The Tracksuit Podcast

Dani Abraham – Cops, Camels & a $7,300 Movie

Producer and co-director Dani Abraham sits down with James and BJ for a conversation that covers a police standoff on a Burbank set, a Birthright trip to Israel fueled by cheap tequila, and how a possessed board game shot in Dani's own apartment for $7,300 became Stupid Games — a PG-13 indie horror that landed on the CW, racked up Letterboxd reviews, and proved that $7,000 is basically the same as $0 when it gets your movie made.

Key Topics

• The 6:45 a.m. gun situation — four cop cars, a swapped license plate, and a first AD who still wrapped an hour early
• Birthright Israel origin story — how James and Dani met, camel rides, hangover hikes up Masada, and bottle service that cost less than the tip back home
• Making Stupid Games — a $7,300 budget, Dani's own apartment as the set, a Jumanji-meets-Game-of-Life concept with a demon, and co-director Nicholas Wendell's vision that got him a million-dollar budget next
• From Knowing Aaron to Meeting Marsha — Dani's unreleased 18-year-old Young Filmmakers Club feature found on an old hard drive, and her upcoming Meeting Marsha premiering at San Diego Out Festival
• Stupid Games one-year screening — still available on Tubi, CW app, and Amazon Prime
• Eric Roberts on everything — Jean-Claude Van Damme fanboying over him on the Darkness of Man set, Q-card mastery on Scissors, three movies in one day, and why he's the lifeblood of indie film
• Forget About It — James, BJ, and Dani in pre-production on Gordon Ressick's script, now reimagined as a puppet film
• Dani joins the slate — live on air, Dani agrees to help James pick next year's 12 filmmakers; DM @daniabe with your logline
• Advice for aspiring producers — make your movie; the stakes are only high in your head

Hana Mae Lee – MAGICK MTN. & Directing Her First Feature

Hana Mae Lee drops into the tracksuits to talk horror roots, her debut feature, and the scrappy, organic magic that happens when you give a powerhouse creative total freedom and a hard deadline. James is hearing most of this for the first time — he still hasn't watched a single frame.

Key Topics

• Horror origins: Nightmare on Elm Street at age six, graduating to The Tenant, The Evil Within, and Terrifier 2 — and why psychological horror still hits hardest
• Jump scares decoded: James breaks down the exact scoring formula that makes them work (and why it no longer works on him)
• MAGICK MTN. — Hana's debut directorial feature: a black-and-white, death-rock rock-and-roll fairy tale set in Laurel Canyon and Joshua Tree, with three interlacing stories, Aleister Crowley, Eva O, Super Heroines, Ross Williams, Lord Murk, and Cleopatra Records' deep catalog (17 tracks used)
• Making the film: crew of two (Hana + partner Hal Sutton), shot over 18 days, zero professional actors — architects, a fashion designer, a punk rocker — everyone a real friend with real IP
• Full creative control: James greenlit the project, was never shown a script, never recut a frame — and received the finished hard drive the day of this recording
• The Cleopatra Records deal: free access to the entire library, including six tracks from Anne Timyassui's band Voyeur, songs from Hana's brother's band Resistant Exists, and an original by actor Ben Price
• Hana's music in Boris Is Dead: her single "Weapon of Performance" (from debut album Atmospheric Paradigm) made it into the film — she found out it was staying at the premiere
• How James's micro-budget greenlight program works: pre-sold to distributors, director gets full creative control and the lion's share of the back end
• James's first film: My Pure Joy — $7,000, camera in one hand, boom in the other, two and a half hours long
• BJ and James's production companies: Robotic Donut (horror/action) and Bent Rest (LGBT-focused), with projects like Bears vs. Karen / Bears vs. Zombies and Forget About It (BJ's first voice-acting gay role)
• Hana's path into the industry: Elite Model Management rejection, Dragon Models and Talent, a Honda national commercial, Mr. Brightside and Hilary Duff music videos, then Mike and Molly, Pitch Perfect, and Workaholics all in the same month
• Playing villains: why it never feels like work — from The Babysitter to Sean Whalen's Swipe to A Company of Thieves (Onur Tukel)
• MAGICK MTN. premiere: World Premieres this September the 22nd at Fantastic Fest
• Advice for breaking in: slide into the DMs of filmmakers whose work you love — that's how Hana met Onur Tukel and how she and James connected

## Unique Chung | The Tracksuit Podcast Unique Chung — hair and makeup artist, influencer, trained actress, and founding member of the Dirtbag Crew — sits down with James and BJ for her very first podcast appearance. What starts as a warm reunion between set family quickly spirals into conspiracy theory deep-dives, a heartfelt origin story, and a frank breakdown of what really happens in the makeup chair. ### Key Topics - **How they all met** — the Mondrian pool party, GG Saul Guerrero, and the birth of the Dirtbag Crew at a monster truck rally - **Jim Carrey & the Mandela Effect** — James's theory that Jim Carrey single-handedly implanted false pop-culture memories via *The Mask*, *Ace Ventura*, *The Cable Guy*, and *In Living Color*; the Jimmy Kimmel Illuminati rant and whether the laugh track was faked - **Conspiracy corner** — CERN, the ice wall, hollow moon physics, black holes as a matrix on-ramp, and *The Whyfiles* fish - **Casting without auditions** — James breaks down why he never auditions actors, how watching a full performance beats four sides in a room, and the friendship fallout that happens when he doesn't hire someone - **The Workout & Complex Texas** — BJ on the pressure of hitting every mark with no second takes, shooting out with Kevin Dillon, and auditioning six (eight?) times for a role he didn't book - **Unique's origin story** — Loxa High School for the Arts (rival to James's Hamilton), a theater teacher who spotted her, the clinic waiting room moment that made her mom keep her, and why she wasn't named Cedric - **How she fell into makeup** — a church pageant, a natural-makeup hire, and a special-effects class she only took because theater was full - **The makeup chair as intelligence hub** — actors spilling everything, a wardrobe dog that got dropped and sent someone to the hospital, and why the makeup artist always knows the set's temperature before the director does - **Horror talk** — Chucky as a three-year-old introduction, *Pinocchio Unstrung*, *Obsession*, Backrooms, and why scary movies only fully hit in a packed theater - **Unique's dream role** — a murderer nobody suspects, possibly in a film called *Unique* - **Future plans** — app and invention ideas she won't say on mic, a makeup brand, a beauty school, and reopening her mom's boutique Ice Queen - **Fantastic Fest chaos** — a serial killer targeting chubby dudes in Austin, James sober-wrangling a drunk crew the night before his first-ever boxing match **Find Unique:** [@vain_vixen_makeup](https://www.instagram.com/vain_vixen_makeup/) on Instagram

## Augie Duke - Cabbages, Ghosts & Half-Quitting Augie Duke — actor, producer, and self-described "eepy" personality — joins James and BJ for a conversation that starts with cabbages being put on a breastfeeding chest at Fantastic Fest and somehow ends with a pitch for a medieval Die Hard shot in a Napa castle. Along the way they cover a decade of indie filmmaking, ghost encounters, and the very real art of the half-quit. **Key topics:** - How James cast Augie on *Blood Craft* (she looked like Fairuza Balk — that's literally it) and their ongoing campaign to actually get Fairuza Balk on a project - Making *The Workout* during COVID and the legendary Fantastic Fest premiere: David Lawrence, tipsy, holding cabbages - The *Yellow Jackets* PR error that gave Augie 15 minutes of IMDB fame for a show she was never on - *Hacked* — how Shane Brady and Emily Zercher turned a real wire-fraud nightmare into a revenge-comedy feature, with Chandler Riggs (*The Walking Dead*) as the hacker - *Morton Meets the Eye*, a whodunit musical that debuted at the Beverly Hills Film Festival - James's VHS horror film — shot with no crew, analog, as a deliberate antidote to AI-generated content - James's Fantastic Fest boxing match: a month of Golden Gloves training, professional sparring, and accidentally hitting too hard — the last fight night the festival ever held - Ghost stories: BJ's shadow figures at a San Francisco Hyatt, the Cecil Hotel's body-in-the-water-tower history, and Shannon's ice-cube message from beyond the fridge - Augie on self-doubt, quitting every day, and why making your own content is the real career advice - The pitch: medieval Die Hard in a castle, starring Augie Duke and Fairuza Balk

## Tom Malloy — Magic Castles, Film Markets & The Ant Theory Tom Malloy crashes the Tracksuit Pod (filling in for Brad Pitt, who shockingly could not make it) for a wide-ranging conversation about 30+ years of being an actor-writer-producer-distributor-magician in Hollywood. From his first movie *Graves End* shot guerrilla-style on the streets of Brooklyn with Oliver Stone attached, to running Glass House Distribution's 230-film catalog and now operating inside Shaked Berenson's Studio Dome across 12+ international markets, Tom is one of the most quietly prolific multi-hyphenates working in indie film. Tom also digs into the philosophy of staying in it — the ant theory, the mailman theory, grit over luck — and why Los Angeles is still the only place to be if you're serious. **Key topics:** - Tom's origin story: *Graves End* (Brooklyn streets, Oliver Stone, 1997), the agent who told him to pick one lane, and becoming the "pretty girl at the prom" as a producer who could raise money - *BankRoll* — the bestselling film finance book that launched filmmakingstuff.com and accidentally inspired Mike Flanagan's first feature - Glass House Distribution acquired by Studio Dome: going from 4 markets a year to 12+, doing deals in Mongolia, Malaysia, and Singapore while competitors retreated - Repping the Full Moon / Charles Band catalog (including Surrender Cinema's erotic films — and Mongolia's unexpected enthusiasm for them) - Why Sundance is a lottery ticket, not a distribution plan — and the real numbers behind festival movies that never get picked up - How international territories actually buy: Africa (family-friendly), Middle East and LGBT content, Europe vs. the US, the death of DVD revenue - The Nollywood detour: Nigeria's film industry, *I Do Not Come to You by Chance*, and satellites pointed at the sky - Tom's "Ant Theory" (Brian Regan's ants + film financing = never stop rebuilding), the mailman theory, and the book *Grit* - Why LA is still essential — the Nick Chartier / *Dallas Buyers Club* script-under-the-door story, and hiding that you know Mike Flanagan from your Rochester improv friends - Bringing kids Tyler and Ella to film markets, red carpets, and the set of *The Alphabet Killer* (Tyler as a newborn extra) - Martin Kove, Christa Locan, Sean Ferris — on the surreal moment when people you watched on screen start texting you - *Orge's Justice* — Tom's comedy film with improv partner Scott Baker, born from their extra work on *Anger Management* (Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson) - *The Wicked of Oz* — Tom and James's horror Wizard of Oz collaboration, now on Tubi and Amazon - Where to find Tom: [@tommalloy](https://instagram.com/tommalloy) on Instagram and [filmmakingstuff.com](http://filmmakingstuff.com) for free lessons on film finance and distribution

## Bryan Koss – Seven Days, Mel Gibson & The Roomba Shot Cinematographer Bryan Koss — collaborator on *Fortress*, *Survive the Game*, *Hot Seat*, and *The Workout* — sits down with James and BJ to unpack the craft, chaos, and camaraderie behind making fast, real movies with big personalities on tiny schedules. ### Key Topics - **Shooting *Hot Seat* in seven days** — how the schedule kept shrinking from 12 days down to 7, why prep ("the seven Ps") was the only thing that saved them, and how Mel Gibson, Kevin Dillon, and Shannon Doherty showing up with 25-page days focused everyone's minds - **The 180-degree line** — James and Bryan's long-running disagreement explained for civilians, including when you're allowed (or obligated) to break it, and what Park Chan-wook does with it - **The Fortress kitchen Steadicam sequence** — one of James's favorite shots in any film he's directed, sacrificed a significant chunk of a 10-day schedule to get right - **The Workout's found-footage approach** — 15 cameras, zero respect for the line, placing every camera where a security camera or webcam would actually be, and the legendary Roomba shot Bryan never got to make - **The Soderbergh story** — Bryan as an uncredentialed background extra on *The Good German*, wandering out of a styrofoam building onto the live set, standing next to the monitor while George Clooney and Cate Blanchett filmed a scene, getting eyeballed by Soderbergh, and eventually getting screamed at by an AD for pulling out a telephoto lens - **Owning your own gear** — the pros and cons of building a full kit, how it opened doors early and occasionally stifled creative choices later - **The Klaus origin story** — Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, a production office in New York, six weeks of being called the wrong name, and how an entire crew network across LA, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the East Coast now calls each other Klaus - **Detroit pizza in Los Angeles** — the Detroit Pizza Society, square pans from auto-shop drip trays, and a valley field trip James is apparently now committed to - **UFO sightings** — Bryan and a childhood neighbor, a slow-moving object over Michigan, reconnecting years later and both immediately knowing what the other was about to say - **The air fryer incident** — Puerto Rico, day one with Bruce Willis, cracked pepper chicken sausages, and what happens when a Costco run meets a live take - **Kevin Dillon on set** — why he's a number-one worth having, how his energy affects the whole crew, and the CVS encounter that counts as their third collaboration - **Bryan's path in** — finance degree, Florida real estate, a two-day filmmaking seminar in a Howard Johnson conference room, PA work on big-budget commercials, and bringing coffee to DP Darius Khondji 

Jesse V. Johnson — Action, Authenticity & Watching the Actor's Face Jesse V. Johnson — action director, former stuntman and PA, and the man behind *Savage Dog*, *Avengement*, *Accident Man*, and *Thieves Highway* — sits down with James and BJ for a deep, craft-first conversation about what three decades in the trenches of low-budget action filmmaking actually teaches you. Jesse traces his path from running cables as a teenage PA on Helena Bonham Carter's second film to doing second unit for Spielberg on *Lincoln*, Branagh on *Thor*, and P.T. Anderson on *The Master* — and why those years of enforced unemployment beside the masters were worth more than all his early directing credits combined. Key topics - **The actor roster:** Scott Adkins, Aaron Eckhart, Stephen Bauer (Scarface stories, Ray Donovan, and the heartbreak of scheduling killing the perfect casting), John Malkovich refusing to eat, Ray Park demanding one-take scenes, and Christopher Lee on the set of *Young Indiana Jones* - **Working beside the greats:** Spielberg shooting the Battle of Spotsylvania Ferry with 1,000+ extras and moving on after one take regardless; Kenneth Branagh's notebook method and treating a Thor script like Shakespeare; P.T. Anderson keeping Joaquin Phoenix on a stool facing a corner between takes and the real 1930s museum toilet that got destroyed - **Practical effects philosophy:** why real blanks change an actor's eyes, what Isaac Florentine learned from Sergio Leone's close-ups, and the Gene Kelly trick Jesse stole for *Accident Man* (light shoes = the audience follows the feet) - **The road to *Savage Dog*:** three years unemployable after a black-and-white passion project, the 1942 Jeep with no cup holder, and the roadside moment that reset his entire relationship to the work - **Thieves Highway hitting #1 on Hulu** with zero publicity spend — and *Above and Below* (Antonio Banderas, sharks, a boat) coming next - **Mentoring Luke LaFontaine** on his first feature (*Mexicali*), Jesse's son Aster as script supervisor, and the value of building a set around people you trust - **Advice for directors:** read the masters (Raoul Walsh, William Wyler, Howard Hawks), stop calling it content, and understand that movies are an extension of 2,000-year-old Greek theatre

Nicolas Wendl shot a horror feature in his co-director's apartment for $7,000 and it ended up on the CW.

Nicolas (director of STUPID GAMES, Chapman grad, half French / half German) sits down with James and BJ to break down how he and co-director Danny turned a no-budget apartment shoot into a movie that trended in Tubi's top five horror titles, out-marketed studio campaigns with nothing but their own TikToks, and became the calling card that got him his next feature.

Also: why every effect in the movie is in-camera, the magnets hidden under a board game, the real reason for the green M&Ms, Shannon Doherty's first-ever on-screen death, practical effects vs. aging CGI, a shark-movie bucket list, the dolphin HGTV pitch nobody asked for — and five straight minutes of Jim Carrey being personally responsible for the Mandela Effect.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

— WATCH STUPID GAMES —
Streaming on Tubi and the CW · rent or buy on Prime · also
Or just Google "stupid games" — the marketing worked that well.

— FOLLOW NICOLAS —
@nicolaswendl on all socials

— THE TRACKSUIT PODCAST —
Hosted by James Cullen Bressack & BJ Hendricks
Produced by Bent Wrist Productions

## Jeremy O'Keefe — Casting, Directing & the Bold Choice

Jeremy O'Keefe — casting director, producer, director, acting coach, and tracksuit convert — sits down with James and BJ to pull back the curtain on how the indie film casting machine really works. From assembling the stacked ensemble on *Boris is Dead* to landing Anthony Hopkins for his feature casting debut *Eyes in the Trees*, Jeremy breaks down the philosophy behind great auditions, why actors sabotage themselves by over-planning, and what it feels like to finally step back into the director's chair after 15 years for his passion project *The Avoidant*.

**Key topics:**
- Casting *Boris is Dead*: targeting 90s names, writing personal letters to actors, and why almost every role was a recognizable face
- The Mindy Sterling "sadly passed" email incident that convinced everyone she was dead
- Jimmy Duvall — 12 years of friendship finally landing in the right role
- Jeremy's Meisner-adjacent acting technique: getting out of your brain, into your gut, and making your scene partner matter
- Why over-rehearsed auditions tank on set — and how James spots it by throwing adjustments mid-read
- BJ's Glee audition: nailed the choreography, lost the role to his own tattoos
- Jeremy's shirtless Rallies Burger commercial audition dancing to Nelly — his most humiliating moment
- In-person vs. self-tape: why bringing actors back into the room had them crying with gratitude
- Landing Anthony Hopkins for *Eyes in the Trees* and learning the producing side of star attachments
- *The Avoidant* — Adam Goldberg leads; shooting in Delaware; Jeremy directing for the first time since 2011
- The Dregs (dir. Connor Martin) and chasing Freddie Prinze Jr. across two sitcoms
- James's 100+ tracksuit collection, COVID origin story, and the Emmy tux incident
- LA Metro life, Waymo shoutouts, and how Silver Lake is starting to feel like Astoria
- Networking events, giving vs. getting, and why being useful is the real career strategy

Kay Day — writer, director, actress, musician, Coyote Ugly veteran, Gloppy the gorilla, and the only person to escape a Brooklyn satanic naked shroom party by borrowing a stranger's clothes — takes over a host seat for a full Tracksuit first. James and BJ dig into her $7,000 debut found-footage horror film *There's a Man Over There*, five rounds of rehab (she hit on the EMT en route to number five), eight years of punk rock chaos at Arlene's Grocery in NYC, the viral Bowser thirst trap, ghost stories that actually scared us, and a remarkably open conversation about living with bipolar disorder. Plus: the satanic Brooklyn basement, Gloppy's origin story, Bears vs. Karen, and the Coney Island acid-trip movie she's already writing.

Find Kay Day: @kraykayday on Instagram