The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 21 - The $800 Movie
Release Date: 06/12/2026
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 25 - Alternate Endings - Tenet (Bonus Podcast)
The Smarter Artist Show
Remember when Brandon Sanderson revealed a bunch of books he’d written? Well, this is our version of that. We’re revealing a podcast we recorded in 2021 or 2022 called Alternate Endings. A show that we recorded a year’s worth of episodes! It’s a show where Sean, Johnny, and I (Dave) force each other to watch a different show or movie each week and then get together and talk, argue, and discuss. Up first, the super easy to understand Tenet. If you like this episode, let us know. We’ll release more bonus shows like this every so often when we’re in a pinch. Or...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 24 - The Books We'd Build Different Now
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode Sean, Johnny, and Dave go back through four of their own series (Available Darkness, Karma Police, Cursed, and Robot Proletariat) and ask what they’d do differently now. Not with the stories themselves, but the surrounding architecture, to ensure that each series had a better shot at success. SOMETHING COOL 9:00 — Johnny finally created an Instagram account (@johnnybtruant) 14:40 — Sean talks about when Quentin Tarantino appeared in a Muppets movie. 18:00 — Topic of the show — Dave talks about he and Sean’s first book together, Available Darkness, and what...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show 23: Hypotheticals 2: Electric Boogaloo
The Smarter Artist Show
In this week’s episode of The Smarter Artist Show, Sean, Dave, and Johnny take turns answering Dave’s latest batch of hypothetical questions. Dave also talks about how one of the questions inspired a script idea. Join the guys for an assortment of amusing, weird, and intriguing hypothetical questions which you can play along at home! Note: In efforts to get to the nonsense sooner, we shortened the intro. The outro full song is still there for your listening enjoyment. 0:00 — Intro 14:00 — Question 1: You have a difficult neighbor. How do you deal with it? 24:25...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 22 - 20,000 Covers, One Lesson.
The Smarter Artist Show
In this episode, Sean, Dave, Johnny, and guest Matt Stone of 100 Covers talk about the number one thing successful books have in common. Spoiler: it has to do with the cover! Stay tuned to the end, or just go to the show notes, for a limited time offer from 100 Covers. **Special Promotion:** Special 50% offer at using the coupon code ASS from Friday June 19, 2026 to 11:59 PM EST Monday June 22, 2026. Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction to the episode and guest Matt Stone 00:26 - The importance of showing your work and applying experience to your brand 02:30 - Something Cools: Johnny...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 21 - The $800 Movie
The Smarter Artist Show
This week Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into the indie horror moment happening right now in Hollywood, two breakout films, Obsession and Backrooms, both made by filmmakers who came up on YouTube with almost no budget. They trace the path from Curry Barker's $800 film to a theatrical release that's earned around $250 million (at press time), and talk about why horror rewards resourcefulness in a way most genres don't. Sean talks for the first time on air about the horror script he and Dave have been developing, and the conversation he had with a friend that talked him out of a $5 million budget...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 20 - The Thing We Haven't Written Yet
The Smarter Artist Show
Dave opens by holding up five completely filled journals to the camera, all devoted to a fantasy novel he's been building in his head for at least five years. That kicks off an hour-long conversation about the creative project you haven't written yet: the idea that's too big, too personal, or too risky to touch until you're ready. Sean's version is the very first book he ever wrote in 2007, a 600-page narrative nightmare with, in the words of Cindy's professor friend, "long passages of staggering genius." Both projects are alive, neither is finished… yet. Timestamps 00:00 — Cold open:...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 19 - Your Characters Are Assets. Are You Treating Them That Way?
The Smarter Artist Show
Saul Goodman was supposed to appear in four episodes of Breaking Bad. He was comic relief. Vince Gilligan read the room, changed his mind, and eventually built a six-season prequel around him. Sean, Dave, and Johnny use that as the on-ramp for a longer conversation about what separates a character that can carry IP from one that can't, and whether a creator can engineer that kind of popularity or whether it only exists because an audience decided it does. The guys then talk about characters taking over shows not meant for them, why some asshole characters work and others don’t, and...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 18 - Write to Impress Your Collaborator
The Smarter Artist Show
SUMMARY Sean, Dave, and Johnny open with Something Cool, including Sean's announcement that he's finished his first album and wants early listeners before it drops publicly next month. Then they get into the real subject: collaboration. How it starts, how it breaks, how it makes you better when it works, and what happens when you write with someone who can see your blind spots before you can. By the end of the episode, three collaborations are on the table. Sean and Dave on Yesterday's Gone. Sean and Johnny on The Beam, Unicorn Western, and Future of Sex. And the specific mechanics of how each...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 17 — How to Write Fast (With or Without Robots)
The Smarter Artist Show
Dave spent twelve years writing bits and pieces of stories at a gas station. He never finished one. Sean spent three years nagging him to publish his first book. Now they've written more than 60 novels together. In this episode, Dave and Sean dig into the real reasons writers stall, why AI won't save you if your process is broken, and the one habit Sean says matters more than any tool or technique. WHAT THEY GET INTO The vomit pass. Sean breaks down the system he's used since his blogging days: brain drain first, clarify second, polish third. Never try to write something you're proud of on the...
info_outline
The Smarter Artist Show: Episode 16 - Your Back Matter Is Costing You Readers (And You Don't Even Know It)
The Smarter Artist Show
Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into one of the most neglected pieces of real estate in any author's catalog: back matter. The highest-leverage moment you have with a reader is the thirty seconds after they finish your book, and most creators waste it with a generic thank-you and a mailing list link that goes nowhere. This episode is a post-mortem on real mistakes from the Sterling & Stone catalog, including a back matter page that thanked readers for a book they didn't read! The practical takeaway is simple: every book you publish should know where to send the reader next. Not a list of...
info_outlineThis week Sean, Dave, and Johnny dig into the indie horror moment happening right now in Hollywood, two breakout films, Obsession and Backrooms, both made by filmmakers who came up on YouTube with almost no budget. They trace the path from Curry Barker's $800 film to a theatrical release that's earned around $250 million (at press time), and talk about why horror rewards resourcefulness in a way most genres don't.
Sean talks for the first time on air about the horror script he and Dave have been developing, and the conversation he had with a friend that talked him out of a $5 million budget and into a $1 million one. It's the first public mention of a project that's going to keep coming up.
Timestamps:
7:00 — Something Cools
12:40 — The topic of the week.
15:30 — Talking about Backrooms
19:00 — Horror movies being held to a different standard
22:45 — Sean’s $1 million movie announcement
24:48 — Dave talks about low budget horror and the upcoming Ice cream Man movie trailer.
26:00 — Benson and Moorehead’s low budget Lovecraftian movies which led to them working on Marvel shows.
30:00 — constraints in movies versus having too big of a budget. Discussion about Christopher Nolan’s work, and Dave’s fave movie, The Fountain.
41:36 — More low budget movie success stories: Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Blair Witch, and Saw.
Resources mentioned:
Obsession (dir. Curry Barker)
that’s a bad idea channel — https://www.youtube.com/@thats_a_bad_idea
Backrooms (dir. Kane Parsons, A24)
The Endless, Synchronic, Resolution (dir. Benson and Moorhead)
The Ice Cream Man Redband trailer — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiS6TWj4nV0
Milk and Serial — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbzGQ1lszv4
Subscribe to the Dispatch: https://smarterartist.net/dispatch
Next week: we're talking book covers