Happy Veterans Day! For this special episode, I talk with filmmaker Geoff Ryan about his 2012 film, FRAY. For me, FRAY is one of the more authentic "return from war" stories in a usually bad genre of overwrought films. I wanted to find out more about the making of the film, how the lead actor was cast, and what made Geoff the best person -- a non-veteran -- to tell this story.
I'm looking to support more veteran actors, producers, directors...filmmakers. And we need more filmmakers like Geoff telling these kinds of deeply researched stories.
In this episode, Geoff and I talk about:
Geoff's Indie Film Highlight: OVATION (2025) dir. by Noam Kroll; Al Profit
Memorable Quotes:
"A few of them really let me just follow them. I stayed overnight under a bridge with one guy, walking through the woods where one of them would sleep at night."
"Another big motivator of it was so many of the vets that I did know and got to meet during that time would just trash talk the way that movies portrayed them."
"I jokingly refer to it as a 94 minute montage of misery."
"One of the worst pieces of advice...and it's so ubiquitous, it's annoying, is write what you know, which isn't wrong, but it's mistaken all the time."
"There's no music throughout the entire film other than location music."
"I honestly don't know how a lot of these things get funded other than like venture capital and money laundering. And unfortunately, I don't know any money launderers or VC investors."
"I'm fortunate FRAY still gets at least 10,000 views a month. Unfortunately, I get literally 2 cents every time somebody watches it."
"Can you cut out the the cursing,the drugs, the sex, and the violence? I'm like, that's the whole movie."
"If you're in USC, you're gonna have the connections. They're gonna place you in the industry."
"Trust your voice. Don't try to do what someone else is doing. Don't try to do what you think is popular."
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