No Set Path: Entertainment Break-In Stories

Rebecca Doyle
  • 5.0 (7)
  • FILM INTERVIEWS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

No Set Path is a biweekly podcast exploring how to succeed in film & TV by talking to people who have actually done it.

  1. OCT 2

    61 - Directing a Wide Theatrical Horror with Mercedes Bryce Morgan (Bone Lake)

    Today we are getting into how to avoid stagnance when waiting for feature films to go, how to find representation that aligns with who you are as an artist and the most surprising things from directing three horror thriller features. EPISODE BREAKDOWN: 1:35 - Getting brought on to Bone Lake from an open directing assignment  3:00 - LD Entertainment 4:20 - Shooting in LA vs. Georgia vs. Canada 6:35 - Viral chess board shot  7:30 - Projects Mercedes’ agents sent her when they first signed her vs. now - elevated, surrealist, erotic horrors  9:10 - Upcoming features & how to play the movie stock market during the long process of getting projects off the ground  11:15 - Working on commercials 12:30 - Making previous features Fixation and Spoonful of Sugar with covid impact  15:15 - the unexpected positive outcomes of a storm preventing shooting the final scene of Bone Lake 17:00 - Art department chopping shrubbery down from the hotel as set dec  20:20 - Meeting long-term collaborators at USC (and cutting class to work on projects) 21:45 - Should you go to film school?  25:46 - Signing with a manager & an agent (UTA) 31:45 - How to finance a feature 35:30 - Advice for younger filmmakers + background in producing  37:30 - Working director vs. “selling out” 39:40 - Mercedes’ interest in filmmaking as a kid  42:49 - How living situations impact creativity  43:44 - How to persevere when you want to give up 48:59 - Thoughts on social media  51:55 - TIME CAPSULE KEEP UP WITH MERCEDES: Buy tickets for "Bone Lake": www.bleeckerstreetmedia.com/bone-lake Follow Mercedes on IG: @mercedesbrycemorgan Follow Bone Lake on IG: @bonelakefilm KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow bio.site/NoSetPath www.NoSetPathShow.com

    1h 8m

  2. SEP 18

    60 - Craziest Diva on Set Stories w/ Becca Mann

    KEEP UP WITH BECCA: TikTok: @beccawmann IG: @becca__mann Becca's Books: https://www.becca-mann.com/books KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow www.NoSetPathShow.com bio.site/nosetpath

    58 min

  3. SEP 5

    59 - Landing an Open Directing Assignment with Evan B. Matthews

    Evan B. Matthews is an LA-based director whose feature directorial debut “Motherland” comes out this month, we’re recording in September 2025, in both theaters and VOD. Evan got his start under Mark Burnett, working on shows including Survivor, The Apprentice, An Inconvenient Truth, and The Hollow, among others; going on to produce the MTV Movie Awards.  Today we get into how Evan went from meeting with an executive to landing his first feature film directing job in just one week, what he focused on during his pitch for this open directing assignment, and how to pivot out of reality-focused projects when pigeonholed and be taken seriously as a narrative director. KEEP UP WITH EVAN: IG: @evanbmatthews KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow bio.site/NoSetPath

    1h 14m

  4. AUG 21

    58 - Breaking into Producing with Mike Orion Downing (Highest 2 Lowest, AIR, Bolt from the Blue)

    Michael Orion Downing is an LA-based, Alaskan-raised producer and Director of Development at A/Vantage Pictures, with credits spanning Netflix, Mandalay, A24, and Apple projects alongside independent films on Tubi. His work includes Ben Affleck’s AIR, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, and Sundance award-winning Under Darkness, as well as producing Maika Monroe’s directorial debut short at TIFF. Today we dive into how he went from a Paramount lot clerk to producing and developing major films, while constantly creating independent projects and seeking out new filmmaking collaborators. KEEP UP WITH MIKE: IG: @mike_orion KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow www.NoSetPathShow.com bio.site/nosetpath

    1h 14m

  5. AUG 8

    57 - Directing Branded Docs with Karl Stelter

    Karl Stelter is a filmmaker whose commercial director / producer work has been recognized by  the Clio’s, Tribeca, Tribeca X, the ADDY’s, Telly’s, Webby’s, 1.4, ADCC, DUST, and over 15 Oscar Qualifying film festivals.  His recent Jury Award win at Sebastopol qualified him for the 2025 Oscars. His clients include Invisalign, Amazon, NFL, Telus, Western University of Health Sciences, and GHA Autism Supports among others. Today we get into how Karl convinced brands like Telus and Invisalign to buy documentary projects he was already making as passion projects and turn them into commercials and branded entertainment, how to make the most of a festival experience like Tribeca and how to pivot into a new type of work that’s different from what you’ve already built a portfolio in. BREAKDOWN: 2:43 – two(!) projects at Tribeca, both scripted and branded doc spot 3:03 – Swimming with Butterflies feat. Brand partner, Invisalign and TribecaX 3:53 – Balancing authentic story x branded, paying the bills x passionate 5:23 – Karl’s journey with the subject of the doc, Paralympic swimmer 9:03 – Gaining trust with documentary subjects 11:43 – Shooting underwater feat. DP Joe Simon 12:33 – Pitching a short doc to a brand (Invisalign) 16:33 – How much would a brand give as a budget? 19:13 – did Invisalign care about where the spot would live? 20:13 – Submitting to Tribeca documentary vs. TribecaX (branded counterpart) 21:38 – The Tribeca experience 22:53 – The Lord of All Future Space and Time: a maximalist cheesecake short film (rich & dense) 24:38 – repeat collaborators 27:23 – running his own production company, Journeyman Studios, since 2012 29:48 – Pivoting from weddings to corporate videos; how to pivot to new types of work 32:23 – don’t lose sight of your artistic side 34:08 – success in the industry is a game of time 37:05 – getting into a top tier festival while simultaneously being rejected from much less prestigious festivals 38:23 – realistic acceptance rate for festivals 39:08 – Pitching: collaborators and clients 42:53 – don’t lose your collaborators to be right 44:28 – how to enjoy Tribeca 47:28 – different financing models: Karl’s other shorts! 57:38 – how to have a family as a filmmaker 1:07:13 – TIME CAPSULE

    1h 26m

  6. JUN 19

    56 - Breaking Into Tribeca (& the Festival Circuit) with Sofia Snyder

    Today independent producer and union production coordinator Sofia Snyder gets into the specific resources she utilized to help land her short films at festivals, including Tribeca; what a psychic told her that prevented her from quitting her job on Rebel Moon; and how she took what she learned from working on movies like Licorice Pizza and Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar and applied it to the films she’s produced. EPISODE BREAKDOWN: 2:00 - Playing at Tribeca without a premiere 4:00 - How to strategize with film festivals to optimize odds of getting in - Festival Formula (HollyShorts, Poppy Jasper, Kino Presents the People’ Film Festival London, Montclair Film Festival) 12:30 - Getting into Tribeca after rejections from SXSW (and other random festivals) 14:08 - How runtime impacts your festival odds 17:30 - Making a short for $10,000 19:30 - Funding models for shorts - self-funding vs. crowd funding 20:30 - 6 years is an overnight success 22:30 - Sofia’s early journey as a producer: a doc about the ghost of a dead cat 25:20 - Developing projects on nights & weekends after 60-80 hours a week in a production office 28:15 - Why she didn’t quit her job on Rebel Moon to focus on producing 33:20 - Why Sofia wouldn’t recommend production office gigs for aspiring writers 35:55 - Sofia’s other shorts (In Old Ranchos directed by Matt Lucas, We Meet Again directed by Matt Lucas, One of These Days concept directed by Joe Blank, Don’t Leave Me Now directed by Monisha Dadlani) 37:20 - Shooting with UNREAL technology 35:50 - Shooting in phases before raising the entire budget 42:20 - Cranberry Heaven in 1997 44:30 - Things take time! 45:40 - Being a union production coordinator on $30million+ projects (Licorice Pizza, Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) 51:50 - Attending American University + moving to LA post-college with $10,000 1:02:30 - Development assistant vs. freelance/production office pipeline 1:05:30 - Pay for union coordinators + insider information about how coordinators discuss rates with each other 1:10:05 - TIME CAPSULE KEEP UP WITH SOFIA: IG: @sofiasny KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow www.NoSetPathShow.com bio.site/NoSetPath

    1h 21m

  7. JUN 5

    55 - Conclave: Movie vs. Reality

    Today's topic is "Conclave" - what the movie got right, what the movie got wrong, and the broader impact of a film misrepresenting a community, particularly without involvement from its members. 2:30 - AMERICAN POPE! 3:58 - “Conclave” 4:56 - The timing of the making of the movie 7:00 - The consequences of capitalizing on a community without involving members of that community 19:10 - Misunderstanding of Conclave as a version of American politics / presidential election 23:50 - Applying this to the movie “Conclave” 25:26 - What “Conclave” got right 27:17 - What “Conclave” meant was “Protestantism” 28:39 - What “Conclave” got wrong 36:17 -“Conclave” scenes and lies that are pure fantasy KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow www.NoSetPathShow.com bio.site/NoSetPath

    44 min

  8. APR 24

    54 - Reacting to Production Horror Stories w/ Kristen Brancaccio

    Today Rebecca is joined by Kristen Brancaccio to react to some anonymously submitted production horror stories - the good, the bad, and the downright hilarious. BREAKDOWN: 0:30 - Updates with Kristen! Full-time directing largely in vertical soap operas 3:55 - Anonymously submitted production horror stories! 4:20 - UPM asked LAPD to ID homeless defecation, cop reverse unos and asks production to read screenplay 6:23 - Cops respond to film shooting but not gun shooting 7:05 - Chandler Berg the PA putting out a Malibu fire with the production fire extinguisher 8:30 - Producers digging into an actual cemetery 10:06 - Director beat up PD on set, Kristen stands up for art department 11:14 - 300 extras were told to actually fight each other, actor gets stabbed 12:28 - Rap video with dog fights, stabbing, and computers stolen out of motor home 13:09 - Kristen is up to direct a music video, artist goes to jail before they can shoot 14:22 - Script supervisor stole the lined script for ransom 14:45 - “The Terminator” goes off on PA for chewing too loudly 15:40 - Department head commits fraud, blames assistant 16:18 - Kristen declines to deposit production budget into department head’s personal account 17:30 - Woman shocked by amount of cash taken out by Hollywood productions 18:17 - Person asked to only be paid in gold bars 18:40 - Camera van without handbrake runs through video village on car commercial 28:55 - Portable toilet driven for 45 minutes on bumpy road with person inadvertently inside 19:50 - Talent rage quit his own pilot 20:40 - mayor allowed filming in exchange for photos with celebrities 21:06 - Extra wardrobe malfunction 21:58 - Background actor backstories 22:58 - Bribing the neighbor with Magic Castle tickets 24:25 - Director freaks out that set design isn’t bougie enough 25:22 - Client decided day of the shoot that pre-approved wooden paneling needed to be VFX’d out 26:52 - Wet garbage falling 30:27 - Unusable footage from holding camera on top of a moving camera 29:50 - Petty cash disappeared x2 31:35 - Who can decode these acronyms? DM us @nosetpathshow KEEP UP WITH KRISTEN: IG: @kristensreality Kristen's first episode on No Set Path: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/02-pitching-matt-damon-producing-for-finneas-w-kristen/id1676370871?i=1000605417778 KEEP UP WITH THE SHOW: All Platforms: @NoSetPathShow www.NoSetPathShow.com bio.site/nosetpath

    34 min
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5
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7 Ratings

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No Set Path is a biweekly podcast exploring how to succeed in film & TV by talking to people who have actually done it.

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