Nicole Russin-McFarland is a film director and film score composer. Successful with her short films, she is currently self-animating her first animated feature film for release called The Homework's Revenge: Esther in Wonderland. Esther in Wonderland's film score album has already earned itself over 100,000 Spotify streams. After this project is available, Nicole will begin making larger-budget animated films.

Next, she will be making 1 animated feature film about Ireland and 1 about Scotland. The goal is to finance them as her first large-budget independent films and then have them animated by UK animation teams. After that, the goal will be jumping to a studio level ideally making a motion capture film in New Zealand financed by the studios.

• CEO Hack: I don't care what other people think of me
• CEO Nugget: Don't waste your time where you don't belong
• CEO Defined: Following what you want to do even when it's scary

Website: http://www.cinematnic.com/

Twitter: @nicrussin
Instagram: @nicrussin
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/nicrussin/?_rdc=1&_rdr

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:26.10] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Nicole Russin McFarland of Lucky Pineapple Films. Nicole, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.70] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Hello. I'm in a closet. So I mean, quarantine.

[00:00:45.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. It's that time. Right?

[00:00:47.20] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

But I will tell the audience in the future, someday, this is gonna be someday very soon after the quarantine, this background might be windy Wellington and the beautiful views of New Zealand or London because that's where we're gonna open companies.

[00:01:01.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Definitely looking forward to to kinda talk a little bit more about that. But before we jumped in, I wanted to read a little bit more about Nicole so they could hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. And Nicole, Ressa McFarland is a film director and film score composer. Successful with her short film, she is currently self-animating her first animated feature film for a release called The Homework's Revenge, Esther in Wonderland. Esther in Wonderland's film score score score album has already earned itself over a hundred thousand Spotify streams. And after this project is available, Nicole will be making large-budget animated films. Nicole, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:38.00] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Yeah. I love talking about what I do. So Yeah.

[00:01:41.20] – Gresham Harkless

There you go. You're you're in the right place. So, before, I wanted to kinda kick everything off with what I call your CEO story. Hear a little bit more about what exactly you do, what got what led you here, and then hear more about all the projects that you're working on as well.

[00:01:57.09] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Okay. Well, basically, in every interview, I have to explain to people comparisons comparisons would be I love Hans Zimmer, and I love Peter Jackson. And I always want to be, like, they rolled together into one. Hans Zimmer is a rock star from Germany. He's so cool. And he is somebody who on paper is not supposed to believe would be the king of Hollywood film scores, but he is because he's a super amazing businessman. Peter Jackson, again, did the same thing. People say that you have to be American to make or occasionally British. And, to make it in the American film market, you have to be all kinds of things, and that's not the case.

Peter Jackson lives in Wellington. He's from a little town in New Zealand. He's a Kiwi dude. Again, super really intellectual, and that's one reason he's successful is because of how smart he is. And, he also I do wanna give credit to his wife, but at the time she was his girlfriend, and together they made the biggest movie in the world, Lord of the Rings. The third person I always talk about is not a surprise to people, James Cameron, a Canadian gentleman from not a busy area in Canada, yet he's another person who's one of the best directors ever and the most successful because of how smart he is. And there's something I can mention here.

I know people say, like, oh, it's film and whatever. But, it kinda overlaps with any business people want to do, and I could talk about myself and what we're doing. But, anyway, those are the dudes I love. I always say I have loves of my life, not romantically, but work-wise. And, James Horner and some others, but those are the main ones. And I kinda relate to their stories more than Steven Spielberg and other people. Although I love Mister Spielberg with every bit of my heart, and I love Amblin and they're all he does because he makes it so personable. And they're the only people in Hollywood who write back to people if you write them online that you love a movie and stuff. And I or whatever it is to the fans, and they also were super cool and nice when I did an article with them for variety and on gremlins, actually.

Different things, but one of it part of its gremlins and how he, was one of the first directors to have toys and tie-ins for all the films he produced. It was a wonderful article. I've loved being part of it. Not because I wrote it. It was wonderful because of, like, oh, of the topic and all the things in it. Not that I'm not Kanye. Like, you're wonderful because I wrote it. So anyway, I always wanna do that, but in order for people to hire you, you can't just be the person who shows up and you're a twenty-year-old girl who wants to make a movie. You have to actually start making movies. And, nobody was hiring me to work. The standard thing when I would ask film directors was I would tell them I wanted to do this, and I would meet them and whatever.

And they would tell me, well, you know, apply for a production company, apply for a place where you like movies. That never happens. Nobody was hiring me, and I was just meeting kinda people who were not I met really good directors, but I also met people who were kinda the underworld and not really serious about filmmaking. They're just in it for churning out a quick buck and they don't really want to, you know, make more films. They wanna make one or two independent films, and I don't wanna be part of that. I wanted to be James Cameron and also some of the directors I was meeting, and just, you know, Ang Lee, all those amazing people, best director winners. I wanted to be like them and not like the people who are actually the majority of people who go and fail or they're just in it for a quick buck, like I said.

And they have no intentions to make art or make great cinema or even blockbusters. So what we are doing right now, and this is why I have a smile, like, like like, from here to here every day I've been waking up, is because I am with my friend Ryan McGregor, who's a British actor. He's from Scotland. We are going from the little DIY animation that I've been doing to prove to people I'm serious. And on YouTube, it has interests and stuff. People watch those and we've had Amazon Prime, but it does better on YouTube. So we're going from that to me co-founding an actual film studio with Ryan in New Zealand. And we're gonna start with animation.

And after animation, we're gonna go to blockbuster movies. We're also going to, at the same time, once we're kinda settled a little bit in New Zealand, get everything going for a British version. So that way we can have it's basically the same concept, but we would be able to tell British stories. McFarland, obviously, is part of my last name. Russell McFarland. And I don't really know, about Belfast or Ireland and those things. I would love to and love to know more about British culture. Ryan wants to tell a lot of Scottish stories, and we also have some friends who want to create stories. And to have things they're not necessarily seen a lot, because most people only have London, and they don't have, you know, like, London, LA, New York.

That's where people live in Hollywood films. So you wanna do all that and be part of the, you know, great Kiwi scene and it's not only Sir Peter Jackson these days, it's also James Cameron and a whole bunch of people who go down the film in New Zealand and Ghost in the Shell and all these super amazing movies are made there. And if not there, the special effects are released and made there. So I kinda went in on that. It's like the little mermaid and she sings to be part of your world. And I always wanted to be part of your world of these men. And so just kind of follow in their footsteps, quite literally going down to New Zealand. And, as I said, I've ridden. I and wherever you wanna take it from here. I can follow your lead.

[00:07:46.50] – Gresham Harkless

Okay. Sounds good. Well, I appreciate you for breaking that down. Tell us a little bit about your story and what exactly you're working on now. What would you call or what would you consider to be what I call your secret sauce, the thing you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:59.39] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Well, I think because I am Midwestern, and I am from Illinois. I'm somebody who grew up all around Illinois because my dad would get jobs everywhere. So I got to see Chicago on weekends. I got to see downstate Illinois. I got got to see Saint Louis. I got to see all that stuff. And then sometimes we would go to Kansas City. And I lived I've lived on and off in New York, and I've also gone on and off to New York. And I got to see the hustle that immigrants bring to Manhattan. And, I just noticed I mean, not to brag, but the greatest people in the world from every profession, whether it's Walt Disney or Kanye West, and regardless of what people think of him, he is a brilliant producer, and I admire his work. You know, you could even say Hugh Hefner, even though he's a controversial person.

He started a brand that was about a healthy change, but it was originally about the healthy image of the girl next door being perfect as she is. And that is a good message. Now it got twisted, and and I don't think he was you know, maybe then he he ended up promoting bad body image and whatever, but originally was good. It was like, you don't need to lose weight. You don't need anything. You're perfect as you are just because you're the secretary or you you know, whatever it is. And you and you could look at Henry Ford or all these people and they're all midwesterners. And sometimes they're not about necessarily a certain background, you know, like Scandinavian or Dutch or whatever. It's, just because they're Midwesterners and you're growing up learning that there's no reason you can't be successful. Everybody has, like, this is something that people don't understand in the South or when you talk to people from England.

In the Midwest, everyone has the same accents. So, like, somebody who grew up on the South Side of Chicago with no money has the same accent as a rich man who grew up elsewhere, as whoever, like no color, no, socioeconomic class, none of that. We all have the same accents. We're all the same people. We're all, like, someone's car breaks down on the highway. We all fix it for you. We don't care how rich or poor you are. What whatever. We're just nice to each other. There's this community there. And I kinda don't I've seen that in Manhattan from the people who are actually native New Yorkers. I've never seen that anywhere else. I've never seen that in, you know, that you go to, like a cool city, I don't know an example, but say a super cool metropolis of Austin, Texas, and everyone's there together as a family.

Like, I don't see that there is anything to knock it because it's a great place, and I went to school there. Or West Hollywood or wherever the these places I've been more, acquainted with. We don't have that community. And that's kinda also another reason I'm drawn to New Zealand and Britain and these places is because I think I sense that a little bit more, but there's nothing like the Midwest. And I think you can't buy that. I think you grow up being like you the world is yours. You could do whatever you want. And when people tell me that they've grown up elsewhere, they get told that's impossible. You can't do that. The Midwest is like, hey. Yoo hoo. Boy, you have five dollars in the bank. You use that five dollars and make yourself a businessman. Like, where in the rest of the world, people would say you only have five dollars in the bank, and then the glass is half empty.

[00:11:27.50] – Gresham Harkless

Mentality.

[00:11:29.10] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Yeah. There's no mix. That's why it's it's just a totally different way of life. And you don't realize that until you step outside the Midwest.

[00:11:35.39] – Gresham Harkless

And then

[00:11:35.60] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

then you say like, oh, wait, I grew up in the most awesome place on earth and I never knew. I used to say, get me the f out of here. Now I want I'm so happy. I'm from there.

[00:11:44.50] – Gresham Harkless
Right.

[00:11:44.79] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

It's amazing.

[00:11:46.89] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Who you are and where you're born definitely becomes a huge part of you. So I appreciate you, sharing that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be, like, an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:12:02.10] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

Okay. So one of the things that makes me more effective and efficient is I don't care what other people think of me. In a positive way, meaning I'm not going to be mean to you. But if people are set in their ways, I just don't care that something is trending right now because that's a big problem in the US entertainment industry. That's why I have arguments with people because they say, like, you're not this, you're not that. And it doesn't matter. There's always a trend. You don't look a certain way, You don't sound a certain way. You don't dress a certain way. You are not right for the moment. And they've their variance is tokenism.

So it's like, let's get an Asian girl. Oh, wait. You're not that. Oh, let's get this. And me and they're like, people don't know what to do with me because they're like, okay, a redhead chick, but you're of different backgrounds. It's like, how does that and like, why do you why are you white? Whatever. It's like, you know, it's genetics, DNA, whatever. And then I actually had problems where, like, when I was a model at a modelling agency, I would deal with that all the time. They're like, well, you know, you're fair, but you don't look like these girls from the Ralph Lauren catalogues, but you are these backgrounds. Do you speak other languages? Do you can we use you as like, a maid? I'm like, no, I'm not gonna be a maid or whatever, or, and, and, and, you know, all these stereotypical things and people didn't know what to do with me.

[00:13:19.60] – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell yourself if you were to hop into a time machine.

[00:13:28.50] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

I am okay. Well, I always say it is the year two thousand nine, and I am a very underpaid freelance writer for the newspaper for a newspaper I like, the New York Daily News. I'm also a recently signed model in Manhattan, and I'm arguing with people all the time, and I'm not getting any other people to believe in me other than the New York Daily News. And I'm also dealing with lots of harassment because this was a preemie too in a Roger Ailes world, and nobody would hire me and because I wouldn't agree to it. So, I would tell myself, you know what, as much as you love Manhattan, and you need a day job and all that jazz,

as they say in the Midwest, what you need to do, if you really wanna be like Peter Jackson, you pick up a book, study special effects, you study which is what I'm doing now as an adult and I've done for some time, but you need to study animation, you need to study all this like he did, and you as soon as you understand all of that enough, you're brave enough, and you start making the movies that you put out to the world just to prove you can. Because you need to be doing that instead of looking for jobs twenty-four seven. You do need a day job, but don't waste your time where you don't belong, and ring up the New Zealand Film Commission when you're ready.

[00:14:45.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I appreciate that nugget and and and and definitely, bringing that down. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Nicole, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:14:59.00] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

It would mean that it is scary because sometimes you really have to follow what you want to do. But if you were smiling, like I mentioned to you, like I felt very supported. Once when I've been smiling a lot, like, oh, like that. Like, people can't see me on the podcast version of this, but on the YouTube one, they can. I'm smiling like, oh, like a clown. Okay. That is what you want. So if something makes you smile when you talk about it to people or it makes you happy, that's what you want. And it's not even though it's a little bit scary, you should follow that. And if you're feeling bad that you can't just deal with people, you feel unwelcome, you're getting these bad signals, Read them and go with them and don't deal with those people. Don't, say that you're dealing with products. Don't source products from bad people.

[00:15:46.89] – Gresham Harkless

Right. Yeah. No. That makes sense, Nicole. I definitely appreciate that. And for people who wanna get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that and get in touch with you?

[00:15:54.79] – Nicole Russin-McFarland

On social media, I'm Nick Russin.

[00:15:59.50] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. And we will definitely have the links and information to show notes so that everybody can follow up with you. But I truly appreciate you taking some time out. I appreciate, you, lending some words of wisdom with us as well too, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:22.79] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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