Dec. 6, 2025
How A Director Built A Career By Betting On Himself with Roel Reine
Send us a text What if your next greenlight isn’t a yes from a gatekeeper but the momentum you create yourself? We sit with director Roel Reine for a fast, candid conversation about turning resourcefulness into results—mortgaging a home to finance a first feature, cutting a trailer that unlocks a studio deal, and shooting a $20k desert thriller to prove he could lead Hollywood casts. The throughline is clear: ownership beats permission, and speed beats perfection. Roel breaks down a craft mi...
What if your next greenlight isn’t a yes from a gatekeeper but the momentum you create yourself? We sit with director Roel Reine for a fast, candid conversation about turning resourcefulness into results—mortgaging a home to finance a first feature, cutting a trailer that unlocks a studio deal, and shooting a $20k desert thriller to prove he could lead Hollywood casts. The throughline is clear: ownership beats permission, and speed beats perfection.
Roel breaks down a craft mindset that audiences feel immediately: the three-scene first act. Define the hero and goal, reveal the opposition, establish the genre, then move. He explains why character development belongs in act two, where choices under pressure reveal depth without stalling pace. We also explore his on-set philosophy of directing while operating the camera—staying beside the lens to shape performance, block with intent, and capture multi-camera coverage that saves time and preserves spontaneity.
The business playbook gets just as tactical. When the market slowed, Roel asked sales agents what would sell without stars and delivered a practical-effects bear thriller that’s now selling worldwide. He shares why building a slate matters—pursue a few big packages while making smaller, fast projects that keep you sharp and liquid. We dig into AI as a creative multiplier, including a fully AI-assisted animated feature for a European theme park, and the global mindset that opens doors far beyond Hollywood.
You’ll leave with actionable tips: stabilize your shots, use a slider, collect “trailer shots” daily, color consistently with LUTs, and consider making a lean feature instead of a short. If you’re ready to trade waiting for working, press play and join us. Subscribe, share this episode with a filmmaker friend, and leave a review to help more creators find the show. What bold move will you make next?
About your Host- Alexia Melocchi
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00:04 - Welcome And Mission
01:07 - Introducing Roel René
03:12 - Origin Story And Early Breaks
04:16 - Financing The First Feature
05:31 - DIY Hollywood And Momentum
07:36 - Getting To The Story Faster
09:43 - Directing While Holding The Camera
13:18 - Staying Busy And Embracing AI
17:06 - Market-First Filmmaking And “Savage Hunt”
20:41 - Big Projects Versus Fast Projects
22:41 - Patience, Access, And Star Power
24:20 - No Excuses Filmmaking Playbook
28:24 - Practical Craft Tips For A Cinematic Look
WEBVTT
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Welcome to the Heart of Show Business.
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I am your host, Alexia Melocchi.
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I believe in great storytelling and that every successful artist has a deep desire to express something from the heart to create a ripple effect in our society.
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Emotion and entertainment are closely tied together.
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My guests and I want to give you insider access to how the film, television, and music industry works.
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We will cover dreams come true, the roadlines travel, journey beginnings, and a lot of insight and inspiration in between.
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I am a successful film and television entrepreneur who came to America as a teenager to pursue my show business dreams.
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Are you ready for some unfiltered real talk with entertainment visionaries from all over the world?
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Then let's roll sound and action.
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So, hello everyone to all my listeners of the Heart of Show Business podcast.
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I am coming on here all frazzled and uh yeah, all frazzled, which I usually am not, um, recording right a few days before the famous American film market, which is one of the biggest film conventions in the world.
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It takes place in Los Angeles this way.
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And I just happen to have here, just because we're talking about independent film and making things happen no matter what, if you got a great story to tell, with the wonderful Roel René, that is the way I like to call him.
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He is a very, very prolific European director who has done so many films.
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You're gonna have to look him up on IMTB.
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And um, because I'm not gonna name them all, that's just not gonna happen.
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But he, I love the way that he directs.
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Uh, he's done films for Netflix, he's done series like the George Washington series, he's done the Scorpion King to it, to name a few.
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He just shot a film in Malta with Aaron Eckhart.
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He does it all.
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And I love also that he's his own cinematographer.
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So we'll talk about that and we'll talk about also the way that he approaches independent film and the new way that directors, not that's really not a new way, but I think it's the best way where directors get attached to projects that they really believe in and they become a little bit more proactive in the process.
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Because if we if we give the control away to the powers that be, then nothing ever happens, right, Roel?
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Yes, that's true.
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That's true.
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You have to you're your own, you're your own producer, you know, and uh you need to move things forward, otherwise you're gonna be waiting forever.
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Yeah, yeah.
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It's so great to have you here.
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And I just wanted to go back a little bit into your origin story because, of course, what what got you the bug of wanting to be a director?
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Why did you choose to be a director?
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Of course, you're also a producer, but what it where is the focus on that?
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Tell me a little bit about that.
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Yeah, no, I was 11 when I saw Blade Runner, and uh I then understood that you kind of as a director build worlds, and so I wanted to build worlds and be director.
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So from that moment on, everything that I did was was learning myself, uh, directing stuff when I was very young, and then get myself bluffing into the industry, uh, telling that I could do it, and then I had to prove to do it.
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So, and I was very young doing all these things, and I was 22 when I was already starting directing TV series in the Netherlands.
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I'm from the Netherlands, and I was 26, I had my own production company, and I was 28 directing my first feature, but was then picked up by Warner Brothers in Europe, Alliance Gate in America, and so that was kind of my ticket into uh into Hollywood.
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Wow, and how did you convince them?
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I want to know because obviously, like you said, how how does one get that first shot?
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Because you know, was there something specific that you did in the Netherlands?
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What I did, I started directing TV, so I did uh TV movies and and TV action series, but also did a lot of reality shows and pop concerts and multicamera.
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But my first movie, I convinced everybody to do it because I put a second mortgage on my home and was one of the financiers.
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And so I went to some millionaire friends of mine and said, Hey, can you put 100,000 uh euros into this movie?
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And because I did 50,000 euros and uh and I believe in this.
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So that's kind of how I did my first movie.
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Um, when I came to America, my first American movie was even lower budget, it was like no budget, and uh we shot with like four people, four actors in the desert, and um, and but I bluffed myself, you know.
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I was because I remember coming to Hollywood and I had a lot of meetings, and I had two movies on my belt, and I had a golden calf for my first movie, what is kind of the Dutch Oscar for best director.
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Um, the youngest ever getting this thing, this thing.
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So it it opened the door, but then I remember in Hollywood was like, Yeah, but can you work with American stars?
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And we don't know, you're very European.
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So I remember at that time that I was like, uh screw this.
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Um, so we went and made our movie for like$20,000 for actors in the desert, and then I was announcing it.
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So I announced a rule of Renee is directing in a Hollywood movie, a rule of Renee is casting, a rule and A is raped, rule Rena's in post-production, and then I was an American director, even it was a$20,000 for Actors in the Desert movie.
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And then the first thing we did, we cut a trailer, and with the trailer, it was really cool.
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We went to I went to producers, and then I got a producer giving me$300,000 to do a Lance Hendrickson movie, and um, so we did that.
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We were shooting two months later.
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Um, and then from that I cut a trailer, and I got uh my first Sony studio movie for like my nine million dollars.
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So we made this movie called Pistol Whipped, and uh and then I there it goes, you know.
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From that moment I didn't stop directing.
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Wow, what a great story! And you know what?
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It really goes to show what I always say to everybody, which is put your money where your mouth is.
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I mean, if you want to be able to tell somebody to invest in you, you have to first invest in yourself as well, because nobody else will do it for you.
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And you have to show that you believe in yourself enough and you can prove that you can do that for a price, and and that's the way to do it.
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You know, obviously, ideally, it would be great if everybody writes us checks, and but we know that's not the case.
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But I love, I love how you sold yourself and you know, and you went out to your friends and everything.
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What I also know, and by the way, little well, we're not gonna say too much about it, but Royelle and I are gonna be working together on a film.
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We're not gonna say which one it is, but um, and I'm so happy and impressed because another thing that I did say, because like you said, with the trailer that you shot, he showed up at the meeting with um a full presentation of how he sees directing the film.
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And what thing that obviously was uh a standout thing is that he uh he said something about um scripts and uh the speed of uh getting us to the juice of the story.
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Do you want to elaborate on that?
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Because I thought that was brilliant.
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Tell me more because I I told so many things.
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What was exactly what you mean?
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You were saying that you know, certain like powers that be, you know, are uh telling you or showing you script where it takes like 30 pages to get to the main point of the story where the hero goes on a journey and you're like, why do we need to wait 20 minutes to do that?
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Can we do that?
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Yes, yeah, yes, yeah, because you know, I I remember that I was doing a lot of studio movies like 10, 15 years ago.
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And I remember we run studio, they love first acts, you know, like a first act like Sid Field tells us we need like 25 pages to the first act.
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But for me, you know, you you and when you make a genre movie or when you make a commercial product, you know, you need to have a first act where there's only three scenes, right?
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There's like one scene that tells you who's your main character and what is his goal in life.
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Second scene is what is the opposition, and what is the villain, or what is the problem, and the third scene, what is the genre, you know, from this movie?
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Uh is it action, is it horror, is it thriller?
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Uh, and then that's the three scenes.
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The the the crew of the audience knows now where they're into, and then in the second act, you start building the character because you're gonna reveal the character's arc in how he interact with the problem or his journey in the second act.
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So, like a 20-30-page first act, it's just boring and it doesn't work.
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And when you're in the editing, you're gonna produce studios, they always ask me, well, we need to be quicker to the uh to the action, we need to go quicker to the the story evolving.
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Yeah, but we should have shot the character stuff then in the second act and not in the first act.
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So, yes.
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Um, I believe in the three-scene first act structure, and then the second act is where you develop the character.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is so true.
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And I also love a little bit, little birdie told me that you like to do your own cinematography.
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Are you a control freak, or is it just a passion of yours?
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No, for me, it's like I never understood the principle of directing a movie while you sit in another room watching television.
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I don't understand that principle.
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It's like, what is that all about?
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You're sitting in another room and you're sitting on the on your ass watching a TV, uh, and you see the I don't understand that.
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So for me, from day on, I was always on set next to the camera and um talking with the actors, feeling the energy of the actors, and then I started to annoy, I was very annoyed by the slow speed of a cinematographers that I worked with at the time in the beginning of my career, and um and it and it holed up, you know, it was not progressive enough, and a lot of hesitations and too many lights, you know.
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So, and then I realized at the time I was doing this TV movie in the Netherlands.
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I was like, oh, wait a minute, I'm also the producer of this movie, so maybe I should just fire the cinematographer and take over.
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So that's what I did, and then from that moment on, I felt like for me, directing and the cinematography is one thing, you know, choosing a location, blocking an actor, or even developing the script and choosing the location and then blocking the scene with the camera, you know, the camera is the third character in the scene, so it becomes part of one uh tool, one thing.
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So if the camera is the brush, you know, and you don't ask the painter to have somebody else hold the brush, you know.
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So I'm holding the brush to paint the painting.
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But what later, when I start doing bigger things like uh like uh uh big movies, I started hiring uh or a second cinematographers who were operators on the two on a third or the fourth camera, and then they kind of co-DP, so they were responsible for the lighting um in prep and uh on the set.
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And also in some movies, I had really strong um gaffers, and I called them director of lighting, and uh and basically in the prep I will tell them what I want, but during the shoot I would not talk about them about lighting at all.
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You know, I was talking with my operators and I operate a camera and I had two other operators, I normally shoot with three, four cameras, and then I'm talking with the actors, you know, constantly.
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I also remember that studios, studio heads, executives they were very nervous when they worked for the first time with me.
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They're always like, but if you do the cinematography, does the actor get enough attention?
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But when you ask any actor that worked with me, they will tell you that they got more attention from me as a director than any other directors because I'm there, I'm interacting with them and I'm constantly communicating and absorbing their energy and giving them energy.
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And so yeah, that's that's what I do.
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Well, you really sound like like you love what you're doing, and you know, I have to ask you the question because of course we're navigating very challenging and very difficult times when it comes to financing movies, producing movies, directing movies.
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Has there been a moment where you just want to throw in the towels and say that's it?
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Or is there something in the back of your mind where you go, I have an unfinished business, there is something that I really want to do, I want to tell more stories.
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Like, where do you stand on that?
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Because I mean, it's kind of like we'll all get depressed and then we get excited again.
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So, how is that working out for you, my friend?
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Yeah, no, the thing, of course, we I get depressed, you know.
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Uh, when you uh work on a movie for a long time and then it doesn't happen, that's frustrating.
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But the good thing is that I'm working on many, many projects, like I it's it's a huge list.
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The list is hanging here on my wall.
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Kind of this is the list, so it's kind of uh 50 projects, and um so and in this process, you know, you need to realize what is coming, you know.
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When when the strikes were starting to happen, you know, I knew what that it was coming.
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So you are scheduling and planning in a way that that keeps me busy, you know.
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Uh when AI was coming, I was planning and scheduling to learn it and to use it.
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And so I'm now one of the first ones embracing it and doing a lot of AI projects right now.
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So you need to you need to reinvent yourself all the time because if you're gonna be stuck with your old ways and you're waiting for that one project to come along, it's never gonna happen, you know.
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And that's maybe the reason why I'm always working, and all and I'm very lucky in that way.
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But I create that luck by being on top of what the world is doing, what the world is demanding, where it's going, and then adjust and and be willing to do this all over the world, you know.
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If I was stuck in Hollywood, then it would be different.
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But like you, you know, we are also very European-minded.
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So we are everywhere, and and that's how you keep working, and uh, and I hope to keep working till I drop that, you know.
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Oh, I love that.
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You'll be here for a long time.
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And you know what?
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I love what you just said, and people say to me, like, how can you be attached to so many projects?
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You know, do you have the bandwidth?
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But the thing is, a I get very excited about storytelling and possibility, number one.
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And number two, just IQ.
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I think I will be very bored working on just one single film day in and day out, because we know it changes all the time.
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You think you are fully financed, and then something happens and everything falls apart.
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And then what do you do with yourself?
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So I like you know, Ridley Scott.
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I mean, I was like every once in a while I go on on, you know, Variety Inside or whatever it's called, Luminated, and I'm like, oh, he's got like 60 projects.
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And you know, some of them are with big stars and they still haven't happened.
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And so it makes me feel good because it's like it's Ridley is stuck sometimes, and it's okay for you and I to be stuck or waiting for something special to come along.
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Now, obviously, we want to be ahead and we want to know what's what the market wants and what the market needs.
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I know you show me you're doing an animated movie which you've never done with the help of AI.
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I don't know if you want to tell me anything about that, because you know, maybe you don't, but I'm curious.
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What are people thinking?
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It's still their secret, but but officially, yes.
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You know, I always wanted to do like a big and a Moana kind of movie.
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It was always kind of my big wish.
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Um, I love those movies, but it was never in the charts, you know.
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I don't think I would ever be hired by Pixel to do one of their movies.
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So when AI started to come, like uh and it became really good.
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I went um uh back to Europe and uh pitched this animation movie for this theme park, and um, and then we got it, you know.
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Um we got the money and we're going to make this movie, and it's like a full animation AI movie, and it's so much fun.
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But but for me, also it's it is again you talked about opportunities and understanding the market, you know.
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For example, a year ago, um I went to the sales agent and I said to the sales, and this was in the middle of nothing happens, right?
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And I said to the sales agent, okay, if we do a movie with no stars, uh no actors, and no questions asked, I'm just gonna make this movie.
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What kind of money can you give me?
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And I want to be a full partner.
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So the sales agent said, okay,$350,000.
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Uh that is the max.
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And then I told them, I asked them, so what do you want?
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What is the genre?
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What do you want?
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And they said, we want a movie where a bear attacks a town.
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I said, okay.
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And then six weeks later, we had a script.
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We were shooting in Bulgaria a bear movie called Savage Hunt, and uh, we shot with a real bear, and the bear shoots with physical effects, and uh and this movie is now on the market, it's doing really well, it's selling all over the world.
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So it's also kind of daring to do what the market asked for, you know, instead of me an artistic director wants to tell this really important story uh that nobody's really waiting for to see, you know.
00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:53.839
Exactly.
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And you know what?
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Also, that the technology and everything has changed so fast.
00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:05.440
And I think a lot of the times why many of the big studio producers sometimes are getting stuck is exactly in that.
00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:07.440
They're getting stuck with the games.
00:18:07.759 --> 00:18:11.519
Oh, you have to have Brad Pitt in the film, or nothing is gonna happen.
00:18:11.599 --> 00:18:17.839
And then they're waiting years and years, and then they're not barging on budgets and not budging on speed of filmmaking.
00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:24.000
And I love what you you and I discussed because we're like, okay, how what will it take you to shoot this movie?
00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:37.200
It's like I can do it for this much, and we can shoot it in Italy, and we can do this, and you know, I'll go with my drones and I'll put together my drones and my camera gear, and then we'll go and film like B B-roll stuff like we're doing.
00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:39.119
And I love that it was so exciting.
00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:48.960
And honestly, I know you're super busy, and and obviously, I'm I'm hoping that the film that you and I want to do together will be somehow happening sooner than later.
00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:52.240
And if you have another movie, of course, we'll wait for you because I know you shoot fast.
00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:53.200
So I'm not too worried.
00:18:53.279 --> 00:18:56.079
It's you're not gonna be stuck for two years on something.
00:18:56.240 --> 00:18:58.880
Yeah, so I don't have to wait for you for two years.
00:18:59.039 --> 00:19:07.039
Um, the last movie that you just did, um, that's when you came out to me because my Russian buyers, you know, have bought it.
00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:10.240
I didn't know about it, but I guess I found out later.
00:19:10.480 --> 00:19:12.720
They like sometimes to do business without me.
00:19:12.799 --> 00:19:13.680
What can you do?
00:19:13.839 --> 00:19:15.119
Um, how is it going?
00:19:15.279 --> 00:19:16.559
I mean, do you want to talk about it?
00:19:16.640 --> 00:19:17.279
Are you happy to do that?
00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:19.519
No, that's the that's the bear movie.
00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:20.000
Yeah.
00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:22.079
Uh that's what the Russian buyers did.
00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:23.839
I did another movie in between.
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:30.000
So I just finished another movie called Love Hunt Hate Kill that we shot in the desert in Palm Springs.
00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:30.799
But there's a lot of things.
00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:32.400
That's what you showed me, yeah, yeah.
00:19:32.559 --> 00:19:32.880
Yeah.
00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:42.559
And uh so, but also I just came back from Malta three weeks ago, and uh I shot another TV series there uh called Battle of the Beast.
00:19:42.799 --> 00:19:48.559
So it's kind of um yeah, you need to be busy, keep yourself busy.
00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:59.759
And and while I'm doing still the big projects, because I'm attached to some big movies with some big stars already attached, but those have well, you you told it already, what you just said, you know, they have a long.
00:20:00.319 --> 00:20:05.519
A long period of time, you need the second name to attach because one name is not enough.
00:20:05.599 --> 00:20:16.799
You need now two names, sometimes three names, and then you make an offer, and it takes two months to get the results, and then it's a pass, and then you have to go make a new offer to a new actor, and then the market has changed.
00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:18.559
So the stars are not that hot anymore.
00:20:18.720 --> 00:20:19.519
There's now different.
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:20.960
So it's like that game.
00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:21.920
I play the game.
00:20:22.000 --> 00:20:34.480
I have I have like five or six of these high-end projects, and uh, but while we wait and play the game, I'm shooting other things, you know, and uh and I'm ready to shoot another one in January.
00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:36.319
So um, so yes.
00:20:36.640 --> 00:20:40.720
Yeah, that's not the perfect title for this episode is playing the game.
00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:41.759
And it's so true.
00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:56.400
I went to the whole QA for the Formula One movie with Jerry Bruckenheimer and uh and Brad Pitt, and it was very interesting because even Jerry Bruckenheimer had to wait two years to get Formula One to allow them to go and film and give them their blessing.
00:20:56.480 --> 00:21:07.519
And it's Jerry freaking Bruckenheimer, and he has to get the permission for and he's waiting for two years, and then of course, they were saying they called up Brad Pitt and they're like, Would you fly to go meet the people?
00:21:07.680 --> 00:21:15.920
And then, of course, Brad Pitt shows up, and then magically all obstacles are lifted, and here they are, and they can actually film.
00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:19.759
And I love hearing the success stories and everything.
00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:34.400
In wrapping up, I is there any type of mantra, life advice that you want to give to an emerging director, writer, author, producer who's just starting out.
00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:42.319
Is there little words of wisdom that you want to impart into them beyond not throwing themselves down the river?
00:21:44.079 --> 00:22:01.759
No, I think that's what I always tell uh starting filmmakers is that you know, when I started, um, we didn't have a phone, uh, we didn't have the technology, didn't have software on my laptop where I can make a whole movie or do visual effects in my own laptop.
00:22:02.000 --> 00:22:05.119
And now with AI, it's even more the sky is the limit.
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:15.359
So there's no excuse for any emerging filmmaker to start making a movie tomorrow, you know, because in the end it doesn't cost so much, you know.
00:22:15.599 --> 00:22:21.359
You have a lot of friends who can act, you have you you know a writer or you write yourself, you know.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:24.559
There's a lot of tools to learn how to craft it.
00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:27.440
Yes, you still need talent, you know, talent is key.
00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:32.880
But if you want to make a movie, you probably already have talent, otherwise, you would never have that invention.
00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:53.519
So going and make it on your own with your own tools that you have, or you borrow a camera from a friend and you get a location that doesn't need a permit because it's somebody's private property, and then you're gonna make a movie, you know, and you cut it together on your own editing software in your laptop.
00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:58.400
You can, you know, and that's kind of uh how it should be done, you know.
00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:07.920
There's no reason for you to try to raise a million bucks or five million dollars as your first movie or even your second movie because it's not gonna happen.
00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:20.000
And also, yes, a lot of people make shorts, you know, and maybe one in thousands, their short gets picked up and it becomes a feature, you know, but it's very unique and it happens.
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:28.559
But the amount of time that you put in making a 10 or 20 minutes short, it's the same amount of time you put in to make a 90 minutes movie.
00:23:28.720 --> 00:23:34.160
And the 90 minutes movie you can sell, you know, and you can become a filmmaker.
00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:43.359
And the 20 minutes short will not sell, and it will go to festivals, and it's great for your ego, but it doesn't make you a continuous filmmaker.
00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:57.680
So, um, so and I did that also with Love and Hate Kill, the the movie I shot a half year ago, because I was like, I preaching this all the time to everybody, so let me do it myself again.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:01.839
So, in like three weeks or four weeks, we set this whole movie up.
00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:03.839
We got everything from Amazon.
00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:30.240
Uh, really, we ordered everything from Amazon, and after the shoot, for real, everything that was still 100% nice and good, we returned to Amazon, got the money back, and we made this movie for like$35,000,$36,000, and uh and it was a lot of a lot of fun, you know, and it's a real movie, and now in post-production with this movie, it's a real movie, and it's really so there's no more excuse.
00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.200
There's no more excuse to be a filmmaker, you know.
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:45.039
And if you and I believe in the 10,000 hour rule, you know, if you want to become a concept pianist, you need to play for 10,000 hours piano to become like that's that's cooled.
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:48.799
So if you want to become a filmmaker, start making movies, you know.
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