{"id":11837,"date":"2026-09-25T05:03:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T03:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/25\/fantastic-fest-triumphs-with-fantastic-pitches\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T05:03:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T03:03:21","slug":"fantastic-fest-triumphs-with-fantastic-pitches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/2026\/09\/25\/fantastic-fest-triumphs-with-fantastic-pitches\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Fest Triumphs With &#8216;Fantastic Pitches&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/media-library\/into-the-sky.jpg?id=67851776&amp;width=1245&amp;height=700&amp;coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C1\"><\/p>\n<p>In this episode of the <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/podcast\" target=\"_self\">No Film School Podcast<\/a>, recorded at Fantastic Fest 2026 in Austin, No Film School founder Ryan Koo talks with <em><em>Into the Sky<\/em><\/em> writer-directors Drew Mylrea and Evan Buxbaum about the decade-long path to making their sci-fi comedy. They trace the project from an early script that Evan initially rejected through Black List evaluations, financing, casting Sam Richardson, and an ambitious 25-day production with dozens of locations and hundreds of VFX shots. <\/p>\n<p>Drew and Evan also explain how they divided responsibilities as co-directors, used LiDAR scans and LEGO figures to pre-visualize scenes, navigated production setbacks, tested unfinished cuts with audiences, and learned to trust their instincts while making an independent film designed to feel like a blockbuster.<\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=NFS3020884680\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this episode, we<\/strong><strong> discuss:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>How Drew and Evan became filmmaking collaborators after spending hours together shooting a Method soap commercial in a tiny shower<\/li>\n<li>Evan\u2019s experience making <em><em>Sun Belt Express<\/em><\/em> and the long gap between his first and second features<\/li>\n<li>Why Drew kept returning to the alien-abduction concept that eventually became <em><em>Into the Sky<\/em><\/em><\/li>\n<li>Revisiting old material after years of becoming better writers and filmmakers<\/li>\n<li>How strong Black List evaluations gave the filmmakers psychological momentum to commit to the project<\/li>\n<li>Spending roughly two years rewriting the script and assembling financing<\/li>\n<li>Why casting director Kate Geller became an important part of building the movie\u2019s cast<\/li>\n<li>How attaching Sam Richardson helped the project gain momentum<\/li>\n<li>The pressures created when an in-demand actor gives an independent production a narrow shooting window<\/li>\n<li>Walking away from a \u201cturnkey\u201d production-services solution that would have forced most of the movie onto a single estate<\/li>\n<li>Finding the town of Catskill, New York, and rebuilding their location strategy around what the movie actually needed<\/li>\n<li>Why filmmakers sometimes have to reject the easiest logistical solution when it threatens the film creatively<\/li>\n<li>Shooting the movie in 25 days while managing frequent company moves<\/li>\n<li>How Drew and Evan divided directing responsibilities according to their complementary strengths<\/li>\n<li>Drew\u2019s focus on visual storytelling, camera placement, and spectacle versus Evan\u2019s focus on performance, character, and dialogue<\/li>\n<li>Using iPhone LiDAR scans and Polycam to create digital models of locations<\/li>\n<li>Printing location blueprints and using custom Lego figures and a Lego camera to block scenes with the AD and cinematographer<\/li>\n<li>Building detailed storyboards and turning them into rough animatics for complicated sequences<\/li>\n<li>Trying to create an \u201cindie blockbuster\u201d without a blockbuster budget<\/li>\n<li>The challenge of completing approximately 500 visual-effects shots with an extremely small VFX team<\/li>\n<li>Why extensive preparation became a starting point for improvisation once production problems appeared<\/li>\n<li>Delaying a cornfield sequence until the final day of photography so the corn would be tall enough for the scene<\/li>\n<li>How rain, heat, scheduling problems, and other uncontrollable factors reshaped the production<\/li>\n<li>Watching dailies and determining whether scenes needed to be reshot<\/li>\n<li>Why a scene they believed needed a reshoot ultimately used mostly material from the original shoot<\/li>\n<li>Working 12-hour shooting days followed by another four or five hours of preparation each night<\/li>\n<li>Splitting up the first stages of post-production so Drew could eventually watch the assembly with fresh eyes<\/li>\n<li>Why comedy becomes difficult to judge after watching the same material dozens of times<\/li>\n<li>Screening cuts for friends and family to measure real laughter and audience energy<\/li>\n<li>Using QR codes and Google Forms to collect individual reactions before a group discussion could influence everyone\u2019s opinions<\/li>\n<li>Measuring character likability and other audience responses between different test screenings<\/li>\n<li>Asking test audiences to respond to major VFX sequences while those sequences were still extremely unfinished<\/li>\n<li>The moment completed visual effects and music finally made the filmmakers feel that the movie was working<\/li>\n<li>Their goal of making large, entertaining movies with heart on an independent scale<\/li>\n<li>Why Drew and Evan believe their filmmaking education ultimately came from making things, making mistakes, and \u201ctouching the stove\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Guests:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2433427\/\" target=\"_blank\">Drew Mylrea<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm2785532\/\" target=\"_blank\">Evan Buxbaum<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm3159868\/\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a><\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<div><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<div><strong><\/strong><\/div>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong>Subscribe to the No Film School Podcast on:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/the-no-film-school-podcast\/id1078804724\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Apple Podcasts<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/1vfyZ6hx3QJWS6etdDZZ5V\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Spotify<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vTk5MTEMzMjI5NDg4NTcz\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Google<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Get your question answered on the podcast by emailing <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/2025\/06\/editor@nofilmschool.com\" target=\"_self\">podcast@nofilmschool.com<\/a><\/p>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\n<em>Listen to more episodes of the No Film School podcast right here:<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"482\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?p=NNLLC3229488573\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Author: Ryan Koo<br \/>\nThis article comes from <i>No Film School<\/i> and can be <a href=\"https:\/\/nofilmschool.com\/fantastic-fest-triumphs-with-fantastic-pitches\" target=\"_blank\"><b>read on the original site.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of the No Film School Podcast, recorded at Fantastic Fest 2026 in Austin, No Film School founder Ryan Koo talks with Into&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_customify_content_layout":"","_customify_sidebar":"","_customify_page_header_display":"","_customify_disable_header":"","_customify_disable_header_top":"","_customify_disable_header_main":"","_customify_disable_header_bottom":"","_customify_disable_page_title":"","_customify_disable_content_vertical_padding":"","_customify_disable_footer_top":"","_customify_disable_footer_main":"","_customify_disable_footer_bottom":"","_customify_breadcrumb_display":"","_customify_header_transparent_display":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[38,37,43,42,39,40,44,41,36],"class_list":["post-11837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-video-news","tag-editing","tag-film","tag-guide","tag-info","tag-news","tag-tips","tag-topics","tag-tricks","tag-video"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Brokenmount","author_link":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/author\/sysop\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/category\/video-news\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Video and Film News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"In this episode of the No Film School Podcast, recorded at Fantastic Fest 2026 in Austin, No Film School founder Ryan Koo talks with Into&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brokenmount.com\/bm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}