Shoot It Both Ways Episode 1: The Bus Boy

Shoot It Both Ways is a podcast exploring the intersection of commercial directing and narrative filmmaking through conversations with working directors who balance both worlds. In this episode, Austin-based filmmakers Will and Max of The Wrong Brothers discuss their long-gestating short film The Bus Boy, a bold, genre-driven martial-arts short developed alongside their careers in commercial video production.

Recorded in Austin, Texas, the conversation dives into how the duo built a unique black-and-white action short with minimal dialogue, heavy visual storytelling, and meticulous pre-production—including full iPhone animatics and shot-for-shot planning. They discuss co-directing dynamics, working within the Texas film community, crowdfunding a short film, and collaborating with Austin-based crew across cinematography, production design, fight choreography, and post-production.

The episode also explores how running an Austin video production company influences narrative filmmaking, the realities of shooting independent films in Texas, and how commercial directing skills translate into efficient storytelling on set. The conversation closes with insights on audience reactions, feature film ambitions for The Bus Boy, and what’s next for The Wrong Brothers as Texas-based filmmakers working across commercials, short films, and feature projects.

Nickolas:
Welcome to Shoot It Both Ways, where we interview directors who work in both commercials and narrative filmmaking, and explore whether you can realistically build a career doing both. Today I’m joined by Will and Max, aka The Wrong Brothers, to talk about their short film The Bus Boy.

I’ve been following this project for years through multiple iterations and somehow it just keeps getting better and funnier every time I see it.

So let’s start simple: how long have you been working on this thing?

The Wrong Brothers:
Since we were about nineteen. Pre-pandemic. We were working at a fried chicken restaurant, obsessed with old martial-arts movies, and decided to try shooting a fight scene ourselves. That experiment turned into The Bus Boy.

At first it was just a test could we even shoot action convincingly? But we fell in love with the idea of a busboy as this underdog character at the bottom of the food chain, literally and figuratively. From there it grew into something bigger: a stylized world, a genre short, and a chance to combine martial arts, comedy, and visual storytelling.

Nickolas:
What’s funny is that this film is almost the least commercially viable thing imaginable black and white, unusual aspect ratio, almost no dialogue but that’s exactly why it works.

The Wrong Brothers:
We didn’t go to film school, so nobody told us we couldn’t do those things. We learned by doing, and by making mistakes in practice instead of in theory.

Nickolas:
And it doesn’t feel like a mistake at all. Especially for a first major short. Was this the first time you co-directed something at this scale?

The Wrong Brothers:
We’d done a lot of sketches and smaller projects together, mostly comedy. Eventually we realized we wanted to make something cinematic something that felt like a real movie. We both grew up around the food industry, we love martial arts, and we’re best friends, so The Bus Boy felt like the natural intersection of all of that.

Nickolas:
Talk to me about co-directing. A lot of duos struggle with that early on.

The Wrong Brothers:
We plan everything together. Every detail. Disagreements usually get worked out long before we step on set. Once we’re shooting, we’re aligned on the vision, so decisions are fast and clean.

There’s also an unspoken balance. Each of us has areas we’re more passionate about, but we overlap enough that nothing falls through the cracks. It’s more of a flow than a rigid system.

Nickolas:
I heard you storyboarded and previs’d essentially the entire film.

The Wrong Brothers:
We shot the whole movie on an iPhone first. Every scene, every sequence. We edited it, locked the pacing, and understood the rhythm before production. So on set, we already had a map. If something didn’t work, we could pivot without losing the spine of the film.

Nickolas:
That level of prep really shows. Talk about the team you built around this.

The Wrong Brothers:
Production design was huge for us. Dakota Millett was instrumental not just creatively, but logistically. He believed in the project and helped make the budget happen.

We also got incredibly lucky with our location at Quality Seafood in Austin. It changed the entire world of the film. The owner was incredibly supportive, and the space gave us a look we never could’ve designed from scratch.

Nickolas:
And the fight choreography?

The Wrong Brothers:
Will Tran was our fight coordinator. It was a very collaborative process ideas bouncing between the three of us, refining movements so they read clearly on camera and felt grounded in the character. The towel-as-nunchuck thing came from adapting real nunchuck techniques into something believable for a busboy.

Nickolas:
Your DP deserves a lot of credit too.

The Wrong Brothers:
Matt S. Bell is incredible. He spent months with us, shooting previs, talking through lenses, camera movement, lighting philosophy. He helped distill a lot of references into a cohesive visual language. Extremely collaborative, extremely committed.

Nickolas:
You’ve screened the film with live audiences. Anything surprise you?

The Wrong Brothers:
The level of support. A lot of people didn’t quite know how to describe it, but they responded emotionally. Because we crowdfunded it, we felt a real obligation to deliver something people could be proud to have supported.

Nickolas:
The ending feels like it’s begging for a feature.

The Wrong Brothers:
That’s the goal. We’re developing it now. The challenge is figuring out when to make that leap and how to scale it responsibly. But the story wants to be bigger.

Nickolas:
What’s next for you in the meantime?

The Wrong Brothers:
We’re in post on a feature we shot recently in Texas, and developing new projects on both the commercial and narrative side. Every project feels like another step up the staircase.

Nickolas:
Where can people watch The Bus Boy?

The Wrong Brothers:
We’re planning a YouTube release, currently targeting April 8. We’ll be promoting it heavily through social media and our website.