THE SHORT VERSION

I created Homemade Movies in 2012 and it ran until 2017 when it was cancelled by CineFix (which I was in charge of running at the time as Executive Producer). This was due to the low number of views given the amount of time and effort (which equals high cost) that went into each episode compared to the other series on the channel. I am not involved with the creation of any new episodes on CineFix.

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THE LONG VERSION

Here's the story, originally I made 2 episodes with friends for my own channel DustFilmsOriginals. I then signed on with the brand new movie fan channel CineFix to produce the show independent for them (through my production company DustFilms) as a weekly series. That's a brand new episode with full behind the scenes every single week and keep in mind a movie trailer can consist of 100-200 individual shots, each meticulously recreated by hand. I had enough money each week to pay myself and one producer plus the cost of the episode materials and actors.

I did that for a year and a half and it nearly killed me because the schedule was so demanding and it was a LOT of production, all out of my small house. I was finally able to bring Ben on full time to help with the props/costumes/shooting. I worked 7 days a week, non-stop, living and breathing the show. I even created a second animated show for CineFix called "The Cutting Room" for a season which allowed me to release new episodes every other week (alternating with the animated series.) That all took place non-stop over a year and a half.

Once my contract was fulfilled with those 2 two series I decided it was time to move on to other things and hopefully gain a little bit of sanity in my life back. It was a hard decision but one I was relieved to make. Ben took over the series full-time for a while on his own, at his house. He started using Mark for additional help.

During that time I was hired at Mashable as Executive Producer in charge of a entirely new original series team and I brought Ben on board just as he finished his last Homemade Movies episode. Within the first year Mashable actually acquired CineFix entirely so I was part of my job was to run the channel. Of course I brought back Homemade Movies immediately and had Ben run it full-time as a monthly series mostly from home but this time with the resources of Mashable, still using Mark to help and one of my other producers, Jon. I still got to make many cameos in the show but I was just serving as Executive Producer while those guys did the real work on the show. (BONUS: I filled in for one episode while Ben was on parental leave so I did my first full episode as producer/director since I left the show in 2014, Captain America: Civil War!)

When Ben left Mashable entirely to Executive Produce his own series for Adult Swim I had the show continue monthly with Jon as producer and Mark doing all the props/costumes, now created entirely at Mashable's office/studio. As much as we all loved the show and even though the materials were very DIY, it was just far too time consuming for a team of people to create to justify the low views (especially compared to the other series on CineFix) so it was decided that the series was to be cancelled. 

I

have not been involved with the show since then and I left Mashable soon after to pursue another great opportunity. It looks like whoever is running CineFix attempted a few things with Mark's help that were branded as "Homemade Movies" but with entirely different formats. 

As far as I know there are no plans to bring the show back although just like when I started it all those years ago on my channel, ANYONE can grab some cardboard and wigs and make their own shot-for-shot trailers! Just don't call it Homemade Movies and no one can stop you, so get our there and start making your own and I'll be happy to watch!

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But wait, the show looks so fun. Why did you leave Homemade Movies the first time, was it really THAT hard?

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Yes. It was impossible to keep doing it the way I was, entirely running a full production out of my house with very little resources. 

I was solely responsible for producing the entire show from home with no help from CineFix whatsoever and I had 2 shows with them at the time. I had to create an entire company and hire someone to do my accounting just to keep track of all the expenses and making sure people got paid etc. and I spent a lot of my time just managing paperwork and personnel and dealing with last-minute changes from CineFix and dealing with corporate type nonsense. It was hard to then juggle all of the creative aspects of the show(s) and that was a real bummer and huge drain on me. I literally never got a day off, I was lucky to take maybe half a day off on Sundays then start right back over again Monday morning. I had repeatedly asked CineFix for help or to help think of ways to change the way it was produced to ease the burden it was placing on me but they insisted on keeping things the same way. After a very long year and a half my contract was up I decided to stop for my own sanity. 

Ben did an amazing job while he was in charge of it for a period but as the lights were all turning off at CineFix it was truly amazing that we were able to acquire the channel at Mashable and bring it back to life! Things had gone full circle and I was in charge of the entire channel so of course one of the first things I did was bring back Homemade Movies, with Ben as producer/director and then later with Mark and Jon running it together. Even though I was overseeing production on about 12 shows at the time it was very fulfilling in particular to see Homemade Movies still going with so many talented people over the years and bringing it to all the fans!