Rob Mabry, Filmmaker, The Legend of El Chupacabra

  Welcome back to our podcast, friends, your world of creativity. And when we talk about our world of creativity, we traveled to New York, a couple of episodes ago to talk about ways to ask. We've been to Portugal to learn how creativity can create a more sustainable world. We just got back from Nashville to hear a Grammy- winning r& B and jazz artists find his inner guidance. And today we're stamping our creative passport in San Antonio, Texas. And to illustrate the range of creative topics today, we're going to be talking about a new horror comedy film. Wow. What a nice combination. My guest is Rob Mabry. Rob, welcome to the show.

Yeah, thanks, Mark. It's great to be here. I appreciate the opportunity to stop by.

Absolutely. Listeners, Rob is an accomplished writer, director, producer. He's rediscovered, I could say, his passion for filmmaking after a long break and, but he's created a lot of award winning shorts. And now his first feature film is just out.

The Legend of El Chupacabra. And I've checked that pronunciation four times. I still don't know if I got it exactly right, but Rob, I'll keep working on it for the next half hour. Rob, what a great release you've got. It must feel good to get this out.

Yeah, it really does. It launched on DVD and Blu ray on May the 10th.

And while DVD and Blu ray aren't the thing that they used to be there's something special about, Being able to, to hold in your hands the film that you made. And surprisingly, there are a lot of people who still, use physical media and that's how they consume their movies.

And yeah, so I'm really excited to, to have it out there for an audience. And then of course we're all anxiously awaiting its release on streaming, which I don't have a date for yet, but hopefully that's coming in the next couple of

Yes, we'll keep us posted. I love this blend of horror and comedy, make us laugh, scare us, give a little gore, whatever it takes.

What are some of the challenges you've found in a genre like this?

Yeah, it's interesting. I think that horror and comedy are similar in terms of structure, right? Because it's about anticipation and payoff. And with horror, you're building that tension that leads to a scare. And, jokes are constructed To build up the tension to a punchline.

And the structure for those things is, very similar. It is challenging to have the right mix of horror and comedy in a film. And I will say that my movie is very heavily weighted towards the comedy. I love the horror genre. But it's really a parody of the horror genre.

And there aren't a ton of, really creepy, scary moments. They're really there to, to entertain people who love that horror genre and parody it. But the movie, in the end is about making people laugh.

Yes. The trailer certainly will illustrate that and we'll play an excerpt here for that.

Now, thinking about the production and the strategy, way back before, the actual script, you've got character development, maybe in your case, creature development as well. How do you go about really setting the tone for what kind of stories and. Characters and creature interaction you're planning.

Yeah. I think when it comes to comedy, good comedy is built out of character and you have to have, you have to start with a great story. And through, through the writing process, I I focus on structure right of the plot. And making sure that I'm telling a compelling story with compelling characters.

I take a lot of inspiration from my daily life and the people that I interact with. And, my mind is constantly. cataloging funny things that people say, or, odd behavior or, odd people that I meet. And I don't think that I am, consciously seeking that out all the time, but it's, running in the background of my brain.

And so I like to pull a lot of how characters behave, from people that I know or people that I've met. And then. Another part of my process is I have worked, the actors in El Chupacabra, I have worked with most of them many times. And so I understand their strengths and the characters that they play.

And so as I was writing this, having worked with several of the actors on multiple shorts, I was really, crafting the story and the characters to play to the strengths of the actors who are in the film and you asked about the creature design. I worked with a really talented creature designer guy named Sergio Gara.

He was on the very first season of face off, which was a show on sci fi, a competition creature. FX show. And so he's super talented. And we started with a couple of different designs. He created four sort of versions of the Chupacabra. And then, we decided which one we would, we thought would work best.

And it really is, when you're designing a creature, it's almost a. It's a creative pursuit, but it's also an engineering pursuit. The actor has to be able to move around in that costume. They have to be able to breathe, so you have to think about both the kind of engineering aspect in the design, as well as the creativity.

And you can see over here, I guess

you

can see it. I don't know if the audience can see it, but that is the screen

graphic.

Yeah, there you go. That's the head of the actual Chupacabra, the actual costume that the actor Kiki Suki who actually played two roles in the film War wasn't the most pleasant experience for him because it's not easy to be in a giant latex, costume and, we were filming sometimes at night when it was, 30 degrees outside in the hill country of Texas because we filmed late fall and into the winter But yeah, that's, how I think through character and a bit about our creature design.

Yeah. Thanks for giving us a peek behind that curtain. Taking off of the title, the legend of El Chupacabra. Yeah. There's some legendary stories in filmmaking, of course, about the ups and downs and challenges and wins and victories. defeats along the process as you were riding that rollercoaster of development and production.

Where? Where did you find the most thrills? And then Where did you try to catch your breath when things weren't going so well?

For anybody who wants to make a feature film an indie film it's no joke and, you better be committed to, to what you're doing. I would say study the craft, make some short films first.

Although I know people who have leaped in and made feature films from the get go, that's not what I would recommend. And I made about 20 short films before I felt ready to make a feature. The financial part of it is. is very stressful. Crowd funding takes an awful lot of work and that was part of how we financed the film.

I had some friends who I'd worked with before who, who believed in me and believed in the project and helped by investing in it. And then I put quite a bit of my own money, into this because it was it's the biggest bucket list item I had to make a feature film.

It's stressful, right? To try to come up with that budget. But When you actually get into filming and you're an independent filmmaker and you're not just wearing that director hat, right? Like you've got to make sure that people get fed the logistics of a feature film and planning out the locations and, making sure everybody is there and understands, these are the scenes that we're filming today.

It, it really is, a massive logistical effort. And a huge project. And so that was the most stressful time for me was, trying to get through that actual filming. And, you've got a plan, right? You've got to know how many pages you can film in a day. You've got to, you got to make your day as they say, right?

Like when you go in and you've got a location you've got to get all of the coverage that you need. To make the scenes work and that can be, very stressful when the clock is running and you're trying to make that happen. Yeah real challenge for an indie, anybody making an indie film, I think is just trying to get all that coverage.

Yes. And many filmmakers and consultants in the business have described it as being the CEO of your film. It is certainly accessing perhaps the other side of your brain when you're trying to say, this would be creative and fun. But what about the spreadsheets?

There were many spreadsheets.

Yes. Yes. Actors, cast, crew, shot lists it, there is just probably, it requires more organizational skills than a lot of people realize. And I think that's why a lot of indie films, may collapse on, in the middle of production, just because especially you mentioned somebody who's

got to get the food.

If you don't feed the crew, it's definitely going to crash. Priority number one. Sorry, get that table set up. I, and I think about what you said about your short films and certainly recognition at film festivals was a big part of the strategy. Where do festivals fall in your strategy for this movie?

They actually don't. They're not part of my strategy, which I think a lot of people find unusual. But for the type of film that I'm making, a comedy, right? It's really intended to entertain audiences. And while getting into film festivals and winning awards can, help with the sort of perception of the film It is also something that delays your ability to make money back from that film, right?

And film festivals are expensive, you're paying probably between 50 and 100 dollars to enter, every film festival. You're not guaranteed that you're going to be in that festival. And then, there is an exclusivity. To film festivals where you know, if you're if you send it to you know a film festival in Austin as an example I'm here in Texas.

They want to be the Austin premiere, you know of that film which you know limits the other festivals that you can enter in I entered Many of my short films in film festivals, it's really a gratifying experience to be accepted into a festival, and it gives you the opportunity to go and sit in a theater with an audience, if you can go to the festival, and experience the movie with an audience, which is, the most satisfying.

Thing for, anybody who's made a film is to enjoy it with an audience. I certainly, understand why people enter their films into festivals. But for me it's really about, getting it out, getting it on streaming, having the opportunity, for the world to see the movie.

And hopefully, making some money. Back and eventually getting our budget back.

Yes. I'd like to pick up on that distribution Discussion certainly that's the last mile as we like to say in getting the movie out You've worked so hard to create it, but now you got to get it out When and how did you begin to think about distribution?

Dvds then streaming, then, how do we get this out in front of eyeballs?

Yeah, I would say probably not early enough in the process. And so it is something, if and when I make my next film that I'll, invest some more time in, in that strategy. As part of the pre production process.

It was really when I was in editing. I was doing a lot of homework. I will warn anybody who's thinking about making a feature film. It is really a challenging time to make a profitable indie film these days. It's interesting that the technology has democratized filmmaking.

You can get a, prosumer, camera and go out there and make a movie. And so the technology is not the barrier that it was, when you were actually shooting on film, 20, 25 years ago. But that also means that there are thousands and thousands of filmmakers out there making feature films.

There are many good ones, there is also a lot of garbage that's out there. But it has created this noise, and I was actually talking with my distributor last week, and I was anxious to find out, like, when are we going to hit streaming? And they asked for my patience and said to be which is a very popular indie film platform gets about a thousand films submitted a day and they can onboard about 40 or 50 of them.

There's a lot of competition now to get onto streaming platforms and the market is being overloaded. So that's another reason that I was thankful the distributor I was working with had, a physical media platform to get it out on DVD and Blu ray. And yeah, and eventually it will get out on streaming, but it's, it's just a challenging time for indie filmmakers to surface above the noise and get their film out there.

Yeah. If I could drill down a little bit. Because the same thing in music, I'm trying to get on Spotify, the same thing in books. I'm trying to get on the bookshelves, in the local bookstore. Anybody can put something up on Amazon. But besides patience, is there a strategy? Are there tactics that you can think about that can either accelerate or break through or go around?

I think of all the obstacles that people need to overcome. What are some of those approaches that you've learned?

Yeah, I think, taking advantage of social media and I won't, claim to be any sort of expert in that area. It's something that I'm learning about. And I am here on your, your podcast to promote the film.

An indie filmmaker really needs to handle their own PR. You don't hand it over to a distributor and expect for them to bring the audience. Wipe your hands. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that. It's really up to you as the filmmaker, to build your audience. There's a great book by a guy named Alex Ferrari called Rise of the Filmtrepreneur.

And it is all about building your brand as a filmmaker. And also catering to a niche audience, with the subject matter of your film. And he has a lot of great advice around those topics. I would say that wasn't something that I particularly followed But as I think back, my, my niche is the chupacabra, right?

There is a built in audience who are interested in cryptid films. And that I think I've checked that box. And I am working, to build the audience, my audience who hopefully appreciate my comedy. And I ul ultimately, I'd say the best thing that you can do to allow yourself to build that audience I is to make a quality film, right?

Make sure that the writing is as tight as it can possibly be. Don't cast your friends. There's plenty of super talented actors, in, in every city, no matter where you are, like go and seek out quality talent and, learn the craft of filmmaking so that you understand the rules and you can follow them and break, those rules when it makes sense.

But, I think ultimately If you don't make a quality film, you're never going to be able to build that audience for yourself.

For sure. My guest is Rob Mabry. Rob, where can we find you, your work, your film, and learn more about you?

You can follow the film on social media. I'm mostly a Facebook and Instagram guy.

We are at the Chupacabra movie for those two social media platforms chupacabramovie. com is the website. So you can go on there. You'll probably get a pop up that asks for your email address, but don't worry, I'm not going to be emailing you every day. Hopefully, have you seen it

yet?

Have you seen it yet? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But when the movie comes out, on streaming, I probably would let you know that has happened. And we definitely would appreciate the support to, to toot my own horn a little bit. We've made a very funny film. It's got a lot of terrific performances in it.

If you are a fan of the horror comedy genre, I know that you will be entertained by the film. It's a little raunchy. So if you like that then you're definitely going to enjoy the movie.

Excellent. What's your back of the business card pitch? What's your bumper sticker for the movie?

Bumper sticker for the movie, I guess I would go with the tagline, which is thin the herd, not on this nerds watch.

So the movie is about a nerdy kid who lives in a small town called Bluffkin in Texas, in the Texas Hill Country. He has this experience, an encounter with the chupacabra when he was just a boy. And he remained obsessed with it, all these, years, 12 years later but every four years there are killings that happen in this town.

And so he's been investigating it all his life. And as a young adult, when it happens again he goes back and bands together his childhood friends to take care of the chupacabra once and for all.

Great synopsis. Rob, we've been talking a lot about logistics of the film, but I want to get back to the creative roots here.

And your creative roots go literally all the way back to childhood when you're running around the country countryside, maybe of Texas filming things, taking pictures of things, thinking of these stories how have you connected the dots from then to now?

Yeah was that kid who was always like writing my own comic books writing plays and forcing my friends to, perform them for an audience of nobody.

And and my dad, he owned a Super 8 film camera. He was the home movie guy. And once in a while when he was feeling generous, he would let me borrow that camera. And so I had a camera in my hand from a very young age. And so I think that's a big part of why I'm passionate about filmmaking.

I actually came to Texas later in life. My dad worked for the he was in the Air Force. He worked for the government. We lived in Germany for a time on a military base. And it had a little theater and every Sunday they'd have matinees. And my mom would give me a dollar and that would get me a ticket and popcorn and a soda.

And just about every Sunday I would go and I would watch a movie. And Movies were a big part of my life, from when I was very young. And something that I've always loved and really from a pretty young age, just had the dream, like someday I'm going to make a movie.

So good. Love these stories. The the origin stories as we like to call them, Rob, can't thank you enough for being on the show. I've really appreciated learning more about you, your work, your approach and listeners. Rob Mabry, he's the writer, director, producer. The Legend of El Chupacabra is the film and we'll be watching for it coming out on streaming.

Rob, thanks for sharing your stories.

Yeah, thank you, Mark. Had a great time.

And listeners come back again for our next episode. We'll continue our around the world travels. We're talking to creative practitioners of all kinds about getting inspired, organizing ideas. And as we've heard today, gaining the confidence and the connections to get the work out, to get the distribution, get the connections that we need to get the eyeballs on the work that we've worked so hard to create.

So come back again next time and we'll continue to unlock. Your world of creativity.