Making an independent film takes grit, and this producer says the job changes every day

A lot of filmmakers will tell you they saw one, iconic movie when they were young and knew they wanted to make movies.

But Daniel Tantalean says his love of film didn’t begin until his freshman year of college, when his English 101 teacher walked into the classroom.

“The first day of class, she walked in, popped in ‘The Matrix.’ Did not say a word and played it for like 40 minutes,” Tantalean said. “And then she stopped it, and she was just kind of like, ‘What is this movie about?‘ And everybody kind of rehashed the plot of the movie. And then she's like, ‘No, what this movie is about is how technology invades our current system. It is a retelling of the second coming of Christ.’

“And she started laying out all these different allegories about the movie. And I went, oh, you can say something about movies. You can comment on society, you can comment on emotions, whatever it is. And that's when I became really interested in movies.”

Tantalean is an independent film producer from Arizona — and not just any independent film producer. His first feature film, “In the Summers,” won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, was nominated for two Independent Film Awards and is on Hulu now.

It’s a coming-of-age film about two sisters and the summers they spend with their flawed father in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The film has been a big success, but Tantalean told The Show getting it to the finish line wasn’t easy.

Full conversation

DANIEL TANTALEAN: Whenever a movie gets made, it's kind of a miracle, to be honest. So “In the Summers” was no different in that sense. What was also even more difficult about it and, you know, the ups and downs of it was also just a learning curve. It wasn't just my first feature. It was also the first feature for writer-director Alessandra Lacorazza. This was the first acting role from Residente, who plays Vicente, the father in the movie. So there was a lot of first happening in this movie for a lot of people involved.

And when I read “In the Summers,” within the first 10 pages, I knew this film was special. I knew the script was special. I knew Alessandra had an incredible voice, and a lot of it had to do — it reflected a lot of my own community, my own upbringing, my own family members. And it's something I haven't really seen before, especially for a Latin American community. And I knew I wanted to make this movie.

But the landscape of the industry is really changing right now, and a lot of studios, a lot of financing and a lot of distribution, don't really want to invest in these kind of smaller, quieter dramas. And I get why. There's a lot of things competing for people's attention today.

So it's hard for those types of movies to kind of break through. And it can be kind of a financial risk. So every day, it was like we had to prove ourselves, prove that this story was worthy. And luckily, we had a lot of really great people who also felt that way about the story.

So it was everything from not having enough money to dealing with people who did not agree with the story. In certain small towns, we got our locations pulled last minute because of the content of the script, because it does deal with queer issues. It does deal with, somewhat, to a degree, immigrant issues, even though that's not the core of what the story's about.

LAUREN GILGER: You mentioned the industry changing, competing for people's attention. There's so much being produced today. I wonder — at one point, you wrote about this, you ran out of money? Like, how did you get through this?

TANTALEAN: Well, when we did run out of money, you know, we were kind of like, “How are we going to finish this movie?” And a lot of films die that way. And what ended up happening was we submitted an early cut to Sundance. The film was not even close to done, but Sundance saw the huge potential in this movie, and they selected us.

GILGER: Wow.

TANTALEAN: And because of that selection, we were able to raise the rest of the financing to get this movie made.

GILGER: So I want to ask you about the role of the producer, because I think it is a little misunderstood. And so behind the scenes, like, you're talking about someone else's story, someone else's script, someone else is the one on the screen. But the producer's role seems incredibly vital. How do you conceptualize that? How did you for this initial feature film of yours?

TANTALEAN: The biggest joke in Hollywood is, like, even producers in Hollywood don't know what producers do. That's kind of where we're starting sometimes. And the main perception is that the producers are the money people. And I think that's actually a huge misconception. A lot of time, we are the people who find the financing and put it together, but we're also creative forces on a project.

So even though I am championing somebody else's story — in this case Alessandra's — there was a lot of feedback I gave her and there was a lot of back and forth about the script. I think that's actually huge. One of the number one functions of a producer is actually to be able to be arm-in-arm with your creative and to be able to develop that creativity.

But then it's also understanding how to put a film together. It's all the hiring and the management and making sure you're staying on budget, understanding where distribution is going. And it's like, “OK, how are we going to fit into this marketplace? How am I going to stack the investment in a way that protects the money to give us the greatest outcome?”

So there's a lot of pieces that are moving when you're a producer, not to mention managing all the personalities and dealing with stars' agents, actors' agents and all that stuff. Because you have to be able to negotiate and be able to just be very even keeled on all that type of stuff.

So in a nutshell, that's what a producer does. And unfortunately we're being asked to do more and more. Before, as producers, we didn't have to think about marketing as much. We didn't have to try to pull in distribution as much. And because the landscape is changing so much, sometimes traditional distribution, trying to sell to Netflix or getting the theatrical release is actually not viable for some films.

GILGER: Yeah.

TANTALEAN: Financially or exploitation wise. So there's a lot of different formats being experimented with, everything from throwing it up on YouTube to producers taking it on themselves to go to individual theaters and do like a road trip movie or slowly roll it out to theaters over a two-year span to see if you can get these small communities to come together. So that's kind of where our roles are expanding a lot as producers.

GILGER: It's interesting. So the role of the producer is changing with the industry, it sounds like. And in difficult ways.

TANTALEAN: Exactly. But the nice thing is I've had a lot of really incredible mentors in terms of the producing realm. And what makes an indie producer so well situated for our times is that these are always our times. We've never been in a comfortable position. Sure, some times have been more lucrative than others, but I do feel that we have the grit, we have the entrepreneurship to kind of shift with whatever's coming at us right now.

GILGER: Yeah.

TANTALEAN: But we just don't know what that is yet. And every day is a new day for us.

GILGER: Yeah. So let me ask you lastly, Daniel, about your next project. I have written here “a dramatic queer thriller titled ‘Love Bomb.’” Is that right?

TANTALEAN: Yeah. So that was a project that came to me from a really great writer-director named James Kautz. And I think at the core, this film is about what it means to be queer in rural America, but also the underlinings of repression with folks who live in those rural towns and us exploring kind of the humanity of what it means to connect in this kind of swirl of male toxicity.

And I think James' script is really beautiful. We are currently still in development. We are raising financing for the film. We are trying to cast the film, but we're on the path in terms of trying to make this and film it next year. And hopefully it will be out there and we're really excited about it.