Did you like being part of every
aspect of a film?
I do like being involved in every
aspect of filmmaking, just not nec-
essarily all at once! I have worn a
bunch of different hats during my
varied experiences. I was very for-
tunate to have a dedicated cast
and crew for The Samaritans and
we all trusted each other. I am not
much of a micro-manager and I
was really able to focus on one
(or two) things at a time. I had to
trust the actors to bring something
unique every take and the crew
of two to get the best sound and
picture. I do appreciate having fi-
nal say on things. This is really the
first film I’ve done where I was the
last line of defense. In many ways,
I feel like it is really my first film.
There is no one to blame here if it
doesn’t work but me.
The Samaritans was released
on Video on Demand in April.
In today’s world where there
NJ STAGE - ISSUE 59
are very few video stores left, is
VOD the goal for indies now?
VOD is the norm now. There are
so many streaming sites, subscrip-
tion services, and gaming systems
that offer content. My students
consume most of their content
that way for sure and it has been
quite a learning curve for me as
an old-timer who grew up on HBO
and VHS. It is also a great to way
to gauge how well the movie is
tracking with the public since re-
views are published in real time.
We were excited that The Samari-
tans was lucky enough to sign
with an agent after a couple New
Jersey Festival appearances. We
chose the deal offered by Viva Pic-
ture and they are handling all our
distribution. VOD started April 16,
DVD sales at Walmart.com, and
eventually we think we will end up
on one of the subscription servic-
es. As a tiny little movie, we have
to try and maximize, but balance
two things - visibility and income.
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