Old you is, folks, it's show time. People pay good money to
see this movie. When they go out to a theater. They want cold
sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone for
ten podcasting isn't boring off? Hello, I think I know I took your
daughter. She was in a cult. For Christ's sake, you really think
this person is trustworthy? I lost my wife, I lost my daughter.
Forget about the authorities tracking your daughter down. If you want her back,
you got to get her yourself. Where's my daughter? She was allowed two
weeks ago. If she had to go through what I did when they took
me, it will be like nothing. You can imagine. You didn't say
anything about tattoos. Imagine if I showed up at your little church looking like
this. Really shouldn't be following man, stupid. Now you're gonna show the
ladies in respect. They bringing children here. In the end, they're killed.
They keep something like me. You know that? Send Cyrus a message
door. Oh you're crossing over. You better watch yourself. I've tasted a
lot of blood, Lady, I'm not sure I'm gonna full stomach yet kill
them, kill them? Why am I for are wearing take a look this
is God. Hey, folks, welcome to the Projective with I'm your host
Mike White. On the special episode, I'm talking with Natalie Peroda all about
her career, including her latest work on Nick Cassavetti's God Is a Bullet.
The film comes out on June twenty third, twenty twenty three. Be sure
to check that out. And I hope you enjoyed this interview. Can you
tell me a little bit more of your background before you even became a producer.
I studied psychology at uc R Vine, and when I graduated, I
moved to LA and I had a full time job at a PR agency.
Actually, so it was my first time in an apartment by myself, my
first full time job. I was like a real adult at twenty years old.
One night at the office, we were watching Larry King Live and he
was interviewing his long time executive producer Wendy Walker, and she was just going
through her experiences and telling worries and I was watching it and I was like
everything she was saying was resonating with me, and I was like, I
want to do that. That is exactly what I want to pursue and so
the next day I apply to a couple of different production companies and I was
offered an assistant position at Patriot Pictures, where I'm currently still here for the
last twelve years and worked my way up as an SVP and we've financed and
produced over twenty five movies. How do you leverage the psychology? I think
that the psychology major really became useful in this industry. Our business has more
people based than anything else, you know. We deal with financiers, artists,
lawyers, and every single person has feelings and I was trying to express
themselves in some ways. So I've really tried to be a good listener first
and foremost, and then make decisions based on the energy that I get from
the person. Tell me more about Patriot Pictures. What do you guys do?
And you said you've been working there for twelve years and how'd you work
your way up through the ranks? Yes, So, Patriot Pictures is headed
by Michael Mendelssohn. He's a long time producer, financier. He started in
the banking world. He has been a great teacher and mentor and really has
opened the world and welcomed me into it very nicely. We are a small
independent film production company. We fully finance and produce all of our films in
house, and it's been great. How do you find the films to finance
a lot of different ways. We have submissions that come in through friends and
colleagues. They bring their projects and we don't focus on any one genre,
which is the amazing part. We were really flexible in what we choose when
we finance and produce a film, and we can't do it anywhere based on
just we acquire the script and we package it with the cast and the director
and make it, or sometimes the package comes to us ready and we just
need to finance it. It just depends what stage the film the project is
in. We've also started from scratch where we've hired writers to write scripts based
on ideas that we have, so each project is very unique in its own
way. So were you a big movie fan when you're growing up? I
was, Yeah. I honestly didn't really see myself in this industry. But
my favorite part about it is the business and creative intersection. I really felt
like I've been able to express my creative side as well as my love is
really business so it's been amazing to be able to intertwine both. Oh no,
it's one thing to be a movie fan, but it's another thing completely
to be in the business of making movies. What was the hardest thing for
you to either learn or experience as you were going through that transition that sometimes
films take a lot longer to make anything. Also, just you know,
it's a delicate line trying to bring someone's vision to life while also appeasing to
investors and to making sure we have a fiduciary responsibility. And when we're able
to appease all of them, then it's really like we've caught magic in a
bottle. The movies make it look like it's a lot easier to actually make
a movie than it is. So I really respect the process and all of
the people involved. It seeks a village and there's not one person that does
any more than another. It's really you cannot survive without the ecosystem of the
crew, and it starts at the top with your director, who's really the
captain. It's a beautiful process to be a part of. You have been
involved in so many movies now, at least twenty that I know of,
with a lot more coming out, so I'm even coming out right now.
What are the ones that are closest to you, Where do you feel like
you've made that impact the most? They're all our babies, bront Ways.
Throughout my career, I've been fortunate enough to be given more and more responsibilities
on each project. So I would say the most recent ones are the ones
where I've really I've been a part of everretty single decision process in the So
I would say God Is a Bullet is a very close one to the heart.
It's based on a book by Boston Tran. It's written by Nick Cassavetti's
and directed by Nick. It is a strong, powerful film for our you
know Michael Monroe, who's our female lead. It's basically taken in and hell,
so it's not for the faith part, but is also based on a
true story, so we wanted to stay true to the story. And we
are so proud of the film. It comes out on June twenty third,
and we're really excited to share it with the world. And it was an
intense experience just because it was also during COVID and we had in our cast
is amazing and we were in the jungles of Mexico City and in New Mexico
and then just all over and I would say that one is very close.
Another one it would be Get Lost, which is written and directed by Daniela
and Meva, and it has Terrence Howard and Sashaless and Ela Trobolta, and
it's like a beautiful story, coming of age story of a young girl who
lost her mother and she's trying to find kind of herself and where she spread
her mother's ashes. And that was the first film that I was actually on
the ground from day one to the end leading the film. So that was
like my first experience as taking it head on and being in Budapest halfway across
the world while Michael's in Mexico doing God as a Bullet on the other side
of the world. And so that one was a very amazing experience. We
had a great time in Hungary. So we're really excited for that one.
So hopefully that the world we'll get to share that one in the near future.
Now it's a just luck of the draw because he's made so many movies,
or do you guys have a connection with Nicholas Cage because they had notice
you've produced at least three of his films. Yeah, he's great. We
love working with him. Michael has a great relationship with him that stems back
years back to family Man. They've always just kept in touch and every time
we have a project that we think that he may be great for, we
call them and see if he's interested, and most times he is, so
then we get to continue the working relationship with him. It's very important for
us to continue work. We love working with the same people. It makes
it more of a family experience, and we know we know how people do
things and like to work, so it makes it a little bit I wouldn't
say easier, because it's not easier, but it just makes it more enjoyable
in that sense when we get to reunite with the people over and over again.
And he's a dream to work with. I was so shocked when he
did that movie with Son Ocean and from Japan, just that he was making
a movie in the English and then that Nicholas Cage was starring at it and
then you get to producer. That must have been fantastic. Yeah, it
was a little bit of lost in translation while we were in Japan, so
that was an experience that I'll never forget. Just the even at a wardrobe
department, in the production design and everything was just insane and just so exciting
to watch come to life. Our sets were beautiful out in the middle of
nowhere, taking the bullet train to a countryside. It was fantastic. We
had our challenges because of the not speaking Japanese, but we made it through
and we figured it out. We had some great translators, so it kept
us afloat. Which is so fun to do a movie in a different country
because everyone works so differently and so you really get to learn how they do
things. And that was one that was just it was a wild ride and
you can see it on screen. We've been all over the place. What
all countries have you been to? Ever you've lost count Yes, I've been
fortunate enough to be able to see a lot of the world through our industry
and work with a lot of people from around the world. We have filmed
in Hungary and Japan, Poland, Finland, Estonia, the Baltic Sea,
mainly Mexico City, Columbia, a lot of places around the United States too.
But it's been I consider myself lucky in that sense. Not a lot
of sleep in between, but we make up for it. I just watch
Synchronic last night and I love the use of New Orleans and that one,
and what a clever film that movie is and we're so proud of it.
It was in the Toronto Film Festival. The director there are two guys that
were the directors, Justin and Aaron, and there they kind it's amazing what
they do. They also edit, they write, They one of them as
a cinematographer all on their films, so they really keep it into a nice
close knit experience for them. And we love filming in New Orleans and they
really brought that city to life. We actually did that one right after we
did Cutthroat City in New Orleans as well, which was directed by Rizza from
the Wu Tang And it's a great city to be in and it's very mystical
and very you feel like a vampire is going to come out at any second
to hang out with you. So it's a nice place. You didn't tell
me a little bit about the making them Zero Bill. I was a big
fan of the book that was based on and it felt like that one was
in production forever. That was our third film with James franco Is the book.
He did a great job the writer adapting the book and he directed it.
We had an amazing cast. It was Seth Brogan and Will Ferrell and
Making Fox, Joey King, and we did it in l l which was
for a smaller budget film. To pull it off in La, it was
a great time. We really brought out the late sixties the atmosphere of it,
and it wasn't felt like it was in production longer than it was because
we had to release it a bit little bit later than we would have liked,
and so it was it was a fun movie in that sense. It
was. It was really cool too. I love filming in La because we
don't really get to do it very often, but that one, it's like
it was so authentic obviously to the city, and we couldn't do it anywhere
else, and so that was really nice go to set and then be able
to go home. You mentioned how COVID affected at least shooting got as a
bullet. How else did it affect you and the work that you were doing.
COVID is a hard time for a lot of us, and we were
very fortunate in the sense that we were actually filmed the first movie we filmed
in COVID. It was in Mexico City. We took out. It was
called Blackout and it has Josh Dumel, an Abbe Cornish and ignaled Tea.
It was just on Netflix and it was number three worldwide for a few weeks,
which were very proud of. But that one we had to basically rent
out an entire hotel and we doubled the hotel as a hospital because the hospital
was the main premise of the film, the main set, and we lived
there for the whole shoot. No one was allowed to go in and out.
Everything was brought in very small crew and we were very we didn't have
any outbreaks. We're very lucky, very safe. We took it very seriously.
But it was like a college dorm room all over again. Lee.
You would see after filming, you would see remote control cars going down the
hallways. You would see like just crazy things that happened that you could only
imagine happened in a college dorm, it happened in this hotel. Yeah,
So we were able to continue that and that kept us busy for the first
part of COVID. Were the restrictions pretty tight in Mexico they were, Yeah,
it was, and also just we had to of course respect the SAD
rules and it was masks everywhere you would walk in, take your temperature,
and we like basically missed it as you walked in with sanitizing spray, and
we made sure all the food and everything was cleaned while it was when it
entered the building, and if you left, it was you were done working,
we finished, or you were done shooting, so you weren't coming back.
So it wasn't somewhere where we would let people come in and out because
you know, we wanted we didn't want anyone on our crew or actors to
get sick. Of course, how many projects do you have going at the
same time. It varies. Sometimes we have three in production, sometimes we
have one currently, we have we're prepping for a release, and we are
in pre production casting stages on about four films. So if all of those
are windows are green light, they'll probably be staggered throughout the fall winter timeline.
We do have quite a few in development and quite a few where we've
optioned it now figuring out okay, bringing non casting directors or maybe rewrites or
writers to help with the script to get it in a shape where we can
go to cast and that ranges. I would say we have a lot of
IP that we like to have and to try to put together. I would
say we probably have fifteen to twenty of those projects. How do you even
keep track of all that? We have a really great system the checks Star
her name's Caitlin, that tracks our projects and where we are. And then
each project, or not each of them, but the ones that are a
little bit more head they have their kind of group of EPs or producers that
come with them. So it's nice that they come in and out of our
office and we're able to work with them on a project by project basis.
Yeah, as an outsider, I have to tell you that the whole who's
the executive producer, visus associate producer, who happened to bring the project?
And they get their name out it. That's always just like from an outsider
point of view, it's wow, what is this mess? Yeah? Same
from the inside point of view too. No, Yeah, it all depends
on the project and who owns or who bring, who actually has the IP,
who's who are optioning it from, who's if the project comes fully packaged,
it's a completely different conversation and then if we have to put the project
together, so each one is very unique to figuring out who's the producer,
associate producer EPs. We like to really be fair in those things because sometimes
a lot of times what happens if people give out vanity credits and so it's
hard to give out a vanity for someone who's worked so hard to then be
equal to someone with a vanity credit. So we really want to make sure
that the people that are working day and night and truly are getting the project
off the ground, that they're credited the way they should be and fairly.
I know with the w GA there's that whole arbitration process as far as who
gets named. Is there something similar for the PGA? There is if you
want the producers mark like so on each I don't know if you've noticed that
some names have PGA AFTERM, so for that you do have to go through
a very actually pretty complex application process to get that marking, and so they
do. I think they limit it for five producers that can get that mark
if I may be mistaken, but they don't allow ten or fifteen like what
we have seen, but it happens. How have you seen the business change
over the years, especially when it comes to distribution, it's changed immensely.
When the streamers came into our ether, they made it possible for a lot
of these indie films too, if you weren't able to get a theatrical release,
that you could possibly get an upside by selling to a streamer, because
they sometimes do pay they buy the film for an exponential amount. We used
to work off the model of making out our films by territory and by the
US and then different foreign territories, and then you would have your tax credit.
Was how we would finance the films based on that collateral. And now
with the streamers, you want to make sure that if you have an upside
by selling to the streamers. So sometimes we keep our projects close to the
heart and we finish them and then we show them to the streamers first as
a kind of a first look, and then we'll go down the line from
there. So it has made it a little bit, I want to say,
it has caused us to be a little bit more creative and how we
go about our films and how we finance them and produce them. So it's
been a little bit of a challenge but I think we're figuring. We figured
it out, and the world's always changing. There's always going to be something
else, So we just have to stay with the times and keep going.
Fifty years ago, you could sell an entire project off of a poster.
I imagine it's a little bit different now. Yeah, it's definitely not like
that anymore. Yeah, even five years ago, we could sell a project
off of a sizzle, not even a complete film. But it's getting harder
and harder. This might be an unfair question that I'm going to ask it.
Anyway, If you had a magic wand what project either something that you've
got cooking right now or something that you've just been looking at, what would
you bring to the screen. What would be your dream project? I would
say something that means something that when you will walk out of the movie,
you're talking about the movie and it has like a deep impact on you.
I don't really know what the story is, or I want to say something
that resonates with you and makes you or alter kind of the way you look
at things and look at the war world, and hopefully it brings you some
peace. I really think that films are a great escape in the sense that
if you're having a hard day or a shitty week, you can put on
a really good movie to either make you cry or make you laugh, and
just for the ninety minutes to two hours, you can really escape. And
I hope that we can do that for people, and I hope all of
our movies do that. I think one that really is just is remembered for
that. In your position, do you get much feedback about the films themselves
or are you getting more of the business feedback or are you actually hearing from
the people at c these and go, wow, Natalie, I absolutely love
this movie. It really was so fantastic to see. Yeah, I think
we do get good feedback from the buyers and from the audience. We do
like to explore the reviews and see what people are saying. Social media has
been great because so many people have reached out to us on our social on
our Instagram account and have told us the impacts that the movies have had on
them or how much they loved Sometimes they don't like them, which is okay.
We can't appease everyone, but and yeah, I think that we definitely
do get the feedback. We also love to have screenings of friends of family,
see what they think before we lock really any movie, and oh you
never know who's going to have a good idea. Maybe we can implement them
into our cuts. But we're definitely open to listening and to hearing what people
have to say. Natalie, thank you so much for your time. This
is such a pleasure talking with you. Thank you. I really appreciate it.
It's been fun. There's a true fly checket on the back of the
chair. It's like a moment person forever there. My dad had a lot
of big plans for there. Man so proud. Mama's come crazy because a
baby to down my some teen days time? Say why the bound It was
the wrong place, wrong time, wrong and not my god? Free hit
ye forever in the tree and flippen it could be free to kill your play
solo playing yourself and oh god, it's a bullet. Have much honest,
effy work. They're gonna call me search do I stoppinking on me? Well,
I'm a high school brad, I'm over my foot three, I get
a bad and I got out. I'm trying to bed. He didn't have
to use the because they put in his hand. When the guy came atam
willing and it's a funny, lovely episode. I gave I'm another child free
hit your oh God, and I try to slip back. They could have
been, could have been straight to kill your blame and shoulder, blame yourself.
My God, is the bullet hamlet the honest said the world, stay
over the crag out a slip when they could have been. It could have
been in young love of God. I'm not sure. God is the bullet
have mercy on a stiffer room? God is the bullet had mercy on a stiffer rod