#Because I read all mash casts imdb pages a couple of times

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My mum was like "let's watch some Tom Hanks comedy about a violinist and the CIA because I remember it being funny" and I was like yeah sure whatever (scrolls through tumblr) but eventually there was a concert scene and the conductor was David Ogden Stiers getting So Mad at the main characters fucking up the concert

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Its 9:41 pm dark/warm

Welcome to another edition of 8 Questions with……

I lived in San Jose for 15 years in another life. While the Bay Area is very large and very diverse,its not the first place you think of when discussing a thriving film community. If you talked live theater,well…you would be more on target. San Jose and San Francisco both had very vibrant and active theater groups performing when I lived there. Of all the towns in the Bay Area,Redwood City would have been among the last places where you expect to a film community starting to rise. But this is what our next guest,Tony Gapastione has managed to do.  Transplanted from Chicago to the small town of Redwood City,Tony planted a multitude of creative energy and has grown first a group called the Creative Crew which drew upon the many artists in the area and then after a great run,Tony used the positive energy to launch his newest and boldest adventure yet in creating the non-profit BraveMaker which also has taken off. Tony has written and produced two original short films and while he loves making films,live theater,especially Shakespeare,still holds a place in his heart. Let’s go see what else this hard working artist and family man has on his mind as we ask Tony Gapastione 8 Questions!!!

   Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself.

Hello! I am Tony Gapastione. I’m a husband, father, filmmaker…and pastor-yep– Kinda weird..but I love my story. I went to Seminary and I served as an ordained pastor for twenty+ years and now serve at large partnering with congregations Bay Area. It seems odd to be both a filmmaker and pastor but it’s the perfect mash-up of my life. I believe stories have power to change the world more than a one hour Sunday morning experience. Creativity is spiritual. Life is about trying to make sense of it right? Who are we? Why are we here? That’s why I love being a filmmaker. It’s very theological…So I work with churches and I make movies.  Occasionally I am acting on other’s projects but mostly I love being behind the camera writing, directing and producing. I have short films on Amazon Prime and I’m currently producing, writing and directing feature films. I host community dialogues with my non-profit BraveMaker and do monthly film screenings and a summer film fest to facilitates brave/safe spaces on our culture’s most pressing issues. My wife, Wendy, and I have three daughters and live in Redwood City, California.

 What was growing up in Chicago like?

I mainly spent my college years in the city and I LOVED It. Chicago has so much culture, arts, comedy, music, live theater and amazing food. I loved taking the EL train around that place to all the art museums, clubs, theatres and parks. My younger years were spend in almost every suburb of Illinois. We moved around a lot which is why I think being in the theater helped keep me grounded. It was like my family. I felt at home and accepted there while everything else in my life and family seemed to be changing rapidly.  My family is still there and love when I get to visit and eat the pizza.

How did you get involved in live theater? What was your first role onstage?

I did school plays starting in elementary school. I was the nutcracker in 4th grade and was sold on it ever since.

What are your three fondest memories about doing live theater?

I was able to play Romeo in R&J and it was a dream come true. I found out I got the role from a friend who came out running from the theatre yelling it when they posted the cast list in  Rockford Illinois. Studio Theatre. Very fond memories from there.  I also had to appear naked on stage (after the bedroom scene) and get dressed in the scene which was challenging and hilarious when I invited my church youth group to visit. OOPS!  Another memory is being in the musical JOSEPH and the AMAZING TECNICOLOR DEAM COAT and wearing skin tigh GO-GO pants that seems to rip in the crotch ever performance. Another fond memory is my dad sneaking in his HUGE video camera and full on boot-legging any performance he attended.

 What led you to move to the Bay Area? What was the biggest adjustment for you to make?

I thought living in California meant I was basically going to be in Hollywood. So…. I was a bit disappointed when I arrived in Redwood City Ca and was SIX hours away. But I took a job with a church right out of college. Still I was glad to be in California and was thinking there would be more opportunities for me to act. It’s not quite LA by any means but it’s nice and small and a lot of us know each other. I met some great friends here and we collaborate a lot. That’s why I started making my own projects here for lack of booking acting gigs. There’s a lot of commercial work here but not so much film and I’m hoping to be a part of changing that.

 What is the Creative Crew and is it still active today? 

    I did Creative Crew as a way to gather artists of all kinds for seven years. I just closed it so i could focus on BraveMaker and supporting filmmakers and our monthly community conversation work. But Creative Crew existed to help creative people meet monthly and connect with one another and collaobrate. We’d have people share their work and then I would faciliated an affirmation session for them. No critique of any sort aloud (because we get it everywhere else so why not offer at least two hours a month where we can feel good about our work). And I would lead goal setting sessions to help us make stuff.  So many of us creative types talk too much and then complain when we don’t reach our dreams. I started Creative Crew to help ignite my own goals and hopefully support those like me who needed the support. The coolest thing was seeing all the people who met at crew and then somehow started to create together.

 Tell us about your BraveMaster podcast…

Stories, scripts and conversations with creators!  We interview Brave makers of all kinds. My co-host, Rebekah Amosah, and I get people (from all over the world) talking with people who are conquering fears and getting stuff made. We want to inspire others to bravely go after their goals and stop waiting for permission or for the money or for someone else to make their dreams come true. It’s really fun to talk to musicians, authors, dancers, Youtubers, actors and filmmakers.

What is your writing process? 

Chaotic but fun. I have to carve out writing time and just plunk away at my computer. I try not to be precious about it..just get it down and then go back later and fix typos, or add interesting character subtext. I have a writing partner in LA, Jeremy Ray Valdez (we met on the set of my first film 1440 and Counting). We’ve done a feature together and written some TV pilots. I also write a lot on my own, (usually after my kids are in bed) or an hour here and there. I love deadlines and I really enjoy taking a treatment and doing adaptations. I just wrote a feature film with another couple co-writers after another write adapted the story from a book. So I don’t feel as if I have “one process” it’s a bunch of elements pieced together.

 What goes into starting a production company?

Finding the right people that you love to work with. That’s what it’s all about in this business. Working with great people, setting goals and doing good work. The same people that helped launch BraveMaker our nonprofit film organization are some of the same people who I’m making  movies with.

 What was the role that gained you your SAG-AFTRA card?

I think it was a Pepsi commercial with Britney Spears and Mike Myers!

 What were your emotions when you knew you had it because they’re not easy to get.

Felt great, like in some way that I had arrived but soon realized it was not a magic want and didn’t really make anything easier for me. It’s nice to have but I still had to work hard and make my own opportunities.  How do you balance your professional goals with having a rich personal life?

My family is super important. My wife and three kids need me and I think that drives a lot of sacrifice. I can’t do it all. So I have to be choosy on what I say yes to and who I collaborate with. I am still learning this but I can’t just do it all. So I think having a family helps me get MORE done. I also don’t have a lot of free time. Most of my friends are the same ones I make stuff with because of that.

 The cheetah and I are flying out to sit in on a podcast but we are a day early and now you are our tour guide,what are we doing?

I love Redwood City for it’s cafes. My favorite that also acts as my second office is Cyclismo Cafe. Family run, good food and my favorite coffee ever. Just order Tony’s usual. We also have two great performing arts spaces: Dragon Theatre and Broadway by the Bay that both put on great shows, Get your tickets and enjoy. 

As always I like to thank Tony for taking the time to sit down and answer a few questions. Tony  has a whole slew of ways in which you can follow him at and I listed these below.

You can find Tony on Twitter He is also on InstaGram BraveMaker is also on Twitter BraveMaker is on InstaGram Tony’s personal website BraveMaker’s website BraveMaker’s Filmfest on Facebook BraveMaker on Facebook Tony has a IMDb page

Thank you for dropping by and supporting Tony by reading this interview. Please feel free to drop a comment below for Tony. If you have a story you feel is worth sharing,please drop us a email which you can find on the blog.

8 Questions with………….actor/director/Pastor Tony Gapastione Its 9:41 pm dark/warm Welcome to another edition of 8 Questions with...... I lived in San Jose for 15 years in another life.

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My big fat resubmission<3

Face to face vs imdb

Directors are often the best way to gauge what a film is truly all about, as films come out and everyone is trying to work out the message, everyone being a mix of fan pages and film critics. So before we go to see a film most of us will google it to read the reviews, however these kind of ratings are not always accurate, sites such as Imdb (Internet movie database) and rotten tomatoes offer a numerical rating system to try and tell people what most people think of the film. However this does not always work because basing ones option on the opinion of strangers wouldn’t dictate your preferences. For example people might dislike a film due to its violence or very particular sense of humour, while these things might strongly appeal to you.  

Other people wouldn’t bother regarding these, like me, people have affiliations with certain actors or directors as we can see Baywatch has a very low rating but people who are fans of Dwayne Johnson and Zac Effron would probably not even bother reading reviews because they’re big fans. 

This is more true with Directors. Since most directors follow their own conventions and have a fan base, for example The new film Baby Driver is out from the infamous British director Edgar Wright, this director has almost a cult following on his few films, from his early work in the TV show SPACED to his most famous woks like Scot Pilgrim vs the world and Hot Fuzz. If your favourite director had a new film people would rather hear what they have to say about the film than reading what other people think of it. 

“In Quantitative research the researcher is usually concerned to be able to say that his or her findings can be generalised beyond the confines of the particular context in which the research was conducted.” Social Research Methods by Alan Bryman.

This shows the contrast between Qualitative and Quantitive research, the top and bottom of it is that there are two types of people, those who will base their movie designs on numerical data and those who will judge it by peoples opinions. 

Survey Monkey 

I did some primary research into what kind of script I should write. I did this by creating an online survey on survey monkey. 

Creating a survey because I have already done Qualitative research into my script ideally discussing with my associates about what makes a good film, also i find the best qualitative research when writing a script is to watch films from the genre you’re interested in, this creates a basis of what kind of aspects certain genres have.  

I took this question to see how often people actually go and see new films. I mostly did this to gauge if the people who took the survey were film enthusiasts I did assume they were as they’re the students in the Media class. But this showed it.

It is always interesting to see if people are open to new films i know of people from my Qualitative research that only really go ands films if it has a desirable actor in it or a preferred director, and people aren’t solely based upon whether the trailer is good, I wanted to see how many people would go and see film in the cinema, new films, and the people who watch films on Netflix or Amazon for reasons ranging from money to laziness, I asked this because a films opening cinema weekend is very important and this is why a lot of films fail. 

I wanted to ask this question because Sci-Fi is very normally mixed with action or thriller, but i thought a Sci-Fi comedy mash up would be good. But 14% of my focus group thought it would be a good idea. 

The same amount of people voted for horror, comedy and romance collaborations but both were smashed by Sci-Fi/Action which is clearly the most popular sub genre of sci-fi films but from my secondary research I found that while there are a lot of sci-fi/action made every year but i find that a lot of them, fail and aren’t remembered in few years. But I feel that sic-fi/comedys however are memorable, such as Paul, Attack the Block and Hot Tub Time Machine. These films don’t have the budget or the cast that big Sci-Fi/Action films have but these films are arguably more memorable and profitable.                

I asked this to try and figure out what makes a film most appealing to my focus group. The results were surprising, judging by the cinemas recently I would have guessed that Violence and Cars would be the top of the list but surprisingly Nudity scored highest. I would class this as an anomaly but still useful information.

I asked this solely to find out what makes the age group I targeted which were the people in my class aged 17-25 about what made them enjoy a film. Judging by other research i have done i have now looked back at the validity of this question, the phrasing of the question and the audience it was aimed at there is a discrepancy regarding whether or not people have taken this question seriously. 

This is a question I was interested to know the answer to, with so many old films being rejuvenations like the new Star Wars saga and with the new Jurassic World which is a sequel to the original from the 80s. I wanted to know if people liked this or if they preferred original stories, both my primary research and secondary shows that people do like original. 

I was extremely interested in this because i dabbled with potentially spoofing an older film for comedic affect.  My primary research into a lot of star wars fandom in particular it is a very split decision as to whether these old classics i have mentioned are best left alone and if remakes, rebooting or making sequels/prequels tarnish the memory of the original film which is cherished by many. As I expected though people responded with liking original films, which a lot of sic-fi’s are because it is such a broad genre, with not much of a strong structure. I think this research shows that an original Sci-Fi Comedy would be a success.  

Jamie Bulger Tragedy with regard to the film Childs Play.

On the 12th of February 1993 2 year old Jamie Bulger was kidnapped and brutally murdered by two ten year old boys. The story shocked the nation, these two children had now become the youngest convicted murderers in modern Birtish history; there was a overwhelming desire to find out why two young boys would do something as awful as this, were they influenced by someone? Are they evil? Or insane? All of these questions were attempted to be brought to light, most famously in the Newson Report. 

The Newson report has been slated in years after its release in 1994, a year after the murder, the report is no more than seven pages and draws no real resolution to the horrors that took place, the report was called “rushed” and “inaccurate”. Nevertheless it is the only report, of its time at least, which really looks at whether violence on screen can affect violence in real life, the general consensus is that it does, but only a bit, and thats why there are age restrictions on films. 

While we were already under the impression that people used to violence or who have had a long enough exposure to violence so as not to view it as evil, can be the ones who commit horrible acts like this. It cannot be pinned on films. the Newson report quotes “film makers” asking critics of violence “have you been tempted to become a serial killer by watching our films?” The credibility of this is slightly dirtied by the fact that Elizabeth Newson isn't quoting anyone in particular just a general comment: she goes on to say while this opinion does stand that if this made people serial killers wouldn't everyone be one? That would be ignoring differing stability, as Newson puts it, and it does not consider the level of maturity of the viewer. 

One piece of media was brought to light during the Bulger case in particular. The films Childs Play (1989), where the infamous character of Chucky came from. The children admitted to being fans of the film, even though it is illegal for them to see them as Childs Play was released as an 18, classed as the oldest in british broadcasting, for the blood and gore featured in this slasher film. 

This film in particular has been pointed at for causing the Jamie Bulger tragedy. I don't think this can be said, to pin this much evil onto a film that thousands of people have seen and based on this; in my opinion I would say that the crimes committed on that day in 1993 cannot be pinned on all films let alone one. I would call this a psychopathic killing as it says in the report the toddler was struck 30 times with bricks and an iron bar, the two boys said they had to use this force because he kept getting up, Elizabeth Newson compares this to a rape scene in an unnamed film showing her unprofessionalism. I don't think the evil that Jon Venables and Robert Thompson has been caused by one factor i think that people do these things because they're deeply disturbed because of a cosmopolitan of reasons.          

Communication between now and 1985

In the past decade or so communication technology has come a ridiculously long way with mobile phones, and smart phones, becoming more and more of a norm. And from this rise of smartphones has come a new age of Apps, all sorts of apps, for communicating, WhatsApp and Snapchat to name a couple.

Snapchat have very recently came out wit ha new update, Snapchat maps, this allows you to scroll out of the app, and view wherever your contacts are on a map. Sounds cool? There is a friends of friends setting, and the location is as direct as to the exact house. This means that someone you don't know who has one of your contacts as a contact can see which house you are in at any time. Sounds creepy doesn't it. There is ghost mode on the app which means you cannot be seen and you can turn off the friends of friends and even block particular people so really while it doesn't seem it we are quite in control of our data. The creepiness comes from people realising how easily they can be tracked, I didn't choose to update this app they do it automatically which means they already have access to all of your data from your phone including its location. 

Compared to 1985, which was an uncertain time, in the middle of Thatchers Britain; there were no mobile phones, and so no tracking, there has always been an inbuilt paranoia of being tracked by the government but without the technology it was seen as just that; paranoia. Talking to my parents who were both born in the earl 60s and so were adults by 1985 say that the biggest difference is the use of time, the concept of meeting someone at a particular time on a particular day is apparently lost on our generations, I see where this comes from; why would I, a millennial, who has had a mobile phone since I was ten years old as have all of my peers need to organise days in advance when it can be done with a simple text. 

There is a strive to have a better phone than your neighbour, better is more expensive, more features, to the point where i had a Blackberry at 13 and didn't know why there was a Microsoft App. Because these phones weren't originally designed as toys but we made them into toys, by playing with them and making ourselves into a market. My parents also told me of a time of working in an office with no computers. 

My Mum worked in a benefits office in a time when 10% of the country was unemployed and they got their first combat er while she worked there, it was operated by a professional, and information from my mums nation would pass through 4 people before being entered on the computer. The computer helped this industry out massively in keeping documents and records of people so as to stop fraud. But because of the lack of computers and people trained to use them there was a higher margin of error in the fact it had to go through 4 people.

Technology has shot up in the last 32 years and i struggle to imagine what my phone will do in 2050. Both of my parents never thought there would be Apps with facial recognition and GPS tracking for fun.        

‘Remakes are a waste of time’

I hear this a lot in regards to films coming out, and it is an interesting topic with os many films being released as remakes/reboots/sequels. For example the new star wars trilogy is being introduced as a sequel. But many are calling it a remake, with fair points that it follows the same plot as the original trilogy. 

But what people forget is that star wars has one of the biggest followings ever in the history of film, and I think now there is a large amount of people who love star wars and everything from the universe, the people who buy every comic book and graphic novel, every cartoon. Die hard fans, But now Disney realise there is still a market for Star Wars and that in making a feature film and marketing it perfectly with trailers and adverts and toys. This will create a huge profit. 

There are a large amount of people who see these films as sacred and they should be left alone in the same way that art should because it could “ruin” the film. For example there is a remake of Jumanji coming out this year which some people are really upset about.

Personally I don't think it does ruin films. In my opinion if you think remakes ruin films then don't watch the remakes. I feel that scholars and experts have proven that there are only 7 stories to tell, so isn't every story is a remake of other films, but with different names. So remaking a film just stops the idea of pretending to not copy a film, and it can pay homage to the original film and keep it in our hearts and minds.