Beyond Your Imagination Chris Martin Studios

Kelley Baker AKA The Angry Filmmaker is an author, filmmaker, and music aficionado. Whenever we get together, we’re always talking about music and music documentaries, and two films we can’t stop talking about are Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage and Muscle Shoals.

As we discuss this double feature, we touch on themes of history and mythology in the music business, curiosity and dissatisfaction, the pursuit of greatness, and how tragedy and rejection shape people. Weaving stories and memories from both films and our lives, Kelley and I talk about how these films reveal necessary traits that all artists need in pursuing their work: upping your game by working on your craft, surrounding yourself with people, and going down your own path.

How do you know you're getting the real story when you go someplace new? If you're a documentarian, how do you tap into the reality that stories are everywhere, as long as you have the key, the very object that provides access to the storytellers? In Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, directed by Andrew Douglas, the South came alive with a 1970 Chevrolet Impala. Kelley brought this film to my attention as an example of a movie that immediately makes you question, "What the hell is going on here?" It messes with the documentary form, makes you work to understand the underlying meaning, let alone who the people in the film are, and speeds beyond stereotypes. Ultimately, it is a film that many people will not like, will struggle to even see because of its limited availability, but should experience. If you need a shot of artistic courage, this film represents the guts required to make a film the way the director wants to.

Kelley Baker and I are kicking off this season in style with a lively chat about his independent filmmaking and writing journey from film school, working in the sound department, and directing shorts and features in Portland, Oregon to writing books and short stories. We talk about why living life is so important for artists, what makes a memorable story, what he looks for and what turns him off in movies, why book-to-film adaptations often fail to measure up to his imagination, and why you should always help your friends out on their creative journey. Sprinkled throughout is his approach to both filmmaking and writing books: do whatever you need to do to tell your stories.

What is the future of your filmmaking career? This is one of the many questions that Ryan and I talk about in the season finale of the podcast. From producing and releasing feature films on a more consistent schedule to creating projects that have more depth and substance, we explore the topic of legacy and what we bring to our films as we get older. Additionally, we further the discussion around building community with trusted collaborators.

A critical component of filmmaking is making sure there's an audience for your film. Ryan and I talk about ways to get your film in front of the right people from sharing about it on social media and going to related events to premiering it in your local town. But a larger conversation throughout the episode is not just finding the audience, but building the community who will continually support your work: Actors, crew, financial supporters, and community partners. No matter where you are at on your filmmaking journey, never lose sight of the community you are building each day.

Whether you are in the film industry or not, you've probably heard the phrase, "We'll fix it in post." It's a philosophy of production that allows directors to speed through shoots, not worrying about whether something is technically perfect or not, because everything can be fixed in the computer. In this conversation, Ryan and I talk about our thoughts on this phrase, along with our philosophies of editing, new technologies we would love to have in software, and the inspirational impact that KISS and George Lucas has had on Ryan's career.