How To Cast, Direct and Make Movies for Kids

Jake Van Wagoner is a director, producer, and actor known for his work on Impractical Jokers and the film Christmas Time. His recent film, Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out, is a family friendly sci-fi feature that premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. In today’s episode, No Film School’s GG Hawkins speaks with director Jake Van Wagoner to discuss: Getting funding for the film from a family friend The unique title to the movie Making a film the whole family could enjoy Building the production team from many great connections How directing is like being a father Guiding the child actors in some challenging scenes Shooting a 93 page script in only 15 days Using children from his family to act as little aliens The process of attaching Will Forte to the movie Lessons he learned from his first feature, Christmas Time Memorable Quotes “We shot a movie in 15 days which is bananas.” [12:43] “Will Forte is the sweetest man on earth…he’s the LAST sweetest man on earth.” [16:10] “That’s probably my most embarrassing moment in the movie as a director.” [19:48] “In the end, we are just making a movie. It’s not the end of the world.” [23:55] Resources Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out Find No Film School everywhere: On the Web https://nofilmschool.com/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nofilmschool Twitter https://twitter.com/nofilmschool YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/nofilmschool Instagram https://www.instagram.com/nofilmschool Send us an email with questions or feedback: [email protected]! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices