Film Courage: When did the idea for PassionFlix begin? Tosca Musk, Filmmaker and PassionFlix Co-Founder: PassionFlix
came about was actually Joany's idea, Joany Kane is our founding partner.
She had the idea of quite a few years ago she wanted to win Fifty Shades of
Grey came out she was wondering why there isn't a place for us to watch
romance novels that have been turned into movies when the movie was such a
success so she actually got the URL passion fix calm and said I'm gonna do
this and then many years later nothing happened to it until one New Year's Eve
she decided I'm gonna make it happen and she booked a flight to LA and it just so
happened that Johnny and I had met a few months prior to that she had watched a
movie of mine on ion called you cast a spell on me and she contacted me the
next day and said I have two really loved your movie
I loved how you directed that movie and I would be I would really love it if you
would take one of my movies and direct that and normally I you know you'd get a
lot of people that solicitude and so normally you just know I'm gonna ignore
that but I couldn't her note was so sweet and she was just so open in her
communication to me that I was like okay let me have a look at the script I read
it and I was like she can really write she's a good writer so let's meet and
then we tried to make that we try to bring that movie to a network but no one
would buy it because it was a little too sensual it was a little too risque how
to do with magic and that doesn't really work well with a lot of network
television so that didn't work but when she came over here that February at the
beginning of February we sat down and had lunch with our other partner Gina
and over tuna fish sandwiches she told us that this thought that she had of
passion flicks and we went great it's a great idea we're gonna do it with you
and we literally started the next day on founding basically how to create the
company the business plan put together a full proposal come up with the idea of
how we're going to do all this and and then
I spent the next few months raising money and well it was about a year to
raise the money and then option books and made our first feature last March so
I knew long answer well no that's really interesting so you had never really you
didn't know Joni from and that's her name I'm sorry Joan right you didn't
know her previously it was just that initial email and you just sort of went
on a gut feeling that loud this could be somebody I want to work with I went oh
yes well writers so the answer is yes I didn't know Joni very well at all except
for the communication we'd had on the one screenplay that she'd written and
that screenplay was good and when you as a direct I get to work with a
screenwriter and they are they're open to your comments and your notes and they
adjust the screenplay according to how you see it as a filmmaker that that
collaboration just forms a deep partnership to begin with so I didn't
know her personally I never met her in in person until February but we'd work
together by email and phone calls for a few months prior to that and so as a
filmmaker I knew her well I see okay so then you raised was it four point seven
million in seed funding four point seven five four point seven five okay okay
five three okay okay good to know so can you just briefly tell us how this
happened did you have specific people in mind you know you want to approach or
well so that was the difficult part firstly I'm related to a lot of people
that have raised a lot of money which is helpful and so I went to them for advice
what do I do who do you approach and they basically
said everybody you just go to anybody you just constantly tell what the idea
is to every single person that you meet and somebody is gonna say hey I have
somebody that might be interested in that and that's what happened so I
literally just went to every single person that I knew and I said that had
any ability to tim best and i said this is the idea this is what I'd like to do
do you have any advice me and would you be interested in coming
on board and some people came on board with $5,000 some people came on board
with $50,000 so it wasn't they weren't huge amounts
that almost everybody that I spoke to wanted to participate because they think
the idea is really good I'm always wondering how that happens is it a long
email is it a phone call is it when you see them at an event all of those things
so I will take the opportunity to tell people about passion flicks every single
place that I go so it'll be at a coffee shop while I'm wearing a passion flicks
t-shirt and I will tell the people there it will be at a lunch it'll be at an
event it'll be I do send emails I don't send long emails because most of the
people that you're dealing with don't have time to read long emails and
they'll ignore them so shortened to the point with very specific information in
it and what you want what it is that you're looking to do what it is you want
and I'm happy to provide you with any further supportive documents for you to
review this that was basically what I do I'm about to do it again because we need
to do another race okay so is it similar it's to raising money for a film or is
it are they two separate animals and sometimes raising money for a film is it
is different because here I'm raising money for a company that is a
distribution company that has a overall goal which is to empower women through
emotional strength while at the same time owns multiple movies so we are not
making one movie we're making 50 so if you invest in passion flicks you get a
part of all 50 movies that we own forever so should the company not do
well as a distribution company you still have all these assets and you're able to
sell them and hopefully we'll make that $50,000 back I'm purely low so that's
why it's not a difficult ask when it comes to investment because when you're
looking for an investment in one single picture it's basically saying hi I have
a movie I want to make I'm gonna spend three million dollars on this movie can
you give me some money and hopefully everybody else likes this movie and I
can get a distributor and I can get to the theaters or get it into DVD or
sell in the fan market and hopefully we'll make our money back and then you
can get your 20% so that's the filming the individual filmmaking side which is
it's a different beast and there are a lot of people that want to invest that
way specifically in California or in the u.s. what I mean is there's tax
write-offs that are involved there's you know all these different things that are
positive for investors to invest in individual films but that's all we're
looking for so today's action blockbusters are all
the rage and I know there's a lot of debate over whether it's actually good
content do you feel that romance films are dwarfed by these action blockbusters
I don't actually I think I mean they're not dwarfed by the action back Busters
the ones that do well the action blockbusters tend to have a romance in
them so I would consider them romances in many ways even Wonder Woman had a
romance in it it just so happens that she was the lead and she was stronger in
the relationship so I don't I think that in order for us to have great movies
this generally a little bit of romance and all of them personally for me my
concern is more so the negative content that comes out so much of our content
that we're watching right now has a negative spin to it
everything's depressing somebody did something wrong to you or hurt you and
it has a more of a negative side to it and I think that we need romance movies
in order to bring back the positive we need to have positive outlooks on
relationships and people and look at people in a positive way as opposed to
all these negative movies so my concern is more than negative movies than the
action blockbusters I love an action blockbuster oh do I know I think Xanadu
is what was that your favorite film growing up it was my favorite film when
I you know when I watched it when I came to South Africa I think it was a few
years after it was released here and I you know I love Xanadu Xanadu is the
story of a muse I mean a muse who helps an artist be as creative as he can and
and so that's I mean that's beautiful to be if a love story and the cheap you
know leaves Xanadu to be with him and it's a beautiful love story so for even
from a young age you just remember just falling sort of in love with love
stories that did just drew you in I have yeah I've always been in love with love
stories I think that it's again it's it's showing people in a positive
relationship that's you know there's always struggles there's always
something that's going to be difficult within this relationship and you have to
figure out your way to how to get through it in order for you to be
together or yeah whether it be in a friendship or a relationship work
partnership I think that showing relationships in a positive light is
really important and I've always enjoyed watching that in movies and I think that
our best movies that have ever come out are romances I mean you can look at
anything Titanic as a romance avatar and that's I think James Cameron basically
got the romance on her down even though he's surrounded by sci-fi but you know
I'll talk movies are romances and I think that people should watch them well
it's nice twist to because we see so many of these quote movies geared toward
women where someone's being stalked someone's in an abusive relationship or
feel sort of hemmed in in her middle-class world or whatever so it
sounds like you're really about maybe not just empowering them but also then
you add sort of the sexuality aspect which how is that perceived in the
States I'm sure in other countries it's
probably more embraced yeah well so lots of good questions there so the the main
thing about sexuality in the u.s. with women is that you know it's taboo we're
not allowed to talk about it we have to whisper it to say anything heaven forbid
you have sex somebody whereas men can talk about it very openly and in fact
can brag about it and it's seen as part of their everyday conversation and I
think that that's wrong I think that woman should have the ability to discuss
openly any sexual activity that they're having with their friends or with their
lovers I think in order for them to be empowered in their sensuality and
there's that quality I think that what ultimately if
we can get to that place which is what passion flakes hopes that we can get to
then I think that we would have a little bit more strength when it comes to maybe
sexual harassment if we are able to openly say no this is not what I'm
comfortable with this is what I'm comfortable with this
is how I feel about sex this is how I feel about sensuality then I think that
will be a little bit more open a little bit more confident in our ability to
deal with a lot of sexual harassment so it probably sounds like showing women
living normal lives being quote good girls but also being okay with the fact
that it doesn't necessarily have to brand them as bad girls in terms of what
they're doing absolutely so the other thing with passion flicks is that we
want to be able to show a woman normal woman so yes we have a lot of shows out
there which are women in jeopardy so we have as you mentioned we have the shows
where something's wrong with us our husbands are cheating on us our
boyfriends are gonna try and kill us our children hate us there's all these
things that we have to deal with that are pretty negative in our lives and how
do we go about doing it and you know the neighbors gonna try and kill us so I
have to try and kill the neighbor first and all these different things and
that's one way of going and then we have you know more the sort of cupcake movies
which is I like to call them or the domestication of woman where you have I
am a top you know vice president of a fortune 500 company in New York City but
I'm unfulfilled in life because nobody loves me until I go back to my small
town in Kansas because my father had a stroke I took over the bakery
I've learned how to bake a cupcake I'd realized this is really the life for me
I bought an up with a carpenter and he marries me how nice I get to stay in
that town bake cupcakes but there's nothing wrong with being the vice
president of a fortune 500 company and someone will love you and you don't have
to bake cupcakes in small towns in order for that to be okay so I think that it's
important that we show women can be anything from a cupcake Baker teacher to
a CEO and still find fulfillment and love and sexuality and I don't think it
has anything to do with their job I understand that passion flicks has an
acronym that you use Bo n yes a rating system I'm wondering if we could talk
about some of the levels of films yes we have a bonding system we call it the
bond which is the barometer of naughtiness and we wanted that as
opposed to having an NPA screening rating which an MPA rating which you
know is a little unclear and tends to deal with more violence and and and you
know swearing things like that almost all romance novels have swearing in them
so we're just gonna have to just accept that our platforms more for 18 and above
so that's so so keeping that in mind we say romance is for 18 to 80 but so
keeping keeping that in mind we have a bond system so that we can understand
we're on the naughtiness factor this movie will fall so we have a 1 which is
also vanilla we have two mildly titillating the three passion and
romance well you'll have a sex scene but we don't really we don't show nude much
nudity nudie nudity is something that's very much so on the male gaze as opposed
to the female gaze I love to know that they're naked and having a great time
but I don't need to see them naked and having a great time it's not porn and
then we have four which is totaling yumminess because that just makes you so
excited and then five which is not safe for work not safe for work as a acronym
right it's a NSFW is what they use for romance
novels when they want to say that there's a little bit more risque
interesting yeah so like fifty Shades of Grey would be not safe for work
I just curious what do you think women would really be watching some of these
at work or well not if you say not okay but so we have one maybe Hollywood dirt
is not safe for work and then we have afterburner aftershock that's
toe-curling yumminess then we have the trouble with mistletoe which is passion
and romance and then we'll have the matchmakers playbook which will come out
in March and that will be mildly titillating because of young Gertz
some students in university okay and I know you had one called tissues and ice
cream is that right so we have categories yes we've also then divided
our movies into categories because we feel that women we relate to feelings we
want to know how am I gonna feel if I watch this movie so when you go to other
you know platforms they'll have sweet November next to Notting Hill because
they're both romances and but if you have watched Donny Hill you realize it's
a beautiful romantic comedy and you're laugh and you'll be pretty happy at the
end if you watch sweet November you're going to cry and people die so those
movies should not be in the same category while it's still a beautiful
story it should not be in the same category so we wanted to take the room
at genre and divide it up into areas that can help you understand how you'll
feel afterwards so we have huts burn who have four strong woman tissues an ice
cream for a good cry because every girl needs a good cry and love and laughter
we have save a horse ride a cowboy that's coming out soon we have thrill me
we'll have to spank me soon oh wow bite me when our vampire shows come out that
is not safe for work and yes we have we're and then we have senses and
sensuality when we're doing dancing and food and things like that so we have we
have all these different categories that are really fun but help us to understand
how you're gonna feel what's your criteria for choosing the books that you
have someone adapt or you yourself adapt so that's a very interesting question
how do we choose the books generally speaking Joni Cain reads the books
she'll cuz she we call her the Rain Man of romance she knows everything about
all these romance novels which was great so she'll read a number of books she
gets all the submissions go to her and then once she has a number of them
she'll send us little short synopsis she'll send a short synopsis to me and
Gina of the different books and suggests which ones we should read next and then
we'll read them and then we decide together which ones will make an option
so a lot of the times it has to do with authors that we've met so you know
authors that we've met books that I've done really well obviously it makes a
big difference if the books done really well for us on the platform because
we're so new we need to have bestsellers because you know the more people know
about the book the more people are going to come to the platform and watch it so
and then we like to choose something that's a little different for each movie
that we're gonna do next we want to make sure that it's just different than the
one that was before so we did as we did Hollywood dirt which was you know
country sweet sassy you know but it's in the country and so it's a southern movie
and then we did afterburner aftershock which is New York City and then we did
the trouble with mistletoe which is a beautiful Christmas movie and now we do
the matchmakers playbook which is younger and University and then we're
going to do the next one that we'll do is I don't know if I should announce it
haven't announced it anywhere yet but it depends on when this is coming
out this the next one we'll do is going to be most likely royally screwed
because we want to do something to release alongside their Royal Wedding
but it's different so each one is just a little bit different than the others and
then we'll do Kate brown boats driven series we'll do wicked this year Jenna
farmer trout's she has a three book series and we'll
turn that into a series of our first series we're gonna do dark pleasures by
Julie kena will do the protector by Jody Ellen Malpass who I love she's such a
supporter of Patrick's and I know it oh think we're doing the will by Kristen
Ashley we have a lot to do this year I gotta get started
Oh have you ever seen a book that gets great reviews let's say on Goodreads or
Amazon or it's on the New York Times bestseller list but when it comes to
adapting it it doesn't quite work and then in the reverse one that maybe
doesn't have a strong of a following but somehow it just really works for film
absolutely that happens all the time so there are a number of books that are
number one on the bestseller list and they'll send it to us and say here
it is number one and it sold a million copies which is huge whatever and can
you make this into a movie and you can't I can't we actually cannot it's some of
them are just a little too aggressive for us and so it might play well in a
book because you can hear the person's you can read the person's thoughts in
the book so you understand what they're thinking when they're going through this
more sort of alpha male aggression side but on in a movie I can't have them you
know emote as much so but I can't show that kind of aggression either it's not
our platform it's also not what we're looking to do so some of it can be a
little aggressive some of them just don't work the dialogue doesn't work or
that's there's not enough of a story in there to people meeting is great and and
the conflict that they have to go to in order to ultimately be together is
something that when you're reading in a book is a wonderful thing to go on the
journey with them but if there's not enough actual stuff that happens story
wise there's not much I can do to turn it into a movie you say that the authors
are sometimes really the stars of the film because a lot of times you'll use
people that maybe don't have total sort of name recognition but they have a huge
following these authors and that people definitely gravitate toward them yeah
the authors are the stars I mean firstly we wouldn't have this idea if it wasn't
for the authors we're big fans of rather the romance community and the authors
themselves we love the books they're fun they're
empowering they are a great escape for us and so yeah we we look at the authors
as the stars so we for us it's very important that we hire actors that look
the part that can act and that the authors approve so we actually go
through a whole casting process with the authors so while we have the script or
send it out to breakdown services or actors will be submitted to us as soon
as if I'm directing I'll go through them and say these are the ones that I'm
liking and then I'll send them off to the authors and I'll say who do you want
what are you looking for if you had your ideal pick of a person
what who is he to have any pictures of somebody in mind that you would like and
oftentimes the authors don't have an actor in mind they didn't have somebody
in mind when they created them it was somebody that they just came up with
which is great much easier for us but and then they'll
just send us a picture or they'll say well he has brown hair and blue eyes and
it's a bit of scruff any other you know he's chiseled here and obviously they
all have to have six-pack abs I mean it's just it's important yeah do you
have the author's with you on set very often for for both for the three movies
that I directed this last year the or the authors were with us quite often so
Alessandra Torrey came on to Hollywood dirt fortunately she lived very close to
where we were shooting so she would actually come up quite often with her
husband and son and it was such a pleasure it's such a pleasure having
them with me on set as a director because I can direct the scene and then
I can immediately turn to them and say hey is that how you envisioned it I'm
just checking I wanna make sure that I'm doing this the way that you pictured it
as well and they go yes this is amazing that's exactly how I saw it
great let's move on and if there's ever a chance where they've said it's not
quite how I pictured it I sort of pictured him walking in with his hands
on his hips or being something else was it great well let's do it that way then
let's try it and and then we just work with the actors accordingly and the
actors also very into it they want to make sure that they're portraying these
characters the way that the authors see them as well so everybody works together
as a team to make sure that we're bringing the right thing to life and
it's really helpful to have that author there yeah because I would think that
the author would know so much about the pulse of what the fans related to and
you always hear that that that's kind of where the adaptation falls apart is
where the original lovers of the book somehow you know so knowing that I'm
sure they know that they're fans inside and out what they love yeah I think they
know their fans inside and out and at the end of the day we can't please
everybody so they're gonna be fans out there who say this is a terrible
adaptation and I hate for you hey you do it I hated I
hated every minute of it they could say that so the only thing that I can do as
a filmmaker is make sure that the author is pleased and if the author loves it
then my hope is that the fan will love it too so that's our goal make sure the
author loves it and then go from there yeah I think I watched two different
behind the scenes like featurettes of both authors I think on set and there
was like a small Georgia town and yeah it looked really just like this safe
sort of set where I felt like I would want to be here like I don't know I kind
of wish I could have been there - it was so much fun shooting in Georgia was a
wonderful experience but making that movie was just a wonderful experience
overall but I think all of them all of the movies that we've made for passion
flicks have been a very positive fun experience it's always great to meet all
these men that come on to portray these roles and I as a woman get to tell them
how they need to treat women and then they listen and then they do it and it
affects their lives in a very positive way and that makes me happy and I but
that it's it's really it's such a science in terms of where someone's
touching them more I know you said you don't really show too much nudity yeah
well we don't show nudity because I don't think that is what women want to
see I don't particularly want to see naked people having sex on screen if you
do that's porn and that's great and go ahead but in Hollywood dirt we the the
the the - were naked so we could have shown at all but that wasn't what the
that wasn't what the scene was about it was about connection and intimacy and so
we do see breasts and nipples for a little bit but we don't focus on it it's
not that's not the focus or the point of these TV people connecting so we do have
some nudity we just don't exploit it and then with regards to how people touch
it's it's not necessary but it's more of a gaze you know we're used to seeing
movies where men will gruffly pull you in and you know this is how we're gonna
have sex and you know you know physically touching women and
ways that can be a little bit more aggressive which is you know everybody
to their own you know but the way that we do it in passion flicks is sensuality
and connection so when we want to see what we want as woman is for a man to
longingly touch us on the face or the arm or gently lead us or guide us
through a room by putting his hand on the small of our back you know not
grabbing our arms and pulling us or it's you know you know grabbing grabbing you
for a kiss is always great but doing it in a more connective way is what we want
to make sure that we portray less caveman we've seen the cave we have yeah
now we want sensuality in connection when you are one of your co-founders is
developing a story for a script phase what would you say are like three to
five notes that are quite common that you're giving back to either them or the
author about you know adapting the script the first note is always that
it's too long the script I normally get are far too long we need to cut them
down because adapting your book is hard especially when you try to keep
everything in the screenplay that's in the book so you have to go through it
and decide what is that's what's in the book that doesn't need to be in the
screenplay and that's a difficult decision to make because you don't want
to upset the author or the fans by leaving out something that's important
to them but at the same time you can't take a 400 page book and turn it into a
hundred page script and keep everything in it you'd have to have a very very
long movie so that's the number one comment is that it's it's normally too
long the other thing that it's generally a note that I give as a filmmaker is
that the characters have a lot of monologues so we need to cut their
dialogue as well because while you're in a book and you can read all this
dialogue and it's great because they're you know emoting correctly they're
voting to their partner there how they feel in a screenplay when or in
a movie when you have dialogue that takes up a page that's one minute of
hearing somebody talk about their feelings which is very hard to watch on
screen so you it's it's difficult for us to that's normally it's about taking the
the dialogue and cutting it trimming it down the other what are the other notes
the other notes are it really depends on how the adaptation is done oftentimes I
will say there's not enough sensuality in there I like to have three sex scenes
or three implied sex scenes in a movie and so because I think that it's
important this is a sensual platform so we want to be able to have something
that's a little sexy and it's not three times having sex it's you know let's say
for example in Hollywood dirt there they did have sex the one time and then they
had phone sex which was quite which was funny and entertaining and initially it
wasn't in the screenplay because we thought maybe it wouldn't go over well
with the proud and I know we're putting it in and then of course they have the
beautiful lovemaking at the end and then in afterburner and aftershock we have
you know we have a sex scene and then we have then we have a blowjob scene it's
like nobody ever does blowjob scene it's great let's do that that's fun and it's
also very it was a very empowering scene for the woman as well because it was a
controlling scene for her helped her in her personality and it it was a it was
definitely a power you should watch it and make notes and then and of course
then we have their you know lovemaking scene where they passionately together
so sometimes when I'll read them I'll say there isn't enough sensuality in the
script but also sometimes the sex scenes will be put in and they're far too
graphic and I'm like wow this is not a book you've got to tone that down
because I'm gonna send it out to actors and if I send it out to actors and they
see something that's a little bit we're more used to seeing an erotica novel
they're probably not going to respond very well to the script so I'd rather
discuss that with the actor have it put into the screenplay so
normally it's make sure the sex scenes are in there but and make sure we're
saying them in an eloquent and elegant manner so that's the other notes
whatever notes what I have for them you know normally it comes to me premium
great so it's very fortunate that we have good stories to begin with I don't
really have story notes most the time the stories are told
I'll just shorten it so in this sounds very formulaic but ours is there a
certain point within the film that there must be a sex scene no no okay there's
not assert because I know with horror they say well we've got to have a kill
the first whatever yeah so it's not not that okay no we don't have we don't have
a formula where the sex scenes need to happen in a specific time frame the main
thing for us is that the two characters meet within a certain time frame so we
want them to meet within the first ten minutes of the movie because otherwise
we're not entirely sure what we're doing here we don't feel the chemistry or the
attraction sometimes you have a sexy and that's too early on you feel there's no
reason to continue going because they have connected and you're done okay
great you you you've achieved your goal let's move on so no we don't have a
specific time line for the sex scene and again you say that you you try to tone
down like the graphic nature of it so forgive me if this is too I'm just
trying to think of the blowjob scene like how is that done we're I guess
you're just looking at the back of the head or something well it was done
actually through the way that we did it was by showing the reactions right so it
was showing the reaction of the man getting the blowjob not the woman giving
the blowjob right and then she just setup exactly we hear
so much about the back tail test and I know it's kind of made its resurgence
sort of the idea you can talk about passion flicks films in relation to that
yeah well so - interesting that test it's you know - women have to be in a
scene and not talking about a man or a relationship right that's one of the
things you know she has to have a job that I think doesn't relate to the man
there are very specific things that when I first heard about this test which I
didn't actually know that much about it and told recently but and when I was
like that's the most ridiculous criteria ever for a movie but then when you think
about these movies that are out there like oh right they would never pass
those tests and so the fortunate thing about ours is that they do
so our after burn after shock while the two women might discuss the relationship
they don't talk about it very often it's more of them passing a passing comment
but most of the time they're talking about their business and how they didn't
build their business and what they're gonna do about it and how they're going
to structure their conversations with certain people in order to build this
business so I think we definitely passed on that one
Hollywood dirt we passed on that one too because we certainly do have two women
talking about things that have nothing to do with the relationship and and then
on Hollywood so that was Hollywood dirt after burn
the trouble with mistletoe that whole movie was about relationship so I think
everybody was talking about relationships throughout the entire
movie but he was basically the only man in the movie there's only one it was all
a bunch of woman so I think we're good there
and then matchmakers playbook well I mean it's about matchmaking so we're
gonna talk about relationships but because mostly the men were actually
talking about the relationship all the time in that script so the woman
actually never talked about the relationship they never get together and
talk about the relationship but the men do the men get together they're like are
you falling in love with her I think I am alright so maybe it's the opposite
that's interesting and so it's not like I mean locker room talk it's actually
it's almost sounds like you you've reversed in some ways the roles of that
yeah there's there there's no locker room talk in the vulgar sense at all the
conversations that the two men have ah have you kissed her yet I think you I
think that you're lingering a little longer I then necessary I think that you
like her I think that you're in hauling it are you falling in love with her what
no no I'm not falling in love with her that's silly
I gotta go now you know it's more of those kinds of conversations but the men
talk about it the woman don't interesting yeah our women have their
own lives with the characters whether it's the actual book or the film do you
think that the viewers of the readers want to see someone who's just like them
or they want to aspire to someone that's just slightly above them somehow and I
know what above them is sort of a a bad term I'm not not in a negative sense but
I think when people watch movies they want to be able to relate to that person
in some level so we might not be Wonder Woman because we don't have any special
powers but I feel I can relate to her on the grounds that were both women and she
has a personality that I can well that I can relate to she's very positive so in
that way maybe I can aspire to be as forgiving and wonderful and courageous
as her so in that regard yes we all I do think that it's great to have female
roles that we can aspire to on a personal level I don't think it's
necessary I don't know don't think necessarily that I want to aspire to
being you know that business person or that you know that actor or I don't want
to be the person in their work life but in their way of how they deal with
relationships how they communicate with the people that are important to them in
their lives I feel that that's important for us to aspire to I do think that's a
good influence for us wondering what research you've done on the the people
in terms of like demographics so do you know like your your actual viewer who it
would be where they would live what types of stories they like
so I I know that most of them are female I don't know their age range but my
assumption is that they're over the age of 30 but we don't ask anybody's age so
we can have actually done we're so new we've only been around for four months
we've not had a chance to do a survey but just just from the general
assumption of romance novel readers my assumption is that they're over 30 and
they're all over the US that's all over the world we have a lot of subscribers
outside of the US as well even though they can only watch the original content
because we can't license content for the entire world quite yet so it takes a lot
to negotiate content for each country but so our demographic mostly we believe
women 30 to 60 we believe that they are all over the US but mostly in the middle
of the country and and Florida but we do have we do have those demographics we
haven't spent too much time focusing on them but a lot of them are I think they
call them the flyover States right and do you know sort of what types of
stories or or there's it's I think you'd said something like you know romance is
not really one size fits all so there's so many variations there are so many
variations in romance and that's the wonderful thing about it because there
are so many genres within romance we don't know specifically which movies are
gonna do well the next time which books are going to do well we can only base it
on whether the book was a best-seller and where it sold and hopefully we can
get those same people to watch passion flicks so as I mentioned we just like to
do something a little different each time we go into the next movie so that
we can try and satisfy a different group as well and also you know bring somebody
that loved afterburn aftershock to Hollywood dirt they would never have
read Alessandra torre necessarily if they've reading Sally a day because
there are two very different writers but now that they've watched afterburn and
they went oh look at that Hollywood dirt that was a great movie I'm gonna go and
read Alessandra so we love that we can share that with fan
as well that were able to introduce the authors to them as well yeah I enjoyed
seeing the authors on set like I said from the to featurettes it was it was
interesting to see these young women that you know one of them I think had
grown up near the town in Georgia yeah just sort of her own take on the town I
thought it was great where she said you know there's salt of the earth people
but if there's a scandal although I'll turn and you know absolutely the church
scene yeah yeah because it was a great insight to have it's such a great book I
loved Hollywood dirt that's that Hollywood dirt is an example of a great
book to turn into a movie because there is so much in there so much in that book
that allows you to really create a very rich movie with so much you know
intrigue and different things that happen but it was also very hard cuz
it's a very long book and we had to obviously take out a lot of things and
most of it sets takes place in a small town yeah yeah almost all of it as a
producer and a director what advice can you give to authors on it suppose
somebody sets out to write a romance novel but they know at some point they'd
love to have it adapted so what advice can you give because I know you'd said
earlier that sometimes things are too heady or it's in someone's mind and you
can't really portray that what advice could I give for an author mmm to adapt
a book um or starting out sorry I'm yeah I should make myself more clear just
starting out to write a novel but with hopes to maybe have an adapted layer I
think the number one thing for us is making sure that there's enough story in
the book so a lot of novels romance novels are written when it's just the
two people that are connecting and it's all about them and we don't know much
about their outside lives and or any kind of influences or have a story that
goes around it as well and so that's where it becomes difficult to adapt so
we need story okay interesting so so and then more visuals it sounds like then
then sort of this internal no we can create the visuals the the problem with
too much internal dialogue in a book and then trying to adapt it into a movie is
that if that's the only thing that's driving the book then we have
I'm adapting a movie but otherwise almost all these novels have internal
dialogue and we use a lot of it what we did funny enough in matchmakers playbook
which it's a great story but so much of it happens in our main character's head
and so we had difficulty initially coming up with a way of how we were
going to portray this on screen because if we only use the words that he says
the dialogue that's in the book he comes out as such a big asshole but no one is
ever gonna like him when you read the book he is delightful and hilarious
because he you can you basically are reading his mind so we thought okay well
how can we take that really awesome character and put him on screen without
making him sound like a total asshole because he's only saying certain things
and so we decided to break the fourth wall and do voice over so this entire
movie is gonna be the character our main character looking into camera and saying
and that's how I do it and that ultimately will allow our audience to
connect with him and love him so then while he's saying out and be saying
these asshole things we can read his mind no he's not a bad guy we know he's
out of his mind so in that regard in that specific
instance we were able to take the internal dialogue and and translate it
onto the screen because we were doing it in a the in film language we can change
the film language to it to to adjust to his personality but that's very that's
very unusual and it's not gonna work for everything and so it works for
matchmakers because it's a comedy so so when we have others we need we need
there to be a little bit more of a story that we can follow these characters on
we want to see these act these these characters we want to see these
characters do things that are interesting and fall in love and a
little bit of a naughty scene throwing well you know three naughty
I'd love to hear your thoughts on risk and failure whoo yeah thoughts on risk
in failure I think that both are vital so I think you should continually risk
and you will fail and when you do you have to get back up and you have to try
again because that's the only way that you're going to succeed and be and true
failure is when you don't get back up and do it right so failure is not
continuing failure is giving up so there is no option to fail so with failure do
you think it becomes like a muscle let's say almost like stage fright and you go
to Toastmasters or something and you you get better at it
so with failure you're maybe ok with it more and you've developed sort of
tougher scarier how do you think it works cuz I've seen it reversed
sometimes where failure just totally gots people and they don't get back up
yeah well as I said their failure to me is
really not getting back up so that that is ultimate failure getting back up and
continuing to do something again and trying again coming up with an another
idea another solution is is moving forward and that is risky and it's hard
and painful sometimes but if you don't get up and do it again then you failed
so I can see I am you know there are a lot of examples of people not getting up
and trying again but most of the people that are successful have gotten up and
tried again and they will continue to try again and they will fail and then
they will continue to try again and if they fail again they will continue to
try again and that means that they haven't failed
city of Los Angeles you said a lot of people who come here are risk takers did
you feel you were a risk taker when you came did I say that I was that people
come to us I'm trying to see from my neck maybe you did maybe I just I don't
know if I yeah well I think if people are coming to Los Angeles to be in the
film industry that is definitely taking a chance that's definitely but you you
have a goal you have a desire and something to achieve and if you can
remain focused which is very hard especially in an industry that is filled
with rejection constant constant rejection in every field and it's it's
it's a very very difficult industry but if you can continue in it then you will
you will be successful you just have to stay focused and keep trying keep trying
keep trying keep trying and ultimately hopefully get that job yeah hopefully
you you have to be good so keep keep working at your skill sure so I think
it's difficult to because no one usually gives you notes on why you didn't get it
I mean it's sometimes they do but oftentimes you don't and it's all across
the board from whatever it is yeah so there's not script notes or someone's
saying you know we liked you but no so you don't know what it is and it is
actually quite difficult just coming from the filmmakers stand my side of
things because I watch a lot of auditions and we make decisions and my
mother's also a model so so I come from that world where she constantly goes
through rejection and has for her entire life and while she's a very successful
model she's rejected continually and you have to sort of be able to watch that
and and see how she just keeps going okay next okay next and then from my
side of things as the director I will look at actors and although we might be
good you don't look the part but they and so I can't hire you so it just so
it's initially it's it's all it's so subjective and so if I then get an agent
who comes back to me it says can you give me feedback which
many times they do if I can get feedback I will but keep in mind if I audition
200 people I can't give feedback for 200 people I don't have that kind of time at
all so it's not that I didn't like you very likely that if you if you are in a
room auditioning for me there is something about you that I like and so
you you've made it there well done congratulations to you keep going you're
in the room so you made it there that that should be that should be
acknowledgement enough so that while you didn't get this part there were 200
people that were going for the same part as you and only one of you can get it so
199 people will be rejected but 199 people still made it into the room I
still recognize them there's a couple of actors that I go every single movie I go
ah let's see if we can put them in this role no no it's not gonna work
unfortunately and so they're contacted constantly and said hey maybe you'll be
in this role and then they're not and it's not anything other than it could be
timing it could be hair color it could be I color it could be the author wasn't
a big fan or you're too tall for the female actor or too short for the female
actor or or you know I mean there are so many different aspects that go into it
that have nothing to do with your ability to perform so that's all I have
to say the actors keep going keep doing it looking at your IMDB you have 31 or
so producing credits I'm sure going to be more at the time of this release so
which production taught you the most wow I learned a lot on so many of the
different movies that I've done so it depends on you know what what did I
learn I made I've made a lot of movies and I
think that the ones that have taught me the most are I made a movie called
Havenhurst that one taught me a lot it was a horror to me but the horror film
it was very difficult and I realized there are many things that I will not do
again so that's a great thing to learn great movie I'm very you know the movie
ultimately ended up being very good but the
experience for me as a filmmaker was as a producer was not a great one the
things that I've learned the most I think I mean I've made have made a lot
of movies I think ultimately the best lesson that I've learned which is making
from making the passion flicks movies is that I need to enjoy the experience from
start to finish because it is very hard to make a movie and it costs a lot of
money and if you're not enjoying it then there is no reason to do it so I learned
that maybe from making some of these movies prior to this prior to passion
flicks realizing that if I'm not in from from you know hindsight I did not enjoy
making a lot of those movies and I do enjoy making the passion of six movies
they're fulfilling they make me happy I can't wait to make the next one whereas
prior to that I was not enjoying them it was more of a job and not to say that
they were bad experiences that they would i'm aid some great movies and I
really enjoyed the people and fortunately actually now with pattern
flakes I get to bring so many of those people on to my productions but
sometimes when you're working for other people
and you're you're getting notes from from them they're not necessarily the
notes that I would humble xavius sometimes their interpretation of what
the movie should be is not my interpretation of what the movie should
be and that is filmmaking I mean that's that's the creative process I don't
necessarily want to show a woman in a certain light and so I didn't enjoy that
specific film and now I get to show a woman in the light that I like to show
them so it makes me happy I just like to have positive experience
something I think that's the important thing the tiki bar TV which was a
podcast that I did a video podcast that I did was a perfect example of making
something and really enjoying it every single time you made it because it was
funny and the people were great and so now I get to do that again every time
you should if you please do come to one of our sets when we make the next one we
are laughing and joking and having the best time the crew that I have on all of
my movies are almost the same crew for the last year
they just come the transplant back to my they all come to my new new sets because
we have great experiences and it's just so much fun the environment is so
important environments vital especially it's high pressure it's time-sensitive
and and you have to be creative within these confines and and we don't have the
luxury yet of being able to say oh we'll just do it tomorrow or we'll just pick
it up and that's just lengthen the timeframe for this movie we need to
shoot these movies in 15 16 days and we need to get them out and we have fans
that we know we release the movie on one day the next day they say where's the
next movie it takes five months to make a movie at minimum and so we are trying
very hard to get them out as quickly as possible so we need to make the
experience fun and we need to make sure that we are all in this positive
creative environment so that we can create the best movie short - and if
you're doing sensitive scenes where you know maybe they're not nude but it's
still it's sensitive for an actor yeah to have it where you feel safe that's so
saying I felt that when I watched the behind scenes yeah just sort of a
feeling of being safe yeah it's very important that the actors are
comfortable on our set and my crew is extremely respectful and every single
time we come into any of these intimate scenes I have a conversation with my
actors I need to make sure that they're comfortable we will rehearse everything
with clothes on we will then move forward to starting to take clothes off
the sets are closed the and we're constantly talking about where a hand
should be what it should be this is not just you know willy-nilly go ahead and
try things we're very specific on where the camera is what we'll do where we're
following hands and what I want those hands to do so and I have to make sure
that both my male and female actors actors feel comfortable with the
intimacy that I need to portray so I know you've produced numerous movies
you've worked for other people but you wanted to direct for a very long time
and I was wondering what that journey was like and now to finally be able to
direct at least three movies now more sounds like yeah on the horizon as well
well I did two movies prior to passion for X I directed two movies prior to
passion flex what three movies actually I started out as an actor and then I
went into directing and after directing my first feature I realized it's really
really hard to actually get it out and do things and then I went into producing
and then I produced for the next 10 years and it was after I had my kids
that I realized I wanted to do something that's more creatively fulfilling for me
and I went and met with an executive producer who I had produced a couple of
movies for before and she is an awesome woman she works at lifetime now her
name's Sharon Boras and I said to her she said what do you want to do and I
said why should I want to direct and she goes mm-hmm okay
I'll let you direct I have a movie now I don't you want to direct it I mean yeah
sure okay and within a month I was in prep on that movie and directed and that
was called you cast a spell on me and that's the one that Joni saw so it all
sort of having that lunch with her basically changed my life and for Boris
- pashka flicks because I she said I could direct that movie I directed it
Joni sword she loved it Joni contacted me and now we have passion flicks that's
basically that's the short story so I got to make two movies for Sharon I made
that one and in the following year they hired me to make a Christmas a
Cinderella Christmas which was a Christmas story also a love story for
ion as well great experience that's where I met Emma Rigby and then as soon
as we made passion flicks I asked Emma Rigby to be the first female lead of
passion flicks for Hollywood dirt so it all just sort of worked together I was
very fortunate of course it was you know 15 years of slugging
to get to that point but I was very fortunate to be given the opportunity by
a great supporter of woman so to know that somebody believed in you that
quickly where you were probably just coming thinking maybe down the line
there was something probably weren't expecting it so fast what was that first
day on set like terrifying empowering both um it was it was exciting actually
I felt I definitely felt that I was in my own and I owned it for sure it was a
very positive experience that entire movie was wonderful again the two lead
actors that I work with Brian apart 'ln and Niki DeLoach had great chemistry we
had great chemistry together and so we we still are in contact and we still
want to make another movie together so it was a really positive experience I
knew exactly what I wanted as a filmmaker I had a great DP with me and
so he was very knowledgeable you know a lot of experience Oh actually on that
one on that one I did I had but I had a great I had a great DP she was new to
the new to the field Knapp took the one but she was so supportive so I had the
DP that had a lot of experience in the next movie and Cinderella Christmas but
anyway so but it was a it was a positive experience I mean everything was it was
just fun and I think once you are doing something that you are passionate about
and that you really truly believe you should be doing you do a great job and
you excel in that and so that's why it to me it's not considered work it's
considered play so I can do it forever which is great have a great time so
going back to that first sort of experience it was also the chemistry and
the environment it worked it all seemed to kind of work yeah the chemistry in
the environment I mean I think at the end of the day and I yeah fortunately
have been told this by a lot of my crew members is that the environment is
created by the director so the directors basically the mood onset is going to be
based on how the director is feeling that day and if I was throwing tantrums
yeah yelling at everybody probably wouldn't have had a banner it wouldn't
have been a great set to work on but you know I arrived and we were laughing and
joking and having a fun time from the second we started and so everybody was
laughing and joking and having a great time and that really helped we actually
my producer Gina who's the producer and all the movies as well she she and I
have a no asshole policy um we actually give people a warning so when we hire
them we say hi listen the only drama that happens on the set is gonna be on
screen so if you're gonna be dramatic in any way and cause problems you are
welcome to leave you don't have to stay nobody is making you work here if you
don't like it you are absolutely welcome to leave but if you do like it we'd love
for you to stay and let's have a great time we're gonna go make them a B and
it's not rocket science and it's not brain surgery and people's lives aren't
on the line here so let's just go and have fun time creating something and so
that goes over really well with a lot of crew members and if there there have
been a few times when we've had some crew members that have been and actors
people that have not been nice and so we kindly invite them to leave
so the having that sense of humor yeah yeah well I would hope so but yeah it
happens it definitely does it just sometimes just people clash whatever I
think sometimes to having a sense of humor sometimes I don't know we see that
people yeah and even if it's just going to the grocery store you know it's rare
and maybe just because la is so crowded and everybody's thinking of being
somewhere else doing something else but just having that sense of humor and
maybe people just feel like okay I can relax a little bit yeah I'm very funny
on set apparently I I loved laughed I mean romantic comedies are my
strengths so it's really important that's what I love to make the most so
Hollywood dirt was definitely a great one for me it's an empowering woman it
but it's a comedy and it's a romance and then matchmakers playbook also a comedy
what was actually hard for me was after burn after shock because it's a drama
so I had to try and you know you know figure out how to make a drama more than
and still keep it light and funny on set because there's so much dramatic so many
dramatic scenes in that movie but if you see the behind the scenes as soon as I
call cut everyone's laughing and having a great time I whistle a lot so people
you know I whistle and I sing on set a lot which is somewhat embarrassing
because I don't realize that I'm doing it until the boom operator or the sound
mixer will come up and just start recording it and then they'll play it
back and I'm like oh wow yes that's me whistling on set but it's it keeps it
there's a levity then to set so it just keeps everything light and fun and and I
think that's important but romantic comedy is definitely my strength I say
although I did like making after an aftershock if I'm not currently a
passion flick subscriber can you tell me why would be a good idea for me to sign
up my busy life and yeah I can care of all these things well I think that we
need to surround ourselves with more positive content that has messages that
are things that we can use in our everyday life in communication in any
relationship and I think people should sign up for passion flicks because we
focus on love passion romance and happy endings and I don't think we have enough
of that in our everyday lives and it's even just the other day I was looking
for a movie and I went onto every channel I went to network television and
I went to Netflix or in FX and Amazon and all these different channels looking
for something that I could watch that would make me feel good and everything
was depressing it was sad it was depressing all the movies that are out
were depressing and then I realized I actually own a platform that has sexy
positive empowering content and I've turned it on and I turned on the Thomas
Crown Affair the Thomas Crown Affair is a great movie it's sexy it's fun
you have a cool woman who is essential as can be and she has a lot
of chutzpah and control in that relationship wise he's also sexy and
cool and it's a Pierce Brosnan I mean at the end of the day and Rene Russo but
it's such a positive movie and it was fun and exciting and I couldn't find
anything like it on any other network or platform and I think that's why people
will love passion flicks because we want to make sure that each of our movies is
passionate is fun is sexy and will hopefully inspire you to have a you know
a great night and a great conversation with somebody and even if you don't
there's there's was it tissues and ice cream or yes yes at the end of the day
at the end of the day we actually have this whole section called the emotional
emergency kit which ultimately will be able to sell but when a when somebody
goes through a breakup or you just need a good cry and there's nothing out there
that's gonna allow you to have this positive cry right you don't want to sit
there and watch two people hate each other you want to watch something that's
gonna take you on this emotional roller coaster that it's gonna lead you to
where you ultimately want to be emotionally and so if you need a good
cry which we do after a breakup quite honestly give me a tub of ice
cream and give me a sad movie we have that for you or if you and then right
afterwards we actually will recommend go and watch hood spine hoo-ha you've had
your good cry I'm glad that you're feeling you've got that out of your
system now go and watch the story about a woman
that picked herself up go and watch moonstruck go and watch baby boom go and
watch something when she just picked herself up and she wouldn't you achieved
something you can do it to go so we're there for the woman specifically I think
men should watch us too because I think that they'll learn a lot but I think
we're really there for a woman and you have Amelie too we do yeah love that
film great movie mmm-hmm so again something positive and she's not overly
reliant on a partner no it's kind of like living her life absolutely these
these movies are the woman are perfectly fine they're in their lives going
through their lives and they are normal human beings and then a man a man
up and basically like throws a wrench in and it's like oh god what am I gonna do
now I don't like you I'm not sure if I want to have this relationship and and
then they have to figure it out they just you get to watch these two
people who are probably stubborn I mean we all are right probably scared because
generally speaking when it comes to relationships were all scared of
rejection or scared that we're gonna get hurt that this one is not going to work
out well why would it we're insecure we're all we're all these things and so
when you can watch to people who are also these have those same emotions
figure out a way of how they can be together I think it'll inspire us a
little bit of hope and hopefully a little bit more encouragement to get out
there and find find that person for you or communicate with the one that you
have in a way that's going to ultimately make you have a stronger better sexier
relationship
you
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