MRH: Did you choose to speak to universities partly because of your own experience at USC - giving something back, so to speak - or because you enjoy the responses from keen university audiences?

SP: Well, it's both of those things, and a lot more. I'd say my main motivation behind it is sort of acknowledging that it's young people that go to movies. I think it's very important for filmmakers of any age – I'm in my late thirties now – to get out and get your work in front of these people who are actually carrying the tickets.

To a certain extent, you want to see if your work is reaching people, and the questions you get asked in that environment can be very stimulating because there's almost a full generation difference between me and kids who are in college now.

There's a part of me that likes to say, ‘When I was an undergrad, I did not get to learn a lot about filmmaking' – this is going back twenty years, so it wasn't nearly as accessible as it is today to young people – and I think there's a lot of things about the process [in which] there's a right way and a wrong way to do things when it comes to making films.

I think I do a lot of the things the right way: how you treat people; when it comes to dealing with the natures of soliciting investments for these high risk things known as independent features; being diligent about permitting, and treating locations with respect; and making sure your crew is well-fed. ...A lot of times when I talk, especially to high schools, I'll break out a list of golden rules... to impress upon people that ... there are good habits to form, and bad habits to avoid forming at an early stage in your career.

One of the things that I've found that works well is making anybody who's going to invest in the film understand that they should not invest more than they could afford to lose. Some people think that's extremely counter-intuitive; the flip-side of that is yes, it may not seem like the best way to sell yourself... but conversely, there's no better way to get people rooting for you, regardless of the film's financial outcome, then by getting people [to understand] that it's a high risk investment.

Most indies don't make money, so getting to acknowledge that from the get-go can make you life a lot easier as a filmmaker in post-production and in release than if you give people grandiose, or unrealistic expectations.

MRH: Was there a point where you began to see certain revenue coming from the success from Nice Guys Sleep Alone – either from DVD sales or rentals?

SP: With Nice Guys, there was money coming in. That was a movie that, despite the significant amount of distribution it received from DVD and from cable and from overseas, it still did not quite cover its budget, so it lost money. But I think the exciting thing about DVD for me is that it basically gives any filmmaker out there the ability to get their work out to the marketplace.

Netflix.com essentially has limitless shelf space, as does Amazon.com, so if you're a filmmaker, it's really never been a more exciting time – not just because it's been easier or cheaper to make a film, but also because there's so many different ways you can get it out there. I think right now DVD is, depending on how good your home theatre is, the best way to enjoy a film.

MRH: Did you do more research for Keep Your Distance to find out how many outlets are available for distribution – pay per view, rental, video on demand?

SP: I don't know how much of it you would call research, but what I did have, going on the second one, and which was a major change from the first, was simply an understanding of all that was out there: I did not know how foreign sales or things like the American film market worked. Going into Keep Your Distance, I was very prepared for delusional projections from very over-solicitous foreign sales agents this time around, and being able to properly separate the pretenders from the contenders in the foreign sales game - because there are a lot of unscrupulous companies out there.

It doesn't mean it's any easier to get a film sold; because there's never been more product generated on an annual basis on both the independent and studio level, there's never been more ways for films to be seen - but there have also never been more films in the marketplace.