ACTUAL EMERGENCY MEETING!!

tearing up even at the beginning of this. But Amy just Amy just showed me a review uh and and you know I I I'm totally fight with people leaving reviews and things to this. I notoriously, you know, being on YouTube for 13 years. I'm notoriously immune to uh comments on YouTube and I'm I'm fine with that. Reviews are pretty much the same way. It's it's where um where [snorts] like uh if you you know if you if you're just someone who doesn't know me or or I don't know you, it's okay. You can think whatever you want about me, but when it's someone that I actually know or that I know their content or that I respect and and I get I get real man, [clears throat] I get real weepy real quick. Um, so yeah, there's been a lot of crazy information that has just been dropped on my lap uh recently about the status of the we the war of the weekend, right? The our feud with Sam Remy, our personal feud. It's actually more of a of a feud with Disney if we're going to be perfectly honest with ourselves. Um, it's okay. I don't even know where to start. It was it was Amy showed me this review from um H Bomber Guy, which if you don't know, uh you've probably seen some clips randomly online, but I've I've watched his videos. Um and I'm not here to read this review for you, and I'm not going to do that, but it's just like it's just it really hit here. Man, it's been a bit of an emotional day. I'm not going to lie. It's been a bit of an emotional day. In a good way, in the best way possible. Oh. Oh, man. Everything's good. Everything's fine. I just don't know [laughter] where to start. Okay. So, I'll I'll first say, man, just thank you guys. What I don't want to just thank you guys so much cuz it's been a really special day and I just got back from donating blood. Thank you to everybody that has donated blood. It means a lot and it's really important because there still is a shortage. Um, and just just really cool. Um, I had a cool conversation there with a few fans. Uh and and a lot of that touched me right here in my heart. And then I I'm driving home and I'm talking to you know some people cuz you know there's a lot there's a lot of suddenly a lot of interest. Suddenly the world is very [snorts] [sighs] talking about all this. Um so first off right now as you're watching it guess what we're still the number one movie in America. And I but not by much. I put out on uh I put out on in uh social media that I thought it was very funny. Um cuz if you I look I don't know if I if I am I don't am I the guy that's supposed to tell the numbers to all the other pages to update the things? I don't think that there's a big conspiracy or something. At least I don't think so about keeping Iron Long off of the top lists because the industry doesn't want it there. I mean, Disney apparently has been number one with one of their movies for the the past this would be the past 10 weekends if they did win. Um, [snorts] so we're not we're number one by like this much right now. And that is shrinking uh as the day goes by, but it's shrinking at a hilariously countdown like amount because [laughter] the cap is like [ __ ] close. So, uh, so let me let me put it this way, right? So, I I personally don't care about the numbers other than that it's like, woo, success. I'm going to be able to give the crew a big bonus. That's awesome. I do a like I I'm not a big studio, so the split with the theaters is basically 50/50. I'm pretty sure actually the majority of the studios the theater splits is 50/50 right now. It's it's I mean they also get their concessions. Um when I was able to uh like for that drive-in, I was able to give them some pizzas and comp the the concessions there. I comped the concessions for the Esquire back in Cincinnati. So, if you wanted to go see it tonight and you go to the Esquire, you'll The concessions are comped. Uh, and I was able to do that. Um, but you know, concessions are all for the theaters anyway. Um, and so, you know, it's really cool because it's it's just, you know, everybody wins. And this morning after I had learned that the uh the um the iron lung was missing from the top charts, we were still number one by 600,000. And I swear I don't give a [ __ ] about the numbers, but it's like I didn't think I didn't think. How could I have thought? What would what would that be? This doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense at all. And so now when it when right now it's it's shrinking, of course shrinking. Like I I I know that Send Help is going to win eventually. I'm I mean Iron Lung isn't going to be in theaters next weekend really. Um so it's like we we always ever this is only ever really going to be a one-time thing. I think it was supposed to be in 50 theaters and now it's like [snorts] I'm fine. I'm fine. I am fine. So, it's shrinking and so now the gap is 300,000, right? It was 600,000 this morning. It's 300,000 right now. And [snorts] you know, I had a conversation I had a conversation today with um with a fan and it was perfectly normal conversation and they mentioned that they mentioned that they were they were a film student. [gasps] I don't know why I'm crying. and they said how cool it was that this was done independently and that this was really kind of an inspiration for people that wanted to get into making movies that it was even possible. And I I I floated the idea that like, well, you know, I've got I've got like some conversations going with a lot of people are calling me and I was like, "What what if a studio help with distribution?" And and they they actually said, "Please don't cuz it's really cool." And right now it's kind of a a hero moment to showcase that indie film making was possible. And now now I just I like I just got home. I had to drive an hour and 10 minutes away to to uh donate blood. And so I had a bunch of calls on the way there. I've been thinking about it ever since. It's like, holy [ __ ] Oh man. So, and then I saw this review and it's like [laughter] I know. I just donated blood and I I had some juice. I had some juice. I'm good. I'm [snorts] I'm good. And uh and I just was thinking about that and then I got home and I saw this email that came in and and again, this is where I'm like, I don't know if I'm supposed to report this, but this email came in that Sendel was closing the gap and they're now 300,000 away. And I I I'm almost hesitant to ask this, but I think it might be a big win for independent filmm if and it's not to shut out Sam Ramy, it's kind of to shut out Disney for winning like 10 weeks in a row. Maybe they could only win nine weeks in a row in the one weekend that our longest year could, you know, [snorts] I think that might be pretty cool. And maybe if that could inspire someone to keep making films, that'd be pretty cool. And maybe if it could open up a door for other people to see it, you know, to do their projects independently and know that there could be success in it. I think that'd be pretty cool. I think that might be actually really [snorts] So, if you didn't have any plans tonight or you know, you were [laughter] so curious about it that it's all just a big conspiracy and just like I got to make a movie so confusing they have to watch it twice. But if [snorts] you if you if you weren't doing anything and you know you had some free time, maybe you could maybe you could see it and and then then tomorrow like I plan on I'm going to watch I'm going to watch Zindel. I want to watch it so badly and maybe that be Oh, [ __ ] I'm good. I am good. I'm good. It's just It's been a funky weekend. It's been really cathartic because like all this been so much hard work and I've been getting a lot of really good messages from people that I really care about and a lot of people that worked on this movie that really really really cared about it and are really proud of it. And I mean, like, if I if I could bring him a win, if we could bring him a win, cuz like I said, you're the festival. If we could take it to the festival, [snorts] that might mean a lot. Yeah, that might that might mean a lot. So, if you weren't if you weren't doing anything tonight, that might be pretty cool because I know I I know I was joking about it. I was joking. I'm seriously all the posts that I made about the number one thing, it's cuz it made me laugh and I had no doubt in my mind that it would get overtaken by the end of the weekend. But hey, it seems [snorts] like that like that might actually be in range. So yeah, if you if if you wanted to bring a friend or something or you wanted to go see it again, or maybe you haven't seen it yet, you're planning to this week. If you if you were free, that's that's all I'm saying. If you were free, I think you'd have a good time. And I just kind of want to I actually do now kind of want to read this review from from H. bomber guy because it just freely means a lot. I think it's I think it's very I think it's very fair. I think it's I think it gets a lot of things that I was trying to communicate and I always knew that some people wouldn't and some people would think that things are different and and I'm it is what it is [sighs] and uh [clears throat] so if you needed any kind of motivation or convincing to maybe you might actually like this I think this is a good review. Uh, once again, H Bomber Guy. This is on letter box, um, which is a site that I I had to learn about. [laughter] [snorts] So, um, I'm I'm going to read straight, so I guess this counts as stealing content. So, I'm no better than those darn dirty streamers here, but here I go. There's a trilogy of movies adapting the first Mobile Suit Gundam. It's about 7 hours total. It gets boring in stretches and it keeps going and going and as more horrors of wars are inflicted on the cast, you start to miss the boring bits. You didn't know how bad things were going to get for these poor guys. It was nicer when they were alive. You regretted feeling bored. Like actually feel sorry you wanted things to speed up by five hours 5 to 7. You're just a little bit insane on behalf of the smashed men and boys killing each other over ideas they don't understand. I've never felt anything like that before or since. But holy [ __ ] Iron Lung comes closer than any almost any movie I can think of. And it does it in 2 hours and 7 minutes. I just had to Google the run run time and I'm sincerely surprised that it's so it's that short. It's a 3 to 14 hourong experience which somehow takes only 2.1 hours to watch. Boring sometimes a bit. Yeah, but I think those parts are boring. Dare he say it? The pretentious buffoon. He's going to say it on purpose. The on I got to say on purp. This is why I should leave it to him. I don't know if he's going to make it for a video, but on purpose. The film captures the mind-numbing emptiness of flying blind in a tiny submarine where you could die at any moment. But that moment might come several quiet, empty days from now. The fear slowly becomes a crushing drudgery. If it tried too hard to be exciting at all times, I think it would betray the unique thing it pulls off here. The main thing that really has to work, it's working. Do I have problems? Who cares? They [ __ ] did it. It's [laughter] When you watch a YouTuber movie or a game adaptation in this vein, you keep a lookout for the telltale signs of cringe. Is the star going to self-consciously try to prove they're an actor? Are they going to lovingly recreate the exact beats and visuals of the game without really adapting it into something new? Are they going to get bogged down in the lore or making a fixed version which elaborates and explains it all? or are they going to lean on the audience's assumed understanding of all that stuff already and expect people to come up with their own theories instead of telling a complete story? Will it feel incomplete without having played the game or be so unlike it that it might have been might as well have been something else? Iron Lung has some of those issues, maybe. But I'm genuinely really impressed by how well it threads the needle. The film is quite literally a vehicle for its main star, but it's shot and edited as if Mark directed someone else in the main role. There's a part where Mark gets a dab of blood on his hand and wipes it on his trousers and it's loving. You see the ribbing of the fabric, the seeping in of the blood, its shininess in the light. It knows to focus on the feel and atmosphere. A worse movie would cut or shorten that shot or never have that shot at all. So much thinking must have gone into where to put the camera, how to highlight the physicality of the space and how to make that very small room keep feeling new and strange. It's not in a rush to prove Mariplier can actor, director edit, which sort of proves he can. The sound design was brill. I love Andrew Hal Schultz music and there hasn't been guy fumbling with a floppy map while wearing fingerless gloves fully this good for a long time. This choice of adaptation feels very personal. It's hard not to see parallels between the game's premise disposably sitting in a small room hacking away at an inscrutable work with an unknown chance of success and being a YouTuber. All the anxieties about what this job entails at its worst are baldled up, calcified, and atrophied under years of pressure and stress and vomited back up like rotting stones all over the floor of the SM13. Not quite literally, but sort of literally. Oh man. Sorry. Jesus Christ. I noticed this is not the review anymore. I noticed, you know, no uh I noticed so many I was reading everything. Of course, like I I I and I'm not immune to the the criticisms. Of course, I'm not immune at all. I love I love actually hearing the criticis because it's like one of the beautiful things and horrible things and nightmarish things about editing yourself as the actor is you have to face yourself at your worst every single day [laughter] that you're working on it cuz there's good takes and there are bad takes and you and being a YouTuber is is that that analogy between this movie and being a YouTuber. Maybe I didn't even realize how true that was cuz I was chipping away that this for so long in the dark. And it it cost me a lot, but it gave me it gave me a lot. I'd like to think it gave me more than I put in. I [snorts] don't know. And maybe that's art, I guess, in itself. Maybe the product I we joked often that the documentary about making this movie would be more interesting than the movie sometimes. [snorts and gasps] [snorts] Oh man. So this this this rating is is very fair there. There's good and bad. I don't want to steal all of it because I it's like it's written by another YouTuber and it's a YouTuber that I respect. um that I think has good opinions the vast majority of the time like all of us it's only occasionally that we have wisdom shooting out of us but yeah it there was a lot of thought in the small details it was a lot and the the restrictions of the setting of it were the most challenging part of it the story and trying to be true and and David sent me the [ __ ] nicest text possible. I was just talking to him this morning, but this was the other day. He sent me the nicest text. I'm not going to read it to you because that's more personal, but [snorts] yeah, this um yeah, this uh has been such a such a wonderful experience. I couldn't be happier. Even if I'm crying, it's it's good. It's cathartic. And I needed this so badly. I needed it more than I knew. I've grown so much from it. I have so much motivation from it. The rewards from burning your yourself at both ends to try to make something is just the the unquenchable thirst to do it all over again. And that's that is great. That [snorts] is great. And it is right now there is a very weird very weird opportunity where this could actually be the number one movie in America completely independently released. no studio, you know, there's people that help, but they're people, you know, and I guess [laughter] there might there probably a few things wrong with studios. I can't I can't be so both sides about that one, but you know, there's people that care in those studios, but I think maybe in this one moment, in this one weekend, if you guys could see the movie tonight, that would that would mean a lot. And given [snorts] that we are given that we are uh as of an hour ago 300,000 ahead. We are actually right now number one and the gap is closing. It was 600,000 this morning. It's 300,000 now. I got this email from Sam Hering and and Bill Hurting. Um [snorts] and uh and I want to read you this email um from Bill Hering uh who is uh part of Centurion Films who has been the one that has been pounding the pavement who who got the initial 50 to 60 theaters who has been instrumental in expanding and calling up theaters one at a time. Him and his team have done an unbelievable job with this. I'm going to read you the email that he sent me and then I'll I'll leave it at that. Um, [snorts] oh man. Bill Hurting, this is his name. You've shocked the world. Congrats on an incredible opening weekend. Disney jumped the gun when calling 20 million% help just to steal the weekend headline. That's what he said. The truth is we were still ahead as of this morning and this will be a really really tight race to finish. If I could, you know, I've been doing a YouTube a long time, been making content a long time, but not not the majority of my life. And I've come this far because I'd like to think that that I could inspire someone to make something and give people maybe a little bit of hope that you know there still a future in telling stories like this. [snorts] I can't be the only one that wants to do this right. I can't be the only one. I just don't want you guys to ever think it's impossible. Yeah. So, anyway, that's all. If you are free tonight and you wanted to see a movie, maybe the number one movie in America and actually definitely the number one movie in Australia and New Zealand that that ain't even that well it might be close but it's not close. I think now it's not within I don't know if you're in if you're if [snorts] you're in the vicinity of a theater and you uh and you uh uh had had a few had a few hours a [laughter] few hours. It's not that long. It's not that long, guys. A couple hours then maybe you could. And hey, if you can and you haven't maybe maybe you could donate some blood, too. I met a few people that were donating blood today and they were really cool and I think maybe exactly what I needed today. So, it's a close race. The weekend could be won by a completely independent movie made with maybe just a little bit of passion and love. I think you'll like it. I think you'll [laughter] like it. [snorts] I think you'll get uh something out of it. And then afterwards, maybe we we'll talk about what the next plans are because I have a funny feeling I'm I'm going to be going that alone, too. So, we'll figure that out together. Hey, you guys know languages, right? Maybe you can help me translate it into some languages [snorts] just so I don't, you know, make a mistake shoving [laughter] it through Google Trans. All right. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. I really appreciate it. It's um really crazy and I've said that a million times. So, I'm going to go before I embarrass myself any further. Um bring a friend, tell them it's a close race. Do it for the meme. Uh do do it so I can keep making those if if if we get [laughter] number one. I'm going to make so many [ __ ] videos. I'm going to make so many [ __ ] number one in my eyes lights. Number one. Number one camera. I'm going spoil a whole movie with number ones everywhere. [snorts] It's going to be it it's going to be it's going to be really funny. So, thank you. I'm going to go now. I'm gonna go and you got to hurry. You got to get to the theater. So, if you can, if you were free, go see tonight and then tomorrow. You don't have to. So, [snorts] all right. Thanks, guys. I'll uh see you around. Um and as always, I guess I'll see you at the movies. Bye guys. Bye.