Film and Family

Ep. 100 - Q&A at St. Louis International Film Festival

Kent & Anna Thalman

Celebrating the 100th episode, we take a look back at our journey from conceptualizing our first low/no-budget feature film, "The Loved & Lost" to making a living as feature filmmakers now. We share a memorable Q&A session captured during our festival run. The discussion highlights the emotional themes, affordances and limitations of indie filmmaking, and the learning experiences that shaped our storytelling and career. 

This podcast episode includes:

• An overview of the Q&A and reflections on the St. Louis Festival 
• Insights into our first film's origin and production challenges 
• Exploration of thematic motifs and emotional depth 
• Audience reactions and questions about the film 
• Discussion about directing children and capturing authentic moments 
• Technical details about gear, resourcefulness, and filmmaking techniques 
• Announcements, including a distribution deal update and our current  scholarship opportunity in the Feature Filmmaker Academy
• Introduction to our next feature release, the documentary, 'Ride in Paradise'

Free "Make Your Feature Film" Checklist

Schedule my Greenlight Call

Speaker 1:

Hi and welcome to the 100th episode of Film and Family.

Speaker 2:

If I were King Friday, from Mr Rogers' Neighborhood, I would call for a fanfare.

Speaker 1:

We decided for our 100th podcast to share a recording from one of the Q&As on our film, the Loved and Lost.

Speaker 2:

The festival Q&A after the showing of the film.

Speaker 1:

We did a few of these at different festivals. This one was at St Louis International Film Festival. Kent was not with me. He was home with the kids for that one.

Speaker 2:

But it was a delight for me to listen to it after the fact, and she did such a great job. I'm glad I wasn't there to blow it.

Speaker 1:

And I did record it because he wasn't there, so we have it available to share. The audio is not great, so apologize in advance for that. It might be a little hard to hear, but I'm really grateful that we have it to share and grateful to St Louis for hosting us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, st Louis. Another big shout out St Louis International Film Festival If you have a film, short film or whatever that you want to submit. They were really accommodating festival, really really kind to their filmmakers and we just super appreciate the chance to show the film in St Louis, missouri, which was really cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's a really great experience. They even provided hotels for everyone, I think, even people who submitted short films, which is pretty outstanding.

Speaker 2:

And if we're incorrect about that then we apologize for anyone whose hopes got up. But we're pretty sure that's the case Pretty sure.

Speaker 1:

A few announcements just before we share that we recently signed a distribution deal with BMG Global and that is for the film that we're talking about in this Q&A, the Loved and Lost. So the film will release in a few more months. More details on that to come. So stay subscribed if you want to hear about it when it does come out.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and watch it. Yeah, and so enjoy listening to the incredibly comparable, intelligent and lovely Anna Tallman answer questions about this movie that we've made over the last many years.

Speaker 3:

Everybody here is okay if we're kind of talking like this Okay, great. So first of all, incredible movie. I mean that's very powerful, okay, you know a lot of thoughts kind of going through my head, sorry, sorry. If you guys want to you can probably come down. People are welcome to come down.

Speaker 1:

We could go in the middle. Would that be better?

Speaker 3:

There, you go Hello. But I guess, first off, can you give us a little bit of history. I mean, you know, seeing the, it looks like your children were the stars in there.

Speaker 2:

I've seen their names up there.

Speaker 3:

Can you give us a little bit of history about how this kind of story came about and you know how you decided to. You know, put this up on screen.

Speaker 1:

Sure, yeah. So, um, we originally worked on a different film in pre-production and we were pitching it and trying to get financing for it and it was probably just too big of a step for our first feature film. Um, I was a first time director. We couldn't kind of get that one off the ground and so we said, you know what, let's just throw together a super fast, cheap, no budget film, just to do it, just to learn and use all our resources. So we live in Peachtree city, we just bought a house that was breaking down and we had these kids and we said let's just put it all together and make a story.

Speaker 1:

So my husband actually pitched a few ideas that he wrote down and this was one of them. We picked our favorite one and we very quickly pre-produced it and made it and it was kind of a whirlwind but I think it kind of came together. It kind of came together. But, yeah, I guess it's a tricky one to put in any specific genre or to classify, but I think to me this is a coming of age for young parents kind of all together figuring out how to grow into taking care of children and, at the end of the day, realizing that if they're together, if we have each other, we have enough, and that's kind of all that really matters and there will be a way, sure.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, that's well, I mean, uh, for for being from what it sounds like. You know the way you kind of described it being so quickly put together. I mean, when I was watching it, it seems like it was very tactile. Everything within the world was. It seemed like you had been working on it for forever. I mean the way that you had the shots put together of him working in the woodshop or the kids, you know, in the woods. I mean it seemed like a world that you had really built you know, within.

Speaker 3:

You know whether it was in the writing or in the direction. I mean there was a lot to look at there, you know. Can you touch on? You know touch on the themes a little bit or kind of like the motifs that were within it. I mean water was everywhere there was obviously the train tracks.

Speaker 1:

There was, you know, a lot of it. And so something we worked on was just creating this constant noise, this constant chaos. And then, when she has the nightmare at the beginning of the film, it's quiet for the first time, but it's the silence of like losing a child and not hearing them cry out, and that was actually kind of torturous. And so we wanted to, I wanted to play with that idea of like. Yes, it feels hard sometimes when you're in the moment and everything's loud and crazy, but then you know, if you didn't have that it would be worse. And um, for me this is a I don't know. There's layers to this film.

Speaker 1:

I think that I'm a spiritual person. For me this is a spiritual film. It's kind of about depending on how you see the world. For me it's our journey on earth that we lived with heavenly parents. We came to earth and we're away from them on our own and we kind of have to go on this journey where we're lost for a little while and there's sort of a baptism and the red blanket is kind of like the Christ, blood of Christ, his grace, and then this kind of lifting up in the airplane is getting that higher view, that glimpse sometimes of where we are and what the whole, how it fits into the whole plan, and then being able to eventually come back to home. So it's kind of um got some spiritual undertones that I don't know if anyone ever picks up on, but for me that's some of the meaning behind it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah you can see that with the water for sure yeah, I mean initially it feels like the sense of drowning, I mean, which obviously is represented in the nightmare, but then, yeah, do you see it a little bit more.

Speaker 1:

Also the literal drowning in there.

Speaker 3:

My heart dropped, obviously as soon as the boat scene came up. But the sorry, I'm getting my notes here, oh yeah.

Speaker 4:

Sorry, please. I want to tell you I've been coming to this festival for about 20 years, oh wow, and I always liked the indie films because they seem to be always on a budget, but they're some of the best and even if they're a little bit raw, this wasn't raw. This was raw in a different way. Raw, yeah, this was profound beyond description and I think it was one of the best films I've ever seen. In the 20 years, everything combined and I have literally a lot of films that I've seen, and there have been years I've seen 25 films.

Speaker 5:

Wow.

Speaker 4:

You know, and I'm telling you that is keep doing it.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much, that's quite a compliment.

Speaker 6:

Your husband was a photographer too. Yes, he shot it, so you wrote it together and he was a photographer too. Yes, he shot it, so you wrote it together and he was a photographer. So it's a whole family.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we're a film family.

Speaker 6:

I'm going to second that what Joan said, but I want to ask about your kids. How hard was it to do it? Like Marshall, yelling Claire, it's not, the sister is not named Claire, so how hard was it to? And yelling Claire, you know it's not and the sister is not named Claire, right yeah. So how hard was it to kind of, because your son was amazing and I can't imagine how was it to direct him to work with two other strangers well, not strangers, but yeah, they were essentially yeah.

Speaker 6:

Two other strangers, people that are supposed to be mom and dad. I mean, you were right behind, dad was behind the camera and you're around and they have to, not, you know? Look at you.

Speaker 1:

No, I love that. That's a great question. We kind of had to take somewhat of a documentary approach with the kids. The scenes with the kids were we counted on our actors to say this is the direction that it's written, kind of guide it this way, but you're going to have to roll with whatever they're doing, and I didn't want the kids to have to memorize and say lines because I didn't think it'd be very believable. So we tried to treat it like a game where we said, okay, right now we're playing the game, and in the game this is your mommy, this is your daddy, your sister's name is Claire and you have to find her, and so we would set up situations and make it a game for them.

Speaker 1:

Um, so there's there's funny little moments. He says the joke I don't know if anyone catches it about like Canada being right on top of the United States, and he says then the United States would say ow. And he just came up with that and said that in a moment the United States would say, ow, canada's right on top. Yeah, so not everyone catches it, but I think it's cute. His own little joke, yeah, but, um, it was difficult, honestly, to work with our own kids and to be a mom and director on set was a little more than I realized I was getting myself into. So we had a day when Marshall just got tired and he laid down on the ground and we were outside and we were. It was sunset and we were all set up and we had everything. He said come on, we just need a few more shots. We've just got to keep going. And he just, he was done. He couldn't be bribed, so we had to. He runs a lot.

Speaker 3:

So I can see why he'd be done.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, yeah, we did wear him out, so yeah, I also just want to comment that the photography was beautiful. So I don't know, is your husband a professional photographer, because it was like a beautiful movie scenery and all that and the lighting and everything we can do trees and the sun and there's so many very great moments of like photographers of wow, this is like very professionally made Thank you?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'll tell him. He said that. Yes, he is a DP and he did a good job. We actually picked the look for this film. We picked out some vintage lenses, um, that were cheap on ebay and we bought them and had. There's a guy in georgia we put in the credits at the very bottom who, like, can adapt the lenses and he retrofit them to be able to put gears on, and so we use some old vintage lenses for this and it kind of adds to this cool dirty look to the film.

Speaker 3:

Like I said, that tactile feel. It definitely gives it that.

Speaker 1:

Adds some character for sure. Total cost. This is like a no-budget film, I mean it's. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 5:

Go ahead.

Speaker 4:

I'm sorry.

Speaker 5:

I'm just like that, is unbelievable.

Speaker 1:

It took a long time. It's been very resourceful. We had to be, I mean. So this was just a passion project. We did it in our spare time. The edit took years because we were just trying to pay the bills and we had two more kids and lots of life happened while we made this. I have five kids now, Marshall, the oldest is nine. He just turned nine, so he's he was five when we made this, so it took a long time to finally see it through to the end. But, um, but now we're actually wrapping up our second feature films, the documentary, and that one we've managed to live off of. We've been able to not live in large or anything, but we're supporting our family with our five kids on that.

Speaker 5:

So, um, yeah, can you talk about the casting process for the events?

Speaker 1:

Honestly, we didn't do a lot of casting except for the um side roles. Uh, brando, who plays the lead Cal, is a friend of mine from film school and we've worked closely together before. We did short films, you know before, and I liked working with him. I knew he could do a good job. And then he had. He hadn't worked with the other actress, but he knew of her.

Speaker 1:

We were thinking of casting her in our other film that we were trying to develop and so we said what let's just try it out. We're making this cheap little feature, let's bring her on and try it out. And we had her do a little audition but it wasn't like she had lots of competition. She was willing to do it for cheap. So we actually flew them out because we went to film school in Utah. So we flew them out to Georgia and just shot with her for two weeks and then she had to leave and I actually cut and dyed my hair and body doubled for her. So almost all the shots where you don't see her face are me.

Speaker 1:

And we also did that just in case the kids didn't respond as well as we hoped they would. You know, if they had a hard time, that I'd be able to step in and kind of play with them, which we didn't end up needing to do. But it was nice once she flew out to do like the running stuff by the train. That's all me Um, things like that that we weren't able to get while she was in town. So hopefully you didn't notice blends in.

Speaker 3:

But it worked out perfectly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but the other, all the other actors were local to Georgia and we just used Actors Access, which is breakdown services on the other end, and cast that way.

Speaker 3:

Any other questions? Yes, First off, holy child actors. I'm sitting here just like contemplating everything I've ever done watching your son.

Speaker 5:

Is it worth it they were so good, is it?

Speaker 3:

sort of what he had already asked about directing them. Had they you made it into a game, more so than anything. It was just like you didn't have like a script or anything. That did they know what was going on or they they're on it.

Speaker 1:

This is what you were trying to make with it they knew that we were making a movie, but for them it's playing pretend, and kids are very good at playing pretend, but I also knew my own kids. So there's the scene where Marshall is crying and he's all wet. He doesn't like getting wet. And so we said, ok, I'm going to dump water on you for this scene, and I know you don't like that, but if you're OK with it, you know he's really sad and he's all wet. He just got out of the water. So we dumped water on him. Really sad and he's all wet. He just got out of the water, so we dumped water on him. It was a little bit cold and it worked and he was crying, but he was willing to do it and, um, yeah, so that was we did do a bit of bribing.

Speaker 1:

We were not the best parents. We'll get you a treat, whatever you need.

Speaker 5:

Let's do this. So yeah, the's the documentary about.

Speaker 1:

The documentary is about loss. So actually after we made this, I got pregnant with our fourth and he passed away shortly after he was born and we ended up receiving a teddy bear from a man who delivers teddy bears on his motorcycle to people who've lost children, and we're really interested in his story and how he dealt with his own losses through serving others. We're really interested in his story and how he dealt with his own losses through serving others, and so we kind of followed his story, his arc and other people he's delivered bears to, and um made a documentary about that. It's called ride in paradise and that one I'm I am actually really proud of not that I'm not proud of this one, but I I'm really happy with how it's turned out.

Speaker 6:

I'm proud of you.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

Speaker 6:

You mentioned that you shot this several years ago.

Speaker 5:

Yeah.

Speaker 6:

What is your children's take on the film now? They haven't seen it, I guess.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they've seen it. I think they're excited for it to come out. Finally, because we've been doing a little festival run with it this year. Um, they haven't come with us to any of the festivals. We don't really want them to feel like they're celebrities or anything. We actually have had people say you're going to get calls, you know people are going to want to hire your kids to do this, and we've decided not to pursue that route and to protect their childhood, and I don't really believe in child actors.

Speaker 1:

Personally, as a director, I just think you find someone who's the right fit, who's comfortable in front of the camera. Honestly, they weren't even very comfortable in front of the camera. I'm glad that it looks like they were, but my son would do all sorts of weird things with his mouth that we had to kind of cut around in the edit, weird things with his mouth that we had to kind of cut around in the edit, um. So, after many takes and finagling it, we were able to get it where it looks like they did a really good job, but it wasn't really acting. It was kind of yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 6:

But when they, when they see it, what's their reaction now?

Speaker 1:

I think it's just fun. It's almost like a home video, Like, oh, I remember that and when we drive around because we live in Peachtree City, we drive around and they say, oh, that's where I ate the oatmeal cookie, and the homeless lady was actually our next door neighbor and she said that was Amy and I ate the cookie under there, and so it's fun.

Speaker 6:

It's just memories Was the baby also one of your kids, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so they're all three our kids, and that was actually kind of fun too, because when we have them at the end, remembering back on the childhood, we actually just used archival home videos that we had of our kids, so that kind of worked out.

Speaker 3:

It worked out well. They intercut me throughout, though.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

That's great.

Speaker 1:

Where did you find the, the airplane, the steering, the? Yeah, that's a good question. There's actually a, a town not too far from peach tree city that is full of personal planes and it's. It's really cool that grass runway is right in the middle of a strip of houses on both sides and every it's, you know, just like a normal neighborhood, but everyone has hangers for garages and they all fly personal planes. And we had a friend. We've done some volunteer work for the commemorative air force museum in Peachtree city and so there we met Vic, who is the pilot of the plane, and he was interested in the story. He was a friend of ours and he agreed to let us use his plane and so he flew it. He played the pilot as well and, yeah, that was a generous it's a beautiful airplane where we stored.

Speaker 6:

It's a 1941 actually I checked, yeah because in the end number I checked you checked it okay 1941 there it is yeah beautifully.

Speaker 1:

He, he does a good job, he takes good care of it. He. Let me fly it a little bit before putting our son in it.

Speaker 3:

How did Marshall take it being in the plane?

Speaker 1:

You know, we thought he'd be so excited and just be like, wow, cause he loves planes, we thought it'd be so fun. And he got up there and was kind of like yeah so it was a little less exciting than we thought, but it was fun. He likes to brag about it.

Speaker 5:

Now it's exciting yes, yeah, so I was actually. Uh, I'm curious about that because, especially when you, um said you view this like a coming of age for parents, yeah, um, I really view this the uh sort of story of growing up for the kids, um, and very much about how you leave home and you have these huge experiences and then there's not like it's hard to then come home and you need to be that parent, right like that's so much what kids do.

Speaker 5:

If they grow up and then they come home from school, you ask them what did you learn today? And they say nothing. And you're like, what did you do nothing? Nothing right. And so that's that's sort of what struck me, the fact that he he applies to this point and he never mentioned it to dad. Um, so I guess I was wondering at the end, um, was that a conversation? If we're writing the script, whether or not the kids should talk about what happened to them, like the fact that they immediately go to sleep.

Speaker 5:

The day is over, right, their story is. They're done yeah it's not a conversation and deliberate choice that you've decided to bring it back and make it as a couple at the end. Those are the big ones.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes trying to remember. Honestly, the ending was kind of an accident in many ways. We had a different ending, scripted and not too different, but but different enough that when the day came, he was tired. This was another day where he was tired. It was the end of the day, when he was on the ground. We were trying to have this conversation and he said I'm just so tired. That was real. And so he said, ok, let's just have him put him to bed, you know, and it'll just be the adults, because our kids it was our last day of shooting. Actually, we shot that last scene and the kids were just tuckered out everyone was and so we let them go to bed and let the parents have that moment on their own. Um, but yeah, I will work. I like your perspective of it, though. It's true, you know that there's so much that goes on that doesn't always get communicated, or as kids, you don't really have words sometimes to explain or understand what even happened.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, so much of it is about the private life of children, which is really cool, and children's surprising competence Very resourceful yeah.

Speaker 3:

Do you know? I believe you had a distributor for this, correct? Do you know where else it'll be?

Speaker 1:

so we have not signed the papers, but we do have some distribution offers on the table, and one that we feel pretty good about, so we'll probably move forward. Um, so I'm guessing it'll be streaming. It's not going to go theatrical besides the festival Sure, but streaming on some of the platforms within a couple months, hopefully Exciting to hear. Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Good to know we'll be able to see some more of it.

Speaker 5:

Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 3:

And then the documentary you mentioned. Can you say the name of it?

Speaker 1:

one more time Right in Paradise. Yeah, so if you want to follow this or other films that we're making, you can go to our website. It's invisible mansioncom invisible mansion pictures and you can get on our email list and we send out updates as we go. But it also has the trailer for right in paradise, the documentary, on there.

Speaker 3:

So well, hopefully we'll see you back here with that for sure.

Speaker 1:

Next time we'll have to submit it. It's been a great, a great time, so see we also have any other questions.

Speaker 4:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much for coming and staying. I really appreciate it.

Speaker 4:

Wonderful show Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Well, thanks so much for listening to this Q&A and this 100th episode of Film and Family. If you haven't joined our email list yet, make sure you get on there for more details about this film when it comes out other films that we'll be releasing. We are premiering our next film right in paradise, which you heard mentioned in the q a, at zion's indie film festival on march 1st of 2025 so that's this year and that will be at the sarah theater in oram. So if you want any more information about that, just Google Zion's Indie Film Festival and if you're in that area, or if you want to stay up to date on other festival showings for Ride in Paradise, that will be forthcoming in emails, so stay subscribed.

Speaker 1:

We also just want to mention really quickly that we are currently running or accepting submissions to the Featured Filmmaker Academy Scholarship. We have transitioned into a nonprofit, so the Film and Family Foundation is now a nonprofit and that is what will be hosting this podcast, as well as the educational resources that we provide, and because of that, we received a donation and we decided to allow a few applicants selected applicants to receive a scholarship into the program, and this is a lifetime membership. The program helps you be able to make feature films for a living, if that's what you want to do.

Speaker 2:

And specifically, it's focused on helping you to conceive, fund and finish your first feature film. So if that's where you're at in your career, then this is the perfect program for you. We really encourage you to submit and become a part of this program that could change the trajectory of your film career.

Speaker 1:

Submissions are due currently on January 20th, so hopefully we release this podcast before then with enough time for you to get a submission in. If you did not see that email go out, feel free to join our email list at invisible mansion dot com. Forward slash films and you can just send a reply to that email that automatically comes through. And ask for scholarship information and I can send that your way.

Speaker 2:

Awesome Thanks and have a great rest of your 2025.

Speaker 1:

We'll see you, bye.