In 2011, Vincent Grashaw scored. With his pals within the Coatwolf filmmaking collective, he produced the ultra-low-budget “Bellflower.” It was a breakout hit in Sundance’s NEXT part and Oscilloscope Laboratories snapped up the gritty, handmade portrait of poisonous love and self-destruction lower than every week after its premiere.
“That was when [Oscilloscope co-founder] Adam Yauch was still alive and [A24 co-founder] David Fenkel was still there,” Grashaw stated. “The year we were at Sundance, I want to say 30 films sold. It was crazy.”
Being a competition breakout kicked off his profession, offering entry to a community of brokers, managers, and common conferences.
It didn’t do a rattling factor to get a film made.
He laughed. “I don’t think I ever had somebody say yes to a pitch. I feel like in a weird way, I’m outside of the business compared to what I was back then.”
However, at a time when so many filmmakers wrestle, he’s directed 4 options within the final 14 years; two extra are in publish, together with a Bryan Bruton biopic starring Theo Rossi as the previous Florida inmate who now tells his jail tales on YouTube.
Between motion pictures and different filmmaking facet gigs, he hasn’t had a straight job since 2010. “You hit rough times and good times,” he texted me. “Gone from being in debt to having a lot in the bank account. But I’ve been able to travel and see a lot of the world because of this job so I’m grateful.”
The secret to his success? Instead of begging for growth offers, he determined to chase one thing extra sensible: cash.
“I found it way easier to find people with money than it is to get a company to say ‘Yes,’” Grashaw stated. “You’d be surprised how many rich people are out there.”
He didn’t have an agent. An opportunity connection by way of a girlfriend funded his characteristic directorial debut, “Coldwater.” (That journey concerned a music mogul, the Elvis Suite with a bullet gap within the wall, and driving again from Vegas with $300K from the thousand-dollar slots.)
More prosaically, he bought “What Josiah Saw” off the bottom after six years because of Randomix Productions, whose principal Ran Namerode additionally chairs Redworth Capital Group.
Private traders’ motivations haven’t modified: They wish to break into Hollywood, see a member of the family on display screen, or park cash for tax causes. So far, Grashaw’s movies have budgets between $750,000 and $1.2 million.
At this level, you future filmmakers would possibly roll your eyes. Oh, you may make motion pictures with a wealthy man? Hey, me too! But Grashaw’s success goes past an open checkbook.
“So many investors get burned and people steal their money,” he stated. “The producers take huge fees and I don’t mess with that. When you deal with other people’s millions, there’s a responsibility.”
Grashaw’s most likely too sensible to be an auteur. He responds to “grounded human stories,” however they might be his script or another person’s and style’s unimportant. And he doesn’t make movies with out desirous about the viewers: Who’s going to pay to see it?
Or, as Grashaw put it, “You can’t be a selfish artist who’s just not open to shit.”
That’s a tradeoff some filmmakers can’t abdomen. Grashaw will get it; he couldn’t stand infinite pitch conferences and their slow-rolled “no.” He’s not the kind to hustle at cocktail events.
“The only time I really feel ‘in the business’ is when you’re making offers to actors, because you’re dealing with their reps, and then during any festival or distribution part of the experience,” he stated. “Other than that, you’re just creating a family, making a movie somewhere in Kentucky or Oklahoma. I don’t necessarily feel like I’m involved in that side of the world.”
Grashaw didn’t go to film college. An early model of “Coldwater” landed within the prime 30 scripts for HBO’s first season of “Project Greenlight” when he was 18, sparking business curiosity.
“In my twenties I learned more about contract law and getting fucked over and weasels and who to trust,” he stated. “That was my school.”
It additionally taught him that “if you find people who want to make your shit, you’re all of a sudden doing it. I felt like there was a way you could cut through.”
Working outdoors the Hollywood funnel doesn’t imply whole freedom. If a backer wished a task for his or her companion, he’d determine it out. If they wished their child to be taught the ropes on set, fantastic. Dana Namerode had a small half in “What Josiah Saw” and is the feminine lead in his upcoming “Keep Quiet,” starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Nick Stahl.
“Casting her in the movie was a condition, and sometimes that can blow up in your face, but in this case she was exceptional,” Grashaw stated. “It made it a lot easier to go, ‘Holy shit, okay, let me find projects that fit the mold for the actor. They want to make good movies.’”
That balancing act between creative ambition and industrial viability allowed him closing reduce. More importantly, it stored him working.
“What Josiah Saw” drew stable critiques and distribution by way of Shudder in 2021, lastly giving Grashaw a cause to signal with illustration.
“There’s no reason to have an agent or manager without some heat on you to then parlay that into something,” he stated. “You’re just on a roster and if you don’t have anything, they’re not going to do anything for you. And I don’t blame ’em. There’s plenty of people they’ve got to focus on. I do want to level up. I want to direct TV and I want to do some bigger studio-type films.”
His reps just lately brokered a deal for him to direct his biggest-budget mission but, an motion movie for Millennium Media. (That connection got here through Tim Blake Nelson, star of Grashaw’s 2024 drama “Bang Bang.”)
He’s additionally creating a TV collection, “Loss Prevention,” impressed by his pre-“Bellflower” years working undercover to arrest shoplifters at JC Penney and Saks Fifth Avenue. (A buddy made the 2001 Winona Ryder bust.) “The only job-job I ever had. We were as dysfunctional as the people we were arresting,” he stated.
He’s by no means felt assured pitching TV; with a community, you’re so squarely contained in the funnel. “I think independently produced TV is the next thing that could come,” he stated. “That makes a lot of sense. Inexpensive TV shows that you can make eight episodes, and whether it’s a Tubi or finding an AVOD. I think that’s somehow going to happen.”
If there’s a option to keep on the skin, he’ll take it.
“It’s definitely the one I’m going to do independently,” he stated. “It’s not too expensive either, I don’t think.”
✉️ Have an concept, praise, or grievance?
dana@indiewire.com; (323) 435-7690.
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