It’s Hilarie Burton and you have tuned in to the Southern Gothic Productions podcast. It’s our look into the inner workings of a production company. So sit back, hang out, and enjoy a sneak peek into our journey.

Denise Gideon: We’re back for another episode of the Southern Gothic Productions Podcast. We’re on episode 16 if you guys can believe it, and, of course, this is Denise Gideon and I’m welcoming in Hilarie Burton, Kelly Tenney, and Nicholas Gray, so why don’t we… we always like our round table segments. Everybody just go around and say hello since we haven’t been together for a little bit!

HB: Hi, this is Hilarie Burton and… hello. [laughs]

Kelly Tenney: Kelly. Hello!

Nicholas Gray: Hi Denise! [everyone laughs]

DG: [laughing] That’s Nick. Before we get started, and we got a fun filled podcast for this week, a lot of stuff we’re going to be talking about and getting up to date, we, of course, love to introduce bands, and this time we’re throwing it Nick’s way. It’s his choice, and we opened up this week’s podcast with Dead Man’s Bones, and the song ‘Werewolf Heart,’ and Nick, the last time we did a podcast, you said ‘Hey, this is a band I really like, why don’t you try to go out and get them?’ and, well, Nick, I did! Why don’t you tell everybody just a little bit about this band and how much you really enjoy them?

NG: Dead Man’s Bones is a really awesome collaboration, I think, and that’s what I like most about it. When I first… well, I guess, most noteworthy about it for many people is the fact that Ryan Gosling is headlining that band.

HB: And he is supreme.

NG: People love Ryan Gosling. I love Ryan Gosling! I think he’s an awesome actor. He and his friend, Zach Shields, when they started this band… well, originally, I guess, from what I read about it on, like, PitchFork and otherwise, they wanted to do a musical theatre project with these dark tones. I mean, their songs are, like, ‘Werewolf Heart,’ you know, something like, ‘When I Think About You, Flowers Grow Out Of My Grave.’ [Hilarie laughs] They’re just really dark, gothic songs. I guess eventually they scrapped that idea and, in an interview that I read, they were talking about how they really like this home grown effect, how they would much rather, you know, watch a high school production of something than a broadway musical, so they ended up incorporating and including this Silverlake Children’s Conservatory Choir and so that choir is incorporated into every song on the album, and it’s just really great.

HB: We like local theatre, and high school theatre better than we like major productions, too! Maybe we should incorporate, maybe, some of the street musicians. [laughs] ‘Hey, do you want to come over? Have a beer? Make some jams?’

NG: Yeah, we should. We could go over to the Montessori, get some of those kids.

HB: [laughing] We like them pre-k, you know? [laughs]

DG: Good to know! Well… [Hilarie laughs] when you asked me to go out and get this band, I tell you, I emailed the guy and he emailed me back in 30 minutes, so we’re getting a little bit of a name for ourselves for highlighting bands, so…

HB: Oh, cool!

DG: That’s very exciting.

HB: Are we getting hipster cred, Denise? [laughs] I just want to be able to, like, wear cool sunglasses and walk around the, you know, the East Village.

DG: Well, you know, I’ve tried to get you guys to go and see some concerts. I’ve been the one doing all that lately, and, I think, Hilarie, I sent you a video of Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, Sarah giving you a shoutout on video.

HB: Yeah, man, that was awesome!

DG: So, we got some more lined up to kind of get people to support the bands and artists we’re supporting when they come around my area, atleast. It’s funny, everyone comes to Asheville.

HB: Yeah, everybody goes to Asheville. If you can get them to come to Wilmington, or perhaps just kidnap them, that would be awesome. Work on that, Denise! [Kelly and Hilarie laugh] Enough about just getting bands, if you could really get the band, that would be awesome! [Kelly and Hilarie laugh]

DG: I wish I’d been kidnapped when I had to go to Alaska! [Hilarie laughs]

KT: Yeah, you got pretty sick on that trip!

DG: [laughing] I did! Yeah, ask me what I came back with! Pneumonia. Souvenirs, souvenirs. Well, let’s get into what people really want to hear about, and that’s some of your upcoming projects, and, I tell you, Hilarie, Kelly, Nick, I’m going to go ahead and be the mouthpiece for everybody that’s been Twittering and emailing you guys for the last month, and that is… are you ready?

HB: Give it to us.

DG: [laughs] The status of your short film ‘The True Love-Tale of Boyfriend and Girlfriend.’

HB: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, you know who’s going to handle that one? Kelly. Because it has been a nightmare, and Kelly is the one that has been patient with it, whereas Nick and I are just like, ‘Where’s Boyfriend Girlfriend?’ Because we’ve seen it. It’s super. We watch it every other day! [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] I feel sorry for you guys! [laughs] No, just kidding. Kelly, why don’t you tell them what’s going on?

KT: Well, originally, we had started out with a company called TuneCore that, basically, has let us down. They said in November, by November, I think, 15^th, they were going to be up and running, and distributing films. They haven’t been able to do that.

HB: Well, we have to encrypt it, right? Is that what we have to do?

KT: Well, they have to put a serial number on it, yeah. But, it seems like their technology isn’t quite there yet for them, so we, basically, had to punt and research some other companies, and we actually found one that’s called FilmBaby, which, I think, is part of the CDBaby family. They have uploaded our film, and, right now, they’re doing the artwork, so it should be… There’s a couple of more problems that are being solved, and either late this week, or early next week, it will be up for purchase.

HB: Yeah, man!

KT: Now, to talk a little about that. We’re sorry that the price, unfortunately, is higher than what we wanted, because, on TuneCore, it was going to be a much lower price, but this company, basically, dictates what prices are, so we had to go with it.

HB: Well, with this company, too, as opposed to the other company that was, like, ‘Oh, we need 6 weeks to get everything done,’ this company is doing it in, like, a week and a half, maybe. So, we’re kind of having to pay just to get it to you guys closer to where we said we would, you know? We’re right on the cutting edge of technology, so all this stuff we’re doing is… we don’t have anybody we can ask and say, ‘Hey, how are you guys doing this?’ because, you know, nobody else is doing it yet and everybody’s figuring it out.

KT: Yeah, because the music and the technology, of course, is much further than the film, because of Apple and those… what’s the big one you sell music on?

NG: iTunes.

KT: Yeah, iTunes. So, we’re way ahead of ourselves.

HB: Oh, that little thing. [everyone laughs] Just iTunes…

KT: So, the storage capacity and stuff of these companies now is growing quickly so they can actually download films.

HB: So, it’s still a holiday film, you know?

KT: Yes it is!

HB: It’s still heartwarming.

NG: I think the thing is with film is there’s just not a lot of people who have really decided that that’s how they want to distribute over the internet. You know, I think there’s a lot of independents but I think there’s a lot of independents that don’t have anybody behind them that can actually get people to buy their stuff, and, you know, we’re in a position where we are able to do that, and that’s the major reason why it’s been so hard for us to find somebody who wanted to distribute that. But I think that the future’s calling.

HB: So, if you’re from the future and you know [laughing] how we’re supposed to do this, if you could send us an email, that’d be radical!

NG: Time travel.

DG: Time machine.

KT: You’ll be able to go to our site and hit a button, that will be clearly marked, to go to FilmBaby to do the download.

HB: It’s a short film that we want to get out there to everybody, but what it is more, for us as a company, is more of a test run, you know? I mean, all these other companies tell you, ‘Yeah, we’re going to deliver this to you on this date,’ you know? But this is kind of our trial and error. So, as we trial and error with you guys, you know, we’re also testing the waters with these companies to see who can deliver, who really does have the technology to be able to, you know, put our stuff out there. So, it’s a learning curve for us, and you guys are definitely along for the ride. When you’re incorporating people that you’ve never worked with before and technology that’s brand new, there’s always going to be some variables, so I would rather us, you know, test the people that we’re going to work with with our short film, than with something super important like ‘Pedestrian,’ you know?

DG: Exactly.

HB: So, we’re learning a lot.

DG: Well, that leads me to the status of your next project, which is your web series.

HB: Oh, yes. Well, we’ve got a couple scripts. Well, we’ve got the next script we’re going to shoot. I think what we’re trying to do is shoot a couple, so we can release them, you know…

NG: Just keep the momentum of the company going a little bit better. I think, with, you know, what I’ve found looking online, people that are able to keep the momentum of their web series going, get more buzz with it and have more success, there’s a lot of extenuating circumstances with our actors, with our location…

HB: Everybody’s got other jobs!

NG: We have all these different things that, you know, put a clog in things, and it’s, you know, it’s not a bad thing, but, you know, it mixes things up a bit. But I think the best thing for us to be able to do right now is to get as many in a can, fully edited, and be able to say this is when we’re going to put these out, this is when it’s happening, and we’re also planning a merchandise run with that, too, and we kind of want it to happen all together.

DG: All these people are asking you about all your different projects, so how does that make you feel to know that you have so many people asking you about it?

HB: Well, I mean, obviously it’s awesome that people are interested in what we are up to. You know, I think the biggest stressor for us is that, because we tell people what we’re up to in real time, then they have to wait a while for it, and that’s just how this business goes, you know? There’s always a lot of hurry up and wait, whether it’s pre-production, or you’re in production and you’re sitting there on set, and it’s hurry up and wait, or you’re in the edit and it’s hurry up and finish the thing and wait for it to be released. You know, and there’s always that waiting part of it, and so getting our fan base used to that and having them understand that that is just part of the process, yeah, it can be frustrating, but that’s why we’re giving you guys the behind-the-scenes look into it. If we just waited until it was absolutely done, and then told you ‘Okay, here it is! Surprise!’ you know, that’d be okay, but that’s what everybody else is doing, so you’re getting a very live action view of exactly what we go through on a regular basis.

DG: And I think that’s very unique and that’s what I’ve been trying to tell people to get your story out about is, because there’s so many things that, like… I think Kelly or somebody said that once before, that you basically just sometimes see everything at once, but this time you guys are doing it such a different way, I think it’s amazing.

HB: Well, it’s tedious and it takes a long time!

KT: Yeah, remember we’re learning this at real time, too. I mean, all of us are going through this learning curve together, and all of us have other jobs then SoGoPro, so time constraints on that and this, and it just takes us a little longer than, maybe, another film production company would.

DG: Well, since I have you about that, too, I mean, let’s go ahead, we’ve got all the updates, let’s talk about the last one. The last time we were together, we talked a little bit about your graphic novel and you were talking about finishing up the script of it to send to Menton, your graphic artist. Can you talk a little bit about how that’s moving along as well?

HB: Yeah, Nick hammered that out.

KT: Yeah, it was quick.

HB: That was really fast. You worked, like, lightning, Nick. Yeah. [laughs] He is lightening.

KT: Well, you guys did adjust the script a little bit.

HB: Yeah, I mean, we added a fantastical element to the script that definitely just heightens the action and, kind of, the storyline a little bit for print, and so we gave that to Menton. We’re working on contract stuff right now, just because that… again, legal is such a slow-going process.

KT: Well, you talked to Menton a couple times story wise.

HB: Yeah, I mean, Menton’s totally into it, so I’m excited for the new year. You know, he’s got to finish up a couple other projects…

KT: Yeah, he’s working.

HB: … and then, at the new year, he’s our boyfriend! [Kelly laughs]

KT: Nick and Menton will be collaborating quite a bit.

NG: I think the most important thing to know on this is for those people who haven’t gone and looked at Menton’s style of artwork, it’s going to be a very intensive process. I think, more so than, kind of, the way other people do graphic novels because he paints every single page, and it’s…

HB: He mixes his own paints.

NG: Yeah, it’s an amazing piece of art that you get in each of these pages, so we’re expecting it to be, like, a six month process just on his end.

HB: It’s a pretty long process, yeah. But we’re going to be ready for Comic Con next year. That’s next summer. That’s kind of our deadline.

NG: A definitive deadline.

HB: Yeah, so our deadline is Comic Con, so now we’ve got to figure out how to get a booth. You know, we’ve got Dave Dorman who’s helping us. He’s got the inside track to all of that. But, again, that’s all brand new territory for us, so we’re just trying to figure it out! [laughs]

KT: And do all of our other projects also, so…

DG: How cool is it, though, to be able to… I said it before, but you guys amaze me because you do give everybody a blow-by-blow, a play-by-play. It’s like reading a box score in a basketball game, the play-by-play is just there! And how cool is it to go through and find projects, and then you check them off… your short film, even though it took a while to get down, you’re there, and to know that you guys are getting your projects out and getting them done?

HB: Well, I mean, we’re chucking through. Denise, it’s hard! [laughs] It’s really hard! But, yeah, I mean, there is a huge sense of accomplishment when we get something done. Even when we got the first ‘Friendship Union Community Theatre’ out there. You know, that was, like, ‘Wow, we really put something out!’ Because there’s so many people that just sit around and talk about it, or say, ‘Oh, we can’t do it because we don’t have any money!’ you know? Or ‘we don’t have this’ or ‘we don’t have that’ and so we’re just kind of going for it, and, you know, if we have the money, awesome! If we don’t…

KT: We do it anyway.

HB: Yeah, we do it anyways! [everyone laughs] I think the biggest part of that message that we want to get out to our fan base is that they can be doing the very same thing, you know? Like Kelly said, everybody here has other jobs, everybody here is learning a lot of these things for the first time, especially with the distribution and the tech end of everything, and so it’s totally feasible for anybody at home to do the same exact thing.

KT: And there’s a lot of details that I just never expected to come up that has to be hashed out, you know? It’s just picked at, picked at. It’s a collaboration. You know, everything we do is a collaboration, so we all have opinions on things and it all has to be worked out for the better of the project. I mean, sometimes it takes time. It’s just a matter of thinking and doing, so it’s… I mean, time has gone by so quickly. Here it is, December.

HB: Yeah. We’re really lucky, though. I mean, what we’ve been doing this year is, kind of, building our army, you know?

KT: We stayed kind of low, below the radar in some ways.

HB: Well, we’re finding people in the community that are willing to volunteer their time, you know. We got members of our Southern Gothic community that have been really generous. We’ve got editors and camera guys and P.A.’s and…

KT: … and Nick is very generous to us, as a writer.

HB: Yeah, I mean, we have all of these people in our physical community that have joined out, I guess, our metaphorical community…

KT: Yeah.

HB: And yeah, so you know, making the connections now, when we do go to spend $4.2 million dollars, you know, we know who we can trust, we know who’s worked hard for us, we know who can deliver on time, and on budget, and those will be the people that we continue to trust and work with.

DG: Well, that leads me to the last question that I have for you guys for this week, and it’s a little bit about the things we were talking a little bit about before, about technology and how it’s helped you guys through this first year of existence, real year of existence, but before we do that… today, on this Wednesday, I’m not sure when this podcast launches, if it’s going to be out there or not, but the finals of the Open Web Awards, curtsey of Mashable, will be released, and we’re all sitting here on pins and needles, Hilarie, waiting to see if you made the cut, or if SoGoPro made the cut!

HB: Oh, no! Oh, man! Feels like the VMA’s all over again! Like we’ve said, you know, a couple of times in this podcast, all of this stuff is brand new to us so, you know, you had to tell me what Mashables were because I didn’t know what a podcast was 6 months ago, Denise! [laughs] So, to be nominated right out of the gates as we’re just starting out and learning how to do all of this stuff is super flattering. I think everybody here has done a really good job and, you know, even if we don’t win this year, we’re still infants in this circle. We haven’t been Twittering and podcasting and blogging half as long as most of the people that are up there, so yeah, I mean, if we don’t win this year, we’re totally just going to destroy everybody next year. I have no doubt!

DG: I texted Kelly on Sunday, I think, and I said, you know, I don’t believe in this thrill just to be nominated, I don’t like to lose, so… [Kelly laughs]

HB: You’re fiercely competitive, Denise! [laughs]

DG: [laughing] Winner!

HB: Beat somebody up and steal their Mashable for us!

DG: I just want that little logo to be put on your website. [laughs] That leads us into our last question and it’s talking about technology and talking about… we’ve talked about it, I think, a little bit earlier in this podcast, but just, everything that’s at your disposal to make your company successful, because you don’t need a huge army or a huge office full of people anymore because of the advances that makes things easier in life.

KT: That’s true. I mean, the internet has opened up possibilities that previous filmmakers just didn’t have. Hilarie mentioned independents and, I think, Nick did too, about… they have a project but no one knows about it, and so it fails. It doesn’t get the audience, and so with this, we have our street team, our community, in place as we’ve been building all year, and we can interact with them at a moment’s notice, like Twitter, or Facebook, and tell them about our project and keep them informed so that when our projects do come out, the audience is there waiting for it.

HB: And plus, with technology, we can just hire robots now. Yeah, Nick’s actually part cyborg, like small wonder, right, Nick? [Hilarie and Kelly laugh] He’s just nodding right now. He’s not programmed to speak this early. [laughs] I love robots! They seem so friendly in the future!

KT: I know!

HB: Yeah, you know, we’ll have robot camera operators, and…

KT: I think they have those already.

HB: Do they really?

KT: Yeah.

HB: That’s so creepy.

KT: It is kind of creepy. You don’t see anybody in the studio. You just have these cameras.

HB: Oh, that’s so creepy. So yeah, Denise, robots.

DG: Well then we’re going to be obsolete!

HB: No way!

KT: No way!

HB: Who’s going to tell the robots what to do?

KT: Yeah!

DG: You just push a button.

HB: No way! You need to read some sci-fi. Try it. Ray Bradbury is my favorite.

DG: Wait, you’re telling me to read sci-fi?

HB: Oh yeah. What the hell am I talking about? [Kelly and Hilarie laugh]

DG: I just bought the complete set of ‘Farscape’ and already have one, so… [Hilarie laughs]

HB: You can never have enough!

DG: You may be getting that in the mail.

HB: Oh yeah! Doesn’t Menton love ‘Farscape,’ too?

DG: Oh, yeah, we spent, like, an hour on the phone talking about that. [laughs]

HB: ‘Farscape!’ You know what I want to get involved in? What I think the next Southern Gothic Productions we do will be… there’s that show on, I think it’s sci-fi, called ‘Caught on Tape’ and it’s fake cryptozoology videos! Have you seen this?

KT: I’ve never even heard of it!

HB: Oh my god, it’s incredible! Basically, what they do is make fake ‘Blair Witch Project’-type videos where people are getting attacked by Lochness Monsters or Big Foot, so they treat it like it’s proof like these creatures exist, but it’s some little production company that was like, ‘Man, we’re going to do this!’ So they fake, like, all these crazy creatures attacking people in the woods. It’s pretty funny! We’ll get bored one day and go do that that. The Wilmington Devil will come and get us.

KT: Ghosts.

DG: There’s a lot of ghosts there anyway, so…

HB: Yeah, man! If we set up a camera in my house, I’m sure something will happen! [everyone laughs]

DG: Well that will… I think that’s a nice way to end this week’s podcast! [laughs]

HB: Totally!

DG: Christmas is coming up and we’re talking about ghosts. We’re still in Halloween mode, I think.

HB: It’s always Halloween.

DG: Well we’re closing out this podcast, and we talked a little bit about what we’re… who we opened up with, and that’s Dead Man’s Bones, and, like I said, we’re big music people here, and we’re closing out this podcast with Amy Miriello and her song ‘What’s the Use?’ with her new band So and So. This is a song, Hilaire, that nobody’s heard before, so we’re getting to be an exlusive.

HB: Fabulous.

DG: I’m excited.

HB: Oh, we’re kind of elitist here, so we really appreciate, you know, first looks and first listens. [laughs] We love snobbery, so yeah, we’re totally going to play up the fact that you can only hear it here, right now.

DG: Well, thanks guys for sharing some information with us about your upcoming projects. I’m very excited to see the true love tale of ‘Boyfriend and Girlfriend’ in the next week or so. We’re going to be back next week. We’re actually going to do two podcasts in a row, but we’re going to have our Christmas episode next week.

HB: Wait, you want us to say ‘Happy Holidays’ right now? [everyone laughs]

DG: No, we’ll do that next time.

HB: Okay! [everyone is still laughing] See you guys later!

KT: See ya!

HB: Hey, what’s going on, you guys? It’s Hilarie Burton and [gasps] is that an elf? No, it’s not an elf! [laughs] It’s our Christmas episode! It’s SoGoPro! Make sure you join us next week! We’re going to have a little fun on our podcast, so join and we will begin the holiday season!

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