Cooper Roberts is an editor and director who just released his feature debut, All You Need is Blood—a delightfully gory tribute to Amblin-esque coming-of-age movies and zombie films. Cooper’s background includes experience in advertising and music videos, and most notably, he was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2016 for co-directing the music video for Jack White’s band, The Dead Weather, and their song “I Feel Love.”

All You Need is Blood is a movie I really want to shout from the rooftops for more people to see. It’s a love letter to childhood dreams of filmmaking and zombie movies and is full of charm and blood in equal measure. The effects are also awesome, and the movie is hilarious—I urge you to see it and tell your friends. All You Need is Blood is available to stream on the KINO app, which you can download today.

In this conversation with Cooper we dig into the 6 plus year journey of bringing AYNIB to fruition, the challenges of relying on practical effects on indie movies and why casting is one of the most important elements of directing.

Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with Cooper Roberts.

80% of Directing is Casting

Cooper cited a famous quote, commonly attributed to Elia Kazan, that directing is 80% casting. For this reason, he paid close attention to the casting process and took his time finding the right people, which tremendously helped bring the characters—and therefore the film—to life. Cooper noted that casting actors who naturally embody the character makes directing them much smoother and more intuitive. Casting actors outside their usual genres can also yield surprising performances, as audiences respond well to seeing familiar faces in unexpected roles, as was the case with Mina Suvari playing a comedic role, which brought a fresh, unexpected dimension to the film.

Never underestimate good old cold outreach.

With few industry connections, Cooper turned to IMDb Pro to cold-email indie producers. Out of a hundred emails, he connected with several promising candidates and eventually found a committed team. A lot of would-be filmmakers wait to be discovered or think it’s the responsibility of an agent or manager to get their movies moving forward, but it’s all on you. Even if you don’t have representation, just reach out to people. Cold outreach might seem daunting, but when executed well, it can be highly effective in finding partners and funding resources.

Build a ‘Brain Trust’ for Script Feedback

While writing the script for All You Need is Blood, Cooper sought to create his own ‘brain trust’ of script consultants and friends for feedback during the writing process, which he modeled after Pixar. Although he didn’t take all the notes, he found the input invaluable, as even a "bad" note could highlight a weak spot in the story. He noted Stephen King’s advice from On Writing—if multiple people give similar feedback on a section, it’s worth reevaluating. It is very easy to fall in love with your own voice and be blind to glaring issues in your script because you’re just too close to it to be objective. This is why it’s crucial to have trusted advisors and confidantes who can help you mold your projects. For more on Brain Trusts, I highly recommend Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull, which outlines how Pixar was founded and how they operate to this day with a large emphasis on storytelling. Also, shoutout to script consultant Carson Reeves—Cooper and I both worked with him, and I can tell you he’s great. Check out Carson at https://scriptshadow.net.

Show Notes

Movies Mentioned:

Dead Alive (Braindead)
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 4
American Beauty
Loser
Coco
The Babadook
Kill Bill
Django Unchained
Terrifier (1, 2, and 3)

Books:

On Writing by Stephen King
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

Follow Cooper Roberts at:

IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2843533/