So, a lot of people have shot in small towns
and not had a good experience.
We talked yesterday briefly
about out experiences.
Mine was very favorable.
You said yours was very favorable.
Talk about how, being familiar with an area,
and knowing people can help,
add value to your film,
when it comes to budget and that, if you would.
- Yeah, I mean, this film doesn't really get made
without Lodi, at all, I don't think.
Because...
When we were talking, so we wrote,
we knew we had a small budget.
We wrote very carefully for Lodi,
and carefully for Chicago and, you start thinking of,
well, who, my dad was instrumental in helping us get
a lot of the locations in Lodi.
My mom helped line up like all the catering in Lodi.
Steven's mom helped line all the catering
with his sister in Chicago.
So we had, just these family and friends sort of networks
happening, and that pretty much did it all.
My dad, while Steve and I are working in Chicago,
he's going to the diner, that we've been to a million times,
but he's talking to the manager,
and saying, is there any way, would you be even open to it,
and then when they're open to it,
we go up and we talk, and then eventually
you hash out, sure, we can shut down the diner for one day.
You know. - Wow
- John's house is this
awesome guy, Bob Endres, who's a
high school friend of my dad's,
and that's the only reason we got to shoot at,
you know, that's why John's house is that house,
because Bob was willing to, again, cut us a deal,
and, based on my dad's reputation,
allow a bunch of us to come in,
and take over his place for three weeks.
- How were the people in the town,
like, let's say, that weren't involved in the film?
Did they kind of embrace it?
Or did they become like jaded Hollywood people?
- Super-embraced it.
I mean it was very...
We just had a ton of help from family and friends.
Some friends that I went to high school with,
and my cousin, I was leaning on them for favors and advice,
and help to get the cop car,
and help to get, just kind of everything.
You need 80 things, and you've got 16 friends
that are helping you kind of wrangle all of them, so.