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AFM 2013 Flashback #6 with host Kurt Kelly and guests Shad Gaspar, Ted Crisell, Mathius Mack Gertz, and Eric Karson for ActorsE, a show on the Actors Entertainment Channel of the Actors Podcast Network, a Pepper Jay Production. This episode of ActorsE is co-produced by Live Video Inc and Pepper Jay Productions LLC.—Pepper Jay

AFM FLASHBACK 6 ActorsE Chat with Kurt Kelly from Live Video, Inc. and Actors Reporter December 26, 2013 This episode features host Kurt Kelly (aka The Voice of Experience, voice actor, reporter, etc.) interviewing an array of actors, producers, and directors, at the AFM (American Film Market) in a flashback edition of ActorsE Chat. This episode is a compilation of interviews Kurt conducted over the course of the AFM event. Kurt's first guest is producer/actor Ted "Theo" Crisell. As the show commences, Ted is very open and informative right from his introduction. "(I've) done, well, about six films last year, doing about five this year, we have some special films, not just the horror films, (although) we are doing a few of those, like demons and possession, but we have a great boxing film coming out so please watch for it, because this is dedicated to the vets that are homeless in California (and) in the US." Ted is also very much involved in the world of politics and social issues, and would like to have a direct hand in bringing about a positive change in the state of California. Kurt delves into this matter with Crisell right from the onset of the interview. "I first want to talk about the business world, no, screw that we'll talk about government...so you're now running for governor in 2014?" Kurt asks. "(Yes) I was a nominee for Congress (in California), I was a candidate for Los Angeles mayor...I've worked with the Kennedy family for years, I served on the US Senate Leadership Circle National Finance Council, I'm running as an independent, my campaign is for the homeless of California and the kids for education...too many homeless vets, too many in jail, 140,000 incarcerated vets in the US." Crisell explains. "A lot of them if we just took a little extra time and gave them some rehabilitation (it would help)" Kurt mentions, "There's a real misunderstanding that if people are homeless it's because they deserve to be... 'if they really didn't want to be homeless they would work.'" "Well they're disabled, or they're mentally ill, or they're on drugs and alcohol, it's a pretty awful situation." Crisell adds. "There still seems to be (even) as advanced as we are as a society a lot of misunderstanding about (drugs and alcohol) none of these people choose this...I don't know anybody that's choosing cancer, polio, epilepsy, but those are much more accepted." Kurt adds. "Or mental illness." Ted says. "Well that's still not accepted either, if you're nuts it's your fault." Kelly said. "Well we're making a movie about it." Ted says. "Good, what's it about?" Kurt asks. "My film's (called) The Last Fight, it's about a homeless Vietnam vet, who's a boxer, stumbling through the streets and he actually gets in the ring and starts making a comeback...I'm gonna be the boxer, I'm a martial artist (and) a boxer, I'm not a young guy anymore but I can still box." Ted explains. "Nor would the person who went to Vietnam be a young guy anymore...he'd be probably of your age." Kurt mentioned. "That's right." Crisell agreed. Kurt then asks Ted if he himself had served in Vietnam and Ted explains how a football related knee injury kept him from being drafted into the war. He instead spent two years in India where met Mother Teresa and worked with the Peace Corp. In addition to the film The Last Fight, Ted tells Kurt that his film company has been relatively busy with other projects as well. "We're making a lot of movies now, I have my own production company and we did six films last year and we're gonna do five this year...we got into the horror film genre, we were trying to do family friendly films." "How do you do family friendly and horror?" Kelly inquires. "We don't." Crisell chuckles. "We did Uncle Zorba, which was a Greek film, (and) actually I was the lead male flamenco dancer in Little Fockers, I taught Dustin Hoffman how to dance flamenco, and he could not get his feet going fast enough so I was his foot double." "Really?" Kurt asked, surprised. [a short clip of Little Fockers plays and we see Hoffman's face and Crisell's feet alternating between shots. Also, in small segments within the clip we see Crisell himself in the background instructing other flamenco dancers] "Yeah, it was funny, I wore his (Hoffman's) shoes." Crisell laughs. Ted goes on to tell Kurt about a few of the films that his company has produced, My Uncle Zorba, Dinner With the Dons, Girls on a Boat, and they recently sold a film called Trapped, a horror film that they got a distributer for. "This year we have Demons, a horror film, really well done, shot in the desert in California, it's scary, I get scared in horror films I can't go to horror films cause I get scared...then we got another about possession, we're gonna do a number of horror films...we have a lot of exciting things going for (being) a little company." Ted exclaims. "Fabulous, well good luck with your gubernatorial (endeavor)." Kurt says. "It's gonna be fun, I'm just gonna throw some pebbles at the system...my thing is to get on the ballot and talk about education, talk about the kids, I work with kids at a Catholic grammar school, my old grammar school Saint Gregory's...hello Saint Gregory's...I teach martial arts there, I teach acting with the kids...the kids need help, and our homeless in the streets, I grew up in LA and we have too many homeless in the streets...we gotta do something about." Ted exclaims. "Take care of our vets." "No matter what neighborhood they're in." Kurt adds. "They've served us, let's serve them." Crisell says. "Good message. Thank you." Kurt says and shakes Ted's hand, the interview comes to a close. Eric Karson from American Cinema Group is the next guest in this flashback edition of ActorsE Chat at the AFMs. "I'm Kurt Kelly from Live Video, Inc. and Actors Reporter and we are at the 34th annual American Film Market and we continuing our tradition of speaking with Eric Karson, how are you sir." Kurt shakes Karson's hand. "I'm great Kurt." Eric smiles. "I see you around town periodically, it's not as often as I'd like, (the) last time I saw you was at that Warner Bros. screening on the lot for that Christian Slater (and) Sofya Skya (Assassin's Run and White Swan) picture, that's right." Kurt says. [A short clip of the White Swan trailer plays.] "You were gonna take her (Sofya) and put her in a film, we still gotta make that happen." Kurt says. "That's going to happen this coming spring." Eric tells Kurt. "Really!" Kurt exclaims. "(It will be) called Team B, yes." Eric explains. "Well what's my part in this film?" Kurt asks jokingly. "Well we need a news announcer so I hope you show up." Eric plays along. "Well you're type-casting again." Kurt smiles. "Well you're good at it." Karson says. "Ok, good,good," Kurt says, "so Eric has now done 7,000 films now (or at least quite) a few...but you've worked with legends in action films." "It's been a good run, I've had Chuck Norris of course, Jean Claude Van Damm....those kinds of action people, but those are the action films I do, I've done a lot of dramatic pictures, I've done television, and comedy, low comedy." Eric explains. "What is low comedy?" Kelly asks, "Low budget comedy or low comedy?" "No...low comedy, broad laughs, drop the pants, pie in the face...not sophisticated." Karson says. "So what is this next project you're doing with Sofya Skya?" Kurt inquires. "It's called Team B and it is gonna have a comedy bend to it, satiric, or comedic comedy bend, action picture, (it will be similar to) The Expendables...it should be high action and good comedy...and (we'll) hope for the best." Eric tells Kurt. Karson got into the business as a director/writer and has been an executive producer for the last five years with the American Cinema Group. Films he's directed in the past include two Van Damm action films Black Eagle and Lionheart, and The Octagon starring Chuck Norris. When asked if he had any favorite(s) actors that he's worked with he answer by naming a few legendary names of motion picture history: Charlton Heston- "He was perfect. If he was to be on stage at 9 o'clock, he'd walk through the door at 9 o'clock, not 8:59, not 9:01, (but) 9 o'clock, on time. (If we had new) material, (or if) there were changes on scenes, he would walk around the site, and he would come out the other side and say I'm ready to do this...he read it that quick...astonishing." Walter Matthau- "They gave him a rewrite of a three page monologue and within a half an hour he was ready to go." Kurt and Eric then go on to discuss the impact of technology on the film industry, pros and cons. "It is so simple today," Karson begins, "it used to be very tedious, very difficult, looping lines, ADR (automated dialogue replacement), all those things took weeks of preparation, now you walk in and do it, the digital world has absolutely changed...(it used to be) when you dubbed a picture you had fifty cases of 35mm film magnetic tape, now you walk in with a hard drive in your hand...and the cost has gone down dramatically...you can do many things very cost effectively...it's democratizing the film industry...however, the bad side of that is that we have an incredible number of really bad motion picture makers." Kurt adds, "...now people have cameras that used to take stills (still shots) but will also shoot video (now) so where do you draw that line...and that's today, don't blink in five minutes we'll change it again." Karson, "I understand, the technology will change...it's hard to keep up with, it used to be difficult (but) now it's almost impossible!" Kurt, "And (even) the distribution channels (have changed) before you had like, you know, X, Y, Z players you could go through, now people are becoming stars on YouTube!" Karson, "Yeah but they're probably not making too much cash." "Good point." Kurt says. "So this project that you're doing with Sofya (Team B) you start shooting in the spring, what's the intended release date, will we be seeing a release for this next fall?" Kurt asks. "Usually a motion picture...is like a baby, it takes nine months to have the baby born, and you dress it up for the last quarter, it takes about a year from (the) concept to delivery...the triangle of truth rules motion pictures, good, fast, and cheap, you can pick any two, but not all three." Eric explained. "Truly a pleasure to see you again," Kurt says shaking Karson's hand, "thank you, and I look forward to seeing what's going to happen with you and Sofya." "We'll see next year, and we'll see you (Kurt) next year." Karson smiles. "We are with Eric Karson, who is a legend, in my mind and your's too, go look at his IMDb, we'll be back with more from the 34th annual American Film Market...in Santa Monica, California I'm Kurt Kelly with Live Video, Inc. and Actor's Reporter we'll be back with more in a moment." Kurt exclaims and brings the interview to an end. Credits roll and a brief commercial from a Live Video, Inc. and Actors Reporter affiliate runs before the episode enters the next segment. Mattius Mack is the focal point of the next segment of this AFM Flashback episode. Mack has been an executive producer on a number of films in his career, including Commit, a film that was distributed by Vanguard, and 7 Nights (horror) from Maxim Media to name a few. "I've got a number of films in a number of different genres that have found their home in audiences." Mack tells Kurt. Mattius started out in theatre in New York years ago, left the business and went into sales marketing and finance, moved to L.A and did some internships: "it (was a) great way to get (my) foot in the door and it created a lot of opportunities...from that I ended up producing talk radio (the Spiritual Seeker with Michael Levin) and talent management. Then eventually I worked myself into a number of different things, I took off a little bit of time, went to USC film school...and ended up producing and executive producing a number of these small films and got accepted into the Producers Guild and became a VP of Acquisitions for a small film distributor and now I'm working independently and (I'm) really beginning to segue into more of a speaking career...I've been doing a lot of speaking (about how to create pull, who to talk to and who to do business with) and I put a website together called www.howtocreatepull.com...actually I'm in the process of writing a book about how to create pull, and what I've noticed is that if you wanna go into the business side of entertainment there's a pathway, but there's no pathway on the creative side, it's sort of hit and miss...(but) there is a way to do it." Mattius explained. "I really appreciate your time today, thank you for stopping by." Kurt says. "I appreciate you." Mattius replies. And the interview concludes. After another commercial plays the episode arrives at the final interview, where Kurt stands along side the tall and handsome Shad Gaspard, an actor and former WWE all-star wrestler. "We're at the 34th annual American Film Market, this has been going on longer than you've been alive." Kurt states. "It really has, only a few years longer, since I've been born it's gotten a lot better cause they've been waiting for me to come through." Shad jokes and the two men have a laugh. "So to speak," laughs Kurt, "and then they said 'where's Shad'...so Shad, is this your first AFM?" "This is actually my first AFM, it's been really, umm, interesting." Shad replies. "So how does it compare with what you've thought, what you heard, what people said, and actually being here?" Kurt asks. "Well, you know it's funny, it's really not what I expected, because I thought a little more people would be stuck up and 'boojee', and it turns out everybody's pretty relaxed and pretty cool and (pretty much) having a good time and talking business and it's great to hear other peoples stories and how they developed their projects, and how they got it funded and started, and it's really inspiring because there's a lot of creators out there who literally are putting themselves to the grind stone and then you hear the success stories (of how) it took five, six, even ten years to start it, and that's a success, it's really good to hear." Gaspard tells Kurt. "Right, ask Sly Stallone how long it took to get Rocky up and going." Kurt mentions. "So, you're a pro wrestler turned actor now?" "Yeah, I was first with WWE for ten years and had a very successful career, then I changed to acting, I did theatre first doing Shakespeare, and then I started doing TV and films afterwards." Gaspard responds. Gaspard's TV experience ranges from roles on Law & Order (NBC), CSI Miami (CBS), to The Game (BET). Shad also mention that he just finished Think Like A Man 2 (the sequel to the original Steve Harvey film) and a film with Carolyn Brooks (Parachute). "Actually I'm working on a video game and film combined." Gaspard mentions. "With your Shakespeare?" Kelly jokes. "No, actually, but you know I was inspired by Shakespeare," Shad plays along, "actually me and my partner Mark Capona we created three video game and three films and we intertwined them together to create a franchise called Assassin & Son." "So what role am I playing in this?" Kurt playfully asks Shad. "Well you can play one of the mobsters because you have that look, you have that good (mobster) look you know what I'm saying, I would be scared of you." Shad jokes and Kurt bellows with laughter. "So what's the other films or projects you've worked on since you've stopped kicking butt on a mat?" Kelly inquired. "A couple of action films, one of them I can't really talk about just yet because it's still coming out, and my role is very awesome in it!" Shad laughs. "I've actually been working with Carl Weathers (legendary actor of the Rocky franchise) on a drama film, and it's about a guy who gets abused as a child (and goes to prison) and when he gets out of prison his life is being pulled in many different directions, and me and Carl have been working on this for like the last year or so, and Carl's gonna direct and star in it with me and I'll play the lead role, so it's gonna be really really interesting." "Oh congratulations." Kurt says. "Thank you very much." Gaspard says. "When does this start shooting?" Kurt asks. "Hopefully we'll start shooting next February, but we're just taking our time with it, Carl is rewriting the script and making sure things are right." Shad explained. "So are you hear actually promoting a film or just kind of networking?" asks Kurt. "I'm actually here mainly promoting Assassin & Son, because we are literally in the final processes of everything, it's been a six year process for us, and with the video game industry (being) a billion dollar industry right now, easily, and with the film (at a million dollars) we kind of did really well to present ourselves as the top guys around right now." Shad conveys. "So when does that start shooting?" Kurt asked. Shad tells Kurt that hopefully they will begin shooting in December, and also that he and his business partner have received quite a bit of positive feedback on the project. Kurt asks Shad who has been the funnest actor that he's worked with thus far. Shad tells Kurt, "As far as acting goes, Kevin Hart was literally phenomenally funny on Think Like A Man 2, every take, every scene...he was just funny...I played a giant stripper who beats the hell out of everybody...just his timing and just having fun and making me feel relaxed, I just love being around a good cast of people just always having fun." "Fabulous, we wish you continued success." Kurt and Shad shake hands. "Thank you, same to you." Shad says to Kurt. "I'm Kurt Kelly, we'll be back with more from Live Video, Inc. and Actors Reporter at AFM 2013, 34th annual, stay tuned." The Actors Reporter commercial runs and the Flashback edition of ActorsE Chat comes to a close. Brian Harper Live Video, Inc.