Bringing Hollywood Home: Eric Norwine’s Midwest Film Revival #305

In this episode of The Screen Lawyer Podcast, host Pete Salsich talks with filmmaker and former teacher Eric Norwine, co-founder of Covered Bridge Studios. Eric shares his journey from St. Charles, MO, to LA’s film scene (Funny or Die), and back home to build a Midwest production hub. He discusses his mental health struggles, the power of Missouri’s film tax credit, and his latest documentary Queen of the Base, about an Afghan refugee turned U.S. military translator. 

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Podcast sponsored by Capes Sokol.

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Transcript

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It's a fairly common tale. Somebody leaves the Midwest to go out to LA to get into the film business, because they think that's what they have to do. But today on the podcast, I'm joined by somebody who went out there and came back to the Midwest, and he's making cool stuff here. Erik Norwine is going to join us. You ready for this, Eric? I'm very ready. Thanks, Pete. Stick around folks. Hey, there. Welcome to The Screen Lawyer Podcast. I'm Pete Salsich, The Screen Lawyer. And today I'm joined by my friend, client, colleague... Just all around cool guy. Eric Norwine. Eric, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me, Pete. I appreciate it. I'm really happy you're here. And Eric said, before we get started that he's a long time listener, first time caller. So this is great. You know, sort of like the whole radio thing. Yeah. This is, you know, growing up listening to Delilah on 102.5 with my mom. This feels like, you know, kind of that thing. There you go. All right. Well, well. Or that or the overnight late night talk show when you're driving through the air and that, you know, we'll get the crazy callers. We're going to try to avoid the crazy callers. Yeah. Just be the caller. You'll be the crazy caller. All right. Well, let's let's dig in a little bit about it. You know, I mentioned that the, to kick the episode off that you are from the Saint Louis area, from Saint Charles, right? Correct. And then but went out to USC to start your career, and now you're back here doing some really cool things. Let's let's walk through that path a little bit. How did you what made you want to go out there and get into the film world? Sure. So, I was born and raised in Saint Charles, Missouri. Like I said, suburb of Saint Louis here. And, growing up, I always loved storytelling. You know, when my teacher ever gave us an option to do something different than writing a paper. And I could do something more creative. I always latched on to it. When I was 5 or 6, I remember distinctly watching the Oscars with my mom and watching Billy Crystal come in on a replica of the Titanic and, you know, getting off and just thinking this is just incredible. So I was a theater kid. I dabbled with film and stuff. I do kind of silly videos here and there on the side growing up. When I went to college, I decided to go to the University of Missouri. I again, I wanted to be a storyteller. I wanted to be in film, but I didn't know anyone that had done that, so I sure I didn't know that there was a path and we'll get to this, but there there wasn't an industry that I could see here that was viable. So I go to Mizzou and, I was in the journalism school there for two years. And then kind of my, you know, my kind of story of the moment, it hit me, I just realized, you know, no, I want to be a filmmaker. And, I was a sophomore, and I said, if I don't do it now, I don't want to be 40 years old and saying to my wife, honey, dad's got a dream. Let's let's take the kids out to Hollywood so I can try this, you know? Let's try now. So, I ended up transferring out to University of Southern California. Been incredibly fortunate to, to be able to attend such a wonderful university. At that point at Mizzou, I dropped all of my journalism classes and took the only two film classes they offered, which were food and film. And, really Midwestern ag school. Exactly. No kidding. Yeah. But that's for, a Danish film actually is one of my favorite. It came out of that class. But that and early Chinese theater. So I took these two classes, and that was all, that was what I got from Mizzou and then finished out at USC, my junior year. So my first year at USC, my real break came when, Josh Salzberg, who is also from Saint Charles, he happened to be the only person I knew that did go out to LA and establish a career. And he got in with, the Adam McKay, Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow group. And his first job was as an apprentice editor on stepbrothers. Oh, so he works on stepbrothers. He works on the other guys. And at the time, there was a comedy website called Funny or Die. Right. I remember that. And, today, you know, you go to the website and it's just, kind of a relic of things that were it's not an active operation. But at the time when I was there, and not because of me, it just so happened that they were effectively at the height of kind of their power in terms of influence in the comedy space and streaming online. So, Josh kind of teed up my internship interview very, very nicely. Nice. I did the best that I could and was fortunate enough to get an internship. And, you know, then it just became the type of thing. I was the first one to show up every day. I was the last one to leave. Yeah. No task was too small. I tried to do everything with enthusiasm. And, you know, kind of on parallel tracks. Did this internship finished at USC at the same time? After the internship ended, I started doing PA work at funded by, and and that kind of got me to, about halfway through my time in Los Angeles, which was 2010 to 2015. And then the back half of my time was spent more, in, in a more traditional freelance capacity. And, and eventually what ended up happening is, quite frankly, I just kind of had a, a mental breakdown in terms of I was tired of sitting in traffic for hours a day. Yeah. Yeah. I miss my family. I miss my friends. And so I came back in 2015 thinking that that part of my life and career was over. And. Yeah. And what's so extraordinary is ten years later, not only is it not over, it's kind of just getting started again. That's that's interesting. I mean, a couple things that I, you take away there. I mean, obviously when you were back, when you were there, you know, you look at Mizzou and they had the what food and film or early GI and whatever it was, it was not a film industry. Right. We didn't have that here in Missouri. And I want to be careful here because we've always had in throughout the state of Missouri, Saint Louis, here, Kansas City, but everywhere in Missouri, we've always had professionals who made creative works, films, television, a lot of commercial work. I mean, there's a the industry wasn't dead. It just didn't have any robustness to where you could grow up as a kid and say, that's what I see when I'm driving down the street. Oh, there's another film set or whatever. So I want to get into that. You think you have to go somewhere else, and the time you probably did, and then you did the other thing that I that is so common, listening to you talk about getting that internship and being the first one there every day and having enthusiasm stuff, that is how you get into the world, isn't it? I mean, you got to chase it. Yeah. I mean, the biggest piece of advice that I would give people entering into any industry, unpaid internships stink. And I personally don't think that they're often illegal, but that's a whole nother episode. I was just about to say, I don't think it's the best way to operate necessarily morally or legally, right? Like I think there's got to be some, whether it's college credit, some form of exact compensation, however, and that's if it's done right, that there is something that you get out of it. Right. I know I love I have to leave like a legal disclaimer. Right, which I appreciate it. So but what I would say is to, to young people, internships are a great opportunity because if you are taking out trash and you are getting coffee with enthusiasm and without complaint and without money, what ends up happening is the people that are, you know, the producers that you're working with, they start to think to themselves, they can't help but think, golly, if they are putting in this amount of time, energy and effort and doing it with a smile on their face for nothing, right? What would happen if we gave them more responsibility? What if we paid them a little bit? Right? And so, believe it or not, it's in actually those moments where maybe you feel you're at the bottom of the totem pole, where you honestly have perhaps the most leverage, not in the totality of your career, but that's really your option. You have it. You you. No one's told you no yet, right? You haven't had doors closed yet. So what? You you hopefully get a chance to make some doors open. And another common theme I think, that runs throughout this industry is I know one person, and that one person helped me with one thing. Then they introduced me to somebody else, and then that person and you turn around and give back, and I watch what you're doing now. So let's let's come forward. You came back here and you took, you know, you did. Well, that was I tried it, right. And maybe I'll keep my hobbies and shoot videos of my kids are friends, but I'm going to go in a different area. And you did right. You went a completely different direction. Yeah. So I, came back and was in the wilderness and really didn't know what I needed to do. And I'm a mental health advocate, so I'm very open about this. But, I mean, I was in a deep, deep depression. My anxiety and paranoia was just off the charts. I had lost a ton of weight. I just, I just I wasn't healthy at all. Yeah. And part of the reason I bring that up is because it largely informs how we go about our business, you know, which is that mental health comes first, that it's a family in all caps business and just really trying to prioritize the things that I didn't feel like were being priority yet, in my experience. In, in Los Angeles, that said, I came back, I started working at a produce stand of all places so I can pick out an avocado or a melon for you. But one day I just kind of woke up and I realized, oh, I need to be a teacher. Interesting. And, so it checked off a lot of boxes that allowed me to be creative. You know, that door shuts. And, yeah, I have accountability to a principle, but I also have flexibility to do what I want to do. And I was a theater kid, so it's a little bit of a performance every year. And so I actually tough audience with a very tough audience. Yeah. Like, yeah, it's a comedy audience that doesn't want to actually be there. And so, you know, you do your best, but I, I went back to school, I got my, degree in secondary ed, and my certification actually went back to my alma mater, Luther Saint Charles, shout out cougars and taught for five years. I taught social studies, primarily senior American government. And, you know, quite honestly, was the best experience. Yeah. I, you know, in my life, I when I got back into kind of filmmaking for a while, I thought it was, a departure in a way that set me back. But now it's abundantly clear that there were so many things that, yeah, that experience learned and needed to happen. And people that I met through the process that, you know, I wouldn't be where I am without that experience. Right? Yeah. So I taught anyhow. So I taught for five years. And to your point earlier, I still had a creative itch. And so whether it was friends, I did a funny, video for my parents 25th anniversary, called The True Marriage Story. And it was kind of a satire of, true elements of their marriage. And, you know, I had friends that had businesses, and I do little videos here and there, and then finally, my high school asked me if I'd be willing to do put together a video for their auction to do a fund. And he'd video basically say, we're trying to do this for the school. And, you know, try to motivate people to give. And that kind of unlocked this idea of, oh, I might actually be able to get into video production again, maybe combine these things. This this journey has not been a series of disparate dead end paths, but it's all been leading to this place right. Exactly. And so I the 20 to 23 school year was my last school year teaching. And basically June 1st, 2023, or. Yeah, June 1st, 2023. I started full time on my company On Cloud Norwine Productions, which was the hashtag at, our wedding, which is my wife's one contribution to the business. And she doesn't want to be involved any more than that. But thank you, honey. And that has evolved originally. We, you know, we've been doing a lot of kind of local nonprofit, right? Videos, working with businesses. I often say I pull heart strings to pull purse strings. And, you know, that is true to an element. But what we've been able to do since the film tax credit, passed in the spring of 2023 is leverage. A lot of the relationships that I have still that are back on the coast and kind of the more traditional methods to try to make, you know, bigger projects here in Missouri. And, you know, that's kind of where we are now. And we established, Covered Bridge Studios, myself, my brother, who's the president of our company, Ben and Ray Holt, our business partner, who, you know, we started Covered Bridge Studios with the intention of bringing projects here to Missouri that, are meaningful to us and work with people that are right for us. So that's where we are. And that's kind of where we got connected back in 23, when you were when we. And so, so much has happened in, in, you know, regular listeners. Thank you. Know, we talk about the film tax credit here all the time. And you know, you, you know we we had goal pain on a couple of episodes ago. And he talked about the process of getting to the legislature and what we still need to do and how powerful it can be. But when you write in that time, 23, we just, you know, there was all this energy because it had just come on money. And then I you mentioned, Kelly Hyatt when we were talking before, Kelly is was also been a guest on the, on the show. She's the film commissioner for the city of Saint Louis. She's fantastic. Right? Yes, absolutely. She's a superstar. The Kelly and it's true. And but she introduced us because you had some interesting projects, one of which was with Josh. Right. So back you reach back out to your la, like can we bring this film here. And that's when we first started talking. And then you've had documentaries. Now there's other things that you're working on. And I want to kind of talk through a couple of those projects. You know we always have to be mindful. The, The Screen Lawyer lawyer side of me always has to be mindful. But I asked you before, you know, don't violate any NDAs that you've signed on the air here, please. But with that in mind, let's talk a little bit about some things you have going on. And so maybe pick the, the documentary that you all are. Is it is it finished just about or just about finished? We were in the heart of post. Okay, okay. So maybe that'd be a good place. Yeah. Let's let's talk about that. Yes. About that project, because I worked with you on that and I think it's pretty fascinating. Yeah. So, we're currently in post-production project. It's called Queen of the Base. It's a documentary that tells the true life story of a female Afghan refugee named Zamzama Safi. She goes by ZZ. She was born in Afghanistan in 1997, and at the age of 15, her and her brother were leaving an English class. She just had curiosity, was very smart. She wanted to learn English, and she was taken captive by the Taliban. And they held her for a course of 3 or 4 days, beat her, sexually assaulted her, and eventually she was able to effectively trick them to let her go home and see her family one more time. And then she would marry, her captain. And what ended up happening is her father was, a very progressive and forward thinking and open minded and said, no, my daughter is going to get to choose who she's going to marry, and she's not going to marry any of these people. And so their family ends up having to go into hiding. And ZZ ends up finding refuge on a military base where she applies her English language skills where she becomes a translator and cultural advisor for U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. Yeah. Fast forward, she works on and off with the military for the next eight years and ends up getting, on the last flight out of Kabul city on August 15th, 2021, as the capital in the country fell to the Taliban, she ended up moving ultimately to Saint Louis. And to bring back my teaching. I had taught, and coached basketball to two young men whose father was a pastor or is a pastor in the area, and he saw me at a graduation party last June, about this time last year, in fact, and said, I've met a woman who is incredible. Yeah, she has an she has an unpublished memoir about her life experience. There are people poking around about maybe doing a movie. But I wanted to introduce her to you first because we've built up trust. Sure. So we met, and, I heard her story, and it was extraordinary, and she's extraordinary. And in February, the last week of February, we spent a week here in Saint Louis shooting principal photography. And now we're in post-production, trying to get that finished here in the summertime and make our way into the, the 2026 festival season and hopefully distribution after that. So, yeah, it's a it's a remarkable story. And, it's so interesting. I think you know, one of the things, one of the themes that we talk about here a lot is that, you know, Saint Louis is one of these towns where there's a lot of history here. There's a lot I mean, we had one of the one of the great advertising agency cities for a long time last century. There's a lot of creative, here, a lot of history, a lot of talent. But a lot of people from here go elsewhere, right? And then maybe come back. But it's interesting how and in particularly with immigrants, you know, we have a, a fairly, I think, proud history of welcoming groups of people who come out of these war torn refugee situations, which obviously is a big deal these days. But this story is fascinating. And, and I got a chance to meet her when you hosted a bunch of us, for dinner. Right. For the holidays. And I'm excited and really excited to see this make its way out of the festival. I think there's got to be an audience for it. I think there is. I mean, it's the ultimate female underdog story. And you, see ZZ for a moment and you're just on board. Yeah. And, you know, it's hard to it's almost she you you meet her and then you find out a little bit more about the story, and you're kind of a blown away. That's, that's the thing that I think the, the dissonance of her experience really probably should produce a victim. And she's the first to. And she said this on camera that she's not a victim because if she's a victim, then she can't be victorious over her circumstances and she is so yeah. And now she works for an organization called Monarch Immigration Services, and they work with refugees, specifically, she works with Afghan refugees resettling here in Saint Louis. So there's there's kind of this emotional tension between she's helping families here in Saint Louis, but at the same time, her family's still in hiding from the Taliban back in Afghanistan. So she's incredible. Folks, you're going to have to look for Queen in the base when it comes out. That's a great story. So let me let me, I want to be mindful of your time. Thank you. Question for you at the end of this. So wait for that. But I want to. Do you have anything else you can talk about that's sort of out there germinating? You can tease or. Yeah. Well, all right, so the floor is yours largely largely because you are involved with, you know, most of these projects I would say that, so we have we've been developing for a while a, a series, a sports series, a hockey sport series. I don't want to say much more than that has gone right, I truly am. This is the paranoia of an artist, I suppose. But I'm convinced that this is a story, that there's got to be ten other people chasing because it's so extraordinary. But what I'll say is that it's it's an everyman story again and an underdog story and a story of the human spirit and, overcoming kind of incredible odds. And what I love is it's there's consistent themes between Queen of the base and that, but they're wildly different. These are one of them's an Afghan refugee. One of them's a, you know, a number of hockey players kind of thing. So, so that's a project that that we have, in the works. There's also a feature that we're, developing called The Superhero, which was written and is going to be directed by Josh Salzberg, who I did mention earlier. And that we are in the process now. We have our, you know, our script updated. It's a, something that we started working on 13 years ago when I was in Los Angeles and we wrote a script that had to be made in Missouri to almost force our hand, right? That one day we would make the movie in Missouri, and I thought I would be coming in from L.A. to do it. And now, to bringing the people here where you are home. Yes. You know, when I left, I said, I said to my my mom, you know, if I could just bring Hollywood home. Yeah. If I, if I could just do this from Saint Charles. Yeah. Man, that would be incredible. Well, and you all. And here we are and you are. And so I want to point here for folks who are watching this on our YouTube channel. You're sure? Oh, yes. You're you're filming. Oh, sure. Yeah. So I think I've mentioned this before. If I haven't and I know actually, I know we talked about it with the call. So Film in Mo is a nonprofit organization here in the state of Missouri. Membership driven folks, if you care about film in Missouri at all, go to film in mo look it up, become a member, because that what we do is we support the lobbyists who spend time with our state legislators, helping them understand the value of this industry, the value of the jobs that it can create, the value of the storytelling, which is terribly important in these days to tell true and accurate good stories about your hometown or your home state. And Film in Mo does that, and you were just down and you have sitting not too long ago with ZZ, right? Speaking to legislators. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yes. So we had the opportunity or we were given the opportunity thanks to ZZ and her story, representative, who will become her representative when she becomes citizen next year? Representative Colin will and camp was introducing legislation as it relates to the film tax credit. You know this. But essentially there are two buckets, an $8 million bucket for episodic and eight merchandise. Bucket for features. We wanted to combine the two buckets so that people could dip into it, and we're not putting money on the table. All of this is to say ZZ was asked to come simply just to share her story. She wasn't there meant to be an expert on the tax incentive. It was just to say that because of this tax incentive, we have the ability to tell her story, to tell stories like hers and others. Exactly. And so that was really, really neat. And she was honored on the floor of the House of Representatives at the Capitol. And, you know, that that was just really, rewarding to see for her. Well, that's very cool. And I'm glad you were. I, we, I was down there the month before that. You were, with a group, including folks from Film and Mo, and I think it's an ongoing effort. So, folks, if you are interested in seeing this industry grow here, please check that out. Last question for you. One, I always ask, so, what's on your screen? So this is I was I was ready for this because this is the this is actually been a listener. That's fantastic. This is like the James Lipton, you know, if heaven exists and you get to have an audio, you know, it says at the Pearly Gates, what is currently on my screen? My screensaver is a series of pictures of my daughters. So that's what's on my that's what's on my literal screen. I've been watching that answer. Thank you, thank you. Appreciate it. I've been watching, you know, a number of documentaries over the last year to prepare for, you know, the queen of the bass. I'm trying to think of something that's unique. Chinatown. The film Chinatown. Jack Nicholson. Wow. Is is on my screen by way of. It's paused and I need to start it, so I. I've seen Chinatown. It's one of my favorite movies of all time. When I was at USC, I had the great fortune of hearing Robert Towne, who wrote the screenplay, the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He spoke, at USC. That was incredible. So I love the movie. And the reason I bring it up is because the superhero, the movie that we're going to make here in Saint Louis, manifesting it, is, Chinatown. But the hardboiled detective is an eight year old with a very wild imagination. And so I wanted to remind myself of of, Chinatown material and the film noir elements of it. And so, so that's what's on my screen. And then the NBA finals. All right, all right. That's all right. And there's a whole basketball game in which we'll talk about the next time you come back for episode two with Eric. Number one. Eric, this has been a treat. Thank you, I appreciate you. I really appreciate it. Thanks for coming down. It's my it's a pleasure to it's always a pleasure to talk to you. It's a pleasure to talk to you in this environment too and share what you're doing with others. So folks you can check out on Cloud Norway and you can check where how do people find you? What's the best way to find you? So the best way to find us is to go to Covered Bridge studios.com, covered bridge, like a bridge that's covered and then studios, dot com and, yeah, that's our, our website. And, I just want to can I tell you, cut it down. Okay. Yeah. So, the hat I'm wearing, my grandfather would always wear these hats. He passed in October 2023, but he was always the person in my life that always had a camera. And so I was greatly influenced by him. But he was a dentist. And for 40 years in his office, he had this picture of this red covered bridge in northern New Hampshire that he took a picture of and was very, very proud. That's cool. And so we we name the company Covered Bridge Studios, in part because of that, but also in part because we're trying to create something here in Missouri, a thriving, independent, vertically integrated studio that has the ability to bring people together, that have skin in the game, that care about the brand. And specifically what we're trying to offer is a space to protect the creative. That's the component of the covered bridge to keep you from the sleet and the snow, and all of the elements that come into play sometimes and disrupt ultimately what matters most, which is the story. And the story is king and the best idea has to win. So that's what we're doing now. That's cool, I love that. Yeah, I didn't I know that was your name for a while, and I figured it had something to do with the covered bridge, because I've seen those before, but I didn't know that story. That's very cool, Eric. Thank you. Thank you. This has been an absolute treat, folks. If you've enjoyed this conversation with Eric, as he said, check out Covered Bridge Studios to learn more about CoveredBridgeStudios.com, to learn more about what they're doing and pay attention. You're going to hear about these guys in the future. And I'm excited to work with them. And I'm happy that you guys are listening. Today. You can find us, as always at TheScreenLawyer.com. If you're listening to this on the audio podcast, find us and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts. And if you're watching on YouTube and you saw these two handsome guys here today, click that like and subscribe button. So you'll always get our next episode. Thanks a lot folks. You have a great day. Take care.