'Splash City' Director Berner Discusses Joker Inspiration and Tackling "Bipping" Epidemic

Courtesy of Lionsgate

Being a multi-million dollar recording artist in hip-hop, an entrepreneur with his line of cannabis cookies and appearing on the cover of Forbes Magazine in 2024 was not enough for the rapper named Berner. He’s now stepped into filmmaking. Releasing on July 20th in select theatres, Splash City delivers a gritty, stylish love letter to San Francisco with the raw realities of Bay Area street culture. Crime, revenge and redemption is the name of the game in this movie. Berner doesn’t have only one credit though. You could say he went all in.

Not only did he take a two million dollar gamble to craft the vision he intended, but he is also the co-writer, co-director, and executive producer. Lionsgate saw the hustle and partnered with him to bring Splash City into the eyes of audiences all around the United States. The Movie Nerds recently sat down with Berner to discuss the local phenomenon that inspired the story behind Splash City, the hard-earned lessons of self-funding, and what fans can expect as he transitions into his next chapter of filmmaking.

Salvatore Cento: You have acted, produced and performed before but as you are a co-director, co-writer and executive producer on Splash City - the crime thriller seems to be the next step for you in your cinematic career. Whether it’s what we see on the screen or behind the scenes, what is it about Juju and Slim’s story that made you say I want to be involved with the production in all of these different capacities?

Berner: Yea, so - it’s something I came up with. I came up with the storyline 100%. I put it into a baby script form if you will and I shot that over to David [Mansanalez] and let him write the full film. So for me, it was like a no-brainer because it was kind of my idea, you know? I developed these characters because they were all familiar characters to me growing up in SF [San Francisco]. 

Cento: In the buildup for Splash City, you have talked about how 2 million dollars of your own money went into the making of this movie. How did you come to the decision that self-investing was the best idea instead of looking for backers and did that affect the creative process in any way? Do you feel your vision for the movie was kept in focus?

Berner: Yea, I guess I did it because - two things: I didn’t want to have to wait to get this done - and two - I wanted creative control 100%. I know that - I’m in the process of doing a scripted television show right now. I know that when you’re not putting up your own bread - your vision could be altered any given time. So, for me, it was more about - I want to get this done and I want to do it my way. It was probably one of the biggest risks I’ve ever taken in life. It was not easy to sit on two million dollars for that long and I had no idea what it was going to take. I think what it did for me was teach me more about the backend of the film industry - about how to actually get a film distributed, how to get it done, how to get it all mixed and matched. I learned a lot about the backend of making a film.

Cento: Could you go a little bit deeper on what you learned?

Berner:I learned that it’s not easy to get a film made laughs That’s probably the biggest thing I learned. You can make a beautiful film but there could be a world where no one cares. There’s no big actors, so it might be tough to shop around or get people interested. I’m so grateful to have Lionsgate as a partner because they’re getting behind it in a real way - but that was a blessing from the universe. I learned that it’s very, very hard to get a film out.

Cento: It’s surprisingly stylistic. It reminds me of the style that went into the first John Wick movie.

Berner: Oh, dope. Hell yea. That’s a great compliment.

Cento: It’s easy to define this movie as a crime thriller. But one of the things that I like the most about Splash City is that it’s very stylistic and has many shots that make you just pause the movie and take in. What I’d like to know and my readers as well was - where did this execution come from with the camera, with the set up, with the design? If you want to run down names, this would be the perfect time to do so!

Berner: Yea, I have to give props to Alejandro [Lalinde] - he’s behind the camera doing his thing. He gave me beautiful shots and beautiful cinematography, capturing the city in a great way. My boy, Davey [Mansanalez] - helped co-write it with me. Alongside my boy Alex [Ferrufino], who did a great job directing it. We just really wanted to make sure we capture the city in a way that’s never been captured on film.Then there’s my guy Yoshi who I worked with on a couple of scenes directly that I wrote and he directed. I wrote, he shot and I directed. We really just want to capture the city in a way it’s never been seen. The coloring is kind of a vibe from Joker - I don’t know if you can really catch that. The colorist that gave us the first LUT [Lookup Table] was someone who did coloring from Joker. We wanted it to be kind of dark and kind of gloomy but also the rain helped us in that way. We had a great guy named Jack color the film in total. He did a great job for it.

Conclusively, the way I would describe Splash City is a very sexy crime thriller.

Cento: This might be revealing myself - but I had not heard the term and I did not know what bipping was until I saw this movie. Spoken from Berner himself, where did the term bipping come from and in the scope of Splash City, why does this specific crime hold so much weight in the movie?

Berner: It was something that like - we all had to experience in the Bay area. Whether you visited the Bay area, whether you lived here - it was a very, very prominent moment. The thing is, the word I heard - when it first started happening - I don’t really know who to give credit for that - but it was a term used here in the Bay area.

I feel like it was something that a lot of people had to deal with, alright? The city’s always been so liberal - where I’m from - they’re very liberal here - you used to be able to bip and there’d be no real punishment for it. There would be a fine and people would go crazy with that. It’s how San Francisco likes to handle things sometimes - and backfire. That was a big backfire. I know they just made it a felony now so you see a lot less of it - but man - it was a major problem in our city. I’m like this would be a great low hanging fruit story to tell and trying to go create for my first film.

Cento: Just as I’ve said in my very first question - at this point in your life you have done a whole lot - but what are your filmmaking plans after Splash City? If given the time and resources, what other stories do you want to tell? From inside the San Francisco bay area? Outside the bay area?

Berner: Yea, I want to focus on the bay for a while. I feel like there’s just too many stories to tell here. The next film I’m working on will be like a marijuana-type crime story - more on the trap-thinking and the world the bay area played on putting weed everywhere . That’s something I’m writing right now.

I think, after that, I’ll probably go into urban horror - something I could do in a single location - shot somewhere beautiful like Montana. I have a great story - kind of working on the story of that. I think the third thing is paying homage to some of the things that people never really seen out here - even like the Asian mafia or something like that. It’s something I’m very obsessed with - as a San Francisco native. I feel like I’m working on a pretty big story there based on true events.

You can expect a lot of different things from me. I’m just getting my feet wet. I’m really excited to change the storytelling from rap to this.

Cento: Splash City is a story of redemption, revenge, getting your worth. What do you want people who watch this movie - what is your message to them?

Berner: Yea, I think one of the things about the character Dolo is that - and I’ve had to deal with a lot in my life - is that people who smile in your face, help you fix problems and those who help you advance in certain things are not always genuine people. There’s a good chance that there is an alternative agenda. You can’t really trust people the way you think you can. The Dolo character speaks volumes to the grittiness and the backdoor attitude vibe that people have sometimes.C

Cento: Alright. That is it, Berner. Thank you very much.

Berner: Appreciate it, brother. Thank you so much.

If you want to check out Berner’s first theatrical project for yourself, the gritty crime drama Splash City is now playing in select theatres nationwide. Check your local atriums for showtimes. If you want to see what Berner himself is up to, you can check out his Insta, X, Youtube and Facebook.