Thomas Michael Mulligan, Part 2 – Co-Founder, New Hope Film Festival - a podcast by Other World Computing

Pt. 2 with Thomas Michael Mulligan covers the New Hope Film Festival and gives sound advice to others who might want to hit the festival circuit!



Visit the New Hope Film Festival here.And learn more about Thomas Michael Mulligan by visiting his site.







In This Episode00:10 - Cirina introduces Thomas Michael Mulligan, a successful actor, and producer. His latest short film, “The Witching Hour,” recently won Best Period Short at Silver Docs!06:22 - Thomas and Cirina talk about how vital sound is when making films.13:16 - Thomas explains how New Hope Film Festival upgrades its sound equipment for the best screening experience.20:09 - Thomas discusses his involvement in SAG-AFTRA and how he became one of the first few to join.27:58 - Follow Thomas Michael Mulligan on his social media accounts, and visit his website thommichaelmulligan.com to learn more about him.



Jump to Links and ResourcesTranscript



This is Cirina Catania. I am back for part two with Thomas Michael Mulligan. He's an actor, writer, producer, with a really amazing career over the last few decades, just a very few, not a lot, not as many as me, because I'm older than he is. But he's been very successful, and he's got some great advice for you guys. So part two now, Thomas, I want to talk about your film festival journey, not just for your films, but also because you started, you're the co-founder of the New Hope Film Festival, right? 



Yes. So tell us about that. What is the New Hope Film Festival?



The New Hope Film Festival started over a breakfast conversation back in late 2008 or early 2009. And Doug Whipple, who was a friend in Pennsylvania back in New Hope, I had been introduced to Doug prior to that by a friend; we knew his family. And Doug had written a screenplay from a book, a novel he wrote called Shadow Fields. And my friend said,"Would you be willing to talk to their son, Doug, and help you with the script?"And that's how Doug and I used to be friends over the phone and really hit it off. And then, when I go back to New Hope, I would help him work on the script and develop it. And this one time I went back, and we're having breakfast, and I was talking about how hard it is, and you've been around the                 century-long time. It's not easy, and it's not easy getting work; you're always looking for work. And I was joking with Doug saying,"We're on the W-list,"and Doug said,"What's the W-list?"They're like,"Tom Who?""Tom Mulligan,""Tom who?"There’s a whole new dynamic today in movie making. Anyone who has a passion can create a film with a low budget.



Everybody that is in the creative side of the business feels like that at one point or another. You feel like that, that's okay. It's okay. You're allowed.



It's not like the D-list, but anyway. But it is commiserating, and I said,"Look, I've done stuff. I've done some good things, but friends still know me in the industry, but I'm not a household name or anything like that. I'm not an A-list actor."And we started talking about film festivals, but it was like,"But I live in California.” So I got to work and a week later, Doug called me up and said,"Hey, Tom, I went to my attorney and incorporated the New Hope Film Festival. Let's do it."So Doug's background was 12 years on Wall Street, Wharton School of Business MBA, incredibly nice guy, an incredibly brilliant guy. So he had that side of it, and I had this side of it. I know the industry. I know film festivals. And we spent the next year over the phone together. And we launched it in July of 2010, basically how you got started now we just completed our 10th year.



Congratulations. Did you have any idea how much work that was going to be?Yes. Because I've been around festivals. Let me put this out there too. I think a lot of people don't realize, and they may think festivals only work as the month before the festival starts. Festivals'work is full year-round.

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