CAROL: Behind the Scenes with a First-Time Filmmaker

Matt: 00:00:00

alright, we are back with our second episode here on the Faith and Family Filmmakers podcast with executive producer, writer, uh.

Matt: 00:00:08

Funder, I guess you'd say.

Matt: 00:00:10

The, uh, investor, uh, James Tew.

Matt: 00:00:13

Were talking about his movie Carol that, uh, came out, I guess you guys released it in 2024, right?

James: 00:00:19

Yeah.

James: 00:00:19

Uh, we had a, premier, um, we had a, a very limited theatrical release, um, kind of the, the distributor we were working with that, um, what they do is they kind of, schedule When small local theaters have blocks available or they're looking for a different film, unfortunately there were some very big movies that came out during the last Christmas season, so there weren't a lot of those blocks available.

James: 00:00:45

and then, it's available, on different streaming platforms, to download as well.

Matt: 00:00:50

So what streaming platforms are you on?

James: 00:00:52

we're on Amazon Prime, uh, apple tv.

James: 00:00:56

about a month or two ago we, got on Tubi, Google Play.

James: 00:01:00

Um, I know there's some cable ones as well, so, but those are, I'd say, you know, Amazon or Apple or Google play are kind of the ones people ask about the most.

Matt: 00:01:10

Yeah, so are you, could I go to your website?

Matt: 00:01:12

and rent the movie directly from your website.

James: 00:01:15

Uh, you'd have to click over.

James: 00:01:16

We have all those links on the website where you can click to each of the various platforms and, you know, rent it or purchase it from there.

Matt: 00:01:24

I always encourage filmmakers if you can rent it directly on your own website, do that.

Matt: 00:01:30

and if you're a fan of, independent film, sometimes it's easier to go to a platform and just watch it on Amazon Prime, but.

Matt: 00:01:38

If we care about the filmmakers, we wanna rent it in a way that gives them the most profit margin possible, because I promise you Jeff Bezos, um, he's doing just fine.

Matt: 00:01:47

He's, he's already got his return, but James too needs his return.

James: 00:01:51

um, like I said in the prior episode, you know, two, it's not about the money and, and we're, you know, wanting to get the word out there.

James: 00:01:58

Um, you know, one just probably 'cause I'm older, uh, one thing you can do from the website is purchase A DVD, if you want to do that, those are available, uh, for purchase on the website as well.

Matt: 00:02:11

and it makes a great Christmas gift.

James: 00:02:12

Oh, absolutely.

Matt: 00:02:14

Yeah, and I, I focus a little bit more on that, that element of it, the financial element of it.

Matt: 00:02:18

Just because, like you said, it's not about making James Rich or anything like that, but it is about, uh, helping make you whole again so that you're not kind of dug into that.

Matt: 00:02:28

the pit of debt so that you can go make another movie.

Matt: 00:02:31

'cause it's kind of heartbreaking when you make a great movie and then you're, too far in a financial hole to ever go back and make another one.

Matt: 00:02:38

'cause that's, what it's all about.

Matt: 00:02:39

But I hope people will go see this one for the quality of the movie itself.

James: 00:02:42

Yeah.

James: 00:02:43

And again, kind of looking back to, you know, the last episode where I was talking about the financing.

James: 00:02:49

I mean, thankfully rolling our 4 0 0 1 ks, we didn't we didn't really take on much debt, um, to do the film.

James: 00:02:57

it's more, we kind of more borrowed against our future, I

Matt: 00:03:01

You, you're your own debtor.

James: 00:03:03

Yeah.

James: 00:03:04

Yep.

Matt: 00:03:05

Well, let's talk a little bit about just making the movie itself.

Matt: 00:03:08

So you raise the money, you've got it in the bank, you've got a, great, director signed on.

Matt: 00:03:14

Um, how does someone who has, you know, never made a movie before, how do you go about putting together that whole process?

James: 00:03:21

Well, uh, I mean, George gets a lot of the credit for that.

James: 00:03:24

He was experienced.

James: 00:03:26

His experience really helped, pull a lot of things together.

James: 00:03:29

He had, you know, great connections within the industry, um, for cinematography, for sound.

James: 00:03:37

for cast.

James: 00:03:38

Again, just, you know, we had an incredible cast.

James: 00:03:40

And one thing that helped us a lot too, about a year before we started filming, my wife Shannon, went down to the, uh, Christian Worldview Film Festival down in Georgia, and uh, she made a connection with a organization called Set Shepherds.

James: 00:03:59

I think they've been a, uh, maybe one of your other podcast guests.

James: 00:04:03

you know, they were just incredible.

James: 00:04:05

Shannon came back from the film festival and she said, we've gotta have these folks on the movie there that's just non-negotiable.

James: 00:04:12

And, you know, looking, looking at their stuff and from what she told me, I totally agreed.

James: 00:04:16

You know, they, They put together a prayer team that we had people praying before the movie, during the movie continuing to pray.

James: 00:04:26

we had somebody praying on set the entire time we were filming.

James: 00:04:29

They worked with, local churches and businesses, to provide all the meals through the production.

James: 00:04:36

Um, so that was, you know, that was a huge cost savings there.

James: 00:04:41

That, helped to stretch our budget.

James: 00:04:44

so between them, and like I said, George just had, you know, so many connections.

James: 00:04:48

And George has done this before.

James: 00:04:49

This wasn't as first rodeo.

James: 00:04:51

you know, and in the meantime, we filmed in this area where I live, so I know the area.

James: 00:04:57

I knew.

James: 00:04:58

You know, I would suggest locations, I think we paid for two of our locations.

James: 00:05:04

Um, everybody else was, you know, homes of folks.

James: 00:05:06

We knew that opened those areas to us.

James: 00:05:08

there's a scene in the movie where, um, where they wind up in Christmas, present and Solomon pops into this house and says, what a dump.

James: 00:05:17

Um, that's my house.

James: 00:05:19

Um, funny story, um, our kitchen was a little banged up at the time, which kinda worked within the context of that scene, but the lady who did our makeup, felt so sorry for my wife that, Before production, wrapped, she, uh, slipped my wife a, gift card to men Menards, and said, make your husband redo this kitchen.

James: 00:05:38

So after filming wrap that next summer, I repainted all the cabinets and the walls and everything.

Matt: 00:05:44

So how many, days of production, uh, were you guys in?

James: 00:05:48

we filmed it.

James: 00:05:49

In 12 days, it was 17 days total production, which is for a feature length musical, is an insane schedule.

James: 00:06:00

we had three days of rehearsal, 12 days of filming, and Sundays off.

James: 00:06:05

Um, again, a lot of credit to the, the cast and the crew.

James: 00:06:09

You know, we had some 12 hour days in there.

James: 00:06:12

They hung with it.

James: 00:06:14

Um.

James: 00:06:15

A lot of, God working things out.

James: 00:06:17

We had two days of outdoor shooting, which in Indiana in February, um, is always, very questionable.

James: 00:06:26

Uh, one night we were filming outside, it was actually 60 degrees that night, which is a minor miracle in itself.

James: 00:06:34

and then as we were filming.

James: 00:06:37

looking at my weather app and it says there's rain moving in, which, uh, wasn't appropriate for that scene.

James: 00:06:42

And, um.

James: 00:06:44

So it was like, well, you know, let's talking to George about, you know, let's get stuff under the shelter and whatever.

James: 00:06:50

George was very much in the zone at that point and just, you know, wanting to get every scene perfect and whatever.

James: 00:06:56

And one of our, uh, our prayer partner who was on set was like, well I'm gonna pray the rain away.

James: 00:07:02

And I'm like.

James: 00:07:04

Okay.

James: 00:07:04

Um, but let's still get stuff under shelter.

James: 00:07:07

Well, a little later on, the assistant, director, Carrie Johnson, George's wife, looks at me and says, how soon is the rain supposed to get here?

James: 00:07:14

And I look at my app and it says, rain.

James: 00:07:17

And it wasn't raining.

James: 00:07:19

Um, and it was a weird sensation to look around 'cause, um.

James: 00:07:26

About a mile north of us got drenched.

James: 00:07:28

but it totally missed us and we were able to, film uninterrupted.

Matt: 00:07:34

I mean, that's so weird.

Matt: 00:07:35

I almost get chills.

Matt: 00:07:37

I experienced that exact same thing in Guatemala City in 2016 where the rain is literally like circling around every part of the city.

Matt: 00:07:46

Is being drenched and we have this God-given

Matt: 00:07:51

break right above us, and as soon as you say, cut the rains, come down.

Matt: 00:07:56

That's, uh, that's crazy.

Matt: 00:07:57

It happens.

James: 00:07:58

Yeah.

Matt: 00:07:59

So, okay.

Matt: 00:07:59

If you 12 days of shooting to get a feature film, you're right.

Matt: 00:08:02

That's miraculous in and of itself.

Matt: 00:08:05

so in terms of crew, you know, I live in Georgia, so we are blessed to have access to a lot of, crew around here.

Matt: 00:08:11

it's more difficult.

Matt: 00:08:12

It sounds like, like you said, George had connection, sounds like he was serving the role as line producer as much as director, but, um, I'm assuming you, this is not a union shoot, right?

Matt: 00:08:21

You didn't have a union crew.

James: 00:08:23

no.

James: 00:08:23

We had, uh.

James: 00:08:25

Folks come up from, Texas and Georgia, and I think one was from Florida.

James: 00:08:32

again, just blessed to have some connections, through my, I work for a, a local university.

James: 00:08:38

The university, even though they're not a Christian college, was very supportive of the project and provided housing, um, for some of those crew members through the production.

James: 00:08:48

at no cost.

Matt: 00:08:49

Okay.

Matt: 00:08:49

That's huge right there.

Matt: 00:08:50

Let's, let's not skim over that because a lot of people don't realize that if you have to bring in crew, um, especially if you're in a, a state where, You have to use union crew, even if you're not a union shoot, you still have to kind of abide by their rules a lot of times if you want to get that kind of a quality skill and part of that is if they live more than 60 miles from where you're shooting, you have to house them.

Matt: 00:09:13

And that can be an enormous expense.

Matt: 00:09:15

If you have a crew of 30, 40, 50, that's, that's a couple hundred grand over a month.

James: 00:09:20

Yeah.

James: 00:09:20

and again, that was another reason that we condensed the shoot.

James: 00:09:25

You know, it was about two and a half weeks total.

James: 00:09:26

But, we did have, you know, some folks that our church provided housing for, for that.

James: 00:09:32

So we did.

James: 00:09:32

yeah, we were very blessed in that area as well to uh, be able to, to do that.

James: 00:09:38

And, you know, even with like the housing here at the university, It was nice enough that, you know, people felt taken care of that and Shannon and I really wanted to do that as well too, as you know, we appreciated, um, the effort everybody put in.

Matt: 00:09:54

So your role obviously was executive producer.

Matt: 00:09:57

this whole thing is your baby.

Matt: 00:09:59

so what was it like on set in terms of your ability just to kind of sit back and let George do his magic?

Matt: 00:10:05

What was that collaboration like?

Matt: 00:10:07

I.

James: 00:10:08

well, again, George was the expert at this, so I deferred on that, you know, there were times and, and that was something again, I kinda learned initially about, how and when that, communication, you know, if I had a, question about something, you know.

James: 00:10:22

Learning about how to do that, but that worked out pretty well.

James: 00:10:25

Again, yes, this was, you know, my original play, but again, it's not about me.

James: 00:10:31

Um, that's the message of the film and, and something I took to heart.

James: 00:10:35

seeing the final product.

James: 00:10:37

You know, I talked, I think in the last episode about writing the songs.

James: 00:10:41

Robert Amaya, who plays Christmas present, kinda came in and said, Hey, I think I can make these a little better.

James: 00:10:47

And some of these songs, you know, had been rattling around my head and I was a little hesitant, but I'm like, you know, okay.

James: 00:10:53

He made 'em so much better.

James: 00:10:55

Um, Robert's a very gifted songwriter in addition to being, you know, just a great actor.

James: 00:11:01

And was also just a wonderful encouragement on set.

James: 00:11:04

But yeah, you know, to say it's my baby again.

James: 00:11:06

It's, what God wants to do with it.

James: 00:11:08

And, you know, I don't want to take away from that if my ego's getting in the way.

James: 00:11:14

And so, this was my first go around everybody else here had experience doing this.

James: 00:11:20

Um, so, you know, I, deferred a lot, to them because, you know, they knew what they were doing.

James: 00:11:25

Now if I felt like I had a suggestion that, had some merit, you know, when there was a break I'd talk to George and say, Hey, you know, maybe we consider this, or What do you think about this?

Matt: 00:11:35

Yeah, I think that humble attitude, this is another great lesson for any, uh, aspiring filmmakers in terms of truly collaborating creatively, is you have to have that, Humble, put your ego aside in order to be successful because you're bringing in a lot of different filmmakers and everybody on set is an expert at what they do.

Matt: 00:11:56

And when you're able to, have someone come and say, look, I've got a way to improve your idea.

Matt: 00:12:01

Well.

Matt: 00:12:01

the enemy is going to spark something inside you that says, no, this is mine.

Matt: 00:12:05

This is my vision.

Matt: 00:12:07

This is my baby.

Matt: 00:12:08

As, we talked about earlier, and I think that the ability to say, no, this is God's baby, it's his, and to be able to allow these other creatives to, bring what they do to make your baby better.

Matt: 00:12:20

If you have that attitude, You'll end up with a product that far exceeds the vision that you had in your head, and I think that's what happened for you, right?

James: 00:12:27

Yeah, absolutely.

James: 00:12:28

There's one scene in particular, and this wasn't, during filming, it was more before, but there was one scene in the original play, which, I just didn't feel like worked very well.

James: 00:12:38

I thought it was a little too, uh, melodramatic.

James: 00:12:42

Um, it was in Christmas future.

James: 00:12:44

And so, In the rewrite of, the transformation of played to movie, George had suggested an alternative to that, and I wasn't too crazy about that either.

James: 00:12:55

And so we kind of, you know, me and him and Carrie sat down and just started bouncing ideas about, you know, what, what can we do to this to make it work?

James: 00:13:04

And the final product, I mean, I wrote part of it, George wrote part of it.

James: 00:13:12

It's one of the most powerful scenes in the film.

James: 00:13:15

Um, James Burgess, who was our cinematographer, said it's like, just one of the favorite things he's ever filmed, just because it, is so emotionally gripping.

James: 00:13:23

Um, it's a scene where, Christmas future happens and Solomon finds his wife praying in an abandoned church and, um, just their interaction there and everything.

James: 00:13:34

So yeah, just that working together.

James: 00:13:38

Um, the end product was so much better.

James: 00:13:41

Mm-hmm.

Matt: 00:13:42

So I would imagine you've, sat in on, lots of screenings of the film and different theaters and churches and things like that.

Matt: 00:13:49

Do you find.

Matt: 00:13:50

That, it doesn't get old to watch your movie because you're actually there uh, you're less experiencing your movie and you're more experiencing the audience experiencing your movie.

Matt: 00:14:01

that's a magical feeling.

Matt: 00:14:03

What, what's that been like for

James: 00:14:04

Absolutely.

James: 00:14:05

I mean we, uh, just a, a couple weeks ago I was up at the, uh, purpose Film and Media Festival down in, um, Southern Indiana and sitting there and just, you know, hearing people laugh at the moments that are funny and, having people afterwards tell me again how much, they were touched by it.

James: 00:14:22

'cause it's, there's lot of emotion in the movie.

James: 00:14:25

There are moments that will have you laughing.

James: 00:14:27

There are moments that will.

James: 00:14:28

Bring you to tears.

James: 00:14:30

Uh, there are some moments that have a little bit of both.

James: 00:14:33

And, um, yeah, just being able to experience that reaction.

James: 00:14:38

it's a lot fun.

Matt: 00:14:40

you gotten to the point where like you can anticipate a gasp will be or, or where a laugh will be and you know, how, how well the movie's gonna be received based on the level of a laugh early on or something like that?

James: 00:14:52

You know.

James: 00:14:52

It's a little different because I think there's so many different elements to the movie.

James: 00:14:56

I think it hits different audiences differently.

Matt: 00:14:59

Hmm.

James: 00:15:00

one clip that they played at during the awards ceremony at the film festival I was at, and it's, it's meant to be funny, but it's.

James: 00:15:08

People don't always laugh at it, but just playing that clip, people were laughing at it, the film festival.

James: 00:15:13

so, you know, again, there's a lot of different, um, emotion and honestly, you know, I still love the movie so much.

James: 00:15:21

I like to watch it Just even with the audience reaction around me, It still, you know, it still touches me and I still like to see it even though I've, you know, seen the completed one, like 40 something times now.

Matt: 00:15:33

Oh, at least I'm sure.

Matt: 00:15:35

So when, was it shot?

Matt: 00:15:36

It's a long journey, but I need to release it in 24.

Matt: 00:15:38

So when did you guys actually, shoot it?

James: 00:15:40

we shot it at the beginning of February of 2024.

James: 00:15:43

Um, and then.

Matt: 00:15:45

wow.

Matt: 00:15:45

Wait, you shot it in 24 and you released it in 24.

James: 00:15:48

We released it in December of 24.

James: 00:15:51

That was, um, you know, again, the distributor we worked with wanted the, and George did the editing so that, saved time and cost.

James: 00:16:01

But, um, the distributor wanted it by end of July to be able to start getting it on the platforms in time for Christmas.

James: 00:16:09

So,

Matt: 00:16:09

So George was able to do all the posts.

Matt: 00:16:11

You didn't have to take it somewhere else for post sound or take it somewhere else for color.

James: 00:16:16

George did the, video part of it, the color, the sound.

James: 00:16:19

We actually had a group of, um, one of the members of our crew was a student at, the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, which is nearby.

James: 00:16:28

They have a. Dolby Atmos Sound Studio setup.

James: 00:16:32

And so he recruited a team of, I think it was like 17 students who are all wanting to get in the film industry.

James: 00:16:42

and you know, we're looking for a project to, be able to show what they could do.

James: 00:16:48

And so they did all the sound work on it.

Matt: 00:16:50

That's amazing to be able to have that because a lot of people don't understand that post sound is, uh, something that even most great editors aren't gonna be great at, actually getting into post sound.

Matt: 00:17:01

'cause there's a lot that goes into, and it can make or break your film as well.

Matt: 00:17:06

So that's, that's great that you're able to do that.

Matt: 00:17:09

Well, we're coming up on the Christmas season now, and obviously what you have, I think is, great because you'll get this kind of, bump every Christmas as it becomes more and more popular every Christmas and part of people's kind of library and things like that.

Matt: 00:17:21

So what are the different ways I think people can kind of experience the movie outside of the platforms?

Matt: 00:17:26

I mean, I'm sure you're available to church screenings and things like that.

Matt: 00:17:30

It's a great event to have at your church during the Christmas season.

James: 00:17:33

Yeah, we are making, that available, uh, to churches.

James: 00:17:36

I've had a couple that, uh, you know, I'm talking with already about doing a church, but you know, obviously anybody.

James: 00:17:43

Uh, hearing about this if you want, kind of like the goal of the original play.

James: 00:17:47

If you want something that people are familiar with but has a strong gospel message, um, you know, a lot of fun and catchy music, reach out carol movie.com.

James: 00:17:58

Um, all we ask is a love offering be taken, for that, but we would gladly make that available to your church.

James: 00:18:04

It's obviously still on streaming platforms, like I said, DVD, um, I'm still trying to see what, I don't know for sure if it's gonna come through, but I'm talking with the, distributor who did our theatrical release end of last year about maybe trying to do a re-release.

James: 00:18:24

'cause I was kinda like, you know, small theaters may wanna show something.

James: 00:18:28

In their Christmas lineup besides the Polar Express or Elf.

James: 00:18:31

so we'll, see if that, goes anywhere.

James: 00:18:33

Uh, we're at least having those discussions.

James: 00:18:36

Um.

James: 00:18:36

we're doing an event in November, um, November 7th to, uh, there's a ministry we partnered with, they're called Agape Mobility Ethiopia.

James: 00:18:46

And they take, Wheelchairs that people don't use here in the US anymore, fix 'em up and ship 'em over to Ethiopia for people to use there because there's the, just a very big need for that.

James: 00:18:58

And so we're doing a showing, um, in November in Fort Wayne that's gonna benefit that ministry, as well.

Matt: 00:19:05

Well, that is awesome.

Matt: 00:19:07

as we kind of close out this episode, I always want to know what's the biggest lesson you learned through this process that, uh, you could share with our listeners

James: 00:19:16

yeah, I've been asked that a few times.

James: 00:19:18

I kind of joke that the biggest lesson I learned is, you know, you, you hear executive producer and you think you know Steven Spielberg, um, and no, an executive producer.

James: 00:19:29

You're just a very large ATM is what you are.

James: 00:19:32

Uh, beyond that, I know we talked earlier about, you know, marketing.

James: 00:19:37

if, I had it to do over again.

James: 00:19:39

We definitely would've allocated more budget for that.

James: 00:19:42

that was, kind of a hard lesson to learn, I guess, you know, again, you're kind of thinking that there's more that's gonna come with that.

James: 00:19:48

Um, you know, a marathon.

James: 00:19:50

Like I said before, it's not a sprint, as more people see the movie, um.

James: 00:19:56

they're loving it.

James: 00:19:57

You know, it's, it's gonna be, just kinda working a few people at the time and that's okay.

James: 00:20:02

'cause God's gonna bring it to the right people, to the people who need to hear it.

Matt: 00:20:07

Amen.

Matt: 00:20:08

Well, James Tew, this has been a, fantastic conversation.

Matt: 00:20:10

I really appreciate you taking some time.

Matt: 00:20:12

This, uh, Tell us where we can find the movie Carol and hope everybody listening, we will go check it out this Christmas season.

Matt: 00:20:20

Share with your family the DVD.

Matt: 00:20:22

Makes a great gift, so Keep that in mind.

James: 00:20:24

Yeah, absolutely.

James: 00:20:25

If you go to carroll movie.com, there's links there to all the different platforms where you can stream it, you can purchase A DVD.

James: 00:20:33

Um, there's also links to, Spotify and other streaming platforms if you wanna listen to the soundtrack as well.

Matt: 00:20:40

That's awesome.

Matt: 00:20:41

Well, man, thanks so much for, uh, joining us and, we hope to talk to you when you're, uh, working on your next project.

James: 00:20:46

sounds great.

James: 00:20:47

Thank