Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shane Brady. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Shane, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you recount a story of an unexpected problem you’ve faced along the way?
As of June 2023, my wife and I were ready to begin pre-production on our second feature film — HACKED: A DOUBLE ENTENDRE OF RAGE FUELED KARMA. We had our budget set, dates set, and cast and crew locked in.
One month later, my wife and I happily found out she was pregnant! Hooray! THEEEEEEEN our budget was cut in half because our Florida producers umm… “Made mistakes” and for sure broke bridges with us… aaaaaand then we lost two of our main actors from the SAG strike.
The same day, I heard a podcast where Christopher Nolan spoke about cutting nearly a month from his production of OPPENHEIMER because they needed to allocate money for the set in the middle of the desert. If Mr. Nolan can do it? So can we.
So we simply re-looked at EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of our movie, and figured out how to do it for half. AND WE DID. ALL CAPS. Because that’s what I’ve been trained to do, solve things with creativity rather than money.
We did it. I’m so damn proud of our team and our group and how EVERYONE bought in to what we were trying to accomplish. There’s clearly a much longer version of this story, but sometimes when you’re met with impossible odds, you rise up.
Everyone we spoke to said “You can’t do this during a strike”. or “You can’t go make a movie on half a budget a mere month before filming was to begin.” And our response was always “Well, we are having a baby. So, it’s happening. Deal with it. Figure it out. We are making this movie,” And then, people would exhale and go “Okay. Let’s figure this out.”
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started my journey primarily as an actor, and throughout the years have soaked up everything and anything about Hollywood. I am now proud to call myself a filmmaker. My first feature length movie is called BREATHING HAPPY, it did well on the festival circuit, winning best feature at 5 festivals, and I won best actor at Filmquest. You can look it all up at my website at www.shanebradyactor.com
I have worked with children for 15 years, specifically writing, directing, and editing short films during CAMP HOLLYWOOD. It’s a movie summer camp through John D’Aquino’s Acting Studio in Burbank, CA. It’s where I cut my teeth in the industry, and I continue to work with that school to this day. I always thought to myself, if I wanted to get better at my craft, I should learn how to TEACH it. Because in the trenches is where you really see what works, and what doesn’t.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
In order to pay for my first feature BREATHING HAPPY, my wife and I sold Rainbow Vacuum cleaners in Houston, TX. It was humbling, depressing, humiliating, torturous, and we cried every single day.
Every. Single. Day.
The guy who ran the business degraded us every chance he had, is narcissistic, intimidating, merciless in his insults, confusing, and all around a mean person. He reminded us weekly, if not daily, that we had nowhere else to go. No way else to make money. It was covid, Hollywood was still completely shut down, and everything I had worked my life for up to that point was gone.
There were no film sets, gyms, parks, hockey rinks, kid classes to teach… Nothing. Everything was completely shut down (as I’m sure you know, LA was far worse than other places). But we did it. We woke up with a goal in mind, put on our stupid vaccuum sales people polo shirts, learned the sales scripts, drove hours on end to homes that requested demos, and sold the stupid machines that made our movie a reality.
Oh, and during filming for Breathing Happy, we had $20,000 stolen via wire fraud when we went to put a down payment on our first home. So I already went from spending every dime I had on a movie, and then was put into debt.
So if you’re reading this, do me a favor and go buy BREATHING HAPPY on amazon so I can feed my daughter!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Go watch indie films, see concerts live, and go to the movie theatres and watch the smaller movies, not JUST the huge tentpole films! Voting with your dollars is really the only way to help us!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shanebradyactor.com
- Instagram: @shanebradyactor
Image Credits
Shane Brady
Emily Zercher
Chandler Riggs
Owen Atlas
Collin Thompson
Augie Duke
Evan Zissimopulos