Becoming someone’s favourite supplements producers: a conversation with Ryan Verrill (part four)
Ryan Verrill (pictured above right) and Miss-Connected (pictured above middle) with Tobin Bell (pictured above left), the master actor behind the character Jigsaw in the Saw franchise, at Kansas City Crypticon.
In part four of our conversation, Ryan Verrill and I discuss how he started producing on-disc supplements, and Ryan shares insights about the boutique Blu-ray industry.
What's the Idea: I hear of the reverence everybody in this industry has for Lee Gambin. He seemed like an amazing person. I'm sorry for your loss.
Ryan Verrill: Lee is the reason I'm in this industry. I don't talk about this all that often, but Lee was the first person to hire me for anything. All of his editors dropped out at the last second, so he hired me to edit a visual essay. It was just a simple thing.
“It genuinely started that way, and without Lee, I literally would not have, at this point, 75 discs that I’ve worked on, probably more. And that’s in just over two years.”
In passing after interviewing him for my show—I was so desperate to talk to Lee Gambin that I awoke at four in the morning since he was in Australia to be able to talk to him at the only time that he was free to talk, and it changed my life being able to have that conversation—I mentioned, “I can edit videos. I can do interviews for any sort of release, anything that you ever need help with. I don't need to be paid anything.” He was like, “Yeah, I'll think about it.”
Months later, clearly out of desperation, Lee hired me for that job. It led to the second time that he hired me, which was to edit some interviews for a Scream Factory release, and then it was just off to the races. I was able to point to these couple of discs that I had done and could say to a couple other producers and producers and labels, “Hey, I've been able to do these things. I can email you a copy of the video so you can see that I'm okay at it at the very least, and then if you're ever desperate, I'm happy to help.”
It genuinely started that way, and without Lee, I literally would not have, at this point, 75 discs that I've worked on, probably more. And that's in just over two years. Good lord, that is scary to think about. I've never thought about it like that. And we've been on special features for something like 35 releases that have been announced, and we're on probably another 30 that haven't been announced yet.
What's the Idea: Was there anything he imparted on you that you hold onto throughout your work?
Ryan: He changed my life immensely, and he's one of the only people since 2020—him and Kobe Bryant—I've cried when they've died. A lot of the fact that I'm trying to raise up voices that would never be heard in any other way was in huge part because of Lee. He would hire people for discs that nobody else would ever even consider hiring because they didn't have credentials. He would make it a point to get the smallest voices heard on something.
Because he was willing to go far for research for his books, he would have a list of 75 people talking about one movie. The publisher would say, “You don't need that many people. You talk to eight.” He would always respond, “No, all these people have a story to tell, and they all deserve to be talked to, and every single one might have that one nugget that I'm looking for a chapter. So, why would I not talk to them?”
I try to do the same thing for research for some of these things, or for choosing the right person to hire for a release. Just because somebody might have spoken on eight other releases from the same filmmaker doesn't make them an expert. Somebody else might have literally written the book on that person and they've just never been asked to contribute to a disc. Why would I not ask them?
What's the Idea: It's wild that one of the most exhaustive film books that I'm aware of is for the '80s adaptation of Cujo.
Ryan: Lee's research is unparalleled. Him and Stephen Thrower are like my bare minimum of what I want to do.
What's the Idea: How did your work with supplements continue to grow?
Ryan: I've always loved special features. I only really call them that publicly because that's what everybody knows them as, but I hate the term “special features.” I usually call them “supplements” because I think they are there to contextualize releases in a way that is inherently extremely valuable.
When I started doing all this stuff with the guides on YouTube, deep down, sure, there was a dream that maybe someday I could help with something like this, but I never really thought it was possible. Then all of this changed because of that video about Mondo Macabro that I talked about earlier.
“I got an email from Dr. Will Dodson, who said, ‘Hey, you don’t know me. I just stumbled upon this video on a work trip and really liked it... I would love to come on your show and talk about Tobe Hooper.’... there was something about Will’s [email] that made me say, this is actually kind of really cool.”
Little did I know that there was a film professor that was going on a work trip to Phoenix, and he put on his itinerary to go out there on a Sunday night before it started on Monday. I think he got out there earlier than the other people that he was supposed to be meeting up with, so he had one free night. This is a guy with kids who's got a very busy life, so a free night is unheard of, and the first thing important in his mind, even though he was prepping for this long conference week for work, was “man, I have not paid attention to Mondo Macabro in a long time. I wonder what's going on with them.”
He literally Googled “Mondo Macabro” and my guide video on YouTube came up on the front page. He watched the video, and after he got home a week later, I got an email from Dr. Will Dodson, who said, “Hey, you don't know me. I just stumbled upon this video on a work trip and really liked it. I just helped edit this book on Tobe Hooper. I would love to come on your show and talk about Tobe Hooper.”
I am of the mindset that I really don't like people soliciting to be on other shows because it looks like you're fishing for publicity and attention, so normally I turn those down. But there was something about Will’s that made me say, this is actually kind of really cool. I like that you discovered me through this random thing and that inspired you to reach out. So yeah, let's talk about Tobe Hooper. So, I did one of my interviews with him and talked about the book that he wrote—American Twilight, which is incredible. Everybody should go check it out—and we hit it off.
That one interview was okay. There were still some jitters. Probably at the time, but we talked after that interview for another hour about things that weren't Tobe Hooper. We just hung out and we gushed and gushed, and I said, “I do this weekly live show. Would you want to come back next month and be on one of these shows?” And he's like, “Yeah, that sounds fun. Let's try it.” He and I, just something about it was perfect together.
A collection of limited edition steelbooks from John Carpenter, one of the masters of horror.
I interviewed him in August of 2022, and the first time he did Re-Connected was later that month. I had him back on a couple months later to make sure that it wasn't just lightning in a bottle, and it was again one of my most fun shows of the year. I said, “Okay, listen. You are kind of perfect. Why don't we just do this every single month? I don't really like having recurring guests, but why don't we just have you on the first Thursday of every single month? We plan it, it's something that you can put on your calendar.” And he said, “You know what? This is so much fun. Let's do it.”
We got closer and closer just doing this every single month. That's literally all we were doing together. Nothing special. We had a couple discussions behind the scenes for ways that he could contribute more. We had a couple book ideas that we were throwing around. Then in April of 2023, we threw out the idea: Wouldn't it be so much fun to get some visual essays on these discs together? I said, “Maybe you and I could write some and just put it on my channel and see if we can get some attention that way.” He was like, “We can do one on Tobe Hooper. That's simple.”
We threw out some ideas, and then randomly in May of 2023—and this is where I have to get a little secretive—we were both on Twitter, in two different parts of the country, and we came across that one of these companies had posted on Twitter, “We're looking for somebody that has knowledge about this one specific subject so that you could do an audio commentary. If you're interested, send us a DM.”
Unbeknownst to each other, Will and I both DM'd this company and said, “Hey, I would like to do an audio commentary with this person,” naming each other, and the label was like, “This is weird. You're both emailing me. Why did you plan it like this, this is awkward.” I went, “I didn't know he was talking to you. We didn't know we were doing it.”
The label responded, “I already found somebody, but I know what The Disc-Connected is. I've seen some of your stuff. Yeah. Let's talk about it.” They then said, “I've got this other topic. Are you guys knowledgeable about this?” It's something that Will is passionate about, and it isn’t Tobe Hooper, so we got offered our first audio commentary simply through this random happenstance. We recorded that commentary in August of 2023, and that release has still not been announced.
Right after we did that one, we got three more through Terror Vision that we were excited about. We pitched them, “Will's done an audio commentary for Kino, we just got another one for this other bigger company. Would you have us do one or two?”
Terror Vision said, “Yeah, take a look at these titles. Any you're interested in?” We pitched for Gator Bait 1 and 2 and The Nail Gun Massacre. He's like, “You can do all three of those because we don't have anybody in line yet. Let's do it.”
Will flew to Kansas City from North Carolina to work on those together because we were like, we're probably not going to get this chance again. Let's do this in person in a way that we can do this as well as we possibly can.
He flew here and, unbeknownst to us, this was the start of something special. Will is now one of my best friends. We did three out of those four commentaries in one weekend. One we had to do after he flew home. We just ran out of time.
Then, in September of 2023, we had grown this idea and said, “We loved doing these commentaries. I bet we could make a thing out of this. We're not going to make real money, but we could probably become like a co-op of getting people together to promote these things. Let's have a team of people that we can count on that we can say, “Yeah, we can do a commentary for this random Blaxploitation film, but that's not our subject of expertise. Let's give it to this guy who is an expert in Blaxploitation,” but we're all under the same brand umbrella co-op that people can count on.
The first Thursday of September in 2023 when Will was on Re-Connected, we announced live that we were starting something called Someone's Favorite Productions. The name is from a phrase that I have been using on my show for years, which is that every movie is someone's favourite movie. That’s something that I've really tried to grind into people about positivity.
“We wanted to start with something that meant that we’re never going to approach one of these things in a condescending way. We’re not going to do a visual essay on a film and talk about how terribly this film came together. ”
Sure, we've all talked about “so bad, they're good” films or movies that are critically just completely crapped on by the media or just have these terrible reputations, but in all reality, there is at least one person out there that loves that movie for what it is. They literally treat it like their favourite movie. They've seen it 20 times, or if not and it's just a really bad movie, then the moment it was made, the director probably loved that movie and it was their favourite movie, or the lady that starred in it might have thought “this is my favourite thing I've ever done” and she treats it with actual reverence. So yeah, logically, every single movie has been someone's favourite movie, so that was the name of our company.
We wanted to start with something that meant that we're never going to approach one of these things in a condescending way. We're not going to do a visual essay on a film and talk about how terribly this film came together. And believe me, we've done supplements work, like visual essays or commentaries, for movies that aren't great, but there is something that we can find to appreciate in a way that is entertaining, that is educational. We genuinely want to hold a light to be able to appreciate it with context for what it is.
I don't know what happened, but since that moment when we announced that in September of 2023, we've never had to solicit work. Ever since then, we have had at every single moment at least two projects pending where somebody approached us that they wanted us to work on something. That's not to say that we haven't approached some companies because we've been excited about some things, so we reach out to say, “Hey, we would love to work with you.”
I am amazed that we've been able to pull off what we did in such a short period of time. It literally has not even been two full years yet, and I have a website with a page with tons of releases that you can click on and go buy that have our names on the back.
Just last year, I took a trip to Los Angeles and I was in Amoeba on Hollywood Boulevard, a store that I've been to, I don't know, eight or ten times in my life. I was always blown away that all these pieces of physical media were there. When I walked into Amoeba when I went to L.A. and found a disc with my name on the back, I broke down. It was one of the most surreal feelings in my life that I've ever had.
That was very early in what we were doing. We had only been on three discs that had been released at that time. Now there's so much associated with Someone's Favorite Productions. We're doing work behind the scenes that people can't even see. Nothing is credited or anything like that. We're helping companies with social media. We're doing transcript work for companies. I manage the Patreon for a really big brand that's not even a physical media company. I guess they are in a way, but not in the Blu-ray sector. I've hired people for releases. I've made connections for people just because I knew this person would be the best person for this release.
Ryan and Miss-Connected with comedy legend Emo Philips after a local show.
I'll get a call from somebody that runs a label on a Saturday and say, “Hey, let's just discuss what's going on. Let's catch up.” As we talk, I'll throw out five ideas and suddenly they're implementing them and I'm helping them behind the scenes run it. For some of these companies, I'm literally a producer. I'm very close with Terror Vision. I've produced a handful of their releases and I run their podcast.
For the last little over a year now, I've worked on literally every single one of Deaf Crocodile’s releases in some fashion. I guess technically I'm the one that formed their new membership program. It was just through me talking ideas with Craig Rogers, who is one of their two owners, because I've got my finger on the pulse of the physical media community, so I had some suggestions on things that I thought would work and make people more excited about their label. They utilized them and saw success, and now they're running with those things.
I've found myself in a position of influence, and I'm just doing my best to help massage those things in a way that is a positive influence and not put too much of me ever in something. It's just what is best for the community, for the release, and for the art itself. Again, it’s crazy that in less than two years, it's gone from us messaging somebody on Twitter to having companies calling me every week and discussing things so I can pitch ideas to them.
What's the Idea: A positive attitude and reliability are uncommon these days.
Ryan: That's true.
What's the Idea: I really connect with what you're saying about focusing on the positive aspects of the movie. Part of the ethos behind “What’s the Idea” is the idea that there's something in every work of art, at least some idea, that drove a person to create this piece of art, and that can be respected and explored. Is it achieving what it's trying to do, or why didn’t it realize its ideas?
Ryan: Right. There's probably something that is artistically important that we could discuss for hours at length about any movie if we really wanted to.
What's the Idea: I appreciate the ethos you have and the respect involved. It makes sense that it's so widely applicable to so many companies and different movies.
Ryan: I've gotten criticism for being too positive about things. That's probably been my most criticized aspect over the last five years of doing this thing. It's baffling to me because it's not fun to talk about things I don't like. I'm only going to focus on things that I do like. I've brought things up that I will talk about in a critical fashion so that people understand that I'm not just a shield for everything, I guess. But in a way, I kind of am. Without enough people just hyping up physical media, it's going to go away. Some of these companies are so small that if one release tanks, they're literally in danger of collapsing.
What's the Idea: That’s wild to hear that it can be so tight. It's a question more so for the boutique Blu-ray companies, but I don't understand the accounting behind it. It sounds like it costs so much money to put out a movie and produce a disc, so much money up front with big risk most of the time.
Ryan: That explains the inconsistency in release schedules. For some of these labels, like Criterion and Vinegar Syndrome, every month people are counting down the days until their announcements because they know there's going to be at least three to five Vinegar syndrome releases every month. For Criterion, it’s at least four to six releases, and lately they're even moving up to seven or eight every month. That's a lot of pressure.
For some of these smaller companies that are inconsistent, it's because they're only working on that one release. And when that releases this month, they're only getting income because they announced that, and the next title isn't getting announced for 75 more days, so they have to make this as good as they possibly can to get the money out of it that they can.
“It’s just me paying attention to what these consumers are saying because I’m browsing all the forums. I’m reading subreddits... and going dang, look at how many people are saying this. I should probably let some of these companies know that this is an actual factor nowadays... the companies that have listened have seen success from a lot of my suggestions.”
That's where I feel like I've done some of my better work, especially on stuff that people don't even know exists. Behind the scenes, I'm trying to help with marketing in a way that will help these companies get the most money from people not waiting for a sale while also helping the consumers and making it a mutually beneficial relationship.
I brought up the membership for Deaf Crocodile. If you get even five people to do that in one month, you're getting a huge amount of upfront investment money that you can already serve to produce future releases, which will get you more people able to purchase them. It's buying power essentially. And because the consumers are getting a big discount, they're not being swindled. They're feeling good about helping a small company. They're investing, in a way, in things that they trust, like the curation, so they know that they're going to be able to get things that they like with that money and the company's going to be able to be successful with that money, so it's a mutually beneficial agreement. And nobody else is doing that. Nobody else has started a membership program like that. And without it, Deaf Crocodile might not be doing as well as they are right now.
That's not to toot my own horn. It's just me paying attention to what these consumers are saying because I'm browsing all the forums. I'm reading subreddits. I'm listening to people responding to my posts on social media and going dang, look at how many people are saying this. I should probably let some of these companies know that this is an actual factor nowadays. And the companies that have listened have seen success from a lot of my suggestions.
What's the Idea: These companies must be so busy, like Deaf Crocodile essentially has two people running it. Meanwhile, you're connected with the fans, and you have the capacity to try to listen to what they want. At this point, so many releases are strong, which must be thanks to the efforts of people like you putting the work in.
Ryan: It's not only time for high quality releases, but for high quality films. It seems like every week, we're getting at least one title that we were told for years we would never see on physical media. The fact that that keeps happening and we keep getting our minds blown is a testament to how hard these companies are working, because a lot of times, that's a legal battle that you'll never know about. A lot of times, that's a restoration battle that you'll never hear all the details of and be able to praise the right people for it. A lot of times, this was literally 30 years of conversations leading up to an inevitable release, so it would be impossible to champion everyone involved. And now you get to hold a copy of Looking for Mr. Goodbar on 4K in your hands or buy it in Barnes & Noble. That to me is such a win to be championed. My show is just the smallest amount of gratitude that I can give.
What's the Idea: When you put it that way, after so many years of work, so many years of struggle for a lot of them, it’s amazing to consider how many things need to happen. Do you know why these releases have been possible all of a sudden?
Ryan: The generation of people that own the rights to these movies is dying, and the people that get the rights after they've passed away don't have the attachment that some of them had. People are also realizing this may genuinely be the only opportunity for this film to get a release, so if they want to make any money out of it, they can only do that now. If they want this film to be seen, this might be the time to do it.
The conversation with Ryan Verrill continues in parts four through six.
In part five, we discuss his magazine The Physical Media Advocate.
In part six, we discuss Ryan’s podcast network Someone’s Favorite Productions.
Watch Ryan live every Thursday on Re-Connected, and follow him on your social media of choice, including Instagram, to keep up with everything he does.
Click here to learn more about the on-disc work done by Someone’s Favorite Productions.
The interview was recorded using Google Meet in August 2025.
The transcript was edited by Matt Long of What’s the Idea Professional Editing, with additional copy editing by Anthony Nijssen of APT Editing.
All photos are the property of Ryan Verrill.