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No Film School’s GG Hawkins talks with filmmaker Shane Brady and producer Emily Zercher-Brady about turning a devastating real-life hack into the revenge comedy-horror feature Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma. The conversation covers the couple’s filmmaking origin stories, how losing $20,000 sparked the movie’s premise, why they pushed forward after their budget was cut in half, what it took to shoot between Los Angeles and Florida during the SAG strike, and how they approached building a collaborative low-budget set.
In this episode, No Film School's GG Hawkins, Shane Brady, and Emily Zercher-Brady discuss...
How Shane’s early love of horror movies, theater, magic, and performance led him into filmmaking
Emily’s background in performance, leadership, and problem-solving as the foundation for producing
How Shane and Emily began working together through Camp Hollywood short films with young actors
The real-life hack that drained $20,000 from their savings and became the emotional starting point for Hacked
Calling the FBI, dealing with law enforcement limitations, and channeling frustration into a revenge story
Why they decided to keep going after the movie’s budget was cut in half just weeks before filming
How Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer production story inspired them to get scrappy
Navigating the SAG interim agreement process while Emily was pregnant
Splitting production between Funko Studios in Los Angeles and locations in Tampa, Florida
Creating a “socialism set” where cast and crew were treated as equal creative collaborators
Working French hours, offering hot meals, and protecting crew morale on a low-budget shoot
Building festival relationships that helped lead to their distributor, Scatena & Rosner
How they are thinking about audience outreach, VOD, and asking viewers to support independent filmmakers
Memorable Quotes:
“The absolute number one thing I want in my life is to be remembered, and when I’m gone and in the dirt, people can put on a film or a TV show or a recording of a play or something.”
“Make it work and nobody can know that anything is going wrong.”
“We have the money to film the thing.”
“Everyone is equal playing fields and cast and crew, like you all mean everything and are a special piece of the puzzle.”
“Everything that you work towards and someone just goes click.”
Guests:
Shane Brady
Emily Zercher
Resources:
Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma on IMDb
Where to watch Hacked: A Double Entendre of Rage Fueled Karma
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