I’ve personally learned so much during this process of developing this film. I always felt like something needed to be documented. My God just the behind the scenes drama would be entertaining!!
For the first episode I’m interviewing Casey G. Smith who is one of the producers on the film. Please subscribe and hope you enjoy!
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The transcription of the show is below.
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Natural Hair the Movie Podcast
Episode 1
Welcome to Natural Hair the Movie Podcast where we give you a behind the scenes look in creating an
independent feature film. From PRE-production, Post-Production, Production to marketing
and distribution. Our team goes in to detail on what it takes to get your film off of the ground.
This is Natural Hair the Movie Podcast Hosted by:Reginald Titus Jr.
Welcome to Natural Hair the Movie Podcast.
Casey: Yea
Reginald:The whole point of the podcast is to encourge you if you are working on your own project.
If we have information to help you, inspire you to create your own project.
This project we have been working on since the beginging of 2013. With principal of photography 2015.It is now
2018 and it is March. We are in the distribution phase. While this is still fresh on my mind.
I want to bring in our different producers our executive producers. Let me introduce myself. My name is Reginald Titus Jr.
Producer, Director, Executive Producer, Writer..I put on a lot of hats for this.
Casey: Editor!
Reginald: Oh yea editor. I can't forget that. I spent most of 2017 editing the film. So today I have producer
Casey G Smith. and, today our theme is: What is a producer?
Casey G Smith talk about how you got involved with are project, what was going on at the time and why you decideded to do thaty
1.31 Casey: Absolutely it is my pleasure Reginald. I will take it back into 2012. on the first project "Its Complicated"
were originally I was just an actor. I kind of had my lines down already. Kind of wrapping up pre-production
getting closer to production. I saw how much work that you were doing. Trying to figure out where we were going to shoot at
All these other things I remember harassing you like, "Hey man, what could I do to help out?" And, you asked me
point blank - "Do you want to produced? And, I said, "Sure.....What does a producer do?"
Reginald: [Laughter]
Casey: Then you handed me the resource of Dove SS Simmons, " 2-Day Film School". Took it home and just begin to devour it.
And listening to him define the roles of a producer. Whether it producer, executive producer, associate producer and at the end of
the day we kind of have a saying a phrase at Grind Over Matter Films that we throw out often that "producers
produce. I think maybe that that is the best definition that youcan give to the role of producer. A producer can wear many
hats. But at the end of the day a producer is there to help the project succeed at all levels. Whatever needs to be
done so, my involvement with Natural Hair the Movie, kind of officially started in 2015. Amongst the team they were talking about it
talking about it and kind of moved it forward and even when starting the interview process I was kind of tied up with
some other things work wise. Where the first couple of interviews I was not able to make it to. But, when I went to
the first set of interviews and I listened to these women sharing their stories and listening to the questions
that they were going to ask, "Uh man, this is powerful!" And, these educated strong black women sharing their stories
We don't see enough of this. That really sparked something inside of me. I mean I will be honest. I really did not know
much about Natural Hair before this. I was not sure where my role would be within it.
It sparked me to do some research so homework. Yea well so I was a producer, I have done everything from sitting
down across from the interviewees and being the interviewer. To getting paperwork signed. Like always double check
the paperwork. To doing whatever it takes. Whether it is being a PA. Whether it is rocking the slate. Whether it is
trying to find investors. Whether it is pitching. Whether it is having a conversation on the side to encourage somebody
or to find out what is going on. Whether it is thinking of marketing ideas. Whether it is helping to proof read things. Again, producers
producers produce
Reginald: So one of the things that Casey G Smith did was able to do was that he actually saved our project. What year was that? Basically, we
were shooting alot of footage, and we had it on one hard drive, and that is a no-no. So anybody out there make sure
that you are backing up your stuff put it on hard drives that are durable. So you have these G-drives if you have a Mac
They are orange and if you drop them they can survive the drop. I had these slim hard drives that are cheaper
they are like 60 bucks or whatever I don't know how this happened, but there it dented the hard-drive and basically
I was not able to access the footage anymore. I was like,"Hey guys..the footage, I can't access it!" It says that
it is reading it, but for whatever reason it is not reading it. We sent it off to a location to retrieve and we got news
that it was going to cost us about $1,200 or something like that. It was at least a thousand dollars to retrieve
this footage. You know a thousand dollars may not seem like alot of whatever but at that time everybody was tapped
out. We just did not have a thousand bucks like, " Hey here you go..here is a check!" You know..
Casey: Right! So when we came across the issue with the hard drive we were kind of racking our brains and brainstorming trying
to figure out could we try and potentially get the money in between us. We had talked about potentially doing
some crowd funding, Kickstarter. But, we thought to ourselves if we..go and reach out to our target audience and
people that would support us from a Kickstarter stand point, now that could hurt other oppourtunities later on.
We had finished "It's Complicated" and one of our professors from Northwood, Professor Robert Harris, who is now
at UNT Dallas he had us to come in and talk about, he screened the film. It is a short and he screened it
for his students. He told us, "why didn't you guys reach out to me to help fund. I want to invest. The next time that
you all have your next project let me know." So in the midst of us racking our brain it just popped in our mind
Hey! PROFESSOR HARRIS!! And, I reached out to him. I told him about the situation the perdicament that we were in. He
asked me, "Well, how much is it that you need?" I said, "Well sir, we would be grateful for any given amount that you can do
you mentioned that you wanted to invest, here is an opportunity to invest!"
Reginald: "Right!"
Casey: He said, "Well if I am able to do X amount of 900 or something like that would you be able to take care of the rest?"
I said, "Absolutely sir!" And so, he set up a time to have us to come out to dinner. Myself, Reginald, and AD Johnson one of
our other producers and music supervisors on the project we meet up with Harris. We were all Northwood University Alum.
Met at Sam's Pizza. We sat down, not only is Harris a great professor he is also a great businessman.
One of the things that they do in business overseas, he has done alot of overseas business is that you take care of business upfront
then you go from there. And, one of the things that he told us is that, "When you asked me about if I was to give you
this amount could you take care of the rest..the fact that I did not hesitate and said YES we would absolutely be
able to take care of the rest. Often times investors want to know what skin do you have in the game. What are you
willing to put into it. Again, whatever amount he would have given we would have found a way to take care of the
rest. And because I did not hesitate and I was quick to answer, because of that I am going to take care of the full
amount. We were kind of like picking our jaws up off of the floor at his generosity. He literally wrote the check
for the full amount to retrieve the data from the hard-drive so if you are listening to this professor Harris, we
appreciate what you did literally to save our project. Shout out, much love and respect to Robert O Harris.
Reginald: So yea, let that be a lesson. You never know who is watching, who can help, who has an extra thousand
dollars laying around. You never know. And, you have to be confident about your project. You have to let people know
about it. You have to network, and be a trustworthy person. The next time that we talk about this subject matter
we are going to talk about fear, and things that may get in the way of you having a successful project.
Casey: And, one of the things that I feel that is important, and Reginald you can leave this in or not, but I think
this is key. When working on any project like I mentioned before paperwork. Paperwork is crucial for talent, for cast,
for crew. If you are starting on a project make sure that you have your paperwork in order if there are funds involved
if there are agreements that are going to be made a handshake is great. But, you want to get everything documented
upfront. Because money is a real thing...right. And, all kinds of things can happen from that. So just always make
sure that you get your paperwork squared upfront. I would say even before you start shooting. Just because you never know
what may happen. Legal things might happen or someone may get hurt on set or whatever the case maybe. Paperwork upfront square
all that away so that you have it documented and you are in the clear so that you can move forward without hesitation or headaches
Reginald: We will have a whole episode where we are talking about just paperwork and some obstacles that you can run into
if you don't have your paperwork in order.
Casey: Already Freddy!
Reginald: We have experienced that and we have had those obstacles. Hey, that is a right of passage in the filmmaking world.
That is the only way that you are going to do it. You gotta go out, you gotta do it. And, once you go through these obstacles
you have to figure out how you are going to handle it.
Casey: Yes get a good team around you! Because I have to say Reginald that I am so happy to work with you and Ashanti and London
and AD and Jeremy and Pablo Deleon and the Grind Over Matter film team. It is a rare thing. And, I don't ever want to take that for
granted. It is rare to find a team to be able to work with and push through. Keep communication open and go through the peaks
and valleys, but I am happy to be on this journey with you guys.
Reginald: I am happy to have you along for this whole thing man. So, that is What is a Producer! Producers produce. Tune in next time
when we talk about overcoming fears. Tune in next time Natural Hair the Movie, the podcast!
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