Film Courage: Again just setting up I just jokingly said something that you said should be
on a t-shirt and that is "Call me when you make your second film." Kenneth Castillo, Filmmaker: "Call me when you
make your second." Yeah when someone makes their first film I'm like okay give me a
calling you to your second film you know because after your first film you say oh
man yeah I got to go through that again then you're a filmmaker you know but I
say that because in the films that I've done a lot of my lead actors have gone
off a lot of my stuff's ensemble right soul a few of my leads almost all my
leads of all my feature films had gone off to write and direct their own films
because I had shown them how to pull the rabbit out of a hat for little money
because at that time no one thought you can make a movie for $50,000 and I was
doing that and I was getting them at Blockbuster I was getting them on red
box and getting them on Netflix so these actors would go off and use my
connections to do their thing but no and some of them did it right in the sense
that they started their process some of them didn't do is so right and they just
copied my process but none of them went off to make a
second film you know so I always have told actors in particular and some of
them had asked me to direct their thing and I'm like why are you doing this well
I really want to showcase my talent with this I okay that's not a reason it's a
vanity project it's not something I'm interested in I know if there's nothing
personal then why are you gonna do this because that's gonna reek of vanity as
soon as you put it out there so and most of them were and they never went to go
do a second one because it's a lot of you gotta I mean look your audience
knows you know what it takes to make a feature film right and if you're just
doing it to showcase your acting talent it's it's that's a hard thing to
motivate there's to keep you motivated throughout the process you know and then
also after you get past releasing it and your friends and family are supportive
where is it now you know did it go on to get distribution did it go on to a
festival that you know wasn't especially what I call specialty film festival you
know where you know everybody involved they're like they want to support the
film and that's great but not very few of them have gone to do a second
actually none of them had what gone on to do a second feature and most of the
people I know that have that thought they wanted to be filmmakers after the
first one that was it for them and then just like I don't know how you did it
how do you do it raising your family and do it I said while I enjoy both I don't
I love making movies I love being a family guy I love my being a husband I
love being a dad so to me it's not I almost say that where it's hard because
it is hard but it's not labored and so you have a family you have two children
and you also work yes yeah so you haven't been on a dry spell although I
will say this month is the first month in a while I'm making more money as a
writer director than I am in my job and so that was that was a really good way
to start August so this is great yeah so but uh but yeah I have to I have to
maintain my financial responsibilities to my family but the job that I have
allows me to do both it allows me to keep pursuing my as of I have a
flexibility in that and so I'm able to provide for my family and and and do
that and pursue filmmaking you know that's helped me keep my sanity
have you ever wanted to have a non flexible job because I know there's
always that bait like mm should I take this like more steady or not even steady
paycheck but no I I'm not a nine-to-five guy I'm not a nine-to-five guy I knew
that very early on yeah I would have friends that would say you know I don't
know how you do it without the security of you know retirement or health care
that luckily my wife's job she has the health care so we don't worry about that
but I said there's no guarantees man I go there are no guarantees I go I'm sure
a lot of people that worked at a lot of these financial institutions that have
gone gone down all thought they had security there's no such thing as
security there's no security and being an artist you know and somehow we we we
pay the bills every month and still pursue it's just having courage to
do that most people don't and I don't blame them
but you have to have that if you want to pursue your art and there's a lot of
jobs in LA and then are like these flexible jobs that actually pay a decent
wage you know oh yeah always microcon it were canned make it hustle you know it's
I always say no look if you come to LA to pursue acting or filmmaking or
whatever your passion is if it's important to you you find a way if it's
not you find an excuse
you