Indie Horror VFX: A Deep Dive with 'Kill Her' Director Robyn August

Get ready to dive into the world of indie film with our guest, Robyn August. Robyn is the director of the darkly comedic slasher film 'Kill Her', and in our conversation, he pulls back the curtain on the steps he took to bring this film to life. We explore his unconventional start in the industry, the inspiration he drew from Mark Duplass' SXSW keynote speech, and how he turned the tables on the classic slasher film setup. Robyn also shares his experiences in creating his first feature 'Party With Me' and the unexpected twists that took 'Kill Her' on its unique path.

Shining a spotlight on the technical side of filmmaking, Robyn delves into the importance of practical effects and how VFX can enhance a scene. He discusses some of the challenges he encountered, such as working with a real head for a scene involving a head crush, and how he had to adapt when things didn't go as planned. But beyond the challenges, Robyn also shares the joy that comes from being part of the creative process, from planning shots to seeing the final product. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding each department's role on a film set to work more collaboratively and successfully.

It's not all about the technicalities, though. Robyn shares his thoughts on the importance of enjoying the filmmaking process and viewing it as a privilege. He talks about how crucial it is to remember to have fun, despite the pressures of deadlines and the quest for perfection. We also get into the nitty-gritty of indie film distribution, the struggle of getting a small movie out there, and Robyn's future projects. So tune in, whether you're an aspiring filmmaker or an indie film enthusiast, for some valuable insights and a whole lot of passion for the art of filmmaking.

KillHer Official Trailer: https://youtu.be/67PfI_vyFt0?si=WkFvvfk0NebOMu8K

Robyn August's website: http://robynaugust.com/

Transcript

Paul DeNigris (00:00.95)
Today with me is Robyn August, the director of a project that we recently got to work on called Kill Her. It's kind of an absurdist, darkly comic, throwback, slasher movie. It's a ton of fun and we had a blast working on it. Welcome to the podcast, Robyn.

Robyn (00:49.188)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Paul DeNigris (00:51.146)
Right on. Robyn, tell the audience a little bit about yourself and kind of, you know, what your career has been about, how you end up in this crazy, crazy business that we call the movies.

Robyn (01:03.284)
Yeah, really, seriously. I don't know. I mean, it's definitely something that just kind of came naturally to me. This kind of always been something I just can really fight against, you know, like as much as I probably would. It'd be smarter to have like a regular type job. And I'm sure, you know, and growing up in my house, I was probably like the only crazy person that had was in the clouds. And so I felt like an outcast. But I kind of just, you know, I just started.

I really started with drawing. I drew a lot. I wanted to work for like an animation studio or like Disney of a lot of stories of people I know that have had the same trajectory. Once I started to find out exactly what it entailed, I was like, I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna draw the same photo a million times. So I just stole my dad's camera that he had and I just started making movies with my friends and it just kind of became natural, you know? I don't even know exactly the exact.

date or time that I really knew that this is what I wanted it to do. But, you know, I'm a 90s kid. I grew up with like all that, all the awesome movies and stuff and drive, drive ins and all that stuff. So yeah.

Paul DeNigris (02:15.214)
Right on, right on. So Kill Her, is this your first feature? Remind me.

Robyn (02:20.884)
No, no, this is my second, my first feature. I kind of just really grassroots like did it all on my own, put on a credit card and I listened to, I wanted to make a movie for a long time, but I was doing a lot of music videos, a lot of short films and it just kind of seemed out of my grasp until I had like money like most people imagine. And then I watched a, which I recommend any.

filmmaker that's thinking about making a feature film to watch is South by Southwest keynote speech by Duplass, Mark Duplass. And he just talked about like, what are your excuses? Like there are none, cameras are cheap, find your friends, find the locations you have and kind of work backwards and just write the story around what you already have. And so that's what I did. So it's not necessarily the first movie I'd wanted to make.

more dialogue driven, but it was a movie that I could make. And so I just decided just to do it, just to get my feet wet and just go for it. And it turned out pretty good. It's like a, you know, it's a dark comedy, but it's not genre. It's more just, you know, kind of a slice of life.

Paul DeNigris (03:35.994)
And what's the title on that one?

Robyn (03:37.661)
It's called Party With Me. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (03:40.198)
Right on. Why don't you give us a quick synopsis, sort of the 30 second elevator pitch of Kill Her.

Robyn (03:50.076)
Oh man, it's a absurdist throwback to slasher movies in the 80s, campy, but it has a lot of fun twists. And yeah, it's just, it's a little bit of a wink to the audience of people that appreciate that time and era, like the Friday the 13th and stuff like that where horror movies weren't taking themselves so seriously.

They weren't so deep. I love those films too. The Babadooks and the Hereditarys. I love those films, but it's been a while since there's been, it's starting to happen now a little bit, but it's been a while since people just made horror movies that were just stupid fun. Like just good, fun rides and nothing too deep. So.

Paul DeNigris (04:42.346)
Yeah, that is definitely a good description of this one. It is a lot of fun. Yeah. I loved that it, you know, had the classic setup of a bunch of girls in the woods being potentially threatened by a killer that may or may not be there. And then lots of red herrings and lots of really cool twists that I will not spoil. But, you know, it does not go the way you think it's going to go. And, you know, the.

Robyn (04:46.908)
Yeah, yeah, it's just fun. It's just fun. Yeah.

Robyn (05:04.793)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (05:13.334)
There isn't the cliched final girl, that sort of thing, because the would-be victim sort of turned everything on its head. It's a blast. It's a lot of fun.

Robyn (05:25.516)
Yeah, and that was a tough part going into it too, because even when we were talking about the script before making it, I started falling into the same trope ideas of like, this is what has to happen. And then I went, wait a minute, like the way that Tom wrote it, it's testament to Tom Keys, who is a writer, is that I think he wanted to kind of flip a little bit on his head, so I was like, oh, that is actually, and so once I eased into that, I was like, okay, this is cool, because it's not exactly what, you think you expect something, but you don't get what you actually think you're getting.

So that was cool, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (05:57.391)
Yeah. For me, you know, working on the visual effects, I kind of got of I got a sense of the story, but not a ton of it. It wasn't until I saw it at the screening in Hollywood where it all sort of came together for me and I went, all right, this is this is a lot more fun than I expected it to be. And it's and there's a lot of really, really great cutting humor. Pardon the pardon the pun. But but it's like the humor is is.

Robyn (06:22.636)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (06:24.862)
It's sharp and intelligent and it's, yeah, it's, it's like you said, paying homage to those older style horror movies, but doing something fresh with it. And it's a blast. So how did that project come about? Like, you know, where did the, how did you connect with Tom? How did you connect with Mark Stolerov, Mark?

Robyn (06:26.394)
Yeah.

Robyn (06:39.416)
Yeah, that's awesome to hear. Thank you.

Paul DeNigris (06:51.875)
uh, is a producer friend of mine who actually brought me onto the project. Like how did the, how did that team come together? How did the project come together?

Robyn (06:56.96)
Yeah, love Mark. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. Like it's, it's why I talked to a lot of people about like, you know, my, my thoughts on especially this business, but most of life, but it's like 33% drive, 33% talent, 33% luck, and probably the extra little percentage goes to luck. And I think it was just kind of a lucky thing that, you know, all fell into place because of what.

who I made contacts with and what I did that led to this. But basically I met Ron Roger, who's one of the producers and he's a small part in the film. He's kind of a known actor. He's got a lot of pretty big IMDB credits. I randomly met him in Mexico at a bar and I just recognized him. And I thought he was someone I knew like one of my parents' friends because they have a house out there. And he's like, no, I don't know your...

folks and I was like, I know you though. And ended up being, because I saw him in like Stranger Things and a couple other shows, he was on Power Rangers. So we just became friends and hung out in Mexico and then I had this small little project. It's a feature that I'm trying to get made that I made like a proof of concept for a film for. Then I just thought he was right for one of the roles and he said yes. So we worked on that project. He saw what I did with that project and he just became.

kind of a fan of mine and said, I like what you're doing. I believe in you. And so he randomly met these new producers that just moved to LA that were looking to make films. And he said, I have a director that I think is great. I got a friend, Tom, his friend, Tom, he's known for a while as a writer. Can we just meet and talk? And we just threw out some ideas and Tom already had a ready script ready to go. And they said, we like this. It's a horror movie. It's good genre. Let's do it.

And so I kind of just fell into this job. I didn't even know if I was going to get it, honestly. In fact, I was told by the producers afterwards that they were thinking about maybe hiring someone else because they didn't think I had enough experience at first. But the feature film that I did, I think, really showed them that I could do a feature, even though it wasn't genre. I had some short films that were genre. So I think they saw the short films and knew that I could do the genre. And that's what I was good at.

Robyn (09:18.648)
but I also could complete a feature film. So it all kind of just worked out that way. But I don't think I would have got the job if I didn't do the first feature, which is boggles my mind. It just reminds me to tell people like, just make a feature. It doesn't matter if it's exactly what you want it to make, but it will be a calling card to show other people that you could do it. So, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (09:27.205)
Hm.

Paul DeNigris (09:38.846)
Yeah, that's great advice. So how did VFX get used in Killer? I mean, it's pretty obvious. It's a horror movie. We're gonna hit all those sort of VFX cliches, if you will, right? Blood, guns, all of that. So just kind of talk through some of the VFX that were necessary to help you tell the story.

Robyn (09:41.102)
Yeah.

Robyn (09:52.44)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Robyn (10:01.164)
Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm a huge fan of practical effects. I love practicals, but I love the adding, to me, VFX are so cool in the things you can't do in camera or adding to practicals to just, you know, it's like the icing on the cake, you know? Like if I had my way, I would do all practicals and then add VFX to that, and I think it just comes across just more real and authentic.

But on a low budget horror movie, you can't do much of that. We did as much as we could. So VFX really kind of saved a lot of the scenes that I wanted to make bigger or do certain things with. And so, and with that whole thing, I've been doing my own VFX, just learning on my own, like After Effects and stuff, out of necessity, working on music videos and stuff. And I love VFX, I love...

just learning more about it. I'm definitely not like, talk to your professional, but I aspire to learn as much as I can. But yeah, with this film, I knew going in, I can only do so much in camera, and then I had to do more in post, so.

Paul DeNigris (11:18.51)
Gotcha. Well, no, it definitely does. What factored into, because as you said, you've done some VFX on your own, and I've seen some of your stuff, I've seen some of your work, and some more recent project that we'll talk about later, you obviously know what you're doing. What prompted you and your team to bring outside help onto Killer?

Robyn (11:18.768)
I don't know if that answers your question.

Robyn (11:43.644)
Oh, I mean, it's just a lot of work. So I knew that there was gonna be, as far as the budget went, I knew that there was gonna be certain scenes I really wanted to do some cool VFX on that I knew that we probably couldn't afford. So I basically just said, I'm gonna do as much as I can for those scenes, even though I would rather have a Foxtrot, or whatever, another account that has people.

working on it that are really good at this stuff instead of me, because it's just more extra work that I'm not even getting paid for. So I just want to make it the best I can as the director. But so I knew I had to do that. And then there were certain things I just didn't want to have to do. It's just a lot of work. And I just didn't, I was kind of running out of steam at that point. I was like, I'll work on these big things that I have to have that we probably can't afford. And then all the other stuff, can we please get some help on this? And that's when we,

Mark introduced us to you. So that was like a huge help because There's so many other things I had I was working on as well besides Besides finishing the film just trying to work other gigs to pay the bills, you know, it's like I can't it's too much. So Yeah, I'm grateful for that. We were able to have some budget in the in post to be able to get you guys on so

Paul DeNigris (13:05.838)
Yeah, right on. Like I said, it was great working on the project with you, especially because you having some visual effects experience, you communicated really, really well with us in terms of what you wanted. And I felt like any of the more complex stuff that you asked us to do, you had already planned for. You had already.

shot things in a certain way. Can you talk about that? Some of the some of the prep that you did, because like one of the gags that we did, but again, without giving things away, there's a character whose head gets crushed by a by an SUV. That was kind of probably the biggest shot that we did for you was the was the head, the two or three shots involving the head crush. Can you talk about sort of how that was how that was planned out and how you shot that?

Robyn (13:44.408)
Yeah.

Robyn (13:55.98)
Yeah, I mean, I because I have some experience, especially on music videos of pulling off effects, sometimes, and I'm sure it's with everyone, you think you're doing it the right way and you realize in post like, oh, I should have done it this way. And but luckily, if you keep the camera rolling, sometimes you can catch things you need that you can use. And I've done this many times where I was like, I kept it rolling in this shot. I can use that.

Especially when you like miss coverage, like I didn't shoot this way. Oh no, you'll find another scene you did shoot that way and go, well, I'm gonna use that now. With the head, the whole plan was to get a, you know, cause it's campy. I like it when you kind of show that it's kind of fake. To me, I think that's fun. Cause I'm a huge Fangoria fan. Growing up as a kid, I just, I don't need it to look too real. I just want it to be like.

Paul DeNigris (14:31.606)
Hehehehehe

Robyn (14:54.54)
a shouting moment in the theater, like that was awesome. Like I have more appreciation, not just for the gore in the movie, but like what it took for someone to pull that off in camera, I think is fascinating and fun to me. So we had our, one of our producers, who's also our first AD, he had a friend that worked at a place they do like actual like,

it's for like medical reasons. They actually create like real head. It's not like a VFX for films. It's like an actual real head with the way that the head would, the muscles and blood would be and all that. I forgot what exactly it's called, but he had access to, to getting two heads. And so I was like, all right, well, let's crush a real head. So I prepped it to have the actress there and then set it up like, you know, like we normally do like, uh, you know, not moving the camera.

in a certain way, get her out of the scene, put the head there, and then I was just gonna post add the body or whatever. Problem was, is that the head wasn't exactly looked like her at all, really. The hair wasn't even the same blonde color. And we were rushing that day, because it was actually, I talk about this a lot, but on the film, that was the craziest day. We shot 52 setups in one day. And it was all the stunts.

Paul DeNigris (16:17.191)
Oh. Damn.

Robyn (16:19.596)
Yeah, it was the blood effects, the stunts. We had SETI Cam that day, it was like the only day we had SETI Cam. It was crazy and we were running out of light and we had to get this last shot before the sun went down. And so we were rushing and we put the head there, backed up the car. I did the whole like green screen behind her head. We backed up the car to go, I was like, this is, we only got one shot. It's gonna crush the head, right? Oh, we had one more. We were like, we have two shots.

Um, we didn't think about the fact that, uh, we were on a softer ground. So when the car ran over the head, it just pushed the head into the ground and didn't crash the head. And so, yeah, it was, uh, it was a bummer. And I was like, well, I'm going to probably have to VFX a lot of that. Uh, the one good thing we got out of it though, that it did spray, spray blood out the head.

that I was able to be able to use in the VFX, but the head itself, I think we just took it completely out. It just didn't work. So, except for that one shot, the one that you did on the other angle, we had two shots going at the same time. We had a profile shot wide, so that one we could use the head, because it was a little too far away that you couldn't tell. So it still was worth it. It's just the one straight on the head was just not gonna work. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (17:26.208)
Right.

Paul DeNigris (17:43.422)
Right, right. And we ended up, yeah, on that shot, because you're mostly seeing the top of the actor's head. We were able to, you know, stick her in there. Yeah, we added the body in from your, I guess what you would consider B-roll. Like you were rolling, and I don't think you necessarily intended to ever use that angle because you were favoring the straight on one.

Robyn (17:50.616)
Yeah.

Robyn (17:55.224)
Yeah, you added the body and that was just like.

Paul DeNigris (18:12.418)
But you had this angle of her laying there in position. And we were able to.

Robyn (18:12.622)
Yeah.

Robyn (18:17.212)
I was planning on using that angle as a cutaway, as like a possible cutaway if I needed to, and also when she reverses the car, I was like, well, it'd be kind of better to, you know, like, and a lot of people, you know, when I did the VFX of her straight forward and replaced her head, I just wanted for like a split second, you know, and I liked how a lot of people in the screening were like, I didn't think you were gonna show it. And I was like, yeah, like they're stoked about that.

Paul DeNigris (18:24.684)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (18:39.967)
Yeah.

Robyn (18:46.452)
So, but yeah, putting you guys put in the body in there was like, cause that was when I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. Like putting the button, the other angle, getting her real body in there, but you guys pulled it off. It was awesome. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (18:47.021)
Yeah, yes.

Paul DeNigris (18:58.99)
Thanks. Yeah. So yeah, it ended up being a bunch of different pieces because we had the truck and the practical head and her and you had and the light changed over time. So there was a bunch of color matching to get everything to sort of, you know, fit in the right, the right color temperature and all of that and then a lot of little additional elements and a bunch of warping on her body. So as the truck hit her, like it kind of

Robyn (19:10.38)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (19:27.406)
pushed her into the ground and sort of, you know, mashed her and changed, like sort of twisted her a little bit. And then as the head kind of splatters, and then when the truck backs up, we had to sort of do the same thing. So, so you could definitely feel like that, that static body was being kind of moved around by the, by the vehicle as it went over. Yeah, it was a, it was a fun challenge. Yeah.

Robyn (19:46.752)
Yeah, that was a tough part. That was the toughest part with the shot that I did looking forward with the head was like trying to figure out how the body, like you said, how would the body would warp to a tire. Cause even though it's for a split second, if it's just, if it doesn't have that feeling, it feels, you know, you can still look at it and know it's a V effect, but it's cool. But if you don't do it to the way that it feels more natural, it'll just be.

Paul DeNigris (19:58.156)
Yeah.

Robyn (20:12.804)
kind of jarring, like that was dumb, like a birdemic or something.

Paul DeNigris (20:15.018)
Yeah. Yeah, you have to feel like the vehicle transferred some of its momentum into the into the body and you know, so yeah, and those are the kinds of shots I like where it's, it's not super obvious how we have to tackle it. It's you, as a director say, this is what I want. Here's what I shot for you. And you shot all of these pieces and handed them over. Now make it

Robyn (20:21.844)
Exactly. Yeah, the energy was transferred.

Paul DeNigris (20:44.406)
Now make it awesome. You know, like that's where I thrive. Is things like that where you have a vision as a director and it's up to me to meet the level that you set everywhere else in the movie and achieve something cool and not throw your viewers out of the film. You know? Yeah, that's all the fun.

Robyn (20:45.858)
Yeah.

Robyn (21:03.564)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I agree. I'm the same way too. I love a challenge, especially when it's, you know, that's why it makes horror movies so fun. It's like, it could be challenging, but it's just fun. It's just, it's, we're make believe killing people. It's awesome.

Paul DeNigris (21:23.847)
Yeah, running around in the woods with friends playing Make Believe Killer.

Robyn (21:27.188)
Yeah, yeah. It's just, I mean, we had to remind ourselves, speaking of that moment of the day that we had to do 52 setups, like we had to run from one set to another. And I was with my DP, Isaac Park, and that was the craziest day we've ever had in probably our lives. And we're running with gear. And he just looks over at me and he just says, this is the hardest I've ever worked in my life. We're panting. And I was like, I know, man. And I'm thinking.

As soon as he says that, he's like, he hates me for getting him this gig, you know? But then he just turns back to me, he's like, but this is the funnest I've ever, I love this. And I was like, I do too, it's like a weird, you know, it's like, it's hard, it's a struggle, it's blood, sweat and tears and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, like, this is our job. We're running in the woods playing Make Believe with knives and killers and it's like.

Paul DeNigris (22:09.737)
Hehehehehehe

Robyn (22:24.452)
Did we ever grow up? This is amazing. It's, I don't know. It's a cool feeling to, when you have that on a set. I think the last two films I've had, with all the rough times, there's always been a moment where you kind of remind yourself, and went, this, what I'm doing is awesome. I get to do this. I'm not sitting in a cubicle all day long. Even when you're editing, you are, but you're creating something. It's something, I don't know. It's a...

Paul DeNigris (22:45.111)
Yeah.

Robyn (22:53.824)
It's an amazing industry in that sense. It's like it is a job and there's a lot of work, but it's just something so fulfilling about it because you're collaborating with so many different artists and people from pre to post to the actual production. It's just a cool miracle making a movie. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (23:16.823)
Absolutely. That's a great way to put it. It's a cool miracle. Yeah, it's a this we do work hard, but it is an absolute privilege and, and always fun to, to work in this industry, you know, like, ultimately, when client deadlines loom and things aren't going well, and you've got a shot you can't solve, it's like, it's helpful to remember, like

We're not digging ditches for a living. We're playing make believe we're pushing pixels around and, uh, and we're privileged to be able to, you know, make a living at it. So, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's great.

Robyn (23:42.754)
Yeah.

Robyn (23:49.44)
Yeah. And it can feel like that. Like I know a lot of people that work in like post houses, like my ex wife and everything. And she had some of the stuff that she'd have to deal with. I'm like, it's like, cause there's so many deadlines that have, especially with like TV. It's like a has to come out where it's like, it, you're a doctor. It's like, you're on call. It's like, but we're, it's movies. Like we shouldn't be killing each other. It's not saving lives. I mean, you could say metaphorically, maybe it saves some people's lives.

Paul DeNigris (24:14.722)
Hehehehe.

Robyn (24:18.192)
they'll say that, but you're not like doing heart surgery. And sometimes we treat it that way where it's like, I think people should still enjoy their life and not kill themselves over this stuff, but you know, it is what it is.

Paul DeNigris (24:21.172)
Right.

Paul DeNigris (24:30.11)
Yep. Yeah. When I was teaching, I always used to say to my students on set, if we're not having fun, we're doing it wrong.

Robyn (24:36.736)
Yeah, yeah. Well, funny enough, that's what I remember when we first showed up to the camp before we were about to film and we all sat in a circle and everybody kind of introduced themselves, even though because we talked to each other mostly on zoom because during the pandemic still. And everyone went around and they talked about what they wanted to get out of things and a lot of it felt very like I want to do a good job and we're going to make a good movie we're going to come together and all this stuff.

Paul DeNigris (24:50.971)
Mm-hmm.

Robyn (25:05.24)
but nobody was talking about the fun element of it. So when it got to me at the end as the director, I was like, I just want to remind people, before we go into this, know all those stuff, the rules and the safety rules and all this stuff, and we all gotta grab things if we know it's a small budget thing. All that stuff's great and we need to know that, but at the same time, never forget what we are doing is we are kids running in the woods making a movie. Please have fun.

Because if you don't have fun, I'm not gonna have fun. You know? So, and everybody clapped. Everybody loved that. Because it's like, almost like they forgot about that part of it. It became such a job and it's so intense. Like we got to, we only have 12 days. It's like, but we can still have fun. I don't wanna do this unless we're having fun. You know, I'd rather, I could do another job that pays more money if I, you know, I'm doing this because it's fun. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (25:42.274)
Ha ha ha.

Paul DeNigris (26:00.43)
Absolutely. Amen. So what were some other challenges other than this head crush, what were some other challenges on Killer that VFX helped with?

Robyn (26:11.8)
I mean, definitely the, you know, the gun, muzzle flares and stuff like that. Like certain masking and things like that. It's like, I could do that stuff, but it just takes time. And so it was helpful for you guys to like help with a lot of the, you know, cause there's always little mistakes like, oh, that thing was in the shot or, you know, this was different and we didn't have time. So you kind of need to.

do your best. Some things you have to let slide, you know, that's the hardest part as a director that I get a lot because I'm kind of a perfectionist. So I'll, I'll see something. And most people are like, you know, no one's going to notice that. I'm like, yeah, but the one guy is that's like me. And then I'm going to look like an idiot to that one guy. It's like, so, uh, yeah, it's, I mean, I had, I had my first movie. I had a shot where I, I put the

Paul DeNigris (26:53.366)
Hehehehe

Robyn (27:06.848)
It was two different takes of the same scene, two different angles, and he had a Starbucks coffee cup, and it was just, in one take, it's like on the other side of the towel, and then it's on the other side, and it just drove me crazy, and everyone was like, let it go. No one cares, no one's gonna see that. I'm like, but I see it. I see it. Yeah, you kinda, you need to, there's a saying that I love, it's a,

Paul DeNigris (27:28.873)
Hehehehehehe

Robyn (27:36.948)
Art is never finished, it's just abandoned. So you kinda just need to let it go, you know? Yeah. And find what is more important, right? Like what people really will notice. And that's why I love working with people like you, like VFX artists or other editors, like my editor, Chris Grell, who worked on the film, because you guys have, you see so many things and you work on so many stuff that you can kind of bring me back down to earth and say, hey man, no one's gonna see that.

Paul DeNigris (27:40.47)
Yep. You just have to let it go.

Robyn (28:06.216)
I know we see it, but trust me, I've done this for a long time. No one's going to see that. I'm like, okay, cool. As long as I have that, a little bit of that reassurance from other people that know what they're doing and they've done it a lot, it's, it's a good feeling to be like, okay, I'll let it go. So yeah. And you had, you had a couple of those with me, I think, uh, of the film. I was like, yeah, you're right. I should never mind.

Paul DeNigris (28:19.274)
Yeah. Right on.

I think so. I think so. Yeah.

Yeah, there does come a point sometimes in shots where we're, you know, we're, we're pushing that we're kicking that one pixel around. And it's like, all right, the audience is not going to see what you're seeing here.

Robyn (28:34.553)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, but I'm still like, I'm like the Jordan pill, you know, I'm like, oh, the little hidden thing nobody saw or cared about, little Easter eggs and yeah.

Paul DeNigris (28:44.686)
Nice. So were there things as you guys were developing the story and developing the plan to shoot the film in pre-production, were there things that your VFX experience changed or altered or maybe you said, hey, I know we can pull this off in VFX, so let's do it this way or let's change the scene so this happens because I have this really cool effects idea that I think we can execute.

Robyn (29:13.42)
Yeah, I mean, I definitely approached it, you know, based off of just, you know, my experience of what I know I could pull off. That being said, I, you know, I've never worked in like a major post effects house. I, I don't even think I've ever had, I think I had one music video where I had a supervisor to help or something that was doing posts that was actually there to help and knew what they were doing. So so that was, was interesting about it. It's like I

I did it the way that I knew that I could pull off, which made me think, well, if I can, then obviously someone that's like on your guys' level doing this forever could pull it off. But I also was like, I hope I'm doing it right compared to your workflow of how you guys work, right? Because it's different. I mean, it's probably certain things that are the same in a professional scale, like workflow and stuff, but it could be different places. So I...

I would have loved to have met you guys and talked to you before we shot the film to know what was best for what you needed. That would have been better, but I just did it the way that I thought I could pull it off. But I mean, at the same time, I've talked to some other people and that's definitely a good thing because of my experience because there's a lot of directors that have no experience and they shoot it completely wrong and then they go, just do it. And it's like,

huh, I can't, you didn't shoot it, you know. And I've even had that when I've worked on effects for other people where it's like, yeah, can you do this thing? And they sent to me and I'm like, I can't, because it's just the way that you, I need this and you don't have that. And so I tried to do my best to try to give you everything that you would need that I thought I could pull off possibly. But yeah, it would be much better to have like,

you know, pre pro with you guys before. And that's what I'm hoping for on more future films that we have enough money and resources and time to really like premeditate things. And so everybody knows what they're dealing with going in instead of like, hey, just, here you go, deal with it. You know, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (31:24.554)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. From my own experience, you know, so I made a feature years back and because I was primarily a VFX person, there were times on that set, as much as I hate the phrase, we'll fix it in post, there were times on that set where I said, no, we'll handle that in post. And my cinematographer...

Robyn (31:39.513)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (31:50.494)
He wasn't really aware of everything that we were capable of. And so he looked at me like, for real? And I'm like, no, trust me. And then when he saw the film at the end, he was like, wow, okay, I should have never questioned. Every time you said, we will handle that in post, you guys did that and then some. So having that preparation changed the way I directed certain scenes and also changed the way I acted as a producer, right? So there were times where it was like,

Robyn (32:06.458)
Mm-hmm.

Paul DeNigris (32:19.088)
blank, we need to fill it out with stuff, but there's no time, no money, and we have to film. All right, I'll deal with that later." And the DP was like, for real. What? And I'm like, no.

Robyn (32:28.108)
Yeah, I had actually that same experience, my older RDP that I worked with, Iwona, her name was Iwona, and she was really great, but she didn't know too much about post, and so when I, because she was mostly just a cinematographer, she's like in that world, and so she didn't really do too much of post production. So, you know, once I would tell her, direct her to shoot it a certain way, I just remember like it was a few times she would just look at me and just go, but why?

Paul DeNigris (32:59.342)
Thank you.

Robyn (32:59.54)
And I was like, because I'm trying and I can't explain everything and we have like a time limit. I'm like, just please just shoot it the way I asked. And she's like, OK, that's dumb. And then she would see the final product and she'd go, oh, I see. I see why you shot that way. OK, that was cool. So I'm the same situation where some people just don't understand why you're doing that because they don't understand. You know, I'm coming in it into it, not just as a director, but as an editor.

and VFX person, so I'm looking at it a different way than maybe someone that's just coming in as a director. I can foresee what I need and know, like you said, if I have to add that in post, it's like, well, it's probably easier if I shot it on a locked camera instead of moving it around. That's gonna be even harder to try to make that happen. I mean, you can, I'm sure. I mean, you guys have done some amazing stuff, but I feel like it's, whatever's gonna make it your life easier or whoever you're.

doing the post easier is probably the best way to shoot it. Right, so, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (33:59.234)
Right, right. Yeah, or if you know the camera's gonna be moving, take 30 seconds and throw some tape markers up on the wall so that you can track it and write down what lens used and things like that. And so like you're a really good example of somebody of kind of the type of indie filmmaker that I love working with because you know enough to know how little you.

Robyn (34:07.524)
Track it, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (34:27.614)
You know, if that makes sense, right? You, you know enough to go, okay, this is what I need to provide to my, my VFX team, and this is how I have to shoot it. And even if you haven't, we didn't have conversations about killer until after production had wrapped. Um, you know, you, you were coming at it from an educated perspective, right? You, you, you knew a little bit about the tools, a little bit about the techniques enough.

Robyn (34:28.716)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (34:55.478)
to fly without a VFX supervisor. The problem becomes when filmmakers haven't educated themselves enough in that area and they watch behind the scenes footage from Marvel or whatever and they say, oh, well, VFX can do all of that. So what I'm asking for shouldn't be all that difficult and they don't realize like, well, what you're not seeing is all of the work that the VFX supervisors.

Robyn (35:18.713)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (35:24.942)
on the marble set did and the, you know, the different plates they shot and the witness cameras that they scattered all over the green screen set so that they could see all these different angles so that they, you know, they could track when people are moving a certain way and all of this stuff. They're, they're missing all of the, uh, the, the little nuances of the process and all they see is, you know, Chris Pratt on a green screen, white Chris Pratt, you know, in front of, in front of some space scene, you know what I mean?

Robyn (35:33.039)
Yeah.

Robyn (35:49.325)
Yeah.

Robyn (35:52.617)
Yeah, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (35:53.65)
that it doesn't connect that, oh, there's a whole bunch of other stuff that gets us there. You know, and so you being somebody with a little bit of VFX experience, you like, you understood that and that was great.

Robyn (36:07.712)
Yeah, and I think that's, I always give that advice to any director that I've talked to. Cause I've talked to like a lot of young filmmakers that have had just, they heard me on a podcast or read an article and they were making their first film and so they would hit me up and try to ask me questions which I, you know, I'm always glad to try to help any future filmmaker give any advice that I have, that I've learned. And that's one of the things I always tell is say, it's like, you know,

I had to do this out of necessity to make my film. I couldn't ask for help, so I had to learn how to edit on my own. I had to, you know, everything, all the resources are out there for you. And to be the best director you can be is to know a little bit about everyone's job, from on set being a PA to doing your own wardrobe, you know, doing your own makeup, whatever you need to do, learn a little bit about that. You don't have to do that, it's too much. You wanna hire the correct people for that. But when you're on set, you will...

the experience you've had of knowing that stuff will make you a better director because you'll be able to work with those people better because they'll say, I need this amount of time. And you go, you know what, you're right. That's not how much time, I've done this before. I'll give you that time. If you don't know, you're gonna be one of those tyrant directors that's like, I need it in five minutes because you don't understand what you're asking. And so I always recommend that everyone...

wear many, many hats if they plan on being a director so that they can be a better director on set, working, collaborating with other people in departments and stuff from pre to post.

Paul DeNigris (37:45.618)
That's fantastic advice. I mean, two of the directors that I look up to as visual effects directors, right? James Cameron, Robert Rodriguez, two guys who are very hands-on, you know? They'll jump in there and do everything, you know?

Robyn (37:59.449)
Yeah.

Robyn (38:03.788)
Yeah, doesn't have Fincher as well. Like I saw.

Paul DeNigris (38:07.198)
Yes, Fincher also, because he comes from the music video world, the commercial world, he, you know, again, very, very used to being hands on. And that's what makes those directors, makes their films so immersive and so cohesive. You know, Avatar doesn't happen unless James Cameron knows a lot about all of the different processes that go into making an avatar.

Robyn (38:11.522)
Yeah.

Robyn (38:26.319)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (38:35.978)
You know, I'm not saying every filmmaker needs to, you know, dive to the bottom of the ocean to be able to make a movie about the Titanic. But it but it it's a it's a good model. If you if you want to use certain techniques in your film, learn about them, practice them, you know, you.

Robyn (38:36.237)
Yeah, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (38:57.698)
Directors are taught, you know, take acting classes, take screenwriting classes, learn about story, learn about color theory, maybe learn about lighting. Well, in this modern era, learning about VFX, learning about AI, learning about, you know, all of the different post-production tools, it's just, it's part of the gig now, you know, in order to be a true Renaissance filmmaker, you've gotta...

Robyn (39:21.24)
Yeah, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (39:26.574)
You've got to be able to communicate with every team member that you bring on.

Robyn (39:30.764)
Yeah, exactly. And also in the opposite sense too, it's like you could, you know, I'm not saying like every single person that's on a set in every department is great either. Sometimes you'll be on set and somebody will be combative or they'll say something like, you can't do that. And you've done it. And you're like, I know what you can, cause I've done it. And then that way you can kind of get that across of like, you know, it's not always that.

You're being you're being the problem because you're not understanding that department. Sometimes it's like the part department's not doing what they're supposed to be doing or stepping up their game. And now you, you know that because you've done it yourself that you can do that. Right. So it works both ways. Um, and it's not to say that, you know, you're making a, you're not trying to get into a fight or anything. You're just being, you're like, you take the person aside. Listen, I know that you could pull this out five minutes. Cause I've done this before. This is what you have to do. If you don't know.

you can tell them, you know, and then maybe they learned something, you know, so I think it's, it's all when you're on a set and, and you're working with different departments, I think everyone's coming together to try to make the best thing and we could all learn from each other. And I don't think any idea is a bad idea. Um, but you should still feel like you can, uh, stand your ground if you, if you know something and you, and cause that person might just be using their ego or their

stubborn or they're having a bad day, that you give an opportunity for them to learn something. And, you know, and I'm learning, every shoot that I'm on, I learned from different departments certain things. And some departments I work with, I go, they complain the whole time and they didn't do what I knew I could have done myself. And so I'm just not gonna hire them again. Like, nope, no fights, nothing. Hey, thank you, here's your check and never gonna call you again, you know?

Paul DeNigris (41:16.582)
Hehehe

Paul DeNigris (41:21.162)
Yeah, hopefully those are few and far between.

Robyn (41:23.436)
Yeah, it's not many, but there are, you know. That's another thing too, is that like, there's always a saying like, find your tribe, because it really is, like, I try to do as much as I can to make sure that my crew and everyone is taken care of and that they're not killing themselves and all this stuff. But at the same time, if I have a crew member that it's literally just a paycheck for them and they don't care at all, it kind of bumps me out.

I want them to be happy and proud of the movie. And that's what I loved about Killer is like the whole crew, everybody was like family. And we were all so excited to see the premiere. We were, I don't think we were supposed to all go up on stage, but we did. Cause we were like, everybody made this movie, man. And everybody from like Kelton, you know, the practical effects artists, just everyone department, Chris, the editor, we all got up there and we were all just so proud of what we pulled off.

for what we had in 12 days. And everybody felt like they had, they brought a piece of themselves to the project. So it was a really cool feeling. It wasn't just like, it's just a job. This was like, we became a family, which, and those are the best shoots. Those are the absolute best shoots.

Paul DeNigris (42:34.083)
Yeah, yeah, the comradery among you guys was tangible at that Hollywood premiere. It was, yeah, it was, yeah.

Robyn (42:41.4)
Yeah, everybody killed it, man. I mean, there's not one person on that crew that I would hire every single one of those people again. Everybody was amazing. And that's very rare sometimes, you know? So from what I've heard, this is my second film, but I was like, I'll just keep them. I'll just keep shooting with them every movie, if I can.

Paul DeNigris (42:53.723)
Absolutely, absolutely.

Paul DeNigris (43:02.39)
Yeah, yeah. Well, there's a reason why, you know, the Finchers and the Camerons, they work with the same tribes of people over and over again, you know, because they all grow together. So as far as VFX goes, and maybe post-production in general, but VFX specifically, you know, what are some things that you would do differently going into your next movie, as far as, you know, things that you learned off of the experience on Kill Her?

Robyn (43:12.536)
Yeah.

Robyn (43:31.34)
Uh, the things I would do differently or the things I would want to do differently. Sometimes I still don't have a choice. Um, but, uh, yeah. I mean, like I said earlier, it would be great to have, uh, a lot more, uh, pre pro with not just like producers. Like we had a lot of pre pro, but it was like, we, we couldn't, we didn't have enough money so we couldn't force people to come scout this, you know, camp that's like two hours away for someone that's not getting, you know,

It's just, you can't do that. And so if we had more money and resources and great to have more pre-pro and be able to like, no, hey, like we said before, like I'm gonna need this amount of VFX shots. Can we put this in the budget? Can we get some pre-production meetings with whoever we're gonna choose? That would be great. Just to have things, you know, I'm still very...

Even with the script, I like improv and I like to feel what it's like on set. Something's changed and I feel like a lot of times when it does change, it's better than how you kind of foresee it. But it's always best to be as prepared as you can. And then throw it away if you need to. So I would just would love to have more time to be able to prepare for every element that we had. But that, like I said, that takes...

that's a bigger budget. I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of filmmakers that are working on million dollar films and they still, it sounds like they're in the same, they're in the same exact group as me. It's like they don't have enough time and they don't have all the stuff they need. So I think I would just be happy with getting a little bit more on the next one. And then the next one, a little bit more. I would be okay. As long as we're like slowly getting a little bit more would be awesome. If it gets less, then you know.

We're back to, I'm just gonna animate my own stuff. I can't do it.

Paul DeNigris (45:33.108)
Time and money are always the enemy. Doesn't matter what your budget level. You know? Yeah.

Robyn (45:36.46)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It's like you think you think that, you know, but you, I hear all these stories from directors working on million dollar movies are like, I didn't have, I w I didn't have as much resource. It's the same thing. It's just on a bigger scale, you know, more money. That's it. More toys.

Paul DeNigris (45:47.658)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. More money, more money, which means your reach is further, but your reach always exceeds your grasp. Right. The you know, you can reach for the 10 million dollar effect, but you've only got two million dollars for it. Right. It's that's the thing. It's it's when the budget goes up, the bar goes up even more.

Robyn (46:03.undefined)
Yeah.

Robyn (46:09.817)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (46:15.626)
in terms of what you're trying to accomplish.

Robyn (46:15.66)
Yeah, well, I mean, even this film, like to me, I've never worked on anything that was a quarter million dollars to make. And that's nothing compared to films. But to me, that's like, I'm working on a quarter million dollar project. That's huge, you know? And then I'm thinking, that's just so much money. We could do this, we could get drones, we could, it's like, no, we can't do that. We can't do that, we can't do that. Can't do that, can't do that. I'm like, really? I was like, my first film I shot for $7,000.

Paul DeNigris (46:29.846)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (46:35.914)
Nope.

Paul DeNigris (46:43.338)
Right.

Robyn (46:44.464)
I was like, I was all stoked to have 250,000, but yeah, it goes fast, man. It goes, it goes a lot of, especially with bigger production and working with like sag and stuff like that. It's like, there's a lot more things you have to handle, uh, just to be safe and, and follow protocol, especially during the pandemic with, you know, having to do the COVID tests and everything, um, that it just, that money starts to just go away and you're just hoping that you have to keep as much as you can.

to put into the production and post. But yeah, it's interesting, very interesting.

Paul DeNigris (47:21.55)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So what's happening with Kill Her right now as far as like festivals or distribution? You know, where is it gonna land?

Robyn (47:31.832)
We finalized the deal with Dark Sky Films, which is a pretty reputable horror genre distributor that I followed for a long time. They put out a lot of Ty West first films. I believe they own Texas Chainsaw now, the rights to it, or at least the DVD distribution or streaming.

But they've done a lot of really cool indie horror films that I've followed. So I've known them for a while, so I'm pretty stoked to work with them. But yeah, they just acquired it. So they took it to Cannes to try to get some international distributor. I think they're still in the works on that. So they've just been working on the new trailer, a new poster possibly, which thankfully they, which is, I will say this to any other.

you know, indie director, it's like, if you're gonna get a distributor, work with someone that will let you have input. Because a poster and a trailer matter to represent the movie that you want it represented. So we were really lucky that Dark Sky was one of those. They're like, we will, they're good at what they do. Like I've seen their trailers and their posters, but they will let us approve it or say, do you have any notes? And so that was really great to.

they allow us to have some input in that. So right now I think they're working on that stuff. I don't know, obviously we're gonna be talking to a publicist soon and whenever they're gonna start announcing certain stuff, they've already announced that MPI was shopping it, so it's already had an article about that so I could talk about this stuff. But yeah, we don't know exact dates yet. Hopefully this year we're gonna try to get some more festivals I believe. So yeah, we're just.

working with them and just figuring out when it's all gonna finally get out there or if there's any other big events and fun stuff coming our way with the film. So, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (49:37.166)
All right. Well, make sure you keep me posted so I can let the audience know where they can find the film when it does hit distribution.

Robyn (49:44.852)
Oh yeah, I mean, that's another thing too, is this indie game is, even if you have a publicist, you still gotta do all the marketing you can on your own too, to get it out there, it's just a sea of content. So, everyone, I'm sure you're gonna be, you're probably gonna email me back like Robyn stop, I already know, stop sending me stuff. I'm gonna annoy everyone, it's like, go watch it.

Paul DeNigris (49:54.318)
Yep.

Paul DeNigris (49:57.983)
Yep, absolutely.

Paul DeNigris (50:10.131)
Nope. I want to hear where it goes and all of that sort of stuff. I'm a Robyn August fan and a Kill Her fan, so keep the info coming.

Robyn (50:19.072)
Oh, thanks, man. Hopefully it'll play, I'm hoping it'll, if we could still get into a, I think they were talking about possible theatrical, but we don't know, it's still, that's a kind of iffy thing right now. It could be not worth it, but at the same time, movie theaters are kind of hurting right now, so it could still work out to have like a small run. But it would just be really cool to play, because I'm out here in Prescott, and you're in Phoenix, right? So.

Paul DeNigris (50:47.252)
Mm.

Robyn (50:47.812)
It'd just be really cool to see it in the theater out here in Phoenix and bring my grandma's out here. She'd probably wanna see it on the big screen. That'd be fun.

Paul DeNigris (50:54.41)
Yeah, that would be that would be great. I did work on a film last year or two years ago that had a similar budget, and they did they did a small, small theatrical run. Then they went to streaming. Then they got picked up by a cable network and it's and now they're getting.

foreign distribution and it's all just been snowballing. And it's all based on the quality of the project and a lot of this sort of grassroots effort to find the audience. So it's doable, it's definitely doable. The cream always rises to the top, right? The good material will find its audience. I'm thoroughly convinced that Kill Her will find its audience and it will take off in places that you would not expect.

Robyn (51:18.7)
Let's go.

Robyn (51:26.433)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (51:44.68)
and through avenues that you would not expect.

Robyn (51:46.828)
Yeah, and also, I mean, you were there. We had, we sold out at Screamfest, and then we had an encore that almost sold out. And, you know, we're working on this movie and we're trying to make it the best we can, but until you see it with the audience, you don't know if it plays well in that setting, and it did. It was a great theater experience. I just, hearing people like gasp and laugh and...

Paul DeNigris (51:55.436)
Yeah.

Robyn (52:14.304)
and cheer and I was like, oh man, I just, I missed that theater experience and some films don't need it, but I felt like our movie, I feel like has some weight to be, to do okay in a theater setting, I think. So it'd be really cool just to have a small run or something or maybe they'll let me like rent out a theater in Phoenix and I could just throw my little party and show it, but.

Paul DeNigris (52:28.203)
Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (52:35.446)
Yeah, well, our local theater chain, Harkins, they're big supporters of indie film. They sponsor the Phoenix Film Festival and lots of other indie events and can't praise them enough. So they're definitely, they would be, I think they would be open to it if you brought it to them directly.

Robyn (52:39.598)
Yeah.

Robyn (52:48.76)
Yeah.

Robyn (52:54.944)
Yeah, yeah, I was also, I was listening to a podcast with Kevin Smith and he owns that small cast theater. And he even said, he's like, email us, we'll show your movie. And I know one of my favorite theaters, Alamo Drafthouse, like you could rent out a screen there too. So, you know, a lot of these theaters, if you call them up could show your movie, but I just don't know if it's like dark sky is gonna put any money towards that.

Paul DeNigris (53:16.727)
Yeah.

Robyn (53:23.169)
Might just be on my owner if they'll let me but it would be pretty cool

Paul DeNigris (53:25.686)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. We'll keep us posted. So what's next for you? You know, you sent me a little preview of a project that you're working on, kind of like a home brew, seems like it's on your own kind of thing that I think has a lot of promise. Why don't you talk to the audience a little bit about that?

Robyn (53:29.889)
Yeah.

Robyn (53:42.192)
Mm-hmm.

Robyn (53:48.748)
Thanks. Yeah, I'm working on actually a lot of projects, but this one is a... It's an anthology series, but the way that I'm doing it, it's like audio-visual. So I was listening to a podcast series by Jordan Peele called Quiet Part Loud, and it was like a cool little horror series, and it's all audio.

And I was listening to it and I was like, man, it'd be really cool if I could go see visuals to these stories on like YouTube. And that's when I was like, wait a minute. It, I know there was one, uh, once a show called lore that kind of did it. It started as a podcast and then Amazon picked it up and then they did visuals to those stories, but it was already after the fact that the podcast already was a thing. So I was like, well, what if I created something where it came out the same time?

Like you could just listen to it and you could watch and listen to it. So in that sense, I worked backwards. So I, I wrote the story, had to be kind of mostly narrate, uh, narrative. Um, but you, I created the, the audio first and then shot to the audio. And it was pretty cool. And, and, and people really dug it. And it's, uh, it's kind of a throwback to like Twilight zone or a show on HBO called the hitch hiker that I grew up watching. Um,

little mix of those two, a little black mirror. There's a lot of like those kind of elements to it, but just like, just around like 10 minute short films and I'm trying to get other filmmakers to create their own stories. So I have two other directors right now that are working on two episodes of their own that I'm kind of like show running. Like I'm show running this, it's like a no budget anthology idea that I'm show running.

Paul DeNigris (55:36.482)
Hehehe

Robyn (55:37.44)
Uh, just for like directors that are like sitting around between jobs, like I want to shoot something and they have the equipment or they're good at effects or they're actors or whatever. It's like, let's create stories. And then, um, my thoughts are that we put it together and we shop it and see if maybe, uh, somebody wants to pick it up. Um, or if it doesn't, we put it together as an actual anthology and we put out our own on like, you know, to be or something. So, uh, but yeah, that's, that's.

That's one of the projects I'm working on. And I just sent off my first episode that I worked on that I directed and wrote to some full festivals. So just waiting to hear back on some of them, but I got in a couple, so pretty cool. Oh, it's called Nightwalks. The first episode is called Edith and the Empty, but the show is called Nightwalks. And it's kind of just a character that walks around almost at night and...

Paul DeNigris (56:05.718)
Right on.

Paul DeNigris (56:15.223)
And the title again is...

Robyn (56:32.976)
tells stories and then it goes to those stories. But that's what ties it together is this character between the stories. That's kind of like a Rod Serling character in a way, introducing the next story. So, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (56:41.87)
Thanks for watching!

Paul DeNigris (56:48.47)
Gotcha. So the narrator will stay consistent.

Robyn (56:52.816)
Well, actually, I'm kind of I don't really feel there's too many rules. I feel like it's consistent throughout the show at the beginning. Like he kind of like Rod Sterling introduces the story. But I feel like the story, as long as you can hear it without needing to see it and get the whole story. I don't care. My rules aren't I have to narrate it or the director has narrated or actors couldn't speak the words or you.

I think there's so many different ways that you could tell the story that can be understood just audio. And the only rules, I have three rules. The three rules are audio first so that no matter what, without seeing it, you're gonna get the story. Black and white, we're going old school black and white, like the Twilight Zone, and no money. Right now, I don't care. If you have money and you wanna spend it, do not spend any money. Use what you have.

Uh, because, uh, my thoughts are if we do put it out, say on like film hub or something, we, we don't sell the idea or whatever. Um, I want to share in profit. I don't want to be paying back debt. So use your skills and everything you have as your, as your currency right now. Like if you have time and you want to work on a cool project and I'm giving you freedom as a director, I'm just kind of overseeing it to make sure it doesn't not fit with the rest.

I'm kind of giving you the freedom to make your own little short film within this world. And I just don't want you to spend any money. I want you to come out of pocket of this. So yeah.

Paul DeNigris (58:33.902)
Gotcha, gotcha. And you're using your VFX experience and skills as part of your, as one of your storytelling tools, right?

Robyn (58:41.876)
Yeah, yeah, totally. And that's another thing too. It's like I talked to any filmmaker that decides they want to do something. It's like, hey, if you need a VFX shot that you can't do yourself, I'll help you with that. Or you don't want it to be narrated and you don't want to narrate it, I can narrate it or find someone else. Like wherever you need help at, I will help as a showrunner to fill those holes. That sounded sexual. Yeah, yeah, we're not, is this family friendly?

Paul DeNigris (59:07.31)
That's a totally different series.

Robyn (59:12.536)
So yeah, I'm willing, I'll be there to help with whatever, any blind spots that you need help with, I can help you with that. But if you want to do this on your own, I'll just kind of guide you. It's been really cool and I have two filmmakers, a couple others that are interested. So I think at this point we might have a good, between another one I'm working on, I feel like we'll have eight episodes pretty soon here.

Um, that hopefully that'll be a good chunk to either like a pitch or just put into a little movie. So, yeah.

Paul DeNigris (59:47.91)
Awesome. So where can people find out more about Nightwalks or any other projects that you're up to?

Robyn (59:54.692)
Just stay tuned. I haven't released that one yet But it is going to some festivals. I definitely if you check out, you know, my social media like Instagram I'm at Robyn of August Robyn with a Y Robyn of August and I pretty much update that all the time with projects. I'm working on like music videos or films I'm sure I'll be blasting it about kill her once all the announcements come out

But yeah, and as far as that, other than that, I'm doing like a stupid little, it's funny enough, it's kind of a parody of what we're doing right now. It's the podcast culture. I'm creating a animated series that I'm releasing one of the episodes on Monday called The Podcast for TomCats. And it's an animated cat that... does a podcast with celebrities and stuff. And it's kind of like an adult swim satire of like podcast culture. It deals with a lot of AI. I'm actually using AI to help create real art to also then make fun and poke at AI art. It's very meta. Yeah.

Paul DeNigris (01:01:08.974)
It's very meta. Right on. So at Robyn of August, I'll make sure I link that in the show notes for the episode.

Robyn (01:01:16.62)
Yeah, yeah. And then if you want to check out, that'll come out on Monday. I think it's just called at PAWD Cat Podcast. Yeah, you'll probably get a kick out of it. The first episode he interviews Albert Einstein, but he doesn't realize he's been dead since 1955 to like towards the end of the interview.

Paul DeNigris (01:01:34.077)
Ha ha!

Paul DeNigris (01:01:40.39)
Right, that sounds like fun. Sounds like fun. Well Robyn, thanks so much for spending the time. Always a pleasure to talk to you. I look forward to seeing everything that you've got coming up. I look forward to hearing more about future release for Kill Her and look forward to collaborating on your next one when that happens. Yeah.

Robyn (01:01:41.121)
Yeah.

Robyn (01:01:58.86)
Yeah man, of course. And we need to hang out. You're too close to me, man. We gotta, I gotta, next time in Phoenix, we gotta get some coffee or do something. Make a movie.

Paul DeNigris (01:02:05.47)
Absolutely. Come on down. Right on. So thanks. Thanks again, Robyn. Thank you to my audience for tuning in. Hopefully you learned something from Robyn's experience making killer. And as always, I'm Paul DeNigris for the VFX for Indies podcast. Please if you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe. And if you've got any comments, please share them. I want to hear from you. I want to know what you're liking about these shows. What

Robyn (01:02:09.4)
Alright.

Paul DeNigris (01:02:33.974)
kinds of questions you'd like to see answered by future guests and all of that. So I will see you next time. Thanks so much.