In this episode I’m joined by filmmaker Nick Toti – one half of the DIY filmmaking duo behind the viral 80-second shortDead Grandma, the TIFF Midnight Madness sensation It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This, and the upcoming feature Homebody.
Throughout the episode Nick breaks down the decade-long origin story of Dead Grandma, from an improvised game he invented while working as a nursery school teacher in Austin to a 35mm short film that blew up in Variety and landed him on this podcast.
We also discuss how his $5,000 found footage feature It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This unexpectedly landed in TIFF’s Midnight Madness, the unconventional theatrical-only release strategy he’s used to screen it across multiple continents without a distributor, and why Nick is now trying to convince A24 or Blumhouse to fund a studio remake of Homebody.
Topics covered include: Getting a $5K Feature into TIFF & Going Viral With An 80 Second Short Film With Nick Toti
- The real-life origin of Dead Grandma and how it developed over a deade
- Co-directing with his wife and creative partner Rachel Kempf
- Shooting on 35mm film – and everything that went wrong before they even rolled
- How It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This got into TIFF Midnight Madness
- The aesthetic of Homebody: making a movie that feels like a lo-fi demo tape
- Actively pursuing failure as a creative strategy – and why it eventually worked
- Nick’s 25-hour real-time experimental documentary project
- Die Die Books – the horror film criticism press Nick and Rachel run
- Much more!
This is Episode 273:
Subscribe to this podcast via Apple Podcasts
Subscribe to this podcast via Spotify
Subscribe to this podcast via Google Play
Subscribe to this podcast via Stitcher
Subscribe to this podcast via RSS
Links from the show:
Die Die Books
Sign up for my newsletter for exclusive filmmaking insight each Sunday
No Comments