Hilton Ariel Ruiz talks Zombie with a Shotgun!

Hilton Ariel Ruiz – – Video Interview

 

[00:00:00] Casey: All right, everybody. Welcome again, to another episode of spoiler country today on the show, we have a treat for you. He is a director. He’s a writer. He’s done a lot of things, whereas a lot of hats,

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Hilton, Ariel, Ruiz. How are you doing Hilton? Hey, what’s up man? How’s everything good, man.

Thank you for having me on. No worries, man.

Casey: Dude, we’re, we’re excited to talk to

Hilton Areil Ruiz: I’ve seen.

Casey: Zombie with a shotgun, which I’m sure. A lot of horror fans have already seen it. It is super fun. And it really intrigues me that it came out of, you know, a short series that you made, that you then turned into this, this crazy insane acid trip of a, a zombie movie.

You’re just throwing so many crazy things and making it work. Tell me, how did you get started in filmmaking to begin with? Let, let’s go back. I want to hear, I wanna hear about maybe

Hilton Areil Ruiz: maybe Hilton Yeah, I would say it started off with, you know, [00:01:00] I grew up in a large family, you know, I grew up with sort of like the Brady bunch, you know, I had the three boys, three girls, mom and dad.

I had my aunt living with me, so we had a huge household. So you know, one of the cheapest things to do, does it take all the kids out? Was to go to the movies. And we would do that the weekends, we would go out to the movies and we will, you know, every weekend, I mean, it was literally every weekend.

So that, that actually was the start of the interest of me getting into filmmaking. And, you know, you know how it is when you’re young, you know, when you’ve been with before internet and everything, you know, you would come home and interact, you know, you know, re-enact the films that you saw on, on, on, you know, you just seen.

And so, you know, when I was young, I was like, oh, I wanted to be a filmmaker. You know? But at that time it was, you know, wasn’t really ever thinking of really pursuing it, but. I did buy my own camera. I actually put in my, I was like 13, 14. My mom bought me a you know, like a quarter. And I started [00:02:00] just filming, making like these little crazy short films.

So, I would say that grew into me when I was lucky enough. When I went to high school, I took a film course. In, in high school and boom, I was, I was like, this is it. This is really what I really want to do. And then from there you know, took it off all the way I never stopped from there kept on, you know, doing my own projects here and there.

And, you know, going to film school here, you know, when you went to some, you know, couple of film, trade schools, I wanted to learn so much about the craft, wanting to learn everything that. That I can possibly learn so I can take those, you know, those, those tools with me to create my own film. And and I think that’s, you know, that, that was the start.

The start was starting from. You know, going to these movies and, you know, having these amazing memories that I had with my family, you know, it’s it’s amazing. Cause you know, I could watch film now and when I watch film, you know, especially both the old, like [00:03:00] 80 movies, I, I can, I always say I saw that theater.

I saw that and I could, and it’s so funny cause you know, the experience of going to the movie theater. It’s so much bigger than just staying home, watching Stillman Netflix. And, you know, I know the new generation, you know, it’s different now, especially with COVID now, now a lot people is going into the field and it’s just, you see a film that I saw in the theater and watching a home and said, oh, I remember seeing that film when I was young, I can still remember what I was doing.

I still remember when I was with my, my, my family. We, you know, horsing around and. I was the youngest one, so it was pretty cool. I was the youngest one and looking out for all my oldest siblings and you know, I was more of the, you know, the kid, you know, playing around. So I remember those days and I think that was awesome.

And I think that that definitely still grew with me. But yeah, that, that I would say was the start of me getting to filmmaking. That’s

Casey: awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so different now with film and how it’s [00:04:00] presented, it’s immediate gratification, like all the time, especially with like the streaming services.

Whereas, you know, when, when you were a kid, you know, the anticipation of wanting to wanting to see a film that that was something else.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: And

Casey: I remember my, my uncle took my sister and I and his DeLorean, so that that’s going to date. It took us in his DeLorean to go see Willow in the theater.

Oh yeah. And that was the coolest experience ever. And the movie I rewatched it not long ago. It’s not that great.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Hold on. Yeah. What’s so funny. I remember I watched also in the theater. Yeah.

Casey: Yeah. It was so fun as, as a kid as an adult rewatching it maybe not so much, but it was, it was fun. It was super fun as a kid.

Who, who are your heroes? In terms of filmmaking.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: You know, I, I liked them. I liked them all. You know, I could tell you that there’s so many, you know, every director that you can [00:05:00] name, you can pick a gym that they created. And you know, I, you know, I, I can always tell you one of my favorite directors, of course, which is many people straight directors.

It’s really Scott. Oh, yeah, well, you know, those films you know, you have to watch them over and over and study them and see, you know, what he was doing when he was making these films. And, but, you know, Kreinberg John Carpenter, of course you know, timber and all those filmmakers, you know, from Quentin Tarantino and you can name all those directors.

There’s always a gem. That they have, and you can take those films and it just, it’s an amazing, you know, the you know, the work that they have. So I, I looked up to many of them, many of them and and, and their accomplishments that, that they’ve created. Well,

Casey: it, it makes sense. Cause your, your output, the stuff that you’ve done is all over the place in terms of genre, you don’t stick to one thing.

And that’s always refreshing to see somebody that, that sticks their neck out. Instead of, you know, staying in their one little hole. [00:06:00] And just kind of burrow in, in you’ve done, you’ve done documentary you’ve, you’ve done horror. You’ve done a bunch of different stuff and it’s, it’s a lot of really fun stuff too.

You did one documentary in particular Air the true memoirs of guilty Alicia?

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yes. Kelsey, I would say up. Yep. So, sorry. Sorry. No, no, it’s, it’s actually pretty, you couldn’t have, you can actually pronounce it that way. I pronounced it and, you know, in, in the Latin way, you know, so. Alycia’s is how you would pronounce it, but the way you pronounce it also is it’s a way that you pronounced that,

Casey: that story is heartbreaking.

And well, how was that as a filmmaker coming in and documenting?

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yeah, I know. I would tell you that that’s very interesting that you brought that, that, that film up Because all right, I’m going to just say this real quick and I’m going to rewind of how that started. We actually we actually going to re-release the film this year.

The week we did that film or when I, when I did the film in it and it was released well, I’m going to take it back. We [00:07:00] never released it. Because of the topic, it was, it was such a very hard. Topic is heavy. It’s very heavy. So we had to pause the release of the film when I first shot the film.

So during COVID last year, March I don’t don’t even ask me what came to my, my mind, whatever I was just film came. And I said, oh my God, you know what happened? You know what we, we, we need to release this film. And I said to myself, the best way I could release this film is I can contact the batter, which is Gil and ask him, Hey, look, man, you know, it’s almost 10 years.

Many people have been asking about this film. And, you know, you know, I, the film got exposed a bit, a little bit with, you know, when I, there was a splash when, when I was announced for it to come out, like I was in, you know, over here in [00:08:00] television, New York from channel seven, nine, five, you know, everybody was talking about, about this film that was going to be released and we put a pause to it.

So I reached out to him. I wouldn’t believe it. It was, it was amazing guilt. I had the same feeling. He was like, I think you’re right. So we decided to go back and interview him and do a conclusion of what had happened from what we shot him. And so when he started his journey, so let’s go back. About 10 years ago, I had this producer really interesting.

I was invited to a Rihanna party to meet this producer. Right. And then. And out of this, you know, the reason why I laugh, because the gentleman that I was meeting for this, this project was this very like, you know, he’s an elder guy and you would never think that he would be in a Rihanna party.

So I go there and you know, I, I look I say, Hey, what’s, what’s going on. And he goes, listen, [00:09:00] I heard you’re a filmmaker. And I looked at some of your work and I spoke to some of your colleagues and I think you’re the perfect guy for this project. So he tells me right away, he says, you know, there was this young kid 95, 96 released a book called the air down here.

And it was about this boy who, you know, lived in the south Bronx and his parents both had HIV. Mom passed away from HIV. His sister passed away from HIV, but his father still lives. And he became this poster boy child of what was taboo at the time to even say that your parents had HIV. And he said he made a huge splash.

He was in channel seven and, and Dateline and no 2020 and Diane Sawyer. He wasn’t everything. He was in life magazine. He had a eight page spread. This kid was huge. I, and I looked it up during that time. He was still able to gather information online and I couldn’t believe. How big did this you know, kid at the time became from this book, but the thing was that no one could find him.

And this [00:10:00] producer said I found him and I, I want you to go search more deep, find out why did he just go missing, you know, all after all these years, whatever happened to him. So I said fine, you know, so I, I I pursue, it went to the south Bronx. You know, we, we, it was a very tough place in New York city.

And I find out the truth of what had Tim and of his struggles of living with you know, addiction abuse, mental, physical, and we get to learn to choose story of what happens to him when he is, when he was young and his parents were HIV. And there’s a huge story there that. Was revealed in a documentary that.

Cause that pause of the film not to be released. And I get, I stood it, I understood the pain of the individual was going. But as time went by, I just felt like, you know, I’m [00:11:00] going to reach out to this guy. Cause I think it’s really important for him to tell the story because many, many people go through it of, you know, of, you know, of just being young and losing the parents and going through physical, mental abuse and And yeah, and I caught him key.

He said, yes, he agreed. He, it was bothering him that it didn’t, it wasn’t released. So we shot the conclusion of the film. We put it together, my editor and I, we actually went back and we edit some of the segments and stuff and it is completed. We are right now, we are right now trying to Go into festivals and see where the film takes us.

But I appreciate you you know, checking that, you know, that one of those projects that I did and, and see that, you know, how powerful and strong that, that documentary actually is.

Casey: It’s fascinating to me because not only do you have to do your directorial work, but you had to be a detective. You, you had to track this guy down, you had to do the homework.

You had to put in a ton of work that I don’t know that a lot of people have [00:12:00] the capacity to do. And especially on such a subject that is so heavy, so very heavy. Is he in a better place now?

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yes, he is. I would say, I would say when we were trying to re at the time we was going to release it, he wasn’t, he, he definitely wasn’t there.

I have to say he is now. You definitely like when some comes out, you’ll definitely see him at the end, how he looks. And the film is amazing because the film starts off if 1996 of him being on television with Diane Sawyer, 2020, and how we go find them in 1990. I’m sorry. 2011. And then we come back at 2020.

So it’s a big, you know, there goes almost what, 25 years, basically from 96 to 2011 and then the 2000 explaining, Kasita how he grown, you know, what’s gone, you know, The things that wakey went through. But yeah, I think I, [00:13:00] I definitely see like he is in a better place and it was very strong the project and yes.

And, and I think that the, you know, when, when I was approached by the producer he felt that he needed somebody, you know, he felt like somebody who could go into the south Bronx and, and not be fearful of going in there. And that, you know, in, in, you know, into the south Bronx and do this investigation, do the story.

Well, not being, you know, I guess being fear to go out there. And I guess he just felt like they also be. And descent but just like the, just a scale themselves which we both come from the same sort of background I think he felt that was also a key. So yeah, I, I can’t wait for, for it to get released finally.

And I think things are meant for a reason, you know, I think it was Ben for a reason for this project to take that wild, to basically see, you know, what. How powerful this, this story is that it’s still kept with all of us and for it to be released. And for everybody. So understand that, you know, these things do go on and, and, and, you know, in life [00:14:00] and it’s, it’s really hard.

Casey: Yeah. Yeah. I can’t imagine the amount of like hurt that guy has been through. And I, I’m glad that you were able to find them in a better spot later on you, in addition to choose that you also kind of have a little bit of a horror bent and I say a little bit with, you know, kind of like a smile on my face because you, you do some, a lot of horror stuff starting off with, I mean, you, you did zombie with a shotgun as a short, which then turned into a series like a TV series, which then spiraled into a movie.

Tell me about that journey. And how did, what, what was the, the evolution of that?

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yeah, no, I, I, yeah, it’s, it’s a pretty big journey. And you know, I, I like. I tell people that, you know, as an independent artist, you know how it is to be an artist it’s difficult to go out there and to do projects and [00:15:00] stay with the projects and, and, and believe in the projects and make everybody around you, even the projects.

And I think that’s very important, you know, not giving up. And, and this is just, this is one example of not giving up when somebody put a shotgun. And, and I, and I’ll tell you, you know, and, and, you know, As you, as you said before, I’ve done like, certainly I did documentaries, you know, I did, you know, trauma projects at the comedy and, and then it was this time that I was like, let me go into horror.

And when I went to, when, when I went on zombie with a shotgun and I’ll be honest with you, I never expected some ambulance shotguns to take off the way it has where we decided to do a five episodes. And when we did the first episode, That was the key. And I would even go, I wouldn’t even go out, even take it to the point that that first episode was the engine that created everything that we’ve done since [00:16:00] that first episode was so powerful, but just that one episode, we didn’t even finish the series.

We went, we did the first episode, put it out and it went viral. So as a, you know, we’re going back. Wow. We’re going back almost eight years when I started at first episode. Yes. So time flies, I can’t even tell you so. That first episode went viral. And I honestly choose, you know, eight years ago, you know, I was like, oh wow.

I never experienced viral. I don’t know how even to handle it. You know, like I was like, oh shit, what do I do now? So when I, when I released that first episode everybody was emailing me hitting me up on social media, thinking that this was like a trailer for a feature length film. And dude, I was getting networks hitting me up.

So they were like, do you have this? We want to see it. We want first tip. It’s hard to, can we, you know, can we go check it out? Huh. Web series that I’m [00:17:00] doing and, and you know, I wish, you know, are you guys interested yet? Let’s talk. You know, so, but they were, everybody was interested, but no one really pulled the trigger.

So I just continued to do the web series. So I did it. I did the first one. And then you wouldn’t even believe it, my act, or if the lead actor got signed off the first episode and he’s off to California. And I’m like, wait a minute. What about me? You know, so he got signed for a management, active managing, and it was getting managed out there in California and put the great thing about Brayden, you know, he’s awesome guy.

He did not abandon it. He was like, listen, you know, I’m coming back, we’re going to finish this series. So he would come back and forth and it didn’t take us like. No, like we didn’t finish the series. Like in a year it took us like maybe I think a year and a half, because of, in going back and forth and you know, it is what it is.

We were still getting so much traction of it. It was [00:18:00] unbelievable. I’ve done so many articles on it. So finally we finished the Yeah. We finally finished the zombie with a shotgun web series and there it is. My social media numbers are still growing by the day. There was times I was getting 4,000 followers a week.

Yeah, it was, it was ridiculous. Sometimes top it off. I was sometimes getting 8,000. I believe it. I was like, all right, this is great. It’s just awesome. What do I do now? You know, I still doing my little projects here and there, and I’m just thinking she, you know, maybe we should get into doing a comic book.

And then that’s when I met Simona in , it’s a famous Italian comic book artist. She’s amazing. He decided to come on board and help me out and say, Hey, look, we could expand this even more. Let’s do art work comic books. So we did it. And. I did other stuff, other horror projects and other, you know, other, you know, working on other little documentaries as you seen.

And every time I would do an insecurity about it would say, Hey, what happened to me? What [00:19:00] a shocker. And I’m like, oh man, everybody is in love with zombie with a shot. I felt as if I felt as a filmmaker and as a person that finally got viral, that not a lot of people who get, you know, and I was like, I don’t think I can ever catch that wave ever again.

You know that that’s pretty hard to catch that. So I, you know, I was still, I, you wouldn’t believe it. I was still getting so many followers and I said to myself, you know what, maybe it’s time to go. And I don’t get me wrong. I was still asking people, Hey, you want to be part of this project? You know, come in and invest, but you know, there’s always the first, you know, everybody wants to see, who’s been in first penguin to jump into the water.

Obviously I didn’t have money. I was trying to find, you know, funds and, you know, everybody was interested. Everybody was interested to come on board. But you know, nobody wanted to, you know, You know, putting the whole money in the pot, whatever it is, you know, so I decided to do a campaign, which I did not want to do.

But I thought it was [00:20:00] one of the most amazing experiences as an artist, a filmmaker to go out there and raise money for your own film. I, I met gratifying

Casey: because you see the people’s enthusiasm behind what

Hilton Areil Ruiz: you’re putting out. Yes. Yes. So. I met Kyle has said he’s also produced. He’s also one of the people in the film and we, we spoke and we went together to raise money.

So the film, and it took us almost, I don’t know how many years, because even when we shot the first initial money, we shot like, 80% of the film and we ran out of money and we had to go back on a campaign. I never gave up on it. And the, and again, you know, the actors didn’t give up on it. Everybody came on and it wasn’t very difficult project to finish because We, we, we just didn’t have enough funds all the time.

And you know, but at the event, at the very end, we did complete the project. You know, and as you can see, there’s a little, you know, there’s a lot of things I’ve put in there as well. Put animation, Robert Steele from MTV, who did, you know, liquid TV stick theater. He came on board got, you know, amazing makeup artists to do the D finale zombie with a [00:21:00] shotgun.

And it was, it’s an amazing, it was an amazing journey. And to me, I felt like it was, you know, the, the, the essence of what independent horror filmmaking is. So, yeah. Yeah. And

Casey: too, so, so, and the, the thing that I like about zombie with a shotgun is the name immediately tells you what you’re in for. And it is it’s named as such that when you hear it, you’re just like, oh fuck. Yeah, I’m in like, I mean,

Hilton Areil Ruiz: like the other

Casey: day I saw a sign for loaded tater tots and I was like, oh fuck.

Yeah. Loaded tater tots. Yes. I’m into it. So, same

Hilton Areil Ruiz: thing was, I’ll be in a shotgun. Yeah. We got a shotgun. The films to be finished. You know, there was that thing [00:22:00] about me that I wanted to give the audience more about the zombie with a shotgun and, and, you know, I, I tell the fans, we ran out of money. And, and, and you know, that that was what we definitely want to do for part two.

We want to start off where we left off exactly where he became the zombie and we take it from there. And that’s the talks of us going into the, to the cul, you know, unfortunately, you know, when COVID happened, we released a film in November. 28 was released and streaming services from, you know, of course, Amazon and we released it there.

And three months later COVID hit everything shut down. And, you know, we felt, we felt like we fell short of really promoting the film. And, and don’t get me wrong. We, we you know, we, we, we promoted the, you know, We were promoting the film a lot and we were getting so much traction with the film was released.

It’s just that COVID just kind of like, you know, definitely put a dent in it because everyone just disappeared. You know how it was [00:23:00] everybody disappeared. Nobody was there to talk to. So you know, that, that was, you know, a

Casey: little bit of,

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Of the disappointment of, you know, of what happened. Oh, wait one second.

Yeah. You see me? Yeah. Yeah.

Casey: I see. Yeah. Especially with when everything shut down, I mean, that’s the cons to all the cons the cons had to shut down. So, and that seems like, yeah. Festivals and cons. It seems like a great platform to, to show off your movie, especially because horror fans are all about the experience.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: You are, you just nailed it? When, when we were you know, we used the film, we were excited. We were like, we’re going to do a convention tour. Let’s you know, [00:24:00] let’s order the DVDs let’s order. We, we ordered all the merchandise. I, I still have the merchandise in my home and it’s like, it’s so sad.

I was like, You know, the merchandise is still waiting in there to go on to conventions. And when that went down and we heard that, oh, okay. This, you know, it’s going to take a couple of months, we’re going to get over this. And then boom, you know, everything’s closed theaters, conventions, festivals, concerts.

We were like, oh man, So it took us to, you know, everybody, you know, everybody took a back step to this all filmmakers artists, you know, singers, everybody, everybody workers, and everybody took a back step on, on everything they were doing. And, you know, I just felt like, you know, where everybody’s in the same boat and just we’ll take it from there.

And with things get better. We’ll we’ll. You know, get back on that design with a shotgun engine.

Casey: I hear you. Yeah. In the meantime, you, you haven’t, I mean, COVID shut things [00:25:00] down for theaters and everybody else, but as far as you you’ve been busy since then you’ve done a documentary and you have a new project beyond the halls of paradise.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yes.

Casey: Can you tell us a little bit about that? Because that looks cool.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Okay. That’s pretty good. Yeah. So when COVID happened, everybody was sort of like, what do we do as independent artists? We’re trying to figure out. So I had six, six, six was also a web series before zombie with a shotgun and believe it or not.

So I started at web space and, you know, basically is a story about, you know, saying himself, the devil himself, whatever you want to call it. The entity who was born in 66, 66 and the, I started web series and each web series to me, what I wanted to do is each web series was different. It was a different story, but about the same you know, [00:26:00] entity.

Where everybody’s talking about trying to figure out what it’s all about by next meeting or bump into it, or just some urban legend as mentioned. So when I did E six, six, six a web series Eli Ross people called they contacted me because one of the schools that I released, they loved and they asked me if I wanted to do original content for their upcoming horror Crip, Hart, TV Expansion, obviously everybody knows her crypt TV, so I agreed.

I jumped on it right away. Anybody would and before crypt TV was really put it out there they have par, I’m not sure if you remember far. And I actually was the first person to open up at, under that umbrella. And so I went, we, we did an episode for them. And I did also extra [00:27:00] episodes. But it never had the time to release because they closed the horror Crip horror.

And they went with Crip TV, which was sort of different what they were doing.  so there I was with these episodes and I’m like, oh my God, I got these episodes that no one’s really have seen. So. Hey, you know, I was like, okay, you know, I’ll, I’ll, you know, shelf this for the moment and see what happens down the line.

So when COVID came, you know, you, you have to, everybody was trying to figure out what to do as an artist. And, you know, everybody’s trying to figure out how to, you know, make everybody else how to make money. How did you be staying safe? I came up with the thing it’s was like, Hey, you know what? I still have a, a pretty good circle of friends that would go out and shoot regardless of dependency.

And I, wow. You know, six 66 can actually be an anthology feature film. If I go out and shoot like four more [00:28:00] episodes and put. Put them together with the other episodes and make eight episodes of the same story. You know, of course it’s about six, six, six, you know, beyond the halls of paradise. And I just felt that that would be the best thing for me to do as an artist while I was, well, we will all dealing with COVID.

And it worked out. I was able to do four more episodes or four and a half, three more episodes because we had to do some more extra stuff. And the others on the other projects, the other shot that no one’s seen and we finished we are probably, I think we are completely on the edit.

Project. Oh, cool. Cool.

Casey: Cool. So, That’s exciting, man. I can’t wait to see it when it [00:29:00] comes out. I I’m curious w when you’re done with that are you planning on going back to the zombie with a shotgun too? Or is that like written yet, or how far along in the

Hilton Areil Ruiz: process? Well, where, where, okay, so when, when here’s another cheers, another thing that I never mentioned was that when.

When the zombie was shotgun came out there was a script that I already had completed for the sequel. Oh cool. And I had, I had major interest from many people and we were, believe it or not. I had these investors and producers that I was talking on maybe three times a week. Oh, well, on trading the sequel.

And when COVID hit again, It was disappointing. It was this, the, the, the conversation just that’s it gone, you know? So that will also, you know, that that’s something I did. I forgot to mention that [00:30:00] we were like rolling. It’s the cul like with so much interest because of the first one coming out. But you know, And it came, you know, I would call, it makes it, makes everyone think, you know, a lot of things change even, even from myself as in like, should I still continue doing the sequel?

But there, I, I use the resources like that I already had like, okay. You know, to do some little part two, it’s going to take a lot more then when we do for the first one, and if there’s just so much more. Well, and that’s why I brought this up, you know, going with E six, six, six, because I knew that my team, a bunch of actors it was hard.

Cause you know, there, there are actors that are, would come back to the sequel that were won and they will vary. They were like nowhere, no way to even Fine. Even if we would do a seatbelt, everybody’s decided to go that way. So that, that was another thing that was difficult to even get actors. And even the main actor was just, there’s no way we [00:31:00] could shoot it.

Yeah. Yeah. As things clear up and you know, I’m very optimistic. I think we all feel that, you know, the COVID, but it’s coming to the end and we definitely want to explore that. And we, I had a conversation with What Kyle, you know, one of the producing the actors and the salesman he talked about possibly coming back around us to timber and just to get probably the fans and everybody start interest that, Hey guys, you know, w w and this is just an estimate, thinking that by September, when everyone, we feel like everyone’s going to be going back to school and things will be a little bit normal.

We think that’s when we’re going to start teasing everybody and say, Hey look guys, you know, are you guys we’re ready to go to part two? Are you let’s go. And let’s get everybody to see. Whoever’s interested to come on board. Or, you know, if we have to do another campaign, we’ll do another campaign.

Casey: Awesome.

And I think that you, you would definitely have no problem getting people excited for, for that, especially with just. The idea [00:32:00] alone is so fun. So, it, it just sounds like a good time. Are there any other genres that you would like to explore? Cause you you’ve done a lot of different things with your, with your filmmaking.

Is there anything else that you’d want to kind of dip your toe into,

Hilton Areil Ruiz: You know, I definitely will love to get a little bit I like to do like a, a, a more of a hardcore science fiction film. Oh, wow. Yeah, that’s something that I, I I’m actually working on that. I am working on a new graphic novel.

Called amplitude modulation you know, am, and it is a sort of hardcore science fiction. And, and it’s funny because it’s not, like I said, you know what? I got to do science fiction. It just, it was an idea that I had for many years. And I finally hooked up with the. Right. You know, artists to come on board and and, and this was something that I was working for a couple of years.

And again, COVID was one that you know, the artists was just like, Hey, you know, I’m, I’m not doing anything. So, yeah, I was like, all right, you know, [00:33:00] you know, I, I had mentioned the story and they loved the story and they were just like, you know, very busy, but they’re like, Hey, look, I really love that idea that you came out with.

And So we already started, even if you, on my social media, I put up in my Instagram mini minimize Twitter. I’ve given already Some sneak peaks of some panels that is already being worked on with the comic book, you know, who knows maybe, you know, come out something, maybe a film, but definitely the next thing that I like to do as a film wise it would be like a science fiction project.

Awesome. Are

Casey: y’all gonna produce that comic via like Kickstarter or is it going through a

Hilton Areil Ruiz: a publisher. So right now the conflict is actually financed. Oh, cool. So, yes, so it’s really cool. So what we’re going to do is at the very end, when where we’re completely done, we’re probably going to go on a campaign to see people who want, are interested in buying the comic book and possibly because right now it’s going to be a black and [00:34:00] white, obviously, you know, it’s color, it’s going to be much, much more money.

So with the campaign, we are suggesting that if how much money we raised, we would get the comic book you know, colors on board to cut a comic book. But, you know, as it looks right now, I don’t even think we even do that. I mean, it looks amazing black and white. And you know, right now, right now, definitely when we’re done, I definitely would love to look for a publisher to see what come on board on loves to distribute the comic book.

That would be definitely ideal. And to get it out there and definitely get more interest out there in the public to possibly even get it into a second graphic novel, or possibly, you know, get it into a feature length project. That would be awesome. You know, that’s probably, I deal with a lot of. People who do graphic novels.

That’s something that they always want to get the film to get picked up or licensed to get into a feature film. We have the

Casey: proof of concept, just, you know, you show them that the graphic novel, like this is what I want. [00:35:00] Let’s let’s let’s talk Turkey. That’s awesome. So, man, it looks like you COVID hasn’t really slowed you down too much, staying busy.

I, I love how you’re able to If one thing isn’t going at the time, just because the world stops you pivot and you find your footing and you, you do something else. That’s inspiring just as a as, as a writer, I I did my first Kickstarter not long ago. And we actually sent the everything off to print today.

So, but as, as a writer, you know, seeing people that can, you know, just move and meet the challenges that come towards them as inspiring as hell. So, I’m, I’m really looking forward to see what you do next, man.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Yeah, I appreciate that. Thank you. You know, I I’ve, you know, I’ve learned, you know, in the industry, you know, it many times, no one’s going to come in and, and most of the times, no, one’s going [00:36:00] to come and help you or say, Hey, you know, it’s a lot of times as yourself, you know, you got to self promote yourself, you got to promote, you know, you have to go out there and push us, you know, what you have to do.

And I think a lot of people have the notion that, you know, I’m just going to come out here, I’m going to do a project. I’m going to release it. And then somebody’s going to find the ways this project, and then help me come out, you know? Yeah. That can happen you know, very fast slim or whatever. And I just learned that, you know what?

I just come, I’m an artist. I’m going to put out what I liked. And you know, Not what I like. And if they, you know, people see it, they see it, they don’t, they don’t, they, you know, you can’t make everybody happy, you know, not everyone’s going to like the stuff that you do and everything like that. But I just know that at the end of the day, you know, just like what your project is, it’s your art.

And no one can tell you what, you know, anything different than

Casey: that’s awesome. Yeah. So one thing I like to ask people bef before we let them go, is. We need to keep comic shops open. Obviously you’re a comic fan. Do you have any [00:37:00] comic shops that, that you want to give a shout out to?

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Wow. So for spring and then I’ll leave it. You know why? Because there’s no really comic book shops that are like open, you know, you know, New York city, you know, has very, you know, they do have the comic book, you know, Midtown comics, I would have to say to this day is probably one of my favorites and best I’d love

Casey: to go there.

I’ve never been to New York, so

Hilton Areil Ruiz: yeah. For this time,

Casey: the furthest I’ve been north has Pennsylvania and little, so

Hilton Areil Ruiz: a

Casey: good part of Pennsylvania. I went to the, like the redneck. Yeah. Which is essentially Alabama. You have like Philly and Pittsburgh and then everything else is pretty much Alabama. And I know Alabama. I’m in Alabama, so

Hilton Areil Ruiz: yeah. Yeah, definitely take a trip out there, out here, you know, it’s I guess when things start to, I guess, you know, cool down or whatever things start to open up, cause right now you’re still limited to go into the restaurants and stuff like that.

Let’s give a shout out to Midtown [00:38:00] comics. I mean, you know, they, they, you know, again, I, I don’t know what they everyone’s hurting and business business-wise and stuff like that. And if you do come to New York, dad is a shop that you should code to you know, a lot, a lot of the stores I haven’t even visited because of COVID.

So that’s one definitely calming shop to visit.

Casey: Is there anything in particular, just like any media inspiring you right now, comic movie TV

Hilton Ariel Ruiz – COMBINED: show.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: You know what I like, I started watching dark German. That’s fantastic. Yes. That is pretty amazing. I think that’d be your, you know, anybody’s listening. They should check that out. And it’s so amazing that because the the voiceover, the voiceover is, so if there are times that you like, are they speaking English or German, they, they did such an amazing job on the English.

Voiceover, they, sometimes you can’t even tell that’s how amazing it is. You know, I think that’s an, a great science fiction series slash horror, whatever you want to call it. But I think that’s amazing. Yeah, they did

[00:39:00] Casey: that so well. And it’s so complex. It just feels like your brain is running out of your nose at the end of the episode.

It’s just so like, Well, I felt like I needed to take notes, but

Hilton Areil Ruiz: it’s so good. It is really good. What, if any?

Casey: Oh yeah, yeah. And they, they really took it to the next level on the storytelling and stuff. And man, I can’t wait to see what else you come, you come up with next because I’ve really been impressed with what I’ve seen.

Hilton. It’s been a pleasure, man.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me on and I apologize for me driving dude, dude,

Casey: if you’re cool with it, I’m cool with it. Sound audio is good. And it was, it was good getting to know you, man.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: Likewise, man. Thank you so much, taking these brothers to be

Casey: safe and watch out for people with no masks.

Hilton Areil Ruiz: No problem. Take care. See you brother. Yeah. [00:40:00]