Hollywood is Dead
Hollywood is Dead
7 // Behind the Scenes of Film Festivals and Indie Filmmaking: My Journey with the Sundial Film Festival and "The Dresden Sun"
This episode highlights the upcoming Sundial Film Festival and the completion of Tyler’s film, The Dresden Sun. Tyler shares details on community engagement, the significance of affordable arts access, and his personal journey through setbacks and creative resurgence.
• Overview of the Sundial Film Festival details and ticket pricing
• Excitement around the film, The Dresden Sun, and its Berlin showcase
• Insights into the star-studded cast of The Dresden Sun
• Tyler’s theatrical experiences and engagement with Axiom Repertory Theater
• Discussion about the community's resilience after recent setbacks
• Final thoughts on creativity and upcoming projects
Please check out our website for tickets to the Sundial Film Festival!
I'm sorry. What's up everybody? This is Tyler with the Hollywood is Dead podcast, with yet another episode, and not a day too early. Yo, yo, yo. Yo Figured I'd jump on here because enough has happened in life that I think permits another episode.
Speaker 1:So yeah, a few things here. I'm going to jump right into it because I don't have a ton of time and I'm not letting that stop me from doing this. So big shout out to Daniel Hill, a friend of mine here. Um, I just posted some reels on Instagram where I'm talking about a fun project that I will talk to you about, and he said love your voice, I'm dying for another podcast episode and literally three minutes ago I popped the recorder on, grabbed my microphone and now we're recording. So thank you, daniel Hill. Little shout out. Sometimes you need that little push, you know. So a couple of fun things.
Speaker 1:I am with a team of people who took over a film festival. I'm a associate director of this festival. It's called the Sundial Film Festival. It is in Redding, california. It is a short film festival and it is taking place on March 22nd of this year. So we got 30 days before. We blessed this community with amazing short films from around the world and I'm really, really, really excited to for the community to come out and check this out. It's going to be at the Cascade Theater. You can get your tickets at cascadetheaterorg and nowhere else or else you might get ripped off. So, yeah, go to cascadetheaterorg and get tickets there. It's super affordable, super affordable for so much. It's $25 for each block. So we have a 2 PM block that goes until about four o'clock, so two hours there and then we break. We break for a little dinner, go get some cocktails, get some, get some food from the amazing restaurants in downtown Reading and then pop back for the 7 pm show. It's also 25 bucks. Now, if you do decide that you want to come to both, we have an all-access pass which is $45 for four hours of films. It's amazing. It's amazing, um, really excited about that.
Speaker 1:Uh, we purposely made it affordable. We want to. Um, first of all, we wanted to lower the barrier of entry, which is money, so that we can fill up the cascade theater. It holds over 900 people. Why not fill that place up to come and watch movies? There's no other experience like watching great film with a whole bunch of people that are excited, and it's a fun event. Uh, I mean, yeah, you get 900 people in a room to watch movies together. You're going to laugh, you're going to cry, um, and overall, you're just going to have a really fantastic evening. So, please, please, if you're local to Shasta County, northern California, pop on over, watch some movies with us.
Speaker 1:It's a Saturday, you know what else are you going to be doing, and if you're not from Reading, you know, put it on your calendar. You know, put it on your calendar. This is this is the 16th season of this film festival and it's not going to stop, so we're going to be doing this every single year. Um, we're also going to have some really fun news on the day of the festival that, uh, I can't talk for this podcast, which always seems to.
Speaker 1:I just spin my wheels and I don't put out another episode, which is shame on me, you know, but we all have our process and, uh, here I am. So, uh, yeah, the other uh, big news is, um, for long time, listeners, this podcast started in like 2021 and, uh, we, it started at in pre-production, or not even. It was like pre pre production of a feature film called the Dresden sun, which, uh, I produced with my business partner, michael Ryan, and for archetype pictures. And uh, it's been a long road, folks. It's been a long, long road. It hasn't been easy. It hasn't been easy, it hasn't been quick, but the film is done. There's some small stuff that's kind of you know, tedious small stuff, but the film itself is edited, it is complete and now we are in the process of sales. So right now the film is in Berlin, at Berlin Ale, the Berlin Film Festival, which I mean, come on, that's exciting. That's like ridiculous. For those not in the know, the Dresden Sun stars Steven Ogg from Grand Theft Auto V, linus Roach from Mandy and History's Vikings, law Order, batman, like dude's been everywhere. It's got Mina Suvari in it. It's got Christina Ricci in it, which, holy crap, talk about a renaissance for Christina with yellow jackets.
Speaker 1:We were just incredibly lucky, honestly, I mean, to land such a talent to you know, and perfect, perfect casting with Christina in this film. It's really amazing, you know, and I hope the cast is kind of intriguing to you all. It's like how does Steven Ogg and Linus Roach and Mina Suvari and Christina Ricci come together in a film? Like what does that even look like? That was part of the part of the strategy with the casting. You know we wanted it to be uh interesting. You know I want people to think like, what the hell are these people cooking up? You know it's uh and we did it and the film looks amazing.
Speaker 1:Um, we've got an incredible soundtrack, um, the and man, the amount of work that michael put into this thing, uh is I've said this to him and I've said it to other people, but I'm going to put it out there I don't think anyone has ever done what he's doing right now in film, on such a film as this, such a movie. I mean, he, it's his idea, his brainchild. He wrote it, he, he directed it, he edited it. He did a literal metric shit ton of visual effects work. He also is doing the sound. He's doing the color. He's doing the 5.1 mix. He's doing the color. He's doing the 5.1 mix, you know and managing a bunch of that. You know we do have, we did hire, you know, a small team of people, but he was the visual effects manager throughout the entire thing. Incredible, incredible, no-transcript. That's what we're gunning for. We're gunning for that.
Speaker 1:Cyberpunk, uh, sci-fi, action, thriller. Audience covered a bunch of different uh genres in there, but, uh, I'm really, really proud of that. So that film is on its way, folks. So all of y'all asking how's the film coming along? When can we see it? Trust me, you're going to know when you can see it, because I'm going to be yelling from the rooftops.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, you know, just busy doing that, did a lot of theater and I wouldn't talk about that. A, you know, just uh busy doing that, did a lot of a lot of theater and I wouldn't talk about that a little bit. Actually, you know, my, my first love is acting and I was really uh blessed to be able to, um, you know, for the opportunity to be in a whole bunch of, uh, theater, of theater here in Northern California With a pretty amazing acting or, I'm sorry, theater repertory, and yeah, I had, I mean, so much fun. The audiences were a blast, the shows themselves were a blast. I got to do comedy, I got to do drama, I got to do some action.
Speaker 1:We did the show Noises Off and my character falls down a flight of stairs, also had to hop up Actually it was two flights of stairs Also had to hop up with my pants around my ankles, all of those stairs, and I'd never sweat that much on stage before, uh, I used to be really self-conscious about it, but now I just work it into the act and uh, that's what you gotta do, man. You know you got certain things going on. You just gotta work it in and and just have fun. You know, don't take yourself too serious. Um did a elephant man and which is probably one of the most taxing shows I've ever done. Uh, I got really deep, really really deep in it. Um, and Daniel Hill, who I mentioned earlier in this episode was, was, uh, joseph Merrick the elephant man, and I was Dr Treves and uh, I don't know, man, we went to a different place in that show and really kind of drained me emotionally and creatively. I've been on a real creative slump as of late and I'm coming out of it. I'm finally coming out of it. But yeah, that was, it was I don't know. I just had an amazing string of shows that I did and uh, really stoked on.
Speaker 1:But uh, and that was all through Axiom Repertory Theater here in Reading and they had a. Uh, a minor tragedy happened to the theater. Um, they had a fire inside which triggered the suppression system, the sprinklers which flooded the theater and they've been out of the theater since the end of October of 2024. So they're rebuilding. If you'd like to be involved at all in that theater, you know, volunteer um, they're always looking. They're always looking. Um, if you have like a couple million bucks that you have lying around that you want to throw their way, um, you know, do it. And uh, yeah, they're a really, really valuable asset to this entire community. You know, the arts up here is really flourishing on a bunch of different levels, and live theater is one of them, and they don't just do live theater, they do, you know, children's workshops, camps in the summertime, they did live music, amazing shows, oh my God, amazing shows at that theater, because it's a pretty big theater and yet it still feels quaint and intimate. It's just really special. I love that place. So, yeah, they're rebuilding and they will be back. Um, it's just going to take some time, you know. But, uh, in, in all seriousness, if you have time or money that you want to throw their way, uh, you can look them up.
Speaker 1:Axiom theater, uh, in Redding California. Um, yeah, they, they could use all the help they can get. What else? What else? My backyard got flooded. My garages got flooded. We had a big old rainstorm. We got like seven inches of rain in 24 hours, which is a lot for anywhere, but especially here, and we're all good, we're all good, but uh, yeah, so that was exciting. So, yeah, guys, um, I think you know short episode.
Speaker 1:Uh, I uh just wanted to jump on here because I got that extra push that I needed and uh and talk to y'all about some, some updates and some fun stuff going on. And the thing that I'm so, so, so excited about that's coming up March 22nd is the Sundial Film Festival. So please check us out. We're on Instagram, facebook, we have uh at Sundial Film Festival and then also sundialfilmfestivalcom. There's all the links in there for tickets. If you want to buy tickets to the film festival, you can go on there and go to the get tickets tab and it will take you to the casketetheaterorg, which is the only safe place to buy tickets.
Speaker 1:And then, if you want to go to the pre-party, which is at a beautiful cocktail lounge it's brand spanking new, it's called FOMO. That is going to be on the 21st, the night before the festival, and we're going to be having live music, heavy hors d'oeuvres there'll be drinks. Having live music, heavy hors d'oeuvres There'll be drinks. There will be industry professionals. You know, if you want to come and hang out with the writer of Ant-Man and Wasp Quantumania, jeff Loveness, he's a Reading native and went on to do some pretty badass stuff.
Speaker 1:If you want to meet Bonnie Wild uh Reading native and went on to do some pretty bad-ass stuff Um, if you want to meet, uh, bonnie wild, she's the the head sound mixer for, or sound engineer for, skywalker. Um, they do all the the Disney star Wars, um, loki and Mandalorian and stuff. She's going to be there. Uh, we also have a documentarian, uh, brandon Vedder, um, amazing documentarian. So we kind of got all of our bases covered with, uh, some and and other special guests that are yet to be announced, but, uh, it's going to be an amazing night, um night in preparation for the full day of films on the 22nd. I'm so excited. I'm so excited, yeah, it's going to be really cool and I will try and update some more on that beforehand. And also, I'm going to jump back into, uh more indie film related subjects. I've got some topics that I'd like to talk about and, um, I've got some people I want to talk to and share with you. So, thank you so much for listening. We will catch you on the next episode, peace.
