From Sundance to Writing a Novel: Tony Vitale

Tony, thank you so much for joining us on the show.

We would love to get started just talking about your entry into filmmaking.

Sure, that's why I'm here.

Thank you for inviting me.

Go ahead and tell us about how you got into filmmaking and the process of making your first film.

It starts in college.

I was a finance major in school, but in my senior year, after I received all my credits, I had the opportunity to take an elective and I took a film class and my whole direction in life changed right after that.

I fell in love with that film class, wanted to take more, started reading a bunch of books on filmmaking.

Travel around the world as a DJ.

for a little bit because I couldn't figure out if I was going to go work down Wall Street or I couldn't afford to get into NYU for filmmaking or anything like that.

So I was a DJ on the weekends and then I expanded to just traveling around different hotels and different functions DJing.

When I came back, I did start working down Wall Street and hated it.

But then...

What I consider as a big break for me was during a class at NYU, there was a location scout who came in to speak to the class and said that probably one of the best ways to enter the film industry is if you could get on a film.

where you could be a location scout.

And it just so happened that I saw a play called A Bronx Tale.

And I said, this is a match made in heaven since I was from the Bronx.

And I knew all the locations that they were talking about in the play.

I said, if they ever turn this into a movie, I'd like to be a part of it.

And then I met Chaz.

After the third time seeing the play, I met Chaz Palminteri, who was the lead of that one-man show.

Said the same thing to him.

I said, if you ever make this into a movie, I'd like to be a part of it.

Well, two years after that, they did make it into a movie.

They gave it a green light.