Directors Cut Radio Show

What happens when somebody

who has already built a career
in music

business decides to tell
a different kind of story.

Splash city is a new crime drama

set in the city of San
Francisco, exploring

family, loyalty and choices
that changes a life.

Today,
we're joined by the film's

executive producer, co-writer
and co-director, Berner.

Welcome to the show.
How are you?

Thank you for having me.

I'm feeling good. It's
good to have you here.

You've had success in the music
business,

your own personal business.

But Splash City
is your first feature film.

What made this the right
time to tell this story?

I have already done so
much music already.

I've already done.

You know, I wrote a book,
got the New York Times

bestseller
with my book recently.

So I'm like, right now,
film makes the most sense

is the next level
of storytelling for me.

I feel like.

And this movie follows
two brothers.

They're trying to escape
a very different paths.

What about it?

That relationship
that made you want to, like,

build a film around it?

I feel like we all know
a pair of brothers

that go through
different things.

I have a brother, you know,

and I've met multiple brothers

that have someone going down
the right path

doing the right thing,
and then someone just

kind of influenced
by the wrong crowd. Right.

It's something
we all grew up with.

At least

if you kind of come from this,
you know, the streets,

you kind of come
from a rougher upbringing.

So I feel like we wanted to
dress that and the whole,

you know,

period of time in San Francisco
where the smash was so real.

It was as a really big thing
for quite some time in SF.

And you centered all of this
route,

San Francisco
and a lot of film and media.

We get like the Olsen twins
from full House.

We maybe get The Room,
but you decided

to do an authentic approach
to attach to that city.

What made you do that and why?

I'm born and raised here.

I feel like it's missing,

like you never see
the other side of SF.

You either see, like you said,
full House, Mrs.

Doubtfire. Yeah, old school
cuffs with Christian Slater.

It was all great,
but one. It's a beautiful city.

It deserves to be on camera.

Two, there's a whole
nother world

that no one's even seen before.
So that's what we're here for.

You've worn a lot of hats
on this project.

Your executive producer.
Your writer co-director.

What do you think

you learned about filmmaking
that surprised you the most?

Everything.

I think
the biggest thing I learned was

you had to have a great line
producer.

I learned that the hard way,
but other than that, I feel like

I learned just on
how to how to fund a film,

how to how to run a tight ship
to get the shots you need done.

I learned a lot about posts,
you know, mixing sound design

the whole night.

And so I feel like I'm we're
gamed all the way up right now.

And a lot of the time
you learn something

when you start a film,
if you could go back in time,

whisper in your ear on day one
when you're starting things out.

What would be one of the

little pieces of advice
that you'd give yourself on day

one that would make the project

filming and everything
much better or easier?

Probably would have, like,

focus on the way
to preserve the budget

a little more like
we did this film for $2 million.

It looks like a $10 million
film.

Honestly, the quality of it,
the way we executed.

But I feel like I could have

maybe kept that budget
a little tighter.

I should have paid attention
a little more to logistics.

Okay. Yeah.

Do you have any advice
for any filmmakers out there?

Yeah.

Just take your time
to plot it out.

We went head first.

We didn't really think about
talents gonna stay here.

We have to get them over here.

We're gonna shoot here
and tomorrow.

I would rather
just get the logistics

all the way down first.
You know.

Anything
that you are working on next

that we might be knowing about?

Yeah,
I worked on a scripted series

about my life, about,
you know, about cookies or not.

So that's going to be tight.

It's with a pretty big studio
now set soon, and we're

working on my next feature film.

It's like a marijuana

trafficking film and maybe,
maybe like a type horror.

All right.

I want to thank you
for joining me today.

Splash city is available now.

In select theaters
across the country.

Please go to their website and
check out where you could find

Splash City airing near you.

Thank you. Thanks. Bye. It.