Kyle Geller shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Kyle, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
My children, absolutely my children. I went from one, to two in 12 months, and its been insane and the biggest blessing of my entire life. I am not even sure if joy captures the feeling correctly as its just one of the emotions that constantly fires off when seeing the munchkins laugh and smile, not to mention hearing them call me dad is mind-blowing. I never had a dad growing up, and this stuff just trips me out in the most amazing ways on a constant basis.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My brand is El Primo Brand. Its a production company my now wife and I started way back when to house all of our creative endeavors, but most importantly was our movie stuff.
In the whole legal process of making a movie, each one should have its own LLC, which makes sense, to keep everything contained to the movie, not to brand in a worse case scenario… anyway, im rambling, here comes some more. Way back in ancient days of high school i got introduced to screen printing and in turn got reallllly into marketing, and fell in love with branding, had my own clothing company i started out of graphic design class, printing up kids’ clothes out of the back door, while they were on “Bathroom breaks.” Back to now, I finally made a movie after waiting for a ton of permission and validation that never came, and for good reason. This is El Primo Brand, were a Long Beach based brand and move a little different then your average independent filmmakers. We are guerilla movie makers and video takers and believe in telling good stories above all. I just shot a movie, no crew, no budget, and it looks really good. It comes out at the end of September on our website ELPRIMOBRAND.COM and are doing our own distribution VOD on our website too. We are the resistance, join us!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Maybe cliche, but ive always been this guy. I just wasn’t ready to be where i wanted to be. I’ve been at this movie thing for about 20 years now, really hitting the pavement to the best of my abilities, with no guidance, just wanting to do this shit with my whole chest. Worked as grocery deliver guy forever in Santa Monica and Los Feliz when i started the pursuit. Started writing scripts, taking acting classes, everything i saw tarantino and the big dawgs doing on the internet, it was my best advice. i learned a hell of a lot, but never got what i was looking for, which was to Direct a feature length movie. I kept writing, i kept going to networking events, i kept searching and hoping for someone to say “OKay, its time, lets make one of your scripts into a movie, heres a million bucks.” That never happened. So the, then girlfriend (now wife) at the time, and I decided to figure out how the money actually worked. Wound up taking producing classes together at UCLA, then found myself perusing the American FIlm Market, which was an eye opener. So moving back to Long Beach, having kids, I have two strokes,, then a heart procedure to close a hole in my heart. Then my right hand, my guy thats been there for just about every video project ive worked on in the passed 8 years, just dies. Now this dude made 2 movies before his passing, Mike Garcia is his name. He made 2 movies, just because he wanted to, no other reason. He had a regular job, but just had such a burning inside of him to tell stories on screen that just did it. I was always in the middle of my “GOTTA FIND THE GUY/MONEY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN,” stage that i wasnt paying attention to the whys, I was really focused on the why not. At that point, i had already “Failed” (stupid word) on a movie making endeavor last year and was pretty defeated, but saw those kids laughing, and went back to screenplay i had written specifically to make for to little as nothing as i possibly could, so i did. In may/june of this year, 2025, with no crew, no budget, and a hell of a cast, i shot a movie on my iphone. I edited the whole movie in a month, its been in sounds hands for 2 months and it will be out for the wolrd at the end of September. I want to be the new godfather of independent moviemaking, the guerilla guy that actually made a good movie.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
I mentioned a recent “Failure,” last year. Failure is such a stupid word, as there is no failure, unless you let there be. The one im talking about is my movie i wrote, THE GUYS MAKE A MOVIE, i tried to make it last year, i got 4 days in the can, edited, and then mean pause. I need 8 more days and some money,. It wasnt supposed to be my first one. The first one was supposed to be me, long beach, music in my veins, ocean breeze as my cologne, it was supposed to a raw story that takes place here in the beach, in Pound City.
I learned so much from those 4 days of the paused movie that i was able to pull my first one off, SORRY.
I shot sorry in 5 days with no crew, with no budget. When i say no crew, I mean I had a bad ass sound guy for 3 of the days, as well as a BTS guy, but for the other 2 days, i ran it all solo, audio, etc. I also had my wife in my corner at all times being my rock and producer, she keeps the whole ship together, i just try and steer to the best of my ability.
But back to giving, up, THE GUYS MAKE A MOVIE on pause was tough, i built a small brand called MAKEA around it. *Side not: im trying to brand every movie i make as a sort of clothing co./life style brand, of course all under the umbrella of el primobrand*
So I had this brand called MAKEA, and its all about MAKING A MOVIE, and im doing everything except for making a movie, shit was eating me alive. Anyway, you know the rest, i moved on and made a different movie. And now ive officially directed, shot, edited, and written my first feature length movie, a real life DREAM of mine, that i just made come true with my wife. INSANE!
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
The wife. Were opposites, she sees things I don’t, and has a different perspective. When we team up, its Optimus Prime time!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If immortality were real, what would you build?
An army! LOL I would have so many kids, on a compound, and just try to figure out how to live off nuclear powerm smile, and get our Jetsons on. If thats what the world looks like, we made some good moves along the way. This family stuff just has me on the biggest high wanting to preserve that feeling forever. Theres too much love out there, but weve just been overloaded with bullshit for so long, its normal. But it doesnt have to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elprimobrand.com
- Instagram: @elprimobrand
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylewatersgeller/
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/elprimobrand
- Other: SORRY flick playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/26IwWI28G0yQgDbCNKiR6e?si=5775fec0b14b4664
THREADS: @Elprimobrand
