BPS 457: The Untold Stories of Women in Action Cinema with Melanie Wise

Alex Ferrari 0:00
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

Dave Bullis 1:20
Hi Melanie, thanks a lot for coming on the show.

Melanie Wise 1:56
Thanks so much for having me was a pleasure.

Dave Bullis 1:59
Oh, it's great having you on, Melanie. And I just wanted to ask and question I ask everybody, and that is, you know, how did you start in the film industry?

Melanie Wise 2:09
Oh, God, you know, it's, I'm six feet tall, and, you know, so, you know, I started out modeling, I moved to acting. And I do think that my height was absolutely a detriment. So, you know, basically, yeah, that, yeah, you know. I think I knew from when I was itty bitty that I wanted to, you know, the arts horror where, what blew my skirt up, you know, but it just, it took me a while to get around to it. I think I started modeling, I think when I was like 20, which is actually kind of old in model terms, you know, finally turned my attention to acting. And, you know, it was like, I come in to read for producers, you know, quite a lot, and they'd never hire me. And I think a lot of it had to do with being taller than the leading men. So, so that's when I, you know, I started producing my own content. And, you know, and that even is a struggle. There is. I I do think there is this. It's, I think it's tougher for taller women and and the other tall women that I've spoken to that are in the industry, I It has been a common theme that they struggle as well, you know, and then, and then, add to that, that, you know, I don't, well, actually, let me be really bald about it. I completely suck at selling the victim, which is usually the roles that are available to women so and you know, it was one of those where, you know, for a long time, our our interest, you know, the me and my teammates, we just we liked strong female leads, and we like women in action. And after running into so many obstacles with it, we were like, Screw it. Let's start a festival. And you know, it's like, if we want to see more of this stuff in the world, then we'll create a place for it to play. And that brings us all the way to the festival. And I didn't mean to, like, jump that far ahead.

Dave Bullis 4:25
No, no, it's no problem, yeah, but you know it, but you were talking about, you know, auditioning. And, you know, I did read your bio, and you were a former basketball standout, correct?

Melanie Wise 4:38
Yeah, I used to play about, Well, I grew up playing sports, and, you know, I still play sports So, but, yeah, no, I, I don't, I guess you could say I have a lot of Mars energy. I think that's the best way, you know, and that war like nature, yeah, that's me.

Dave Bullis 5:00
Yeah, so when you were modeling, and you answered the age around 20, you know, what were some of the experiences there and did, was it? Was it anything similar to when you started doing acting? Did you find any parallels between the two?

Melanie Wise 5:15
Actually, it was just stellar irony, because I started modeling here in California, and at the time, the majority of the industry here was the swimsuit industry, because everyone goes, Oh, well, models are need to be tall. Well, for the swimsuit industry, they hire these itty bitty chicks, and I didn't fit that either. I think my timing has just been kind of sucky, you know, and then I went to Europe, and I did okay. There, I wound up coming home, and I hung up my modeling shoes for reasons I don't even think I remember clearly. And I think it was about three years later that I started banging on the door, you know, in terms of acting.

Dave Bullis 6:08
So when you went to your first audition, you know, what were some of your memories from there? I mean, I mean, you were just saying, you know, you were, since you're six foot tall, you're tall, taller than some of the leading men. So when, when you were going to some of these auditions, or maybe some of these casting calls, you know, you know, what were some of your experiences there? Did you Did you know The Did anyone say anything about your height or what did you know wasn't the experience there? That's what I'm trying to say.

Melanie Wise 6:35
Yeah, no, well, they can't say anything about your height.

Dave Bullis 6:39
No, I was just wondering if I maybe said like, oh, wow, Melanie, you know, you're tall, or anything like that.

Melanie Wise 6:44
No, no. I Well, it's, you know, typically on your resume, your your height is there. So I mean, if they were surprised when I showed up, that was for their lack of reading, because it was right out in front. But you know, I would get a lot of calls for the dumb athlete. Or, you know, actually got cast in a Sunkiss commercial because I was big enough to tackle a guy, you know, stuff like that, you know. So it, while, you know, I don't consider height a specialty, I think the film industry might, you know, that's just like, you know, anyway, yeah, no, I got odd stuff and, you know, and I did get the auditions for victims and such. And, you know, honestly, I suck at it. I can, I can try. I can spend, you know, weeks in preparation. I don't think I will ever sell the victim

Dave Bullis 7:42
Well, well, I want to, I wanted to, you know, as we talk about, you know, auditions and stuff, you know, wanted to ask about Hannah's gift. And you know, you were the lead actress in the horror action film Hannah's gift, and you also won Best Actress at the indie fest Film Festival. So, you know, when you all didn't know when you audition for that, you know, was, was there, you know, I'm going to tell you, I don't, I haven't seen the film, obviously, but it were, you know, were you taller than leading man? Was there? You know, I want to, I actually want to hear about, about that film.

Melanie Wise 8:16
Well, I didn't have to audition for that because I produced it. I Yeah. So, yeah, no, that's But was I? Yes, I was taller than them, then the than the men that were cast in it, but that's usually, you know, I wasn't, it wasn't like they were itty bitty in which does happen in a lot of cases. But you know, I was probably an inch taller than the guy that was in it, you know, it doesn't show, but I knew that, and honestly, I wouldn't care. You know, I am. I love coming across people that don't care, because the bottom line of it is, just as there are tall men out there, there are short men, there are tall women, there's short women. You know, it's like, we're going to be all over the place. And then this idea that the leading man is always supposed to be taller than the female is confusing to me, because the only thing that I think that it offends is the male ego, yeah.

Dave Bullis 9:23
And I can, you know, I understand perfectly what you mean. And, you know, I want to talk more, you know about hatties gift, and you mentioned you were a producer on the film, and now I'm interested to hearing, you know, about the whole producing aspect of this, you know? Because I always like to hear about actors who get into, you know, screenwriting and producing, because what you're doing is you're making your own opportunities, which I think is absolutely golden. I think that is so imperative you know that you know not you know, everybody should be out there, you know, trying to make their own opportunities, you know, and at the same time looking at other projects. So that way you always have, you know, almost like a fallback plan, or having, you know, multiple irons in the fire. So to speak. So when you're producing, you know, Hannah's gift, where did you step, you know, step in as the producer? Did you meet with the director and the writer and and sort of you know, say, Hey, I could actually help produce this.

Melanie Wise 10:23
No, actually, well, yes, and no, the writer director is, we've been producing content together for a long time, and he has, he wrote strong female leads, you know, long before it was popular, and you know, so I met him, and the reason why we got on so well is because we had a similar taste. But, I mean, he writes absolutely beautiful female characters, and so no, when we went forward to produce it, I didn't step in and offer, you know, it was something that he and I actually steadfastly planned out, you know, of the the for the resources that we had and the projects that we had, it was the best one to produce. Because, you know, when you get into low budget production, you know, you can't do an epic fantasy on a micro budget, and that's just the simple truth of it. So you have to choose the project that you can pull off the best with the resources that you have. And you know, in terms of actual production. I mean, I did everything from, you know, planning all of it, to carrying the trash out on set. You know, it's one of those where, if you are going to produce your own content, unless you're showing up to the table with an A decent budget, you are, you're going to bust your ass.

Dave Bullis 11:57
Yeah, it's true. It's extra. Melanie, you as a producer, when you're producing stuff, you know, independent film and stuff, you know, with, with, you know, small locations, a smaller crew. You know, everyone does have to play multiple roles. You know, wear multiple hats, and that's, you know, it's something I, you know, I've been as I've been doing it, you know, things that I learned up along the way is that, and, you know, hey, you know, even if you're a producer, you got to, you know, figure out you know how to get from point A to point B and meet what I mean by that is, you know, hey, you got to, someone's got to go out there wave the pizza guy down. Someone's got to go out there and make sure these guys are coming on the set at the right time and but you're also got to do something else at the same time. So it's like juggling constantly to make sure that that engine, so to speak, of the film is constantly moving.

Melanie Wise 12:44
Yes, no, it won't. For me, it's like, I don't do some people are very comfortable sitting and and I'm probably the most a type personality I've ever met. It's like, you know, I do better when I'm actually in motion. So for me, acting and producing, I don't think is wearing too many hats on set. It's a little bit difficult. But you know, you know your pre production, there are a few things that I can do on set, and then in post, that's post is where probably the bulk of my experience actually lends the most to any anything, because it's like, I can, I have a lot of post production skills, you know, I edit, I do sound effects, you know. You know, I'm pretty much a one stop post house. So, yeah, I mean, I can, there's a lot that I can do with footage.

Dave Bullis 13:49
So did you do any of the post production work for Hannah's gift?

Melanie Wise 13:53
Um, I did, I did. I didn't do, I didn't do, I didn't edit it. No, we had, we had several editors, and we actually went through a mountain of editors for the film, because it was told from the conceit of the film is that it's in real time, and it's told from the point of view of one of the characters, which is actually really difficult to pull off in terms of a production. But the second thing is, is that when we started, you know, interviewing editors, you know, we would explain ad nauseam, you know, how we wanted the film to be edited. And I'm not joking, I think five different editors tried to cut it as a standard film, and you know, it was just one of those where it wasn't landing. So we went through a lot of editors. Ultimately, our masters got destroyed. So we wound up shooting the film a second time, and that's when I was able. To bring the appropriate crew to the table and finish it.

Dave Bullis 15:05
So what So Melanie, that that's that's really interesting and heartbreaking to hear. So how did your masters get destroyed?

Melanie Wise 15:13
Like, my guess is, see, it was interesting. Everybody, nobody wanted to start with in the ingested footage. Everybody wanted to start from scratch, you know, I'll get the I'll add, you know, I'll ingest the footage. And literally, the teeps just suffered. I'll bet money, somebody had a deck that was out of calibration, and it stretched the same

Dave Bullis 15:43
So when you learned that, that you had to reshoot the movie again, what was the first thing that came through your mind?

Melanie Wise 15:52
Um, you know, it's funny. You know, I sweat the small stuff in life. That one, I didn't, I wasn't, like, up in arms over it. But, you know, pretty much it was, I think it was like a month after we learned that the Masters had been destroyed, we were actually producing the film for a second time because the stuff just wasn't fixable.

Melanie Wise 16:16
We would have had, you know, all kinds of artifacts in the in the footage, it was just easier to reshoot it.

Dave Bullis 16:26
You know that that's something similar, somewhat similar to what happened to me. I had a editor who I gave, we admit we shot on actual SD cards, and we gave him all the footage. And that was my first mistake. I should have, I should have kept a copy for myself. And what happened was, he took the footage, he started to edit it, and then basically he had a bunch of problems with his with his business partners, and basically stopped working on everything. Well, his laptop started to go all wonky, and he was asking people for money to fix it. And I said to him, Well, you know, you still have the footage. And he said, Yes. And I said, well, I need to get that back, so I'll chip in some money. Well, he comes back to me finally, about a couple weeks later, and he says, Well, I couldn't raise any money, all I had, you know, and this laptop is just about to die, and this, that and the other thing. So I kept hounding on him to get me back this footage, and he never respond to calls. And then one day, he just deleted me off Facebook, and I actually sent him an email and I said, you know, I said, You're You're lucky that I don't hold you accountable for that lost footage, and he didn't respond back to that. And about a month or so after that, some people also said that he had gotten them into trouble because he had taken on, like, wedding videos, and he hadn't edited any of it. He just sat on the footage, and people were, you know, different brides were asking him, Hey, where's my footage at? And he just let it all sit. And I don't think that guy works in the film industry anymore.

Melanie Wise 17:57
Um, yeah, no. With a reputation like that, you're not going to go far. Yeah, I see, yeah, no, it's in well, you know, it's funny, because I tend to be a little bit more old school about editing. It's like, I don't do anything on the laptop. I'm, you know, strictly desktop based. And one of the reasons why is just more stable.

Dave Bullis 18:21
Yeah. So let me ask you this, Melanie, when you we shot it and you, did you use that? I mean, like you said, you sweat the small stuff and that you you were, you took a lot better. Did you look at as a, sort of like a way to say, Okay, now I can sort of change any any problems I had before, or maybe I could fix any issues that arise before,

Melanie Wise 18:44
Yeah, any, any, anything you shoot, you are going to have an extraordinary learning curve. And, you know, you know, and you get to cringe through post, you know, beating yourself over the head with, how come I didn't think of this at that time. And so, you know, by shooting the film a second time, yes, we absolutely came up with a better finished product. There were, I mean, it was, you know, I have to say, if you don't learn, you know, if you have the opportunity to learn from your mistakes and you don't, well, ouch. Anyway, no, but we, we learned a lot shooting it the first time. So when we shot it the second time, it was literally the same story, but we did it a little differently. And, you know, we've but, but it took a long time. It was like I said, you know, it's one of those where, you know, I can look at something, and if somebody explains it to me, you know, it's like, I try to ask enough questions to really get a firm grip of what they are looking as for as their end product. And, you know, having gone through, I think we wound up going through a total of seven out of. On that project. And it was just mind numbing to me, where you know, you just see them, yes, yes, yes, you when you explained it, but then when you started getting your first cuts back, you're like, Wow, you didn't, you know, or it was an and it's one of those where I have a hard time believing it was so far, you know, out of the ordinary that someone just couldn't digest it, you know. But that's literally what happened.

Dave Bullis 20:36
So, yeah, it's, you know, I've experienced that too, where some some editors, and particularly when I was talking about was saying things like, Oh yeah, I understand exactly what you mean. And then you get it back, you're and you say, wait a minute, that's that's nothing. What I wanted. This is completely wrong. And I usually find the that's why that is one regard where I think emails like, every anytime I would, I would talk to him, whether it be in person, because we actually had him in person to come down, and we were talking to him about edits, right? And we're we had a big, uh, whiteboard in front of us, and we're marking it up, and we're saying, Okay, let's do this and this and this. And we we marked it all down, and then I sent him an email of everything we talked about. And then when we saw the Edit about a week or two later. It was completely wrong. And I'm sitting there going, was I not clear? Then I look back at the email and I'm sitting and I say to myself, Well, no, I I can see that I was I told him this. It's just, you know, either they didn't understand or they didn't read it, or they, you know, or just trying to basically reinvent the wheel.

Melanie Wise 21:38
Well, yeah. And I have, you know, I have come across editors who think they know better. And it doesn't matter if you know better than the person that is standing there, if, if someone is paying you to edit something, give them what they're asking for, you know. And because I, I've seen plenty of people who would like to kind of, you know, direct from the editing chair, which you can do and you know, but it's also one of those where I I also take, you know, what's clear to me, if I was communicating to myself and I consider something clear, it doesn't necessarily mean it's clear to anyone else but me. So even if, as I express it, you know, I could be saying, well, the sky is blue, and they could be hearing that the sky is green. And you know, those kinds of communication breakdowns occur all the time, especially when you are trying to breathe life into something that's not average or typical.

Dave Bullis 22:42
So, yeah, it's very true. And you know, that's why there's an old saying Melanie by Sun Tzu, the guy who with the art of war. It's basically, you know, if the communication breaks down, it's the fault of the commander to the generals, and he's and basically, if that, if he checks that out, but the instructions have been clear, then it must be the general's fault. It's something along the lines, I always butchered sayings here, by the way, on this podcast. But it was something, it was something like that. And basically, you know, he was telling a story that, you know, communication is always the the first person, whoever, who uses the communication. Who is that communications from? They should always assume that this is not clear to anybody but me, or this may be not clear to everybody else. So maybe so if there's ever a miscommunication, I should go back to myself first. But if I did, but if it is clear, then it is the fault of that person. And, you know, obviously in warfare, you know, that's he was talking about, you know, making sure that troop movements were okay. You know, in our, in our world of filmmaking, we have to make sure, you know, communication is key. Because it's moving crews around, it's moving actors around, it's and also it's instructions on editing a final piece.

Melanie Wise 23:54
Yeah, it's a tough job. Producing is not simple at all. And, you know, unless, like, you know, until you make it into, you know, the area of the industry where, you know you've got a decent budget, you're going to be understaffed. And you know that means it, you know, it's like the thing that you give up without money you're going to spend time and but no, I mean, it's a fun ride. It's an absolutely fun run.

Dave Bullis 24:30
So when you finally got the second you finally shot the movie for a second time, and you know, you got the final edit down the way you wanted to. So Did, did you go about submitting to certain festivals, or did you have certain festivals targeted for the for the film?

Melanie Wise 24:47
Well, yeah, no, sometimes you know what this sounds like, a harsh judgment of myself, but it really isn't. It's more of a humorous one. It's like sometimes I feel like I have idiots stamped on my for. Head. Because the thing that you've got to realize with anything that is not a dramedy, excuse me, a drama, comedy or a documentary, most film festivals are not geared to take ingest that content, unless it's a specialty festival. And so people make things that are a little unusual or a little off the beaten track, and it is more difficult to get those types of films placed in any festival.

Dave Bullis 25:31
Yeah, as you know, there's more submissions to various festivals. I know it is, you know, the marketplace gets a little more crowded, and it's a little, you know, harder to stand out, so to speak, and but you know, you actually won for Best Actress at the indie fest Film Festival. So were you in attendance to collect that award?

Melanie Wise 25:52
No, actually, I wasn't. We actually with that we got, we won audience choice at shocker fest. I think we collected a total of, I think, four or five awards for that film. And it was, it was funny because, you know, it was kind of alert. I'm not answering your question, and I don't mean to not answer it, but I was going to distract with something else. So I get, you know, when I submitted us to shocker fest, and then I get the rejection notice, and, like, a week later, they're saying, hey, you've been, you know, or you've been selected to screen at this. And I write them this kind of sniffy email back, saying, you know, hey, you just told me I didn't get in. So what's the real story here. So I think what happened was, is they had something that they picked had fallen out, and so they were taking an alternate and it was one of those where I don't think the people who ran the festival were particularly fond of the film and but they were absolutely shocked when we won audience choice. So that was kind of funny. Yeah, again, it's, it's one of those where, even if it's one of the reasons that we started the festival, it's like, because a lot of the content that we play is not going to show at a lot of other festivals, because those festivals, if you just look at the whole festival world and and what gets played. Genre films are not what they play.

Dave Bullis 27:30
So, you know, as is we were going to talk about now, about the Artemis Film Festival. You know, what was sort of the impetus to start that? Was it, you know, just to show those films that you just said, just to show films that wouldn't get shown anywhere else or so. I shouldn't say certain jobs that were getting shown at certain festivals I should say.

Melanie Wise 27:47
Actually, more to the point is that I have had a long standing belief that women in action is a very lucrative thing, you know. And every few years or so, you'll see, you know, should come out from the studios where they say that women in action is box office poison. I don't remember, if you do. You remember that film, eon flux, that starred Charlize the wrong well, that did not do very well. And I remember, at the time, at that time, I was, you know, very much into studying box office revenues and and what stuff was earning. And hands down, for many years, action is the best selling genre of films above ever anything and, you know, and it's one of those where we have probably almost five decades, where we have a smattering of films that feature women in action, and there's always some excuse not to make more. And when eon flux, the last time I saw it in the trades, you know where they're saying, oh, women in action is Box Office Poison was right around a on flux. And, you know, it was like, you know, a few years prior to that, you know, you'd see comments here and there. But now we're seeing, you know, especially in the last, like, three or four years, we're seeing an ex, we're seeing a tide change. And if you look on TV, you've got an extraordinary number of shows that feature, you know, pretty empowered women and female characters, a lot of women in action. And so that market is there. But if you look at it's it's one of those where I think the biggest impetus there was two impetuses for the festival. One was to create a space for the content to play, and two is to prove that there's an extraordinary audience for it. Because, you know, it's like we get films from 25 countries around the globe on. Most every year, we have a worldwide audience. You know, our social media fans are all over the world, you know. So it's like, this isn't something that is just interesting to a certain group of the population on a certain in a certain area of the world. It's all over. I mean, our first year we had, we actually had a was an animated film. It was, you know, claymation from Iran. And you know, so of all places in the world, we're literally taking in content from Iran, where they are celebrating the strength of the female of the species, which is really kind of ironic. And you know, it's like, because of the festival, we get extraordinary pieces of history for, you know, women that a lot of people don't know about. That's really cool, too. I mean, like, you know, odd fact, did you know that the winningest basketball team in all of written history is a woman's basketball team out of Texas. I think they were called the Flying queens, and think they played from like, like 19, it was like the mid 50s through like, I can't remember the year stretch it is, but it started in like 1956 I think. And they have the little, literally, the winningest basketball record in all of history. Nobody knows about this.

Dave Bullis 31:47
You know, go ahead, no, I was gonna say, Yeah, I didn't, I've, I didn't know that, yeah?

Melanie Wise 31:53
Well, when we showed it at the festival, nobody knew it. It was, it was interesting. Last year, we had a couple of articles written by people. They were published during the festival, but they were published by people who were actually showed up to a few of the the screenings and events that we had. And, you know, it was really awesome to for to see them, right? Wow. I had no idea, you know. But this is, I mean, these are things that should be widely available, then they're not and, and, and it should be widely available not just because we're sitting here going, Oh, it's time to pay attention to women, but because they're part of our history, and they're out there and nobody knows about it. Yeah. It has a it's like, when you talk about women in action, you're going to be talking about, you know, women in sports, military, you know, narrative, obviously, of any genre, but it's like you're in the mill. You know, in the military, stories we get, you know, they're jaw dropping because you don't realize how much women have actually contributed to, you know, military efforts all the way back to World War Two. You know, we've showed films about, you know, the first ladies that actually ever flew aircraft for the military, and they would even test the shit for the guys to fly and, you know, and so they had these, you know, amazing few years of flying airplanes and having this incredibly adventuresome life. And then when the men came back to war, they were, you know, told to go back home and cook for their kids.

Dave Bullis 33:38
Yeah, there's also a history of war two, there's a history of, you know, female fighters. And you know, when the, when the Nazis invaded, in 1941 there was, you know, like women were fighting alongside the battlefield. And they actually, you know, were pilots. I think they were called the, there was actually a pilot group called the, think, the witches or something, or something like that. It was a bit, they were basically, you know, flying these old fashioned planes. But they were just, but, you know, because they were taking on the invading Nazi force,

Melanie Wise 34:07
Yeah, weren't they the witches out of Russia?

Dave Bullis 34:09
Yeah, it, but I think there was a name. I think it was something witches, I can't remember, but, uh, I'll link to that in the show notes everybody.

Melanie Wise 34:15
Yeah, no, I'm pretty, I'm pretty sure you are correct. And then for the US, you had the the wasps, and they were the women Air Force Service Pilots, I believe, yeah, we actually were lucky enough to have a 93 year old Wasp at the festival for one of our warrior women panels last year. I'm sorry, yeah, go no go ahead.

Dave Bullis 34:39
I was gonna say, did a lot of people, you know, ask her about the war.

Melanie Wise 34:42
Oh, hell yeah, yeah, no. And it was literally, I think it was late last year, they actually finally started getting, um, death benefits for these ladies that died in service, you know, because during that period of time when these women were flying, because they were. Were, they were flying back and forth, or some of them were stationed in Europe and they but they basically just did a lot of supply flying and other types of flying for the US. And you know, if one of their, if one of the lady pilots died in service, the ladies literally collected money between themselves to actually bring their bodies back, because, because the because the US government wouldn't pay for it, and they literally just, I think it was late last year where they actually got that. I think they got the law to change so that their death benefits were covered. I mean, some of the stuff, I mean, you know, some of the stuff is mind numbing, and people need to know about it.

Dave Bullis 35:52
Yeah, it absolutely it's very fascinating. And you know that, and again, you know, I'm looking at, you know, some of the people that that you've had at the festival, some of the honorees, you've had Zoe Bell, you've had Yancey Butler, and you've even had Paul Feig on. Some of the honorees, yes, yeah.

Melanie Wise 36:11
And it's absolutely amazing, yeah, no. And this year, and there's more, there's more to announce, but this year we have Tom Cruise, Michelle Nichols, who was Lieutenant Uhura in the first Star Trek. So, I mean, and this, I mean, this lady literally broke so many barriers by playing that role. It's, you know, I mean, to recount that would take a moment, so I won't bore you with the gory details. And then we have some, uh, absolutely fantastic stunt ladies. And one stunt guy, Andy Armstrong, who is Andy Armstrong, is probably one of the top second unit action directors for, you know, big budget blockbuster films. And he happens to be an extraordinary supporter of female stunt women. He actually hires a lot of them, which is really cool. Jennifer Caputo, who's been a stunt woman for more than two decades, and she does all kinds of wacky shit. And then Tammy Baird, who's a she does an amazing body of stunt work as well, but she does the best car hits you can imagine. So I mean she literally, you know, steps out in front of a car in high heels and a doily for a dress, and lets the car hit her. And then there's, gosh, there's one more person, and I'm totally spacing it off. I feel like an idiot.

Dave Bullis 37:38
But don't go bad. Don't feel bad. Melanie, every time I do this podcast, my brain stops working. I swear to God,

Melanie Wise 37:46
Yeah, but no. I mean, we have, this year, we'll have some amazing honorees, and we have, we actually have a couple other announcements coming down the pipeline that are going to be pretty juicy too.

Dave Bullis 37:56
That's fantastic. And, I mean, I and you know, you also have some great media partners. You have film inquiry, you have ink tip, and you have action movie freak, you know. And you know that that's actually a question I wanted to ask is, do, are you at a position now, or where, like different partners pitch you, you know what I mean to So are they finding you out and saying, hey, you know, Melanie's got, you know, the Artemis Film Festival, you know, we should, we should, you know, talk about, you know, sponsoring something here,

Melanie Wise 38:25
Yeah, no, okay, just so, you know. So our first two years of putting the festival on, we were, we crowdfunded, and so, I mean, so we are a fan backed festival, you know. And our, our media partners to date are, you know, basically it's, you know, we basically do cross promotions because we benefit each other and and it's, you know, it's great to find and people that you are proud to promote for the stuff that they do. But yeah, I think we are, we are working on sponsorship, you know, the actual dollar kind, which, you know, so we are working on that, but we will be, you know, we will be crowdfunding again, probably starting right at the beginning of February.

Dave Bullis 39:15
So are you going to be crowdfunding through Indiegogo or Kickstarter?

Melanie Wise 39:19
We'll probably run on Indiegogo, which is where we've been the last two years. Although I am considering, I am considering another crowdfunding platform for a few, a few different reasons, but, but, yeah, the last two years, we've run on Indiegogo, and, you know, we generally call it the women kick ass project, because that's our hashtag. And, you know, we, you know, it's kind of cool to be able to say, hey, we have a completely fan backed Festival, which is what we have.

Dave Bullis 40:06
Yeah, it is amazing. Have a fan back festival. It really, it really, truly is because that way you know, you know exactly. You know where it's you know where the bread is buttered, so to speak. You know exactly what to you know. You know what I mean, like there's no re so many pull the strings behind the scenes, so to speak. If you know what I mean,

Melanie Wise 40:24
No that. Well, there's that. But also, to me, the fact that it's fan base we have. We have a base of fans that are willing to literally financially get behind the production of the festival. It should speak loudly to the fact that people like women in action, damn it, period. So, you know, and, and we get, we get backers all from all over the place too. So it's, it's that, that part is, you know, corporate sponsorship will make, would make our life a lot easier, but I don't I. I can't really express a my gratitude, but also the, for lack of better words, pride that our fans like us so much that they contribute to the production of the film festival. I mean, you know, I plaster their names all over our website, and I put them in our festival program, because I want everyone to know.

Dave Bullis 41:29
And when you know it is 2017 when is the festival for 2017 Do you have, you have a set date right now?

Melanie Wise 41:36
Yeah, now we're going to be our opening night is going to occur at the aria in Los Angeles. It's a theater that's right near Wilson, las cienegas, La Cienega and Beverly Hills, and that'll be April 20, and then the last three days of the festival, the 21st through the 23rd will occur in Santa Monica at lemleys On second in Arizona.

Dave Bullis 41:59
And can people just go to do Artemis Fowl festival.com to buy tickets.

Melanie Wise 42:06
They can. They're not. They're not available for sale. What, what will happen is, when we open up our crowdfunding, that's the first place screening passes will go up for sale after that. Obviously, you know, they'll be available through Lemley as well as our website. And, you know, we have an extraordinary year coming. We've got some we have really astounding content to share. And, you know, we'll have an extraordinary array of panels. You know, we'll have our stunt woman panel. We'll probably have a warrior women panel. We are also going to put together, probably a VR panel, because virtual reality is an extraordinary burgeoning field that is wide open, if women want to jump in.

Dave Bullis 42:56
Yeah, I've seen more filmmakers starting to, you know, sort of dabble in VR, sort of putting their foot in their foot in their water, so to speak, you know, testing the orders out, just to see, you know, see, you know what it's all about. And I'm, I'm actually interested to be honest with you, Melanie, about which way it's going to go. I have, I could see, on one hand, VR going the way of something like 3d where, you know it was, it works well in some areas, but most people, sort of, you know, go back to, you know, the way we do things, you know, normally, or if it's going to be like, sort of like the future, where you just put on the VR headset and you can, pretty much, you know, you can do, you know, go play video games, then you switch it in and out. You're watching a movie, and it's all that, you know, that VR immersive experience,

Melanie Wise 43:41
You know, one of the things that I get that is very interesting to me is, as it comes to narrative, it will be very curious to me to see how that plays out, because we generally don't stand, you know, and you know VR, if you're doing immersive VR, you've Got a headset on, and you know, whichever direction you turn, you have some view available to you, right, which requires the ability to stand. I wonder if people will literally stand. Let's say if it was a narrative film you're looking at, you know, somewhere between 90 to 120 minutes, I'm having a hard time seeing people stand to watch a movie like that. Yeah, you know. So I do think I am 100% certain where VR is going to blow a lot of shit open. You know, it's going to be it, you know, we're always, I mean, come on, look. You know, every, every few years, we're updating our technology, and so it's part of life, and that's just the way it goes. Is things are going to change. People are going to be looking for the next best, new, you know, bigger, better, faster, more, kind of a thing. And, you know, and you know, I do think that you. You know, people will still continue to watch flatties, you know, so I don't think, I just think it's going to be in another area of, you know, the filmed moving image and but the other, the other cool part about VR is some of the stuff that they're doing to actually make a difference, you know, in terms of learning. And there are people that I know that are developing programs for, you know, empathy, um, they're doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, VR is a vast, vast world, and I think that, you know, it's how it's getting used, hasn't even been tapped. There's an and there's, it's just, it's a brand new wide open field, yeah.

Dave Bullis 45:48
And, you know, again, I am very interested to see, you know, which way it actually goes. And I wonder too, if you know, that will be just the new norm. I also wonder if that would be like, the new way to go to work will literally just be like, you know, hey, I'm gonna put on my VR headset and work remotely, because we can have conferences remotely. And, you know, I can just put on my headset. Or maybe I can even work through, like, almost like, actually in the VR world and using holograms, moving holograms around, or, or what have you were actually coming out, you know, you know, I mean, because, again, you know, now everything is so accelerated with tech. You know, every, like you said, Every few years, or something new coming down the pike that sort of disrupts what was just disrupted.

Melanie Wise 46:30
Yeah, yeah. One, one of the things that I always look at with our technology is, you know, the more we immerse ourselves into technology, the less we are can be not always, but the less we are available to, you know, just basic human interaction. And so, I mean, there is, it's a blessing, curse, kind of a thing, you know, because the more disconnected we become from actual, real life, you know, that can cause some, some pretty big problems, you know. But you know, tech is, it's an amazing tool. And, you know, I think that we, we need, we really need to use it wisely. And you know, just, it's no different than the messages that we create with our with our flat, moving images. You know, I think content creators have a responsibility, and I think they really need to take an extraordinary consideration of the messages that they're putting out into the world.

Dave Bullis 47:35
Yeah, very true, very true. Melanie. So, you know, Melanie, you know we've been talking for about 45 minutes now. And I want to ask, you know, you know, in closing, is there anything that we weren't able to discuss that you may want to know to talk about, or do you have any sort of closing thoughts for this whole conversation?

Melanie Wise 47:53
Wow, that's a tough question.

Dave Bullis 47:54
It is. It's a very open ended question. I usually ask that on purpose, just to because it can be anything, really,

Melanie Wise 48:01
Yeah, no, honestly, while we, I mean, we've talked about so much, you know, but no, I obviously, you know, for people who who like seeing empowered images on screen, or just, I mean literally, badass women in action, you know, hey, check us out. It's Artemis film festival.com and you know, we love hearing from you people,

Dave Bullis 48:26
And I will link to that in the show notes, everybody where you can also follow me everywhere I'm on all the social media channels, just like Melanie is. And you know, I I'm getting really big into YouTube now, Melanie, I've realized, yeah, that that's where I've, I've should have been, well, I don't want to, I don't want to bore you with with my whole you don't mind telling me, I want to hear this. Okay, so about a few years ago, I had two opportunities to do, to do web series for on YouTube. Both, both were comedies. Both were like, you know, one was like half hour. Another one was like 10 minutes. I passed on both of them and for for a number of reasons, well, you know, now I kind of look back and I go, you know, it just makes sense for me being in the film industry, meaning this podcast, I upload the podcast to YouTube as well. And what I'm trying to say, out of all this, is I should have been on YouTube first. Be on Twitter, be on Facebook, be on Instagram. Because it just, it's more, it's more correlates more to what we do. And that's why I'm now, I'm getting back into doing, you know, the YouTube stuff. And I, and I actually switched channels about two years ago. I had one before, where I would just put it was like, it wasn't really filmmaking stuff. It was like, random stuff. It was like random stuff I was throwing up there for different stuff. I was doing a lot of freelance videography work, just, there's a whole bunch of other stuff. So finally, closed down that channel, got this new channel. I upload pretty much every podcast episode on there, and slowly, just trying to grow more of an audience on YouTube.

Melanie Wise 50:10
Yeah, no YouTube. YouTube is the number two search engine behind Google, yeah. And you know, it's like, I've known for a long time that YouTube is a very, very, very powerful platform, but it's also one of those where I, I have also been delinquent on YouTube.

Dave Bullis 50:29
See, we could both. We can both now, you know, not be so delinquent anymore. We could both finally get up on YouTube and start, you know, putting all of our stuff on there. Because, honestly, I've had a lot of people find the podcast through YouTube. I've had people find some of my short films. I basically tried to throw everything I could up there that I want people to see. Because, you know, I've made a few, few student short films that I didn't really, weren't really that good at the end of the day. So I was like, I won't show this to anybody else.

Melanie Wise 50:58
Yeah, you know, you got to do it. You gotta do them.

Dave Bullis 51:02
Yeah, yeah. And I just basically use them as a learning experience. And then basically was like, I'll never talk about this ever again.

Melanie Wise 51:11
I hear you. Well, we have, um, I will, I will make sure to check out your, your your YouTube page. What is, what's the name of it?

Dave Bullis 51:21
Real Iron Fist films.

Melanie Wise 51:22
I would not have found that. Awesome. I look forward. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Dave Bullis 58:51
Oh, no, my pleasure is all mine, you know, I want to say thank you for coming on, Melanie.