American Filmmaker

Melissa B. Miller Costanzo (a.k.a. Melissa B. Miller) talks about making her first feature film as a writer/director, All These Small Moments.  The film got a theatrical release by Orion Classics and has a wonderful cast that includes Molly Ringwald, Jemima Kirke, Harley Quinn Smith, Brian d, Arcy James.  The film is available on Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, VuDu.  Melissa has worked over a decade in all aspects of film production from starting at 3 Arts Entertainment and New Line Cinema to working in the art department, producing, writing and directing.  She understands the core needs of bringing a film to audiences from all aspects. From time to time, Melissa gets to work with her husband, Russell Costanzo, also a filmmaker. Melissa is based in New York City.  She grew up dancing and this form of creative expression evolved into her love of the filmmaking process.  

Travis Irvine is a comedian, filmmaker, journalist, and some times politician. Travis’s films focus on documenting the political reality facing everyday Americans and absurdist political comedies that use extreme metaphor and physical humor to deliver messages of humanity winning over all threats, including killer raccoons. As a journalist, Travis’s man on the street interviews have been used by Vice, The Guardian, and many others major media outlets. Travis’s stand up comedy focus’s on his own campaigns for mayor of his hometown and governor of Ohio.  

Travis talks about making his first feature film as an undergraduate student at Ohio University (Racoons! Bandits of the Night), navigating New York City as a working young filmmaker, journalist, stand-up comedian, graduate student in the master’s program at Columbia’s School of Journalism, and then making Killer Raccoons 2: Dark Christmas in the Dark, set to be released Christmas 2019.

The music used in this episode comes from the soundtrack of Postales. Available on Vinyl from Colemine Records, Spotify, and iTunes. 

Julia Rendleman is a freelance editorial photographer and photojournalist working for major news outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Times Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, VICE and others. Julia talks about working in Louisiana a year after the BP Oil Spill, working as a staff photographer at the Pittsburgh Gazette, the Bhutanese Refugees crisis, the opioid crisis from the perspective of women prisoners in a community-based recovery program in Virginia, and finding personal projects in your local community that relate to national audiences. Julia Rendleman and the host of the podcast, Josh Hyde, grew up in a small town called Makanda, Illinois. Julia’s journey to photograph the truth is a deep, moving, dramatic, and passion-filled lesson for any storyteller.

The music used in this episode comes from the soundtrack of My Friend’s Rubber Ducky and was composed by Michael Deller. (The Budos Band, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires)

Clarissa Jacobson wrote and produced the award-winning short film, Lunch Ladies.  The short film played over 100 film festivals around the world.  Along the way, Clarissa learned how to maneuver the U.S. and international film festival circuit, while writing feature scripts as part of the Twin Bridges Writing Salon founded by Joe Bratcher.  Lunch Ladies is based-off an existing feature film script.  Clarissa also talks about the process of optioning scripts, finding great characters to create great stories, writing a book about her film festival experiences, and giving into the writer's creative journey.  There are some good lessons in this episode.  And Clarissa published them in I Made a Short Film and N WTF Do I Do With It (a guide to film festivals, promotion and surviving the ride). Available now on Amazon and Kindle.

The music used in this episode come from the soundtrack of My Friend's Rubber Ducky.  

Justin Hayward is a Chicago-based director who started as a production assistant and worked his way up to directing commercials, short films, and music videos by being a director of photography.  Along the way, he created an award-winning short film, Divorce Lemonade. (Sundance) Justin enjoys spending time raising his kids as he writes feature and short film scripts between freelance commercial directing jobs.  The music used in this episode come from the soundtrack of My Friend's Rubber Ducky.

Dan Fischer is a director of photographer living in Chicago, Illinois.  He freelances on big budget commercials and enjoys making small films with his friends.  Dan talks about how to stay fresh and keep a zen mindset in the middle of chaotic production days.  He also talks about working his way up the ranks and learning lighting techniques as a camera PA on Big Fish, the Tim Burton film.

Chris Lett, former CNN producer and journalist, talks about working as a field producer at a major news network for a decade.  During the recording of this episode, Chris was a Scripps Fellow at the School of Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder.  Chris has covered major events such as the drawing Mohammed content in Garland, Texas that became a shooting, the shooting in San Bernardino, the Pulse night club shooting in Orlando, and the 100-year flood in Texas. We go deep into growing up between rural Virginia and 1980’s Atlanta, during a serial kidnapping of black children.  Chris discusses healing himself with Egyptian yoga, known as Kemetic yoga, and how it was at the heart of Egyptian society.

The songs in this episode are from the Postales soundtrack, available on iTunes, Spotify, and Vinyl from Colemine Records.

Mario Contreras talks about coming up in the Chicago documentary scene, his experiences as an alumni of Kartemquin’s Diverse Voices in Documentary program, new documentary films to watch produced in Illinois, Minding the Gap and All the Queen’s Horses, and valuable lessons he learned as a film student at Southern Illinois University.

The songs in this episode were recorded by the host, Josh Hyde, and his cinematographer friend, Dan Fischer, when they were filming a documentary in Peru in 2001.

Michael J Deller, member of the Budos Band and founding member of Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires stops by to talk about the journey from musician to composing scores, filming Luke Cake scenes, touring the World with Charles Bradley, and getting his 6 year old daughter to play violin on the my new film's soundtrack.  We also cover the meaning of, "Los Barbudos", Fidel Castro’s baseball team, Bonnie Rait fallng in love with Charles Bradley, working in analog on the Postales soundtrack, raising 2 daughters, Joe’s Shanghai food, and Jenny Deller as the coolest sister in the world.  She's a wonderful filmmaker. (Future Weather, Claire in Motion)

Andrew from Environmental Farming Solutions and Pure Hemp Technology stops by to talk hemp farming, the new Farm Bill, and genetically modified food. Josh Hyde met Andrew while working in a dispensary. Andrew was learning how to farm cannabis and Josh was doing research for a feature film script, “How to Kill a Bad Man,” that’s set in the underworld of marijuana trimmers. The songs used in the episode are from Michael J Deller of the Budos Band and Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires.