Ray Schlogel, FOR LOVE & STACIE writer, director and star: Mr. Media Radio Interview

By BOB ANDELMAN

All the air escaped my lungs at the end of Ray Schlogel’s independent film, For Love & Stacie. I was angry, petulant… and then the credits rolled and I was reminded that it was a drama, not a documentary.

Poor, dumb ol’ Mr. Media was so sucked into this tale of heartbreak and obsession that I completely lost sight of what I was watching. And that’s when I realized what a fine job the independent Austin-based filmmaker—who wrote, starred, directed and produced Stacie—had done.

AUDIO EXCERPT: "(Chris Brogan) took up the cause. I can't thank him enough. He's got 90,000 followers. For him to take a risk outside the box of what he usually does and mention this little indie film was more than flattering. I have had a lot of people tweeting about it, posting about it, who have heard about it directly from Chris."

Schlogel came to my attention in an unusual way: I read about him in one of uber-networker Chris Brogan’s voluminous posts. Brogan wondered why Schlogel’s movie hadn’t received more attention and asked his readers to help the man out. I read Brogan daily and get a lot of value and insight from his blog so I decided to pay it forward by inviting Schlogel on Mr. Media.

You can watch For Love & Stacie for free at Schlogel’s website, ForLoveandStacey.com. He accepts donations there and you can also order a DVD copy of the film.




Open in your default player
Detach into a separate window

You can LISTEN to this interview with RAY SCHOGEL, Esquire writer, director, producer and star of FOR LOVE & STACIE, by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player above!

Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Nicole Sabrina Stuart, CAPTAIN scriptwriter, actor; BRIDE WARS co-star: Mr. Media Radio Interview

By BOB ANDELMAN

I make my living as a writer—books, magazine articles and, of course, introductions to Mr. Media Radio interviews.

But I can’t say I have any experience with writer’s block. Why not? A wife, a daughter, two dogs—and every morning I wake up and find them hungry. Gotta work, gotta write, gotta earn money to keep everybody fed, right? So I write.

Steve is not like me. He’s a would-be writer—and former law student—who has been taken on as a student by Carl, an award-winning crime novelist. Unfortunately, Steve is blocked and Carl—in cahoots with his wife, Trish—comes up with a devious scheme to shake Steve out of his funk.

That’s the story behind a new short film, Captain, making its way through the world of indie film festivals this fall.

AUDIO EXCERPT: "The Starbucks I go to everyday donated pastries and coffee for us every morning!"

Captain was written by my guest, Nicole Sabrina Stuart, who also stars as “Trish,” and Jack Sundmacher, who plays “Steve” in the short. You might recognize the vivacious Nicole from her most recent appearance on screen as Kate Hudson’s beleaguered secretary in the feature film, Bride Wars—which I just watched on DVD with my daughter a few weeks ago. She’s also been in the Arthur Miller film After the Fall and episodes of “Criminal Minds,” “V.I.P.” with Pamela Anderson, and “The George Lopez Show.”



Open in your default player
Detach into a separate window

You can LISTEN to this interview with NICOLE SABRINA STUART, co-author and co-star of CAPTAIN, by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player above!

Copyright 2009 Bob Andelman. Click here for copyright permissions!

Scott Miles, LITTLE CHICAGO actor, writer, producer: Mr. Media Audio Interview

There’s a certain risk – some might call it insanity – to producing true indie films. They’re costly, especially relative to the return on investment, time, and aggravation.

But still they get made.

Scott Miles made his. It’s called Little Chicago, and it's about a young man who returns home after college hoping his dad will stake him the money to get into the bar and restaurant business. Of course, if his dad were to do that, this would be a short, not a full-length motion picture.

Miles wrote, produced, and starred in Little Chicago.

But if you haven’t seen Little Chicago, maybe you know him from some of his other film roles, including Remember the Titans, The Patriot, or October Sky. On television, he was in episodes of “NCIS” and “Star Trek Voyager.”

I think you'll find what he has to say about producing indie films quite interesting.

You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

Open in your default player
Detach into a separate window

© 2008 by Bob Andelman. All rights reserved.

Bret Carr, RevoLOUtion, indie movie director, producer and star: Mr. Media Audio Interview

Bret Carr made a movie.

Lots of people make movies these days. Every idiot with a digital camcorder thinks he is Scorsese, Tarantino, or Apatow, but Carr approached his first feature film, RevoLOUtion, a little differently. He landed Quinn Redeker, the man behind The Deer Hunter, to write his screenplay. Rocky composer Bill Conti created the title song. Paul Michael Glaser, best known as Detective Starsky from the classic TV series “Starsky & Hutch,” is a producer. Carr even convinced Burt Young, who played Sylvester Stallone’s brother-in-law in the Rocky films, to be himself in RevoLOUtion.

But who to play Lou Benedetti, the stuttering, somewhat brain-damaged, yet ultimately inspirational star of the film?

That would be Carr himself, who also produced and directed RevoLOUtion. And wait until you hear about his unusual ideas about marketing.

You can LISTEN to this interview by clicking the BlogTalkRadio.com audio player below!

open separate window