Special Report: Splash City (2026)

Hold your ears folks it's showtime people pay good money to see this movie when they go out to a theater they want cold sodas hot popcorn and no monsters in the projection. Booth everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring. Turn it. Off turn it off. In the bay, every 30 seconds, a window is popped and a car is broken into.

Mom been home yet? Nah, not yet. Where you been at? I've been outside. Ain't a lot of us had an opportunity to get out of mud, you know what I mean?

They call this the player's graveyard. It's crazy people think it's so sweet out here because all this techno and damn well. That don't benefit none of us. Smash and grabbers, huh? That's all you are.

When you're going to open your eyes, you don't got to sleep with one eye open. Is that the lifestyle you want? You're going to need somebody to step up in your life, somebody to protect you, guide you. I bust my ass to provide for you two boys. So you don't have to go out there and do all that.

What you got to do for me? Save all that built up aggression that you got for. The hoop court. Hey folks, welcome to a special episode of The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White.

On this episode, I am talking with musician and filmmaker, Berner. He's the co-writer and co-director of the new film, Splash City, which is now available to rent on demand. Thanks so much for listening, and I hope you enjoy this interview. Would you like me to call you Mr. Berner, Mr.

Pescado? Whatever you like to call me. I'm a man of many names. How did you get involved in the entertainment industry? I've been a fan of music since I've been a kid.

I started making music professionally about 20-something years ago. I've been releasing albums since then. I think I put out about 46, 47 albums since then. I founded a company called Cookies and been going crazy ever since. It feels like you've got your fingers on a lot of different pies, even just when it comes to movies and just all the different roles that you play.

It's a blessing and a curse to be that way, but I like it. I'm a control freak. So tell me a little bit about your work in different movies because you're an actor, producer, and now director. Yeah, I acted in one film. It wasn't really my thing.

I'm more of a storyteller. So this film for me was my first into the industry. I co-wrote it, co-directed it, produced it, and financed it 100% myself. Where did the idea come from? I've been wanting to make crime films based in the Bay Area for a long time.

I was a little nervous to do some of the ones I've been working on for a long time in my head. So I was like, let me do something to start with that I can kind of get my feet wet with, and not below the load if I don't do it right. So I was like, okay, what can I do now that would make sense and be relevant? And at the moment, at the time, there was the whole Bippin' Smash and Grab situation happening in SF, so I was like, this would be the perfect thing to jump into. Can you tell me about your co-writer?

Yeah, my co-writer's name is David. He did a great job. Essentially, what I did was I put this in a small script. I developed the characters, the climax, the storylines, wrote down everything I wanted to see happen throughout the film. I even wrote a little dialogue and little scenarios and little scenes, and then he took it and turned it into a full script.

When did you guys start working together? We started working together about four years ago now. So we had a script, and then we butted heads with another producer for a while about the way that things would get done with business. We sat on it for about a year. Then I just said, it's go time, I want to do it.

So we picked it back up. We went through the script again with the fine-tooth comb and kind of made sure all the dialogue made sense and had some advisors come in and make sure that everything felt authentic and real in that world. And then we just went and put it into production. We went for it. And can you tell me a little bit about your co-director?

My boy Alex, incredible, talented guy. He actually really led the way for most of the part. I actually ended up picking up about six scenes I wrote and directed myself. tie everything together because there were some shots that didn't get done. But he's an incredibly talented guy. Same with my guy Alejandro who did the cinematography.

Incredibly talented. How did you meet some of these folks? I met them through my friend Goldtoes. He put me with Four Ways as a company and we just started vibing and talked about doing a short film. We talked actually about doing three short films and then they convinced me to do a feature.

It's tough. It's very tough and It's like a crash course on film school for me, honestly. And tell me about your cast. How did they come together? Yeah, so we did a casting call.

We wanted to find very authentic and very real Bay Area type talent, which we did find a good amount of it. And then we brought in a couple of actors from L.A., but we made sure to feel that they had a very good look to them. And we also wanted to make sure they can learn the Bay Area swag and feel as well, so we had them come out. before shooting, kind of like link with some street guys around here and link with some of the other cast and kind of fill out how to bury a charisma and swag is. The performances are amazing, especially at the, is it Zaki is how you say their name? Zaki and Gallagher and Quincy, yes.

Yeah, they did a great job. Honestly, the first time acting too. How was it working with actors and actually hearing the dialogue that you helped write come out of their mouths? It was cool. I didn't really have to game anyone up too much.

I had to coach a few guys on the way things should be said and feel. But for the most part, they did such a great job. I wish I could go back and have some fun while I was doing it. I was very stressed out, worrying about money and a bunch of logistics and drama. But at the end of the day, it was a very cool process to see your idea come to life.

And then how was the actual working relationship with you and your co-director? It was good. At the end, we all butted heads. I'll be the first one to tell you that there was a It was supposed to be a $ 500, 000 film. It ended up being a $ 2 million film.

As a one financing, I got really stressed out. And so we wrapped up, I was told there was like 23 more shots. I had to be down. I'm like, nah, I'm done. I'm tapped out financially.

And to, to bring together SAG union film is a lot, as you understand. So what I did was I kind of ghosted everybody. I wrote the six scenes I had to write to, to bring it to film together. And that was my shot at writing and directing a hundred percent myself and Once we were done and we had the film in a great place, I reached back to everyone and we all hugged and kissed. I was like, look, guys, we're back.

We're about to get this thing popping. So we're all good now. We have great work and relationship. I think near the end is very chaotic. Tell me about your post-process.

How did that go? It was good. We spent about two years to edit the film. I did it right here in my building. We did it in-house.

My editor had a content here at Cookies, Yoshi. He did a great job editing it, but we took our time. We have about 20, 30 edits to this thing. At one point, it was three and a half hours long, and we got down to 90 minutes. So we did a good job.

We took our time. We scored the film, didn't like the score, had to re-score it again. So we did a lot of things untraditionally. Yeah, I was going to say, with you being so involved in music, I'm sure the score was crucial to you. Yeah, it was, but we didn't know how to score a film.

So what I did was I hired someone to do a score, and we listened to it. We're like, yeah, that's not it. But now we know how to score a film. So we brought in an in-house producer, and we kind of went to each section he did. I'm so grateful the guy did that for us.

He really tossed it away and we kind of added our own sauce to it. I love this kind of DIY aesthetic that you've got where you're just like, oh yeah, we'll figure it out. We'll get in there. I'll work with the right people. I'll get the right people on board and we'll make this happen.

That's how I do all my business. If I don't know how to do it, I'm going to figure it out. Did you have any sort of like test screening kind of thing where you get feedback or were you just kind of marching to the beat of your own drummer? No, we drove ourselves crazy for two years looking at it and trying to decide what we needed to do. When was the first time you got to see it with an audience?

First time I got a chance to see it with an audience was at Lionsgate for the screening we did there. It was cool. Everyone reacted really well to it. And I think the first real time to see it with an audience was in Oakland at the Grand Lake Theater. And that was insane.

It was like 640 people in there, all the streets of the Bay Area, Richmond, Vallejo, Oakland, San Francisco. And I was very nervous. I was almost hiding. And I pictured that movie. The doors when Jim Morrison watched his film and everyone was like talking shit about it and he was all nervous and walked out.

I quit. That's what I thought I was going to do, but that's not what happened. What did happen? Tell me more about it. Standing ovation.

The best commentary of the whole film. People were screaming, yelling, cheering, talking shit. It was like the best movie screening experience I could ever ask for in my experience ever. What's been the path of the film until it comes out on VOD? We did a theater tour, which I can't believe that we got greenlit, but essentially we wrapped a tour bus and we went on the road to 11 theaters, sold them out a month in advance, and pulled up to the theater and screened the film and did a meet and greet afterwards, and it was amazing.

It was a great experience. I would love to do it again. I know that you tour as a musician, so now here you are touring with a film. Same stuff, just a better, easier day for me. Yeah, you probably get a lot less sweaty when you're doing the movie showing.

Yeah, true. I don't have to worry about forgetting my lyrics. Yeah. Overall, pretty good experience other than the stress. Honestly i couldn't even imagine doing this any other way but i'm so glad it worked out this way i like to dream big and execute so like this is what i thought would happen and actually happened so super blessed but it could have went totally different i could just release it for free on youtube and no one cared so i'm glad it went this way for.

Sure do you have the bug now are you thinking about some other films. I'm already developing it. There's a whiteboard to the right of me just with character development and just we're going crazy right now. So yeah, do you come up with the characters first and kind of then start setting up the beats and throwing stuff at them as far as if this character was in this situation or do you come with the situation first? I come with the characters and then as I'm developing, I already kind of know the situation in my head.

Okay, every great film has good characters and every character has some kind of relationship with other characters. So Let me develop with characters. Let me understand who they are to each other. Then I'm going to write the script alongside with that. Do you find that there are parallels between the way that you write your music and the way that you work on your films?

I think so, yeah. Just very on the spot. I just did an album in damn near three days. I still got to lock in. So the way I lock in is probably a similar parallel.

When I hang up on the Zoom, I'm probably going to sit here for three hours and just tweak out for a while and everything and just figure out scenarios and Just go crazy on the writing process. But even with my book, I locked in. I wrote my book in two weeks. I just sat here and just wrote it. And so I don't have the liberty to take time and think of melodies when it comes to music.

And same with film. I have so much stuff going on. I have to just do it. I turn my teeth into sandpaper from grinding at night, just thinking too much. But it's good, though.

I told my wife, you're blessed to have someone that thinks about the next thing. So I can just be lazy playing video games. Can you tell me a little bit about the next project? Yeah, so the next movie is going to be called Pax. It's a marijuana trafficking film based here in the Bay Area.

It's a totally different world, different characters, multicultural cast. It should be really cool. Where's the best place for people to keep up with you in the film? To keep up with me, Instagram is probably the best. I show everything there.

Burner415, B-E-R-N-E-R-415. I post everything about the film on my page, but we also have the Instagram, Splash City Movie. Bernard thank you so much it was so nice talking with you today i. Appreciate you having me thank you so much so Yeah, I do my own thing. Yeah.

Fuck the drama. I don't want to hear none of that. Shout to the game. We running that. Where my duffel at?

That's going to be a hundred flat. We bust a play. Pray we safe. And then we run it back. Fake friends, smiling faces.

I got sick of that. So sick. Now everybody want a favor. Is that right? I just opened up the food saver.

Opened up the food saver. Yeah, we rolling up the new flame. Yeah, shout out to my haters. I'm just chilling in Jamaica smoking. Yeah, they want to bust my head open, cause they bread bad.

They ain't doing good. I got a 40 on me. Shit, I wish you would. I'm in my own lane. I'm trying to do my own thing.

Old school, candy pink. Yeah, with the gold things. Drunk driving. Yeah, we taking up both lanes. I'm blind to the bullshit, but we be with the bullshit.

More commas. I just want more quality. Yeah. my vision blurry and we living in a hurry though I'm blind to the bullshit let them talk we call shots up top yeah I'm blind to the bullshit I'm. In my own lane yeah I do my own thing. Fuck the drama yeah tonight I'm on my own height and we don't stop at no lights my game cold like a fresh block of snow white they miss my old prices That shit was so nice.

Why they got their hands out like some lowlights? They should get their money up and go and buy some grow lights. Put some money in your pocket. Do right, fam. And you're blessed.

I got homies doing life, man. Homies. You never know when your life ends. Big stack with the FN on a nightstand. They trying to throw me off track.

I need that white sand. Beach full of freaks. We having drinks out in Thailand. Yeah. You really got to have vision.

If you worry about them, then you ain't going to get it. If you worry about them, then you ain't really living. Yeah. Dirty with the full clip and we be with the bullshit. More comments.

I just want more quality. Yeah. My vision blurry and we living in a hurry though. I'm blind to the bullshit. Let them talk.

We call shots up top. Yeah, I'm blind to the bullshit. I'm in my own lane. Yeah, I do my own thing. I'm in my own lane.

Cause I'm blind to the bullshit.