Talking With SkyDirects – November 13, 2023

Ira Sternberg: "If you like urban film thrillers and you like Las Vegas locations, you probably like my guest. He's Las Vegas local SkyDirects, he's the director of 'Run Nixon.' It's releasing in AMC theaters on November 22nd, and you can follow 'Run Nixon' on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. And SkyDirect, welcome to the show."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yes, yes, yes, thank you, Ira. Thank you for having me, a pleasure."

Ira Sternberg: "I, when I first saw the name of the film, I thought it was about Richard Nixon, but clearly, he's done running for office, so it's not."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, I know, everyone assumes that. Yeah, no, this one's about a boy who's running."

Ira Sternberg: "Okay, excellent. We're going to get into the plot, but before that, I'm curious about your background because you've had an interesting background in show business. Can you share it with our audience who may not be aware of SkyDirect?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Oh, sure, yeah. I actually started off as a teenager in the film business with Nick Cannon. He was filming 'Wild 'N Out' Season 2, and I was on his set with a big camera called a Canon XL2. One of his bodyguards brought me on set just to film behind the scenes, and I wasn't supposed to be filming. I did, and that night I went home to upload what I filmed. I thought I got in trouble because I got a phone call from Nick Cannon's assistant, Danielle, the next morning, and she's like, 'Hey, Nick wants to meet you.' And I was like, 'Oh gosh, what did I do now?' And I went up there, and he said, you know, he wanted to figure me out and fill me out, and he said, 'Hey, I want to bring you on as my personal videographer and film everything.' And I was Nick Cannon's personal videographer for a couple of years."

Ira Sternberg: "Very impressive. So you used a Canon to shoot Nick Cannon, is what you're saying?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "I used the Canon to shoot Nick Cannon."

Ira Sternberg: "Excellent. Did he see any of your work, or he just called you up because he saw you on set and said, 'You know what, this guy looks like he knows what he's doing'?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "No, he saw what got uploaded on YouTube. He was impressed about the delivery, how fast I was filming that day, then that night I edited and put it up."

Ira Sternberg: "Excellent. So where'd you go from there after you're working with Nick for a while? What was the next stage?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "The next stage was B2K. There's this big boy band group who actually split up as a four-member group and became a three-member group. They wanted to film the reality of them together and how they're going to move forward without the leading member. I came on board to film their day-to-day lives, and I went home every day, the same thing with Nick Cannon, to edit and upload. That created a big following on YouTube. This was before reality shows were really popular, and on YouTube, there was no other reality show besides what I was uploading. Warner Brothers decided to pick it up, and that show turned into a show that ended up getting canceled because one of the boy band members weren't doing what they were supposed to do, so they canceled the show, put it on pause. All that footage is just sitting in a vault, but that was what I did next."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, but it got you to the next stage. So B2K was four, it went to three, so you were shooting fractions, three out of four."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Three out of four, yeah."

Ira Sternberg: "Terrible joke, but I had to do it. So it's okay. Now, you are directing this film. It's an urban thriller, and one of the reasons I wanted to have you on is because a lot of the shots obviously are done in Las Vegas because you're local Las Vegas. How did you decide, a) on the locations? Well, let's start with the film itself. Tell us a little bit about the story, then we'll get into the locations and who are some of your collaborators because I know there's a lot of people involved in the production."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Oh, yeah. I mean, the story is based upon my uncle who passed away at the age of 18. I never got a chance to meet him, but he had a heart failure, and he was a strong sports player. He played basketball, football, tennis, and he came home one night very tired, and my grandparents didn't think nothing of it. And that next morning, he never woke up, and they found out it was due to heart failure. And one night I was sleeping at my father's house, and he gave me this vision of Brian, my uncle that passed away. He gave me the vision, and I woke up and literally wrote about 80 pages of what he was telling me and just started to write. And that's how the story began. And then I developed my own arc in the story, added some more flavor to it, and from there, I went out to go reach out to certain cast members that I feel can play the role. And that's how we kind of started the process of 'Run Nixon.'"

Ira Sternberg: "How long did it take you to write it in total, the script?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Well, when I wrote the first 80 pages, it deleted, unfortunately. It deleted, and I had to rewrite it all over again."

Ira Sternberg: "That is the worst thing I've ever heard, 80 pages, and it deleted. Listen, if you work on a Mac guest account and you put anything in notes, it erases every 24 hours, and I didn't know that. And I woke up the next morning and saw that everything erased, and I said, at this point, I wanted to give up. I said, 'Forget it.' And then I looked, I have two boys. I said, 'You know what, it's my legacy. I have to figure out how to go back and rewrite this and get the strength to remember everything and rewrite it.' So, it took me two weeks to just sit in the office and just literally write it all out, rewrite it."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, the key word is always back up your material, no matter what. That's the key. Yeah, it's amazing. What... Now, how did you end up financing the film? Because it's not easy to... You can't just... Yes, in today's world, yes, you could shoot theoretically a film on an iPhone, but this is much more than that, obviously. So you had to get financing. Did you do it on your own, or were you able to get some people to back you?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "No, I mean, after I wrote the script, I assumed it would be easy to go get financing. I reached out to our first executive producer, who was Kuda Love, and he told me, 'Hey, if you film the trailer, a spec trailer, like the idea which you want to shoot, I'll go raise the money off of that.' And I had to sell my car to do that part. I leased it out, I took five grand, leased it out, and went to LA and shot this spec trailer. And I edited it up, and I did it so good where people assumed that the movie was shot. So it backfired to the world because the world... I actually put it out, and the world was like, 'Wow, when is it coming out?' And it was the whole 'coming soon,' and it never came out. And then, raising... trying to raise money for a year just never happened for me. Towards the end of the 2019 year, I was like, 'Okay, let me do a GoFundMe around December and see if that works.' And me and the leading actor, Jordan Lee Brown, stood on Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset in front of Netflix, literally holding a sign, trying to raise awareness for this GoFundMe campaign. You know, assuming we might get some donations, assuming somebody might take a picture, and it goes viral, and then the whole GoFundMe can spread. But it never worked. And I think 2020, I gave up for a whole year straight. I moved back to Vegas. So I spent two years trying to raise the money, and I came to Vegas, and I met this guy named Brian Cooper, who was... who came on as a producer from New York. And he said, 'Hey, what are you working on?' I told him what I've been working on, trying to work on. And he said, 'Well, let's go act like we have the money. Let's go location scout. Let's just go figure it out. Let's not just sit on it.' And his New York spirits, that's how they get down on the East Coast. So I said, 'Forget it. Let's do it.' So we literally went in Vegas and broke down every location we needed and just went to go location scout. And majority of locations actually said, 'Yeah, we'll give you the house, the liquor store, everything that was needed.' But the main location was a strip club. And this is how I got my first investment. A guy named Stephen Lou, who took ownership of this strip club called, back then, it was called The Library Gentleman's Club on Boulder Highway. This place was closed. It was a perfect location since it was closed. And I was just hounding the real estate people to give me the information so I can go location scout. I didn't think nothing of it. But when I met, finally got in contact and met Stephen Lou, he had asked what I was doing. And I told him, you know, I'm just here to... I want to reach a location and shoot a movie. And we talked, and it was about a month of us talking. He finally, you know, him and his wife sat down, Gloria. We sat down, and they said, 'Hey, we want to be your first investors and give you 30 grand for your movie.' Our budget was about 150,000 at this time. I could have said, 'You know what, need more money. It's not going to work.' But it... I spent two years trying to get a dollar. So when I had the 30 grand, to me, that was 300 grand. And I said, 'I'll figure it out. I'll make it work.' And I think two weeks later, we went into production. Kuda Love, he dumped in 15 grand, so we had... well, 10 grand. We had about 40 grand, and we went to start filming."

Ira Sternberg: "Amazing story. Yeah. When you first started to put together the film, now, you obviously have a fairly decent cast. What I mean by decent, decent number of people involved. And you have, uh, as well as you have you... well, you co-wrote it, correct? You co-wrote it with Michelle Vital or VD... Vitalovich?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Vital."

Ira Sternberg: "Vital. And then Brian is producing, and the cinematography was by Matthew... is it Vesas?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Vcas."

Ira Sternberg: "Vcas. Okay, excellent. Music by Robert Johnson. So you've got a lot of people with you, and you have a decent-sized cast. That's what I was trying to say earlier, but sometimes my brain freezes. When you were casting, did you find the people that you wanted, in the sense that you knew the parts you had to fill, you were able to find people to fill those parts? You didn't have to settle for less, or wait for someone to be ready to be available for you. You were able to get everybody when you needed them?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, the casting process was a movie in itself. I mean, since I started in 2018, and we didn't film until 2022, I believe... Was it 2022? I believe so. I had enough time to kind of find the right people. Our first cast member was Fizz, who plays Dre, the father in 'Run Nixon.' That was from Kuda Love, the producer, who manages him. So he brought him on early. Our next cast member was Sicily Cameron, who plays Stacy, the mother. She's an aspiring singer, so we had already a relationship, and she traveled from the Bay Area to audition. So I locked in her. The next cast member was Jordan Lee Brown, who plays Slice. I scouted him early in advance, and I went through a lot of different antagonists to play that role. And that guy, he brought the audition out so well, where he shot a movie in for his audition. I said, 'He's it.' And our last key player was Nixon, Emperor Kis. He was a hard one to find. He came last minute. Literally, I think probably two weeks before we had to shoot."

Ira Sternberg: "Cutting close, yeah."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, yeah. And for our main player, the movie to be based upon him, it was crazy to find him last minute. I was very meticulous on who that character was, and it was great for his mother, Miss Jay, to come and bring him all the way from New York. That's where he's from, to bring him out to Vegas to do the movie."

Ira Sternberg: "How long is the film itself, Sky?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "So it's about an hour and 50 minutes."

Ira Sternberg: "Okay, that's a decent amount of time. When you put it together, were you amazed when you look at the beginning of your journey and where you are now with it? So it's, as I mentioned earlier, this is going to be released November 22nd in AMC Theaters, including in Las Vegas. But how did you feel about the fact that you had started with this idea that unfortunately Mac got rid of, and you had to rewrite, and then you had to raise money, and then you had to cast it, find locations, etc., and now it's a completed film? Is... Do you look at it as your baby, so it's like another kid that you've..."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Definitely, yeah. It's definitely a kid. I think I wanted to adopt the kid a couple of times. You know, the... And it is, it was really treated like a kid. I mean, you know, you got to support it, you got to feed it, you got to nurture it, and you got to raise it. And you can't give up. And I think that's the challenges that any parent faces, as like, you know, I feel like I was a single father at times, just trying to raise this kid to be something, what it is today. And I mean, the challenges, man, if you're not built strong, and you can't... You don't know what you're doing, why you're doing it, or don't have a purpose or a why, it's easy to give up and just call it quit. And I see why people, you know, that go through these challenges that don't make it out, give up, because it's not easy. I mean, making a movie is super hard. And it's so easy to just click next or, you know, skip five seconds that took five hours or five days just to make. And, you know, it was definitely a challenge raising this child."

Ira Sternberg: "And also, too, you're not done with it, in this sense, that now that you've filmed it, now you have to promote it. So the work is never done."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Never done. Never done, yeah."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, yeah. Now that it's the... It's what we're doing today, is talking about the movie and talking about the process and letting people know. Yeah. And how did you decide on the name 'Nixon'? I'm just curious about that, because as we talked in the beginning, my thought was, 'What? Richard Nixon's running again? He can't. He's not here anymore.' But now, how did you decide on the name 'Nixon'? Is it a family name, or where did it come from?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "I don't know where it came from. I mean, I was just thinking of names, and I think I forgot his name originally. It wasn't Nixon at first. I can't remember his original name. But the name 'Nixon' just kind of sticked. Somebody... Somebody's gonna be mad at me because someone said the word 'Nixon,' or I... Somebody's name was 'Nixon' that I heard somewhere, and I was like, 'That's catchy. That's a good, that's a good catchy name.' And then the 'Run' came from Stacy when we were shooting the first spec trailer. She was yelling, 'Run, Nixon! Run, Nixon!' And originally, the movie was called 'Nick of Time,' and it was like, you know, to save your son in the nick of time, right? And when she kept saying 'Run, Nixon! Run, Nixon!' I was like, at that time, I was like, 'I like that name. It sounds a little bit more catchy.' And the whole 'Nick of Time' was already a movie, and I wanted something... If you search 'Run Nixon,' I wanted a movie that only our movie showed up, you know, as far as the title goes. So, you know, it just made sense for us to just switch the name to 'Run Nixon.'"

Ira Sternberg: "Now, without giving away the entire film, because you want people to see it, obviously, but give us a little bit about it. It's an urban thriller, and it's about... Well, I'll let you... I'll let you describe it in the best way you..."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "I mean, it's definitely an urban thriller, and it's about a boy who has a bad heart, and he gets rushed to the hospital, and his mother and father have to figure out how to pay for this heart transplant, and they don't have the money, unfortunately, and insurance is not going to cover it. So the mom, who works at a strip club, she decides to... to rob this strip club to pay for her surgery. And after that, everything turns bad. The antagonizer, Slice, comes in, who she robs, and... I don't want to give too much away, but he ends up, you know, picking up the boy, Nixon, and holding him hostage for 24 hours. Now the dad has to figure out how to get his son back before it's too late."

Ira Sternberg: "All right, good. When you started scouting, going back to locations for a second, in Las Vegas, there are so many interesting locations. From your point of view, what was the most significant from a cinematography point of view for the film itself?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Um, I would have to say it was probably the... I don't want to... It... The strip club was the main location. And that's really actually in the beginning of the movie. But I want to say that was probably the... That was the... The centerpiece of the... Of the film. And, you know, when we shot this, we didn't shoot it like this was a big, perfect strip club that was like the... The... The... A famous, well-known strip club. This was a hole-in-the-wall strip club that was run down, and it wasn't... Wasn't too popular. And that's how it was kind of shot. Outside of that, the... The house where one of the... Uh, one of the... Uh, other members was at, was... It's called Bird's House. And it's an old... It's an old house over... Uh, on D Street. That was a pretty significant house because that's the house where Nixon actually gets set up to go rob the house. So that was another house. That was another location that was pretty significant in the film."

Ira Sternberg: "Did you test the ending of the film, and based on the response of the audience, change it? Or did you stay true to your original script? Because so many films, they test for audience and see which way to end the film. How about in your case?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "No, we actually... I mean, I filmed the... When we had a... A launch party for the film, which was on my birthday last year, May 6. I had a group of about 20 to 30 people that watched the film. At the time, it was about two hours long. So I ended up taking out about... About 30 minutes of the film. And I didn't change the ending. The ending was already set. The ending was... There wasn't too much to change. But I did actually take out 30 minutes of a lot of different arcs that was in the film that I feel like probably I could save for the sequel. So that was... That was the biggest change that I did."

Ira Sternberg: "I like your optimism. You're already thinking ahead for the sequel."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, we already have it written. It's... I mean, when you watch 'Run Nixon,' and you watch the end of it, you're going to realize there's a sequel that's going to continue. And we're already... Ready for that sequel, going into pre-production, hopefully in March."

Ira Sternberg: "Will it be based also in Las Vegas?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "It'll be partially in Vegas, and then it'll be traveling down the... Towards... Uh, San Diego... Uh, Chula Vista area."

Ira Sternberg: "Interesting. VI is on the run, and he's trying to make it across the border. But I won't give too much away."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, don't give too much away. Know we want people to... So that's good. Do you find that your talent lies more in the writing or in the directing?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Wow. I think my talent lies in the editing."

Ira Sternberg: "Oh, okay."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, I'm... I was an editor at first. You know, I started as an editor in high school, and that's where I found the love of filmmaking, was editing. I feel like with the directing, it's... Since I can't... I can't direct nothing like that I don't write, unfortunately, because I... I have to be able to be married to this vision, and I have to be able to write it down. So, you know, I... If someone gives me ideas, I still have to write it down, so I know in my head, I can see what I need to direct, so I'm clear on set when I am directing. My directing skills are very amazing. They're different than other directors. I'm very... I'm not anal, but I'm very visionary on what I have, and I... I get my... My directions clear to my talent. I let them kind of... You know, first, I... When I first shoot, I let them freely do their thing to see what they're doing. And then if they need my guidance, then I'll change it around to give them the direction. But when it comes to the writing, too, I'm a great storyteller. So... You know, I... But I think my talent definitely lies in the editing because that's the part... The hardest part to do is... Is to make it look good. And, you know, anyone can write, anyone can film something, but can they really put it together to make it look good? And I think that's where my talent really lies down."

Ira Sternberg: "It is a skill that people don't recognize as much as they should when it comes to films, that editing can make or break a film. And even if... Even if the ending of the film is the same, as you said, you took out 30 minutes initially just to... To make it work better. But even within an edited film, it's... It's subtle. People don't realize that it's been edited if you do it right. They just enjoy the storytelling. And I guess really, editing, if you think about it, is storytelling, as well as writing is. It's all a part of it."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "It's all... And I was blessed to be able to carry all three notes, you know, from the writing, directing, and editing. But that's how it is on set with me. I'm... I'm directing the craft services. I need that... Beed up like this, the Gatorade, the water, the napkins, the forks. People don't like me, but I'm... I'm that guy."

Ira Sternberg: "I'd be the one that would be eating at the craft services rather than directing it, right? Like, 'Hey, Sky, get off. Stop directing craft services. You have to direct your talent.'"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "I know. This gotta be right over here."

Ira Sternberg: "Exactly. The whole feel of the... The shoot has to be right, especially, you know, at any location. Did you ever use a sound stage for any part of the film in Las Vegas?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, well... Uh, Vegas, no, because, well... Do we? My father had an office. It wasn't a sound stage. So I used his for the doctor's office. But we actually used the Silver Dream Studios in... Uh, Anaheim... Uh, for the hospital scene. And that was the only sound stage we used. But Vegas didn't offer too many at the time when we were shooting. So we actually had to go all the way to California to shoot in a sound stage."

Ira Sternberg: "Because I can see your future in Las Vegas. And... And the reason I'm saying that is there's so much development now, and so much... Um, much more... A lot of people in Hollywood are thinking of moving to Las Vegas, not just actors, but obviously sound stages, production facilities, recording facilities, etc. So I could see you actually setting up a whole empire right here in Las Vegas without having to go to either Hollywood or anywhere else."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "You know, that's always been a dream of mine. Uh, I've been bouncing back and forth between Vegas and LA, and I always... You know, just like Mark Wahlberg can see it, the potential is definitely... Um, here, with our... With the... You know, how wide the city is and how... How much is developing. And, you know, with Las Vegas Media... Uh, a film company coming out to... Uh, where, kind of by... I think by Durango. Um, I definitely want to be a part of that. And that's why it's amazing that, you know, we have a movie in Vegas, shot in Vegas, and coming out, and... You know, not in other... Not only in other AMC's, but in Town Square AMC. And... And definitely, it's... It's important for Vegas to know, you know, there's an independent film that got a... You know, a theatrical deal with AMC. And... And from Vegas, it's amazing to be a part of that and to see what... What happens with Vegas and be able to bring, like, to Vegas on the film side."

Ira Sternberg: "And I think in your position, not only do you direct and write and edit, but you also have to really know some of the business in order to be able to not just finance the film, but as you say, you have a deal with AMC. A lot of that stuff's not easy to come by."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Oh, no, no, no. Do you want me to elaborate on that part?"

Ira Sternberg: "Please."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Listen, I think that's... You know, people film a movie, and, you know, there's... There's good opportunities out there, like... Uh, Tubi, that you can just easily go through a third party and upload... A aggregator, like FilmHub, and put it on Tubi and all the other different... Uh, SV... Uh, AODs. But, um, if you want something bigger, and you want to go theatrical, I think that... That was a business in itself, just to figure out how to do that. And, uh, luckily for me, we got turned down by Tubi for Tubi Original for 'Run Nixon.' Um, along with BET, who turned us down. Um, at that time, I could have gave up again. But, uh, it was like, you know, the goal for me was always to be theatrical. I... My films have to be in theaters. I believe that Silver Screen means something when an audience of people that never seen something come together and watch the movie. I think it... It feels better. And, um, you know, I didn't see the vision until we got turned down. And that's when I reached out to this lady named Nicole Randolph, who's the SVP over at... Uh, uh, AMC. And I told her my story and pitched the film. Her and her team got back to us in three weeks, and they agreed to, you know, give us a theatrical distribution through AMC, which doesn't happen. They said this is very rare. They go, you know, thousands of pitches and studios looking to put the films in movies. So to get a spot in the theater... Um, was a... Was a blessing in the sky."

Ira Sternberg: "You know, the most important question, I was going to say it for the end, but I'll say... I... I'll use it now. Are you gonna invite Nick Cannon to the opening?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "You know, Nick's a... A pretty busy guy, as you know. The guy has a lot of kids, and it's... Thanks, yeah."

Ira Sternberg: "But wait a second. Wait a minute. Wait. You have the determination to follow through on that one."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "I do. I definitely do. I'm gonna give him the invitation. I definitely will give him the invitation. I... Who knows? Come out. It makes sense for him to come out, though."

Ira Sternberg: "Do you see the film 'Run Nixon,' again, it's going to be at AMC November 22nd, a lot of AMC Theaters. And do you see that film, once it has the theatrical release, then taking on other platforms? So maybe it goes to streaming, or it goes to... Yeah, you mentioned Tubi earlier, any of those platforms later on, or Amazon Prime, or Netflix, or any of the other on..."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, um, you know, once... Once it's done with this... Uh, the window period for AMC, we're... We're going to definitely reach out to different... Uh, platforms. Take our numbers and analytics from AMC and see if we can get a... A good... Uh, deal with one of the platforms. I think Netflix... I'm sorry... Uh, BET is... Is a company that might... Uh, take it on again. Um, I know they were saying there was pretty much their catalog was filled for 2023, but 2024, they... They have us at the top of the queue. Um, so if it makes sense, we might go that route. If not, we might just go directly to Amazon FR."

Ira Sternberg: "I think the big story here is that despite COVID and despite the challenges under normal circumstances of making a movie, that you were able to persevere through all those elements, including the financing, including the shooting of it, the location finding, uh, the... All the dynamics, what happens when you're involved in filmmaking that happen, and you come out at the other end, and you're still here. And doesn't look like there's any blood on you, so you survived."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, unless you have makeup on, hiding those... Those wounds. But, yeah, I mean, that's the... That's... I think the inspiring story here, besides the film itself, is that you were able to do that over a period of time when there were a lot of other things going on. Now, clearly, I mean, you weren't in the middle of COVID when you were doing it, but still, there... There are so many things that came to a standstill, and then you had to kind of... Everybody had to kind of start up again, and you... It never stopped you. You just kept going."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Right, right. Yeah, I mean, the pandemic did... I think the pandemic was the slow time. That was the time where I kind of let it breathe and eased off of... Of it. You know, you... Sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes you have to pay attention. Hey, sometimes you do got to put... Take your foot off the gas and just ease off and just let this... You know, be on pilot and cruise control. Um, that was during the pandemic time. Um, and I... I... At that time, I... I'm in tech, so I developed a platform, and I was... I was tech-heavy in 2019... Uh, 2020. Um, but towards the end of the year, I had the butterflies got back in me, and I said, 'I need to fly this [ __ ] back into the film world,' especially with me being asked that question a lot, where people were asking me, 'Hey, what's going on with the filming?' Right. But, um, yeah, I mean, you know, and also, too, you know, I... I had to sell my car in the middle of the movie because we ran out of money. So I was backfaced with that, where I had to release my car and use that money to finish making the movie. And, you know, so the perseverance was definitely there. But, you know, my determination was... Has always been there. I'm always determined to make it and figure it out."

Ira Sternberg: "Yeah, and... And obviously, you have a great future based on just what you've just done. So before I let you go, last question. What do you see as your future? Are you going to stay in Las Vegas, or do you think you'll move to Hollywood or some other location and make more films and write books? Or what... What do you see as your future?"

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Yeah, right now, I'm... I'm pretty heavy in, you know, finishing up... Uh, making a name for myself in the film industry. Um, so, you know, the... The... The goal is to get a... A name that the industry knows, and I can continue on producing great films. I have, you know, 10 scripts ready to go. Um, once those... Once the... The name is established in the industry, I'm in the tech business, so I have a casting app coming out called Cille. Um, and that will allow, you know, people to be... Be able to audition for movies that I'm doing and other people are doing. Um, so, you know, I'll open the doors for that down the line, maybe 2024. And then, uh, you know, as far as staying in Vegas, I mean, my house is in Vegas. Uh, I'll always be in Vegas. Um, my whole entire life, I've been Vegas-LA, back and forth. So, you know, if the business is not here, of course, I'll be in LA. Um, but always be back and forth between LA and Vegas."

Ira Sternberg: "Well, that's a great way to leave it. My guest has been Las Vegas local SkyDirects. He's the director of 'Run Nixon.' It's releasing in AMC theaters on November 22nd. You can follow 'Run Nixon' on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. And he's showing his hat. I like that, Sky. Thanks for being on the show. Appreciate it."

SkyDirects (Sky Palmer): "Thank you. Thank for having me."

Ira Sternberg: "See you next time."